courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Coy
Fefa is dyslexic. Reading makes her feel dizzy. She has never been a great fan of words, the letters get mixed up and make her feel anxious. The doctor has diagnosed ‘word blindness’.
“Some children can see everything except words.
They are only blind on paper” he says.
Fefa’s mother refuses to accept his verdict.
“Seeds of learning grow slowly” she assures me.
She presents her daughter with a book and encourages her:
“Think of this little book as a garden, throw wild flower seeds all over each page, let the words sprout like seedlings and then relax and watch as your wild diary grows.”
Fefa opens the book hesitantly, finds the pages blank within but wide open to her imagination, a place where she can write unobserved, in any way she wishes.
Soon Fefa is nurturing the slow transforming pages of her wild book as she would a precious flower garden, turning those awkward spiky, complex letters into words of beauty and importance.
Margarita Engle’s delightful ‘The Wild Book’ is a tribute in verse inspired by stories told to her by her maternal grandmother, a young girl growing up in rural Cuba, struggling with dyslexia. It will be enjoyed by readers of all ages, both those who struggle with and those who adore words and of course, lovers of the blank page journal everywhere. It is a book to read and reread, silently and out loud.
“No one in my family ever throws anything away, not even an old story that can be told and retold late at night, to make the deep darkness feel a little less lonely.”
It is a magical story of a little girl coping with school, homework, older brothers, being left behind as the others go off to boarding school, of facing family threats and danger; all part of daily life on the farm and in the village, aided by a loving mother and uncle who love to recite poetry.
“After my mother
finishes her seascape,
my uncle recites
a long poem about the sky,
where sun spirits
ride glowing chariots,
and there is someone
who knows how to fly
towards the truth
of dreams…
I don’t understand
the whole thrilling verse but I love the way poetry
turns ordinary words into winged things
that rise up
and soar!”
Now couldn’t we all do with a wild book…
Note: This book was an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC), provided by the publisher via NetGalley.
Word by Word 
This book looks really interesting! I became more interested in finding out more about dyslexia and laguage learning when a heard a conference at TESOL France in Paris. A woman who teaches learners in Austria with dyslexia. Amazing the ideas she come up with to teach them. So inspiring!!!!
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This is an inspiring little story and this little girl it is written abouts seems to have been one of the fortunate who had a mother with strong instincts and a love of poetry and opened another world to her, rather than make her feel less than equal, which is what so many have suffered.
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I really love this and the inspiration behind the book. One of my closest friends has a sister who struggles with dyslexia and I’m going to recommend this book to her. I love finding ways to sort through feelings through literature.
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This little gem is fantastic and so amazing that it’s a tribute and inspired by the author’s grandmother. I’ve already reread it a couple of times.
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Maybe I’ll also get it for my nephew. I always find the happiest books from you. They give me a good break from my normal gloom and doom reading. Plus, my grandmother’s have both past so I’m always pleased to see people inspired by their grandparents or loving their grandparents. My grandmother on my mother’s side has been my muse for far too long – so much so my poetry portfolio in college was almost 100% about her.
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I sense another ‘Wild Book’ fermenting 🙂
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Haha Sheesh – that will be the day : )
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🙂 Yes, it will be a great day too.
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It looks like a very inspirational book. I need to find it and read. Thank you for making me aware of this one 🙂
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I am sure you will enjoy it.
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Love it…you have such a way with reviews!
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Thank you Nelle, most loyal follower and fellow lover of words 🙂
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Words as winged things seem to be the theme these days….just the way sentences hover over Jhumpa Lahiri wherever she goes…..lovely!
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Being transported by words is guaranteed over at Neel The Muse
Happy to see you’ve also been airborne by Lahiri’s wonderful reminisce.
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This is beautiful, Everything about this book just screams amazing to me. I love what it stands for and feel that I would love nothing more than to have a ‘wild book’. Lovely post Claire. 🙂
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If you don’t already have one, start one now Jen! 🙂 This book is perfect for you and I can’t wait for you to read it and to be inspired by it as well.
