La Bellísima Ciudad: The Most Beautiful City

By Sophie N. Elvira, Brady W. Dunnett and Walter A. Blair

The tragedy unfolds when both of Alicias parents pass away in a horrible accident. However, Alicia survives and is later adopted by her godmother from the Church. Alicias godmother enrolls her in a dual-language program in New York. She does well academically, but struggles with deep emotional feelings of hurt and despair when Mothers Day is celebrated towards the end of every school year. She cries and refuses to participate in any Mothers Day activities.

One summer evening, when she was on vacation with Miss Runfo, she falls asleep and dreams about being taken to a faraway place called La Bellsima Ciudad. There she meets the king, who grants her a petition to see and be with her parents once again. Alicia is told by them to respect, love, and honor Miss Runfo who is now her mother. Alicias fourth grade bilingual teacher, Mr. Anderson, introduces journal writing to meet her social and emotional needs of revealing the truth about the deep secret that she has kept for years. Finally, Alicia is motivated and encouraged to make a Mothers Day card with colorful flowers and a poem for Miss Runfio to express her love and appreciation for a wonderful mom; and as the story goes she lived happily ever after and never cried again on Mothers Day.

Walter has been an elementary and secondary bilingual and Spanish teacher for over thirty years for the Chicago Public Schools District 299, Evergreen Park School District 124, and Owego School District 308. He holds a Bachelors of Science degree in elementary/secondary education from Illinois State University. In addition, he has earned two Masters degrees in Bilingual Education and in School Leadership. He is the author of three published books from the AuthorHouse Publishing Company: Between Two Worlds (2005), Trust No Man (2011), and La Bellsima Ciudad (2016).

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 21, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524612535

Sophie N. Elvira

During the (2015-2016) school year, Walter had the unique and fortunate opportunity to teach in a first grade dual language program at Hunt Club Elementary. After reading one of his Spanish first grade, dual language anchor texts entitled, La Señorita Runfío from the new Ready-Gen series, he felt inspired to write his own first children’s book. Walter has always felt the passion to write whenever he is motivated and encouraged to tell a story in unusual and “extreme circumstances.” During his entire teaching career, he has used the strategy of Daily Interactive Journal Writing as an effective learning tool to meet the social and emotional needs of all learners that he has taught. In times of leisure and pleasure, he enjoys traveling with his wife, Marg on getaways, watching Chicago Cubs and Bears sport teams, conducting seminars and workshops, attending Church and Bible Study, and last but not least, sharing The Good News of the Gospel as an active minister of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. He is a huge believer and doer of an old proverb that says, “Good, better, best will never let you rest until the good gets better and the better gets best. Practice makes us all better!”

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© 2016 Walter Blair. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/20/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5246-1254-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-1253-5 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Author’s Purpose for Teachers

Chapter 1: The Tragedy

Chapter 2: 2nd Grade Dual Language

Chapter 3: 3rd Grade Dual Language

Chapter 4: 4th Grade Dual Language

Rainbow Bridge Reunion

Alicía’s Top 10 JOKELOPEDIA JOKES

The Importance of Mother’s Day in the Story

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I would like to thank a former bilingual student who became the protagonist and fictional character Alicia. Although her name will always remain anonymous, she allowed me to share real life events of her story whenever there was an extreme circumstance. Although this manuscript is considered by many as realistic fiction, the story events concerning Mother’s Day, Mr. Anderson’s strategy to integrate Daily Interactive Journal Writing as an effective activity for solving Alicia’s problem, the unfortunate tragedy resulting in the transition of both her parents, and finally the relationship between Alicia and her godmother, Miss Runfío who played the role of a loving and caring godmother from the church. These circumstances and events became the stepping stones that guided me to write my first children’s book.

It should be noted that I, Mr. Blair played the role of Mr. Anderson who was Alicia’s 4th grade dual language teacher; he introduced her to the purpose of journal writing. The names Alicia and Miss Runfío were used as fictional characters from our literary text La señorita Runfio. Names were changed to conceal the identity of most of the characters. In retrospect, Alicía grew up to become That Crazy Old Lady who scattered lupine seeds everywhere she traveled. She left an important message for children and that was simply to do something to make the world more beautiful.

Secondly, I want to thank my former first grader Sophie Elvira for the countless hours of creative art, and for becoming the illustrator of this book. She