Books like Just Down the Street — picked by fans

This book is set in Mexico City, when a little girl takes her dog for a walk through her vibrant neighborhood, suddenly there is an earthquake! Everything goes completely silent, and then she sees the people race around and help friends and neighbors who are in trouble. She looks down to discover the baker’s little dog, alone and afraid. She scoops him up and decides to help him home.

Such an enchanting book. The illustrations are spectacular and detailed and so incredibly appealing, and the story mixes in some Spanish words, but it’s done in a way that makes it easy to follow. The flow of this book is absolutely flawless and perfectly captures life in Mexico City.

Grandma comes home from her visit to Mexico with a suitcase full of surprises. Inside was a wonderful little drum and a clay bird whistle. After playing music, Sabrina learns more about Mexico, from Mayan Princesses to cities of gold and chocolate, of course. Cacao seeds were used as money in the times of the Mayans! They also like to have melted chocolate poured over bowls of snow, just like a chocolate snow cone. After an afternoon of making traditional Mexican hot chocolate, Sabrina starts to understand that chocolate is an important part of her ancestor’s history.

I loved all the history and the illustrations in this bilingual book, and of course, I love chocolate!

The Rynnie Roo books are always such fun, and this one is no different. This book takes the reader on an adventure as they explore the animals that live in the Yucatan jungles of Mexico. It includes some words from the Mayan language and even talks about the many, many dinosaur bones that have been found in the region as well as the types of dinosaurs that were common there.

I love the characters Jean Johnson has created for this series and the fact that she actually grew up in the Yucatan jungle. It’s always great fun to read this one to my students here in Mazatlán, Mexico. They love learning about the other side of their country.

Two cousins, Charlie and Carlito, write to each other about their lives. Charlie is in the United States and talks about riding the subway to school in the big city and playing basketball with friends. Carlito is in the country in Mexico and walks to school each day past the “burro” (donkey) and the “nopales” (cactus), and plays football with his friends. Some things seem different but in many ways their lives are alike.

The art is a simple style but really charming and colorful and has won an honor award for the illustrations. There are Spanish words peppered through the book and what I really like is that it shows the strong connection between the two countries. In many ways, the United States and Mexico are also cousins.

This nonfiction history of Mexico was compelling because it details everyday life in the occupied country. It also provided details of the US and Mexico before and after the Mexican War.

We get a clearer sense of what motivated soldiers on both sides to join in the largest territorial battle in North America. For Americans it was a great adventure, for Mexicans, the defense of their homeland. I also like the author's use of irony and humor, which gives the book a balance that more academic history cannot risk.

In this masterpiece of historical narrative, Paul Sullivan investigates the 1875 sacking of a sugar plantation (called Xuxub) and the murder of its American manager by Maya rebels. Located on the geographical frontier between “Ladino” and Maya society, Xuxub became a microcosm of all of the conflicts that haunted Mexico as it entered its “Guilded Age”: inter-elite rivalries, international competition in the wake of the U.S.-Mexico War, and the overwhelming fear that the nation’s Indigenous population would rise up against encroaching liberal capitalism. It all comes together in a murder mystery, written more like true crime than an academic text, right down to the final poetic twist. This is an immensely enjoyable read, so much so that I have read it no fewer than fifteen times. 

I was given this as a present and what a wonderful present it was. Deborah Turbeville is a wonderful photographer whose work I admire. Her fashion photography was innovative, imaginative and so creative.

This book, a visual diary of her house and time in Mexico is filled with her signature blurred images, from black and white portraits to colourful interiors. It goes against everything we learn in Interiors but it’s magical, evocative, and gothic.

This short novel is by a Mexican writer and takes place underground. At first, we cannot tell who is living and who is dead, but we eventually accept the fact that the characters are ghosts. 

The ghosts come and go, remembering their past lives together. They remind each other of the events of the Mexican Revolution that they lived through, and they especially remember the strongman in the village. Pedro Páramo runs things with an iron hand, and he also pines for a woman who is beyond his control—the only thing he wants that he can’t have.

The voices in this novel are like a chorus of whispers breathing the picture of a poor village. I love the beauty and mystery of the writing. Many Mexicans consider this their greatest novel, and for all readers, it is a small masterpiece. 

When Cece’s older sister is kidnapped by a powerful, dark criatura, she must travel into Devil’s Alley and become a bruja to save her. To me, what makes this book special is Cece’s big, all-encompassing heart. She loves deeply and while it’s her heart that gets her into trouble, but it’s also what ultimately saves her. This was an incredibly meaningful theme to read into a book! I highly recommend this book as an escape; step into Cece’s life to glimpse the shadowy magic of the criaturas and also to experience the deeply moving love in her world.

A story in which the author celebrates her place of origin, her family, and her culture. It's about magic, and how it can take different forms, like when people's hands touch the earth or when houses turn into homes.

I love that the book feels so personal. The illustrations are beautiful.