Latinx Children’s Literature
A selection of books by Latinx authors and illustrators for children from birth to 12, to listen to and read.
Spanish Language
Spanish Language
Alma and How She Got Her Name
Child picture book, e-book in Spanish and English, and e-video. When Alma Sofia Esperanza José Pura Candela asks her father why she has so many names, she hears the story of her name and learns about her grandparents. Age: 3-8.
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Spanish Language
Mango, Abuela, and Me
Child picture book in English, and e-audiobook in Spanish. Mia's abuela has left her sunny house with parrots and palm trees to live with Mia and her parents in the city. The night she arrives, Mia tries to share her favorite book with Abuela before they go to sleep and discovers that Abuela can't read the words inside. So while they cook, Mia helps Abuela learn English ("Dough. Masa"), and Mia learns some Spanish too, but it's still hard for Abuela to learn the words she needs to tell Mia all her stories. Then Mia sees a parrot in the pet-shop window and has the perfect idea for how to help them all communicate a little better. Age: 4-8.
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Spanish Language
Dreamers
Child picture book, e-book, e-audiobook, Wonderbook, and e-video. Available in Spanish and English. In 1994, Yuyi Morales left her home in Xalapa, Mexico and came to the US with her infant son. She left behind nearly everything she owned, but she didn't come empty-handed. Dreamers is a celebration of what migrants bring with them when they leave their homes. It's a story about family. And it's a story to remind us that we are all dreamers, bringing our own gifts wherever we roam. Age: 3-8.
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Spanish Language
My Papi Has a Motorcycle
Child picture book, e-book, e-audiobook, and e-video. Available in Spanish and English. A celebration of a vibrant immigrant neighborhood and the love between a father and daughter. Age: 3-8.
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Spanish Language
Becoming Naomi León
Child fiction book, English e-book and Spanish e-book, and e-audiobook. When Naomi's absent mother resurfaces to claim her, Naomi runs away to Mexico with her great-grandmother and younger brother in search of her father. Age: 7-11.
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Spanish Language
Esperanza Rising
Child fiction English e-book and Spanish e-book, audiobook on CD, and e-audiobook. Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression. Age: 8-12.
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Spanish Language
Hello, friend = Hola, Amigo
Child board book. Spanish and English. It doesn't matter where you're from or what language you speak -- everyone is welcome to read and sing along with Latin Grammy award-winning musical duo 123 Andres! Age: 2-4.
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Fiction
Fiction
The Other Half of Happy
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. Twelve-year-old Quijana is a biracial girl, desperately trying to understand the changes that are going on in her life; her mother rarely gets home before bedtime, her father suddenly seems to be trying to get in touch with his Guatemalan roots (even though he never bothered to teach Quijana Spanish), she is about to start seventh grade in the Texas town where they live and she is worried about fitting in--and Quijana suspects that her parents are keeping secrets, because she is sure there is something wrong with her little brother, Memito, who is becoming increasingly hard to reach. Age: 10+
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Fiction
Lucky Broken Girl
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. In 1960s New York, fifth-grader Ruthie, a Cuban-Jewish immigrant, must rely on books, art, her family, and friends in her multicultural neighborhood when an accident puts her in a body cast. Age: 10+
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Fiction
They Call Me Güero : A Border Kid's Poems
Child fiction book. Twelve-year-old Güero, a red-headed, freckled Mexican American border kid, discovers the joy of writing poetry, thanks to his seventh grade English teacher. Age: 10+
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Fiction
Charlie Hernández and the League of Shadows
Child fiction book. Steeped in Hispanic folklore since childhood, middle schooler Charlie Hernández learns the stories are true when, shortly after his parents disappearance, he grows horns and feathers and finds himself at the heart of a battle to save the world. Age: 10+
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Fiction
Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish
Child fiction book, and e-audiobook. After a fight at school leaves Marcus facing suspension, Marcus's mother takes him and his younger brother, who has Down syndrome, to Puerto Rico to visit relatives they do not remember or have never met, and while there Marcus starts searching for his father, who left their family ten years ago and is somewhere on the island. Age: 10+
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Fiction
The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. This is the vibrant story of a family, a striking portrait of a town, and one boy's quest to save both. Age: 10+
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Fiction
Lety Out Loud
Child fiction book, and e-book in Spanish and English. Lety Muñoz's first language is Spanish, and she likes to take her time putting her words together. She loves volunteering at the Furry Friends Animal Shelter because the dogs and cats there don't care if she can't always find the right word. When the shelter needs a volunteer to write animal profiles, Lety jumps at the chance! Age: 8-12.
