When Fredricka travels to Cuba she is hosted by a local family where she meets their daughter Elena and a slave girl named Cecelia who acts as her translator. Through their time together, Cecelia teaches many things about the ways of her people who brought to Cuba against their will. Fredricka learns that though a place can be beautiful it can also be a prison. Together the three women help each other discover what they want the most: a taste of freedom.
"Engle draws on little-known Cuban history to tell a stirring, immediate story in poetry. Based on the diaries and letters of Swedish suffragist Fredricka Bremer, who spent three months in Cuba in 1851, this title focuses on oppressed women, the privileged as well as the enslaved, in three alternating free-verse narratives. Through this moving combination of historical viewpoints, Engle creates dramatic tension among the characters, especially in the story of Elena, who makes a surprising sacrifice." — Hazel Rochman, Booklist
Book Information:
Engle. M. (2010). THE FIREFLY LETTERS: A SUFFRAGETTE'S JOURNEY TO CUBA. New York: Henry and Holt. IBSN 9780805090826
What Next?
Read Inside Out and Back Again, another novel in verse.
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