Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

How about you, folks? Anybody out there all ready for Christmas and just kicking back with your feet up? If so, well–keep that to yourself. Deal?

Anyway. I wrote out Christmas cards this morning before driving all the people all the places and then coming home to feed some of those same people; if I take a minute to review Margarita Engle’s Singing With Elephants now, I’ll be able to check yet another thing off my to-do list, and what’s not to love about that? If you’re an Engle fan, this might feel like a bit of a departure, it being mostly fiction. It does, however, feature a real poet of the time–Gabriela Mistral–and a blend of activism and advocacy, and that has Engle’s name written all over it. Eleven-year-old Oriol is a Cuban immigrant struggling to find a place in her new California home when she happens upon Mistral, who adopts her as a pupil. Mistral’s guidance proves invaluable when a nearby animal needs help, and what follows is a lovely story of love, hope, and a realistic(ish) amount of compromise. Animal and verse novel fans should enjoy this one–although I wouldn’t necessarily recommend a busy December as the ideal time to experience it.