The Surrender Tree is a collection of poems that read like a book about Cuba's fight for freedom against Spain in the 1800's. Different characters "narrate" different poems and share different points of view hiding in the woods, burning crops, starving, running, and living in caves. Historicall...
I enjoyed this book when I first read it. The author is always so thorough with her narrative.This book tells the narratives of Frederika, Cecilia, and Elena in Cuba- and also Cecilia’s husband Beni, but only slightly. Frederika is a Swedish novelist who visits Cuba, and her host family is Elen...
I'm wobbling between three and four stars for this one. It's a quick, powerful story of a fascinating figure from Cuban history. I learned a great deal, and I loved the way Engle brought 19th-century Cuba too life. Tula's relationship with the family servant (previously slave), Caridad, was dr...
This historical fiction story, told in verse, is about Fefa, an 11-year-old girl who lives with her family in Cuba during the early 20th century, after the wars for independence that took place in many Latin American countries during the late 19th century. Fefa struggles with reading and writing ...
Artwork: gorgeous.There are some nice life cycle tidbits thrown in here amidst the story of Maria Merian and her study of butterflies (not just butterflies, but frogs and other insects) that would make this book work for science units. The historical element--particularly the different beliefs th...
My mother's brothers are Abelino, Miguel, Arcadio, and Félix. Her sisters are Ana Luisa, Sarita, and Leonila. When all the cousins visit, the astonishing abundance of long, complicated names seems absolutely impossible to spell correctly, but I do truly, truly try! Fortunately, my favorite be...
Rosa In the month of October, when hurricanes loom, a few plantation owners burn their fields, and free their slaves, declaring independence from Spanish rule. Slavery all day, and then, suddenly, by nightfall—freedom! Can it be true, as my former owner explains, with apologies for all the bad ye...
I cannot write. All I do is watch my caged goldfinch and listen to his brave little song. I have discovered injustice, but what good is a witness who cannot testify? I am silent. Useless. My voice has vanished. Will I ever learn how to sing on paper? Tula My indoor...
She arrives in a loud burst of hilarious jungle poem-stories about elephant sunscreen (mud) elephant pizza (squashed trees) and elephant dreams (jumping, because when they’re awake, elephants are the only mammals that can’t leap). After her welcome-home nonelephant pizza party, all I expect to do...
I cannot bear to speakabout my burning village,my parents and sisters, or my Cuban wifewho died too young or our sonwho moved awayto who-knows-where and never visits,never writes. I have no wisdom to offerwhen it comes to the artof waiting for answers. DANIEL Waiting for a futureand...
Beni drives us in a carriage that scurries over the hills like a swift insect, or a spider. Finally, we reach a thatched farmhouse with a clean-swept earthen floor and an outdoor kitchen and the tranquil coziness of a country home where the people are poor but hardworking and filled with love for...
It sounds like a whispered plea for freedom from a rooted existence. Naridó fled the village without his canoe, so when I find him, I will show him this spirit-tree, and we will build a boat. It will take a month to chop the trunk with stone axes, and another month to hollow it with bone scrapers...