7 Winter Holiday Books by Latinx Authors and Illustrators

It is the holiday season, at last. Around the globe, communities celebrate their traditions with delicious food, vibrant colors, and family gatherings. It is a time of unity. To accompany you and your loved ones this season, check out these books about the many winter holidays that make this the most wonderful time of the year.

The Last Tamale by Orlando Mendiola | Illustrated by Teresa Martinez

It’s the best day of the year—tamale day. Luis and his family have been making and eating tamales all day. But when Luis, Jacob, and Letty all want the last tamale, there's only one way to choose a winner...

A TAMALE BATTLE!

Round one: Dance Battle. Round Two: Lucha Libre Match. Round Three: Arm Wrestle with Abuelita.

Who will get the last tamale?

A celebration of family, food, and friendly competition, readers will be hungry for The Last Tamale! Perfect for fans of Paletero Man and Friday Night Wrestle Fest. 

Why We Celebrate Chinese New Year: Everything to Know about Your Favorite Holiday by Eugenia Chu | Illustrated by Javiera Mac-lean

Chinese New Year, also called the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, is a holiday that marks the end of winter and the coming of spring. It's one of the most celebrated holidays in China and around the world! Learn all about the history, traditions, food, and more with this book of facts and activities that encourage you to join in on the fun.

So many ways to get festive—Discover how Chinese New Year is celebrated around the globe with fireworks, dragon dances, parades, gifts, and beyond!

Celebrate at home—Kids will explore Chinese New Year customs with included activities like making Chinese Dumplings and Paper Chinese Lanterns.

Fascinating facts and pictures—Vibrant illustrations and kid-friendly language help bring Chinese New Year to life.

Discover Why We Celebrate Chinese New Year!

La Noche Before Three Kings Day by Sheila Colón-Bagley | Illustrated by Alejandro Mesa

It’s almost Three Kings Day, and while the grownups prepare a large meal, the kids prepare their shoe boxes for los Reyes to arrive later that night. Will they stay up late enough to wish the Kings a Feliz Día de los Reyes? Or will the magic pass them by?

Sing along with a great big familia as they fill up their platos, play their favorite juegos, and wait for the three kings and regalitos to arrive.  

This enchanting celebration of a beloved holiday is brought to life through lively rhyming dual-lingual text by Sheila Colón-Bagley with festive illustrations from Alejandro Mesa. 

Only for the Holidays by Abiola Bello

City girl Tia Solanké is dreading the festive season. She and her boyfriend are on a break and the last thing she wants is to spend Christmas away from London. Dragged to Saiyan Hedge Farm by her mother, Tia takes an instant dislike to the countryside estate. She falls in horse manure, is chased by sheep and the Wi-Fi sucks. How can she stalk her ex and concoct a foolproof plan to win him back from here?

Country boy Quincy Parker and his family run the farm, and this year they’ve been selected to host the biggest event in town—the Winter Ball. Preparations are underway, and Quincy is working around the clock to make it a success while recovering from his own devastating breakup. The only problem is, he’s told everyone he has a date to the ball, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

At first, Tia and Quincy don’t see eye to eye—until they realize they both have something to gain by pretending to be a couple. But when a snowstorm threatens to cancel the Winter Ball, their fake relationship is put to the test. Will Tia and Quincy be able to keep up appearances and save the day, or will real feelings get in the way?

It's Navidad, El Cucuy!: A Bilingual Christmas by Donna Barba Higuera | Illustrated by Juliana Perdomo

Ramón is a little boy who can't wait for Navidad.

El Cucuy is the friendly monster who lives in Ramón's bedroom. He's not so sure that Christmas is for him. The lights are too bright, and the snowman is scary!

So if El Cucuy is hesitant to embrace the holiday cheer, then Ramón will have to bring the spirit of Navidad to him.

A tender, heartwarming story about facing the unknown with a friend by your side, this companion to El Cucuy Is Scared, Too! explores the magic of the holidays and coming together as a community.

May Your Life Be Deliciosa by Michael Genhart | Illustrated by Loris Lora

“What is the recipe?” I ask.
Abuela laughs. “It is in my heart, Rosie. I use mis ojos, my eyes, to measure. Mis manos, my hands, to feel. Mi boca, my mouth, to taste. My abuela gave it to me, and I am giving it to you.”

Each year on Christmas Eve, Rosie’s abuela, mamá, tía, sister, and cousins all gather together in Abuela’s kitchen to make tamales—cleaning corn husks, chopping onions and garlic, roasting chilis, kneading cornmeal dough, seasoning the filling, and folding it all—and tell stories. Rosie learns from her abuela not only how to make a delicious tamale, but how to make a delicious life, one filled with love, plenty of spice, and family.

A Very Mexican Christmas by Carmen Boullosa, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Carlos Fuentes, Laura Esquivel, Amparo Dávila, Sandra Cisneros

This seventh installment in our popular Very Christmas series is a celebration of the Mexican Yuletide spirit. Replete with mouthwatering Nochebuena meals, mysterious felines, multi-colored boxes, marvelous sweet rolls, and many a bedside tale, A Very Mexican Christmas is sure to delight, warm, and astonish by turns. You’ll find spellbinding work by some of Mexico’s most important writers, including Carlos Fuentes, bestselling Laura Esquivel, and other contemporary favorites like Amparo Dávila, Sandra Cisneros, Fabio Morábito, and Carmen Boullosa, as well as fresh translations of classics by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Amado Nervo, and Ignacio Manuel Altamirano. Get a glimpse of how Christmas is done in a land of no snow, as well as among Mexicans living north of the border, with this sparkling assortment of literary gems that will guarantee a very feliz Navidad.

---

Roxanna Cardenas Colmenares is a Venezuelan writer living in New York City who loves to consume, study, and create art. She explores multiple genres in her writing, with a special interest in horror and sci-fi, while working on her B.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration. 

Her work has made her a two-time recipient of the James Tolan Student Writing Award for her critical essays analyzing movies. She has also won The Henry Roth Award in Fiction, The Esther Unger Poetry Prize, and The Allan Danzig Memorial Award in Victorian Literature.

In her free time, she likes to watch movies, dance, and draw doodles that she hopes to be brave enough to share one day.

December 2024 Latinx Releases

On Sale December 3

When the Mapou Sings by Nadine Pinede| YOUNG ADULT

Sixteen-year-old Lucille hopes to one day open a school alongside her best friend where girls just like them can learn what it means to be Haitian: to learn from the mountains and the forests around them, to carve, to sew, to draw, and to sing the songs of the Mapou, the sacred trees that dot the island nation. But when her friend vanishes without a trace, a dream--a gift from the Mapou--tells Lucille to go to her village's section chief, the local face of law, order, and corruption, which puts her life and her family's at risk.
Forced to flee her home, Lucille takes a servant post with a wealthy Haitian woman from society's elite in Port-au-Prince. Despite a warning to avoid him, she falls in love with her employer's son. But when their relationship is found out, she must leave again--this time banished to another city to work for a visiting American writer and academic conducting fieldwork in Haiti. While Lucille's new employer studies vodou and works on the novel that will become Their Eyes Were Watching God, Lucille risks losing everything she cares about--and any chance of seeing her best friend again--as she fights to save their lives and secure her future in this novel in verse with the racing heart of a thriller.

Kingdom of No Tomorrow by Fabienne Josaphat|ADULT FICTION

Nettie Boileau joins the Black Panthers' Free Health Clinics in Oakland in 1968 and is soon swept up in an all-consuming love affair with Melvin Mosley, a defense captain of the Black Panther Party. When Nettie and Melvin head to Chicago to help launch the Illinois chapter of the Panthers, they find themselves targets of J. Edgar Hoover's famous covert campaigns against civil rights leaders.

As she learns more about the inner workings of the Panthers, Nettie discovers that fighting for social justice may not always mean equal justice for women.

Fabienne Josaphat's Kingdom of No Tomorrow is a timely story of self-determination and revolution amid injustice.

My Favorite Scar by Nicolás Ferraro | Translated by Mallory Craig-Kuhn | ADULT FICTION

A teenage girl and her gangster father embark on a road trip toward revenge in this award-winning coming-of-age Argentinian noir.

Fifteen-year-old Ámbar has never known any parent other than her father, Víctor Mondragón, nor any life other than his. On any given Friday night, Ámbar longs to be at the arcade or a rock concert, but she's more likely to be patching up Víctor's latest bullet hole in a dingy motel or creating a new set of fake identities for the both of them.

When a tattooed mercenary kills Víctor's best friend and vows that Víctor is next, father and daughter set off on a joyride across Argentina in search of bloody retribution. But Ámbar's growing pains hurt worse than her beloved sawed-off shotgun's kickback as she begins to question the structure of her world. How much is her father not telling her? Could her life ever be different? And will she survive long enough to find out?

I Might Be in Trouble by Daniel Aleman | ADULT FICTION

A suspenseful dark comedy about a struggling writer who wakes up to find his date from the night before dead--and must then decide how far he's willing to go to spin the misadventure into his next big book.

A few years ago, David Alvarez had it all: a six-figure book deal, a loving boyfriend, and an exciting writing career. His debut novel was a resounding success, which made the publication of his second book--a total flop--all the more devastating. Now, David is single, lonely, and desperately trying to come up with the next great idea for his third manuscript, one that will redeem him in the eyes of readers, reviewers, the entire publishing world...and maybe even his ex-boyfriend.

After one of the best nights of his life, David wakes up hungover but giddy--only to find prince charming dead next to him in bed. Horrified, completely confused, and suddenly faced with the implausible-but-somehow-plausible idea that he may have actually killed his date, David calls the only person he can trust in a moment of crisis: his literary agent, Stacey.

Together, David and Stacey must untangle the events of the previous night, cover their tracks, and spin the entire misadventure into David's career-defining novel--if only they can figure out what to do with the body first.

Main Street Millionaire: How to Make Extraordinary Wealth Buying Ordinary Businesses by Codie Sanchez | ADULT NONFICTION

Rich people know a secret. In this book, former Wall Street investor Codie Sanchez pulls back the curtain.

Most people look for wealth in all the wrong places. From dropshipping and startups to grinding for promotions, you might believe you have to trade your life to be one of the few who win. But the truly rich know these paths are paved with delusion and false promises.

In Main Street Millionaire, Codie Sanchez teaches you the path the wealthy really walk. Instead of risking it all with little chance of success, she shows you how to acquire cash-flowing businesses that are winning right now.

