Stef Soto, Taco Queen

Written by Jennifer Torres

Narrated by Kyla Garcia

A heartwarming and charming debut novel about family, friends, and finding your voice all wrapped up in a warm tortilla.

Seventh grader Estefania "Stef" Soto is itching to shake off the onion-and-cilantro embrace of Tia Perla, her family's taco truck. She wants nothing more than for her dad to get a normal job and for Tia Perla to be put out to pasture. It's no fun being known as the "Taco Queen" at school.

But just when new city regulations are proposed, and her family's livelihood is threatened, she will have to become the truck's unlikely champion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Sep 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9781515947271

Jennifer Torres

Jennifer Torres's debut picture book, Finding the Music, was published by Lee & Low Books in spring 2015, and her middle grade novel Stef Soto, Taco Queen was published by  Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in fall 2016. She works at University of the Pacific, where she leads a countywide campaign to promote early literacy. Before joining Pacific, Jennifer worked as a reporter for The Record newspaper, covering education, children, and families, and she continues to write for local and national magazines. Originally from Southern California, she has lived in the Central Valley for the past 10 years with her husband, David, and daughters Alice and Soledad.

Reviews for Stef Soto, Taco Queen

[jennybeast · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Oh, this one has it all -- snarly barely teenagers, beginning independence, all the feels of actually learning to take responsibility in order to earn that independence, and a charming Taco Truck at the heart of it all. Yay for food celebrations (no, really, they're the best), working hard to earn the things that matter to you (cooking and art), taking disappointments in stride (concerts missed, celebrities being celebrities), latinx families and family bonds in general.

[salsabrarian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Stef Soto loves her working-class family but sometimes wishes her father didn't pick her up at school in Tia Perla, the family's well-worn food truck. Life would be easier for her if the family didn't have the truck anymore. But when proposed city regulations threaten the livelihoods of all food truck operators, Stef comes to see how important the truck is to her family and the importance of speaking out in support. This is a charming and lively story, and kids will identify with Stef and her real-world, regular-kid problem-solving,

[brangwinn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

7th grader, Step Soto, wants to fit in, but with a father who has a taco truck and she’s got to help him, its hard. As an adult what I liked about this book for upper elementary aged readers, is that Step has to learn to cope with disappointment. Her parents are strict. She has to miss some of the cool activities because her folks don’t give her much freedom. But in the end she finds out how important family is.