Lost in Sierra (In the Same Boat Series) by Diana Vazquez, German Jaramillo (Illustrator), Janet Lunn (Preface by)

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Synopsis

Thirteen-year-old Ana's beloved abuela (grandmother) has died, leaving her a ticket to Spain, a place Ana knows only through family stories. Despite her reluctance, Ana realizes that Abuela must have had strong reasons, so she decides she must go. She will spend the summer with her great-aunt in the mountain village of Sierra.

Ana has a special talent: she's good at finding things others have hidden. Her favourite childhood game was when Abuela would hide something in her store, and Ana would find it. In Spain, Ana discovers a family mystery worthy of her talents. She sets out to unravel secrets and deceptions from the past and to find a long-lost family member - a young man lost in the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War. But she also discovers there are people in the village who don't want her to find him.

Ana finds clues all around her in Sierra, in the village and in the nearby caves - caves that could hide a desperate man. As her Spanish summer draws to a close, Ana's search takes her back from Spain to Canada.

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-Ana, 13, who lives in Toronto, spends the summer in Sierra, Spain, in order to fulfill her recently deceased grandmother's last wish. Soon after arriving at her great aunt Eleanor's house, the teen comes upon letters from her grandmother's brother, who was a 16-year-old soldier in Spain's civil war; why he never returned home had become the great family mystery. Ana makes a few friends and enemies, and uncovers some facts on her own. Integrating enough history to inform readers about the conflict, the plot moves along at a good pace, building up to Ana and Eleanor's finding the answer to the young man's disappearance, which involves longtime residents of the village. An enjoyable story.-Linda Gray, Lon Morris College, Jacksonville, TX Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Biography

Diana Vazquez studied film and video at the Ontario College of Art and has spent several years writing and producing her own short and independent dramas and experimental films. Her first juvenile fiction novel, Hannah, was published by Coteau Books in 1999. Born in Germany, to Israeli and Spanish parents, Diana Vazquez moved many times with her family before settling in Canada. Her passion for reading sustained her through these many disruptions.