Best Children's Hispanic & Latino Books

But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California during the Great Depression, and to settle in a camp for Mexican farm workers. Praise for Esperanza Rising : *“Told in a lyrical, fairy tale-like style .

Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos , written by Monica Brown and illustrated by John Parra, is based on the life of one of the world's most influential painters, Frida Kahlo, and the animals that inspired her art and life. Featuring charming visuals and lively, often lyrical prose, this picture book introduces Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, interweaving biographical details while highlighting her special relationships with pets...Rich-hued, folk art–style illustrations incorporate evocative touches, fanciful details, and collagelike compositions. With their folk-art sensibility, Parra’s elegant acrylic paintings evoke Kahlo’s style, her palette and her Mexican environment, but he creates a mood of harmony with the natural world and a lively, cheerful abundance all his own.

With a setting that feels both specific and universal and a story full of homages to The Snowy Day, Julia Denos and E. B. Goodale have created a singular book — at once about the idea of home and the magic of curiosity, but also about how a sense of safety and belonging is something to which every child is entitled. Julia Denos’s prose, spare, evocative and spiced with an occasional, subtle rhyme, is very much in sync with the illustrator E. B. Goodale’s mixed-media art…The highlight of the boy’s sojourn is the end, when he returns home to see his mother in the window, waiting for him. It’s a reassuring moment in these times, when walking at night in a hoodie can have different, even troubling associations for a child of color. Readers will want to revisit these pages of impressionistic trees, buildings that blur as they recede into the vanishing point, and captivating combinations of fully realized scenes with transparent objects outlined in delicate lines. Goodale brings her very own Somerville to brilliant life in her first picture book, using ink, watercolor, letterpress and digital collage. Each page is awash with the colors of dusk as the sun slowly sets until, finally, "you arrive home again, and you look at your window from the outside. A boy walking his dog at twilight watches as windows blink to life, like ‘a neighborhood of paper lanterns,” revealing the early-evening comforts of coming home. Mixed-media art is at once detailed and atmospheric, the sky darkening from orangy glow to black over the course of 32 pages that trace a nightly ritual from inside and out.

Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. "The line between dramatic monologue, verse novel, and standup comedy gets unequivocally-and hilariously and triumphantly-bent in this novel. "Nimbly blends sharp with unapologetic emotion....fluid narration deftly mingles raw feelings with funny, sardonic insight. "Alexie's humor and prose are easygoing and well suited to his young audience. "Fierce observations and sharp sense of humor...hilarious language.

With a simple, witty story and free-spirited illustrations, Peter H. Reynolds entices even the stubbornly uncreative among us to make a mark — and follow where it takes us. To prove her point, Vashti jabs at a blank sheet of paper to make an unremarkable and angry mark.

Illuminating text paired with irresistible illustrations bring to life both iconic and lesser-known female figures of Black history such as abolitionist Sojourner Truth, pilot Bessie Coleman, chemist Alice Ball, politician Shirley Chisholm, mathematician Katherine Johnson, poet Maya Angelou, and filmmaker Julie Dash. Perfect for exploring together at bedtime or for children to browse independently, a gorgeous invitation for children of all backgrounds, and especially for black girls, to learn about black women who were pioneers. "If you want your young reader to have some insight into the role that black women played in the history of this country, this is the perfect gift. "This appealing book reminds young readers that every great leader began as a little leader, taking their first steps towards something big.