Magical realism in a book for children

As a child, Meg Medina's days were awash with stories oceans away from the likes of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears."

"My grandmother . . . she rolled cigars as a young woman [in Cuba], and she still smoked as an old lady," Medina said of her grandmother, who had given up cigars, but not the habit of smoking, by the time she became Medina's after-school sitter.

"She'd sit down and light up . . . and it was more like, 'Let me tell you about this hurricane that blew down my house or the time that fever wiped out my village,'" said the 45-year-old mother of three from Henrico County. "It was a little scary for a child, but it created a world for me where chickens were in the yard; where neighbors talked over fences . . . a world really far away from Queens, New York, where I grew up."

The stories of her family's beloved Cuba also embedded a sense of resilience in the young girl who faced her own challenges straddling two cultures in the Big Apple borough as a first-generation Cuban-American.

Then, Medina said, money was tight and cultural misunderstandings occurred daily. It would be years before the former journalist and teacher returned to the storied waters of her youth to cast for a children's tale of her own.

"Milagros: Girl From Away" (Henry Holt & Co., $17.95) follows the 12-year-old title character's harrowing journey to acceptance after being forced from her island home alone. The girl holds fast to the magic of her past, however, under the protective wings of several colorful stingrays.

Medina's debut novel hit stores this month and Narnia Children's Books on Kensington Avenue will host a signing for her on Saturday. The event comes on the heels of a "Best Book of 2009" nomination by the American Library Association, an honor Narnia owner Kelly Kyle said is well-deserved.

"It's easy to recommend ["Milagros"] to any good reader," Kyle said. "We get a lot [of books] that don't have a conscience to them. This is a real book. It's well thought out and beautifully written . . . It stays with you -- even adults."

Kyle said Medina's mastery of magical realism puts her in the same category as Isabel Allende. The American Academy of Letters member is known internationally for her best-selling works in the genre.

Medina is modest about the praise. She prefers, instead, to talk craft.

"You really need to write what's inside you and . . . like a lot of people who write for children -- you're writing the truth about the person you were then."

Medina, however, adds her own brand of magic.

"I think of it as those moments when you're convinced that you've spotted an angel or you've lived this moment before . . . or you feel somebody whisper in your ear. All of those moments, if you're really paying attention, you will notice."
Contact Penelope M. Carrington at (804) 649-6027 or .