Margarita Engle

Lonely Cuban-born eleven-year-old Oriol lives in Santa Barbara, California, where she enjoys caring for injured animals, but her budding friendship with Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American winner of a Nobel Prize in Literature, emboldens Oriol, an aspiring writer, to open up and create a world of words for herself.

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.

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.

Quebrado has been a slave on captain Bernadino de Talavera's pirate ship for years, but when a hurricane sinks the ship and kills most of the crew, Quebrado escapes to safety and finds acceptance and refuge in a nearby village.

Describes how Miguel de Cervantes found refuge from his childhood troubles by daydreaming of a brave knight who would right the wrongs of the world, the inspiration for his famous character Don Quixote.

The story of a young girl living in the 17th century who took the time to observe the life cycle of butteflies--and in so doing disproved a theory that went all the way back to ancient Greece.

Summer, 1991. The people of Cuba are living in el periodo especial en tiempos de paz - the special period in times of peace. That's what the government insists that this era must be called, but the reality behind these words is starvation. Hunger has made Liana brave: she finds the courage to skip a summer of so-called volunteer farm labor, even though she risks government retribution. Amado also refuses to comply, so he wanders alone, trying to discover...

In early 1940s Los Angeles, Mexican Americans Marisela and Lorena work in canneries all day then jitterbug with sailors all night with their zoot suit wearing younger brother, Ray, as escort until the night racial violence leads to murder. Includes historical note.

"Bold, graphic portraits and beautiful poems present famous and lesser-known Latinos from varied backgrounds who have faced life's challenges in creative ways."--Provided by publisher.

Oriol naci̤ en Cuba, pero vive en Santa B̀rbara, California, donde no logra encontrar su sitio. Sin embargo, pasa muchos buenos momentos cuando ayuda a sus padres en la cl̕nica veterinaria de la familia, donde cuidan animales heridos. La primera ganadora latinoamericana de un Premio Nobel de Literatura, la poeta Gabriela Mistral, se muda entonces a Santa B̀rbara, y Oriol se descubre confes̀ndole que aspira a ser escritora. Cuando la jovencita...