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Pura Belpre and Award Books
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 12:04:35 -0600
Thank you to Judy Zuckerman for sharing a perspective on Pura Belpre as a librarian and storyteller as she is remembered in the New York Public Library community. Judy mentioned Ms. Belpre's books, and just yesterday I was helping someone in the CCBC looking for folklore when the sight of her name on the spines of books jumped out at me. I was reminded once again of her contributions to children's literature with her retellings of folktales from Puerto Rico, which she created for young readers over the course of several decades in the mid-twentieth century.
We recently had an Americas Award Discussion here at the CCBC, in which teachers, librarians, university students and others talked about books eligible for the Americas Award for Latino Literature, which is sponsored by the Consortium for Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP).
The winner of our Americas Discussion was Francisco X. Alarcon's Laughing Tomatoes, one of the Pura Belpre Honor Books for Writing. One of the things that CCBC discussants appreciated about this book was that in addition to the delightful and moving poems, there was a great deal of cultural substance, not only in the poems themselves but in some of the notes included to explain aspects of the culture, such as Cinco de Mayo.
We also discussed Gathering the Sun by Alma Flor Ada. Simon Silva's illustrations for this book were cited by the Pura Belpre Award Committe with an Illustration Honor. Participants in the CCBC's Americas discussion appreciated the dignity of workers as conveyed in both the text and illustrations of this book, though some people thought the workers looked too happy--smiling on every page. They liked the sense of family that came through in the art as well, in addition to the rich, sun-steeped colors. They also liked the connections that were expressed visually and in the text linking the workers to their Mexican and Aztec heritage and culture.
What do you think about the cultural content of either or both of these books? What do you think about their appeal to young people?
(I apologize for the absence of diacritics in this message--I keep trying to figure them out in our [relatively] new e-mail system, but I haven't yet.)
Megan Schliesman (schliesman at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 600 N. Park St., Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706 608&2?03
Received on Thu 19 Mar 1998 12:04:35 PM CST
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 12:04:35 -0600
Thank you to Judy Zuckerman for sharing a perspective on Pura Belpre as a librarian and storyteller as she is remembered in the New York Public Library community. Judy mentioned Ms. Belpre's books, and just yesterday I was helping someone in the CCBC looking for folklore when the sight of her name on the spines of books jumped out at me. I was reminded once again of her contributions to children's literature with her retellings of folktales from Puerto Rico, which she created for young readers over the course of several decades in the mid-twentieth century.
We recently had an Americas Award Discussion here at the CCBC, in which teachers, librarians, university students and others talked about books eligible for the Americas Award for Latino Literature, which is sponsored by the Consortium for Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP).
The winner of our Americas Discussion was Francisco X. Alarcon's Laughing Tomatoes, one of the Pura Belpre Honor Books for Writing. One of the things that CCBC discussants appreciated about this book was that in addition to the delightful and moving poems, there was a great deal of cultural substance, not only in the poems themselves but in some of the notes included to explain aspects of the culture, such as Cinco de Mayo.
We also discussed Gathering the Sun by Alma Flor Ada. Simon Silva's illustrations for this book were cited by the Pura Belpre Award Committe with an Illustration Honor. Participants in the CCBC's Americas discussion appreciated the dignity of workers as conveyed in both the text and illustrations of this book, though some people thought the workers looked too happy--smiling on every page. They liked the sense of family that came through in the art as well, in addition to the rich, sun-steeped colors. They also liked the connections that were expressed visually and in the text linking the workers to their Mexican and Aztec heritage and culture.
What do you think about the cultural content of either or both of these books? What do you think about their appeal to young people?
(I apologize for the absence of diacritics in this message--I keep trying to figure them out in our [relatively] new e-mail system, but I haven't yet.)
Megan Schliesman (schliesman at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 600 N. Park St., Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706 608&2?03
Received on Thu 19 Mar 1998 12:04:35 PM CST
