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Summary
Summary
Acclaimed author Margarita Engle tells a "deeply felt and engrossing" ( Horn Book Magazine) story of love in a time of hunger inspired by her own family's struggles during a dark period in Cuba's history.
The people of Cuba are living in el período especial en tiempos de paz --the special period in times of peace. That's what the government insists that this era must be called, but the reality behind these words is starvation.
Liana is struggling to find enough to eat. Yet hunger has also made her brave: she finds the courage to skip a summer of so-called volunteer farm labor, even though she risks government retribution. Nearby, a quiet, handsome boy named Amado also refuses to comply, so he wanders alone, trying to discover rare sources of food.
A chance encounter with an enigmatic dog brings Liana and Amado together. United in hope and hunger, they soon discover that their feelings for each other run deep. Love can feed their souls and hearts--but is it enough to withstand el período especial ?
Author Notes
Margarita Engle is a Cuban-American poet and novelist. Her books include The Wild Book, Tropical Secrets, The Firefly Letters, The Lightning Dreamer, When You Wander, Mountain Dog, and Silver People. She has received several awards including the Jane Addams Children's Book Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Américas Award, and the Claudia Lewis Poetry Award for The Surrender Tree and the Pura Belpré Award and the Américas Award for The Poet Slave of Cuba.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Three-time Pura Belpré Medalist Engle (With a Star in My Hand) offers a soulful historical novel-in-verse, following a matchmaking dog and two malnourished teenagers who fall in love in 1990s Cuba. Utilizing titled free-verse poems, Engle highlights the "plunging shock of hunger" during Cuba's "special period in times of peace" through three perspectives: Liana, 14, and Amado, 15, in their own words, and the omniscient third-person perspective of "the singing dog" Liana adopts. Full of gnawing hunger and defiant hope, both Liana and Amado have chosen to dodge "a summer of oppressive labor" in the sugar fields--and when their paths cross, sparks fly ("Embers flare/ within the heart's sky/ like fireflies that blink/ as they search/ for mates."). The first poem, "Island of Cuba: Summer 1991," sets the tone immediately with its arresting opening line ("Imagine a year when food suddenly vanishes"), and as readers dig deeper into the story of Liana, Amado, and their canine "Cupid," Engle's words evocatively depict how love can thrive even under the harshest conditions. Back matter includes an author's note. Ages 12--up. Agent: Michelle Humphrey, Martha Kaplan Agency. (Mar.)
Horn Book Review
Engle (Enchanted Air, rev. 7/15; Soaring Earth, rev. 3/19) once again revisits her Cuban heritage and demonstrates an abiding appreciation of nature in this historical verse novel set during the "Periodo especial," the euphemistically named "special period in times of peace." In 1991, Cuba is hosting the Pan American Games and putting on a prosperous face for the rest of the world, but the Cuban people are starving, due to U.S. trade embargoes and the abrupt halt in aid and food imports from Communist allies after the Soviet Union's collapse. Two teenagers who have resisted joining the "voluntary" summer labor programs are brought together by a scruffy stray dog as they scavenge for seaweed, shorebird eggs, and any fruit, fish, or fowl they can find, hunt, or steal to ease their relentless hunger. At its heart, this is a tender love story, lyrically presented in alternating poetic voices (including broader observations in third-person poems from the dog's perspective), but it is also a coming-of-age narrative for the impressionable protagonists, exploring duty to country and family, the consequences of living with hunger and fear, and the costs of individual freedom and ambition. A deeply felt and engrossing look at a time when the grandparents lived "on a menu of memories" while the new generation survived "on nothing / but wishes." Luann Toth March/April 2021 p.86(c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A young Cuban couple finds love while surviving desperate times of lack and longing. It's the summer of 1991, and people are experiencing hunger and malnutrition in Cuba. Fourteen-year-old Liana and 15-year-old Amado live in a town well away from the bustle of Havana, where the Pan American Games are taking place, and away from observation by foreign visitors. When the story opens, neither knows of the other despite enduring the same risky fate of opting out of the supposedly voluntary (although opting out brings consequences) teen farm labor program. Instead, they are roaming the streets searching for any form of sustenance to make up for insufficient government rations. Liana happens upon a stray dog and takes him home. Her canine companion eventually becomes a matchmaker, connecting the young couple. Their relationship feeds their drive to survive and gives them reason to dream of different, better days. Engle uses free verse poignantly to express the devastation of constant hunger and the ever present fear of punishment while trying to survive life under a harsh regime. The theme of hunger is central to this story--literal hunger due to starvation as well as hunger for connection and hope. Engle's words masterfully convey an evergreen human truth: that, in the end, we want to be able to live and love to our hearts' content. A deeply touching read that will stay with readers long after they turn the last page. (author's note) (Verse novel. 12-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
"Can love be enough in a time of hunger?" This is the tension Engle explores in her most recent novel in verse. Euphemistically called the Special Period in Time of Peace by the Castro administration, the 1990s were a time of extreme poverty and hunger caused by the abandonment of the fallen Soviet power, along with the U.S. trade embargo. A pair of teens, Liana and Amado, are drawn together by a stray dog they name Paz, who plays Cupid in their bleak, hunger-stricken lives. The poems alternate between the perspectives of these three characters, providing readers with an intimate view of the desperation people suffered at that time. Just as hunger preoccupies the mind of a starving person, it makes its presence known on every page. Liana and Amado fall in love, but even youthful passion is tempered by the fear of starvation. Readers will be motivated to do their own research about the Special Period, the balseros, and the innovative agricultural and artistic developments that came about because of and despite governmental restrictions.
