Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir - Hardcover

Engle, Margarita

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1481435221 ISBN 13: 9781481435222

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2015

Synopsis

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.

Margarita is a girl from two worlds. 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. 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. Words and images are her constant companions, friendly and comforting when the children at school are not.

Then a revolution breaks out in Cuba. Margarita fears for her far-away family. 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. How can the two countries she loves hate each other so much? And will she ever get to visit her beautiful island again?

About this title

About the Author:

Margarita Engle was the 2017­–2019 national Young People’s Poet Laureate, and received the 2019 NSK Neustadt Prize. She is the Cuban-American author of many verse novels, including Soaring Earth; With a Star in My Hand; The Surrender Tree, a Newbery Honor winner; and The Lightning Dreamer, a PEN Literary Award for Young Adult Literature winner. Her verse memoir, Enchanted Air, received the Pura Belpré Award, a Walter Dean Myers Award Honor, and was a finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, among others. Her picture book Drum Dream Girl received the Charlotte Zolotow Award. Margarita was born in Los Angeles, but developed a deep attachment to her mother’s homeland during childhood summers with relatives. She continues to visit Cuba as often as she can. Visit her at MargaritaEngle.com.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Enchanted Air FLIGHT

The first time my parents

take me soaring through magical sky

to meet my mother’s family in Cuba,

I am so little that I can hardly speak

to my island relatives—

my abuelita, my old grandma,

who still loves to dance,

and her ancient mamá, my great-grandma,

who still loves to garden, working

just as hard as any strong

young man.

Already, this island is beginning to seem

like a fairy-tale kingdom,

where ordinary people

do impossible

things.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1481435221
• ISBN 13: 9781481435222
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208
• Illustrator: Rodriguez Edel