The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind
Meg Medina
Candlewick Press • 2012 • 246 pages
Hardcover ($17.99)
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4602-8
Ages 13 and up
Sonia Ocampo is not a typical small-town teenager. She was born during a terrible storm in her rural village of Tres Montes, and is seen as a gift from God for surviving the squall.
Sonia is considered a local talisman who can cure any illness, malady or bad luck a person may suffer. She spends all her free time performing miracles for the superstitious townspeople and praying over sickbeds—hardly a desirable life for a teenage girl. She dreams of traveling away beyond the mountains on the one train that runs through her town each day.
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As luck would have it, one day she is finally given the chance to live and work in the big city and to experience freedom. But she cannot escape her fate, and when her beloved older brother disappears mysteriously, she must return home and deal with a sorrow that her family and town can never escape.
The imagery of both the dusty, mountain town and the big, modern city in this thoroughly enjoyable book is vivid and easily imaginable. The book would make a wonderful gift for a young girl who wants to connect with and learn more about the lives of girls in Latin America.
—Reviewed by Beth Rotella, Teacher, New York
