March is Women’s History Month, and we are bringing you incredible stories written by talented women writers. From the immigrant experience to ancient Mesoamerica, this month’s books feature stories of women discovering the truth of themselves and their place in the world.

The Lost Dreamer by Lizz Huerta

This YA fantasy – inspired by ancient Mesoamerica – explores patriarchal power and female strength to bring stunning new life to a bygone era.

Indir is a Dreamer and carries the rare gift of Dreaming truth. When the beloved king dies and his son comes to power, he turns his attention to the Dreamers and seeks to bring them to a permanent end. The violent change will shake Indir’s world, forcing her to choose to fight for her home or survival.

Saya is an untrained seer. Her mother exploits her gift, passing it off as her own as they move from village to village as if they’re on the run from something. Saya loses the necklace she’s worn since birth and discovers that seeing isn’t her only gift. She suddenly feels as if her entire life is a carefully-constructed lie and decides to risk her life for the answers her family has kept from her.

 

You Sound Like a White Girl: the case for rejecting assimilation by Julissa Arce

As a young Mexican immigrant, Julissa Arce worked hard to lose her accent after arriving in San Antonio, TX in 1994. When she was told “you sound like a white girl” from a high school crush, she took it as a compliment. But as Julissa grew older and learned more about her place in the world as a brown immigrant girl, she began to understand that sounding like a white girl was a racist idea meant to tame her, change her, and make her small.

Julissa dives into and tears apart the idea that conformity leads to belonging. She uses history and her own experience to break down the assimilation myth as a constantly moving finish line for Black and brown Americans. She further argues that belonging only comes from celebrating yourself, your history, your culture, and everything that makes you unique. It’s when we turn away from the white gaze that we truly make America beautiful.

A Ballad of Love and Glory by Reyna Grande

It’s 1846 and Ximena Salomé is a Mexican healer who is putting her curative skills to use as an army nurse on the frontlines of the Mexican-American War.

On the other side of the border, John Riley is an Irish immigrant in the Yankee army, sickened by the unjust war and unspeakable atrocities committed against his countrymen by nativist officers. In a defiant act, he swims across the Río Grande and joins the Mexican Army, forming the St. Patrick’s Battalion, a band of Irish soldiers willing to die for México’s freedom.

When Ximena and John meet, a forbidden attraction blooms between them. As the war intensifies, so does their passion. But the fate of the nation will determine their future together.

 

 

Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow

When Joan is 10-years-old, she flees her father’s violent temper with her mother, and her younger sister, seeking refuge in her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. But, unfortunately, it’s not the first time violence has altered the family’s trajectory. Just fifty years prior, Joan’s grandfather built this beautiful home in the historic Black community of Douglass, only to be lynched a few days after becoming the city’s first Black detective.

Joan finds solace in her artwork, creating portraits of the people in her new community. Her favorite subject is Miss Dawn, who claims to know a little something about curses. Her stories about the past help Joan see how her mother, her mother’s mother, and the mothers before them made impossible choices so that she wouldn’t need to define her life by loss and anger.

 

Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu

It’s 1938, and Meilin’s future in China looks bright. But, the Japanese army is approaching, and soon she and her four-year-old son Renshu must flee across the country with nothing more than their wits and an illustrated handscroll of ancient fables.

Years pass and Renshu is now Henry Dao living in America. His daughter, Lily, is desperate to understand her heritage, but Henry refuses to talk about his childhood. Henry struggles to keep his family safe in this new land amidst the weight of his history as the exploration of stories unfolds. How can Lily learn who she is if her father won’t share her family’s story?