From Another World

May 30, 2005
One of Brazil's best known writers mixes magical realism with history to tell about the evils of slavery. Narrator Mariano finds reading "boring and tiring," but becomes "slave to a promise made to a ghost" who orders him to write down her story so it will not be forgotten. Mariano and his friends encounter Rosario, while helping their parents convert an old coffee plantation into an inn. Before the first guests arrive, the four kids test-drive a building they refer to as "The Annex," but which they learn was once the senzala—
the slave quarters. During their first sleepover, they hear pitiful crying. On the next visit, a storm cuts the power and a lit candle brings Rosario into their presence. Gradually, she shares her horrific biography. Born free to enslaved parents, she lived to learn of Princess Isabel's 1888 law abolishing slavery, but the cruel master who owned her parents made sure they never got to taste freedom. Rosario has haunted the scene of her family's death ever since, waiting to speak. Machado's message is nicely balanced with Mariano's naïve voice. "Writers have no rest," he complains after hearing a new detail he'll have to add to the story. By the end, he's figured out that knowledge of the past is important to understanding the present. Brandão's half-tone illustrations, interspersed throughout the narrative, are as gentle as Rosario's death is rough. Ages 8-11.

June 1, 2005
Gr 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, IL"

Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2005
Gr. 4-7. When their parents decide to turn a farmhouse and its outbuildings into a country inn, Mariano and his friends Leo, Elisa, and Teresa spend a night in the very old barnlike annex, which has been renovated and partitioned to create guest rooms. After they hear crying in the night, they meet Rosario, the ghost of a nineteenth-century slave girl. She tells them of a tragic event that killed her and most of her family, and she appeals to them for help. Later, as they listen to Leo and Elise's grandmother relate family history, the kids piece together the rest of the story. A reluctant narrator, Mariano begins by asking for the readers' patience, saying that he can barely sit still to read a book, much less write one. But little by little, the tale unfolds, slowly drawing readers into the contemporary story before unveiling the historical drama that took place on the same site. A Brazilian writer, Machado received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 2000 for his body of work.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)