Most Anticipated April 2025 Releases

Its a busy month with a ton of new releases. From love stories to a novel that transcends time and place, there’s something for all readers. Check out some of our most anticipated releases for April below!

Gloria by Andrés Felipe Solano | Translated by Will Vanderhyden

It is a bright spring Saturday: April 11, 1970. The famous Argentine singer Sandro is about to become the first Latin American to perform at Madison Square Garden, and Gloria will be one of the lucky attendees at what will be a legendary concert. At just twenty years old, the young woman walks through the electric streets of New York City full of hope and possibility. The disturbing images she recently encountered at her job at a photographic laboratory, the trauma of a father who was murdered when she was a child, and even the long-term prospects of her relationship with Tigre, her irascible boyfriend, are problems for another day. This day should be perfect and should last forever. Which it will, in surprising and unexpected ways.

Five decades later, Gloria’s son reflects on his mother's life and realizes that their formative years—imprinted as they are by sojourns in New York at exactly the same age—are a bridge between generations that draws the pair closer through a shared sense of longing and potential.

A novel of mothers and sons spanning New York City, Colombia, and Miami, Gloria is a sophisticated and daring excavation of a woman's life that asks us to consider how the choices we make in our youth reverberate throughout our possible futures.

Takes One to Know One by Lissette Decos

Daniela is risk-averse, blazer-obsessed, and likes to be taken seriously. So when her record label job is on the line, she's prepared to do anything to keep it. Except for working with the genre of music she hates most: reggaeton. It's supposed to inspire sensual hip-swinging dance moves and Dani's hips do not swing--not like that anyway. Out of desperation, Dani lies and says she loves reggaeton. But not only does Dani get to keep her job, she gets a ticket to Puerto Rico . . . on a mission to clean up the scandalous image of international reggaeton singer Rene 'El Rico' Rodriguez.

Despite her best act, Dani's dislike of his music and Rene's prickly disposition is palpable, resulting in them butting heads at every turn. Yet as the two spend more time together under the island's sizzling sun, Dani realizes there's more to Rene than his rough edges and good looks. The man that many only see as a sex icon actually cares about his music, community, and culture. Against her will, she slowly begins finding him harder to hate. And before she knows it, Rene is teaching Dani how to find the rhythm of the music and learn to let go. But will she ever be ready to acknowledge the heat growing between them and put her heart on the line?

Futbolista by Jonny Garza Villa

Gabriel Piña knows who he is: a college goalkeeper, a future Liga MX or MLS star, and definitely straight. He's starting his freshman year with a lot of eyes on him and even more potential, but he's got this. Nothing will have him straying off the path to greatness.

That is, until his philosophy classmate Vale volunteers to tutor him. Vale, the same guy who Gabi, in a moment of history repeating itself, might've kissed very briefly--and only once--just to help him out at a party. Vale, the smart, supportive, compassionate new friend with beautiful brown eyes and a smile that keeps Gabi, for completely inexplicable reasons, constantly in a daydream.

As a friendship blooms and the two spend more and more time together, Gabi finally begins to recognize something about himself: maybe he's not as straight as he thought he was. But a larger and darker realization lingers. Someone like Gabi--a brown, Mexican futbolista with dreams of playing for El Tri--can't also be bisexual. He's seen the way his teammates and community react to queerness in their sport. It would be the exact type of straying off path that destroys his future.

Or, maybe Gabi could be brave enough to embrace all those parts of himself and forge his own path, one that includes a boyfriend and the beautiful game.

Latinx Comics Studies: Critical and Creative Crossings Edited by Fernanda Díaz-Basteris & Maite Urcaregui

Latinx Comics Studies: Critical and Creative Crossings offers an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach to analyzing Latinx studies and comics studies. The book draws together groundbreaking critical essays, practical pedagogical reflections, and original and republished short comics. The works in this collection discuss the construction of national identity and memory, undocumented narratives, Indigenous and Afro-Latinx experiences, multiracial and multilingual identities, transnational and diasporic connections, natural disasters and unnatural colonial violence, feminist and queer interventions, Latinx futurities, and more. Together, the critical and creative works in this collection begin to map out the emerging and evolving field of Latinx comics studies and to envision what might be possible in and through Latinx comics.

This collection moves beyond simply cataloguing and celebrating Latinx representation within comics. It examines how comics by, for, and about Latinx peoples creatively and conceptually experiment with the very boundaries of "Latinx" and portray the diverse lived experiences therein.

Property of the Revolution: From a Cuban Barrio to a New Hampshire Mill Town by Ana Hebra Flaster

Ana Hebra Flaster was six years old when her working-class family was kicked out of their Havana barrio for opposing communism. Once devoted revolutionaries themselves but disillusioned by the Castro government’s repressive tactics, they fled to the US. The permanent losses they suffered—of home, country, and loved ones, all within forty-eight hours—haunted her multigenerational family as they reclaimed their lives and freedom in 1967 New Hampshire. There, they fed each other stories of their scrappy barrio—some of which Hebra Flaster has shared on All Things Considered—to resurrect their lost world and fortify themselves for a daunting task: building a new life in a foreign land.

Weaving pivotal events in Cuba–US history with her viejos’—elders’—stories of surviving political upheaval, impossible choices, and “refugeedom,” Property of the Revolution celebrates the indomitable spirit and wisdom of the women warriors who led the family out of Cuba, shaped its rebirth as Cuban Americans, and helped Ana grow up hopeful, future-facing—American. But what happens when deeply buried childhood memories resurface, demanding an adult’s reckoning?

Here’s how the fiercest love, the most stubborn will, and the power of family put nine new Americans back on their feet.

A Necklace of Ears by Alberto Roblest

After leaving the artificial charm of Las Vegas behind, Sergio makes a living working at a military base. While repairing houses and maintaining the complex's gardens, he enters the lives of characters as diverse as married women in need of a sexual encounter--who are marked by the absence of their husbands at the front--and veterans who carry the echoes of war, facing ghosts that never fade away. In a bold narrative game, the reader becomes an accomplice to the clandestine encounters and gossip of the military base.

With a provocative tone, Alberto Roblest invites us to witness the human dynamics that unfold in this microcosm: the unbridled flirtation of the playboy protagonist and the stories that are whispered in the shadows. As relationships blossom and wither, Sergio is presented as an enigma: in sudden dreams--or hazy memories--we find him wandering through the desert, a collar made of ears hanging from his neck. The haunting question persists: to whom do these ears belong?

Expertly translated from the original Spanish edition, Collar de orejas, by Dillon Scalzo, the novel combines detailed descriptions with reflections on today's society to graphically explore the reality of many hard-working migrants facing harsh conditions in the United States.

April 2025 Latinx Releases

On Sale April 1

Covert Joy by Clarice Lispector | ADULT FICTION

This radiant selection of Clarice Lispector's best and best-loved stories includes such familiar favorites as "The Smallest Woman in the World,""Love," "Family Ties," and "The Egg and the Chicken." Lispector's luminous regard for life's small revelatory incidents is legendary, and here her genius is concentrated in a fizzing, portable volume.

Covert Joy offers the particular bliss a book can bring that she expresses in the title story: Joy would always be covert for me... Sometimes I'd sit in the hammock, swinging with the book open on my lap, not touching it, in the purest ecstasy.I was no longer a girl with a book: I was a woman with her lover

Bebé AMA a Mamá / Baby Loves Mom by Chela de la Vega | Illustrated by Teresa Martínez | PICTURE BOOK

A heartwarming and delightful exploration of love, the story takes place in various settings in Latin America and the United States, creating a rich and engaging experience for babies and toddlers.

Through charming illustrations and simple, expressive text, the book celebrates the special bond between babies and their mothers. From playful moments to soothing bedtime routines, Bebé Ama a Mamá / Baby Loves Mom captures the universal language of love, making it a perfect read for families looking to embrace both English and Spanish in their little one's early learning journey.

Gloria by Andrés Felipe Solano | Translated by Will Vanderhyden | ADULT FICTION

It is a bright spring Saturday: April 11, 1970. The famous Argentine singer Sandro is about to become the first Latin American to perform at Madison Square Garden, and Gloria will be one of the lucky attendees at what will be a legendary concert. At just twenty years old, the young woman walks through the electric streets of New York City full of hope and possibility. The disturbing images she recently encountered at her job at a photographic laboratory, the trauma of a father who was murdered when she was a child, and even the long-term prospects of her relationship with Tigre, her irascible boyfriend, are problems for another day. This day should be perfect and should last forever. Which it will, in surprising and unexpected ways.

Five decades later, Gloria’s son reflects on his mother's life and realizes that their formative years—imprinted as they are by sojourns in New York at exactly the same age—are a bridge between generations that draws the pair closer through a shared sense of longing and potential.

Takes One to Know One by Lissette Decos | ADULT FICTION

Daniela is risk-averse, blazer-obsessed, and likes to be taken seriously. So when her record label job is on the line, she's prepared to do anything to keep it. Except for working with the genre of music she hates most: reggaeton. It's supposed to inspire sensual hip-swinging dance moves and Dani's hips do not swing--not like that anyway. Out of desperation, Dani lies and says she loves reggaeton. But not only does Dani get to keep her job, she gets a ticket to Puerto Rico . . . on a mission to clean up the scandalous image of international reggaeton singer Rene 'El Rico' Rodriguez.

Despite her best act, Dani's dislike of his music and Rene's prickly disposition is palpable, resulting in them butting heads at every turn. Yet as the two spend more time together under the island's sizzling sun, Dani realizes there's more to Rene than his rough edges and good looks. The man that many only see as a sex icon actually cares about his music, community, and culture. Against her will, she slowly begins finding him harder to hate. And before she knows it, Rene is teaching Dani how to find the rhythm of the music and learn to let go. But will she ever be ready to acknowledge the heat growing between them and put her heart on the line?

Frida Kahlo's Flower Crown by Nydia Armendia-Sánchez | Illustrated by Loris Lora | PICTURE BOOK

Like a seed / Frida sprouted /
And burst through the earth where / the coyotl once foraged.
Coyoacán was the place where Frida grew.

Told through the language and imagery of the native Mexican flowers and plants comes the life of acclaimed and beloved artist Frida Kahlo. Like a flower, Frida blossomed, wilted, was crushed, survived, and thrived, growing into one of the most celebrated Indigenous painters.

This poetic and empowering picture book, written by Nydia Armendia-Sánchez and illustrated by Pura Belpré Honor awardee Loris Lora, features the very flora Frida grew in her garden, bought at the market in her hometown, painted in her famous portraits, and wore proudly in a crown around her head.

A Carnival of Atrocities by Natalia García Freire | Translated by Victor Meadowcroft | ADULT FICTION

Cocuán, a desolate town nestled between the hot jungle and the frigid Andes, is about to slip away from memory. This is where Mildred was born, and where everything she had—her animals, her home, her lands—was taken from her after her mother’s death. Years later, a series of strange events, disappearances, and outbursts of collective delirium will force its residents to reckon with the legend of old Mildred. Once again, they will feel the shadow of death that has hung over the town ever since she was wronged. The voices of nine characters—Mildred, Ezequiel, Agustina, Manzi, Carmen, Víctor, Baltasar, Hermosina, and Filatelio—tell us of the past and present of that doomed place and Mildred's fate. Natalia García Freire’s vivid language blurs the lines between dreams and reality and transports the reader to the hypnotic Andean universe of Ecuador.

City of Smoke and Sea by Malia Marquez | ADULT FICTION

Queenie Rivers was raised by her grandparents in coastal Los Angeles. As she approaches thirty, her erratic lifestyle is forced back on course by a car accident and her grandmother's intervention.

But her recovery is interrupted by a break-in and Gran's death. Gran's last act was to set Queenie up with a job at an upscale seaside bistro with a shady reputation--the owner of which, it turns out, was once a close friend. As Queenie digs into Gran's past for answers about the break-in, the murder, and the unnerving circumstances surrounding the restaurant and her new boss, she discovers that her grandmother, a Romani Holocaust survivor, kept many secrets, some of them otherworldly--secrets that become hers to unravel when she becomes a suspect in Gran's murder case.

