La emperatriz de los etéreos. (The Empress of the Ethereal Kingdom)
Reviewed by Veronica Covington, Univ. of Texas, Austin -- Críticas, 8/15/2008
Gallego García, Laura.
Spain/U.S.: Alfaguara: Santillana. 2007. 305p. ISBN 978-958-704-674-8. pap. $17.95.
Gr 5-8–Another page-turner from the prolific author of the best-selling Memorias de Idún (“Memoirs of Idún”; SM, 2004), and Dos velas para el Diablo (“Two Candles for the Devil”; SM, 2008). Bipa lives in a cold, dark world where people inhabit numerous underground caves that protect them from the constant blizzards and eternal snows. Her only interests are life in the caves and herding cattle into the different caverns to find moss to feed them. Aer, the son of a foreigner who once visited The Caves, is quite different. He believes in the fairy tales of the Ethereal Kingdom—a place where suffering doesn't exist, and people never feel cold or hunger—and he gazes longingly at the star that is supposed to signal its location. Bipa thinks he is foolish and they constantly fight. But one day, Aer leaves to find the Ethereal Kingdom and Bipa decides to follow him and bring him back home. Throughout her travels, Bipa has many dangerous adventures: she has to cross the City of Ice, the City of Crystal, the Labyrinth of Mirrors, the Abyss, and the World of Water. To her surprise, the closer she gets to the Ethereal Kingdom, the thinner and more transparent people are—a condition to reach that realm. But Bipa decides not to change and, remaining true to herself, is able to bring Aer back to The Caves. In the process, she discovers a startling truth about the Ethereal Kingdom and its Empress that shatters all hopes… Highly recommended for public and school libraries.
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