18. Planting Stories: the Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpre' by Anika Denise

  Planting Stories: the Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpre', By Anika Denise

Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré: Denise, Anika Aldamuy, Escobar, Paola: 9780062748683: Amazon.com: Books

Denise, A. (2019). Planting Stories. NY: HarperCollins.

This is the story of New York Public Library’s first children’s librarian from Puerto Rico, Pura Belpré (for whom an American Library Association literary award is named.)   Her Puerto Rician influence in the children’s section began to bring more and more Spanish-speaking children to the library.  She would tell them the folk tales form Porta Rico at story time.  She created puppets to help her tell the stories.  One day, she wrote a book of the stories and it was published.  She planted seeds of stories throughout New York City where she worked, introducing children to tales from her homeland in Spanish and English.

This is an excellent book to introduce young readers to biographies.  It is written in story format so young or inexperienced readers will understand about Pura Belpre’ and her stories. This would be good for English Language Learners because there are many Spanish words written in with the English words.   This book gives students a good look at how immigrants from all over the world traveled to New York City to make a new life. It gives readers a glimpse into the Puerto Rican culture in New York City. This book could also be used to teach prediction, sequencing, character traits, to name a few.

I found a good bundle on Teachers Pay Teachers that is inexpensive.  Here is the link:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/PLANTING-STORIES-Activities-and-Read-Aloud-Lessons-for-Distance-Learning-5021423


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