THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

    Ladies reign at this year's Pura Belpré Awards.   The Latina Book Club congratulates Meg Medina  and Yuyi Morales on their win.        The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.     The 2014 Winners are:     Author Award Winner – Meg Medina for her book YAQUI DELGADO WANTS TO KICK YOUR ASS (Candlewick Press), a YA book on bullying and resilience.       Illustrator Award Winner – Yuyi Morales for her illustrations and writing of NIÑO WRESTLES THE WORLD (Roaring Brook Press), a YA book about a boy who battles icons from Mexican popular culture in the lucha libre ring.           Honorable Mentions include :    Margarita Engle, Matt de la Peňa, Duncan Tonatiuh, Angela Dominguez and Rafael Lopez.       The Award is na

    "In the United States immigration is at the heart of the nation's narrative and sense of identity.   Yet we continue to the conflicted by it: armed vigilantes patrol the Rio Grande while undocumented workers find jobs every day watching over our children or delivering food to our door."--Mirta Ojito   "Hate is always looking for another place."   --Joselo Lucero, brother of the murder victim     Journalist and Columbia University Professor Mirta Ojito has written a powerful and compassionate account of the 2008 murder of Marcelo Lucero, an undocumented Ecuadorian immigrant, at the hands of seven teenagers in the All-American town of Patchogue, Long Island, about 60 miles outside New York City.     HUNTING SEASON holds up a mirror to the face of America and what we see is not pretty.    We, a nation of immigrants, are still intolerant of "other" immigrants.   We're racist, prejudiced, hateful, uncaring. (No, not all of us, but

  The Latina Book Club welcomes author Elizabeth Arroyo also known as Lisa Casian.    Elizabeth writes both young adult (YA) and adult fiction set in paranormal worlds with unforgettable characters. I favor (writing) YA. It is during those years that the significance of the self is explored, everything is drama, and there's just this heighten sense of awareness that makes any story possible. –Elizabeth Arroyo Q:     In your book THE SECOND SIGN, you’ve written a Romeo and Juliet story, only this time the story is about a demon and an angel. Can there be love between the two races? Or is love truly the root of all evil? What more can we expect from this series?     A:   Ah…the "love" question. Gabby, the main character, believes love to be the root of all evil because she's been shunned by those she loves. It isn't until she meets Jake that she begins to learn what it means to love someone, but then all hell breaks loose and she has to live with t

  The Latina Book Club is pleased to have selected LOTERIA as its January Book of the Month.   We tell our own stories.   We have our own tablas. So what happens when something is missing?   It's like the thing that's missing might be the one thing I need in order to win.   And why do I always need the one thing that's not there?                                                             --Luz Maria Castillo Authors are always trying to be original, trying to find new ways to tell a story.   Mario Alberto Zambrano has succeeded.     His debut novel, LOTERIA, is full of lush writing, vivid descriptions and nail-biting suspense.    Zambrano makes clever use of loteria cards to propel his story, and introduce us to our heroine, 11 year old Luz Maria, her family, friends and neighbors.   Loteria cards are like bingo but with pictures, and instead of calling numbers one calls dichos --riddles--and only if you know the answer to the riddle do you know the identi

  The Latina Book Club's mission is to promote Latina / Latino authors. We do this through book reviews, author interviews, publicity announcements, book of the month selections, etc. A popular feature of our site is " Writers Wednesdays ." The first Wednesday of each month, we feature a writer talking about ...writing. Happy reading!--mcf IF YOU CAN KEEP YOUR HEAD by Theresa Varela When I was about fourteen years old my mom gave me a laminated version of Rudyard Kipling’s celebrated poem , If . “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…” I only understand it now. On the arduous journey to the publishing of my debut novel, Covering the Sun with My Hand , I often thought I would “lose it.” “It” changed all the time. Sometimes “it” was opportunity that I believed was slipping through my fingers when yet another new author was published. Sometimes “it” was waiting for responses from agents and editors who said they were interested in my sub

Best wishes to All for a Happy and Healthy 2014! Come back on Monday, January 6th , for our first Book of the Month for the New Year. See you then.---mcf