Books in American Dream Series series

Safe at Home is the story of Selena Garcia, a young Latina girl growing up in southern Arizona. Listening to the advice of her mother, Selena quits playing baseball with the boys in favor of softball with the girls. As a pitcher, rather than a first baseman, she is a dominant force, finding her comfort zone and making friends in the process. But her world is rocked when she wakes up one morning to find that her mother has suddenly passed away. She stops hanging out with her friends. She no longer wears ribbons and bows in her hair the details that Mom used to help her with. She gives up on softball, too. A year later, with help from her brother Carlos, something amazing happens that turns her life around. She finds herself back on the softball diamond, and she is better than ever. Does she have what it takes to get a softball scholarship and be the first Garcia to attend college?

Emerald Johnston is sure that she is destined to be a pop star. After years of coming up short in auditions, she finally gets her big break. But she soon finds out that recording an album, going on tour, and rising up the music charts is really hard work. Everyone in her life seems to be pulling her in opposite directions. Plus, the business is all about image which really stinks. They tell her that her waste is too big, and her hair is too red, and that her skirts aren t short enough. It s as if her voice doesn t even count! Can she become a star and still be true to herself? Can she make it to the top without losing the people she loves along the way?