Sanchez, one of the world's leading small business experts, reveals the dealmaking framework she's taught to tens of thousands, and that she's used to build her own 9-figure holding company. Her secret? She acquires overlooked "Main Street" businesses. We're talking about the unsexy but reliably profitable industries -- like plumbing, construction, cleaning, electrical -- that white collar workers have overlooked.
In this book, you'll see practical strategies and step by step processes to acquire cash flow and freedom.

Alter Ego by Alex Segura | ADULT FICTION

Annie Bustamante is a cultural force like none other: an acclaimed filmmaker, an author, a comic book artist known for one of the all time best superhero comics in recent memory. But she's never been able to tackle her longtime favorite superhero, the Lethal Lynx. Only known to the most die-hard comics fans and long out of print, the rights were never available--until now.

But Annie is skeptical of who is making the offer: Bert Carlyle's father started Triumph Comics, and has long claimed ownership of the Lynx. When she starts getting anonymous messages urging her not to trust anyone, Annie's inner alarms go off. Even worse? Carlyle wants to pair her with a disgraced filmmaker for a desperate media play.

Annie, who has been called a genius, a sell-out, a visionary, a hack, and everything else under the sun, is sick of the money grab. For the first time since she started reading a tattered copy of The Legendary Lynx #1 as a kid, she feels a pure, creative spark. The chance to tell a story her way. She's not about to let that go. Even if it means uncovering the dark truth about the character she loves.

When We Sold God's Eye: Diamonds, Murder, and a Clash of Worlds in the Amazon by Alex Cuadros | ADULT NONFICTION

Growing up in a remote corner of the world's largest rainforest, Pio, Maria, and Oita learned to hunt wild pigs and tapirs, gathering Brazil nuts and açaí berries from centuries-old trees. Then the first highway pierced through, ranchers, loggers, and prospectors invaded, and they lost their families to terrible new weapons and diseases. Pushed by the government to assimilate, they struggled to figure out their new, capitalist reality, discovering its wonders as well as its horrors. They ended up forging an uneasy symbiosis with their white antagonists--until decades of suppressed trauma erupted into a massacre, an act of retribution that made headlines across the globe.

Based on six years of immersive reporting and research, WHEN WE SOLD GOD'S EYE tells a unique kind of adventure story, one that begins with a river journey by Teddy Roosevelt and ends with smugglers from Antwerp and New York City's Diamond District. It's a story of survival against all odds; of the temptations of wealth and the dreams of prosperity; of a vital ecosystem threatened by the hunger for natural resources; of genocide and revenge. It's a story as old as the first European encounters with Indigenous peoples, playing out in the present day. But most of all, it's about a few startlingly clever individuals and their power to adapt and even thrive in the most unlikely circumstances.

Manga Drawing: Bloody Battles: Draw Your Own Dramatic Sword Fights, Deadly Brawls, and Melee Attacks in 4 Easy Steps! By Leo Campos | GRAPHIC NOVEL HOW-TO

Learn to draw iconic manga characters and thrilling fight scenes!

Become a true manga master withManga Drawing: Bloody Battles, the action-focused drawing book for artists and die-hard fans ofDemon Slayer,Naruto,Attack on Titan,My Hero Academia, andChainsaw Man. With step-by-step directions and a pro manga artist to guide you, you'll learn to draw bold heroes, like samurai warriors and shape-shifters, and vengeful enemies that leap off the page. Learn basic to advanced drawing principles and draw more than 30 battle-ready characters including:

- Martial artists
- Teen heroes
- Undercover spies
- Terrifying monsters
- The nine-tailed fox

With more than 60 fierce fighting poses to choose from and epic manga battles to bring to life, you'll create electrifying, action-packed comics all your own.

My Fault (Deluxe Edition) by Mercedes Ron | YOUNG ADULT

**This deluxe edition comes with an exclusive foiled cover, pink stained edges, interior cover design, and full-color art**

Seventeen-year-old Noah Morgan loves her quiet, normal life in Toronto. But when her mother returns from a cruise unexpectedly married to a billionaire and announces they are moving to L.A., Noah is suddenly shoved out of her comfort zone and into a glittering world of illegal street races, lavish pool parties, and spoiled rich kids.

And her new stepbrother Nicholas is the most spoiled of them all. Arrogant, aloof, and viciously attractive, Nick is everything she hates, especially when she learns his bad boy persona isn't just a façade. She's spent her life running from danger, and Nick is danger incarnate. Yet neither of them can prevent the powerful attraction that flares between them--enough to turn their worlds upside-down and tempt them beyond all reason.

But Noah's past may be even more dangerous than their forbidden romance. And if he wants her, Nick will have to decide if he's willing to risk everything.

Encanto: Nightmares and Sueños by Alex Segura | YOUNG ADULT

Seventeen-year-old Bruno has never really fit in with his family--why can't he be as outgoing as his sister Pepa, or as friendly as his sister Julieta? Does he like being the awkward loaner who never seems to find where he can fit in? But it's hard to be popular when you have the power to tell the future and people don't always like what you are telling them. So Bruno devises an act, and begins to model the behavior he feels the town wants to see in a hero.

But is being dishonest to himself and others the right path to walk down in order to make friends, or is Bruno just kidding himself as he hides from his own destiny that threatens to destroy all he holds dear?

On Sale December 10

Why We Celebrate Chinese New Year: Everything to Know about Your Favorite Holiday by Eugenia Chu |Illustrated by Javiera Mac-Lean | PICTURE BOOK

Celebrate Chinese New Year with this festive introduction for kids ages 6 to 9!

Chinese New Year, also called the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, is a holiday that marks the end of winter and the coming of spring. It's one of the most celebrated holidays in China and around the world! Learn all about the history, traditions, food, and more with this book of facts and activities that encourage you to join in on the fun.

So many ways to get festive--Discover how Chinese New Year is celebrated around the globe with fireworks, dragon dances, parades, gifts, and beyond!

Celebrate at home--Kids will explore Chinese New Year customs with included activities like making Chinese Dumplings and Paper Chinese Lanterns.

Fascinating facts and pictures--Vibrant illustrations and kid-friendly language help bring Chinese New Year to life.

El Tummy Time: A High-Contrast Board Book Featuring Animals from Latin America by Mike Alfaro |Illustrated by Gerardo Guillén | PICTURE BOOK

A first-of-its-kind tummy time book inspired by papel picados--featuring high-contrast art of animals from Latin America!

Infants have limited capabilities with vision upon birth and respond well to high-contrast images, which is why this vibrant book is perfect for their young and growing minds. This unique accordion-style board book--inspired by papel picados and featuring animals from Latin America--provides developmentally appropriate visual stimuli for your baby's visual development, while exposing them to Spanish vocabulary words.

No Place to Bury the Dead by Karina Sainz Borgo | Translated by Elizabeth Bryer | ADULT FICTION

In an unnamed Latin American country, a mysterious plague quickly spreads, erasing the memory of anyone infected. Angustias Romero flees with her family, but their flight is tragically cut short when she loses both her children. Consumed by grief, she finds herself within the hallucinatory expanse of Mezquite--a town corrupted by greed and populated by storytellers, refugees, and violent, predatory gangs.

Here, Angustias is finally able to lay her children to rest at the Third Country, a cemetery run by the larger-than-life Visitación Salazar and a refuge beyond suffering and fear. While Visitación remains defiant in her mission to care for the dead, the cemetery she oversees is the focal point of a bitter land dispute with Alcides Abundio, the most feared landowner of the border. Caught in this power struggle, Angustias and Visitación-friends and sometimes rivals- stand their ground on a frontier where the law is dictated by violence; a surreal territory whose very nature blurs the boundaries between life and death.

On Sale December 17

The Return of the Contemporary: The Latin American Novel in the End Times by Nicolás Campisi

In The Return of the Contemporary, Nicolás Campisi combines the fields of post-dictatorship studies and environmental humanities to analyze Latin American cultural production in the neoliberal age. Each chapter pairs two authors from different parts of Latin America and the Caribbean who create a common vocabulary in which to frame the various crises of the region's present and recent past, such as climate change, forced migration, the collapse of state institutions, and the afterlives of slavery. By situating itself at the intersection of ecocritical and environmental humanities, affect studies, and the politics of memory and postmemory, Campisi presents new comparative methods to show how Latin America's neoliberal crisis prompted significant changes in how the novel as a form imagines a different future.

A Cruel Thirst by Angela Montoya | YOUNG ADULT

A fledgling vampire and a headstrong vampire huntress must work together--against their better judgment--to rid the world of monsters in this irresistible romantasy.

Carolina Fuentes wants to join her family in hunting the bloodthirsty vampiros that plague her pueblo. Her father, however, wishes to marry her off to a husband of his choosing, someone who'll take her away from danger.

Determined to prove she'd make a better slayer than wife, Carolina vows to take down a monster herself. But when she runs into un vampiro who is somehow extremely attractive and kind, her plan crumbles.

Lalo Villalobos was content leading a perfectly dull life until un vampiro turned him. Now forced to flee his city, he heads to the pueblo where he believes the first vampiro was made. Surely its residents must know how to reverse this dreadful curse. Instead of finding salvation, Lalo collides with a beautiful young woman who'd gladly drive a dagger through his heart.

Fortunately, Lalo and Carolina share a common enemy. They can wipe out this evil. Together. If his fangs and her fists can stay focused, they might just triumph and discover what it feels like to take a bite out of love.

On Sale December 24

After the Ocean by Lauren E. Rico | ADULT FICTION

Thirty years ago, musicians Emilia Oliveras and Paul Winstead were married in Puerto Rico. Forty-eight hours later, Paul vanished from their honeymoon cruise, leaving Emilia devastated--and the prime suspect in his disappearance. So, she ran for her life, leaving behind her love, her dreams, and her identity.

Today "Emily Oliver" is a divorced music teacher and mother of two daughters who know nothing about her past: Gracie, a talented attorney who excels in the courtroom but grapples with personal relationships, and Meg, a gifted concert pianist who wrestles with her ambition and purpose.

When a cryptic caller claims the unthinkable--that Paul is alive, Emily returns to Puerto Rico in search of the truth. What she doesn't know is that her daughters aren't far behind. Shocked to find their mother isn't the woman they thought she was, Gracie and Meg wonder how much of their lives have been a lie.

As the paths of the three women intertwine, they are compelled to confront their pasts, reevaluate their relationships, and seek forgiveness. Together they embark on a quest to unravel the mystery of Paul's disappearance and redefine their futures on their own terms, navigating a maze of family ties, secrets, and redemption.

One in the Chamber by Robin Peguero | ADULT FICTION

From a former U.S. House spokesman and Senate speechwriter, a group of junior staffers working on Capitol Hill find themselves in the middle of a political standoff in this satirical novel.

