Bilingual stories and activities at the Mariposa Project

The Mariposa Stories Project is designed to improve literacy in both English and Spanish through books for young children. The bilingual books also aid in fostering and further developing cultural awareness and appreciation.

The books capture the Latino/a experience in the Durham community by retelling stories from the community’s members. Duke University Spanish service-learning students conducted interviews with Latino/a students in local elementary schools and it is the children’s experiences that have been developed into the story lines of the bilingual books.

The books can be found online along with fun, educational activities related to the stories, such as crossword puzzles and word searches in English and Spanish that will aid in the development of young children’s bilingual vocabulary and reading comprehension. Hard copies, as well as the online scanned versions of the books, are distributed free of charge so that all children have the additional resources they need to succeed in school and life.