Why Juan Can’t Sleep by Karl Beckstrand

Hello, friends! Welcome to Multicultural Children's Book Day 2016. Multicultural Children's Book Day (also known s MCBD) is an annual celebration of multicultural children's literature and some of the authors who write these books. This blog post takes a look at Why Juan Can't Sleep by Karl Beckstrand. Keep reading to learn more about Why Juan Can't Sleep and for a quick minilesson you can use in your classroom.

Learn about stream-of-consciousness and story elements while reading Why Juan Can't Sleep, a children's book written by Karl Beckstrand.

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.

Author's Summary

Crazy day—of work and play—worn-out Juan “Must sleep!”
Tonight he’ll dream of dragons … or will he?

A bedtime mystery—with finding activities for children and hilarious illustrations by Luis F. Sanz that aid comprehension and help build vocabulary (especially adjectives. Ages 4 - 10). Young and old will identify with this funny, spooky quest for rest. Hispanic-themed children's book.

🍎 Title: Why Juan Can't Sleep: A Mystery
🍎 Author: Karl Beckstrand
🍎 Illustrator: Luis F. Sanz
🍎 Publisher: Premio Publishing & Gozo Books, LLC
🍎 Year: 2012
🍎 Pages: 34

Why Juan Can't Sleep by Karl Beckstrand

What Is Stream-of-Consciousness?

Karl Beckstrand didn’t write Why Juan Can’t Sleep in the traditional ‘character, setting, problem, solution’ format. Instead, he wrote the book using stream-of-consciousness. Stream-of-consciousness is a writing technique that authors use to describe the random and rapid thoughts, feelings, emotions, and sensations the characters experience.

In Why Juan Can't Sleep, poor little Juan’s mind is preoccupied with its own racing thoughts, the noises around him, and the sensations like itchy skin that bother him. Of course... just as in real life... every time Juan starts to doze, his racing mind springs back into action, causing him to be wide awake again. We’ve all been there. We can all relate to what Juan is going through!

Pages from Why Juan Can’t Sleep by Karl Beckstrand

Language Arts Minilesson

Even though Why Juan Can't Sleep is written in a stream-of-consciousness format, it still contains traditional story elements... character, setting, problem, and solution. Being able to identify and describe these story elements in text is a critical reading skill for young readers. After reading and discussing Why Juan Can't Sleep with your students, take a few minutes to review what story elements are and help them identify the following story elements for this book:
  • characters: Juan
  • setting: at home, in bed, at night, present-day
  • problem: Juan can't sleep because his thoughts are racing and are keeping him awake.
  • solution: Eventually, Juan gets so tired he falls asleep on his own... just as the sun starts to come up!

Sample Page from Why Juan Can’t Sleep by Karl Beckstrand

About Multicultural Children's Book Day 2016

Mission: The MCBD team’s mission is to spread the word and raise awareness about the importance of diversity in children’s literature. Our young readers need to see themselves within the pages of a book and experience other cultures, languages, traditions, and religions within the pages of a book. We encourage readers, parents, teachers, caregivers, and librarians to follow along the fun book reviews, author visits, event details, a multicultural children’s book linky, and via our hashtag (#ReadYourWorld) on Twitter and other social media.

Poster for Multicultural Children's Book Day 2016

MCBD Classroom Reading Challenge

Help spread the word on our Classroom Reading Challenge . This very special offering from MCCBD offers teachers and classrooms the chance to (very easily) earn a free hardcover multicultural children’s book for their classroom library. These books are not only donated by the Junior Library Guild, but they are pre-screened and approved by them as well.
 
What we could really use some help with is spreading the word to your teacher/librarian/classroom connections so we can get them involved in this program. There is no cost to teachers and classrooms and we’ve made the whole process as simple as possible. You can help by tweeting the below info:
 
Teachers! Earn a FREE #Multicultural Kids Book for Your Classroom! #teachers, #books #teacherlife http://ow.ly/UUy96

The Classroom Reading Challenge has begun! Teachers can earn a free diversity book! #teachers, #books http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/?p=1796​

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2016 Medallion Level Sponsors!


🍎 Platinum: Wisdom Tales Press, StoryQuest Books, Lil Libros
🍎 Gold: Author Tori Nighthawk, Candlewick Press, Bharat Babies
🍎 Silver: Lee and Low Books, Chronicle Books, Capstone Young Readers Tuttle Publishing, NY Media Works, LLC/KidLit TV
🍎 Bronze: Pomelo Books, Author Jacqueline Woodson, Papa Lemon Books, Goosebottom Books, Author Gleeson Rebello, ShoutMouse Press, Author Mahvash Shahegh, China Institute.org,  Live Oak Media

Multicultural Children’s Book Day CoHosts

All Done Monkey, Crafty Moms Share, Educators’ Spin on It, Growing Book by Book, Imagination Soup, I’m Not the Nanny, InCultureParent, Kid World Citizen, Mama Smiles, Multicultural Kid Blogs, Spanish Playground


Did you enjoy this post about Juan Can't Sleep by Karl Beckstrand? If so, check out these other posts for more of his books:

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