The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom

Engle, M. (2008). The surrender tree: Poems of Cuba's struggle for freedom. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

Freedom is something that she has yet to be given in the three wars that Cuba faced in the late 1800’s. Rosa is a nurse who hides in the forest of Cuba and heals the wounds of the people, both local and opposing slave hunters and soldiers. She even heals the one soldier who is out to find, kill and claim the bounty for her. Through the poetic verses, Rosa cures who she can and fights the battle of illness from one patient to the next hoping for the better in the end. 

Margarita Engle tells the story of a slave, Rosa, who lives to help and heal the sick. As a Cuban American poet, Engle gives the reader several point of views from being the slave and helping defeat the war, to the opposing side of those initiating the war, to one who a escapes Cuba with a hope of paradise in the future. The short stanzas are easy to read and can be discussed individually and the reader can vividly imagine each character and the forest of Cuba. Engle does a fantastic job providing such imagery and simplicity in text for young readers through the free verse poems.

I enjoyed this book of poems. The simplistic reading made it flow from one character to another and one event to another. I wan able to focus on what Rosa was doing and see points of views of those who cared for her and what they did for her. I also saw what hatred and greed did to others, such as Lieutenant Death. These poems would be a great way to present the wars in Cuba and conduct research on what caused those wars and provide insight of both sides of the war. The book provides a chronological timeline of events that students can use to assist them in their reading of the free verse poems.

Reviews

School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up—Often, popular knowledge of Cuba begins and ends with late-20th-century textbook fare: the Cuban Revolution, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Fidel Castro. The Surrender Tree, however, transports readers to another, though no less tumultuous, era. Spanning the years 1850–1899, Engle's poems construct a narrative woven around the nation's Wars for Independence. The poems are told in alternating voices, though predominantly by Rosa, a "freed" slave and natural healer destined to a life on the lam in the island' s wild interior. Other narrators include Teniente Muerte, or Lieutenant Death, the son of a slave hunter turned ruthless soldier; José, Rosa's husband and partner in healing; and Silvia, an escapee from one of Cuba's reconcentration camps. The Surrender Tree is hauntingly beautiful, revealing pieces of Cuba's troubled past through the poetry of hidden moments such as the glimpse of a woman shuttling children through a cave roof for Rosa's care or the snapshot of runaway Chinese slaves catching a crocodile to eat. Though the narrative feels somewhat repetitive in its first third, one comes to realize it is merely symbolic of the unending cycle of war and the necessity for Rosa and other freed slaves to flee domesticity each time a new conflict begins. Aside from its considerable stand-alone merit, this book, when paired with Engle's The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano (Holt, 2006), delivers endless possibilities for discussion about poetry, colonialism, slavery, and American foreign policy.—Jill Heritage Maza, Greenwich High School, CT

Booklist

*Starred Review* As in The Poet Slave of Cuba (2006), Engle’s new book is written in clear, short lines of stirring free verse. This time she draws on her own Cuban American roots, including stories from her grandmother, to describe those who fought in the nineteenth-century Cuban struggle for independence. At the center is Rosa, a traditional healer, who nurses runaway slaves and deserters in caves and other secret hideaways. Her husband, José, a freed slave, also speaks, and so does a refugee child, whom Rosa teaches to be a healer. Then there is the vicious slave hunter known as Lieutenant Death; his collection of ears is an unforgettable image of brutality (“shown as proof that the runaway slave / died fighting, resisting capture”). The switching perspectives personalize the dramatic political history, including the establishment of the world’s first “reconcentration camps” to hold prisoners, as well as the role of slave owners who freed their slaves and joined the resistance against Spain. Many readers will be caught by the compelling narrative voices and want to pursue the historical accounts in Engle’s bibliography. Grades 6-12. --Hazel Rochman

Tomas and The Library Lady

Mora, P., & Colón, R. (1997). Tomás and the library lady. New York: Knopf.

Being apart of a migrant family means moving from place to place to find work. Tomas is upset that he is leaving Texas for Iowa, but he must go with his family. There is finds a love for the library and reading of dinosaurs. He even helps the librarian learn some Spanish during his stay. With his new fond love of reading, Tomas is able to share stories with his family and Papa Grande and become the family’s new storyteller.

Pat Mora tells the story through a child’s point of view, the main character, Tomas. As Tomas travels with his family he provides the reader with a sense of hard work and family. Mora fosters the love of reading through Tomas as she introduces the library to him. There he becomes engulfed in the books and becomes the family’s new storyteller. Throughout the pages Mora provides the reader with bilingual phrases. Readers can read them aloud to hear how different the languages are and see how similar different cultural stories can be. By providing the bilingual statements, Mora is showing the Latino children that their culture is important and they are valuable to their families and community. The librarian who embraces Tomas demonstrates that in the end we can all teach one another a different language and learn to appreciate one another’s language.

