The word "parent" is not just a noun. It's also a verb.
Succinctly, this story is about the journey our biracial heroine embarks on with her sister and two friends across a mysterious grass-forest that springs up on the family property, just as Wela (Yolanda’s Grandmother) needs to make it to a special tree to set things right.
In Jorge Argueta’s haunting novel in verse, Caravan to the North: Misael’s Long Walk, Misael and his family can no longer live in their home, El Salvador, which they love.
Character development, for example, is strong– and Higuera manages to find just the right balance between two internally competing cultures within our heroine not only by using humor, but also through a strong balance of both ethos and pathos.
Beautifully illustrated, and clearly written, Proud to be Latino: Food/Comida reads like a food encyclopedia for the Paw Patrol set. Each colorful page has English text on one side, and Spanish text on the other.
Margarita and her family move from New Mexico to Fort Steele Wyoming, where her father has been able to secure a job working on the railroad. Leaving the life she has known for all of her ten years behind, she embarks on a new adventure where she tries to make new friends, navigates growing up and faces discrimination, while at the same time remains true to her Hispanic Heritage.
Each story is bite-sized, perfect for dipping in and out of over the course of a day or two, and would be fantastic for parents and children to read together, or for a teacher to read to his or her class. (Zoom story time is going to be a thing this year, youse guys.) Featuring a mix of elements from the natural world as well as tales of good old-fashioned human nature, Wynne-Jones’ style is witty, smart, and most importantly of all, relatable.
It’s not often a picture book leaves me in tears, but SPOILER ALERT, this one did. Davies’ haunting text and Cobb’s evocative images are vivid and brutal; the two beautifully pair to convey the horror of war without being graphic or violent.
The list goes on and on. Practically everything you can imagine needing to do around a house as well as simple roadside safety information is included in this book.
At school, she is ridiculed both because she is and is not latina (in appearance yes, in culture, no)–sometimes called a coconut [brown on the outside, white on the inside]. She sings in the choir, loves English class, has two great friends and has trouble with some mean girls. Internally, she struggles to figure out who she is, at the same time rejecting everything she perceives as being forced upon her. I know. She sounds like the ordinary 12-year-old. And that’s why this is extraordinary. As she faces each challenge, and overcomes each perceived failure, she builds her identity with each step.