Products
Products OverviewNewsela products are purpose-built to unlock student motivation, inspire teachers, and drive long-lasting learning outcomes.
Resources
About
Products OverviewNewsela products are purpose-built to unlock student motivation, inspire teachers, and drive long-lasting learning outcomes.
Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 to October 15, making it a great time to bring more Hispanic stories into your ELA lessons. But finding the right book is only the first step. Teachers also need context, discussion questions, and activities that help students read with care.
Use this list to find Hispanic Heritage Month books for elementary, middle, and high school students. Each title connects to a Newsela ELA novel or book study with texts, videos, student tasks, and writing activities that can help you build a fuller unit around the book.
Use elementary-friendly novels that give students a concrete character journey to follow. These picks work best when students can connect plot events to family, culture, language, and self-expression without losing the joy of reading.
“Esperanza Rising” connects family history, migration, and hope. The main character’s story gives students someone to follow closely while they build context about the Mexican Revolution, the Great Depression, and farmworker experiences.
The strongest area to focus on is the setting. Before students discuss why Esperanza and her mother leave Mexico, help them understand how place, class, and historical events shape the choices available to the characters.
From there, students can track how Esperanza responds to loss and change. Pair the novel with short texts about grief, working conditions, and cultural traditions so students can connect the character’s growth to real-world history and human experience.
Newsela ELA Novel Study
Use this Novel Study to connect Esperanza’s story to family history, migration, grief, labor rights, protest, symbolism, tradition, and hope.
Open Novel StudyOpen each group to find videos, articles, poems, and fiction that connect to the novel’s essential questions.
| Resource | Runtime / Reading Level | Why this resource? | Spanish? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pam Muñoz Ryan Video | 2:35 | Helps students see how family history and real-world events shaped the author’s inspiration for the novel. | |
| History of the Mexican Revolution Article | 580L–1230L | Builds setting context for the class, wealth, and gender expectations that shape Esperanza’s early life. | ✓ Yes |
| The Depression and The Dust Bowl Video | 2:26 | Introduces the economic and environmental crisis students need to understand Esperanza’s new life in California. | |
| Farming and the Dust Bowl During the Great Depression Article | 570L–1080L | Connects Esperanza’s experience to the broader history of farm labor during the Great Depression. | ✓ Yes |
| When Hoover deported 1 million Mexican Americans for supposedly stealing U.S. jobs Article | 570L–1340L | Helps students understand repatriation and the fear, instability, and discrimination Mexican American families faced during the era. |
Scroll left to right to see the full table.
| Resource | Runtime / Reading Level | Why this resource? | Spanish? |
|---|---|---|---|
| When Labor Laws Left Farmworkers Behind—and Vulnerable to Abuse Article | 600L–1320L | Extends the novel’s labor-rights themes into a real-world discussion about protections for farmworkers. | ✓ Yes |
| “We’re not animals”: U.S. farmworkers labor in deadly heat with few protections Article | 550L–1390L | Connects the novel’s farmworker themes to contemporary working conditions and student discussion about worker safety. | ✓ Yes |
| Dolores Huerta: “Yes we can!” Video | 2:36 | Gives students a model for understanding activism, organizing, and public voice. | |
| Civil rights icon Huerta has advice for a new generation of activists Article | 500L–1330L | Helps students compare protest and resistance in the novel with real activist guidance from Dolores Huerta. | ✓ Yes |
| “Protest”: A poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox Poem | Gives students a literary text for comparing how different genres develop ideas about protest and resistance. |
Scroll left to right to see the full table.
