Tag Archive | latinx

Bedtime reading, if you dare… NIGHT STORIES: FOLKTALES FROM LATIN AMERICA, by Liniers (Graphic Novel)

Jun11
Book cover of Night Stories: Folktales from Latin America, shows a brother and sister in their bunk bed flying across the night sky above roads, trees, and hills, with author name Liniers and introduction by David Bowles below them.

Danger on the river,
in the town,
on the pampas!

One night in their bunk beds, a brother and sister are telling each other scary stories from folktales they’ve heard.

There’s the one about the mermaid and the pink dolphin in the Amazon River – that’s Iara, Mother of the water.

And beware the Witch-Owl of the Mexico borderlands – when this bruja calls your name, you know that your death is near!

On the pampas grasslands of South America, the Evil Light threatens to steal travelers’ souls – is it the gates of Hell opening a crack?

“As you read these stories, you will get at thrill from them. You might feel scared. But I hope you will keep in mind all the layers of meaning they contain,” says writer David Bowles in the heavily researched introduction “Why We Tell Tales” (pg. 6).

More about each folktale is found in the notes at the end of this entertaining and chilling graphic novel. Available in Spanish as Cuentos de noche: Relatos de Latinoamérica.

What’s your favorite folktale from the Western Hemisphere?
**kmm

Book info: Night Stories: Folktales from Latin America / Liniers; introduction by David Bowles. Toon Graphic, 2024. [about the author/artist https://www.lambiek.net/artists/l/liniers.htm] [publisher site https://www.toon-books.com/store/p330/Night_Stories%3A_Folktales_from_Latin_America_by_Liniers.html ] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher, via Publisher Spotlight.

R is history repeating BARBED WIRE BETWEEN US, reverso poem by Wenjen & Encarnacion (Picturebook) #A2Z

Apr21
Two young girls, standing back to back, look at the viewer from behind a barbed wire fence. On the left is a short-haired Japanese-American girl, on the right a Latin American girl with long dark hair held by a patterned headband, on the book cover of Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen and Violeta Encarnacion.

Forced from home,
separated from family,
children now behind barbed wire!

A Japanese American girl scans the dusty internment camp where everyone in her community has been taken during World War II, hoping for better days when they’ll finally be able to go home.

Decades later, a Latin American immigrant girl escaping with her family from bad conditions is taken to the same dusty internment camp, her hopes of better days now dimmed.

This reverso poem tells the two girls’ different/similar stories with a single set of phrases, like going up a musical scale and then back down.

“In this land of promise, we hoped to find a place to belong.” The phrase that begins the first poem ends the second poem.

“Where darkness is, light will shine again. From behind barbed wire, new life will begin.” The phrase that starts the second poem is the final line of the first.

Muted colors evoke the dreary setting of the camp, children and parents often separated by barbed wire, far away from pleasant places.

Fort Sill, Oklahoma, has long been a prison camp for those considered different, from Geronimo and his Chiricahua Apaches in the 1880s to Japanese Americans during World War II to immigrant children since 2014.

What keeps you hopeful in the face of such things?
**kmm

Book info: Barbed Wire Between Us / Mia Wenjen; illustrated by Violeta Encarnacion. Red Comet Press, 2026. [author site https://miawenjen.com/barbed-wire-between-us/] [illustrator site illustrator site https://www.instagram.com/violeta.encarnacion/] [publisher site https://www.redcometpress.com/picturebooks/barbed] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher, via Publisher Spotlight.

T is for TWELFTH KNIGHT, her online game territory, not his! by Alexene Farol Follmuth (YA fiction) #AtoZ

Apr23
Book cover of Twelfth Knight, by Alexene Farol Follmuth. Shows a Latina teen dressed in ornate black armor holding a sword toward a Black teen wearing a high school football jersey, jeans and fancy sneakers, using crutches with one knee in a brace. Several gaming icons are lined up above their heads.

Such a slacker!
More work for her,
more need to escape into the game.

What did Viola ever do to deserve a tabletop game group that doesn’t appreciate her well-crafted campaign? Or a student body president elected because he’s California football royalty, leaving all the hard work to her as vice-president? Or having to pretend to be male in Twelfth Night battle game online so she’s not harassed for being a confident, competent Latina?

Injured on a touchdown play, Jack’s PT regimen still leaves the Black teen too much free time – might as well try that Twelfth Night game his buddy recommended.

As Cesario in-game, Vi immediately recognizes Jack’s avatar (a knight armored in their school colors – ha!) and eventually partners with him in quests, some chat between battles.

