Robert Ramirez

As he prepares to recite the Declaration of Independence before his eighth-grade social studies class in California, the thing Francisco has feared for ten years finally happens. La migra, the immigration police, comes to his classroom and picks him up for deportation to Mexico. Soon back in the United States with a "green card," Francisco struggles through adolescence, working two or three jobs a day and striving to excel at school. But he also finds...

In this selection by John H. Ritter, a rough-and-tumble band of batsmen from a California boomtown insist they're the country's best baseball team. To back up their boast, they make a wager with the 1881 champion Chicago White Stockings. Into this high-stakes climate rides 12-year-old baseball virtuoso Jack Dillon with his newfound friend, Billy the Kid. This sets the stage for a fun-filled, rip-roaring baseball shootout.

Gary Phillips has earned a widespread reputation for breakneck-paced fiction that perfectly captures the hard edge of life on the streets. Bangers features Rafael "Saint" Santian, a key member of TRASH (Tactical Resources Against Street Hoodlums). There's a war being fought on the mean streets of Los Angeles. The gangstas are bad, but the elite cops out to bring them down are even badder. And they aren't afraid to bend the rules either-not if it means...

ALA Book Award winner Graham Salisbury writes dramatic stories for young adult readers. One of the most critically acclaimed books of 2001, Lord of the Deep is a vivid fishing adventure that takes place off of the great blue island of Hawaii. Since Bill married Mikey's mom, Mikey's life has become truly incredible. At age 13, Mikey is the youngest deckhand on the whole island, working hard on Bill's deep-sea charter fishing boat. It's his second week...

Fourteen-year-old Manny Hernandez lives in a housing project in southern California. He and his other Mexican-American neighbors sleep in houses made of sheetrock and tin. They sit in yards worn down to dust and hope that somehow luck will come their way. Poverty isn't the only problem in Manny's life. His father thinks Manny is as worthless as a penny. His crazy mother thinks she can scrub away or slap away his worries. Each day Manny hopes that...

Artist, author, and Texas Renaissance man, Tom Lea was a widely acclaimed man of many talents. His triumphant New York Times best-selling novel The Brave Bulls is considered a classic of Southwestern literature. Here, listeners are invited to explore the fascinating, visually evocative world of Mexican bullfighting in all its brutal glory.

The two things that Wilson Williams likes best about 3rd grade are drawing and taking care of the class pet, Squiggles the hamster. What he likes the least are timed multiplication tests. Why think about all those numbers when he could be drawing pictures of Squiggles? With gentle humor, Claudia Mills works through a common childhood problem to a surprising resolution.

New York Times bestselling author Carl Hiaasen's gripping debut. A witness to a gangland murder must outwit and outrun the vicious hit men on his trail - before it's too late. Chris Meadows's charmed life as an up-and-coming architect has kept him far removed from Miami's bloody drug trade. But his comfortable existence comes crashing down around him when Chris witnesses the hit-and-run death of an ex-girlfriend by a car full of drug smuggling gangsters....

Acclaimed author of The Warrior Heir, Cinda Williams Chima delivers this riveting sequel-a VOYA Perfect 10 and a New York Public Library 2008 Book for the Teen Age. Booted from one exclusive school to the next since his foster mom's death three years ago, 16-yearold Seph McCauley knows he's different. But he doesn't understand why he can summon menacing ravens, freeze summer ponds, and torch all he touches. And then Seph makes the mistake of trusting...

Judy Schachner's New York Times bestselling Skippyjon Jones books are beloved for their musical wordplay and zany stories. In Lost in Spice, the mischievous kitty boy determines that the planet Mars is red because it's covered in cayenne pepper. Unable to resist such an enticement, Skippyjon blasts off for an adventure filled with craters, otherworldly creatures, and plenty of things only his wild imagination could possibly conjure.