skip navigation links

Site Map


Latino/as in the US Booklist

Alvarez, Julia. Finding Miracles
Fifteen-year-old Milly Kaufman is an average American teenager until Pablo, a new student at her school, inspires her to search for her birth family in his native country.
How the García girls lost their accents
Anaya, Rudolfo A. Bless me, Ultima
Chronicles the story of an alienated New Mexico boy who seeks an answer to his questions about life in his relationship with Ultima, a magical healer.
Bernardo, Anilu. Loves Me, Loves Me Not.
While trying to win the attention of a high school basketball star who already has a girlfriend, Maggie, a Cuban American, learns painful lessons about romantic young love.
Bertrand, Diane Gonzales. Trino's Choice.
Frustrated by his poor financial situation and hoping to impress a smart girl, seventh grader Trino falls in with a bad crowd led by an older teen with a vicious streak.
Trino's Time.
With the help of some friends and a Tejano hero that he discovers in history class, thirteen-year-old Trino copes with his problems and his world.
Chambers, Veronica. Quinceañera Means Sweet Fifteen.
Eagerly anticipating her Quinceañera, the fifteenth birthday celebration that will signify her adulthood, Marisol is troubled by a lack of money, her mother's new boyfriend, changes in her best friend, and the absence of the father she never knew.
Marisol and Magdalena: the sound of our sisterhood
Separated from her best friend in Brooklyn, thirteen-year-old Marisol spends a year with her grandmother in Panama where she secretly searches for her real father.
Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street.
For Esperanza, a young girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago, life is an endless landscape of concrete and run-down tenements, and she tries to rise above the hopelessness.
Ewing, Lynne. Party Girl.
The death of her best friend Ana in a drive-by shooting causes fifteen-year-old Kata to question her position in the Los Angeles gang life.
Hernandez, Irene B. The Secret of Two Brothers.
Herrera, Juan Felipe. CrashBoomLove
After his father leaves home, sixteen-year-old Cesar Garcia lives with his mother and struggles through the painful experiences of growing up as a Mexican American high school student.
Jenkins, Lyll Becerra de. Celebrating the Hero.
After her mother's death, seventeen-year-old Camila Draper travels to Colombia to attend a ceremony honoring her late grandfather and, while trying to learn more about her mother's family, discovers some disturbing truths.
Jimenez, Francisco. Breaking Through.
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.
The Circuit: stories from the life of a migrant child
Johnston, Tony. Any Small Goodness: a Novel of the Barrio.
Arturo and his family and friends share all kinds of experiences living in the barrio of East Los Angeles--reclaiming their names, playing basketball, championing the school librarian, and even starting their own gang.
Martinez, Floyd. Spirits of the High Mesa.
Martinez, Victor.Parrot in the Oven: mi vida.
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.
Mikaelsen, Ben. Sparrow Hawk Red.
Thirteen-year-old Ricky, the Mexican American son of a former Drug Enforcement Agency man, tries to avenge his mother's murder by crossing over into Mexico to steal a high-tech radar plane from drug smugglers.
Ortiz Cofer, Judith. An Island Like you: Stories of the Barrio.
Twelve stories about young people caught between their Puerto Rican heritage and their American surroundings.
Paulsen, Gary. Sisters = Hermanas
The lives of a fourteen-year-old Mexican prostitute, living in the United States illegally, and a wealthy American girl intersect in a dramatic way.
Rice, David.Crazy Loco.
A collection of nine stories about Mexican American kids growing up in the Rio Grande Valley of southern Texas.
Ryan, Pam Muñoz. Esperanza Rising.
Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression
Saldana, Rene Jr. The Jumping Tree.
Rey, a Mexican American living with his close-knit family in a Texas town near the Mexican border, describes his transition from boy to young man.
Santiago, Esmeralda. Almost a Woman.
Follows the author from the Brooklyn barrios to Harvard as she overcomes an overprotective mother, siblings who scoff at her attempts to learn "Eastern Standard England," a whirlwind marriage, and her search for cultural identity.
Soto, Gary. Pacific Crossing.
Fourteen-year-old Mexican American Lincoln Mendoza spends a summer with a host family in Japan, encountering new experiences and making new friends.
Baseball in April and other stories.
A collection of eleven short stories focusing on the everyday adventures of Hispanic young people growing up in Fresno, California.
Additional Titles
Velasquez, Gloria. Rina's Family Secret.
A Puerto Rican teenager describes her family's life with her abusive stepfather in alternating chapters with the story of the counselor who is trying to help them.

Back to Booklists & Reviews