The books in this section are usually hardcover and in decent shape, though we'll sometimes offer hard-to-find books in lesser condition at a reduced price. Though we often put images of the book with their original dust jackets, the copies here won't always (or even often) have them. If that is important to you, please call ahead or say so in the order comments!
Fabian, an Indian boy of Guatemala, grew up in the old Mayan beliefs. He shared his father's fear of the new, and the ways of the gringo (white man).
Every spring, he and his father spent the entire night praying to their Gods of Nature before burning last year's dry brush from their field. Every spring before planting seed, they offered hot corn mush to their Gods hoping their field might become fruitful. So did many other Indians in Guatemala.
Yet, this boy had the courage to secretly plant twenty kernels of maize (corn) which his brother had given him. It was a new maize, developed by the feared gringo.
While planting, Fabian uncovers a rare jade earplug of the Ancients. On his way home he is frightened as he watches the moon go into an eclipse, thinking the Gods are angry at him for his deed.
But the earplug and the magic maize lead to adventures so unusual that even Fabian's stubborn father is convinced the old and the new can live in peace.
Many paintings by Conrad Buff, vivid with the color and the heat of the tropics, make Magic Maize come alive vigorously.
—from the dust jacket
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