Esteban, a merry Spanish tinker, spends All Hallows' Eve in a haunted castle and helps a ghost win his way into heaven.

In the story entitled ñThe Neighbor,î seventy-nine-year-old Sarita has just called 911 to report a disturbance next door. Sarita doesnÍt much like her neighbor Matilde and thinks sheÍs a fool to put up with the philandering boyfriend who beats her. But Sarita feels obligated to help because MatildeÍs mother was her best friend. ñThatÍs for not singing at your funeral, even though I promised,î she whispers to her dead comadre. And this time, SaritaÍs deliberate provocation of the volatile situation next door will end the beatings once and for all. Past and present are interwoven in this award-winning collection of 11 stories dealing with migration across geographical and cultural boundaries. Set in California and Mexico, the characters in these stories struggle with all that life throws their way, including abusive boyfriends, separation from loved ones, and unfaithful spouses, all in an uneasy search for a balance between a Mexican past and a Mexican-American future. With vivid brushstrokes, Hernandez paints a collage of Latinas who work vigorously to overcome drastic situations. A woman is convinced that her brother-in-lawÍs constant fooling around with co-eds caused her sisterÍs heart attack, and she obsesses about getting revenge even if it means turning to brujeria. A young woman who has flunked out of college multiple times finally goes home to confront the memories of her fatherÍs sexual abuse that she hasnÍt been able to flee or forget. On her deathbed, Chata reveals to her daughter that when she was growing up in a small Mexican village, her first love was a beautiful prostitute. Themes of survival, identity, and cultural conflict are woven through the stories in this intriguing and entertaining collection, the winner of the University of California-IrvineÍs Chicano / Latino Literary Prize.

Harry and his brother, Alex, are dying to fit in at Camp Spirit Moon. But the camp has so many weird traditions. Like the goofy camp salute. The odd camp greeting. And the way the old campers love to play jokes on the new campers.Then the jokes start to get really serious. Really creepy. Really scary.First a girl sticks her arm in the campfire. Then a boy jams a pole right through his foot.Still, they're just jokes...aren't they?

Winner of the Omnidawn Open Poetry Book Prize

Get ready for Halloween with this child-friendly collection of spooky stories from all over the world.

A Life in Storytelling contains the reflections and lessons from one of the most noted storytellers of our times. Fifty years of storytelling has provided Binnie Tate Wilkin with the experiences and insights to form the basis of a text for the storyteller, both for the professional librarian, teacher or parent wanting to provide children with substance through story. The sections of the book are designed to provide background material for the art and craft of storytelling, the methods and uses of storytelling, sources and examples of stories, and a broad selection of over 100 stories briefly annotated. Included are sections that explain how to derive or adapt stories from current events, history, or imaginative writings and a detailed treatment in the use of dance in storytelling, a technique that, if not invented by Wilkin, has become a trademark of her approach. The treatment is always informal and personal and is interleaved with anecdotes drawn from the author’s more than 50 years of storytelling.