 For those looking to lay out on la playa or hammock this summer with a nice tall glass of limonada and an awesome pile of must-read Latinx debut and sophomore kidlit books, you need look no further than Las Musas. Scroll down for a list of all of our great middle grade and young adult titles out in time for summer and get your Las Musas reading on! Salud! LAS MUSAS - MIDDLE GRADE STORM RUNNER by J.C. Cervantes Available Now! Age 10+ Perfect for fans of Percy Jackson and Kane Chronicles A contemporary Maya mythology adventure from Rick Riordan Presents! Zane Obispo’s backyard volcano is the one place where he can escape other kids who make fun of his limp. But he soon learns that it is actually a centuries-old prison for the Maya god of death, whose destiny is directly tied to his. A destiny that thrusts Zane into an ancient prophecy that could mean the destruction of the world unless he can find a way to stop it.  ANA MARÍA REYES DOES NOT LIVE IN A CASTLE by Hilda Eunice Burgos Available Now! Ages 9+ “A Latina Little Women with a modern Washington Heights Flair” -Julia Alvarez Ana María hopes to attend New York City's best private academy, but her parents can’t afford that with four daughters and another baby on the way. So Ana María must nail her piano piece at the upcoming city showcase to win a scholarship. She practices through distractions and interruptions, including a family trip to the Dominican Republic, and, with help from family and friends, figures out what truly matters.  THE WIND CALLED MY NAME by Mary Louise Sanchez Available Now! Ages 8+ Perfect for fans of Esperanza Rising and Little House on the Prairie. The winds of the Great Depression blow Margarita Sandoval, a ten-year-old Hispanic girl, away from her ancestral New Mexico home to Wyoming, and she is determined to make a new friend there. But when her Papá risks losing his job, possibly because of her new friend, Caroline, Margarita invokes a Wyoming saint to intercede, and he more than answers her prayers.  BLIZZARD BESTIES by Yamile Saied Méndez Available Now! Ages 8+ Perfect for fans of Sit, Stay, Love and Allie, First at Last. Vanesa Campos can't wait for winter vacation and her week at Pinecloud Lodge promises to be perfect. Never mind that glamorous Beck writes off Vanesa right away; twins Emma and Eric are ready to join the fun out in the snow. But when the flakes start falling, and Vanesa's little brother, Hunter, might be stranded out in the blizzard, she will have to team up with all the kids - plus one giant dog - to rescue him.  A SPRINKLE OF SPIRITS by Anna Meriano Available Now! Ages 8+ Perfect for fans of Meg Medina and Coco Leonora Logroño is finally learning her family's bakery bruja magic, but trouble bubbles up again when her dead grandmother appears in her room! It turns out that spirits are popping back to life all over town, and Leo will need help to solve the mystery of what caused the chaos--and how to stop it! The Logroños return in a new story featuring a heaping helping of amor, azúcar, and magia.  THE MOON WITHIN by Aida Salazar Available Now! Ages 9+ Perfect for fans of Judy Blume and Sandra Cisneros Celi's life swirls with questions. About her changing body. Her first attraction. And her best friend's exploration of what it means to be genderfluid. But most of all, her mother's insistence she have a moon ceremony when her first period arrives. It's an ancestral Mexica ritual that their community have reclaimed but Celi promises she will NOT be participating. Can she find the power within to take a stand for who she wants to be?  SILVER MEADOWS SUMMER by Emma Otheguy Available Now! Ages 8+ Perfect for fans of Pam Muñoz Ryan and Elizabeth Enright When Carolina’s family moves from Puerto Rico to upstate New York, Carolina is stuck attending summer camp at Silver Meadows Farm with her bossy cousin Gabriela. Luckily, Carolina makes a friend of her own, Jennifer. The two girls stumble upon a long-abandoned cottage in the woods, which becomes their secret haven. When the kids discover the cottage might be destroyed, they come up with a plan to save it. Will it work? LAS MUSAS - YOUNG ADULT THE RESOLUTIONS by Mia García Available Now! Ages 14+ Perfect for fans of Erika L. Sánchez and Emery Lord. From hiking trips to never-ending group texts, Jess, Lee, Ryan, and Nora have always been inseparable, but with senior year on the horizon, they’ve been growing apart. So Jess makes a plan to reinstate their New Year’s Eve tradition with a twist: they assign resolutions to each other. Amid first loves, heartbreaks, and life-changing decisions they test the bonds that hold them together.  