FROM ANOTHER WORLD

When Mariano’s mother and friend decide to restore and convert an old plantation house into an inn, the ghostly apparition of Rosario, a slave child from the previous century, brings to light a story of cruel mass murder in 19th-century Brazil. With three friends, Leo, Elisa and Tere, Mariano experiences a series of séance visits during the late night hours as Rosario tells them the history of her family and how the laws overturning slavery caused their cruel master to lock his slaves in a burning barn rather than grant them freedom. Only her little brother Amaro escaped and it turns out he became the only heir to the plantation. Rosario wants the truth recorded and remembered and requests Mariano write it down. Told in the first person from the boy’s point of view, the “visits” slowly piece together the slave child’s mysterious bits of information later verified by Leo’s grandmother. Translated from the Portuguese, this Hans Christian Andersen award winner weaves together a mildly enigmatic yet unexciting plot that purports themes of freedom and justice accompanied by slightly cubist-style charcoal or pastel drawings. (Fiction. 10-12)