Hurricane Dancers

January 24, 2011
Newbery Honor–winner Engle (The Surrender Tree) continues to find narrative treasure in Cuban history. Like her other novels in verse, this one is told in multiple voices (too many, in fact), some based on historical figures. The action takes place in the early 16th century aboard a pirate ship captained by Bernardino de Talavera, a failed landowner who literally worked his Taíno farmhands to death then, rather than face prison, stole a ship and became the first pirate of the Caribbean. He kidnaps an orphaned boy to translate for him and takes a hostage—the powerful governor of Venezuela, whose actions in the New World have been as despicable as Talavera's. After a storm wrecks the ship, all three wash up on Cuba's coast among a native population, and two new voices and a new plot thread are introduced. The story, based on historical events, feels too rich for Engle's spare, broken-line poetry. Still, the subject matter is an excellent introduction to the age of exploration and its consequences, showing slavery sinking its insidious roots in the Americas and the price paid by those who were there first. Ages 12–up.

January 15, 2011

Newbery Honor author Engle (The Surrender Tree, 2008) spins three intertwined tales in frequently lyrical free verse. In the Caribbean in 1509, the cruel pirate Bernardino de Talavera has captured brutal Alonso de Ojeda, governor of Venezuela and a former conquistador. Mixed-race slave boy Quebrado, whose name means "broken," works on Talavera's ship as a translator and deckhand. When a hurricane sinks the ship, the three find themselves washed up individually on an island inhabited by naturales, native Ciboney Indians. Caucubú, a chieftain's daughter, wants desperately to avoid an arranged marriage and to pursue her love for Naridó, a fisherman. Engle continues to explore issues of captivity and freedom in the historical setting of her ancestors. She tells her tale in the alternating voices of her five main characters, all of whom are historical figures save Quebrado. Quebrado warns the Ciboney about the dangerous Spaniards, and the two are cast out. He helps the young lovers flee and claims true and total freedom for himself. Taken individually the stories are slight, but they work together elegantly; the notes and back matter make this a great choice for classroom use. (bibliography) (Historical fiction. 10-14)

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March 1, 2011

Gr 6-10-It's been said that history is written by the conquerors and, indeed, there are countless one-sided accounts of brave European explorers boldly "discovering" the New World. Here's a welcome antidote to all that biased mythology. Written in unrhymed verse and from alternating characters' perspectives, Hurricane Dancers provides a much more nuanced, personal, and thought-provoking imagining of what really happened when diverse cultures began colliding in the Caribbean in the late 15th and early 16th century. The story centers around a young slave dubbed el quebrado, "The Broken One," whose half-Spanish, half-Taino Indian ancestry makes him critically valuable as a translator for the sailors, who exploit his skills to intimidate and enslave the Natives they encounter. He is a captive on a stolen pirate ship commanded by Bernadino de Talavera as the tale begins, but the tables turn when a hurricane dashes the vessel off a Caribbean Island. Quebrado, Bernadino de Talavera, and his brutal conquistador hostage Alonso de Ojeda all survive, but when the former commander once again tries to employ Quebrado's skills to dominate the Natives, the young man realizes that he not only has the power to refuse and reinvent himself, but also finds that he controls the fate of his former captor and his injured, unstable hostage. Unique and inventive, this is highly readable historical fiction that provides plenty of fodder for discussion.-Jeffrey Hastings, Highlander Way Middle School, Howell, MI

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2011
Grades 6-10 *Starred Review* Engle, whose award-winning titles include the Newbery Honor Book, The Surrender Tree (2008), offers another accomplished historical novel in verse set in the Caribbean. Young Quebrados name means the broken one, a child of two shattered worlds. The son of a Ta-no Indian mother and a Spanish father, he is taken in 1510 from his village on the island that is present-day Cuba and enslaved on a pirates ship, where a brutal conquistador, responsible for thousands of deaths throughout the Americas, is held captive for ransom. When a hurricane destroys the boat, Quebrado is pulled from the water by a fisherman, Narid, whose village welcomes him, but escape from the past proves nearly impossible. Once again, Engle fictionalizes historical fact in a powerful, original story. With the exception of Quebrado, all the characters are based on documented figures (discussed in a lengthy authors note), whose voices narrate many of the poems. While the shifting perspectives create a somewhat dreamlike, fractured story, Engle distills the emotion in each episode with potent rhythms, sounds, and original, unforgettable imagery. Linked together, the poems capture elemental identity questions and the infinite sorrows of slavery and dislocation, felt even by the pirates ship, which remembers / her true self, / her tree self, / rooted / and growing, / alive, / on shore.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)