Children's Books Receive Belpré Award
Pam Muñoz Ryan's <i>The Dreamer</i> and Eric Velasquez's <i>Grandma's Gift</i> are 2011 winners
En español | The Dreamer, winner of the 2011 Pura Belpré Author Award, is a fantastical novel about a stuttering boy with a wandering imagination. He finds music in rain and muses about making friends with someone who's "not good at mathematics, either."
The 2011 Pura Belpré Illustrator Award went to Grandma's Gift.
Based on visits to his grandmother's home in Spanish Harlem, Grandma's Gift, by author-illustrator Eric Velasquez, paints a rich panorama of Puerto Rican life — like making pasteles with banana leaves.
"I'd call it a love letter to his grandma and the barrio," says Ruth. "The depictions are so culturally right on."
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