Starfields

Children's Literature - Judy Crowder

In Marsden's latest novel, two worlds do not collide but mingle, flourish, and benefit from the experience. For nine-year-old Rosalba, a Mayan girl growing up in rural Mexico, life is familiar and comfortable. She is headed to her favorite place outside her village, a pool that lies in the middle of undisturbed forest, when she realized her favorite place already has a visitor—Alicia, from Mexico City. This ladina is visiting the area with her father, a scientist who studies the threatened frog population. Did Rosalba know that frogs were in trouble? Then, as Alicia discovers that Rosalba is Mayan, she asks a second, more disturbing question: is it true that the Mayan calendar predicts the world's end in 2012? Rosalba is as unaware of the calendar as she is of the diminishing amphibians, but she does know that trees are being cut down and land cleared close by. And there is news of a road being constructed close enough that Rosalba's village may never be the same. Is this change good or bad? The two girls bond, construct a frog pyramid and rename the area Frog Heaven. Alicia shares her opinions and scientist father's insights, but Rosalba must make up her own mind. When she dreams repeatedly of an ancient Mayan boy who is undergoing a shamanistic ritual, she realized she must act in the only way she knows, by flouting traditional weaving practices as she weaves a huipil, a traditional Mayan garment. Facing the villagers' disapproval of her radical weaving as well as the controversy surrounding the modernization/ruin of the natural environment and haunted by her dreams, Rosalba wonders if her beloved world will be irrevocably changed. This is a beautifully written book, combining mythical dream narrative, the angst of growing up, and environmental threats that face us all. Well recommended! Reviewer: Judy Crowder

School Library Journal

Gr 4–6—Marsden's book is best when it focuses on Rosalba, a nine-year-old Mayan girl who lives in a remote area of Mexico and whose people still follow the beliefs of their forebears. Ideas such as appeasing the Earthlord for good weather and crops contradict the contemporary viewpoint of Alicia, a child from Mexico City who is traveling with her father as he researches environmental concerns in the region. Nevertheless, the girls become fast friends. Alicia helps Rosalba realize that her isolated community must take a proactive stance against the damage of encroaching road construction. First, though, Rosalba has to overcome limitations imposed on her by her own culture. Interspersed with the chapters about Rosalba's fight to make herself heard are the words of an unidentified individual undertaking ancient rituals; these segments are rife with unfamiliar terms, and the tone is overwrought and cryptic. Rosalba and the finally named shaman meet across time and space, but it comes too late to be satisfying. In the final analysis, though, the annoying shaman's accounts are a minor quibble because Rosalba's story of self-realization is a strong one, and the juxtaposition of traditional and new ideas delivers considerable food for thought. A burgeoning environmental crisis is timely, as well.—Alyson Low, Fayetteville Public Library, AR

Kirkus Reviews

In Marsden's latest tale of cross-cultural friendship, a modern Mayan girl fights to protect her rural Mexican village from encroaching development.

Nine-year-old Rosalba Nicho lives a peaceful life with her parents and siblings in San Martín. Everything changes when she becomes friends with 8-year-old Alicia, a light-haired, green-eyed ladina from Mexico City. Camping nearby while her father works to preserve the local frog population, Alicia dominates most conversations and the friendship in general, establishing a problematic colonizer motif that runs throughout the novel. Soon, government workers inexplicability start bulldozing a road to San Martín, and more frogs begin to die. The author intersperses these third-person chapters with a mystical first-person narrative, following the life of a young male seer named Xunko in 600 C.E. The two narratives finally connect when Xunko begins visiting Rosalba's dreams, showing her ways to save her village. Unfortunately, with the exception of Rosalba and Xunko, most of the Mayan characters appear petty, ignorant and/or violent. The importance of Mayan weaving and the use of the Popol Vuh add authenticity, yet the intended audience may be overwhelmed by the dual narratives, the environmental aspects, brief references to the Zapatistas and the (unfortunate) inclusion of the Mayan 2012 "apocalypse" prophecy.

While the concluding author's note provides explication of some of these elements, some readers may not stick it out. (Spanish/Mayan glossary) (Fiction. 9-12)