The Poet Slave of Cuba

This week didn't turn out the way I imagined it to be. I had planned on turning in all assignments on time this week, get some reading in, and relax. Instead I caught a virus, maybe the flu, and ended up in bed for the last five days. I started feeling a little better yesterday. My youngest caught the virus last night and is miserable. Something tells me I won't be at school next week. . .

Poetry cools me, syllables calm me
I read the verses of others
the free men
and know
that I'm never alone. . .
-The Poet Slave of Cuba

While I was taking care of my son this morning, I picked up The Poet Slave of Cuba from my nightstand. Written in verse by Margarita Engle, it's the biography of Juan Francisco Manzano. Manzano was born a slave in Cuba. A favorite of his first master, Dona Beatriz, he had to follow her around like he was her own child, calling her Mama, and pretend he didn't know his real mother. As Manzano grows up, he shows a wonderful gift for words. He can memorize any song, opera, play, poem in any language after hearing it just once. Dona Beatriz uses him as a parrot, going to the parties of slave owners and having to recite works by request.

My first owner was sweet to me
I was her pet, a new kind of poodle
my pretty mother chosen
to be her personal handmaid . . .

As an act of twisted compassion, Dona Beatriz sets Manzano's mother free but not him, a child. She refuses to let him go until her death. But after her death instead of freedom, he is sent to be a slave of La Marquesta de Prado Ameno. Evil is not a strong enough word for her. A manipulative, sad, twisted person who finds nothing better in life but to focus on making Manzano's own life hell. I won't tell you the rest but there was one part that made me hold my breath.

It was the opening that made me check out the book.

My mind is a brush made of feathers

painting pictures of words

I remember
all that I see

every syllable

each word a twin of itself

telling two stories

at the same time

one of sorrow

the other hope

The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano
Margarita Engle (2006)
183 pages

Read for:
Young adult challenge
Year of Reading Dangerously - Feb.
Diversity Rocks
In Their Shoes
Year of Readers
2009 Mini-Challenge #3

January Favorites

I've been pretty horrible this month about posting reviews of the books and short stories I've read. So instead of posting multiple reviews, I'll just tell you about my three of my favorites. The majority of the books I've read this month were children's books.

The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin can be called nothing short of genius. How do you describe to a blind person the color yellow or blue? Cottin takes that question and describes each color: Thomas says that blue is the color of the sky when kites are flying and the sun is beating hot on his head. The layout of the book is very simple with every page black with white lettering. The raised illustrations are beautiful. Instead of just looking at the words and pictures, you can feel them The words are not only in English but also in Braille. I think this book is one everyone should read. My January pick for the Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge.



The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher. I read this for Laza's Graphic Novel Challenge. I just discovered Jim Butcher and his wonderful series, The Dresden Files, in December. Welcome to the Jungle is the first graphic novel in the series. There's a mauling in the zoo and wizard Harry Dresden is called in to solve the case. The police wants to call the mauling a "gorilla attack" but Harry knows that's not the truth. I read this in one setting. The one thing I didn't like is that after reading Storm Front and others in the series, I have in my mind my own version of how Harry looks.





Delicate Edible Birds by Lauren Groof came out this week. Already there are great blog reviews about this short story collection. Groff, if you don't know, is the author of The Monsters of Templeton. Curious I read one of the included stories, "Lucky Chow Fun". Readers who have read The Monster of Templeton will find the setting of the story, Templeton, familiar. This story about the consequences of apathy left me spellbound long after I finished reading it.