Twenty-one poems about growing up in an Hispanic neighborhood, highlighting the delights in such everyday items as sprinklers, the park, the library, and pomegranates.
Neighborhood Odes
Latinx in US
Let’s Salsa / Bailemos Salsa
Estella can’t help but giggle when she sees her neighbors, Dona Rosa and Dona Maria, shaking their hips while dancing and sweating at an exercise class at the community recreation center. A few days later, when her mother complains about gaining weight, Estella encourages her to join the class.
Let’s Salsa / Bailemos Salsa has been discussed in My Take/Your Take for September 2020.
My Very Own Room/Mi Propio Cuartito
With the help of her family, a resourceful Mexican-American girl with two parents, five little brothers, and visiting relatives realizes her dream of having a space of her own to read and to think. Based on the author’s own childhood.
Poems to Dream Together / Poemas Para Sonar Juntos
A collection of poems in English and Spanish discusses imagination, dreams, family, and growing up in California and in Mexico.
The Cucuy Stole My Cascarones/El Coco Me Rob Los Cascarones
Mighty Monster Mysteries! Roberto and his mother made thirty dozen confetti-filled eggs, or cascarones, for his birthday party. Roberto can’t wait to crack the hollowed, painted and confetti-stuffed eggs over his friends’ heads. But, when he goes to the kitchen to get the cascarones, they’re gone! The only clue they ever existed is a trail of confetti that leads to a shadow.
Marisol Mcdonald and the Clash Bash: Marisol McDonald y la fiesta sin igual (English and Spanish Edition)
A multiracial, bilingual girl plans a birthday party and hopes her abuelita (grandma) will be able to come from Peru to join the celebration.
I Am Rene, The Boy/ Soy Rene, El Nino
When René learns that in the United States his name is also a girl’s name, he does some research and relates the name’s meaning and letters to his homeland of El Salvador and the things that make him special.
Estela’s Swap
A young Mexican American girl accompanies her father to a swap meet, where she hopes to sell her music box for money for dancing lessons.
Dale, Dale, Dale/Hit It, Hit It, Hit It: Una fiesta de números/A Fiesta of Numbers
“In this bilingual counting picture book, a young boy counts to fourteen in anticipation of his birthday party: one piñata filled with candy; two hours until the party; three tables set for all of the guests, etc.”
Béisbol!
Presents profiles of fourteen Latino baseball players who, from 1900 through the 1960s, were pioneers of the sport in their home countries and the United States.