7 Excellent YA Books by Latinx and Hispanic Authors

Danna’s grandfather has dementia, and she is determined to bring his memories back by cooking his favorite foods for him (or, since he worked as a food reviewer, bringing him orders from his favorite restaurants). At the same time, Danna struggles with insecurity triggered by her mother, who constantly criticizes her weight and keeps an eagle eye on the food Danna eats.

Raul’s mother has just been released from prison, and when she moves in with Raul and his uncle, she and Raul must navigate their new relationship. Raul has grown up without his mother for years and resents her efforts to reassert her parental authority as she works through her own trauma. Raul’s uncle is a worship leader, and when he takes Raul with him to play music for local dementia patients in their homes, Raul and Danna meet.

Laekan Zea Kemp writes about identity, mental health, and Mexican/Chicane culture, and over the course of her gorgeous novel in verse, Danna and Raul slowly develop a relationship, supporting one another through the pain that often comes from family relationships. The poetry is beautiful, and while the story is inseparable from Danna and Raul’s Chicane culture, its themes are universal, reminding us our similarities outweigh our differences.

Imagine learning that your father has died in a plane crash, flying from New York to the Dominican Republic. Now imagine learning that your father had an entire second family, and you have a sister you never knew about. This is the situation Camino and Yahaira find themselves in, and their alternating stories bring to life the process of grieving in the face of profound tragedy.

Acevedo, herself Dominican-American, has crafted a beautiful novel in verse that brings us to New York and the Dominican Republic, capturing the pain the sisters feel over both their father’s death and his betrayal. How is Yahaira supposed to move on when her mother won’t let her go to the Dominican Republic for her father’s burial? How will Camino pay her school tuition without financial help from her father, and how will she protect herself from El Cero, who is all too ready to lend a predatory hand?

When the sisters meet, they discover that as painful as their father’s betrayal is, he may also have left them with the hope and support to move forward without him. (Bonus recommendation: We loved Acevedo’s With the Fire on High, and think lots of students will relate to Emoni.)

Lila is not having an easy time of things. Her beloved grandmother dies (ruining Lila’s plan to take over her panadería), her boyfriend breaks up with her, and her best friend backs out of their summer plans. Lila doesn’t handle it well, and her Cuban-American family sends her away from sun-soaked Miami to spend the summer with relatives who own a bed & breakfast in Winchester, England. Away from her close-knit family in an environment very different from home, Lila is determined to hate the experience.

When Lila’s cousin introduces her to some local teens and Lila’s aunt starts giving Lila opportunities to bake for the B&B, however, Lila starts to soften toward her new environment. She meets Orion Maxwell, who works at a tea shop down the street and appoints himself as Lila’s official tour guide. As she begins to fall in love with England (and Orion) and finds joy creating recipes that blend traditional English cuisine with Cuban flavors, she starts to reconsider the future she had planned for herself.

When Lila learns there is a Cordon Bleu school in London she could attend, she has a big decision to make: will she stay in England or return to her close-knit family and her roots? Or is there a way to have them both?

Laura Taylor Namey’s sweet novel provides plenty of opportunities to escape—through travel and mouth-watering food descriptions—and we think your students will find a lot to relate to in Lila’s story.

Manny is homeless, doing his best to move from place to place while avoiding the predatory adults looking to take advantage of teens in his situation. He has found safe travel companions in the Varela family, but his past has taught him to be constantly on guard, and he’s convinced that one wrong step will make the Varelas regret allowing him into their lives. When he watches a news report and sees that a dead body has been found outside the Christ’s Dominion compound in Idyllwild, California, however, his past catches up to him, and he is determined to get to Idyllwild to find out if the body is his sister Elena’s.

As the novel unfolds, we get bits and pieces of Manny’s story, from the foster system to a religious cult to life on the road. As Manny works his way toward Idyllwild, his story is interrupted with chapters from the perspective of Eli, another young man with ties to Christ’s Dominion and Manny’s sister.

The novel is a page-turner: as Manny’s story unfolds, the book is harder and harder to put down. Manny’s experiences are heartbreaking, but there is joy and hope to be found as he finds healing and learns to trust. Oshiro broadens readers’ experience of the world by bringing to life the all-too-real hurt many young people experience at the hands of religion.

