Josefina hopes to become a "curandera" or healer like Tia Magdalena, and she is tested just before her tenth birthday when a friend receives a potentially fatal snakebite.

In 1826, strange occurrences on eleven-year-old Josefina's New Mexican "rancho" lead the young healer to wonder if old legends of lost treasure and the wandering ghost called La Llorona may be true. Includes a Spanish glossary and historical background information.

Babies enjoy the colorful fiesta with singing, dancing, hugs, and kisses.

Maria tries on her mother's wedding ring while helping make tamales for a Christmas family get together, but panic ensues when hours later, she realizes the ring is missing.

Maya, the flower girl, describes a Mexican American wedding through snapshots of the day's events, beginning with the procession to the altar and ending with her sleeping after the dance.

In the California desert, fourteen-year-old Angel is on the run from the man who abused her, killed her mother, and intends to kill her too.

After hearing that people are planning to kill a mountain lion in the wilds near her neighborhood, twelve-year-old Izzie decides that it is her duty to protect the animal.

When Chavela blows a bubble with a strange new gum, she floats away to Mexico, where her great-grandfather once worked harvesting the tree sap that makes gum chewy.