Gr 4-7–Gr 4-7–Graciela’s 13th birthday picnic on the bluffs with her older sister turns tragic when she falls into the water below. A hundred years later, she awakens to Amina’s gentle guidance: “You are part of the deep now.” Graciela settles into her aquatic eternity, “making transformations” by turning broken glass into sparkling treasures. Nearby on land, gentle Jorge, too, prefers to create beauty, but his abusive parents demand he follow his ancestors’ blacksmith trade in forging weapons for watery destruction. When Jorge finds a long-missing harpoon made to murder, he attempts to shatter its power but instead triggers cataclysmic confrontations. Jorge and Graciela become an unlikely dynamic duo to purge evil and restore safety. Rey empathically follows Graciela’s growth from mischievous youth to brave—and honest—hero, and Jorge’s metamorphosis from bullied victim to selfless champion. She’s also energetically and notably affecting as Jorge’s acidic mother, dramatically shrill Elizabeth, and thieving brothers Afonso and Bernardo.
VERDICT Rey deftly complements Medina’s first fantasy with graceful fluidity.
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