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.