The Way to Rio Luna, by Zoraida Córdova

The Way to Rio Luna, by Zoraida Córdova (Scholastic, June 2 2020), is a new middle grade fantasy (the first mg by this YA author) that will appeal to those who enjoy whimsical, fairytale-flavored adventures.

Danny Monteverde and his sister, Pili, lost their parents when he was a baby, and in the shuffle between foster homes and group homes that was his childhood, he had only two constants--Pili's love, and the fairytales she read to him from their treasured copy of The Way to Rio Luna.  Then when he was nine, Pili wasn't there anymore--run away, the authorities decided.  But Danny believes she is waiting for him in Rio Luna, if only he can find his way there...then his current foster father, who's horrible, destroys the book, and his hopes dwindle.

During a class field trip to the New York library, Danny wanders by himself into a rare book room, and finds one of the rarest books of all, out and open--an original copy of The Way to Rio Luna, from which magical arrows emanate.  He finds a friend, too, a girl named Glory who also believes in magic, encouraged by her eccentric Aunt North scoops both Danny and the book up, and takes them to her home, promising to help Danny follow the arrows to Rio Luna.

Each chapter in the book links our world to the world of Rio Luna, and each holds a key.  Danny, Glory, and Aunt North set out to track them down, travelling from New York, to Ecuador, to Brazil, and finally to Ireland.*   They meet the characters in the stories, Leigh the Bard, who foiled the plans of the Shadow Queen to take over Rio Luna, the legendary guinea big who travelled to the land of shooting stars, and the Kohlrabi King, who's set up a sanctuary for magical beings in Brazil.  They are joined by Llewellyn, a young Jackalope Prince who's squeezed his way into our world, who adds lightly comic notes, while being a stalwart ally.  And they meet the Shadow Queen, who has broken free of her prison, and who wants to use the keys the children have found to return with her army of shadows and resume her conquest.

But Danny, Glory, and Llewellyn persevere, and at last they reach Rio Luna, and Pili, in what is not so much a happy ending as the beginning of a new adventure...

The bonds of family and friendship are front and center, and the appeal of following a path into stories from a beloved a book is always great.  Younger middle grade readers will especially enjoy this diverse, vividly descriptive, story.  It wasn't quite to my own taste; there was too much whimsy for me (by way of context, I didn't really enjoy The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, or Summer In Orcus), and I felt there was not quite enough depth and building of tension to the story of the Shadow Queen, who sort of abruptly erupts into full confrontational villainy towards the end), but I'm sure many readers who aren't me will love it! 

*aside--this sort of travelling is why it's good to have a well-funded and well-connected aunt, who belives in magic, with you on your middle grade adventures in the real world.  Further aside--Danny does have a passport from when he was a baby, but the fact that it would have expired is not an issue, which raised my eyebrows because sometimes I'm a stickler for details like this. 

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher