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.

The Story Behind ‘Doña Fela’s Dream’

Monica Brown believes there are many ways to structure a picture book biography. So in her forthcoming book about Felisa Rincón de Gautier, the author chose to begin at a pivotal moment in the life of Puerto Rico’s first female mayor.

“The people of La Perla were scared. The winds blew fiercely, and dark clouds swirled in the sky,” Brown writes. “A tropical storm headed toward the island of Puerto Rico.”

Depicted on the first spread are Rosa Ibarra’s illustrations of people fleeing wooden shacks, the ocean thrashing behind them. Brown wrote that there was only one place they could count on. Soon, a group of La Perla’s residents were at the door of Felisa Rincón de Gautier – who was affectionately known as Doña Fela.

Out on Sept. 3 from Little, Brown for Young Readers, Doña Fela’s Dream: The Story of Puerto Rico's First Female Mayor is the inspiring story of a woman who broke barriers on the island and cared deeply about her fellow Puerto Ricans. Doña Fela, known for her devotion to public welfare, died in 1994 at age 97.

Doña Fela’s Dream can be added to the list of picture book biographies Brown has written over the span of her publishing career. The award-winning author described the process behind this book as a collaborative journey. Brown began researching the late political figure after Nikki García (her longtime editor at Little, Brown & Company) shared her passion for Doña Fela’s legacy. “The more I delved into the life of a woman who broke political barriers and embodied compassion and care as the first female mayor of a capital city in the Americas, the more I agreed with Nikki,” Brown said in an email. 

After many conversations, Brown said she agreed to take on the project.

“I want children to believe and know they have a voice in our world,” she added. “As a person deeply concerned about our political systems, I’ve wanted to use my work to shine the light on models of ethical leaders, of activism, of organizing, and justice-oriented citizenship.”

For illustrator Rosa Ibarra, the invitation to join the project was a very pleasant surprise. She received the invitation by email and mistakenly took it for spam. “And then I called them, and it was a real, real thing – to illustrate the book,” Ibarra recalled.

The book’s subject held even greater meaning to the fine artist from Puerto Rico.

“I was so happy,” Ibarra told Latinx in Publishing. “Doña Fela was our neighbor in San Juan.”

As a child, Ibarra remembers seeing Doña Fela surrounded by children and people of all levels of wealth and education. She said the mayor was loved by residents of La Perla, by other politicians and by foreigners. 

Ibarra said Old San Juan used to be a very residential area, unlike the tourist area it’s now known as. She recalls playing outside with other children. Whenever they got thirsty, they’d pay a visit to Doña Fela’s house because it was even closer than their own homes. They’d ask her for water.

““I want children to believe and know they have a voice in our world,” she added. “As a person deeply concerned about our political systems, I’ve wanted to use my work to shine the light on models of ethical leaders, of activism, of organizing, and justice-oriented citizenship.””

“And then she would, so many times, invite us over to have lemonade,” Ibarra said. “And then we’d thank her, and continue playing. That was the kind of woman she was. She was a big woman, tall, and then she had her hair in these big hairstyles. And so for us little, we looked up at her. She was big. Imponente, you know?”

Brown said she and her editor looked at many talented artists, and Ibarra was her first and only choice. “Her art spoke to me because the women depicted in Rosa’s paintings radiate strength, complexity, and grace,” she said. “I was drawn to her lush use of color, her pure and accessible composition, and her use of light to make figures and faces sing.”

Brown added that her late mother was a painter. In an increasingly digitized world, Brown confessed that it is “still a thrill” to work with an artist whose medium is paint-brush, pigment, and canvas. 

Ibarra used oil paint on canvas to render the illustrations for the book. She drew the distinction between illustrator and artist. “It’s fantastic what an illustrator can do. All my respect to the profession,” she said. “Because as artists, we can make whatever we want and that’s it. But an illustrator has to be very specific, and capture the essence of the writer.”

The artist said some images came very clear when she read Brown’s text, such as the storm scene in the beginning of the story. Ibarra said she would submit a sketch to the publisher and they would approve it before she began painting.

In Doña Fela’s Dream, the tall woman with braids in her hair and a flower behind her ear let the residents of La Perla in her home amid the brewing tropical storm. When local officials refused to open a shelter, Doña Fela declared she would do it herself. Others encouraged her to try to become San Juan’s mayor. But at the time, the city had never seen a female mayor. Compounding this was the fact that Doña Fela had been born before women in Puerto Rico were allowed to vote.

“Felisa’s father believed that women had no place in politics and that it was up to the men to solve Puerto Rico’s problems,” Brown writes. “But even as a young girl, Felisa disagreed.”

The rest is, as they say, history.

Brown said she hopes young readers will open the pages of this book and “go on a journey across the island of Puerto Rico and into the mind and heart of a remarkable woman, who persisted despite the limitations of her era—and people saying no.” She hopes young readers believe in their own voice and power.

Ibarra said she hopes those who read Doña Fela’s Dream will become familiar with a Puerto Rican woman who was ahead of her time. “We have famous people out there that not everybody knows about. And so thanks to Monica that Doña Fela will be known,” she said. “Her [Doña Fela’s] commitment to the community is very inspiring.”

Ibarra added that they illustrated only a portion of the cherished politician’s contributions. Doña Fela, she said, did so much more.

---

Monica Brown, Ph.D. is the author of many award winning books for children, including Waiting for the Biblioburro and Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match/Marisol McDonald no combina. Her books have received starred reviews, Pura Belpre honors, an NCTE Orbis Pictus honor, Americas Awards, and a Christopher Award. Monica’s books are inspired by her Peruvian and Jewish heritage and her desire to bring diverse stories to children. Monica is a professor of English at Northern Arizona University, where she teaches multicultural literature. She lives in Arizona with her husband and two daughters, and she invites you to visit her website at monicabrown.net.

Rosa Ibarra is a fine artist who works in oils, interweaving thick layers of paint to convey the vibration of light and to build texture and design. Born in Puerto Rico, she spent her childhood in Old San Juan. She received a degree of Fine Arts from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and exhibits her work in galleries and museums in the United States and abroad. She invites you to visit her online at rosaibarra.com. 

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 July 2024 Releases

Summer is officially here! We hope you take some time to rest, enjoy the sun, and with it, a good book. Check out our most anticipated releases and make sure to pick up one (or more – we won’t judge) of these books to enjoy while on your summer adventures. 

The Next Best Fling by Gabriella Gamez

There’s no better way to combat the heat than with more heat, and this debut romance novel brings just that!

Librarian Marcela Ortiz has been secretly in love with her best friend for years—and when he gets engaged, she knows she needs to move on. But before she gets the chance, she must deal with a bigger problem: Theo Young, ex-NFL player and older brother of the man she’s in love with. When she discovers Theo's plans to confess his feelings for his brother’s fiancée at their engagement party, Marcela convinces him to sleep off his drunken almost-mistake at her place. But when they arrive at a family brunch the next day together, everyone wrongly assumes they hooked up.

Theo needs a cover for his feelings for the bride and Marcela needs a distraction from her feelings for the groom, so they decide to roll with the lie. Until one night, they take it a step further and begin a rebound relationship that may be working a little too well. 

How to Eat a Mango by Paola Santos|Illustrated by Juliana Perdomo

Carmencita doesn’t want to help Abuelita pick mangoes; she doesn’t even like them!

But Abuelita adores mangoes, and patiently, she teaches Carmencita the right way to eat them. Together, they listen to the tree’s leaves, feel its branches and roots, and smell and feel the sweet, smooth fruits. Each step is a meditation on everything Mamá Earth has given, and in the Earth’s love, Carmencita feels the love of her family.

When they finally bite in, Carmencita understands. The mangoes are more than just mangoes… and she’s ready for another!

How to Eat a Mango’s delicious story and artwork will leave you craving the sweet golden fruit, a perfect snack for this time of year. 

Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

When Catalina is admitted to Harvard, it feels like the fulfillment of destiny: a miracle child escapes death in Latin America, moves to Queens to be raised by her undocumented grandparents, and becomes one of the chosen. But nothing is simple for Catalina. Now a senior, she faces graduation to a world that has no place for the undocumented.

She infiltrates the school’s elite subculture and is both fascinated and repulsed. Craving a great romance, Catalina finds herself drawn to a fellow student, a budding anthropologist eager to teach her about the Latin American world she was born into but never knew, even as her life back in Queens begins to unravel. And every day, the clock ticks closer to the abyss of life after graduation. Can she save her family? Can she save herself? What does it mean to be saved?

Brash and daring, Catalina is sure to pull you in until the very last page. 

My Mother Cursed My Name by Anamely Salgado Reyes 

For generations, the Olivares women have sought to control their daughters’ destinies, starting with their names. In life, Olvido constantly clashed with her carefree daughter. Then teenage Angustias discovered she was pregnant and left her mother’s home in search of her own. Ten years later, Felicitas finally meets her estranged grandmother and is terribly disappointed when Olvido is nothing like a grandmother should be. She is strict, cold, and…dead.

Now, Olvido is convinced the only way her spirit will cross over is if she resolves her unfinished business—to make sure Angustias is in a better place regarding family, job, husband, and God—and Felicitas is the only person who can see or hear her. 

