Celebrate the power of community with Paletero Man by Lucky Diaz! This fun bi-lingual book engages native Spanish and English speakers in a StoryWalk® along the Fruita Community Center Campus!
According to publisher HarperCollins, Paletero Man “Follow(s) along with our narrator as he passes through his busy neighborhood in search of the Paletero Man. But when he finally catches up with him, our narrator’s pockets are empty. Oh no! What happened to his dinero? It will take the help of the community to get the tasty treat now.”
Weaving English and Spanish together in a brain-engaging format, Paletero Man has a Lexile score of 420; while it can be enjoyed by all ages, it is intended for students who are in second grade. Paletero Man will be on display from now through September.
Readers begin their journey at the main entrance of the Fruita Community Center and travel from pedestal to pedestal in a clockwise direction. There are a total of 20 pedestals and readers are encouraged to interact with the story quite literally at their own pace!
During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Mesa County Libraries began to experiment with temporary StoryWalk® installations as a way to offer opportunities for children to keep reading during the pandemic. Eventually, the library received a grant that allowed a permanent StoryWalk® to be installed. The library began working with the City of Fruita’s Parks and Recreation department to plan the installation along the Fruita Community Center Campus in 2023.
While Mesa County Libraries installed the first permanent StoryWalk® in Mesa County relatively recently, according to the Kellog Hubbard Library the first, “StoryWalk® was created in 2007 by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT, in collaboration with former staff member Rachel Senechal, and is a registered service mark of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. StoryWalk® now exist across the U.S. and worldwide in 13 countries including Germany, Canada, England, Bermuda, Russia, Malaysia, Pakistan and South Korea!”
We invite you to learn a few new Spanish words and add a little activity to your reading this summer with Paletero Man by Lucky Diaz at the Mesa County Libraries Fruita Branch StoryWalk®!