Novels in Verse: Hispanic Heritage

Novels in Poetry: Hispanic Heritage

Novels in verse are a great genre for ELLs and reluctant readers. These books tell all kinds of stories, from the arrival of Holocaust refugees to the shores of Cuba to the coming of age of a immature woman following 9/xi. Recommended for grades 7-12.

Many of the books on the listing are written by Margarita Engle, featured in our Encounter the Author interview.

Telephone call Me Maria

Historic period Level: Center Grade (9-14)

Product Description: Maria is a daughter caught betwixt two worlds: Puerto Rico, where she was born, and New York, where she now lives in a basement apartment in the barrio. While her female parent remains on the island, Maria lives with her father, the super of their building. As she struggles to lose her island accent, Maria does her best to notice her identify within the unfamiliar culture of the barrio. Finally, with Spanglish ringing in her ears, she finds the poet inside herself.

Cinnamon Girl: messages plant inside a cereal box

Historic period Level: Young adult (fourteen-eighteen)

"Yolanda's grasp on reality crumbles along with the World Trade Center after her love Uncle DJ is injured on September eleven. Nevertheless coping with a tragic incident from her past in Iowa, Yolanda's fear afterward this new calamity is palpable through the verse used as the vehicle to tell her story.

CrashBoomLove

Age Level: Immature adult (14-18)

Mexican-American poet Herrera wrote i of the first novels in verse for the teen audience. Sixteen-year old Cesar is the son of migrant workers, and he shares his coming-of-age experiences.

Downtown Boy

Age Level: Middle Grade (9-xiv)

"In 1950s California, 10-year-onetime Juanito is tired of moving with his migrant-worker parents and staying in relatives' homes in San Francisco's Mission Commune. He aches for his often-absent father. Finally, Papi returns, and dwelling becomes San Diego, where Juanito settles into a deeper sense of identify and faces family secrets and hardship." — Booklist

Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, 2 Wings: A Memoir

Age Level: Middle Form (9-xiv)

In this poetic memoir that's nada short of enchanting, Margarita Engle, the start Latina woman to receive a Newbery Laurels, tells of growing up every bit a child of ii cultures during the Cold War.

Forest World

Age Level: Centre Class (ix-14)

Edver isn't happy about being shipped off to Cuba to visit the father he barely knows. The isle is a place that no one in Miami ever mentions without a sigh, but travel laws have suddenly changed, and now it'south a lot easier for divided families to exist reunited. Engineering science in Cuba hasn't caught upward with the times, though, and Edver is expecting a long, tiresome summertime. He was Non expecting to encounter a sis he didn't know he had. Luza is a twelvemonth older and excited to see her little brother, until she realizes what a spoiled American he is.

Hurricane Dancers

Age Level: Middle Form (9-14)

"Young Quebrado's name means 'the broken one,' a child 'of two shattered worlds.' The son of a Taíno Indian female parent and a Spanish father, he is taken in 1510 from his hamlet on the island that is present-twenty-four hour period Cuba and enslaved on a pirate'southward ship, where a brutal conquistador, responsible for thousands of deaths throughout the Americas, is held captive for bribe. When a hurricane destroys the gunkhole, Quebrado is pulled from the water by a fisherman, Naridó, whose hamlet welcomes him, just escape from the past proves about impossible." — Gillian Engberg, Booklist

Jazz Owls

Age Level: Middle Grade (9-14)

Ready during the Zoot Suit riots, this novel in verse tells a fictional account of a dark fourth dimension in American history. Thousands of young Navy sailors are pouring into Los Angeles on their way to the front end lines of Earth War 2. They are teenagers, scared, longing to feel live before they have to face the horrors of battle. Hot jazz music spiced with cool salsa rhythms calls them to dance with the local Mexican American girls, who jitterbug all night before working all day in the canneries.