As Olvido attempts to puppeteer her granddaughter to “fix” Angustias’s life from beyond the grave, all three Olivares girls are forced to learn how to actually listen to one another and learn the true definition of home.

My Mother Cursed My Name is a charming and magical journey you won’t want to miss!

---

Elizabeth Cervantes is a proud Mexican book lover. She has a bachelor’s in Multimedia Journalism from the University of Texas at El Paso and is currently working on obtaining her master’s in Publishing at Pace University. When she is not studying and reading for her classes, you can find her crying, swooning, or locking her doors while reading children’s books, romance novels, and mysteries/thrillers.

6 Latinx Books to Read This Pride Month

Happy Pride Month! Celebrate with us by reading one of these amazing titles featuring LGBTQIA+ characters written by Latinx members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Make sure to add the rest to your TBR list to read later, because we should be reading LGBTQIA+ literature all year round. 

When We Love Someone We Sing to Them: Cuando Amamos Cantamos by Ernesto Javier Martínez|Illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez|Translated by Jorge Gabriel Martínez Feliciano

When We Love Someone We Sing to Them is a bilingual picture book about the Mexican tradition of singing to family and loved ones and a young boy who asks his father if there is a song for a boy who loves a boy. Reframing a treasured cultural tradition, this story perfectly brings tradition and inclusion into the conversation.

The One Who Loves You the Most by medina

I have never felt like I belonged to my body. Never in the way rhythm belongs to a song or waves belong to an ocean.

It seems like most people figure out where they belong by knowing where they came from. When they look in the mirror, they see their family in their eyes, in their sharp jawlines, in the texture of their hair. When they look at family photos, they see faces of people who look like them. They see faces of people who they'll look like in the future.

For me, I only have my imagination.

But I'm always trying.

Twelve-year-old Gabriela is trying to find their place in the world. In their body, which feels less and less right with each passing day. As an adoptee, in their all-white family. With their mom, whom they love fiercely and do anything they can to help with her depression. And at school, where they search for friends.

A new year will bring a school project, trans and queer friends, and a YouTube channel that help Gabriela find purpose in their journey. 

This Is Me Trying by Racquel Marie

Growing up, Bryce, Beatriz, and Santiago were inseparable. But when Santiago moved away before high school, their friendship crumbled. Three years later, Bryce is gone, Beatriz is known as the dead boy’s girlfriend, and Santiago is back.

The last thing Beatriz wants is to reunite with Santiago, who left all her messages unanswered while she drowned alone in grief over Bryce’s death by suicide. Even if she wasn’t angry, Santiago’s attempts to make amends are jeopardizing her plan to keep the world at arm’s length―equal parts protection and punishment―and she swore to never let anyone try that again.

Santiago is surprised to find the once happy-go-lucky Bea is now the gothic town loner, though he’s unsurprised she wants nothing to do with him. But he can’t fix what he broke between them while still hiding what led him to cut her off in the first place, and it’s harder to run from his past when he isn’t states away anymore.

The Luis Ortega Survival Club by Sonora Reyes 

Ariana Ruiz wants to be noticed. But as an autistic girl who never talks, she goes largely ignored by her peers—despite her bold fashion choices. So when cute, popular Luis starts to pay attention to her, Ari finally feels seen.

Luis’s attention soon turns to something more, and they have sex at a party—while Ari didn’t say no, she definitely didn’t say yes. Before she has a chance to process what happened and decide if she even has the right to be mad at Luis, the rumor mill begins churning—thanks, she’s sure, to Luis’s ex-girlfriend, Shawni. Boys at school now see Ari as an easy target, someone who won’t say no. 

Then Ari finds a mysterious note in her locker that eventually leads her to a group of students determined to expose Luis for the predator he is. To her surprise, she finds genuine friendship among the group, including her growing feelings for the very last girl she expected to fall for. But in order to take Luis down, she’ll have to come to terms with the truth of what he did to her that night—and risk everything to see justice done.

A Tiny Piece of Something Greater by Jude Sierra

Reid Watsford has a lot of secrets and a past he can’t quite escape. While staying at his grandmother’s condo in Key Largo, he signs up for introductory dive classes, where he meets Joaquim Oliveira, a Brazilian dive instructor with wanderlust. Driven by an instant, magnetic pull, what could have been just a hookup quickly deepens. As their relationship evolves, they must learn to navigate the challenges of Reid’s mental illness—on their own and with each other.

Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis

In 1977 Uruguay, a military government crushed political dissent with ruthless force. In this environment, where the everyday rights of people are under attack, homosexuality is a dangerous transgression to be punished. And yet Romina, Flaca, Anita "La Venus," Paz, and Malena—five cantoras, women who "sing"—somehow, miraculously, find one another. Together, they discover an isolated, nearly uninhabited cape, Cabo Polonio, which they claim as their secret sanctuary. Over the next thirty-five years, their lives move back and forth between Cabo Polonio and Montevideo, the city they call home, as they return, sometimes together, sometimes in pairs, with lovers in tow, or alone. And throughout, again and again, the women will be tested—by their families, lovers, society, and one another—as they fight to live authentic lives.

Cantoras is a breathtaking portrait of queer love, community, forgotten history, and the strength of the human spirit.

---

Elizabeth Cervantes is a proud Mexican book lover. She has a bachelor’s in Multimedia Journalism from the University of Texas at El Paso and is currently working on obtaining her master’s in Publishing at Pace University. When she is not studying and reading for her classes, you can find her crying, swooning, or locking her doors while reading children’s books, romance novels, and mysteries/thrillers.

Best Books of the Year (So Far) According to Latinx in Publishing.

The halfway mark of 2024 is here! So many great books have come out this year, and we are excited to share some of our top picks as we approach summer. Be sure to add these to your TBR!

The Things We Didn't Know by Elba Iris Pérez | ADULT FICTION

"Pérez's debut novel will resonate with readers who grew up in two worlds and tried to find stability in both.  From Massachusetts to Puerto Rico and back again, her young heroine Andrea struggles with identity, gender roles, and the angst of growing up.  Not to mention family dramas galore, betrayals and prejudice for being a brown family in a white town. The writing is authentic and engrossing."

--Maria Ferrer, Events Director

Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez | ADULT FICTION

"Anita de Monte is a talented Latina artist breaking through the white, male-centered New York art world of the 1980s (inspired by the true tragic story of Cuban-born artist Ana Mendieta). Raquel Toro is a first gen Puerto Rican college student at Brown nearly two decades later. With two timelines and multiple POVs, readers will connect with these  two women facing parallel questions about who belongs and who gets to tell their stories."

--Stefanie Sanchez Von Borstel, Fellowship Director

The Great Divide by Cristina Henriquez | ADULT FICTION

"This is a gorgeous, important historical novel about the construction of the Panama Canal, but more deeply about progress and humanity and where the two meet. Henríquez's prose swept me up and her characters enthralled me to the very end."

--Toni Kirkpatrick, Board Secretary

The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James | ADULT FICTION

"There are various hard-won lessons I learned in reading this sprawling family saga in the dead of winter (for Los Angeles standards), though I mentally spent most of it in the oppressive desert heat of Mexico and Texas with El Tragabalas, strapped onto a horse of some kind. This is a book that pointedly asks how -- and when -- do we pay for our ancestral sins? The Bullet Swallower almost has you believe you can outrun fate, just because there are so many close calls."

--Andrea Morales, Fellowship and Writers Mentorship Director

5 Latinx Books Showcasing Supportive Father Figures

With Father’s Day just around the corner, reflecting on the father figures in our lives is inevitable. Here is a list of books that show the beautiful, and sometimes complex, relationships we have with them. 

My Papi Has a Motorcycle by Isabel Quintero|Illustrated by Zeke Peña 

When Daisy Ramona zooms around her neighborhood with her papi on his motorcycle, she sees the people and places she's always known. She also sees a community that is rapidly changing around her.

But as the sun sets purple-blue-gold behind Daisy Ramona and her papi, she knows that the love she feels will always be there.

With vivid illustrations and text bursting with heart, My Papi Has a Motorcycle is a young girl's love letter to her hardworking dad and to memories of home that we hold close in the midst of change.

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.

Stef Soto, Taco Queen by Jennifer Torres

Tacos. Burritos. Guacamole. Estefania "Stef" Soto is itching to shake off the onion-and-cilantro embrace of Tia Perla, her family's taco truck. Although Papi is always ready to comfort her with his food, Stef wants nothing more than for him to get a normal job and for the taco truck to be a distant memory. Then maybe everyone at school will stop calling her the Taco Queen.

But when her family's livelihood is threatened, and it looks like her wish will finally come true, Stef surprises everyone (including herself) by becoming the truck's unlikely champion. In this fun and heartfelt novel, Stef will discover what matters most and ultimately embrace her identity, even if it includes old Tia Perla.

Ander & Santi Were Here by Jonny Garza Villa

Finding home. Falling in love. Fighting to belong.

