Pat has a reminiscence in the Horn Book Magazine’s May/June 2021 issue, a special issue devoted to celebrating 25 years of The Pura Belpré Award. She joins many other Latinx authors and illustrators featured in the issues. If you don’t subscribe, you can read the issue online for free.

The award is named after Pura Belpré, the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library. Established in 1996, the award is presented annually 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. It is co-sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), divisions of the American Library Association (ALA), and REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking, an ALA affiliate.