Ages 12-18; Pura Belpre author honor, 2024.
Mexico. 1418. Meet Prince Acolmiztli. Puma of the Acolhua People. Heir to his father's throne. Half Acolhuan, half Mexica. Singer. Warrior. Poet. Sixteen years old. And now, betrayed. A palace plot, placed by the deadly Tepaneca Empire, kills his mother and siblings, puts his father's army into retreat, and sends Prince Acolmiztli into a treacherous exile.

Ages 11 and up; Gr.8-12.
Hold Tight, Don't Let Go is the vivid story of two teenage cousins, raised as sisters, who survive the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, though they lose the woman who raised them, Manman. They must fend for themselves in the aftermath, living in a camp set up by a charity.

Lexile measure 890; Ages 14 and up; Gr.9 and up.
Born in an Andean village in Ecuador, Virginia lives with her large family in a small, earthen-walled dwelling. In her village of indígenas, it is not uncommon to work in the fields all day, even as a child, or to be called a longa tonta--stupid Indian--by members of the ruling class of mestizos, or Spanish descendants. When seven-year-old Virginia is taken from her village to be a servant to a mestizo couple, she has no idea what the future holds.

Gr.9 and up; Lexile measure HL690L; Americas Award for Children & Young Adult Literature, Honor, 2010.
n 1986, when seventeen-year-old Daniel's father arrives in Madison, Wisconsin, after five years of torture as a political prisoner in Chile, Daniel and his eighteen-year-old "gringa" girlfriend, Courtney, use different methods to help this bitter, self-destructive stranger who yearns to return home and continue his work.

Lexile measure 680; ages 14-18; book level 4.3, gr. 9-12.
Danny's tall and skinny. Even though he's not built, his arms are long enough to give his pitch a power so fierce any college scout would sign him on the spot.

Lexile measure 670; Book level 4.5; Ages 13 and up, gr. 10-12.
Even though Sofi Mendoza was born in Mexico, she's spent most of her life in California -- the closest she gets to a south-of-the-border experience is eating at Taco Bell. But when Sofi and her friends sneak off for a weekend in Tijuana, she gets in real trouble. To Sofi's shock, the border patrol says that her green card is counterfeit.