| Resource | Runtime / Reading Level | Why this resource? | Spanish? |
|---|---|---|---|
| How to deal with the death of a loved one Article | 430L–1010L | Gives students language for discussing Esperanza’s grief and the different losses she experiences. | ✓ Yes |
| Symbolism Video | 2:06 | Prepares students to analyze the plants, traditions, and repeated images that carry meaning in the novel. | |
| The Sun Stands Still Fiction | 620L–720L | Supports comparison of symbolism, ritual, and cultural meaning across literary texts. | ✓ Yes |
| “Peaches”: A poem by Adrienne Su Poem | 710L | Lets students compare how poetry uses everyday objects to express memory, tradition, and identity. | |
| “Walnuts in Nangarhar”: A poem by Zohra Saed Poem | 670L | Helps students compare symbols of family, place, and cultural connection across texts. | |
| Basket weavers plant the seeds of Gullah culture in the next generation Article | 610L–1260L | Connects Esperanza’s family traditions to the way cultural practices can carry memory across generations. | |
| How kiddie pools of kimchi bind Korean families together Article | 460L–1240L | Gives students another example of how food, family, and tradition can preserve culture across generations. | ✓ Yes |
Scroll left to right to see the full table.
Newsela Writing activity
Move from discussion to literary analysis. Students can use this long-form writing assignment to analyze how protest, injustice, and resistance develop across “Esperanza Rising.”
“Return to Sender” gives two points of view on the same situation. Tyler’s family needs help to keep their Vermont farm running, and Mari’s family needs work while living in fear of separation and deportation.
Use this Novel Study to get students thinking about immigration, migrant work, stereotypes, and what it takes to build an accepting community. The supporting resources help them move between historical context, character perspective, and symbolism.
Newsela ELA Novel Study
Use this Novel Study to help students explore immigration, migrant work, family separation, perspective-taking, inclusive communities, and belonging.
Open Novel StudyOpen each group to find videos, overviews, articles, biographies, myths, and related texts that connect to the novel’s essential questions.
| Resource | Runtime / Reading Level | Why this resource? | Spanish? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Julia AlvarezVideo | 2:33 | Introduces Alvarez and gives students context for the author’s interest in immigration, identity, and belonging. | |
| Issue Overview: Skilled immigrantsOverview | 610L–1270L | Helps students ask early questions about immigration and the challenges immigrants may face in the novel. | ✓ Yes |
| Issue Overview: Immigration reformOverview | 610L–1280L | Builds background knowledge about immigration policy questions that shape the fears and choices in the novel. | ✓ Yes |
| Why do people move from place to place?Video | 2:08 | Gives students a simple framework for discussing why individuals and families migrate. | |
| The History of European Immigrants in the United StatesArticle | 590L–1290L | Helps students compare past immigrant experiences with the treatment of Mari’s family. | ✓ Yes |
| The Irish Immigrant ExperienceArticle | 550L–1290L | Supports comparison of discrimination, economic need, and belonging across immigrant histories. | ✓ Yes |
| Project seeks stories of Chinese railroad workersArticle | 590L–1230L | Shows how immigrant labor has shaped U.S. history while also raising questions about whose stories get remembered. | ✓ Yes |
Scroll left to right to see the full table.
| Resource | Runtime / Reading Level | Why this resource? | Spanish? |
|---|---|---|---|
| A lesson from history about protecting migrant workersArticle | 880L–1370L | Connects the Cruz family’s work to a broader discussion about migrant worker protection and community responsibility. | |
| Dolores Huerta: “Yes we can!”Video | 2:36 | Introduces students to farmworker advocacy and gives them a model for speaking up against injustice. | |
| Civil Rights Activists: Dolores HuertaBiography | 560L–1230L | Helps students profile Huerta’s work and connect real advocacy to the worker-rights questions in the novel. | ✓ Yes |
Scroll left to right to see the full table.
| Resource | Runtime / Reading Level | Why this resource? | Spanish? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perspectives in the first, second, and third personVideo | 5:00 | Prepares students to analyze how Tyler’s and Mari’s alternating first-person perspectives shape the story. | |
| After photo went viral, Jewish and Muslim families form lasting friendshipArticle | 530L–1380L | Shows students how new perspectives can help people challenge stereotypes and build relationships. | ✓ Yes |
| Students teach each other their languages and learn acceptanceArticle | 510L–1190L | Connects the novel’s themes of language, acceptance, and belonging to a real classroom community. | ✓ Yes |
| Why stereotypes should be avoidedArticle | 600L–1240L | Gives students language for discussing stereotypes and how communities can become more inclusive. | ✓ Yes |
Scroll left to right to see the full table.
