A hurricane is brewing in the jungles of the Maya, and the ancient Death Lords are on the warpath. Across the world in Venice, Italy, hanging out with his blogger friend Nasty (Anastasia) Smith-Jones and eating Pizza Gelato, Max Murphy thinks he is safe from their clutches. But when a rogue octopus pulls him off his gondola and tries to drag him down to the underworld, Max realizes that the Death Lords have not finished with him yet.
While awaiting his parents’ release from jail, fourteen-year-old Max Murphy is sucked into yet another scheme of the Maya Death Lords that sends him on a quest to the United States. Failure could mean the end of the world again.
A young Latina girl accidentally breaks her grandfather’s vihuela and searches for someone in the community to fix the instrument, which leads her to discover her grandfather’s legacy as a mariachi. Includes an author’s note and glossary.
Francisco misses his village in El Salvador, and especially flying a kite with his friends, but Mamá cannot afford to buy a kite so he gathers discarded materials around his apartment building and makes his own, which catches the eye of a store owner and leads to a wonderful project.
Three children, each with an extraordinary gift, must save an empire from its wicked ruler. The gift of fire, wind, and water alone are not enough to stop a cruel emperor. With the love of their parents and a special cane from a mysterious old woman, the children learn that working together as a family is stronger than hate and greed.
In an adventure reminiscent of Homer’s Odyssey, fifteen-year-old Odilia and her four younger sisters embark on a journey to return a dead man to his family in Mexico, aided by La Llorona, but impeded by a witch, a warlock, chupacabras, and more.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume VII, Issue 3
Sarah Robinson is deeply troubled in the wake of her dad’s second marriage. She now has to deal with a new stepmom and two stepbrothers, Marco, who is her age, and Nacho, who’s younger. Even though they’ve all moved from Texas to California to start life as a new, blended family, none of the kids seem remotely happy about it. Sarah’s dad and stepmom then decide to take the whole family on a special vacation in order to break the ice and have everyone get to know one another. They’ll fly to Tahiti, charter a boat, and go sailing for a few days. It will be an adventure, right? Wrong. Dead wrong.
A Mexican boy who wants to be an artist goes to live with an uncle who makes him work in the fields all day and board in the barn at night. In spite of the severe treatment and with the encouragement of a village artist, the boy creates a place for himself as an artist and an individual.
In 1965, as the grapes in California’s Coachella Valley were ready to harvest, migrant Filipino American workers—who picked and readied the crop for shipping—negotiated a wage of $1.40 per hour, the same wage growers had agreed to pay guest workers from Mexico. But when the Filipino grape pickers moved north to Delano, in the Central Valley, and again asked for $1.40 an hour, the growers refused. The ensuing conflict set off one of the longest and most successful strikes in American history.
Lon Chaney Rodriguez is a typical thirteen-year-old until his mother, a security guard, is shot and killed and he becomes haunted by the feeling that he is letting her down by getting bad grades, skipping church, lying, and goofing off while worrying that he and his alcoholic, unemployed father will wind up homeless.