On Sale April 8

Creepy Campfire Stories: Frights to Tell at Night by Anastasia Garcia | Illustrated by Teo Skaffa | MIDDLE GRADE

The great outdoors has never been so terrifying! Featuring iconic landscapes like the Grand Canyon and Redwood National Park, this book will haunt your dreams long after the last ember of the campfire has faded. Here are just a few of the super-scary stories inside:

• A strange museum that won't stay open after dark.

• Sinister plants with a taste for human flesh.

• Monsters hidden in the snow--friend or foe?

• Mysterious lights in the sky leave messages in a cornfield.

• A winged creature warns of impending doom.

On Sale April 15

Snap! Crunch! Munch? by Diana Castillo |

A little boy comes down for family dinner. There’s food for each member of his picky family: black beans, plantains, flan, and more. Soon his imagination is filled with lions, elephants, and flamingos slurping, crunching, and munching on a delicious dinner.

This early reader graphic novel is perfect for 1st and 2nd graders to read on their own. The simple text and story matches everyone's favorite foods with animals, featuring fun onomatopoeia that kids will want to shout outloud. 

Carlito's Butterfly by Angèle Delaunois | Illustrated by Augusto Mora | Translated by Ann Marie Boulanger | PICTURE BOOK

Carlito has recently immigrated and he misses Mexico.

During a walk with his friend Samia, he recognizes a magnificent orange and black butterfly--a monarch! He remembers visiting a forest in Mexico where the monarch butterflies spend the winter. Through the monarch's migratory story, Carlito and Samia realize that they can have two countries to call home, just like the butterflies.

This bilingual book includes full text in both English and Spanish.

The Influencers by Anna-Marie McLemore | ADULT FICTION

What do you really know about the people you’ve made famous?

“Mother May I” Iverson has spent the past twenty-five years building a massively successful influencer empire with endearing videos featuring her five mixed-race daughters. But the girls are all grown up now, and the ramifications of having their entire childhoods commodified start to spill over into public view, especially in light of the pivotal question: Who killed May’s newlywed husband and then torched her mansion to cover it up?

April is a businesswoman feuding with her mother over intellectual property; twins June and July are influencers themselves, threatening to overtake May’s spotlight; January is a theater tech who steers clear of her mother and the limelight; and the youngest . . . well, March has somehow completely disappeared. As the days pass post-murder, everyone has an opinion—the sisters, May, a mysterious “friend of the family,” and the collective voice of the online audience watching the family’s every move—with suspicion flying every direction.

Cómo decirle hola a una lombriz: Primera guía al aire libre (How to Say Hello to a Worm: A First Guide to Outside) by Kari Percival | Translated by Yanitzia Canetti | PICTURE BOOK

The beautiful simplicity of a garden is depicted through digital woodcut illustrations and engaging nonfiction text presented as a series of sweet questions and gentle replies. Less of a traditional how-to and more of a how-to-appreciate, this soothingly sparse text paints an inviting and accessible picture of what a garden offers. And with an all-child cast, the absence of an adult presence empowers readers to view the garden and its creatures through their own eyes, driven by curiosity and wonder.

This delightful book embodies the magic of gardening and encourages all readers, from those who LOVE the outdoors to those with hesitation, to interact with nature at their own, comfortable pace.

Futbolista by Jonny Garza Villa | YOUNG ADULT

Gabriel Piña knows who he is: a college goalkeeper, a future Liga MX or MLS star, and definitely straight. He's starting his freshman year with a lot of eyes on him and even more potential, but he's got this. Nothing will have him straying off the path to greatness.

That is, until his philosophy classmate Vale volunteers to tutor him. Vale, the same guy who Gabi, in a moment of history repeating itself, might've kissed very briefly--and only once--just to help him out at a party. Vale, the smart, supportive, compassionate new friend with beautiful brown eyes and a smile that keeps Gabi, for completely inexplicable reasons, constantly in a daydream.

As a friendship blooms and the two spend more and more time together, Gabi finally begins to recognize something about himself: maybe he's not as straight as he thought he was. But a larger and darker realization lingers. Someone like Gabi--a brown, Mexican futbolista with dreams of playing for El Tri--can't also be bisexual. He's seen the way his teammates and community react to queerness in their sport. It would be the exact type of straying off path that destroys his future.

Or, maybe Gabi could be brave enough to embrace all those parts of himself and forge his own path, one that includes a boyfriend and the beautiful game.

Tío and Tío: The Ring Bearers by Ross Mathews and Dr. Wellinthon García-Mathews | Illustrated by Tommy Doyle | PICTURE BOOK

Evan and Andy are excited to visit Mexico for their uncles’ wedding—and their parents are excited that the boys will have a chance to experience the culture, practice their Spanish, and learn responsibility as ring bearers in the ceremony. Once they arrive, Evan and Andy just want to play soccer, swim, and eat all the great food. However, once the festivities are in full swing and the boys witness the love and happiness between their two tíos, they quickly embrace their role in their uncles’ very special day.

This debut picture book written by Ross Mathews and Dr. Wellinthon García-Mathews, and illustrated by Tommy Doyle, reminds us about the importance of love, family, and embracing one’s cultural identity.

Latinx Comics Studies: Critical and Creative Crossings Edited by Fernanda Díaz-Basteris & Maite Urcaregui | NONFICTION

Latinx Comics Studies: Critical and Creative Crossings offers an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach to analyzing Latinx studies and comics studies. The book draws together groundbreaking critical essays, practical pedagogical reflections, and original and republished short comics. The works in this collection discuss the construction of national identity and memory, undocumented narratives, Indigenous and Afro-Latinx experiences, multiracial and multilingual identities, transnational and diasporic connections, natural disasters and unnatural colonial violence, feminist and queer interventions, Latinx futurities, and more. Together, the critical and creative works in this collection begin to map out the emerging and evolving field of Latinx comics studies and to envision what might be possible in and through Latinx comics.

How to Reach the Moon by Nicolás Schuff | Illustrated by Ana Sender | Translated by Lawrence Schimel | PICTURE BOOK

Emilio loves spending vacations out in the forest at his abuelo's house. The woods are mysterious, and Abuelo and Emilio can dine outside by the light of a lantern every night. And then, best of all, Abuelo tells his fantastical stories! One night, when there's a full moon, Abuelo suggests they go and meet the moon. At first, Emilio isn't sure he's serious--but Abuelo is a true adventurer! And so the two, boy and grandfather, set off on their mission. But what creatures might await them in the forest? And will they really get to see the moon?

Cristina Plays by Micaela Chirif | Illustrated by Paula Ortiz | Translated by Lawrence Schimel | PICTURE BOOK

Cristina explores ordinary tasks like eating and tidying and makes curious discoveries before tumbling into sleep and visiting a fantastical dream world. Cristina Plays sweeps the reader into a clever game where Cristina might be a toy rabbit in a doll house or the child playing with it.

On Sale April 22

The Reel Wish by Yamile Saied Méndez | MIDDLE GRADE

Ballet is Florencia del Lago's entire world. After years of hard work, she is chosen as Clara in the winter production of The Nutcracker. Not only is she the youngest dancer to receive such an honor but also the first Latina. She's on track to be recruited by the best ballet companies.

Unfortunately, she suffers a panic attack on opening night--on stage, in front of everyone. And then Selena, Florencia's best friend, steps right into the role to replace her. Just like that, Florencia's whole world falls apart--the ballet studio expels her, and her best friend turns on her, tormenting her on social media and in real life.

But even though the one thing she was driven toward has come to an end, therapy and family support help Florencia open up to new experiences. She notices people at school she's never paid attention to before, and she even stumbles upon an Irish dance school and decides to give it a try. Can a new passion for Irish dance help Florencia find the joy of performing on the stage that she lost that fateful winter night?

Don't miss the Spanish-language edition of this book, El Deseo de Mi Corazón.

Echoes of the Water War: Legacies of Cochabamba, Bolivia by Oscar Olivera | NONFICTION

Water is life! From the frontlines of the greatest popular rebellion against the privatization of water comes the triumphant grassroots story of ordinary people in Cochabamba, Bolivia who became water warriors. As Echoes of Cochabamba shows in vivid detail, the 2001 "water wars" was an explosion of democracy and human rights regained by the masses, which won popular control of water supply and defied all odds by driving out the transnational corporation that had stolen their water in the first place.

Oscar Olivera, a trade union machinist who helped shape and lead a movement that brought thousands of ordinary people to the streets, powerfully conveys the perspective of a committed participant in a victorious and inspirational rebellion.

With hard-won political savvy, Olivera reflects on major themes that emerged from the war over water: the fear and isolation that Cochabambinos faced with a spirit of solidarity and mutual aid; the challenges of democratically administering the city's water supply; and the impact of the water wars on subsequent resistance.

If We Were a Movie by Zakiya N. Jamal | YOUNG ADULT

Lights. Camera. Love?

Rochelle “the Shell” Coleman is laser focused on only three things: becoming valedictorian, getting into Wharton, and, of course, taking down her annoyingly charismatic nemesis and only academic competition, Amira Rodriguez. However, despite her stellar grades, Rochelle’s college application is missing that extra special something: a job.

When Rochelle gets an opportunity to work at Horizon Cinemas, the beloved Black-owned movie theater, she begrudgingly jumps at the chance to boost her chances at getting into her dream school. There’s only one problem: Amira works there…and is also her boss.

Rochelle feels that working with Amira is its own kind of horror movie, but as the two begin working closely together, Rochelle starts to see Amira in a new light, one that may have her beginning to actually…like her?

But Horizon’s in trouble, and when mysterious things begin happening that make Horizon’s chances of staying open slimmer, it’s up to the employees to solve the mystery before it’s too late, but will love also find its way into the spotlight?

The Summer I Ate the Rich by Maika Moulite & Maritza Moulite | YOUNG ADULT

Brielle Petitfour loves to cook. But with a chronically sick mother and bills to pay, becoming a chef isn’t exactly a realistic career path.

When Brielle’s mom suddenly loses her job, Brielle steps in and uses her culinary skills to earn some extra money. The rich families who love her cooking praise her use of unique flavors and textures, which keep everyone guessing what’s in Brielle’s dishes. The secret ingredient? Human flesh.

Written by the storytelling duo Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite, The Summer I Ate the Rich is a modern-day fable inspired by Haitian zombie lore that scrutinizes the socioeconomic and racial inequity that is the foundation of our society. Just like Brielle’s clients, it will have you asking: What’s for dinner?

Juana y Lucas: Grandes problemas by Juana Medina | Translated by Eida DelRisco | PICTURE BOOK

Juana’s life is just about perfect. She lives in the beautiful city of Bogotá with her two most favorite people in the world: her mami and her dog, Lucas. Lately, though, things have become a little less perfect. Mami has a new hairdo and a new amigo named Luis with whom she has been spending a LOT of time. He is kind and teaches Juana about things like photography and jazz music, but sometimes Juana can’t help wishing things would go back to the way they were before. When Mami announces that she and Luis are getting married and that they will all be moving to a new casa, Juana is quite distraught. Lucky for her, though, some things will never change—like how much Mami loves her. Based on author-illustrator Juana Medina’s own childhood in Colombia, this joyful series is sure to resonate with readers of all ages.

Property of the Revolution: From a Cuban Barrio to a New Hampshire Mill Town by Ana Hebra Flaster | NONFICTION

Ana Hebra Flaster was six years old when her working-class family was kicked out of their Havana barrio for opposing communism. Once devoted revolutionaries themselves but disillusioned by the Castro government’s repressive tactics, they fled to the US. The permanent losses they suffered—of home, country, and loved ones, all within forty-eight hours—haunted her multigenerational family as they reclaimed their lives and freedom in 1967 New Hampshire. There, they fed each other stories of their scrappy barrio—some of which Hebra Flaster has shared on All Things Considered—to resurrect their lost world and fortify themselves for a daunting task: building a new life in a foreign land.

Weaving pivotal events in Cuba–US history with her viejos’—elders’—stories of surviving political upheaval, impossible choices, and “refugeedom,” Property of the Revolution celebrates the indomitable spirit and wisdom of the women warriors who led the family out of Cuba, shaped its rebirth as Cuban Americans, and helped Ana grow up hopeful, future-facing—American. But what happens when deeply buried childhood memories resurface, demanding an adult’s reckoning?

