Citation: Denise, A. (2019). Planting stories: the life of librarian and storyteller Pura Belpré (P. Escobar, Illus.). HarperCollins.
Planting Seeds: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré tells, through words and beautiful illustrations, the story of Pura Belpré. Belpré moved to New York City from Puerto Rico, where she ended up working at the public library. Upon her discovery that no stories were in Spanish, yet there were many Spanish-speaking children who used the library, Belpré decided to do storytimes where she told the children stories she learned in Puerto Rico from her Abuela. Belpré became a published author and travelled the country sharing her Spanish stories and puppets. Eventually, following the passing of her husband, Belpré ended up back at the New York City Public Library and saw that her stories had taken root and blossomed there.
This book does a lovely job of intertwining Spanish words with the English narrative. Belpré’s biography highlights the importance of storytelling, libraries, and diversity. This book would work great in the classroom or library where children could create puppets to go along with this story, or a story of their own. Pura Belpré, the first Puerto Rican librarian in the United States, was an important person, and this book tells her important story at no cost to the pleasure of reading a fascinating tale.