SATA

PERSONAL

Married David Siders; children: Alice, Soledad.

Graduated from Northwestern University and University of Westminster, London, England.

ADDRESS

• Home - Stockton, CA.
• Agent - Jennifer Laughran, Andrew Brown Literary Agency.

CAREER

Writer, children’s author, journalist, and educator. Record, Stockton, CA, former reporter; currently freelance journalist. University of the Pacific, coordinator of community literacy initiative.

Lee & Low New Voices Award, 2011.

WRITINGS

• Finding the Music = En pos de la música, illustrated by Renato Alarcao, Spanish translation by Alexis Romay, Children’s Book Press (New York, NY), 2015
• Stef Soto, Taco Queen, Little, Brown and Company (New York, NY), 2017
• Flor and Miranda Steal the Show, Little, Brown and Company (New York, NY), 2018
• The Fresh New Face of Griselda, Little, Brown and Company (New York, NY), 2019
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SIDELIGHTS

UPDATE SUBMITTED IN SGML FORMAT.

The main character of Torres’s bilingual picture book Finding the Music = En pos de la música is Reyna, a young girl who spends much of her time in her family’s restaurant. Her grandfather was a well-known mariachi musician, and his vihuela, a small guitar-like instrument with a high-pitched tone, hangs in the restaurant in a place of honor. When Reyna accidentally damages the vihuela, she is sad for herself but especially for her mother, whose fond memories of her father are symbolized by the instrument. To prevent problems, Reyna makes it her mission to get the vihuela fixed before her mother finds out what happened to it. She approaches several adults in her small community, looking for help with getting the little guitar repaired. None of the people she talks to can help her the way she wants, but each of them is able to give her a small memento or object with direct ties to her grandfather, invoking his memory and his beloved mariachi music. Reyna is able to give her mother even more precious memories through her grandfather’s sombrero, a picture of him with his band, and a recording of his music. A Kirkus Reviews writer commented: “Torres makes a charming debut” in an “uplifting celebration of family, community, and culture.”

Stef Soto, Taco Queen also features a young girl with problems she feels may be too big to solve. Estefania “Stef” Soto is a seventh grader who is having a hard time gaining any independence. She feels like her parents, a pair of hardworking Mexican immigrants, are too overprotective and treat her too much like a baby. The most visible aspect of this is the fact they won’t let her walk home from school. Instead, her father picks her up in his rickety taco truck, the Tia Perla. Though her parents work hard to provide for her, she is still embarrassed to be called the “taco queen” because of her father’s food truck. As Stef bemoans the fact that she won’t be allowed to attend a concert by a teen music sensation, she discovers that new city regulations may put her family’s food truck business in jeopardy. She quickly becomes a ferocious supporter of the truck and what it means to her family as she learns that some things are important and worth fighting for. “Torres perfectly captures what it’s like to be a young person seeking independence and learning about responsibility,” observed Celia C. Perez, writing in Horn Book. A Publishers Weekly writer commented: “Stef’s fresh, honest voice will resonate with a broad swath of readers,” along with the “relatable struggles she negotiates.”

Two young members of a traveling carnival are the title protagonists of Torres’s 2018 novel, Flor and Miranda Steal the Show. Flor’s family manages a petting zoo on the Barsetti & Son All American Extravaganza carnival, and Miranda is part of her family’s band. Flor learns that Miranda’s family band’s popularity may put her family’s business at risk, which pits the two eleven-year-old girls against one another. Flor devises a plan to keep Miranda from performing, in hopes that her absence may diminish the band’s popularity and thus save her family’s petting zoo. She takes her on a tour of the carnival to make her lose track of time. During their outing, Miranda worries about singing a particular song in her family’s act. A Kirkus Reviews writer asserted: “Readers cannot help but root for both heroines, who feel like two regular girls with universal struggles despite their uncommon circumstances.” “Lessons about friendship and standing up for oneself are organically woven into this entertaining romp,” commented a reviewer in Publishers Weekly.

Another middle-grade novel by Torres, The Fresh New Face of Griselda, stars a twelve-year-old girl, nicknamed Geez, whose family is enduring financial hardship. When Geez’s dad loses his landscaping business, they are unable to pay their mortgage, and their house is brought into foreclosure. They are forced to move in with Geez’s Nana. Hoping to win $5,000, Geez enters the Fresh New Face of Alma Cosmetics contest, which requires her to sell 500 tubes of lipgloss. She is disciplined for attempting to sell the lipgloss at school. The contest brings her closer to her older sister, Maribel, whose own cosmetics sales business is what initially inspires Geez to take up her venture. In an interview with Aurora Dominguez, contributor to the Frolic website, Torres explained how she developed the idea for the book, stating: “One of my inspirations was Stockton, California, an inland port city located almost right in the middle of the Golden State. I was working there as a newspaper reporter when I started writing The Fresh New Face of Griselda. At the time, Stockton was at the epicenter of a national foreclosure crisis. … In the midst of so much heartbreak and unfairness, though, I also saw stories of resilience. … I wanted to write about that, and about the kind of courage it takes to keep striving.”

A critic in Kirkus Reviews described The Fresh New Face of Griselda as “an enjoyable story about the ingenuity and bonds that help a family withstand tough times.” Booklist reviewer Carolyn Phelan called it “a warm family story within a convincing first-person narrative.”

BIOCRIT

PERIODICALS

• Booklist, November 1, 2016, Kristina Pino, review of Stef Soto, Taco Queen, p. 55; September 1, 2019, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Fresh New Face of Griselda, p. 107.

• Children’s Bookwatch, June, 2015, review of Finding the Music = En pos de la música.

• Horn Book, July-August, 2017, Celia C. Perez, review of Stef Soto, Taco Queen, p. 144.

• Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2015, review of Finding the Music = En pos de la música; October 15, 2016, review of Stef Soto, Taco Queen; April 1, 2018, review of Flor and Miranda Steal the Show; August 1, 2019, review of The Fresh New Face of Griselda.

• Publishers Weekly, November 7, 2016, review of Stef Soto, Taco Queen, p. 62; April 23, 2018, review of Flor and Miranda Steal the Show, p. 86.

• School Library Journal, April, 2015, Sujei Lugo, review of Finding the Music = En pos de la música, p. 136; August, 2016, Brenda Kahn, review of Stef Soto, Taco Queen, p. 96.

ONLINE

• Frolic, https://frolic.media/ (January 12, 2020), Aurora Dominguez, author interview.

• Jennifer Torres website, http://www.jenntorres.com (January 12, 2020).

• Literary Rambles, http://www.literaryrambles.com/ (December 1, 2017), autobiography of Jennifer Torres.

• Los Angeles Public Library website, https://www.lapl.org/ (September 24, 2019), Anna Avalos, author interview.

• Middle Grade Minded, http://middlegrademinded.blogspot.com/ (June 16, 2017), “Awesome Author Interview: Jennifer Torres!”

• Texas Book Festival website, https://www.texasbookfestival.org/ (January 12, 2020), author profile.

• Wendy McLeod MacKnight website, http://www.wendymcleodmacknight.com/ (January 18, 2017), “Interview with Jennifer Torres, Author of Stef Soto, Taco Queen.”*