When the Cuban Missile Crisis ended and everyone's focus shifted, the author was left confused, empty and unfulfilled by her school's seemingly senseless focus on what felt like irrelevant historical events. Any child who has felt like an outsider will recognize themselves in Margarita's tale. And while the narrative unfolds over 50 years ago, Engle's experiences will still resonate with adolescents and teens today. With the recent easing of relations with Cuba, teachers can use the text as an accessible entry point into the history behind this very current event. This historical memoir/love poem to Cuba couldn't be more timely. Engle captures the heart of a quiet, young girl torn between two cultures. The author's memories focus on the first 14 years of her life, beginning with idyllic summers spent in her mother's homeland of Cuba and ending during the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis and subsequent travel ban. * 'A deeply personal memoir-in-verse filled with Engle's trademark intricately woven lyricism. Exquisite.'-Kathi Appelt, author of The Underneath, Newbery Honor and National Book Award Finalist Engle's struggle to unite her twin selves-the Cuban girl who rides bareback with her cousins under a hot, steamy sun and the American girl who pretends to smoke in the school bathroom-lead the way to 'Herds of wild feelings/long extinct.' This is a book to return to, page after page, line after line. 'In Margarita Engle's hauntingly beautiful memoir, readers can't help but feel as if they are pressing their hands with her against ancient cave walls and at the same time falling asleep in a darkened room full of fireflies. How can the two countries she loves hate each other so much? And will she ever get to visit her beautiful island again?

When the hostility between Cuba and the United States erupts at the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Margarita's worlds collide in the worst way possible.

Words and images are her constant companions, friendly and comforting when the children at school are not. 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. 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. Description In this poetic memoir, which won the Pura Belpré Author Award, was a YALSA Nonfiction Finalist, and was named a Walter Dean Myers Award Honoree, acclaimed author Margarita Engle tells of growing up as a child of two cultures during the Cold War.

Enchanted air two cultures two wings