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Win big prizes in new summer reading contest

Author Rudolfo Anaya partners with Los Alamos Lab to launch inaugural program.
April 27, 2016
Rudolfo Anaya’s first children’s book was The Farolitos of Christmas, published in 1995. Put it on your child’s summer reading list as part of the Rudolfo Anaya Summer Reading Program.

Rudolfo Anaya’s first children’s book was "The Farolitos of Christmas," published in 1995. Put it on your child’s summer reading list as part of the Rudolfo Anaya Summer Reading Program. Photo credit: Peter Norby.

Contacts  

  • Director, Community Relations & Partnerships
  • Kathy Keith
  • Email
Elementary students from Los Alamos, Pojoaque, Rio Arriba, and Santa Fe counties are invited to participate in the Rudolfo Anaya Summer Reading Program.

If Rudolfo Anaya is among your child’s favorite authors, encourage him or her to participate in a new summer reading program sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Christopher Montalvo Memorial, and endorsed by Anaya himself.

“This program is a new partnership between the Laboratory, award-winning author Rudolfo Anaya, and Laboratory employee Mary Rose Montalvo (several years ago, Montalvo started a scholarship on behalf of her son, Christopher, who passed away in an automobile accident in 2005),” explains Carole Rutten, of the Lab’s Community Relations & Partnerships Office. “So, when such well respected partners like this approach you about an idea for a new program, the answer is always a proud ‘yes!’”

And so the Rudolfo Anaya Summer Reading Program will kick off June 1 and run through August 1. Elementary students in grades K–6 from Los Alamos, Pojoaque, Rio Arriba, and Santa Fe counties (including tribal schools) are invited to participate in this pilot program. If the program is well received this summer, middle school students will be included in 2017.

Participants must keep a record of books read. All students will receive recognition for participating, and the five students with the most books read will be eligible for the following prizes:

  • First place: $50 gift card and ten books by Anaya and other New Mexico authors
  • Second place: $30 gift card and five books by Anaya and other New Mexico authors
  • Third place: $25 gift card and three books by Anaya and other New Mexico authors
  • Fourth and fifth places: $15 gift card and one book by Anaya and other New Mexico authors

Anaya, often considered the founder of contemporary Chicano literature, was born in Pastura, New Mexico. The author, now 78, currently resides in Albuquerque.