Read an Excerpt from Lupe Wong Won't Dance by Donna Barba Higuera, out September 2020

Latinx in Publishing is pleased to share an excerpt from Lupe Wong Won’t Dance by Donna Barba Higuera, out on September 8th.

Lupe Wong is going to be the first female pitcher in the Major Leagues. She's also championed causes her whole young life. Some worthy…like expanding the options for race on school tests beyond just a few bubbles. And some not so much…like complaining to the BBC about the length between Doctor Who seasons. Lupe needs an A in all her classes in order to meet her favorite pitcher, Fu Li Hernandez, who's Chinacan/Mexinese just like her. So when the horror that is square dancing rears its head in gym? Obviously she's not gonna let that slide.

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“Welcome to this quarter’s curriculum, class!”

I’ve never associated the inside of a gym with such horror. There has to be a way to make it stop. Fu Li Hernandez wouldn’t be caught dead square dancing. Dancing belongs in nightclubs and ballet studios, not a gym. And square dancing belongs somewhere far away where it can’t embarrass anyone, like the 1800s.

We spend the remaining twenty minutes of P.E. watching different versions of the same routine. I’m clenching my toes inside my shoes the entire time. I glance down the line. Most faces are aghast, like they just saw their grandma in her underwear. Except Carl Trondson’s mouth is slightly ajar and his eyes are closed. Is he seriously sleeping through this horror? And Gordon Schnelly, he’s actually tapping his foot along with the music! Each square dance starts with a different man or woman, all with Southern accents, wailing, “If it hadn’t been for Cotton-Eyed Joe, I’d been married a long time ago.”

When the women sing, Cotton-Eyed Joe sounds like even more of a jerk. What had he done to them that they all would’ve been married and happy if he hadn’t come along? Bad enough that Cotton-Eyed Joe had ruined their lives—now he’s trying to ruin mine.

Finally, the torture of the music and watching Coach Solden jog around flailing her arms and legs is over. But some things you can’t unsee.

“By the way.” Coach gives us a wink. “Lace up your dancing shoes. We start tomorrow.”

An icy shiver runs up my spine. A low groan echoes through the gym. I think I hear someone clap, but it must be my imagination. Shoulders sagging, we retreat to the locker rooms.

Andy and I change quickly and head to wait outside the boys’ locker room.

Blake walks out wearing our team’s Issaquah Select baseball jersey and gives me a fist bump. “Hey, Lupe. How’s the arm?”

I make a muscle, and Blake leans in squinting. I chuck him on the shoulder and we both start laughing.

He walks away and Andy rolls her eyes. “You guys are dorks,” she says.

As the last of the boys stream out, I arch my head around the corner. “Niles! We’re not going to prom!”

“Sorry!” he yells back.

Gordon Schnelly beats him out. Gordon is sweating even though we didn’t do anything.

The two-minute warning bell rings. Niles walks out tying his “Annelids Unite! Save the Giant Palouse Earthworm!” sweatshirt around his waist. I might be what my mom calls “a social justice warrior,” but Niles is a huge advocate for our region’s endangered species. Unfortunately for Niles, the Pacific Northwest has some bizarre endangered animals.

“And just so you know, if you were trying to take me to prom, I wouldn’t come out at all.” He motions over his head for us to catch up, like we’re the ones who’ve made us late for our last class of the day.

We speed walk away from the gym and toward the main building. Other kids run past in the opposite direction. When the halls come into view, Andy, Niles, and I exchange a glance. Extra crammed halls mean extra danger.

In elementary school, Niles had Mr. Nguyen as his special  ed. teacher back when we didn’t rotate classrooms. Now Niles goes to the Learning Resource Center (a.k.a. LRC) twice a week with Mr. Lambert, or when he, his mom, or a teacher requests it. Niles is on the autism spectrum, so they’ve worked his schedule so he doesn’t have to spend too much time in the halls. But our last class of the day takes us right down the main hallway. And this is one of those days that makes me nervous.

I lock elbows with Niles on one side and Andy on the other. The school hallways are outside, so even when it’s barely sprinkling (which is nearly every day in the Northwest), everyone rushes more. Kids jostle past one another like salmon in the river by our school. So our lame school mascot is appropriate for more than one reason. Someone even painted the halls mud and algae colors to make us feel like Sammy Sockeye too.

“Let’s go,” Andy says, just before we plunge in. We huddle close together and ease into the main hall.

A mechanical pencil falls out of Andy’s unzipped bag about two seconds in and I grab her before she bends down. “What are you doing?” I squeak out. I hand her one of my pencils and keep things moving. “Let it go. You could end up with a concussion or lose a limb.”

Andy stares back longingly as her pencil disappears in a twister of legs and feet.

Even though my brother, Paolo, routinely threatens to “return me to the zoo where my parents found me,” he liked me enough to warn me about the mortal dangers of the halls before I started middle school. “If you die, more food for me. But if you want to live through middle school, keep moving, and, never, ever stop to pick up something you’ve dropped.”

It’s like a Fast and the Furious speed track, but half the people are racing in the wrong direction. On the first day of middle school, Gordon Schnelly ran head-on into a kid with a scoliosis brace and chipped one front tooth and lost the other. He never did find the tooth that flew off the cement path into the mud sludge.

I dodge two chatty girls who are not respecting the passing lanes. When I see a quick break in the traffic, I whip around to face Niles and Andy and start walking backward.

“So, what do you think our plan should be?” I ask. “Plan for what?” Niles says. Andy also looks puzzled.

“Weren’t you there?” My voice is higher than usual. “To  get rid of square dancing. I’d do almost anything else than bounce around like a doofus wearing a picnic blanket. Besides, P.E. is not the place for dancing.”

Andy rolls her eyes. “I see a new cause coming.”

Niles executes an impossible last-minute side step before he gets pummeled by a sprinter. “Would you rather eat raw maggot puke or learn the dance?” he says.

“Raw maggot puke for sure,” I say.

I come up with the two most disgusting things I can at the moment. “Would you rather dance with Samantha or eat locker room drain hair?” I ask.

“Drain hair, not even close,” Niles answers, and we burst out laughing.

Andy scoffs. “That’s not really helpful, you guys.”

Niles and I can’t get enough of our “would you rathers”; they’ve always been our thing. But they’re not really Andy’s. Between her mom’s mandated after-school computer coding and Colloquial Japanese for International Business classes, Andy probably doesn’t have room left in her brain for pondering much of anything else. And right now, she’s probably right. We have more important things to focus on.

“So how are we getting rid of square dancing?” I ask.

Used with permission from Levine Querido.

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Donna Barba Higuera grew up in central California surrounded by agricultural and oil fields. As a child, rather than dealing with the regular dust devils, she preferred spending recess squirreled away in the janitor’s closet with a good book. Her favorite hobbies were calling dial-a-story over and over again, and sneaking into a restricted cemetery to weave her own spooky tales using the crumbling headstones as inspiration. 

Donna's Young Adult and Middle Grade books feature characters drawn into creepy, situations, melding history, folklore, and or her own life experience into reinvented storylines. She still dreams in Spanglish.

Donna lives in Washington State with her family, three dogs and two frogs. Donna's backyard is a haunted 19th century logging camp. (The haunted part may or may not be true—she makes stuff up.) She is a Critique-Group-Coordinator for SCBWI-Western Washington and teaches “The Hero’s Journey for Young Authors” to future writers.

Lupe Wong Won’t Dance estará disponible en español como Lupe Wong no baila el 9 de febrero de 2021.

Mark Oshiro on The Unintended Education of Literature

I’m a new writer to fantasy, but one of the joys of getting to write within that genre is the freedom that comes with creation. To craft magical worlds, to imagine complicated systems, to write of lands that are mysterious and frightening and maybe a little recognizable… it’s been a treat bringing Each of Us A Desert to life.

I never thought I’d be a fantasy author! As I was working on what would be my second YA novel, I asked for advice and guidance from my fantasy-writing peers, and it was my dear friend Zoraida Córdova who gave me a warning to heed that is unique to fantasy authors of color. She said it would only be a matter of time before someone assumed that my fantasy world was not a creation of my own, but a clever “riff” or “expansion” of my culture.

And I’m here to tell y’all, weeks out from my second book being out in the world, that it’s already happening.

The first time, a lovely person who had managed to get an ARC early on sent me a message. I was flattered and blown away by their kind words about Desert, but then was left speechless by the closing remark:

“Thank you so much for teaching me about your culture.”

My culture? I assumed, at first, that this person meant… queer culture? Maybe? There’s a lot of queerness textually and sub-textually within Desert, but then I kept reading, and I was even more puzzled by their gratitude:

“I had never heard of the myth of the cuentistas, and I can’t wait to go look up more about them.”

Well, you’ve never heard of them because… it’s a fantasy book. I made it up. Because… it’s a fantasy book?

I knew what they were getting at though, and it struck right at the heart of what a lot of non-white fantasy writers have to deal with. Readers will consume our work, and often make the mistake that we must be basing these secondary worlds on our “culture.” Within that is something insidious and insulting, since it forms the basis of the assumption: that we don’t have the skills or the imagination to create a world that feels believable and real.

I wish I could say this was the only instance this has happened. Again, I’ll remind you that the book isn’t even out yet.

