edna iturralde
ARTIST FOR THE AMAZON
Testimonial
“We believe that the Amazon Rain Forest belongs to us for ever and ever… and one day. That day is now, and tomorrow, and the day after and all the days to come. Because our ancestors planted deep in our hearts the seeds of hope.”
About Edna Iturralde
Edna Iturralde (Quito, Ecuador, May 10,1948) the most skilled, prolific and versatile contemporary writer of children and adolescent literature in Ecuador. The pioneer in Latin America of ethno-historical literature for children, Iturralde has published fifty-eight books, that include chapter books, collections of short stories and picture albums; 54 are still in print and many have won national and international awards. Her book on the Amazon jungle, Green was my Forest, was selected from among 150 nominations as one of the ten best children books written in Latin American during the 20th Century by 27 experts. The cannon was organized by SM Publishing and with the help of the Chilean Libraries in 2010. Her literature invites children to use their imagination as a passport to the world of reality and magic, a style that can uniquely capture Latin America’s complex mixture of cultures, ethnicities, histories, and environments. Dr. Jaime Garcia Padrino, professor of children and adolescent literature in the Universidad Complutense of Madrid has written:
“…The contribution of Edna Iturralde to literature for children and youth is today one of the most outstanding in Ecuador and, by projection, in Latin America, both because of the number of works she has published to date and the variety of themes about which she has written. Her historical and biographical books are notable for its solid documentation and rigorous accuracy. Above all, her writing is of high expressive quality.”
Throughout her career, she has effectively promoted children and adolescent literature in Ecuador and other Latin American countries. In hundreds of visits to elementary and high schools, she has presented her literature, ad-honorem, to thousands of schoolchildren and has successfully imparted the message to them, their teachers and their parents that reading contributes to their intellectual and emotional development. For two years, she taught creative writing at the University of San Francisco of Quito gave summer lectures at Dartmouth College in the United States. In Ecuador, her literature forms part of the curriculum of children and adolescent literature studies at the Central University, the Catholic University of Quito and Loja, the Private Technical University of Loja, and the University Equinoctial of Quito. Schools and universities have adapted many of Iturralde’s stories for plays and the Ecuadorian National Chamber Ballet has produced dance versions
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