Welcome to my tour stop for Teresa of the New World by Sharman Apt Russell. Teresa of the New World is a middle grade/young adult/new adult book (she ages through the book, but it's clean). Check out the tour page for more information.
In 1528, the real-life conquistador Cabeza de Vaca shipwrecked in the New World where he lived as a slave, trader, and shaman. In this lyrical weaving of history and myth, the adventurer takes his young daughter Teresa from her home in Texas to travel to outposts in New Spain. Once there, Teresa is left behind as a servant in a Spanish household. But when an epidemic of measles devastates the area, the teenager must set off on a new journey, listening again to the voices of the desert, befriending a war-horse and were-jaguar, sinking into the earth to swim through fossil and stone, reclaiming her power to outwit the cunning figure of Plague. A story of apocalypse and hope, Teresa of the New World takes you into the dreamscape of the sixteenth-century American Southwest.
REVIEW
This book is not your regular fiction. Teresa is a girl who can talk to animals and Earth. She leaves her mother to travel to Spain with her father. But, her father leaves her in a Spanish household and travels without her. Teresa is disappointed that her father didn't care enough for her and quits speaking and hearing. The rest of the story is Teresa, finding her strength and peace in her own journey.
This is a tough and interesting book. I thought this is going to be vague and slow for me. But, it worked after some time. The slow pace, although needs patience, suits the story. Teresa and her father does some impossible things, but it doesn't seem like fantasy. She finds enough strength again to help others and when she started speaking to animals and Earth again, I truly felt happy for her.
This is Teresa's coming of age story. The historical part must have required lot of research and the author has done an amazing job with that.
Definitely recommended!
4 STARS!
About the Author:
Sharman Apt Russell has lived in the beauty and magic of Southwestern deserts almost all her life and continues to be amazed by that. She has published over a dozen books translated into a dozen languages, including fiction and nonfiction. Teresa of the New World is her third middle-grade and young adult novel.
Sharman teaches graduate writing classes at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, New Mexico and Antioch University in Los Angeles, California and has thrice served as the PEN West judge for their annual children’s literature award. Her awards include a Rockefeller Fellowship, the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, a Pushcart Prize, and the Henry Joseph Jackson Award. Her work has been widely anthologized, with numerous starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Booklist. The San Francisco Chronicle has said “Russell’s writing is luminous” and Kirkus Reviews wrote, “A deep reverence for nature shines throughout Russell’s rich, enjoyable text.” The Seattle Times described her An Obsession with Butterflies as a “masterpiece of story-telling” and the San Diego Union Tribune called it “A singular work of art, with its smooth, ethereal prose and series after cascading series of astonishing lore.” The New York Times and Discover Magazine both described her book on hunger as “elegant.” Of her Anatomy of a Rose, the Sunday Times (London) said, “Every page holds a revelation.”
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Giveaway:
Four (4) signed copies of Teresa of the New World
US only
Ends 7/28
Giveaway provided by the author, bloggers are not responsible in any way for the prizing.
