I read this short book on the way back from my family's house this Thanksgiving.

I was surprised to find that it was told in verse--a quick flip-through would have shown me this, but this was one of the Free Book Day selections I had to grab before someone else did. Still, I was impressed with how much I was able to imagine and visualize with only a handful of words. Adjectives were used sparingly but with great effect.

I think the subtitle actually sells the book short: I picked this up mostly because it looked like it was going to be about pirates, when really it's about a young Spanish-Caribbean boy trying to find his way in a world that sees him as "broken" (the meaning of his name) because he doesn't fit neatly into place. We don't even see a single act of piracy: a "Historical Setting" note in the prelims tells us in (very) brief who the main European players are and how they got there so that we can get straight to Quebrado. While I would have been just as interested in the book without the mention of pirates, it is true that the word caught my eye, so I guess the titling move worked.

The historical note in the back was great--just what I would have wanted if I'd read this book when it was age-appropriate reading. It was also fun to learn that the Narido and Caucubu story was a Caribbean folk tale that the author incorporated. I was very satisfied with the outcome of the story for the main character (even if my own knowledge of history knows there are storm clouds on the horizon).

Very short and simple, it's hard to imagine a book like this being published by an author without such a great track record (five different awards with a total of eight between three of the books). Would that every author of something short and sweet had this opportunity!


Quote Roundup

12 - When the prisoner sees my power
over a slave boy, he understands
that I would show even less mercy
to a grown man.
I guess this is an Ojeda-specific demonstration, because as far as I know slaves in the Americas were treated as less than human by everyone--so mistreating Quebrado seems less like a threat than the status quo. Not that most kids reading this book would know that.

29 - Shredded sails
and tangled ropes
form a swaying web
of smoky nooses.
Fantastic imagery.

59 - [Men] capture tree-spirits,
and turn them into wooden ships
that serve as floating cages.
More beautiful imagery, this time to describe the horrific slave ships. As the story goes along, there are other tree-spirit boats that I can appreciate far more--the Spanish ship of captured spirits (human and tree) is all the more terrifying in contrast to Narido's tree-spirit canoe.

100 - Villagers blame me for all
that has happened.
Okay, this one kind of came out of left field. I know we need to get the plot moving, but a little more build-up might have been in order here. ( )

This historical novel, narrated in poetic verse from different perspectives, is based on a documented sixteenth-century shipwreck. The book offers a fresh look at the Age of Exploration and the convergence of Caribbean and European cultures.

An interesting story about pirates in the Caribbean and boy who became a pirate's slave. It is told in verse -- not what I typically think of as poetry, but it flows easily. The boy, Quebrado, is half islander from his mother, and half outsider from his father. He speaks both the Taíno Indian language and Spanish, and so is valuable to the pirate captain, Bernardino de Talavera.

Story of the first Caribbean pirate shipwreck told in poetry through the perspective of five different main characters. The story also contains a Cuban folk tale involving Narido and Caucubu.

Engle uses poetic narrative to tell this historical fiction story of Cuba's first pirate, his slave, and a hostage when all are shipwrecked on the island. Weaving in a love story as well as tales of slavery, Engle manages to portray the simplistic life of the Taino Indians on Cuba before all was ruined by the Conquistadores of Spain. ( )