Young Adult (ages 14-18)

Material appropriate for young adults

Fat Hoochie Prom Queen

What does it take to be the queen?Margarita \”Madge\” Diaz is fat, foxy, and fabulous. She loves herself, and is adored by almost everyone else…except queen bee/student-body president Bridget Benson. These two girls have a history that\’s uglier than a drag queen after last call. During a heated argument, they decide there\’s only one way to end their rivalry: be named prom queen and the other backs off — for good.Of course, everything looks different in the sober light of morning, but pride is at stake and the race is on. Madge is committed to doing whatever it takes to secure the title, but so is Bridget. And everyone\’s got something to hide. Welcome to Winter Park High School, where the dirt\’s not just gonna fly…it\’s gonna go into freakin\’ orbit.

Quinceanera: A Latina’s journey to womanhood

Photographs and text follow a Mexican-American girl through a coming-of-age ritual that helps to preserve a rich heritage in today’s Latino community in the United States.

Someone Like Summer

Annabel first sees him playing soccer near her house. His name is Esteban—she sees it on the back of his team shirt. He notices her, smiles, then looks back over his shoulder at her again.

It is the beginning of summer in the resort town of Seaview. It is also the start of a romance between a young Colombian who came to town to work and the daughter of a local contractor whose crews are entirely Latino—new immigrants who are changing the face of Seaview.

This is the summer of war in Iraq, and of Hurricane Katrina. But in Seaview there are other concerns. In Annabel’s house her new boyfriend is at the top of the list. And Esteban’s sister has harsh words for his choice of a girlfriend.

M. E. Kerr weaves a compelling story of star-crossed love and a small-town problem of nationwide significance.

Messed Up

Fifteen-year-old RD is repeating the eighth grade, planning to have an easy year, but after his grandmother walks out her boyfriend is no longer able to care for him, which leaves RD to fend for himself while avoiding being caught.

Chupacabra and the Roswell UFO

In this second ChupaCabra mystery, Professor Rosa Medina has just arrived in Santa Fe where she meets Nadine, a mysterious sixteen-year-old who insists that the two of them travel to Roswell, New Mexico. Nadine is convinced that C-Force, a secret government agency, has decoded the DNA of ChupaCabra and an extraterrestrial. If the two genomes are combined, a new and horrific life form will be created.In this fast-paced mystery, Anaya expands the ChupaCabra folklore into a metaphor that deals with the new powers inherent in science. Is ChupaCabra a beast in Latino folktales, used to frighten children, or a lost species being manipulated by C-Force? Rosa\’s life hangs in the balance as she and her young accomplice try to find a way to stop C-Force before its mad scientists create a monster.

El Bronx Remembered

In a city called New York… In a neighborhood called El Bronx… The Fernandex children own a very special pet: A white hen named after their favorite Hollywood movie star. A new girl comes to school – a gypsy child who can read palms and foretell the future. A young boy must face the humiliation of wearing his uncle’s orange roach-killer shoes to his high school graduation. In the South Bronx – or El Bronx, as it’s known to the people who live there – anything can happen. A migrant “fresh off the boat” from Puerto Rico can be somebody on the mainland, pursue the American Dream… and maybe even make it come true. Here are stories that capture the flavor and beat of El Bronx in its heyday, from 1946-1956. A New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year Finalist, 1976 National Book Award for Children’s Literature A Notable Children’s Trade Book in Social Studies (NCSS/CBC).

Quinceanera: English-Language Edition

You are invited to the biggest party of Cindy Chvez’s life. In text and gorgeous color photos, Elizabeth King takes us to this joyous, once-in-a-lifetime event–the quinceañera. It is the celebration of a Latina’s fifteenth birthday, a coming-of-age ritual in which a community welcomes its newest adult member with a church service, a feast, and dancing. The tradition, which has its roots in Aztec and Mexican custom, is popular in the United States. With a lavish dress, an honor court of friends, a big cake, and a night filled with music, the quinceañera is a chance for a young woman to feel like a queen. But there are solemn, quiet moments, too, particularly at the Mass held before the party. The history, significance, and fun of the quinceañera are warmly recounted in this lovely book. It is an inviting glimpse at a part of American culture for newcomers to the tradition, and a special scrapbook for those anticipating or remembering their own quinceañera.

500 Years of Chicana Women’s History/Anos de Historia de las Chicanans

500The history of Mexican Americans spans more than five centuries and varies from region to region across the United States. Yet most of our history books devote at most a chapter to Chicano history, with even less attention to the story of Chicanas. 500 Years of Chicana Women’s History offers a powerful antidote to this omission with a vivid, pictorial account of struggle and survival, resilience and achievement, discrimination and identity. The bilingual text, along with hundreds of photos and other images, ranges from female-centered stories of pre-Columbian Mexico to profiles of contemporary social justice activists, labor leaders, youth organizers, artists, and environmentalists, among others. With a distinguished, seventeen-member advisory board, the book presents a remarkable combination of scholarship and youthful appeal. In the section on jobs held by Mexicanas under U.S. rule in the 1800s, for example, readers learn about flamboyant Doña Tules, who owned a popular gambling saloon in Santa Fe, and Eulalia Arrilla de Pérez, a respected curandera (healer) in the San Diego area. Also covered are the “repatriation” campaigns” of the Midwest during the Depression that deported both adults and children, 75 percent of whom were U.S.-born and knew nothing of Mexico. Other stories include those of the garment, laundry, and cannery worker strikes, told from the perspective of Chicanas on the ground. From the women who fought and died in the Mexican Revolution to those marching with their young children today for immigrant rights, every story draws inspiration. Like the editor’s previous book, 500 Years of Chicano History (still in print after 30 years), this thoroughly enriching view of Chicana women’s history promises to become a classic.

Brothers Torres, The

brothersFrankie Towers has always looked up to his older brother, Steve, and with good reason. Steve is a popular senior who always gets what he wants: girls, a soccer scholarship, and–lately–street cred. Frankie, on the other hand, spends his time shooting off fireworks with his best friend Zach, working at his parents’ restaurant, and obsessing about his longtime crush, Rebecca Sanchez.

Frankie has reservations about Steve’s crusade to win the respect of the local cholos. He doesn’t think about them, though, until he gets into a fist fight John Dalton – the richest, preppiest kid in his New Mexican high school, and longtime nemesis of Steve. After the fight, Steve takes Frankie under his wing – and Frankie’s social currency begins to rise. The cholos who used to ignore him start to recognize him; he even lands a date to Homecoming with Rebecca.

The situation with Dalton continues to simmer, and after another incident Steve is bent on retaliating. Frankie starts to think that his brother is taking this respect thing too far. He may have to choose between respecting his brother and respecting himself.

In an honest and humorous debut novel, Coert Voorhees uses a coming of age story to look at where loyalty ends and the self begins.

Honey Blonde Chica

Evie Gomez is one chill chica.She and her best friend, Raquel, hang with the Flojos, a kick-back crew named for their designer flip-flops. And their habit of doing absolutely nothing.But the return of long-lost amiga mejor Dee Dee wrecks Evie and Raquel’s Flojo flow. A few years in Mexico City have transformed their shy, skinny, brunette Dee Dee into a Sangro nightmare. Dee Dee has reinvented herself as “Dela,” complete with tight designer threads, freaky blue contacts, and that signature blond hair.When Raquel wants precisely nada to do with the new Dela, Evie finds herself caught between two very different friends. At heart, is Evie a Cali-casual Flojo chick, or a sexy Sangro diva?How’s a chica to choose?