On Sale April 29

Bloodletting by Kimberly Reyes | POETRY

This is a collection of poems about how we find and cultivate love amid wars, including wars that often go ignored. Throughout Bloodletting, Kimberly Reyes considers how we define love and who gets to experience it, paying special attention to the ways that race and sex influence how we are perceived and valued by society. Through the voice of a Black woman coming to terms with her own perspectives on relationship-building, Reyes shows the damage that contemporary culture can do to women, and Black women in particular. Resisting passivity, Reyes's poetry cuts through pervasive doom scrolling, virtue signaling, and parasocial relationships, inviting readers to remember what care is really supposed to feel like.

Latine Herbalism: A Beginner's Guide to Modern Curanderismo, Healing Plants, and Folk Traditions of the Americas by Iosellev Castañeda | NONFICTION

Delve into the healing traditions of Latine folk herbalism and modern curanderismo with this all-in-one guidebook offering a fusion of time-honored and contemporary practices. Latine Herbalism details the medicinal power of herbs and plants, their origins, and their most common uses while also exploring the folk traditions from sacred locations in the US, Mexico, and South America. This book even goes one step further, helping you navigate through the most common afflictions of body and mind, from digestive issues to stress management and beyond, with remedios y rituales such as:

• Breath vibrations

• Heart vibrations

• Spirit of the flowers

• Moon energy

• And more

Authored by a passionate advocate and practitioner, this book explores and honors the nuanced realms of curanderismo and Latine herbalism.

Dreams in Times of War / Soñar En Tiempos de Guerra: Stories / Cuentos by Oswaldo Estrada| Translated by Sarah Pollack | ADULT FICTION

In twelve stories, Dreams in Times of War / Soñar en tiempos de guerra brilliantly fictionalizes the lives of Latinx immigrants in the United States. The stories explore themes of violence including toxic masculinity, domestic abuse, and (trans)gender discrimination but also the alternative communities the characters form that offer solidarity and hope. Readers will celebrate this unflinching but heartfelt look at diverse immigrant experiences in the twenty-first century United States.

Theory of the Rearguard: How to Survive Contemporary Art (and Almost Everything Else) by Iván de la Nuez | Translated by Ellen Jones | NONFICTION

Theory of the Rearguard examines how contemporary art is in tension with survival, rather than in relation to life. In the twentieth century, Peter Bürger’s Theory of the Avant-Garde was a cult book focused on the two main tasks that art demanded at the time: to break its representation and to destroy the barrier that separated it from life.

Forty years later, The Theory of the Rearguard is an ironic manifesto about contemporary art and its failures, even though Iván de la Nuez does not waste his time mourning it or disguising it. He argues that our times are not characterized by the distance between art and life, but by a tension between art and survival, which is the continuation of life by any means necessary.

In the twenty-first century, Iván de la Nuez examines art in relationship to politics, iconography, and literature. This austere and sharp book—in which Duchamp stumbles upon Lupe, the revolution upon the museum, Paul Virilio upon Joan Fontcuberta or Fukuyama upon Michael Jackson—wonders if contemporary art will ever end. Because if it were mortal—“just as mortal as everything it invokes or examines under its magnifying glass”—de la Nuez argues would be worth writing an epitaph for it as he has done in this sparkling book of art criticism.

Fix-It Familia by Lucky Diaz | Illustrated by Micah Player | PICTURE BOOK

No job is too big, no task is too small. We’re the Fix It Familia. We help one, we help all!

Chavo and his family are always there to lend a helping hand. So when the main parade float crashes at a neighborhood fiesta, Chavo has the perfect plan to help his community. With a load of creativity and a truck full of love, nothing can stop Chavo’s ideas from becoming reality! 

This empowering tale of resilience, community, and the power of creativity is perfect for lovers of all things construction tools and trucks. 

The book includes Spanish words and phrases throughout and an author’s note from Lucky Diaz about his inspiration behind the story.

A Necklace of Ears by Alberto Roblest | ADULT FICTION

After leaving the artificial charm of Las Vegas behind, Sergio makes a living working at a military base. While repairing houses and maintaining the complex's gardens, he enters the lives of characters as diverse as married women in need of a sexual encounter--who are marked by the absence of their husbands at the front--and veterans who carry the echoes of war, facing ghosts that never fade away.

In a bold narrative game, the reader becomes an accomplice to the clandestine encounters and gossip of the military base. With a provocative tone, Alberto Roblest invites us to witness the human dynamics that unfold in this microcosm: the unbridled flirtation of the playboy protagonist and the stories that are whispered in the shadows.

As relationships blossom and wither, Sergio is presented as an enigma: in sudden dreams--or hazy memories--we find him wandering through the desert, a collar made of ears hanging from his neck. The haunting question persists: to whom do these ears belong?

Book Review: 'On the Wings of la Noche' by Vanessa L. Torres

Jamie Anderson said, “Grief, I've learned, is really just love. It's all the love you want to give, but cannot.” Naturally, a story that revolves around grief is also one that revolves around love. On the Wings of la Noche draws this connection between these two very intense emotions wonderfully, introducing us to a character who tragically lost her first love and must navigate a world without her person. 

Estrella Villanueva, best known as Noche, witnesses the death of her girlfriend Dante on a cold winter night at Lake Superior. Since then, Noche doesn’t know how to adapt to a life without Dante, especially since she is not entirely gone. Dante’s spirit still roams the earth, and Noche knows this because she is the one responsible for it. 

Noche is a Lechuza, a young woman who transforms into an owl at night and delivers souls to the afterlife; however, her duty becomes more complex after the love of her life requires her services. Noche is incapable of saying goodbye to Dante’s soul, so they spend their nights by the lake that swallowed her lover’s body, conversing in their ethereal forms. During the day, Noche must go back to school and experience life without Dante, but she is able to withstand it because of the promise of seeing her love again at night. Unfortunately, Dante’s soul is more and more dispersed with every encounter, and Noche doesn’t know how to stop her from fading. 

Besides the one with Dante, Torres introduces the reader to other relationships pivotal to Noche’s life. The one with her childhood best friend, Julien, who carries many secrets and is affected by Dante’s death too; the one with her new biology class’s lab partner, Jax, who makes her heart flutter in ways she had forgotten; and the one with her parents, who know about her Lechuza-self but can’t understand much of what she is going through. Every single connection is fundamental for our main character’s growth and navigation through grief. Torres develops each of Noche’s interactions organically, even with the awkwardness of a 17-year-old, making readers feel immediately drawn to all the characters. 

“With this, the author reminds readers of the importance of allowing ourselves to grieve and surrender to the things we cannot change. ”

The most crucial connection, however, is between Noche and her Lechuza persona. The immense loss she faces makes her question her own identity. Noche is Dante’s girlfriend, Julien’s best friend, Jax’s lab partner, and her parent’s daughter, but who is she outside all these relationships? Noche can’t ignore how alone she feels inside her feathers, knowing nobody in her circle could fully understand her experience. Besides, the lines between her owl and human self begin to blur, and Noche can’t tell where Estrella ends and her Lechuza begins. This conflict of identity is a great device that Torres uses to show us that our main character is not only grieving Dante but also her life before becoming a Lechuza, creating a beautiful exploration of self-acceptance. With this, the author reminds readers of the importance of allowing ourselves to grieve and surrender to the things we cannot change. 

On the Wings of la Noche is a conversation about forgiveness, identity, and reconciliation, explored by a 17-year-old shapeshifter facing a heartbreaking tragedy. Torres will make you believe in love again while holding your hand through a journey of immense grief. It aches, it makes you blush, it makes you cry, it makes you laugh. Her prose drives you through all the inevitable and necessary emotions one feels when one loves, the ones that make us human—the same ones that make Noche human even when spreading her wings at night. 

---

Roxanna Cardenas Colmenares is a Venezuelan writer living in New York City who loves to consume, study, and create art. She explores multiple genres in her writing, with a special interest in horror and sci-fi, while working on her B.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration. 

Her work has made her a two-time recipient of the James Tolan Student Writing Award for her critical essays analyzing movies. She has also won The Henry Roth Award in Fiction, The Esther Unger Poetry Prize, and The Allan Danzig Memorial Award in Victorian Literature.

In her free time, she likes to watch movies, dance, and draw doodles that she hopes to be brave enough to share one day.

Most Anticipated March 2025 Releases

Daylight saving time is here! We are so excited to go out and enjoy the longer days with one of the many great books releasing this month. Take a look at our list of most anticipated books to find a good book to fill your daylight hours.

Like a Hammer: Poets on Mass Incarceration Edited by Diana Marie Delgado

Like a Hammer is an anthology of poems that seeks to address the US prison-industrial complex and the often negative and long-lasting impact it has on the imprisoned and their communities. The book presents hope for a better future and aims to organize communities to demand change.

Contributors include: Hanif Abdurraqib, Rhionna Anderson, Brian Batchelor, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Marina Bueno, Cody Bruce, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Natalie Diaz, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Nikky Finney, Kennedy A. Gisege, Gustavo Guerra, Jessica Hill, Vicki Hicks, Randall Horton, Sandra Jackson, Catherine LaFleur, Ada Limón, Sarah Lynn Maatsch, Christopher Malec, Eduardo Martinez, John Murillo, Angel Nafis, Kenneth Nadeau, Leeann Parker, James Pearl, Christina Pernini, Roque Raquel Salas Rivera, Patrick Rosal, Nicole Sealey, Evie Shockley, Patricia Smith, Sin á Tes Souhaits, Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, Erica "Ewok" Walker, Candace Williams, and SHE/p>

The Tokyo Suite by Giovana Madalosso | Translated by Bruna Dantas Lobato

It's a seemingly ordinary morning when Maju, a nanny, boards a bus with Cora, the young girl she's been caring for, and disappears. The abduction, an act as impulsive as it is extreme, sets off a series of events that will force Maju and Cora’s parents to confront their deepest fears and desires.

The Tokyo Suite is the anticipated English-language debut of acclaimed Brazilian writer Giovana Madalosso. It explores themes of maternal guilt, societal expectations, and the search for personal identity.

Dichos En Nichos by Sage Vogel | Illustrated by Jim Vogel and Christen Vogel

Sage Vogel's debut story collection features ten interconnected stories inspired by original dichos--pithy folk sayings and proverbs. The dichos offer guidance, caution, and comfort as the townsfolk of an archetypal 1950s Northern New Mexico village navigate themes of identity, community, loss, and love.

Created in collaboration with each story is a nicho--an oil painting set in an antique frame--created by renowned Southwestern artists Christen Vogel and Jim Vogel. These fine artworks serve as both vibrant altars and vivid windows into a village brimming with the dynamic rhythms of life, from poetry and music to tragedy and scandal.

The Anatomy of Magic by J. C. Cervantes

Lilian Estrada seemingly has it all: an ob-gyn star on the rise, a master at balancing work with whirlwind romances and part of a family of fiercely loyal and exceptional women, all bound together by an extraordinary secret. The Estrada women each possess a unique power, and Lily shines with the rare gift to manipulate memories. Yet not even her mystical abilities can shield her from a harrowing event at the hospital, one that sends her powers--and her confidence--spiraling out of control.

Seeking solace, Lily retreats to her family's ancestral home in Mexico, only to find herself face-to-face with a ghost from her past--Sam, the first love she never forgot. Nearly a decade since she last saw him, Sam is hardly the boy she once knew, and as old flames spark to life, Lily must navigate the mysteries of their shared history and the depths of her own heart if she hopes to control her unpredictable magic.

The Latina Anti-Diet: A Dietitian's Guide to Authentic Health that Celebrates Culture and Full-Flavor Living by Dalina Soto

As a registered dietitian, Dalina Soto understands the pros and cons of intuitive eating. As a first-generation Dominican American, she’s also seen firsthand how this movement has only catered to a certain demographic. With her easy-to-follow CHULA method, Soto teaches us how to

• Challenge negative thoughts
• Honor our bodies and health
• Understand our needs
• Listen to our hunger
• Acknowledge our emotions

She gives us tools to confront diet culture and the whitewashing of food so we can go back to eating what we love while managing our health.

Engaging and incisive, The Latina Anti-Diet is for everyone who’s been told to lay off the tortillas and swap their white rice for brown. Soto shows us that food is so much more than calories; it’s about celebrating our culture and living a life full of flavor.