The Santos Vista neighborhood of San Antonio, Texas, is all Ander Martínez has ever known. The smell of pan dulce. The mixture of Spanish and English filling the streets. And, especially their job at their family's taquería. It's the place that has inspired Ander as a muralist, and, as they get ready to leave for art school, it's all of these things that give them hesitancy. That give them the thought, are they ready to leave it all behind?

To keep Ander from becoming complacent during their gap year, their family "fires" them so they can transition from restaurant life to focusing on their murals and prepare for college. That is, until they meet Santiago López Alvarado, the hot new waiter. Falling for each other becomes as natural as breathing. Through Santi's eyes, Ander starts to understand who they are and want to be as an artist, and Ander becomes Santi's first steps toward making Santos Vista and the United States feel like home.

Until ICE agents come for Santi, and Ander realizes how fragile that sense of home is. How love can only hold on so long when the whole world is against them. And when, eventually, the world starts to win.

Featuring a dad who undoubtedly supports his children’s preferences and decisions, Ander & Santi Were Here will warm up your heart this Father’s Day. 

The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea

"All we do, mija, is love. Love is the answer. Nothing stops it. Not borders. Not death."

In his final days, beloved and ailing patriarch Miguel Angel de La Cruz, affectionately called Big Angel, has summoned his entire clan for one last legendary birthday party. But as the party approaches, his mother, nearly one hundred, dies, transforming the weekend into a farewell doubleheader. Among the guests is Big Angel's half brother, known as Little Angel, who must reckon with the truth that although he shares a father with his siblings, he has not, as a half gringo, shared a life.

Across two bittersweet days in their San Diego neighborhood, the revelers mingle among the palm trees and cacti, celebrating the lives of Big Angel and his mother, and recounting the many inspiring tales that have passed into family lore, the acts both ordinary and heroic that brought these citizens to a fraught and sublime country and allowed them to flourish in the land they have come to call home.

---

Elizabeth Cervantes is a proud Mexican book lover. She has a bachelor’s in Multimedia Journalism from the University of Texas at El Paso and is currently working on obtaining her master’s in Publishing at Pace University. When she is not studying and reading for her classes, you can find her crying, swooning, or locking her doors while reading children’s books, romance novels, and mysteries/thrillers.

Most Anticipated June 2024 Releases

We’ve hit the mid-year mark (crazy, right?), and the great books keep coming. Here are some of our most anticipated releases for June that would look lovely on your TBR list 😉.

Isabel and The Rogue by Liana De la Rosa

The second installment of the Luna Sisters series is finally here! This is the perfect read for all romance lovers, regardless of whether you’ve read the first book (Ana María and The Fox) or not.

Isabel Luna Valdés has long since resigned herself to being the “forgotten” Luna sister. But thanks to familial connections to the Mexican ambassador in London, wallflower Isabel is poised to unearth any British intelligence hidden by the ton that might aid Mexico during the French Occupation. Though she slips easily from crowded ballrooms into libraries and private studies, Isabel’s search is hampered by trysting couples and prowling rogues—including the rakish Captain Sirius Dawson.

The Sons of El Rey by Alex Espinoza

As June is also Pride Month, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to highlight this powerful title exploring LGBTQIA+ themes.

Ernesto Vega has lived many lives, from pig farmer to construction worker to famed luchador El Rey Coyote, yet he has always worn a mask. He was discovered by a local lucha libre trainer at a time when luchadores—Mexican wrestlers donning flamboyant masks and capes—were treated as daredevils or rock stars. Ernesto found fame, rapidly gaining name recognition across Mexico, but at great expense, nearly costing him his marriage to his wife Elena.

Years later, in East Los Angeles, his son, Freddy Vega, is struggling to save his father’s gym while Freddy’s own son, Julian, is searching for professional and romantic fulfillment as a Mexican American gay man refusing to be defined by stereotypes.

Brownstone by Samuel Teer | Illustrated by Mar Julia

Almudena has always wondered about the dad she never met.

Now, with her white mother headed on a once-in-a-lifetime trip without her, she’s left alone with her Guatemalan father for an entire summer. Xavier seems happy to see her, but he expects her to live in (and help fix up) his old, broken-down brownstone. And all along, she must navigate the language barrier of his rapid-fire Spanish—which she doesn’t speak.

As Almudena tries to adjust to this new reality, she gets to know the residents of Xavier’s Latin American neighborhood. Each member of the community has their own joys and heartbreaks as well as their own strong opinions on how this young Latina should talk, dress, and behave. Some can’t understand why she doesn’t know where she comes from. Others think she’s “not brown enough” to fit in.

Fixing a broken building is one thing, but turning these stubborn individuals into a found family might take more than this one summer.

Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima

At a Halloween party in 1999, a writer slept with the devil. She sees him again and again throughout her life and she writes stories for him about things that are both impossible and true.

Lima lures readers into surreal pockets of the United States and Brazil where they’ll find bite-size Americans in vending machines and the ghosts of people who are not dead. Once there, she speaks to modern Brazilian-American immigrant experiences–of ambition, fear, longing, and belonging―and reveals the porousness of storytelling and of the places we call home.

With humor, an exquisite imagination, and a voice praised as “singular and wise and fresh” (Cathy Park Hong), Lima joins the literary lineage of Bulgakov and Lispector and the company of writers today like Ted Chiang, Carmen Maria Machado, and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah.

With nine stories, Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil is perfect for readers looking to get spooked.

---

Elizabeth Cervantes is a proud Mexican book lover. She has a bachelor’s in Multimedia Journalism from the University of Texas at El Paso and is currently working on obtaining her master’s in Publishing at Pace University. When she is not studying and reading for her classes, you can find her crying, swooning, or locking her doors while reading children’s books, romance novels, and mysteries/thrillers.

5 Books to Read for AAPI Heritage Month

Happy Asian American Pacific Islander and Heritage Month! Celebrate with us by reading one of these five amazing books by Asian Latinx authors.

Between Words: A Friendship Tale by Saki Tanaka

Kai is used to following the seasons with Pa, from place to new place where people speak languages unfamiliar to his ears. When they finally settle in a valley full of pools, Kai tries to invite the other children to join in his play, but the strangeness of his words drives them away. Frustrated, he kicks his most treasured stone into one of the pools and in his search for it, finds something even more valuable.

Between Words is a whimsical tale of unexpected friendship by Mexican-Japanese author-illustrator Saki Tanaka.

Café Con Lychee by Emery Lee

Theo Mori and Gabriel Moreno have always been at odds. Their parents own rival businesses—an Asian American café and a Puerto Rican bakery—and Gabi’s lack of coordination has cost their soccer team too many games to count.

Stuck in the closet and scared to pursue his own dreams, Gabi sees his family’s shop as his future. Stuck under the weight of his parents’ expectations, Theo’s best shot at leaving Vermont means first ensuring his parents’ livelihood is secure. 

So when a new fusion café threatens both shops, Theo and Gabi realize an unfortunate truth—they can only achieve their goals by working together to cook up an underground snack operation and win back their customers. But can they put aside their differences long enough to save their parents’ shops, or will the new feelings between them boil over?

Café Con Lychee is the perfect next read by a Black, Asian, and Latinx author for all rom-com lovers.

Twice a Quinceañera by Yamile Saied Méndez

One month short of her wedding day—and her thirtieth birthday—Nadia Palacio finds herself standing up to her infuriating, cheating fiancé for the first time in . . . well, ever. But that same courage doesn’t translate to breaking the news to her Argentinian family. She’s hyperventilating before facing them when she glimpses a magazine piece about a Latina woman celebrating herself—with a second quinceañera, aka Sweet 15! And that gives Nadia a brilliant idea . . .

With a wedding venue already paid for, and family from all over the world with plane tickets, Nadia is determined to create her own happily-ever-after. Since the math adds up perfectly, she’ll celebrate her treintañera, her double quinces. As the first professional in her family, raising a glass to her achievements is the best plan she’s had in years. Until she discovers that the man in charge of the venue is none other than her college fling that became far more than a fling. And he looks even more delicious than a three-tiered cake . . .

From an Argentinian American author of Syrian Lebanese descent, Twice a Quinceañera is a fun story about what it really means to come into your own.

El verano largo by Sui Kam Wen

In El verano largo, an author’s alter ego looks back on his memories as a college student – the street; the dictatorship; the friendships; the love; the silence; the loneliness; the discovery of a new world; the changes in Lima, Peru brought by migration; the social upheaval that changed Peru; family; and love again. 

Originally in Spanish, Peruvian-Chinese author Sui Kam Wem explores how a life without love is like a year without summer.

The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez

The Vulnerables offers a meditation on our contemporary era, as a solitary female narrator asks what it means to be alive during the COVID-19 pandemic and considers how our present reality affects the way a person looks back on her past.

Humor, to be sure, is a priceless refuge. Equally vital is connection with others, who here include an adrift member of Gen Z and a spirited parrot named Eureka. The Vulnerables reveals what happens when strangers are willing to open their hearts to each other and how far even small acts of caring can go to ease another’s distress. A search for understanding about some of the most critical matters of our time, Nunez’s novel is also an inquiry into the nature and purpose of writing itself.