View fullsize

Courtesy of Tor Teen

So let’s dig into this a little bit more. Each of Us A Desert melds numerous genre tropes together: it’s a post-apocalyptic story told in the aftermath of a great fire that a vengeful god cast down upon Their people. It’s a horror novel, because in this world, the sins you commit and the things you do wrong can manifest as horrific entities known as pesadillas—nightmares made flesh. And it’s also an adventure story, about a teenage girl named Xochitl who is forced into a role within her religion that requires her to never leave home. She is a cuentista, and she is told that she must cleanse her people regularly, lest they receive the wrath of their god all over again.

There are absolutely outside influences that helped me craft this story. For example, I was a teenage convert to Catholicism, and I don’t think it’s a stretch to see how that affected the book. I grew up in a relatively small city near the desert, and much of the book is a metaphorical representation of the loneliness that queer people in rural towns experience. It’s possible that you could tie the whole Catholic thing to being Latinx, but only to an extent, and perhaps only because I am Latinx and was once a Catholic. It’s not a universal thing.

Which is sort of the point I’m leading to. There is no universal Latinx experience within this book, and I feel that those who are looking for stories from “my culture” assume that we are a monolith: that all Latinx people experience the same things. I deal with migration in Desert; not all Latinx people are migrants. I talk about religion, faith, and duty, and there are countless religions spread across Latin America and the diaspora. My book can’t faithfully address all of them. I was certainly inspired by the long history of magical realism when constructing this book, but that movement itself is varied, complicated, and hotly debated.

And yet, the assumption still happens. I’ve been asked if my “people” believe that sins can become real. Maybe. I don’t know. It’s a fantasy book. Someone else has asked me what it was like growing up underground. (There is a community within the book that survived the great fire by burrowing into the earth.) I told them I couldn’t speak to that because I just made it up for the book. Another asked if I’d been a religious figure when I was a child, like Xochitl was for her people.

It’s… a fantasy book. Why can’t I have created an interesting story because I’m creative?

There’s also that frustrating aspect of this that, once again, frames whiteness and the stories born out of whiteness as the default. One of the earliest (and most negative) reviews I got for Anger said that the book did not do enough to teach white people what to do about racism. Even in such drastically different stories, this same unfair expectation was there. Why is it that our books have to educate anyone? Why can’t they entertain? Thrill? Delight? Terrify? Why must authors of color bear this sort of burden?

A radical shift must occur for this mindset to be eradicated. We must stop assuming that stories written by non-white people are always about their “culture.” That notion lacks specificity, for one, but it also offers a dim view into what readers consider a default. Why aren’t white writers assumed to be writing their culture when they write fantasy? Readers can accept a fully formed and created world in that context. Any deviation from that norm must therefore not be as good or not be as original.

In the context of Latinx stories, this assumption becomes downright offensive. Latinx is an umbrella term, and it’s one loaded with a complicated history. What does it mean when an outsider says a book is based on a “Latinx culture”? Which one? From what country? State? Region? Are you talking of the dominant culture within that location, or are you referring to those who are usually forgotten or who have been cast aside? More often than not, a person making that reference is never referring to any Afro-Latinx cultures or Indigenous cultures, nor do they have a grasp on how colonization by Spain complicates matters even further. To them, we’re a monolith. We apparently all look the same and speak the same language and have the same feelings on the word Latinx, too. (We don’t.)

I think fiction that illuminates and educates is beautiful. I don’t want to come off as hating that idea, and if my work does teach someone, then I am honored for that. That expectation shouldn’t be applied without thought or context, however. Latinx writers should be able to craft whatever fantastical stories they want without being held to impossible standards. And that’s going to require imagination on the part of those consuming our stories.

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MARK OSHIRO is the Hugo-nominated writer of the online Mark Does Stuff universe (Mark Reads and Mark Watches), where they analyze book and TV series. Their debut novel, Anger Is a Gift, was a recipient of the Schneider Family Book Award for 2019. Their lifelong goal is to pet every dog in the world. Please visit them online at www.MarkOshiro.com and follow them on social @MarkDoesStuff

'Plantains and the Seven Plagues' is an intimate look at family and memory

A couple of months after her mother passed away, Paz Ellis sat down to write. Ellis grew up in an expansive, tight-knit, mixed-heritage family in New Jersey. Her Dominican mother and Cuban father provided her with a family history and cultural legacy that informed her experiences and sense of self, which she examines in her memoir. The book that resulted from these meditations is a familiar yet revealing account of growing up as a mixed-heritage Latina in New Jersey that often feels less like a memoir and more like spending time with a close friend who has invited you to have a conversation and who shares her life story with you over a cup of café con leche.

Image courtesy of Paz Ellis.

In Plantains and the Seven Plagues: A Memoir: Half-Dominican, Half-Cuban, and Full Life, Ellis takes us through her life, beginning with her early childhood and continuing through adulthood and her own marriage, and finally recounts her parents’ passing. She writes about significant milestones and events in her life, but also lets us into the everyday and shares the quiet moments that formed the glue of her family relationships. That is what makes this memoir so relatable and captivating. For example, Ellis recalls early Saturday morning cleaning routines with her mother with the music on full blast. She recalls translating documents for her immigrant parents and serving as an interpreter during parent-teacher conferences. She muses on her father’s mourning of his Cuban homeland, and on the schisms his Cuban background caused when he married a Dominican woman. She reminisces about introducing her own future spouse, a white Irish American man, to her large Latino family. All of these snapshots and small moments add up to often funny, sometimes painful streams of memories that Ellis dives into as she interrogates the legacy of intergenerational trauma and reflects on what she wants to pass on to her own children. 

It must be noted that Ellis is able to conjure the world as she experienced it in her childhood with compassion and ease, but she does so without glossing over the difficult realities of intergenerational trauma and its effects on the lives of the children of immigrants. Ellis wrestles with the ways that her mother’s struggle with depression and mental health and her father’s coping with disability impacted her and her family, as well as the effects that addiction, racism, and economic struggle all had on her upbringing. It is precisely Ellis’s honesty in confronting and sharing these issues on the page that makes the stories she tells engrossing, heart-breaking and relatable all at once. 

Plantains and the Seven Plagues is many things. It is a deeply nostalgic and intimate reflection on a full life lived between cultures—Cuban, Dominican and American. It is a meditation on family legacy, storytelling, and intergenerational trauma as told through one woman’s life. But most of all, it is an utterly binge-able read that you can devour in one sitting, but that will make you want to slow down and savor every bite. If you are looking for an intimate and engaging read on family and memory, this one's for you. 

Content warning for the inclusion of slurs: g*psy, and r*tarded. 

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Mariana Huerta was born in Mexico City and now lives in New England. She has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago and a background in Higher Education, but books are her one true love. She also runs the blog Latinas Leyendo which aims to highlight and celebrate books by and about Latinx folk. You can also find her book reviews on Twitter @latinasleyendo and Instagram @latinasleyendo.

August 2020 Latinx Releases

August 4, 2020

G.O.A.T. - SERENA WILLIAMS: MAKING THE CASE FOR THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME | Nonfictin

by Tami Charles (Sterling Children’s Books)

G.O.A.T. is an acronym that stands for Greatest Of All Time—and it takes lifelong dedication, nonstop hard work, and undeniable, unbelievable talent even to be considered for that honor. Serena Williams is the most decorated female tennis player of all time. She’s been ranked #1 by the Women’s Tennis Association countless times since 2002, and no one holds more Grand Slam titles—not just as a single’s player, but also, with her sister Venus, in women’s doubles. Find out all about this powerhouse player and her dozens of amazing victories in this entertaining book that’s packed with stats, sidebars, and details about the athlete’s journey. Sports-crazed kids will love it.

GUILLOTINE | Poetry

by Eduardo C. Corral (Graywolf Press)

Guillotine traverses desert landscapes cut through by migrants, the grief of loss, betrayal’s lingering scars, the border itself—great distances in which violence and yearning find roots. Through the voices of undocumented immigrants, border patrol agents, and scorned lovers, award-winning poet Eduardo C. Corral writes dramatic portraits of contradiction, survival, and a deeply human, relentless interiority. With extraordinary lyric imagination, these poems wonder about being unwanted or renounced. What do we do with unrequited love? Is it with or without it that we would waste away?

THE HOLLOW ONES | Graywolf Press

by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan (Hachette)

Odessa Hardwicke's life is derailed when she's forced to turn her gun on her partner, Walt Leppo, a decorated FBI agent who turns suddenly, inexplicably violent while apprehending a rampaging murderer. The shooting, justified by self-defense, shakes the young FBI agent to her core. Devastated, Odessa is placed on desk leave pending a full investigation. But what most troubles Odessa isn't the tragedy itself -- it's the shadowy presence she thought she saw fleeing the deceased agent's body after his death.
Questioning her future with the FBI and her sanity, Hardwicke accepts a low-level assignment to clear out the belongings of a retired agent in the New York office. What she finds there will put her on the trail of a mysterious figure named Hugo Blackwood, a man of enormous means who claims to have been alive for centuries, and who is either an unhinged lunatic, or humanity's best and only defense against unspeakable evil.
From the authors who brought you The Strain Trilogy comes a strange, terrifying, and darkly wondrous world of suspense, mystery, and literary horror. The Hollow Ones is a chilling, spell-binding tale, a hauntingly original new fable from Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro and bestselling author Chuck Hogan featuring their most fascinating character yet.