Iowa Farm boy Cameron Leann is new to Washington, D.C., joining a group of employees working for a powerful cohort of U.S. Senators known as The Gang of Six. All of Cam's new colleagues have one thing in common: they hate their bosses.

When a bombshell revelation threatens to sink the President's Supreme Court pick, the Gang of Six fractures, pitting senator against senator in a confirmation battle for the ages. Alliances shift with the wind. Everyone is lying to everyone.

Cam and his friends are caught up in the midst of everything...and on Election Night, one senator will end up dead.

7 Cozy Books About Abuelos y Abuelas

We love them. Our abuelos y abuelas do so much for our families; they are always there to cook us warm meals, tell us stories, and take care of us. To show them gratitude, check out these Latinx books that honor grandparents. Read these to them or remember them through the pages.

Los plátanos son amor by Alyssa Reynoso-Morris | Illustrated by Mariyah Rahman

Abuela dice, “Los plátanos son amor.”
Yo pensé que eran comida.
Pero Abuela dice que nos alimentan de más de una manera.

Con cada explosión de los tostones, puré de mangú y chisporroteo de los maduros, una niña aprende que los plátanos son su historia, son su cultura y, lo más importante, son amor.

A Maleta Full of Treasures by Natalia Sylvester | Illustrated by Juana Medina

It’s been three years since Abuela’s last visit, and Dulce revels in every tiny detail—from Abuela’s maletas full of candies in crinkly wrappers and gifts from primos to the sweet, earthy smell of Peru that floats out of Abuela’s room and down the hall. But Abuela’s visit can’t last forever, and all too soon she’s packing her suitcases again. Then Dulce has an idea: maybe there are things she can gather for her cousins and send with Abuela to remind them of the U.S. relatives they’ve never met. And despite having to say goodbye, Abuela has one more surprise for Dulce—something to help her remember that home isn’t just a place, but the deep-rooted love they share no matter the distance.

Abuelita’s Gift: A Día de Muertos Story by Mariana Ríos Ramírez | Illustrated by Sara Palacios

Julieta is excited for Abuelita’s spirit to visit on Día de los Muertos. She is determined to find the perfect gift to honor Abuelita and to show how much she misses her. However, her ideas fail one by one and Julieta grows worried.

It is only when Julieta embraces the memories she once shared with her abuelita, that she realizes the perfect gift comes from the heart. An uplifting story about both life and death, family, and the threads that connect us, long after we are gone.

Gathering Stardust by Victor Villaseñor | Illustrated by Jack Wiens

"Who are You? Who am I? Who are We?" the book begins as Victor invites the reader, "Come and take my hand, and let us be children once again, and this time be raised up together by my Yaqui Native American grandmother."

In his book, Rain of Gold, bestselling author Villase or wrote about his grandmother, Do a Guadalupe. Now, in his new book, Victor imparts the Native Wisdom he learned from his grandmother as he takes you along on their childhood adventures in the Barrio of Carlsbad, California, where he and his family lived.

Through enchanting storytelling and the stunning illustrations of Jack Wiens, Gathering StarDust is a tender true story, destined to become a favorite, inspiring wonder for readers of all ages and timeless imagination for generations to come.

Abuelo's Flower Shop by Jackie Morera | Illustrated by Deise Lino

Elena is finally old enough to sell flowers with her abuelo in his shop. But she notices that many of the people who visit have tears in their eyes. Abuelo tells her the shop is the last stop before people visit the garden beyond the gate. A place for telling the ones you've loved and lost, "Te recuerdo y te extraño," I remember you, and I miss you.

Tender and insightful, Abuelo's Flower Shop celebrates the beauty of intergenerational love while gently teaching readers about grieving the loss of a loved one. Grandparents and grandchildren will delight in Elena and Abuelo's heartfelt relationship, and readers of all ages will be inspired to find their own ways to say, "I remember you, and I miss you." This thoughtful story is the perfect resource for navigating difficult conversations about grief.

Nana Lupita and the Magic Sopita by Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz | Illustrated by Carlos Vélez

Luna and her little brother, Sol, are out to solve a mystery! They suspect that their grandmother uses magic to create her remedies because she says that she uses a “magic” ingredient.

At the beginning of the story Luna and Sol catch colds so their grandmother makes a healing soup. Luna overhears Nana singing a classic Spanish children’s song about frog tails while cooking the soup, so Luna secretly thinks that frogs are the magic ingredient. The children explore the enchanted garden in search of frogs until it is time to eat, in which Nana reveals the real secret ingredient. Can you guess what it is?

This sweet semi-bilingual story includes a seek-and-find of traditional plants used in curanderismo and includes the recipe for Nana’s magic soup!

Written by renowned healer Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz, Nana Lupita and the Magic Sopita is inspired the author’s grandmother, who was a curandera (a traditional healer of Mexican heritage).

Abuelo, the Sea, and Me by Ismée Williams | Illustrated by Tatiana Gardel

When this grandchild visits her abuelo, he takes her to the ocean. In summer, they kick off their shoes and let the cool waves tickle their toes. In winter, they stand on the cliff and let the sea spray prick their noses and cheeks. No matter the season, hot or cold, their favorite place to spend time together is the beach.

It’s here that Abuelo is able to open up about his youth in Havana, Cuba. As they walk along the sand, he recalls the tastes, sounds, and smells of his childhood. And with his words, Cuba comes alive for his grandchild.

---

Roxanna Cardenas Colmenares is a Venezuelan writer living in New York City who loves to consume, study, and create art. She explores multiple genres in her writing, with a special interest in horror and sci-fi, while working on her B.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration. 

Her work has made her a two-time recipient of the James Tolan Student Writing Award for her critical essays analyzing movies. She has also won The Henry Roth Award in Fiction, The Esther Unger Poetry Prize, and The Allan Danzig Memorial Award in Victorian Literature.

In her free time, she likes to watch movies, dance, and draw doodles that she hopes to be brave enough to share one day.

How Cynthia Harmony and Devon Holzwarth Brought Readers ‘A Flicker of Hope’

In the opening of A Flicker of Hope: A Story of Migration, a girl named Lucía sits with her Papá on the steps of their home, surrounded by lush plants. Nearby, monarchs perch on the branches of a tree.

Humming Lucía’s favorite tune, her father tells her that songs soothe weeping hearts. Soon he will journey north. The monarch butterflies will, too.

Lucía asks her father if he will come back.

“Sí, mi amor,” he promises. “When the weather turns cold and the monarcas return, our winged ancestors will guide me home.”

Written by Cynthia Harmony and illustrated by Devon Holzwarth, A Flicker of Hope (out now from Viking Books for Young Readers) is a lovingly crafted story about a girl waiting for her father to return home to Mexico from his seasonal farm work far away. It’s also about the monarch butterflies and their journey, “miles and miles across rivers and mountains,” in search of milkweed blossoms. And at its heart, it’s a story about family, hope, and the bonds that tie us to nature. A Spanish version — Un Aleteo de Esperanza — is also out now.

Harmony masterfully captures a parallel between the story of Lucía’s father and that of the monarcas. Growing up, it was common for the Mexico City native to see monarch butterflies. Harmony remembers visits to the state of Michoacán, where she experienced the wonder of the monarchs. “There’s a common belief that butterflies are the souls of our ancestors visiting for a brief moment,” she shared.

The monarch butterflies were an element of the story when Harmony first began writing A Flicker of Hope. But initially there was no parallel structure tying their journey to that of Lucía’s father. During the revision process, the author and educational psychologist realized there needed to be. She felt the mirroring was critical to the story.

“That’s a really important part of the theme: We’re connected to nature and to each other, and we follow these patterns,” Harmony said. “That was the main theme and thread for me in the story: the connectedness. That’s why while I revised, I realized it was important to bring the monarch butterflies’ story and mirror it to the story of Papá and Lucía. They’re so small and delicate, but they’re strong and resilient – so it’s like a perfect symbol of hope.”

An added layer of meaning to the story is the community Lucía belongs to. She is a member of the Mazahuas, an Indigenous people of Mexico. In her author’s note, Harmony wrote about the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, where millions of monarchs find shelter to hibernate during the winter months. She also mentioned the Mazahuas and how they believe the souls of their ancestors return in the shape of monarchs, “as the migration coincides with the Day of the Dead celebrations that take place on November 1 and 2.”

“There’s a common belief that butterflies are the souls of our ancestors visiting for a brief moment.”

Holzwarth’s illustrations for A Flicker of Hope feature Lucía and other members of this Indigenous community hand making baskets out of ocoxal leaves. Holzwarth said she researched the Mazahuas while determining her artistic approach to the illustrations for this book. Harmony also provided the picture book illustrator with information. The artist said she soon found herself on a rabbit hole search, trying to find photos of the community.

“I wanted to see, what's everyday life like? What do people do in the middle of the day?” Holzwarth recalled. “How do they make the crafts from pine needles? What season do they collect them?” The picture book illustrator grew up in Panama, and so she experienced seeing traditional cultures shifting over time in different ways.

Holzwarth used mixed media for the illustrations in A Flicker of Hope: they are a vivid blend of gouache, watercolor, colored pencil, crayon and digital finishing. She began with sketches on her iPad, the final versions of which were later transferred to paper. Holzwarth then worked out of the paper and introduced water media first.

She knew she wanted to focus on orange, which is a color that is found in different hues throughout the book, especially with respect to the monarch butterflies. “I like harmony, and so I go the left and right of orange: I can have reds and I can have yellows,” she said. “And then the opposite of orange is blue… Because they’re the most exciting things together. And so on the other side of blue, I will have some violet, and then a little bit of green. But I’ll keep it more of a blue-green.”

The result is a gorgeous color palette amid the characters – deep oranges and forest greens and blues. After painting, Holzwarth brought greater detail with colored pencils, or fine brushes with gouache. 

The butterflies themselves were made from gouache, which the artist said is a bit thicker – with colored pencil on top. Throughout most of the book, they’re in motion. “They’re always moving to their place,” Holzwarth said. “They’re not in their nesting spot for that long.”

The illustrator said she hopes readers enjoy Lucía’s, especially those who miss family members or are waiting for something. “It’s waiting, it’s hoping, and then this joy right upon being rewarded with your patience,” Holzwarth said. “I think that would be probably what I hope that children see in the story.”

That much is clear: A Flicker of Hope also touches on a universal theme, which is a child’s longing for her parent. As she wrote, Harmony’s mind also turned to the Trump-era “zero tolerance” policy that was being enforced in Arizona, where she currently resides. She described that time as heartbreaking. “And I decided in that moment that this story had to be about the experience of children, and longing for their parents,” she said.

