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Maya Christina Gonzalez

Maya Christina Gonzalez

About

Maya is an artist, author, and educator. She has long collaborated with Children’s Book Press illustrating multicultural children’s books. Although, she does not consider herself an illustrator she has illustrated nearly 20 children’s books and received numerous awards including the 2008 Pura Belpré Honor Award for illustration for My Colors, My World. This was the first book Maya both illustrated and wrote. She has since written and illustrated another book, I Know the River Loves Me, which was released in 2009.

Since 1996, Maya has been providing presentations to children and educators about the power of reflection in our children’s media and the importance of creativity as a tool for personal empowerment. She has witnessed remarkable experiences in classrooms and auditoriums around the country. Through her work with educators and children, she, together with her husband Matthew, cofounded Reflecion Press. The mission and goals of Reflection Press have been a vision of Maya's for quite some time and are now finally coming to fruition.

Maya grew up in the Mojave Desert in Southern California during times when virtually no imagery existed that reflected her experience as a biracial, Chicana. Throughout her life she used creativity as a tool to find, explore, and know herself. Her art is featured in many art books including on the cover of Living Chicana Theory and Contemporary Chicano/a Art.

Gimme-Jimmy

Gimme-Jimmy

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Description

<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"></span><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12pt;"><font face="Calibri">JamesAlexander’s nickname was Gimme-Jimmy because he was a greedy and selfish bully.<span>  </span>Imagine Jimmy’s concern when he discoveredthat every time he said the word “Gimme”, his hand grew larger. <span> </span>Jimmy was happy to discover that when he waspolite and said “Please” and “Thank you”, his hand began to shrink.<span>  </span>He started practicing his new “Polite Rule”and found out that it was much more fun to share.<span style="color:#000000;"></span></font></span></p><p></p><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"></span><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12pt;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family:Calibri;"></span> </p><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"></span>

Story Behind The Book

Searching for reflection in her world since she was a child, Maya Gonzalez has been using art to affirm and claim herself, her life, and her experience. Now as an adult she is honored to have made art for nearly 20 bilingual children’s books, two of which she has also authored, including the 2008 Pura Belpré Honor Award winner, My Colors, My World. She has been going into schools and universities since 1996 teaching the CLAIMING FACE lessons of using creativity as a tool for self-empowerment. The Educator’s Guide serves to encapsulate these lessons into a comprehensive and transformative guide for educators to implement in their lives and classrooms.

Media Links

Reviews

<p style="color:#7f007f;"><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><font size="1"><span style="font-size:12px;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">What Educators and Students are Saying:</span></span></font></span></strong></p> <p><font size="1"><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><br />“I feel so good, inspired, calm. It encouraged me because it gave me a creative space to put myself into when I was feeling like I couldn’t get there. Useful! Informative! Inspiring!&quot;</em> -Educator</span></font></p> <p><font size="1"><span style="font-size:12px;"><br />“Still blown away with how the art (the act of making art) can be so effective on so many levels. Also the rules were great.” -Educator</span></font></p> <p><font size="1"><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><br />“Moving, Cathartic, Beautiful, Delightful.”</em>-Educator</span></font></p> <p><font size="1"><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><br />“You showed me how to do the most fantastic art I’ve ever done”</em>-Abel, age 9</span></font></p> <p><em><font size="1"><span style="font-size:12px;"><br />“You made me </span></font><font size="1"><span style="font-size:12px;"></span></font></em><font size="1"><span style="font-size:12px;"><em>believe in Art”</em>-Jazmin, age 9</span></font></p>