Latino Voices for Young Adults

See also: Bibliografia en Espanol Para Los Adultos Jovenes

Alegria, Malin. Estrella's Quinceañera. 2006. (YA Fiction Alegr.M)

In this touching debut novel, Estrella Alvarez is about to turn 15, and there's nothing her meddling mother and T'a Lucky want more than to throw her a gaudy "quinceaqera"--a party that Estrella would rather avoid. Young Adult. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc. (MS,HS)

 

 

Alvarez, Julia. Before We Were Free. 2004. (YA Fiction Alvar.J)

Anita de la Torre never questioned her freedom living in the Dominican Republic. But by her 12th birthday in 1960, most of her relatives have emigrated to the United States, her Tio Toni has disappeared without a trace, and the government's secret police terrorize her remaining family because of their suspected opposition of el Trujillo's dictatorship. Using the strength and courage of her family, Anita must overcome her fears and fly to freedom, leaving all that she once knew behind. From renowned author Julia Alvarez comes an unforgettable story about adolescence, perseverance, and one girl's struggle to be free.

 

 

Cameron, Ann. Colibrí. 2003. (YA Fiction & YA Spanish Fiction Camer.A)

She was little and quick and pretty. Her mother nicknamed her Colibr #237; , Spanish for "Hummingbird." At age four she was kidnapped, torn from her parents on a crowded bus in Guatemala City. Since then, she's traveled with "Uncle," the ex-soldier and wandering beggar who has renamed her Rosa. Uncle has always told Rosa that he searched for his parents but had no success. There's almost no chance Rosa will ever find them--but Rosa still remembers and longs for them.

 

Canales, Viola. The Tequila Worm. 2005. (YA Fiction J Canal.V)

Sofia comes from a family of storytellers. Here are her tales of growing up in the barrio, full of the magic and mystery of family traditions: making Easter "cascarones," celebrating "el Dia de los Muertos, "preparing for "quincea-era, "rejoicing in the Christmas "nacimiento," and curing homesickness by eating the tequila worm. When Sofia is singled out to receive a scholarship to an elite boarding school, she longs to explore life beyond the barrio, even though it means leaving her family to navigate a strange world of rich, privileged kids. It's a different "mundo," but one where Sofia's traditions take on new meaning and illuminate her path. (MS)

 

Cisneros, Sandra. The House On Mango Street. 2001. (YA Fiction Cisne.S & CD Fiction Cisne.S)

Esperanza's life growing up in Chicago is told through a series of stories and observations about seemingly ordinary people, things, and events.

 

 

 

 

Peña, Matt de la. Mexican Whiteboy. 2008. (YA Fiction Pena.M)

Sixteen-year-old Danny searches for his identity amidst the confusion of being half-Mexican and half-white while spending a summer with his cousin and new friends on the baseball fields and back alleys of San Diego County, California.

 

 

Dole, Mayra L. Down To The Bone. 2008. (YA Fiction Dole.M)

Laura, a seventeen-year-old Cuban American girl, is thrown out of her house when her mother discovers she is a lesbian, but after trying to change her heart and hide from the truth, Laura finally comes to terms with who she is and learns to love and respect herself.

 

 

 

Gill, David Macinnis. Soul Enchilada. 2009. (YA Fiction Gill.D)

When, after a demon appears to repossess her car, she discovers that both the car and her soul were given as collateral in a deal made with the Devil by her irrascible grandfather, eighteen-year-old Bug Smoot, given two-days' grace, tries to find ways to outsmart the Devil and his minions.

 

 

 

Haycak, Cara. Red Palms. 2004. (YA Fiction Hayca.C)

When fourteen-year-old Benita's wealthy family goes bankrupt as a result of the Depression, they go from their luxurious life in Guayaquil, Ecuador to a primitive island, with the wild scheme of starting a coconut plantation.

 

 

 

 

Herrera, Juan Felipe. Cinnamon Girl : Letters Found Inside A Cereal Box. 2005. (YA Fiction Herre.J)

Yolanda, a Puerto Rican girl, tries to come to terms with her painful past as she waits to see if her uncle recovers from injuries he suffered when the towers collapsed on September 11, 2001.

 

 

 

 

Hijuelos, Oscar. Dark Dude. 2008. (YA Fiction Hijue.O)

In the 1960s, Rico Fuentes, a pale-skinned Cuban American teenager, abandons drug-infested New York City for the picket fence and apple pie world of Wisconsin, only to discover that he still feels like an outsider and that violent and judgmental people can be found even in the wholesome Midwest.

 

 

 

Jaramillo, Ann. La Línea. 2006. (YA Fiction Jaram.A)

When fifteen-year-old Miguel's time finally comes to leave his poor Mexican village, cross the border illegally, and join his parents in California, his younger sister's determination to join him soon imperils them both.

