Karleen Pendleton Jimenez - The Street Belongs to Us

Pendleton Jimnez has painted an authentic picture of puberty with a light touch that is both respectful and endearing. Godoys animated drawings, economical and evocative, add to the overall magic.

LINDA SCHUYLER, co-creator and executive producer of the Degrassi franchise

Full of humor and heart, The Street Belongs to Us is a beautiful and subversively queer story that probes the depths of intertwined human loss and connection.

CORY SILVERBERG, author of Sex Is a Funny Word

The Street Belongs to Us magically addresses gender, grief, pain, longing, and illness, all with a writing cadence that makes us love each character like family.

JOIE LAMAR, author of Mambo Lips

Beautifully written, this story of discovery and healing reminds us of the power of digging deep in both our own yards and in those of collective history.

OLGA GARCA ECHEVERRA, author of Falling Angels: Cuentos y Poemas

Look to The Street Belongs to Us for truth about kids, how they talk, how they mask and unmask their true feelings when faced with the hard truths of life. Truly affecting throughout to its deeply touching conclusion.

CECILE PINEDA, author of Entry without Inspection and Apology to a Whale

This delightful and sensitive story is both rich with emotion and with cultural and historical experiences. A book tenderly written, one to be cherished and enjoyed.

GIANNA PATRIARCA, author of Italian Women and Other Tragedies

The Street Belongs to Us creates a complex, rich, and beautiful world. Pendleton Jimnez shows us the beauty and importance of gender diversity and how kids can navigate the difficult and exciting changes that lie ahead.

LISA SELIN DAVIS, author of Tomboy: The Surprising History and Future of Girls Who Dare to Be Different

Such a joy to read! The Street Belongs to Us is a wholehearted, fun story that also focuses on navigating lifes challenges like puberty and losing ones mom.

CLAUDIA RODRIGUEZ, author of Everybodys Bread

Super-duper wow! Pendleton Jimnezs The Street Belongs to Us is an Oral! amazing read. A joyful, captivating, corazn-tugging cuento. It is all queer fun, family love y cario.

VERNICA REYES, author of Chopper! Chopper! Poetry from Bordered Lives

KARLEEN PENDLETON JIMNEZ

ILLUSTRATED BY GABRIELA GODOY

ARSENAL PULP PRESS
VANCOUVER

THE STREET BELONGS TO US

Text copyright 2021 by Karleen Pendleton Jimnez

Illustrations copyright 2021 by Gabriela Godoy

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any part by any meansgraphic, electronic, or mechanicalwithout the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may use brief excerpts in a review, or in the case of photocopying in Canada, a license from Access Copyright.

ARSENAL PULP PRESS

Suite 202 211 East Georgia St.

Vancouver, BC V6A 1Z6

Canada

arsenalpulp.com

The publisher gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council for its publishing program, and the Government of Canada, and the Government of British Columbia (through the Book Publishing Tax Credit Program), for its publishing activities.

Arsenal Pulp Press acknowledges the xmkym (Musqueam), Swxw7mesh (Squamish), and slilwta (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, custodians of the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories where our office is located. We pay respect to their histories, traditions, and continuous living cultures and commit to accountability, respectful relations, and friendship.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to persons either living or deceased is purely coincidental.

Cover illustrations by Gabriela Godoy

Cover and interior design by Jazmin Welch

Edited by Shirarose Wilensky

Copy edited by Linda Pruessen

Proofread by Alison Strobel

Printed and bound in Canada

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication:

Title: The street belongs to us / Karleen Pendleton Jimnez ; illustrated by Gabriela Godoy.

Names: Pendleton Jimnez, Karleen, 1971 author. | Godoy, Gabriela, 1974 illustrator.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20200329049 | Canadiana (ebook) 20200329065 | ISBN 9781551528403 (softcover) | ISBN 9781551528410 (HTML)

Classification: LCC PS8569.I425 S77 2021 | DDC jC813/.6dc23

To my grandmother Mara Celia Tomasa Jimnez Giner Vda. de Valles y Vda. de McCann, who filled me with her stories.

To my daughter Elena, who flings open the door each day in search of adventure.

I live at 3618 Muscatel Avenue, where the wash makes the street bend. The wash is a big, deep cement stream that dribbles over algae. It is protected by a tall chain-link fence and a strip of desert filled with little prickly thorns. There are a few scrawny palm trees on our street, but mostly, the sky around us is empty. When the smog lifts you can see the radio towers all the way at the top of Mount Wilson.

On the other side of the wash, about a hundred yards away, is the freeway. There are so many cars on the freeway that you always hear a quiet hum, like the sound of the air-conditioning at the big pharmacy. There are so many cars on the freeway that the TV news guy says the exhaust is turning the rain into acid. He warns that its eating away the steel that holds up the freeway itself. I think thats okay cause one day theyll cancel each other out. No more freeways and no more acid rain.

They say we shouldnt drink it, but Wolf and I tilt our heads back and open our mouths when the drops start falling. We run away if my mom sees us and starts hollering to stop. She wears a dress and heels, so she cant keep up with us. We sprint fast and breathe hard, and the smell of fresh mud pushes up into our noses. Ill be in trouble later, but it hardly ever rains in the San Gabriel Valley, so you dont want to miss your chance to taste a storm.

There are small fences between the front yards in our neighborhood, but nothing separates the yards from the street. Bushes, grass, and dirt bump into each other and make good hiding places. And the yards are perfect for Nerf football games. But you have to be careful because some drivers like to pretend that the bend on Muscatel Avenue is a racetrack. You have to stay out of the street. My cat, Vaquero, was killed by one of these race car drivers just two years ago.

But that was before I turned twelve, before Wolf and I waged our mud war, before the summer they tore up the street.

Alex Richardson-Salazar

Rosemead, Califas, Aztln, 1984

Nana, look! The trucks are here! I shout.

What trucks? my nana answers, quickly setting down her coffee.

For the sidewalks, remember? Ill get to skateboard all the way to school!

Its so loud, mija. She shakes her head. It could be a trick. An invasion! Cudate!