Books published by publisher Arte Publico Pr

Cecilia and Miguel are best friends, and have been since the third grade when he gave her bunny ears in the class picture. Their life-long friendship is recorded in warm recollections of bike races and soccer games, beach time and fishing from the pier. Their closeness endures separation, even when he drove north to college and she drove west. The relationship evolves and grows, but remains strong even when ... he dropped the ring and she found it inside her flan ... he set up one crib and she told him they need two ... the twins climb into their bed and beg for another story. In this celebration of friendship, best friends forgive mistakes, share adventures and sometimes even become family! Popular children's book author Diane Gonzales Bertrand teams up with illustrator Thelma Muraida to create an album of memories that reflect their shared Mexican-American childhood in San Antonio, Texas: swinging at birthday party piñatas, breaking cascarones over friends' heads and dancing at quinceañeras. Young children are sure to giggle at the adventures of Cecilia and Miguel, and they'll be prompted to ask about their parents' relationship as well as explore their own.

"Stop it. The two of you, stop it! You're father and son; you should love each other." Roelito howls at his father and older brother as their heated argument turns into a pushing, shoving match. Beto has again come home way past curfew, and worse, smelling like a cantina. When Beto Sr. tells his son that he either needs to follow the rules or leave, the boy--a senior in high school and a man as far as he's concerned--decides to leave, right then, in the middle of the night. Once he has walked away, though, he realizes he has nowhere to go. Maybe his best friend Jessy--a hard-as-nails girl who has run away before can help him. The story of Beto's decision to run away and drop out of school is told from shifting perspectives in which the conflicted lives of Roel, Beto, and Jessy are revealed in short, poignant scenes that reflect teen-age life along the Texas-Mexico border. Each one has a good long way to go in growing up. Roel fights against the teachers' assumptions that he's like Beto. Unlike his big brother, Roel is book smart and actually enjoys school. Jessy is smart too, but most of her teachers can't see beyond her tough-girl façade. Her parents are so busy fighting with each other that they don t notice her, even if she s packing a suitcase to leave. And Beto . . . somewhere along the way he quit caring about school. And his teachers have noticed and given up too. Author and educator Rene Saldana, Jr. once again writes a fast-paced, thought-provoking novel that will engage young adults in questions about their own lives and responsibilities to family, friends, and most of all, to themselves.

In an all-new adventure, Magda Madrigal returns in her second book to celebrate another family birthday. This time, Magda's got a task that requires a little creativity--and a little magic. Magda's tío has purchased the perfect piñata for her little brother's birthday. In fact, Gabriel's piñata is so perfect that he insists that no one break it. What fun is a birthday party without a piñata? But how can the neighborhood children break the piñata without breaking Gabriel's heart? Magda's so worried about the conundrum that she can's get any sleep. Finally, with the help of her abuela's resourceful little cat, Tita, Magda works some midnight magic and engineers an ingenious solution to save the party and the piñata. The talented creators of Magda's Tortillas / Las tortillas de Magda have reunited to delight children with a whimsical tale featuring the birthday tradition of the piñata.

"There seemed to be no way out of the custom. Her arguments were always the same and always turned into pleas... ‘But, Amá, it’s embarrassing. I’m too old for that. I’m an adult,’" Naomi says in Helena María Viramontes’ story "Growing." Ever since Naomi hit high school and puberty, she noticed "There were too many expectations, and no one instructed her on how to fulfill them..." In her tradition-bound family and under the thundering brow of her father, Naomi struggles to stretch the limitations imposed by her family, even as her flesh stretches in her changing body. Like "Growing," the pieces in this anthology for young adults bear the twists and pulls of youth: the struggles of discovering a new self and the trials of leaving behind an old one. This beautiful collection gathers a wealth of pieces well chosen for young adults: stories and poems that are studded with the challenges of negotiating identity and learning to love the bodies and worlds in which young adults find themselves. Edited by well-known poet and prose writer Judith Ortiz Cofer, the collection includes work by some of the leading writers for young adults like Pat Mora and Nicholasa Mohr, by such celebrated writers as Tomás Rivera, Virgil Suárez, Jesús Salvador Treviño, Lorna Dee Cervantes and Viramontes, as well as some new voices that will become a part of the literary canon of the twenty-first century. For many students across the U.S., this text will serve as the first introduction into these diverse writers and U.S. Hispanic literature.