Working together at school on Homecoming Dance plans, Jack asks Vi to figure out why his girlfriend Olivia is growing distant…
Vi’s closest friend Antonia decides not to volunteer at MagiCon fantasy conference, and Jack is her substitute…
College scouts are asking if Jack’s knee will be ready for the playoffs and his future with them…

After in-game chat veers into personal stuff and Jack’s growing attraction to Vi, she allows Jack/Duke to believe it’s her twin brother that he’s befriended in the game (Renaissance Faire actor, non-gamer Bash is horrified).

Bash and Vi’s mom is seriously dating now, Cesario and Duke are closing in on the game’s ultimate prize, and there’s a senior night activity to plan… argh!

Told in the alternating voices of Jack and Viola, this rom-com blends online battles, hidden identities, self-discovery, and real-life relationships – with strong echoes of Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night.

Have you ever adopted an online persona that’s you-but-better?
**kmm

Book info: Twelfth Knight / Alexene Farol Follmuth. Tor Teen, hardcover 2024, paperback May 2025.[author site https://www.alexenefarolfollmuth.com/twelfth-knight] [publisher site https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250884909/twelfthknight/] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

H is spooky HARVEST HOUSE, a stalker nearby, and young Native women in danger! by Cynthia Leitich Smith (YA fiction) #AtoZ

Apr9
Book cover of Harvest House, by Cynthia Leitich Smith; shows a native teen boy walking away from a haunted house, surrounded by crows; upside down image of dark-haired young woman walking through dead trees with flying crows.

She was killed at the crossroads.
He still stalks young Native women,
so her spirit lingers there and attacks!

School budget cuts mean no fall play, and Hughie is bereft. Guess the indigenous teen will have time to volunteer at the haunted house fundraiser with new pal Sam after all.

Ick – the Harvest House organizer makes the legend of a Native girl killed at the Kansas crossroads into a racist trope and asks Hughie (Muscogee) and Sam (Hispanic) to dress up as murderous savages.

Sam’s sister works at the crossroads’ Grub Pub, is stalked by a guy one night, and then saved by the intervention of …a wolf!

Hughie helps student reporter Cricket connect with local elders and area history as the teens begin researching the mystery of the crossroads.

Progress on Harvest House maze (no Indian burial ground, please), seeking info on past encounters with the crossroads stalker, trying to ask Marie on a real date – Hughie’s life is suddenly complicated and not just a little dangerous.

Why do so many weird things happen at this particular crossroads?
Will Hughie’s spring play script with non-White characters be accepted?
Will the crossroads ever be safe for young dark-haired women?

Each chapter counts down the days until Halloween, interspersed with mysterious asides from Celeste who commands animals and birds to protect young women alone at night at the crossroads.

Find the story of Hughie’s big sister Louise during their family’s first year in Kansas in Hearts Unbroken, recommended at https://booksyalove.com/?p=10216.

Do you know a local legend that’s grounded in facts?
**kmm

Book info: Harvest House / Cynthia Leitich Smith. Candlewick Press, 2023 (paperback 2024). [author site https://cynthialeitichsmith.com/ya-books/ya_index/] [publisher site https://www.candlewick.com/9781536218602/harvest-house/] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

F is Martha Freeman’s TRASHED! as a young detective aims to solve the perfect crime (MG book review) #A2Z

Apr7
book cover of Trashed! by Martha Freeman. Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Planning a mouse’s funeral,
a long-lost souvenir teacup reappearing,
his best friend’s mom going on a date – lots happening in 11-year-old Arthur’s life these days!

He and little sister Ramona (mouse owner) live with their parents above the Boulder thrift store founded by his grandparents, and that’s where the teacup showed up. Grandpa recognized his favorite rock band’s cartoon bear mascot on it right away – but who brought it into the store?

The mouse is back, as a ghost now called Watson – maybe here to be helpful?

Arthur hopes that Watson’s ghostly stealth and observational skills help solve the teacup mystery and why store-worker Randolph dislikes Officer Bernstein and where the confidential consignment items file went.

Did someone bring items for the store to sell that were actually stolen?!
How could the thief snatch so many things from people’s homes without anyone noticing?
Will Grandpa’s prejudice make him accuse the wrong person?

If Arthur can figure out why best friend Veda is mad at him, maybe she can help him and Watson solve “the perfect crime” in this entertaining mystery by the author of Noah McNichol and the Backstage Ghost (recommended here).

