Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba
    The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba
    The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba
    Ebook111 pages35 minutes

    The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba

    By Margarita Engle

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The freedom to roam is something that women and girls in Cuba do not have. Yet when Fredrika Bremer visits from Sweden in 1851 to learn about the people of this magical island, she is accompanied by Cecilia, a young slave who longs for her lost home in Africa. Soon Elena, the wealthy daughter of the house, sneaks out to join them. As the three women explore the lush countryside, they form a bond that breaks the barriers of language and culture.

    In this quietly powerful new book, award-winning poet Margarita Engle paints a portrait of early women's rights pioneer Fredrika Bremer and the journey to Cuba that transformed her life.


    The Firefly Letters is a 2011 Pura Belpre Honor Book for Narrative and a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMar 16, 2010
    ISBN9781429959452
    The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba
    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.

    Read more from Margarita Engle

    Related to The Firefly Letters

    Related ebooks

    Young Adult For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Other Child

      Dec 1, 2018

      The Other Child
      9 min read

    • Article

      'Dread Nation' Is A Rollicking 'Gone With The Wind + Zombies' Adventure

      Apr 20, 2018

      But don't underestimate the latest YA novel by activist Justina Ireland – it's also a biting commentary on contemporary race relations in America.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Diamonds

      Jun 4, 2018

      Diamonds
      9 min read

    • Article

      All I Want For Christmas

      Dec 16, 2020

      IT was more than an icicle. More like an icy boulder, oversized and murkily white, faceted like a cartoon jewel and, shortly, dripping. It had lurked beneath a low stone bridge at the bottom of the wood, where sycamore thickets bald for winter gave w

      18 min read

    • Article

      Guiding Presence

      May 18, 2020

      Guiding Presence
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Story Pilgrimage

      Jun 8, 2021

      A Story Pilgrimage
      3 min read

    • Article

      Where The Living Is Easy

      Aug 5, 2020

      Where The Living Is Easy
      13 min read

    • Article

      Peace Comes With A Smile

      Nov 11, 2019

      Peace Comes With A Smile
      8 min read

    • Article

      Once Upon A Time In A Deep, Dark Mine

      Jan 1, 2021

      Once Upon A Time In A Deep, Dark Mine
      4 min read

    • Article

      You Have to Suffer

      Sep 23, 2020

      You Have to Suffer
      19 min read

    • Article

      Trent Dalton

      Jun 5, 2022

      Wildly ambitious and wholly brilliant with a zinger you could laugh at for half an hour on every page if you weren’t crying over something on the page after that. In 1787, the British government sends a fleet of officers, soldiers, thieves, women an

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Last Friend on Earth

      May 4, 2023

      It was as if Doreen Saunders had been waiting for me, passing the time until my arrival. She might as well have been sitting in a rocking chair, knitting needles clicking, jam tarts cooling on the side, the door wide open, waiting for the next visito

      6 min read

    • Article

      As the World Collapses

      Jul 27, 2017

      As the World Collapses
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Last Lady of California

      Apr 6, 2021

      The Last Lady of California
      16 min read

    • Article

      Tales From The Heart

      Jul 15, 2020

      Tales From The Heart
      6 min read

    • Article

      Exotic Bird In The Paddock

      Oct 16, 2023

      Miles the sheep farmer was coming to Lush Places to fix our leaking water troughs. He sent a text message to say he was here. I hopped over the stile, in my stylish, mud-smeared, sheepbitten paddock shorts and saw him at the far end of our pear orcha

      2 min read

    • Article

      You Couldn’t Make It Up

      Apr 19, 2022

      Our six-year-old son told my wife and I that his grandma had warned him not to go near the river because the big cherry would get him. Confused, we rang his grandma only to find out that she actually said, “Be careful not to fall into the river as th

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Firefly Letters

    4.5/5

    17 ratings14 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Fredrika Bremer was a Swedish suffragete that traveled the world writing books. She spent three months in Cuba and while she thought the country was beautiful, she felt it's beauty was very marred by slavery. The story's narration alternates between Fredrika, her translator Cecelia who is a slave and Elena the daughter of the Cecelia's owner.

