BookBrowse Reviews Wings in the Wild by Margarita Engle

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Reviews |  Beyond the book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Wings in the Wild by Margarita Engle

Wings in the Wild

by Margarita Engle
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus:
  • First Published:
  • Apr 18, 2023, 224 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Apr 2024, 240 pages
  • Reviewed by BookBrowse Book Reviewed by:
    Jo-Anne Blanco
  • Genres & Themes
  • Publication Information
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About This Book

Reviews

BookBrowse:


An eloquent, lyrical, in-verse tale of two teenagers contending with fire and flood, displacement and loss, as they fall in love and set out to restore the natural beauty of a world being destroyed.

Margarita Engle's wonderful young adult novel Wings in the Wild is dedicated to "los caminantes cubanos y los costarricenses generosos," which translates to "the Cuban walkers and the generous Costa Ricans." She also dedicates it to "[the] tree planters and wing dreamers everywhere." The book's two protagonists are Dariel, the "Song-Boy" and Soleida, the "Tocororo-Girl," tocororo being the Spanish name for the Cuban trogon, Cuba's national bird.

Sixteen-year-old Soleida is the daughter of dissident Cuban artists, who secretly sculpt statues of winged beings into the trees of their garden. A muse for her parents and artistically expressive herself, Soleida rescues birds and snails, is raised on tales of the indigenous Taíno bird-girl legend, and dreams of a freedom she and her family have never known. When a hurricane rips away their home and exposes the forbidden artwork, Soleida and her parents are forced to flee. "Which country will accept us?" Soleida asks. "Hardly any nation in the world/grants visitors' visas to Cubans/because they're afraid/we'll stay."

The son of successful second-generation Cuban immigrants, Dariel lives in drought-ridden California. As a musician, he has an uncanny ability to attract birds and animals whenever he plays his guitar and sings in the old Cuban style known as filin, which his Abuelo (Grandfather) says is the Taíno gift of storytelling. After a forest fire which destroys his family home along with the surrounding woodland, Dariel rages against inaction in the face of climate change. His Abuelo is writing a book about Cuban walkers: refugees who fly from Cuba to South America, walk across the land, and get stranded in jungle camps in Costa Rica, on the border of Nicaragua, which refuses to allow them entry. Dariel goes to Costa Rica to help interview caminantes and there, in a border zone camp, he meets a "bald, silent, traumatized girl" named Soleida.

As Soleida's and Dariel's stories come together, two of the world's most urgent crises, refugees and climate change, merge to form the heart of this compelling and captivating book. Written entirely in heartfelt, crystal-clear verse, the book takes the reader on a powerful emotional journey with these two young people, who, despite the traumas and violence of their experiences, find strength and hope within themselves, joy and solace in their blossoming love for each other, and ingenuity and purpose in their determination to restore the beauty of the natural world being destroyed around them. Through their keen eyes and poetic words, Wings in the Wild retains a remarkable balance of darkness and light, never losing sight of hope in the wake of tragedy and loss. While the book does not shy away from the cruelty and horror of tyranny and the appalling treatment of refugees, it also affirms the kindness, empathy, and generosity of spirit among exiled communities and those who grant them sanctuary.

The glorious, brightly-colored wildlife of Cuba and Central America is vividly evoked with dazzling descriptions and potent imagery. Art, music, history, tradition, migration, exile, and environmental issues are all interwoven in the story, reflective of an ecosystem and pattern in which all unite to form a beautiful, cohesive whole. Wings in the Wild is a terrific read, stressing that the urgency of the problems facing our planet are as personal as they are global, and that individuals and a new generation can do a great deal to address them. Soleida and Dariel are tremendously sympathetic conveyors of this message, and their story should prove enthralling and inspirational.

Reviewed by Jo-Anne Blanco

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in May 2023, and has been updated for the May 2024 edition. Click here to go to this issue.

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access become a member today.
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book:
  Cuban Refugees in Costa Rica

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Wings in the Wild, try these:

  • Our Beautiful Darkness jacket

    Our Beautiful Darkness

    by ‍ Ondjaki, Lyn Miller-Lachmann

    Published 2024

    About This book

    More by this author

    A blackout leads two teens to discover the intimacy and vulnerability that can only be shared in darkness in Our Beautiful Darkness, a fully illustrated YA novella from celebrated Angolan author Ondjaki and illustrator António Jorge Gonçalves.

  • Daughter in Exile jacket

    Daughter in Exile

    by Bisi Adjapon

    Published 2024

    About This book

    More by this author

    The acclaimed author of The Teller of Secrets returns with a gut-wrenching, yet heartwarming, story about a young Ghanaian woman's struggle to make a life in the US, and the challenges she must overcome.

We have 7 read-alikes for Wings in the Wild, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by Margarita Engle
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket
    Suggested in the Stars
    by Yoko Tawada
    In Scattered All Over the Earth, Yoko Tawada's 2018 lightly dystopian novel, a ragtag group of young...
  • Book Jacket: Shred Sisters
    Shred Sisters
    by Betsy Lerner
    "No one will love you more or hurt you more than a sister" is a wry aphorism that appears late in ...
  • Book Jacket: Model Home
    Model Home
    by Rivers Solomon
    Rivers Solomon's novel Model Home opens with a chilling and mesmerizing line: "Maybe my mother is ...
  • Book Jacket: The Mighty Red
    The Mighty Red
    by Louise Erdrich
    Permit me to break the fourth wall. Like any good reviewer, I aim to analyze a book dispassionately,...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The Bog Wife
    by Kay Chronister

    Five West Virginia siblings unearth secrets after the rupture of a supernatural bargain tying their fate to their land.

  • Book Jacket

    In the Garden of Monsters
    by Crystal King

    A woman with no past, a man who knows her, and a monstrous garden that separates their worlds.

Book Club Giveaway!
Win Let Us Descend

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

Jesmyn Ward imagines the life of an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War in this instant classic.

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

J O the B

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.