A review by lattelibrarian
Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré by Anika Aldamuy Denise

5.0

This book was recommended to me by a fellow librarian, and given that it was just published, our academic library didn't yet have it.  And, considering our academic library serves a large community of library science students, I figured that we could get away with purchasing more resources about librarians.  So we did!  

Planting Stories is a beautiful, biographical tale about Pura Belpre who made space for herself and her culture in her library.  The focus is more on her work as a librarian rather than her as a wife or parent, which was just...incredible.  Finally, a biography about a specific aspect of a person's life that doesn't completely shift focus into her home life!  

Not only that, but the illustrations are absolutely beautiful--they're colorful, evocative, bright, joyful.  I'm going to definitely keep an eye on this book as the year continues.  I think this book will make its way into award committee meetings, either for its nonfiction genre or for its illustrations.  I mean, maybe it's my own bias of absolute love for this book, but I also think that this book, if more widely recognized, will take the literary world by storm.  I'm excited to see where it goes!

Review cross-listed here!