Wasylyn, Nina
Book Review # 2
Period 4
14 December 2016

                                                        The Lightning Queen
                                                             Laura Resau
                                                                Fiction
                                                              303 pages
                                                       Americas Book Award  

                                                  

The novel, The Lightning Queen, by Laura Resau is about a grandfather telling his grandson a story about himself when he was twelve years old. The grandfather's name is Teo and he is from the Hill of Dust, Oaxaca, Mexico, where the story is taken place. The story starts when a clan of gypsies come into Grandpa Teo's small village. The gypsies travel from town to town showing movies and telling fortunes in exchange for food. At this time Grandpa Teo is only twelve years old and during his fortune telling, it is said that he will be life long friends with one of the gypsy girls, Esma, Queen of Lightning. Esma had dark brown hair in two braids with ribbons and shells woven in them. She had a limp and she told Teo that her leg was struck by lightning, but she is still the strongest and most confident person Teo has ever met. They did become great, great friends. Esma had an amazing voice and played the violin beautifully and had always dreamed of becoming a famous singer. When the gypsy clan returned the next year, Esma was given a business card from a musician manager. Her dreams were able to come true. Teo had gone back to school and suffered with a nasty teacher that would beat them. One day his teacher came by to Teo's village because Teo's grandfather was a healer and would cleanse her of all the horror she caused for her students. Next year after Teo's grandfather died, Teo came down with a very high fever and would lose consciousness often. His entire family was worried and one day he saw himself floating to the ceiling but he saw his body still on the bed. He wanted to keep going but his grandfather convinced him to stay with Esma and his life. After Teo recovered from the fever, his teacher that was now like a mother to him, drove him and Esma into Mexico City to find the musician manager. Esma became a famous singer and Teo went to school and became a doctor like his grandfather. 

            Unlike my last book review, I loved this book. Early on, I was bored with the gypsies coming into town and reading fortunes but later on I realized I was so interested in what would happen between Esma and Teo's life long friendship. I enjoyed everything about the actual book, just some of the parts of the story made me mad. On page 131 during a school day, Teo's teacher Maestra Maria got mad at a young boy for not speaking in Spanish so said, " I told you, none of that uncivilized language in my classroom. Ten smacks. Benito, put out your hand." After she became nicer with the help of Teo's grandfather, they treated her like family and that bugged me because she was such a horrible person. The ending of the book was very entertaining because Teo died for a day or two then came back when Esma sang to to him with her beautiful voice. It was also really sad because the two life long friends didn't stay together and they grew up in different countries with different people. I would recommend this book to other people I think because you feel as if you're actually in their village. The author did an amazing job describing every little detail which I enjoyed so much. On page 22 when the gypsies were telling fortunes, Teo described his house, " As always, the earthy, sweet scents of copal incense and pine filled the dark room. The dirt floor was cool on my feet, a welcome relief from the relentless sunshine."