Liana, age 14, introduces life in Cuba during the summer of 1991 and el período especial en tiempos de paz, which seems to Liana to be a governmental euphemism for hunger. Risking punishment, she’s chosen not to attend mandatory “volunteer” farm labor. Amado, age 15, likewise stays home. Both spend their days wandering to avoid camp and find food. The Singing Dog, age unknown, brings Liana and Amado together to help them discover sources to quench their hunger, to alleviate their isolation and to pursue a peace.
When meeting the WOW Teen Reading Ambassadors to discuss Your Heart, My Sky, Margarita Engle shared that peace is a key message in the book and in life. Margarita, who is Cuban American with Taino heritage, says had there been peace in Cuba when she was a child, she could have continued contact with her Cuban family. She says a balance of family and romantic love is one aspect of peace. She’s clear that love isn’t a magic spell that makes things easy, but love can make things worthwhile.
When government interrupts those relationships, as happens in this book, it breaks the peace and causes loneliness, a kind of turmoil. Families and friends cannot express themselves freely, and knowledge, such as a plan to leave for the U.S., is illegal to have. Balseros could not say goodbye before getting on a raft because they would endanger their families. To communicate, Cubans would use facial expressions and metaphors to say what they couldn’t verbalize. Liana and Amado risk a great deal on the shore where the balseros make last minute trades and leave behind treasures.
The young couple’s efforts to supplement their food rations aren’t all together legal either. A biologist by training, nature is also important to Margarita. She emphasizes the connection between food and agriculture as basic, and that many have forgotten how to cultivate crops. As we see Liana and Amado rediscover how to grow their own food, and do so in secret, we see them wordlessly reconnect with their families and dare to hope for their future.
The Singing Dog plays a salient role in this book by bringing together our protagonists and helping them find food sources. He plays a deeper role in the context of the story as one of the Singing Dogs of Cuba, like the singing dogs of New Guinea. The Singing Dog connects our protagonists to a time before the hunger, before European contact even. He injects magical realism into the story and acts as the chorus in presenting the story.
Margarita suggests readers take in her verse novels as they would listen to music. To enjoy it; to pay attention to how it makes them feel; to pick up on the essence of the emotion. And it might help to imagine The Singing Dog baying (not howling) his verses. -Recommended by Rebecca Ballenger, The University of Arizona, Tucson
Title: Your Heart, My Sky
Author: Margarita Engle
ISBN: 9781534464964
Publisher: Atheneum
PubDate: March 23, 2021
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- Themes: Margarita Engle, Rebecca Ballenger, Your Heart My Sky
- Descriptors: WOW Recommends