Bilingual

El Baile De Octavo Y Otros Recuerdos

Eleven-year-old Ada De Jesús was on the cusp of her teens when she moved to the United States from Puerto Rico. Hurricane Hugo had just decimated the island and her father couldn’t find a job. In Chicago, the white dress she arrived in didn’t protect her from the snow and frigid temperatures! Constantly exposed to new things, she developed a resilience that served her well. “From one place to another, like riding a bike, if you keep pedaling, you won’t fall.” Ada discovered that students in the United States were frequently disrespectful to their teachers. At school she often felt like a two-year-old as she grappled with a completely new language. In addition to navigating a different culture, she had to deal with all the issues familiar to teenage girls: the growth of body hair, pimples, menstruation and burgeoning feelings for the opposite sex. Her memories of first intimate encounters, fending off unwanted advances and fear of pregnancy will strike a chord with readers. In these short vignettes recollecting her middle-school years, Ada De Jesús shares her poignant and often funny experiences as a newcomer and an adolescent. Young readers will relate to—and laugh at—her experiences; some may take heart that they too will overcome the difficulties common at this age.

Todos Iguales

The story of the 1931 Lemon Grove incident, in which Mexican families in southern California won the first school desegregation case in United States history. Told in Spanish and English. Includes a corrido (ballad), and information about the people involved and events leading up to and after the court case ruling.

Senorita Mariposa

Illustrations and easy-to-read text in English and Spanish follow monarch butterflies on their journey from Canada to Mexico. Includes author’s note on how to help protect monarch butterflies.

Hairs

A girl describes how each person in the family has hair that looks and acts different, Papa’s like a broom, Kiki’s like fur, and Mama’s with the sweet smell of bread before it’s baked.

¡vamos! Let’s Go To The Market (English and Spanish Edition)

Little Lobo, a Mexican American, and Bernabe, his dog, deliver supplies to vendors at the Mercado, a busy border town market.

Watch Out For Clever Women!

A bilingual collection of humorous trickster tales, in which women pit their formidable intelligence to outwit villains, husbands, brothers, fathers, and sweethearts. From the kind woman who tricked two men who thought they had robbed her of a ham to the woman who saved her gold by tricking her foolish husband into thinking it had snowed tortillas, these tales cultivate lessons of honesty, goodness, hospitality, and honor―not to mention intelligence and wit to survive. As Joe Hayes points out, People the world over tell stories of a humble individual tricking an overbearing person of higher status, but the idea is especially cherished in Hispanic storylore. Making the trickster a woman adds spice to the trick.

Sofi Paints Her Dreams

After a bad school day, Sofi is transported from a New York City community garden to the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and helps composer Juan Luis and artist Guerlande.

My Shoes And I

As a boy and his Papa travel from El Salvador to the United States to be reunited with Mama, his wonderful new shoes help to distract him from the long and difficult journey.

The Boy Who Touched the Stars

Every night when he was a boy, José M. Hernández would look out the window and stare at the stars. They were different colors: blue, yellow and white. Some were larger and brighter than others, and some twinkled as if they were alive. Later, when he saw man land on the moon on TV, he knew he wanted to be an astronaut.