As so many of our children are immigrants or children of immigrants, we need more of these stories, especially when they are...
“It really is possible to feel / like two people / at the same time, / when your parents / grandparents / memories / words / come from two / different / worlds.”
Poet and novelist Engle has won a Newbery Honor, the Pura Belpré Award, and the Américas Award, among others. Of Cuban-American descent, she has mostly written about Cuba and Cuban history. This time she brings readers her own childhood. Employing free verse, she narrates growing up in Los Angeles in the 1950s and early ’60s torn by her love of two countries: the United States, where she was born and raised, and Cuba, where her mother was from and where she spent vacations visiting family. Woven into the fabric of her childhood is the anxiety of deteriorating relations between the two countries as the Cuban revolution takes place, affecting both her family and the two countries at large. This is also the time when Engle discovers books and her own poetry as safe places to retreat to. 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?”
As so many of our children are immigrants or children of immigrants, we need more of these stories, especially when they are as beautifully told as this one. (Cold War timeline, author’s note) (Poetry/memoir. 10 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4814-3522-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
Though shaky as nonfiction, when read as historical-fiction, this is a worthwhile introduction to a decorated hero of two...
At the beginning of the 20th century, a young African-American runs away to France and becomes heroically involved in both world wars.
Eugene Bullard’s father’s stories about racial freedom in France resonated with the boy, and he left home determined to experience it. He stowed away on a ship to Aberdeen, Scotland, worked the docks and learned to box in Liverpool, England, and eventually made his way to Paris. As World War I approached, Bullard joined the French Foreign Legion, received aviation training and became a pilot in the French Air Service. Between the two world wars, Bullard remained in Paris, working as a boxer, a musician, and nightclub and gym owner, but once World War II began, he joined the Resistance. After being wounded, Bullard returned to the United States, where he remained for the rest of his life. Eugene Bullard had many fascinating adventures that will engage readers, but the scant sourcing and admittedly fabricated dialogue limit this as informational text. Greenly references a biography that used Bullard’s memoir and interviews, but readers have no way to determine what was supported by that work or by others. There is little explanation about the larger African-American expatriate community in Paris.
Though shaky as nonfiction, when read as historical-fiction, this is a worthwhile introduction to a decorated hero of two world wars who overcame obstacles in difficult times. (photographs, French pronunciation guide, index) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-58838-280-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: NewSouth
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
Engle’s new offering contains moments of true poetic beauty, but these choices detract from an otherwise lovely,...
A poetic exploration of the construction of the Panama Canal.
From the animal inhabitants of the Panamanian jungle, disturbed and displaced by the construction, and the trees felled to the human workers, Engle unites disparate voices into a cohesive narrative in poems chronicling the creation of the Panama Canal. Mateo, a 14-year-old Cuban lured by promises of wealth, journeys to Panama only to discover the recruiters’ lies and a life of harsh labor. However, through his relationships with Anita, an “herb girl,” Henry, a black Jamaican worker, and Augusto, a Puerto Rican geologist, Mateo is able to find a place in his new land. The Newbery Honoree and Pura Belpré winner’s verse is characteristically elegant, and her inclusion of nonhuman voices brings home the environmental impact of the monumental project. Given this breadth, Engle’s choice to center her story on a nonblack protagonist is saddening, as the majority of the workers on the Panama Canal were black islanders. Furthermore, while Mateo and Anita—and even many of the flora and fauna characters—are represented on the cover, Henry, a prominent character and the only black given a voice, does not make an appearance—a regrettable decision.
Engle’s new offering contains moments of true poetic beauty, but these choices detract from an otherwise lovely, enlightening book. (author’s note, selected bibliography) (Historical fiction/verse. 10-14)Pub Date: March 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-10941-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
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