Review of the book The Legend of Roberto Cofresí, a Puerto Rican hero/La leyenda de Roberto Cofresí, un héroe puertorriqueño

The author of this book is Janet Balleta She was born in Brooklyn from Colombian and Puerto Rican parents. She currently lives in Florida where she works as a bilingual kindergarten teacher. Inspired by her family, she wrote her first book, The Legend of the Colombian Mermaid(2013). She wrote her second book,The Legend of Roberto Cofresí, a Puerto Rican hero in 2015. Janet is an award winning author of the Mariposa Award from the International Latino Books Awards(2015), the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards for Cultural Diversity(2016), and the International Latino Book Awards for Best Latino Focused Book. Janet likes to write bilingually and she hopes that her book will inspire children to appreciate bilingualism and multicultural literature.

Review

Which child would not like a good pirate story? The book The legend of Roberto Cofresí has more than a good one. This beautiful picture book captives the story of Roberto Cofresí, a Puerto Rican corsair that lived on the island back in the 1800s. The story is about two brothers who live in Florida. One day they asked their father to read them a story. He decided to read about the legend of Roberto Cofresí. After that day, the boys love to play pretending to be corsairs that embark in different adventures and search for hidden treasures.

Every page of this charming book captures the reader attention, taking them through all the adventures of this corsair. The legend tells about the corsair’s beginnings as well as how he brought back to help the Puerto Rican people. Also, it tells us about treasures that have never been found.

At the end of every written page, the dad answers a question of one of the kids. These questions relate to some word they don’t know the meaning of. This is a great technique used by the author to introduce the reader to new words and expand their vocabulary. 

This book would definitely spark a kid imagination while he/she learn about a Puerto Rican legend and some new words too!

As a Puerto Rican and a lover of history, it was delightful for me to read this beautiful book about our beloved legend, Roberto Cofresí.

You can find this and her other books in Amazon https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=janet+balletta

This review is part of the Multicultural Children's Books Day, to be celebrate on January 27. You can follow it on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/259709034187671/
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