Margarita Engle received the 2018 Armin R. Schulz Literacy Award presented by the California Reading Association, for contribution and use of teaching literature that promotes social justice.
Cover reveal for Jazz Owls, a searing novel in verse about the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943.
October 11, 2017
Margarita's interview with Time for Kids (10/06/2017 issue) on how her love of science and her experience as a Cuban American inspired her novel, Forest World
Official cover of Forest World, a new middle grade novel in verse by Margarita with art by Joe Cepeda. It tells the story of a Cuban-American boy who visits his family�s village in Cuba for the first time�and meets a sister he didn�t know he had.
This book is scheduled to be published in August 2017.
February 6, 2017
Cover reveal for Margarita's new book Miguel's Brave Knight: Young Cervantes and His Dream of Don Quixote with illustration by Ra�l Col�n, on School Library Journal's A Fuse 8 Production. This book is scheduled to be released in October 2017.
January 24, 2017
Drum Dream Girl won the Carnegie Medal for best children's video. The video was produced by Ryan Swenar of Dreamscape Media, LLC.
January 20, 2017
Read Margarita's new essay When Bilingual Book Dreams Come True posted on Nerdy Book Club, about her bilingual books publishing journey. .
Margarita wrote an article for Bridges to/from Cuba on 'her passion and motivation for writing about history�s unsung heroes and forgotten poets who�ve struggled for change through non-violence in often hopeless situations'.
November 15, 2016
Save the date for January 25, 2017 release of Morning Star Horse. This book will be published in three versions for English, Spanish, and bilingual English/Spanish by HBE Publishing.
October 15, 2016
The Spanish Scholastic Book Club edition of Drum Dream Girl, is now available. A Scholastic Book Club edition of The Sky Painter is pending publication.
Vamos a Leer created a bilingual teaching guide for the dual language edition of The Surrender Tree/El �rbol de la Rendici�n that can be used for teachers/classroom.
Margarita has been appointed to the Advisory Board of Anansesem, the Journal of Caribbean Children�s Literature.
September 23, 2016
New curriculum guide for Lion Island, can be downloaded for teachers/classroom use.
September 3, 2016
Official cover for Margarita's new picture, All The Way to Havana, to be published in August 2017. Click on the image for close-up view.
July 8, 2016
Lion Island received a wonderful review from Booklist. Read it here.
June 28, 2016
Margarita has been selected as one of the Juror for the 2017 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature (World Literature Today).
June 1, 2016
Lion Island is a School Library Journal's June 2016 Starred Review.
April 25, 2016
The Lightning Dreamer is honored as one of the books in the 20 Years of Día Booklist, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Día. Drum Dream Girl and Silver People are also honored as one of the books in the Building STEAM with Día 2016 Booklist, that identify promising resources to supplement (S)cience, (T)echnology, (E)ngineering, the (A)rts, and (M)ath programming while reflecting a variety of cultures and languages.
Margarita was at the Charlotte Zolotow Award ceremony on April, at University of Wisconsin, in Madison.
Margarita was a speaker at the Virginia Hamilton Conference on April 7-8, at Kent State University, in Ohio
March 19, 2016
Margarita was at the Walter Award ceremony on March 18, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
March 17, 2016
Enchanted Air won the Golden Kite Award for non-fiction books. This award will be presented at the SCBWI conference in Los Angeles on July 29-31.
March 4, 2016
Foreign language translations for Drum Dream Girl will be comin soon in Chinese (CITIC Press) and Spanish (Scholastic Book Club edition).
Dreamscape Audio/Video of Drum Dream Girl is available for classroom use.
January 26, 2016
Awards and Honors:
Enchanted Air won the 2016 Pura Belpré Award for text. It will be presented at ALA in Orlando on June 26, 1-4 PM, during the 20th Anniversary Pura Belpré Celebración.
Enchanted Air was selected as YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist
Drum Dream Girl won the Pura Belpré Award for illustration. Congratulations to Rafael López!
Drum Dream Girl won the Charlotte Zolotow Award for best picture book writing of 2015. It will be presented at the University of Madison, Wisconsin, on April 9.
