Pam Munoz Ryan is an amazingly gifted writer and speaker. I was hanging onto her every word. Our students would be in awe of her storyboarding and writing techniques. I was personally envious of her white board! What extraordinary talent right here in San Diego, California. I am hoping that Ms. Ryan will visit our school when she has some free time. What a treat that would be for our students, teachers, and staff!
Newbery Silver Award 2016 for her book titled Echo. It is a fantasy with aspects of fact and historical fiction. This story will capture the music lovers, fantasy, and historical fiction readers! There are three stories in one with a witch, a kiss, and prophecy. Echo is available for library check out with many other great titles by Pam Munoz Ryan. See additional titles below.
Echo Review from Follett School Solutions: Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica--and decades later three children, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny in the darkest days of the twentieth century, struggling to keep their families intact, and tied together by the music of the same harmonica. 
Esperanza Rising Review from Follett School Solutions: Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression. This story touched my heart. It is a story of courage and never giving up even when things are bad.
Paint the Wind from Follett School Solutions: After her overprotective grandmother has a stroke, eleven-year-old Maya, an orphan, leaves her extremely restricted life in California to stay with her mother's family on a remote Wyoming ranch, where she discovers a love of horses and encounters Artemisia, a wild mare that her mother once rode. 
Amelia and Eleanor Go for A Ride from Follett School Solutions: "Based on a true story." A fictionalized account of the night Amelia Earhart flew Eleanor Roosevelt over Washington, D.C. in an airplane. These ladies were friends and what fun they must have had that night!
When Marian sang: the true recital of Marian Anderson the voice of a century. From Follett School Solutions: An introduction to the life of Marian Anderson, extraordinary singer and civil rights activist, who was the first African American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera, whose life and career encouraged social change. Marian had a voice that transcends race.
The Dreamer from Follett School Solutions: A fictionalized biography of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who grew up a painfully shy child, ridiculed by his overbearing father, but who became one of the most widely-read poets in the world.
Becoming Naomi Leon from Follett School Solutions: When Naomi's absent mother resurfaces to claim her, Naomi runs away to Mexico with her great-grandmother and younger brother in search of her father
Submitted by Mrs. Brown, Teacher Librarian