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Hi Claire, thank you so much for visiting our posts on Margarita Engle. It is great to find a kindred in you. I have just finished reading The Wild Book and will post my review sometime during the first week of April. Like you, I enjoyed the book immensely. I am looking forward to seeing Margarita here in Singapore this May as we have invited her to the Asian Festival of Children’s Content (an international children’s lit conference) that we host annually. She has generously given me a copy of this book as well as Hurricane Dancers and Poet Slave of Cuba. 🙂 It is with great anticipation that I await my finally meeting her in person in a few months’ time.
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Thank you so much for visiting here in return, I loved all your reviews of Margarita’s books and I am looking forward to reading more of them, not just beautiful prose, but very interesting subjects and what a special one have begun with – a story inspired by her own grandmother, the entire family sound intriguing and interesting.
What a wonderful event you have to look forward to, I hope that it is a great success and that more people will be introduced to both her work and the stimulating subjects she writes about. Bonne Continuation.
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As an early childhood teacher of reading and a lover of words I must read this!
Thanks for your thoughtful review~
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Thank you Candyce, I am sure you will enjoy this delightful and thought provoking book, I can just imagine all the children starting their own ‘Wild Books’, fun for everyone young and old.
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With just a little homage to another ‘wild’ book . . . let the rumpus re: delightful children’s books (that are really never just for children) begin.
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Totally inspirational for all, just a delight in every way. I’m looking at her other books now, loving this ‘novel in verse’ concept, what a marvel.
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Wow, this looks like a beautiful book. Will have to find a child to read it to. (Btw, I see that you’re reading “Sadness of Lemon Cake.” I liked that one very much – she’s a quirky one, is Ms. Bender.
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Good for adults too Beverly, you could read it first 🙂 Yes, I must get back to ‘The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake’ I started it and seem to have been sidetracked, should be interesting particularly after reading about the hallucinagenic effects of the fragrant blend in ‘The Book of Lost Fragrances’.
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What a lovely book and poem. My grandchildren will love this.
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And I am sure you will enjoy it too Jean, thank you for stopping by and sharing.
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Only blind on paper, the garden of imagination, and words taking wing … sounds really beautiful. I’ll place this book on my to-read list. Thanks for sharing the wild book, Claire!
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Thank you Claudine, I am sure you will enjoy it and I have just seen it has been nominated by Kirkus Reviews in their Top 20 New & Notable Books for Children for March 2012.
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Love the cover and your review made me go look the book up on Amazon. I wondered if was illustrated – other than the cover. I have some young nieces who might like this and I think I would probably like it myself. I want to find out what the girl does with the book!
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Isn’t it a gorgeous cover Carol, I have discovered the cover was illustrated by Yuyi Morales but there is no mention of interior illustrations, the book is 144 pages and I read it on the kindle and there were no illustrations in that version apart from the spacing of the words, but I will definitely be getting a hardback version for myself as this is one to reread and to share, definitely. Perhaps the interior of the Wildbook is best left to the imagination. I believe some of her other books are illustrated and they look equally interesting, I’m so happy to have stumbled across her work. Thanks for for comment, much appreciated.
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Since you mentioned it I need to read it now. What a wonderful idea for a book and very inspiring.
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Sounds like an inspiring book that would be interesting to read. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
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Yes it is, and a unique form, the novel in verse. A total delight and a nice change to read something quite different.
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Thanks for bringing this to our attention! I know Engle has some beautiful books but I had not seen this one. I checked and my library has it so I am very excited to go look at it.
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This book sounds absolutely delightful. I agree with so many others that a wild book should be a ‘must’ in our lives.
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Thanks very much for your review. I think my daughter could have done with a wild book when she was in primary school.
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It is such a wonderful story and I am sure there are many who could benefit from having a wild book, my daughter has quite a few already! She prefers pictures to words 🙂
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