THE FIRE SERPENT LEGACY

A girl and a giant fire-breathing serpent take on the challenge of protecting the Amazon rainforest.

Eleven-year-old Aurelia Braga lives with her older sister, Julia, and her overprotective grandmother, Avó. Originally from Manaus, Brazil, but raised in Astoria, Queens, brown-skinned Auri believes she’s a “mix of European, African, and Indigenous.” She wonders about her environmentalist parents, who died years ago, but Avó is too grief-stricken to say much about them. One day, Auri discovers a hollowed-out book with photos of her Tia Célia with a Boitatá, creatures from Brazilian folklore that are said to protect the Amazon. She also finds pages from Avó’s journal that reveal that her parents were guardians of the Boitatás who died protecting the last surviving Boitatá egg—an egg that now sits in a hutch in Auri’s living room. The sisters convince Avó to let them visit family in Brazil, and Auri smuggles the egg in her luggage. When the Boitatá hatches, she names him Sérgio and sets to work training him with the help of her cousin Marcos, who loves wrestling and martial arts. When the family property is threatened by developers, the cousins and Sérgio step up. Auri’s voice in her first-person narration is fresh and engaging. She speaks little Portuguese, and Rodriguez effectively conveys the experience of communicating across language barriers. This swiftly moving story honors environmental activism, accessibly weaving in information about deforestation.

An absorbing page-turner infused with Brazilian folklore.