Margarita Engle and The Wild Book

About the Author:
    Margarita Engle is the celebrated author of novels in verse for young adults, including The Wild Book. Her novels all take place in historical Cuba, highlighting her own Cuban-American ancestry. Engle’s stories are heavily influenced by her childhood summers spent visiting her mother’s homeland and her educational background in botany. Find out more about Margarita Engle and watch videos of her speaking at the 2010 National Book Festival, her interview with Colorin Colorado, and her response to receiving the 2012 Pura Belpre Honor at  her website http://margaritaengle.com.  Click the following link to watch a book trailer for Engle’s Newbery Honor Book, The Surrender Tree at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL6cm6opIeU.

About the Book:
    The Wild Book, released March 20, 2012, is Maragrita Engle’s most recently published work. Through a collection of poems in free verse Margarita tells the story of a young girl named Fefa as she struggles to read and write despite a diagnosis of dyslexia.  Fefa’s journal, her mother’s idea, shows Fefa’s literacy development and gives the reader insight into a strong child’s will to survive despite a doomsday diagnosis and a string of kidnapping occurring on Fefa's home island of Cuba. Taking place during the early 1900s, The Wild Book was been inspired by Margartia Engle’s maternal grandmother who struggled with dyslexia as she grew up in Cuba.

Praises for The Wild Book:
Booklist (March 01, 2012): “Written in free verse and inspired by family stories, the slender narrative conveys the frustrations of dyslexia and captures the lush setting.”
Voice of Youth Advocates (December 01, 2011): “The Wild Book is a beautiful collection of poems”
School Library Journal (March 01, 20120): “Engle uses words sparingly and with grace”

Five Questions with Margarita Engle:
This interview was conducted through email on March 2, 2012 before the release of The Wild Book.

Espinosa: Being certified as a special education teacher, I am particularly fascinated by the fact that you have told this story from the viewpoint of a girl with dyslexia. What influenced you to tell your story from this viewpoint?
Engle: I wrote about a girl with dyslexia because The Wild Book was inspired by stories my grandmother told me about her childhood.  She always spoke as if there was something wrong with her eyes that made it difficult for her to read and write.  I was shocked when I learned about the archaic medical term, "word blindness," which led her to believe she could not see words, and greatly damaged her confidence in her ability to learn.

Espinosa: If and and how did your experiences of growing up Cuban-American, and being separated from your Cuban relatives, influence the main character, Fefa, and her dealing with the kidnappings in her community?
Engle: I am Cuban-American, but I am not a refugee.  My mother came to the U.S. before the revolution, to marry my American father, so throughout the first decade of my life, we were able to spend summers in Cuba.  Even after the revolution, we continued to visit.  I was not separated from my Cuban family until after the Missile Crisis of 1962, when I was eleven.  During my early childhood, I had the chance to meet the extended family and bond with my grandmother, whose stories about her own childhood later inspired The Wild Book.

Espinosa: You have said your parents were artists in several interviews. I am curious as to how this influenced your development from botanist to poet and how these aspects of yourself played out in your writing of this book.
Engle: I was fortunate to grow up around creative adults who also loved nature.  My mother is an amazing gardener and birdwatcher.  My father loves to travel.  When I was little, I watched him sit beside a tropical river, painting the beautiful green landscape.  During those adventurous road trips, I wandered around, exploring the plant and animal life.  I soon discovered that I loved both books and the outdoors.  I ended up seeking a balance between science and poetry.

Espinosa: What was the biggest challenge or obstacle you faced in completing The Wild Book?
Engle: The greatest challenge was simplifying my writing style.  This was a conscious effort, because I wanted to write a short book that could be dedicated to reluctant readers like my grandmother.

Espinosa: Most of your work, including The Wild Book, is historical fiction. What do you enjoy about most about this genre and why have you continued to write within it?
Engle: I love historical fiction-in-verse because I feel like it allows me to distill complex situations down to their emotional essence.  I always hope that along the way, modern young people might find some inspiration in stories about courageous young people who made hopeful decisions in times that must have seemed hopeless.

Poem Preview:
Margarita Engle has given permission to share a few lines from her new book, The Wild Book. The following is an excerpt from her poem, “School.”

The others laugh.
They always laugh.
When I am forced to read
OUT LOUD,
they mock
my stumbling voice,
and when I have to practice
my horrible
handwriting,
they make fun
of the twisted
tilted
tormented
letters.

Suggested Poetry Activity:
-After reading this poem gather students in a circle. Have students think of one kind thing they would be willing to share about the person on their left and the person on their right. Then have students share with the class what makes each individual a wonderful addition to the group.

-Have students create a visual piece of art that represents something they find difficult. Since Fefa struggles with letters and words, have students use letters and pictures they have cut from magazines and newspapers as their starting point. Additional art supplies such as glue, water colors, crayons, markers, toothpicks, ribbon, and leftover fabric may be utilized by students as well.


References:
Engle, Margarita. "Margarita Engle- Home." Margarita Engle. 2011. Web. 25 Mar. 2012. <http://margaritaengle.com/index.html>.
Engle, Margarita. The Wild Book. New York: Harcourt Children's Books, 2012.ISBN: 978-0547581316
Morrow, Stacey. "The Surrender Tree.m4v." YouTube, 2009. Web. 25 Mar. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL6cm6opIeU>.

