I sat on Apá’s bench when I got home. I remembered the day I told him how excited I was about school. My last year in elementary school was over and so many things had happened. Some were terrible. But sixth grade didn’t matter any more. I was bigger. The world was bigger. I heard the tree branches shaking their leaves loose. I heard Apá swaying in the wind, with his branches rapping loud against the windows. I smiled.
Seventh grade, eighth grade, the first day of high school, college and many more days would come. It was okay. The universe didn’t feel so large and empty.
Claudia Guadalupe Martínez grew up in El Paso, Texas where she learned that letters form words from reading the subtitles of old westerns for her father. At age six, she already knew she wanted to create stories. Her father encouraged her to dream big and write a book one day. Although he passed away when Claudia was eleven, her family continued to encourage her dreams. She went on to receive a degree in literature and later moved to Chicago. There, she turned her attention to the completion of her first book.
Advance Praise for The Smell of Old Lady Perume
“This is a story of apás and mijas and life and death set in El Paso—on the border between the North and South, Spanish and English, tradición and assimilation. And the biggest border of them all: the sixth grade, that mountain top where you can look back and see monsters under the bed and look ahead to even scarier things, like kisses, popularity contests and sudden absences that can fill a heart to bursting. Claudia Martínez delivers it all with her own sweet, sad, and playful word-music, a sound like the border itself.”
—Rubén Martínez, Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail
The world of Chela Gonzalez suddenly falls apart in sixth grade. But out of heartbreak, a new one eventually takes shape, rooted in true friendship, family, and self-esteem.
—Viola Canales, Orange Candy Slices and Other Secret Tales, and The Tequila Worm.
Goooooolaso! Claudia Martinez scores! The Smell of Old Lady Perfume will linger on you for days. Anyone whose had to confront a cafeteria caste system, battle Mean Girls en espanol, or wistfully desire a father and daughter relationship reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird will love this book.
—Michele Serros, Honey Blonde Chica
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