Stef Soto, Taco Queen by Jennifer Torres (review)

Estefania, Stef for short, would really like her dad to stop picking her up from school in Tía Perla, her father’s taco truck, which makes an onion-sizzling, cheese-melting, meat cooking spectacle of itself and earns seventh-grader Stef the humiliating nickname “Taco Queen.” Her parents, however, won’t relent in their overprotectiveness about the journey from school or anything else, so when her best pal gets tickets to the Viviana Vega concert, Stef’s pretty sure she won’t be attending. Then she faces even bigger problems when new city regulations threaten to shut Tía Perla’s doors—er, window—and kick her dad out of a job. No worries, though: Stef’s got the stuff to make the city council change its mind, even as she deals with the fallout from her white lie regarding her friendship with Viviana Vega (she only sold a taco to her). This is a tasty delight of a book, with a clever, big-hearted protagonist, and lovable supporting characters; Stef’s dad in particular is warm and affectionate and Stef’s efforts to push him away are met with sympathetic understanding. Spanish words and humorous banter pepper the dialogue, and the dual stories of the threatened family business and Stef’s issues with classmates make a nice, age-appropriate balance that validates Stef’s experience while pointing to a world beyond middle-school politics. Readers will be happy to snack on this, but they will likely crave some of Papi’s fresh salsa and a few tostadas afterward.