Summer is slowly coming to a close, but Latinx books keep on coming! Scroll below for our list of the most anticipated Latinx reads for August and get one to read as it starts to get a bit cooler! Check here for our full list of August 2021 Latinx Releases.
PAOLA SANTIAGO AND THE FOREST OF NIGHTMARES | Middle Grade
by Tehlor Kay Mejia (Rick Riordan Presents)
Six months after Paola Santiago confronted the legendary La Llorona, life is nothing like she'd expected it to be. She is barely speaking to her best friends, Dante and Emma, and what's worse, her mom has a totally annoying boyfriend. Even with her chupacabra puppy, Bruto, around, Pao can't escape the feeling that she's all alone in the world.
Pao has no one to tell that she's having nightmares again, this time set in a terrifying forest. Even more troubling? At their center is her estranged father, an enigma of a man she barely remembers. And when Dante's abuela falls mysteriously ill, it seems that the dad Pao never knew just might be the key to healing the eccentric old woman.
Pao's search for her father will send her far from home, where she will encounter new monsters and ghosts, a devastating betrayal, and finally, the forest of her nightmares. Will the truths her father has been hiding save the people Pao loves, or destroy them?
THE PRESIDENT AND THE FROG | Adult Fiction
by Carolina De Robertis (Knopf Publishing Group)
At his modest home on the edge of town, the former president of an unnamed Latin American country receives a journalist in his famed gardens to discuss his legacy and the dire circumstances that threaten democracy around the globe. Once known as the Poorest President in the World, his reputation is the stuff of myth: a former guerilla who was jailed for inciting revolution before becoming the face of justice, human rights, and selflessness for his nation. Now, as he talks to the journalist, he wonders if he should reveal the strange secret of his imprisonment: while held in brutal solitary confinement, he survived, in part, by discussing revolution, the quest for dignity, and what it means to love a country, with the only creature who ever spoke back--a loud-mouth frog.
CAZADORA | Young Adult
by Romina Garber (Wednesday Books)
Werewolves. Witches. Romance. Resistance.
Enter a world straight out of Argentine folklore...
Following the events of Lobizona, Manu and her friends cross the mystical border into Kerana--a cursed realm in Argentina--searching for allies and a hiding place. As they chase down leads about the Coven--a mythical resistance manada that might not even exist--the Cazadores chase down leads about Manu, setting up traps to capture and arrest her.
Just as it seems the Cazadores have Manu and her friends cornered, the Coven answers their call for help. As Manu catches her breath among these non-conforming Septimus, she discovers they need a revolution as much as she does.
But is she the right one to lead them? After all, hybrids aren't just outlawed. They're feared and reviled. What happens when the Coven learns of Manu's dual heritage? Will they still protect her? Or will they betray her?
And after running this far, for this long--how much farther can Manu go before her feet get tired, and she stops to take a stand?
LIVING BEYOND BORDERS: GROWING UP MEXICAN IN AMERICA | Young Adult
edited by Margarita Longoria (Philomel Books)
In this mixed-media collection of short stories, personal essays, poetry, and comics, this celebrated group of authors share the borders they have crossed, the struggles they have pushed through, and the two cultures they continue to navigate as Mexican Americans. Living Beyond Borders is at once an eye-opening, heart-wrenching, and hopeful love letter from the Mexican American community to today's young readers.
MY TWO BORDER TOWNS | Picture Book
by David Bowles; illustrated by Erika Meza
Early one Saturday morning, a boy prepares for a trip to The Other Side/El Otro Lado. It's close--just down the street from his school--and it's a twin of where he lives. To get there, his father drives their truck along the Rio Grande and over a bridge, where they're greeted by a giant statue of an eagle. Their outings always include a meal at their favorite restaurant, a visit with Tío Mateo at his jewelry store, a cold treat from the paletero, and a pharmacy pickup. On their final and most important stop, they check in with friends seeking asylum and drop off much-needed supplies.
THEY CALL ME GÜERRO | Middle Grade
by David Bowles (Kokila)
They call him Güero because of his red hair, pale skin, and freckles. Sometimes people only go off of what they see. Like the Mexican boxer Canelo Álvarez, twelve-year-old Güero is puro mexicano. He feels at home on both sides of the river, speaking Spanish or English. Güero is also a reader, gamer, and musician who runs with a squad of misfits called Los Bobbys. Together, they joke around and talk about their expanding world, which now includes girls. (Don't cross Joanna--she's tough as nails.)
Güero faces the start of seventh grade with heart and smarts, his family's traditions, and his trusty accordion. And when life gets tough for this Mexican American border kid, he knows what to do: He writes poetry.
THE DEATH OF MY FATHER THE POPE | Adult Nonfiction
by Obed Silva (MCD)
Weaving between the preparations for his father's funeral and memories of life on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, Obed Silva chronicles his father's lifelong battle with alcoholism and the havoc it wreaked on his family. Silva and his mother had come north across the border to escape his father's violent, drunken rages. His father had followed and danced dangerously in and out of the family's life until he was arrested and deported back to Mexico, where he drank himself to death, one Carta Blanca at a time, at the age of forty-eight.