---

Elizabeth Cervantes is a proud Mexican book lover. She has a bachelor’s in Multimedia Journalism from the University of Texas at El Paso and is currently working on obtaining her master’s in Publishing at Pace University. When she is not studying and reading for her classes, you can find her crying, swooning, or locking her doors while reading children’s books, romance novels, and mysteries/thrillers.

May 2024 Latinx Releases

On Sale May 6

The Harvest by Diego Rauda | ADULT FICTION

After a nightmare about a disembodied, skinless head calling him from under the bed, Daniel woke with a jolt, but managed to fall asleep again with little effort. He was used to these hellish visions-- while asleep. Now the visions have started to cross over to his waking life, and it's game over. As he tries to bury the feeling that he's being stalked by an unseen force, one of his closest friends takes their own life in front of Daniel, but only after blaming him and " the dragon he carries." While he races to elucidate a mystery that recedes before him, the people closest to Daniel continue to die in perverse circumstances. Against his better judgment, Daniel follows the thread which connects these deaths in order to discover the truth.

Bad Seed: Stories by Gabriel Carle | SHORT STORIES

The visceral, wildly imaginative stories in Bad Seed flick through working-class scenes of contemporary Puerto Rico, where friends and lovers melt into and defy their surroundings--night clubs, ruined streets, cramped rooms with cockroaches moving in the walls. A horny high schooler spends his summer break in front of the TV; a queer love triangle unravels on the emblematic theater steps of the University of Puerto Rico; a group of friends get high and watch San Juan burn from atop a clocktower; an HIV positive college student works the night shift at a local bathhouse. At turns playful and heartbreaking, Bad Seed is the long overdue English-language debut of one of Puerto Rico's most exciting up-and-coming writers.

American Abductions by Mauro Javier Cardenas | ADULT FICTION

American Abductions opens in a near-future United States whose omnipresence of data-harvesting and algorithms has enabled the mass incarceration and deportation of Latin Americans--regardless of citizenship. After their father is abducted by immigration officials before their eyes and deported to Colombia, Ada and her sister Eva are left to contend with a United States as all-seeing as it is hostile. Now adults, Ada remains in San Francisco while Eva has joined their father in Colombia, tending him in his ailing health. When his condition worsens, Eva asks Ada to come see them: a nearly impossible feat, given the United States' restrictions on Latin Americans' movements. Ada, terribly alone, must come to terms with the violence of American society and the grief of lost community. Exploring the role of technology, mass society, and American expectations on how Latin American deportees should tell their stories, the novel delves into the ties, memories, and lines of code binding communities together.

The Mango Chronicle by Ricardo José González-Rothi | MEMOIR

He leaves his birthplace during a nuclear missile crisis. As a refugee in a foreign land he struggles to adjust to a new set of life circumstances. The author recollects his childhood in his Cuban barrio from the eyes of a child, and then decades later, from the vantage of a grown adult. From stealing a rowboat and being nearly capsized by a Russian tanker, to befriending an old fisherman who tells him a haunting tale, to being bullied by a neighborhood thug, to cockfights gone wrong, to witnessing the plight of political prisoners during an invasion, to dealing with the injustices of growing up in a machismo and homophobic culture, he had led a Cuban Huck Finn childhood. Arriving in an at-times unwelcoming culture, he struggles to assimilate while preserving his native soul. Eventually he finds redemption upon circling back to his roots when he returns to the island.

The Perfect Place by Matt de la Peña | Illustrated by Paola Escobar | PICTURE BOOK

Lucas goes to the perfect school in the perfect neighborhood. But life at home is not so perfect. His dad's old work truck stalls in front of the school. The electricity is out when he gets home, and he doesn't even have time to show his mom his report (on which he received a perfect score) before she rushes off to her night job.

That night, Lucas dreams of a strange light, which he follows down the fire escape, into the alleyway, clear out of his neighborhood, all the way to the place where the perfect people live. Everything there is more beautiful than he could have imagined. But is it possible things aren't as perfect as they seem?

This lyrical, richly illustrated picture book highlights the beauty to be found in even the humblest of homes and in a family that may not be materially rich but is rich in love.

La Guitarrista by Lucky Diaz | Illustrated by Micah Player | Translated by Carmen Tafolla |PICTURE BOOK

Strum! Strum! Strum! Get ready to rock with la guitarrista!

When Canta finds a guitar in the trash, she is one step closer to becoming a rock star. Even though the guitar is broken and she doesn't know how to play, nothing can stop Canta from going after her dreams!

Perfect for fans of Because and We Will Rock Our Classmates, La Guitarrista, The Rock Star will have readers rocking out to this empowering tale of resilience, community, the power of music--and never giving up on your dreams.

Includes an author's note from Lucky Diaz and a link to the Lucky Band's song inspired by the book. Also available in Spanish.

Los Monstruos: Rooster and the Dancing Diablo by Diana López | MIDDLE GRADE

The magical town of Tres Leches, home to the figures of Texas-Mexico border lore, has been through a lot. Most recently, the town was released from a curse that kept La Llorona, the wailing woman, haunting the shores of their river. But just when the townsfolk were preparing to return to sunny riverside picnics and barbecues, the children of Tres Leches mysteriously began to go missing. The town suspects another monstruo, the Dancing Devil, is luring kids to El Camarón Dance Hall & Arcade. The Dancing Devil's son, Rooster, who has a foot in both the human and monster worlds, feels compelled to lead the search for the missing children with the help of his friends, Ava (the daughter of La Lechuza) and Felice (the daughter of La Llorona). Their journey takes them to an old gothic mansion with a twisted family history and a pull so powerful that it's nearly impossible to resist.

Picking up where Felice and the Wailing Woman left off, Rooster and the Dancing Diablo brims with magic, adventure, and Mexican folklore, and is perfect for fans of fantasy adventure series like Paola Santiago by Tehlor Kay Mejia and the Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste.

América del Norte by Nicolás Medina Mora | ADULT FICTION

Sebastián lived a childhood of privilege in Mexico City. Now in his twenties, he has a degree from Yale, an American girlfriend, and a slot in the University of Iowa's MFA program.

But Sebastián's life is shaken by the Trump administration's restrictions on immigrants, his mother's terminal cancer, the cracks in his relationship, and his father's forced resignation at the hands of Mexico's new president. As he struggles through the Trump and López Obrador years, Sebastián must confront his father's role in the Mexican drug war and navigate his whiteness in Mexican contexts even as he is often perceived as a person of color in the US. As he does so, the novel moves through centuries of Mexican literary history, from the 17th century letters of a peevishly polymathic Spanish colonizer to the contemporary packaging of Mexican writers for a US audience.

Split between the US and Mexico, this stunning debut explores whiteness, power, immigration, and the history of Mexican literature, to wrestle with the contradictory relationship between two countries bound by geography and torn apart by politics.

Queerceañera by Alex Crespo | YOUNG ADULT

oaquin Zoido is out and proud of it. And while he knew his dad and sister, Carmen, would be super supportive, he wasn't quite ready for them to surprise him with a queerceañera, a coming out party to celebrate him. Between all the talks of tastings and venues, and the chirping of his family's RSVP texts, the question of who will be his chambelán is on everyone's minds.

What Joaquin is decidedly trying to not think about is whether his mom is going attend or if she's finally replaced him with her favorite godson, Felix--the boy who made Joaquin realize he was gay and who was his first kiss. But when an impromptu lie snowballs into a full-fledged family-group-chat rumor, every Zoido from Texas to Mexico starts believing that Felix is not only Joaquin's chambelán but also his brand-new boyfriend.

To avoid the pity and sympathies of an ill-timed breakup, Joaquin and Felix strike a deal--they'll stay fake boyfriends until the party. Yet, as the day draws nearer and old feelings spark anew, Joaquin will have to decide whether a picture-perfect queerceañera with a fake boyfriend is worth giving up the chance of something real.

Death's Country by R.M. Romero | YOUNG ADULT

Andres Santos of São Paulo was all swinging fists and firecracker fury, a foot soldier in the war between his parents, until he drowned in the Tietê River... and made a bargain with Death for a new life. A year later, his parents have relocated the family to Miami, but their promises of a fresh start quickly dissolve in the summer heat.

Instead of fists, Andres now uses music to escape his parents' battles. While wandering Miami Beach, he meets two girls: photographer Renee, a blaze of fire, and dancer Liora, a ray of sunshine. The three become a polyamorous triad, happy, despite how no one understands their relationship. But when a car accident leaves Liora in a coma, Andres and Renee are shattered.

Then Renee proposes a radical solution: She and Andres must go into the underworld to retrieve their girlfriend's spirit and reunite it with her body--before it's too late. Their search takes them to the City of the dead, where painters bleed color, songs grow flowers, and regretful souls will do anything to forget their lives on earth. But finding Liora's spirit is only the first step in returning to the living world. Because when Andres drowned, he left a part of himself in the underworld--a part he's in no hurry to meet again. But it is eager to be reunited with him...

Relentless: My Story of the Latino Spirit That Is Transforming America by Luis A. Miranda with Richard Wolffe | ADULT NONFICTION

A veteran of New York and national politics, Luis Miranda embodies the relentless spirit of progress of American immigrants.

