Destinee Garcia – Enchanted Air

A) For this make cycle I am reading Enchanted Air by Margarita Engle. I initially chose this book because I came to find that the author is writing this as a memoir of her own life. Her love for Cuba and being raised in the United States has caused her to question who she really is and where she belongs. As the story goes on the hostility between both nations is underway. I love that I can relate to this story because I am 3rd generation Mexican-American and I stop and question who I really am and what culture defines me. This book is so eye opening to the struggle of identifying within two cultures. I appreciate the fact that Margarita Engle wrote this and how her story crosses borders and resonates with many people.

The book itself is written as poems but continues to flow as a text. Each poem is structured into the book but could also be taken as one individual story. It was a little confusing to follow at first but I just think of it as very small chapters. I would use this book and others in my classroom to: introduce poetry, talk about hispanic heritage month, highlight minority authors, present a diversity unit. Overall, I love this book so much and I can probably think of many ideas with incorporating it into my class.

B)

So much depends

upon 

an old book

filled of stories

life