J.C. Cervantes uses her lifelong fascination with Mayan and Aztec mythologies to create the compelling, humorous The Storm Runner.
"Zane Obispo has a pretty sweet life." Ever since last year, he's been home-schooled, which means he spends his time reading The Lost Myths and Magic of the Maya, wandering around the desert of New Mexico with his beloved three-legged dog, Rosie, and spending time with his hardworking mother. He also recently found an entrance to "a whole labyrinth of caves" inside a dead volcano he considers his own. Life is generally pretty good, even if he does sometimes consider himself a "freak" because one of his "legs [is] shorter than the other," meaning he walks with "a dumb limp."
Things take a turn for the worst, though, a couple days before a solar eclipse. Zane's mom makes him attend a "stuffy private school" and he learns that he's part of a "very big prophecy that was told hundreds of years ago" in which a boy will release from prison Ah-Puch, the "Mayan god of death, disaster, and darkness." Zane is that boy. To make matters all the more overwhelming, he finds out a new friend is a "nawal" (shape-shifter) and an old friend is a "nik' wachinel" (a Mayan seer). When Rosie is killed by a demon from Xib'alb'a, the only thing he wants to do is save her from the underworld. Well, and not let "the Stinking One" out to destroy the world.
Fans of the Percy Jackson books are sure to love Cervantes's hefty, Aztec mythology-based, chosen-one-style adventure. Zane is supremely likable, with an approachable, gently dark sense of humor that works with the horrors he faces. High stakes and terrifying monsters make The Storm Runner great fun for the voracious middle-grade fantasy reader. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness