Samba Para un ""Menino de Rua"" = Samba for a Street Child

YA-In this dreamlike novel, Benedita Moreira is a distraught mother living in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. Her three sons, each by a different father, abandon their dilapidated home while still very young to fend for themselves in the streets of this major city. Benedita knows in her mother's heart that something terrible has happened to her eldest son Paulinho. During her nightmarish search for him, flashbacks serve to fill readers in on Benedita's personal history of abject poverty and brutality at the hands of the military. Benedita does eventually learn that her son was one of many street children assassinated by ragged groups of milicianos charged with sanitizing the streets of the city. In a twisted subplot, she tracks down a man who was complicit in the cover-up of her son's death only to discover that it was Paulinho's father. This tragic story takes place against the gaudy backdrop of Rio's infamous Carnaval. The author, a Spanish Mallorcan, capture the despair of the favelas. Benedita, Paulinho, and the other characters are well defined and interesting. Violence and sexual situations, although present in the novel, are described obliquely. This novel is recommended for high school libraries but is also appropriate for adult collections in public libraries. MOB