Cover of Starfields

Starfields

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?

Read more

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.

Audience
childrensmiddle grade
Length
medium · 224 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Starfields? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Starfields. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Galaor Shares Mexico
  2. Recursos humanos Shares Mexico
  3. El Cartel De Sinaloa Shares Mexico
  4. La Cresta de Ilion Shares Mexico

“If you want more of the same, start with these.”

  1. Gonzalez and Daughter Trucking Co.: A Road Novel with Literary License
  2. Design motifs of ancient Mexico
  3. A Zero-Sum Game
  4. Singing into the piano

“If it was the Mexico that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Tortillas & Peanut Butter: True Confessions of an American Mom Turned Mexican Smuggler
  2. Las Soldaderas: Women of the Mexican Revolution
  3. Deep Water
  4. The Twenty-Five Mixtec Cats

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. The Visionary Mayan Queen: Yohl Ik'nal of Palenque
  2. Domain
  3. Storm Watchers: The Turbulent History of Weather Prediction from Franklin's Kite to El Nino
  4. The Book of Whispers