The Smell of Old Lady Perfume by Claudia Guadalupe Martinez

At age six, she already knew she wanted to create stories. She learned that letters form words from reading the Spanish subtitles of old westerns for her father. Claudia grew up in a tight family in Segundo Barrio in El Paso, Texas. Then there's the new boy who came to help, the one with the softest of lips.Ĭlaudia Guadalupe Martinez, author of the award-winning The Smell of Old Lady Perfume, has long been distressed about how the global economy is displacing workers and families. But something's not right about the entrepreneur behind it all. Maybe their neighbors will come back too. As a last resort, the neighborhood grown-ups enlist all the remaining able-bodied boys and girls to haul bricks to help build a giant pyramid in the park in hopes of luring visitors.

Her family's bakery and the other surviving businesses may soon follow. SYNOPSIS: It's crazy! Fifteen-year-old Masi Burciaga's neighborhood is becoming more and more of a ghost town since the lard company moved away.

Review Source: De Colores: The Raza Experience in Books for ChildrenĪlso by this author: The Smell of Old Lady Perfume Published by Cinco Puntos Press on September 22nd 2014

He has been in contact with a New Mexico businessman, and if all the local businesses can contribute a sizable sum, the businessman will build a Mayan-style pyramid-“La Gran Pirámide”-in Pig Park to attract tourists.Ī fast-moving page-turner, Pig Park is an excellent example of how young people, through creative action, really can bring about personal and political change. The local councilman, though, has an idea.

The Smell of Old Lady Perfume by Claudia Guadalupe Martinez