Yamile Saied Mendez Books In Order

Publication Order of Horse Country Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Picture Books

Publication Order of Wish Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Yamile Saied Mendez
Yamile Saied Mendez was born in Rosario, Argentina. She is a futbol-obsessed author that loves summer, meteor showers, pizza, and astrology. She lives with her Puerto Rican husband and their five kids, with their majestic kitty, and two adorable dogs in Utah.

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. However, it wasn’t until her grandpa died, when she was just six years old, that she wanted to tell her own stories. True to her writing process, something she would find out when she was older, the story simmered inside her mind for a few years. She finally set down her feelings and experiences down onto paper when the story finally took hold of her, and she was unable to continue without telling this story.

So she wrote about Joanna, a princess, that set off to find a cure for her grandpa’s cancer.

From the start, writing is something that has been a tool that she has used to explore what is happening in her life and the entire world around her. That said, her stories are not quite autobiographical. She writes about sports, third-culture kids, her beloved city of Rosario, spirituality, and life living in small-town Utah, etc.

Writing is something that has always been a part of her life, however, she never once thought she would be able to actually become a writer. She left Argentina when she was nineteen years old in order to go to Brigham Young University, where she majored in International Economy. During this time, she learned Portuguese and was able to become a translator.

She devoured the books from the library. When Yamile started having kids of her own, she savored books she did not have during her childhood; books like: “Ferdinand”, “Where the Wild Things Are”, and “Good Night Moon”, as well as others.

Her own stories took full possession, and she was unable to tell them, she began writing. After her fourth child was born, she decided that she wanted to share the stories she wrote with the rest of the world.

NaNoWriMo was Yamile’s catalyst that sent the writing ball rolling. She was active in the blogging community, and saw a novel writing challenge. She headed over to the NaNoWriMo sit, signed up, and began writing a tale that was germinating in her mind for some time and she didn’t even notice it. The euphoria she feels of typing The End is addictive and after her first time, she found she couldn’t stop.

Each day, she wrote and found there was much more to writing than just putting words down onto paper. She found books about all sorts of things like story structure, self-editing, character development, and later, the publishing industry as whole.

With the aid of the Sharks and Pebbles, her critique group, she was able to complete a manuscript and queried it without much success. Some of the agents that rejected her were encouraging enough, which gave her enough motivation to continue.

Yamile’s debut novel, called “On These Magic Shores”, was released in the year 2020.

“On These Magic Shores” is the first stand alone novel and was released in the year 2020. Minerva has to take care of her sisters after her mom goes missing.

Minerva Soledad Miranda is determined to reach every single one of her goals, despite having even more responsibility than all of the other kids at school. Like, for example, caring for her two sisters as her mom works her two jobs. One night, Minerva’s mother doesn’t return back home, and Minerva must figure out to do. Was Mama snapped up by immigration enforcement? Are the girls going to be sent to foster homes or the holding centers for migrant kids?

Minerva and her sisters are unable to let anybody know their Mama has disappeared. They are just going to pretend everything is normal until she returns. Minerva’s plans to go it by herself fall apart during the first afternoon, after her baby sister throws a temper tantrum during Minerva’s audition for Peter Pan.

While the days continue to pass and Minerva gets increasingly more worried about her mom, something magical appears to be watching out for all of them. Helping Minerva find some money, leaving them some cupcakes, and even steering them to the distant family and some friends that are able to help them. Eventually, Minerva has to make the toughest choice of her whole life. When she finally does, she is going to be ready to face up to life’s challenges: with hope, friendship, and just a bit of fairy magic.

“Blizzard Besties” is a novel from the “Wish” series and was released in the year 2018. Vanesa Campos cannot wait for another winter vacation. Skiing out on the slopes, sitting and sipping hot cocoa, the week she is set to spend at Pinecloud Lodge promises to be both perfect and cozy. Maybe she can even make a new friend or two. Never mind that glamorous Beck just writes off Vanesa immediately, Eric and Emma, twins, are ready to join in on the fun out in the snow.

When flakes start to fall, it all changes. Hunter, Vanesa’s little brother, could be stranded out in this blizzard. Vanesa is going to have to team up with each and every one of the kids, plus a giant dog, in order to rescue him. Will she save her brother and find out which real friends are going to weather the storm with her?