PLOT SUMMARY

In this novel in verse, Ms. Engle tells of her youth as a child of two countries during the Cold War. The author uses memories and stories of travel in her first fourteen years to describe what it was like to experience the island of Cuba as a child before the travel ban was put into place, and what it was like growing up in California as a child of mixed heritage. Will the two countries she loves ever stop hating each other?

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Engle has used memories of events in her childhood and created free verse poems that capture the imagination and tell the story of her first 14 years as a child with feet in two countries, Cuba and the US. She uses single word sentences to show emotional stress: “War talk. / Angry talk. / Men’s talk.” In one poem, “Wonderstruck”, Engle juxtaposes the colorful dresses and flora with the military interlopers in her mother’s home country of Cuba, the wonder that is rain and sun at the same time in an island downpour, and the bright fauna with misery and suffering.

The art that separates each chapter of verses is that of a silhouette of a white rose. At the beginning of the book, Engle refers to a poem her Mami reads to her called “White Rose” by Jose Marti that she remembers with fondness. At the end of the book is a translation of that poem that is about the forgiveness and compassion the author would like for all to have for their neighbors.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

KIRKUS review: “Though it is a very personal story, it is also one that touches on issues affecting so many immigrants, as when she wonders: “Is there any way that two people / from faraway places / can ever really / understand each other’s / daydreams?””

HORNBOOK review: “Engle’s personal reverie gives young readers an intimate view of a complicated time and life.”

AWARDS: Pura Belpre Award 2015, YALSA finalist, Walter Dean Myers Award Honor

CONNECTIONS

*Explore the Cuban Missile Crisis and draw connections to current world conflicts.

*Other books of poetry by Margarita Engle:

Engle, M. THE LIGHTNING DREAMER: CUBA’S GREATEST ABOLITIONIST. Clarion Books, 2015. ISBN 978-0544541122

Engle, M. THE SURRENDER TREE. Square Fish. 2010. ISBN 978-0312608712