Product Description
This lively tale of a party-loving barrio cat who throws a surprise celebration for his friend Novio Boy is available in Spanish for the first time ever. With a lively text, bold art, and a setting and theme with Hispanic flavor, this is an ideal choice for the non-English–speaking reader. ... Read more

Product Description
Lincoln is in a jam when his basketball team at his new school where the students are rich and mostly white faces his old team from the barrio on the boards. How can he play his best game against his friends? Yet how can he betray his new teammates by not giving the game everything he's got? No matter who wins, it looks like it will be a lose-lose situation for Lincoln. ... Read more

Product Description
It's almost Cinco de Mayo, and Ricky's class is going to put on a play to celebrate the festive Mexican holiday. When asked to choose his costume, Ricky picks a big, bushy mustache, just like his dad's. With humor and tenderness, Soto evokes a warm celebration of both the beloved tradition of Cinco de Mayo and the strong bonds of love between father and son. Full color. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fun & odd book that children enjoy!
I really enjoyed this book as it follows a young boy who wishes he had a mustache like his father. The book introduces some spanish words such as, bigote (mustache). The story line is a bit odd but it is an overall fun book that is full of multiculturalism that children seem to enjoy. The illustrations go with the text nicely. I would recommend this book for children 3 years of age and older.

Getting hairy with Gary Soto
"Big Bushy Mustache" combines text by Gary Soto with illustrations by Joe Cepada. They tell the story of Ricky, a young Latino boy. His teacher is planning to have the class put on a play about Cinco de Mayo, and Ricky will get to wear a costume mustache. But Ricky gets into a jam when he disobeys the teacher's instructions.

This is a fun book with an effective Latino flavor. Ricky is an engaging young hero. However, there is a weird gender identity subtext surrounding Ricky's feelings about the mustache; in my opinion, this aspect of the story is handled awkwardly. Otherwise this is a good choice for a multicultural collection of children's books. ... Read more

Product Description
In this new collection of poems, Gary Soto once again displays his impressive poetic range- funny, sad, urbane, naïve. He digs deeply into his California hometown of Fresno and explores the wonder of the everyday in an ever-shifting world. In Soto's poems, precocious Berkeley dogs practice feng shui, raisins march out of a factory under the nose of the night watchman, and shirts are ironed "with the steam of Mother's hate." In the darker second part of the collection, Soto offers 12 "film treatments for David Lynch." What skincrawling delight Lynch could conjure with the tightwad furniture salesmen who meets his death in a pool "blue as toilet wash." Then, back from the brink, Soto presents in the final section a single long poem as graceful and meditative as anything he's written to date. One Kind of Faith confirms Gary Soto's immense talent and will bring his voice to an even wider audience. ... Read more

Product Description
We met these spirited best friends in Fearless Fernie, and now they're taking on the world! From boxing a kangaroo in Australia to craving Mexican food in Taiwan, or riding a runaway camel in Egypt and eating cheese as holey and smelly as their socks in Switzerland, the globe is their imaginary playground.

Gary Soto's accessible and humorous poems will elicit nods of recognition and bursts of laughter as readers enjoy this outrageous jaunt around the world.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Armchair Travel
Fernie and his best friend are world travelers in this book of poetry. Each poem is approximately 1 page long, and is about a different world location - San Francisco, Japan, Australia, Kenya, etc. I felt that the book captured a bit of each place through the poems, and that they were humorous and fun as well. For someone with an interest in poetry, geography, travel, or humor, this book would be a great gift idea or introduction to these topics. I generally dislike reading poetry but was drawn into this book because of the cute drawings and theme of travel. It was quite a nice read, although the final page - about California geography didn't seem to fit. Recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
Third-grader Graciela becomes convinced that her cat, Pip, is able tospeak Spanish when he looks at his empty bowl and appears to say,"Quiero más, Graciela," in a story that introduces basic Spanishwords and phrases. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Strange book
My first grader was assigned to read this book.I was so glad that I did not let my child read this alone.What a terrible book!A little girl who is neglected by her parents runs off to a neighbor's house without telling her parents where she is going.She befriends a man who apparently lives alone and enters his house upon meeting him!!! Then they share a secret!Ok, so the secret is a talking cat but the fact is sharing a secret with an adult male is such a strange plot.Maybe this irritates me so because of what we have been watching on the news.The only good thing we got out of this book is the fact that I talked to my children about how terrible it was and why.I did write to the school and asked that the administrators read it for themselves. Do not let your children read this book alone! ... Read more

