Starfields

by Carolyn Marsden Narrated by Adriana Sananes, Sanjiv Jhaveri

Overview

An ancient calendar comes to an end in 2012- and many predict the world will end with it. Can one Mayan girl make a difference?

Rosalba is a nine-year-old Mayan girl living in rural Mexico. Like her mother and grandmother, she weaves stories of her people onto blouses, ensuring that the age-old traditions continue. But new influences are entering her life. A ladina girl from the city, visiting with her scientist father, passes on the astonishing news that the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world in 2012. Rosalba knows nothing about that, but her village is faced with a bulldozer tearing through the forest, dying wildlife, and cornfields in danger. Rosalba's new friend tells her she must do something to help, but what? As she ponders, she dreams of an ancient Mayan boy, eyes bound in a shamanistic ritual, who hints at a way she can make her voice heard. Interweaving a contemporary story with a mythical dream narrative, Carolyn Marsden spins a gripping tale of friendship, cultural identity, and urgent environmental themes.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The story is so dripping with myth and mystery that kids will be intrigued, and as always, Marsden's writing is beautiful and her knowledge about children's hearts is immense.
—Booklist

School Library Journal - Audio

Gr 4–6—Rosalba is living an ordinary life for a nine-year-old Mayan girl in rural Mexico until she makes a new friend who dramatically changes her life in Carolyn Marsden's novel (Candlewick, 2011). She starts to think beyond her traditional Mayan life of weaving stories onto blouses and taking care of her home and begins to ponder changes to her environment and, possibly, the world. Rosalba's friend tells her that the Mayan calendar indicates that the world will end in 2012. Also, there's a new road through the forest to her village that will endanger the environment and cause pollution. In addition to the main story, there is a dream sequence concerning an ancient Mayan boy who tells Rosalba how she can help stop the destruction. As a result of the two stories, the novel moves along very slowly and there is little character development. Adriana Sananes voices Rosalaba in a sweet, naïve voice, while Janjiy Jhaven presents the boy's participation in ancient Mayan shamanistic rituals using a deep, serious tone. The two perspectives create an unusual flow that makes it seem like there are two separate stories. Listeners will have a hard time staying with this tale of a traditional way of life faced with modern development.—Katie Llera, Milltown Public Library, Milltown, NJ

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)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173755827
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	09/27/2011
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

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