WE SET THE DARK ON FIRE by Tehlor Kay Mejia Available Now! Ages 14+ Perfect for fans of The Handmaid’s Tale and Zoraida Cordova At the Medio School for Girls, distinguished young women are trained as wives for affluent families far removed from the political uprisings of the lower class. Daniela Vargas is the school’s top student, harboring a dark secret that might send her back to the fringes of society. But when she is asked to spy for a resistance group will she give up everything she’s strived for in pursuit of an equal Medio—and a chance at forbidden love?  THE LAST 8 by Laura Pohl Available Now! Ages 14+ Perfect for fans of The 5th Wave and Illuminae Clover Martinez has always been a survivor, which is the only reason she isn’t among the dead when aliens invade and destroy Earth. After surviving the apocalypse, Clover finds The Last Teenagers on Earth at the former Area 51. Instead of heroes, the group is more interested in hiding than fighting back -- and if Clover wants to save Earth, she must convince the others to fight with her.  THE TESLA LEGACY by K.K. Pérez Available Now! Ages 14+ Perfect for fans of X-Men and Marie Lu Young scientist Lucy Phelps is thrust into a centuries-old battle between rival alchemical societies when a fateful encounter in the Tesla Suite of the New Yorker Hotel unlocks her dormant electrical powers. One side wants her help and the other wants her dead. Unfortunately, carriers of the genetic mutation―including Nikola Tesla―have a greatly reduced life expectancy. Even if Lucy can outrun her enemies, she can’t outrun herself.  DON'T DATE ROSA SANTOS by Nina Moreno Available Now! Ages 14+ Perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Gilmore Girls The women in Rosa’s family are cursed: her abuela is exiled from Cuba, her mother is reckless, and Rosa is forbidden to go to the sea. Rosa dreams of finally seeing their island, but her study abroad plans crumble amid political changes just as she crashes into a quiet boy from the docks.  FIVE MIDNIGHTS by Ann Dávila Cardinal Available 6.4.19 Ages 14+ Perfect for fans of Shadowshaper and Labyrinth Lost Five friends cursed. Five deadly fates. Five nights of retribución. If Lupe Dávila and Javier Utierre can survive each other’s company, together they can solve a series of grisly murders sweeping through Puerto Rico that lead them into the realm of myths and legends. Five Midnights is a “wickedly thrilling” (William Alexander) novel based on the el Cuco myth set against the backdrop of modern-day Puerto Rico.  THE GRIEF KEEPER by Alexandra Villasante Available 6.11.19 Ages 12+ Perfect for fans of American Street and Mitali Perkins When her brother is murdered, and her sister’s life is threatened, Marisol Morales flees El Salvador, and crosses the US border. After being detained by ICE, Marisol is given a stark choice: Be deported or participate in a clinical trial and become a grief keeper—taking the trauma and pain of others into her own body. It’s a risky experiment, but if it means keeping her sister safe, she will risk anything.  ALL OF US WITH WINGS by Michelle Ruiz Keil Available 6.18.19 Ages 16+ Perfect for fans of Anna-Marie McLemore and Francesca Lia Block Xochi is on her own in San Francisco where she meets tween genius Pallas and is hired as a live-in governess. When Xochi and Pallas’s riot-grrl ritual inadvertently summons a pair of ancient creatures bound to right the wrongs of Xochi’s childhood, Xochi must risk her place in her new family to save the mother that abandoned her and find a way to send the creatures home before the fog quenches their fierce magic.  Don’t Date Rosa Santos is an incredible debut from author, Nina Moreno about a Cuban-American young woman, Rosa lives with her Abuela in Port Coral, a small coastal town in Florida, where you can’t turn your head before one of the gossiping viejitos spreads the word. Rosa is your regular teen, well, except for the fact that she (along with the other women in her family) has been cursed by the sea and can’t fall in love with a man with a boat for fear he will meet his untimely demise. But other than that, Rosa’s just enjoying her senior year of high school, trying her best to learn about/own her Cuban heritage despite the fact that her Abuela refuses to talk about their history, trying to decide where to go to college, and hanging with her bestie, Ana-Maria, at her parent’s bodega, El Mercado, which serves the best Cuban sandwiches, croquetas, and Cuban coffee around. Things are going just as they should until Rosa’s mom comes back into town after being gone for months and she is not the only unexpected visitor in Port Coral. Alex Aquino, a sexy guy with tattoos, a mysterious disposition, and a boat that catches Rosa’s attention from the docks. Rosa tries her hardest to stay away from the sea, but it calls to her, and eventually, she has to respond, which leads to an adventure you don’t want to miss filled with gorgeous, lyrical prose, romance, a quest for self-discovery, and an ensemble cast of characters who jump off the page and right into your heart. So, what better way to get acquainted with the book than to chat with the cast themselves? Without further ado, let’s dig in!  