Gary Soto

Eddie's father, two uncles, and best friend are all dead, and it's a struggle for him not to end up the same way. Violence makes Fresno wallow in tears, as if a huge onion were buried beneath the city. Making an effort to walk a straight line despite constant temptations and frustrations, Eddie searches for answers--and discovers that his closest friends may actually be his worst enemies. Includes a reader's guide and a glossary of Spanish words and phrases.

In this new edition of his first young adult novel, Gary Soto paints a moving portrait of seventeen-year-old Jesse, who has left his parents' home to live with his older brother. These Mexican American brothers hope junior college will help them escape their heritage of tedious physical labor. Their struggles are humorous, true to life, and deeply affecting. Young adults will sympathize with the brothers as they come to terms with what is possible for each of them in an imperfect world. Includes a reader's guide.

A Hero for Everyone

Hector and Mando, two Chicano seventh graders from East Los Angeles, visit Hector's uncle in Fresno and find plenty of excitement after they witness a robbery and are chased by the dim-witted criminals.

In Japan for the summer to practice the martial art of kempo, Lincoln sometimes feels like little more than a brown boy in a white gi. Yet with the help of his Japanese brother, Mitsuo, Lincoln sees that people everywhere, whether friend or kempo opponent, share passions much like his own--for baseball, family traditions, and new friendships.

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. Reissue. 40,000 first printing.

These small essays are not unlike Dutch paintings of the sixteenth century. They are clear and precisely rendered, and are either thematically domestic scenes or pedestrian in their observations of the ordinary. There is a delirious joy in Soto's writings, and heartbreak. This collection features his much-lauded essays "The Jacket" and "Like Mexicans," along with new essays such as "Childhood Worries, or Why I Became a Writer," "Getting It Done," and the title essay in which Soto fashions himself to be Fresno's own Knut Hamsun, the Norwegian writer of the 1920s who lived on nothing more than his five senses. Poet and critic Christopher Buckley said of his poetry, "[Soto has] mastered his form, has found his voice, and has the life experiences to provide meaningful content." He could have been speaking of his prose as well. Soto is at home with the essay; he is able to paint moments that would otherwise seem dull and not worthy of comment. He picks up hitchhikers, sorts through the mystery of finding a wife, and pulls together his wits to solve the hunger of stray dogs. He is tender and outrageous; he is reflective on worldly matters and cagey with his family and friends. In all, his dazzling effects of language will keep the reader continually surprised. These portraits are set in his hometown, Fresno, and in his current residence, the San Francisco Bay area. They therefore mark his time and place, but honor the instincts of the master Knut Hamsun, who walked around his town, a spectacle of wonder. This volume includes forty-eight pieces: all of the personal narratives formerly collected in Small Faces, the best of Lesser Evils both volumes long out-of-print as well as five new essays.

For fans of Gary Soto and Matt de la Pe a comes a tale of a contemporary Mexican-American family with a "spunky and imaginative heroine" (Publishers Weekly). Miata Ramirez is scared and upset. The skirt she brought to show off at school is gone. She brought her forklorico skirt to show off at school and left it on the bus. It's not just any skirt. This skirt belonged to Miata's mother when she was a child in Mexico. On Sunday, Miata and her dance group are supposedgoing to dance forklorico, or traditional Mexican folk dances; and that kind of dancing requires a skirt like the one Miata lost. It's Friday afternoon. Miata doesn' t want her parents to know she's lost something again. Can she find a way to rescue the precious skirt in time? With its focus on family ties, friendship, and ethnic pride and Includes an afterword from its acclaimedthe author, The Skirt is a story that children everywhere will relate to and be inspired by, no matter their background. "A light, engaging narrative that successfully combines information on Hispanic culture with familiar and recognizable childhood themes.... A fine read-aloud and discussion starter, this story blends cultural differences with human similarities to create both interest and understanding."--SLJ "Light, easy reading . . . offering readers a cast and situations with which to identify, whatever their own ethnic origins."--The Bulletin "Soto's light tale offers a pleasant blend of family ties, friendship and ethnic pride... and Miata is] a spunky and imaginative heroine."--Publishers Weekly

For over two decades, the award-winning poet and author Gary Soto has been offering his readers a vision that transcends the ordinary, making him one of today's most celebrated Chicano writers. New and Selected Poems includes the best of his seven full-length collections, plus over 23 new poems previously unpublished in book form. From the charged, short-lined poems of Soto's early writing to an unflinching look at poverty and hard labor in California's Central Valley to the off-beat humor in his longer, more recent work, New and Selected Poems is a timely tribute to a brilliant writer whose work confirms the power of the human spirit to survive and soar.

Gary Soto has become the best known Chicano poet and one of the most widely praised American poets of his generation. These poems, like those in his three previous books, are highly imaginative and exciting in their craft. But unlike his previous work, the poems in Black Hair turn to themes of family and the possibility of friendship in an open world.