Raul Colon fills the pages with earth tones of browns, greens, yellows, reds, and oranges. Facial features and clothing are simplistic with fine lines with dual but warm hues, but do show the expressions of the characters and movement of the clothing. Colon illustrates for the readers the importance of storytelling from generation to generation, from the grandpa to his grandchildren as they sit around the tree in the field they are currently working in.  When Tomas is imagining his character of the books he is reading, Colon is very detailed in the features of the dinosaurs, cowboys and Indians, and surrounding backgrounds. The hues become brighter as Tomas comes to the library of purples and turquoise of the librarian’s dress. With subtle colors from beginning to end, the reader has a sense of calm as they turn the pages and find themselves a part of Tomas’ readings.

As a child and still today as an adult, hearing stories is always something that I cherish. I especially cherish the stories of my late mother from the moment of her birth to her last breath and every story in between. Listening to stories from and about family brings a sense of togetherness even if it is for a brief moment or the saddest moments. It allows families to create an everlasting bond. Storytelling provides generation after generation to hear of what impacts the family line had experienced, what challenges the ancestors faced, to where the family comes from.  Hearing such stories gives each and everyone of us a identity that we can say we belong to and identify with.

Reviews

School Library Journal

Grade 2-4: Tomas Rivera, who at his death in 1984 was the Chancellor of the University of California at Riverside, grew up in a migrant family. Here, Mora tells the fictionalized story of one summer in his childhood during which his love of books and reading is fostered by a librarian in Iowa, who takes him under her wing while his family works the harvest. She introduces him to stories about dinosaurs, horses, and American Indians and allows him to take books home where he shares them with his parents, grandfather, and brother. When it is time for the family to return to Texas, she gives Tomas the greatest gift of all, a book of his own to keep. Colon's earthy, sun-warmed colors, textured with swirling lines, add life to this biographical fragment and help portray Tomas's reading adventures in appealing ways. Stack this up with Sarah Stewart and David Small's The Library (Farrar, 1995) and Suzanne Williams and Steven Kellogg's Library Lil (Dial, 1997) to demonstrate the impact librarians can have on youngsters. Barbara Elleman, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI

Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Yaqui Delgado Wants To Kick Your Ass

Medina, M. (2013). Yaqui Delgado Wants To Kick Your Ass. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.

Piddy Sanchez has a lot to deal with this school year. Her best friends has moved away and seems to be to busy lately for her, she has to move because of some building structure failure, and she has to deal with the aftermath of being brutally attacked by the school bully. To add to the already agonizing list, she has no idea who her father is and nor will her mother tell her. Piddy experiences withdraw from school, family, and life in general, not to mention changing her appearance. Piddy learns to fight back, although not the way she wanted to, but ultimately the way that would end right for her.

Medina presents to the reader a well-developed first person encounter of a victim to bullying. The character of Piddy gives adolescents today an idea of what does and can happen. It provides adolescents a sense of what psychological impacts can cause them to withdraw from those around them who care. Medina makes it seem as though Piddy thought she could handle the bully when in fact she needed help desperately. She was beginning to not care about what happened to her and her future. Medina shows the readers that even if something tragic like this type of bullying did happen, you can over come it with the help of friends and family. She also show the readers that the conflict may not always resolve to plan, but will do so in a format that is suitable for the individual and the situation.

I read this book while driving home from Arkansas this past weekend and had to close the book at times to emotionally grasps what Piddy was experiencing. With bullying such a popular topic in today’s education, this book is ideal for young adults to read. It provides the victims point of view that many do not see until they are the victim. It provides a window of what emotional impact bullies have on others and what such altercations can do to someone. When finishing the last page, I turned to my husband and we discussed what we experienced in school as the minority and newbies. We both experienced situations like Piddy in a sense, both new and “fresh meat”. We discussed what entailed in our encounters and how we dealt with the bullies on our campuses. For some time the silence made me wonder what my students go through outside of my classroom. I try to be very aware of such situations and get ahold of it before it escalates, but wonder what is it I don’t see amongst them and what do they encounter outside of school.