There is no one on the Latino, New York, and national political scene with the breadth of experience, passion, and storytelling charm of Luis Miranda. In Relentless, he shares a fascinating narrative of his life and career--from his early days as a radically minded Puerto Rican activist to his decades of political advice and problem-solving.

Miranda recounts the thrill of the ascendency of Hamilton, created by his son Lin-Manuel, and he details the suffering after the devastation of Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria. Amid the triumphs and challenges, Miranda examines what his experience reveals about our ever-changing politics, demographics, and society.

One Year in Uvalde: A Story of Hope and Resilience by John Quiñones and María Elena Salinas | ADULT NONFICTION

Uvalde: 365 was a continuing ABC News series led by the network's Investigative Unit. As part of the initiative, ABC News opened a local satellite news bureau in Uvalde, Texas, in the aftermath of the tragic mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, that hosted a rotating crew of correspondents, producers, writers, and technical staff. Their gripping, vital reporting has been featured across all programs and platforms, from Good Morning America to World News Tonight with David Muir.

Award-winning journalists John Quiñones and María Elena Salinas became immersed in the Uvalde community, as their field reporting brought them ever closer to the people of this Texas city. Quiñones, Salinas, and other ABC reporters and producers on the ground documented the lives of victims' families; covered local community events; followed city council, school board, and Texas Legislature meetings; and attended congressional hearings in Washington, D.C., where victims' families have been advocating for gun reform.

One Year in Uvalde synthesizes this year-long story into a timely, humane, and important look at a community's activism and resiliency, as it follows several families and residents while events continue to unfold in the community. The intimate, sensitive reporting of Quiñones, Salinas, and the ABC News team examines a specific time and place in American life, thereby highlighting challenges that we face as a nation.

Hot Boy Summer by Joe Jiménez | YOUNG ADULT

Mac has never really felt like he belonged. Definitely not at home--his dad's politics and toxic masculinity make a real connection impossible. He thought he fit in on the baseball team, but that's only because he was pretending to be someone he wasn't. Finding his first gay friend, Cammy, was momentous; finally, he could be his authentic self around someone else. But as it turned out, not really. Cammy could be cruel, and his "advice" often came off way harsh.

And then, Mac meets Flor, who shows him that you can be both fierce and kind, and Mikey, who is superhot and might maybe think the same about him. Over the course of one hot, life-changing summer, Mac will stand face-to-face with desire, betrayal, and letting go of shame, which will lead to some huge discoveries about the realness of truly belonging.

Told in Mac's infectious, joyful, gay AF voice, Hot Boy Summer serves a tale as important as hope itself: four gay teens doing what they can to connect and have the fiercest summer of their lives. New friendships will be forged, hot boys will be kissed...and girl, the toxic will be detoxed.

The Dead Don't Need Reminding: In Search of Fugitives, Mississippi, and Black TV Nerd Shit by Julian Randall | MEMOIR

The Dead Don't Need Reminding is a braided story of Julian Randall's return from the cliff edge of a harrowing depression and his determination to retrace the hustle of a white-passing grandfather to the Mississippi town from which he was driven amid threats of tar and feather.

Alternatively wry, lyrical, and heartfelt, Randall transforms pop culture moments into deeply personal explorations of grief, family, and the American way. He envisions his fight to stay alive through a striking medley of media ranging from Into the Spiderverse and Jordan Peele movies to BoJack Horseman and the music of Odd Future. Pulsing with life, sharp, and wickedly funny, The Dead Don't Need Reminding is Randall's journey to get his ghost story back.

Trippy: The Peril and Promise of Medicinal Psychedelics by Ernesto Londoño | ADULT NONFICTION

When he signed up for a psychedelic retreat run by a mysterious Argentine woman deep in Brazil's rainforest in early 2018, Ernesto Londoño, a veteran New York Times journalist, was so depressed he had come close to jumping off his terrace weeks earlier. His nine-day visit to Spirit Vine Ayahuasca Retreat Center included four nighttime ceremonies during which participants imbibed a vomit-inducing plant-based brew that contained DMT, a powerful mind-altering compound.

The ayahuasca trips provided Londoño an instant reprieve from his depression and became the genesis of a personal transformation that anchors this sweeping journalistic exploration of the booming field of medicinal psychedelics. Londoño introduces readers to a dazzling array of psychedelic enthusiasts who are upending our understanding of trauma and healing. They include Indigenous elders who regard psychedelics as portals to the spirit world; religious leaders who use mind-bending substances as sacraments; war veterans suffering from PTSD who credit psychedelics with changing their lives; and clinicians trying to resurrect a promising field of medicine hastily abandoned in the 1970s as the United States declared a War on Drugs.

Julián Es Una Sirena by Jessica Love |Translated by Georgina Lázaro | PICTURE BOOK

Traducido por la poeta puertorriqueña, Georgina Lázaro. Un día, tras salir de la piscina, mientras regresa a casa en tren con su abuela, Julián ve a tres mujeres vestidas con unos trajes espectaculares. Sus cabelleras flotan en el aire con brillantes colores, sus vestidos tienen colas de pescado y su regocijo inunda el vagón del tren. Cuando Julián llega a casa, hechizado por la magia que acaba de ver, solo piensa en vestirse como ellas con su propio fabuloso disfraz de sirena: se pone una cortina amarilla color mantequilla como cola y las frondas de una planta de helecho como tocado de la cabeza. ¿Pero qué pensará su abuela del desorden que ha hecho--y más importante aún--qué pensará de la imagen que tiene Julián de sí mismo? Cautivante y genuino, el libro de Jessica Love, galardonado con el premio Stonewall, es una jubilosa y radiante celebración del amor por uno mismo y de la individualidad.

On Sale May 14

Cast Away by Kate Johnstun | ADULT FICTION

What would you do for your shot at the American Dream? Veronica Chavez and her great nephew Chuy immigrate from Mexico to the US, their journeys seventy years apart, each willing to do whatever it takes to build the life of their dreams. In 1922, Veronica's romantic expectations are crushed by the dangers of living alone in a foreign country. Young and determined, she finds community in Utah's desert railroad towns. Decades later, Chuy comes with his family to Salt Lake City, but his parents are soon sent back to Mexico. Out of place but together, Chuy and Veronica manage to connect across generations--hatching a plan to finally win it big on reality TV.

The Dream Catcher by Marcelo Verdad | PICTURE BOOK

Some people dream of perfect waves, fancy castles, or piloting a plane. Others dream of someone to laugh and play with all day long. Some just dream of having a meal for the next day.

And little Miguel? As he and Abuelito work in the hot Oaxacan sun, selling cold coconuts and macrame dream catchers to earn a few coins, Miguel has only one simple wish--to have his parents by his side. But how can he keep the faith when the truth is that dreams don't always come to pass?

Marcelo Verdad's poignant tale of hope and resilience shows how living in the here and now can be a journey every bit as beautiful as a dream. Also available in Spanish.

Oye by Melissa Mogollon | FICTION

Structured as a series of one-sided phone calls from our spunky, sarcastic narrator, Luciana, to her older sister, Mari, this wildly inventive debut "jump-starts your heart in the same way it piques your ear" (Xochitl Gonzalez). As the baby of her large Colombian American family, Luciana is usually relegated to the sidelines. But now she finds herself as the only voice of reason in the face of an unexpected crisis: A hurricane is heading straight for Miami, and her eccentric grandmother, Abue, is refusing to evacuate. Abue is so one-of-a-kind she's basically in her own universe, and while she often drives Luciana nuts, they're the only ones who truly understand each other. So when Abue, normally glamorous and full of life, receives a shocking medical diagnosis during the storm, Luciana's world is upended.

When Abue moves into Luciana's bedroom, their complicated bond intensifies. Luciana would rather be skating or sneaking out to meet girls, but Abue's wild demands and unpredictable antics are a welcome distraction for Luciana from her misguided mother, absent sister, and uncertain future. Forced to step into the role of caretaker, translator, and keeper of the devastating family secrets that Abue begins to share, Luciana suddenly finds herself center stage, facing down adulthood--and rising to the occasion.

As Luciana chronicles the events of her disrupted senior year of high school over the phone to Mari, Oye unfolds like the most fascinating and entertaining conversation you've ever eavesdropped on: a rollicking, heartfelt, and utterly unique novel that celebrates the beauty revealed and resilience required when rewriting your own story. Also available in Spanish.

Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal | NONFICTION

Upon becoming a new mother, Vanessa Angélica Villarreal was called to Mexico to reconnect with her ancestors and recover her grandmother's story, only to return to the sudden loss of her marriage, home, and reality.

In Magical/Realism, Villarreal crosses into the erasure of memory and self, fragmented by migration, borders, and colonial and intimate violence, reconstructing her story with pieces of American pop culture, and the music, video games, and fantasy that have helped her make sense of it all.

