<DIV><p><i>Cecilia&rsquo;s Year</i> is the first title in Cinco Puntos&rsquo; new series, Latino YA Fiction. This lovely young adult novel follows in the classic tradition of <i>Little House on the Prairie</i>.</p><p>Fourteen-year old Maria Cecilia Gonzales is a dreamer. She&rsquo;s smart, for one thing, and she loves to read. Her books carry her far away, beyond the purple and blue mountains of the farm community she lives in&mdash;to high school and then on to a job in the big city.</p><p>But something stands in the way of her dreams. Cecilia is the second of six children and her oldest brother Elias doesn&rsquo;t like to study and isn&rsquo;t interested in going to high school. And, since it&rsquo;s the 1930s, just after the Depression, and since Cecilia and her family live in the quiet Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico, Cecilia&rsquo;s stern mother won&rsquo;t let her go to high school unless Elias goes. That would cause Elias to lose face in their tight-knit community. And anyway, Cecilia&rsquo;s mother thinks her daughter&rsquo;s highest aim should be to run a home&mdash;to cook and sew and to raise children. Elias&rsquo; only ambition is to be a farmer and no amount of cajoling by Cecilia seems to change his mind.</p><p>As Cecilia struggles to fulfill her goals, she experiences a deep appreciation for her family and the first tender feelings of romantic love. Susan and Denise Gonzales Abraham have woven the story of Cecilia&rsquo;s dreams into the months of the year, the land and the crops, and the routine life on a farm. The real Cecilia is Susan and Denise&rsquo;s mother. This, their first novel, is a tribute to her and to the deep roots of their family in rural New Mexico. The sisters live and work as educators in El Paso, Texas.</p></DIV>