Lucía’s longing for her Papá is palpable. And it was an important part of the story for Harmony to demonstrate.

“I wanted what I saw growing up in Mexico to be seen and felt by the reader,” she said. “I think I do this with all my stories. Every time I write, I’m just hoping to contribute a little bit of understanding by sharing this point of view of people that have not been shown in books historically.”

And for children, Harmony hopes the message for them is that maybe they’re not so different from each other.

“All children, and everyone of us, longs to be close to our loved ones. That’s also what I was trying to convey – that maybe deep down in all of our journeys, we’ll always find love and hope.”

---

Amaris Castillo is an award-winning journalist, writer, and the creator of Bodega Stories, a series featuring real stories from the corner store. Her writing has appeared in La Galería Magazine, Aster(ix) Journal, Spanglish Voces, PALABRITAS, Dominican Moms Be Like… (part of the Dominican Writers Association’s #DWACuenticos chapbook series), and most recently Quislaona: A Dominican Fantasy Anthology and Sana, Sana: Latinx Pain and Radical Visions for Healing and Justice. Her short story, “El Don,” was a prize finalist for the 2022 Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writers’ Prize by the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival. She is a proud member of Latinx in Publishing’s Writers Mentorship Class of 2023 and lives in Florida with her family.

October 2024 Latinx Releases

On Sale October 1

Alma at Home/Alma En Casa by Juana Martinez-Neal | PICTURE BOOK

Good morning! I am Alma. / ¡Buenos días! Yo soy Alma.
At home, I sleep in my bedroom. / En casa, duermo en mi dormitorio.

Follow little Alma as she washes up in the bathroom, puts on her striped outfit and bow, and eats breakfast with her family in the kitchen. There's just enough time for Alma's brother to sit on the couch and read her a book before school--then Alma can go outside to play with her feathered friend Pajarito! In a new entry in this joyful board-book series, award-winning author-illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal looks in on the adorable Alma and her loving family at home, with words and simple phrases in English and Spanish on every spread.

Not Far from Here by Nydia Armendia-Sánchez |Illustrated by Devon Holzwarth | PICTURE BOOK

Mamá tells her children a story that began when their papá was a niño, not far from here. Their abuelitas told stories of their antepasados, and their abuelo, a blacksmith, taught their papá how to make art from earth and fire. When abuelo died, papá took all those lessons to heart and crossed la frontera to el norte to follow his sueños. There, he worked and overcame barriers, known to many immigrants alike, to forge his own obra maestra: a familia and a future in which anything is possible. Debut author Nydia Armendia-Sánchez relays a story of immigration, creativity, and comunidad through a translanguage text that moves naturally from English to español and back in a manner that will be familiar to many second and third generations of Latine families--and evocative to immigrant families of any heritage. Brilliantly brought to life by Devon Holzwarth's rich, imaginative illustrations, this warm abrazo of a book features a glossary of Spanish words.

Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown by Xochitl Dixon | Illustrated by Sara Palacios | PICTURE BOOK

From new school desks to freckles and moles, from fresh pastries to cedar canoes, brown is everywhere around us. It's a color that describes the giant California redwoods and the Grand Canyon walls, busy beavers building dams and great horned owls hoo-hooing.

Illustrated by Pura Belpré Honor Award artist Sara Palacios, Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown takes kids on a tour of the U.S. to seek and find all the brilliant and beautiful shades of brown--from ivory to ebony--that God used in creation, including humans! Through the rhythmic text and repeating refrain, children of all races, ages, and abilities will be encouraged to love the skin they're in as they observe how it's reflected in their communities and the world around them.

The Only Sound Is the Wind by Pascha Sotolongo |SHORT STORIES

In the tradition of narrativa de lo inusual (narrative of the unusual), The Only Sound Is the Wind combines the fantastic with the everyday, weaving elements of magical realism and surrealist twists to sharpen our view of human (and animal) connection. In the title story, the arrival of a mail-order clone complicates a burgeoning romance; a lonely librarian longing for her homeland strikes up an unusual relationship in the award-winning "The Moth"; when humans start giving birth to puppies and kittens in "This New Turn," a realignment of the natural order ensues. With a playful tenderness and satirical bent, The Only Sound Is the Wind explores solitude and communion, opening strange new worlds where characters try to make their way toward love.

Bodega Bakes: Recipes for Sweets and Treats Inspired by My Corner Store by Paola Velez | COOKBOOK

Growing up in the Bronx, Paola Velez's happy place was the bodega, a unique world full of color and flavor where the shelves were stocked with everything from M&M's to Muenster cheese to majarete (Caribbean corn pudding)--and, of course, its own cat (IYKYK). Before she was the James Beard-nominated chef, Cherry Bombe cover girl, social media darling, and cofounder of the grassroots social action network, Bakers Against Racism, Paola was a bodega kid with a taste for Warheads, Hostess cupcakes, ice pops, and Malta soda.

Paola's debut cookbook, inspired by these treasures and other ingredients available at corner stores everywhere, is a love letter to both her Dominican heritage and her New York City roots; its more than 100 recipes burst with distinctive flavors, inviting you to enjoy new takes on her childhood favorites and yours. Paola's combination of classical training and self-taught pastry skills means her recipes are accessible no matter your skill level.

Jasmine Is Haunted by Mark Oshiro |MIDDLE GRADE

Jasmine Garza has a problem: a ghost has been following her for years, ever since her Papi died. Not that Mami will admit anything supernatural is going on. But even the ghost she won't acknowledge makes real trouble, so Jasmine and her mami are moving (again) to a new apartment in East Hollywood. This time Jasmine is committed to living a normal life with normal friends.

Enter: Bea Veracruz and Jorge Barrera. They're the only two members of Jasmine's middle school's Gay Straight Alliance and they're already obsessed with all things supernatural. Bea wants to prove herself to her paranormal investigator parents and Jorge is determined to overcome his fear of the beyond. And when Jasmine confesses she's been tormented by a ghost for years, they not only believe her, they're thrilled!

Together they set out to prove that Jasmine's not just acting out after her father's death-ghosts are real and Jasmine is haunted

If You Ever Need a Friend: An Alebrije Story by Nadine Fonseca | Illustrated by Lourdes Villagomez | PICTURE BOOK

Joaquin is having a hard day at school. He struggles to speak up in class even though he knows the answers, he doesn't feel included when trying to play soccer with his friends, and he ends up sitting alone during recess--feeling invisible.

But when he investigates a strange shimmery light by the playground slide, he is transported to a special forest filled with fantastical creatures known as alebrijes, or magic companion animals.

His friend, Imogen, introduces Joaquin to several alebrijes, and the special creatures share the ways they help people manage their emotions. One creature roars like a lion with Imogen when she feels angry and needs to let it out. Another one helps Noemi blend into the background like a chameleon when she is feeling nervous and needs a moment to herself. A third alebrije has big ears to hear all of Tío Andres's worries.

La Enchilada Completa / The Whole Enchilada by Glenda Galván-García| RECIPE BOOK

Recetas mexicanas llenas de historia y tradición!

Acompaña a la Chef Glenda a descubrir las delicias de la cocina mexicana! Este libro bilingüe que abarca desde aperitivos hasta platos fuertes, postres y bebidas, es la manera perfecta de que jóvenes chefs conecten con sus raíces.

Mexican recipes full of history and fun!

Join Chef Glenda as she shares the tasty wonders of Mexican cuisine! Covering everything from snacks to main dishes, desserts and drinks, this bilingual book is the perfect way for young chefs to connect with their roots.

The Great Zoo: A Bilingual Edition by Nicolás Guillén |Translated by Aaron Coleman |POETRY

Born in Cuba to parents of African and European ancestry, Nicolás Guillén worked in printing presses and studied law before moving into Havana's literary scene. A virtuosic maker and breaker of forms, Guillén rose to fame by transforming a popular form of Cuban music into poetry that called attention to the experience of Afro-Cuban people, and he continued to interweave his artistic and political commitments as he traveled the world.

Originally published in Spanish in 1967, The Great Zoo is a humorous and biting collection of poems that presents a fantastical bestiary of ideas, social concerns, landscapes, phenomena, and more. The "animals" on view in this menagerie include the Mississippi and Amazon Rivers, clouds from different countries, a singing guitar, a temperamental atomic bomb, blue-pelted police, a hurricane, the KKK, and the North Star, among many others.

In Praise of Mystery by Ada Limón Illustrated by Peter Sís | PICTURE BOOK/POETRY

As part of her tenure as U.S. poet laureate, Ada Limón has written "In Praise of Mystery," which will be engraved on the Europa Clipper spacecraft that launches to Jupiter and its moons in October 2024. Published here as Limón's debut picture book, this luminous poem is illustrated by celebrated and internationally renowned artist Peter Sís.

In Praise of Mystery celebrates humankind's endless curiosity, asks us what it means to explore beyond our known world, and shows how the unknown can reflect us back to ourselves.

Also available in Spanish

On Sale October 8

Tamales for Christmas by Stephen Briseño |Illustrated by Sonia Sánchez | PICTURE BOOK

When the weather changes, but way before the Christmas tree is decorated, Grandma begins her preparations. With so many children and grandchildren in her family, she finds a way to put gifts under the tree-- she sells as many tamales as she can! Masa in one hand, corn husks in the other, Grandma's just getting started. 15 dozen tamales. As Halloween passes, and Thanksgiving, Grandma is still toiling away in the kitchen: 150 dozen tamales, 700 dozen tamales, 850 dozen tamales. When it's time to string the lights for Christmas, she's inching closer to 1000 dozen tamales! Enough to give some to those in need and enough to sell to earn money for Christmas gifts.

Based on the author's own grandmother, who was the heart of the familia, here is a warm story about Christmas, generosity, and, yes, tamales.

Also available in Spanish

The Witches of El Paso by Luis Jaramillo | ADULT FICTION

If you call to the witches, they will come.

1943, El Paso, Texas: teenager Nena spends her days caring for the small children of her older sisters, while longing for a life of freedom and adventure. The premonitions and fainting spells she has endured since childhood are getting worse, and Nena worries she'll end up like the scary old curandera down the street. Nena prays for help, and when the mysterious Sister Benedicta arrives late one night, Nena follows her across the borders of space and time. In colonial Mexico, Nena grows into her power, finding love and learning that magic always comes with a price.

In the present day, Nena's grandniece, Marta, balances a struggling legal aid practice with motherhood and the care of the now ninety-three-year-old Nena. When Marta agrees to help search for a daughter Nena left in the past, the two forge a fierce connection. Marta's own supernatural powers emerge, awakening her to new possibilities that threaten the life she has constructed.

