REVIEW: The Surrender Tree

Engle, M.  (2009).  The Surrender Tree:  Poems of Cuba's struggle for freedom.  New York:  Henry Holt and Company.

0805086749

160 pages


Appetizer: This novel in verse spans 30 years in the late 1800s to share about the several wars Cuba endured to try to gain its freedom from Spain.  The narration switches point of view from poem to poem and focuses most closely on Rosa who would, in my words, become Cuba's SUPER-DOCTOR!!!!!!!

The story also shares the perspective of Jose (her husband), Lieutenant Death (a slave hunter who--fictionally--became obsessed with trying to kill her) and Silvia (a young girl who escapes a reconcentration camp in the hope of learning from Rosa).

At first this book was VERY difficult for me to read.  I blame my lack of schooling on the history of Cuba.  Around page 30, I skipped ahead to the historical note and timeline to try to figure out the history more clearly, but it didn't help too much.  Eventually though, the characters' perspectives did win me over and I still managed to get into the story, but even after finishing the book, I still feel like I need a eighth grade social studies teacher to sit me down and explain the historical context of the book to me.

The reason the characters won me over was because Engle does a very interesting job of showing how the different characters perceive one another.  As a child, Rosa, already a talented healer, doctors the son of a slavehunter, Lieutenant Death.  She mentions that LD and his father tell lies to "seem like heroes," then in the next poem, LD shares his perspective and describes how he chooses to call "wild dogs" wolves to seem "truly brave" (pp. 8-9).  This continues more as characters meet throughout the book.

Also interesting, by page 25, Rosa is an adult.  Soon after she's married.  For the next 50 pages, the poems follow an adult.  This surprised me, since writers usually don't try to have readers engage too closely with adult characters.  I think the fact that this is poetry helps, since readers can also focus on the imagery.  I still felt thankful when Silvia, who is described as being eleven and twelve-years-old in the poems, was introduced.  I felt that helped to make the book more child-focused once more.  Plus, there's a poem narrated in Rosa's voice that begins "Today the children saved us" (p. 136).

Despite my above critiques, The Surrender Tree gives voice to an important aspect of history.  It uses a lot of beautiful metaphors and (in a few cases startling) images to show the horrors of war.  I really love the thought that lots of middle grade kids and young adults have the opportunity to explore this time period and conflict (that opens up to comparisons to other wars and times when concentration camps were used).  I wish this story had been around when I was a kid.  And that I had a teacher who would explain it to me.


Dinner Conversation:

"Some people call me a child-witch,
but I'm just a girl who likes to watch
the hands of the women
as they gather wild herbs and flowers
to heal the sick" (p. 3).

"Should I fight with weapons,
or flowers and leaves?

Each choice leads to another--
I stand at a crossroads in my mind,
deciding to serve as a nurse,
armed with fragrant herbs,
fighting a wilderness battle, my own private war
against death" (p. 27).

"Who could have guessed that after all these years,
the boy I called Lieutenant Death
when we were both children
would still be out here, in the forest,
chasing me, now,
hunting me, haunting me...." (p. 39).

"The angel-man brings me
tiny bits of smuggled food,
but there is never enough,
and my brothers are turning
into shadows" (p. 99).


Tasty Rating:  !!!

REVIEW: Diego Bigger Than Life

Bernier-Grand, C.T.  (2009).  Diego:  Bigger Than Life.  Marshall Cavendish Children.

9780761453833

64 pages


Appetizer:  Diego shares the biography of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera through thirty-four(ish) poems.  Starting with his birth, the poems follow Rivera's life including a lot of interesting details (like how as a newborn, his pale body was dumped in a dung bucket).  The poems also include a lot of Spanish words and draw attention to the beautiful sounds (like "a Mexican town whose name sounds like singing frogs in water:  Guanajuato").

I liked that the poems often account for Diego's emotions.  It would have been easy to write "he went here...then there...then got married...then went...," but Bernier-Grand dives deep, accounting for Diego's feeling about his role in the Mexican Revolution.

I was also surprised and impressed by how Bernier-Grand politely included the many love affairs Diego had throughout his life.

