Starfields

Marsden, C. (2011). Starfields. Crawfordsville, IN: Candlewick Press.

            Starfields is a multicultural modern fantasy chapter book for young adults.  Told from the third-person-sympathetic point of view, its integral setting is rural Chiapas, Mexico, where the main character, a nine year old Mayan girl, Rosalba, lives with her family in a small village.  The progressive plot is structured with chapters alternating between the story of Rosalba and Xunko, a young Mayan shaman living in a much earlier time.  Xunko’s mythical dream diary parallels, then merges through time-warp with Rosalba’s contemporary story.  Having a long fascination for the Mayan culture, the author themed the story around the Mayan prophecy concerning the perceived December 21, 2012 “end of the world.”  She tells the story in an easy to read, smoothly flowing style.  The chapters are brief, weaving the tale gracefully as Rosalba weaves her traditional narrative blouses—the same as her grandmothers.  Many terms and concepts are in Rosalba’s language, with a useful glossary provided at the end of the book.  Rosalba and her unique environment are well described so that the reader may experience distinct mental impressions of sights, smells, sounds, touch, and tastes.  It is more than a glimpse into Rosalba’s world-- a very different world from the one known by many young English language readers-- rich in tradition for readers of her own heritage.  Rosalba’s conflicts with self, others, and society; the underlying themes of the power of friendship, morality, courage; and quiet reverence for Spirit and the Earth (or lack thereof), are universal.

            Rosalba is portrayed as a thoughtful, dutiful girl.  She exhibits a respectful affinity with the natural and spiritual world.  In her remote village she and her people carry on the traditions of the ancestors in their daily toils and celebrations.  Their lives are fruitful and fulfilling.  Rosalba’s life changes after meeting Alicia, a wealthy white girl from Mexico City, who came as part of her scientist father’s expedition to study the mass dying-off of native frogs (simile to canaries in the mines).  The girls instantly become friends in spite of their many differences.  Foreshadowing their common protest against a road being built into Rosalba’s village, on their first meeting together they built a “frog palace” of sticks beside the river.  Both girls gain greater insight into each others’ ways of life as they become allied in the battle to save the frogs, along with all they represent.  When Rosalba discovers men with a bulldozer slashing the forest and cutting a road from the highway toward her village (and perhaps even beyond to the sacred mountain that houses the benevolent spirit of god), she is horrified.  Foreseeing the changes that the road would bring to their way of life, including destruction of the natural environment, she desperately seeks a way to halt it. 

            Xunko was groomed as a shaman from the time he was in his mother’s womb.  During his first several years his eyes were wrapped in bandages so that he may not see the outer world.  Instead, he was taught to see the inner spiritual world.  He became a visionary prophet, foreseeing, among other visions, Rosalba and the magnitude of the impact of her actions on the lives of the people in a distant future.  Deeply disturbed by these visions, Xunko appears to Rosalba in a series of dreams, guiding her in the path she should take against malevolence, never doubting her power.  As shamans may do, he further transforms and travels through time, appearing in Rosalba’s world as an atypical crow that plucks the colorful yarn from her weaving, thus instructing her to weave instead the intensely controversial, non-traditional dream-representation of dead cornfields in blacks and browns.  Rosalba fears that to do so would ostracize her not only from the people, but from god as well.  Because her dream visions are so compelling, her sense of anxiety for the health of her environment so intense, and with no other solution in sight, she faces her fears and weaves the forbidden narrative, bravely leading the way to resolution and prolongation of a good life—at least for now.

            The author leaves the reader with a sense of hope.  Because the majority of the ancient Mayan codices have been lost or destroyed, the modern world is left without access to their whole insight.  “On December 21, 2012, our solar system is again due to pass through the heart of the Milky Way.  On this date, the Mayan calendar mysteriously ends….Today, recent books like Apocalypse 2012, by Lawrence E. Joseph, have made an explicit connection between the Mayan prophecy and environmental destruction…. Mayan scholars agree that the prophesy merely speaks to the closing of a natural cycle.  According to the Mayan calendar, the Solar System has visited the center of the Milky Way four times previously and has survived.  Why would this time be any different?  The story of Starfields explores a little of both perspectives, trying to imagine how two young girls from very different backgrounds might interpret the prophesy in relation to their own lives….” (Author’s Note, p. 207-8).    

            This story has many underlying themes that may be explored, such as courage and conviction, loyalty, friendship, paying attention, and overcoming obstacles.  The greatest theme (posing the biggest questions) seems to be recognizing what is truly of value, and striving to preserve what is left of our natural sustainable environment from “progress.”  Unborn generations will not benefit from inheriting a ruined planet.  Rosalba demonstrates that individuals can have a positive impact, small to massive, through their thoughts and actions.  A text-to-self connection reflects upon my participation in a concerted but unsuccessful effort to prevent mining near my ancestral lands.  Everything right was on “our side,” including but not limited to scientific documentation that there was not enough coal present to be mined profitably, the presence of rare and fragile flora and fauna, and family histories of resource stewardship dating from the American Revolution and earlier Native generations.  Unlike Rosalba, Alicia, and Xunco’s outcome, our outcome lies there still, two years later: hideous open wounds in the earth apparently having legal pardon from “reclamation” due to unprofitability.  No jobs were created.  The local economy did not benefit.  Neighbors were placed at odds with one another.  The land is ruined.  The water table is affected.  Once-natural habitats are destroyed forever.  The last “unspoiled” tributary in the Kentucky River system is in peril if not already changed. 

            All teachers, regardless to whether or not there is sentimental or economic loyalty toward coal miners, or loggers, or bankers, or railroads, or factory farms, or industry, or whatever the local and global cultures espouse, should lead students at every level to seek the deeper truths, to observe, to question, and to entertain alternative, better ways of thinking, doing, and being.

            Questions:  What is the Zapatista uprising?  How are hot dogs made?  What do bees do?  What is the path of the water you drink?  Are electric cars better for the environment?  Do all fish of the same species have identical faces?  What is the age of California redwood trees and why do they still live?  Which forest plants have medicinal qualities?  How many years does it take for tuna to mature?  ...on and on.

AWARDS:
Bank Street College of Education Best Books of 2012

REVIEWS:
School Library Journal: "...Rosalba’s story of self-realization is a strong one, and the juxtaposition of traditional and new ideas delivers considerable food for thought. A burgeoning environmental crisis is timely, as well."

Booklist: "...the story is so dripping with myth and mystery that kids will be intrigued, and as always, Marsden’s writing is beautiful and her knowledge about children’s hearts is immense."

http://www.carolynmarsden.com/starfields__candlewick_2011__93222.htm