Margarita Engle

Escaping from Nazi Germany to Cuba in 1939, a young Jewish refugee dreams of finding his parents again, befriends a local girl with painful secrets of her own, and discovers that the Nazi darkness is never far away.

Cuba has fought three wars for independence, and still she is not free. This history in verse creates a lyrical portrait of Cuba.

Carmen Peregrin, conceived in the jungles of Cuba and raised in the California desert, is the child of two rebels betrayed by their revolution. All her life Carmen has dreamed of the Cuban half brother she has never met. At last, during the hurricane season, she arrives in Old Havana to meet him, finding Camilo is not as she has imagined him all these years. By morning he is gone, setting out for freedom across ninety miles of sea on a raft made of inner tubes bound together by twine and hope. Carmen waits with Camilo's mother - the stoic Marisol, herself a onetime revolutionary - for news of his fate on the daily broadcasts from Miami's Radio Marti, but his name does not appear on the list of balseros who have survived the crossing. Instead, once Carmen has reluctantly returned home to North America, she learns that Camilo has disappeared deep within the belly of the Viper, Cuba's most infamous prison. His fate lends a darker urgency to the package he has asked her to smuggle into the United States, to be opened once she is safely out of Cuba. Back in the States, as she struggles to make contact with Marisol and to buy Camilo's release, Carmen opens the mysterious packet - and with it, a door into the past. She finds a 500-year-old chronicle of her family's history, tales of the unquiet ghosts of her renegade father, assassinated before her birth; of the ancestor who escaped the Inquisition to seek pearls and cinnamon across the sea and married a beautiful and enigmatic Cuban Indian; of the martyred Cuban poet Jose Marti, who sang of love, homeland, freedom, and music; of Cuba itself and its long history of outrages and absurdities, dreams and tyrannies.

Cuban American farm wife returns to Cuba after a 30-year absence in search of family and self identity, and discovers the horrible reality of her family's suffering. Engle chronicles the brutal relocation of innocent peasants to prison-cities known throughout Cuba as "Captive Towns", where descendants of those imprisoned during the early 1960s remain incarcerated today. Scenes of the narrator's travels in Cuba as she visits relatives, both dissident and Communist, are juxtaposed with an account of the imprisonment of the narrator's great uncle Gabriel, once a Castro support

Margarita is a girl from two worlds. Her heart lies in Cuba, her mother s tropical island country, a place so lush with vibrant life that it seems like a fairy tale kingdom. But most of the time she lives in Los Angeles, lonely in the noisy city and dreaming of the summers when she can take a plane through the enchanted air to her beloved island. Words and images are her constant companions, friendly and comforting when the children at school are not.

A searing novel in verse about the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943.

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.

It's the Festival of Lights in Nepal, and today is the day to honor dogs! Brothers Alu and Bhalu wander the streets of Kathmandu, passing by twirling kites and bamboo swings, looking for a dog to feed. But as night falls, their task begins to feel hopeless, until they spot a small black dog who is in need of a friend. This sweet story presents an important Hindu holiday through the eyes of two young boys, making it relatable for both those familiar with the holiday and those reading about it for the first time.

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.

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.

Fourteen-year-old Mateo and other Caribbean islanders face discrimination, segregation, and harsh working conditions when American recruiters lure them to the Panamanian rain forest in 1906 to build the great canal.

In this beautiful picture book filled with soaring words and buoyant illustrations, award-winners Margarita Engle and Sara Palacios tell the inspiring true story of A da de Acosta, the first woman to fly a motorized aircraft.

A small rabbit wishes with all his might to grow big--as big as the forest itself--until he discovers the advantage of being small and smart. A small rabbit wishes with all his might to grow big, as big as the forest itself, until he discovers the advantage of being small and smart.