Enchanted Air

This memoir in verse tells of the author's childhood spent traveling back and forth from California to Cuba to visit her mother's family.  To Margarita Cuba is a magical place filled with family, friends, animals, and delicious food.  It is like a fairy tale paradise especially compared to her noisy life in Los Angeles.

Like her mother, she longs for the yearly trips to Cuba where she can breathe the fragrant air and ride horses through the countryside.  But she will soon be cut off from her paradise.

When a conflict between leaders escalates to the brink of war in the Cuban Missile Crisis, all travel to and from Cuba is suspended, and Margarita's American and Cuban families are separated.

Margarita Engle's new memoir in verse is a beautiful love letter to Cuba and an authentic coming of age story.  Highly recommended!

Brown Girl Dreaming

What is not to love about Jacqueline Woodson's memoir in verse?  This is a beautiful and eloquent book about Woodson's childhood and the people and places that shaped it.

Though her early childhood is spent in Ohio, Woodson's soul is already filled with the stories and people of South Carolina.  Even after the family moves to New York. Greenville, South Carolina, is an anchor.

This book is an exploration of place, people, and what it means to become yourself.  I absolutely loved it, and you will, too!

Watch the video below to hear the author reading from the book.