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Fiction
Me, Frida, and the Secret of the Peacock Ring
Child fiction book in English, and e-book in Spanish. When Lizzie and Gael share an irresistible challenge, to find the peacock ring that once belonged to artist Frida Kahlo, Paloma decides it is the perfect way to honor her father. Age: 8-12.
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Fiction
Efrén Divided
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. While his father works two jobs, seventh-grader Efrén Nava must take care of his twin siblings, kindergartners Max and Mia, after their mother is deported to Mexico. Includes glossary of Spanish words. Age: 9+
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Fiction
The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez
Child fiction book. 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... Age: 8-12.
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Fiction
Stella Diaz Has Something to Say
Child fiction book. Stella Diaz wants to be friends with the new boy in class, but sometimes she accidentally speaks Spanish instead of English and pronounces words wrong, which makes her turn roja. In addition, she has to get over her fear of speaking in front of the class. Age: 6-9.
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Fiction
Silver People : Voices from the Panama Canal
Child fiction book. Fourteen-year-old Mateo and other Caribbean islanders face discrimination, segregation, and harsh working conditions when American recruiters lure them to the Panamanian rain forest in 1906 to build the great canal. Age: 10+
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Fiction
Sal and Gabi Break the Universe
Child fiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. How did a raw chicken get inside Yasmany's locker? When Sal Vidon meets Gabi Real for the first time, it isn't under the best of circumstances. Sal prides himself on being an excellent magician, but for this sleight of hand, he relied on a talent no one would guess except maybe Gabi, whose sharp eyes never miss a trick. When Gabi learns that he's capable of conjuring things much bigger than a chicken--including his dead mother--and she takes it all in stride, Sal knows that she is someone he can work with. There's only one slight problem: their manipulation of time and space could put the entire universe at risk. Age: 8-12.
Where to Find:
Fiction
Lupe Wong Won’t Dance
Child fiction book. Lupe Wong is determined to be the first female pitcher in the Major Leagues. Age: 8-12.
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Fiction
The Christmas Gift = El Regalo de Navidad
Child fiction book. Text in Spanish and English. When his family has to move again a few days before Christmas in order to find work, Panchito worries that he will not get the ball he has been wanting. Age: 8-12.
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Fiction
The Lightning Dreamer : Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist
Child fiction book. In free verse, this book evokes the voice of Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, a book-loving writer, feminist, and abolitionist who courageously fought injustice in nineteenth-century Cuba. Includes historical notes, excerpts from her writings, biographical information, and source notes. Age: 7-11.
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Fiction
Silver Meadows Summer
Child fiction book. Eleven-year-old Carolina moves with her family from Puerto Rico to upstate New York, where she attends Silver Meadows camp with her cousin, finds an abandoned cottage, and reclaims parts of the life she left in Puerto Rico. Age: 8-12.
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Fiction
The First Rule of Punk
Child fiction book, and e-book. Twelve-year-old María Luisa O'Neill-Morales (who really prefers to be called Malú) reluctantly moves with her Mexican-American mother to Chicago and starts seventh grade with a bang--violating the dress code with her punk rock aesthetic and spurning the middle school's most popular girl in favor of starting a band with a group of like-minded weirdos. Age: 9-12.
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Fiction
Who’s Ju?
Child fiction book. Justina "Ju" Feliciano and her fellow seventh-grade sleuths investigate who damaged scenery from the drama club's upcoming production, and a genetics assignment leads Ju to discover that her parents are keeping a secret about her past. 7th-Grade Sleuths series. Age: 11+
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Fiction
Becoming Naomi León
Child fiction book, English e-book and Spanish e-book, and e-audiobook. When Naomi's absent mother resurfaces to claim her, Naomi runs away to Mexico with her great-grandmother and younger brother in search of her father. Age: 7-11.
