Saints of the household (FSG 2023)
This haunting contemporary YA about an act of violence in a small-town--beautifully told by a debut Indigenous Costa Rican-American writer--will take your breath away.
Max and Jay have always depended on one another for their survival. Growing up with a physically abusive father, the two Bribri American brothers have learned that the only way to protect themselves and their mother is to stick to a schedule and keep their heads down.
But when they hear a classmate in trouble in the woods, instinct takes over and they intervene, breaking up a fight and beating their high school's star soccer player to a pulp. As the true details of that fateful afternoon unfold over the course of the novel, Max and Jay grapple with the weight of their actions, their shifting relationship as brothers, and the realization that they may be more like their father than they thought. They'll have to reach back to their Bribri roots to find their way forward.
Told in alternating points of view using vignettes and poems, debut author Ari Tison crafts an emotional, slow-burning drama about brotherhood, abuse, recovery, and doing the right thing.
OUr Shadows Have Claws (Algonquin 2022)
Fifteen original short stories from YA superstars, featuring Latine mythology’s most memorable monsters.
The worlds of these stories are dark but also magical ones, where a ghost-witch can make your cheating boyfriend pay, bullies are brought to their knees by vicious wolf-gods, a jar of fireflies can protect you from the reality-warping magic of a bruja—and maybe you’ll even live long enough to tell the tale. Set across Latin America and its diaspora, this collection offers bold, imaginative stories of oppression, grief, sisterhood, first love, and empowerment.
-Star review from Kirkus
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POETRy magazine (March 2021): young peoples Special edition
Poetry Foundation's first ever edition for young people. Guest edited by Margarita Engle, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Jacqueline Woodson; cover art by Colin Laureal. Featuring poets such as Nikki Grimes, Mariana Llanos, Padma Venkatraman, Heid E. Erdrich, Linda Sue Park, Elizabeth Acevedo, Ari Tison, Marilyn Nelson, and others.
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