Reviews

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-Piddy Sanchez seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her best friend moves away and Piddy's Mom literally has the floor pulled out from under her as the small staircase in their apartment building collapses, forcing the family to move to another part of Queens. The move does have a bonus. For the first time, Piddy will have her own room, but it comes at a price-she has to start at a new school. Her developing body is starting to attract some unwanted attention from the Latino boys in the school as well as from Yaqui Delgado. Yaqui feels that the teenager is shaking her booty and doesn't consider her a fellow Latina. Piddy's skin is too light, she doesn't have an accent, and she does well in school. The bullying escalates and Yaqui and her crew seem to have it in for Piddy and her blossoming bottom. The teenager also faces some internal struggles as she searches for information on a father she has never known or even seen. Roxanne Hernandez, a fluent Spanish speaker, pronounces the occasional Spanish words nicely and provides a great voice and tone for each character. The Latin music at the beginning and ending of each CD (Piddy is half Cuban and half Dominican) adds a cultural element. With a title that is sure to draw attention and Medina's great story (Candlewick, 2013) to back it up, this is a definite purchase.-Katie Llera, Bound Brook High School, NJ

Booklist

When Piedad “Piddy” Sanchez hears that Yaqui Delgado is going to crush her, she has no idea why she has become a target of one of the roughest girls in her new Queens school. But Yaqui tells everyone Piddy is a skank who shakes her ass when she walks, and as the bullying escalates from threats to physical attacks, Piddy finds herself living in constant fear. A strong student with a bright future at her old school, Piddy starts skipping school, and her grades nosedive. After a truly upsetting attack on Piddy is uploaded to YouTube, she realizes this isn’t a problem she can solve on her own. Medina authentically portrays the emotional rigors of bullying through Piddy’s growing sense of claustrophobic dread, and even with no shortage of loving, supportive adults on her side, there’s no easy solution. With issues of ethnic identity, class conflict, body image, and domestic violence, this could have been an overstuffed problem novel; instead, it transcends with heartfelt, truthful writing that treats the complicated roots of bullying with respect. Grades 8-11. --Krista Hutley

Libraries and Learning

Libraries and Learning
Pew Research Center
Rainie, L. (2016, April 07). Libraries and Learning. Retrieved June 21, 2016, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/04/07/libraries-and-learning/

Do Americans Know What Their Libraries Offer?

Many American's are unaware of what their community library offers. The image b
elow offers data from a 2012 survey asking anonymous Americans what they knew about their library and what it had to offer and if and when they used the facility. 

Over half of commuity libraries offer ebook borrowing and online career courses. While those are great resources, less then half offered GED, statring of new businesses, or certificates of matering job related skills. 

Based on the survey, the data shows that less and less individuals were aware of services offered to them, while more individuals were unaware of what their library offered. 

Lastly, the data surveyed showed more and more libraries did not offer their community such resources. 

Personal Learners vs Professional Learners

Of the individuals surveyed the classified as two types of learner; personal and professional.

Personal Learners

74% of those surveryed participated in learning activities. They are known as personal learners.

• 84% of personal learners wanted to learn something that would make life more interesting,
• 67% of personal learners wanted to learn something to help others more effectively,

The survey also found that personal learners were more likely to use the library, to be female, have a household income of $50,000 or less.

Professional Learners

63% of those surveyed who worked, full or part time, jobs. They are known as professional learners. 

• 60% of professional learners either learned or maintained job skills,
• 41% of professional learners worked towards or earned certificates or licenses,
• 28% of professional learners wanted a raise or a promotion at work,
• 17% of professional learners wanted to find a new employer,
• 9% of professional learners worried of downsizing within the company.

Of both personal and professional learners, 50% used the library through its facility, website, and app.

It was also found that women, parents of minors, and individuals under 50 used both the 

library facility and its digital materials.

Percent of Adults Who Visit A Library

The survey was broken down into 6 categories of ibrary users.

• Gender,
• Race/Ethnicity,
• Age, 
• Education, 
• Household income,
• Community.  

Those who were more likely to use the library were women, African American, individuals ages of 18-29, college graduates, household income of $100,000 to $149, 000, or lived in an urban society.

Individuals who were more likely to use the library website were women, individuals ages of 18-29, Causcasians, college graduates, household income of $100,000 to $149, 000, or lived in an urban society.

Participants who were more likely to use the library app were women, individuals ages of 30-49, Causcasians, college graduates, houshold income of $150,ooo or more, and lived in an urban society.

Library Users Are More Likelu To Be Tech Savvy

The same survey showed that those individuals who used the library, its website, and app, were more likely to be tech savvy. 

The data was broken down of those individuals surveyed:

• 93% surveyed used the internet,
• 76% surveyed used smartphones,
• 74% surveyed used social media,
• 74% surveyed used home broadband.