Product Description
Gary Soto's eleventh book of poems for adults, Human Nature is full of arresting images and surprising scenarios and probably more uncanny opening lines than in any book you'll read all year. These poems pretend to be "simple" portraits of remembered youth and of life at the other end, where a man is walking into old age. Yet their surface transparency gives way to burrowing (often troubling) insights. Over and over he finds arresting, surprising cause for pausing and looking further, deeper, in the motley comedy of street life and family life and the erotic realm of memory. There is comedy on almost every page, but also the sadness of perceived futility. As a poet, Soto's characteristic vantage is bemused and amused, both. He has long been praised for his rich descriptions and strange imaginative leaps; he is well known for poems of childhood that are really open and exposed, and his work has connected powerfully with teenaged readers and their teachers. New in Human Nature are the bittersweet poems of aging, as an artist wonders aloud how something as quiet and delicate as a poem can hold its own in the raucous, rude, careening mayhem of our national public life. What should a poet do? Keep singing, of course. The muse must be given homage, no matter how worn out she looks. And even in his bruised uncertainty, Soto always brings a distinctive verbal mischief and descriptive beauty to the task of praising our not always very pretty world. ... Read more

Product Description
Silver Mendez, veteran Chicano poet, is always looking for a way to guarantee himself three square meals a day and a roof over his head. As this latest account of Silver’s misadventures begins, our hero reaches for a typewriter on a high shelf. When it comes crashing down on his head he is knocked unconscious. He awakes with no idea where he is or why. Soon he discovers that he is in his office at a Baptist college in the Simi Valley of southern California, a place that is familiar to many Americans as the home of many of the jurors who tried and convicted Rodney King in the 1990s. Silver has become a professor of English! Moreover, as he soon discovers to his horror, he is having an affair with the wife of the college president. And someone seems to be selling drugs on campus and Silver seems to be involved though he doesn’t know how.

In his previous Silver Mendez novels Gary Soto has blended comedy and pathos, but this new book is a sharp-eyed romp, an academic comedy about politics and political correctness, which is nonexistent at Silver’s school. Gary Soto is an equal opportunity satirist. No academic is immune to his sense of the ridiculous, and neither is anyone else. ... Read more

Product Description
The author of A Summer Life shares memories of his childhood, such as the hideous jacket he was forced to wear for three years, his grandmother's advising him to be a barber, and other gems. Reissue. ... Read more

Product Description
A Book of Poems ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

This book was pretty awesome
I think that this book of poetry is full of beautiful poems that really pull you into the realistic themes of Gary Soto's poems. His poems were beautifly written and are full of stories. I think that this book is definetly a good one for poets who like realistic situations and descriptive moments. Since I love writing I thin Gary Soto has a unique way of writing and any one who read this review (but I would recommend it for people ages 9+) and liked the sound of this book. This book definetly earns 5 stars!

These poems were great.
The poems in gary soto's latest book [A fire in my hands]are so descriptive they are telling stories. Each poem he writes is a moment, and in some of the poems you feel like you are really there. The reason I gave this book four stars is because some of the poems are too much like stories and it doesn't have the same effect on you as it would if it were more poetic and less like a storie though I do know since I am a writer myself that each author has their own style, and some of his poems were not exactly enthralling so I said above. I am 11 and since I read it I would recommend this book to kids maybe 10 to adult because people younger might not understand some of the poems and that totally takes away the effec of poetry. Thanks for reading my review, Lizzy ... Read more

Product Description
A Book of Poems ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

This book was pretty awesome
I think that this book of poetry is full of beautiful poems that really pull you into the realistic themes of Gary Soto's poems. His poems were beautifly written and are full of stories. I think that this book is definetly a good one for poets who like realistic situations and descriptive moments. Since I love writing I thin Gary Soto has a unique way of writing and any one who read this review (but I would recommend it for people ages 9+) and liked the sound of this book. This book definetly earns 5 stars!

