WHAT'S NEW

Valley School Book Fair

Join us at Valley Elementary and Middle School on Friday November 17th for a Book Fair sponsored by El Valle Community Center Villanueva Library. The fair will be held in the school library room during the library activity session for each grade level for grades K - 8. The Villanueva Library will be distributing two new books to each student in every grade, as well as book marks and small prizes.
Book purchases were made possible thanks to the support of the Las Vegas Literacy Council and generous donations to the El Valle Community Center Villanueva Library.

Storytelling in the schools
Beginning January, 2023, the El Valle Community Center Villanueva Library will resume its weekly storytelling sessions at Valley Elementary School. The program exposes young students to language, narrative, and bookmaking through a range of activities and a breadth of storytelling traditions. Last year, we delivered over 250 hours of reading, introduced 144 books per grade level, and read over 800 pages to 4th and 5th grade classes, while younger colored illustrations, created simple chapbooks, and practiced retelling stories in their own words. Increases in exposure to books, language, and story are shown to improve early reading skills, boost school success, and raise achievement levels throughout a student's career.

Expanding the Southwest Collection

We are very excited by the volumes we have been able to add to the Southwest Collection. The extensive donation from Theresa Marquez, a former librarian at the Southwest Collection at UNM Zimmerman Library created a strong foundation in this area, including many fiction works by contemporary New Mexican women writers.  More recently, we have worked to create more complete holdings of work by key New Mexico authors, John Nichols and Rudolfo Anaya among them.  Gateway to Glorieta and Old Las give insights into local history through stories and recollections of area residents. Other notable additions are works on Native and Land Grant history, studies of southwest village arts, and a recent publication on Acequias done by NMSU Agriculture Extension.     

Recent additions to the Children's Library

 Picture

​We have added a number of great books to our Children's Collection recently. Some of the standouts are Rudolfo Anaya's How Chile came to New Mexico, the beautifully illustrated Waiting for the Biblioburro (about the unique ways books reach families in rural communities), and several dual-language (English and Spanish) picture books focused on tradition and families. For middle schoolers, we have expanded our collection of Gary Soto's popular stories and added more popular series, including those by Julie Kagawa and Rick Riordan.
We are continuously adding more books to our collection. Please check back on this page for more and regular updates.
To suggest a book or ask questions about library acquisitions, email us at elvallecenter@gmail.com