Abuela, let’s start with you, why did you choose to settle in Port Coral after leaving Cuba? What do you love about it? What do you miss most about Cuba? Pero, this is about Cuba? Nadie me dijo eso. The sea brought me here and this is where I stayed. Next question. Can you talk to us about the spells/potions people request most often? Are there any you refuse to make? Everyone wants better luck or easier memories, because they have pain and tired bones and don’t eat real food. Why is everything sandwiches now? So they come to me when they really need good food from home. But when they need more? I can do that too. Lilliana, you grew up in Port Coral same as Rosa what drew you to painting? If you were to turn Port Coral into a mural, what would you paint? Graffiti? Don’t look at me like that, Mami. I love painting because I love that it means making a mess while creating something beautiful at the same time. And Port Coral is basically already a mural, this place is almost too pretty. Rosa, how would you describe Abuela and your mom’s parenting styles? *laughs* Oh, wait, you’re serious? They’re night and day. And also more similar them either of them would like to admit. *ignores both of their looks* Follow up question, Rosa, what’s the best bit of magic you’ve picked up from the Santos women? To always be mindful of my intentions. That one can apply to a lot of things, but is especially important with magic. Also grow mint and rosemary, eat your grapes at midnight on new years, and only light candles in odd numbers. Ana-Maria, what do you think you’ll do to keep yourself occupied if she goes to college outside of Port Coral? Hey, I’ll be busy too. I’ve got my drums and plans and am applying to the community college...wait. My parents aren’t going to read this, right?  Ok, I’m starving, can we talk for a moment about El Mercado? Ana-Maria, what’s the best kept secret on the menu?
A croqueta sandwich. Don’t tell my dad I told you if you order it though. He’s not an off-menu kind of guy. Rosa, Abuela, Lilliana, what are YOUR favorite El Mercado treats? Rosa: the new pastelitos! They’re so flaky and sweet. I don’t know who’s baking them though. Liliana: Chicharrones drenched in salt and lime. Mimi: The lechon asado is very good. Rosa, let’s keep it real, what was your first thought when you saw Alex? Rosa: Oh, the new guy? I thought, “cool tattoos.” Ana: Because you could only see his arms. You should have seen her face when he turned around. Rosa: Um, well, yes. He has a very good face. Alex, can you give us an in-depth description of your tattoo sleeve with some meaning behind the images? It’s the blue waves of the sea. I’m happiest out in the water, and I like to be reminded of it when I look at my own skin. Alright well, it’s been great to get to know all of you a bit more, one final question, if you can go around the table and answer: What does the sea mean to you? Mimi: (Doesn’t answer but her gaze goes out the window.) Liliana: An old dream. Rosa: A mystery. Ana: Beach day. Alex: Home. <3 Buy a copy of Don't Date Rosa Santos wherever books are sold or borrow it from your local library! Las Musas are thrilled to host the exclusive first look at the cover of THE TRUTH IS, the second book by our very own musa, the acclaimed writer of THE DISTURBED GIRL'S DICTIONARY, NONIEQA RAMOS. It hits shelves September 3, 2019 by Lerner/Carolrhoda Lab. Check out the synopsis below, and keep scrolling to read an excerpt from the novel!  Cover Design by: Lindsey Owens • GIF Design by: Jose Padron 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.
Read the dynamite first chapter of THE TRUTH IS: The Book of Love is blaring on my alarm radio app and I know to turn that shit off before my moms hears it. Once upon a time in a land ten years from divorce court, my parents danced to it at their wedding. They had met during study hall when they realized they were the only ones studying, and the rest is history. Now it’s all math: who owes what to whom, an endless game of long division. I’m still playing the song though, because I don’t get it. Because seriously, who wrote the Book of Love? Who gets to decide whom, and why, and when? I’m fifteen and I’m supposed to fall in love like any minute now. It’s biology. My moms is a nurse, so she knows this better than anyone. I don’t know what scares me more, falling in