“Provides comprehensive information on the geography, history, wildlife, governmental structure, economy, cultural diversity, peoples, religion, and culture of Trinidad and Tobago”–Provided by publisher.
Caribbean
Grenada
The highly regarded Cultures of the World series celebrates the diversity of other cultures in this fully updated and expanded edition about Grenada.
Hurricane Dancers
Quebrado has been traded from pirate ship to ship in the Caribbean Sea for as long as he can remember. The sailors he toils under call him el quebrado—half islander, half outsider, a broken one. Now the pirate captain Bernardino de Talavera uses Quebrado as a translator to help navigate the worlds and words between his mother’s Taíno Indian language and his father’s Spanish. But when a hurricane sinks the ship and most of its crew, it is Quebrado who escapes to safety. He learns how to live on land again, among people who treat him well. And it is he who must decide the fate of his former captors.
90 Miles To Havana
When Julian’s parents send him and his two brothers away from Cuba to Miami via the Pedro Pan Operation, the boys are thrust into a new world where bullies run rampant and it’s not always clear how best to protect themselves. By the author of Raining Sardines.
Dance, Nana, Dance / Baila, Nana, Baila
These folk stories teach the deep-hearted wisdom of the Cuban people.
Join the discussion of Dance, Nana, Dance / Baila, Nana, Baila as well as other books set in Cuba on our My Take/Your Take page.
My Name is Celia/Me Llamo Celia: The Life of Celia Cruz/La Vida de Celia Cruz
An exuberant picture-book biography of the Cuban-born salsa singer. From its rhythmic opening, the first-person narrative dances readers through Cruz’s youth in Havana, a childhood bounded by scents of nature and home, the sweet taste of sugar, and the sound of music. A singer from an early age, Cruz sang so continually that one of her teachers finally urged her to share her voice with the world. Thus encouraged, she entered competitions, undeterred when her racial heritage prevented her from competing – undeterred, even, when the advent of Castro’s communist regime forced her to leave Cuba as a refugee. Positive even in exile, Cruz made New York City her own and took Miami by storm. The salsa-influenced prose presented in English and in Spanish is followed by a straightforward vita of the singer, noting her death in July 2003. Lopez’s distinguished, luminous acrylic paintings are alive with motion, lush with brilliantly layered colors, and informed with verve and symbolism. This is a brilliant introduction to a significant woman and her music. The only enhancement required is the music itself.
Before There Was Mozart: The Story of Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier De Saint-George
The musical superstar of 18th-century France was Joseph Boulogne—a Black man. This inspiring story tells how Joseph, the only child of a Black slave and her White master, becomes “the most accomplished man in Europe.” After traveling from his native West Indies to study music in Paris, young Joseph is taunted about his skin color. Despite his classmates’ cruel words, he continues to devote himself to his violin, eventually becoming conductor of a whole orchestra. Joseph begins composing his own operas, which everyone acknowledges to be magnifique. But will he ever reach his dream of performing for the king and queen of France? This lushly illustrated book by Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome introduces us to a talented musician and an overlooked figure in Black history.
Running the Road To ABC
Six island children are running at daybreak — over the hills, through the fields, across the city square — to school! Never before has the love of learning (and learning together) been such a joyous time. Denise Lauture’s buoyant, poetic text captures the happiness and youth of energetic children on the way to school; Reynold Ruffins perfectly illustrates the rich beauty of Haiti with the bright-colored vibrance of Haitian folk art.
My Havana: Memories of a Cuban Boyhood
Relates events in the childhood of architect Secundino Fernandez, who left his beloved Havana, Cuba, with his parents, first to spend a year in Spain, and later to move to New York City.
Sugar Cane: A Caribbean Rapunzel
A version of the folktale Rapunzel, set in the Caribbean.