Born in El Paso, Texas, an area rich with tales of Pancho Villa and Benito Juarez, Yolanda Adele's first experience with English was as a Kindergarten student in East LA. "The House on New Jersey Street" and "Gypsies Stole My Heart" illuminate the world of a "latch-key kid" whose frequent companion after school was only her imagination.

Adele crafts her stories with flourishes of dialogue that come from a place of truth. "An Inflatable Idea" and "Mi Tía Bruja" underscore her perspective of love, humor, and optimism. At the same time, she does not shy away from the painful memories of a sometimes-absent father and a hard-working mother who ate dinner separately in front of the TV. In a story of profound love, "The Santa in My Life," she shares an underlying hurt, and decades later its resolution, "Tick, Tick, Tick."

The arc of Adele's life tracks the cultural changes of American society. Coming of age in the turbulence of the early 1960s, she married her high school sweetheart before graduating herself, two days before he left for boot camp with the Marines. Their family now includes two married daughters, six grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and many treasured in-laws.