Childish Literature by Alejandro Zambra |Translated by Megan McDowell |SHORT STORIES, ESSAYS, POETRY

From the author of My Documents and Chilean Poet, a wise, humorous, and captivating literary exploration of the delights and absurdities of childhood, fatherhood, and family life

Childish Literature is a charming and wide-ranging collection of short stories, essays, and even a couple of poems produced under the influence of fatherhood, a transformative experience that reshapes and enlivens the author's relationship to aging, intimacy, and time. Written in Alejandro Zambra's brilliantly warm, playful, and philosophical voice, these pieces explore the lives of families and their stories through a wide variety of topics--from screen time and "soccer sadness" to personal libraries, fishing, and psychedelics. Throughout, Zambra captures the texture of daily life and deep truths about how we feel and live, with particular insight into the ways parents and children challenge, enrich, and entertain each other.

Solis by Paola Mendoza and Abby Sher | YOUNG ADULT

The year is 2033, and in this near-future America where undocumented people are forced into labor camps, life is bleak. Especially so for seventeen-year-old Rania, a Lebanese teenager from Chicago. When she and her mother were rounded up by the Deportation Force, they were given the brutal job of digging in the labor camp's mine in search of the destructive and toxic--but potentially world-changing--mineral aqualinium. With this mineral, the corrupt and xenophobic government of the New American Republic could actually control the weather--ending devastating droughts sweeping the planet due to climate change. If the government succeeds, other countries would be at their mercy. Solidifying this power comes at the expense of the undocumented immigrants forced to endure horrendous conditions to mine the mineral or used in cruel experiments to test it, leaving their bodies wracked in extreme pain to the point of death. As the experiments ramp up, things only get worse. Rania and her fellow prisoners decide to start a revolution; if they don't, they know they will die.

Amor Entre Aguaceros/Love Between Downpours by Jean-Pierre Rueda | POETRY

Amor entre aguaceros/Love between downpours is a bilingual poetry collection dedicated to all those who use their imagination to return to their countries of origin when migratory circumstances prohibit them from doing so.

Zones of Encuentro: Language and Identities in Northern New Mexico by Lillian Gorman | ADULT NONFICTION

Working at the intersection of Latina/o/x cultural studies, sociocultural linguistics, and Chicana feminist studies, Lillian Gorman's Zones of Encuentro takes an in-depth look at the cultural and linguistic interactions between two distinct Latina/o/x communities in the region: Nuevomexicanos (Hispanic people who trace their presence in the region to colonial times and whose families have historically spoken Traditional New Mexican Spanish, or TNMS) and first-generation Mexicano immigrants (who tend to speak Mexican Spanish). Gorman examines the everyday lived language experiences and ethnolinguistic identities of Mexicanos and Nuevomexicanos together, specifically through the case of mixed Mexicano-Nuevomexicano families. Through an interdisciplinary critical reading of ethnographic data, pláticas (informal conversations that gather family and community knowledge), interviews, articles, and historical memoirs, Gorman analyzes language ideologies, identity formations, and language practices by exploring complex spaces of encounter within Mexicano-Nuevomexicano families. Zones of Encuentro complicates homogeneous notions of language and identity and contemplates what a shared cultural and linguistic homeplace looks like for Mexicanos and Nuevomexicanos in northern New Mexico.

On Sale October 15

Blue Light Hours by Bruna Dantas Lobato | ADULT FICTION

In a small dorm room at a liberal arts college in Vermont, a young woman settles into the warm blue light of her desk lamp before calling the mother she left behind in northeastern Brazil. Four thousand miles apart and bound by the angular confines of a Skype window, they ask each other a simple question: what's the news?

Offscreen, little about their lives seems newsworthy. The daughter writes her papers in the library at midnight, eats in the dining hall with the other international students, and raises her hand in class to speak in a language the mother cannot understand. The mother meanwhile preoccupies herself with natural disasters, her increasingly poor health, and the heartbreaking possibility that her daughter might not return to the apartment where they have always lived together. Yet in the blue glow of their computers, the two women develop new rituals of intimacy and caretaking, from drinking whiskey together in the middle of the night to keeping watch as one slides into sleep. As the warm colors of New England autumn fade into an endless winter snow, each realizes that the promise of spring might mean difficult endings rather than hopeful beginnings.

Lightning in Her Hands by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland | ADULT FICTION

Teal Flores is desperate for two things--control over her gift of weather, and a date to her ex's wedding. The first isn't possible until she finds her long-lost mother, but the second has a very handsome last-ditch solution: Carter Velasquez.

Carter needs Teal too. His chance at receiving an inheritance is dependent on him being married by age thirty (blame his traditional Cuban grandmother), so who better to pose as his wife than Teal? But fake marriage and cohabitation prove tricky when mutual attraction charges the atmosphere--quite literally for Teal, whose volatile emotions cause lightning strikes.

Together, Teal and Carter embark on a quest to find her mother and the answers she's searching for. But along the way, they'll discover something even better: a love that can weather any storm.

The Life Audit: A Step-By-Step Guide to Discovering Your Goals and Building the Life You Want by Ximena Vengoechea | ADULT NONFICTION

A life-changing and empowering guide to discovering your personal and professional passions, goals, and dreams so you can create a life full of joy and purpose.

Welcome to the Life Audit, an exercise in self-reflection that helps you clear the cobwebs of noisy, external goals and distractions, and revisit or uncover the real themes and core values that drive and inspire you. Think of it as spring-cleaning for the soul.

For anyone looking to find fulfillment in every aspect of life--love, friendship, career, finances, and beyond--this encouraging handbook offers the tools to prioritize your goals and turn personal insights into action to create a beautiful, meaningful future.

The Plains by Federico Falco | Translated by Jennifer Croft | ADULT FICTION

'In the city the notion of the hours of the day, of the passage of time, is lost. In the countryside that is impossible, ' our narrator tells us. In this remote house and garden, time is almost palpable; it goes by without haste and brings into sharp relief even the tiniest details: insects, the sound of the rain, a falling leaf, the smell of damp earth. Past and present are equally weighted and visible here, revealing themselves slowly with every season and turn of the spade.So a year unfolds. A garden takes shape as his connection deepens to this place, becoming a shelter from everyone and everything, perhaps even from himself. We see the ants devouring the chard, we hear the tales his grandmother told, perhaps real, perhaps taken from a movie, and we learn about his great love, Ciro. The humid sheets in the country, the carefully renovated apartment in the city and the painful, inexplicable break-up that prompted him to take refuge in this patch of now-carefully tended land.

Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán |Translated by Sophie Hughes | ADULT FICTION

A young girl has died and the family's maid is being interrogated. She must tell the whole story before arriving at the girl's death.

Estela came from the countryside, leaving her mother behind, to work for the señor and señora when their only child was born. They wanted a housemaid: "smart appearance, full time," their ad said. She wanted to make enough money to support her mother and return home. For seven years, Estela cleaned their laundry, wiped their floors, made their meals, kept their secrets, witnessed their fights and frictions, raised their daughter. She heard the rats scrabbling in the ceiling, saw the looks the señor gave the señora; she knew about the poison in the cabinet, the gun, the daughter's rebellion as she grew up, the mother's coldness, the father's distance. She saw it all.

After a series of shocking betrayals and revelations, Estela stops speaking, breaking her silence only now, to tell the story of how it all fell apart.

Mamá Didn't Raise a Pendeja: Anti-Affirmations Inspired by Tough-Love Abuelas by Carolina Acosta and Aralis Mejia | ADULT NONFICTION

Tired of the same old sugarcoated self-help advice? Mamá Didn't Raise a Pendeja serves up a bracing dose of truth straight from the mouths of Latin elders. With its wit, edge, and no-nonsense advice on everything from dating to careers, this compilation offers a tool kit of motivational mantras to tackle modern struggles--with plenty of humor and comedic smacks of perspective along the way.

Inspired by their own no-nonsense abuelitas, first-generation Latinas Carolina Acosta and Aralis Mejia share the tough love and bold wisdom passed down from generations of resilient women.

Brutal Companion by Ruben Quesada | POETRY

Ruben Quesada is the editor of the award-winning anthology Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry. His poetry and criticism appear in The New York Times Magazine, Best American Poetry, Lambda Literary Review, Harvard Review and elsewhere. His collection of poetry, Brutal Companion, is the winner of the Barrow Street Editors Prize.

On Sale October 22

Lupita's Brown Ballet Slippers by Steena Hernandez | Illustrated by Melissa Castillo | PICTURE BOOK

Everyone deserves to shine.

Lupita's big ballet recital is approaching. The music is perfect. Her ballet moves are strong. But her peachy pink ballet slippers don't match her skin tone. Lupita searches for the right pair only to discover it will take hard work--and messy measures--in order for her shoes to dance with her.

Inspired by the author's own experiences as a Latina dancer, Lupita's Brown Ballet Slippers is a charming story filled with determination. The final few spreads teach readers about the history of ballet slippers as well as the crucial changes the industry has seen for dancers of all races and ethnicities.

All Our Wars by Stephanie Vasquez | ADULT FICTION

Twelve years have passed since Sofia De Luna's mother was murdered. Sofia now leads a quiet life in Chicago, far from the cartel violence she was raised amidst. But when her narco father's retirement catapults her to head of the family, that peaceful existence is upended.

Unhappy with this changeover of power, Sofia's brothers and cousins are wary of her desire to legitimize the family and her insistent questions about her mother's mysterious death. Meanwhile, in Mexico's uncertain political climate, Andres Herrera, the ex-sicario accused of Sofia's mother's murder, sees the opportunity for his exit from the drug business. He just needs Sofia, his first love, to uphold the truce between the cartels before the war brewing at the border trickles down to Mexico City, marring the upcoming election.

After a chance meeting with a disenfranchised DEA agent reveals the true depths the Torres will go to keep their power, Sofia decides she must stop the war her cousins have put in motion. But if she sacrifices her family for the dream of peace, will she meet the same fate as her mother?

Impossible Possums by Justin Colón |Illustrated by James Rey Sanchez| PICTURE BOOK

Carl is bad. Bad to the bone. The only thing that would make being this bad even better would be someone to share it with. Cue the Possum Populator and a whole bunch of bad guys.

Perfect for fans of Despicable Me and Lilo & Stitch, this exceptionally goofy picture book stars aspiring villain Carl the possum, who is on a mission to create a like-minded conspirator.

Life as an aspiring villain is lonely for Carl the possum, so he's on a mission to create a like-minded conspirator. But when his Possum Populator arrives, it requires assembly (and villains don't have time for that). So, Carl tosses the instructions, leading to a series of outlandish mishaps and mounting frustration as the contraption pops out all the wrong creations.