| Resource | Runtime / Reading Level | Why this resource? | Spanish? |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Zodiac constellationsVideo | 4:08 | Supports the culminating constellation task by introducing students to star patterns and their meanings. | |
| Myths and Legends: The Greek gods in the stars and constellationsMyth | 390L–910L | Gives students a mentor text for writing a myth connected to a constellation and a central theme. | |
| Relearning the star stories of Indigenous peoplesArticle | 570L–1050L | Broadens the constellation activity by showing how star stories can connect culture, place, memory, and belonging. | ✓ Yes |
Scroll left to right to see the full table.
Newsela Writing activity
Move from perspective-taking to literary analysis. Students can use this long-form writing assignment to analyze how different perspectives shape readers’ understanding of immigration, worker rights, stereotypes, and belonging in “Return to Sender.”
“The Wild Book” encourages students to discuss writing, confidence, and learning differences through Fefa’s story. Because Fefa’s “word blindness” is now understood as dyslexia, the novel can help students connect a historical character’s experience to present-day conversations about learning and disability rights.
Use the Novel Study when you want students to think about how writing can become a source of voice and courage. The supporting resources help students build context about the author, Cuba as a setting, and real people’s experiences with dyslexia.
Middle school readers are ready for deeper conversations about identity, migration, friendship, language, and justice. Use these units to give them enough context before discussion.
“Before We Were Free” shows students political history through Anita’s coming-of-age story. As her family becomes involved in resisting Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship, Anita starts to understand how fear, secrecy, writing, and courage can shape ordinary family life.
Use this Novel Study to help students connect historical context to character growth. The supporting resources invite them to build background knowledge on the Dominican Republic, explore writing as a way to process trauma, and analyze symbols of freedom across poetry and the novel.
“Call Me María” gives students a way to explore what it can feel like to live between languages, cultures, and homes. María leaves Puerto Rico to live with her father in New York City, and poetry becomes one of the ways she observes her new world and makes sense of who she’s becoming.
Use this Novel Study to help students connect identity, language, and culture. The supporting resources build background on Puerto Rican identity, discuss belonging and acceptance, and explore how poetry can turn personal experiences into voice.
“Summer of the Mariposas” turns a road trip into a magical, myth-inspired journey. As Odilia and her sisters travel to Mexico to return a dead man to his family, the story brings together folklore, Aztec ancestry, sisterhood, and family reconciliation.
Use the Novel Study to help students connect myth and magical realism to modern coming-of-age journeys. The supporting resources build context about Aztec history, heroic journeys, and Mexican and Mexican American storytelling.
“Taking Sides” follows main character Lincoln Mendoza as basketball forces him into conflicts he can’t avoid. After transferring from an inner-city school to a suburban one, Lincoln has to play against former teammates while figuring out where his loyalties lie.
Use this Novel Study when you want students to connect sports, friendship, class, and educational inequality in one tale. The supporting resources explore basketball as a competition and community builder. They also analyze how inequality affects growing up, and connect Lincoln’s conflicts to social influence, diversity, and literary conflict.
“The Circuit” gives students a firsthand view of migration, farm labor, and family uncertainty through Francisco’s autobiographical stories. As his family moves from place to place for seasonal work, Francisco holds onto his hope for education even when instability keeps reshaping his daily life.
Use the Book Study when you want students to connect migration and poverty to basic needs like learning and health care. The supporting resources shine a light on migrant children’s experiences, examine farmworker rights, and discuss how school and community support can shape a young person’s future.
