“I’ll need to be courageous someday. Why not start today? I give myself permission.”
Meet Solimar, the reluctant princess-to-be in the kingdom of San Gregorio, high in the mountains of central Mexico. Her quinceañera/coronation is fast approaching, but she would much rather romp in her hiking boots than practice walking in high heels.
“You are stronger than you know. And you have something special deep inside you. The butterflies recognized it, or they wouldn’t have trusted you with their magic. Use it. I know you can do this. I feel it.”
Solimar sneaks away to watch the arrival of the migrating monarchs in the oyamel forest. As a kaleidoscope of butterflies covers her red rebozo, she becomes the benevolent courier of these fragile beauties, guarding them until they are strong enough to continue their migration.
There’s a catch – the rebozo now contains magic that allows Solimar to see the immediate future but she is unable to keep it a secret. In the wrong hands, this magic could be dangerous, putting Solimar in a precarious position.
When her father and brother leave the kingdom to go to the grand market, a rival king comes to take the women of the palace hostage and force the King Sebastián to sell the land that is the monarch’s habitat. The intruder also has designs on Solimar’s magical rebozo.
It is up to Solimar to get to her father and brother to warn them before it is too late. Solimar joins forces with Berto, a boy from the river, to make a harrowing river journey over rapids and through a labyrinth of caves. Once at the market, this unlikely team must outwit their pursuers. With a little help from her grandmother’s own magic, the kingdom is saved and the butterfly habitat is preserved.
“Because unsinkable means a lot of different things besides not drowning. It means that you can’t be kept down. It means you keep trying, no matter what. And that you’re un-cowardly and unwavering and unstoppable!”
Solimar begins like a traditional story with royalty and castles and magic. But don’t be fooled – Pam Muñoz Ryan has infused this old-fashioned story with modern questions of equity, fairness, self-determination, and grit. Young Solimar and her co-conspirator Berto show what courage and integrity look like. Add some inspiring female elders and this is a story about empowerment. And, at less than 200 pages, the narrative moves like the fast-flowing Río Diablo.