ILLEGAL | Young Adult

by Francisco X. Stork (Scholastic)

Life in Mexico is a death sentence for Emiliano and his sister Sara. To escape the violent cartel that is after them, they flee across the border, seeking a better life in the United States and hoping that they can find a way to bring their pursuers to justice. Sara turns herself over to the authorities to apply for asylum.Emiliano enters the country illegally, planning to live with their father.
But now Sara is being held indefinitely in a detention facility, awaiting an asylum hearing that may never come, finding it harder every day to hold on to her faith and hope. Life for Emiliano is not easy either. Everywhere he goes, it's clear that he doesn't belong. And all the while, the cartel is closing in on them...Emiliano sets off on a tense and dangerous race to find justice, but can he expose the web of crimes from his place in the shadows?

LOBIZONA | Young Adult

by Romina Garber (Wednesday Books)

Some people ARE illegal.

Lobizonas do NOT exist.

Both of these statements are false.

Manuela Azul has been crammed into an existence that feels too small for her. As an undocumented immigrant who's on the run from her father's Argentine crime-family, Manu is confined to a small apartment and a small life in Miami, Florida.

Until Manu's protective bubble is shattered.

Her surrogate grandmother is attacked, lifelong lies are exposed, and her mother is arrested by ICE. Without a home, without answers, and finally without shackles, Manu investigates the only clue she has about her past—a mysterious "Z" emblem—which leads her to a secret world buried within our own. A world connected to her dead father and his criminal past. A world straight out of Argentine folklore, where the seventh consecutive daughter is born a bruja and the seventh consecutive son is a lobizón, a werewolf. A world where her unusual eyes allow her to belong.

As Manu uncovers her own story and traces her real heritage all the way back to a cursed city in Argentina, she learns it's not just her U.S. residency that's illegal. . . .it’s her entire existence.

LUCI SOARS | Picture Book

by Lulu Delacre (Philomel Books)

Luci was born without a shadow. Mamá says no one notices. But Luci does. And sometimes others do too. Sometimes they stare, sometimes they tease Luci, and sometimes they make her cry. But when Luci learns to look at what makes her different as a strength, she realizes she has more power than she ever thought. And that her differences can even be a superpower.

From three-time Pura Belpré Award honoree Lulu Delacre comes a heartfelt and uplifting story with a timeless message: what sets you apart is often what makes you great.

MY TIME TO SPEAK: RECLAIMING ANCESTRY AND CONFRONTING RACE | Memoir

by Ilia Calderón (Atria Books)

As a child, Ilia Calderón felt like a typical girl from Colombia. In Chocó, the Afro-Latino province where she grew up, your skin could be any shade and you’d still be considered blood. Race was a non-issue, and Ilia didn’t think much about it—until she left her community to attend high school and college in Medellín. For the first time, she became familiar with horrifying racial slurs thrown at her both inside and outside of the classroom.

From that point on, she resolved to become “deaf” to racism, determined to overcome it in every way she could, even when she was told time and time again that prominent castings weren’t “for people like you.” When a twist of fate presented her the opportunity of a lifetime at Telemundo in Miami, she was excited to start a new life, and identity, in the United States, where racial boundaries, she believed, had long since dissolved and equality was the rule.

Instead, in her new life as an American, she faced a new type of racial discrimination, as an immigrant women of color speaking to the increasingly marginalized Latinx community in Spanish.

Now, Ilia draws back the curtain on the ups and downs of her remarkable life and career. From personal inner struggles to professional issues—such as being directly threatened by a Ku Klux Klan member after an interview—she discusses how she built a new identity in the United States in the midst of racially charged violence and political polarization. Along the way, she’ll show how she’s overcome fear and confronted hate head on, and the inspirational philosophy that has always propelled her forward.

PAOLA SANTIAGO AND THE RIVER OF TEARS | Middle Grade

by Tehlor Kay Mejia (Disney Hyperion)

Space-obsessed 12-year-old Paola Santiago and her two best friends, Emma and Dante, know the rule: Stay away from the river. It's all they've heard since a schoolmate of theirs drowned a year ago. Pao is embarrassed to admit that she has been told to stay away for even longer than that, because her mother is constantly warning her about La Llorona, the wailing ghost woman who wanders the banks of the Gila at night, looking for young people to drag into its murky depths.Hating her mother's humiliating superstitions and knowing that she and her friends would never venture into the water, Pao organizes a meet-up to test out her new telescope near the Gila, since it's the best stargazing spot. But when Emma never arrives and Pao sees a shadowy figure in the reeds, it seems like maybe her mom was right. . . .Pao has always relied on hard science to make sense of the world, but to find her friend she will have to enter the world of her nightmares, which includes unnatural mist, mind-bending monsters, and relentless spirits controlled by a terrifying force that defies both logic and legend.

SHE WAS THE FIRST!: THE TRAILBLAZING LIFE OF SHIRLEY CHISHOLM | Picture Book

by Katheryn Russell-Brown; Illus. by Eric Velasquez (Clarion Books)

Even as a young child growing up in the 1920s, Shirley Chisholm was a leader. At the age of three, older children were already following her lead in their Brooklyn neighborhood.

As a student at Brooklyn College, Shirley could outtalk anyone who opposed her on the debate team. After graduating, she used her voice and leadership to fight for educational change. In community groups, she stood up for the rights of women and minorities. Her small stature and fiery determination often took people by surprise. But they listened.

In 1964, Shirley took her voice and leadership to politics, becoming the first Black woman elected to the New York State Assembly, and in 1968, the first Black woman elected to Congress. Then in 1972, she became the first Black woman to seek the presidency of the United States. She pushed for laws that helped women, children, students, poor people, farm workers, Native people, and others who were often ignored. She fought for healthcare. She spoke up for military veterans. She spoke out against war

Shirley Chisholm, a woman of many firsts, was an unforgettable political trailblazer, a candidate of the people and catalyst of change who opened the door for women in the political arena and for the first Black president of the United States.

POE DAMERON: FREE FALL | Young Adult

by Alex Segura (Disney Books)

Learn more about the dashing hero from the new Star Wars films! Telling a story hinted at in The Rise of Skywalker….

It’s been a few years since Poe’s mother passed away, and Poe and his father, who was a pilot for the Rebellion, have had more and more trouble connecting. Not sure what he wants to do with his life, teenage Poe runs away from home to find adventure, and to figure out what kind of man he is meant to be.

YOU HAD ME AT HOLA | Romance

by Alexis Daria (Avon)

Leading Ladies do not end up on tabloid covers. 

After a messy public breakup, soap opera darling Jasmine Lin Rodriguez finds her face splashed across the tabloids. When she returns to her hometown of New York City to film the starring role in a bilingual romantic comedy for the number one streaming service in the country, Jasmine figures her new “Leading Lady Plan” should be easy enough to follow—until a casting shake-up pairs her with telenovela hunk Ashton Suárez. 

Leading Ladies don’t need a man to be happy. 

After his last telenovela character was killed off, Ashton is worried his career is dead as well. Joining this new cast as a last-minute addition will give him the chance to show off his acting chops to American audiences and ping the radar of Hollywood casting agents. To make it work, he’ll need to generate smoking-hot on-screen chemistry with Jasmine. Easier said than done, especially when a disastrous first impression smothers the embers of whatever sexual heat they might have had. 

Leading Ladies do not rebound with their new costars. 

With their careers on the line, Jasmine and Ashton agree to rehearse in private. But rehearsal leads to kissing, and kissing leads to a behind-the-scenes romance worthy of a soap opera. While their on-screen performance improves, the media spotlight on Jasmine soon threatens to destroy her new image and expose Ashton’s most closely guarded secret.

August 7, 2020

FUSSY FLAMINGO | Picture Book

by Shelly Vaughan James; Illus. by Matthew Rivera (Sourcebooks)

Meet Lola, the "no, no" flamingo. Lola will NOT eat shrimp, thank you very much. She does NOT care that it will turn her feathers pink. It is just plain yucky. But when Lola sneaks other snacks, she discovers that you really are what you eat. Each time Lola tries a new food, she turns that color, with hilarious results! This very silly story will delight even the pickiest of young readers and resonate with parents eager to see just one bite.

August 11, 2020

AOC: THE FEARLESS RISE AND POWERFUL RESONANCE OF ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ | Nonfiction

Edited by Lynda Lopez (St. Martin’s Press)

From the moment Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat a ten-term incumbent in the primary election for New York’s 14th, her journey to the national, if not world, stage, was fast-tracked. Six months later, as the youngest Congresswoman ever elected, AOC became one of a handful of Latina politicians in Washington, D.C. Just thirty, she represents her generation, the millennials, in many groundbreaking ways: proudly working class, Democratic Socialist, of Puerto Rican descent, master of social media, not to mention of the Bronx, feminist—and a great dancer.

AOC investigates her symbolic and personal significance for so many, from her willingness to use her imperfect bi-lingualism, to the threat she poses by governing like a man, to the long history of Puerto Rican activism that she joins. Contributors span a wide range of voices and ages, from media to the arts and politics.

HATEMONGER: STEPHEN MILLER, DONALD TRUMP, AND THE WHITE NATIONALIST AGENDA | Nonfiction

by Jean Guerrero (William Morrow)

Radicalized as a teenager, Miller relished provocation at his high school in liberal Santa Monica, California. He clashed with administrators and antagonized dark-skinned classmates with invectives against bilingualism and multiculturalism. At Duke University, he cloaked racist and classist ideas in the language of patriotism and heritage to get them airtime amid controversies. On Capitol Hill, he served Tea Party congresswoman Michele Bachmann and nativist Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions.

Recruited to Trump’s campaign, Miller met his idol. Having dreamed of Trump’s presidency before he even announced his decision to run, Miller became his senior policy advisor and speechwriter. Together, they stoked dystopian fears about the Democrats, “Deep State” and “American Carnage,” painting migrants and their supporters as an existential threat to America. Through backroom machinations and sheer force of will, Miller survived dozens of resignations and encouraged Trump’s harshest impulses, in conflict with the president’s own family. While Trump railed against illegal immigration, Miller crusaded against legal immigration. He targeted refugees, asylum seekers and their children, engineering an ethical crisis for a nation that once saw itself as the conscience of the world. Miller rallied support for this agenda, even as federal judges tried to stop it, by courting the white rage that found violent expression in tragedies from El Paso to Charlottesville.

NACHO’S NACHOS: THE STORY BEHIND THE WORLD’S FAVORITE SNACK | Picture Books

by Sandra Nickel; Illus. by Oliver Dominguez (Lee & Low Books)

Ignacio Anaya was born in Mexico in 1895, and like a lot of Ignacios, he was nicknamed Nacho. Young Nacho loved to eat and cook, and when he grew up, he found a job in a restaurant. Eventually he became head waiter at the Victory Club, a popular restaurant in Piedras Negras, Mexico, right across the Rio Grande river from Eagle Pass, Texas.

One afternoon in 1940, during the Victory Club's quiet hours between lunch and dinner, Mamie Finan, a regular customer from the US, walked in with three friends. They wanted a snack--something new, something different. Nacho rushed to the kitchen and improvised with what was on hand: corn tortillas, cheddar cheese, and jalapeño peppers. In that moment, Nacho's Special, the dish that later became known simply as nachos, was born!

Word of this delicious new snack spread quickly. Soon restaurants all over Mexico, the United States, and later the world, were serving nachos. Little did Nacho know that his name would one day be a household word around the globe!

SIA MARTINEZ AND THE MOONLIT BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING | Young Adult

by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland (Simon Pulse)

It’s been three years since ICE raids and phone calls from Mexico and an ill-fated walk across the Sonoran. Three years since Sia Martinez’s mom disappeared. Sia wants to move on, but it’s hard in her tiny Arizona town where people refer to her mom’s deportation as “an unfortunate incident.”

Sia knows that her mom must be dead, but every new moon Sia drives into the desert and lights San Anthony and la Guadalupe candles to guide her mom home.

Then one night, under a million stars, Sia’s life and the world as we know it cracks wide open. Because a blue-lit spacecraft crashes in front of Sia’s car…and it’s carrying her mom, who’s very much alive.

As Sia races to save her mom from armed-quite-possibly-alien soldiers, she uncovers secrets as profound as they are dangerous in this stunning and inventive exploration of first love, family, immigration, and our vast, limitless universe.

WHAT IF A FISH | Middle Grade

by Anika Fajardo (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

Half-Colombian Eddie Aguado has never really felt Colombian. Especially after Papa died. And since Mama keeps her memories of Papa locked up where Eddie can’t get to them, he only has Papa’s third-place fishing tournament medal to remember him by. He’ll have to figure out how to be more Colombian on his own.

As if by magic, the perfect opportunity arises. Eddie—who’s never left Minnesota—is invited to spend the summer in Colombia with his older half-brother. But as his adventure unfolds, he feels more and more like a fish out of water.

Figuring out how to be a true colombiano might be more difficult than he thought.

August 15, 2020

TÍTULO / TITLE | Poetry

by Legna Rodriguez Iglesias; Translated by Katherine M. Hedeen (Kenning Editions)

TÍTULO / TITLE is a book of poems by the Cuban poet, prose writer, and playwright Legna Rodríguez Iglesias, published here for the first time in Spanish, and in English translation by Katherine M. Hedeen. Rodríguez Iglesias belongs to the so-called Generation Zero in Cuba, those born after 1970 and who publish after 2000. After the fall of European socialism, Generation Zero grew up with little opportunities or future and its poetry embodies the crisis. TITLE does so by affirming a poetics of ugliness--the quotidian ugliness of poverty. Material need signals spiritual need. In an experimental, asphyxiating rush of repetition and enjambment, TITLE chronicles separation, alienation, unease, madness, illness while it presents readers with a unique vision of queerness, humanity, poetry. None of it is exceptional. These poems do not fall back on exotifying stereotypes. Instead, they offer a critical perspective of all sides. There is a brilliant grayness to this poetry that rejects how Cubans are supposed to write their reality, on either side of the Gulf.

August 18, 2020

DON’T ASK ME WHERE I’M FROM | Young Adult

by Jennifer De Leon; Illus. by Elena Garnu (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books)

Liliana Cruz is a hitting a wall—or rather, walls.

There’s the wall her mom has put up ever since Liliana’s dad left—again.

There’s the wall that delineates Liliana’s diverse inner-city Boston neighborhood from Westburg, the wealthy—and white—suburban high school she’s just been accepted into.

And there’s the wall Liliana creates within herself, because to survive at Westburg, she can’t just lighten up, she has to whiten up.

So what if she changes her name? So what if she changes the way she talks? So what if she’s seeing her neighborhood in a different way? But then light is shed on some hard truths: It isn’t that her father doesn’t want to come home—he can’t…and her whole family is in jeopardy. And when racial tensions at school reach a fever pitch, the walls that divide feel insurmountable.

But a wall isn’t always a barrier. It can be a foundation for something better. And Liliana must choose: Use this foundation as a platform to speak her truth, or risk crumbling under its weight.

FINISH THE FIGHT!: THE BRAVE AND REVOLUTIONARY WOMEN WHO FOUGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO VOTE | Middle Grade Nonfiction

by Veronica Chambers and The Staff of The New York Times (Versify)

This exciting collaboration with the New York Times will reveal the untold stories of the diverse heroines who fought for the 19th amendment.   On the 100th anniversary of the historic win for women’s rights, it’s time to celebrate the names and stories of the women whose courage helped change the fabric of America.

SHARUKO: EL ARQUEÓLOGO PERUANO JULIO C. TELLO | Picture Book

by Monica Brown; Illus. by Elisa Chavarri (Lee & Low)

Growing up in the late 1800s, Julio Tello, an Indigenous boy, spent time exploring the caves and burial grounds in the foothills of the Peruvian Andes. Nothing scared Julio, not even the ancient human skulls he found. His bravery earned him the boyhood nickname Sharuko, which means brave in Quechua, the language of the Native people of Peru.

At the age of twelve, Julio moved to Lima to continue his education. While in medical school, he discovered an article about the skulls he had found. The skulls had long ago been sent to Lima to be studied by scientists. The article renewed Julio's interest in his ancestry, and he decided to devote his medical skills to the study of Peru's Indigenous history.

Over his lifetime, Julio Tello made many revolutionary discoveries at archaeological sites around Peru, and he worked to preserve the historical treasures he excavated. He showed that Peru's Indigenous cultures had been established thousands of years ago, disproving the popular belief that Peruvian culture had been introduced more recently from other countries. He fostered pride in his country's Indigenous ancestry, making him a hero to all Peruvians. Because of the brave man once known as Sharuko, people around the world today know of Peru's long history and its living cultural legacy.

August 25, 2020

HERE TO STAY | Romance

by Adriana Herrera (Harlequin/Carina Press)

Julia del Mar Ortiz is not having the best year.

She moved to Dallas with her boyfriend, who ended up ditching her and running back to New York after only a few weeks. Left with a massive—by NYC standards, anyway—apartment and a car lease in the scorching Texas heat, Julia is struggling…except that’s not completely true. Running the charitable foundation of one of the most iconic high fashion department stores in the world is serious #lifegoals.

It’s more than enough to make her want to stick it out down South.

The only monkey wrench in Julia’s plans is the blue-eyed, smart-mouthed consultant the store hired to take them public. Fellow New Yorker Rocco Quinn’s first order of business? Putting Julia’s job on the chopping block.

When Julia is tasked with making sure Rocco sees how valuable the programs she runs are, she’s caught between a rock and a very hard set of abs. Because Rocco Quinn is almost impossible to hate—and even harder to resist.

THE LAST GREAT ROAD BUM | Fiction

by Héctor Tobar (MCD)

Joe Sanderson died in pursuit of a life worth writing about. He was, in his words, a “road bum,” an adventurer and a storyteller, belonging to no place, people, or set of ideas. He was born into a childhood of middle-class contentment in Urbana, Illinois and died fighting with guerillas in Central America. With these facts, acclaimed novelist and journalist Héctor Tobar set out to write what would become The Last Great Road Bum.

A decade ago, Tobar came into possession of the personal writings of the late Joe Sanderson, which chart Sanderson’s freewheeling course across the known world, from Illinois to Jamaica, to Vietnam, to Nigeria, to El Salvador―a life determinedly an adventure, ending in unlikely, anonymous heroism.

