Something Like Home

A Puerto Rican author, Andrea Beatriz Arango is known for her sensitive portrayal of difficult themes through verse. She focuses on children’s and middle grade literature that delves into personal and social issues, including mental illness, foster care, and therapy. Arango has earned a Pura Belpré Honor for Something Like Home and a Newbery Honor for Iveliz Explains It All, which follows seventh-grade Iveliz’s as she copes with a mental health condition. As a “former public school teacher with almost a decade of teaching experience,” Arango balances work as an ESL interpreter “with writing the types of children’s books she wishes students had more access to” (“About.” Andrea Beatriz Arango). She wants to share books about different cultures, especially Latinx backgrounds.

Arango grew up speaking and writing in Spanish, often giving her poetry to family members as gifts (“Cuéntame! Let’s Talk Books with Andrea Beatriz Arango.” Library of Congress. YouTube, 2024). She has firsthand experience writing Spanish words, which she uses from characters like Titi Silvia. By giving Laura’s family a similar Puerto Rican culture, Arango inserts themes of diversity and identity. Through her writing, she wishes to build empathy and acceptance for everyone (