Last Updated: September 29, 2023
The Color of My Words
by Lynn Joseph
When life gets difficult for Ana Rosa, a twelve-year-old would-be writer living in a small village in the Dominican Republic, she can depend on her older brother to make her feel better–until the life-changing events on her thirteenth birthday.
Growing Up Pedro
by Matt Tavares
Before Pedro Martínez pitched the Red Sox to a World Series championship, before he was named to the All-Star team eight times, before he won the Cy Young Award three times, he was a kid from a place called Manoguayabo in the Dominican Republic. Pedro loved baseball more than anything, and his older brother Ramón was the best pitcher he’d ever seen. He dreamed of the day he and his brother could play together in the major leagues. This is the story of how that dream came true.
Invisible
by Christina Diaz Gonzalez
Can five overlooked kids make one big difference? There’s George, the brain; Sara, the loner; Dayara, the tough kid; Nico, the rich kid; and Miguel, the athlete. And they’re stuck together when they’re forced to complete their school’s community service hours. Although they’re sure they have nothing in common with one another, some people see them as all the same… just five Spanish-speaking kids. Then they meet someone who truly needs their help, and they must decide whether they are each willing to expose their own secrets to help… or if remaining invisible is the only way to survive middle school.
Letters from Cuba
by Ruth Behar
In 1938, eleven-year-old Esther joins her father in tropical, multicultural Cuba, where they toil together to rescue the rest of their Jewish family from persecution in Poland. Includes notes about the author’s grandmother, on whom the story is based.
Mañanaland
by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Twelve-year-old Max, who loves the legend Buelo tells him about a mythical gatekeeper who can guide brave travelers on a journey into tomorrow, sets out on a dangerous quest to discover if he is true of heart and what the future holds, armed with a treasured compass, a mysterious stone rubbing, and Buelo’s legend as his only guides.
Me, Frida, and the Secret of the Peacock Ring
by Angela Cervantes
Mystery and adventure collide when Paloma visits Mexico, her deceased father’s homeland –and it becomes much more than a summer vacation. Her new Spanish tutor and his sister ask for Paloma’s help to find Frida Kahlo’s missing peacock ring. But they don’t tell her that their dad is in jail for stealing the ring!
Paola Santiago and the River of Tears
by Tahlor Kay Mejia
In Silver Springs, Arizona, her mother’s stories of the monstrous La Llorona are thrilling but unbelievable to science-loving Paola until she and her best friends Dante and Emma take a walk through a cactus field near the Gila River.
Star in the Forest
by Laura Resau
After eleven-year-old Zitlally’s father is deported to Mexico, she takes refuge in her trailer park’s forest of rusted car parts, where she befriends a spunky neighbor and finds a stray dog that she nurses back to health and believes she must keep safe so that her father will return.
Stef Soto, Taco Queen
by Jennifer Torres
Seventh grader Estefania “Stef” Soto is itching to shake off the onion-and-cilantro embrace of Tia Perla, her family’s taco truck. She wants nothing more than for her dad to get a normal job and for Tia Perla to be put out to pasture. It’s no fun being known as the “Taco Queen” at school. But just when it looks like Stef is going to get exactly what she wants, and her family’s livelihood is threatened, she will have to become the truck’s unlikely champion. In this fun and multicultural middle grade novel, Stef will discover what matters the most, and ultimately embrace an identity that even includes old Tia Perla.
Tumble
by Celia C. Pérez
Before she decides whether to accept her stepfather’s proposal of adoption, twelve-year-old Adela Ramírez reaches out to her estranged biological father–who is in the midst of a career comeback as a luchador–and the eccentric extended family of wrestlers she has never met, bringing Adela closer to understanding the expansive definition of family.
Valentina Salazar Is Not a Monster Hunter
by Zoraida Córdova
Eleven-and-a-half-year-old Valentina Salazar grew up as a monster protector until her father’s loss, but when a video of a mythical egg appears, Valentina convinces her older brother and sister to help her find and save it–all while avoiding the monster hunters who want to destroy it.
The Way to Rio Luna
by Zoraida Córdova
Eleven-year-old Danny Monteverde believes in magic, he believes that the enchanted land of Rio Luna in his older sister’s favorite book is real, and most of all he believes that if he can find the way to Rio Luna he will find his sister Pili there, because he does not believe that his sister would run away from the group home where they lived and leave him behind; but after years of being passed from one foster family to another his faith begins to fade–until one day he finds a mysterious book in the library that contains a map to Rio Luna…and a way to find Pili.