This is based on the true story of a seven year old Quechua Indian girl, Maria Virginia Farinango, taken from her indigenous home in Ecuador by a well-to-do mestizos couple, consisting of a dentist and a professor. Children taken like this were kept as virtual slaves expected to do all the nastiest and most burdensome household and child care chores without recompense. Since Virginia had grown up in a village with dirt floors without electricity or water, she had no idea how to manage such chores and was severely beaten on a regular basis for not living up to expectations.

While some girls were taken back to their villages periodically to visit their families, Virginia’s captors added psychological abuse and told Virginia that her mother no longer wanted her; if taken back her mother would sell her to someone else who treated her even worse. Later it becomes clear that Virginia’s family did not know where she had gone or why she stayed away.

Virginia was promised school, but it never happened. Instead, she was locked in the house while her white captors were gone for the day and she was rarely allowed outside. However, her master gave her the key to learning how to read and Maria devoured the household books and later the schoolbooks her master’s children had.

As she grew into a beautiful teenager her master’s kindness and interest in took a sexual turn and Maria’s position became intolerable. She was able to contact her family with the help of a neighbor and escape.

Although she first returned to her family and indigena village, it became clear that she no longer belonged there in the deep poverty, lack of schools, and unending field labor.

Virginia reached for the stars, supporting herself as a maid while applying to mestizo schools and entering a nation wide pageant. She dreamed of a future where “dirty Indians” could take their places with futures beyond the poor villages or domestic servants.

This was interesting and well-written. Virginia’s story began in the 1980’s. It is no longer legal in Ecuador for children to be taken from their indigina families. Yet children of these villages still do not have the opportunities for school and careers that the mestizos do. Very different and yet the same in many ways as Native Americans were and are treated here in the U.S. – looked down upon as being a less intelligent and a lesser people by the descendants of those who conquered the area. ( )

A biographical novelized version of Maria Virginia Farinango's life in an Andean village in Ecuador, the book follows Virginia from age 7 to 16 -- a topsy turvy life from scrapping at her parents hut to being an unpaid household servant for a professor and dentist back to the village and then onto a prestigious school. The book's real theme is the story of ambition and determination as Virginia seeks to throw off her indigenous roots to assimilate in the ruling class of mestizos/Spanish descendants only to discover her roots are what makes her special. This book won a YA Fiction award and deservingly so. ( )

The Queen of Water by Laura Resau is the story of Virginia, born in a small rural village in Ecuador, she lives with her large family in a small, earth-walled hovel. Her family are indigenas considered the lowest class of people and they work the fields for a family of mestizos, Spanish descendants. At seven years of age Virginia is taken from her family to become an unpaid servant to an upper class mestizo couple. Never having known much love or kindness, she grows up struggling always to better herself and find a way to escape from her dead-end life.

This was an amazing YA story that is based on a true story. The author collaborated with the real Virginia to bring this story to the rest of the world. Virginia spent eight year being held a virtual prisoner, denied an education, being beaten for the slightest of misdeeds, and finally having to avoid the man of the house who liked to put his hands on her and became more possessive and jealous of her as she blossomed into a very attractive young woman. Feeling like she doesn’t belong anywhere, Virginia finds the courage to break away, reinvents herself and becomes the person she was meant to be.

I really liked this story, and felt that Virginia came across as very real. Like all young girls she wasn’t perfect but she grew into her wisdom and strength as she learned how to take control and build a new life for herself. This is the second book that I have read by this author and will certainly be on the lookout for more. ( )

RGG: Read-Alike for Patricia McCormick's Sold. Setting in Ecuador. Socio-economic and cultural racism: indigenous peoples vs. Spanish descendants. Real life experience of one of the co-authors. Reading Interest: 13-YA.

Based on a true story. This book is so interesting! Such an inspirational story. ( )