Sixth-grader Amalia learns many important life-lessons while spending Friday afternoons with her beloved grandmother, and the teaching goes on even after Abuelita's sudden death as Amalia finds a way to connect with relatives and a friend who has moved away.

"A boy and his father cross the United States-Mexico border every other Saturday, visiting their favorite places, spending time with family and friends, and sharing in the responsibility of community care"--

Told in the style of a cumulative folk song, a grandmother makes empanadas, a traditional Hispanic treat, for her family. Includes recipe.

Juanito accompanies his grandmother to a flea market in southern California, where he helps her and the other vendors and where they enjoy seeing old friends from their Mexican-American community.

A Mixteca Indian from Oaxaca, América Soliz, suffers from the poverty and hopelessness of her Chicago ghetto, made more endurable by a desire and determination to be a poet.

“You can be my boyfriend.” It only takes five words to change Güero’s life at the end of seventh grade. The summer becomes extra busy as he learns to balance new band practice with his old crew, Los Bobbys, and being Joanna Padilla’s boyfriend. They call her “fregona” because she’s tough, always sticking up for her family and keeping the school bully in check. But Güero sees her softness. Together they cook dollar-store spaghetti and...

Prietita, a young Mexican American girl, becomes lost in her search for an herb to cure her mother and is aided by the legendary ghost woman.

One Christmas Eve, Santa Claus asks his cousin Pancho to help him deliver toys to the boys and girls along the Texas-Mexico border, and when he agrees, Santa magically transforms him into Charro Claus.

A young girl enjoys the similarities and the differences between her English-speaking and Spanish-speaking grandparents.

Short stories based on Mexican and Mexican-American folklore depict the encounters of traditional and contemporary people with a variety of scary creatures.