Welcome
Margarita Engle the Cuban-American winner of the first Newbery Honor ever awarded to a Latino. Her award winning young adult novels in verse include The Surrender Tree, The Poet Slave of Cuba, Tropical Secrets, and The Firefly Letters.
Engle’s most recent book is The Wild Book.
She lives in central California, where she enjoys helping her husband with his volunteer work for wilderness search and rescue dog training programs.
Photo © Marshall W. Johnson
Reviews
Margarita's newest book, The Wild Book, is now available in stores. Here are the reviews about the book:
- “A beautiful tale of perseverance.” - Kirkus, starred review
- “Readers will be enchanted.” - VOYA
- “This lyrical glimpse of early twentieth-century Cuba will enrich multicultural studies.” - Booklist
- “Engle uses words sparingly and with grace . . . The idea of a wild book on which to let words sprout is one that should speak to those with reading difficulties and to aspiring poets as well.” - School Library Journal
News
Upcoming Appearances
Join Margarita at these events:
- May 26-29
Margarita will be speaking at Asian Festival of Children's Content in Singapore. - May 7, 2013
Margarita will be visiting at La Jolla Country Day School, in San Diego.
Don't Miss...
Margarita's reaction for her 2012 Pura Belpré Award Honor for Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Shipwreck.
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More of Margarita's video interview with Colorín Colorado at their website.
Margarita's appearance at the at the 2010 National Book Festival, in Washington, D.C.
May 11
Here's a first look of the book jacket of When You Wander, A Search-and-Rescue Dog Story.
This is Margarita's newest picture book to be published in March 2013, by Holt/Macmillan. We'll post update on the website as the book progress.
May 6
Thank you Angelica Carpenter for the wonderful editorial in The Fresno Bee on Margarita's book!
May 1
Here's another great review for The Wild Book from Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. Click here to read the review.
April 13
Margarita is one of El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day) Author and Illustrator Ambassadors.
Watch Margarita reading from The Wild Book and The Surrender Tree on Pat Mora's BookJoy! website.
A word from Margarita on Children’s Day/Book Day:
April 30, 2012, marks the sixteenth anniversary of a visionary program launched by poet Pat Mora, in cooperation with REFORMA and now housed at the Association of Library Service to Children, a division of ALA. Children’s Day/Book Day has grown into a national day of festivities. Schools, museums, bookstores, and libraries host events promoting books, and celebrating the joy of reading.
When I try to describe my own love of books, I feel like I could go on and on for pages, writing about the profound role that reading played in my childhood. Adventurous trips to the public library. School assignments that were so challenging and enjoyable, I thought I had to keep my delight secret, to avoid being teased by less bookish kids. Stories. Poems. Travel books. Plays. The variety was thrilling!
The variety of books available to children and their families should always be thrilling. Whether we are writers, teachers, students, parents, librarians, or simply readers from any far-flung branch of the world’s varied careers, let’s all remember to celebrate April 30.
Happy Children’s Day/Book Day! Happy reading!
April 11
Read Margarita's previously unpublished poem 'Chocho Seed' featured on GottaBook website's 30 Poets, 30 Days.
Also, check out another interview that Margarita did on the Gathering Books website. The interview talks about The Women [and Poetry] in Margarita’s Writings.
April 5
- Margarita's books are included in some of the lists of recommended poetry books, in Sylvia Vardell's The Poetry Teacher's Book of Lists.
- Margarita is one of the nine authors contributing to a new dog stories anthology Because of Shoe and Other Dog Stories.
Click on the image to enlarge.
April 3
Read Margarita's 5Q Poet Interview Series for National Poetry Month at Poetry for Children's website.
March 30
- Another review for The Wild Book from The Gathering Books blog. Margarita is also March/April featured author on the blog's Behind the Books section.
- Margarita's interview with La Vida en el Valle newspaper can be read here.
March 24
Margarita did an author appearance and book signing event for The Wild Book at A Book Barn bookstore in Clovis, California.
March 23
- Hurricane Dancers is on the 2012 WHITE RAVENS LIST. This is a list of outstanding international books for children and young adults, named by the Internationale Jugendbibliothek, or International Youth Library, in Munich, Germany. The list was presented at the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy, consists of 250 titles from 40 countries, and will appear in a catalogue available at www.ijb.de.
- Margarita was featured on TV program Channel 47 On Your Side with Zara Arboleda.
- Margarita was interviewed about The Wild Book, by La Vida en el Valle newspaper, for an upcoming article
March 20
Margarita was interviewed about The Wild Book, on KVPR's Valley Edition. Click here to listen to the interview (Margarita's segment starts on minute 51).
March 19
Margarita was invited to speak to graduate students enrolled in California State University Fresno's Master's in Education program. The students are public school teachers who are preparing to become reading specialists. They were a wonderful audience!
March 8, 2012
Great news: The Wild Book is one of top 20 New & Notable Books for Children: March 2012, picked by Kirkus Review.
Also, one of Margarita's poems will be featured in April's National Poetry Month 30 Poets Celebration on Gottabook Blog. So, keep an eye on that blog next month!
March 3, 2012
- Visit Jama's Alphabet Soup website in March, to read Margarita's poem about food on Alphabet Soup Poetry Potluck. Thank you Jama Rattigan for the invitation to contribute to the site!
- On March 23rd, Margarita will be interviewed on Channel 47 On Your Side, with Zara Arboleda at 6 am, with some sort of book giveaway
- Visit KidLit Celebrates Women’s History Month website on March 23, to read Margarita's post about The Firefly Letters for Celebrate Women's History Month.
- Exciting news: Margarita will be one of the Author Ambassadors for the American Library Association's Día de los Niños, promoting bilingual literacy. More info coming soon.
- More exciting news: Margarita is honored to be included on a future/upcoming version of Notable Women Timeline on the Girl Scouts of U.S.A. website.
February 5, 2012
Check out Margarita's reaction for her 2012 Pura Belpré Award Honor for Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Shipwreck on ALA Youth Media Award's YouTube channel.
See also reaction from other award winners here.
January 26, 2012
Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Shipwreck is a 2012 Pura Belpré Author Honor Book and ALSC 2012 Notable Children's Book for older readers!
See complete list of the winners and honorees for this year here. Margarita will be presented with this award in June, at the ALA conference in Anaheim.
January 16, 2012
The Wild Book is now available for pre-order wherever books are sold. Reserve you copy now!
Excerpts of reviews of The Wild Book:
- "...The author gives readers a portrait of a tumultuous period in Cuban history and skillfully integrates island flora, fauna and mythology into Fefa’s first-person tale..." (Kirkus -- a starred review!)
- "... beautiful collection of poems that together tell the story of a young girl’s challenge with language, and it is much more. We learn the history and culture of Cuba, and the power and importance of family..." (VOYA)
Click here to read complete reviews of the book.
January 9, 2012
Recent reviews: Gathering Books Blog wrote another review of Margarita's book, The Poet Slave of Cuba.
January 2, 2012
- There are some reviews from the advance reader copy of Margarita's newest book The Wild Book (will be published in March 2012), some of them can be viewed on Goodreads.
- Also, a very nice blog comment about several of Margarita books, including the upcoming The Wild Book was posted on the Gathering Books blog.
- Margarita's book, Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Shipwreck, was chosen as one of Top 20 Most Distinctive Books of Poetry 2011 by Sylvia Vardell of Poetry For Children.
