In this episode, we’re celebrating Hispanic Heritage with two of our favorite Latinx authors. First, host Suzanne McCabe talks with Aida Salazar about how one word, “deportation,” led to her heart-wrenching new novel, Land of the Cranes. Aida is also the author of The Moon Within, which won an International Latino Book Award for middle-grade fiction in 2019.

Then Francisco Stork, the author of such acclaimed YA titles as The Memory of Light and Marcelo in the Real World, talks about his latest novel, Illegal. This page-turning thriller follows Sara Zapata and her brother, Emiliano, and their desperate escape from Mexico to the U.S. Illegal is a sequel to Francisco’s earlier novel, Disappeared.

You can learn more about Land of the Cranes, Illegal, and all of our latest fiction and nonfiction at scholastic.com/kids. For a catalog of diverse books for readers of all ages, click here.