About this item
An ancient calendar comes to an end in 2012-- and many predict the world will end with it. Can one Mayan girl make a difference?Rosalba is a nine-year-old Mayan girl living in rural Mexico. Like her mother and grandmother, she weaves stories of her people onto blouses, ensuring that the age-old traditions continue. But new in? uences are entering her life. A ladina girl from the city, visiting with her scientist father, passes on the astonishing news that the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world in 2012. Rosalba knows nothing about that, but her village is faced with a bulldozer tearing through the forest, dying wildlife, and corn? elds in danger. Rosalbas new friend tells her she must do something to help, but what? As she ponders, she dreams of an ancient Mayan boy, eyes bound in a shamanistic ritual, who hints at a way she can make her voice heard. Interweaving a contemporary story with a mythical dream narrative, Carolyn Marsden spins a gripping tale of friendship, cultural identity, and urgent environmental themes.
About the Author
Carolyn Marsden grew up in Mexico City and Southern California. Although she wrote for adults for many years, she began to write for children after the birth of her daughters. She attended Vermont College and earned an MFA in Writing for Children. Her first book, The Gold-Threaded Dress, published by Candlewick, was a Booklist Top Ten Youth Novel of 2002. Her second novel, Silk Umbrellas, was a Texas Bluebonnet nominee and Booklist Top Ten Art Novel of 2003. Since then, Carolyn has published more award-winning middle grade chapter books with Candlewick, Viking, and Carolrhoda, almost all with multicultural themes. Starfields (Candlewick 2011) , touches on the 2012 prophesy. The White Zone is set in contemporary Iraq. My Own Revolution takes place in 1960s Czechoslovakia. Carolyn lives in California with her Thai husband and two half-Thai daughters.