 

 

 

 

Jiménez, Francisco. Breaking Through. 2001. (YA Fiction Jimen.F)

Having come from Mexico to California ten years ago, fourteen-year-old Francisco is still working in the fields but fighting to improve his life and complete his education.

 

 

 

 

Lupica, Mike. Heat. 2006. (YA Fiction Lupic.M & YA CD Fiction Lupic.M & eAudiobook)

Pitching prodigy Michael Arroyo is on the run from social services after being banned from playing Little League baseball because rival coaches doubt he is only twelve years old and he has no parents to offer them proof.

 

 

 

 

Martínez, Manuel Luis. Drift. 2003. (YA Fiction Marti.M)

Abandoned by his parents and living with his grandmother, 16-year-old Robert Lomos reams of somehow keeping himself out of trouble, saving his money, and heading for California to put his family back together.

 

 

 

 

Martinez, Victor. Parrot In The Oven : Mi Vida : A Novel. 1996. (YA Fiction Marti.V)

Manny relates his coming of age experiences as a member of a poor Mexican American family in which the alcoholic father only adds to everyone's struggle.

 

 

 

 

Miller-Nachmann, Lyn. Gringolandia : A Novel. 2009. (YA Fiction Mille.L)

In 1986, when seventeen-year-old Daniel's father arrives in Madison, Wisconsin, after five years of torture as a political prisoner in Chile, Daniel and his eighteen-year-old "gringa" girlfriend, Courtney, use different methods to help this bitter, self-destructive stranger who yearns to return home and continue his work.

 

 

 

Ortiz Cofer, Judith. Call Me María : A Novel. 2006. (YA Fiction Ortiz.J)

Fifteen-year-old Maria leaves her mother and their Puerto Rican home to live in the barrio of New York with her father, feeling torn between the two cultures in which she has been raised.

 

 

 

 

Osa, Nancy. Cuba 15 : A Novel. 2005. (YA Fiction Osa.N 2005)

Violet Paz, a Chicago high school student, reluctantly prepares for her upcoming "quince," a Spanish nickname for the celebration of an Hispanic girl's fifteenth birthday and trys to figure out what her Cuban heritage really means.

 

 

 

Pagliarulo, Antonio. A Different Kind Of Heat. 2006. (YA Fiction Pagli.A)

Trying to come to terms with her brother's death, high school student and former gang member Luz meets his killer face to face as she begins to rebuild her own life in a group home in New York City.

 

 

 

 

Resau, Laura. The Indigo Notebook. 2009. (YA Fiction Resau.L)

Fifteen-year-old Zeeta comes to terms with her flighty mother and their itinerant life when, soon after moving to Ecuador, she helps an American teenager find his birth father in a nearby village.

 

 

 

 

Ruiz Zafon, Carlos. The Shadow Of The Wind. 2004. (Fiction Ruizz.C)

A boy named Daniel selects a novel from a library of rare books, enjoying it so much that he searches for the rest of the author's works, only to discover that someone is destroying every book the author has ever written.

 

 

 

 

Ryan, Pam Munoz. The Dreamer. 2010. (YA Fiction Ryan.P & J Ryan.P)

This is a mesmerizing fictionalized biography of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who grew up a painfully shy child, ridiculed by his overbearing father, but who became one of the most widely-read poets in the world.

 

 

Sáenz, Benjamin Alire. Last Night I Sang To The Monster : A Novel. 2009. (YA Fiction Saenz.B)

Eighteen-year-old Zach does not remember how he came to be in a treatment center for alcoholics, but through therapy and caring friends, his amnesia fades and he learns to face his past while working toward a better future.

 

 

 

 

Sanchez, Alex. Bait. 2009. (YA Fiction Sanch.A)

Diego keeps getting into trouble because of his explosive temper until he finally finds a probation officer who helps him get to the root of his anger so that he can stop running from his past.

 

 

 

 

Soto, Gary. The Afterlife. 2003. (YA Fiction Soto.G)

A senior at East Fresno High School lives on as a ghost after his brutal murder in the restroom of a club where he had gone to dance.

 

 

 

 

Stork, Francisco X. Marcelo In The Real World. 2009. (YA Fiction Stork.F & YA CD Fiction Stork.F)

Marcelo Sandoval, a seventeen-year-old boy on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work for his father in the mailroom of a corporate law firm.

 

 

 

Urrea, Luis Alberto. Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush. 2010. (YA 741.56973 Urrea.L & 741.56973 Urrea.L)

Mexican poet and fiction writer Urrea offers an inspired tale of his youth, richly expanded by Cardinale's brightly hued sequential art panels. Urrea remembers the Mexican village of his youth as home to pretty young girls, no-nonsense older women, and an intriguing old man who spent his days creating graffiti that is everywhere.

 

 

Valdes-Rodriguez, Alisa. Haters. 2006. (YA Fiction Valde.A & CD Fiction Valde.A & eBook)

Having tried for years to deny her psychic abilities, high school sophomore Paski has disturbing visions about the popular girl at her new high school in Orange County, California.

