Books

Twelve-year-old Yolanda Sahagún, an aspiring nun raised by strict Mexican immigrant parents, likes to envision her family of nine children as the von Trapps from her favorite movie, The Sound of Music. But a larger-than-life family isn’t the only thing Yoli has in common with her fictional friends—she, too, is coming of age as war looms large.

In Yoli’s household, rules define everything—especially those about what the Sahagún daughters are old enough to do, like no talking to boys on the phone. But there are no rules on the battlefield, and Yoli is grown enough to understand that her draft-eligible favorite brother could be killed in the war. Determined to protect him, Yoli makes a pact with God. But what happens if God doesn’t keep his end of the bargain?

Set against a rich historical backdrop of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, Patricia Santana’s heartfelt middle grade novel balances weighty themes with warm family dynamics and a captivating voice that’s sure to be a favorite with fans of character-driven historical fiction, as well as contemporary readers who can relate to the challenges of just living their lives when it feels like the world is on fire

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Yoli’s Favorite Things drops Sept. 30th
It’s available now for preorder here or at your favorite bookstore:
Amazon –  Barnes & Noble – Bookshop

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Motorcycle Ride on the Sea of Tranquility

It’s April 1969, and fourteen-year-old Yolanda Sahagún can hardly wait to see her favorite brother, Chuy, newly returned from Vietnam. But when he arrives at the Welcome Home party the family has prepared in his honor, it’s clear that the war has changed him. The transformation of Chuy is only one of the challenges that Yolanda and the rest of her family face. Yolanda and her brothers and sisters learn how to be men and women and how to be Americans as well as Mexican Americans.

  • American Library Services Association’s Best Pick for Young Adults
  • California Readers Collection
  • San Diego Magazine’s Book Award winner in fiction
  • College Book of the Year – Southwestern College

“…radiant with family warmth and affection…[a] remarkably touching story about the ramifications of war on a shatter-proof Mexican family.” –Publishers Weekly

“A captivating portrayal…the novel is challenging, warm, provocative, often humorous, always engaging.”  –Rudolfo Anaya, author of Bless me, Ultima

“…will take you on an extraordinary journey through the tortured landscape of the late 1960s, and show you how the stench of a brutal foreign war and revolutionary winds at home swept into the lives of one Mexican American family in Southern California…Santana takes her place among those new Chicana writers who are refashioning the face of American literature for the twenty-first century.” –George Mariscal, author of Aztlán and VietNam: Chicano and Chicana Experiences of the War

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Ghosts of el Grullo

Having left her much-loved barrio, Yolanda Sahagún is now living in the university dorms when a series of events forces her to re-examine her life in San Diego, California. She also returns to her parents’ hometown of El Grullo, Mexico, struggling to understand the ghosts in her life—her mother, her father, and her seemingly idyllic childhood home life. This is a story of Yolanda’s initiation into womanhood and her fierce struggle to make sure her family does not disintegrate. This is a story of Yolanda holding herself together and coming to womanhood beautifully-in spite of the chaos around her. Family and sexual politics; love, death, and abandonment; the struggle to resolve a personal identity in the context of a shattered, first-generation immigrant American family—these are the hugely painful obstructions Yolanda must surmount, circumnavigate, or incorporate into her own being as she makes her life’s journey. Yet the remarkable Yolanda—clever, self-revealing, furious, tender, insightful, humorous and ultimately just—carries the reader with her eagerly, every step of the way.

  • Premio Aztlán Award
  • Before Columbus American Book Award
  • San Diego Book & Writing Award—Best General Fiction

“Santana’s vividly descriptive novel…[is a] refreshing coming-of-age tale…an emotional tale of forgiveness, grace and understanding…”  —Booklist

“Family crisis, family love and everyday events are handled with such warmth and caring…[Santana] has created a fiction family full of life and love.” —Armchair Interviews

“This novel is of particular significance since it one of the few to map out a college student’s awakening consciousness in Southern California’s Movimiento era.” —Critical Mass: the blog of the National Book Critics Circle Board of Directors

“Ghosts of El Grullo offers a rich conversation between tradition and revolution in American culture.” —El Paso Times