“The Red Umbrella” helps students understand the Cuban Revolution through Lucía’s experience as a child forced to leave her home. After her parents send her and her younger brother to the United States through Operation Pedro Pan, Lucía has to adjust to life in Nebraska while carrying fear, homesickness, and uncertainty about her family’s future.
Use this Novel Study to help students connect political change to personal identity, family separation, and symbols of home. The supporting resources build context about Cuba, compare Lucía’s experiences across settings, and analyze how the red umbrella and other motifs carry meaning throughout the novel.
High school students are ready for more complex questions about identity, power, language, grief, and migration. These lessons pair strong context with close reading and clear discussion norms.
“Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” follows two Mexican American teenagers whose friendship changes the way they understand family, identity, love, and masculinity. Ari and Dante both carry questions they don’t know how to say out loud, which makes it a fit for lessons on emotional expression and self-discovery.
Use this Novel Study to help students connect character growth to art, literature, and culture. The supporting resources help students understand how the arts reveal truth, why Ari and Dante’s names matter, and how spoken and unspoken social rules shape the way people connect.
“Bless Me, Ultima” follows Antonio Márez as he grows up in rural New Mexico and begins questioning the beliefs, traditions, and expectations around him. With Ultima’s guidance, Antonio learns that two things can be true about family, culture, and good and evil.
Use this Novel Study when you want students to explore cultural conflict, storytelling, and the influence of place. The supporting resources help them build context about the Southwest, vaquero culture, Indigenous history, and multicultural identity.
“Chronicle of a Death Foretold” tells you the outcome before it starts: Santiago Nasar will be murdered. What makes the novella powerful is the way the narrator reconstructs how an entire community knew enough to intervene, but still failed to stop a preventable death.
Use this Novel Study to have students examine narrative structure, memory, justice, and community responsibility. The supporting resources help students understand magical realism, analyze social norms and stereotypes, and discuss how bystanders can affect injustices in public settings.
“Clap When You Land” follows Yahaira in New York and Camino in the Dominican Republic after their father dies in a plane crash. When the girls discover they are half-sisters, their alternating poems reveal emotions like grief and anger, and expose family secrets.
Use this Novel Study to help students connect novel-in-verse craft to complex emotions, symbolism, and coming of age. The supporting resources build background on the settings, study how poetry carries emotion, and analyze the water symbolism that runs through the novel.
“Dominicana” follows Ana Canción, a 15-year-old girl who marries an older man and leaves the Dominican Republic for New York City in the 1960s. Ana’s isolation in an unhappy marriage gives students a character study of gender, immigration, family expectations, and survival.
Use this Novel Study to help students examine coming of age through the lens of power, relationships, and lesser-told stories. The supporting resources build context of the setting, analyze gender expectations, and prompt students to think about why it matters to read stories with less common plot lines or protagonists.
[DOMINICANA HTML]
“Dreaming in Cuban” follows three generations of women whose family is divided between Cuba and the United States after the Cuban Revolution. Their shifting perspectives show how politics, language, memory, and betrayal can shape what people believe about home and truth.
Use this Novel Study when you want students to connect family conflict to larger questions about history and transnational identity. The supporting resources help them build context about Cuba and U.S.-Cuba relations, analyze how stories become history, and explore how language can affect identity.
[DREAMING HTML]
“Enrique’s Journey” follows a Honduran boy who travels through Mexico to reunite with his mother in the United States. Because the book is nonfiction, students can connect Enrique’s experiences to real questions about immigration policy, border crossing, and family separation.
Use this Book Study when you want students to examine how immigration systems affect lives and families. The supporting resources build context about migration routes and border policies, explore the emotional cost of separation, and compare Nazario’s reporting with more recent migrant experiences and public policy debates.
[ENRIQUE HTML]
“I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” follows Julia after the death of her older sister, Olga, whose image as the “perfect” daughter hides more than Julia’s family wants to admit. As she grieves, Julia questions her family’s expectations and struggles with depression, secrecy, and her own future.
