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Cowboy and Former Slave

by Jane Katirgis

When Nat Love was born into slavery in Tennessee, his family worked on a tobacco plantation. He longed to see the world and soon became a talented horse rider. At the age of fifteen, he left his family and headed to Dodge City, Kansas. As a young cowboy in America’s Wild West, Love broke wild horses and won shooting contests. Young readers will delight in learning about the adventures of this African American cowboy. A timeline, sidebars, and primary sources add depth to this easy-to-read narrative.

Find it in Juvenile Nonfiction here.

A tale of two kitchens by Elizabeth Lilly

Whether you’re settling in for a heaping plate of Mamaw’s banana pudding or Abuela’s arepas and tostones, a good meal always brings family together.

A Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book
An ALSC Notable Children’s Book

This tale of a family road trip highlights the author’s joy in both her American and Colombian heritage, and captures all the warmth and love of her family’s two distinct cultures.

Once a year, on a Friday night,
My family leaves the city
And drives hours and hours . . .

After a long drive to visit family–whether in the mountains of rural West Virginia or the sticky heat of Florida–what could be a better welcome than a homemade meal?

Inspired by Elizabeth Lilly’s childhood vacations and the sense-memories of late-night journeys down the coast, Let Me Fix You a Plate is a vivacious exploration of family traditions old and new– from toast with homemade blueberry jam, to fresh orange juice and arepas with queso blanco, to midnight waffles at home. 

Vivid illustrations explore the heart of the home–the kitchen–and the treasures found when a family gathers to celebrate their culture, and one another. Joyous, bright, and mouth-watering, this celebration of family and our diverse, delicious traditions is sure to leave readers hungry for more!

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A CCBC Choice

Find it in Picture Books here.

by Rebecca Roanhorse

Reviews:

• One of the Time 100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time
• 2019 LOCUS AWARD WINNER, BEST FIRST NOVEL
• 2019 HUGO AWARD FINALIST, BEST NOVEL
• Nebula Award Finalist for Best Novel
• One of Bustle’s Top 20 “landmark sci-fi and fantasy novels” of the decade
• “Someone please cancel Supernatural already and give us at least five seasons of this badass Indigenous monster-hunter and her silver-tongued sidekick.” —The New York Times
• “An excitingly novel tale.” –Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse and Midnight Crossroads series
• “Fun, terrifying, hilarious, and brilliant.” –Daniel José Older, New York Times bestselling author of Shadowshaper and Star Wars: Last Shot
• “A powerful and fiercely personal journey through a compelling postapocalyptic landscape.” –Kate Elliott, New York Times bestselling author of Court of Fives and Black Wolves

While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn. The gods and heroes of legend walk the land, but so do monsters–and it is up to one young woman to unravel the mysteries of the past before they destroy the future.

Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last best hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much more terrifying than anything she could imagine.

Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel the rez, unraveling clues from ancient legends, trading favors with tricksters, and battling dark witchcraft in a patchwork world of deteriorating technology.

As Maggie discovers the truth behind the killings, she will have to confront her past if she wants to survive.

Welcome to the Sixth World.

Find it SF/FANTASY in here.

by Francisco Cantú

NAMED A TOP 10 BOOK OF 2018 BY NPR and THE WASHINGTON POST
WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE IN CURRENT INTEREST
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE NONFICTION AWARD

The instant New York Times bestseller, “A must-read for anyone who thinks ‘build a wall’ is the answer to anything.” –Esquire

For Francisco Cantú, the border is in the blood: his mother, a park ranger and daughter of a Mexican immigrant, raised him in the scrublands of the Southwest. Driven to understand the hard realities of the landscape he loves, Cantú joins the Border Patrol. He and his partners learn to track other humans under blistering sun and through frigid nights. They haul in the dead and deliver to detention those they find alive. Plagued by a growing awareness of his complicity in a dehumanizing enterprise, he abandons the Patrol for civilian life. But when an immigrant friend travels to Mexico to visit his dying mother and does not return, Cantú discovers that the border has migrated with him, and now he must know the full extent of the violence it wreaks, on both sides of the line.

Find it in NONFICTION here.

The Unheralded Story of Native Americans in Comedy

by Kliph Nesteroff

It was one of the most reliable jokes in Charlie Hill’s stand-up routine: “My people are from Wisconsin. We used to be from New York. We had a little real estate problem.”

In We Had a Little Real Estate Problem, acclaimed comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff focuses on one of comedy’s most significant and little-known stories: how, despite having been denied representation in the entertainment industry, Native Americans have influenced and advanced the art form.

The account begins in the late 1880s, when Native Americans were forced to tour in wild west shows as an alternative to prison. (One modern comedian said it was as “if a Guantanamo detainee suddenly had to appear on X-Factor.”) This is followed by a detailed look at the life and work of seminal figures such as Cherokee humorist Will Rogers and Hill, who in the 1970s was the first Native American comedian to appear The Tonight Show.

Also profiled are several contemporary comedians, including Jonny Roberts, a social worker from the Red Lake Nation who drives five hours to the closest comedy club to pursue his stand-up dreams; Kiowa-Apache comic Adrianne Chalepah, who formed the touring group the Native Ladies of Comedy; and the 1491s, a sketch troupe whose satire is smashing stereotypes to critical acclaim.

As Ryan Red Corn, the Osage member of the 1491s, says: “The American narrative dictates that Indians are supposed to be sad. It’s not really true and it’s not indicative of the community experience itself…Laughter and joy is very much a part of Native culture.”

Featuring dozens of original interviews and the exhaustive research that is Nesteroff’s trademark, We Had a Little Real Estate Problem is a powerful tribute to a neglected legacy.

Find it in NONFICTION here.

From the author of Pulitzer-nominated The Devil’s Highway and national bestseller The Hummingbird’s Daughter comes an exquisitely composed collection of poetry on life at the border. Weaving English and Spanish languages as fluidly as he blends cultures of the southwest, Luis Urrea offers a tour of Tijuana, spanning from Skid Row, to the suburbs of East Los Angeles, to the stunning yet deadly Mojave Desert, to Mexico and the border fence itself. Mixing lyricism and colloquial voices, mysticism and the daily grind, Urrea explores duality and the concept of blurring borders in a melting pot society.

Find it in NONFICTION here.