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Sep 15, 202012 min read

Hispanic Heritage Books for Children

Stated grade levels are a starting point only. Reading levels and topic (subject) appropriateness should always be considered with the individual reader in mind.


Picture books

Across the Bay by Carlos Aponte

Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal



Beauty Woke by NoNieqa Ramos

Bebé Goes Shopping by Susan Middleton Elya



Carmela Full of Wishes by Matt de la Peña


Chato's Kitchen by Gary Soto Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin by Duncan Tonatiuh


Dreamers by Yuyi Morales


Hermanita: Little Sister by Dr. Khalid White and Isela Garcia White


Hermanito: Little Brother by Dr. Khalid White and Isela Garcia White

I Wish You Knew by Jackie Azúa Kramer

Isabel and Her Colores Go to School by Alexandra Alessandri


Islandborn by Junot Díaz

Jaguars and Butterflies by Catherine Russler

Just Ask! by Sonia Sotomayor


La Princesa and the Pea by Susan Middleton Elya

Lucia the Luchadora by Cynthia Leonor Garza


Miguel and the Grand Harmony by Matt de la Peña

My Abuelita by Tony Johnston

My Papi Has a Motorcycle by Isabela Quintero


My Two Border Towns by David Bowles

One is a Piñata: A Book of Numbers by Roseanne Greenfield Thong


A Paintbrush for Paco by Tracey Kyle

Roadrunner's Dance by Rudolfo Anaya



Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto

¡Vamos! Let's Go Eat! by Raúl the Third

Viva Frida! by Yuyi Morales


What Will You Be? by Yamile Saied Méndez







1st and 2nd grades

Captain Dom's Treasure (Definitely Dominguita #2) by Terry Catasus Jennings







3rd and 4th grades






Efren Divided: A Novel by Ernesto Cisneros

Winner of the Pura Belpré Award!


Efrén Nava’s Amá is his Superwoman—or Soperwoman, named after the delicious Mexican sopes his mother often prepares. Both Amá and Apá work hard all day to provide for the family, making sure Efrén and his younger siblings Max and Mía feel safe and loved.

But Efrén worries about his parents; although he’s American-born, his parents are undocumented. His worst nightmare comes true one day when Amá doesn’t return from work and is deported across the border to Tijuana, México.

Now more than ever, Efrén must channel his inner Soperboy to help take care of and try to reunite his family.







Falling Short by Ernesto Cisneros

Ernesto Cisneros, Pura Belpré Award-winning author of Efrén Divided, is back with a hilarious and heartfelt novel about two best friends who must rely on each other in unexpected ways. A great next pick for readers who loved Ghost by Jason Reynolds or The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez.


Isaac and Marco already know sixth grade is going to change their lives. But it won’t change things at home—not without each other’s help.


This year, star basketball player Isaac plans on finally keeping up with his schoolwork. Better grades will surely stop Isaac’s parents from arguing all the time. Meanwhile, straight-A Marco vows on finally winning his father’s approval by earning a spot on the school’s basketball team.


But will their friendship and support for each other be enough to keep the two boys from falling short?





The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez

There are no shortcuts to surviving your first day at a new school—you can’t fix it with duct tape like you would your Chuck Taylors. On Day One, twelve-year-old Malú (María Luisa, if you want to annoy her) inadvertently upsets Posada Middle School’s queen bee, violates the school’s dress code with her punk rock look, and disappoints her college-professor mom in the process. Her dad, who now lives a thousand miles away, says things will get better as long as she remembers the first rule of punk: be yourself.


The real Malú loves rock music, skateboarding, zines, and Soyrizo (hold the cilantro, please). And when she assembles a group of like-minded misfits at school and starts a band, Malú finally begins to feel at home. She'll do anything to preserve this, which includes standing up to an anti-punk school administration to fight for her right to express herself!






Lowriders in Space (Lowriders in Space #1) by Cathy Camper

Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar






Lupe Wong Won't Dance by Barba Higuera

My gym shorts burrow into my butt crack like a frightened groundhog.


Don't you want to read a book that starts like that??


Lupe Wong is going to be the first female pitcher in the Major Leagues.


She's also championed causes her whole young life. Some worthy…like expanding the options for race on school tests beyond just a few bubbles. And some not so much…like complaining to the BBC about the length between Doctor Who seasons.


Lupe needs an A in all her classes in order to meet her favorite pitcher, Fu Li Hernandez, who's Chinacan/Mexinese just like her. So when the horror that is square dancing rears its head in gym? Obviously she's not gonna let that slide.


