Maria's Beads
In this story of magical realism, a mysterious old woman gives María Cortez some strange, very pretty beads. She has no idea they came from mara’akame spirits.
When her best friend, Hannah, becomes deathly ill and Hannah’s parents refuse medical treatment, María desperately tries to save her friend. Adults won’t intercede, so she turns to the magic beads, but they can’t do it alone.
María must find and use her own inner strength, passed down to her through her ancestral Huichol culture . . . or watch Hannah die.
About Charles Markee (Santa Rosa, California Author)
After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, Charles enjoyed a 41-year career as a technical manager in Silicon Valley, California. Retired, he became coordinator and meeting moderator for the Sonoma County Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) for seven years. He has published three middle-grade novels as well as short works in four literary anthologies and the Santa Rosa PressDemocrat newspaper. He was co-editor of the Redwood Writers 2012 anthology, Call of the Wild, and is a member of the Redwood Writers a branch of the California Writer's Club (CWC).