Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpre by Anika Denise

5 stars Children’s

After reading this children’s story and the author’s note on the back two pages, I got chills.  This story is fantastic and I am so glad that I picked it up.  It tells the true story of a woman who shared stories from her childhood which changed the lives of many.  As I read this story, I thought of how she stepped forward and went about making a difference. This woman was not a loud, strong woman.  This woman saw a void and wanted to fill it. 

The year is 1921 and Pura Teresa leaves San Juan to visit her sister in the U.S. Seeing what the U.S. had to offer, Pura finds a job and begins to settle in. When the library posts a job for a bilingual assistant, Pura knows that she is the perfect individual for the job.

Realizing there are no Puerto Rico folktales on the library shelves, Puro recalls the stories that she heard growing up. As the children gather around her during story hour, Puro doesn’t need any book to read from. Puro’s words are enough that the children are soon whisked away into Puro’s world and imagination.  It isn’t long before Puro begins to create puppets to add to her stories and then, the word gets out about Puro and her stories and there is no stopping what happens to these wonderful tales.

This children’s book put a smile on my face and it warmed my heart as I read about her journey through life, sharing her stories.  I hoped her journey would never end as she was such a positive individual.  This book gives the full account of her life and it truly is a wonderful story.  Make sure you read the author’s note which is located in the back of the book. Located also in the back of the book are a few pages on additional resources you could use for more information on topics contained in the story. 

Another by Christian Robinson

3 stars Children’s

This is a wordless book that I liked yet I felt that it was missing something. The illustrations were wonderfully done with bright, bold colors and simple lines.  It was the storylines that went through my head, as I flipped through the pages, that confused me.  I went over this children’s book numerous times, looking at it a variety of ways and still, I’m puzzled.

As a girl slept in her bed with her cat (with a red collar) looking out her window, a bright porthole opened up in her room. Soon, another cat identical to the one lying on the bed (this one had a blue collar on) popped through the porthole and snatched the red toy mouse that was lying on the bedroom floor.  Crawling back through the porthole, the cat carries the mouse, who is now followed by the first cat and the girl, who has awakened and seems curious to what is happening.

It seems that they have entered another world as gravity for one, is not the same. There are other differences but what I like is that this world is not too busy, the pages aren’t overflowing with colors and activities.  The pages have a great flow to them and you can follow what is happening. There are geometric shapes throughout the pages yet no definite pattern.

Perhaps I am reading too much into this book.  Perhaps I wanted too much from this book.  I do feel that it would be beneficial a child who reads this book to talk about it someone. I think discussing it with someone, they might discover something they missed in the book or a different view. 

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