Drum Dream Girl was selected as Asian Pacific American Library Association Children's Book Awards Honor
Drum Dream Girl is an Amelia Bloomer Top 10 of 2016
Drum Dream Girl is a 2016 Notable Book for a Global Society, International Literacy Association
Enchanted Air has been given the 2015 Eureka! Gold Awards book by the California Reading Association.
October 26, 2015
Margarita contributed on a blog article at Latin@s in Kid Lit, on About that Embargo.
The 2015 Cybils Award nominees includes four of Margarita's books, Enchanted Air, Drum Dream Girl, The Sky Painter, and Orangutanka.
October 4, 2015
The Kindle edition of The Sky Painter is included in the Pizza Hut BOOK IT! program. It is a reading program set up by teachers in classrooms to motivate children to read by rewarding their reading accomplishments with praise, recognition and pizza.
Enchanted Air has been given the 2015 Eureka! Gold Awards book by the California Reading Association.
October 26, 2015
Margarita contributed on a blog article at Latin@s in Kid Lit, on About that Embargo.
The 2015 Cybils Award nominees includes four of Margarita's books, Enchanted Air, Drum Dream Girl, The Sky Painter, and Orangutanka.
October 4, 2015
The Kindle edition of The Sky Painter is included in the Pizza Hut BOOK IT! program. It is a reading program set up by teachers in classrooms to motivate children to read by rewarding their reading accomplishments with praise, recognition and pizza.
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December 24
The Lightning Dreamer has been chosen by the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature as a Best Multicultural Book of 2013.
The Lightning Dreamer is a Teaching for Change 2013 Favorite
Margarita's newest book, Silver People, Voices From the Panama Canal, will be a Junior Library Guild selection in their Spring 2014 catalog.
Book update: Tiny Rabbit's BIG WISH, Margarita's new picture book that will be released in March 2014 by Harcourt, will also be published in Japan, by Iwasaki.
Mountain Dog has been selected as one of the Kirkus Best Book of the Year for 2013!
Margarita's upcoming book,Silver People, Voices From the Panama Canal will be published in Australia and New Zealand by the University of Queensland Press, along with U.S. publication by Harcourt, in 2014.
Both Hurricane Dancers and The Wild Book will be available in paperback in Fall 2013.
Margarita has joined the community of friends of the Foundation Cuatrogatos. Her book, The Surrender Tree, is included among the 50 books for children and young people by Latin authors titled "De raíces y sueños", by Cuatrogatos and the CEPLI of the University of Castilla - La Mancha.
Margarita has also joined Authors For Earth Day. The organization provide assistance to teachers to host authors for an Earth Day school visit.
August 1
This is the beautiful new Korean (Borim Press) edition of Tropical Secrets. The cover is wonderfully redesigned while keeping the original artwork. It's great to see how far a book can travel!
Check out Raúl Colón's spectacular cover art for Margarita's upcoming book, Silver People, Voices From the Panama Canal (2014).
July 28
Book Release Updates:
Margarita's newest book, Mountain Dog, have an official release date of August 27. Mark your calendar and contact your local bookstore to get your copy!
Paperback edition of Hurricane Dancers will be released by publisher Square Fish in winter 2014.
Margarita spoke to children at a North Fresno Church youth group about wilderness search and rescue dogs, and introduced her new book, Mountain Dog.
Check out Margarita's interview on her book When You Wander at Annemarie O'Brien's blog, Dog Reads, a blog that features interviews with authors who’ve written stories for kids with a key canine character.
July 17
Check out few of Margarita's favorite poetry books selection for younger and older children on Latinas4Literature's blog.
July 11, 2013
During the first week of July, Margarita served as a guest author for the University of Wisconsin's online course, Using Children's Literature to Explore Latin American/Latino Cultural Heritage. The Poet Slave of Cuba was the focus of class discussions.
Latinas for Latino Literature, in partnership with Google, just posted their summer reading list. Both The Wild Book and The Lightning Dreamer are included.
May 24, 2013
Click here to read a new five star review of Margarita's new book,The Lightning Dreamer.
Click here to read Kirkus Reviews of Margarita's new picture book,When You Wander.
April 24, 2013
Margarita's The Wild Book has been chosen as one of five bilingual books recommended for National Poetry Month by NBCLatino. The book was also spotlighted by The Horn Book as notable novel in verse to celebrate poetry.
Margarita's interview on The Lightning Dreamer with Kidsbiographer's Blog, can be read through this link.
