Latin America

Mother of Sharks by Melissa Cristina Márquez

Biographical, Children, Juvenile Fiction, Latin America

Magical and imaginative, this autobiographical picture book follows a young girl’s explorations under the sea as she observes marine life and our critical need for marine conservation. I loved that Mother of Sharks features a Hispanic woman in STEM!

Mother of Sharks by Melissa Cristina Márquez, (List Price: $19.99, Penguin Workshop, 9780593523582, May 2023)

Reviewed by Jessica Nock, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina

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A Flower Traveled in My Blood by Haley Cohen Gilliland

20th Century, Adult Nonfiction, History, Latin America, South America, Women

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A Flower Traveled in My Blood is the masterful account of the Abuelas of Plaza de Mayo: women in Argentina whose children were “disappeared” by the brutal dictatorship in the mid-1970s, and whose grandchildren were stolen. The story is remarkable in many ways – not just for the tenacity of the grandmothers, who refused to give up on their missing families, but also for the way in which their struggle helped further international law and science, most notably in DNA identification. Blending painstaking research with a nuanced exploration of family ties, identity, and memory, A Flower Traveled in My Blood is heartbreaking, complex, and utterly enthralling.

A Flower Traveled in My Blood by Haley Cohen Gilliland, (List Price: $30, Gilliland, Haley Cohen, 9781668017142, July 2025)

Reviewed by Jude Burke-Lewis, Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi