Everlasting Nora
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- €7.99
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- €7.99
Publisher Description
An uplifting young reader debut about perseverance against all odds, Marie Miranda Cruz's debut Everlasting Nora follows the story of a young girl living in the real-life shantytown inside the Philippines’ Manila North Cemetery.
After a family tragedy results in the loss of both father and home, 12-year-old Nora lives with her mother in Manila’s North Cemetery, which is the largest shantytown of its kind in the Philippines today.
When her mother disappears mysteriously one day, Nora is left alone.
With help from her best friend Jojo and the support of his kindhearted grandmother, Nora embarks on a journey riddled with danger in order to find her mom. Along the way she also rediscovers the compassion of the human spirit, the resilience of her community, and everlasting hope in the most unexpected places.
“Heartwarming!”—#1 New York Times Bestselling Author Melissa de la Cruz
“A story of friendship and unrelenting hope.”—Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nora would be in the sixth grade if she hadn't had to leave school a year before, after a fire destroyed her home and killed her father. Now living in her father's mausoleum, in North Cemetery, the largest graveyard in Manila, Nora makes and sells daisy garlands to passersby and helps her mother do others' laundry to provide food and necessities. After her mother disappears one night, Nora finds herself utterly alone, unwilling to call upon family or friends because of embarrassment and previous family circumstances. She soon realizes how dire her mother's gambling problem has become and confronts a loan shark's greedy lackey to find her. Unexpected help from neighbors and friends, like 13-year-old Jojo and his grandmother, Lola Mercy, portray a caring community within the shantytown and beyond. Debut author Cruz doesn't shy away from Nora's reality her unreliable, grieving mother, the family's extreme poverty, the violence of the gambling world but she also weaves a story of hope in darkness and creates a courageous, resilient heroine to root for. Cruz's rich descriptions of Filipino culture, most notably the food, intensify the sense of place and proffer bright spots in Nora's difficult situation. Ages 8 12.
