Learn about the librarian who started it all with this picture book biography about Pura Belpré. The narrative begins in 1921, the year Belpré moves to New York, and follows her journey to becoming a bilingual assistant at the public library. There she introduces the library’s visitors to Puerto Rican folktales during the children’s story hour, and the rest is history—a history that hopefully will only become more widely known thanks to books like this one.
-SF

Where Wonder Grows celebrates ancestral knowledge that connects us to nature and each other. Three granddaughters follow their grandmother to her garden to learn from her wisdom. Together they gain a deeper appreciation for the rocks that hold stories about our ever-changing world and life itself. Garcia’s captivating illustrations beautifully complement González’s contemplative narrative.
-SF

This middle-grade graphic novel tells a delightful story about self-love, empowerment, and family bonds. Marlene’s mother obsesses over taming her daughter’s curls and making her hair look “presentable” with weekly visits to the salon. But Marlene likes her curly hair and just wants to feel confident styling it however she wants. Marlene’s hair journey ends up encouraging her mother to face her own issues regarding her appearance and unlearn harmful beliefs that had been hurting them both.
-SF

Margarita Engle has written several books about historical Latinx figures. In Dancing Hands, she introduces young readers to Teresa Carreño, a Venezuelan piano prodigy who gained fame for her compositions and performed throughout the world. Her family sought refuge from war in Venezuela, arriving in the United States in 1862. Soon after, as Dancing Hands’ subtitle indicates, she was invited to play piano for President Abraham Lincoln. Engle’s choice to highlight this particular episode of Carreño’s life provides young Latinx readers a chance to see their ethnic identity reflected within a period of American history where the presence of Latinx individuals often goes unacknowledged, especially in popular media. Rafael López’s enchanting illustrations elevate this already incredible tale, earning Dancing Hands a Belpré Award for Illustration.
-SF

Julia Alvarez is well known for unflinchingly addressing contemporary social issues in her fiction for adults, but she also does the same in her middle-grade novel Return to Sender. Winning the Belpré Award for Narrative, Return to Sender tells a story about the friendship between Tyler, a young Anglo-American boy who lives on his family’s farm in Vermont, and Mari, the eldest daughter of the undocumented Mexican man that Tyler’s parents have hired to help work the farm. Both Tyler’s and Mari’s worldviews are challenged as their lives become increasingly intertwined in Alvarez’s moving novel.
-SF

Set in East Los Angeles, Gary Soto’s whimsical tale follows Chato the cat’s attempt to have his new neighbors, a family of mice, for dinner. He invites them to a dinner party catered by himself and his fellow feline Novio Boy. The two cats think they have the perfect plan in place until the mice bring along an extra guest who just happens to be a dog. Susan Guevara’s illustrations bring out the aesthetics of East Los Angeles’s Mexican culture, from the animals’ outfits to the Mexican dishes that Chato and the other characters prepare. For her work, Chato’s Kitchen was the first book to win a Pura Belpré Award for Illustration
-SF

Learn about the librarian who started it all with this picture book biography about Pura Belpré. The narrative begins in 1921, the year Belpré moves to New York, and follows her journey to becoming a bilingual assistant at the public library. There she introduces the library’s visitors to Puerto Rican folktales during the children’s story hour, and the rest is history—a history that hopefully will only become more widely known thanks to books like this one.
-SF

Where Wonder Grows celebrates ancestral knowledge that connects us to nature and each other. Three granddaughters follow their grandmother to her garden to learn from her wisdom. Together they gain a deeper appreciation for the rocks that hold stories about our ever-changing world and life itself. Garcia’s captivating illustrations beautifully complement González’s contemplative narrative.
-SF

This middle-grade graphic novel tells a delightful story about self-love, empowerment, and family bonds. Marlene’s mother obsesses over taming her daughter’s curls and making her hair look “presentable” with weekly visits to the salon. But Marlene likes her curly hair and just wants to feel confident styling it however she wants. Marlene’s hair journey ends up encouraging her mother to face her own issues regarding her appearance and unlearn harmful beliefs that had been hurting them both.
-SF

Margarita Engle has written several books about historical Latinx figures. In Dancing Hands, she introduces young readers to Teresa Carreño, a Venezuelan piano prodigy who gained fame for her compositions and performed throughout the world. Her family sought refuge from war in Venezuela, arriving in the United States in 1862. Soon after, as Dancing Hands’ subtitle indicates, she was invited to play piano for President Abraham Lincoln. Engle’s choice to highlight this particular episode of Carreño’s life provides young Latinx readers a chance to see their ethnic identity reflected within a period of American history where the presence of Latinx individuals often goes unacknowledged, especially in popular media. Rafael López’s enchanting illustrations elevate this already incredible tale, earning Dancing Hands a Belpré Award for Illustration.
-SF

Julia Alvarez is well known for unflinchingly addressing contemporary social issues in her fiction for adults, but she also does the same in her middle-grade novel Return to Sender. Winning the Belpré Award for Narrative, Return to Sender tells a story about the friendship between Tyler, a young Anglo-American boy who lives on his family’s farm in Vermont, and Mari, the eldest daughter of the undocumented Mexican man that Tyler’s parents have hired to help work the farm. Both Tyler’s and Mari’s worldviews are challenged as their lives become increasingly intertwined in Alvarez’s moving novel.
-SF

Set in East Los Angeles, Gary Soto’s whimsical tale follows Chato the cat’s attempt to have his new neighbors, a family of mice, for dinner. He invites them to a dinner party catered by himself and his fellow feline Novio Boy. The two cats think they have the perfect plan in place until the mice bring along an extra guest who just happens to be a dog. Susan Guevara’s illustrations bring out the aesthetics of East Los Angeles’s Mexican culture, from the animals’ outfits to the Mexican dishes that Chato and the other characters prepare. For her work, Chato’s Kitchen was the first book to win a Pura Belpré Award for Illustration.
-SF