April 11, 2013
Enid Lee, co-editor of Beyond Heroes and Holidays, selected three titles at Teaching for Change's bookstore at Busboys and Poets while in town yesterday: "Surrender Tree" by Margarita Engle, "There Is Nothing Wrong with Black Students" by Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu, and the graphic novel version of "Race to Incarcerate". Learn about the work of Enid Lee.
She also served as one of the round one judges for School Library Journal's Battle of the Books, where Margarita's selection will be posted on March 12. The winning book will be announced on their website in April.
Two of Margarita's poems are included in a new poetry anthology for middle school-age children compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. Click here for more information about the book.
February 25, 2013
Click here to watch Margarita receiving the 2012 Americas Award for Children and Young Adult Literature, at the Library of Congress.
February 15, 2013
A glowing review for The Lightning Dreamer from the Kirkus Review. Read it here.
February 8, 2013
Margarita spoke to 1400 children, ranging from 3rd grade through middle school, as part of the amazing Words Take Wing program at U.C. Davis. She was also featured for the event, by local news outlet, The Davis Enterprise. Read the article here.
January 30, 2013
The Wild Book won the 2013 Mock Belpre from the Heartland chapter of Reforma, The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking.
January 20, 2013
Margarita had a wonderful time speaking about The Firefly Letters to an enthusiastic Fresno area book club hosted by Denise Sciandra on January 17. She was amazed and grateful for the ease with which this particular book crosses over from young adult reading to women's book clubs!
A wonderful review of The Wild Book on Reforma website. Reforma is an organization that promotes library and information services to the Latinos and Spanish speaking.
The Wild Book is also featured on Poetry for Children blog as one of the favorite poetry for young people 2012 list.
Paperback edition of The Wild Book will be released by Harcourt this fall.
Margarita will be featured in The ALAN Review issue 40:1 (page 64-69) in an article titled,
Invitational History in Margarita Engle's The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano, by Zaira Aruelo.
The Lightning Dreamer is a novel in verse about Cuba's great abolitionist/feminist poet, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, who was world-famous in her lifetime, but has been forgotten by history.
During Margarita's Author-in Residence week on September, for the Education Department at University of California - Davis, she really enjoyed speaking to student teachers and their mentor teachers. She participated in a fun Family Writing Night at Korematsu Elementary School, where she read from Summer Birds and an advanced review copy of When You Wander. Margarita also introduced the tanka form of poetry, so that parents and children could write their own short poems together. They left with beautifully illustrated mini-anthologies of their own short poems!
Updated: September 1
Updated link to purchase a copy of Poetry Friday Anthology.
Also, don't miss the chance to win a copy of Poetry Friday Anthology and instigate the Poetry Friday movement in your school or library.
Original: August 17
Coming just in time for the 2012-2013 school year, a new poetry anthology, The Poetry Friday Anthology, is available now. This anthology includes three of Margarita's poems, along with more than 200 original poems for children in kindergarten through fifth grade by 75 popular poets including J. Patrick Lewis, Jack Prelutsky, Jane Yolen, Margarita Engle, X. J. Kennedy, Kathi Appelt, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Georgia Heard and Nikki Grimes and many more.
Download and read a sample (pdf) of the anthology. For information about purchasing a copy, click here.
August 13
The cover of Margarita's next novel in verse, The Lightning Dreamer, to be published by Harcourt in spring, 2013. It tells the story about Cuba's great abolitionist poet, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda.
August 7
Margarita was the featured guest blogger at TeachingBooks.net. Click here to read her article on Writing Historical Novels in Verse, and see a picture of 'Fefa' that inspires Margarita's The Wild Book. Follow this link to hear Margarita sharing some of the backstory for The Wild Book.
August 2
Click here to read Cynsations' Celebrating Poetry interview with Margarita. The interview was done by Kate Hosford.
August
Margarita was recently invited as a speaker for Ms. Nicole Karanjit's ESL (English as Second Language) classes, at the American English Institute:
Speaking about The Wild Book at the Reading and Vocabulary class.
Discussing both of Margarita's rescue dog-themed books, Because of Shoe and When You Wander, at the America Culture Camp for Chinese students and California Experience Camp for Taiwanese students. Margarita also brought along her retired search-and-rescue dog, Maggi, for both presentations.
