The Stories I Read to the Children

THE STORIES I READ TO THE CHILDREN

The Life and Writing of Pura Belpré, The Legendary Storyteller, Children’s Author and New York Public Librarian

By Pura Belpré, Selected, edited, and biographical introduction by Lisa Sánchez González

Published 2013

286 pages; notes, works cited, index; 6 x 9

ISBN: 978-1-878483-80-5  (paperback) 

Price: $25.00  paperback

About this book

The Stories I Read to the Children documents, for the very first time, Pura Belpré’s contributions to North American, Caribbean, and Latin American literary and library history. Thoroughly researched but clearly written, this study is scholarship that is also accessible to general readers, students, and teachers.

Pura Belpré (1899-1982) is one of the most important public intellectuals in the history of the Puerto Rican diaspora. A children’s librarian, author, folklorist, translator, storyteller, and puppeteer who began her career during the Harlem Renaissance and the formative decades of the New York Public Library, Belpré is also the earliest known Afro-Caribeña contributor to American literature.

In The Stories I Read to the Children, Lisa Sánchez González has collected, edited, and annotated over 40 of Belpré’s stories and essays, most of which have never been published. Her introduction to the volume is the most extensive study to date of Belpré’s life and writing.

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About the Author

Pura Belpré was the legendary storyteller, librarian and children’s book author.

Lisa Sánchez González lives in an enchanted forest, where she has recently finished writing a collection of short stories entitled Puerto Rican Folktales/ Cuentos folclóricos puertorriqueños. She is also the author of Boricua Literature: A Literary History of the Puerto Rican Diaspora (NYU Press, 2001) and a myriad of essays on American and Caribbean literary history. Sánchez studied Comparative Literature at UCLA (PhD 1995) and has taught at universities in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Brazil. She now works at the University of Connecticut, where she is Associate Professor of English.

Reviews

This book, a collection of Belpré's stories and essays, introduced by a biography, seeks to fill that gap and draw attention to this important historical figure. Sánchez González provides a brief biographical sketch of Belpré, drawing from relatively unexplored archival sources and accessibly situating Belpré's life and work within larger contexts of the history of Puerto Rican diaspora, the genesis of children's librarianship as a profession, feminist folklore studies, and the development of an ethnically conscious Latina/o literature, suggesting directions for further research. She also has carefully selected thirty-two of Belpré's Puerto Rican folktales, seventeen previously published (though, to date, out of print) and fifteen never-before published, all of which are wondrous in their simple magic and showcase the Spanish, Indigenous, and African roots of Puerto Rican oral culture, as well as Belpré's phenomenal talent as a storyteller… Folklore enthusiasts and storytellers are sure to find this collection of tales and history useful as a resource for a fairly untapped folkloric tradition, and teachers, librarians, and scholars with interests in fields as diverse as ethnic studies, library and information science, literary history, and performance studies. Thaddeus Andraki, Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books More...