Books provide the perfect gateway to conversations that educate and empower students for Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month, September 15 – October 15. From picture books and biographies to YA fiction, you’ll find great reads for everyone on your radar below.
Picture Books
Hair Story
- Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 3
- Reading Level: Grade 2
With rhythmic, rhyming verse, this picture book follows two girls—one non-Black Puerto Rican, one Black—as they discover the stories their hair can tell.
Preciosa has hair that won’t stay straight, won’t be confined. Rudine’s hair resists rollers, flat irons, and rules.
Together, the girls play hair salon! They take inspiration from their moms, their neighbors, their ancestors, and cultural icons. They discover that their hair holds roots of the past and threads of the future.
With rhythmic, rhyming verse and vibrant collage art, author NoNieqa Ramos and illustrator Keisha Morris follow two girls as they discover the stories hair can tell.
The Secret of the Plátano
- Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 3
- Reading Level: Grade 2
Under the full moon, Abuela leads an enchanted dance, bows to the sky and the night winds, and helps her curious grandson discover the rhythm of his heartbeat while listening to the great secret of the plátanos.
At first his tiny ears couldn’t hear it, but Abuela shares that she can’t teach something that only her heart knows. This loving and tender story of the magical union between a grandmother and her grandson was penned by Dominican author, Luz Maria Mack, and inspired by a dream where she and her Abuela met again to dance and share the secrets of the plátanos.
Sometimes the secrets of life are written in nature, under the stars, and in the sounds of the whispering leaves.
Also available in a Spanish language edition
Biographies
Sonia Sotomayor
First Latina Supreme Court Justice
From the Series Boss Lady Bios (Alternator Books ®)
- Interest Level: Grade 3 – Grade 6
- Reading Level: Grade 4
The daughter of Puerto Rican parents, Sonia Sotomayor won scholarships to Princeton and Yale before launching her impressive legal career. Follow Sotomayor’s journey from the Bronx to the Supreme Court.
Lin-Manuel Miranda: Revolutionary Playwright, Composer, and Actor
From the Series Gateway Biographies
- Interest Level: Grade 4 – Grade 8
- Reading Level: Grade 5
Playwright and Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda is best known as the mind behind the smash-hit musical Hamilton. This title explores Hamilton and Miranda’s other works, as well as his life off-stage.
Nonfiction
My Family Celebrates Day of the Dead
From the Series Holiday Time (Early Bird Stories™)
- Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2
- Reading Level: Grade 1
Day of the Dead is a holiday when families celebrate their loved ones who have died. Learn all about the customs of this holiday with text feature questions. Extend learning with a downloadable reading organizer.
10 at 10
The Surprising Childhoods of Ten Remarkable People
- Interest Level: Grade 3 – Grade 6
- Reading Level: Grade 5
Frida Kahlo, Roberto Clemente, Albert Einstein—kids know the names, but do they know what some of history’s most famous figures were like at the age of ten? Carlyn Beccia presents ten brief and beautifully illustrated biographies to give young readers a fresh look at the lives of people they may only know through history books. Colorful timelines provide context and add additional details about these extraordinary lives.
Immigration, Refugees, and the Fight for a Better Life
From the Series Issues in Action (Read Woke ™ Books)
- Interest Level: Grade 4 – Grade 8
- Reading Level: Grade 4
Throughout history and into the modern day, people have moved from place to place to flee danger and seek out better lives. But immigrants and refugees often meet harsh realities on their journeys. Learn about immigration and refugee resettlement within the United States and throughout the world. Follow both historical and recent large migrations, understand the challenges of life in a new country, and see how activists fight for immigrants’ and refugees’ rights.
Also available in a Spanish language version
YA Fiction
Out of Darkness
- Interest Level: Grade 8 – Grade 12
- Reading Level: Grade 7
A Michael L. Printz Honor Book
New London, Texas. 1937. Naomi Vargas and Wash Fuller know about the lines in East Texas as well as anyone. They know the signs that mark them. They know the people who enforce them. But sometimes the attraction between two people is so powerful it breaks through even the most entrenched color lines. And the consequences can be explosive.
Ashley Hope Pérez takes the facts of the 1937 New London school explosion—the worst school disaster in American history—as a backdrop for a riveting novel about segregation, love, family, and the forces that destroy people.
The Truth Is
- Interest Level: Grade 9 – Grade 12
- Reading Level: Grade 8
Named one of the best YA Latinx books of 2019 by Remezcla and HipLatina.
A Bustle Book Club Selection
A powerful exploration of love, identity, and self-worth through the eyes of a fierce, questioning Puerto Rican teen.
Fifteen-year-old Verdad doesn’t think she has time for love. She’s still struggling to process the recent death of her best friend, Blanca; dealing with the high expectations of her hardworking Puerto Rican mother and the absence of her remarried father; and keeping everyone at a distance. But when she meets Danny, a new guy at school—who happens to be trans—all bets are off. Verdad suddenly has to deal with her mother’s disapproval of her relationship with Danny as well as her own prejudices and questions about her identity, and Danny himself, who is comfortable in his skin but keeping plenty of other secrets.
Where I Belong
- Interest Level: Grade 6 – Grade 12
- Reading Level: Grade 6
A Pura Belpré Honor Book
In the spring of 2018, Guatemalan American high school senior Milagros “Millie” Vargas knows her life is about to change. She has lived in Corpus Christi, Texas, ever since her parents sought asylum there when she was a baby. Now a citizen, Millie devotes herself to school and caring for her younger siblings while her mom works as a housekeeper for the wealthy Wheeler family. With college on the horizon, Millie is torn between attending her dream school and staying close to home, where she knows she’s needed. She is disturbed by what’s happening to asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, but she doesn’t see herself as an activist or a change-maker. She’s just trying to take care of her own family.
Then Mr. Wheeler, a U.S. Senate candidate, mentions Millie’s achievements in a campaign speech about “deserving” immigrants. It doesn’t take long for people to identify Millie’s family and place them at the center of a statewide immigration debate. Faced with journalists, trolls, anonymous threats, and the Wheelers’ good intentions—especially those of Mr. Wheeler’s son, Charlie—Millie must confront the complexity of her past, the uncertainty of her future, and her place in the country that she believed was home.