      The story is told in free verse and is absolutely beautiful and lyrical sounding. I think that this really brings home stark contrast of a beautiful country and and a horrible practice. The introspection into each characters thoughts give you a wonderful opportunity to see how Elena and Cecelia are changed by Fredrika's presence. Elena's change is particularly drastic, however it is a change for the better. Elena's eventual longing for freedom really made me feel for her. In many ways she is more trapped than Cecelia is, even though she is a free woman.

      I also really appreciated the notes that the author included. Frederika Bremer was a real person and she really did have a translator named Cecelia when she was in Cuba. Elena was made up however I could easily someone being so changed by seeing another woman live with such freedom. All of the thoughts and dreams are made up as well however they really feel like they fit and I really enjoyed the book overall.
    • 4/5
      perhaps a bit heavy for some, but a beautifully written story
    • 3/5
      The Firefly Letters is a slim volume of historical semi-fiction that uses the known bones of Fredrika Bremer's stay in Cuba in the 1850s to tell a mostly-imagined story about Bremer and two young women.

      I'm glad it exists -- I wouldn't have heard of Bremer otherwise -- but it seemed insubstantial. The "letters" are written in free verse, which is interesting, but between that and the fact that there are four characters' voices being heard, none of the characters feel like anything more than sketches.
    • 4/5
      This was advertised under children. I would put it under young adult. I enjoyed it a lot! It's written in free style poetry, I believe, and every page or so is another character. Really, the age minimum for this is like 5th grade. The words are considerably complex. A mature reader in 4th grade could probably get through it though.
    • 4/5
      This was a beautifully written middle grade novel about life and slavery in Cuba, based on the writings of the real life Fredrika Bremer.The story is told from four alternating viewpoints; Elana, Cecilia, Fredrika, and Beni.-Elena is a plantation owners daughter, trapped within the walls of her own home, never allowed to go out and catch fireflies or walk beneath the moonlight.“I sit alone in my roomat the ornately barred window,embroidering curlicueslike the fancy ironworkthat separates mefrom the rest of the world.”-Cecilia is a fifteen-year old slave from Africa who was sold by her own father in exchange for a cow. She works on Elena’s family’s sugar plantation as a translator.“If I had knownthat my father would trade mefor a stolen cow,I would have run awayinto the forestto live in a nestmade of dreamsand green leaves.”-Fredrika is a rich man’s daughter, who gave up the aristocratic lifestyle to wander the world and be a writer.“My sketchbook is burstingwith storiestold by dances,stories about life on two shores…two distant lands,Africa and Cuba,joined and also separatedby the endless flowof ocean wavesthat soundlike music…”-Beni is Cecilia’s husband, chosen for her by Elena’s father. There are only a couple of pages told from Beni’s perspective, but I found it nice to see his thoughts on Cecilia and their marriage instead of just having her point of view. Fredrika believes in a world of equality, not just between men and women, but also between the races. She goes to Cuba to write about slavery on the island in hopes of bringing about change.Against all odds the three girls form a strong friendship filled with shared hope for a brighter future. I found Engle’s writing to be very lyrical and beautiful. My only wish was that it would have lasted longer.
    • 4/5
      Told in verse, the story alternates between Frederika, a Swedish suffragette visiting Cuba, Cecilia, a slave from Africa that serves as her translator, and Elena, the daughter of the wealthy family who serve as Frederika's hosts. The book explores the idea of freedom for women in 1850s Cuba, particularly freedom for slaves. The trip changes all three of the women. Frederika and Cecilia travel the country and share their experiences interacting with the many types of people in Cuba. A beautifully written, sparse yet moving book.
    • 5/5
      Altho this book is a series of poems/free verse, I feel I learned much about the lives of 3 very different women in a time and cultures so different from mine, and how they are changed by knowing each other, each yearning for freedom.
    • 5/5
      My daughter checked this out from the library and once she finished she handed to me and asked that I read it too. I absolutely loved it. It took me on a journey into three lives, to a time long ago. A time when it was very valuable and rare to have freedom. A MUST READ!!!
    • 4/5
