Claudia Guadalupe Martinez is an American author of children's books, best known for her middle grade contemporary debut ''The Smell of Old Lady Perfume''. Her works include

middle grade fiction Middle grade fiction is fiction intended for children between the ages of 8 and 12. While these books are sometimes grouped together with books for other age bands and called collectively "children's books", middle grade is distinct from, and is ...

young adult fiction Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

, and

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

Personal life

Martinez grew up in

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

, Texas. She started wanting to become a writer when she was six years old. Her father passed away when she was eleven, an experience which she drew inspiration from for what would become her debut novel, ''The Smell of Old Lady Perfume''. She now lives in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Career

The Smell of Old Lady Perfume

Her debut novel, a middle grade contemporary titled ''The Smell of Old Lady Perfume'', was published with Cinco Puntos Press in 2008. She wrote the first draft of the novel shortly before moving to Chicago and says that as somebody from El Paso, she grew up admiring the also El Pasobased publisher. When she first submitted the novel to the publisher, she received helpful feedback, but was ultimately declined. The novel is about Chela, a middle schooler whose father who has a stroke and subsequently dies and about how she deals with the loss of a parent. The novel went on to win the 2009 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People'','' 2008 Texas Institute of Letters Best Young Adult Book Award, and a 2009 Americas Award Commendation.

Pig Park

Her next novel, Pig Park, is about Masi, a teenager who moves to Pig Park, a neighborhood in real-life Chicago, and builds a pyramid to garner tourist interest to raise money for her parents' failing bakery. It was published by Cinco Puntos Press in September 2014 and the novel won a 2015 Texas Institute of Letters Best Young Adult Book Award and a 2015 NAACS Tejas Foco Best YA Fiction Award, in addition to receiving a starred review from VOYA magazine.

Not a Bean

Her first picture book, ''Not a Bean'', illustrated by Laura Gonzalez, was published by Charlesbridge in 2019. It received three starred reviews and was named to the 2021 Texas Topaz Reading List and the 20212022 VA Reads List by their respective state library associations.

Spirit Untamed: The Movie Novel

The official novel adaptation for the DreamWorks movie Spirit Untamed—which hit theaters June 4, 2021—was published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers April 2021. It has been translated into German and Polish, as well as turned into an audiobook.

Still Dreaming

Her second picture book, ''still Dreaming/Seguimos Soñando'', illustrated by Madalena Mora, was published by Lee and Low in 2023. It was well reviewed in the New York Times Books. Awards include: IRC Notable Books for Global Society 2023, ALA Pure Belpre Award Honor for Illustration 2023, and Library Guild Award 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martinez, Claudia Guadalupe Living people 21st-century American women writers American writers of young adult literature Writers from El Paso, Texas Year of birth missing (living people)