The Maps of Memory

August 1, 2020
Following the events in Pura Belpr� Award-winning I Lived on Butterfly Hill (2014), 14-year-old Celeste Marconi reckons with the repercussions of a regime of terror. Life in Valpara�so, Chile, is both familiar and disorienting. After sheltering for three years in Maine with her T�a Graciela while her country suffered at the hands of a dictator reminiscent of Augusto Pinochet, Celeste is eager to return to normal. But how can life be normal when her best friend, Lucila, is among the disappeared? As Celeste learns of the torture her mother and others endured as well as the deprivation many residents of her jewellike city beside the sea live in, she sheds her innocence, expressing anger, grief, survivor's guilt, and, ultimately, determination to act. With old friends Crist�bal and Marisol and new arrival from France Genevieve, Celeste organizes a literacy program for the city's poorest residents. A school assignment to interview loved ones of disappeared classmates becomes the inspiration for creating memory maps--physical reminders to keep their spirits alive. But Celeste hopes for more: She and Crist�bal found Pap�, after all--perhaps Lucila is alive and maybe even Natalia, the little girl she's been assigned to research? Charming prose and cheerful pen-and-ink illustrations soften details of a painful and divisive history. Celeste--loving, impetuous, and fiercely loyal--and her family and community are quirky and appealing. Richly textured elements creating a deep and magical sense of place are woven unobtrusively throughout. Captivating and exquisite. (Fiction. 11-15)

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October 1, 2020

Gr 5 Up-Six years after the release of the Pura Belpr� Award-winning novel, I Lived on Butterfly Hill, Agos�n takes readers back to Valpara�so, Chile, in a sequel that attempts to shed further light on life during and after a dictatorship. Set months after the last book ends, readers are transported back to the world of 14-year-old Celeste Marconi, an adventurous though somewhat naive heroine determined to promote literacy, and to find her family and friends who were abducted by the government. Celeste was in exile in Maine for much of the dictator's rule. Now that she has returned to Chile, readers see a country rebuilding through Celeste's first-person narration. Though the series is a historical fiction account of the Pinochet regime, names and dates are not mentioned in either book, and the style feels more contemporary in the sequel. Agos�n has taken the liberty of compressing the time line, so readers may benefit from a nonfiction pairing to add depth and details that would anchor this story in time. As a sequel, this title relies heavily on its predecessor for character development; minor inconsistencies make the two books feel disjointed. While White's cartoon style, pen-and-ink drawings feel quite young, the descriptions of torture and allusions to sexual violence are better suited for older readers. VERDICT Unfortunately, this sequel does little to advance the story line Agos�n created, and it misses an opportunity to teach young readers about Chilean history.-Monisha Blair, Rutgers Univ., NJ

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