The Search Committee by José Skinner

When Minerva Mondragón, candidate for a tenure-track Border Studies position at Bravo University, suggests Professor Quigley take her across the border for lunch before the interview, he acquiesces uneasily. He can't afford to scare her off, so doesn't mention he hasn't crossed over in more than a year because of the drug cartel-related violence.

But lunch in the fictional border town of La Reina leads to shocking consequences for the candidate and her hapless guide. Minerva never returns from the restaurant's bathroom and Quigley, feeling guilty, convinces himself that she has decided to disappear.

He returns to the United States without reporting her missing or mentioning the trip to his colleagues. Meanwhile, the applicant finds herself bound and gagged in the back of a taxi, victim of a kidnapping.

A long-time professor of literature and creative writing in South Texas, José Skinner writes darkly comedic scenes with an insider's understanding of university and border life and the narco violence that has disrupted them.

March 2025 Latinx Releases

On Sale March 4

Guatemalan Rhapsody: Stories by Jared Lemus | SHORT STORIES

Ranging from a custodian at an underfunded college to a medicine man living in a temple dedicated to San Simon, the patron saint of alcohol and cigarettes, the characters in these stories find themselves at defining moments in their lives, where sacrifices may be required of them, by them, or for them.

Across this collection, Lemus’s characters test their loyalty to family, community, and country, illuminating the ties that both connect us and constrain us. Guatemalan Rhapsody explores how we journey from the circumstances that we are forged by, and whether the ability to change our fortunes lies in our own hands or in those of another. Revealing the places where beauty, desperation, love, violence, and hope exist simultaneously, Jared Lemus’s debut establishes him as a major new voice in the form.

The Tokyo Suite by Giovana Madalosso | Translated by Bruna Dantas Lobato | ADULT FICTION

It's a seemingly ordinary morning when Maju, a nanny, boards a bus with Cora, the young girl she's been caring for, and disappears. The abduction, an act as impulsive as it is extreme, sets off a series of events that will force each character to confront their deepest fears and desires.

Fernanda, Cora's mother, is a successful executive who is so engulfed in her own personal crisis that she initially fails to notice her daughter's disappearance. Her marriage is strained, and she finds solace in an affair, distancing herself further from her family. Meanwhile, her husband, overwhelmed by the complexities of their domestic life, remains emotionally detached. As Maju navigates the streets of São Paulo with Cora, the "white army" of nannies, a term coined by Fernanda, seems to watch her every move, heightening her sense of paranoia and urgency.

Speak Up, Santiago! by Julio Anta | Illustrated by Gabi Mendez | MIDDLE GRADE

Santi is excited to spend the summer in Hillside Valley, meeting the local kids, eating his Abuela's delicious food, exploring! There's just one problem—Santi doesn't speak Spanish that well and it feels like everyone he meets in Hillside does. There's Sol (she's a soccer player who really loves books), Willie, (the artist), Alejandro (Santi's unofficial tour guide!), and Nico (Alejandro's brother and blue belt in karate). In between all of their adventures in Hillside, Santi can't help but worry about his Spanish-what if he can't keep up?! Does that mean he's not Colombian enough? Will Santi find his confidence and his voice? Or will his worries cost him his new friendships...and the chance to play in HIlliside's summer soccer tournament?!

The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica | Translated by Sarah Moses | ADULT FICTION

From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find—discarded ink, dirt, and even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled, punished, but safe.

But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened?

Like a Hammer: Poets on Mass Incarceration Edited by Diana Marie Delgado | Foreward by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor | POETRY

These powerful poems of witness seek to address the oppressive systems that make up the US prison-industrial complex, revealing cracks in a criminal punishment system that too often appears unchangeable. The impacts of that system reverberate through lives and across generations. The poets gathered here aim to foreground the real experiences of people touched by the system, to upend dominant narratives, shine light on injustice, and act as a fulcrum around which to organize communities in support of change.

Like A Hammer explores how art and imagination can serve as vehicles for endurance, offering us the hope to envision a better future.

Dichos En Nichos by Sage Vogel | Illustrated by Jim Vogel and Christen Vogel |ADULT FICTION

Sage Vogel's debut story collection invites readers into the heart of an archetypal 1950s Northern New Mexico village, where the fruit orchards, arroyo roads, adobe homes, and even pigsties hold tales of wit, romance, woe, and wisdom.

Dichos en Nichos contains ten interconnected stories inspired by original dichos--pithy folk sayings and proverbs. Vogel's dichos--presented in both Spanish and English--are shared among a colorful cast of characters. The dichos offer guidance, caution, and comfort as the townsfolk navigate themes of identity, community, loss, and love. From tales of sacrifice and survival to those of intimacy and independence, each story is a testament to the strength and resilience of the human spirit.

Created in collaboration with each story is a nicho--an oil painting set in an antique frame--created by renowned Southwestern artists Christen Vogel and Jim Vogel. These fine artworks serve as both vibrant altars and vivid windows into a village brimming with the dynamic rhythms of life, from poetry and music to tragedy and scandal.

On Sale March 11

Home by Matt de la Peña | Illustrated by Loren Long | PICTURE BOOK

Home is a tired lullaby
and a late-night traffic that mumbles in
through a crack in your curtains.

Home is the faint trumpet of a distant barge
as your grandfather casts his line
from the edge of his houseboat.

So begins this stirring celebration of home in its many forms. For home is an idea more profound than the walls we build up around ourselves. It’s the family that shows its love through small gestures every day. It’s the community that sees one another through hard times. And it’s the wonder of the natural world, a refuge we share with every living thing on Earth.

Don't miss the Spanish-language edition of this book, Hogar.

Little Cloud's Big Dream by Ixtzel Arreola | Illustrated by Martina Liebig | PICTURE BOOK

A little cloud named Re wishes to grow as big as the clouds floating over the sea. She learns from a passing cloud how to collect dew and water and soon she has grown BIG! As she travels, she even soaks up some droplets from the petals of a beautiful flower and the two become fast friends. But then something happens that Re never expected–she starts to storm!

After storming across land and sea, Re grows small again and returns to Flower. At first the cloud is afraid her new friend won’t recognize her, but Flower assures her “from dew to rain to thunder, you are still you.”

An imaginative look into the water cycle through a little cloud and the feelings she experiences as she grows and changes.

The Anatomy of Magic by J. C. Cervantes | ADULT FICTION

Lilian Estrada seemingly has it all: an ob-gyn star on the rise, a master at balancing work with whirlwind romances and part of a family of fiercely loyal and exceptional women, all bound together by an extraordinary secret. The Estrada women each possess a unique power, and Lily shines with the rare gift to manipulate memories. Yet not even her mystical abilities can shield her from a harrowing event at the hospital, one that sends her powers--and her confidence--spiraling out of control.

Seeking solace, Lily retreats to her family's ancestral home in Mexico, only to find herself face-to-face with a ghost from her past--Sam, the first love she never forgot. Nearly a decade since she last saw him, Sam is hardly the boy she once knew, and as old flames spark to life, Lily must navigate the mysteries of their shared history and the depths of her own heart if she hopes to control her unpredictable magic.

Vanishing Daughters by Cynthia Pelayo | ADULT FICTION

It started the night journalist Briar Thorne's mother died in their rambling old mansion on Chicago's South Side.

The nightmares of a woman in white pleading to come home, music switched on in locked rooms, and the panicked fear of being swallowed by the dark...Bri has almost convinced herself that these stirrings of dread are simply manifestations of grief and not the beyond-world of ghostly impossibilities her mother believed in. And more tangible terrors still lurk outside the decaying Victorian greystone.

A serial killer has claimed the lives of fifty-one women in the Chicago area. When Bri starts researching the murders, she meets a stranger who tells her there's more to her sleepless nights than bad dreams--they hold the key to putting ghosts to rest and stopping a killer. But the killer has caught on and is closing in, and if Bri doesn't answer the call of the dead soon, she'll be walking among them.

America, Let Me in: A Choose Your Immigration Story by Felipe Torres Medina

Born in Colombia, Felipe Torres Medina moved to the US at the age of 21 and has spent over ten years of his life both navigating the chaos and confusion of the immigration system and explaining that craziness to the clueless Americans around him. There are few subjects that Americans have stronger opinions on. And there are few subjects that they know less about.

So, like many immigrants before him, Torres Medina sets out to do the job American-born citizens won't: make the US immigration process accessible, relatable, and, hey, a little bit funny. With an outsider's eye, an insider's affection, and a biting, humorous flair, Torres Medina invites readers from all passport lines to explore the multiple paths and potholes of moving to America, and experience just how many choices it takes to choose a new home.

Las Horas Imposibles / The Impossible Hours by Octavio Quintanilla| POETRY

In Las Horas Imposibles / The Impossible Hours, Octavio Quintanilla takes us on a profound journey to witness what it means to erase those boundaries devised by genre and politics intent on stifling memory, imagination, and creativity.

Presented in Spanish with English translations, this poetry collection comprises lyric and concrete poems--or frontextos--that explore intimacy and different shades of violence as a means to reconcile the speaker's sense of belonging in the world. From the opening poem to the last in the first section, Quintanilla captures the perilous journeys that migrants undertake crossing borders as well as the paths that lovers forge to meet their endless longing. These themes are skillfully woven by Quintanilla, guiding us back and forth across the Rio Grande to encounter the apparitions of the disappeared and to witness the willingness of many to risk life and limb for a better life. The second half of the collection is one long poem, a letter addressed to a lost lover who will never get to read the speaker's secret thoughts. Haunted by loss--of parents, of children, of the self--the speaker reaches an inevitable epiphany: "[A]nd sometimes it's hard to know / on which side of the river I stand." Stylistically, these poems destabilize our notions and expectations of genre and lyricism.

On Sale March 18

Fever Dreams of a Parasite by Pedro Iniguez | ADULT FICTION

In Fever Dreams of a Parasite Iniguez weaves haunting tales that traverse worlds both familiar and alien. Paying homage to Lovecraft, Ligotti, and Langan, these cosmic horror, weird fiction, and folk-inspired stories explore tales of outsiders, killers, and tormented souls as they struggle to survive the lurking terrors of a cold and cruel universe. With symbolism and metaphor pulled from his Latino roots, Iniguez cuts deep into the political undercurrent to expose an America rarely presented in fiction. Whether it's the desperation of poverty, the fear of deportation or the countless daily slights endured by immigrants, these tales are about people who are usually overlooked. This fresh perspective is often delivered with a twist that allows us to see the mundane with fresh eyes.

The Latina Anti-Diet: A Dietitian's Guide to Authentic Health that Celebrates Culture and Full-Flavor Living by Dalina Soto | NONFICTION

Diet culture is facing a reckoning, and intuitive eating has been leading the charge. The movement has taken the internet by storm, encouraging us to stop dieting and make food choices that feel good for our bodies rather than follow influencers and their shakes.

But intuitive eating is missing a key ingredient: culture. Like many movements, intuitive eating has become co-opted by a select few—placing the focus on “mainstream” food while discounting cultural cuisines. But how can we gain a healthy attitude toward food when our foods—our arroz, habichuelas, and plátanos—are left out of the conversation?

Dalina Soto is here to add them back to our plates.

As a registered dietitian, Soto understands the pros and cons of intuitive eating. As a first-generation Dominican American, she’s also seen firsthand how this movement has only catered to a certain demographic.

She gives us tools to confront diet culture and the whitewashing of food so we can go back to eating what we love while managing our health.

A Sky That Sings by George Steele & Anita Sanchez | Illustrated by Emily Mendoza | PICTURE BOOK

Mia and her tía are spending a sunny afternoon at the park bird-listening! Some people enjoy bird-watching but as a blind person, Mia uses her other senses to identify different birds by their unique calls and songs. She calls it bird-listening.

Mia loves naming each of the birds that she hears. Sweet! Sweet! Sweet! Is that the chipper call of a yellow warbler? At first Mia's aunt doesn't know what to expect, but with Mia's guidance, she learns to listen and enjoy the bright melodies pouring from the sky. Their adventure will take them past a lively pond, through the hush of the quiet woods, and up a breezy hilltop for a soaring encounter with Mia's favorite bird of all!

Perfect for bird lovers of every feather, A Sky That Sings invites us to open our senses to life's everyday treasures--the delights of nature and spending time with loved ones.

