In an era in which the Mayan prophecy-allegedly announcing the end of the world in December 2012-has been the subject of fascination, fear, anxiety, and fact-finding, author Martha Bourke approaches the topic from a completely different perspective. What if the TRUTH about this “prophecy” was known? What if that Truth is known only to one person-a sixteen-year-old girl? Such is the premise of “Jaguar Sun.”
Poor, poor Maya-not only does she bear the name of a primarily extinct culture, she is Hispanic, attends a primarily Hispanic New Mexico high school-and doesn’t speak a word of Spanish. Her dreams are plagued by shadow animals, which then begin appearing in the day; her mother abandoned her at age four, and her Mayan grandmother is her only hope of a confidant for her experiences. She sure can’t talk about to about-to-be-ex boyfriend Matt, or even her best friends, the irrepressible Vasquez twins.
“Jaguar Sun” is such a delightful book that the reader will be immediately captivated (I want to give it 10 stars of 5
). Martha Bourke has a knack for being hip with the slang, perceptions, and attitudes of her protagonist’s age group (and cultural dichotomy!) and doesn’t spare it in giving readers characters we can truly relate to and with whom we can easily empathise. This book is very fast-paced, partly because it’s simply so enjoyable, the reader is turning pages and racing on, not even thinking of it as a “story,” but rather as an “experience”-an experience in delight!
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