Ay Tú!: Critical Essays on the Life and Work of Sandra Cisneros Edited by Sonia Saldívar-Hull and Geneva M. Gano | ESSAYS

A comprehensive volume on the life and work of renowned Chicana author Sandra Cisneros. Sandra Cisneros (b. 1954), author of the acclaimed novel The House on Mango Street and a recipient of the National Medal of the Arts, a MacArthur "Genius Grant" and the PEN/Nabokov Award for International Literature, was the first Chicana to be published by a major publishing house. Ay Tú! is the first book to offer a comprehensive, critical examination of her life and work as a whole. Edited by scholars Sonia Saldívar-Hull and Geneva M. Gano, this volume addresses themes that pervade Cisneros's oeuvre, like romantic and erotic love, female friendship, sexual abuse and harassment, the exoticization of the racial and ethnic "other," and the role of visual arts in the lives of everyday people. Essays draw extensively on the newly opened Cisneros Papers, housed in the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University, and the volume concludes with a new long-form interview with Cisneros by the award-winning journalist Macarena Hernández.

On Sale October 29

Sleeping with the Frenemy by Natalie Caña | ADULT FICTION

Leo Vega's love life has been on life support since long before the gunshot wound that put him on leave from the fire department. Now, a year after his injury, he's hoping to both return to work and fix things with Sofi, the woman he's had a secret on-again, off-again relationship with for years.

Sofia Santana may be ready to mend fences with her best friend, Leo's sister, but she has no plans of letting Leo back into her bed or her heart. She's charting a new path for her future, and past mistakes have no place in it. Then circumstances push Sofi and Leo into a tense roommate situation. It's almost impossible to move on when Leo is there, reminding her what they had, every day.

With the help of Leo's mischievous grandfather, Sofi's equally devious grandmother and an adorably sweet rescue dog, Leo's determined to get the stubborn woman of his dreams to finally see that they belong together--for good this time.

Mother Archive: A Dominican Family Memoir by Erika Morillo | MEMOIR

A family murder kept secret, the mysterious disappearance of her father, the systematic erasing of family photographs, a turbulent relationship with her mother, layers of trauma and abuse. In Mother Archive, Erika Morillo reconciles these demons of her past by searching for and seeking out the roots of her family. Intertwining memories with archival family photographs, news clippings, film stills, and artistic images, Morillo revisits her childhood growing up in the Dominican Republic, a place and time riddled with a history of violence and a tradition of erasure.
Spanning three generations across three different countries, this memoir works as a map in which the author traces incidents in her family history to help her understand herself and her own experience as a mother.

Bindle Punk Jefe by Desideria Mesa | ADULT FICTION

Prohibition is in full swing, and the glamorous life of upper-class Kansas City is everything Rose (Luna) Lane ever hoped it would be. Being married to her best friend isn't so bad either, considering their agreement to keep their real love lives out of the public eye. However, try as she might to continue her life of anonymity, her popularity as a land developer's wife--and as a successful club owner--draws even more attention to her personal endeavors. Soon, the balancing act between the life of Luna and Rose becomes a full-time job itself, making visiting home harder than ever before.

However, her haven, which once offered a place of acceptance, is growing more hostile. Her community of brujas criticizes her methods of using magic for economic and social gain while consorting with nefarious witches of the North. Meanwhile, the Pendergast Machine is running at full force, pushing his will and money all over the city. Keeping her true identity and powers a secret while posing for the society papers gets all the more dangerous as new enemies start to question her origins...and old ones creep up from dark realms.

My Mexican Kitchen: 100 Recipes Rich with Tradition, Flavor, and Spice by Eva Longoria | COOKBOOK

While hosting Searching for Mexico on CNN, Eva Longoria reconnected with her Mexican roots and tasted iconic Mexican dishes like meat-stuffed Chiles en Nogada draped in a creamy walnut sauce and the Yucatán classic Pollo Asado, made with an aromatic garlic-citrus-achiote paste. In My Mexican Kitchen, she embraces the techniques and flavors she discovered and brings them home to her Southern California kitchen. From dishes based on long-heeded Aztec traditions like Chicken Enchiladas with Salsa Verde to her Tia Elsa's Pork and Red Chile Tamales and Conchas that remind her of Mexico City, each recipe offers a delicious tribute to Mexican food and flavors.

On Sale October 31

El Empacho de Isabel / Isabel's Tummy Ache by Julio Molinete | Illustrated by Claudia Navarro |Translated by Gabriela Baeza Ventura | PICTURE BOOK

"I went to Cuba to meet my grandma Macurí," Isabel tells her classmates when asked about her summer. It was a long trip that involved two planes, a guagua--or bus, a train that carried everything from sugarcane to calves, and even a horse-drawn cart. Finally hugging her Abuelita was the most beautiful moment of her life! Grandma made a cake to celebrate her birthday--and all the others she had missed--and Isabel ate three pieces! The party continued the next day with lots of delicious food, including a mango, oranges, watermelon and an entire pineapple! No wonder that by nightfall, Isabel's tummy hurt! But her grandmother's special jar of hugs and kisses, combined with a gentle massage, healed the girl's aching belly. Drawing on his own memories, Julio Molinete writes about traveling to a rural village in the mountains of Cuba and the natural healing methods practiced there. Lively illustrations by Claudia Navarro depict the joy of reuniting with far-flung family. This bilingual book for children ages 5-9 will surely encourage them to write about their own summer adventures and time spent with family--while also serving as a cautionary tale against overeating!

¡Celebremos El Día de Las Brujas Y El Día de Los Muertos! / Let's Celebrate Halloween and the Day of the Dead! by Gustavo Ruffino |Illustrated by Olga Barinova | PICTURE BOOK

Two best friends enjoy dressing up for their Halloween party at school; Mía is a monarch butterfly and Camila is a leaping frog! The girls live in the same building so Camila goes home with Mía after school and eats dinner with her family. But when they invite Camila to help set up their Day of the Dead altar, she is afraid of the skulls. Mía teaches her friend that the altar is a way to remember and honor loved ones who have passed. "It's like a party," she says. Decorated with flowers, photos and the departed person's favorite things, it's full of beautiful memories. Camila wonders if she can prepare one for her mother--whom she misses terribly--even though she is Colombian and not Mexican. Camila's father likes the idea and helps his daughter make her mom's favorite food, arepas with lots of cheese, to put on the altar and share with Mía's family at dinner the next night.

Una Nueva Ciudad, Un Nuevo Hogar / A New City, a New Home by Elías David | Illustrated by Claudia Delgadillo | PICTURE BOOK

ELÍAS DAVID, a native of Reynosa, Mexico, is the author of a picture book, Mis días con Papá / Spending Time with Dad (Piñata Books, 2023), and two for adults, Instantes (Alja, 2017) and Una lucidez aturdida (UANL, 2022). He is the associate editor of Suburbano Ediciones (SED), a magazine on culture. He lives with his family in Houston, where he is pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing in Spanish at the University of Houston. CLAUDIA DELGADILLO was born in Mexico City and graduated from UNAM with a degree in graphic communication. She is the illustrator of Mis días con Papá / Spending Time with Dad (Piñata Books, 2023) and she wrote and illustrated Biodiversidad (UNAM, 2011).

Racing at Devil's Bridge and Other Stories / Carreras En El Puente del Diablo Y Otros Cuentos by Xavier Garza | Translated by Alaíde Ventura Medina | MIDDLE GRADE

In the title story, a boy breaks his mom's rule against staying out after dark because he is intent on training for the big state track meet. When his younger sister turns up and challenges him to a race across Devil's Bridge, he taunts her--but is ultimately stunned when she beats him. But more shocking is the sudden appearance of a terrifying figure sporting a goat's head and wielding a rusty ax! The stories in Xavier Garza's new collection feature creepy creatures from Latin American lore, but with a contemporary twist!

Trini's Magic Kitchen by Patricia Santos Marcantonio | MIDDLE GRADE

Trini has just started seventh grade when her mom loses her job. She finds another one working nights in Denver but must sleep on her cousin's couch until she saves enough money for a new apartment. Since there's no room for Trini, the girl is forced to go live with her grandparents in Alamosa. She has always considered her grandparents' house a second home, but the day her mom leaves her there she feels homeless. Grandma Lydia and Grandpa Frank, who ride motorcycles and listen to rock, are the best, but Trini misses her mom and dreads being the new kid at school, especially since she is now two weeks behind. Gradually she adjusts to her new life, making another best friend and setting her sights on a cute boy. And when her grandmother discovers Trini can't cook, she begins teaching her granddaughter how to make traditional Mexican dishes. Through the cooking lessons, the girl begins to learn more about her family, including her dad, who died when she was young, and why her mom doesn't cook. This warmhearted and entertaining novel about overcoming challenges will resonate with tweens facing their own problems with family and friends.

Ghost Brother by Sylvia Sánchez Garza | YOUNG ADULT

Carlos and his twin brother Cris were looking forward to their school dance, but an encounter with a pair of bullies on a slick road during a terrible thunderstorm leads to a horrific auto accident and the deaths of two people--including Carlos. Cris, who was driving the car, is overcome with guilt, and their mom is devastated at the loss of her son. The hazy details of the crash and its fallout are narrated in the alternating voices of the brothers, one a survivor and the other a ghost. No one can see or hear Carlos despite his efforts to let them know he is still there, so he is able to listen in on numerous conversations. One of the bullies that died in the crash was the son of the local sheriff, and the ghost learns the lawman intends to place the blame for the accident on his brother! As Cris navigates his sorrow, he is intent on getting to know his father, who has been absent all their lives. To complicate matters, he meets and falls head-over-heels in love with Selena, who has secrets of her own, including knowing more about the crash than she lets on. Exploring death and grief from a young person's perspective, this absorbing novel for teens set in South Texas brims with the cultural traditions and beliefs of the Mexican-American community.

Exclusive Excerpt from Lilliam Rivera's 'Tiny Threads'

Fashion-obsessed Samara finally has the life she’s always dreamed of: A high-powered job with legendary designer Antonio Mota. A new home in sunny California, far away from those drab Jersey winters. And an intriguing love interest, Brandon, a wealthy investor in Mota’s fashion line. But it’s not long before Samara’s dream life begins to turn into a living nightmare as Mota’s big fashion show approaches and the pressure on her turns crushing. Perhaps that’s why she begins hearing voices in her room at night—and seeing strange things that can’t be explained away by stress or anxiety or the number of drinks she’s been consuming...

Samara loves to work in the archives. The room has become her second office, a place she can take a temporary breather from work drama. No Antonio screaming her name with urgency, every small thing a catastrophe to be fixed by her.

