MAY 7, 2019
WITH THE FIRE ON HIGH | Young Adult
by Elizabeth Acevedo (HarperTeen)
Ever since she got pregnant freshman year, Emoni Santiago’s life has been about making the tough decisions—doing what has to be done for her daughter and her abuela. The one place she can let all that go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness.
Even though she dreams of working as a chef after she graduates, Emoni knows that it’s not worth her time to pursue the impossible. Yet despite the rules she thinks she has to play by, once Emoni starts cooking, her only choice is to let her talent break free.
I’M A BAKED POTATO | Picture Book
by Elise Primavera, illus by Juana Medina (Roaring Book Press)
When a baked potato–loving lady adopts a dog, she adores him unconditionally—and given the pup’s small, round frame and warm, brown coat she can’t help but call him “Baked Potato”! But what happens when a dog who thinks he’s a baked potato gets lost? Will he find his lady? And more importantly, will he find himself? I’m a Baked Potato! is a fun, bighearted story about the names we’re given, the names we choose, and how both can help us find our way home. Full of heart and laugh-out-loud moments, this story will leave readers giggling—and looking at pets in a whole.
NOCTURNA | Young Adult
by Maya Motayne (Balzer + Bray)
To Finn Voy, magic is two things. The first: a knife to hold under the chin of anyone who crosses her. The second: a disguise she shrugs on as easily as others pull on cloaks. A talented shapeshifter, it’s been years since Finn has seen her own face, and that’s exactly how she likes it. But when Finn gets caught by a powerful mobster she’s indebted to, she’s forced into an impossible mission—steal a legendary treasure from the palace or lose her shapeshifting magic forever.
After the murder of his older brother, Prince Alfehr is first in line for the Castallan throne. But Alfie can’t help but feel that he will never live up to his brother’s legacy. Riddled with grief, Alfie is obsessed with finding a way to bring his brother back, even if it means dabbling in forbidden magic.
In a cruel twist of fate, Alfie’s best friend is nearly killed in the crossfire of Finn’s heist, and Alfie accidentally unlocks a terrible, ancient magic to save him—a magic, which, if not contained, will devour the world. Alfie and Finn race to vanquish what they have unleashed. But to do so, they each must contend with the darkness hiding in their pasts.
GOODNIGHT ’70s | Picture Book
by Peter Stein and Illustrated by Alyssa Bermudez (Andrews McMeel Publishing)
Say goodnight to long hair and beanbag chairs, Kung Fu champs and lava lamps, Pop Rocks and your David Cassidy lunchbox—this playful Goodnight Moon parody is a retro rhyming ride back to the seventies!
Illustrated and packaged à la Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon, Goodnight ’70s turns the classic children’s book into a baby boomer’s ode to the far out 1970s. It’s the perfect gift for anyone nostalgic for the good old days of bell-bottoms, disco balls, and 8-track tapes.
MAY 14, 2019
MY PAPI HAS A MOTORCYCLE | Picture Book
by Isabel Quintero, illustrated by Zeke Peña (Kokila)
When Daisy Ramona zooms around her neighborhood with her papi on his motorcycle, she sees the people and places she’s always known. She also sees a community that is rapidly changing around her.
But as the sun sets purple-blue-gold behind Daisy Ramona and her papi, she knows that the love she feels will always be there.
With vivid illustrations and text bursting with heart, My Papi Has a Motorcycle is a young girl’s love letter to her hardworking dad and to memories of home that we hold close in the midst of change.
FREEDOM FIRE: DACTYL HILL SQUAD #2 | Middle Grade
by Daniel José Older (Arthur A. Levine Books)
Magdalys and the squad are flying south on pteroback. South to rescue her older brother. South to war.
The squad links up with the dino-mounted troops of the Louisiana Native Guard, an all-black regiment in the Union Army fighting to free their people. They’re led by General Sheridan, surrounded by enemy forces in Tennessee and desperate for any edge to sway the tide of battle.
Magdalys’s burgeoning powers might be the Union’s last hope. But she doesn’t want to abandon the search for her brother. And she might not be the only one with a mysterious connection to dinosaurs.
With the Civil War raging around her and the Union on the brink of collapse, how can Magdalys choose between the army that needs her help to survive and the brother she risked everything to save?
TEARS OF THE TRUFFLEPIG: A NOVEL | Adult
by Fernando A. Flores (MCD x FSG Originals)
A parallel universe. South Texas. A third border wall might be erected between the United States and Mexico, narcotics are legal and there’s a new contraband on the market: filtered animals—species of animals brought back from extinction to amuse the very wealthy.
