The following are four of their Notable Children’s Books for 2019 (the complete list of Notable Books for 2019 can be found at the American Library Association’s website)

“IMAGINE”

by Juan Felipe Herrera

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: Kindergarten – 4

Publisher: Candlewick Press

ISBN-13: 978-0763690526

Herrera uses poetry to recount his journey and invites readers to imagine their own future full of possibilities. Have you ever imagined what you might be when you grow up? When he was young, Juan Felipe Herrera picked chamomile flowers in windy fields and let tadpoles swim across his hands in a creek. He slept outside and learned to say goodbye to his amiguitos each time his family moved to a new town. He went to school and taught himself to read and write English and filled paper pads with rivers of ink. And when he grew up, he became the United States Poet Laureate and read his poems aloud on the steps of the Library of Congress.

“ANA MARÍA REYES DOES NOT LIVE IN A CASTLE”

by Hilda Eunice Burgos

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: 4 – 6

Publisher: Tu Books (an imprint of Lee & Low Books)

ISBN-13: 978-1620143629

Her last name means “kings,” but Ana María Reyes REALLY doesn’t live in a castle. Rather, she’s stuck in a tiny apartment with two parents (way too loveydovey), three sisters (way too dramatic), everyone’s friends (way too often) and a piano (which she never gets to practice). And on top of that a new baby is coming. But then Ana María hears about New York City’s best private academy. If she can win a scholarship, she’ll be able to achieve the education she’s longed for. To stand out, however, she’ll need to nail her piano piece at the upcoming showcase.

“MARCUS VEGA DOESN’T SPEAK SPANISH”

by Pablo Cartaya

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: 5 – 6

Publisher: Viking (an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC)

ISBN-13: 978-1101997260

Eighth grader Marcus Vega is six feet tall, 180 pounds and the owner of a premature mustache—making him both a threat and target.  After a fight at school leaves him facing suspension, Marcus mom decides to take him and his brother to Puerto Rico to spend a week with relatives. But Marcus can’t focus knowing that his father—who walked out of their lives ten years ago—is somewhere on the island. So begins Marcus journey, a series of misadventures that take him all over Puerto Rico in search of his namesake—and what he discovers changes his life.

“STELLA DÍAZ HAS SOMETHING TO SAY”

by Angela Dominguez

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: 4 – 6

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

ISBN-13: 978-1250294104

Stella Díaz loves her betta fish, Pancho, but unlike Pancho, Stella doesn’t like being alone. She loves spending time with her mom, her brother and her best friend Jenny. But Jenny is in another class this year, and Stella feels very lonely. When a new boy arrives in class, she wants to be his friend, but sometimes, she accidentally speaks Spanish instead of English and pronounces words wrong. Plus, she has to speak in front of her whole class for a big presentation! “STELLA DÍAZ HAS SOMETHING TO SAY” integrates simple Spanish vocabulary within the text, providing a bilingual element.

HIGHER EDUCATION

“AFTER HUMAN RIGHTS: LITERATURE, VISUAL ARTS, AND FILM IN LATIN AMERICA, 1990-2010”

by Fernando J. Rosenberg

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press

ISBN-13: 978-0822964162

Fernando J. Rosenberg explores Latin American artistic production concerned with the possibility of justice after the establishment, rise and ebb of the human rights narrative around the turn of the last century. Before this, key literary and artistic projects articulated Latin American modernity by attempting to address and supplement the state’s inability to embody and enact justice. Rosenberg argues that since the topics of emancipation, identity and revolution no longer define social concerns, Latin American artistic production is now situated at a point where the logic and conditions of marketization intersect with the notion of rights through which subjects define themselves politically.

“UNWANTED WITNESSES: JOURNALISTS AND CONFLICT IN CONTEMPORARY LATIN AMERICA”

by Gabriela Polit Dueñas

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press

ISBN-13: 978-0822945833

Gabriela Polit Dueñas analyzes the work of five narrative journalists: Marcela Turati, Daniela Rea, and Sandra Rodriguez from Mexico; Patricia Nieto from Colombia; and María Eugenia Ludueña from Argentina. Working under dangerous, intense conditions, what drives and shapes their stories are their affective responses to the events and people they cover. “UNWANTED WITNESSES” offers an insightful analysis of the emotional challenges, stress and traumatic conditions journalists face when reporting on the region’s most pressing problems. It combines ethnographic observations of the journalists’ work, textual analysis and a theoretical reflection on the ethical dilemmas journalists confront on a daily basis.

“CONCRETE AND COUNTRYSIDE: THE URBAN AND THE RURAL IN 1950s PUERTO RICAN CULTURE”

by Carmelo Esterrich

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press

ISBN-13: 978-0822965398

From the late 1940s to the early 1960s, Puerto Rico was swept by a wave of modernization, transforming the island from a predominantly rural society to an unquestionably urban one. By examining a range of texts, but focusing on the film production of the Division of Community Education, the popular dance music of Cortijo y su combo, and the literary texts of Jose Luis Gonzalez and Rene Marques, “CONCRETE AND COUNTRYSIDE” offers an in-depth analysis of how Puerto Ricans responded to this transformative period. It shows how the arts used images to understand, negotiate and critique the innumerable changes taking place.

“ADJUSTING THE LENS: COMMUNITY AND COLLABORATIVE VIDEO IN MEXICO”

Edited by Freya Schiwy and Byrt Wammack Weber

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press

ISBN-13: 978-0822964469

“ADJUSTING THE LENS” offers an analysis of contemporary, independent, indigenous-language audiovisual production in Mexico and in Mexican migrant communities in the U.S. The contributors relate the styles and forms of collaborative and community media production to socially critical, transformative, resistant and constitutive processes off-screen, thereby exploring the political within the context of the media. Diasporic media makers communicate social and cultural changes within their communities, countering stereotypical representations in television and cinema, and contribute to a newfound communal identity. The new media expose the conflict of social movements and/or indigenous and rural communities with the state, and challenge Eurocentrism and globalization.