These poems were great.
The poems in gary soto's latest book [A fire in my hands]are so descriptive they are telling stories. Each poem he writes is a moment, and in some of the poems you feel like you are really there. The reason I gave this book four stars is because some of the poems are too much like stories and it doesn't have the same effect on you as it would if it were more poetic and less like a storie though I do know since I am a writer myself that each author has their own style, and some of his poems were not exactly enthralling so I said above. I am 11 and since I read it I would recommend this book to kids maybe 10 to adult because people younger might not understand some of the poems and that totally takes away the effec of poetry. Thanks for reading my review, Lizzy ... Read more

Product Description
Poems deal with dreams, mortality, violence, memories, marriage, parenthood, and nature. ... Read more

Product Description
Twenty years ago, when Silver Mendez was the youthful author of two published books of poetry, he bragged that he was the first Chicano to write in complete sentences. His career has been going steadily downhill ever since. But a letter from Spain may change his luck. Silver is invited to Madrid to participate in a conference on Chicano literature. Now all he needs is money—for a plane ticket, a new passport, and a place to stay. And oh, yes—he needs to be able to send e-mail to Spain. Silver, a poet without a job, a home, or even a typewriter to his name, has his work cut out for him. His old friend Al Sanchez, a body and fender man who used to play drums in a rock band, is tapped out and angry because Silver never repaid Al’s last loan. But even in the face of these imposing obstacles, Silver is determined not to miss this chance at the life a poet should live.

Gary Soto introduced us to Silver in Nickel and Dime, where the homeless poet crossed paths with an assortment of other hard-luck Oakland compadres. Here once again Soto’s virtuoso ability to combine humor and pathos etches a warmhearted portrait of the stumbling Silver. Even while we laugh at his misadventures, we cheer him on as he lurches toward a new life with an old love. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Charming and hopeful
Silver, a 39 year old down and out poet doesn't have a lot to get excited about...until a letter arrives inviting him to speak at a literary conference in Spain.There's just one problem, Silver is broke, not to mention homeless, unemployed, semi-estranged from his mother, and trying hard to avoid the cops and past debtors hot on his trail. Oh yeah, and his last poetic "hit" was almost two decades ago.

The letter, however, has reawakened some old dreams. Silver's inner poet and lover have come back to life and are longing to express themselves.And they do, in an unsentimental, but hopeful and charming way.Is Silver named for the bright lining he detects behind every ominously dark cloud? Will his spirit help him survive in the face of depressing odds?Will love thrive even as friends and family pass away?

Silver's street philosophy and undaunted hope will engage the reader as will his love and lust for a former sweetheart - now middle aged, widowed and overweight.The less than perfect characters have flaws we can all identify with and Silver's self awareness, honesty and big heart will have readers rooting for him.I loved this book. ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of forty new poems by the National Book Award finalist explores the many faces of angst, anxiety, and misguided realities of childhood and adolescence. Simultaneous. IP. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Wonderfull stories
I bought this book for.50 at a garage sale; best .50 I've spent in a long time. The stories are so touching; some show how the human spirit endures and flourishes in spite of all odds. I plan to order copies for Ca.friends.

A window into the Calif. the media doesn't show
A great collection of essays on a California that visitors and recent arrivals may not know. It shows the variety and rootedness of the many people who live there. I'm sad to see it's out of stock -- I wanted to get several copies as gifts for friends -- others who love where we grew up. Essays are divided by region. Some are better than others, but as a whole, this is a great book. One note, it may resonate more with those who actually grew up there..

captures the essence of childhood in the Golden State
Divided regionally, California Childhood takes you through the deserts, mountains and gritty streets of California's famous and not-so-famous towns and cities.The stories are rooted in the vivid childhood memories of numerous authors, allowing painful and memorable glimpses into events we can all identify with.Whether you love or hate California, the stories in this book are universal. Attention:this book is permanently out of stock at its publisher.Please request a reprinting--you'll be so glad you did ... Read more