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Gr 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 18501899, 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 nar...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Between 1868 and 1898, Cuba fought three wars to gain independence. Cubans suffered slavery, concentration camps, starvation, widespread disease, and death in their struggle against Spanish colonialism. Engle, winner of the Pura Belpre Author Award for The Poet Slave of Cuba (rev. 7/06), uses these historical events to craft a powerful narrative in free verse, told through the alternating soliloquies of ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Between 1868 and 1898, Cuba fought three wars to gain independence. Engle uses these historical events to craft a powerful free-verse na...Log In or Sign Up to Read More