I changed our initial yearly plan this year to include a unit study on Puerto Rico because it was showing up so much in our news cycle. I wanted my kids to have a sense of what’s going on in that part of the United States, but also to know that there’s more to Puerto Rico than the aftermath of hurricanes. As in all our place-based unit studies, I tried to balance history, culture, geography, animals, food, and families, so we get multiple perspectives on each location. And, while I don’t think we did them justice, we did try some fried plantains.
- Abuelita’s Paradise by Carmen Santiago Nodar and Diane Paterson
- Arrorró, Mi Niño: Latino Lullabies and Gentle Games by Lulu Delacre
- Color Crayola’s Puerto Rican Flag
- Children of Puerto Rico by Michael Elsohn Ross and Felix Rigau
- Watch Families of Puerto Rico
- Fairy Tales of Puerto Rico by David García and Gus Anavitate
- Festival Foods by Jenny Vaughan and Penny Beauchamp
- The Golden Flower: A Taino Myth from Puerto Rico by Nina Jaffe and Enrique Sánchez
- Good Night Puerto Rico by Lisa Bolivar Martinez and Matthew Martinez
- Hispanic American History: Building a New World by Jim Ollhoff
- Hurricane! by Jonathan London and Henri Sorensen
- It’s My State! Puerto Rico: The Island of Enchantment by Ruth Bjorklund and Richard Hantula
- Juan Bobo: Four Folktales from Puerto Rico retold by Carmen Bernier-Grand and Ernesto Ramos Nieves
- Juan Bobo and the Horse of Seven Colors by Jan Mike and Charles Reasoner
- Juan Bobo Goes to Work by Marisa Montes and Joe Cepeda
- Mimi’s Parranda/La Parranda de Mimí by Lydia Gil and Hernán Sosa
- Miracle on 133rd Street by Sonia Manzano and Marjorie Priceman
- One Proud Penny by Randy Siegel and Serge Bloch
- The Outside Dog by Charlotte Pomerantz and Jennifer Plecas
- Paco and the Witch by Felix Pitre and Christy Hale
- Parrots Over Puerto Rico by Susan Roth and Cindy Trumbore
- Puerto Rico by Holly Saari
- Puerto Rico by Tyler Maine
- Puerto Ricans in America by Stacy Taus-Bolstad
- Puerto Rico: Past and Present by Maria DaSilva-Gordon
- Rafi and Rosi by Lulu Delacre
- Rafi and Rosi: Carnival! By Lulu Delacre
- Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates by Jonah Winter and Raúl Colón
- Sergio and the Hurricane by Alexandra Wallner
- Shake It, Morena! And Other Folklore from Puerto Rico by Carmen Bernier-Grand and Lulu Delacre
- The Squeaky Door by Margaret Read MacDonald and Mary Newell DePalma
- There’s a Billy Goat in the Garden by Laurel Dee Gugler and Clare Beaton
- World Factbook: Puerto Rico by the CIA