🎯 Where Should I Start?
ⓘ About Yamile Saied Mendez
As a New Visions Award Honor recipient and an inaugural Walter Dean Myers Grant, she is also a graduate of Voices of Our Nations and the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. She is a founding member of Las Musas. It is a marketing collective of women and non-binary Latinx children’s authors. Yamile grew up hearing about select ancestors, but not others. She is fascinated with where her family came from, the ones that allowed for her to be where she is right now. She constantly explores this question of heritage and origin, as well as the possibility of rediscovering your own unique identity through her stories. Yamile has always loved stories and books.
All Book Series by Yamile Saied Mendez
Deep Down Popular
Series opener · book 1 of 36 · published 2008 Anthology · Phoebe Stone
Switched at Birthday
Book 5 of 36 · published 2014 Anthology · Natalie Standiford
The Only Girl in School
Book 10 of 36 · published 2016 Anthology · Natalie Standiford
Allie, First at Last
Book 11 of 36 · published 2016 Anthology · Angela Cervantes
Once Upon a Cruise
Book 13 of 36 · published 2016 Anthology · Anna Staniszewski
Donut Go Breaking My Heart
Book 15 of 36 · published 2017 Anthology · Suzanne Nelson
Sundae My Prince Will Come
Book 18 of 36 · published 2018 Anthology · Suzanne Nelson
I Only Have Pies for You
Book 19 of 36 · published 2018 Anthology · Suzanne Nelson
True to Your Selfie
Book 26 of 36 · published 2020 Anthology · Megan McCafferty
Pumpkin Spice Up Your Life
Book 27 of 36 · published 2020 Anthology · Suzanne Nelson
Girls Just Wanna Have Pugs
Book 30 of 36 · published 2021 Anthology · J.J. Howard
A Batch Made in Heaven
Book 33 of 36 · published 2021 Anthology · Suzanne Nelson
Pizza My Heart
Latest in the series · book 36 of 36 · published 2022 Anthology · Rhiannon Richardson
Anika and the Great Dog Rescue
Latest in the series · book 2 of 2 · published 2025 Anthology · Sayantani DasGupta
The Boo Hag Flex
Series opener · book 1 of 4 · published 2024 Anthology · Justina Ireland
The Sinking House
Latest in the series · book 4 of 4 · published 2026 Anthology · Darcie Little Badger
Our Shadows Have Claws: 15 Latin American Monster Stories
Book 4 of 6 · published 2022
? Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Yamile Saied Mendez?
As a New Visions Award Honor recipient and an inaugural Walter Dean Myers Grant, she is also a graduate of Voices of Our Nations and the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. She is a founding member of Las Musas. It is a marketing collective of women and non-binary Latinx children’s authors.
Which Yamile Saied Mendez series should I start with?
The best place to start is the Horse Country series, the earliest of Yamile Saied Mendez's multi-book series: it opens with Can't Be Tamed (2022) and runs to 4 books across 2022–2023, ending with No Place Like Home (2023). Yamile Saied Mendez's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.
How many books has Yamile Saied Mendez written?
Yamile Saied Mendez has 62 books catalogued in this guide, published between 2008 and 2026. 46 of them belong to 4 named series — the largest being the Horse Country series with 4 books — and 16 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.
In what order should Yamile Saied Mendez's series be read?
Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Yamile Saied Mendez's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Horse Country (2022–2023, 4 books), Tales from Cabin 23 (2024–2026, 4 books) and Girl Scouts (2024–2025, 2 books).
How are Yamile Saied Mendez's books organised into series?
This guide splits Yamile Saied Mendez's 62 books into 4 named series and 16 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Horse Country (4 books, 2022–2023); Tales from Cabin 23 (4 books, 2024–2026); Girl Scouts (2 books, 2024–2025); Wish (36 books, 2008–2022).