THE MAPS OF MEMORY

Following the events in Pura Belpré Award–winning I Lived on Butterfly Hill (2014), 14-year-old Celeste Marconi reckons with the repercussions of a regime of terror.

Life in Valparaíso, Chile, is both familiar and disorienting. After sheltering for three years in Maine with her Tía 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 Cristóbal 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 Cristóbal found Papá, 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.