It's Latine & Hispanic American Heritage Month! (9/15-10/15)

Every year, Latine & Hispanic American Heritage Month is celebrated in the U.S. from September 15th-October 15th. Below are ten books with Latine or Hispanic main characters. 

1. Ander and Santi Were Here: A Novel by Jonny Garza Villa: Nonbinary teen Ander is ready to leave their family's taquería and focus on their art, but when Santi, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, begins to work at the restaurant, the two teens spark a romance made complicated by immigration police.
2. Breathe and Count Back from Ten by Natalia Sylvester: Verónica, a Peruvian‑American teen with hip dysplasia, auditions to become a mermaid at a Central Florida theme park in the summer before her senior year, all while figuring out her first real boyfriend and how to feel safe in her own body. 
3. Brownstone by Samuel Teer: In the summer of 1995, almost-fifteen-year-old Almudena is sent to live with her estranged Spanish-speaking father, and together they renovate a brownstone and build a relationship while Almudena navigates the Latin American side of her heritage for the first time.
4. Call Me Iggy by Jorge Augusto Aguirre: Crushing on a girl at school who doesn't know he exists, Ohio-born Colombian American teen Iggy finds his life unraveling when his grandfather's ghost decides to meddle in his love life, setting him off on a journey of self-discovery.
5. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo: Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people. In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal's office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance -- and Papi's secrets -- the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. And then, when it seems like they've lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.
6. Saints of the Household by Ari Tison: When brothers Max and Jay help a classmate in trouble, they struggle with the consequences of their violent actions and worry they may be more like their abusive father than they thought, so the brothers turn to their Bribri roots to find their way forward.
7. The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes: Sixteen-year-old Mexican American Yami Flores starts Catholic school, determined to keep her brother out of trouble and keep herself closeted, but her priorities shift when Yami discovers that her openly gay classmate Bo is also annoyingly cute.
8. The Turning Pointe by Vanessa L. Torres: In 1980s Minnesota, when auditions for a concert with Prince are announced, 16-year-old Rosa Dominguez, the daughter of a tyrant ballet master, is desperate to escape her pointe shoes and show everyone what she can do.
9. This is Our Place by Vitor Martins: The house at Number 8 Sunflower Street tells the stories of three teenagers who have lived within its walls in the 21st century--Ana, a lesbian forced to leave her home, Greg sent to live with his aunt when his parents divorce, and Beto, a would-be photographer living during the COVID pandemic.
10. When We Make It by Elisabet Velasquez: Sarai uses verse to navigate the strain of family traumas and the systemic pressures of toxic masculinity and housing insecurity in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn, questioning the society around her, her Boricua identity, and the life she lives.