Smiles
Sonrisas

Book Descrip­tion

Chil­dren rec­og­nize that they can change the world through inno­va­tion and fair­ness. In this light they will appre­ci­ate the art of Pablo Picasso, who trans­formed the way in art was con­ceived and expe­ri­enced. They will under­stand the role of Gabriela Mistral’s poetry and her deter­mi­na­tion to bring edu­ca­tion to all chil­dren of the Spanish-speaking Amer­i­cas and they will see jus­tice in the for­ti­tude and deter­mi­na­tion of Ben­ito Juárez.

Author’s Note

José Martí, extra­or­di­nary writer and excep­tional human being, liked to say “Hon­rar, honra” imply­ing that when we honor those who deserve it, we some­how par­take of the honor. His mes­sage that it is impor­tant to honor those who have open roads that we now travel has inspired this biog­ra­phy series.

Alma Flor and I would like chil­dren to real­ize that the peo­ple we admire earned that admi­ra­tion as they faced life with courage and dig­nity, deter­mined not to be stopped by dif­fi­cul­ties, but con­sis­tently fol­low­ing their dreams.

It is our great hope that chil­dren will rec­og­nize that hum­ble begin­nings or phys­i­cal lim­i­ta­tions, while cre­at­ing unques­tion­able chal­lenges, should not be seen as impos­si­ble bar­ri­ers, and that these biogra­phies will be for them an inspiration.