The border between the real and imagined is a speculative space where we can remember, or re-world, what has been lost--and each chapter engages in this essential project of world-building. In one essay, Villarreal examines her own gender performativity through Nirvana and Selena; in another, she offers a radical but crucial racial reading of Jon Snow in Game of Thrones; and throughout the collection, she explores how fantasy can help us interpret and heal when grief feels insurmountable. She reflects on the moments of her life that are too painful to remember--her difficult adolescence, her role as the eldest daughter of Mexican immigrants, her divorce--and finds a way to archive her history and map her future(s) with the hope and joy of fantasy and magical thinking.

Magical/Realism is a wise, tender, and essential collection that carves a path toward a new way of remembering and telling our stories--broadening our understanding of what memoir and cultural criticism can be.

10 Things I Hate about Prom by Elle Gonzalez Rose | YOUNG ADULT

Ivelisse Santos has had Joaquin Romero's back since their first playdate. Not just next-door neighbors, they're platonic soulmates.
At least, that's what Ive thinks, until Joaquin decides to ask Tessa Hernandez, the same girl who stole Ive's boyfriend, to prom. Sure, the head cheerleader and the star baseball player going to prom together makes more sense than Joaquin and Ivelisse--leader of tech crew--would. But that doesn't mean it should actually happen.
What's worse, Joaquin wants Ivelisse's help planning an elaborate promposal. As much as she wants to say no, she'll take all the quality time with Joaquin she can get before graduation. Even if it means watching her best friend fall for somebody else. Somebody who isn't her.

Nothing's Ever the Same by Cyn Vargas | MIDDLE GRADE

Itzel's 13th birthday party starts in just about the unluckiest way possible-with her dad having a heart attack. In those frantic moments, the piñata and the frosted sheetcake and the Styrofoam cups of orange soda are forgotten; the day's highlights end up being CPR, an ambulance ride, and angioplasty. But when her father gets home from the hospital, his problems are far from over--and Itzel's are just getting started.

Nothing's Ever the Same chronicles a young girl's coming of age in Chicago--growing up as her family grows apart. In masterful fashion, Cyn Vargas gives us a touching and memorable and universal story about a marriage on the brink and a teenager looking for love. It's a short book that packs a wallop; it's also a beautiful meditation on dysfunction and forgiveness, and all the times in life to which we can never return.

En Estas Tierras Mágicas by Yamile Saied Méndez | MIDDLE GRADE

Ya a los doce años, Minerva Soledad Miranda está decidida a alcanzar sus metas, a pesar de asumir más responsibilidades que los demás niños de las escuela--como cuidar a sus dos hermanas mientras su mamá maneja dos trabajos. Pero una noche, la mamá de Minerva no regresa a casa y Minerva tiene que decider qué hacer. Fue Mama secuestrada por ICE? Serán las niñas enviadas a hogares de acogida o centros de detención para niños inmigrantes?

Minerva y su hermanas no pueden dejar que nadie sepa que mamá ha desparecido. Simplemente fingirán que todo sigue normal hasta que ella regrese. El plan de Minerva se desmorona la primera tarde, cuando su hermanita hace un berrinche durante la audición de Minerva para la obra de Peter Pan.

Pero a medida que pasan los días y Minerva se preocupa cada vez más por su madre, algo mágico parece estar cuidándolos: dejándoles pastelitos, ayudándolos a encontrar dinero, e incluso dirigiéndolos a amigos y familiares lejanos que pueden ayudarlos. Eventualmente, Minerva debe tomar la decision más dificil de su vida. Y cuando lo haga, estará preparada para enfrentar los desafíos de la vida, con amistad, esparanza y un poco de magia de hadas.

Good Monster by Diannely Antigua | POETRY

Diannely Antigua's Good Monster grapples with the body as a site of chronic pain and trauma. Poignant and guttural, the collection "voyage[s] the land between crisis and hope," chronicling Antigua's reckoning with shame and her fallout with faith. As poems cage and cradle devastating truths--a stepfather's abusive touch, a mother's "soft harm"--the speaker's anxiety, depression, and boundless need become monstrous shadows. Here, poems dance on bars, speak in tongues, and cry in psych wards. When "God [becomes] a house [she] can't leave," language becomes the only currency left. We see the messiness of survival unfold through sestinas, a series of Sad Girl sonnets, and diary entries--an invented collage form using Antigua's personal journals. At the crux of despair, Antigua locates a resilient desire to find a love that will remain, to feel pleasure in an inhospitable body and, above all, to keep on living.

Future by María José Ferrada Ferrada | Illustrated by Mariana Alcántara | Translated by Kit Maude | PICTURE BOOK

Future takes young readers on a fun and clever journey of wonderment, exploring the uncertain yet exciting possibilities of tomorrow. Through whimsical prose and charming illustrations, this silvery book introduces children to enchanting, otherworldly ideas by incorporating a touch of science fiction with robots, rocket ships, and other fantastical concepts that may await them. Highlighting the limitless power of imagination, the authors foster a bright outlook on the future and world we live in. Future captivates as it celebrates creativity, instills hope, and underscores the boundless potential each child possesses as they carve their unique path in this world.

Future marks one more thrilling venture with the award-winning Chilean author, Maria José Ferrada, and the brilliant Mexican illustrator, Mariana Alcántara. Their first collaboration was the compelling book Swimmer, and with Future, they gift us another stunning tale. Maria José's poetic narrative and Mariana's magical illustrations create an extraordinary atmospheric journey brimming with imagination.

Body Autonomy: Decolonizing Sex Work and Drug Use Edited by Justice Rivera | ADULT NONFICTION

Body Autonomy: Decolonizing Sex Work and Drug Use is a bold and timely collection that confronts these charged issues at the intersection of social justice and public health. It reveals the histories behind the United State's ideological wars and illustrates their costs to all of us. It is a primer on healing-centered harm reduction, which presents a visionary framework and set of practical strategies to advance unity and care while working to transform conditions for communities that bear the brunt of interpersonal and systemic violence, overdose deaths, and health inequities. In the words of leading advocates, service providers, and the scholars whose lives and communities have been harmed by American neo-colonial policies, Body Autonomy offers promising, healing-centered interventions that represent a critical culture shift.

This collection features trusted voices on health and social policy reform, including Kate D'Adamo, Justice Rivera, Ismail Ali, Paula Kahn, and Sasanka Jinadasa, as well as respected healers like Richael Faithful, Amira Barakat Al-Baladi, and Mona Knotte. The articles, interviews, worksheets, and poems within are an offering to expand our collective understanding of survival, healing, and embodied freedom. Body Autonomy is a must read for anyone with a compassionate worldview, people seeking to know more about underground economies, and those who know that punishment doesn't lead to security. It is a liberatory design and a prayer for what's possible.

On Sale May 21

The Plant Rescuer by Matthew Rivera | PICTURE BOOK

Manny comes from a long line of gardeners, and to him, the greatest gardener of all is his dad. Dad always knows what plants need. Even with no yard to garden in, he tends their small apartment into a lush jungle.

One day, the time comes for Manny to get his very own first plant! Dad trusts Manny to care for his new amigo, and Manny is determined to rise to the challenge. But watching Dad's masterful work isn't the same as knowing everything he knows, and Manny's amigo keeps wilting, no matter what he tries! Dad would know what to do, but this is Manny's plant, and he wants to be the one to save it.

Luckily, before his new amigo, Manny had another friend: the library! A day of research and a stack of books gets him back on track in no time. Manny's plant grows bigger and bigger, until his room overflows with beautiful, healthy leaves, plentiful enough for Dad to share cuttings with the whole neighborhood. Now Manny can proudly say that he is the youngest in a long line of gardeners. Also available in Spanish.

Sobremesa: Easy Mexican Recipes for Every Day by Susana Villasuso | COOKBOOK

75 quick, easy and delicious recipes for Mexican weeknight meals, sharing plates, drinks, and desserts to make and enjoy together.

Sobremesa means "relaxing at the table after a heavy meal," usually after getting together with family and friends. Mexican-born chef and recipe developer Susana Villasuso is on a mission to bring the flavors of Mexico to your table, and share her culture with the world. Inspired by the dishes she learned to cook from her mother and grandmother, this debut cookbook brings together authentic, modern, simple, and tasty recipes for feeding the whole family and for all occasions, made with everyday supermarket ingredients. It's a real taste of Mexico, with a modern twist.

Try some of Susana's family classics, such as: Crispy bean and ricotta taquitos with crema verde, Brown miso and porter carnitas, Salmon Ceviche with yellow beets and lime marinade, Mexican blood orange vanilla cake, and more.

Between Words: A Friendship Tale by Saki Tanaka | PICTURE BOOK

Kai is used to following the seasons with Pa, from place to new place where people speak languages unfamiliar to his ears. When they finally settle in a valley full of pools, Kai tries to invite the other children to join in his play, but the strangeness of his words drives them away. Frustrated, he kicks his most treasured stone into one of the pools and in his search for it, finds something even more valuable.

Dive into a whimsical tale of unexpected friendship, told with compassion and warmth. With every brushstroke, Saki Tanaka paints a radiant world where bonds are formed beyond language barriers.

