Thursday, February 23, 2012

Book 42 - The Indigo Notebook by Laura Resau - Ecuador

This is a great read for International Students. Fifteen year old Zeeta lives in a different country each year as her eccentric, English teaching mother seems unable to stay in one place very long. Each year Zeeta writes a new journal - her notebooks, and each year they are a different colour. This year the notebook is Indigo. As she settles in to her new surroundings of Ecuadoran Andes, Zeeta makes friends with the locals as she speaks some of the language. While she yearns for an ordinary life she tries to convince her mother to change her flighty ways. 

Then Zeeta meets up with an American teenager called Wendel who looks remarkably like one of the locals. Adopted by his parents from the region Wendell has made a journey back to try to find his birth mother and father. He convinces Zeeta to help him. 

As Zeeta and Wendell begin their search they discover many things are not as they seem in the local villages. Wendell has some surprising talents he has inherited from his birth family. Zeeta's mother starts to do her utmost to change to please her daughter and Zeeta begins to realize that sometimes getting what you dream for may not be what you wanted after all.

This book combines mysticism with some of life's harsher truths. I enjoy the way Zeeta's mother, Layla seeks to change and in the end some of the steps she makes are very positive.

This is the first book in a series and I will be looking to buy the others for the library.

Laura Resau's website