APPLY TO HOST LEONARDA IN ONTARIO (IN PERSON OR VIRTUALLY)
APPLY TO HOST LEONARDA IN THE YUKON (VIRTUALLY)
Home Location: Toronto, Ontario
Creator Type: Author
Genres: Picture books
Website: www.leonardacarranza.com
Tour Region: Ontario (in person and virtually) / Yukon (virtually)
Target Audience: JK – Grade 6
Cost: $300* (for one 60-minute presentation)
*(The author collects $250 of the fee and $50 of the fee covers The Canadian Children's Book Centre's administration fees for coordinating Book Week).
Taxes charged on presentations: NO
Biography
Leonarda Carranza is the author of the award-winning picture book Abuelita & Me/Abuelita y yo (illustrated by Rafael Mayani). Abuelita & Me is the winner of a 2022 International Latino Book Award and a Kirkus Best Book of the Year. Her most recent picture book, Fighting Words is illustrated by Erika Medina. Leonarda was born in San Salvador, El Salvador and currently resides in Brampton, Ontario, Treaty 19 part of the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Haudenosaunee, and Wendat Nations. She holds a PhD in Social Justice Education from the University of Toronto. She is the winner of Briarpatch Magazine’s Writing in the Margins contest and Room’s 2018 short forms contest.
Presentation Descriptions
All About Anger
Target audience: Junior Kindergarten – Grade 6
Preferred group size: 1 class (25-30 students)
Maximum group size: 2 classes (50-60 students)
All about Anger! Join Leonarda for a fun and interactive session on anger and social and emotional learning. Leonarda will read her picture book, Fighting Words, and prompt children to notice the consequences and impact of unfiltered explosive anger and how we can repair and learn to be accountable.
Together we will examine some misconceptions about anger, challenging the idea that anger is a negative emotion that it is wrong or bad. We will build an awareness of anger as a normal part of our human emotions/feelings, explore the intrinsic value of anger and how to share anger in ways that are respectful. What happens to our bodies when we get angry? Participants will follow along in a prompt-based activity. They will be asked to think about a time when they were angry. Did they do something that they regretted? Participants will be asked to talk, write and draw their own story about anger and strategies to manage it with care. How do we turn fighting words into community building words? By the end of the session, students will come away with the beginnings of their story, and strategies for how to manage and share their anger in respectful ways.
Required equipment: screen and projector
Required materials: pencils, crayons and paper
Racism and Microaggressions
Target audience: Grades 2-6
Preferred group size: 1 class (25-30 students)
Maximum group size: 2 classes (50-60 students)
Join Leonarda for an informative session on racism and micro-aggressions. Leonarda will read her picture book, Abuelita and Me based on her and her family’s experiences with racism in Toronto. Together we will go deeper into an understanding of racism through the experience of the characters in the story and talk about how it feels to be excluded or ignored or judged because of the way you look or the way that you speak.
By the end of the session, students will come away with a deeper awareness of the impact of racism on individuals and communities and strategies for building healthy communities by supporting each other and challenging racism in age-appropriate ways.
Required equipment: screen and projector
Required materials: pencils, crayons and paper
Bibliography
Abuelita and Me. Annick Press, 2022.
Fighting Words. Annick Press, 2024.
The Friendship Blanket. Scholastic, 2025.