From Another World
Grade 5-8–Mariano's mother and her best friend have decided to turn an old historic country homestead into an inn. When Mariano and his friends stay the night, they discover that the annex is haunted by a girl about their age who had been the slave of a cruel master in the late 1800s. She eventually begins communicating with them and telling the story of her death. The kids want to help free her from her misery so they each promise to help find out what happened to her long-lost brother, and Mariano is chosen to write down her story. Some of the author's original mood must have been lost in translation because the book gets off to a very slow start and the dialogue is quite choppy. Mariano's speech pivots from sounding like a babbling child to a mature adult later on, making it difficult to determine his age. But once the premise is revealed, the novel takes on a faster pace and offers a fascinating picture of Brazil's culture and history, cleverly wrapped in a ghost story.–Kimberly Monaghan, formerly at Vernon Area Public Library, ILCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.