Gary Soto

Maria tries on her mother's wedding ring while helping make tamales for a Christmas family get-together. Panic ensues when hours later, she realizes the ring is missing.

After saving a drowning puppy while dealing with a huge crush on his classmate Sierra, thirteen-year-old Jordan Mendoza nurses the abandoned puppy back to health and wonders who threw her into the canal and if there are more puppies needing rescue.

A senior at East Fresno High School lives on as a ghost after his brutal murder in the restroom of a club where he had gone to dance.

When Miata leaves on the school bus the skirt that she is to wear in a dance performance, she needs all her wits to get it back without her parents' finding out that she has lost something yet again.

Chato decides to throw a "pachanga" for his friend Novio Boy, who has never had a birthday party, but when it is time to party, Novio Boy cannot be found.

In a prose that is so beautiful it is poetry, we  see the world of growing up and going somewhere  through the dust and heat of Fresno's industrial  side and beyond: It is a boy's coming of age in the  barrio, parochial school, attending church, public  summer school, and trying to fall out of love so he  can join in a Little League baseball team.
  His is a clarity that rings...

An original novella from award-winning children's author and poet Gary Soto Jason Rodriguez is a twelve-year-old who never had much luck-until he wins $3,700 in the lottery and becomes an Instant Winner! Jason can't believe he's won the lottery and decides he will use the money to get his crazy Uncle Mike out of jail. That's where the real adventure begins.

Poet Gary Soto captures the voices of young people as they venture toward their first kiss, brood over bruised hearts, and feel the thrill of first love.

This sequel to Chato's Kitchen is truly a cause for celebration! Chato-the coolest cat in the barrio-loves to party. So when he learns that Novio Boy has never had a birthday party, Chato decides to throw him a surprise pachanga. He gets right to work-inviting everyone in the neighborhood, cooking up a feast, arranging for music and a pinata, and even ordering a special cake. Chato's sure that he's thought of everything. But when it comes time for...

Two Mexican American brothers hope that junior college will help them escape their heritage of tedious physical labor.