Abstract
Reviewed by: Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré by Anika Aldamu Denise Elizabeth Bush Denise, Anika Aldamu Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré; illus. by Paola Escobar. Harper/HarperCollins, 2019 [40p] ISBN 978-0-06-274868-3 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R 5-8 yrs In 1921 Pura Belpré travels from San Juan, Puerto Rico to New York for her sister's wedding, but instead of returning home, she takes a position as a garment worker and then lands her dream job as a trilingual assistant in the New York Public Library. Discovering that the collection holds none of the folktales beloved in Puerto Rico, Belpré includes her own retellings in storytimes, lighting a candle and regaling young patrons with tales of Martina and Pérez, the cockroach and her mouse suitor; tricksters Juan Bobo and Señor Rabbit; and the holiday legend of the Three Magi. As Denise explains in a concluding note, Belpré went on to write her own Spanish-language books, which "became the first mainstream Latinx storybooks published in America." Escobar's illustrations for this picture book biography feature a stylized rendering of Belpré's milieu, with slightly muted colors adding a patina of long ago to the rich details of the bustling library and to the cheerful, elegant librarian who holds enthusiastic youngsters in thrall. Selected resources and brief synopses of Belpré's favorite tales round out this delightfully informative title. [End Page 162] Copyright © 2018 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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