The lightning dreamer : Cuba's greatest abolitionist
(Book)

"Harcourt is an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company"--Title page verso.

"Jacket illustration ... by Edel Rodriguez ; Jacket design by Elizabeth Tardiff"--Jacket flap.

Includes bibliographical references (page 181).

In free verse, evokes the voice of Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, a book-loving writer, feminist, and abolitionist who courageously fought injustice in nineteenth-century Cuba. Includes historical notes, excerpts from her writings, biographical information, and source notes.

Tula is a girl who yearns for words, who falls in love with stories, but in Cuba, girls are not allowed an education. No, Tula is expected to marry well--even though she's filled with guilt at the thought of the slaves Mamá will buy with the money gained by marrying Tula to the highest bidder. Then one day, hidden in a dusty corner of a convent library, Tula discovers the banned books of a rebel poet. The poems speak to the deepest part of her soul, giving her a language with which to write of the injustice around her. In a country that isn't free, the most daring abolitionists are poets who can veil their work with metaphors, and Tula becomes just that. In powerful, haunting verses of her own, Margarita Engle evokes the voice of Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, known as Tula, a young woman who was brave enough to speak up for those who could not. --,From dust jacket.

1070L,lexile.

Pura Belpré Honor book, 2014