Young Adult Fiction. Latino/Latina Studies. Bilingual Edition translated from the Spanish by Gabriela Baeza Ventura. Illustrated by April Ward. Ana envies her elder sibling and wishes she could do what Lidia does: put just the right amount of meat inside the tamales and roll them up; steam the tamales without scalding herself with the hot, hot steam; chop and cook the meat for the tamales without cutting or burning her hands. When she turns eighteen, though, Ana knows she will keep making tamales and she will be able to do all of the steps herself in her very own factory. When Christmas comes...

Jessica Luna is your typical 26 year old: she has man trouble, mom trouble, and not a clue what to do with her life (though everyone else in her family seems to have plenty of suggestions ) After a lifetime of being babied by her family, Jess is incapable of trusting herself to make the right choices. So instead, she bases all of her life decisions on signs. She looks to everything for guidance, from the direction her rearview-mirror-Virgin-de-Guadalupe sways to whatever Madame Hortensia, her psychic, sees in the cards.


When her sort-of boyfriend Guillermo, a gifted...

PARADISE LOST
If she can find the time, Sandy Saavedra will stop to breathe. New management has turned work upside down and her father's upcoming marriage-something he forgot to mention to Sandy-means there's no peace at home, either. But it's okay. No matter what's thrown her way, Sandy can deal. Because Sandy has a secret, and his name is Tio Jaime.
A short drive out of Austin delivers Sandy into the wide-open spaces of the Hill Country, to the front porch of grandfatherly hermit Tio Jaime. There, in the company of pepper plants, a shaggy dog, and fresh squeezed lemonade, the old man...