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| Flight to Freedom From the Book: Yara Garcia and her family live a middle-class life in Havana, Cuba. But in 1967, as Communist ruler Fidel Castro tightens his hold on Cuba, the Garcias-who do not share the political beliefs of the Communist Party-are forced to flee to Miami, Florida. There Yara encounters a strange land with foreign customs. She knows very little English, and she finds that the other students in her new school have much more freedom than she and her sisters. Tension develops between her parents, as Mami grows more independent and Papi joins a militant anti-Castro organization. |
From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9- Similar to titles in the "Dear America" series
(Scholastic), this informative novel incorporates historical
facts. The story and characters ring true in their
portrayal of loss, longing, and the hope of starting a new
life.
From Booklist
Gr. 6-9. Set during the turbulent late '60s, Veciana-
Suarez's first novel for young people is a diary account
of 13-year-old Yara's flight from Cuba and of her new life
in Miami with her family… Veciana-Suarez beautifully
articulates the pain of exile for young readers while
introducing a turbulent era in America. The author's
personal afterword provides more history. Another fine
entry in the new First Person Fiction series about coming
to America.
Grade 6-9- Similar to titles in the "Dear America" series
(Scholastic), this informative novel incorporates historical
facts. The story and characters ring true in their
portrayal of loss, longing, and the hope of starting a new
life.
From Booklist
Gr. 6-9. Set during the turbulent late '60s, Veciana-
Suarez's first novel for young people is a diary account
of 13-year-old Yara's flight from Cuba and of her new life
in Miami with her family… Veciana-Suarez beautifully
articulates the pain of exile for young readers while
introducing a turbulent era in America. The author's
personal afterword provides more history. Another fine
entry in the new First Person Fiction series about coming
to America.
| The Chin Kiss King From the Book: The Chin Kiss King is a heart-wrenching novel that chronicles the lives of three generations of Cuban American women in Miami: Cuca, zealous believer in the hovering presence of spirits; her daughter, Adela, a superstitious, gambling cosmetologist with a weakness for men; and Adela's daughter, Maribel, a marketing research assistant who does not know the power of dreams yet draws spiritual nourishment from the older women. When Maribel's son, Victor, comes into the world with a severe birth defect on a fateful Leap Day in 1992, the three women who make up this family and who are his sustenance are forced to confront the inextricable ties that blind them to one another. |
The New York Times Book Review, Jim Gladstone
As sweet and tart as the tropical fruits that are savored
by the ebullient trio of Cuban-American women at its
heart, Ana Veciana-Suarez's debut novel offers a
refreshing take on characters and situations that at first
glance seem bound for cliché. The central plot of The
Chin Kiss King could easily be the stuff of a television
melodrama; a young Maribel, abandoned by her
husband, gives birth to a severely handicapped infant
and must rely on the aid of her impulsive, lottery-crazed
mother, Adela, and her insightful grandmother, Cuca, to
see her and baby Victor through. But rather than
offering superficial bathos, Veciana-Suarez zooms in on
the details and textures of day-to-day existence that the
arrival of a baby--particularly one whose life seems so
fragile--causes a family to reflect upon and appreciate
anew.
From Kirkus Reviews
A tenderly moving debut novel about three generations
of Cuban-American women who turn the brief life of a
handicapped baby into a celebration of life and love.
Veciana-Suarez, a columnist for the Miami Herald, sets
her first fiction in the same Miami neighborhood she
grew up in: a place of bodegas, Cuban restaurants, and
neatly maintained duplexes like the one her characters
share… A three-hankie debut, luminously written, that is
also a loving grace note to family and the human spirit.
As sweet and tart as the tropical fruits that are savored
by the ebullient trio of Cuban-American women at its
heart, Ana Veciana-Suarez's debut novel offers a
refreshing take on characters and situations that at first
glance seem bound for cliché. The central plot of The
Chin Kiss King could easily be the stuff of a television
melodrama; a young Maribel, abandoned by her
husband, gives birth to a severely handicapped infant
and must rely on the aid of her impulsive, lottery-crazed
mother, Adela, and her insightful grandmother, Cuca, to
see her and baby Victor through. But rather than
offering superficial bathos, Veciana-Suarez zooms in on
the details and textures of day-to-day existence that the
arrival of a baby--particularly one whose life seems so
fragile--causes a family to reflect upon and appreciate
anew.
From Kirkus Reviews
A tenderly moving debut novel about three generations
of Cuban-American women who turn the brief life of a
handicapped baby into a celebration of life and love.
Veciana-Suarez, a columnist for the Miami Herald, sets
her first fiction in the same Miami neighborhood she
grew up in: a place of bodegas, Cuban restaurants, and
neatly maintained duplexes like the one her characters
share… A three-hankie debut, luminously written, that is
also a loving grace note to family and the human spirit.
| Birthday Parties in Heaven From the Book: In "My Lowly Thatched Cottage," Veciana-Suarez poignantly chronicles her family's exile from their native land and the abiding importance of a place to call home. "My Father, Mi Papi" paints a vivid portrait of her activist father; while "Stitchwork" is a tribute to her mother: factory worker by day, seamstress by night-educator, disciplinarian, and role model. In the moving title essay, the sudden death of her husband forces Veciana-Suarez to confront the nature of grief and loss, the process of going on-with five young children to raise. "The Religion of Love" chronicles her attempts to meld her Catholic rituals and beliefs with her second husband's Jewish traditions. |
From Library Journal
Not afraid to reveal highly charged emotional situations,
Veciana-Suarez (a syndicated columnist for the Miami
Herald and author of the novel The Chin Kiss King)
gives an honest, unflinching account of life after the
loss of her first husband, compelling compassion with
skillful writing that forbids bathos or pity. In turn, she
uplifts spirits with a thoughtful yet humorous account of
her second marriage -- he is Jewish, she is Catholic --
and her wonderful vignettes on beisbol ("baseball").
Veciana-Suarez has managed to retain an ability to
view her culture with the crisp impressions perceived
only by the newcomer or the very young.
From Dave Barry
"Ana Veciana-Suarez is a wise, honest, and
astonishingly perceptive writer who looks at everyday
life and finds both gentle humor and profound truth."
Not afraid to reveal highly charged emotional situations,
Veciana-Suarez (a syndicated columnist for the Miami
Herald and author of the novel The Chin Kiss King)
gives an honest, unflinching account of life after the
loss of her first husband, compelling compassion with
skillful writing that forbids bathos or pity. In turn, she
uplifts spirits with a thoughtful yet humorous account of
her second marriage -- he is Jewish, she is Catholic --
and her wonderful vignettes on beisbol ("baseball").
Veciana-Suarez has managed to retain an ability to
view her culture with the crisp impressions perceived
only by the newcomer or the very young.
From Dave Barry
"Ana Veciana-Suarez is a wise, honest, and
astonishingly perceptive writer who looks at everyday
life and finds both gentle humor and profound truth."
| Contact Ana at aveciana@aol.com |