Enchanted Air by Margarita Engle
April 12, 2018
Enchanted Air by Margarita Engle
Reviewed by: Daisy Larios, Kevin Jung, Jane Lee, and Vanessa Luna.
Review:
Published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers in 2015, Margarita Engles memoir titled Enchanted Air: Two Cultures Two Wings tells an autobiographical tale that takes readers along the journey of Margarita Engles’s life as a Cuban American growing up during the Cold War. Rather than chapters, the story is divided by dates followed by a collection of poems that describe personal experiences of living between two cultures. While the majority of the memoir is in poetic form, the beginning of the novel opens with a short paragraph describing the relationship between her Cuban mother and American father. This beginning helps set the stage for the emotional and dualistic poems that follow.
The first sets of poems describe Engle as someone who is in touch with both sides of her culture as she feels proud of both her American and Cuban identity. However, this thought quickly changes as the Cuban revolution begins and she starts to understand and experience the struggles that come from living as a binary of two different and politically conflicting cultures. As her acceptance in America starts to become muddled, she begins to favor the vivid world of Cuba in contrast to the grey industrial world of America. As the Cold War escalates, Engle struggles to find her identity in the midst of the crisis.
The novel does an effective job in describing the personal emotions of someone that is living between two cultures during a time of political crises. The use of poetry to describe a personal narrative of a historical event helps to bring a new perspective of a moment in history that students already may be familiar with. As a result, rather than discussing this text in an English class, facilitating a lesson about the memoir in the context of a history class would help students to understand the history from a personal point of view. Learning about a personal accounting of the Cold War can help students better understand the importance of the event, not just as a historical issue, but of the effects that it had on the people living during that time.
Furthermore, having students read and analyze poetry can help prepare them to read texts critically and closely to compare and contrast articles, news headlines, and other media depicting current events. This exercise will help students understand that there is more than one side to a story and can encourage them to seek out sources that not only talk about the facts but also the personal narratives of those affected. This memoir touches on the notion of identity, culture, family, and belonging that many students can relate to. It can become an important and valuable text to expose students to a deeply personal autobiographical narrative of someone who lived through a crucial and dividing moment in history.
Biography:
Margarita Engle was born in Pasadena, California on September 22, 1951. Her mother was born in Cuban and her father is from America, her Cuban background has influenced much of her work. Both of her parents were artists and her father was a professor of art throughout her childhood. Engle received her B.S. from California State Polytechnic University in 1974, she later received an M.S. from Iowa State University in 1977. Although she did not complete the program, Engle started a doctoral degree in Biology from the University of California, Riverside. Her interest in science can be seen through her fascination with the natural world and living things that are included in her work. This fascination started at a very young age, and her parents' lifestyle that included frequent travels encouraged her exploration of the natural world (Ignizo 90-91). She is currently the first Latina to hold the position of National Young People’s Poet Laureate. Many of her works have received honors and awards including the Newbery Honor for Surrender Tree. Her nonfiction poetic memoir, Enchanted Air received the Pura Belpre Award, The Walter Dean Myers Honor for Outstanding Children’s Literature, and was a finalist for the Young Adult Nonfiction Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association. Her work centers around the division between Cuba and the United States with the perspective of a child and young adult. Through her work, American audiences learn the ways in which the Cuban American division affected the families that were divided by political differences (Engle).Instructional Resources:
How to Make a Timeline
Through this website students who do not have access to a computer can complete the assignment at home on paper, teachers should offer extra instruction on where they should include facts regarding the novel.
Through this website students who do not have access to a computer can complete the assignment at home on paper, teachers should offer extra instruction on where they should include facts regarding the novel.
History of the Cuban Missile Crisis
This Ted-Ed video on the “History of the Cuban Missile Crisis” will help students understand the political complexities of the Cuban Missle Crisis in the context of the Cold War as well as aid them in their timeline project.
This Ted-Ed video on the “History of the Cuban Missile Crisis” will help students understand the political complexities of the Cuban Missle Crisis in the context of the Cold War as well as aid them in their timeline project.
Google Maps
The use of Google Maps allows one to see the places Margarita visited in Cuba and also allows students to see the distance between Los Angeles and Cuba.
The use of Google Maps allows one to see the places Margarita visited in Cuba and also allows students to see the distance between Los Angeles and Cuba.
Quizlet
This resource will help students memorize the events of the Cold War through the use of digital flashcards.
This resource will help students memorize the events of the Cold War through the use of digital flashcards.
Library of Congress
With this resource, one can find documents relating to the Cold War that can be used during a history lesson.
With this resource, one can find documents relating to the Cold War that can be used during a history lesson.
The Harvard Library
The Harvard Library holds a variety of documents related to the Cold War that can be used as resources during a lesson.
The Harvard Library holds a variety of documents related to the Cold War that can be used as resources during a lesson.
Socrative
Socrative allows teachers to create interactive quizzes that can be taken as a class using students’ phones, the quizzes are created online and can be used to help students retain information taught during a history lesson.
Margarita Engle
Margarita Engle's website gives students an inside look at Engle, her story, and the rest of her works. Engles website has a variety of lesson plans available for teachers.
Socrative allows teachers to create interactive quizzes that can be taken as a class using students’ phones, the quizzes are created online and can be used to help students retain information taught during a history lesson.
Margarita Engle
Margarita Engle's website gives students an inside look at Engle, her story, and the rest of her works. Engles website has a variety of lesson plans available for teachers.
Instructional Activity:
California Common Core Standards:
Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.
Evaluate authors' differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors' claims, reasoning, and evidence.
Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.
Resources and Preparation:
Students will utilize Chromebook or any laptop and Margarita Engles Enchanted Air. They will create a timeline using the website Canva. If Chromebooks are not available this lesson can also be done on paper.
Lesson Objective:
After reading Enchanted Air by Margarita Engle and participating in class discussions of the Cuban Missile Crisis, students will be able to identify passages from the novel that reflect the Cuban and American political climate.
Formative Assessment:
In order to establish engagement, we will begin our unit with a Quick Write. The question will ask, “What are your opinions about the Cold War? What do you know about it?”, allowing students for five minutes to write down prior information about the subject.
Assignment Instructions:
The students will be initially introduced to the novel and given scholarly sources and participate in close readings in order to help attribute to their understanding of the literary work. For the summative assessment, the students will turn to page 187 and observe the timeline of the novel. Students will divide into groups with two periods of the timeline assigned to each group. Each group will attempt to answer the question, “Compare the historical events of these years to the poems within the novel. How do you see the effects of the political climate on Margarita’s life?”
Students will be allowed to use any available resources, including the back of the novel or the history textbook, in order to help frame their timeline.
The topical questions students will be asked to consider are:
• Do you think the textbook represents an accurate depiction of everyday life?
• If M. were to write about her Cuban heritage in the present day, how would she write about it?
The available periods for the timeline are the following:
•1947 v day
•1951-1959
•1960
•1961-1964
•1965
•1947 v day
•1951-1959
•1960
•1961-1964
•1965
Preview:
Works Cited
| Example of Timeline Assignment |
Works Cited
Engle, Margarita. Margarita Engle. Margarita Engle, 2018. http://margaritaengle.com/
Ignizio, Graham. "Finding a Way Home: The Return to Cuba in Margarita Engle's Singing to
Cuba and Skywriting." Confluencia, vol. 27, no. 1, 2011, pp. 89-98.
Stevenson, Deborah. "Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings by Margarita Engle
(review)." Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, vol. 69 no. 3, 2015,
pp. 144-144. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/bcc.2015.0883
