Margarita Engle
21) Forest world
Author
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
Sent to Cuba to visit the father he barely knows, Edver is surprised to meet a half-sister, Luza, whose plan to lure their cryptozoologist mother into coming there, too, turns dangerous.
Author
Language
English
Description
WINNER OF THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL! Girls cannot be drummers. Long ago on an island filled with music, no one questioned that rule-until the drum dream girl. In her city of drumbeats, she dreamed of pounding tall congas and tapping small bongós. She had to keep quiet. She had to practice in secret. But when at last her dream-bright music was heard, everyone sang and danced and decided that both girls and boys should be free to drum and dream. Inspired...
Author
Language
English
Description
WINNER OF THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL! Girls cannot be drummers. Long ago on an island filled with music, no one questioned that rule-until the drum dream girl. In her city of drumbeats, she dreamed of pounding tall congas and tapping small bongós. She had to keep quiet. She had to practice in secret. But when at last her dream-bright music was heard, everyone sang and danced and decided that both girls and boys should be free to drum and dream. Inspired...
Author
Language
English
Description
This fictionalized first-person biography-in-verse of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra follows the early years of the child who grew up to pen Don Quixote, the first modern novel. The son of a gambling, vagabond barber-surgeon, Miguel looks to his own imagination for an escape from his family's troubles and finds comfort in his colorful daydreams. At a time when access to books was limited and imaginative books were considered evil, Miguel is inspired...
25) Alas salvajes
Author
Language
Español
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.
"Los seres alados han de ser libres. Y también lo han de ser los artistas, pero el gobierno cubano ha criminalizado cualquier arte que...
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Diverse Books - African/Black Experience in the World
Diverse Books - Latino/Latinx, Hispanic, and Latin American Children
Diverse Books - Latino/Latinx, Hispanic, and Latin American Children
Description
A boy helps his father keep their very old car running as they make a trip to Havana for his newborn cousin's zero-year birthday. Includes author's note about cars in Cuba.
28) Mountain dog
Author
Language
English
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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
Language
Español
Appears on list
Formats
Description
"Cuando visitamos a abuelo, lo ayudo a vender frutas, pregonando los nombres de cada una mientras caminamos: nuestros pasos repican como tambores, nuestras manos, cual maracas, agitan las brillantes siluetas de las frutas mientras cantamos...con ritmo 'Mango limón coco melón naranja toronja plátano piña' ...Vivo lejos de abuelo, pero podemos cantar rimas de ida y vuelta entre nuestros dos países, nuestros versos en papel vuelan como aves...
32) A song of frutas
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
2nd Grade Reading
Books with a Sprinkle of Spanish
Diverse Books - Latino/Latinx, Hispanic, and Latin American Children
Picture Books in Both English and Spanish/Libros ilustrados en ingles y español
Books with a Sprinkle of Spanish
Diverse Books - Latino/Latinx, Hispanic, and Latin American Children
Picture Books in Both English and Spanish/Libros ilustrados en ingles y español
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.
Author
Language
English
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
Language
English
Description
In Cuba's "special period in times of peace" of 1991, Liana and Amado find love after their severe hunger gives both courage to risk government retribution by skipping a summer of labor to seek food. Told in their two voices plus that of the stray dog that brought them together.
40) The wild book
Author
Language
English
Description
In early twentieth-century Cuba, bandits terrorize the countryside as a young farm girl struggles with dyslexia. Based on the life of the author's grandmother.