Biography – Autobiography- Memoir

Sí, Puedes (Play Ball!)

Presents a story of right-handed Jorge Posada being coached by his father to bat left-handed, and how it leads right to the major leagues.

Jorge Posada adora sentir la bola en su guante, el bate en su mano, y el juego del béisbol. Como cualquier otro jugador del equipo Casa Cuba, ya puede batear bien con la mano derecha, pero su padre le dice, “Ser bueno no es ser el mejor.”Su entrenador le dice, “El béisbol es un juego de pulgadas.” De hecho, cuando Casa Cuba tiene que enfrentarse al temible pítcher de Club Caparra, lo que el equipo más necesita es un jugador ambidiestro.Basado en la infancia de Jorge Posada, el cátcher de los New York Yankees, ésta es la historia de un niño puertorriqueño que trabajó duro para convertirse en el mejor, y no se detuvo sino hasta que llegó a ser campeón.

The Other Side: How Kids Live In A California Latino Neighborhood (World Of My Own)

Provides a brief look at three Latino children who live in the border town of Chula Vista. The book covers the lives of three Latino children who have successfully adapted to a new culture and language while still maintaining close ties to family members in Mexico.

Joan Baez: Folksinger for Peace (Great Hispanics of Our Time)

A biography of the Mexican American folk singer who became a political activist and who wrote and sang songs that inspired people to make the world better.

Tomas And The Library Lady

Tomás is a son of migrant workers. Every summer he and his family follow the crops north from Texas to Iowa, spending long, arduous days in the fields. At night they gather around to hear Grandfather’s wonderful stories. But before long, Tomás knows all the stories by heart. “There are more stories in the library,” Papa Grande tells him.  The very next day, Tomás meets the library lady and a whole new world opens up for him. Based on the true story of the Mexican-American author and educator Tomás Rivera, a child of migrant workers who went on to become the first minority Chancellor in the University of California system, this inspirational story suggests what libraries–and education–can make possible.  Raul Colón’s warm, expressive paintings perfectly interweave the harsh realities of Tomás’s life, the joyful imaginings he finds in books, and his special relationships with a wise grandfather and a caring librarian.  

Ce´sar

cesarBorn in 1927 in Yuma, Arizona, César Chavez lived the hard-scrabble life of a migrant worker during the depression. He grew to be a charismatic leader and founded the National Farm Workers Association, an organization that fought for basic rights for his fellow farm workers. In powerful poems and dramatic stylized illustrations, Carmen T. Bernier-Grand and David Díaz pay tribute to his life and legacy.

Tortilla Chronicles: Growing Up In Santa Fe

A family memoir full of New Mexico flavor, Tortilla Chronicles serves up a hearty helping of the “City Different” from the perspective of the humble, hardworking Romeros, a family honored for its contributions to regional folk arts. Marie Romero Cash, herself a renowned artist, poignantly sketches each family member using his or her own voice. Their stories present a rare glimpse into the life of a traditional Hispano family and provide an antidote to typical nostalgic tourist accounts of 1950s Santa Fe. One of the main characters is Santa Fe itself, and the narrative tours the city’s streets, shops, plaza, and surrounding hills and arroyos in astounding detail. The ancestry and rituals of family life, the culture and religion of northern New Mexico, and the growth of a neighborhood and its children are all part of the recipe.

Earth Daughter: Alicia of Acoma Pueblo

Alicia, a member of the Acoma Pueblo, learns the art of pottery from her parents, from shale collecting in the canyon to the formation and decoration of pots, in a cultural examination of a time-honored Pueblo tradition.

The Storyteller’s Candle/La Velita De Los Cuentos

It is the winter of 1929, and cousins Hildamar and Santiago have just moved to enormous, chilly New York from their native Puerto Rico. As Three Kings’ Day approaches, Hildamar and Santiago mourn the loss of their sunny home and wonder about their future in their adopted city. But when a storyteller and librarian named Pura Belpré arrives in their classroom, the children begin to understand just what a library can mean to a community. In this fitting tribute to a remarkable woman, Lucía González and Lulu Delacre have captured the truly astounding effect that Belpré had on the city of New York.

Antonia Novello (Hispanic Heritage)

antoniaAn inspiring biography of George Bush’s Surgeon General chronicles the story of a Puerto Rican girl born with a chronic health problem who rose to become an important figure in the health world.