love with someone or my mother finding out. The way I see it, love is just like your period. One day you’re bleeding out of nowhere and it hurts, and that mess goes on for mostly the rest of your life. My best friend, Blanca, didn’t see it that way though. Blanca had been waiting to fall in love her whole life. If you can call fourteen years of living “whole.” She always thought we’d get married at the same time in Central Park. Honeymoon together in San Juan. My moms flicks the lights that are already on. “¡Despierta, levántate y brilla! Thank God for a new day. Wakey-wakey,” she sings, opening and shutting my bedroom door fast. I hurl my chancla at the door. Mornings to me are like holy water to the devil. Standing up, I trip over the baseball bat that my mother has always insisted I keep by my bed. What can a bat do against a bullet? A holographic Jesus screensaver watches over me from across the room. I gasp. “Ma! What the hell?” “You toss and turn so much,” my moms shouts from the kitchen, where the rich aroma of coffee calls my name. “He’s protecting you from bad dreams.” I scowl. Hurl my sheet over the computer, making Jesus a ghost. Fling open the door. “So let me get this straight. Like the white dude in the dress with the giant thorny bleeding heart glowing out of his skin is going to get rid of my bad dreams?” I know Mami is signing the cross: “Forgive her smart-ass mouth, Lord. She gets it from her father.” Anything that’s right with me comes from my mother’s side, anything wrong from my dad’s. I lock myself in my bathroom and shed my favorite vintage West Side Story T-shirt that I will wear until it disintegrates. Ah—cough, gag—she’s been burning incense again. Patchouli. To protect me from bad spirits. With all this protection, I’ll be lucky if I don’t die of asphyxiation before I leave the house. Modern Christian music blares on the kitchen radio. Dudes are full of uber emotion singing about Jesus. I wish I could feel all pumped up like that about religion. But like how long has it been since Jesus has been here? Two thousand years. I remember waiting for my dad on the porch for hours when he didn’t show up for a visit. Two thousand years is a long time to wait on a porch. Yeah, I’m bitter a little bit. When the water is steaming hot, I step into the shower stall full of lotions and creams Mami stocks in here so I will smell like the botanical gardens. Because all girls are supposed to want to smell like flowers. Be a flower. It’s true I got stems. Like my moms, I got the mile-long legs. She had to wear flats around my dad so she didn’t tower over him. But just like stems, I’m hairy. I don’t like sharp, stabby, prickly legs. Blanca’s legs always felt like a cheese grater if it got cold. Mami keeps threatening to wax me, por que we girls can take natural too far, she says. I lather up with my loofah, covering up the scar above my knee with bubbles. I rub and rub, imagining the scar—the hole torn in my leg and my life—has disappeared. I step out of the shower into the mist. I love looking in the mirror and seeing me in the clouds, immaterial. They don’t got homework in the clouds, do they? I picture my moms and me sitting on clouds after we both die. “Pero, like, if you take one more class, you could be an archangel.” Once my hair—which Blanca used to call The Entity, like she was one to talk—is braided to my satisfaction, I head to the kitchen, where my moms is waiting for me with cafe con leche. She likes to have a convo with me before she’s off to work. She always sits straight, rigid, like a beautiful statue that survived the volcano but got left alone in the ruins. “Morning.” “Good morning, Verdad.” I pull out my chair—across from Mami’s and next to the place that’s been set for Abuelo for the past three years—and collapse in it. “Couldn’t God put morning later in the day?” I prop my head on my right hand and stir my coffee with my left. “Did you get any sleep, mija?” “Couple of hours. Did you get any sleep?” “Verdad! This isn’t healthy for a young girl. You’re not going to grow properly. You’re going to get acne.” This from the woman who hasn’t slept since 2000, who works at three different hospitals and builds Habitat for Humanity houses in her so-called spare time. “Mom, this isn’t healthy for a grown-ass woman. You’re going to start shrinking. You’re going to get wrinkles.” My moms stirs her coffee into a whirlpool that would suck in the Titanic. “Verdad! Listen.” She grabs my hand and holds me prisoner with her eyes. “A lot has happened. That we can’t control. But what we can control is ourselves.” That’s bullshit. I break free from her gaze and look away. There are certain things you want to be true. My moms wants it to be true that if you work