Not since Millicent Min, Girl Genius has a debut novel introduced a character so memorably, with such humor and emotional insight. Even square dancing fans will agree…




Merci Suárez Changes Gears (Merci Suárez #1) by Meg Medina






Miss Quinces by Kat Fajardo

Rising star Kat Fajardo's debut middle-grade graphic novel about a girl who would rather do anything other than celebrate her quinceañera! A funny and heartfelt coming-of-age story about navigating the expectations of family and cultural tradition.


Sue just wants to spend the summer reading and making comics at sleepaway camp with her friends, but instead she gets stuck going to Honduras to visit relatives with her parents and two sisters. They live way out in the country, which means no texting, no cable, and no Internet! The trip takes a turn for the worse when Sue's mother announces that they'll be having a surprise quinceañera for Sue, which is the last thing she wants. She can't imagine wearing a big, floofy, colorful dress! What is Sue going to do? And how will she survive all this "quality" time with her rambunctious family?


Miss Quinces/Srta. Quinces is the first graphic novel published by Scholastic/Graphix to be simultaneously released in English and Spanish editions!





My Life in Pictures (Bea Garcia #1) by Deborah Zemke

Paola Santiago and the River of Tears (Paola Santiago #1) by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Sal & Gabi Break the Universe (Sal and Gabi #1) by Carlos Hernandez






Middle-grade fans of Pam Muñoz Ryan’s Esperanza Rising, will find a new Mexican heroine to love in Solimar and a fresh, magical story!


Ever since Solimar was a little girl, she has gone to the ouamel forest bordering her kingdom to observe the monarch butterflies during their migration, but always from a safe distance. Now, on the brink of her quinceañera and her official coronation, Solimar crosses the dangerous creek to sit among the butterflies. There, a mysterious event gives her a gift and a burden--the responsibility to protect the young and weak butterflies with her magical rebozo, or silk shawl.


Solimar is committed to fulfilling her role, and has a plan that might have worked. But when her father, the king, and her brother, the prince, leave on an expedition, a neighboring king overthrows the kingdom and holds everyone left in the village hostage. It takes all of Solimar's courage to escape and then embark on a dangerous journey to save her kingdom, but she's not alone. Her pet bird, Lázaro, the butterflies she protects, and a magical rag doll, Zarita, are with her. Then, at a precarious moment, she meets a river boy who knows the rapids.


Even with help, can Solimar save her family, the kingdom, and the future of the monarchs from a greedy king?






2021 Pura Belpré Honor Book


In this magical middle-grade debut novel from Adrianna Cuevas, The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez, a Cuban American boy must use his secret ability to communicate with animals to save the inhabitants of his town when they are threatened by a tule vieja, a witch that transforms into animals.


All Nestor Lopez wants is to live in one place for more than a few months and have dinner with his dad.


When he and his mother move to a new town to live with his grandmother after his dad’s latest deployment, Nestor plans to lay low. He definitely doesn’t want to anyone find out his deepest secret: that he can talk to animals.


But when the animals in his new town start disappearing, Nestor's grandmother becomes the prime suspect after she is spotted in the woods where they were last seen. As Nestor investigates the source of the disappearances, he learns that they are being seized by a tule vieja―a witch who can absorb an animal’s powers by biting it during a solar eclipse. And the next eclipse is just around the corner…


Now it’s up to Nestor’s extraordinary ability and his new friends to catch the tule vieja―and save a place he might just call home.





The Wind Called My Name by Mary Louise Sanchez

Zapato Power: Freddy Ramos Takes Off (Zapato Power #1) by Jacqueline Jules







5th and 6th Grades

Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Muñoz Ryan

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan







The Land of Cranes by Aida Salazar

From the prolific author of The Moon Within comes the heart-wrenchingly beautiful story in verse of a young Latinx girl who learns to hold on to hope and love even in the darkest of places: a family detention center for migrants and refugees.


Nine-year-old Betita knows she is a crane. Papi has told her the story, even before her family fled to Los Angeles to seek refuge from cartel wars in Mexico. The Aztecs came from a place called Aztlan, what is now the Southwest US, called the land of the cranes. They left Aztlan to establish their great city in the center of the universe-Tenochtitlan, modern-day Mexico City. It was prophesized that their people would one day return to live among the cranes in their promised land. Papi tells Betita that they are cranes that have come home.


Then one day, Betita's beloved father is arrested by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deported to Mexico. Betita and her pregnant mother are left behind on their own, but soon they too are detained and must learn to survive in a family detention camp outside of Los Angeles. Even in cruel and inhumane conditions, Betita finds heart in her own poetry and in the community she and her mother find in the camp. The voices of her fellow asylum seekers fly above the hatred keeping them caged, but each day threatens to tear them down lower than they ever thought they could be. Will Betita and her family ever be whole again?






