Manhattan Beach mom Maritere Rodriguez Bellas, however, wants to make sure other parents don’t miss that boat.

Nearly a fifth of Utah public school students are Hispanic. An outreach effort to Spanish-speaking parents in one district has boosted their involvement, which now surpasses that of English speakers.

When publisher Karen Pavlicin began receiving requests for Spanish-language children’s books from military family support centers, librarians and educators, she began looking for ways to fill that ...