Leaving Glorytown

In this absorbing memoir, by turns humorous and heartbreaking, Eduardo Calcines recounts his boyhood and chronicles the conditions that led him to wish above all else to leave behind his beloved extended family and his home for a chance at a better future.

Eduardo F. Calcines was a child of Fidel Castro's Cuba; he was just three years old when Castro came to power in January 1959. After that, everything changed for his family and his country. When he was ten, his family applied for an exit visa to emigrate to America and he was ridiculed by his schoolmates and even his teachers for being a traitor to his country. But even worse, his father was sent to an agricultural reform camp to do hard labor as punishment for daring to want to leave Cuba. During the years to come, as he grew up in Glorytown, a neighborhood in the city of Cienfuegos, Eduardo hoped with all his might that their exit visa would be granted before he turned fifteen, the age at which he would be drafted into the army.

Author: Eduardo F. Calcines
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)
Published: 03/31/2009
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.50w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780374343941

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 4.7
Point Value: 9
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 129824 / Leaving Glorytown: One Boy's Struggle Under Castro


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Review - Children 03/01/2009
Voice of Youth Advocates 04/01/2009 - Reviewed - More Editing Needed
Booklist 04/01/2009 pg. 29
School Library Journal 06/01/2009 pg. 141
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 07/01/2009
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2009 - Recommended, Satisfactory

About the Author

EDUARDO F. CALCINES was born in Cuba in 1955 and immigrated to America at age fourteen. He is now a business owner, community activist, and news consultant. He lives in Tampa, Florida. Leaving Glorytown is his first book.

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