Chasing the Jaguar

This first title in a planned series introduces Martika Glvez a few weeks before her 15th birthday, as she begins having ""unsettling"" dreams involving a jaguar, a sacred animal in Mayan mythology. When her dreams begin involving Jennifer Colton, the recently kidnapped beautiful 16-year-old daughter of Ted Colton, a trader of antiquities on the black market, Martika learns she is from a long line of curanderas (""a woman with psychic powers of divination and astral projection""). With the help of her great-great-aunt, Tía Tellín (whom neighbors in their L.A. barrio refer to as a witch), Martika unravels her dreams to find the missing sculpture that will save the kidnapped girl. Actress and singer-songwriter Greene's first novel starts with an alluring premise: a young Latina with premonitions and powers to solve mysteries and to heal. However, the book does touch on some adult themes. For example, Ted Colton's daughter is kidnapped from home, while Ted is ""sprawled in bed, a generous quantity of vodka soothing his brain into a deep sleep. Beside him was a half-dressed blond woman... a party guest who had been drunk enough to be invited to stay over."" But the book realistically builds suspense and also conveys Martika's struggle to sort out her feelings about her parents' separation, her quinceanera, and her growing awareness of her own gifts. Ages 12-up.