I also liked that, on occasion, the poems incorporated more than just Diego's voice.  From time to time, Frida Kahlo and the Mexican Communist Party also share their perspectives.

This book was one of the honor books for the Belpre award this year (for the text AND the illustrations...do two award honors equal a winner?  I think just maybe).
While I completely agree with the choice about the text, personally, the illustrations left me feeling "eeh."  I liked their use of color, but I think I would have liked to see more of Rivera's own artwork reflected in more of the illustrations.

I love that a chronology of Diego's life was included at the end.  I've read a biography in poems before and found it vaguely confusing because there was no way to ground the beautiful poems in a temporal setting.  (I'm looking in your direction, Carver:  A life in Poems!)  But even if a student is too lazy to read through the chronology, the poems are easy to follow.


Dinner Conversation:

"What is life but a story?
I choose to embellish my life story.

I am DIEGO-
the charming, monstrous,
caring, hideous
Mexican muralist."

"So pale and dead I looked
that the midwife dumped me
in a dung bucket;
then helped my frail mother
give birth to my twin brother"

"I drew on furniture, walls, floors.
I drew pulleys, wheels, gears
in the margins and between the lines
of Papa's best books."

"A French teacher
spoke to me about a world without
rich people or poor people, only equals.
And Father Servin admired the pastel landscapes
I painted under the petroleum lamp.
He told me to be whatever I wanted to be."

"On public walls, I'd start a social revolution.
I'd paint the poetry of the common people,
working, suffering, fighting, seeking joy, living, and dying."

"Seven days a week, eighteen hours a day,
I painted fables of the history and culture of MExico,
my vision of the truth,
hoping people would learn what tomorrow might look like."


To Go with the Meal:

A teacher could also provide historical, ideological and political context for Diego's life and the Mexican Revolution.  And aside from going into more depth of Rivera's biography (or that of Frida Kahlo), a teacher could do a lesson on murals and different styles (such as cubism) from around the world or have students design their own mural.

Based on the first poem, "Fabulous Storyteller," students could create their own books, writing poems about their own lives.


Tasty Rating:  !!!!

REVIEW: Harvesting Hope: The story of Cesar Chavez

Krull, K.  (2003).  Harvesting Hope:  The story of Cesar Chavez.  New York:  Harcourt, Inc.

0152014373

Interest Rating:  !!!

Today marks the beginning of Latino History Month.  I would have made an effort of emphasizing Latino and Chicano children's literature, but let me be honest here...I didn't plan ahead enough.  So, I'm only doing this book review...but it's about Cesar Chavez, who was full of awesomeness!!!!!!!!  And Harvesting Hope was a Belpre honor book (the ALA's narrative and illustrator awards for Latino writers and illustrators).

Harvesting Hope is a picturebook biography of Cesar Chavez, the founded of the Nation Farm Workers Association, worked tirelessly to obtain rights for migrant farm workers and helped trigger  the Chicano rights movement.  This story follows his life from childhood to late in his life, emphasizing his peaceful protests.

The illustrations are bright and colorful with many wavy lines that reflect traditional latino culture.  But what I really like about this picturebook biography is how much Chavez's childhood is emphasized.  Krull makes a point of mentioning that little Cesar was nervous for school to start and the discrimination he faced in American schools.

This picturebook is on the text-heavy side, so I do recommend using it with middle grade readers or as a shared read aloud.


Activities:

Harvesting Hope can be used in social studies classes in lessons on civil rights movements and peaceful protesting (His philosophies could be emphasized, since they parallel the ideas of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.).

This book could also trigger discussion on discrimination, outside the classroom and within.  If appropriate, a teacher could also encourage a discussion on how it feels to have multiple language in one classroom or learning English as a second language.  It could be an opportunity for students to give voice to their worries or problems.


Quotes of Note:

"Until Cesar Chavez was ten, every summer night was like a fiesta."

"Cesar was stubborn, but he was not a fighter.  His mother cautioned her children against fighting, urging them to use their minds and mouths to work out conflicts."

"Cesar's old life had vanished.  Now he and his family were migrants--working on other people's farms, crisscrossing California, picking whatever fruits and vegetables were in season."

"Nonviolence," he said, "takes more guts."  It meant using imagination to find ways to overcome powerlessness."