Lady of the Lines: How Maria Reiche Saved the Nazca Lines by Sweeping the Desert by Michaela Maccoll and illustrated by Elisa Chavarri has the privilege of being one of my favorite books of 2025 so far. Due in April 2025 (I read via an online reader copy) I hope you run out and preorder it at your local independent bookstore, buy copies for all the kids (and adults) you know, for town and school libraries, not to mention for the tiny free libraries on the corner of your street. 
All my love of this book goes to the originality of it and the illustrations. While conserving a cultural past is not new, this story is about something I do not believe I have ever even heard of; or if I had it was a footnote at best. What that is being spoken about is what is truly important. And that “What” is the Nazca Lines in Peru. If you want to know what they mean (Star chart? Images for the Gods as they flew overhead? An alien parking ramp?) you won’t find it. But if you want to learn how they were located, why they were located and how one woman had to fight pretty dang hard to find them, save them and keep them for the future. Again, as I said conservation of ancient art, history and science is not new, but this subject is.
And this subject is just fascinating. Reiche (and later others) would unearth a giant monkey, swirls, a spider, geometry shapes, even a cat etched right next to the observation area that hadn’t been seen before. And how Chavarri illustrates them makes everything pop off the page. There are several extras at the end, including photographs of the process and result.