American Diva: Extraordinary, Unruly, Fabulous by Deborah Paredez | ADULT NONFICTION

What does it mean to be a "diva"? A shifting, increasingly loaded term, it has been used to both deride and celebrate charismatic and unapologetically fierce performers like Aretha Franklin, Divine, and the women of Labelle. In this brilliant, powerful blend of incisive criticism and electric memoir, Deborah Paredez--scholar, cultural critic, and lifelong diva devotee--unravels our enduring fascination with these icons and explores how divas have challenged American ideas about feminism, performance, and freedom.

American Diva journeys into Tina Turner's scintillating performances, Celia Cruz's command of the male-dominated salsa world, the transcendent revival of Jomama Jones after a period of exile, and the unparalleled excellence of Venus and Serena Williams. Recounting how she and her mother endlessly watched Rita Moreno's powerhouse portrayal of Anita in West Side Story and how she learned much about being bigger than life from her fabulous Tía Lucia, Paredez chronicles the celebrated and skilled performers who not only shaped her life but boldly expressed the aspiration for freedom among brown, Black, and gay communities. Paredez also traces the evolution of the diva through the decades, dismayed at the mid-aughts' commodification and juvenilizing of its meaning but finding its lasting beauty and power.

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

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.

Lupita's Hurricane Palomitas by Alexandra Alessandri | Illustrated by Anastasiya Kanavaliuk | PICTURE BOOK

Kindness can be shown during even the harshest of storms.

Shutters rattled. Wind howled. As a ferocious hurricane descends upon her town, Lupita finds two baby birds who have fallen out of their nest and brings them inside to shelter them from the storm. While Lupita and her family wait out the tempest, she focuses on protecting the palomitas to alleviate her own fears and hopes she can soon reunite them with their mother.

Perfect for families living in hurricane-prone states or with children who have storm-related anxieties, Lupita's Hurricane Palomitas offers a gentle, soothing story about extending a hand of kindness to others even while facing fears of our own. The book includes Spanish-language vocabulary words and a glossary in the back.

On Sale May 28

Emergency Quarters by Carlos Matias | Illustrated by Gracey Zhang | PICTURE BOOK

Ernesto has waited his whoooole life to become a niño grande. A big boy. Now he's finally old enough to walk the six blocks to school without his parents.

Every morning, his mom hands him a shiny new quarter and reminds him they're for emergencies. If Ernesto needs her, she's only a pay phone call away. But each day reveals a tempting new treat to enjoy with his friends: crisp packs of baseball cards, arcade games, hot tamales, and fresh juices! Ernesto has the coins jingling in his pocket, so how will he choose to spend them?

Sea of Constellations by Melissa Cristina Márquez | Illustrated by Rocío Arreola Mendoza | PICTURE BOOK

Maren the whale shark loves her life as the biggest, brightest fish in the sea. She spends her days exploring the water around her and finding fresh new snacks as she travels. But one day, the ocean goes dark and Maren's adventures come to a halt. With only the glow from the scales on her back and her best friend, Remy the remora, by her side, Maren sets out on her greatest quest yet--to cross the ocean and ask the Aztec goddess Huixtocihuatl about the darkness and to figure out how to bring back the light. Along the way she meets new friends and exemplifies the power of sharing!

The Quince Project by Jessica Parra | YOUNG ADULT

Castillo Torres, Student Body Association event chair and serial planner, could use a fairy godmother. After a disastrous mishap at her sister's quinceañera and her mother's unexpected passing, all of Cas's plans are crumbling. So when a local lifestyle-guru-slash-party-planner opens up applications for the internship of her dreams, Cas sees it as the perfect opportunity to learn every trick in the book so that things never go wrong again.

The only catch is that she needs more party planning experience before she can apply. When she books a quinceañera for a teen Disneyland vlogger, Cas thinks her plan is taking off... until she discovers that the party is just a publicity stunt--and she begins catching feelings for the chambelán.

As her agenda starts to go way off-script Cas finds that real life may be more complicated than a fairy tale. But maybe Happily Ever Afters aren't just for the movies. Can Cas go from planner to participant in her own life? Or will this would-be princess turn into a pumpkin at the end of the ball?

Hurdles in the Dark: My Story of Survival, Resilience, and Triumph by Elvira K. Gonzalez | ADULT NONFICTION

Twenty-four hours: that's how long fourteen-year-old Elvira Gonzalez is given to come up with the $40,000 she needs to save her kidnapped mother from a drug cartel. It's 2006 and Elvira's hometown of Laredo, Texas, has become engulfed by the Mexican Drug War. Elvira's life is unraveling around her--setting her on a harrowing path that leads her to being locked up in one of South Texas's worst juvenile detention centers.

After Elvira's released from juvie, she's resolved to never go back. That's when her unexpected salvation arrives in the form of 33-inch-high plastic hurdles. Determined to win a track scholarship out of Laredo, Elvira begins breaking into the school, alone, at 5:30 in the morning to practice hurdling. Soon, she catches the attention of a renowned high school coach, an adult man in his 30s. As they train, their coach-student relationship begins to change, becoming sexual. At just seventeen years old, Elvira experiences the dangers many young athletes face, especially those who are marginalized. In spite of these towering obstacles, Elvira eventually propels herself to become one of the top ranked hurdlers in the USA and the first in her family to go to college.

Perla the Mighty Dog by Isabel Allende | Illustrated by Sandy Rodríguez | PICTURE BOOK

Perla is a mighty dog who has two superpowers--making people love her, and roaring like a lion. When she finds out her human brother, Nico Rico, is being bullied at school, she knows she has to step in! But what will Perla do?

In a charming and poignant story about the bond between child and pet, Isabel Allende makes her children's literary debut. Also available in Spanish.

Flawless Girls by Anna-Marie McLemore | YOUNG ADULT

The Soler sisters are infamous in polite society--brazen, rebellious, and raised by their fashionable grandmother who couldn't care less about which fork goes where. But their grandmother also knows the standards that two Latina young ladies will be held to, so she secures them two coveted places at the Alarie House, a prominent finishing school that turns out first ladies, princesses, and socialites.

Younger sister Isla is back home within a day. She refuses to become one of the eerily sweet Alarie girls in their prim white dresses. Older sister Renata stays. When she returns months later, she's unfailingly pleasant, unnervingly polite, and, Isla discovers, possibly murderous. And the same night she returns home, she vanishes.

As their grandmother uses every connection she has to find Renata, Isla re-enrolls, intent on finding out what happened to her sister. But the Alarie House is as exacting as it is opulent. It won't give up its secrets easily, and neither will a mysterious, conniving girl who's either controlling the house, or carrying out its deadly orders.

Accordion Eulogies: A Memoir of Music, Migration, and Mexico by Noé Álvarez | ADULT NONFICTION

Growing up in Yakima, Washington, Noé Álvarez never knew his grandfather. Stories swirled around this mythologized, larger-than-life figure: That he had abandoned his family, and had possibly done something awful that put a curse on his descendants. About his grandfather, young Noé was sure of only one thing: That he had played the accordion. Now an adult, reckoning with the legacy of silence surrounding his family's migration from Mexico, Álvarez resolves both to take up the instrument and to journey into Mexico to discover the grandfather he never knew.

Álvarez travels across the US with his accordion, meeting makers and players in cities that range from San Antonio to Boston. He uncovers the story of an instrument that's been central to classic American genres, but also played a critical role in indigenous Mexican history. Like the accordion itself, Álvarez feels trapped between his roots in Mexico and the U.S. As he tries to make sense of his place in the world--as a father, a son, a musician--he gets closer to uncovering the mystery of his origins.

Summer's Magic by Kaitlin B. Curtice | Illustrated by Eduardo Marticorena | PICTURE BOOK

An Indigenous boy invites new friends to share in beloved traditions as he celebrates the joy of summer and his love for Earth and Creator in this picture book that revels in the warmth, light, and fun of the longest days of the year.

Bo, a proud Potawatomi boy, is excited to enjoy long summer days tending his garden, walking his dog, and playing in the river with his big sister, Dani. When he discovers that his family's favorite spot has been polluted with garbage, Bo realizes that caring for Earth is part of what makes summer special. And when he overcomes his shyness and invites others to join in, he discovers that summer's magic has even more surprises in store.

A Last Supper of Queer Apostles: Selected Essays by Pedro Lemebel | Edited and Translated by Gwendolyn Harper | ADULT NONFICTION

"I speak from my difference," wrote Pedro Lemebel, an openly queer writer and artist living through Chile's AIDS epidemic and the collapse of the Pinochet dictatorship. In brilliantly innovative essays--known as crónicas--that combine memoir, reportage, fiction, history, and poetry, he brought visibility and dignity to sexual minorities, the poor, and the powerless. Touching on everything from Che Guevara to Elizabeth Taylor, from the aftermath of authoritarian rule to the daily lives of Chile's locas--a slur for trans women and effeminate gay men that he boldly reclaims--his writing infuses political urgency with playfulness, realism with absurdism, and resistance with camp, and his AIDS crónicas immortalize a generation of Chileans doubly "disappeared" by casting each loca, as she falls sick, in the starring role of her own private tragedy. This volume brings together the best of his work, introducing readers of English to the subversive genius of a literary activist and queer icon whose acrobatic explorations of the Santiago demimonde reverberate around the world.

