Maria's Beads

In this story of magical realism, a mysterious old woman gives María Cortez some strange, very pretty beads. She has no idea they came from mara'akame Spirits. When her best friend, Hannah, becomes deathly ill and Hannah's parents refuse medical treatment, María desperately tries to save her friend. Adults won't intercede, so she turns to the magic beads, but they can't do it alone. María must find and use her own inner strength, passed down to her through her ancestral Huichol culture . . . or watch Hannah die.