Variations in Blue by Adela Najarro | POETRY

The poems in Variations in Blue cycle through the traumatic residue of dysfunctional relationships, the complexities of Latinx representation through a series of ekphrastic poems, and reimagine Nicaragua as a homeland set in a volcanic landscape. Each section contains a series of poetic variations on a theme, and the poems reverberate and rotate through the indeterminacy of language. Najarro's Variations in Blue insists that the complexities of experience must be understood one version at a time, each distinctly unfolding its unique design.

Camila Núñez's Year of Disasters by Miriam Zoila Pérez | YOUNG ADULT

Cuban American Camila Núñez has always been afraid of the future. She’s been working hard to keep her anxieties in check, but with so many new experiences—her first queer love, trouble with her dog walking job, her mother’s judgments about her body, learning to drive, her father being too busy with work—there’s just so much to worry about.

So when Camila’s best friend gives her a tarot card reading for her sixteenth birthday, she believes it when the cards predict terrible things to come. As the year unfolds, the cards seem to be spot-on—is her papi having an affair? Will her best friend’s love life ruin their friendship? Are all her relationships doomed to fail?

Whether she’s ready or not, Camila will have to reckon with all the ways her fear about the future is ruining her life and learn to find peace amidst it all.

At the Island's Edge by C. I. Jerez | ADULT FICTION
As a combat medic, Lina LaSalle went to Iraq to save the lives of fellow soldiers. But when her convoy is attacked, she must set aside her identity as a healer and take a life herself.

Although she is honored as a hero when she returns to the US, Lina cannot find her footing. She is stricken with PTSD and unsure of how to support her young son, Teó, a little boy with Tourette's. As her attempts to self-medicate become harder to hide, Lina realizes she must do the toughest thing yet: ask for help.

She retreats to her parents' house in Puerto Rico, where Teó thrives under her family's care. Lina finds kinship, too--with a cousin whose dreams were also shattered by the war and with a handsome and caring veteran who sought refuge on the island and runs a neighborhood bar.

But amid the magic of the island are secrets and years of misunderstandings that could erode the very stability she's fighting for. Hope lies on the horizon, but can she keep her gaze steady?

I Want to Dance in Pants by Jess Hernandez and Ruymán Hernandez | Illustrated by Teresa Martinez | PICTURE BOOK

When a girl needs a new outfit for a special holiday party, she chooses comfort over tradition.

Ava does not love dresses. They poke and pinch, squish and squash. They just do not feel good to her. But after Ava and her family are invited to a quinceañera celebration, her mother thinks they need to go shopping for a new dress. Ava's mother loves dresses--fancy dresses, swishy dresses, dresses of all kinds.

I want to dance in pants, says Ava. Nonsense! says her mother. And off they go to shop.

After trying on dress (too itchy) after dress (too poofy) after dress (too silly), Ava finally finds what she does want to wear. It's a bright and sparkly tuxedo pantsuit. It's perfect! Her mother tells her that she will be the only girl not wearing a dress. And that's just fine with Ava. But what happens when they get to the party?

Brought to life through energetic, colorful artwork, this story serves as a reminder to readers of all ages to be comfortable in their own skin (and especially in their clothes).

On Sale March 25

The Girl and the Robot by Claribel A. Ortega & Oz Rodriguez | MIDDLE GRADE

With a little heart, you can fix anything.

Mimi Perez fixes things. Phones, tablets, speakers, printers. She gets it from her dad—helping him at the family e-repair shop was always one of Mimi’s favorite things to do. But ever since Papi was deported, there’s a lot more than electronics that need fixing in Mimi’s world. Things too big for any twelve-year-old to handle on her own.

Mimi hustles around her Brooklyn neighborhood trying to earn enough money to finally fix her family. There’s no time for school or friends, but Mimi knows it will all be worth it the day Papi comes home. Then her ex-friends approach her with a proposition: enter a robotics competition with them, and they could win $50,000. It could be her chance.

Not part of the plan? A mysterious robot crashing to earth. From space.

The robot is scared, alone, and broken, and federal agents are after her. Mimi does what any street-smart electronics repair person would do: she takes the robot home, fixes her up, and in the process, makes herself a friend.

Suddenly, Mimi is anything but alone. She’s part of a robotics team. She’s sheltering a robot. She’s dodging federal agents. And keeping all of it a secret from her mom.

rekt by Alex Gonzalez | ADULT FICTION
> be me, 26 
> about to end it all 
> feels good, man 

Once, Sammy Dominguez thought he knew how the world worked.  The ugly things in his head—his uncle’s pathetic death, his parents’ mistrust, the twisted horrors he writes for the Internet—didn’t matter, because he and his girl, Ellery, were on track for the good life in this messed-up world. 

Then a car accident changed everything.  

Spiraling with grief and guilt, Sammy scrambles for distraction. He finds it in shock-value videos of gore and violence that terrified him as a child. When someone messages him a dark web link to footage of Ellery dying, he watches—first the car crash that killed her, then hundreds of other deaths, even for people still alive. Accidents. Diseases. Suicides. Murders. 

The host site, chinsky, is sadistic, vicious, impossible.  It even seems to read his mind, manipulate his searches. But is chinsky even real? And who is Haruspx, the web handle who led him into this virtual nightmare? As Sammy watches compulsively, the darkness in his mind blooms, driving him down a twisted path to find the roots of chinsky, even if he must become a nightmare himself…

Lamentations of Nezahualcóyotl: Nahuatl Poems by Nezahualcóyotl | Illustrated by Cuauhtémoc Wetzka | Translated by Ilan Stavans |POETRY

From award-winning author, editor, and translator Ilan Stavans comes a one-of-a-kind retelling of a legendary Aztec ruler's timeless verses.

A king, a warrior, and a poet, Nezahualcóyotl was a revolutionary ahead of his time. Born in 1402, the ruler--whose name means 'hungry coyote' in the Uto-Aztecan language of Nahuatl--led the city-state of Texcoco through its age of enlightenment. His four-decade reign was among the most transformative and prosperous eras of the Aztec Empire. Today he is a hero in Mexico, seen as a mysterious, powerful, anti-colonial figure.

Brimming with longing, this epic collection of songs and poems was composed by Nezahualcóyotl with members of his illustrious court. Six centuries later, in a powerful translation by Ilan Stavans and with new illustrations by Cuauhtémoc Wetzka, twenty-two poems bring to life a young warrior's journey from exile to historical legend. Anguished and unforgettable, Lamentations of Nezahualcóyotl will thrill readers of Latin American literature for years to come.

Space Brooms! by A. G. Rodriguez| ADULT FICTION

Everyone aboard Kilgore Station is living their best life. Everyone except for Johnny Gomez.

While humans, the augmented, and aliens of all shapes and sizes enjoy exotic cuisine on the dining deck, or gamble away their credits on the entertainment deck, Johnny is elbow-deep in oily, black, alien excrement. A ‘space broom’ custodian for the entire station.

This was obviously not the life Johnny dreamt of. Ten years ago, he travelled to Kilgore, the farthest space station in our solar system, in search of fortune like everyone else. Some people are just luckier than others.

Yet his meaningless, uneventful existence is immediately turned upside down when he happens upon a tiny glass data-chit, hidden amongst the alien poop he must clean up. Unbeknownst to him, every nefarious creature in the solar system will soon be after him to claim it for their own.

With the help of his augmented roommate, a pair of smugglers and a mysterious and beautiful stranger, Johnny fights off thugs and sails as fast as possible to earth’s moon, Luna, in effort to sell the chit to the Obinna Crime Syndicate. But with assassins and mobsters on their tail, the trip is anything but a cakewalk. And Luna itself proves to be nothing like a safe haven, when Johnny’s painful past finally catches up to him…

The Search Committee by José Skinner | ADULT FICTION

Mexico is only eight miles from Bravo University. When Minerva Mondragón, candidate for a tenure-track Border Studies position, suggests Professor Quigley take her across the border for lunch before the interview, he acquiesces uneasily. He can't afford to scare her off, so doesn't mention he hasn't crossed over in more than a year because of the drug cartel-related violence.

The first two candidates have turned down the job offer, and the committee can't lose this applicant. But lunch in the fictional border town of La Reina leads to shocking consequences for the candidate and her hapless guide. Minerva never returns from the restaurant's bathroom and Quigley, feeling guilty, convinces himself that she has decided to disappear. He returns to the United States without reporting her missing or mentioning the trip to his colleagues.

Meanwhile, the applicant finds herself bound and gagged in the back of a taxi, victim of a kidnapping.

A long-time professor of literature and creative writing in South Texas, José Skinner writes darkly comedic scenes with an insider's understanding of university and border life and the narco violence that has disrupted them.

10 Encouraging Titles for the Child in Your Life

Children can light up our days and teach us about patience. We wouldn’t change them for anything. As they grow, kids learn about themselves and their surroundings, and sometimes they need the company of a good book to help them on their journey. Check out these ten encouraging titles for the little light(s) of your life.

Llamando a mamá by Anya Damirón | Illustrated by César Barceló

Max calls his mother every time he wants something. He calls her when he feels bad, or sleepy, or whenever he drops something on the ground. He calls her shouting with all his might “Moommmm!”. His mother lives in constant fear, but one day she decides not to respond to his call and finds that Max is quite capable of doing things on his own.

Brown Girl, Brown Girl by Leslé Honoré | Illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera

Based on a viral poem by Blaxican poet and activist Leslé Honoré, and illustrated by Caldecott Honoree Cozbi A. Cabrera, this moving journey through the past, present, and future of brown and Black girls is a celebration of community, creativity, and joy—and offers a reminder of the history that inspires hope, and the hope that inspires activism.

The Helping Sweater by Rachel Más Davidson

It’s finally cold enough for Maya to wear her favorite sweater! But when her cat pulls a thread loose, her beloved sweater quickly begins to unravel. Maya is heartbroken, but she doesn’t have time to fix it before school. She starts to realize that maybe her sweater can help other people–and that’s when the magic begins! Maya uses her sweater to help folks in her community throughout the day. But of course, what goes around, comes around and when Maya needs help, someone comes to her rescue. The Helping Sweater is an accessible, uplifting picture book with an engaging heroine and an empathetic message. 

Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love | Illustrated by Jessica Love

While riding the subway home from the pool with his abuela one day, Julián notices three women spectacularly dressed up. Their hair billows in brilliant hues, their dresses end in fish tails, and their joy fills the train car. When Julián gets home, daydreaming of the magic he’s seen, all he can think about is dressing up in his own fabulous mermaid costume: a butter-yellow curtain for his tail, the fronds of a potted fern for his headdress. But what will Abuela think about the mess he makes—and even more importantly, what will she think about how Julián sees himself? Mesmerizing and full of heart, this 2019 Stonewall Book Award winner is a jubilant picture of self-love and a radiant celebration of individuality.

Gloriana, Presente by Alyssa Reynoso-Morris | Illustrated by Doris M. Rodríguez-Graber

On the first day of elementary school, Abuela soothes Gloriana’s nerves by telling her stories from their family home in la República Dominicana. But as soon as Gloriana enters the classroom, the tropical scenery crumbles and la música is replaced with English phrases she does not understand. When other kids approach her to play at recess, she freezes, uncertain about how to exist between her two homes, or how to make new friends between her two languages. Abuela recognizes echoes of her own immigration journey on this challenging day at school, and she gently guides Gloriana towards newfound confidence. This beautifully painted, imaginative picture book celebrates the magic of existing in-between, and the transformative power of self-soothing to build confidence.

No More Señora Mimí by Meg Medina | Illustrated by Brittany Cicchese

Ana cannot contain her excitement—her abuela is coming to stay with her and Mami for always! Abuela is sure to let Ana play whenever she wants instead of rushing her off to school, like her neighbor and babysitter, señora Mimí, sometimes does. In fact, as Ana’s classmate points out, she won’t need señora Mimí to babysit at all anymore! But señora Mimí is a good listener, and they have a lot of fun together feeding the squirrels and eating snacks. Maybe Ana isn’t ready to say goodbye to señora Mimí just yet? Masterful storyteller Meg Medina shares a reassuring tale that celebrates caregivers and community and their special role in children’s lives, paired with warm, expressive illustrations by Brittany Cicchese.

Girl Scouts: Maven Takes the Lead by Yamile Saied Méndez and Girl Scouts

Maven wants to be known for something great.

She had been nervous about starting fifth grade after spending all summer with her little brother and baby cousins. So when her fifth-grade teacher announces a district-wide robotics competition, she jumps at the opportunity to be the class’s leader. Being in charge is better and cooler than playing make-believe, right? Many people doubt her, especially the boys in her class, but with the support of her friends and Girl Scout troop, Maven is determined to prove them wrong.

Then she goes overboard with her dedication to the competition, and she seems to be disappointing everyone—including herself. She begins to realize maybe being herself is what she needed to do all along.

Churro Stand By Karina N. González | Illustrated by Krystal Quiles

Everybody loves churros!
 
On a hot summer’s day, Lucía and her brother accompany their mother to sell delicious, sugary churros on the bustling streets of New York City. But when a thunderstorm rolls in, and the customers are chased away, Lucía’s mother must improvise with a little bit of magic and lots of amor.

Trini's Magic Kitchen by Patricia Santos Marcantonio

Trini has just started seventh grade in Denver when her mom loses her job. Money is scarce and they lose their apartment too. The girl must go live with her grandparents in Alamosa until her mother can find work and a place for them to live. She has always considered her grandparents’ house a second home, but the day her mom leaves her there she feels homeless.

Grandma Lydia and Grandpa Frank, who ride motorcycles and listen to rock, are the best, but Trini misses her mom and dreads being the new kid at school. Gradually she adjusts, making another best friend and setting her sights on a cute boy. And when her grandmother discovers Trini can’t cook, she begins teaching her granddaughter how to make traditional Mexican dishes. Through the cooking lessons, the girl learns more about her family, including her dad, who died when she was young, and why her mom doesn’t cook.

This warmhearted and entertaining novel about overcoming challenges will resonate with readers facing their own problems with family and friends. Recipes for the meals made by Trini and her grandparents—including tostadas, green chile enchiladas, calabacitas and albóndigas—are included and will encourage young people to begin their own adventures in the kitchen while learning the value of creating magical dishes for loved ones.

Me llamo Marcela by Marcela T. Garcés | Illustrated by Andrés E. Garcés

On her first day of middle school Spanish class, Marcela thought she’d excel—after all, she’d grown up speaking Spanish at home and on visits to family in Colombia. Instead, she quickly felt like a confused imposter, unsure how a language that was part of her heritage and identity could so elude her. And so, at age thirteen, with the help of her Spanish teacher Doña Maribel, Marcela began her formal journey studying Spanish. She never anticipated how much she’d discover about learning a language and what it means to be a heritage speaker—someone who grows up using a language at home but often lacks more formal knowledge of it.

In this charming graphic memoir that captures a little-discussed aspect of growing up multicultural, Marcela recounts her earliest Spanish teachers: Colombian street vendors, family members who shouted or whispered words, and her beloved Doña Maribel, who helped her connect the Spanish of her youth with what she was learning in the classroom. Childhood memories from trips to Colombia intertwine with her adolescence, when Marcela resolves to study the language for herself, not because people correct her or expect her to speak it well but because she wants to learn. This comic, drawn by Marcela’s brother Andrés, shows the complicated path of language and identity that Marcela travels as a heritage speaker.

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Roxanna Cardenas Colmenares is a Venezuelan writer living in New York City who loves to consume, study, and create art. She explores multiple genres in her writing, with a special interest in horror and sci-fi, while working on her B.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration. 

Her work has made her a two-time recipient of the James Tolan Student Writing Award for her critical essays analyzing movies. She has also won The Henry Roth Award in Fiction, The Esther Unger Poetry Prize, and The Allan Danzig Memorial Award in Victorian Literature.

In her free time, she likes to watch movies, dance, and draw doodles that she hopes to be brave enough to share one day.

Book Review: 'Daughter of Fire' by Sofia Robleda

The idea of history repeating itself was a thought that rang through my head as I read “Daughter of Fire” by Sofia Robleda. I am of Latinx descent and I am living in the US during a time that in some ways and in some parts mirrors how life was experienced during that time. Or I should rather say how some people experienced life at that time. Reading this beautifully written novel you are transported to the mid 1500’s Guatemala. As the story of Catalina Cerrato unfolds we are introduced to this slip of a girl, thrust into society, totally unprepared for it and the harsh realities of womanhood she now faces. 

The themes of misogyny, religious overreaching, colonization, genocide, traditions, rituals and the desire to live as a feminist before feminism was even given birth to can all be found within the pages of the novel. Also within this story we are treated to the struggles of the lower class, the forbidden love between a same-sex couple and the betrayal between friends created from fear mongering that leads to murder. The story also captures a forbidden love affair, the kind that lasts a lifetime. 

If coming of age, post colonization of the Mayan empire was the only challenge that this young noblewoman faced, the story would fade quickly; however it is not the case. The reader is given a glimpse of the aftermath of a world of the colonizer and those that suffered under their oppression. What sets this novel apart from others is that it is peppered with fact and fiction, woven together so masterfully that it could very well be taken solely as fact. 

“There is so much that colors the pages of this work of historical fiction and so much detail is given that it seems as if we are standing alongside Catalina staring into a fountain searching for a flower to appear. ”

The reader learns of the mix of blood that flows through the veins of Catalina, half inherited from her mother, and the other half from her father. Two very different worlds, this clashing that gave birth to a young woman who would spend her life trying to live the path she was born to follow. Unfortunately, for her father, that is not the one that he wished she would take. 

We see the lives of the Mexican Empire, Maya civilization, Spanish colonizers, the Catholic church and even the Indigenous peoples that inhabited the lands of both upper and lower classes as well as their struggles to coexist in the same world. There is so much that colors the pages of this work of historical fiction and so much detail is given that it seems as if we are standing alongside Catalina staring into a fountain searching for a flower to appear. 

Finally, supporting our main character are such wonderfully described individuals, such as the cook with her impact on the life of Catalina; Cristobal, the cousin, whose dedication to Catalina is often misunderstood; her parents, one who is living as well as one that haunts her dreams, seeking a promise that needs to be fulfilled in order for a civilization’s history to not be lost. All of these characters add to the story and give life to the period making a portal for the reader to step through to another time and place. 

I highly recommend this novel. You the reader will be pleasantly surprised at the attention to detail Robleda gives each character, as to that of the scenery that adds to the setting of each chapter. I also feel that you will be inspired by the author to learn more, or for the first time, the history of a civilization that would have been forgotten if not for the bravery of a few individuals that would not allow something like that to happen. Do yourself a favor and take the journey with Catalina. 

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Angela “Angie” Ybarra- Soria is a book reviewer, activist, mixed media artist, writer and entrepreneur. An obstacle that may have stood in her way happened in 2013, she suffered 4 brain bleeds and emergency brain surgery, Angela however likes to think of herself as a TBI THRIVER. Angie is a recent graduate of Northeastern Illinois University where she studied Latinx American Studies and Urban Development. Angela has been an advocate for stopping gentrification within brown and Black communities of Chicago. Angela enjoys spending her down time with her grandchildren and introducing them to the sights of the city where she was born and raised. Being of Mexican descent has prompted her to research much about the rich culture of her ancestral heritage. Angela plans to continue her education by pursuing her Masters Degree in Urban Studies to further allow her to better assist communities that have for generations been, or worse, still marginalized.

Most Anticipated February 2025 Releases

Valentine's Day is the perfect excuse to treat our nearest and dearest to some new books, right? Here are a few books we can't wait to gift our loved ones (and ourselves!) this month.

The Delicate Beast by Roger Celestin

In the 1950s Tropical Republic, a boy lives amid opulence and privilege, spending days at the beach or in the cool hills above the sweltering capital, enjoying leisurely Sunday lunches around the family compound's swimming pool. That is, until the reign of The Mortician begins, unleashing unimaginable horrors that bring his childhood idyll to an end. Narrowly escaping the violent fate visited on so many of his fellow citizens, he and his brother follow their parents into exile in the United States where they must start a new life. But as he grows, he never feels at home, and leaves his family to travel across Europe and outrun the ghosts of the past.

A searing novel of a life lived in the shadow of history, The Delicate Beast portrays the persistent, pernicious legacy of political violence.

Alligator Tears: A Memoir in Essays by Edgar Gomez

From the award-winning author of High-Risk Homosexual, Edgar Gomez is back with this striking memoir.

Alligator Tears is a fiercely defiant memoir-in-essays charting Gomez’s quest to claw his family out of poverty by any means necessary and exposing the archetype of the humble poor person for what it is: a scam that insists we remain quiet and servile while we wait for a prize that will always be out of reach. For those chasing the American Dream and those jaded by it, Gomez’s unforgettable story is a testament to finding love, purpose, and community on your own terms, smiling with all your fake teeth.

Loca by Alejandro Heredia

In his debut novel, Alejandro Heredia vibrantly captures the struggles between survival and liberation.

Loca follows one daring year in the lives of young people living at the edge of their own patience and desires. With expansive grace, it reveals both the grueling conditions that force people to migrate and the possibility of friendship as home when family, nations, and identity groups fall short.

Tsunami: Women's Voices from Mexico Edited by Heather Cleary and Gabriela Jauregui | Translated by Julia Sanches, et al.

Featuring personal essay, manifesto, creative nonfiction, and poetry, Tsunami gathers the multiplicity of voices being raised in Mexico today against patriarchy and its buried structures. Tackling gender violence, community building, #MeToo, Indigenous rights, and more, these writings rock the core of what we know feminism to be, dismantling its Eurocentric roots and directing its critical thrust towards current affairs in Mexico today.

Contributors include Marina Azahua, Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil, Dahlia de la Cerda, Alexandra R. DeRuiz, Lia García, Jimena González, Gabriela Jauregui, Fernanda Latani M. Bravo, Valeria Luiselli, Ytzel Maya, Brenda Navarro, Jumko Ogata, Daniela Rea, Cristina Rivera Garza, Diana J. Torres, Sara Uribe, and the Zapatista Army for National Liberation.

Life Drawing: A Love and Rockets Collection by Jaime Hernandez

Life Drawing darts primarily between the youthful Tonta and the venerable Maggie. Tonta has a crush on her art teacher, Ray, as well as an axe to grind with an older woman in the neighborhood. When Tonta finds that the woman, Maggie, is married to Ray, things get complicated. And Tonta does not handle complications well.

Ten years in the making (and torn from the pages of the legendary Love and Rockets), Jaime Hernandez's newest graphic novel skillfully weaves two generations of his beloved characters into a satisfying story of love--both young and middle-aged.

Book Review: No Place to Bury the Dead by Karina Sainz Borgo

Many tragic stories show their characters fighting to save hope. They suffer throughout their journey in a failed attempt to achieve happiness. Although labeled a tragedy, Karina Sainz Borgo’s novel does something unexpected: starting the story with complete hopelessness. If characters have lost all hope, what is left in their journey? The answer lies in Sainz Borgo’s slow-burning narrative that describes a world so hostile that there’s No Place to Bury the Dead.

The reader follows Angustias Romero’s journey through her eyes as she leaves the eastern mountains of an unnamed Latin American country with her husband and newborn twins to reach Mezquite. Right on the first few pages, readers learn two important things: a plague that attacks memory has spread throughout the country, which is why they left their home, and the twins die during their migration. Carrying her sons’ bodies in two shoeboxes, Angustias and her husband arrive at their destination wishing to find a place to bury their children. Meanwhile, the tension between them keeps growing as her husband becomes victim of the plague. 

In Mezquite, she hears about Visitación Salazar, a woman who buries people for free in an illegal cemetery people call “The Third Country.” After finally giving her children a place to eternally rest, her husband disappears; therefore, from the beginning of the story, our main character has lost everything that is dear to her. A grieving Angustias decides to become Visitación’s assistant so she could stay near her sons’ grave, but life in Mezquite can prove dangerous since the place is ruled by landowner Alcides Abundio and “the irregulars,” a mercenary group. They both reign a godless kingdom through unmeasured violence and corruption, a kingdom of death and desperation. 

“ ...the narrative accelerates in such a way that it is impossible to put the book down until you reach its ending.”

