Established in 1996, the Pura Belpré Award is named after a pioneer in Latino librarianship, Pura Belpré, who revolutionized the role of Latinos and people of color in the library field as well as empowering the Puerto Rican community through her work.
The Pura Belpré 2016 winners and honors were announced amidst an enthusiastic crowd at the Youth Media Awards during ALA Midwinter Conference in Boston, MA.
Winners of the Belpré Medal are:
“Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music”, illustrated by Rafael López is the Belpré Illustrator Award winner. The book was written by Margarita Engle and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
“Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir”, written by Margarita Engle is the Belpré
Three Belpré Illustrator Honor Books were named:
“My Tata’s Remedies/Los remedios de mi tata”, illustrated by Antonio Castro L., written by Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford, and published by Cinco Puntos Press.
“Mango, Abuela, And Me”, illustrated by Ángela Domínguez, written by Meg Medina, and published by Candlewick Press.
“Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras”, illustrated and written by Duncan Tonatiuh, and published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Abrams.
Two Belpré Author Honor Books were named:
“The Smoking Mirror”, written by David Bowles, and published by IFWG Publishing, Inc.
“Mango, Abuela, and Me”, written by Meg Medina, illustrated by Ángela Domínguez, and published by Candlewick Press.
In addition to the outstanding Pura Belpré honorees, the rest of the announcements made at the 2016 Youth Media Awards marked a historic and unique moment in Latino children’s literature when Latino authors and illustrators received an unprecedented amount of medals and honors across different awards.
Matt de la Peña became the first Latino to win the Newbery Medal, which is considered to be the top award given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children, for his picture book, “Last Stop on Market Street”, illustrated by Christian Robinson. In the most distinguished informational book category, Duncan Tonatiuh became the first Latino to win the Sibert Informational Book Medal for “Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras”.
Other Latino/Latina authors recognized at the 2016 ALA Youth Media Awards were: Pam Muñoz Ryan for “Echo” (Newbery Honor & Odyssey Honor), Ricardo Liniers Siri for “Written and Drawn by Henrietta” (Batchelder Honor), Anna-Marie McLemore for “The Weight of Feathers” (Morris Award finalist), Margarita Engle for “Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir” (YALSA Award for Excellence in Non-Fiction for Young Adults finalist), and Dan-el Padilla Peralta for “Undocumented: A Dominican Boy’s Odyssey from a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League” (Alex Award).
Read more here.