Esteban Bellacosa has lived in the border town of MacArthur long enough to know to keep quiet and avoid the dangerous syndicates who make their money through trafficking. But his simple life gets complicated after a swashbuckling journalist invites him to an underground dinner at which filtered animals are served. Bellacosa soon finds himself in the middle of an increasingly perilous and surreal journey, in the course of which he encounters legends of the long-disappeared Aranaña Indian tribe and their object of worship: the mysterious Trufflepig, said to possess strange powers.
MAY 21, 2019
DON’T DATE ROSA SANTOS | Young Adult
by Nina Moreno (Disney-Hyperion)
Rosa Santos is cursed by the sea-at least, that’s what they say. Dating her is bad news, especially if you’re a boy with a boat.
But Rosa feels more caught than cursed. Caught between cultures and choices. Between her abuela, a beloved healer and pillar of their community, and her mother, an artist who crashes in and out of her life like a hurricane. Between Port Coral, the quirky South Florida town they call home, and Cuba, the island her abuela refuses to talk about.
As her college decision looms, Rosa collides-literally-with Alex Aquino, the mysterious boy with tattoos of the ocean whose family owns the marina. With her heart, her family, and her future on the line, can Rosa break a curse and find her place beyond the horizon?
WHERE WE COME FROM: A NOVEL | Adult
by Oscar Cásares (Knopf)
From a distance, the towns along the U.S.-Mexican border have dangerous reputations--on one side, drug cartels; on the other, zealous border patrol agents--and Brownsville is no different. But to twelve-year-old Orly, it's simply where his godmother Nina lives--and where he is being forced to stay the summer after his mother's sudden death.
For Nina, Brownsville is where she grew up, where she lost her first and only love, and where she stayed as her relatives moved away and her neighborhood deteriorated. It's the place where she has buried all her secrets--and now she has another: she's providing refuge for a young immigrant boy named Daniel, for whom traveling to America has meant trading one set of dangers for another.
Separated from the violent human traffickers who brought him across the border and pursued by the authorities, Daniel must stay completely hidden. But Orly's arrival threatens to put them all at risk of exposure.
LARGO PÉTALO DE MAR | Adult
by Isabel Allende (Vintage Espanol)
During the Spanish Civil War, the young doctor Víctor Dalmau, together with his pianist friend Roser Bruguera, were forced to leave Barcelona, go into exile and cross the Pyrenees towards France. On board the Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda that took more than two thousand Spaniards to Valparaiso, they will embark in search of peace and freedom that they did not have in their country. Received as heroes in Chile - that "long petal of sea and snow," in the words of the Chilean poet - will be integrated into the country's social life for several decades until the coup d'état that overthrew Dr. Salvador Allende, Victor's friend. his common love of chess. Víctor and Roser will find themselves uprooted again, but as the author says: "If you live long enough, all the circles are closed".
MAY 28, 2019
RED PANDA & MOON BEAR | Picture Book
by Jarod Roselló (Top Shelf Productions)
Two Latinx kids battle supernatural threats to their working-class neighborhood with the power of science, magic, and a pair of very special hoodies.
Red Panda and Moon Bear are the defenders of their community! Together, these brave siblings rescue lost cats, scold bullies, and solve mysteries, all before Mamá and Papá get home. But lately… the mysteries have been EXTRA mysterious. All of RP and MB’s powers may not be enough to handle spooks, supervillains, alien invaders, and time warps! It’ll take all their imagination — and some new friends — to uncover the secret cause behind all these events before the whole world goes crazy.
MAY 31, 2019
MY SHOES AND I: CROSSING THREE BORDERS / MIS ZAPATOS Y YO: CRUZANDO TRES FRONTERAS | Picture Book
by René Colato Laínez, Illustrated by Fabricio Vanden Broeck (Arte Público Press)
Young René’s mother has sent him a new pair of shoes from the United States. He loves his new shoes. “They walk everywhere I walk. They jump every time I jump. They run as fast as me. We always cross the finish line at the same time.”
René—with his new shoes—and his father set off on the long journey to meet his mother in the United States. He says goodbye to his friends in El Salvador, and “Uno, dos, tres, my shoes and I are ready to go.” The trip is difficult. They take buses and walk across El Salvador, into Guatemala and then into Mexico. His brand-new shoes lose their shine, turning dirty and gray. They become elephants, pushing against the wind; race cars, fleeing hungry dogs; swim shoes, escaping floods; and submarines, navigating through sticky mud. When holes appear on the soles of his shoes, his father won’t let him give up. “René, my strong boy, we want to be with Mamá.”
Sharing his own experiences, René Colato Laínez’s moving bilingual picture book brings to life the experiences of many young children who make the arduous journey from Central America to the United States in search of a better life.