your ass off, you’re gonna have this great life. You’ll have the house, the car, the vacations. I mean, I know I have it good. Mami is a nurse, but everyone in the family calls her doc and hits her up for advice when they so much as have a sniffle. She bought us a house and made sure I had my own room and bathroom. We’re the ones the family descends on for barbecues because we’re the only ones with a yard. We got a car that runs most of the time. We got a YMCA membership. But like what’s the point of a house if you’re never in it? A bed if you never freakin sleep in it? My moms works 24/7 to keep us in the house we’re in. The only place the damn car takes her is to work. Mami sighs. She squeezes my hand and releases me. “You know you need to play a sport . . .” I lift my eyebrows. This is like telling an ostrich he should dance the tango. “No no no!” she clarifies, images of me attempting volleyball flashing across her eyes. “I mean you should . . . run. With those long legs. You know, your dad used to run—” “Used to?” He left us for another life. Got himself a new house, a new wife, a stepdaughter. But most of the time it feels like he’s still fleeing the scene of his earlier crimes. My dad’s present does not have room for his past. I haven’t seen him in weeks. “Verdad! I’m just saying. You run after school. Do your homework. That’ll get you tired. Get you to sleep.” What my mother fails to comprehend is that I’m tired all the time. Of everything. Tired isn’t the problem. I nod. So she’ll stop talking and also because I’m falling asleep. “Okay!” She slams her hands on the table. My eyes pop open. I droop from one side to the other like a rag doll. “So I got to get to work. Give me the highlights from last night.” She got no time for details. I don’t have any details anyway. I don’t have no problems. I have no friends. Anymore. I don’t want any. I have nothing to do except school and nowhere to be except home. That’s fine with me. The real problem is my moms will lecture me for the above lack of problems. I shrug. “Violin practice was fine.” I have a school recital tomorrow—my first without Blanca. “And yes, I aced my history test.” “Music to my ears!” My moms slaps the table again, making the coffee cups dance. “But I almost wish I hadn’t.” “Excuse me?” “Well, this girl Nelly who’s in my class calls it the history of propaganda. Yesterday she went off about how all we ever learn about is Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. Rattled off a bunch of names of African Americans I never heard of.” My moms walks her coffee cup to the sink and rinses it. “What does this have to do with your grade?” “Nothing? It’s just. I mean think about it. What about us? All we ever learn about is Cesar Chavez. And no offense, but . . .” “We ain’t Mexican.” “Word. There’s over a million Puerto Ricans in New York alone, but they ain’t one single one who did anything worth writing about in any textbook?” “What about that Sonia Sotomayor?” “That’s one, Ma. White people get a thousand. We get one?” She turns, leans against the counter, and folds her arms. “Well, after you get your college education you could rewrite all the textbooks if you like. And if you took another class, you could get to college faster. Today could be the day you change everything. Make a decision to move in the right direction.” “Right.” Rewrite history. If only. I stand up and push my chair in, careful not to scrape against the wood. My moms is super proud of taking out the nasty linoleum and installing the wood herself. “All I’m saying,” my moms says, grabbing my hand, “is have a good day. Okay?” “Okay.” I wash our mugs and set them in the dishwasher, our industrial-sized drying rack. I tie up the bread and reach up onto the fridge. Hurling the bread into the microwave on top, I expertly catch the bag of chips that falls out and toss it into my backpack. Time to catch the bus. On my way out the door, my moms sticks a piece of buttered toast in my mouth. And I head to school wishing I could go back in time, to this day a year ago, before what happened—happened. Back to when everything made sense. I made sense.  Raised in the Boogie Down Bronx, NoNieqa Ramos is an educator, literary activist, and writer of “intense” literature. She wrote the THE DISTURBED GIRL’S DICTIONARY, a 2018 New York Public Library Best Book for Teens, a 2019 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection, and a 2019 In the Margins Award Top Ten pick. THE TRUTH IS will be released September 3rd, 2019 and more to be announced! She believes Halloween is a lifestyle not a holiday, books are wings, and like Whitney said, the children are our future. www.NonieqaRamos.com
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