Celebrate Día de los Niños at the CC Community Center

By Ken Striplin Santa Clarita City Manager

Each year, the City celebrates the importance of literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds through our Día de los Niños/Día de los Libros celebration, better known as Día, coming up on May 13. Translated into Children’s Day/ Book Day, this event celebrates children and helps to connect them and their families to a world of learning through books, stories and of course, our Santa Clarita Public Library.

Día encompasses recognition and respect for culture, heritage and language as a powerful tool to strengthen families and communities.

This year, the Santa Clarita Public Library is honored to have the award-winning author and illustrator, Mirelle Ortega as the keynote speaker. Ortega is the recipient of the Pura Belpré Honor Award, which recognizes a Latino/Latina writer or illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms or celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.

She won the award this year for her illustrations on her debut picture book, Magic: Once Upon a Far Away Land. Guests will get to hear from the award-winning illustrator as she speaks about her work from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Also at the event, there will be a wide variety of activities for families to take part in, including live performances from the local Innovation Show Choir and the talented Ballet Folklorico Luna Tapatia. There will also be local young authors and community groups in attendance to share resources and information with families.

Gearing up for the 2023 Summer Reading Program, children and teens at Día will have the opportunity to design a brand-new bookmark for the program. Once submitted, librarians will choose one special design that will become the featured artwork on the official Summer Reading Program bookmark, which will be given out to all participants throughout the summer.

To submit your design, you must attend the Día event.

Get ready to take home some crafts, because there will be something for everyone. From rock painting and paper flowers to toucan crafts and a bubble station, the Día event will be fun for all.

It will also be the perfect time to create a heartfelt, handmade gift for your mom, sister, grandmother or guardian, as Mother’s Day will be the following day. While you’re at Día, be sure to grab a selfie with friends and family at the “LEER” sign and tag the Santa Clarita Public Library (@scv publiclibrary) in your post to be featured on the page!

Attendees will go home with something new to read — in the form of free books and other Library giveaways. I hope all of our residents can take the time to come out for Día de los Niños/Día de los Libros at the Canyon Country Community Center (18410 Sierra Highway) on May 13 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

If you would like to learn more about Día or to see a schedule of events, please visit SantaClarita Library.com/Events. You won’t want to miss out on this wonderful family event!

Ken Striplin can be reached at kstriplin@santaclarita.com. The views expressed in his column are those of the City and do not necessarily reflect those of The Signal. 