 

 

 

 

Veciana-Suarez, Ana. Flight To Freedom. 2002. (YA Fiction Vecia.A)

Writing in the diary which her father gave her, thirteen-year-old Yara describes life with her family in Havana, Cuba, in 1967 as well as her experiences in Miami, Florida, after immigrating there to be reunited with some relatives while leaving others behind.

 

 

 

Voorhees, Coert. The Brothers Torres. 2008. (YA Fiction Voorh.C)

Sophomore Frankie finally finds the courage to ask his long-term friend, Julianne, to the Homecoming dance, which ultimately leads to a face-off between a tough senior whose family owns most of their small, New Mexico town, and Frankie's soccer-star older brother and his gang-member friends.

 

Short Stories

Ortiz Cofer, Judith, ed. Riding Low On The Streets Of Gold : Latino Literature For Young Adults. 2003. (YA Fiction Stories Ortiz.J)

This collection contains stories and poems about the daily experiences of Latino youth, capturing their struggles with relationships, authority figures, and identity.

 

 

 

 

Rice, David. Crazy Loco : Stories. 2003. (YA Fiction Rice.D 2003)

A collection of nine stories about Mexican American kids growing up in the Rio Grande Valley of southern Texas. Meet Loco, a dog with a passion for firecrackers. And Pedro, an altar boy forced to learn a hard lesson from two of the toughest, oldest men ever to serve the Lord. Jordan and Todd are two boys from California who don't know what they're in for when they push their Texas cousins a little too far. Loosely based on the author's own childhood in south Texas, this story collection is a moving whirlwind of humor and insight-brash, tender, and full of the unexpected.

 

 

Saldaña, René. Finding Our Way. 2003. (YA Fiction Salda.R)

A powerful collection of stories about young adults living on the border of Texas and Mexico. Includes teens who work hard, ease, mess up, fall in love, encounter tragedy, but, never lose their way.

 

 

 

Soto, Gary. Help Wanted : Stories. 2005. (YA Fiction Soto.G)

Ten stories about a group of Mexican-American teens who, in their own ways, struggle to find their purpose in life and place in the world. There is the constant storytelling liar Veronica and her friends Ronnie and joey, who spend their days as "Teenage Chimps" due to their feelings of alienation from everyone at their school.

 

Nonfiction

Alicea, Gil C. The Air Down Here : True Tales From A South Bronx Boyhood. 1995. (B Alice.G Alice.G)

A 16-year-old Puerto Rican-American young man presents witty, intelligent reflection on such subjects as drugs, violence, dating, music, clothes, and school, offering both young and adult readers an inspiring perspective on inner-city life.

 

 

 

Arana, Marie. American Chica : Two Worlds, One Childhood. 2001. (B Arana.M Arana.M)

A journalist describes her efforts to come to terms with her daul heritage as a Hispanic American and offers a portrait of her family members, including her talented American mother and her brillant Peruvian father.

 

 

 

 

Bernier-Grand, Carmen T. Frida : Viva La Vida = Long Live Life. 2007. (YA 759.972 Kahlo.F Berni.C)

This title contains biographical poems about the life and work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, accompanied by stunning paintings.

 

 

 

 

Carlson, Lori, ed. Red Hot Salsa : Bilingual Poems On Being Young And Latino In The United States. 2005. (YA 811.5408 Carls.L)

A stunning variety of Latino poets illuminate the difficulty of straddling cultures, languages, and identities, while celebrating food, family, love, and triumph.

 

 

 

 

Miller, Calvin Craig. Che Guevara : In Search Of Revolution. 2006. (YA B Gueva.E Mille.C)

This biography tells the complex story of the famous leader, born into a wealthy family in Argentina, his dreams of revolution and his fight for social justice.

 

 

Sanna, Ellyn. Latino Folklore And Culture : Stories Of Family, Traditions Of Pride. 2006. (YA 398.08968 Sanna.E)

Provides insight into how folklore and family create the rich fabric of Latino life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Santiago, Esmeralda. Almost A Woman. 1999. (YA B Santi.E Santi.E)

Esmeralda Santiago relates her experiences as a young woman growing up in Brooklyn. In a patchwork of memories, she recalls her gulity longing to escape the Brooklyn barrio where she lives with her mother and large extended family, and what she finds when she leaves. The mixture of regret, joy, and confusion is unmistakable in this portrait of a daughter growing up in two cultures.

 

 

Soto, Gary. Partly Cloudy : Poems Of Love And Longing. 2009. (YA 811.54 Soto.G)

Poet Gary Soto captures the voices of young people as they venture toward their first kiss, brood over bruised hearts, and feel the thrill of first love.

 

Compiled by Christie Chandler-Stahl

Updated: September, 2010