8 Fabulous #OwnVoices Middle-Grade Latinx Novels & GIVEAWAY!

We are so excited to present our #ReadYourWorld Book Jam 2019 in conjunction with Children’s Book Council! This year we have 10 amazing authors with unique book lists to share. Each author is also doing a book giveaway!

Please welcome Lila Quintero Weaver today with our second installment of our #ReadYourWorld Book Jam 2019 in conjunction with the Children’s Book Council. She has a list of 8 Fabulous Middle-Grade Latinx Novels. We are also giving away a copy of her book, My Year in the Middle. Please fill out the Rafflecopter at the bottom to enter.

My Year in the Middle by Lila Quintero Weaver

In a racially polarized classroom in 1970 Alabama, Lu’s talent for running track makes her a new best friend — and tests her mettle as she navigates the school’s social cliques.

Miss Garrett’s classroom is like every other at our school. White kids sit on one side and black kids on the other. I’m one of the few middle-rowers who split the difference. [middle grade, ages 8 and up]

 

Naming only eight middle-grade Latinx novels that I admire? An impossible task! But I did it. Here are my picks, in no particular order.

8 Fabulous #OwnVoices Middle-Grade Latinx Novels

Merci Changes Gears by Meg Medina

Merci Suárez is a scholarship kid at an exclusive private school in south Florida, complete with mean girls. Luckily, Merci’s family, anchored by a kindly grandfather, is close and supportive. But lately, something has gone seriously wrong with abuelo’s memory. As these challenges multiply, Merci seeks out better friends, stronger reasons to hope, and fortified resolve. [middle grade, ages 9 and up]

The First Rule of Punk by Celia Perez

Against her wishes, Malú has moved to Chicago, where she adapts by putting together a punk-rock band for the school’s fall festival. When the principal nixes their performance, Malú and her bandmates concoct a clever workaround. This fun and engaging novel is saturated with cultural references to Mexico, punk music, and the making of zines. [middle grade, ages 9 and up]

Tight by Torrey Maldonado

Tight is a deceptively simple story that crackles with intrigue. Main character Bryan, an Afro-Latinx middle-schooler, gets a new friend named Mike, and at first, the friendship seems solid enough, right down to their shared love of comics. But doesn’t Mike act a little too sneaky, a little too eager to bend the rules? Bryan sees the warning signs, but that doesn’t mean he always heeds them! [middle grade, ages 10 and up]

Lucky Luna by Diana López

Lucky Luna by Diana López gives us the gift of spunky Luna and her enormous extended family. We meet them at a cousin’s quinceañera. Normally, family is a very good thing, but when the bossiest of the cousins is assigned to Luna’s class and tattles on everything Luna does wrong, trouble ensues. This book made me laugh aloud—a lot! [middle grade, ages 8 and up]

Me, Frida and the Secret of the Peacock Ring by Angela Cervantes

This is a strongly paced mystery loaded with Mexican culture and adventurous twists. On her first trip to Mexico, Paloma visits La Casa Azul, the former home of revered Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. After learning that a stunning peacock ring has disappeared from among the artist’s treasures, Paloma and two other young sleuths launch a quest for answers. [middle grade, ages 8 and up]

The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

A beautiful historical novel about a Cuban girl, Lucia, who comes to the U.S. in 1961, thanks to Operation Pedro Pan, which airlifted children from post-revolutionary Cuba. As her parents work out their own plan of escape, Lucia and her little brother must navigate unfamiliar territory. They’re sent to Nebraska, where the kind strangers who give them a temporary home speak only English. [middle grade, ages 9 and up]

Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar

Lucky Broken Girl is a tender narrative of self-discovery. Ruthie Mizrahi is a Cuban transplant to New York City. When an automobile accident leaves her in a body cast, Ruthie’s reign as hopscotch queen is cut short—and so is her ability to attend school. During months of confinement, Ruthie faces an unimaginable loss of independence, but even in this physically broken state, her spirit learns to soar. [middle grade, ages 10 and up]

My Year in the Middle GIVEAWAY!

We are also giving away a copy of her book, My Year in the Middle. Please fill out the Rafflecopter below to enter. We can only ship to U.S. addresses.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I am Lila Quintero Weaver and My Year in the Middle is the children’s book I was meant to write. The story takes place in Alabama in 1970, just after the desegregation of public schools. Sixth-grader Lu Olivera is the lone Latinx in her school. Running is Lu’s newfound passion, and it leads her into friendship with Belinda, an African American classmate. With hostility and racial conflict on the increase in the classroom, and a nasty election taking the state by storm, Lu will need all the gumption she can muster, and then some!