Not a camp you'd want to visit

Sometimes I have a hard time judging what middle school readers would think of a book, and that was the case with 90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Galbis. Although the writing style won't be for everyone, the plot is pretty interesting.  Julian and his brothers are living a good life in Cuba in 1961.  But the country is in turmoil, and the boys are among 14,000 children evacuated to the U.S. as part of Operation Pedro Pan. The brothers live in a refugee camp in Miami, where surviving the actions of the camp bullies is a daily struggle.  The threat of being sent to an orphanage and never seeing their parents again is very real; when Julian's brothers are sent away, he's on his own.  Julian is a clever, resourceful kid - can he figure out how to reunite his family?  Based on the author's childhood experiences, this is a part of Cuban and U.S. history that isn't well known - but should be.

Next time I see a firefly...

...I bet I think of this book. The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba by Margarita Engle is as interesting as it is lyrical. Based in Cuba in the 1800s, the story is told in free verse in first person, alternating between Fredrika Bremer, a Swedish feminist visiting Cuba; Cecilia, a slave who misses her home in Africa and serves as Fredrika's translator; Elena, the slave-owner's daughter who lives in a "private world of silk and lace" but has surprisingly little freedom over her own life; and Beni, Cecilia's husband. A metaphor that is invoked repeatedly is that of cocuyos - fireflies. The natives catch them and put them into bottles to make lamps or weave them into their hair, while Fredrika and Cecilia buy the fireflies and set them free. I'd love to share this with a book club, taking turns to read aloud each very brief chapter, and talking about the freedoms and limitations of all the characters.