Maya

K-Gr 3-An atmospheric tale about loss, the power of story, and finding light in the darkness. The true star of the book is MacKay's enchanting paper theater illustrations. They help tell the story of a night when the lights go out and Maya and her mother are living in the city, without Maya's father. Maya is frightened without Papa (it is unclear where Papa is; he is spoken of in the past tense throughout). To calm her daughter, Mother takes Maya to the roof of the apartment and tells her the tale of the first banyan tree. As her mother drifts off to sleep, Maya imagines the jungle animals her mother has described. At first, they are scary, but as she looks closer she sees that each animal is content among the roots of the banyan tree. Maya also finds contentment in her dream world. As she returns to reality, she snuggles closely with her mother and drifts off to sleep thinking about her father. VERDICT Though the illustrations are lovely and quite special, the story within a story fails to ground itself in time and place, which undermines the importance of its message. An additional purchase.-Jasmine L. Precopio, Fox Chapel Area School District, Pittsburgh © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.