The narration is detailed yet distant. Angustias remains observant but desensitized to the horrors she witnesses, a coldness that can only be felt by those who have lost everything like she did. Still, the reader gets a good sense of the aridness of this place and its people. Sainz Borgo’s use of nature and rich descriptive language set the overall mood of the novel, making the reader feel the dread her characters are experiencing. Each chapter ends with a powerful image that portrays Angustias’s state of mind and sets the tone for the next one. 

The novel moves slowly because the focus isn’t the plot, but the atmosphere that the author so carefully crafted. However, near the end, unexpected tragedy after tragedy follows Angustias and the people of Mezquite, mimicking how life can change within minutes. With this, the narrative accelerates in such a way that it is impossible to put the book down until you reach its ending. Although the setting remains cruel and eerie, subtle changes in Angustias’s narration make readers wonder if there is space for hope in such a somber world. 

In this novel, Sainz Borgo greatly portrays grief and hopelessness, giving us a main character who has lost everything at the beginning of the story.  What can be left for someone who has given up all hope already? No Place to Bury the Dead shows what comes after losing it all, making it a painful yet necessary read. 

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Roxanna Cardenas Colmenares is a Venezuelan writer living in New York City who loves to consume, study, and create art. She explores multiple genres in her writing, with a special interest in horror and sci-fi, while working on her B.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration. 

Her work has made her a two-time recipient of the James Tolan Student Writing Award for her critical essays analyzing movies. She has also won The Henry Roth Award in Fiction, The Esther Unger Poetry Prize, and The Allan Danzig Memorial Award in Victorian Literature.

In her free time, she likes to watch movies, dance, and draw doodles that she hopes to be brave enough to share one day.

February 2025 Latinx Releases

On Sale February 4

The Delicate Beast by Roger Celestin |ADULT FICTION

In the 1950s Tropical Republic, a boy lives amid opulence and privilege, spending days at the beach or in the cool hills above the sweltering capital, enjoying leisurely Sunday lunches around the family compound's swimming pool. That is, until the reign of The Mortician begins, unleashing unimaginable horrors that bring his childhood idyll to an end. Narrowly escaping the violent fate visited on so many of his fellow citizens, he and his brother follow their parents into exile in the United States where they must start a new life. But as he grows, he never feels at home, and leaves his family to travel across Europe and outrun the ghosts of the past.

Dengue Boy: A Novel by Michel Nieva | Translated by Rahul Bery | ADULT FICTION

The protagonist of this story has no understanding of the words “winter”, "cold”, or "snow" because he has never experienced the phenomena they describe. We find ourselves in Victorica, a province of La Pampa, Argentina, some time after 2197 – the year in which the last of the Antarctic icecaps melted and an unprecedented climate catastrophe ensued, radically transforming the landscape of the region into a Caribbean Pampas. It is here that the Dengue Child grows up, a mutant mix of child and mosquito, the result of crazy experimenting driven by ultra-capitalistic corporations racing against each other to own viruses and their cures, destroying even their very own children’s existence to cash in on the stock exchange.

Another of the surprising effects of the thaw is the appearance of powerful telepathic pebbles from the bowels of the earth that seem to encapsulate the world's original wisdom, and which are the subject of lucrative smuggling. Meanwhile, the wealthy of the region chose to cruise around on ships where they can experience ice-skating and hand carve ice from valuable remains of glaciers. In their ultra-air conditioned homes, their kids play Indians vs Christians, a brutal video game set in the historical 19th century.  

These Vengeful Wishes by Vanessa Montalban |YOUNG ADULT

When her stepfather is arrested, aspiring artist Ceci moves back to her mother's hometown of Santa Aguas, an eccentric small town steeped in the legend of La Cegua, the specter of a wronged witch who appears on lonely roads at night, luring untrustworthy men to their deaths.

Ceci and her mother take up residence in the abandoned manor of the Sevilla family, rumored to have been cursed by La Cegua, where she begins to uncover a past connected to her mother. The more she learns of the Sevillas, the more Ceci finds herself forming a strange affinity with the feared Cegua, who she suspects is the one inspiring her paintings of a mysterious door in the forest.

When the very door Ceci has been painting appears in the woods, she ventures through it with her new friend, and maybe crush, Jamie. Together, they discover a well for granting wishes. The well of La Cegua.

After learning others are also searching for the well, Ceci must confront the truth of her mother's past and prevent La Cegua's wishes from being used for the wrong reasons. Every wish has its price, and La Cegua never forgets the ones who have wronged her.

On Sale February 11

My (Half) Latinx Kitchen: Half Recipes, Half Stories, All Latin American by Kiera Wright-Ruiz | NONFICTION

“What are you?” is a dreaded question that has followed Kiera Wright-Ruiz around her entire life. She is half Latinx and half Asian, and her journey to understand her identity has been far from linear. Though she is a first-generation American, she didn’t grow up in a home where many traditions from her family’s home countries were passed down by her parents. Kiera’s childhood was complicated, and the role of caregiver was played by various people in her life: from her mom and dad to her grandparents and foster parents. Many of whom were from all different parts of Latin America, and each of them taught Kiera something about what it means to be Latinx through their food.

This cookbook is the story of Kiera’s journey to embrace her identity and all her cultures: Latinx, Asian, and American. It’s a celebration of Latin American food in all its vibrant, flavorful glory, and a love letter to the diaspora. From Ecuador to South Florida, Mexico to Cuba, the recipes in this book are as diverse and unique as the cultures themselves.

But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo | ADULT FICTION

The old keeper of the keys is dead, and the creature who ate her is the volatile Lady of the Capricious House⁠—Anatema, an enormous humanoid spider with a taste for laudanum and human brides.

Dália, the old keeper’s protégée, must take up her duties, locking and unlocking the little drawers in which Anatema keeps her memories. And if she can unravel the crime that led to her predecessor's execution, Dália might just be able to survive long enough to grow into her new role.

But there’s a gaping hole in Dália’s plan that she refuses to see: Anatema cannot resist a beautiful woman, and she eventually devours every single bride that crosses her path.

Alligator Tears by Edgar Gomez | NONFICTION

In Florida, one of the first things you’re taught as a child is that if you’re ever chased by a wild alligator, the only way to save yourself is to run away in zigzags. It’s a lesson on survival that has guided much of Edgar Gomez’s life.

Like the night his mother had a stroke while he and his brother stood frozen at the foot of her bed, afraid she’d be angry if they called for an ambulance they couldn’t afford. Gomez escaped into his mind, where he could tell himself nothing was wrong with his family. Zig. Or years later, as a broke college student, he got on his knees to put sandals on tourists’ smelly, swollen feet for minimum wage at the Flip Flop Shop. After clocking out, his crew of working-class, queer, Latinx friends changed out of their uniforms in the passenger seats of each other’s cars, speeding toward the relief they found at Pulse nightclub in Orlando. Zag. From committing a little bankruptcy fraud for the money for veneers to those days he paid his phone bill by giving massages to closeted men on vacation, back when he and his friends would Venmo each other the same emergency twenty dollars over and over. Zig. Zag. Gomez survived this way as long as his legs would carry him.

Alligator Tears is a fiercely defiant memoir-in-essays charting Gomez’s quest to claw his family out of poverty by any means necessary and exposing the archetype of the humble poor person for what it is: a scam that insists we remain quiet and servile while we wait for a prize that will always be out of reach. For those chasing the American Dream and those jaded by it, Gomez’s unforgettable story is a testament to finding love, purpose, and community on your own terms, smiling with all your fake teeth.

What Fell from the Sky by Adrianna Cuevas | MIDDLE GRADE

All Pineda Matlage wants is to get through the school year and maybe pull an epic prank or two with his friends Junior, Ernesto, and Patsy. But class is disrupted when a slew of American soldiers descends upon their rural Texan town of Soledad. They’ll be carrying out a training exercise and taking over everything, from Pineda’s school to the local government.

But Pineda knows why they’re really here. For days he’s hidden the strange creature who fell from the sky in his parents’ barn. He promised her he’d find her family and help them return home. But with soldiers now on every street corner and armed checkpoints across every road, reuniting his new friend with her missing parents seems an impossible task. Especially when they realize that the army’s presence is really a coverup for capturing his alien friends—being observed in a laboratory by the US government for reasons of their own.

Enlisting the help of his friends, a Black soldier adjusting to a newly integrated army, and townspeople tired of the military’s destructive presence, Pineda and all of Soledad will embark on an adventure none of them could have ever expected.

Brother Brontë by Fernando A. Flores | ADULT FICTION

The year is 2038, and the formerly bustling town of Three Rivers, Texas, is a surreal wasteland. Under the authoritarian thumb of its tech industrialist mayor, Pablo Henry Crick, the town has outlawed reading and forced most of the town’s mothers to work as indentured laborers at the Big Tex Fish Cannery, which poisons the atmosphere and lines Crick’s pockets.

Scraping by in this godforsaken landscape are best friends Prosperina and Neftalí—the latter of whom, one of the town’s last literate citizens, hides and reads the books of the mysterious renegade author Jazzmin Monelle Rivas, whose last novel, Brother Brontë, is finally in Neftalí’s possession. But after a series of increasingly violent atrocities committed by Crick’s forces, Neftalí and Prosperina, with the help of a wounded bengal tigress, three scheming triplets, and an underground network of rebel tías, rise up to reclaim their city—and in the process, unlock Rivas’s connection to Three Rivers itself.

Loca by Alejandro Heredia | ADULT FICTION

It’s 1999, and best friends Sal and Charo are striving to hold on to their dreams in a New York determined to grind them down. Sal is a book-loving science nerd trying to grow beyond his dead-end job in a new city, but he’s held back by tragic memories from his past in Santo Domingo. Free-spirited Charo is surprised to find herself a mother at twenty-five, partnered with a controlling man, working at the same supermarket for years, her world shrunk to the very domesticity she thought she’d escaped in her old country. When Sal finds love at a gay club one night, both his and Charo’s worlds unexpectedly open up to a vibrant social circle that pushes them to reckon with what they owe to their own selves, pasts, futures, and, always, each other.

Loca follows one daring year in the lives of young people living at the edge of their own patience and desires. With expansive grace, it reveals both the grueling conditions that force people to migrate and the possibility of friendship as home when family, nations, and identity groups fall short.

Tsunami: Women's Voices from Mexico Edited by Heather Cleary, Gabriela Jauregui | Translated by Julia Sanches, et al. | NONFICTION

Featuring personal essay, manifesto, creative nonfiction, and poetry, Tsunami gathers the multiplicity of voices being raised in Mexico today against patriarchy and its buried structures. Tackling gender violence, community building, #MeToo, Indigenous rights, and more, these writings rock the core of what we know feminism to be, dismantling its Eurocentric roots and directing its critical thrust towards current affairs in Mexico today. Asserting plurality as a political priority, Tsunami includes trans voices, Indigenous voices, Afro-Latinx voices, voices from within and outside academic institutions, and voices spanning generations. Tsunami is the combined force and critique of the three feminist waves, the marea verde ("green wave") of protests that have swept through Latin America in recent years, and the tides turned by insurgent feminisms at the margins of public discourse.

It's All or Nothing, Vale by Andrea Beatriz Arango | MIDDLE GRADE

All these months of staring at the wall?
All these months of feeling weak?
It’s ending—
I’m going back to fencing.
And then it’ll be
like nothing ever happened.

No one knows hard work and dedication like Valentina Camacho. And Vale’s thing is fencing. She’s the top athlete at her fencing gym. Or she was . . . until the accident.

After months away, Vale is finally cleared to fence again, but it’s much harder than before. Her body doesn’t move the way it used to, and worst of all is the new number one: Myrka. When she sweeps Vale aside with her perfect form and easy smile, Vale just can’t accept that. But the harder Vale fights to catch up, the more she realizes her injury isn’t the only thing holding her back. If she can’t leave her accident in the past, then what does she have to look forward to?

The Pink Agave Motel & Other Stories by V. Castro | SHORT STORIES

Readers are invited to The Pink Agave Motel, where brutality and intimacy ooze across the pages, exploring the depths of the unhinged imagination and how human desire unlocks the impulse to bite. Castro's voice, influenced by Mexican folklore and a feminist perspective, illuminates a deeper view of how unrequited love affects every type of being alike.

