Walking Stars: Stories of Magic and Power » (Reprint)

These are the stories of Victor Villaseñor's childhood. Magical, yet true, they are fables of endurance, defeat and triumph, spirituality, and, always, of love. Handed down through the generations, the Villase-or's have been telling these family tales for years. Now, Victor shares them with his unmistakable storyteller style, complete with beautiful imagery and timeless significance.

Set against the backdrop of the Mexican revolution and his family's migration to the United States, these stories feature a cast of unforgettable characters who have in common their perseverance and courage. They encounter the supernatural, escape persecution by rebel soldiers, endure hunger, thirst and physical stress, and ultimately, transcend their circumstances to achieve their dreams. They are indeed walking stars.

Victor Villaseñor works his magic once again with these extraordinary stories.

Publishers Weekly

Legend and fact coexist happily in this spiritually rich collection of stories, which pungently combines elements from Native American folktales, Bible stories, Mexican political history and the experiences of the author and his Mexican family. On the one hand, Villaseor (Rain of Gold) finds literal as well as metaphorical truth in a Mexican octogenarian's statement that ``we all are walking stars.... And we all come from the heavens!'' On the other, he describes his father's boyhood confrontation with ``La Bruja,'' the town witch, a lesson about the hazards of assuming magical powers that do not exist. Still other entries here include a disconcertingly convincing story of a difficult birth; a rousing tale of a boy's desperate race against the train carrying his family away from their Mexican village to the United States; a mystical account of a dog's loyalty to a dying master. The power of this collection is somewhat diluted by the author's notes that follow each story; these recapitulate the themes of the fiction in overeager and artless tones. Such intrusions aside, this literary collage is both original and moving. Ages 11-up. (Sept.)