      The Firefly Letters is a collection of poems written by Engle that vacillate between Fredrika, Elena, and Cecilia; at first, I was apprehensive of the slim book, but quickly I was drawn into the simply written but very compelling poetry.Fredrika sets off for Cuba in a fit of wanderlust, throwing off the chains of expectations placed on women during that time and spending her days writing and sketching. Her main concerns are women’s rights, and while she is amazed at the beauty of Cuba, she is appalled at the conditions of slavery and women’s rights in the supposed paradise. Even the daughter of her rich host, Elena, is subject to strict regulations, as Elena is set to marry a man chosen by her parents.Cecilia is the house slave, valuable thanks to her translation skills; she is pregnant and married at the age of fifteen to a man she calls a stranger. The three women find ties that bind them together as they explore the island with Fredrika, and both Elena and Cecilia find inner strength they never knew they possessed. Fireflies become a metaphor for the plight of the women, as the lovely and delicate creatures are constantly captured and even de-winged by Cuban natives; the ladies take it upon themselves to go nightly to free the fireflies.A lovely work, with many springboards for historical research into Cuban history, women’s suffrage, and language arts, The Firefly Letters is definitely worth reading, either in one sitting or in small bites.
    • 4/5
      Swedish traveler Frederika Bremer, young slave Cecilia, and daughter of the Cuban gentry Elena, are three young women who have had their lives very specifically laid out in front of them by society’s expectations. Frederika and Elena, as girls brought up in wealthy families in the 1850s, have enjoyed the many privileges that their class offers, but have been constrained by the many restrictions and few opportunities available to women at the time. Frederika reacts to these restrictions by leaving her family and blazing her own path as a feminist and traveler, while Elena accepts her position without complaint or question. Cecilia, who was sold into slavery by her father as a child, has not accepted her circumstances, but has never had an opportunity to channel her anger and homesickness. They are brought together when Frederika leaves her home country of Sweden, traveling without a chaperone, to explore the Cuban countryside and tell the stories of the women and slaves in Cuba, in the hopes that “stories can lead to a change in laws” (pg. 27. Quoted from ARC – language is subject to change.)Frederika and Cecilia are based on real people, and Engle has clearly used their real-life situations, feelings and conversations, as recorded in Frederika’s published diary, to inform and flesh out these characters. Frederika Bremer was a feminist and a traveler, and she spent three months exploring Cuba along with her real-life translator Cecilia. They are compelling women, and Engle’s spare free verse poetry mixes their current circumstances and memories from childhood in ways that illuminate both. Elena is the only major character who is not based on an actual person, and you can feel it. Her story, of an aristocratic young woman who at first fears and distrusts the strange feminist who comes to her house, but gradually comes to agree with her, is neither original nor especially well told. Elena eventually makes a choice that is lovely, but does not ring true – I did not feel that I had seen her character go through the growth that would be necessary to make that choice.The short chapters alternate between the viewpoints of these three women, with a few brief interjections from Cecilia’s husband that did show another side of life in Cuba, but did not especially add to the story of Bremer’s visit. Engle is at her best when she stays close to the story of Frederika and Cecilia. It is the moments where these two women discover each others’ history that are most illuminating. Despite their wildly different circumstances, they forge a connection based not on similar life experiences, but on the similar feelings of loneliness and constraint that their experiences have engendered. Cecilia’s chapters, which are very straight-forward in their telling of her unimaginable life, are the most moving. The spare form, which did not allow Engle to fully show Elena’s transformation, is much more effective in telling Cecilia’s story, where the reader benefits from having time and space to consider Cecilia’s stories and make connections between them. When Cecilia’s chapter on her forced marriage and pregnancy is ended with a few short lines imagining that she is free of all her attachments, the simplicity of the poetry allows her thoughts to shine through and lets the reader to feel their resonance.This short novel in verse is a very quick read and would make a great choice for reluctant readers doing historical fiction projects. But it’s a carefully constructed story that will also appeal to curious readers who will want to follow this story’s characters and themes further – it has certainly inspired me to learn more about the life of Frederika Bremer. Several books about Frederika’s life and Cuba in the 1800s are listed in a welcome reference section, although it would have been nice to include some materials in this list that are more accessible to middle grade readers.