The Last Great Road Bum is the great American novel Joe Sanderson never could have written, but did truly live―a fascinating, timely hybrid of fiction and nonfiction that only a master of both like Héctor Tobar could pull off.

LETTERS FROM CUBA | Middle Grade

by Ruth Behar (PYR/Nancy Paulsen Books)

The situation is getting dire for Jews in Poland on the eve of World War II. Esther’s father has fled to Cuba, and she is the first one to join him. It’s heartbreaking to be separated from her beloved sister, so Esther promises to write down everything that happens until they’re reunited. And she does, recording both the good–the kindness of the Cuban people and her discovery of a valuable hidden talent–and the bad: the fact that Nazism has found a foothold even in Cuba. Esther’s evocative letters are full of her appreciation for life and reveal a resourceful, determined girl with a rare ability to bring people together, all the while striving to get the rest of their family out of Poland before it’s too late.

Based on Ruth Behar’s family history, this compelling story celebrates the resilience of the human spirit in the most challenging times.

ME & MAMA | Picture Book

by Cozbi A. Cabrera (Denene Millner Books)

On a rainy day when the house smells like cinnamon and Papa and Luca are still asleep, when the clouds are wearing shadows and the wind paints the window with beads of water, I want to be everywhere Mama is.

With lyrical prose and a tender touch, Mama and Me is an ode to the strength of the bond between a mother and a daughter as they spend a rainy day together.

QUEEN OF TEJANO MUSIC: SELENA | Picture Book

by Silvia López; Illus. by Paola Escobar (Little Bee Books)

Selena Quintanilla's music career began at the age of nine when she started singing in her family's band. She went from using a hairbrush as a microphone to traveling from town to town to play gigs. But Selena faced a challenge: People said that she would never make it in Tejano music, which was dominated by male performers. Selena was determined to prove them wrong.

Born and raised in Texas, Selena didn't know how to speak Spanish, but with the help of her dad, she learned to sing it. With songs written and composed by her older brother and the fun dance steps Selena created, her band, Selena Y Los Dinos, rose to stardom! A true trailblazer, her success in Tejano music and her crossover into mainstream American music opened the door for other Latinx entertainers, and she became an inspiration for Latina girls everywhere.

THE WRONG MR. DARCY | Romance

by Evelyn Lozada with Holly Lorinez (St. Martin’s Griffin)

Hara Isari has big ambitions and they won’t be sidetracked by her mother’s insisting that she settle down soon. She dreams of leaving her small-town newspaper behind, as well as her felon father, and building a career as a sports writer, so when she is chosen to exclusively interview a basketball superstar, she jumps at the chance. It’s time to show the bigwigs what she’s truly made of.

At the same time, she meets a rookie on the rise, Derek Darcy. Darcy is incredibly handsome, obnoxiously proud, and has a major chip on his shoulder. Hara can’t think of a man more arrogant and infuriating. However, fate keeps bringing them together—from locker rooms to elegant parties, to the storm of the century—and what begins as a clash might just be more complicated than Hara anticipated. When she begins to see Darcy in a new light, Hara is not quite sure if she should drop the ball or play the love game.

Looking for Your Next Artsy Read? Enter Latorre's 'Democracy on the Wall'

El arte está en la calle. Guisela Latorre’s Democracy on the Wall expertly explores the world of street art, muralists, and graffiterx across various urban areas throughout Chile after the end of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorial rule as president in 1990. While Pinochet no longer holds office, the impacts of his systemic repression and terror still plague Chile. 

Latorre argues that Chileans experience the most unequal society in the developed world, using research that includes oral history interviews, on-site investigations, and archival sources. She engages directly with contemporary Chilean street artists for conversations about the larger hopeful movement of “democracy to come” and the unwritten history of street art in Chile.

Image courtesy of the Ohio State University Press.

During the sixteen years of Pinochet’s tyrannical rule, the street art scene was destroyed, white-washed, censored and criminalized. Fortunately, the Chilean street art movement had secured its foundation during the previous presidency. During Salvador Allende’s presidency, street artists, muralist brigades, and graffiterx were intervening in public spaces with visual politics, taking up space, providing imagery for an egalitarian movement toward a better future for all. After Pinochet’s regime “fell,” artists began to reclaim the public sphere.

As a Chilean immigrant now living in the United States, with the experience of living under Pinochet herself, Latorre provides readers with a gift. It is with her experience and understanding of Chilean culture, in tandem with her feminist framework, that this professor at Ohio State University opens our eyes to an invaluable perspective on Chilean street art history. 

With her familiarity with the protest movements that led to Chile’s strong street art scene, Latorre is able to explore her case studies thematically, with a fluidity that evokes that of the street art medium itself. Throughout the book, the reader can explore the resurgence of collective muralist brigades, such as the Brigada Ramona Parra (BRP) and the Brigada Chacón (BC), museos a cielo abierto (MCAs) or “open-sky museums,” “Wildstyle” graffiti, and the movement and empowerment of graffiteras. 

Democracy on the Wall: Street Art of the Post-Dictatorship Era in Chile is a remarkable introduction to the strength and endurance of Chilean street art culture after a period of great social injustice. Chilean street artists' ability to bring progressive, creative, striking, and inspiring visuals into the public sphere, during and after the Pinochet era, should serve to remind readers of the power of the humanities emboldened by human spirit. 

There is so much to be gained by reading Latorre’s work on Chilean street art. The Black Lives Matter movement of the United States, and the world, continues to battle systemic racist oppression and police brutality. On the streets, people are demanding long-due freedom and justice for all. While mobilizing for a more egalitarian global society, it’s likely that we will begin to see even more “democracy on the wall.” I welcome it, wholeheartedly.

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Chelsea Villareal is a Mexican American Children’s Media Strategist from Portland, Oregon – Hey Cascadians! She holds a BUPA in Political Science & Media Studies from Portland State University, attended the NYU Summer Publishing Institute and is currently enrolled in her Masters at Columbia University. She works on the Brand Marketing team at Penguin Young Readers and holds down the role of Program Manager at We Need Diverse Books. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and two crazy, lazy feline beasts.

July 2020 Latinx Releases

July 1, 2020

SILVER VEINS, DUSTY LUNGS: MINING, WATER, AND PUBLIC HEALTH IN ZACATECAS | Nonfictin

by Rocio Gomez (University of Nebraska Press)

In Silver Veins, Dusty Lungs, Rocio Gomez examines the detrimental effects of the silver mining industry on water resources and public health in the city of Zacatecas and argues that the human labor necessary to the mining industry made the worker and the mine inseparable through the land, water, and air. Tensions arose between farmers and the mining industry over water access while the city struggled with mudslides, droughts, and water source contamination. Silicosis-tuberculosis, along with accidents caused by mining technologies like jackhammers and ore-crushers, debilitated scores of miners. By emphasizing the perspective of water and public health, Gomez illustrates that the human body and the environment are not separate entities but rather in a state of constant interaction.

July 7, 2020

13TH STREET #1: BATTLE OOF THE BAD-BREATH BATS | Chapter Book

by David Bowles; Illus. by Shane Clester (HarperCollins)

Cousins Malia, Ivan, and Dante are visiting their aunt Lucy for the summer. But on their way to Gulf City’s water park, they get lost on 13th Street. Only it’s not a street at all. It’s a strange world filled with dangerous beasts! Will the cousins find their way back to Aunt Lucy’s?

Each story in this hilarious and scary new series from award-winning author David Bowles is designed to set independent readers up for success—with short, fast-paced chapters, art on every page, and progress bars at the end of each chapter!

13TH STREET #2: THE FIRE-BREATHING FERRET FIASCO | Chapter Book

by David Bowles; Illus. by Shane Clester (HarperCollins)

Cousins Dante, Malia, and Ivan are happy to be back in their home town. But then their school bus takes a wrong turn and they end up on 13th Street! There are new monsters to fight, but at least they have their friend Susana and their bus driver to help them. Will the gang ever make it to their first day of class?  

Each story in this hilarious and scary new series from award-winning author David Bowles is designed to set independent readers up for success—with short, fast-paced chapters, art on every page, and progress bars at the end of each chapter!

13TH STREET #3: CLASH OF THE CACKLING COUGARS | Chapter Book

by David Bowles; Illus. by Shane Clester (HarperCollins)

Ivan, Malia, and Dante are excited about their ski trip. There’s no chance they’ll stumble onto 13th Street in the mountains, right? WRONG! After being sucked through a portal, the cousins come face-to-face with joke-telling cougars that are more dangerous than they seem. How will the kids get out of trouble this time?

Each story in this hilarious and scary new series from award-winning author David Bowles is designed to set independent readers up for success—with short, fast-paced chapters, art on every page, and progress bars at the end of each chapter!

ALL THESE MONSTERS | Young Adult

by Amy Tintera (HMH Books for Young Readers)

Seventeen-year-old Clara is ready to fight back. Fight back against her abusive father, fight back against the only life she’s ever known, and most of all, fight back against scrabs, the earth-dwelling monsters that are currently ravaging the world. So when an opportunity arises for Clara to join an international monster-fighting squad, she jumps at the chance.
 
When Clara starts training with her teammates, however, she realizes what fighting monsters really means: sore muscles, exhaustion, and worst of all, death. Scrabs are unpredictable, violent, and terrifying. But as Clara gains confidence in her battle skills, she starts to realize scrabs might not be the biggest evil. The true monsters are the ones you least expect.