I'm a Fool to Want You: Stories by Camila Villada | Translated by Kit Maude | SHORT STORIES

In the 1990s, a woman makes a living as a rental girlfriend for gay men. In a Harlem den, a travesti gets to know none other than Billie Holiday. A group of rugby players haggle over the price of a night of sex, and in return they get what they deserve. Nuns, grandmothers, children, and dogs are never what they seem...

These 9 stories are inhabited by extravagant and profoundly human characters who face an ominous reality in ways as strange as themselves. I'm a Fool to Want You confirms that Camila Sosa Villada is one of the most powerful and original voices in contemporary literature. With her daring imagination, she can speak the language of a victim of the Mexican Inquisition, or create a dystopian universe where travestis take their revenge. With her unique style, Sosa Villada blends everyday life and magic, honoring the oral tradition with unparalleled fluency.

On Sale May 31

A Bridge Home by Mona Alvarado Frazier | YOUNG ADULT

Jacqueline Bravo can't understand why she's being called to the principal's office and is shocked to learn her mother hasn't paid her tuition at St. Bernadette High School in three months! Now Sister Mary Grace is threatening to kick her out and even recommends a vocational school until she gets married. Finances have been tight ever since Jacqui's father was killed in Vietnam. She is determined to win the alumni scholarship to UCLA, and there's no way she will transfer to a public or vocational school in her senior year--never mind get married! But she doesn't want her younger siblings to have to leave St. Patrick's either; her sister is already hanging out with unsavory boys and Jacqui knows it would only get worse at the local school. So, she starts looking for a way to earn money and help make ends meet. Without telling her mom, Jacqui gets a job at a local restaurant.

Vincent Ventura and the Curse of the Donkey Lady / Vincent Ventura Y La Maldición de la Mujer Burro by Xavier Garza | MIDDLE GRADE

Vincent and his dad are on a bus in Mexico, headed to his late mom's village of Nagual, when he hears a loud animal roar! Oddly, no one else seems to have heard it. Looking out the window, he is surprised to see a girl running alongside the bus; he's even more amazed when she turns into a jaguar! And then he sees a sinister sight: a woman with a cadaverous-looking donkey's head whose glowing red eyes burn as if on fire! Even in a different country, there's another monster mystery to solve.

10 Books to Read for Poetry Month

We could not end Poetry Month without offering some recommended titles to read. On this list, we have included titles for children and adults, with a mix of both older and newer titles. We hope you enjoy the power of poetry and leave you with one question: How can you incorporate more poetry in your day-to-day life?

Plantains and Our Becoming by Melania Luisa marte

Poet and musician Melania Luisa Marte opens PLAINTAINS AND OUR BECOMING by pointing out that Afro-Latina is not a word recognized by the dictionary. But the dictionary is far from a record of the truth. What does it mean, then, to tend to your own words and your own record--to build upon the legacies of your ancestors?

In this imaginative, blistering poetry collection, Marte looks at the identities and histories of the Dominican Republic and Haiti to celebrate and center the Black diasporic experience. Through the exploration of themes like self-love, nationalism, displacement, generational trauma, and ancestral knowledge, this collection uproots stereotypes while creating a new joyous vision for Black identity and personhood.

The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: Latinext Edited by Felicia Chavez, José Olivarez, and Willie Perdomo

A BreakBeat Poets anthology that opposes silence and re-mixes the soundtrack of the Latinx diaspora across diverse poetic traditions.

Unaccompanied by Javier Zamora

This gorgeous debut speaks with heart-wrenching intimacy and first-hand experience to the hot-button political issues of immigration and border crossings.

A Song of Frutas by Margarita engle and illustrated by sara palacios

When we visit mi abuelo, I help him sell
frutas, singing the names of each fruit
as we walk, our footsteps like drumbeats,
our hands like maracas, shaking...

The little girl loves visiting her grandfather in Cuba and singing his special songs to sell all kinds of fruit: mango, limón, naranja, piña, and more! Even when they're apart, grandfather and granddaughter can share rhymes between their countries like un abrazo--a hug--made of words carried on letters that soar across the distance like songbirds. Also available in Spanish.

From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems: del Ombligo de la Luna Y Otros Poemas de Verano by Francisco X. Alarcón illustrated by Maya Gonzalez

With a poet's magical vision, Alarcón takes us back to his childhood when he traveled with his family to Mexico to visit his grandma and other relatives. We travel with him in the family station wagon, across the misty mountain range to the little town of Atoyac. There, in the beloved town of his ancestors, we hear his grandma's stories, sample Auntie Reginalda's tasty breakfasts, learn about the keys to the universe, and take playful dips in the warm sea.

The lighthearted illustrations of Maya Christina Gonzalez perfectly capture the spirit of summer in Alarcón's Mexico where "colors are more colorful, tastes are tastier, and even time seems to slow down."

black god mother this body by Raina J. León

black god mother this body explores the divine, the ancestrally aligned, the natural rhythmed black woman in her embodied reality, particularly as mother. glorification of whiteness is death. this is a healing meditation, an extended song, an experimentation in augmenting reality that constantly threatens black mothers and children. it is also a covert communication in the hidden ways of trees. did you know that some can determine how to share resources through their roots and even support a cluster community in the dying of one tree so that others might be able to grow? león invites defiant and collective flourishing. this book integrates biomimicry, technology, afrofuturist practices and afrosurrealist revelations, and generational engagement even across human and nonhuman worlds. it boldly encounters the horrors of (digital) lynchings in the murders of black and brown peoples in spirit and in body while also uplifting new radical dreams. what we know to be true started as a dream; what is a nightmare can be countered boldly in communal power. here we find visual poems, halos in augmented reality, sonnets alongside couplet sequences, reinventions in form and the subversion of the "i" in favor of the "we". we find audacity against fear.

When we make it by Elizabet Velasquez

An unforgettable, torrential, and hopeful debut young adult novel-in-verse that redefines what it means to "make it," for readers of Nicholasa Mohr and Elizabeth Acevedo.

Sarai is a first-generation Puerto Rican question asker who can see with clarity the truth, pain, and beauty of the world both inside and outside her Bushwick apartment. Together with her older sister, Estrella, she navigates the strain of family traumas and the systemic pressures of toxic masculinity and housing insecurity in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn. Sarai questions the society around her, her Boricua identity, and the life she lives with determination and an open heart, learning to celebrate herself in a way that she has long been denied.

My AfroRican State of Soul: A Journey of Identidad, Struggle, Love & Faith by lucas rivera

My AfroRican State of Soul is a blend of narrative nonfiction and poetry that chronicles Lucas Rivera's journey through life. This debut collection of poetry speaks to both budding young creatives and OG hip-hop heads who remember the dawn of an artistic era. As a BIPOC man, Rivera has struggled against traditional conceptions of masculinity toward a path of love, acceptance, vulnerability, and shared healing. His work speaks to everyone who has struggled with imposter syndrome, displacement and disempowerment.

As a child, he could speak to his father but would never actually know him. He grew into a man who learned to salvage healing from that loss, building an artistic vision for identidad, struggle, love, and faith that has spread across the United States. Art is a means of survival for him, from turntables to Latin dance to painting to stained glass to writing. These mediums opened his world, and allowed him to experience true love, accept faith and reconciliation, and eventually grace his own father with Aché (blessings) despite the pain of his absence.

Nostalgia Doesn't Flow Away Like Riverwater by Irma Pineda and illustrated by wendy call

A story of separation and displacement in two fictionalized voices: a person who has migrated, without papers, to the United States for work, and their partner who waits at home.

Nostalgia Doesn't Flow Away Like Riverwater / Xilase qui rié di' sicasi rié nisa guiigu' / La Nostalgia no se marcha como el agua de los ríos is a trilingual collection by one of the most prominent Indigenous poets in Latin America: Irma Pineda. The book consists of 36 persona poems that tell a story of separation and displacement in two fictionalized voices: a person who has migrated, without papers, to the United States for work, and that person's partner who waits at home, in the poet's hometown of Juchitán, Oaxaca.

According to Periódico de Poesía, a journal based at UNAM (Mexico's national university), when it was published in 2007, this book established Pineda "one of the strongest poets working in Zapotec, the [Mexican] Native language with the largest literary production."

Catrachos: Poems by Roy G. Guzmán

A name for the people of Honduras, Catrachos is a term of solidarity and resilience. In these unflinching, riveting poems, Roy G. Guzmán reaches across borders--between life and death and between countries--invoking the voices of the lost. Part immigration narrative, part elegy, and part queer coming-of-age story, Catrachos finds its own religion in fantastic figures such as the X-Men, pop singers, and the "Queerodactyl," which is imagined in a series of poems as a dinosaur sashaying in the shadow of an oncoming comet, insistent on surviving extinction. With exceptional energy, humor, and inventiveness, Guzmán's debut is a devastating display of lyrical and moral complexity--an introduction to an immediately captivating, urgently needed voice.

---

Ruddy Lopez is an educator, writer, and editor who was raised in Inglewood, California. She attended California State Long Beach, where she obtained a BA in English Literature and English Education. In her spare time, Ruddy enjoys reading, drinking coffee, and exploring what her city has to offer.