September 2019 Book of the Month
The Affairs of the Falcons: A Novel
by Melissa Rivero
Published by: Ecco / Harper Collins
ISBN-10: 0062872354
ISBN-13: 978-0062872357
SYNOPSIS:
Ana Falcón, along with her husband Lucho and their two young children, has fled the economic and political strife of Peru for a chance at a new life in New York City in the 1990s. Being undocumented, however, has significantly curtailed the family’s opportunities: Ana is indebted to a loan shark who calls herself Mama, and is stretched thin by unceasing shifts at her factory job. To make matters worse, Ana must also battle both criticism from Lucho’s cousin—who has made it obvious the family is not welcome to stay in her spare room for much longer—and escalating and unwanted attention from Mama’s husband.
As the pressure builds, Ana becomes increasingly desperate. While Lucho dreams of returning to Peru, Ana is deeply haunted by the demons she left behind and determined to persevere in this new country. But how many sacrifices is she willing to make before admitting defeat and returning to Peru? And what lines is she willing to cross in order to protect her family?
The Affairs of the Falcóns is a beautiful, deeply urgent novel about the lengths one woman is willing to go to build a new life, and a vivid rendering of the American immigrant experience.
Author webpage: https://www.melissa-rivero.com/bio
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissarivero_/
BIO:
Melissa Rivero was born in Lima, Peru and raised in Brooklyn. A former Emerging Writers Fellow at the Center for Fiction, she is a graduate of NYU and Brooklyn Law School. She currently works as in-house legal counsel at a startup. Melissa still lives in Brooklyn with her family. The Affairs of the Falcóns is her first novel.
September 2019 Conversations Book
Silver Meadows Summer
by Emma Ortheguy
Published by: Knopf Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House
ISBN-10: 1524773239
ISBN-13: 978-1524773236
SYNOPSIS:
Just right for fans of Pam Muñoz Ryan, this story of moving out and moving on is a touching portrayal of the experience of leaving one’s home country and making new friends–sometimes where least expected.
Eleven-year-old Carolina’s summer–and life as she knows it–is upended when Papi loses his job, and she and her family must move from Puerto Rico to her Tía Cuca and Uncle Porter’s house in upstate New York. Now Carolina must attend Silver Meadows camp, where her bossy older cousin Gabriela rules the social scene.
Just as Carolina worries she’ll have to spend the entire summer in Gabriela’s shadow, she makes a friend of her own in Jennifer, a fellow artist. Carolina gets another welcome surprise when she stumbles upon a long-abandoned cottage in the woods near the campsite and immediately sees its potential as a creative haven for making art. There, with Jennifer, Carolina begins to reclaim the parts of the life she loved in Puerto Rico and forget about how her relationship with Mami has changed and how distant Papi has become.
But when the future of Silver Meadows and the cottage is thrown into jeopardy, Carolina and–to everyone’s surprise–Gabriela come up with a plan to save them. Will it work?
Author webpage: http://emmaortheguy.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EmmaOtheguy
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emma.otheguy
BIO:
EMMA OTHEGUY is the author of the bilingual picture book MARTÍ’S SONG FOR FREEDOM/MARTÍ Y SUS VERSOS POR LA LIBERTAD (Lee & Low, 2017) about Cuban poet and national hero José Martí, as well as the forthcoming POPE FRANCIS: BUILDER OF BRIDGES (Bloomsbury, 2018) and SILVER MEADOWS SUMMER (Knopf, 2019). MARTÍ’S SONG FOR FREEDOM received starred reviews, from School Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Shelf Awareness. MARTÍ was also named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, the New York Public Library, and the Bank Street Center for Children’s Literature. Otheguy’s short story for children “Fairies in Town” was awarded Magazine Merit Honors by SCBWI, and her scholarly article “Sermonizing in New York: The Children’s Magazines of Mary Mapes Dodge and José Martí” appeared in ETHICS IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE (Ashgate, 2014).
Emma attended Swarthmore College, where she studied children’s literature with Donna Jo Napoli and graduated with Honors. Later, she worked in farm-based education, at a children’s bookstore, and as an elementary-school Spanish teacher. She is now a Ph.D. Candidate in History at New York University, focusing on Spain and colonial Latin America. Emma has held fellowships and grants from the American Historical Association, the Council of Library and Information Resources, and Humanities New York. Emma lives in New York City, where she was born.
