Pan's labyrinth : the labyrinth of the faun
(Book)

This spellbinding tale takes readers to a sinister, magical, and war-torn world filled with richly drawn characters like trickster fauns, murderous soldiers, child-eating monsters, courageous rebels, and a long-lost princess hoping to be reunited with her family.

Spanish Civil War. Ofelia and her pregnant mother, Carmen, have come to live with her mother's new husband in a forest north of Spain. Ofelia is afraid of her new stepfather, whom she has nicknamed "The Wolf," and worries that he will hurt her mother. In the forest she encounters a small twiglike creature that she knows immediately is actually a fairy. She follows it through the forest, where she meets a half-man, half-goat creature, the Faun. He tells her that she is the reincarnation of an Underworld princess but her memories were erased by the sun. Ofelia's true father, the king of the Underworld, has left portals open all over the word so she can return to him. Only one portal is still open, and Ofelia must pass a series of tests before she is allowed to return to the Underworld. -- adapted from Amazon.com info