Children's Review: My Brigadista Year

My Brigadista Year
by Katherine Paterson

Final Rating: 4.5/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5

Newbery Award-winning author Katherine Paterson presents a historical fiction story from a bright young Cuban girl who volunteers to take part in the Cuban literacy campaign of 1961. Lora leaves her comfortable home in Havana to trek deep into the mountains to teach the compesinos, the farmers living in the countryside, to read and write. She tells the reader about her year as a brigadista, one of those teachers who strived to teach and learn beside their students until Cuba could be declared by the United Nations in 1962 as an illiteracy-free country.

Through Lora's eyes, Paterson finds the voice of a young girl in an entirely different country, who sees race and social standing from a Cuban perspective. Her passion for literacy brings Lora into conflict with her family and her father refuses to allow her to sign up for the program until her grandmother convinces him how important it is.

Included at the end is Lora's epilogue, telling the reader where she went, where those families went, how their lives have changed. Her story is almost a call to action, describing the doctors fighting Ebola in Africa and reminding the reader that she wasn't and never has been a hero, but she still made a difference in those people's. How could she not go?

This book should be in every library. If Katherine Paterson isn't nominated for an award this year, I will eat something one would not normally eat (I don't have any hats). The story is powerful, the characters are memorable, and the message stands loud and proud: we can overcome fear and ignorance to be better people together than we were before. Read it. Read it to your friends. Share it with people on the street. It's worth it.