Use this Novel Study when you want students to examine how grief, mental health, and family pressure can collide. The supporting resources discuss grief with care, connect Julia’s college essay conflict to family and immigration, and help students understand why suicide prevention and emotional health matter.
[PERFECT HTML]
“In the Time of the Butterflies” fictionalizes the lives of the Mirabal sisters, four Dominican women living under Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship. As three of the sisters become involved in resistance work, the novel asks students to think about courage, censorship, and how national events reshape individual lives.
Use this Novel Study to have students connect historical fiction to questions about real political systems, resistance, and personal conviction. The supporting resources build context about Trujillo and Las Mariposas, examine how people speak out under censorship, and compare different forms of courage across history.
[BUTTERFLIES HTML]
“The Book of Unknown Americans” follows Latin American immigrant families living in the same Delaware apartment complex. At the center of the novel are Maribel and Mayor, whose relationship develops while their families navigate prejudice, sacrifice, and the gap between the American Dream and daily life.
Use this Novel Study to have students compare immigration, belonging, relationships, and socioeconomic pressure to character perspective. The supporting resources help them build immigration context, evaluate the American Dream, and discuss healthy relationships and safety.
[UNKNOWN HTML]
“The House on Mango Street” uses short vignettes to follow Esperanza Cordero as she observes her Chicago neighborhood and begins to name what she wants from home, language, family, and her future. The novella’s compact structure makes it useful for close reading because each vignette carries image, voice, and emotion in a small space.
Use this Novel Study when you want students to connect coming of age to home, poverty, bilingualism, and identity. The supporting resources help them learn about Sandra Cisneros, examine the role of writing in expression, and compare poetry and other genres.
[MANGO HTML]
“The Poet X” follows Xiomara Batista as she uses poetry to say what she can’t express at home, at school, or in church. Her poems give students a way to discuss voice, shame, pride, faith, family, and the courage it takes to claim your own words.
Use this Novel Study to have students connect novel-in-verse craft to identity, setting, and emotional expression. The supporting resources help build context about Harlem, study contemporary and classic poetry, and analyze how faith can both support and constrain people.
[POET HTML]
“They Both Die at the End” also spoils the big reveal at the beginning. Mateo and Rufus receive calls telling them they will die before the day ends. But the novel’s emotional weight comes from what they choose to do with the time they have left.
Use this Novel Study when you want students to examine topics like life and death, grief, social media, and friendship. The supporting resources dive into how to discuss difficult emotions, compare literary perspectives on death, and evaluate the role of technology in the novel’s dystopian world.
[DIE HTML]
“With the Fire on High” follows Emoni Santiago, a talented young cook who is balancing high school, work, family responsibilities, and motherhood. When a culinary arts opportunity pushes her to imagine a bigger future, Emoni has to decide how to pursue her dreams without ignoring the people who depend on her.
Use the Novel Study when you want to draw connections between food, creativity, identity, and ambition. The supporting resources help students explore how cooking can carry memory and culture, examine the obstacles people face when reaching for a dream, and analyze the character traits that keep Emoni moving forward.
[FIRE HTML]
Hispanic Heritage Month is a great time to highlight Hispanic voices, but these stories can support strong ELA instruction well beyond September and October. As you browse these novel and book selections, think about the context students will need before they read and the conversations you want them to have after.
With Newsela ELA, you can pair every novel with leveled texts, videos, and other multimodal resources that build the background knowledge students need to understand the story and write about it with evidence.
Not a Newsela customer yet? You can create an account and start your free 45-day trial of our premium products to see everything the Newsela Learning Suite has to offer.
Use these Hispanic Heritage Month lesson plans to help students explore authors, poetry, paired texts, and Hispanic culture in ELA.
%20(1).jpg)
Use Hispanic Heritage Month STEM activities to teach about Hispanic scientists, space exploration, ecology, and science careers.
.jpg)
Use these Hispanic Heritage Month ideas for school to teach identity, culture, geography, civic action, and history in social studies.
.jpg)
