Marisol has always loved to dance–from the salsa at family parties to the boom boxes on Loisada Avenue. Then she wins a scholarship to ballet school and discovers an inspiring new world of beauty and discipline. When violence erupts in Alphabet City, Marisol’s dream starts to slip away. To keep dancing she must make heartbreaking choices–perhaps impossible ones.
United States
Materials from United States of America
Bandit’s Moon
Newly orphaned, young Annyrose escapes from the villainous O.O. Mary and falls under the protection of a proud and fearless Mexican bandit, regarded as the Robin Hood of the California Gold Rush. Annyrose wants only to search for her older brother who had run off to the gold diggings, but she finds herself galloping beside the celebrated outlaw in his own quest. He is hunting down the last of a band of “Yankee” riffraff who wronged him, an event that turned the innocent young Mexican into an avenging terror of the roads. With his characteristic story twists and turns and surprises, Newbery Award winner Sid Fleischman lights up a dark corner in this Gold Rush drama set against a firestorm of bigotry ignited by the lust for riches. As for this legendary bandit, dashing about on his silken black horse and breathing fire, he actually lived.02 Rebecca Caudill Young Reader’s Book Award Nominee Master List, 00-01 Charlie May Simon Book Award Reading List, 02 Nutmeg State Children’s Book Award Masterlist, 00-01 Children’s Choice Award Masterlist, 00-01 William Allen White Children’s Book Award Masterlist, 01-02 Land of Enchantment Book Award Masterlist (Gr. 6-9), and 00-01 Sequoyah Children’s Book Award Masterlist.
Brujas, Lechuzas Y Espantos / Witches, Owls And Spooks
In this bilingual collection of five stories, Don Cecilio tells the neighborhood children stories that make their hair stand on end. \”In my barrio they told the story…\” and so his cuento would begin. In \”The Owl and the Bundle,\” young Tomas disappears without a trace. Distraught, his parents and siblings look for him everywhere with no luck. Upon returning home, his father sees something curious, an owl flying above the house carrying a bundle with its talons. \”Is it possible,\” he wonders, \”that the bundle is Little Tomas?\” Could the owl have taken their precious son? Based on oral tradition, these stories featuring witches, owls, and other spooky creatures have been told in Spanish-speaking barrios for generations. Now, this new edition with a first-ever English translation provided by John Pluecker will entertain and terrify a new generation of English- and Spanish-speaking children with the supernatural tales of the Hispanic community. Originally published in Spanish in 1972 as La Lechuza: Cuentos de mi barrio (The Naylor Company), Brujas, lechuzas y espantos / Witches, Owls and Spooks will fascinate children interested in scary stories and at the same time will provide a window into a different time and place, when people lived a more rural life and winged shadows flitted across the darkened countryside.
Crossing The Wire
When falling crop prices threaten his family with starvation, fifteen–year–old Victor Flores heads north in a desperate attempt to “cross the wire” from Mexico into the United States so he can find work and send money home. But with no “coyote money” to pay the smugglers who sneak illegal workers across the border, Victor must struggle to survive as he jumps trains, stows away on trucks, and hikes grueling miles through the Arizona desert. Victor’s journey is fraught with danger, as he faces freezing cold, scorching heat, hunger, and dead ends. It’s a gauntlet run by millions attempting to cross the border. Through Victor’s often desperate struggle, Will Hobbs brings to life one of the great human dramas of our time.
Esperanza Rising
When Esperanza and Mama are forced to flee to the bountiful region of Aguascalientes, Mexico, to a Mexican farm labor camp in California, they must adjust to a life without fancy dresses adn servants they were accustomed to on Rancho de las Rosas. Now they must confront the challenges of hard work, acceptance by their own people, and economic difficulties brought on by the Great Depression. When Mama falls ill and a strike for better working conditions threatens to uproot their new life, Esperanza must relinquish her hold on the past learn to embrace a future ripe with the riches of family and community.
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.
Family Pictures, 15th Anniversary Edition / Cuadros De Familia, Edición Quinceañera
Family Pictures is the story of Carmen Lomas Garza\’s girlhood: celebrating birthdays, making tamales, finding a hammerhead shark on the beach, picking cactus, going to a fair in Mexico, and confiding to her sister her dreams of becoming an artist. These day-to-day experiences are told through fourteen vignettes of art and a descriptive narrative, each focusing on a different aspect of traditional Mexican American culture. The English-Spanish text and vivid illustrations reflect the author\’s strong sense of family and community. For Mexican Americans, Carmen Lomas Garza offers a book that reflects their lives and traditions. For others, this work offers insights into a beautifully rich community.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume 3, Issue 2
Fiesta U.S.A./Spanish (Spanish Edition)
In a tribute to the customs and traditions of Latinos in the United States, engaging photographs capture four fiestas: the Day of the Dead, las Posadas, the dance of the Matachines, and Three Kings’ Day.
Henry Cisneros: A Man Of The People (Romero, Maritza. Great Hispanics Of Our Time.)
Focuses on the political life of a Mexican American who realized the importance of good leadership and served as a mayor and cabinet secretary.
Honey Blonde Chica
Evie Gomez is one chill chica.She and her best friend, Raquel, hang with the Flojos, a kick-back crew named for their designer flip-flops. And their habit of doing absolutely nothing.But the return of long-lost amiga mejor Dee Dee wrecks Evie and Raquel’s Flojo flow. A few years in Mexico City have transformed their shy, skinny, brunette Dee Dee into a Sangro nightmare. Dee Dee has reinvented herself as “Dela,” complete with tight designer threads, freaky blue contacts, and that signature blond hair.When Raquel wants precisely nada to do with the new Dela, Evie finds herself caught between two very different friends. At heart, is Evie a Cali-casual Flojo chick, or a sexy Sangro diva?How’s a chica to choose?
In My Family / En Mi Familia
From the author of Family Pictures/Cuadros de familia comes a second book that returns readers once again to the town of Kingsville, Texas, near the border with Mexico. Through ful-color paintings and warm personal stories, Garza brings to life more loving memories of growing up in a traditional Mexican American community.