What’s the most unusual thing you’ve ever bought (or sold)?
**kmm

Book info: Trashed! / Martha Freeman. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2023. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

We are still HOPE NATION, our favorite YA authors remind us, edited by Rose Brock (nonfiction book review)

Nov23
book cover of Hope Nation: YA Authors Share Personal Moments of Inspiration / Rose Brock, editor. Published by Penguin Teen | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Us versus them or together we can succeed?
Time to give in or time to persevere?
Time to hold onto hope with our whole heart!

Written in the wake of the 2016 elections, the personal essays by these well-known YA authors call us to continue finding reasons to hope – and work – for a better future together:
Atia Abawi, Renee Ahdieh, Libba Bray, Howard Bryant, Ally Carter, Ally Condie, Christina Diaz Gonzalez, Gayle Forman, Romina Garber, I. W. Gregorio, Kate Hart, Brendan Kiely, David Levithan, Alex London, Marie Lu, Julie Murphy, Jason Reynolds, Aisha Saeed, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Jenny Torres Sanchez, Nicola Yoon, Jeff Zentner.

“What I really think is that hope is in the work. That it lives in the space between what’s been done and what could be accomplished,” counsels Kate Hart (pg. 119) reminding Hope Nation that our work is fighting for what’s right.

Angie Thomas recounts an event from her book tour for The Hate U Give, where a Black woman asked those present “Can we begin to listen to one another, and can we change things?” (pg. 65) following racist incidents at their New Jersey high school – this is Hope Nation.

When bigots try to ban books in your school or town, stand against them and remember Jeff Zentner’s words: “Nothing forces people to confront the humanity of others like engaging with their stories” (pg. 92) – Hope Nation doesn’t see everyone else as ‘other’ like the bigots prefer.

Where do you find your hope?
**kmm

Book info: Hope Nation: YA Authors Share Personal Moments of Inspiration / Rose Brock, editor. Penguin Teen, 2018 [editor site] [publisher site] Personal collection; cover image courtesy of the publisher.

In a world GONE DARK, the prepper skills she longs to forget may save them, by Amanda Panitch (YA book review)

Nov17
book cover of Gone Dark, by Amanda Panitch. Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books /Simon & Schuster | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Forget how she got away,
just think of the future,
till it all goes dark.

Zara and her mom have a better life in southern California, five years gone since they escaped from her father’s survivalist compound back east.

Computer games instead of skinning squirrels? What teen girl wouldn’t leave behind such a hard life? But her father’s voice still echoes that the world is ending soon… no wonder Zara has panic attacks.

Then the sporadic power outages become a nationwide blackout, and civilized behavior vanishes, just like Dad predicted. When a huge stranger barges into their darkened house and calls for Zara by name, the 17 year old knows it’s time to leave.

Unable to get Mom to safety, Zara and her best friends head away from the coast, trying to outrun the threatening stranger and avoid danger on the road.

A Mormon fortress welcomes them, but can they ever leave?
More people join the group as they travel – can they stay safe together?
If they reach the hidden compound, can they survive its border traps?

This future where the electric grid fails large-scale could be tomorrow, just like the difficulties that Zara and friends endure in a world gone dark.

What’s your emergency plan for disasters?
**kmm

Book info: Gone Dark / Amanda Panitch. Margaret K. McElderry Books /Simon & Schuster, 2022. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

They must find more LITTLE MONARCHS, butterflies vital for humanity’s survival! by Jonathan Case (Middle Grade graphic novel review)

Jun14
book cover of Little Monarchs, by Jonathan Case. Published by Margaret Ferguson Books / Holiday House | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Sun-sickness wiped out mammals,
some humans survive underground,
can any ever see daylight again?

By 2101, only two people on Earth can survive sunshine – young Elvie and scientist Flora who’s caring for the 10 year old while Elvie’s parents travel onward as the team perfects a cure for sun-sickness.

Monarch butterflies carry the needed ingredient on their wings, so Flora and Elvie follow their migration south along what used to be the western USA, scavenging from former cities, foraging wild foods, and avoiding known underground settlements.

Elvie documents nature and schoolwork in her journal, while Flora tests and retests ways to make larger quantities of the monarch wing-scale medicine that prevents sun-sickness.

After an earthquake, they find a small boy near an abandoned settlement, so Flora gives him a dose of medicine and they keep going. Elvie left behind a note and some medicine, in case anyone returns to look for little Sito.

Wow, his family does follow them and wants to travel along – safety in numbers, right? Right?!?

