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Feb 12, 2009

Elizabeth rated it:

It's good to finally get a chance to read the most infamous of the 2009 Newbery Honor books, but I'm confused by at least one plot gap. Lieutenant Death just sort of fades away without much explanation. With his Javert like intent upon killing Rosa, why did that disappear? Shouldn't we have gotten some conclusion there? Still, a great little book. And admittedly I probably wouldn't have read it had it not been for the big shiny award it garnered.

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 26, 2009

Abby rated it:

In beautiful, luscious verse Margarita Engle gives readers a look into the Cuban wars for independence through the eyes of a slave healer. Rosa, born a slave, learns the healing arts from her mother and uses plants in the jungle to heal rebel fighters while Cuba battles Spain for independence. I found it to be an accessible, interesting read well deserving of its Newbery honor. An author's note, historical note, chronology, and list of sources make me giddy with glee. Highly recommended for fans More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 03, 2008

Suzi rated it:

Margarita Engle's last book, The Poet Slave of Cuba, captured my mind with its information and my heart with its poetry. In Surrender Tree, once again she creates a world that few of us know at all, much less know well: Cubans trying to escape slavery and set up a country independent from Spain from the mid to late 19th century. The main character is Rosa, with first-person prose poems ranging from her young days as a slave to her last days as a healer running a hospital for various guerrilla fi More...

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Apr 08, 2009

Miz Lizzie rated it:

A fascinating poetic account of Cuban history that is not addressed much in children's literature. It is a difficult to fully comprehend the span of years involved, especially in between the various wars, given the narrative format of the poetic snapshots. The American complicity at the end is certainly an eye-opener. I would have found it easier to follow the actual history if there had been some explanatory prose as an introduction to each part. Certainly more historical and fictional narr More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 07, 2008

Jamie rated it:

I'm not the biggest fan of novels in blank verse, but I do find this book to be useful.

A three part history of 19th century Cuba, this book is told in brief poems, mainly through the voice of Rosa, a young natural healer, and Lt. Death, her nemesis, the slaveholder.

The poems are occasionally gory (the slaveholder collects ears to count how many slaves he catches) and occasionally magical. They are all spare, blank verse.

I'm not sure a teen would pick this up More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 28, 2009

Bobby rated it:

A fascinating (and perhaps not very well known) part of history is told through verse in this 2009 Newbery Honor book.

I wanted to like this more but feel confused about it. Everything that happens with Rosa and her various jungle hideouts is interesting and very often exciting, but a lot of the surrounding history confused me despite the author's and historitcal notes and chronology. I was left wondering if this part of history was done any favors with the use of verse instead of a More...

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Nov 30, 2011

Sharne' added it

1. Poetry
2. The Surrender tree is a wonderful book comprised of poetry that describes actual events and actual historical figures associated with the Cuban struggle for independence. It is about Rosa, a slave freed by an owner who rebelled against Spain and said that freedom only existed when everyone shared in it. She healed the injured during Cuba’s three wars for independence. The poems are told by Rosa's point of view as well as those close to her.
3.a. Use of language
b. The w More...

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Apr 18, 2011

akibird rated it:

The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle (2008)
Novel in Verse, 158 pages
A Newberry Honor Book and the winner of the Pura Belpré Award, The Surrender Tree captures the struggles of Rosa Castellanos Castellanos, or Rosa la Bayamesa, the former slave turned herbal healer who takes care of the sick and wounded during Cuba’s struggle for independence from Spain. Broken into five parts, the story begins around the time Rosa is freed from her owner but still must run from slavehunters who wo More...

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Mar 27, 2011

Ashley rated it:

The Surrender Tree is an absolutely fabulous novel in verse. I read this last year for my Children’s Literature class, and I was excited to see it on our reading list for this class. I loved it just as much the second time around. The multiple narrators throughout the novel make this such a good book. Reading the voices of Rosa and Lieutenant Death, as children all the way through to adulthood, allows readers to see a complete picture of the wars for Cuban independence. These differing perspecti More...

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Mar 15, 2011

L11Beverly rated it:

I read along with this story while listening to the CD. The book tells a fictional dramatization of historical figures struggling during the years of three wars for Cuba's independence from Spain. The story tracks Rosa's life. The book begins by describing how she fled to the woods to hide from soldiers and was taught how to use plants and nursing techniques to heal the wounded and sick while hiding the ill from soldiers, too. Then the story jumps a few years when Rosa is grown, and she marr More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 11, 2010

S10_tommccormack rated it:

Ages: 13 and up
Format: CD

This is a collection of free verse poems that recount the history of the Cuban people through four perspectives: Rosa, José, Lieutenant Death, and Lieutenant General Valeriano.

