The Wild Book - by Margarita Engle (Paperback)

About the Book

Newbery Honor-winner Margarita Engle tells her most personal story to date, a glowing portrait in verse of her Cuban grandmother as a young girl struggling with dyslexia.

Book Synopsis

"The idea of a wild book on which to let words sprout is one that should speak to those with reading difficulties and to aspiring poets as well." --School Library Journal

Fefa struggles with words. She has word blindness, or dyslexia, and the doctor says she will never read or write. Every time she tries, the letters jumble and spill off the page, leaping away like bullfrogs. How will she ever understand them?

But her mother has an idea. She gives Fefa a blank book filled with clean white pages. "Think of it as a garden," she says.

Soon Fefa starts to sprinkle words across the pages of her wild book. She lets her words sprout like seedlings, shaky at first, then growing stronger and surer with each new day. And when her family is threatened, it is what Fefa has learned from her wild book that saves them.

This glowing portrait in verse of Margarita Engle's Cuban grandmother as a young girl struggling with dyslexia is not to be missed.

Review Quotes

A Kirkus Best Children's Book of 2012 A Bank Street College of Education Best Book * "A beautiful tale of perseverance."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Readers will be enchanted."--VOYA "[A] lyrical glimpse of early twentieth-century Cuba."--Booklist "Engle's writing is customarily lovely."--Publishers Weekly "[A] remarkable, intimate depiction of Fefa's struggle with dyslexia; Engle is masterful at using words to evoke this difficulty, and even those readers unfamiliar with the condition will understand its meaning through her rich use of imagery and detail."--Bulletin "The idea of a wild book on which to let her words sprout is one that should speak to those with reading difficulties and to aspiring poets as well."--School Library Journal

About the Author

Margarita Engle is the award-winning author of the Newbery Honor book The Surrender Tree, as well as The Poet Slave of Cuba, Tropical Secrets, The Firefly Letters, and Hurricane Dancers. She lives with her husband in Northern California. Visit her at www.margaritaengle.com.