Margarita Engle's "The Firefly Letters"

1.   BIBLIOGRAPHY

Engle, Margarita. 2010. The Firefly Letters A Suffragette’s Journey To Cuba. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 978-0-8050-9082-6

2.  PLOT SUMMARY

 Margarita Engle’s book of poetry is a mesmerizing novel in verse, from start to finish. The poems are told from the characters’ points of view, there are four characters, Fredrika the Swedish Woman writer, Elena the young wealthy girl whose parents are hosting Fredrika, Cecilia a native from Africa who was sold into slavery and is now a slave in Cuba for Elena’s family, and Beni who is Cecilia’s husband.  In the poems the characters narrate their position in life, their surroundings, hopes, dreams and stance on women’s rights and slavery; they are all centered on historical women’s rights pioneer Fredrika Bremer, and her three month journey to Cuba, which inspired this book of poems.

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS

There are seventy-four poems in this book, written by award-winning Poet, Margarita Engle, each poem is a captivating and fascinating as the next. The poems are narratives told each in of the characters points of view. Moreover, the fireflies are referenced throughout the book, they symbolize feelings of captivity, and entrapment, yet also represent freedom and the ability to carry hope even at the darkest of times. The theme of this poetry book is the promotion and illumination of women’s rights and slavery, its purpose to shed light on these injustices, specifically in Cuba.

The only illustrations are on the Book jacket that were done by Jacket Illustrations by Ana Juan. Jacket Design by Rich Deas. The front cover is a painting of a woman whose hair freely blows in the wind and in it are fireflies that seemed to be intertwined and weaved in her hair floating in it ever so majestically.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Pura Belpre Honor Book for Narrative: 2011.

Booklist starred review: “Readers will be caught by the compelling narrative voices.”

Goodreads starred review: “In this quietly powerful new book, award-winning poet Margarita Engle paints a portrait of early women’s rights pioneer Fredrika Bremer and the journey to Cuba that transformed her life.”

5. CONNECTIONS

With this verse novel, the lesson of women’s rights and slavery can be linked with a History class and vertically aligned with this theme and historical context.

Other engaging and informative books are:

Grimes, Nikki. A Girl Named Mister. ISBN 978-0310723134

Williams, Carol Lynch. Glimpse. ISBN 978-1416997313