This novel is definitely for older readers and content warnings abound. Oshiro recommends that readers with concerns read the author’s note first, and we think this is wise advice. While there are many opportunities for students to learn empathy and many will see themselves in Manny’s story, this is probably a novel you’ll want to read for yourself before recommending it to your students.

Yolanda Alvarez attends Julia de Burgos High in the Bronx, and she loves it. As a sophomore, she’s more confident (and less easily angered when people make comments about her cochlear implants), loves bantering with beloved school dean Mr. Leyva in the hallways, and runs the Brave Spaces club, which she founded with her chemistry teacher Mrs. Obi. She’s got a best friend in Victory, a maybe-something-going-on with Jose, and she’s eagerly awaiting her initiation into brujería.

But when Ben, the son of a white politician, transfers to Julia de Burgos High, Yolanda’s world is disrupted. She starts receiving ominous visions from the Bruja Diosas that show Ben pulling a mysterious object out of a backpack, and while she’s determined to give Ben the benefit of the doubt, his racist comments and troubled history cause significant conflict at the school Yolanda and her classmates have felt safe at for so long.

What we loved most about Avila’s novel is how real Yolanda is. She comes across as a teenager, not an adult trying to sound like a teenager, and she talks like our students do. She is flawed but lovable and relatable as she does the hard work of coming into her own and navigating relationships with teachers, family, and friends. 

While the novel probably tries to cover too many topics at once and often comes across heavy-handed in its discussion of social justice, we learned a lot about the Latinx perspective, and especially the Afro-Latinx perspective, on racism and social justice in America, and the book has received phenomenal reviews. We think you and your students will love Yolanda and her story and find lots to discuss.

Zamora’s compelling memoir tells the story of his journey from El Salvador to the United States at the age of 9 to reunite with his parents. The brutal journey takes its toll on every traveler, and realizing that Zamora is making this journey without family at such a young age is especially heartbreaking.

Zamora and his fellow travelers must take a series of bus rides and endure a nauseating boat ride long before they reach the Sonoran Desert, crossing the border between Mexico and the United States on foot. Every part of the journey has its challenges and dangers, and the trip that was supposed to take only a couple weeks drags on for a couple months. The trek through the desert is particularly treacherous, and the fact that so many men, women, and children are willing to risk their lives to endure it speaks to the depth of the struggles they are leaving behind.

What’s most powerful and important about Zamora’s memoir is that it puts human faces on a divisive political issue. The struggles Javier and his fellow immigrants endure are far worse than most of us can imagine, and the journey requires incredible hope and perseverance. Zamora’s confusion and fear at the way he and his fellow travelers are received and portrayed in the United States reminds us that the majority of the men, women, and children who cross the borders every day are not the hardened criminals the media makes them out to be but humans who desperately want a better life.

While not written for YA audiences, Zamora’s memoir is an important read no matter where you and your students fall on the political spectrum, and we think our students would have appreciated the opportunity to read about an experience many in their community endured. In a time when many English teachers are seeking to add diverse voices to their curriculum, Zamora’s memoir deserves consideration, whether as an all-class read or a First Chapter Friday recommendation.

Guatemalan teens Pulga, Chico, and Pequeña are in danger. When Pequeña goes into labor with the baby she didn’t ask for, Pulga and Chico go to the local store for sodas, only to end up as the only witnesses when Rey and his fellow gang members murder the owner, Don Felicio. At first they aren’t sure Rey knows they are there, but it’s not long before they face a choice: carry out Rey’s orders or run for their lives. When the father of Pequeña’s baby announces she’s had enough time to recover and will be moving in with him in 24 hours, she, too, faces a choice.

When the three teenagers meet at the bus station in the middle of the night, they begin a perilous journey from Guatemala to the Mexican border. Their best option is to follow the route of the infamous La Bestia, which means jumping on and off moving trains alongside the many other migrants desperate to make it to the United States.

Jenny Torres Sanchez was inspired to write the book by reports of migrant children so desperate to escape their home countries that they risked their lives on La Bestia, often without their parents. Her heart breaks for these migrant children, particularly when they reach the United States only to suffer inhumane treatment in detention centers. As we followed the stories of Pulga, Chico, and Pequeña, our hearts broke, even as we admired the courage and tenacity of these young people doing whatever they could to stay alive.