Pura's Cuentos: How Pura Belpre Reshaped Libraries with Her Stories

‘Pura’s Cuentos: How Pura Belpre Reshaped Libraries with Her Stories’ by Annette Bay Pimentel, illustrated by Magaly Morales, tells Pura’s story, and it is a beautiful one. After she moves to Harlem from Puerto Rico, she gets a job at the library, and she loves cuentos, or books, very much. She begins to be a storyteller for the children who visit the library, but she wonders why the stories she grew up hearing from her grandmother don’t populate the shelves along with the stories she so frequently shares with her patrons. She soon gets up the nerve to tell her own stories, and the people who run the library give her the go-ahead to continue doing so, telling her that she must let those who attend storytime know that someday the stories she tells may be made into a book. As she spreads the word to bring in more people of her own culture and of other cultures to hear the stories she tells, she instills a love of cuentos (books), of writing, and of the power of sharing one’s truth so others might hear it.

With an author’s note, bibliography, engaging illustrations, and a powerful telling of Pura’s story, Annette Bay Pimentel has crafted a thoroughly interesting story that stresses the importance of books, libraries, and engaging with what is moving and inspirational.