SOARING EARTH

Young People’s Poet Laureate Engle (A Dog Named Haku, 2018, etc.) explores
her tumultuous teenage and early adult years during the equally turbulent late
1960s and early 1970s.

This companion memoir to her award-winning
Enchanted Air (2015) is written
mostly in free verse with a spot of haiku and tanka. This is a lonely dreamer’s
tale of a wayward yet resourceful young woman who zigzags to self-discovery
amid the Vietnam War, Delano grape strike, moon landing, and other key
historical events. Dreaming of travel to far-off lands but without the
financial resources to do so, she embarks on a formal and informal educational
journey that takes her from Los Angeles to Berkeley, Haight-Ashbury, New York
City, and back west again. With Spanish interspersed throughout, Engle speaks
truthfully about the judgment she has faced from those who idealized Castro’s
Cuba and the struggle to keep her Spanish alive after being cut off from her
beloved mother’s homeland due to the Cold War. Employing variations in line
breaks, word layout, and font size effectively, Engle’s pithy verses together
read as a cohesive narrative that exudes honesty and bravery. While younger
readers may not recognize some of the cultural references, themes of dating,
drugs, and difficulty in college will resonate widely. Finding one’s path is
not a linear process; thankfully Engle has the courage to offer herself as an
example.

Hopeful, necessary, and true. (author’s
note) (Poetry/memoir. 13-adult)