Engle tells the violent story of Cuba in a narrative format, utilizing many interesting metaphors and including numerous historical allusions.

Although the story is engaging, the poetry is somewhat clumsy. Futhermore, the readers on the CD sound robotic, w More...

1 comment like

Jul 11, 2010

Beth rated it:

The story of Rosa is one of hope and trust in the good of the human spirit. Rosa’s story is told through poetic verse as she grows from a child into an elder in war torn Cuba. As a child she was trained as a healer or “witch”, to nurse sick and run-away slaves back to health. When Rosa escapes and begins healing rebel Cubans her legacy begins. She and her husband Jose helped thousands of Cubans, Americans, and Spanish live through the Cuban war times. Parallel to Rosa’s story is the poems a More...

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Mar 21, 2010

CH _Kenya rated it:

The Surrender Tree is story depicting Cuba's struggles through poetry. Acclaimed poet Margarita Engle has created a lyrical, powerful portrait of Cuba that describe how this country was torn apart by war over and over again. Cuba has fought three wars for independence, and still she is not free. Her people have been rounded up in reconcentration camps, where there is always too little food and too much illness. Rosa knows how to heal sickness with medicines made from wild plants. But with a pric More...

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Feb 28, 2010

Crystal rated it:

Children’s Literature
Crystal Rodriguez

Title: The Surrender Tree Poetry: Upper
Author: Margarita Engle
Place of Publication: New York, New York
Date: 2008 Pages: 168

The Surrender Tree is a book of poetry unlike other books I have read in the past. It has a sequence of poems that actually tell a story, rather than each piece of poetry acting independently. The subtitle reads “Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom.” Its passages do not take the More...

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Jan 24, 2010

Heidi rated it:

Historical Fiction; Novel in Verse
This portrayal of Cuba's struggle for independence from Spain is told through alternating first-person poems. Characters both historical and composite include Rosa, a nurse who heals rebels and Spaniards alike using cures from nature; Jose, her husband and nurse; Lieutenant Death, a slave hunter; Captain-General Weyler of the Spanish military; and Silvia, a young girl who aspires to be a nurse. Engle weaves Spanish and English together to create terrible More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 05, 2009

Sandra rated it:

This Newbery winner is well worth reading. The subtitle is misleading. Yes, the poems center on Cuba's 19th C struggle for independence--but they tell a story in 5 voices, the barely fictionalized story of an amazing woman, a curandera who uses jungle herbs and home remedies to patch up fighters and their victims on both sides of the conflicts. And the conflicts differ and deepen: first, escaped slaves against slave takers; then freed slaves and their ex masters against Spanish authorities; More...

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Oct 03, 2009

Terri rated it:

This award winning novel in verse covers a part of history I knew nothing of - Cuba in the mid to late 1800's. From that perspective, I loved the book. The novel reads quickly because of the verse genre. Each poem is told in a clear voice from the perspective of the characters central to the story. Rosa and her husband, Juan, are nurses/healers to runaway slaves during three Cuban wars - begun when slave owners released their slaves in Spanish ruled Cuba. Lieutenant Death, tells of the hunt to f More...

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Sep 22, 2009

Marija rated it:

This book was written as a poem describing the several attempts of the Cuban people to win their freedom from the Spaniards. It accounts for all the emotional and physical struggles this small group of fighters encountered during their long struggle for freedom. The poem is written from the perspective of several different characters from both sides of the revolution which truly gives us a rounded view of the conflict and struggles of war. The central character is Rosa, known as a natural healer More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 20, 2009

Karen rated it:

This was a really unique read. Told completely through verse, "The Surrender Tree" is a piece of historical fiction, detailing the events leading up to Cuba's freedom. The book covers a 49 year period. Initially, the tales are being told by two voices, Rosa and Lieutenant Death. Rosa is a slave who knows the healing powers of herbal plants, and is recruited to help numerous groups with ailing members. Lieutenant Death is a slave hunter in training. As the book progresses, more voices a More...

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Jun 23, 2009

Josiah rated it:

"Hatred must be a hard thing to learn."

—Rosa, "The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom", P. 22

"I forget that I am grown now,
with daydreams of my own,

in this place where time
does not seem to exist
in the ordinary way,

and every leaf is a heart-shaped
moment of peace."

