Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré by Anika Aldamuy Denise, Paola Escobar
Published by HarperCollins on January 15th 2019
ISBN: 0062748688
Pages: 32
Goodreads

Such a lovely presentation of a significant American librarian, Denise and Escobar combined their talents to create a winner.  As a biography, Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpre sets the bar for other picture book biographies.  Those in the library world know somethings about her life story but this book goes beyond listing Pura’s talents and achievement, it makes her come alive for adults and children.  Storytellers are special people especially when their craft fills a need; in her case Belpre brings Puerto Rican stories to the children of New York City and beyond.

Both the author and illustrator have treated Pura Belpre with love, readers feel like they know her and they want more stories.   Escobar’s digital illustrations add joy and hope to the storyline. To the delight of readers the flowers jump off the pages as well as off the cover and dustjacket.  From Manhattan to rural communities Belpre has planted her seeds of storytelling in her culture while offering the love of reading to children everywhere.   She is a role model for us all in the library field.  I encourage librarians in primary school media centers and in public libraries to add this title to their picture book biography shelves. Grade one to three teachers may want a copy in their classroom.

Submitted by Jan Hamilton, retired youth services librarian in Scarborough, ME