Pura Teresa Belpré could be considered the mother of U.S. Latinx children's literature. In 1921, she moved from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to New York City, where she began working as a trilingual assistant for the New York Public Library. Using her storehouse of Puerto Rican folktales, she spent time in the children's room, telling tales and planting "her story seeds." Wanting to add books to the library shelves and create works that would allow "children new to this island... to remember la lengua y los colores of home," she published some of her stories, such as Pérez y Martina, in which "Martina, a beautiful Spanish cockroach, meets Pérez, a handsome and gallant mouse."
Anika Aldamuy Denise, also of Puerto Rican heritage, writes Planting Stories in simple, dynamic text. Spanish words are well-integrated, their meaning easily intuited by English speakers: "What began as a visit to celebrate her sister's wedding becomes the first steps in a new land--y una vida nueva--for Pura." Paola Escobar's digital illustrations create an appropriately retro, sometimes magical look. In a double-page spread depicting Belpré speaking at an American Library Association banquet, violinist Clarence White, sits at a table; Escobar superimposes puppet images of Belpré's characters with musical notes and stars floating in the air to echo the narrative: "like the beautiful Martina, [Pura] meets her Pérez."
This excellent read-aloud, with its informative author's note and bibliographic resources, pays homage to one of the United States' premier librarians and storytellers, now honored with an American Library Association award in her name. --Melinda Greenblatt, freelance book reviewer