The Smell of Old Lady Perfume by Claudia Guadalupe Martinez

She remains on the outside of the group for most of that school year. It is the story of Chela Gonzalez, 6th grader who endures the isolation of loosing her best friend to a clique. She went on to graduate from college and moved to Chicago to become one of the city’s youngest nonprofit executives. She learned that letters form words from reading the subtitles of old Westerns for her father. Claudia Guadalupe Martinez was born in El Paso, Texas. In her grief and worry, Chela begins to discover herself and find her own strength.

Death was a whole other thing, and Chela doesn’t understand that’s what everyone is waiting for. Sundays were sad, but they went just as sure as they came. The smell of her old lady perfume invades the house. Chela’s grandmother moves in to help the family. But that universe is threatened when her strong father has a stroke. It’s a small world, but it’s the only one she fits in. To Chela, her family is like a solar system, with her father the sun and her mother, brothers, and sister like planets rotating all around him. She buries herself in schoolwork and in the warm comfort of her family. But nothing is as she imagined-her best friend turns on her to join the popular girls and they all act like Chela doesn’t exist.

Chela Gonzalez, the book’s narrator, is a nerd and a soccer player who can barely contain her excitement about starting the sixth grade. Claudia Guadalupe Martinez’s debut novel for young adults is a bittersweet story about death, family, and the resilient emotional strength of the human heart.

The Smell of Old Lady Perfume by Claudia Guadalupe Martinez