The Firefly Letters

March 15, 2010
Engle spins her latest historical novel-in-verse from the actual diaries of a 19th-century suffragette, Fredrika Bremer, who jettisoned her privileged existence in Sweden to travel and take notes on the plight of the poor. In 1851 Cuba, Bremer was assisted by another real-life figure, Cecilia, a pregnant African slave assigned as her translator by Bremer's host, a sugar baron. A third character is invented—Elena, the merchant's 12-year-old daughter who, through her interaction with Fredrika and Cecilia, grows aware of systemic injustice and her power to do something about it. As in her other novels, Engle (The Surrender Tree
) writes in free verse, alternating among the characters' perspectives. Cecilia's story is the most poignant: Her father gave her to kidnappers in exchange for a stolen cow, and her unborn child also faces becoming a slave. But it's Elena who gives the plot momentum with a bold and risky choice that signals her own transformation. This slim, elegant volume opens the door to discussions of slavery, women's rights, and the economic disparity between rich and poor. Ages 10–up.

February 1, 2010
Gr 8 Up-This engaging title documents 50-year-old Swedish suffragette and novelist Fredrika Bremer's three-month travels around Cuba in 1851. Based in the home of a wealthy sugar planter, Bremer journeys around the country with her host's teenaged slave Cecilia, who longs for her mother and home in the Congo. Elena, the planter's privileged 12-year-old daughter, begins to accompany them on their trips into the countryside. Both Elena and Cecilia are inspired by their guest's independence, Elena to wonder if she can avoid eventual marriage and Cecilia to dream of freedom for her unborn child. Using elegant free verse and alternating among each character's point of view, Engle offers powerful glimpses into Cuban life at that time. Along the way, she comments on slavery, the rights of women, and the stark contrast between Cuba's rich and poor. The author takes some license with the real Bremer's journey; Elena is fictional, which the author is careful to point out in her author's note. She also includes a reference list for readers who want to learn more about Bremer. The easily digestible, poetic narrative makes this a perfect choice for reluctant readers, students of the women's movement, those interested in Cuba, and teens with biography assignments."Leah J. Sparks, formerly at Bowie Public Library, MD"

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2009
Grades 6-12 As in The Poet Slave of Cuba (2006) and The Surrender Tree (2008), Engle draws on little-known Cuban history to tell a stirring, immediate story in poetry. Based on the diaries and letters of Swedish suffragist Fredrika Bremer, who spent three months in Cuba in 1851, this title focuses on oppressed women, the privileged as well as the enslaved, in three alternating free-verse narratives. Fredrika remembers that back home in Sweden, she was kept hungry so that she would grow up to be thin and graceful. Her savvy translator is Cecilia, a teenage slave who remembers being captured in the Congo when she was eight years old and sold to a trader by her own father. Elena is a fictional character, a privileged girl in a slave-owning family who is forced into a life filled with frilly dresses and ornate dance steps that allows her little freedom. Through this moving combination of historical viewpoints, Engle creates dramatic tension among the characters, especially in the story of Elena, who makes a surprising sacrifice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2010
This verse novel set in Cuba is based on the writing of Fredrika Bremer, a nineteenth-century Swedish feminist. In 1851 Bremer visited Cuba to interview slaves, free blacks, and poor whites. Engle expands Bremer's mentions of a young slave and invents the character of Elena, the slave-owner's daughter. Fictional Elena's story is thin, but Engle's deftly crafted narrative of historical fact is vibrant.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

March 1, 2010
Based on the letters and diaries of Fredrika Bremer, a mid-nineteenth-century Swedish feminist and traveler, this verse novel is set in Cuba. In 1851 Bremer spent three months in Cuba writing, sketching, and interviewing, visiting slaves, free blacks, and poor whites. Engle expands Bremer's mentions of Cecilia, a young slave, and invents the character of Elena, the slave-owner's adolescent daughter. The imagistic, multiple first-person narrative works handily in revealing Bremer, an alert and intelligent woman in rebellion against her background of privilege. The poetic technique also serves Cecilia well. The stark facts of her life, being sold by her father in exchange for a cow, expand into the white space on the pages, creating their own emotional resonance. Elena's story, however, one of moral awakening, is thin. "I _don't know how or why / it happened, / but somehow / I have begun / to think of Cecilia / as my best friend." A fully realized scene would have made Engle's "somehow" more plausible and powerful. In this case, fiction is less vibrant than the author's deftly crafted narrative of historical fact.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)