From Another World - Softcover

Machado, Ana Maria

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0888996411 ISBN 13: 9780888996411

Publisher: Groundwood Books, 2005

Synopsis

Martin and his friends are helping their parents turn an old Brazilian coffee plantation into an inn. The children have a fun time helping to renovate the old place and they sleep in a shed that is being converted into a guest room. But one night they hear the sound of a young girl crying. Gradually, the ghost of a slave girl from the late 1800s named Rosario appears to them. Rosario tells them the story of her life and in doing so reveals the danger and instability that existed in Brazil after slavery ended. Martin promises Rosario to record her story in the form of a book. Though the experience of slavery seems remote to Martin and his friends, by the time they've heard Rosario's story, the evil of slavery is made painfully clear.

Ana Maria Machado’s deft storytelling skills and social conscience come together in this powerfully moving book that explores the history and impact of slavery.

About this title

About the Author:

Ana Maria Machado is one of the world's most distinguished writers for children, with over one hundred books published in her native Brazil and in more than eighteen other countries. She has won the Hans Christian Andersen Award and the SM Iberoamerican Children's Literature Award, and she has been elected to the Brazilian Academy of Letters — the first writer for children to be so honored. She has also been chosen for the honor list of the highly prestigious Dutch Prince Claus Award. Groundwood has published three of her novels, Me in the Middle (Américas Award Commended List), From Another World and Until the Day Arrives, and her picture books Wolf Wanted, which won the FNLIJ Hors Concours, and What a Party! Ana Maria lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Lucia Brandao is an illustrator in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Luisa Baeta is a Brazilian translator.

Review:

[The] author has built a suspensive, compelling tale involving a group of present-day Brazilian children. (Globe and Mail 2005-04-01)

...offers a fascinating picture of Brazil's culture and history, cleverly wrapped in a ghost story. (School Library Journal 2005-06-01)

...this is a finely written mystery/ghost story that's also an unusual exploration of the aftereffects of slavery...readable on its own merits but also ripe for use within classrooms and reading clubs. (Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 2005-02-01)

Expressionistic black-and-white illustrations impart an otherworldly flavor to this all-too-real ghost tale of human cruelty and redemptive decency. (Horn Book 2005-06-01)

One of Brazil's best known writers mixes magical realism with history to tell about the evils of slavery. (Publishers Weekly 2005-05-01)

The author's descriptions of slaves escaping from the owner of the plantation and the details of life as a slave are well crafted and moving. (Multicultural Review 2005-05-01)

This book is a must read. (Resource Links 2005-05-01)

About this edition

• Publisher: Groundwood Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0888996411
• ISBN 13: 9780888996411
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128
• Illustrator: Brandao Lucia