Winner Burn Down, Rise Up by Vincent Tirado High School Sourcebooks Fire 352 pp. g 5/22 978-1-7282-4600-0 $18.99 In this horror novel grounded in a real-world setting, sixteen-year-old Raquel’s life is upended when her friend disappears — part of a pattern of unexplained disappearances — and her mother is...
Winner Where Wonder Grows by Xelena González; illus. by Adriana M. Garcia Primary Cinco Puntos/Lee & Low 40 pp. 10/22 9781947627468 $17.95 e-book ed 9781947627475 $17.95 REVIEW TO COME Honor Books Phenomenal AOC: The Roots and Rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by Anika Aldamuy...
Winner Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega; illus. by Rose Bousamra Intermediate First Second 224 pp. g 10/22 978-1-250-25962-2 $21.99 Paper ed. 978-1-250-25963-9 $12.99 In a graphic novel that takes on antiblackness and colorism, every Sunday Marlene must sit for hours at the beauty salon while her...
Winner How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland High School Simon 432 pp. g 8/21 978-1-5344-4866-7 $19.99 REVIEW TO COME Honor Books Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun by Jonny Garza Villa High School ...
Winner ¡Vamos!: Let’s Cross the Bridge by Raúl the Third; illus. by the author; color by Elaine Bay Primary Versify/Houghton 48 pp. g 10/21 978-0-358-38040-5 $14.99 REVIEW TO COME Honor Books Boogie Boogie, Y'all by C. G. Esperanza; illus. by the author Preschool, Primary Tegen/HarperCollins ...
Winner The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera Middle School Levine Querido 336 pp. g 8/21 978-1-64614-089-3 $17.99 When a solar flare knocks Halley’s Comet off course and sends it hurtling toward Earth, a small group of citizens is selected to leave the planet and colonize a new one to...
A reflection on the future of the Pura Belpré Award must begin with a meditation on the past. As Black, Caribbean, Afro-Atlantic, and Afro-Latinx scholars teach us, the future is in the past, and the present is in the future. My contemplation, then, begins with two iconic photographs of Pura...
Irene (seated, second from left) and Pam (seated, fifth from left) in third grade. (Photo courtesy of Pam Muñoz Ryan.) If I hadn’t been a failed violinist, I might never have become a writer. When I was in fourth grade, the public school I attended had a coveted orchestra program....
Welcome to HBTV, our exciting new (occasional) children's book-related TV show! In the inaugural episode of HBTV, I talk about the Pura Belpré Awards, on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, with Belpré Award winner Meg Medina and award co-founder Sandra Ríos Balderrama. My Belpré conversation continues in...