American writer Laura Resau's new book 'What The Moon Saw' is a classic waiting to happen.

'What The Moon Saw', published by Delacorte, is the story of a young Mexican-American girl, Clara Luna, who visits her grandparents for the first time in a remote, indigenous village in Oaxaca, Mexico. She spends the summer there exploring her heritage and learning to live without electricity, television and computers. Clara's grandmother is a traditional healer, and begins to pass her knowledge on to Clara. It is very much a novel of identity and growing up. Although it is marketed for age ten and up, it is highly readable at any age.

Ms Resau currently lives in Colorado. She spent two years living in Oaxaca teaching English as a second language. People there speak a combination of Spanish and Mixteco.

"After college I decided I wanted to explore the world and live in a different culture," said Ms Resau. "I took a short course in English as a second language. I sent my resum? all over the world, and also to Mexico.

"It was the first place that offered me a job. I didn't speak Spanish at the time. I was ready to be in a different culture. I ended up loving it there and really feeling a strong connection to that place."

Once in Mexico, Ms Resau learned Spanish fairly quickly because very few people spoke English. Many people she met spoke a combination of Spanish and Mixteco.

She spent a lot of time in her students' villages, as they would often invite her home over weekends and holidays.

"I was completely fascinated with the culture," Ms Resau said. "I felt really embraced by the people there. Many older women treated me like a granddaughter. I was particularly interested in Shamans and healers and midwives. I also noticed in the villages that there were a lot of kids whose fathers or uncles were working in the United States as migrant workers.

"One big issue in a lot of the villages was that many of the kids had a feeling of insecurity because their families were separated."

In the book, Clara's father has never returned to his village after running away to America. Clara's return to her father's village is a way for him to bridge the gulf between him and his parents. The reader also sees this issue from a different angle, through Clara's Mexican friend, Pedro. He wants to go to America to look for his father, who has also lost touch with his family.

Many readers have asked if there will be a sequel, possibly involving Pedro.

"I didn't envision a sequel when I wrote this, so I don't have it planned," she said. "However, I left the book open-ended, so it could happen."

Ms Resau said that 'What The Moon Saw' was really a mosaic of her experiences in Mexico.

"I incorporated stories that I heard and bits and pieces of the people I talked with," she said. "My imagination put this altogether."

Being in Mexico had a profound effect on her, causing her to rethink her values and way of life.

"I felt a little bit of culture shock, but there is something so beautiful about sitting in a kitchen with tea bubbling over a fire, with wood smoke in the air. There is something so peaceful about that. It was a time of spiritual growth for me."

Her second book 'Red Glass' will be for a slightly older demographic, 12 and up, and will be about immigrants entering the United States. It is due out next autumn.

"In that story there is a little boy who is orphaned when his parents die crossing the border from Mexico to Arizona," she said. "The main character, Sophie, and her family take him in as a foster child. The story is about a road trip to return the boy to his home in southern Mexico." One of the hardest things about leaving all her friends in Mexico was keeping in touch. Many people in the village she stayed in, do not have e-mail, or even a telephone. Even letter writing can be a challenge, because not everyone there can read and write.

"Sometimes I sent cassettes with my voice with some music on them," she said. "It is tough to keep in touch sometimes. I do often feel like I should spend all the vacation time I have there.

Ms Resau said the book has only been out for a month and a half but already the response to it has been wonderful.

"I have been really happy with it," she said. "Three of the major reviewers gave it star reviews. I was just happy to get it published. I started sending it out to publishers in 2002. Over the course of two years, I probably sent it to a dozen different agencies."

She has also received many positive comments from the Latin American and Mexican community.

"My Latin American and Mexican friends have been super excited about this," she said. "I was at a book signing two weeks ago and a woman from Oaxaca came up to me. She had two girls. She said, 'I just want to tell you that it makes me so happy that you are writing about my culture'. She had tears in her eyes when she said it.

"I also got a phone call from a Mexican American teenager born in the United States. She said she really loved the book; it meant a lot to her. She could understand a lot of the Mixteco words used in the book. She had been yearning for a connection with Mexico because she had never been there. The book helped her to feel immersed in the culture."