Pilar Ramirez and the Escape from Zafa -|Pilar Ramirez Duology, Bk. 1|-

Twelve-year-old Pilar Violeta "Purp" Ramirez|s world is changing, and she doesn|t care for it one bit. Her Chicago neighborhood is gentrifying and her chores have doubled since her sister, Lorena, left for college. The only constant is Abuela and Mami|s code of silence around her cousin Natasha--who vanished in the Dominican Republic fifty years ago during the Trujillo dictatorship.When Pilar hears that Lorena|s professor studies such disappearances, she hops on the next train to dig deeper into her family|s mystery. After snooping around the professor|s empty office, she discovers a folder with her cousin|s name on it . . . and gets sucked into the blank page within.She lands on Zafa, an island swarming with coconut-shaped demons, butterfly shapeshifters, and a sinister magical prison where her cousin is being held captive. Pilar will have to go toe-to-toe with the fearsome Dominican boogeyman, El Cuco, if she has any hope of freeing Natasha and getting back home.