Lion Island: Cuba's Warrior of Words

Historic period Level: Heart Grade (ix-14)

In this thought-provoking novel in poesy, award-winning author Margarita Engle tells the story of Antonio Chuffat, a young human of African, Chinese, and Cuban descent who becomes a champion for civil rights in 19th century Republic of cuba. "Like Antonio, readers volition discover the ability of words and the importance of documenting stories." (Horn Book)

The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba

Age Level: Eye Grade (ix-14)

Meet Fredrika Bremer, a Swedish suffragette who traveled the globe and visited Cuba in 1851. Where other visitors might have been near interested in basking in the luxury of plantation owners, Fredrika sets out to acquire about the slaves, complimentary blacks, and poor whites, documenting her experiences in letters and diaries. Margarita Engle has transformed those writings into an intriguing novel written in verse with special attention paid to Cecilia, Fredika's vivid immature translator, besides as the overlapping struggles to stop slavery and aggrandize women'south rights. Pura Belpré Honor Award.

The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist

Age Level: Eye Form (9-14)

Opposing slavery in Cuba in the nineteenth century was dangerous. The most daring abolitionists were poets who veiled their work in metaphor. Of these, the boldest was Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, nicknamed Tula. In passionate, accessible gratis verse, Engle evokes the voice of this book-loving feminist and abolitionist who bravely resisted an bundled marriage at the age of fourteen and was ultimately courageous enough to fight against injustice. Historical notes, excerpts, and source notes round out this infrequent tribute.

The Poet Slave of Republic of cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano

Historic period Level: Heart Class (9-14)

Written in verse, this is a Pura Belpré Award-winning portrait of Juan Francisco Manzano, the poet who was born a slave in Cuba in 1797. Margarita Engle explores Manzano's poetic interpretations of his world and what freedom really means in a slave order.

The Poet X

Xiomara Batista, a Dominican teen who feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Then when she is invited to join her schoolhouse's slam poetry guild, she doesn't know how she could e'er attend without her mami finding out. Merely she still can't stop thinking about performing her poems. Considering in the face of a earth that may not desire to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent. Winner of the 2022 Walter Laurels, Printz Award, and Pura Belpré Author Award.

The Give up Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom

Age Level: Young adult (14-18)

Winner of the Pura Belpré Accolade and a Newbery Laurels Book, The Give up Tree tells the haunting story of Rosa, a freed Cuban slave at the time of Cuba's third War of Independence from Espana. Rather than bask her liberty, she hides in the woods in order to tend the wounded with wild plants. Written in poetry, Rosa's vivid description of the healing plants and tragedies of war volition mesmerize readers long after they turn the final page. Bilingual edition available.

They Phone call Me Güero: A Edge Kid's Poems

Age Level: Middle Grade (9-14)

Language: English language

Twelve-year-old red-headed Güero is Mexican American, at home with Castilian or English and on both sides of the river. He's starting 7th grade with a woke English teacher who knows how to brand poesy cool. Trusting in his family unit's traditions, his accordion and his bookworm squad, he faces 7th course with book smarts and a big heart. Winner of the 2022 Walter Honor Book Laurels for Younger Readers and the Pura Belpré Writer Honor Award.

Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Republic of cuba

Age Level: Middle Form (ix-14)

Product Description: Daniel has escaped Nazi Germany with null but a desperate dream that he might one day find his parents again. But that golden land called New York has turned away his ship total of refugees, and Daniel finds himself in Cuba. Every bit the tropical island begins to work its magic on him, the immature refugee befriends a local girl with some painful secrets of her own. Still even in Cuba, the Nazi darkness is never far away.

Under the Mesquite

Age Level: Middle Form (9-14)

The oldest of viii siblings in her Mexican American family, Lupita is a talented actress and gifted writer. As she wonders what world she belongs in — across the edge, taking her dying mother'south identify, or edifice a life of her own — she tells her story in verse, offer intimate access to the daily lives and conversation of family unit and friends and an outpouring of her innermost thoughts as she tries to find and establish her own identity. 2012 Pura Belpré Award Winner.

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Source: https://www.colorincolorado.org/booklist/novels-verse-hispanic-heritage