The YA Book Log

THE POET SLAVE OF CUBA by Margarita Engle

Monty Python made a movie called, “And now for something completely different.” Well, I have just finished a book that is something completely different. THE POET SLAVE OF CUBA: A BIOGRAPHY OF JUAN FRANCISCO MANZANO by Margarita Engle is a biography in verse. Juan, a slave, was born into the household a wealthy family in 1797. As a young child his extraordinary intellectual powers, made him and his family a favorite of the slaveowner’s wife, but with her death his fortunes changed. His new mistress was cruel and revelled in his humiliations. Though beaten, locked in shackles and almost left for dead his voice was never silenced, and finally at nearly 16 he escaped from slavery.
The biography is told by several different people, Juan, his owners, his birth mother and a white boy living on the plantation. I wish more information was available, but as the author writes any material on slavey in Cuba was banned. It was only by chance Manzano biography found its way on a ship to England, but only the first half of his life discovered and published.
Even though the subject of slavery is an dark time for humanity, it is interesting to see how it was practiced in a country other than the US. This book is recommended for young people in grades 8 to 11.
Mrs. Jackson
Head of Young Adult Services