This outstanding graphic novel documents their perilous journey to meet up with Elvie’s parents, as well as the natural wonders and survival skills that she records in her journal.

In our time, monarch numbers are dropping dramatically, so planting native milkweed along their migration route can make up for some habitat loss.

Do monarchs migrate through your region?
**kmm

Book info: Little Monarchs / Jonathan Case. Margaret Ferguson Books / Holiday House, 2022. [author site] [book site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Look again – THAT WAY MADNESS LIES: 15 OF SHAKESPEARE’S MOST NOTABLE WORKS REIMAGINED, ed. by Dahlia Adler (YA book review)

May31
book cover of That Way Madness Lies: 15 of Shakespeare's Most Notable Works Reimagined / Dahlia Adler, ed. Published by Flatiron Books | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Ah, the Bard!
His classic plays.
retold and retold – now with a twist!

A brooding bad boy becomes obsessed with a young ballerina from a rival high school – Romeo and Juliet, told completely in text messages.

Finally! Among the everlasting whiteness of the Fairy Court, the brown girl stolen from the mundane world as a baby sees another indigenous person in a gender-queer Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Not madness but anger drives Anne to unmask the vampire who killed her father, allowing her uncle to marry Mother for control of Elsinore in 1892 – the journals and letters of an educated young woman rewind the Hamlet narrative.

This anthology includes reimaginings by YA writers (famous and rising)

Dahlia Adler (The Merchant of Venice),
Kayla Ancrum (The Taming of the Shrew),
Lily Anderson (As You Like It),
Patrice Caldwell (Hamlet),
Melissa Bashardoust (A Winter’s Tale),
A.R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy (Much Ado About Nothing),
Brittany Cavallaro (Sonnet 147),
Joy McCullough (King Lear),
Anna-Marie McLemore (A Midsummer Night’s Dream),
Samantha Mabry (Macbeth),
Tochi Onyebuchi (Coriolanus),
Mark Oshiro (Twelfth Night),
Lindsay Smith (Julius Caesar),
Kiersten White (Romeo and Juliet),
Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka (The Tempest)

Each story is introduced by a quote from Shakespeare’s work, and often followed by author’s notes.

Shakespeare wrote in the everyday words of his time; these reimagined works bring his works into our time with clever twists and setting changes (outer space, a school dance, a rooftop greenhouse).

What’s your favorite quotation from the Bard?
**kmm

Book info: That Way Madness Lies: 15 of Shakespeare’s Most Notable Works Reimagined / Dahlia Adler, ed.
Flatiron Books, hardcover 2021, paperback 2022. [editor site] [publisher site] Personal copy; cover image courtesy of the author.

ONCE UPON A QUINCEANERA, any magic leftover? by Monica Gomez-Hira (book review)

Jan25
book cover of Once Upon a Quinceanera, by Monica Gomez-Hira. Published by HarperTeen | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Weird summer internship,
dancing Disney party princess –
but no prince will rescue her!

Carmen must complete this internship to fill the final required credit for graduation, so she’s spending her summer dancing in a ballgown… at kids’ birthday parties… in Florida heat and humidity.

Of course, Mami made sure that she knew how to dance, even though Carmen didn’t get to have a quinceanera to celebrate turning 15 – not her fault, not at all! (Mami’s own quince plus papa equaled Carmen, and it’s just been the two of them for the longest time).

Strange that Mauro is back in Miami when his famous photographer dad has moved away; awkward that he and Carmen are dancing together after he dumped her before leaving for college.

Oh no, her snooty cousin Ariana’s parents have hired the party dance company as the ceremonial corte for her quinceanera! Extra coaching for Ariana’s special dance, too, with Carmen’s boyfriend as her escort… this summer may never end!

Performing for parties while practicing endlessly for Ariana’s quince puts Carmen and Mauro together a lot… time to talk through old times and college scenarios and…

Could Carmen really make a future with her video editing?
Does Mauro like her or is he falling for Ariana?
Can they both dance through the summer without a meltdown?

Family rivalry and fancy dresses, waltzing and wondering, cafe con leche and considering the future – Carmen searches for her own Happily Ever After.

Meet Carmen and crew as you read the first two chapters excerpt here free, courtesy of the publisher.

What big drama in your family has turned out okay in the end?
**kmm

Book Info: Once Upon a Quinceanera / Monica Gomez-Hira. HarperTeen, 2021. (author site) (publisher site) Personal collection; cover image courtesy of the publisher.