Pura Belpré Award Books

The Pura Belpré Award is named for the first Puerto Rican librarian hired by the New York Public Library, a storyteller who spent her career carrying Puerto Rican folktales into library story hours that had never heard them. It has been presented since 1996 by the Association for Library Service to Children together with REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking.

Separate medals go to a writer and an illustrator each year, along with honor books — a shelf that has grown into one of the best places to find children's books where Latino children are the center of the story rather than the background of someone else's.

Information from the American Library Association.