Short Stories: Hispanic Heritage

These short stories pack a punch! From traditional tales written for an older audience to the comings and goings of kids growing up on the U.S.-Mexico border, these stories create a world unto themselves in an accessible — and short! — format. Recommended for grades 7-12.

An Island Like You

neighborhood image
Age Level: Middle Grade (9-14)
Language: English, Spanish vocabulary featured

Product Description: Judith Ortiz Cofer's award-winning collection of short stories focuses on life in the barrio. Rita is exiled to Puerto Rico for a summer with her grandparents after her parents catch her with a boy. Luis sits atop a six-foot mountain of hubcaps in his father's junkyard, working off a sentence for breaking and entering. Sandra tries to reconcile her looks to the conventional Latino notion of beauty. And Arturo, different from his macho classmates, fantasizes about escaping his community.

Border Lore Folktales and Legends of South Texas

Border Lore Folktales and Legends of South Texas

Award-winning translator and author David Bowles brings together twenty-five darkly memorable stories of the southern borderlands of Texas, retold in his unique voice. Ranging from the age-old folktales heard at his grandmother's knee to urban legends collected down the years, each of these narratives is brought to stunning visual life by artist José Meléndez. An appendix classifies the pieces and enumerates motifs.

Crazy Loco

Product Description: Meet Loco, a dog with a passion for firecrackers. And Pedro, an altar boy forced to learn a hard lesson from two of the toughest, oldest men ever to serve the Lord. Jordan and Todd are two boys from California who don't know what they're in for when they push their Texas cousins a little too far. Loosely based on the author's own childhood in south Texas, this story collection is a moving whirlwind of humor and insight-brash, tender, and full of the unexpected.

El Bronx Remembered

Product Description: In the South Bronx — or El Bronx, as it's known to the people who live there — anything can happen. A migrant "fresh off the boat" from Puerto Rico can be somebody on the mainland, pursue the American Dream…and maybe even make it come true. Here are stories that capture the flavor and beat of El Bronx in its heyday, from 1946-1956.

Finding Our Way

"Saldaña's collection of short stories and one brief novella offers snapshots of teens' lives. The outsider, or an unusual character, appears in a number of ways — as the new kid, as a drama teacher trying to instill in his students his own love of the theater, and as a boy making his way into the adult world. With a deft touch, the author creates a clear, concise picture of time and place (along the Texas border or Georgia) with characters who sound and think like today's teens." — School Library Journal

First Crossing: Stories About Teen Immigrants

Age Level: Middle Grade (9-14)
Language: English

Product Description: Fleeing from political violence in Venezuela, Amina and her family have settled in the United States. Sarah, adopted, is desperate to know her Korean birth parents. Adrian's friends have some spooky — and hilarious — misconceptions about his Romanian origins. Whether their transition is from Mexico to the United States or from Palestine to New Mexico, the characters in this anthology have all ventured far and have faced countless challenges.

Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America

Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America
Age Level: Young adult (14-18)

In this mixed-media collection of short stories, personal essays, poetry, and comics, this celebrated group of authors share the borders they have crossed, the struggles they have pushed through, and the two cultures they continue to navigate as Mexican Americans. Living Beyond Borders is at once an eye-opening, heart-wrenching, and hopeful love letter from the Mexican American community to today's young readers.

Magic Moments

"A bilingual collection of 15 traditional tales from Latin America, arranged into four sections: Scary Stories, Trickster Tales, Strong Women, and Myths. Extensive notes about sources and variants make this a particularly useful resource in classrooms." — School Library Journal

My Land Sings: Stories from the Río Grande

Illustrated by: Amy Córdova
Age Level: Middle Grade (9-14)

"This collection of stories has elements of both Mexican and Native American folklore. Anaya has included five of his own stories and retold and enhanced five traditional tales. Filled with ghosts, devils, and tricksters, these cuentos are suffused with the beliefs of the peoples in the Río Grande region…Anaya champions the reading of a good book or listening to a folktale as an opportunity to insert one's own experiences into the story and, hence, to nurture the imagination. " — School Library Journal

Rio Grande Stories

"When the principal at a school in Santa Fe, New Mexico, announces that she wants to buy a sculpture for the front lawn 'that will symbolize how the Rio Grande — both the school and the river it's named for — brings us together,' she challenges the students to discover creative ways to contribute. The seventh-grade Heritage Project participants decide that each of them will write a chapter for a book, which they will then sell to relatives and to the community.

The Day It Snowed Tortillas

Product Description: Joe Hayes is one of America's premier storytellers. He grew up in a small town in southern Arizona where he learned Spanish from his classmates. As he got older, Joe began gathering old stories from the Southwest, which he shares in this bilingual collection.

The Hero Next Door

Title in large block letters with small drawings of people including a skateboarder and soccer player.
Age Level: Middle Grade (9-14)

From We Need Diverse Books, the organization behind Flying Lessons & Other Stories, comes another middle-grade short story collection--this one focused on exploring acts of bravery--featuring some of the best own-voices children's authors, including R. J. Palacio (Wonder), Rita Williams-Garcia (One Crazy Summer), Linda Sue Park (A Long Walk to Water), and many more.

The Holy Tortilla and a Pot of Beans

"Readers will be rewarded by the wisdom, wit, and hope in these 16 short stories. The selections range from the mystical appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 'The Holy Tortilla' to the haunting yet empowering story of a victim in 'The Stuff to Scream With.' …What all of these stories have in common is the optimism that comes from taking emotional risks and forming relationships with family, friends, and community.

The Jumping Tree

Product Description: These lively stories follow Rey Castaneda from sixth through eighth grade in Nuevo Penitas, Texas. As Rey begins to cross the border from childhood into manhood, he turns from jokes and games to sense the meaning of work, love, poverty, and grief, and what it means to be a proud Chicano — moments that sometimes propel him to show feelings un hombre should never express. It's a new territory where Rey longs to follow the example his hardworking, loving father has set for him.

Us, in Progress: Short Stories About Young Latinos

Us, in Progress: Short Stories About Young Latinos

Acclaimed author and Pura Belpré Award honoree Lulu Delacre’s beautifully illustrated collection of twelve short stories is a groundbreaking look at the diverse Latinos who live in the United States. In this book, you will meet many young Latinos living in the United States, from a young girl whose day at her father’s burrito truck surprises her to two sisters working together to change the older sister’s immigration status, and more.