Where to Find:
Fiction
Echo
Child fiction book, e-book, audiobook on CD, and e-audiobook. Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica--and decades later three children, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny in the darkest days of the twentieth century, struggling to keep their families intact, and tied together by the music of the same harmonica. Age: 9+
Where to Find:
Fiction
Esperanza Rising
Child fiction English e-book and Spanish e-book, audiobook on CD, and e-audiobook. Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression. Age: 8-12.
Where to Find:
Fiction
The Dreamer
Child fiction book, and e-audiobook. A fictionalized biography of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who grew up a painfully shy child, ridiculed by his overbearing father, but who became one of the most widely-read poets in the world. Age: 9+
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Fiction
The Moon Within
Child fiction book. A novel in verse about eleven-year-old (nearly twelve) Celi Rivera, who is a mix of Black-Puerto Rican-Indigenous Mexican. Celi is secretive about her approaching period, and the changes that are happening to her body; she is horrified that her mother wants to hold a traditional public moon ceremony to celebrate the occasion. She must also choose loyalty to her life-long best friend who is contemplating an even more profound change of life, or the boy she likes. Age: 8-12.
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Nonfiction
Nonfiction
Caravan to the North : Misael's Long Walk
Child nonfiction book. Alternate title: Caravana al norte. An urgent and eloquent account in verse of a boy traveling in a caravan from his beloved homeland of El Salvador to the US border. Age: 9+
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Nonfiction
Olinguito, from A to Z! : Unveiling the Cloud Forest
Child nonfiction book. Alternate Title: ¡Olinguito, de la A a la Z! : descubriendo el bosque nublado. Text in Spanish and English. Uses the framework of the alphabet to present information about plants and animals of the cloud forest on the western slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes and the 2013 discovery of the olinguito. Includes additional information about the cloud forest and the discovery of the olinguito, a map, a glossary, an author's note, and author's sources."-- Provided by publisher. Age 5-11.
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Nonfiction
BRAVO!: Poems about Amazing Hispanics
Child nonfiction book available in English and Spanish. Bold, graphic portraits and beautiful poems present famous and lesser-known Latinos from varied backgrounds who have faced life's challenges in creative ways. Age: 8-12.
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Nonfiction
Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez
Child nonfiction book. Illustrated by Yuyi Morales. A biography of Cesar Chavez, from age ten when he and his family lived happily on their Arizona ranch, to age thirty-eight when he led a peaceful protest against California migrant workers' miserable working conditions. Age: 4-7.
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Nonfiction
When Angels Sing : The Story of Carlos Santana
Child nonfiction book, and e-book. Illustrated by José Ramírez. Celebrate music icon Carlos Santana in this vibrant, rhythmic picture book. Age: 5-11.
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Nonfiction
Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book
Child nonfiction book, and DVD. In this version of a traditional tale, Senor Calavera arrives at Grandma Beetle's door, ready to take her to the next life, but after helping her count, in English and Spanish, as she makes her birthday preparations, he changes his mind. Age: 7-11.
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Nonfiction
Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation
Child nonfiction book, e-book, video on DVD, e-video, and e-audiobook. Years before the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education, Sylvia Mendez, an eight-year-old girl of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage, played an instrumental role in Mendez v. Westminster, the landmark desegregation case of 1946 in California. Age: 6-9.
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Nonfiction
Soldier for Equality : José de la Luz Saénz and the Great War
Child nonfiction picture book, e-book, e-audiobook, and e-video. The story of a Mexican-American war hero brought to life. Age: 6-8.
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Nonfiction
The Princess and the Warrior
Child nonfiction book, e-book, video on DVD, e-video, and e-audiobook. In one of Mexico's cherished legends, Princess Izta had many wealthy suitors, but dismissed them all. When a mere warrior, Popoca, promised to be true to her and stay always by her side, Izta fell in love. The emperor promised Popoca if he could defeat their enemy Jaguar Claw, then Popoca and Izta could wed. Age: 6-9.
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