Who Is More Likely To Use Libraries?

 Women are more likely to use the library and have a positive view of the library and its services.

41% of women believe that the library is meeting the community's needs "very well".

38% of women believe that the library is serving educational needs for themselves and their families "very well".

43% of African Americans believe that the library is serving educational needs for themselves and their families.

42% of Hispanics believe that the library is serving educational needs for themselves and their families.

Individuals who are 30 years old and older are more likely to visit a library than young adults.

40% of those who are 30 years old and older believe that the library is serving educational needs for themselves and their families.

Those individuals who earn less than $50,000 are more likely to use the library.

38% of those with a household income of $50,000 or less find that the library is serving educational needs for themselves and their families "very well".

23 pages.

Brown Girl Dreaming

Woodson, J. (2014). Brown girl dreaming. New York, NY: Nancy Paulsen Books. Through a series of poems, Jacqueline tells the story of her life growing up during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Growing up, she dealt with her family breaking apart and moving back and forth between the North and the South, never feeling completely at home. Although she struggles with her reading, Jacqueline is able to create stories and find her inner voice through the lines across the pages.

Woodson brings to life her memoir of growing up during a time when not all people were treated right because of the color of their skin. As she writes, she provides glimpses of what life was like in the aftermath Jim Crow and gaining an understanding of the Civil Rights Movement and what it was like growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness. Readers cannot help but become apart of Jacqueline’s words, become emotionally involved within the text, feel her loss when she leave South Carolina to go to Brooklyn, and gain a sense of life as a child of color then.

Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Veronica Chambers

…I suspect this book will be to a generation of girls what [Nikki] Giovanni's [Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day] was to mine: a history lesson, a mash note passed in class, a book to read burrowed underneath the bed covers and a life raft during long car rides when you want to float far from wherever you are, and wherever you're going, toward the person you feel destined to be…Woodson's writing can seem so spare, so effortless, that it is easy to overlook the wonder and magic of her words. The triumph of Brown Girl Dreaming is not just in how well Woodson tells us the story of her life, but in how elegantly she writes words that make us want to hold those carefully crafted poems close, apply them to our lives, reach into the mirror she holds up and make the words and the worlds she explores our own. This is a book full of poems that cry out to be learned by heart. These are poems that will, for years to come, be stored in our bloodstream.

Publishers Weekly 05/26/2014

Written in verse, Woodson’s collection of childhood memories provides insight into the Newbery Honor author’s perspective of America, “a country caught/ between Black and White,” during the turbulent 1960s. Jacqueline was born in Ohio, but spent much of her early years with her grandparents in South Carolina, where she learned about segregation and was made to follow the strict rules of Jehovah’s Witnesses, her grandmother’s religion. Wrapped in the cocoon of family love and appreciative of the beauty around her, Jacqueline experiences joy and the security of home. Her move to Brooklyn leads to additional freedoms, but also a sense of loss: “Who could love/ this place—where/ no pine trees grow, no porch swings move/ with the weight of/ your grandmother on them.” The writer’s passion for stories and storytelling permeates the memoir, explicitly addressed in her early attempts to write books and implicitly conveyed through her sharp images and poignant observations seen through the eyes of a child. Woodson’s ability to listen and glean meaning from what she hears lead to an astute understanding of her surroundings, friends, and family. Ages 10–up. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency. (Aug.)

STARRED REVIEW Booklist

“[Woodson’s] memoir in verse is a marvel, as it turns deeply felt remembrances of Woodson’s preadolescent life into art. . . . Her mother cautions her not to write about her family but, happily, many years later, she has and the result is both elegant and eloquent, a haunting book about memory that is itself altogether memorable.

The Horn Book, STARRED REVIEW

“A memoir-in-verse so immediate that readers will feel they are experiencing the author’s childhood right along with her. . . . Most notably of all, perhaps, we trace her development as a nascent writer, from her early, overarching love of stories through her struggles to learn to read through the thrill of her first blank composition book to her realization that ‘words are [her] brilliance.’ The poetry here sings: specific, lyrical, and full of imagery. An extraordinary—indeed brilliant—portrait of a writer as a young girl.”

This poetic memoir is ideal for middle school children to read and grasp a first person point of view of life of African Americans during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Although this is a story, students can easily identify figurative language in its poetic form. The readers can also sense the emotions enclosed within the pages through the diction Woodson uses to describe her surroundings. This would be a great book to cross curriculum and pair with a history lesson or unit over Civil Rights.