FREEDOM, WE SING | Picture Book

by Amyra León; Illus. by Molly Mendoza (Flying Eye Books)

As powerful as it is beautiful, Freedom, We Sing is a lyrical picture book designed to inspire and give hope to readers around the world. Molly Mendoza’s immersive, lush illustrations invite kids to ponder singer/songwriter Amyra León’s poem about what it means to be free. It’s the perfect book for parents who want a way to gently start the conversation with their kids about finding hope in these very tense times we are living in.

MUSE SQUAD: THE CASSANDRA CURSE | Middle Grade

by Chantel Acevedo (Balzer + Bray)

Callie Martinez-Silva didn’t mean to turn her best friend into a pop star. But when a simple pep talk leads to miraculous results, Callie learns she’s the newest muse of epic poetry, one of the nine Muses of Greek mythology tasked with protecting humanity’s fate in secret.

Whisked away to Muse Headquarters, she joins three recruits her age, who call themselves the Muse Squad. Together, the junior muses are tasked with using their magic to inspire and empower—not an easy feat when you’re eleven and still figuring out the goddess within.

When their first assignment turns out to be Callie’s exceptionally nerdy classmate, Maya Rivero, the squad comes to Miami to stay with Callie and her Cuban family. There, they discover that Maya doesn’t just need inspiration, she needs saving from vicious Sirens out to unleash a curse that will corrupt her destiny.

As chaos erupts, will the Muse Squad be able to master their newfound powers in time to thwart the Cassandra Curse . . . or will it undo them all?

OYE, MURO (HEY, WALL): UN CUENTO DE ARTE Y COMUNIDAD (SPANISH EDITION) | Picture Book

by Susan Verde; Illus. by John Parra; Translated by Alexis Romay (Paula Wiseman Books)

Hay un muro en el vecindario de Ángel. A su alrededor, la comunidad es un bullicio de vida: música, baile, risa. El muro, no. Es lúgubre. Un niño decide cambiar eso. Pero no lo puede hacer solo.

Narrado en la prosa elegante de Susan Verde e ilustrado con los tonos vibrantes de John Parra, este formidable libro celebra el poder del arte y su capacidad de contar historias y de unir a las comunidades.

July 14, 2020

RUNNING | Young Adult

by Natalia Sylvester (Clarion Books)

In this authentic, humorous, and gorgeously written debut novel about privacy, waking up, and speaking up, Senator Anthony Ruiz is running for president. Throughout his successful political career he has always had his daughter’s vote, but a presidential campaign brings a whole new level of scrutiny to sheltered fifteen-year-old Mariana and the rest of her Cuban American family, from a 60 Minutes–style tour of their house to tabloids doctoring photos and inventing scandals. As tensions rise within the Ruiz family, Mari begins to learn about the details of her father’s political positions, and she realizes that her father is not the man she thought he was.

But how do you find your voice when everyone’s watching? When it means disagreeing with your father—publicly? What do you do when your dad stops being your hero? Will Mari get a chance to confront her father? If she does, will she have the courage to seize it? 

July 21, 2020

THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF NESTOR LOPEZ | Middle Grade

by Adrianna Cueva (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

All Nestor Lopez wants is to live in one place for more than a few months and have dinner with his dad.

When he and his mother move to a new town to live with his grandmother after his dad’s latest deployment, Nestor plans to lay low. He definitely doesn’t want to anyone find out his deepest secret: that he can talk to animals.

But when the animals in his new town start disappearing, Nestor's grandmother becomes the prime suspect after she is spotted in the woods where they were last seen. As Nestor investigates the source of the disappearances, he learns that they are being seized by a tule vieja—a witch who can absorb an animal’s powers by biting it during a solar eclipse. And the next eclipse is just around the corner…

Now it’s up to Nestor’s extraordinary ability and his new friends to catch the tule vieja—and save a place he might just call home.

July 28, 2020

IT IS WOOD, IT IS STONE | Fiction

by Gabriella Burnham (One World)

Linda, an anxious and restless American, has moved to São Paulo, with her husband, Dennis, who has accepted a yearlong professorship. As Dennis submerges himself in his work, Linda finds herself unmoored and adrift, feeling increasingly disassociated from her own body. Linda’s unwavering and skilled maid, Marta, has more claim to Linda’s home than Linda can fathom. Marta, who is struggling to make sense of complicated history and its racial tensions, is exasperated by Linda’s instability. One day, Linda leaves home with a charismatic and beguiling artist, whom she joins on a fervent adventure that causes reverberations felt by everyone, and ultimately binds Marta and Linda in a profoundly human, and tender, way.

SHIRLEY CHISHOLM IS A VERB! | Picture Book

by Veronica Chambers; Illus. by Rachelle Baker (Dial Books)

Shirley Chisholm famously said, “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” This dynamic biography illuminates how Chisholm was a doer, an active and vocal participant in our nation’s democracy, and a force to be reckoned with. Now young readers will learn about her early years, her time in Congress, her presidential bid and how her actions left a lasting legacy that continues to inspire, uplift, and instruct.

LA TRAVESÍA DE SANTIAGO | Middle Grade

by Alexandra Diaz (Paula Wiseman Books)

Las monedas en la mano de Santiago son para el boleto del autobús para regresar a la casa de su abuela abusiva. Pero él rehusa regresar. No lo van a extrañar. Su futuro es incierto hasta que se encuentra con María Dolores, cariñosa y maternal y su joven hija, Alegría. Este encuentro ayuda a Santiago a decidir lo que va a hacer. Va a acompañarlas hasta el otro lado, hasta los Estados Unidos de América.

Emprenden el viaje con muy pocas cosas, solo mochilas con agua y un poquito de comida. Viajar juntos requiere que confíen unos en los otros y Santiago está acostumbrado a ir solo. Ninguno de los tres viajeros se da cuenta de que la travesía a través de México hasta la frontera es solamente el comienzo de su historia.

Flirty 'Island Affair' Will Take You to the Romantic Beaches of Key West

Sara Vance is counting on an upcoming family vacation in Key West, Florida as the perfect occasion to prove to her highly successful doctor siblings and parents that, yes, she is making it as a successful lifestyle blogger, social media influencer, and small business owner and that, yes, she is getting her life together and even has a fiancé to prove it. The only problem? Her fiancé stands her up at the last minute leaving her scrambling.  

Enter Luis Navarro, Key West raised, and hunky firefighter paramedic with the local Fire Department who finds himself with a week of time off on his hands and nothing to do. So, when he runs into a gorgeous tourist in trouble, he agrees to step into the role of pretend boyfriend for the week. The only problem is, as the two plan and execute a 90s rom-com worthy charade, they begin to realize that what started off as a convenient arrangement for both of them might quickly be turning into something more.

Kensington Publishing website.

 Island Affair is Priscilla Oliveras’s first-in-a-series romance and it brings together all the elements of a perfect tropically inspired vacation read; a fake-relationship, plenty of hijinks, and of course, a romance  as hot as the Key West sun. And speaking of Key West, the setting is absolutely a character in its own right and is brought to life through Oliveras’s evocative  prose. The vivid and lush descriptions of idyllic island life, and shout outs to must-visit locations and mouthwatering mentions of the local cuisine will transport you directly onto the tropical island.

 But the real heart of the story lies in the main characters’ family dynamics and relationships. Writing warm, heartfelt, and very real family dynamics has become a feature of Oliveras’s novels, and Island Affair is no different. Sara and Luis’s families are central to the narrative and key in the development of the story and each of the main character’s evolution. Sara’s complicated family dynamics especially come into play as she looks to assert herself as the only non-doctor in the family. Her journey to rebuild their fractured relationship is handled in an honesty and empathic manner and is as much an arc as her romance with Luis. Luis’s large, meddling, but loving Cuban American family also features plenty of complications of their own and several side characters you get to know and love.

 The book also tackles a few serious issues such as mental health and eating disorders. Both Luis and Sara struggle with vulnerability and fractured family relationships based on past trauma. As they learn more about each other and weigh the risk of opening up their heart anew, each must decide how to heal and confront the fact that their pretend relationship might not be quite as pretend as they initially thought.

 Island Affair is the perfect feel-good getaway read to pick up this summer that will transport you to the tropical beaches of Key West from your home. If you are looking for a fun and flirty romance filled with Latinx family dynamics, various great side characters, and a throwback 90s rom com feel, this is one you won’t want to miss!

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Mariana Huerta was born in Mexico City and now lives in New England. She has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago and a background in Higher Education but books are her one true love. She also runs the blog Latinas Leyendo, which aims to highlight and celebrate books by and about Latinx folk. You can also find her book reviews on Twitter and Instagram as @latinasleyendo.

June 2020 Latinx Releases

June 2, 2020

LA LUNA DENTRO DE MÍ | Middle Grade

by Aida Salazar (Scholastic En Español)

La vida de Celi Rivera es un torbellino de preguntas... por los cambios en su cuerpo, por sentirse atraída por un chico por primera vez y por la exploración que hace su mejor amiga de lo que significa ser género fluido.

Pero, sobre todo, por la insistencia de su madre en hacerle una ceremonia lunar cuando le llegue su primer periodo. Se trata de un ancestral ritual mexica que Mima y su comunidad han rescatado, pero Celi se promete a sí misma que NO participará en él. ¿Encontrará dentro de sí la fortaleza necesaria para defender quién quiere ser?

