Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir by Margarita Engle

Winner of the Walter Dean Myer and Pure Belpre Author Awards (2016)

Jacket Art by Debra Sfetsios-Conover

Copyright 2015

ISBN 978-1-4818-3522-2

Ages 12 +

Book Briefs Episode 03:  (Podcast--audio only--by Mrs. Flores)

Teaching Resources

Review by GoodReads

In this poetic memoir, Margarita Engle, the first Latina woman to receive a Newbery Honor, tells of growing up as a child of two cultures during the Cold War.

Margarita is a girl from two worlds. Her heart lies in Cuba, her mother's tropical island country, a place so lush with vibrant life that it seems like a fairy tale kingdom. But most of the time she lives in Los Angeles, lonely in the noisy city and dreaming of the summers when she can take a plane through the enchanted air to her beloved island. Words and images are her constant companions, friendly and comforting when the children at school are not.

Then a revolution breaks out in Cuba. Margarita fears for her far-away family. When the hostility between Cuba and the United States erupts at the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Margarita's worlds collide in the worst way possible. How can the two countries she loves hate each other so much? And will she ever get to visit her beautiful island again?

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Jacket Design by Anna Gorovoy
Copyright 2013
ISBN 978-1250012579
Ages 14 +

Book Trailer 01:

New York Times Best Seller

Book Trailer 02:

GoodReads Choice Winner 2013

Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.