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...