Alone, she can write and be inspired by the clothes themselves.

And play.

She pulls out a beaded sleeveless garment with a fringed skirt. The gown is meant to depict the horrors of war, to make the wearer appear to be bleeding. She undresses, locates the zipper, and climbs in. As Samara adjusts the skirt, something pokes her. A needle perhaps, or a clothing tag documenting its placement in Antonio’s timeline. She tugs at the fabric and tries to find the culprit.

“Ouch.”

Samara quickly takes the dress off to find a long scratch on her right hip. A bubble of blood emerges. Samara presses down on the injury with her thumb. In her underwear, she flips the garment inside out, looking for any loose pins. Goose bumps cover her bare legs. Samara walks under the ceiling’s light fixture to take a closer look.

There it is. A lone pin sticks out, but there’s something else. Inside the gown Samara finds a black thread sewn along a seam. A word is stitched with a letter P prominent. She starts to decipher the other letters, trying to guess what word they form.

“Piedad,” she says loudly. The letters are uneven and child-like, stitched by someone with little skill. The thread on the stitches is definitely not the same one used on the rest of the gown. She repeats the name again. “Piedad.”

Antonio has never mentioned a Piedad when he talks about his family history. It’s only ever been about Ramona and the fierce warrior figure she was. Samara pulls another dress from the same period. It takes her a while but finally, she locates the name again. Piedad. She pulls out another blouse and there it is, the name hidden under a pocket. And in a pair of slacks. And a skirt. Antonio is going to have a fit when he finds out how his archives are being ruined. Who did this?

“Someone’s getting fucked,” she says.

As she puts her clothes back on, she remembers how she was the last person to visit the archives last night. She’d examined some of the same pieces and found nothing wrong with the clothes then. Thinking it through, the only workers who would have had the opportunity to slip into the archive and do this without being seen would be the seamstresses.

Samara opens the red door and stares out to the women hunched over their sewing machines. Half of them are working on fulfilling current orders. Others concentrate on samples Antonio wants made for the February show. There’s no way Samara will take the blame for destroying the archives. No, this will not land in her lap, but she must proceed delicately. She can’t just start accusing her co-workers.

Samara leaves the Library and returns to her office to think through her options. While answering emails, she considers what course of action to take. Should she go straight to Antonio or confront the seamstresses first? Samara takes her chances on the latter.

Excerpt from Tiny Threads by Lilliam Rivera, copyright © 2024. Used by permission of Del Rey, an imprint of Random House Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

---

Photo credit: JJ Geiger

Lilliam Rivera is a MacDowell fellow, a screenwriter, and an award-winning author of nine works of fiction: a forthcoming horror book, four young adult novels, three middle grade books, and a graphic novel for DC Comics. Her books have been awarded a Pura Belpré Honor, been featured on NPR, New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, NY Times, and multiple “best of” lists. Her novel Never Look Back is slated for an Amazon movie adaptation.

Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Elle, to name a few. Lilliam has also written for the episodic podcast series Love in Gravity, which was recently nominated for a GLAAD.

Her short fiction and personal essays have appeared in various literary journals and publications including Tin House, New York Times, Buzzfeed Books, and The Washington Post. She has been a featured speaker in countless schools and book festivals throughout the United States and is on faculty at Hamline University and University of Nevada, Reno.

A Bronx, New York native, Lilliam currently lives in Los Angeles.

Author Q&A: 'The Beautiful Game' by Yamile Saied Méndez

Yamile Saied Méndez thrusts readers into action from the very start of her forthcoming middle grade novel, The Beautiful Game. Valeria “Magic” Salomón – star player of the Overlords – is playing in a State Cup game. 

And the 13-year-old is determined to win. So Valeria decides to sidestep a play her coach (and Argentine grandfather) planned and try things her way. “I stomped my foot, pulverizing Coach’s order under the spikes of my pink cleats.”

One of Valeria’s teammates whispers, “You got it, Magic.” 

She nods. The same teammate moves out of the way at the last minute for her to take the shot. And Valeria does. GOOOOALLLLL!!!!!!!

“I ran and ran and ran, fighting the impulse to take my jersey off and swing it in the air like the boys did,” she narrates. “The ref would card me if I showed my sports bra, even if it was mainly for decoration right now.”

Valeria is the only girl on her all-boys team, which isn’t really an issue until something happens to her later at the State Cup semifinal. She gets her first period, during that game. The following day, Valeria overhears her grandfather-coach and members of her team discussing moving forward without her. If she stays, the Overlords wouldn’t be able to play in a tournament. Girl players have their own tournament.

The news shakes Valeria to her core, and angers her. She soon finds herself without a team, and at increasing odds with her grandfather. Her home is also struggling with a recent death in the family. 

But with the support of her grandmother and best friend, Valeria rises up and decides to try to join a team she’s long ignored: an all-girls team known as The Amazons. Can Valeria find her place on her new team and learn to play like a girl?

For Méndez – author of the Pura Belpré Award-winning Furia – The Beautiful Game is a heartfelt novel that interweaves many themes of family, perseverance, and second chances.

Writers Mentorship Program mentee Amaris Castillo sat down with Méndez, her 2023 middle grade mentor, to discuss The Beautiful Game – out now from Algonquin Young Readers.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Amaris Castillo (AC): Congratulations on The Beautiful Game. I know you’re a lifelong lover of fútbol. What inspired you to write this story?

Yamile Saied Méndez (YSM): It was a very long and winded way to The Beautiful Game. When I was starting to learn how to become a writer, I took an SCBWI intensive with a very famous editor who had edited some of my favorite books. For an in-class assignment I had the image of this girl who was swinging a baseball bat. But she wasn’t a baseball player. I knew that. She was swinging the bat, and she just had this attitude. I remember sharing that piece of writing during that class, and everybody liked it very much. Nothing came of it. 

But the following summer, I was already doing my master’s and I was in the first group that went to a residency in Bath, England. It was also a generative workshop, so I had been excited that I didn’t have to plan anything beforehand. But I knew we were going to have to be writing on the spot. And I remembered this girl with a bat. 

The teachers were Martine Leavitt and Tim Wynne-Jones, who were incredible and gave us guidelines for something on the spot. And I remembered this character, and I had Valeria swinging the bat at a birthday party, to bust the piñata. Her character was just fully formed. I remember during the week of the workshop, we had to expand that scene. And Martine and Tim were telling us we had to put our character in the worst situation we could imagine. And I knew Valeria was an athlete, and so what is the worst thing that could happen to her? And then one thought went to the other, and I’m like, Oh, if she’s playing in an all-boy team, the worst thing could be for her to get her period in the middle of the game. The story just unfolded from that. The Beautiful Game was my creative thesis for my master’s. So during the semester, I worked under Jane Kurtz, who was my advisor. She was so in love with the character that it made me excited every month to submit more pages to her. And that’s how I wrote the whole first draft that year.

AC: Your main character, Valeria “Magic” Salomón, is the star of the Overlords, the top boys’ team in Utah. There’s a reason she’s called Magic. You begin the book by placing her in a boys’ team, which can bring interesting dynamics. What made you want to do that?

YSM: I’m very involved in children’s sports. All my children have played – boys and girls. Up until the teenage years, it’s not uncommon to see co-ed teams. As children get older, you see fewer and fewer girls. My son is 12 and, in his very last game last year, there was a girl on the rival team. So up until that age, you will still see a girl or two. It never is a problem until the teenage years when, if there is not a girls team available, they have to quit. That’s what happens in a lot of small schools or small towns that don’t have girls sports available. If they’re lucky, they can switch to an all-girl team. But then there are other complications, where some of the other girl teams have been playing together for a few years already, and then the newcomer has to make her place and earn her spot. That’s what happens to Valeria. So my inspiration was real life, and things that I see two or three times a week on the soccer pitch.

AC: Valeria’s abuelo is her coach. He’s raising Magic with his wife – Valeria’s abuela, Lita. Abuelo is super rough around the edges. The relationship between Magic and her grandfather can be difficult at times. What was it like depicting this kind of relationship on the page?

YSM: It was fun [Laughs]. I loved it. They are the same person. They’re both stubborn and opinionated, but they love each other so much. It’s just that they show love in different ways. 

The grandpa is an old-style coach. Many readers, or older readers, will recognize this character because that tough love from coaches wasn’t uncommon. Even during the Olympics, there was this huge talk about how the gymnastics program in the U.S. used to be super strict. Yes, they won a lot of medals, but to the detriment of the mental health of the girls. Now that the style of coaching has changed, we still have beautiful results with the cherry on top of having Olympic gold medalists who have good mental health. 

I wanted to show how her grandpa was one of the remnants of that old style of coaching, and how other generations would have taken it. But not Valeria, who is Gen Alpha. She’s not going to put up with her grandpa’s behavior, so she’s going to talk back. I saw some criticism about that, and I’m happy that it created some conversation on how young people are not going to put up with the treatment that older generations put up with.

AC: During the State Cup semifinal, Valeria gets her period for the first time. It is a big moment, literally on the field. This is not the first time you’ve written about periods. Can you talk about what it was like to set up this pivotal scene in the book? Because Valeria’s period also sets off a sequence of events.

YSM: There are some clues of what’s going to happen beforehand, and I’m hoping my readers – who will hopefully be a little more savvy – will catch the clues that everybody can get except for Valeria. Because she is in denial that she’s going to get her period. Some people in earlier reviews were like, Oh, it was a little dramatic. How could she not know? But this was very intentional. I wanted to show that Valeria was just not paying attention to her body, not paying attention to the clues. Of course the period caught her by surprise, but because she hadn’t been in touch with herself and aware of what was happening… 

I also wanted to put a little bit of emphasis on how the first period experience doesn’t have to be dramatic, or traumatic. The experience is way better when there is information, when children know what a period is all about. Because when we have knowledge, we have the power. Even if we cannot stop it, we can control the situation… I wanted to show how having knowledge is a way for young people to have power over their experience. It doesn’t have to be horrible. It doesn’t have to be super terrible.

AC: In your book there’s also a theme about a kind of estrangement between a daughter and her father. Valeria’s dad is a bit absent from her life. As a reader, it was heartbreaking to read from Valeria’s perspective. What message were you hoping to send by including this in The Beautiful Game?

YSM: I wanted to show how different families can be, because Valeria is being raised by her grandparents. Her biological dad was a teenage dad and he is part of her life, but he’s still learning how to be a dad. But he lives out of state, so it’s complicated. And although Valeria has this very sometimes even toxic relationship with her grandpa, he is the present father in her life. 