Margarita was one of the guest speaker at Asian Festival of Children's Content in Singapore, on May 26-29. She also had the chance to see a wildlife refuge for rescued orangutans in Sarawak.
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.
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.
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
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!
"...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)
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.
On November 10, Margarita did a Skype presentation with Primary Source, an educators group in Massachusetts, to discuss The Firefly Letters.
November 5, 2011
Click image on the left to see how Margarita's book, The Firefly Letters, inspired Ms. Shearer's 8th grade English students, from Calhoun Middle School in Texas.
November 1, 2011
Margarita did a guest blog on the Kidsbiographer's Blog, on 'Choosing Voices'. Read it here.
October 2011 - Book News!
* The Korean edition of Summer Birds is now in print
* Thank you for all the reviewers, librarians, and teachers that have requested an ARC of Margarita's upcoming book The Wild Book. Please let us know what you think of the book.
An e-book anthology for young children will include one of Margarita's poems. Gift Tag, edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, will be available on time for the holidays. For purchase information, visit www.poetrytagtime.com.
On October 23, Margarita spoke in a plenary session of the International Board on Books for Young People Regional Conference, in Fresno, along with author Adwaa Badoe from Ghana.
On October 19, Margarita spoke to a group of Fresno school librarians at Liddell School.
On October 1, Margarita signed copies of her books at Petunia's Place Bookstore in celebration of the Hispanic Heritage Month, along with author Gary Soto.
September 24, 2011
Margarita's poem is featured in a new poetry anthology, P*TAG (PoetryTagTime), along with 31 other YA poets and verse novelists like, Naomi Shihab Nye, Paul Janeczko, Helen Frost, Joyce Sidman, current Children's Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis, and Lee Bennett Hopkins. This anthology is available to download in e-book/digital format. For more information, visit Poetry Tag Time's website.
August 25, 2011
Margarita was the guest speaker for a book club, unofficially called the Bad Girls Book Club, from Madera, CA. For their meetings, members of the book club read different books and recommend them to each other, rather than discussing a single book. At this meeting, each member read different books written by Margarita. The event was organized by Janet Claassen, a retired librarian and dedicated Friends of the Library volunteer.
Special thanks for Petunia's Place Bookstore, the only independent children's bookstore in Fresno, for staying open late to host the club.
Margarita and her works will be featured on these future publications:
* Poetry Tag Time for Teens, an e-book anthology, edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong (September 2011, Poetry For Children)
* The new edition of Her Story: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America (Harper Collins, March, 2012). Margarita will be featured in this book as the first Latina Newbery Honor recipient.
July 8, 2011
Hurricane Dancers, story of the first Carribean pirate shipwreck, has been nominated for the 2012 American Library Association's Best Books for Young Adultslist.
Check out Margarita's video interview with Colorín Colorado, as Margarita discusses her childhood memories of Cuba and the ways in which her quest for her own heritage led to the discovery of these unforgettable heroes and heroines.
The Firefly Letters is selected as the Américas Award Honorable Mention.
The Américas Award is given in recognition of U.S. works of fiction, poetry, folklore, or selected non-fiction (from picture books to works for young adults) published in English or Spanish that authentically and engagingly portray Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinos in the United States. See complete list of the winners and honors here.
April 15, 2011
Update (June 7): Click here to read an article on Margarita by Sylvia Vardell.
Margarita has been selected as the 
Margarita, along with 29 other poets, are featured on 
Cover reveal for Margarita's new book Miguel's Brave Knight: Young Cervantes and His Dream of Don Quixote with illustration by Ra�l Col�n, on 
Drum Dream Girl won the 
Save the date for January 25, 2017 release of 
The Spanish Scholastic Book Club edition of 
The Lightning Dreamer is honored as one of the books in the 
Enchanted Air won the Golden Kite Award for non-fiction books.
August 25
June 3, 2013
January 26, 2012
October 2011 - Book News!
An e-book anthology for young children will include one of Margarita's poems. Gift Tag, edited by 
September 24, 2011
, along with 31 other YA poets and verse novelists like, Naomi Shihab Nye, Paul Janeczko, Helen Frost, Joyce Sidman, current Children's Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis, and Lee Bennett Hopkins.
Margarita received a Pura Belpré Honor for 
June 1, 2011
