The Treasure of Maria Mamoun

Adult author Chalfoun’s (The Width of the Sea) first book for children opens in a gritty section of the Bronx, where 12-year-old Maria Theresa Ramirez Mamoun (her mother is Lebanese-American, her absentee father Puerto Rican) lives with her single mother, Celeste, who works two nursing jobs to support them. Friendless and solitary, Maria is regularly taunted at school by the “Bad Barbies,” and one violent bullying episode impels Celeste to find a job as private nurse to a bedridden film director on Martha’s Vineyard. Arriving on the island, Maria transforms—a little too quickly and easily—into an adventurous and secretive girl with a mission: to find the buried treasure promised by the old privateer’s map she has discovered. She befriends the housekeeper’s wayward son, Paolo; warms up the crusty director; cleans up an old sailboat; and takes on the unfamiliar waters, first in a rowboat and eventually, with Paolo’s help, in a sailboat. The plot builds smoothly and suspensefully as Maria puzzles over mysterious clues, and the happy, if somewhat predictable, ending is warmly satisfying. Ages 8–12. Author’s agency: Mary Evans, Inc. (July)