Rima's Rebellion: Courage in a Time of Tyranny

by Margarita Engle

Overview

An inspiring coming-of-age story told in prose and “spare, lyrical” verse (The Horn Book Magazine) from award-winning author Margarita Engle about a girl falling in love for the first time while finding the courage to protest for women’s right to vote in 1920s Cuba.

Rima loves to ride horses alongside her abuela and Las Mambisas, the fierce women veterans who fought during Cuba’s wars for independence. Feminists from many backgrounds have gathered in voting clubs to demand suffrage and equality for women, but not everybody wants equality for all—especially not for someone like Rima. In 1920s Cuba, illegitimate children like her are bullied and shunned.

Rima dreams of a day when she is free from fear and shame, the way she feels when she’s riding with Las Mambisas. As she seeks her way, Rima forges unexpected friendships with others who long for freedom, especially a handsome young artist named Maceo. Through turbulent times, hope soars, and with it...love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781534486935
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	02/15/2022
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	1,075,954
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	NP (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Margarita Engle is the Cuban American author of many books including the verse novels Rima’s Rebellion; Your Heart, My Sky; With a Star in My Hand; The Surrender Tree, a Newbery Honor winner; and The Lightning Dreamer. Her verse memoirs include Soaring Earth and Enchanted Air, which received the Pura Belpré Award, a Walter Dean Myers Award Honor, and was a finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, among others. Her picture books include Drum Dream Girl, Dancing Hands, and The Flying Girl. Visit her at MargaritaEngle.com.

Editorial Reviews

02/28/2022

Beginning in 1923 Cuba and spanning 13 years, Engle’s (Light for All) telling traces one young woman joining the fight for women’s rights amid her country’s misogynistic norms and policies. In Guanabacoa, 12-year-old Rima Marin, who has “warm brown” skin, is a “natural” child who lives with her mother and grandmother. Born out of wedlock and therefore lacking two surnames, she is not lawfully recognized as part of her father’s family, while her “cool and pale”-skinned half sister lives a life of wealth and education with the girls’ shared father. Rima admires and aspires to be like las mambisas—courageous woman veterans of Cuba’s wars of independence from Spain, now fighting for women’s suffrage—and joins them, confronting her fear of her father, boys, men, and the society that shuns her. As dictatorship and natural disasters threaten her and her family, she begins to find hope, trust, and equality, as well as love. Fast-moving free-verse lines encapsulate Rima’s voice and the bravery she displays throughout this feminist journey to self-worth and women’s equality. Back matter includes a historical note and international timeline of women’s suffrage. Ages 12–up. Agent: Michelle Humphrey, Martha Kaplan Agency. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"As Engle’s absorbing verse novel opens in Cuba, 1923, narrator Rima is growing up in a household of three strong women . . . Engle smoothly inserts enough historical context to demonstrate how grievously the political/social/Church deck was stacked against Cuban women’s progress."

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

06/03/2022

Gr 6 Up—In 1920s Cuba, 12-year-old Rima Martin is a natural child. Her father refused to marry her mother, so they live on his land with Rima's abuela. They support themselves by making lace, and Abuela works as a farrier. Abuela is a member of Las Mambisas and was a heroic medic during the Cuban wars for independence; she now fights for women's rights. When the book opens, Rima has learned how to ride bareback to ride with Las Mambisas. Written in Engle's signature verse, the book goes from Women's Congresses through the roaring '20s to the growing suppression under the Cuban dictator, encompassing almost 15 years. A historical note provides some context for Cuban history at the end, but even with this, the story is chronologically hard to follow as it jumps from year to year, sometimes between individual poems. Rima's struggles with anxiety and her place in society form the beginning's main drama, which is augmented by her role in events that frame the struggles of Cuba. She joins a training program to become a printmaker, eventually printing for those rebelling against the government. She also meets and falls in love with a young glassmaker, Maceo, who appears almost out of nowhere. Maceo and other characters are flat on the page, with little dialogue and character development. Overall, the book lacks a compelling narrative drive to keep readers engaged. VERDICT While the story is made up of sometimes lovely verses, the book lacks a narrative or characters to make it a must-have. A secondary purchase of Engle's work.—Kate Fleming

School Library Journal

2021-11-16
Rima Marín fights overwhelming oppression in 1920s Cuba.

Life isn’t easy for Rima, a 12-year-old living in Guanabacoa, Cuba, in 1923. She lives with her mother and grandmother and helps them with their lacemaking and blacksmithing, but she’s a squatter on her father’s land. Brown-skinned, multiracial Rima is a “natural” child, born out of wedlock, possessing no rights, and not acknowledged as a member of her father’s family; meanwhile, her light-skinned half sister, Violeta, leads a privileged life with their father. Rima lives in a time when it is within the men’s legal rights to murder their wives or daughters if they are caught with a lover (the other men are fair game, too). Clearly, she’s got a lot to rebel against, and readers will understand why she becomes a mambisa, joining a legacy of women activists on horseback who fought for Cuba’s independence from Spain and women’s suffrage. The life of this fictional character highlights crucial subjects, such as Cuba’s complex ethnic and racial history and the long struggle for women’s rights. Unfortunately, the book’s brevity doesn’t allow readers to dig deeply enough into these issues. The poetry is beautiful, but the verse form paired with a fast-paced plot—Rima’s narrative jumps through time and plot points at lightning speed—leaves readers feeling breathless.

A worthy story about Cuba’s feminist history that moves too quickly. (historical note, timeline) (Verse novel. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews

"Engle’s lyrical poems take various forms, and despite the fictional tale, the fight for women’s rights in Cuba is based on history and reflective of many of today’s social struggles. Rima’s passion and courage is sure to inspire today’s readers to take up their own fight for equality and justice."

Booklist

"This historical novel in verse, set mainly in 1920s Cuba, is an engrossing look at the protracted fight for women’s suffrage there. . . Engle’s spare, lyrical writing and the believable human emotions shown through Rima’s individual perspective bring to life the complex fight for equality and civil rights."

Horn Book Magazine