THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

I open the book. Word-blindness. The pages are white! Is this really a blank diary, or just an ordinary schoolbook filled with frog-slippery tricky letters that know how to leap and escape? --Fefa THE WILD BOOK By Margarita Engle HMH Books for Young Readers, 2014 BEAUTIFUL. HEARTFELT. INSPIRING. A mother’s love is a powerful thing, and Fefa’s mother refuses the edict doctors proclaim. Dyslexia will not cripple her child, and so she teaches Fefa to see the world in a different light. SUMMARY:   But her mother has an idea. She gives Fefa a blank book filled with clean white pages. "Think of it as a garden," she says. Soon Fefa starts to sprinkle words across the pages of her wild book. She lets her words sprout like seedlings, shaky at first, then growing stronger and surer with each new day. And when her family is threatened, it is what Fefa has learned from her wild book that saves them. ABOUT THE AUTHOR:    M...

The Latina Book Club  wishes author  Chantel Acevedo  a Happy Book Birthday.   T he Muse Squad was released on July 7.  It’s Chantel's first middle grade book, and the first in a fantasy duology with a Cuban American heroine and diverse friends. MUSE SQUAD is an ode to girl power. Memorable. Magical. Moving.  Think Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and Disney’s  Hercules , and you’ll get the idea behind Chantel Acevedo’s MUSE SQUAD.  The heroine is 11-year old Callie, who turns out to be a Greek muse with lots of raw power. Now, Callie and the others in the Muse Squad must learn to use their power responsibly.     SUMMARY:   Callie Martinez-Silva didn’t mean to turn her best friend into a pop star. But when a simple pep talk leads to miraculous results, Callie learns she’s the newest muse of epic poetry, one of the nine Muses of Greek mythology tasked with protecting humanity’s fate in se...

The Latina Book Club supports our Black Brothers and Sisters   and our Afro Latinx / Black Latinx Communities during these hard times.   Black Lives Matter.    We See You. We Hear You.   We Support You. Aside from donating money to the different organizations supporting the movement and the protesters, we want to support Afro-Latinx / Black Latinx authors by purchasing and reading their books.   Below is a short list in no particular order.   We welcome additions to this list.     Happy Reading.   Take care and Stay Safe.   20 AFRO LATINX  /  BLACK LATINX WRITERS  NO ONE IS ILLEGAL: FIGHTING RACISM AND STATE VIOLENCE IN THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER   by Justin Akers Chacón and Mike Davis (Haymarket Books) AN AFRICAN AMERICAN AND LATINX HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES By Paul Ortiz (Beacon Press) 13 WAYS TO LOOK AT A BLACK BOY By Tony Medina & 13 Artists ...

It's Halloween Week and the Latina Book Club is proud to bring you books that will scare you and make your heart race.   So Be Brave and Happy Reading. Caballo Press of Ann Arbor Alright, this book is just a little scary.  PERLA GARCIA AND THE MYSTERY OF LA LLORONA, "THE WEEPING WOMAN," is a new bilingual book series for young readers.  It is available in English and Spanish. It's the first in a series of mysteries with a young girl "detective" and her trusty German Shepherd.  The best part is that it has a glossary of the Spanish words used in the book; plus, it encourages kids to investigate mysteries of their own and share on an entertaining and interactive website.  This book won the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award for Best Children's Bilingual Book (Summer 2015). SUMMARY:   Perla Garcia is a fourth grader who loves to write and solve mysteries.  When her friends claim to see La Llorona - The Weeping Woman - wander...

    The Latina Book Club was part of the MultiCultural Children's Book Day yesterday.   It was a tremendous honor and we want to continue the celebration of children's books and diversity this week.   So today, we'd like to celebrate Latino Children Picture Books.    Below are some fun ones.---mcf LAST STOP MARKET STREET by Matt de la Peña Every Sunday after church, CJ and his grandma ride the bus across town. But today, CJ wonders why they don't own a car like his friend Colby. Why doesn’t he have an iPod like the boys on the bus? How come they always have to get off in the dirty part of town? Each question is met with an encouraging answer from grandma, who helps him see the beauty—and fun—in their routine and the world around them. LALO LOVES TO HELP by Cecilia Velastegui Lalo, a yellow-naped Amazonian parrot speaks many languages and loves to sing opera. He lives a happy live according to the Amazonian oath of friendshi...