The Smell of Old Lady Perfume Author:Claudia Guadalupe Martinez Chela Gonzalez is a nerd and a soccer player who can barely contain her excitement about starting the sixth grade. But nothing happens as she imagines--her father is rushed to the hospital and her best friend turns on her. When Chela's grandmother arrives to help the family, the smell of her old lady perfume invades the house. It is a smell wors... more »e than Sundays. Sundays are sad, except they go just as sure as they come; but death is a whole other thing, and Chela doesn't understand that's what everyone is waiting for. Advanced praise for The Smell of Old Lady Perfume (SOLP)"Goooooolaso! Claudia Martinez scores! The Smell of Old Lady Perfume will linger on you for days. Anyone whose had to confront a cafeteria caste system, battle Mean Girls en espanol, or wistfully desire a father and daughter relationship reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird will love this book." --Michele Serros, author of Honey Blonde Chica and Chicana Falsa"This is a story of Apás and mijas and life and death set in El Paso--on the border between the North and South, Spanish and English, tradición and assimilation. And the biggest border of them all: the sixth grade, that mountain top where you can look back and see monsters under the bed and look ahead to even scarier things, like kisses, popularity contests and sudden absences that can fill a heart to bursting. Claudia Martínez delivers it all with her own sweet, sad and playful word-music, a sound like the border itself." --Rubén Martínez, Emmy award winning journalist and author of Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail, professor of literature and writing at Loyola Marymount University "The world of Chela Gonzalez suddenly falls apart in sixth grade. But out of heartbreak, a new one eventually takes shape, rooted in true friendship, family, and self-esteem." --Viola Canales, author of The Tequila Worm« less