Margarita Engle on the subject of her poetry, and her message to young readers.
Jazz Owls
Margarita visited The Van Show to talk about her books, Jazz Owls and The Flying Girl, and shared her childhood stories.
Listen to Margarita's radio interview about Jazz Owls, for the Takeaway (WNYC).
The Flying Girl
Download the curriculum guide, based on The Flying Girl: How Aida de Acosta Learned to Soar.
Miguel’s Brave Knight
Download the curriculum guide, based on Miguel’s Brave Knight, Young Cervantes and His Dream of Don Quixote.
Poetry Mosaic
In honor of #NationalPoetryMonth, Bookology has invited authors to read their original poetry and is compiling the recordings into a mosaic of poets and poetry, with a new author highlighted each day in April 2017.
Lion Island
Download the curriculum guide, based on Lion Island.
Video recording of Global Read webinar featuring Lion Island
The Sky Painter
Download teaching guide, with STEAM integration, based on The Sky Painter.
Focus On, an article series on School Library Journal, featured books and interview with Margarita Engle.The topic for the April 2016 article is on Cuba.
Audio resources at TeachingBooks.net
20th Anniversary of the Pura Belpre Awards features the following recordings of Margarita's 'Meet-the-Author Book Reading' for:
Teaching For Change featured The Surrender Tree as one of the books to teach children about race and to help students understand current events on Cuba.
Enchanted Air
Download discussion question and curriculum guide based on Enchanted Air.
Download discussion question and teaching guide based on Drum Dream Girl.
Scholastic's Instructor magazine featured Drum Dream Girl in its annual summer reading list for students, and featured on the Washington Post education blog
Article link to January issue of BookLinks that features multicultural literature. Few of Margarita's books are featured in the annotated bibliography list.
NCTE CLA Master Class: Poetry Across the Curriculum
Article link to Children’s Literature Assembly of NCTE Master Class on Poetry across the Curriculum, with focus on social studies. Including resources on social studies poetry books, teaching tips and website. The Surrender Tree is featured as one of the poetry books resources.
Poetry and Social Justice
Article link to resources and books discussion on poetry and social justice. The Poet Slave of Cuba, The Firefly Letters, The Lightning Dreamer and Silver People are featured as books suggested for older students on history.
First Book's Authors and Illustrators in Action Program
Margarita has joined First Book's Authors and Illustrators in Action Program, which can be accessed by schools, libraries, and clubs in low income areas, to receive free books. To apply, go to:
http://www.firstbook.org/margaritaengle
Open A World of Possible
A link to a free book and educators' guide about authors' childhood reading experiences. Open A World of Possible is a collection of texts by children's authors, educators and public figures about their own experiences with reading. The 256 pages book can be downloaded for free at
http://www.scholastic.com/worldofpossible/. Margarita's contribution is in the section on imagination.
Lesson Ideas and Learning Activities from Silver People
New South Wales Teachers Federation offers some teaching tools from Silver People. Click here to read the complete review and find out their suggested learning ideas for discussion and classroom activities inspired by this book.
Interview on Margarita's writing process and inspiration for Silver People, Straight from the Source.
Teaching Tips from Lightning Dreamer
Latinos In KidLit provided some teaching tips from The Lightning Dreamer "...is an ideal jumping off point for exploring a wide array of subjects suggested in the novel. These range from colonialism, to New World slavery and racism, to patriarchal societies and the history of women’s political movements..." Click here to read the complete article.
Summer Reading Program
Firefly Letters and The Wild Book are included in Latinas for Latino Lit (L4LL) 10-week summer reading program beginning June 1, 2014. Follow this link for more information.
Vamos a Leer created a bilingual teaching guide for the dual language edition of The Surrender Tree/El árbol de la rendición. Click on the following links for:
The paperback of Mountain Dog will be a selection at Scholastic Book Fairs
Hurricane Dancers
Hurricane Dancers, a recommended resource for teaching about the European conquest of the Americas, by Zinn Education Project.
Dear Students Interview
After Skyping with high school ESL and advanced placement Spanish students, Margarita Engle sent e-mailed answers to the following snail-mailed questions:
Q: What kind of books do you read? A: I read all different sorts of books, but I especially love poetry.
Q: When do your best ideas come to you? A: I am a “morning person.” I like to wake up early, and do my writing in the mornings.
Q: Can you tell me some methods to improve writing skills? A: Practice! Just as dancers, musicians, and athletes have to rehearse and train, writers also need practice. Don’t expect perfection. That way you won’t get discouraged, and it will be creative and fun.
