15 New Latine Books to Take You Into Summer

Speaking of el fútbol, here’s a fun middle grade mystery and soccer caper from Pura Belpré Honor recipient Angela Cervantes. Twelve-year-old Diez Espada was named for the jersey number of his dad’s favorite soccer player, Leonel Messi, but soccer isn’t his thing. Diez is more interested in mysteries, a love he shared with his mom who passed away. His worlds collide when the World Cup trophy disappears at a schwanky party in Miami, and he goes on a high-stakes mission to crack the case. I just added this one to my cart as a gift for my nephew, whose favorite player is also Messi.

Four friends spend every summer doing seasonal work at the Knox County, Maine fairgrounds, but this year, something feels off. All four friends are dealing with personal struggles, and the new fair manager, a stranger to the community, is making changes that chip away at the fair’s certain je ne sais quoi. The friend foursome will have to lean on each other to cope with their individual battles and preserve the fair’s charm. This middle grade novel sounds like the perfect summer read for young bookworms.

I am ashamed to admit that I have accidentally let my Libby hold on Monica Ojeda’s Jawbone lapse a ridiculous number of times. Maybe I’ll start over with her latest? Two friends flee their hometown in Guayaquil, Ecuador to attend a weeklong festival at the base of an active volcano. One of them partakes in the drugs and hedonism to avoid confronting her real reasons for being there, while the other senses the festival’s whole “celebration of life” shtick is a front for something darker. I have perpetual side-eye for “those” kinds of festivals, so this sounds right up my alley. Let’s hope I remember to read it.

This middle grade novel with graphic chapters is about four amigas beginning their freshman year of high school and the magical bookstore at the heart of their friendship. Cat, Sofia, Ana, and Mari are inseparable, or at least they were, but ninth grade brings the kinds of challenges that no amount of conchas, libros, and laughs can surmount. Perhaps the spirit of Cat’s abuela, who founded Milagro’s Books decades ago, can bring the girls back together.

P.S. I would join a “chismosas only” book club with the quickness—if you know of one, caile.

I talked about Hailey Alcaraz’s Rosa By Any Other Name earlier this year, a YA Romeo and Juliet-inspired retelling set during the civil rights era. This is her entry in the American Stories for Gutsy Girls series, a multi-author series of stories from America’s past featuring young girls from diverse backgrounds. This middle grade historical novel features two Latina protagonists in a story of arson, sleuthing, and friendship that’s based on the real Hotel Adams fire of 1910.

High school senior Mayte has a lot going on—in a bad way. Because of her abuelita’s cancer and her half-sister moving in, who is disabled, she can’t even begin to think about going to college. She keeps her problems to herself at school, though, and still tries to go on dates and do all the social things. That’s how she ends up going on a terrible, no good, very bad date with Auggie, who is set to begin attending a renowned creative writing program. Never mind that he can’t even write a short story for his college applications. But then he gets closer to Mayte and feels inspired to write about a tragedy that befalls her. The question is, should he be the one to write it, and are his intentions pure? —Erica Ezeifedi

Lola and Lisandro are siblings who are actors out to swindle the rich. Lola pretends to be a ghost haunting the home of a wealthy person, while Lisandro pretends to be a spiritualist who can help. Bixby Fairfax, newspaper tycoon and owner of The Coterie estate, is the siblings’ next target. But things start to go wrong the moment Lola and Lisandro decide to switch roles. Weird things keep actually happening at The Coterie, and no matter how hard the siblings try to solve the mystery, they’re dragged further in. Can they pull off their biggest scam or is their act about to be unraveled? This historical thriller sounds fun. —Kelly Jensen

In Bogota, Colombia, teen Valentina is desperate for details surrounding her mother’s drowning and for her father to snap out of his depression. But all Ignacio does is smoke cigarettes all day in a long blonde wig, heavy with guilt over his marriage and memories of a man he once loved and betrayed. Enter Mamadora Eléctrica, the travesti queen of Bogotá’s queer underground who was once a mother figure to a young Ignacio and now steps into this role for Valentina. But Mamdora begins to fear that Ignacio’s self-destructive behavior has unleashed a curse on them all in this striking and brutal coming-of-age story.

I went into this book cold when I saw it was a work of gothic horror by a Latine author. Should I have probably deduced from the title that it was going to involve a creepy ass doll? Pues si, But did I? Nope! Doll feelings aside, I’m glad I didn’t make the connection because I might have missed out. In late 1960s Oakland, Natalia is a queer, Latine, working-class witch who schemes her way into a position caring for Violeta Miramontes, a glamorous heiress to Spanish colonial wealth who’s been paralyzed by a mysterious illness. Natalia, whose mother once worked for the Miramontes, suspects Violeta’s condition is the work of malevolent witchcraft and vows to break the curse, a pursuit that will endanger not only her charge, but herself. Make sure to read the author’s note for this one, which provides some great context for the people and places that may (or may not) have inspired the story.

It’s 1994 in the tiny rural California town of La Sombra, and 17-year-old Cal isn’t having a great time. His dad walked out on his family after the tragic accident that scarred Cal’s face, his classmates have a lot to say about the scar and his beat-up ’68 Mustang, and his church-obsessed mom is under the spell of a crooked pastor. Things go from bad to peor when he finds the body of his class valedictorian and immediately becomes a suspect in her suspicious death. A way out of La Sombra presents itself when Cal least expects it, but the choice to take it or leave it leaves Cal torn between obligation and the life he dreams of leading.

This translated work by Argentinian crime writer Claudia Piñeiro begins with a gruesome act of violence: 30 years ago, the body of a teenage girl was found quartered and burned. The investigation was closed with no justice served, and the victim’s middle-class, educated, Catholic family was left shattered. The truth does finally come to light three decades later, thanks to the girl’s father’s relentless search for answers. The book examines “the cruelty of those who prioritize obedience and religious fanaticism, the complicity of the fearful and the indifferent, and the loneliness and desperation of those who seek to follow their own path.” Any book that asks how brutality can ever be explained away as part of God’s will is one that’s going on my list.

In this subversive romantasy debut, Risa is cursed with bad luck, the sort that makes everyone in her village blame her for anything and everything that goes wrong. But she’s approaching her 17th birthday, and soon her wish to escape will be granted—a wish that comes with conditions. Risa owes a really annoying witch a favor and has to complete a quest to see this wish granted: she must accompany Prince Javi, the youngest and least important of the king’s sons, to a wedding. Far from a cushy quest, this task involved venturing into a dark and deadly forest with peril at every turn. And because this is romantasy, we know some feelings are bound to make things even more complicated.