Exposed (New Poetry Book)

Marcus, Kimberly. Exposed. Random House Books for Young Reader, 2011. eBook. ISBN 978-0375866937

Exposed is an insightful novel about friendship, family, and sexual abuse told through an original perspective. Liz is a high school student fully content with life. She has an awesome best friend, wonderful boyfriend, and a bright future pursuing her passion of photography.  Everything quickly changes, however, when her brother is accused of raping her best friend.

Readers will quickly become engrossed in this emotionally wrought novel. Marcus uses vivid imagery, meaningful line breaks, and powerful language to convey intense emotions and conflict. Superb metaphors create sensory images throughout the entirety of the novel. In the poem, “Like a Bird”, Liz’s realization that everything has changed is expressed so clearly when Marcus writes “until it hits me/midair/that the person/I most want to tell/has flown away.”  Young adults will find this book to be both genuine and thought provoking.

Panic
Panic makes its way up my spine
like ice water through a straw-
who else has she told?

Presentation of Poem: Read the poem orally several times to secondary students. Ask students to share any reactions or connections they have with the poem.

Lesson: Have students describe how the author is conveying the emotion of panic in the poem. Discuss the meaning of a metaphor and how they can be used to bring forth sensory images and create sensations, such as emotions, within the reader. Have students form small groups and brainstorm examples of metaphors to list on chart paper.

Extension Activity: Have students write down an emotion on a slip of paper. Place the slips of paper in a hat and allow students to randomly choose an emotion from the hat. Students will work to create a poem that expresses their emotion.

Stop Pretending, What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy (Verse Novel)

Sones, Sonya. Stop Pretending, What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy. New York: Harper Tempest, 2001. ISBN 0064462188

Mental illness is often a taboo topic in American society. Many families are affected by it, but few are willing to openly discuss how it has impacted their lives. In Stop Pretending, What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy, Sones has written a novel in verse that is unabashedly honest about the pain and love within a family that deals with a mental illness. Based on Sones’ own experiences, the poems express the complex, sometimes conflicting array of emotions felt by the character Cookie as she watches her big sister lose touch with reality.

Sones uses free verse poems about a variety of experiences in Cookie’s life, ranging from the night her sister was first institutionalized, to explaining her bedroom layout, as well as when she received her first camera.  These mini revelations ultimately add up, creating an intimacy between the reader and narrator that allows for the powerful discovery of universal emotions.

Things Would Be Different
If I
had a dog, I
could hold him when I felt
like this, and he’d lick the salt off
my cheeks.

Presentation of Poem: Tell the class that the word if is a powerful word. For some the word if is haunting and scary, but for others it is a fun thinking vacation. Ask students what this statement might mean and create a chart.

Lesson: Discuss how authors and poets of fiction use their imagination as a tool. Reference Shel Silverstein and J.K. Rowling as familiar writers who stretched their imaginations to come up with creative and new ideas.
Some of the most creative and interesting writers ask themselves “what if” on a regular basis to come up with new thoughts. Practice answering “what if” questions. Have students call out questions and other students calling out possible outcomes. For example, one students make ask, “What if it rained lemonade?” and another student might respond, “We’d all walk around with our umbrellas upside down to catch it all!”

Extension Activity: Students will be given an assignment based on the premiss of “Things Would Be Different.” Students can chose between writing an original poem, song, rap, essay, or art piece that completes the idea, if I had a __________.

Yum! Mmmm! Qué Rico! (Poetic Form)

Mora, Pat. Yum! Mmmm! Qué Rico!, Americas' Sproutings. Ill. by Rafael López. New York: Lee & Low Books, 2009. ISBN 9781584302711

Haikus never tasted so good! Pat Mora has assembled a feast of poetry in her book Yum! Mmmm! Qué Rico!. Short, succinct poems display the wonderful tastes, moods, sounds, and even events associated with various foods native to the Americas, such as chocolate, papaya, and blueberries. The collection of poems are best heard out-loud and beg readers to engage the poetry with all of their senses. When Mora explains the experience of eating a papaya, she creates a rich sensory experience within the first three words, “Chewing your perfume.” Students will be equally engaged and wish to physically express her poem about the cranberry when it “simmers then POPS!” by clapping, jumping, or making silly noises.

Throughout the book Spanish words are sprinkled into the predominately English text. Young bilingual readers will love being given the chance to translate a few words to their English speaking counterparts. For inquisitive readers, sidebars give additional information and fun facts about the food featured in each poem. Lopez’s vibrant and playful illustrations give a little extra Latin flavor to each poem.

Pumpkin
Under round luna,
scattered tumblings down the rows,
autumn’s orange face.

Presentation of Poem: Display this poem in a prominent location within the school during the month of October.

Extended Activity: Create a school wide Jack-o-Lantern design activity. Send copies of this poem to each teacher and announce a competition. Each classroom will work together to decorate a pumpkin to represent one of the class’s favorite books. As the pumpkins come into the library, display each book next to its pumpkin. The winning class can celebrate with a pumpkin pie party!