Return of the Quetzal is a ripping good yarn, a wonderfully dramatic story based on the theme of faiths-religious faith, false faith, faith in one's self, in other people, and in one's roots. The teenage heroine Meg, uprooted from her smug little middle class life in England, struggles to find her place in the multi-cultural broil of a small Central American country. She stands alone in both her doubts about the strangely compelling and mysterious new teacher and in her search for her missing brother until she meets Tony, her first friend in a strange country, and her first love. The quest for her brother in the heart of the Costa Rican Rain Forest is beautifully realized, as is the terrific final climax to the book. -Bette Paul (Children's Author and Winner of the Carnegie Medal.)