Latinx in US

My Name Is Jorge: On Both Sides of the River

A collection of 27 insightful poems that illuminates the migrant experience from the point of view of a grade school child from Mexico. Jorge doesn’t want to be called George. He thinks the name sounds strange. “What an ugly sound!/Like a sneeze!” His struggles to fit in result in a friendship with a boy named Tim; a tentative coming to terms with American society; and some degree of sadness when, upon his grandmother’s death, his family must cross the river again.

This book has been included in WOW’s Language and Learning: Children’s and Young Adult Fiction Booklist. For our current list, visit our Booklist page under Resources in the green navigation bar.

How Tia Lola Ended Up Starting Over

Welcome to Tia Lola’s bed-and-breakfast! With the help of her niece and nephew and the three Sword sisters, Tia Lola is opening the doors of Colonel Charlesbois’s grand old Vermont house to visitors from far and near. But Tia Lola and the children soon realize that running a B & B isn’t as easy as they had initially thought–especially when it appears that someone is out to sabotage them!  Will Tia Lola and the kids discover who’s behind the plot to make their B & B fail? And will Tia Lola’s family and friends be able to plan her surprise birthday party in her own B & B without her finding out?

La Intriga Del Limonero/ The Lemon Tree Caper

This second, bilingual short novel in the Mickey Rangel Mystery series for intermediate readers has Mickey tracking a lemon thief!

Adelita and the Veggie Cousins

On her first day at a new school, Adelita makes new friends through a lesson on vegetables, including how some vegetables are “cousins” because they share certain characteristics.

Maximilian: The Mystery of the Guardian Angel

Eleven-year-old Margarito, a big fan of the form of wrestling known as lucha libre, begins to suspect that he has a close connection with his favorite luchador, El Angel de La Guardia, the Guardian Angel.

Under The Mesquite

Lupita, a budding actor and poet in a close-knit Mexican American immigrant family, comes of age as she struggles with adult responsibilities during her mother’s battle with cancer in this young adult novel in verse. When Lupita learns Mami has cancer, she is terrified by the possibility of losing her mother, the anchor of her close-knit family. Suddenly, being a high school student, starring in a play, and dealing with friends who don’t always understand, become less important than doing whatever she can to save Mami’s life. While her father cares for Mami at an out-of-town clinic, Lupita takes charge of her seven younger siblings. As Lupita struggles to keep the family afloat, she takes refuge in the shade of a mesquite tree, where she escapes the chaos at home to write. Forced to face her limitations in the midst of overwhelming changes and losses, Lupita rediscovers her voice and finds healing in the power of words. Told with honest emotion in evocative free verse, Lupita’s journey toward hope is captured in moments that are alternately warm and poignant. Under the Mesquite is an empowering story about testing family bonds and the strength of a young woman navigating pain and hardship with surprising resilience.

See the review at WOW Review, Volume IV, Issue 4

This book has been included in WOW’s Language and Learning: Children’s and Young Adult Fiction Booklist. For our current list, visit our Booklist page under Resources in the green navigation bar.

El Cucuy: A Bogeyman Cuento (English And Spanish)

So, you’ve been in trouble. Your -parents tell you they’re calling the bogeyman. You laugh. There’s no such thing!

Then—you hear a sharp knock. Standing at the door is the oldest man you have ever seen. It’s el Cucuy (coo-COO-ee)! With that big red ear, he hears everything!

In this cautionary tale, storyteller Joe Hayes tells about two girls who didn’t believe in el Cucuy until he snatched them up. Of course, the story has a happy ending.

La Llorona / The Weeping Woman

La Llorona (yoh-RROH-nah), now available for the first time in a full-color paperback, is the ghost story to end all ghost stories and truly the most popular cuento of Hispanic America. This story of the weeping woman appears at first to be only a frightening tale filled with mysterious events which cause children to sit wide-eyed. Yet it’s the simple, universal wisdom at the core of the story that finally works its magic into their hearts. Joe Hayes is best known for his bilingual tellings of stories from the American Southwest. La Llorona is one of his favorite stories.

Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy

Sixteen-year-old Carlos Duarte is on the verge of realizing his dream of becoming a famous make-up artist, but first he must face his jealous boss at a Macy’s cosmetics counter, his sister’s abusive boyfriend and his crush on a punk-rocker classmate.