The titular story focuses on Valentina, the proclaimed leader of a creature cohort, who manages hotel guests, until she is enlightened to a carnivorous death on the property. To avoid exposure that threatens her existence, she partners with (the hauntingly handsome) grieving friend of the dearly departed to solve the murder. Further within these tales, discover a woman who is a fish out of water drinking at a seaside honky tonk, the trapped guests who undergo sexual liberation, and aliens who find the sexiest of disguises.

Ibis: A Novel by Justin Haynes | ADULT FICTION

There is bad luck in New Felicity. The people of the small coastal village have taken in Milagros, an 11-year-old Venezuelan refugee, just as Trinidad's government has begun cracking down on undocumented migrants--and now an American journalist has come to town asking questions.

New Felicity's superstitious fishermen fear the worst, certain they've brought bad luck on the village by killing a local witch who had herself murdered two villagers the year before. The town has been plagued since her death by alarming visits from her supernatural mother, as well as by a mysterious profusion of scarlet ibis birds.

Skittish that the reporter's story will bring down the wrath of the ministry of national security, the fishermen take things into their own hands. From there, we go backward and forward in time--from the town's early days, when it was the site of a sugar plantation, to Milagros's adulthood as she searches for her mother across the Americas.

In between, through the voices of a chorus of narrators, we glimpse moments from various villagers' lives, each one setting into motion events that will reverberate outwards across the novel and shape Milagros's fate.

(S)Kin by Ibi Zoboi | YOUNG ADULT

“Our new home with its

thick walls and locked doors

wants me to stay trapped in my skin—

but I am fury and flame.”

Fifteen-year-old Marisol is the daughter of a soucouyant. Every new moon, she sheds her skin like the many women before her, shifting into a fireball witch who must fly into the night and slowly sip from the lives of others to sustain her own. But Brooklyn is no place for fireball witches with all its bright lights, shut windows, and bolt-locked doors.… While Marisol hoped they would leave their old traditions behind when they emigrated from the islands, she knows this will never happen while she remains ensnared by the one person who keeps her chained to her magical past—her mother.

Seventeen-year-old Genevieve is the daughter of a college professor and a newly minted older half sister of twins. Her worsening skin condition and the babies’ constant wailing keep her up at night, when she stares at the dark sky with a deep longing to inhale it all. She hopes to quench the hunger that gnaws at her, one that seems to reach for some memory of her estranged mother. When a new nanny arrives to help with the twins, a family secret connecting her to Marisol is revealed, and Gen begins to find answers to questions she hasn’t even thought to ask.

But the girls soon discover that the very skin keeping their flames locked beneath the surface may be more explosive to the relationships around them than any ancient magic.

Pilgrim Codex by Vivian Mansour | Translated by Emmanuel Valtierra | PICTURE BOOK

We, the Vargas Ramírez family, come from a faraway place north of Tenochtitlan called Iztapalapa, Land of Clay Upon Water. A land surrounded by cars and dry grass; a place where the pieces of our small world were scattered. For some time we lived there, but then one day my father heard a beautiful birdsong that rose up and appeared to say tihui, tihui, tihui: let's go, let's go, let's go. And so we gathered up our friends who made up that small world and decided to head north, for the other side, and a better life.

Together the Boy and his family will journey from the Land of the Frogs to The Place Where Feet Cry to the River Where the Waters Tangle, fleeing Gunmen and braving Coyotes and plunging darknesses as black as an obsidian forest. Originally published in Mexico, Pilgrim Codex (Códice peregrino) captures through the eyes of a child one family's part in the ever-changing and fleeting story of the brave migrant warriors who search for a better place to live.

On Sale February 18

Lucha of the Forgotten Spring by Tehlor Kay Mejia | YOUNG ADULT

A ruthless monster.
A daring heist.
A heart pulled in two directions.
A long-forgotten myth.

Killing a god was only the beginning of Lucha Moya’s story. . .
Her mission is simple—eradicate olvida, the forgetting drug, once and for all. But something sinister is lurking in the Night Forest, eager to claim its prize…

Will Lucha’s training allow her to survive the machinations of the Forest and save the vulnerable people at its mercy?

In this page-turning conclusion to this Latine folklore-inspired duology, Lucha must face long-avoided fears to save the people she cares for—or risk losing everything she's fought so hard to obtain.

Río Muerto by Ricardo Silva Romero | Translated by Victor Meadowcroft | ADULT FICTION

On the outskirts of Belén del Chamí, a town that has yet to appear on any map of Colombia, the mute Salomón Palacios is murdered a few steps away from his home. His widow, the courageous and foul-mouthed Hipólita Arenas, completely loses her sanity and confronts the paramilitaries and local politicians, challenging them to also kill her and her two fatherless sons. Yet as Hipólita faces her husband's murderers on her desperate journey, she finds an unexpected calling to stay alive. This poetic and hypnotizing novel, told from the perspective of Salomón's ghost, denounces the brutal killings of innocent citizens and at the same time celebrates the invisible: imagination, memories, hope, and the connection to afterlife.

Halfway to Somewhere: A Graphic Novel by Jose Pimienta | MIDDLE GRADE

Ave thought moving to Kansas would be boring and flat after enjoying the mountains and trails in Mexico, but at least they would have their family with them. Unfortunately, while Ave, their mom, and their younger brother are relocating to the US, Ave's father and older sister will be staying in Mexico...permanently. Their parents are getting a divorce.

As if learning a whole new language wasn't hard enough, and now a Middle-Schooler has to figure out a new family dynamic...and what this means for them as they start middle school with no friends.

Jose Pimienta's stunningly illustrated and thought provoking middle graphic novel is about exploring identity, understanding family, making friends with a language barrier, and above all else, learning what truly makes a place a home.

The Girl You Know by Elle Gonzalez Rose | YOUNG ADULT

The week before Luna's twin sister Solina was supposed to head back for her final semester at Kingswood Academy, an elite boarding school in the Washington mountains, she told Luna she was dropping out. When Luna refused to let her throw away her future, Solina disappeared.

Twelve hours later, she was dead.

Luna knows Solina's death wasn't an accident, even if the police say otherwise. There's a reason Solina didn't want to go back to Kingswood, and Luna knows she'll find the truth there. All she has to do is become Solina. Playing Solina comes easy, but finding answers is far from it. Between the cunning, cruel people Solina called her friends, Luna's budding feelings for her roommate Claudia, and the harsh realization that Solina had dark secrets, getting to the bottom of her sister's murder is more difficult than Luna could have ever anticipated. But when you have nothing left to lose, you're willing to do anything to get what you want. There's no limit to how far Luna will go to avenge her sister-even if she has to burn all of Kingswood to the ground.

Tíos and Primos by Jacqueline Alcántara | PICTURE BOOK

It’s a little girl’s first trip to her papa’s homeland, and she’s wowed by all the amazing sights and sounds—and especially by the size of her enormous family! But she only knows a little Spanish, and it’s hard not to be able to share jokes and stories. Fortunately, her relatives help her see that there are other ways they can connect, and soon she feels like she’s right where she belongs: in the heart of a loving family, learning as she goes along.

Crack Goes the Cascarón by Sara Andrea Fajardo | Illustrated by Rocío Arreola Mendoza | PICTURE BOOK

What are cascarones: Cascarones are empty egg shells that have been colored, filled with paper confetti, and sealed!

The hunt is on to figure out who will be the reigning champ of Cascarones, and Toti knows that he has his family beat. His parents are too easy, they make old-school cascarones with confetti inside. His sister, Carlita wishes she could create cascarones like him, and his Abuela doesn't even stand a chance. When the day of Cascarones arrives, will Toti seize his moment or will it be scrambled when he learns someone has switched his cascarones for fake ones!

With a cheeky twist at the end, readers will laugh and relish at the antics of Toti and his family in this exuberant bilingual stor

On Sale February 25

The Latinx Guide to Liberation: Healing from Historical, Generational, and Individual Trauma by Vanessa Pezo | NONFICTION

"Let us heal together. But first I invite you to take a breath."

The impact of colonialism, generational trauma, and individual trauma is often disregarded in the Latinx community. This pioneering guide addresses this trauma and takes Latinx readers on a journey of healing and liberation.. It explores what it means to have been systematically oppressed, how it impacts us, and how to change it. In doing so, this book challenges stereotypes, unravels the shame-based narratives around Latinx mental health, and refocuses the conversation around cultural empowerment, awareness, and transformation.

Each chapter is enriched with historically informed psychoeducation regarding the impact of various types of trauma on Latinx mental health. It also includes reflection questions and healing exercises to help readers process how they, their families, and communities have been impacted.

Accessible and interactive, this is an invaluable resource for Latinx people and mental health professionals working within the Latinx community.

At the Park on the Edge of the Country by Austin Araujo | POETRY

In At the Park on the Edge of the Country, Austin Araujo maps the intricacies of memory, immigration, and belonging through the experiences of one Mexican American family--his own--in the rural American South, crystallizing memory and self-knowledge as collaborative, multivocal affairs. Human and nonhuman voices and the competing landscapes of childhood and adulthood propel these poems, offering an unyielding portrait of a family's endless encounters with the shortcomings of citizenship. Speakers sleep like tostadas, mistake hikers crossing a small river in Arkansas for a migrant father, and hold onto silence through difficult conversations in the fields and in the city. Revelatory and striking, these poems reinvent origin myths to unmask the contradictory and expansive astonishments of Mexican American identity in the twenty-first century.

Life Drawing by Jaime Hernandez | GRAPHIC NOVEL

Ten years in the making (and torn from the pages of the legendary Love and Rockets), Jaime Hernandez's newest graphic novel skillfully weaves two generations of his beloved characters into a satisfying story of love--both young and middle-aged. Life Drawing darts primarily between the youthful Tonta and the venerable Maggie. Tonta has a crush on her art teacher, Ray, as well as an axe to grind with an older woman in the neighborhood. When Tonta finds that the woman, Maggie, is married to Ray, things get complicated. And Tonta does not handle complications well.

Life Drawing showcases Hernandez's brilliant talent for character, weaving relationships, rejections, infidelities, and adventures involving: Tonta's self-involved sisters Vivian, Violet, and Muñeca; her colorful pals Gomez, Judy Fair, and Brown Alice; her mother, the infamous 'Black Widow of the Valley'; and of course, the two great loves of Maggie's life, Ray and Hopey. There's also a forest spirit, two weddings, some cosplay, a little pole dancing, and page after page of breathtaking comics by the medium's most wide-eyed romantic. Did we mention the weddings?

Portrait of a Feminist: A Memoir in Essays by Marianna Marlowe | NONFICTION

Through braided memories that flash against the present day, Portrait of a Feminist depicts the evolution of Marianna Marlowe’s identity as a biracial and multicultural woman—from her childhood in California, Peru, and Ecuador to her adulthood as an academic, a wife, and a mother.

How does the inner life of a feminist develop? How does a writer observe the world around her and kindle, from her earliest memories, a flame attuned to the unjust?

With writing that is simultaneously wise and shimmering, nuanced and direct, Marlowe confronts her own experiences with the hallmarks of patriarchy. Interweaving stories of life as the child of a Catholic Peruvian mother and an atheist American father in a family that lived many years abroad, she examines realities familiar to so many of us—unequal marriages, class structures, misogynist literature, and patriarchal religion. Portrait of a Feminist explores the essential questions of feminism in our time: What does it look like to live in defense of feminism? How should feminism be evolving today?

Cousins in the Time of Magic by Emma Otheguy | Illustrated by Poly Bernatene | MIDDLE GRADE

History is alive with magic. That’s what zany Tía Xia is always telling cousins Jorge, Camila, and Siggy. Daredevil Jorge couldn’t be more different than his cousins: Camila is a dreamer who adores animals and Siggy is an aspiring influencer who has an exclusive party to attend. And their aunt has many secrets, including a mysterious diamond-encrusted sword that Jorge definitely wasn’t supposed to see.

But when the three stumble upon a time portal in their aunt’s yard, they are transported back to 1862, a past filled with wonders—and dangers. To return to the present, they must race to deliver the sword to General Ignacio Zaragoza in time for the historic Battle of Puebla in Mexico: the foundation of the holiday Cinco de Mayo.

As their journey to Mexico takes them through the Civil War–era United States, the cousins see just how much US history has been shaped by Latin communities. They must find the power within themselves to make sure things happen as they’re supposed to, without altering the past.