Margarita Engle has 7 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 12 narrators. The most-rated is Dreams from Many Rivers.
The Surrender Tree
Summary
How can there bea little war?Are some deathssmaller than others,leaving motherswho weepa little less?Cuba has fought three wars for independence, and still she is not free. Her people have been rounded up in reconcentration camps, where there is always too little food and too much illness. Rosa knows how to heal sickness with medicines made from wild plants. But with a price on her head for helping the rebels, Rosa dares not go out in the open. Instead, she turns hidden caves into hospitals for those who know how to find her. Black, white, Cuban, Spanish: Rosa does her best for everyone, even Lieutenant Death, who has sworn to kill her. Yet who can heal a country so torn apart by war? In this history in verse, acclaimed poet Margarita Engle has created a lyrical, powerful portrait of Cuba.
©2008 Margarita Engle (P)2009 Listening Library
The Poet Slave of Cuba
Summary
A lyrical biography of a Cuban slave who escaped to become a celebrated poet. Born into the household of a wealthy slave owner in Cuba in 1797, Juan Francisco Manzano spent his early years by the side of a woman who made him call her Mama, even though he had a mama of his own. Denied an education, young Juan still showed an exceptional talent for poetry. His verses reflect the beauty of his world, but they also expose its hideous cruelty. Powerful, haunting poems create a portrait of a life in which even the pain of slavery could not extinguish the capacity for hope.
©2006 Margarita Engle (P)2009 Listening Library
Tropical Secrets
Summary
Last year, in Berlinon the Night of Crystalmy grandfather was killedwhile I held his hand.Daniel has escaped Nazi Germany with nothing but a desperate dream that he might one day find his parents again. But that golden land called New York has turned away the ship full of refugees, and Daniel finds himself in Cuba.As the tropical island begins to work its magic on him, the young refugee befriends a local girl with some painful secrets of her own. Yet even in Cuba, the Nazi darkness is never far away. At once deeply personal and utterly universal, Tropical Secrets is a stunning new history in verse from award-winning poet Margarita Engle.
©2009 Margarita Engle (P)2009 Listening Library
Miguel's Brave Knight
Summary
This fictionalized first-person biography-in-verse of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra follows the early years of the child who grew up to pen Don Quixote, the first modern novel. The son of a gambling, vagabond barber-surgeon, Miguel looks to his own imagination for an escape from his family's troubles and finds comfort in his colorful daydreams. At a time when access to books was limited and imaginative books were considered evil, Miguel is inspired by storytellers and wandering actors who perform during festivals. He longs to tell stories of his own. When he is 19, four of his poems are published, launching the career of one of the greatest writers in the Spanish language.
©2017 Margarita Engle (P)2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Dancing Hands
Summary
As a little girl, Teresa Carreño loved to let her hands dance across the beautiful keys of the piano. If she felt sad, music cheered her up, and when she was happy, the piano helped her share that joy. Soon she was writing her own songs and performing in grand cathedrals. Then a revolution in Venezuela forced her family to flee to the United States. Teresa felt lonely in this unfamiliar place, where few of the people she met spoke Spanish. Worst of all, there was fighting in her new home, too - the Civil War. Still, Teresa kept playing, and soon she grew famous as the talented Piano Girl who could play anything from a folk song to a sonata - so famous, in fact, that President Abraham Lincoln wanted her to play at the White House! Yet with the country torn apart by war, could Teresa’s music bring comfort to those who needed it most?
©2019 Margarita Engle (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Drum Dream Girl
Summary
Girls cannot be drummers. Long ago on an island filled with music, no one questioned that rule - until the drum dream girl. In her city of drumbeats, she dreamed of pounding tall congas and tapping small bongós. She had to keep quiet. She had to practice in secret. But when at last her dream-bright music was heard, everyone sang and danced and decided that both girls and boys should be free to drum and dream. Inspired by the childhood of Millo Castro Zaldarriaga, a Chinese African Cuban girl who broke Cuba's traditional taboo against female drummers, Drum Dream Girl tells an inspiring true story for dreamers everywhere.
©2015 Margarita Engle (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Dreams from Many Rivers
Summary
From Juana Briones and Juan Ponce de León to 18th-century slaves and modern-day sixth graders, the many and varied people depicted here speak to the experiences and contributions of Latinos throughout the history of the United States, from the earliest known stories up to the present day.
A portrait of a great, enormously varied, and enduring heritage, this is a compelling treatment of an important topic. Some voices are composite characters, not historical figures.
©2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC