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    The Wild Book
    The Wild Book
    The Wild Book
    Ebook124 pages33 minutes

    The Wild Book

    By Margarita Engle

    3.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Fefa struggles with words. She has word blindness, or dyslexia, and the doctor says she will never read or write. Every time she tries, the letters jumble and spill off the page, leaping and hopping away like bullfrogs. How will she ever understand them?But her mother has an idea. She gives Fefa a blank book filled with clean white pages. "Think of it as a garden," she says. Soon Fefa starts to sprinkle words across the pages of her wild book. She lets her words sprout like seedlings, shaky at first, then growing stronger and surer with each new day. And when her family is threatened, it is what Fefa has learned from her wild book that saves them.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMar 20, 2012
    ISBN9780547822228
    The Wild Book
    Author

    Margarita Engle

    Margarita Engle is the Cuban American author of many books including the verse novels Rima’s Rebellion; Your Heart, My Sky; With a Star in My Hand; The Surrender Tree, a Newbery Honor winner; and The Lightning Dreamer. Her verse memoirs include Soaring Earth and Enchanted Air, which received the Pura Belpré Award, a Walter Dean Myers Award Honor, and was a finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, among others. Her picture books include Drum Dream Girl, Dancing Hands, and The Flying Girl. Visit her at MargaritaEngle.com.

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    Reviews for The Wild Book

    3.5/5

    31 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A great look at dyslexia in the early 1900s through the eyes of Fefa, a 10/11 year old Cuban girl. This is the only novel in verse I've ever made it through, possibly because it's a super quick, beautiful read. The language is lovely, and I deeply appreciated the way Fefa feels more powerful as she gets better at reading and writing. Plus, the cover is gorgeous.
    • 3/5
      Margarita Engle's books are just not my thing. I don't really feel like I get to know characters through the verse format. I think I liked this one a little better than some of her others, but it's just not really my favorite thing to read.
    • 3/5
      I just have to express my absolute LOVE of this cover! The illustrations are just so colorful and beautiful. Now for the actual story: this is the third book I’ve read by Margarita Engle and unfortunately none of them have lived up to the first.

      The Wild Book is about eleven-year old Fefa, who at the beginning of the book finds out she has “word-blindness” or what we now know as common day dyslexia. The book is about Fefa’s struggle and how she works to overcome it. It’s set in the Cuban countryside of 1912, and is a work of historical fiction loosely based on stories the author’s grandmother used to tell her.

      I found it unbelievable how cruel Fefa’s own brothers and sisters treated her, making fun or her reading and writing, calling her ugly. Maybe it’s because I had a great relationship with my sister growing up, but I just couldn’t fathom them being so downright nasty to her.

      As always the authors beautiful writing had me jotting down quotes as I went along. Here is my favorite:

      “Words seem to float
      and drift, changing
      their strange shapes,
      like storms clouds,
      always ready to explode.”

      Overall it wasn’t a personal favorite, but I think it serves as a great example for kids of perseverance and never giving up, because while Fefa got frustrated a lot near the beginning, she kept working to overcome her dyslexia.
    • 3/5
      A quick read, this book is told in verse as many poems that all contribute to the overarching plot line. Fefa has "word blindness" (dyslexia), and in order to overcome this obstacle, her mother gives her a blank book and has Fefa write whatever she wants in it. This book, the "wild book," ends up telling the story of her family. Fefa's family lives in Cuba, and there are bandits who steal children for ransom money. When Fefa's family gets a ransom note, it is Fefa that discovers who the bandit is by recognizing his handwriting.

      This story is based on the author's grandmother's childhood, growing up in Cuba. It is reflective of real events that happened during the Cuban revolution.

      Also, a good book for kids who are struggling readers. They will be able to relate to Fefa, and since the story is told in short poems, they can read one poem or many in one sitting, allowing for a self paced story.

    Book preview

    The Wild Book - Margarita Engle

    title page

    Contents

    Title Page

    Contents

    Copyright

    Dedication

    Epigraphs

    The Cuban Countryside 1912

    Word-Blindness

    School

    Homework

    Frog Fear

    Homework Fear

    Word Towers

    Tiny Triumphs

    Lonely Fear

    Slow Down

    Danger

    The Danger Chain

    Warnings

    Worries

    I Do Try!

    A Dreaded Gift

    Imagining

    Wishing

    Questioning

    Bird-People

    Insults

    Schoolbooks

    Wildflowers

    Celebrations

    Word Hunger

    Word Freedom

    The Ugly Poem

    Fragrant Chores

    Gardens of Thought

    Guessing

    Strolling

    Towers of Hope

    Growing Up

    Ugliness

    Trouble

    Uncertainly

    Beastly

    Scribbling

    Patience

    The Hope Bug

    Before the Hunt

    The Poetry Duel

    Fly to the Truth of Dreams

    Rum and Bullets

    Waiting

    Discovering My Voice

    Ready to Heal

    Strange Cures

    Reading Out Loud

    Fear-Chained

    Wondering

    Just One

    More Practice

    More and More Poetry

    The Secret Language of Children

    Never Give Up

    Hideous

    Danger Grows

    Sleepless

    A Laughter Gift

    Daily Music

    Dance-Smart

    Still Struggling

    Stroytelling

    One Strand at a Time

    The Beach in August

    The Beach at Noon

    The Beach at Night

    Storm

    Home

    Awake All Night

    Reading Wildly

    Ghostly

    Doomed

    Thorns

    Flying

    Justice

    Blank

    Surprises

    Inside the Tower of Fear

    Magic

    Courage

    Author’s Note

    Acknowledgments

    Middle Grade Mania!

    About the Author

    Connect with HMH on Social Media

    Copyright © 2012 by Margarita Engle

    All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to trade.permissions@hmhco.com or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

    www.hmhco.com

    Cover illustration © 2012 by Yuyi Morales

    Cover design by Kerry Martin

    The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

    Engle, Margarita.

    The wild book / Margarita Engle.

    p. cm.

    Summary: In early twentieth-century Cuba, bandits terrorize the countryside as a young farm girl struggles with dyslexia. Based on the life of the author’s grandmother.

    [1. Novels in verse. 2. Dyslexia—Fiction. 3. Cuba—History—1909–1933—Fiction.] I. Title.

    PZ7.5.E54Wi 2012

    [Fic]—dc23

    2011027320

    ISBN 978-0-547-58131-6 hardcover

    ISBN 978-0-544-02275-1 paperback

    eISBN 978-0-547-82222-8

    v2.0817

    For young readers

    who dread reading

    and for those

    who love blank books

    Mis ojos miraban en hora de ensueños

    la página blanca.

    Y vino el desfile de ensueños y sombras.

    In the hour of daydreams my eyes watched

    the blank page.

    And there came a parade of dreams and shadows.

    —Rubén Darío,

    from La Página Blanca (The Blank Page)

    The Cuban Countryside

    1912

    Word-Blindness

    Word-blindness

    The doctor hisses it

    like a curse.

    Word-blindness,

    he repeats—some children

    can see everything

    except words.

    They are only blind

    on paper.

    Fefa will never be able

    to read, or write,

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