Margarita Engle

A boy helps his father keep their very old car running as they make a trip to Havana for his newborn cousin's zero-year birthday. Includes author's note about cars in Cuba.

In the Middle Ages, people believed that insects were evil, born from mud in a process called spontaneous generation. This is the story of one young girl who took the time to observe and learn, and in so doing disproved a theory that went all the way back to ancient Greece.

In early 1940s Los Angeles, Mexican Americans Marisela and Lorena work in canneries all day then jitterbug with sailors all night with their zoot suit wearing younger brother, Ray, as escort until the night racial violence leads to murder. Includes historical note.

In free verse, evokes the voice of Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, a book-loving writer, feminist, and abolitionist who courageously fought injustice in nineteenth-century Cuba. Includes historical notes, excerpts from her writings, biographical information, and source notes.

A dog that has just graduated from "sniffing school" advises readers what to do if they become lost in the woods, and assures them that his smart nose will lead him to where they are. Includes facts about dogs' noses.

Describes how Miguel de Cervantes found refuge from his childhood troubles by daydreaming of a brave knight who would right the wrongs of the world, the inspiration for his famous character Don Quixote.

"When Destiny was found by the Sloth Institute in Costa Rica, she was sick, thin, and one of her eyes was closed and not working. The Sloth Institute took her in and introduced her to other sloths as she started to recover. She never regained the use of her one eye, but that didn't stop Destiny from hanging out with her new buddies, or getting healthier and stronger. Last August, Destiny was fitted for her tracking collar and released back into the...

A small rabbit wishes with all his might to grow big--as big as the forest itself--until he discovers the advantage of being small and smart.

When Tony's mother is sent to jail, he is sent to stay with a great uncle he has never met in Sierra Nevada. It is a daunting move--Tony's new world bears no semblance to his previous one. But slowly, against a remote and remarkable backdrop, the scars from Tony's troubled past begin to heal.

Escaping from Nazi Germany to Cuba in 1939, a young Jewish refugee dreams of finding his parents again, befriends a local girl with painful secrets of her own, and discovers that the Nazi darkness is never far away.