Pilar Ramirez and the Escape from Zafa (Pilar Ramirez #1)
Written by Julian Randall
Published by Henry Holt and Co.
Twelve-year-old Pilar Violeta “Purp” Ramirez’s world is changing, and she doesn’t care for it one bit. Her Chicago neighborhood is gentrifying and her chores have doubled since her sister, Lorena, left for college. The only constant is Abuela and Mami’s code of silence around her cousin Natasha—who vanished in the Dominican Republic fifty years ago during the Trujillo dictatorship.
When Pilar hears that Lorena’s professor studies such disappearances, she hops on the next train to dig deeper into her family’s mystery. After snooping around the professor’s empty office, she discovers a folder with her cousin’s name on it . . . and gets sucked into the blank page within.
She lands on Zafa, an island swarming with coconut-shaped demons, butterfly shapeshifters, and a sinister magical prison where her cousin is being held captive. Pilar will have to go toe-to-toe with the fearsome Dominican boogeyman, El Cuco, if she has any hope of freeing Natasha and getting back home.
Don’t miss the sequel, Pilar Ramirez and the Curse of San Zenon (Pilar Ramirez #2).
Primary ISBN: 9781250774101
Publication Date: March 2022
Available As: Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook, eBook
Middle Grade, Age 08 or older
Community Represented: Dominican/Dominican American
Themes: Accolades & Awards, Accolades & Awards: Starred Review, Cultural Empowerment, Cultural Empowerment & Joy: Family, Cultural Empowerment & Joy: Storytelling, Discrimination: Economic, Family Relationship: Extended, Family Relationship: Grandparents, Family Relationship: Parents, Family Relationship: Siblings, Format: Audiobook, Generation: 1st, Generational Differences, Genre: Action Adventure, Genre: Fantasy & Folklore, Genre: Historical, Multilingual: Spanish Featured Words, Own Voices/Lived Experience, Trauma & Healing, Trauma & Healing: Intergenerational
Setting: United States (Chicago IL), Fictional Setting
Character's Place in the Immigration Journey: 1st Generation
Book Creator(s) Connection to the Community Represented: Own Voices/Lived Experience
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Source: Henry Holt and Co.