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.

After unexpectedly falling in love with a "nerdy" boy, fourteen-year-old Marisa works to change her life by transferring to another school, altering some of her behavior, and losing weight.

Everyone is coming for Christmas dinner at Maria's house. She and her mother prepare by kneading the "masa" to make tamales. When her mother takes off her ring, Maria tries it on - and is beside herself, when hours later, she thinks it has been kneaded into the tamales. How many can you eat?

To get the "ratoncitos," little mice, who have moved into the barrio to come to his house, Chato the cat prepares all kinds of good food: fajitas, frijoles, salsa, enchiladas, and more.

Fourteen-year-old Lincoln Mendoza, an aspiring basketball player, must come to terms with his divided loyalties when he moves from the Hispanic inner city to a white suburban neighborhood. Lincoln Mendoza remains loyal to his former school's basketball team, even after he moves from the barrio to the suburbs and plays for his new school's team.

Prolific writer Gary Soto introduces the beauty of the much neglected literary form, the "proverb." His proverbs are quirky, fun, urban and enlightening for all ages. Some people might consider the literary genre of proverbs to be stodgy or out of date, perhaps pretentious and irrelevant in our techy world. Not so with Meatballs for the People: Proverbs to Chew On. These proverbs are all original, all beckoning for verbal debate and discussion, and...

Expanded from the award-winning Chicano poet's 1977 original, this poetry collection explores the hardships and joys of migrant workers in California. A timely new edition of a pioneering work in Latino literature, National Book Award—nominee Gary Soto's first collection (originally published in 1977) draws on California's fertile San Joaquin Valley, the people, the place, and the hard agricultural work done there by immigrants. In these poems,...

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.

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