Cesar Chavez Library will host a reading and book signing by Stella Pope Duarte, author of “If I Die in Juárez,” from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7, at 3635 W. Baseline Road.

“If I Die in Juárez” traces the lives of three young women – Evita, a street child; Petra, a maquiladora worker; and Mayela, a Tarahumara Indian girl – who together uncover Juárez's forbidden secret – the abduction and murder of young women.

Inspired to become a writer by a prophetic dream about her father, Duarte lives in Phoenix where she writes and works as an educational consultant and human rights advocate. She has twice been awarded a creative writing fellowship from the Arizona Commission on the Arts and is the recipient of the 2003 Arizona Highways Fiction Award.

Phoenix Public Library is a system of 14 branch libraries and the Burton Barr Central Library. For more information, call 602-262-4636 or visit phoenixpubliclibrary.org.