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Salvador's Children: A Song for Survival (A Helen Hooven Santmyer Prize Winner)

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Salvador's Children by Lea Marenn is a HHHHH book that touches the soul. A new family tree By: Lindsay Rogan "I knew that my daughter was not only herself, not only Maria de Jesus. She was all the things that her parents were; and their parents, and theirs. She was the people from her village. She was the countryside where they gathered their food and washed their clothes. She was the flowers and grasses, the mountains and rivers she had known. She was the images and the stories. All that lived on in her, even when someone else was gone. I knew she would change, but somehow in her the past would become lodged. Somehow, I knew, all of it would live on." This passage from chapter 19 in Salvador's Children by Lea Mareen describes the entire journey of the book. Starting in the cruel heat of San Salvador, a female, North American college professor adopts eight year old Maria de Jesus and quickly learns that language is not the only barrier between them. Maria, having lived through the death of her parents, disappearance of two siblings, and responsibility of taking care of her younger brothers, is mature beyond her years and ready to tell her story. Slowly as she opens up to the narrator, her story of pain, poverty, love, happiness and joy are slowly brought to life creating a new dimension to her family portrait. Now that Maria has added her life to the picture, is there anyone left to carry on her history? Will her new mother understand the importance of family? Could she love Maria the way her mother did or would she also die, leaving Maria with another loss? Does she care enough to carry on the history of a different family? Was Maria a part of her family? Each of these questions plague Maria as the narrator learns more about her past, cops with Maria's fits of silence, and opens her heart to her new daughter. This book will teach the importance of communication, love and letting go of the fear of being unloved. A journey that begins on the first page, this book is bound to lasts forever in the heart.