Here to introduce Margarita today
is one of our teachers from the matinee program who
has been working with some of you
in your classrooms over the past few months.
Please help me to welcome Rachel Francher
[APPLAUSE]
Hello.
So when I first started reading Margarita Engle's work,
I was struck by how well the personal narratives empowered
the history behind the stories.
As a student of history, I am always
really excited to see fiction and poetry take on narratives
from history, narratives that let you live through history,
experience it, not just read it like we usually
do in classrooms, and I think that is
what Engle's work does so well.
She lets us live the history she's presenting to us.
And that's what history, fiction, poetry,
that's what it's all about.
That's what writing is all about.
It's about creating a dialogue between the reader
and the writer and the writing itself.
So what I enjoyed the most was the descriptions,
the little lines that would get stuck in my head
when I was reading.
One of my favorites is from The Poet Slave of Cuba.
It's "you'd think we're the clay of Earth's daylight,
while they're distant nights filled with stars."
These words get stuck under your skin.
They make you think, and they make you wonder.
And of Engle's 12 books, they've been awarded lots of honors
and medals and things like that, more than I can really ever
list, but they include the Newbery Medal,
which she's the first Latino American writer to receive,
the Sidney Taylor Award, and several, Pura Belpré awards.
So, please help me to welcome Margarita Engle.