Celebrate Identities

Poems celebrating Hispanic culture are the focus of this collection. Topics for poems extend from hot dogs to learning English to the revolution in Nicaragua. What all of the selections have in common is the adolescent experience at the core of the poem. Suggested for ages 8–12. Text in English and Spanish.

While spending a summer in New Mexico with her grandmother, 12-year-old Izzy makes new friends, learns to cook, and for the first time, hears stories about her father, who died before she was born. Suggested for ages 8–12.

A fictionalized account of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (Neftalí), who grew up a painfully shy child in the rainforests of Chile, ridiculed by his overbearing father, but who became one of the most widely-read poets in the world. Suggested for ages 8–12.

A young Mexican American girl celebrates the paleta, an icy fruit popsicle, and the many roles it plays in her lively barrio. Suggested for ages 3–6. Text in Spanish and English.