This is the first time my five-star review has revisited any author. You see, I like to toot the horn for as many authors as possible, often talking about the first in a series. But this book is a stand-alone, and in an entirely different category. For a different age, as well. Middle-grade to young adult versus adult mystery.

First Cover
Okay, enough with the blather. Land of Mountains by Jinx Schwartz is the viewpoint story of ten-year-old Lizbuthann, Texan, who moves to Haiti with her family during the 1950s. If Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a must for every boy (and girl) to read, equally, Land of Mountains is a must for every girl (and boy) to read! (Hey, I know exclamation marks should only be used once in every full-length novel, if ever. You’ll understand if you read this book.)

New Cover
Here’s the Amazon blurb: “A ten-year-old’s new home on an exotic Caribbean island proves so fascinating she quickly forgets she didn’t want to leave Texas. After all, where better than a jungle world teeming with voodoo, mystery, and a really pesky zombie, to indulge her favorite pastime: snooping.
“In this humorous mystery, award-winning author Jinx Schwartz transports the reader to another time and place where rivers, and little girls, ran wild and free.”
One reviewer says: LAND OF MOUNTAINS by Jinx Schwartz is a Young Adult book for readers from 8 to 108. The book is a finalist for a 2012 Eppie award.
“LAND OF MOUNTAINS is a fun read, with serious overtones and underpinnings. WECLOM to Haiti, a country verging on revolution when Elizabeth Ann or Ann, as her father calls her, and her family of Texas Southern Baptists arrive in 1954. Haiti, they soon learn, is a child’s paradise and an adult’s nightmare.”
I first discovered this book in time to give it to my third granddaughter when she was twelve. She thanked me profusely. (Note — kids haven’t written any reviews.) That one had the first cover. Last December I gave the same book (new cover) to my fourth granddaughter, age eleven. Her fifteen-year-old brother took one look at that new cover and said, “I am so going to read that. (Have I made up for the lack of youth reviews?)
Land of Mountains is sold as an ebook and paperback (with either cover) at Amazon link.