THUNDER RUN | Middle Grade

by Daniel José Older (Scholastic)

Magdalys's connection with the dinosaurs has led the US Army to some important victories, but the Civil War's not over yet and the squad members find themselves fighting deep in the Louisiana bayou. Then General Ulysses S. Grant himself entrusts Magdalys with a top secret mission -- one that the very success of the Union depends on. Because as the friends will soon find out, the United States has more than one enemy.

Imperial troops are gathering along the Mexican border, forming an alliance with the Confederates in pursuit of spreading slavery, and suddenly the Union is facing battles on two fronts. But they are barely holding their own against one army -- how can they possibly defeat two?

As New Orleans is surrounded and desperate battle plans laid, Magdalys and her friends set off to disrupt a scheme that would destroy everything she cares about. But to do it, she'll have to push her dinowrangling skills further than she's ever been able to before. Can Magdalys defeat the fiercest rival she's ever faced and save the fractured nation?

THE WAY TO RIO LUNA | Middle Grade

by Zoraida Córdova (Scholastic)

Eleven-year-old Danny Monteverde believes in magic. He knows that pixie dust is real, that wardrobes act as portals, and that rabbit holes lead to Wonderland. Most of all, he believes that his older sister, Pili, is waiting for him somewhere in Rio Luna, the enchanted land in their favorite book of fairy tales.

Danny doesn't care what the adults say. He knows that Pili isn't another teen runaway. When the siblings were placed in separate foster homes, she promised that she'd come back for him, and they'd build a new life together in Rio Luna.

Yet as the years pass, Danny's faith begins to dim. But just when he thinks it might be time to put foolish fairy tales behind him, he finds a mysterious book in the library. It's a collection of stories that contain hints about how to reach another world. A map to Rio Luna . . . and to Pili.

As his adventure takes him from New York to Ecuador to Brazil, Danny learns that meeting your favorite characters isn't always a dream come true. But nothing will stop him from finding his sister . . . even if it means standing up to the greatest threat the magical realm has ever known.

IMAGINARY BORDERS | Young Adult

by Xiuhtezcatl Martinez; Illus. by Ashley Lukashevsky (Penguin Workshop)

Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today's leading activists and artists. In this installment, Earth Guardians Youth Director and hip-hop artist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez shows us how his music feeds his environmental activism and vice versa. Martinez visualizes a future that allows us to direct our anger, fear, and passion toward creating change. Because, at the end of the day, we all have a part to play.

CATEGORY FIVE | Young Adult

by Ann Dávila Cardinal (Tor Teen)

The tiny island of Vieques, located just off the northeastern coast of the main island of Puerto Rico, is trying to recover after hurricane Maria, but the already battered island is now half empty. To make matters worse, as on the main island, developers have come in to buy up the land at a fraction of its worth, taking advantage of the island when it is down.

Lupe, Javier, and Marisol are back to investigate a series of murders that follow in the wake of a hurricane and in the shadow of a new supernatural threat.

June 9, 2020

CURSE OF THE NIGHT WITCH | Middle Grade

by Alex Aster (Sourcebooks)

On Emblem Island all are born knowing their fate. Their lifelines show the course of their life and an emblem dictates how they will spend it.

Twelve-year-old Tor Luna was born with a leadership emblem, just like his mother. But he hates his mark and is determined to choose a different path for himself. So, on the annual New Year's Eve celebration, where Emblemites throw their wishes into a bonfire in the hopes of having them granted, Tor wishes for a different power.

The next morning Tor wakes up to discover a new marking on his skin...the symbol of a curse that has shortened his lifeline, giving him only a week before an untimely death. There is only one way to break the curse, and it requires a trip to the notorious Night Witch.

With only his village's terrifying, ancient stories as a guide, and his two friends Engle and Melda by his side, Tor must travel across unpredictable Emblem Island, filled with wicked creatures he only knows through myths, in a race against his dwindling lifeline.

ON THESE MAGIC SHORES | Middle Grade

by Yamile Saied Méndez (Lee & Low)

Minerva Soledad Miranda is determined to reach her goals, despite shouldering more responsibility than the other kids at school--like caring for her two sisters while her mom works two jobs. But one night, Minerva's mom doesn't come home, and Minerva has to figure out what to do. Was Mamá snapped up by immigration enforcement? Will the girls be sent to foster homes or holding centers for migrant kids? Minerva and her sisters can't let anyone know Mamá has disappeared. They'll just pretend everything is normal until she comes back.

Minerva's plan to go it alone falls apart the first afternoon, when her baby sister throws a tantrum during Minerva's audition for Peter Pan. But as the days pass and Minerva grows ever more worried about her mother, something magical seems to be watching out for them: leaving them cupcakes, helping Minerva find money, even steering them to friends and distant family who can help. Eventually, Minerva must make the hardest choice of her life. And when she does, she'll be prepared to face life's challenges--with friendship, hope, and a little bit of fairy magic.

June 16, 2020

ALREADY A BUTTERFLY | Picture Book

by Julia Alvarez; Illus. by Raúl Colón (Holt Books for Young Readers)

With so much to do in so little time, Mari is constantly on the move, flitting from flower to flower, practicing her camouflage poses, and planning for migration. She’s the busiest butterfly around. But does being productive mean she is happy? Mari couldn’t say. The only way she feels like a butterfly is by acting like one. Little does Mari know, the secret to feeling like herself is simply to focus her breath, find her quiet place, and follow her instincts. With the guidance of a thoughtful flower bud, Mari soon learns to meditate and appreciate that she was a butterfly all along.

IT’S NOT A SCHOOL BUS, IT’S A PIRATE SHIP | Picture Book

by Mickey Rapkin; Illus. by Teresa Martinez (Imprint)

The first day of school means the first ride on the school bus. But who will I sit with? What if no one talks to me?

Luckily this isn’t a school bus, it’s a pirate ship!

And this crew has one motto: “One for all and all for FUN!” So set sail on a voyage across the high seas! And prepare to make some pirate buddies along the way in this adventure about overcoming your anxiety.

JULIET RESPIRA PROFUNDO | Young Adult

by Gabby Rivera (Vintage Español)

Juliet Milagros Palante es una adolescente lesbiana puertorriqueña, nacida en el Bronx.  
 
Aún está “en el clóset”, aunque no tanto como ella cree. Una noche antes de viajar a Portland, Oregón, donde ha logrado conseguir un trabajo de verano con su escritora feminista favorita, Juliet le confiesa la verdad a su familia. Pero cuando su anuncio oficial no sale como esperaba, está convencida de que su madre no le volverá a hablar.
 
Pero, Juliet tiene un plan. Bueno, más o menos. Su trabajo con la legendaria autora Harlowe Brisbane, la autoridad suprema en el feminismo, en la anatomía de las mujeres, y en temas “gay”, seguramente le ayudarán a descifrar cómo funciona esto de ser lesbiana y puertorriqueña. Excepto que Harlowe es blanca. Y no viene del Bronx. Y definitivamente no tiene todas las respuestas…
 
En un verano rebosante de fiestas queer, rematado por una aventurilla romántica con una bibliotecaria motociclista y mezclado con intensas exploraciones de raza e identidad, Juliet aprende lo que significa salir del clóset y encajar en el mundo, en su familia y dentro de sí misma.

A SILENT FURY: THE EL BORDO MINE FIRE | Nonfiction

by Yuri Herrera (And Other Stories)

The alert was first raised at six in the morning: a fire was tearing through the El Bordo mine. After a brief evacuation, the mouths of the shafts were sealed. Company representatives hastened to assert that “no more than ten” men remained inside the mineshafts, and that all ten were most certainly dead. Yet when the mine was opened six days later, the death toll was not ten, but eighty-seven. And there were seven survivors.

A century later, acclaimed novelist Yuri Herrera has reconstructed a workers’ tragedy at once globally resonant and deeply personal: Pachuca is his hometown. His work is an act of restitution for the victims and their families, bringing his full force of evocation to bear on the injustices that suffocated this horrific event into silence.

June 23, 2020

THE DREAM WEAVER | Middle Grade

by Reina Luz Alegre (S&S Books for Young Readers)

Zoey comes from a family of dreamers. From start-up companies to selling motorcycles, her dad is constantly chasing jobs that never seem to work out. As for Zoey, she’s willing to go along with whatever grand plans her dad dreams up—even if it means never staying in one place long enough to make real friends. Her family being together is all that matters to her.

So Zoey’s world is turned upside down when Dad announces that he’s heading to a new job in New York City without her. Instead, Zoey and her older brother, José, will stay with their Poppy at the Jersey Shore. At first, Zoey feels as lost and alone as she did after her mami died. But soon she’s distracted by an even bigger problem: the bowling alley that Poppy has owned for decades is in danger of closing!

After befriending a group of kids practicing for a summer bowling tournament, Zoey hatches a grand plan of her own to save the bowling alley. It seems like she’s found the perfect way to weave everyone’s dreams together...until unexpected events turn Zoey’s plan into one giant nightmare. Now, with her new friends counting on her and her family’s happiness hanging in the balance, Zoey will have to decide what her dream is—and how hard she’s willing to fight for it.

