Margarita Engle
Author
Pub. Date
2015.
Accelerated Reader
IL: LG - BL: 4.2 - AR Pts: 1
Appears on list
Formats
Description
Follows a girl in the 1920s as she strives to become a drummer, despite being continually reminded that only boys play the drums, and that there has never been a female drummer in Cuba. Includes note about Millo Castro Zaldarriaga, who inspired the story, and Anacaona, the all-girl dance band she formed with her sisters.
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG+ - BL: 6.7 - AR Pts: 2
Formats
Description
In free verse, evokes the voice of Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, a book-loving writer, feminist, and abolitionist who courageously fought injustice in nineteenth-century Cuba. Includes historical notes, excerpts from her writings, biographical information, and source notes.
Author
Pub. Date
[2015]
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 6.1 - AR Pts: 2
Appears on list
Description
Offers an account of the first fourteen years of the author's life in poems, telling of her time spent between her mother's native Cuba and her home in Los Angeles, until the revolution in Cuba dramatically alters relations between the two countries she loves.
Author
Pub. Date
2023.
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 7.1 - AR Pts: 2
Description
When a hurricane exposes Soleida's family's secret sculpture garden, the Cuban government arrests her artist parents, forcing her to escape alone to Central America where she meets Dariel, a Cuban American boy, and together they work to protect the environment and bring attention to the imprisoned artists in Cuba.
7) Water day
Author
Pub. Date
[2023]
Description
A girl and her community celebrate the arrival of the water man when he comes on his weekly visit to distribute water to a Cuban village. Includes author's note.
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG+ - BL: 6.3 - AR Pts: 2
Appears on list
Description
Juan Francisco Manzano was born in 1797 into the household of wealthy slaveowners in Cuba. He spent his early years at the side of his owner's wife, entertaining her friends. His poetry was his outlet, reflecting the beauty and cruelty of his world. Written in verse.
Author
Pub. Date
2008.
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 6.4 - AR Pts: 2
Appears on list
Description
Rosa knows how to heal sickness with medicines made from wild plants, but with a price on her head for helping the rebels, she dare not go out in the open. Instead, she turns hidden caves into hospitals for those who know how to find her.
11) A song of frutas
Author
Pub. Date
[2021]
Accelerated Reader
IL: LG - BL: 4.1 - AR Pts: 1
Description
While visiting her abuelo in Cuba, a young girl helps him sell frutas, singing the name of each fruit as they walk, and after she returns to the United States, they exchange letters made of abrazos--hugs. Includes historical and cultural notes.
12) Mountain dog
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 5.9 - AR Pts: 3
Description
When his mother is sent to jail in Los Angeles, eleven-year-old Tony goes to live with his forest ranger great-uncle in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where Tony experiences unconditional love for the first time through his friendship with a rescue dog.
Author
Pub. Date
[2022]
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 6.6 - AR Pts: 2
Description
"Cuban-born eleven-year-old Oriol lives in Santa Barbara, California, where she struggles to belong. But most of the time that's okay, because she enjoys helping her parents care for the many injured animals at their veterinary clinic. Then Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American winner of a Nobel Prize in Literature, moves to town, and aspiring writer Oriol finds herself opening up. As she begins to create a world of words for herself, Oriol learns...
Author
Pub. Date
[2010]
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG+ - BL: 6.2 - AR Pts: 1
Description
Draws on little-known Cuban history to tell a stirring story in poetry. Based on the diaries and letters of Swedish suffragist Fredrika Bremer, who spent three months in Cuba in 1851, the story focuses on oppressed women, the privileged as well as the enslaved, in three alternating free-verse narratives.
Author
Pub. Date
[2019]
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG+ - BL: 7.2 - AR Pts: 2
Description
"In this follow-up to her award-winning memoir Enchanted Air, Margarita Engle details her teenage years in Los Angeles against the turbulent backdrop of the Vietnam War. In vulnerable verse, she addresses the notions of peace, civil rights, freedom of expression, and environmental protection that are once again under threat. Despite these circumstances, young Margarita was able to find solace and empowerment through her education"--