The Smell of Old Lady Perfume

Claudia Guadalupe Martinez’s debut novel for tweens garnered lots of praise. Recommended by the Chicago Public Library as the Best of the Best in 2008, it’s a bittersweet story about death, family, and the resilient emotional strength of the human heart. When Chela Gonzalez’s father has a stroke, her grandmother comes to help. The house fills up with the smell of her old lady perfume, a smell that carries with it sorrow and loss.

Claudia Guadalupe Martinez grew up in El Paso, Texas. She learned that letters form words from reading the subtitles of old westerns for her father.