Margarita Engle

Girls cannot be drummers. Long ago on an island filled with music, no one questioned that rule—until the drum dream girl.

In her city of drumbeats, she dreamed of pounding tall congas and tapping small bongós. She had to keep quiet. She had to practice in secret. But when at last her dream-bright music was heard, everyone sang and danced and decided that both girls and boys should be free to drum and dream.

Inspired

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"Los seres alados han de ser libres. Y tambǐn lo han de ser los artistas, pero el gobierno cubano ha criminalizado cualquier arte que no tenga su aprobaci̤n. Soleida y sus padres protestan contra esta injusticia con su jard̕n secreto de esculturas de aves encadenadas. Luego, un hurac̀n derriba las paredes y deja al descubierto el arte ilegal, y sus padres son arrestados...Soleida huye sola a Centroam̌rica y se une a miles de refugiados cubanos...

One hundred years ago, the world celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal, which connected the world’s two largest oceans and signaled America’s emergence as a global superpower. It was a miracle, this path of water where a mountain had stood—and creating a miracle is no easy thing. Thousands lost their lives, and those who survived worked under the harshest conditions for only a few silver coins a day.
    

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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.

Told in alternating voices, determined to make a difference and heal from their troubled pasts, teens Ana and Leandro fight to protect California wildlife and the endangered puma.

Illustrations and easy-to-read text tell of travelers who have left their homelands to bring their talents, hopes, and determination to a land where Liberty's light shines for all.

Una nįa y su comunidad celebran la llegada del hombre del agua cuando viene en su visita semanal para distribuir agua a un pueblo cubano. Incluye nota del autor.

A girl and her community celebrate the arrival of the water man when he comes on his weekly visit to distribute water to a Cuban village. Includes author's note.

A Rima le encanta montar a caballo con la abuela y las mambisas, las valientes veteranas que lucharon durante las guerras de independencia en Cuba. Feministas de varios orígenes se han reunido en clubes de votación para exigir el sufragio y la igualdad de las mujeres, pero no todos quieren igualdad para todo el mundo... especialmente para alguien como Rima Marín. En los años 1920 en Cuba, los niños "ilegítimos" como ella eran intimidados y rechazados....

"Retratos gráficos y atrevidos y hermosos poemas presentan a latinos famosos y menos conocidos de diversos orígenes que han enfrentado los desafíos de la vida de manera creativa". --Proporcionado por el editor.