Margarita Engle

All the orangutans are ready for a nap in the sleepy depths of the afternoon--all except one. Written in a series of linked poems in the tanka style, an ancient Japanese form of poetry.

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 free verse, this fictionalization evokes the voice of Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, a book-loving writer, feminist, and abolitionist who fought injustice in nineteenth-century Cuba. Includes historical notes, excerpts from her writings, biographical information, and source notes.

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.

Looks at the life and accomplishments of Teresa Carreño, one of the world's most famous pianists who, by age nine, performed for President Abraham Lincoln at the White House.

"Six months before the famous Wright Brothers' first flight, Aída de Acosta became the first woman to fly a powered aircraft."--

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.

"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...

"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 cantoras,...

A biographical novel about Antonio Chuffat, a Chinese-African-Cuban messenger boy in 1870s Cuba who became a translator and documented the freedom struggle of indentured Chinese laborers in his country.