2022 Pura Belpré Illustrator Award Roundup: Vamos! Let’s Cross the Bridge, Bright Star, and May Your Life Be Deliciosa

The Pura Belpré award honors “Latinx writers and illustrators whose books portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience.” This year the ALA named one winner and four honor picture books for illustration. The winner is

Vamos! Let’s Cross the Bridge by Raul the Third (colors by Elaine Bay). Versify (HMH), 2021, 38 pages.

In last year’s illustration winner (Vamos! Let’s Go Eat), we met Little Lobo and Kooky Dooky the rooster as they delivered mucho ingredients for a memorable feast. In this year’s winning episode, Little Lobo has a new truck, which he will used to convey Kooky and their favorite band, Ranita y Sus Lilly Pads, to La celebración. The celebration will take place on the other side of the river, in another city in another country. But so many travelers have the same idea that a massive traffic jam occurs. Will they ever get to the other side? Not to worry: just break out the firecrackers, fire up the braziers, and hand Ranita her mic. We’ll celebrate right here and now!

In his illustrator note, Raul the Third recalls how his parents moved to El Paso before he was born “and for me, El Paso and Juarez were one giant city filled with family and friends.” The bridge in this book is the bridge of his memories, crossed again and again throughout childhood. His typically dense and exuberant page spreads communicate the joy of La celebración and draws on influences from ancient Aztec design to contemporary Mexican pop culture. Some of the creatures may be a little frightening for sensitive readers, though. Recommended for ages 4-8.

• Worldview/moral value: 3.5
• Artistic/literary value: 4

Award: Pura Belpré winner for illustration.

May Your Life Be Deliciosa, by Michael Genhart, illustrated by Loris Lora. Cameron Kids (Abrams), 2021, 32 pages.

“Every year on Christmas Eve, my abuela Pina, Mamá, tía, sister, cousins, and I gather in Abuela’s kitchen to make tamales.” Everyone in the family has a job to do, from washing the corn husks to preparing the dough, but Abuela herself cooks the meat filling. The recipe is in her heart, perfected through years of cooking for her family. But there’s more to tamales than ingredients, and every year she shares the process. “You start with una hoja, a corn husk. The warm water has made it softer and easier to work with.” And so, “Rosie, mi nieta, may you always be flexible.” Each step comes with a hope for Abuela’s family: for security, community, “food to eat and spice to make it special,” and love and affection (amor y coriño). While the tamales steam in a huge pot, she reminds the family of the need for patience, too; the finished product will be worth the wait. And so it is.

Family tradition, culture, and enduring values combine to make this a delicious read. There’s no recipe at the end, but every loving family has its own recipe. Recommended for ages 4-8.

• Worldview/moral value: 4
• Artistic/literary value. 5

Award: Pura Belpré honor book for illustration

Bright Star by Yuhi Morales. Neal Porter Books, 2021, 40 pages.

Child, you are awake!/ You are alive!/ You are a bright star/ Inside our hearts. The “you” addressed in this gentle, ruminative book is a fawn, awakening in the desert to look around with wondering eyes. As she rises on unsteady legs and ventures out, she will encounter flora and fawna of the Sonoma desert, some of it enchanting and some of it dangerous; all beautiful in its own way.

The poetic prose is as spare as the landscape, but the illustrations are the main attraction. A mixture of techniques, such as hand-stitching, embroidery, matte textures, photography, and sketching, combine to create a retro feel that’s both nostalgic and contemporary. The fawn encounters humans on her journey, also in search of a future. In the concluding pages the travelers encounter an unwelcome obstacle: an ugly, steel-plated wall. This seems intrusive and unnecessary: a jarring note of contemporary politics in a more general message of hope and resilience. Recommended for ages 4-8.

• Worldview/moral value: 4
• Artistic/literary value: 5

Award: Pura Belpré honor book for illustration

Note: The remaining two honor books are Boogie Boogie, Y’all and De aquí como el coquí, which were not available for review at posting time.

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