In America’s schools, Latine children make up nearly a third of students. Are we teaching them in ways that ensure their future, and ours? Latine literature shows a path forward.
Latine children — those of Hispanic or Latin American decent — now make up nearly 30% of all public-school students. Yet of the nearly 3,500 children’s books published in 2023, only 11% were written by Latine people.
That doesn’t mean quality Latine literature doesn’t exist, says Patricia Enciso, professor of literature for children and young adults in the College of Education and Human Ecology. Quite the contrary.
“Latine scholars, authors, artists have been working for decades to intervene in the publishing industry in a way that would reject stereotypes and harmful tropes,” she said. “It's just a very steady effort and struggle to try to be seen in the larger world of children's literature.”
Groups like Las Musas Books, a collective for Latina children’s authors, work to get Latine books into the hands of educators and children. In September and October, the group will host the LatinX Kidlit Books Festival Fridays, a free online event streaming during Hispanic and Latinx heritage month. The festival is geared toward classrooms, libraries and families, and features authors such as Aida Salazar.
“They bring Latina authors and literary agents and have conversation about books,” said Stella Villalba, lead English language teacher at Dublin City Schools and a PhD student in the college. “They're also inviting people from the publishing industry in order to grow and learn alongside Latina writers and illustrators. And I think … what they are doing is the framework for a wonderful way to break barriers.”
Salazar won the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award with her book, A Seed in the Sun. That and other award winners offer excellent Latine representation for all students, said Enciso. The Pura Belpre Award by the American Library Association and The Américas Award are other great resources.
Here are some Latine titles recommended by Enciso, Villalba and Eddie Bautista-Garcia, bibliophile and rising fourth-year undergraduate in integrated language arts.
Young Adult Literature
In the Country We Love by Diane Guerreros and Michelle Burford, Macmillan Publishers, Henry Holt and Co.
The television star in “Orange Is the New Black” details how she navigated the deportation of both of her parents when she was 14. “It is such a good read, but it is also heavy,” Bautista-Garcia said.
The Distance Between Us: A Memoir by Reyna Grande, Simon and Schuster
Grande describes living torn between two countries and two parents, then traveling to El Otro Lado, the other side, to live with her long-absent father. The book is “beautifully written,” Bautista-Garcia said, and filled with moments that will resonate with immigrants and children of immigrants.
Solito by Javier Zamora, Penguin Random House, Hogarth
“I could not stop (reading) … I was just engrossed by it,” Bautista-Garcia said. El Salvadoran Zamora writes about being nine years old and crossing the Sonoran Desert, getting detained and being protected by strangers as he tried to reunite with his parents in the United States.
Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida by Victor Martinez, Harper Collins Español
This coming-of-age fictional work uses humor and culture to describe how a Mexican American boy finds his place in 1970s central California. Bautista-Garcia read the 1996 National Book Award Winner for Young Adult Literature over a weekend.
Borderlands, La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldua, Aunt Lute Books
Anzaldua’s book of essays and poems challenge considerations about identity. “She blends in the very, very nuanced, complex history of Mexico and the United States and the relationships and the things that happen at the border throughout all her writing,” Villalba said.
Children's Literature
Calling the Doves, El Canto De las Palomas by Juan Felipe Herrera, Children’s Book Press, Lee and Low Books
This bilingual memoir describes in verse Herrera’s childhood as a migrant farmworker. “He's telling the story of what it was like as a child to be on the road with his parents,” Enciso said. The Ezra Jack Keats Book Award winner describes his mother singing Mexican songs and his father “calling the doves.”
Imagine by Juan Felipe Herrera, Candlewick
A poem about Herrara’s journey to the United States with his parents in the 1950s. He describes learning to speak and write in English. “Fast forward: He becomes a beautiful writer and the first Latin Poet Laureate of the United States of America,” Villalba said.
My Papi Has a Motorcycle by Isabel Quintero, Penguin Random House
In this 2020 Pura Belpré honoree, a father and daughter ride through a vibrant immigrant neighborhood. “They see all that the community has built, how they share resources with one another, just how they love their community through a motorcycle ride,” Enciso said.
Family Pictures / Cuadros de Familia by Carmen Lomas Garza, Children’s Book Press, Lee and Low Books
The bilingual book uses Lomas Garza’s illustrations and text to illuminate her childhood memories in Kingsville, Texas: picking cacti, making tamales and celebrating with family and community. “It's a famous picture Look, based on paintings that she did as an art student, depicting family intergenerational community life (in the) southwest,” Enciso said.
What Can You Do with a Paleta? by Carmen Tafolla, Penguin Random House, Tricycle Press
Poet Laureate of Texas Tafolla playfully describes the thrill of getting Latine frozen ice pops from a paleta cart in a Mexican American community. The book was a winner of the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award. “There are many ways in which a child's fun and joy in life can be put forward in a story,” Enciso said. This book does just that.
A Seed in the Sun by Aida Salazar, Penguin Random House, Dial Books
Also winner of the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award, this is the story of 12-year-old Lula, a migrant farm-worker who meets activist Dolores Huerta and then raises her voice against harsh working conditions of farm workers.
Tumble by Celia C. Pérez, Penguin Random House, Kokila
When looking for answers about her past, a girl discovers her family, who are Mexican American professional wrestlers. A Pura Belpré Honor Book and Tomás Rivera award book. “She begins to discover what it means in the southwest to be part of a famous lucha libre family,” Enciso said.
Dreamers by Yuyi Morales, Holiday House, Neal Porter Books
Another Pura Belpré and Tomás Rivera award winner, this book echoes the experiences of Morales when she brought her infant son to the United States. “Think of the beautiful gifts that people are bringing with them into the country,” Enciso said. “When they cross, they're leaving so much behind, but they are also bringing their hearts, their art, their love of family, their hopes for a future with them.”
Tethered to Other Stars by Elisa Stone Leahy, Harper Collins, Quill Tree Books
Written by a Columbus author, this novel was inspired by Edith Espinal, who took sanctuary in a Columbus Mennonite Church in 2017. The book centers on a Latine seventh-grader who grapples with the fear her community faces daily. “It's been read in area schools to help kids ask critical questions…” Enciso said. “The collection of these stories is a really a powerful experience.”
Dreams of Green / El Verde de Mis Suenos by Mariel Jungkunz, Penguin Random House, Astra Young Readers
This debut picture book by another Ohio author tells the story of a young immigrant girl in snowy Ohio. Lucía yearns to be in Puerto Rico to celebrate Día de los Reyes with her family and friends. The story, about traditions and adjustment to new cultures and surroundings, is available in English and Spanish.