I wanted to show that families are complicated, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t love. And as long as there’s love and there’s a desire by all parties to form a relationship, that’s a good start. It doesn’t mean that all has to happen at once.

“The experience is way better when there is information, when children know what a period is all about. Because when we have knowledge, we have the power. Even if we cannot stop it, we can control the situation… I wanted to show how having knowledge is a way for young people to have power over their experience.”

AC: I want to talk about Valeria joining a girls’ team. Her love of the game thrusts her into this completely new environment, where she’s one of many girls – and not the only girl. What were you intentional about in piecing together Valeria’s experience on a girls’ team? Were there aspects of being on a girls’ team that you wanted to show?

YSM: I wanted to show that camaraderie and that funniness and all the emotions that exist in a girls team. Boys are emotional. I have seen this in my own kids’ teams. But they hold their emotions together, like their tears. Girls laugh and cry when they miss a goal, and they cry when they score, and they’re happy. It’s so beautiful to see them show the full spectrum of emotions, and I wanted to show that. I wanted to give Valeria the space to be able to show her emotions. 

In the boy’s team, she’s the best player. And it’s not because she is the girl, or in detriment of being a girl; she’s just the most talented player in that team. When she goes to the girls team, she sees and admires the other girls who play as well. I wanted her to be a little bit insecure, not because of her gender, again, but because of her skills. I wanted her to learn how to play in a team – not to be the individual star. To learn that soccer is a team sport, after all. And so I wanted to show that sometimes girls are pitted against each other. They compete for everything in the world. I feel like society also pits girls and women against each other, and I wanted my character to learn that she’s stronger not when she’s competing with her peers, but when she is collaborating with them. When she is part of the team. So I hope that shows.

AC: It does. What are you hoping readers take away from The Beautiful Game?

YSM: I hope that they have space to talk about uncomfortable topics, like getting your period, growing up, and the other things that come along with growing up. It’s all (about) the social drama. It’s how we change as human beings. 

I hope that, when they close the book, they have the feeling that playing a sport is fun. That’s the main reason human beings play sports: because it’s fun. That’s why I watch them, because I have fun. They give people the opportunity to stretch themselves and achieve things that seem impossible. I think that’s something that we saw at the Olympics, how the world loves to come together to cheer for people who are achieving their dreams. 

And I also hope that they are inspired. Again, it sounds like a cliche and maybe a little cheesy, but I hope that when they close the book, they’re inspired to go and fight for their own dreams… At the end of the day, The Beautiful Game is life itself, more than the sport. And I hope that they’re just excited to live their lives.

---

Yamile Saied Méndez is the author of many books for young readers and adults, including Furia, a Reese’s YA Book Club selection and the 2021 Inaugural Pura Belpré Young Adult Gold Medalist, Where Are You From?, Shaking Up the House, and the Horse Country series, among others. She was born and raised in Rosario, Argentina, but has lived most of her life in a lovely valley surrounded by mountains in Utah. She’s a graduate of Voices of Our Nations (VONA) and the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA Writing for Children and Young Adults program, and a founding member of Las Musas, a marketing collective of Latine writers. Connect with her at yamilesmendez.com or on Instagram @yamilesmendez.

Amaris Castillo is an award-winning journalist, writer, and the creator of Bodega Stories, a series featuring real stories from the corner store. Her writing has appeared in La Galería Magazine, Aster(ix) Journal, Spanglish Voces, PALABRITAS, Dominican Moms Be Like… (part of the Dominican Writers Association’s #DWACuenticos chapbook series), and most recently Quislaona: A Dominican Fantasy Anthology and Sana, Sana: Latinx Pain and Radical Visions for Healing and Justice. Her short story, “El Don,” was a prize finalist for the 2022 Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writers’ Prize by the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival. She is a proud member of Latinx in Publishing’s Writers Mentorship Class of 2023 and lives in Florida with her family.

Most Anticipated September 2024 Releases

Summer is almost coming to a close and it’s about that time to start thinking of Fall activities. We are looking forward to heading to our local bookstores and libraries to add these highly anticipated titles to our reading lists!

The Chainbreakers by Julian Randall | On Sale September 3

All Violet Moon has ever wanted is to be a Reaper captain like her father. Born on the Tides of the Lost, a magical world beneath the waves of the Atlantic Ocean, Violet has spent her life at her father's side rescuing souls lost in the water.

But when a rescue mission turns to disaster after the arrival of the dreaded Children of the Shark, weaponized ghost-sharks who steal the souls for themselves, her father is seized and pulled down into the darkness of the Depths. With no choice for Violet but to inherit the captain's powers and helm the ship as the next in line, it'll be up to her to save her father--if he even still lives--and stop the Children of the Shark before they devour the world.

Tías and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us by Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez | Illustrated by Josie del Castillo | On Sale September 10

Born into a large, close-knit family in Nicaragua, Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez grew up surrounded by strong, kind, funny, sensitive, resilient, judgmental, messy, beautiful women. Whether blood relatives or chosen family, these tías and primas fundamentally shaped her view of the world--and so did the labels that were used to talk about them. The tía loca who is shunned for defying gender roles. The pretty prima put on a pedestal for her European features. The matriarch who is the core of her community but hides all her pain.

In Tías and Primas, the follow-up to her acclaimed debut For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts, Mojica Rodríguez explores these archetypes. Fearlessly grappling with the effects of intergenerational trauma, centuries of colonization, and sexism, she attempts to heal the pain that is so often embodied in female family lines.

First in the Family: A Story of Survival, Recovery, and the American Dream by Jessica Hoppe | On Sale September 10

In this deeply moving and lyrical memoir, Hoppe shares an intimate, courageous account of what it means to truly interrupt cycles of harm. During the first year of quarantine, drug overdoses spiked, the highest ever recorded. And Hoppe's cousin was one of them. "I never learned the true history of substance use disorder in my family," Hoppe writes. "People just disappeared." At the time of her cousin's death, she'd been in recovery for nearly four years, but she hadn't told anyone.

In First in the Family, Hoppe shares her journey, the first in her family to do so, and takes the reader on a remarkable investigation of her family's history, the American Dream, and the erasure of BIPOC from recovery institutions and narratives, leaving the reader with an urgent message of hope.

A Sunny Place for Shady People: Stories by Mariana Enriquez | Translated by Megan McDowell | On Sale September 17

On the shores of this river, all the birds that fly, drink, perch on branches, and disturb siestas with the demonic squawking of the possessed--all those birds were once women.

Welcome to Argentina and the fascinating, frightening, fantastical imagination of Mariana Enriquez. In twelve spellbinding new stories, Enriquez writes about ordinary people, especially women, whose lives turn inside out when they encounter terror, the surreal, and the supernatural. A neighborhood nuisanced by ghosts, a family whose faces melt away, a faded hotel haunted by a girl who dissolved in the water tank on the roof, a riverbank populated by birds that used to be women--these and other tales illuminate the shadows of contemporary life, where the line between good and evil no longer exists.

Book Review: 'The Curse of the Flores Women' by Angélica Lopes

In the pages of The Curse of The Flores Women by Angelica Lopes, the reader becomes drawn into a tale as old as time. A tale of women fighting to break the limitations of society. Steeped in tradition of their homeland and the pressure of being a woman in a man’s world, we are captivated by the beauty of the story of the Flores women. As the story opens we meet Alicia, who may seem to most as an angst-filled young woman. It is soon revealed that there is something she must fight to overcome. Tradition, self sacrifice, classism, and even the binds of her own female family members’ subordination to men. All of this binds her to a life she does not wish to live. All of the restrictions seem an insurmountable task for Alicia to undertake. Her story would be interesting all on its own, however Lopes crafts it into one that seems to transcend time and space to give us the story of generations of Flores women. One woman starts the story off and it falls into the hands of our current character Alicia, who unbeknownst to her, she now holds in her hands what may seem like an ordinary veil, it is in fact so much more than that. In her hands she now holds the key to what her ancestry withstood so she could become who she is meant to be. 

What starts as the tale of one young woman’s fight to be a nonconformist to society and its patriarchal stances, every facet of this young woman’s life turns into one of discovery, of what the women of her ancestral lineage have coursing through their veins. Courage, strength, and perseverance, which are only some of the wondrous qualities of these women, and that help to fuel their lives. Starting as a way to secretly share her story with others through the folds of some unassuming hand-sewn lace, a generational tale unravels before our eyes. The reader can empathize with these characters as it seems as if many females of today's society are still fighting for basic human rights. Today we are fighting for bodily autonomy and the right to privacy between ourselves and our doctors without fear of breaking a law or facing criminal offense charges. Gone are many traditions of old, and rightfully so because they would not be acceptable in today's society, yet some still rear their ugly and old-fashioned tentacles, making it seem as if we have made little to no progress for the feminist cause.

The Curse of the Flores Women takes the reader through some heart-wrenching moments, but there are still some other joyous times to share as well. The novel will allow you to see some of the trials and tribulations that have plagued women since the beginning of time. This book, even though it is a work of fiction, seems very much able to capture what life as a woman is like, from the past to the present day. The challenges from one era to another may be different, however the struggle is very much the same. Like learning the act of lace-making, its fragile threading, to its intricate and detailed designs, so are the lives of these characters. Women, not just Flores women, faced and continue to face societal pressures, as well as familial boundaries that try to limit the growth of womankind. It is with a whole heart and resounding “yes” that I recommend this book. I feel that as you read the last sentence of the last chapter you will be glad to have read this wonderful work of words. Regardless of your gender, you will walk a way with a better understanding of just what has plagued women and how to be an ally to women. Happy reading.

---

Angela “Angie” Ybarra- Soria is a book reviewer, activist, mixed media artist, writer and entrepreneur. An obstacle that may have stood in her way happened in 2013, she suffered 4 brain bleeds and emergency brain surgery, Angela however likes to think of herself as a TBI THRIVER. Angie is a recent graduate of Northeastern Illinois University where she studied Latinx American Studies and Urban Development. Angela has been an advocate for stopping gentrification within brown and Black communities of Chicago. Angela enjoys spending her down time with her grandchildren and introducing them to the sights of the city where she was born and raised. Being of Mexican descent has prompted her to research much about the rich culture of her ancestral heritage. Angela plans to continue her education by pursuing her Masters Degree in Urban Studies to further allow her to better assist communities that have for generations been, or worse, still marginalized.

September 2024 Latinx Releases

Latinx in Publishing is very excited to see so many books coming out this month. So much so, that we changed up our book release post for the month to show you all the exciting new titles. Be sure to click on these titles to learn more and add them to your TBR!

On Sale September 3

On Sale September 10

On Sale September 17

On Sale September 24

On Sale September 30