Time to Show Off: Nadja Spiegelman interviewed by Betsy Bird

“Taking it upon yourself to be seen is a huge part of this story.”

—Betsy Bird

Author, blogger, librarian, mom, and all-around rock star Betsy Bird interviewed author Nadja Spiegelman about her newest TOON Graphic, Blancaflor, the Hero with Secret Powers: A Folktale from Latin America​.

Working with master cartoonist, Sergio García Sánchez, Nadja Spiegelman took a classic Latin American tale and wrote a version that empowers young girls to take up space and be seen. She chose to shift the focus to the true hero of the story: Blancaflor.

Spiegelman explained, “I didn’t just want to write a girl power fairytale that was only ‘girls can do everything boys can do,’ so I aimed at something that went deeper than that."

"Blancaflor is about the amount of invisible labor that women do—and the ways in which that work isn’t seen and valued in the same way as other kinds of work.”

"...and where the heroine has to learn to show off her true powers.”

Prepared by Richard Kutner, the head of the TOON Educational Team, our Teacher Guide outlines the ELA Common Core Standards to support standards-based instruction in the classroom using Blancaflor.
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Objectives for students include:

Our lesson plans are the perfect companion to classroom-based learning as well as to at home reading activities!

Whether you're a teacher, librarian, homeschooler, in-person,
virtual, or somewhere in between, TOON has you covered to help children reach their reading goals.