Engle does a wonderful job writing this book to help readers understand what life has been like for Cubans. It was eye-opening for me and hard to fathom a government who behaves in this manner, not providing enough food for the native people. Besides feeling the hunger pains and fear these people lived in every day I also felt the joy and excitement when they found something in the wild to eat and learning how to grow their own food in order to stay alive.

I'm a huge fan of free verse and I have so many favorite lines from this book, too many to pick just one. I enjoyed reading from the perspective of each character, including the dog, to feel what they were going through.

I recommend this book for middle school and high school readers and it would make for some great discussions in a history/government class.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader eCopy.