SHARUKO: EL ARQUEÓLOGO PERUANO JULIO C. TELLO | Picture Book

by Monica Brown; Illus. by Elisa Chavarri (Children’s Book Press)

Growing up in the late 1800s, Julio Tello, an Indigenous boy, spent time exploring the caves and burial grounds in the foothills of the Peruvian Andes. Nothing scared Julio, not even the ancient human skulls he found. His bravery earned him the boyhood nickname Sharuko, which means brave in Quechua, the language of the Native people of Peru.

At the age of twelve, Julio moved to Lima to continue his education. While in medical school, he discovered an article about the skulls he had found. The skulls had long ago been sent to Lima to be studied by scientists. The article renewed Julio's interest in his ancestry, and he decided to devote his medical skills to the study of Peru's Indigenous history.

Over his lifetime, Julio Tello made many revolutionary discoveries at archaeological sites around Peru, and he worked to preserve the historical treasures he excavated. He showed that Peru's Indigenous cultures had been established thousands of years ago, disproving the popular belief that Peruvian culture had been introduced more recently from other countries. He fostered pride in his country's Indigenous ancestry, making him a hero to all Peruvians. Because of the brave man once known as Sharuko, people around the world today know of Peru's long history and its living cultural legacy.

June 30, 2020

JULIETA AND THE DIAMOND ENIGMA | Middle Grade

by Luisana Duarte Armendariz (Tu Books)

Nine-year-old Julieta is finally about to put a purple pin in her family's world traveling map! She's off to Paris to help her art-handler dad collect pieces for a new exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Sadly, they must leave Julieta's very pregnant mother behind, but they're sure they'll be back before the baby is born. Julieta sees the best of Paris: the Eiffel Tower, the Sacré-Coeur, and plenty of great art. But things go awry when she and Dad walk in on a thief stealing the Louvre's most prized piece--a priceless cursed diamond with a shady history. When Julieta runs for help, she accidentally frees the thief instead! Now Dad's job is in danger and he's become a suspect. Can Julieta determine who the thief really is before it's too late?

CHICANO EATS: RECIPES FROM MY MEXICAN-AMERICAN KITCHEN | Cook Book

by Esteban Castillo (Harper Design)

Esteban Castillo grew up in Santa Ana, California, where more than three-quarters of the population is Latino. Because Mexican food was the foundation of his childhood, he was surprised to see recipes for dishes on popular food blogs that were anything but the traditional meals he grew up eating. He was inspired to create the blog, Chicano Eats, to showcase his love for design, cooking, and culture and provide a space for authentic Latino voices, recipes, and stories to be heard.

Building on his blog, Chicano Eats is a bicultural and bilingual cookbook that includes 85 traditional and fusion Mexican recipes as gorgeous to look at as they are sublime to eat.

MEXICAN GOTHIC | Fiction

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)

After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.   
 
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.
 
Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. 
 
And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.

ODIN DOG HERO OF THE FIRES | Picture Books

by Emma Bland Smith; Illus. by Carrie Salazar (West Margin Press)

One October night in 2017, when wildfire raged in Sonoma and Napa counties, the Hendel family was suddenly evacuated from their homes and farms to escape to safety and forced to leave behind their Pyrenees dog, Odin. Odin refused to leave his nightly post of guarding the family’s eight young goats, despite the family’s desperate attempts to lead him away. Brokenhearted, the Hendels were sure they would never see their dog again.

But when the fire calmed and the family returned home, to their shock they found Odin singed yet safe, along with all the goats and several orphaned deer the dog had protected as well. Odin, Dog Hero of the Fires is a touching and inspirational true tale that honors the bravery and strength of Odin as well as commemorates the stories of those affected by the Tubbs Fire.

Support Latinx-Owned Bookstores During Quarantine

Have you been wondering how you can support Latinx-owned bookstores during quarantine? Many bookstores across the United States have closed for safety due to COVID-19. While some bookstores are completely shut down, some have continued to operate with creative precautions. Latinx-owned bookstores, often found in underserved communities and for underserved communities, are more vulnerable now as a result of losses in sales. If you’re able to buy books at the moment, please check out the list below of Latinx-owned bookstores currently taking orders for contactless pick up and shipping. If your favorite store isn’t listed here, remember you can always buy a gift certificate now for later use. Stay safe and happy shopping!

Cafe con Libros (Brooklyn, NY)

Website

You can place an order through this link.

Chau Luna (Brooklyn, NY)

Website

This bookstore is taking website orders and delivering through USPS. Use the promo code #stayhome for free shipping!

Duende District (Various Locations)

Website

They are taking online orders directly through their website and through their Bookshop page.

El Candil (Puerto Rico)

Website

This bookstore is taking online orders!

Kew & Willow Books (Kew Gardens, NY)

Website

They are taking online orders for curbside pick up and shipping.

La Casita Books (Puerto Rico)

Facebook Page

This store is taking online orders.

Image from @cafeconlibros_bk Instagram.

Image from @milmundosnyc Instagram.

LibroMobile (Santa Ana, CA)

Website

This bookstore is taking orders through their website and their Bookshop page.

Libros 787 (online)

Website

Online orders for shipping here!

Libros in Espanol (online)

Website

Online orders for shipping here!

Mil Mundos (Brooklyn, NY)

Website

They are taking online orders for local bicycle delivery in Bushwick or shipping!

Image from @thelitbar Instagram.

Palabras Bilingual Bookstore (Phoenix, AZ)

Website

This bookstore is taking online orders for curbside pick up or shipping. Free shipping if you spend $15+!

Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore (Sylmar, CA)

Online Store

Tia Chucha is taking online orders!

The Bookmark (various locations, Puerto Rico)

Website

They are taking online orders for shipping. Free shipping if you spent $50+!

The Lit. Bar (Bronx, NY)

Website

This bookstore is operating through Bookshop.org and libro.fm.

Third House Books (Gainesville, FL)

Website

They are currently shipping all orders from their online store!

Guatemalan Memoir 'Knitting the Fog' Explores Home and the Power of Women

Written in bilingual poetry and prose, Claudia D. Hernández's Knitting the Fog is a memoir taking place in Guatemala, through Mexico, across the border, and settling in Los Angeles. Evoked by her writing, you can feel the hot humidity of Mayuelas, the cool air of Tactic, the Guatemalan pueblos central to Hernández’s upbringing and separated by a mountain range, a long bus ride. By ten years old, she leaves her beloved país behind, heading to the United States with her mother and sisters.

Cover Image from The Feminist Press website.

Told in multiple parts, "Part I: Life in Paradise, Also Known as Hell" is the longest of the four, purposeful in its detailing of her family and friends and life in the homeland. We follow Hernández as a child, sometimes referred to as diablita, witness to the domestic abuse between her parents, her father's alcoholism, the legendary throw-down between her mother and a local woman (the title to this story, "Pollita trasquilada" is perfect), and the pain enacted between girls and women. It feels heavy with truth, but the Spanish word that comes to mind as more encompassing of the feeling is pesado, like the humidity that descends on the pueblo. The truth is thick with the awareness and respect for where you come from. And one morning, at seven years old, Hernández wakes up to her mother gone, who left early to begin her journey north, leaving her three daughters in the care of her aunt until she could come back for them. It takes Victoria three years, but she crosses borders again to travel to Mayuelas. She will do the journey north once more with her daughters, her tesoros. It is an act of love and displacement meant to provide them all with better opportunities, though the impacts on her daughters are not all the same; this is not a one size fits all. For Hernández’s oldest sister, Sindy, who is eighteen by this time, the promise of a better life is hollow when it means uprooting her from a life she has chosen, one she wanted.

In “Part II: Our Journey to El Norte,” Hernández’s memories of their journey alongside a coyote is full of tension, naturally, without anything more than the frank narration of a child. The strain of paranoia and suspicion is palpable in their mother’s stress; she who has three children in tow. And one can only admire her, who has a ferocity born from love. With all the dangers this journey presents to its takers, especially to women and girls, the toll this takes on Victoria is another costly sacrifice immigrants and the children of immigrants recognize. Once in Los Angeles, her new home, Hernández describes learning English, her assimilation, and her experience being Guatemalan in a Latinx demographic that is predominantly Mexican. “Part III: The Promised Land” resonates with the Central American experience, perhaps particular to the west coast and border states, and not commonly explored in memoir. There is a certain validation seeing this on the page, detailed from the perspective of an immigrant child herself. “Part IV: Returning to My Motherland,” in which Hernández returns to Guatemala with her mother and her sister Consuelo for a brief visit, we arrive at a moment that feels like the peak of this memoir, what we were climbing towards. Beyond the harrowing journey with the coyote, further than migration and resettlement, or maybe precisely what that journey is meant to lead us to, we arrive at a circle of women who openly share their pain with one another, longing for peace. The story “Victoria” is beautiful and shattering. One must read this book if only to just get to that piece. Published by The Feminist Press, Knitting the Fog is a meaningful addition to the Central American canon.

(Note: a version of this review was posted on @nastymuchachitareads on March 4, 2020.)

Andrea Morales is a daughter of Guatemalan immigrants and from Los Angeles. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in English Literature and a minor in Psychology. She now works at Macmillan Publishers as a Junior Contracts Associate for the adult trade division. Her book reviews and recommendations can be found on Instagram at @nastymuchachitareads and she lurks on Twitter as @nastymuchachita.