Choices, Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
In this heartwarming historical middle-grade set in the 1930s -- perfect for fans of Esperanza Rising and Hattie Big Sky-- Margarita Sandoval and her family try to navigate the shifting winds of belonging in their new Wyoming town.
Some days, ten-year-old Margarta Sandoval feels as if the wind might blow her away. The country has been gripped by the Great Depression, so times are hard everywhere. Then she has to leave her famlia in New Mexico -- especially her beloved Abuelita -- to move to Fort Steele, Wyoming, where her father has taken a job on the railroad.
When Margarta meets Evangeline, she's excited to have a friend her own age in Wyoming. But it often seems like Evangeline, and everyone else in town, doesn't understand or appreciate the Sandovals' Hispanic heritage. At the same time, the Sandovals discover they might lose Abuelita's land and their ancestral home unless they can pay off her tax bill. Can Margarta keep her friend, help her family in New Mexico, and find a place in Fort Steele for good?