On the Wings of La Noche by Vanessa L. Torres
Round of applause, y’all: this book won the Pure Belpré Award at the 2026 Youth Media Awards!
By day, Estrella “Noche” Villanueva is a lonely science nerd. By night, she’s a Lechuza, a jet-black owl who helps shepherd the spirits of the departed into the afterlife. When her human girlfriend, Dante, dies in an accidental drowning, Noche can’t seem to let go, visiting her spirit each night to get a little more time with her love. But with each encounter, Dante’s soul fades a little bit more, and Noche can’t figure out how to stop it. When Noche finds herself drawn to someone new in her human form, she is torn between these two loves and duty.
If We Were a Movie by Zakiya N. Jamal
This is a sapphic enemies-to-lovers romance set against the backdrop of a historic Black-owned movie theater. The enemies and lovers in question are an overachiever with her sights set on Wharton and her nemesis, who not only works at the theater she just got a job at—she’s her boss.
Very Dangerous Things by Lauren Muñoz
Dulce Castillo is hell-bent on winning her high school’s annual murder mystery contest, where the school’s criminology students are put to the test to solve a staged crime. Trouble is: the pretend victim is found for reals dead in the school greenhouse. I am equal parts jealous I didn’t go to a high school with a criminology class and excited to read this mystery.
Rosa by Any Other Name by Hailey Alcaraz
In this Romeo and Juliet-inspired retelling set during the civil rights era, Mexican American teen Rosa Capistrano is pretending to be someone she’s not. Desegregation means she’s allowed to attend the posh high school she hopes will help her chances of getting into college, but anti-Mexican sentiments force her to present as a white girl named Rosie for safety. When her best friend Ramon and classmate Julianne fall for each other in a star-crossed romance, Rosa is afraid her secret won’t be safe for long. She’s right, but not in the way she expects: a terrible tragedy occurs, placing her at the white-hot center of a town-wide scandal.
This book received a Pure Belpré honor at the Youth Media Awards, so keep the aplauso coming.
Capitana by Cassandra James
In this swashbuckling fantasy romance, Ximena Reale has trained for years at La Academia to join an elite group of seafaring pirate hunters known as the Cazadores. But her family’s reputation makes her an outcast: her own parents were pirates who were executed for treason when Ximena and her sister were kids. When a notorious pirate kidnaps the Luzan Empire’s queen, Ximena offers to track down the pirate and bring back the queen in exchange for a spot among the Cazador ranks. One minor complication: there’s only one Cazador cloak available, and she’ll be competing with her very talented–and very nice-looking—rival for the job.
This is part of a duology, and you don’t have to wait too long for the conclusion; Libertad will be out this June.
Canto Contigo by Jonny Garza Villa
Canto Contigo is a rivals to lovers YA romance about two high school mariachi singers. You can listen to me go on (and on) about the book as well as mariachi music on this episode of All the Books, then go listen to this amazing playlist. It’s got classics of mariachi, but also stuff from reggaeton and pop artists like Bad Bunny and Rosalía and other contemporary Latin American greats like Natalia Lafourcade and Carla Morrison. Oh, and Selena. ‘Nough said.
Once Upon a Quinceañera by Monica Gomez-Hira
A costly mistake has left Carmen Aguilar a few credits short of being able to graduate from high school, so she’s retaking an internship class to make them up. That’s how she ends up working as a Dream, performing at kid parties dressed in a Disney princess gown in the middle of a Miami summer. The gig is actually pretty chill since she works with her best friend, but then the boy who broke her heart joins the Dream team, too. This gets super weird when the Dreams are hired to perform at the quinceañera of the bratty cousin who betrayed Carmen and ruined her reputation. If she wants to earn those credits, Carmen will have to shut up and dance, fend off her hottie ex, and stop her spoiled prima from ruining her own damn quinceañera. If she can do all of that, she might just get her happily ever after.
Dealing in Dreams by Lilliam Rivera
I inhaled this book as soon as I learned it featured an all-girl street crew called Las Mal Criadas. In a corrupt matriarchal society, the leader of Las Mal Criadas, Nalah, dreams of leaving the streets of the fictional Mega City behind. She hopes to earn a place at the highly coveted Mega Towers, but entrance comes at a price: she must prove her loyalty to the city’s benevolent founder by committing unspeakable acts against her very own. Dealing in Dreams is such a badass, bold exploration of gender roles, class, and the corruptive nature of power.
The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas
Every decade, the gods’ half-human teenagers must compete in the deadly Sunbearer Trials to stop the evil gods from walking the earth. Teo, the trans son of the goddess of birds, was never eligible for the trials, but he still worries about his friends who are… Even his friend turned rival Aurelio, who is too handsome for his own good. But for the first time in a hundred years, the god Sol chooses him and another off-limits, untrained teen for the trial. Now, Teo will have to do his best if he doesn’t want to finish last and sacrifice his life at the end of the trials.
—R Nassor
Our Shadows Have Claws edited by Yamile Saied Méndez and Amparo Ortiz
Last but not least, this YA horror anthology of monster scares plucked from Latin American legends and folklore is absolutely stacked. Contributors include Julia Alvarez, Ann Dávila Cardinal, Racquel Marie, Yamile Saied Méndez, Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite, Claribel A. Ortega, and Lilliam Rivera… and that’s only half the list!
Through tales of vampires, zombies, shape-shifters, and more set across Latin America and the diaspora, this collection explores themes like racism, queerness, gender-based violence, and colorism. These are the stories that kept a lot of us up at night as kids, reimagined by some of the most brilliant YA authors of our time.
Don’t forget to put these new Latine YA books on your radar in 2026.
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