Title: The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano
Author: Margarita Engle
Publisher: Henry Holt

A portrait in poems of Juan Francisco Manzano, the poet who was born a slave in Cuba in 1797.

Title: Los Gatos Black on Halloween
Author: Marisa Montes
Illustrator: Yuyi Morales
Publisher: H. Holt

Easy to read, rhyming text about Halloween night incorporates Spanish words, from las brujas riding their broomsticks to los monstruos whose monstrous ball is interrupted by a true horror.

Pura Belpré Awards for Authors & Illustrators

The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth. The award is named after Pura Belpré, the first Latina librarian from the New York Public Library. As a children’s librarian, storyteller, and author, she enriched the lives of Puerto Rican children in the U.S.A. through her pioneering work of preserving and disseminating Puerto Rican folklore.

2008 Pura Belpré Award Honor Books for Authors

Title: Frida: Viva la Vida! Long Live Life!
Author: Carmen T. Bernier-Grand
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Children

Title: Los Gatos Black on Halloween
Author: Marisa Montes
Illustrator: Yuyi Morales
Publisher: H. Holt

Title: Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale
Author: Carmen Agra Deedy
Illustrator: Michael Austin
Publisher: Peachtree

2008 Pura Belpré Award Honor Books for Illustrators

Title: Me Llamo Gabito: La Vida de Gabriel Garcia Marquez / My name is Gabito: The Life and Times of Gabriel Garcia Marque
Author: Monica Brown
Illustrator: Raul Colon
Publisher: Luna Rising

Title: My Colors, My World / Mis Colores, Mi Mundo
Author and Illustrator: Maya Christina Gonzalez
Publisher: Children's Book Press