Pilar Ramirez and the Escape from Zafa by Julian Randall

Bargain Books are unsold books returned to publishers. They are marked as "reminders" with a dot or slash across the pages. They can then be repurchased by indie bookstores and resold at discounted prices. They are typically in otherwise like-new condition. 

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While doing research for her documentary about her cousin Natasha--who disappeared in the Dominican Republic fifty years ago during the Trujillato--twelve-year-old Pilar Violeta Ramirez is transported to Zafa, an island where Dominican myths and legends come to life and where her cousin is being held captive in a sinister magical prison, and Pilar must defeat the Dominican bogeyman if she hopes to free Natasha and return home to Chicago.