Hello, Amigos!

Extends a warm invitation to share Frankie Valdez’s birthday and to sample his culture’s traditional festivities.

¡scandalosa!: A Honey Blonde Chica Novel (Honey Blonde Chica)

scandalosaIn this sequel to Honey Blonde Chica, Evie Gomez finally has it all: a sweet boyfriend, two mejor amigas, and an upcoming sixteeñera that’s the talk of the school. Too bad reality has a way of ruining things. Just when things look perfect, everything starts to unwind. Evie’s life takes one bad turn after another. Things can’t get more complicated…can they?

A Fire In My Hands: Revised And Expanded Edition

fire

Few writers capture the everyday moments of life like Gary Soto. In direct and vivid poems, he draws from his own youth in California’s Central Valley to portray the joys and sorrows of young people. His writing focuses on Latino characters, yet speaks to readers of all ethnicities.

Acclaimed by educators and unavailable since 1998, A Fire in My Hands has been revised and expanded in this new edition. Old and new fans of Soto’s work will welcome the return of his compelling poems.

Includes an introduction and an interview with the author.

Isabel’s Texas Two-Step (Beacon Street Girls)

Isabel’s sister Elena Maria is turning fifteen, and the Martinez family is planning her quinceañera — at Uncle Hector’s ranch in San Antonio!

My Mother and I Are Growing Strong

A five-year-old describes the way her mother is working and coping with problems while her father is in prison.

Pepita on Pepper Street/ Pepita En La Calle Pepper

Pepita is almost always happy. But she isn’t today because everything is different on her new street. There’s no familiar grocery store on the corner, and no tortilla shop squeezed right next to it. Rosa’s house isn’t down the street, and worst of all, her best friend Sonya no longer lives right next door. Pepita is definitely not happy about her move to Pepper Street. But her dog Lobo doesn’t mind the new neighborhood, and in fact, he likes the new smells he encounters as Pepita walks him up and down the street. He even wags his tail at the new people they meet: Mrs. Green, who wears a straw hat while weeding her rose garden; Mrs. Becker, who paints the pepper trees, and her dog, Blackie; and Jose, the mailman, who hopes Lobo won’t bite him. Soon, Pepita realizes that her father’s suggestion, “the best way to stop feeling new is to get to know people” is good advice. And when a girl with bright red hair named Katie Ann comes by to visit, Pepita learns that making new friends isn’t so hard after all.

Remember the Alamo: Texians, Tejanos, and Mexicans Tell Their Stories

An account of the famous battle of the Alamo which presents different points of view of the event.

Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood

As a Chicano boy living in the unglamorous town of Hollywood, New Mexico, and a member of the graduating class of 1969, Sammy Santos faces the challenges of “gringo” racism, unpopular dress codes, the Vietnam War, barrio violence, and poverty.

 

 

Windows into My World: Latino Youth Write Their Lives

“They never thought I would leave. I remember tia Olivia calling the house to let me know that I was betraying my family by leaving to study. But unlike both of my parents, I wasn’t leaving the country to let years pass before seeing my family again; and unlike my mother, I wasn’t leaving to get married.” In this short but powerful memoir, Marisol explains that she knew her departure for Yale would create conflict with her family, but she is surprised that her leaving leads to a bond with her parents that she could never have imagined. Marisol is one of thirty-six Latinos whose writings are included in this collection. They all uniquely document their struggles with the issues that young people encounter–friendship, death, anorexia, divorce, sexuality–but added to these difficulties are those specific to their ethnicity, such as adjusting to a new culture and language, and handling familial and cultural expectations that can limit their hopes and dreams but just as often enrich their lives. In one piece, a young woman muses about the safety in the hills of her native Honduras compared to the flat expanse of her new homeland: “When I venture back into these silver hills, no one can see where I’ve gone because of the curves of the winding streets. But when I walk the flat roads of America, people can watch me go, trace my path and witness the inevitable stumble.” These short essays written by young men and women from various Latino backgrounds–Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Salvadoran–reflect the diversity of growing up Latino in the United States. Whether from a gay or straight, urban or rural, recent immigrant or third generation perspective, these illuminating pieces of memoir shine a light into the lives of young Hispanic adults.