—Rosa, P. 25

This poetic story of a rarely-told part of Cuba's his More...

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May 08, 2009

Jenn rated it:

I think I would have enjoyed this much more in print than I did as an audiobook. The language is so beautiful and lyrical, as one would expect from a novel in free verse, and it's crafted so carefully. I was especially taken by the imagery of the natural world—all the tropical birds and bats and flowers that are so much a part of the background of the story. And there's so much Cuban history here that I didn't know at all, from the early days of the fight for independence from Spain to the late More...

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Oct 12, 2009

Amy rated it:

I love a book that ends in peace. Through the whole book I was in agony with the "mambi" rebels while they yearned for peace and freedom from Spanish rule. The structure of the book flowed in poems. Each poem was a clear voice from a character. When read in succession, we learn the story of Cuba's fight for peace. We learn about the great warrior against death, Rosario Castellanos, who used the plants God had given her to treat all who came to her, regardless of their uniform. We More...

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Jul 29, 2008

Kathleen rated it:

WOW! What a powerful story for such a little book.

Using sparse, beautiful poems to chronicle a period in Cuba's struggle for independence, this story depicts the beauty of compassion and dignity as well as the ugliness of greed and hate. Margarita has created a story that will stay with you long after you finish the last page.

"Can it be true that freedom only exsists
when it is a treasure,
shared by all?"

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 10, 2011

528_Gary rated it:

This is an interesting historical fiction book about Cuba. The three main characters are: Rosa, Jose, and Lieutenant Death. Rosa and Jose help the wounded during several of the wars that Cubans had fought in. Rosa is a nurse who uses natural remedies to help cure the sick and injured. Rosa doesn't discriminated when it comes to helping people. She helps all people. Jose is her husband and they work together to help those in need. They both are constantly on the move and hiding. Lieutenan More...

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Mar 10, 2011

Heather rated it:

I enjoy reading poetry collections and have discovered several excellent anthologies over the years. The Surrender Tree is a whole other animal. This is a historical fiction novel told in beautiful free-verse poetry.

The Surrender Tree tells the story of Cuba’s four wars of independence, both slave revolts and against imperialist Spain. A handful of voices narrate the guerilla warfare. Rosa is a nurse knowledgeable in herbal medicine. Her husband, Jose, guards her mobile hospital More...

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Jan 31, 2011

Rachel rated it:

I picked this book up based on a recommendation from a fellow librarian, and it did not disappoint. I was really impressed with the poetry of this short history of the Cuban Civil Wars, which started in 1868 and went through 1899, though the actual start of the book was a little bit before that in 1850/51. The wars are seen through the eyes of a slave nurse called Rosa and later by her husband Jose, as well as through the eyes of a slave hunter named Lieutenant Death, Captain General Weyler of t More...

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Feb 02, 2010

L-Melissa rated it:

This book was historically enlightening and captivating due to Engle's amazing use of language. The book is written in prose form and covers Cuba's struggle for freedom from 1850 to 1899. At first glance, I thought that the book might be difficult to understand since it was written in poem form; however, it was surprisingly fluid and so interesting that I could not put the book down. Each poem is told by a different character, hence a different perspective. Rosa is the main character and she More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 04, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle, tells the story of Cuba’s struggle for independence in the second half of the 19th century, through poems. Each page or poem tells a portion of the story, from the perspective of the different characters. Rosa and José are freed slaves trying to avoid the reconcentration camps, the military leaders, and the former slave catchers, while using Rosa’s skills as a natural healer to help those around them. As Cuba’s war More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 02, 2010

Karen rated it:

In The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle, the story is told in a collection of poems of beautiful figurative language that talks of hope and despair and life and death. Through this figurative language, the reader can see Rosa’s world. She hid in the forest, swamps, and caves of Cuba, using the native vegetation for its healing and restorative powers. “We ride through dark nights,/surrounded by the beauty of own songs,/tree frogs, cicada melodies/the whoosh of bat wings/ and leaves in a breez More...

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Jul 10, 2011

Aimee rated it:

This moving novel in verse captures the historical events surrounding the Cuban struggle for independence. The story centers on Rosa, a freed slave and healer, who works hard during Cuba’s three wars for independence. Her medical expertise takes her into hiding where she cares for not just the sick and injured Cuban rebels, but also the Spanish soldiers that hunt her people. There are poems told from different perspectives of those involved, which adds to the impact of the overall story. Though More...

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