    • 5/5
      In 1851, an iconoclastic aristocrat from Sweden traveled to Cuba in order to evangelize on the topic of women's rights. While in Cuba, this woman--a real-life suffragette named Frederika Bremmer--made friends with the 12-year-old daughter of her host family as well as their slave girl, a pregnant 15-year-old abducted as a child from her native Congo and forced to marry a near stranger. United by Frederika's vision and persistence, the two become fast friends. Told through free-verse poetry, this humble and lyrical story is told from the perspective of four characters: Elena, the host family's daughter, Cecelia, their slave, Beni, her husband, and Frederika herself. Each short chapter (usually only a page and a half in length) is titled with the narrator's name, making it easier for readers to distinguish between characters' voices. While she uses little figurative language or other poetic devices, Engle still manages to create a hauntingly beautiful tale, enhanced by each narrator's description of his or her homeland. Throughout the novel, fireflies (or cocuyos) are used as metaphors for freedom and imprisonment, and the moon is a symbol of independent thinking. Despite the understated beauty of the language, Engle's story is still very much rooted in reality--Cecelia has an incurable disease and Elena will marry at 14 whether she wants to or not. The story doesn't end with Frederika saving the day, although with Elena's help, they manage to ameliorate Cecelia's suffering and bring her hope for the future. The subject matter is handled delicately enough that younger teens will grasp what is going on without being unduly shaken, and older teens will still appreciate the story for its lyricism and grace. Recommended for grades 7 through 10.
    • 3/5
      Short poems tell the story of Fredricka Bremer, a women born into Swedish nobility who gives up her birthright in order to be free to roam the country and write and her experience in Cuba, where she seeks to find Eden, but can't overlook the slavery and human suffering. This story is told through the eyes of three characters, Fredricka, Elena-a plantation owner's daughter who is prisoner in her own home, and Cecilia-a slave from Africa. The three women find out they have more in common than they first believe and seek a way to make themselves feel free through their unity.
    • 5/5
      Grades 6 and upTold from the perspectives of three differently oppressed women – one slave, one suffragette, and one rich girl – The Firefly Letters paints a picture of 1850s Cuban life.
    • 4/5
      Elly says, "Very quick read, multicultural chapter book based on true story of Frederika Bremer's life-altering journey to Cuba. Told poetically in four voices: African slave girl, 15, married and pregnant, her husband, also a slave, the daughter of the house - 12, soon to be in an arrranged marraige, and the Swedish writer, fascinated with the culture but appalled by the inequities. Good for that class at GCC that needs the multicultural chapter book."

    Book preview

    The Firefly Letters - Margarita Engle

    Matanzas, Cuba

    CECILIAI

    I remember a wide river

    and gray parrots with patches of red feathers

    flashing across the African sky

    like traveling stars

    or Cuban fireflies.

    In the silence of night

    I still hear my mother wailing,

    and I see my father’s eyes

    refusing to meet mine.

    I was eight, plenty old enough

    to understand that my father was haggling

    with a wandering slave trader,

    agreeing to exchange me

    for a stolen cow.

    Spanish sea captains and Arab merchants

    are not the only men

    who think of girls

    as livestock.

    ELENA

    Mamá has informed me

    that we will soon play hostess

    to a Swedish traveler, a woman

    called Fredrika, who is known to believe

    that men and women are completely equal.

    What an odd notion!

    Papá has already warned me to ignore

    any outlandish ideas that I might hear

    from our strange visitor.

    I have never imagined a woman

    who could travel all over the world

    just like a man!

    Mamá says Fredrika

    does not speak much Spanish,

    so we will have to speak to her in English.

    Cecilia can help.

    I’m so glad Papá

    taught one of the slave girls

    how to speak the difficult language

    of all the American

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1