Young Rita gets all kinds of advice about salsa music from her family--how to play it, how to dance to it, even how to dress for it! Learning about salsa dance steps and musical instruments such as the güiro, piano, timbales, congas, and brass, Rita becomes so filled with enthousiasm that she dreams of someday becoming a salsa band director. With vibrant illustrations that capture the very essence, spirit and rhythm of salsa, this captivating picture book literally dances in the readers hands. Both children and adults wil have trouble keeping thir feet from tapping as they read this enchanting tale.

To be young, female and Latino in the kaleidoscopic world of New York City is the reality Phyllis Tashlik captured in this multifaceted volume. The voices that speak through its pages are Las Mujeres Hispanas, a group of Latina teenagers at Manhattan East, a public alternative school in New York City's El Barrio. They met throughout the course of a year to read and discuss their reactions to the works of renowned female Hispanic authors as well as the concerns born from their own identities. Individually and as a collectivity they went on to write poems, stories, essays and interviews with prominent Latinas. Hispanic, Female and Young: An Anthology, the result of these endeavors, is an anthology of both Las Mujeres creative efforts and the literature that inspired them. It combines the fresh perspectives of the younger women with those of such seasoned, prize-winning, authors as Loma Dee Cervantes, Judith Ortiz Coler, Roberta Fernandez, Nicholasa Mohr, Pat Mora and many more. The resulting intergenerational dialogue includes remembrances of family and childhood, the difficulties and joys of growing up bilingual and bicultural, and what it is like to deal with both racism and misogynism.

Have you ever been too scared to sleep with the lights off? Were you frightened by a scratching sound inside of your walls or the beady red eyes and knotted green fingers of a duende? In his first collection of scary stories, Xavier Garza asks these questions. The stories in this collection curdle with the creepy and crawling characters of traditional folklore. These stories brim with the supernatural: the mysterious disappearance of children who made deals with duendes, evil trolls who live inside the walls of our houses; the ghostly specter of La Llorona who floats along the creek bed, howling, !Ay, mis hijos!; witches that turn into great white owls; a severed hand that hurtles across floors and catches a death grip; and even the Devil himself harvesting wayward souls. These are all cucuys, supernatural beings who have come to haunt the imagination in these tales of wonder and warning. These delicious and frightful stories come down through generations of grandmas teaching children to respect the laws of nature and the All Powerful. These particular spooky cucuys are recounted and illustrated by master storyteller Xavier Garza, just the way he heard them at the knees of other masters when he was growing up in South Texas. Garza has preserved just the right gory detail and startling surprise to frighten the socks off you. And he always insists that you learn your lesson and take heed, or else...

Francisco looks out his bedroom window and thinks about his home back in El Salvador. He misses his friends and playing in the village s park. He wants to fly a kite near his new home in the U.S., but his mother can't afford one. "If Mama can't buy me a kite, maybe I can make one," he thinks. Picking up a bag, Francisco leaves the apartment in search of treasures that he can use for his project. He finds purple cellophane, a pile of string and a broken model airplane. In his apartment building s recycling area, Francisco discovers other useful items that people have thrown away. He can t wait to spread out all the goodies and start building his very own cometa! Soon Francisco is testing his creation in Sunnydale Park. He makes it fly up and down, spin in the air and even make loops! The colorful toy catches the attention of a man who runs a recycled goods store. He wants to sell Francisco s kites in his shop! But can Francisco really find enough material to make them? And will he be able to deliver them in time? In this charming bilingual picture book for children ages 4 to 8, a young boy uses his ingenuity to build unique kites that will have readers dreaming of building their own fabulous fliers!