Books don’t just train a child’s mind and imagination — they also grow their heart. If you’re still looking for that perfect book for a child you love, rejoice! Pasatiempo put together a list of 15 off-thebeaten-path books, most new or very recent and all sure to delight small and not-so-small readers.

The following books are set in New Mexico or the Southwest or are related to our region in a surprising way. They are also either by local authors, local publishers, or writers whose lives our state or region touched for the better. We’ve included the titles of some challenged and banned books that might prompt the special child in your life to start their very own revolution.

2-6 YEARS OLD

SOUTHWEST SUNRISE (picture book); Nikki Grimes (writer), Wendell Minor (illustrator); Bloomsbury Children’s Books; 2020; 40 pages; 3-6 years Jayden is not too happy about moving from New York City to New Mexico. Until, that is, he begins exploring his new surroundings and finds birds in piñon trees, adobe houses, the gigantic blue sky, and colorful flowers. Nikki Grimes and her illustrator, Wendell Minor, bring about the beauty of New Mexico and the Southwest on every page.

FRY BREAD: A NATIVE AMERICAN FAMILY STORY (picture book); Kevin Noble Maillard (author), Juana Martinez-neal (illustrator); Roaring Brook Press; 2019; 48 pages; 2-6 years

A modern Native American family celebrates old and new, traditional and modern, similarities and differences. Author Kevin Noble Maillard wrote Fry Bread in powerful verse, hoping to offer young readers like his own children a story packed with contemporary and non-mythical Native characters.

STILL DREAMING / SEGUIMOS SOÑANDO

(picture book, bilingual); Claudia Guadalupe Martínez (author), Magdalena Mora (illustrator); Lee & Low Books; 2022; 40 pages; 4–7 years

A young American boy is forced to leave Texas and the only home she’s ever known and move to Mexico. Her story, and that of other families the little girl meets on the road, illustrates the heartbreak of the Mexican Repatriation, a long-forgotten chapter of U.S. history that began during the Great Depression.

6-9 YEARS OLD

UFOHS! MYSTERIES IN THE SKY; Deborah Blumenthal and Ralph Blumenthal (authors), Adam Gustavson (illustrator); University of New Mexico Press; 2023; 40 pages; 6-8 years

UFOHS! cuts through pseudo-science and speculation to discuss phenomena seen and documented by people all over the world. Both authors are journalists, and their gorgeous and well-researched nonfiction book for children will have family members big and small talking about all the things they see in the sky.

CHESTER NEZ AND THE UNBREAKABLE CODE: A NAVAJO CODE TALKER’S STORY

(picture book); Joseph Bruchac (author), Liz Amini-holmes (illustrator); Albert Whitman & Company; 2018;

32 pages; 7-10 years (grades 1-5)

Chester Nez was a little boy when he was forced to leave the Navajo/diné reservation and sent to boarding school. And although he was taught that his native language and culture would never serve him, Chester refused to give up

on his Native heritage. When he grew up, the U.S. Marines recruited Chester and other Navajo/diné men like him during World War II to use the Navajo language to create an unbreakable military code.

ELAN, SON OF TWO PEOPLES (picture book); Heidi Smith Hyde (author), Mikela Provost (illustrator); Kar-ben Publishing; 2014; 32 pages; 5-9 years (kindergarten – grade 3)

Elan lives in San Francisco with his Jewish father and his Native mother, who is a member of the Acoma Pueblo. In 1898, he celebrates his bar mitzvah in San Francisco and travels to New Mexico to celebrate his coming-of-age and be welcomed into the Pueblo. The story is based on the life of a 19th-century Jewish man who became a Pueblo governor.

TORTILLA SUN; Jennifer Cervantes; Chronicle Books; 2014; 224 pages; 9-12 years

Izzy’s dad died before she was born, and one of the only things she has to remind her of him is an old baseball with “because magic” written on it. Her mother won’t share much with her about her father, but when 12-year-old Izzy spends the summer in her Nana’s remote village in New Mexico, she discovers long-buried secrets that begin to take shape in a landscape of red mountains and tortilla suns.

THE HAT DIARIES — THE SECRET LIFE OF RYAN RIGBEE (THE HAT DIARIES BOOK 1);

Nadine Haruni; Speaking Volumes; 2023;

252 pages; 8-12 years

Ryan Rigbee is a 13-year-old boy who grieves his father’s death, gets bullied, and has a difficult time — though only by day. By night, Ryan and his dog, Shadow, go on fantastical adventures about which Ryan writes in his diary and which help him gain confidence to face the world that awaits him during the day.

ACROSS THE DESERT; Dusti Bowling; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; 2021; 320 pages; 8-12 years

Jolene, a 12-year-old girl in Arizona, often watches livestreams of pilot Addie Earhart flying her ultralight aircraft over the desert. One day, Addie’s engine stops and the video goes dark. No one believes Jolene that Addie’s plane crashed, so Jolene sets out by bus, on stolen motorcycles, and on foot in search of the aviator.

THE DAY IT SNOWED TORTILLAS / EL DÍA QUE NEVARON TORTILLAS

(folktales in English and Spanish); Joe Hayes; Cinco Puntos Press; 2003; 144 pages; 10–12 years (grades 4-6)

This collection of folktales is by none other than our very own local storyteller Joe Hayes, who adds a modern twist to ancient stories to the delight of old and young. In the title story, a woman saves her husband from a group of thieves by making him believe that it’s snowing tortillas; in another story, La Llorona searches the river for her lost children.

THE STORM RUNNER (BOOK 1 OF THE STORM RUNNER SERIES); Jennifer (J.C.) Cervantes; Rick Riordan Presents; 2018; 448 pages; 8–12 years

Fourteen-year-old Zane Obispo has a limp and walks with a cane, and other children bully him for it. To escape them, he spends his days exploring the dormant volcano near his home in New Mexico. He soon finds out that the volcano is an ancient prison for the Maya god of death.

12-18 YEARS

DISPLACEMENT (graphic novel); Kiku Hughes; First Second; 2020; 12–18 years; 288 pages

While on vacation in California, Kiku falls through time to the

1940s, to the Japanese American internment camp where Ernestina, her now late grandmother, was imprisoned during World War II. Kiku soon finds herself stuck in time and watches her grandmother and other prisoners being denied their freedom and civil liberties and doing the impossible to survive. The graphic novel’s narrative may not take place in the Southwest per se, but it speaks of the universal reality of Japanese American internments camps, just like the one in Santa Fe.

MEXICAN WHITEBOY; Matt de la Peña; Ember; 2010; 272 pages; 14-17 years

Danny struggles to find his identity in a world that’s determined to define him. His mom is blond and has blue eyes, whereas Danny is brown, tall, and skinny. He is half-mexican but doesn’t speak Spanish and believes that his father now lives in Mexico because of Danny’s half-whiteness. The summer Danny spends with his father’s family in Mexico helps him shape and define who he is.

A SNAKE FALLS TO EARTH; Darcie Little Badger; Levine Querido Publisher; 2021; 384 pages; 12-18 years

Nina is a Lipan Apache teenage girl who’s looking for her voice as a documentarian. She tries to find out more about her family’s history and her relatives’ stories, many about animal people and the Reflecting World. In a parallel world, Oli — a young cottonmouth snake — tries to find his way and soon learns of the danger his own friend and Nina’s grandmother are facing because of climate change on Earth.