New Books From Cinco Puntos Press

This Thing Called the Future
By J.L. Powers

Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 208 pages
April 1, 2011
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1933693959
ISBN-13: 978-1933693958


Khosi lives with her beloved grandmother Gogo, her little sister Zi, and her weekend mother in a matchbox house on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. In that shantytown, it seems like somebody is dying all the time. Billboards everywhere warn of the disease of the day. Her Gogo goes to a traditional healer when there is trouble, but her mother, who works in another city and is wasting away before their eyes, refuses even to go to the doctor. She is afraid and Khosi doesn't know what it is that makes the blood come up from her choking lungs. Witchcraft? A curse? AIDS? Can Khosi take her to the doctor? Gogo asks. No, says Mama, Khosi must stay in school. Only education will save Khosi and Zi from the poverty and ignorance of the old Zulu ways.

School, though, is not bad. There is a boy her own age there, Little Man Ncobo, and she loves the color of his skin, so much darker than her own, and his blue-black lips, but he mocks her when a witch's curse, her mother's wasting sorrow, and a neighbor's accusations send her and Gogo scrambling off to the sangoma's hut in search of a healing potion.


In anticipation of J.L. Powers' newest YA novel, This Thing Called the Future due out this spring, Cinco Puntos Press is releasing the first five chapters now! Set in modern-day South Africa, the story follows Khosi, a 14-year-old girl faced with a slew of extraordinary circumstances: from a supernatural stalking to losing a loved one to AIDS.

To read the beginning of the book and learn more about This Thing Called the Future click here- Download PDF

J.L. Powers holds an MA in African history from State University of New York-Albany and Stanford University. She won a Fulbright-Hays grant to study Zulu in South Africa, and served as a visiting scholar in Stanford's African Studies Department. This is her second novel for young adults.

THE LOVESICK SKUNK

By Joe Hayes

Illustrated by Antonio Castro L.

10-digit ISBN 1-933693-81-9
13-digit ISBN 9781933693811
Format Hardback
Language English
Page Count 32
Publication Date October 15, 2010

Kids love tall tales. Tales that stretch the truth almost as tall as Joe Hayes himself. Joe was delighted when kids laughed and hooted about his story about The Gum Chewing Rattler. They kept asking him, was that story really true?

Now Joe has written a new story about his early years in Arizona.

Joe, the kid, was a creature of habit. If he decided he liked to do something, he would do it over and over again. Like wear the same t-shirt until it nearly fell apart or use the same pencil until he’d sharpened it down to a nub. He also had a pair of black and white high-top sneakers that he loved to wear. He wore them every day.

“Get rid of those shoes,” his mother told him one morning. “They smell terrible!”

Did Joe listen? Of course not. That is, not until he met one lovelorn lady skunk, enamored with the one thing that smelled worse than her!

Joe Hayes is one of America’s premier storytellers—a nationally recognized teller of tales—true and tall—from the Hispanic, Native American and Anglo cultures of the American Southwest.


Antonio Castro Lopez (L.) was born in Zacatecas, Mexico and has lived in the Juarez-El Paso area for most of his life. He has illustrated dozens of childrens’ books including Barry, the Bravest Saint Bernard (Random House), Pajaro Verde, The Treasure on Gold Street, The Day It Snowed Tortillas, and most recently The Gum-Chewing Rattler (Cinco Puntos Press). 

JUAN VERDADES
The Man Who Couldn't Tell a Lie /
El hombre que no sabía mentir

By Joe Hayes

Illustrated by Joseph Daniel Fiedler

10-digit ISBN 1-933693-70-3
13-digit ISBN 9781933693705
Format Paperback
Language Bilingual - English & Spanish
Page Count 32
Publication Date December 15, 2010

A wealthy landowner bets the farm that trusted employee Juan Verdades cannot tell a lie. The daughter of the man who stands to win the bet tricks Juan into making a foolish mistake. Juan wonders if he can admit it.

Don Ignacio is a wealthy landowner whose prized possession is an apple tree that produces the most delicious fruit around. He trusts only one man to care for this tree—his ranch foreman Juan Verdades. Don Ignacio is also a proud man and he lets his pride carry him into a dangerous bet! He bets a neighboring rancher his ranch that Juan Verdades cannot tell a lie. His opponent is determined to win the bet, using guile and the help of his beautiful daughter to trick Juan Verdades into stealing all of the fruit from the prized apple tree. Will Juan Verdades be able to tell the truth about what he has done? The ranch depends on it.

Originally published in 2001, this paperback edition of Joe Hayes’ classic story features the bilingual style common to his most popular books. Joe’s bilingual Spanish-English tellings and books have earned him a distinctive place among America’s storytellers. He lives in Santa Fe and travels extensively throughout the United States telling his stories.

Joseph Daniel Fiedler was born and raised in the Appalachian hill country of western Pennsylvania. He attended the Ivy School of Professional Art and Carnegie Mellon University. He is the recipient of a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators for book illustration.