The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

From Pura Belpré Award winner and Newbery Medalist, Donna Barba Higuera—a brilliant journey through the stars, to the very heart of what makes us human.


Había una vez . . .


There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.


But Petra's world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.


Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet – and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity's past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether.


Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?





Loteria by Karla Arenas Valenti

The turn of a card could change your destiny in this captivating middle grade adventure based on the Lotería card game and perfect for fans of Coco. While searching for her missing cousin, a young girl is transported to a mythical kingdom, becoming entangled in a perilous game of chance.


In the hottest hour of the hottest day of the year, a fateful wind blows into Oaxaca City. It whistles down cobbled streets and rustles the jacaranda trees before slipping into the window of an eleven-year-old girl named Clara. Unbeknownst to her, Clara has been marked for la Lotería.


Life and Death deal the Lotería cards but once a year, and the stakes could not be higher. Every card reveals a new twist in Clara’s fate—a scorpion, an arrow, a blood-red rose. If Life wins, Clara will live to a ripe old age. If Death prevails, she’ll flicker out like a candle.


But Clara knows none of this. All she knows is that her young cousin Esteban has vanished, and she’ll do whatever it takes to save him, traveling to the mythical Kingdom of Las Pozas, where every action has a price, and every choice has consequences. And though it seems her fate is sealed, Clara just might have what it takes to shatter the game and choose a new path.


Karla Arenas Valenti weaves an adventure steeped in magic and mythology—gorgeously illustrated by Dana Sanmar—exploring the notion of free will in a world where fate holds all the cards.





The Moon Within by Aida Salazar

The Moon Within joins the Scholastic Gold line, which features award-winning and beloved novels. Includes exclusive bonus content!


Celi Rivera's life swirls with questions.


About her changing body.


Her first attraction to a boy.


And her best friend's exploration of what it means to be genderfluid.


But most of all, her mother's insistence she have a moon ceremony when her first period arrives. It's an ancestral Mexica ritual that Mima and her community have reclaimed, but Celi promises she will NOT be participating. Can she find the power within herself to take a stand for who she wants to be?


A dazzling story told with the sensitivity, humor, and brilliant verse of debut talent Aida Salazar.





by Julian Randall

The Land of Stories meets Dominican myths and legends come to life in Pilar Ramirez and the Escape from Zafa, a blockbuster contemporary middle-grade fantasy duology starter from Julian Randall. Fans of Tristan Strong and The Storm Runner, here is your next obsession.


Twelve-year-old Pilar Violeta “Purp” Ramirez’s world is changing, and she doesn’t care for it one bit. Her Chicago neighborhood is gentrifying and her chores have doubled since her sister, Lorena, left for college. The only constant is Abuela and Mami’s code of silence around her cousin Natasha―who vanished in the Dominican Republic fifty years ago during the Trujillo dictatorship.


When Pilar hears that Lorena’s professor studies such disappearances, she hops on the next train to dig deeper into her family's mystery. After snooping around the professor's empty office, she discovers a folder with her cousin’s name on it . . . and gets sucked into the blank page within.


She lands on Zafa, an island swarming with coconut-shaped demons, butterfly shapeshifters, and a sinister magical prison where her cousin is being held captive. Pilar will have to go toe-to-toe with the fearsome Dominican boogeyman, El Cuco, if she has any hope of freeing Natasha and getting back home.




Singing With Elephants by Margarita Engle

A powerful novel in verse from Newbery and Pura Belpré Award-winning author Margarita Engle about the friendship between a young girl and the poet Gabriela Mistral that leads to healing and hope for both of them.


Cuban-born eleven-year-old Oriol lives in Santa Barbara, California, where she struggles to belong. But most of the time that’s okay, because she enjoys helping her parents care for the many injured animals at their veterinary clinic.


Then Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American winner of a Nobel Prize in Literature moves to town, and aspiring writer Oriol finds herself opening up. And when she discovers that someone is threatening the life of a baby elephant at her parents’ clinic, Oriol is determined to take action. As she begins to create a world of words for herself, Oriol learns it will take courage and strength to do what she thinks is right—even if it means keeping secrets from those she loves.


A beautifully written, lyrically told story about the power of friendship—between generations, between humans and animals—and the potential of poetry to inspire action, justice, and acceptance.






Biography

Celia Cruz: Queen of Salsa by Veronica Chambers


Diego: Bigger Than Life by Carmen Bernier-Grand


Hurricane: My Story of Resilience by Salvador Gómez-Colón

Lin-Manuel Miranda by Laurie Calkhoven


Pablo Neruda by Georgina Lázaro León






Non-Fiction











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