Inspired by the female doctor who tended to her brother, she harbors a longing to attend school: “In the quiet,/ my own heart beat/ its unspoken secret./ I promised myself/ that one day/ I would be a real doctor.” Burg’s understated free verse-liberally sprinkled with Haitian Creole phrases-gains power as Serafina’s family is displaced by a flood, which is cruelly followed by the 2010 earthquake the author skillfully weaves in information about the country’s traumatic history in a way that makes it personally significant to Serafina. Mourning the recent death of her baby brother while anxiously awaiting the birth of a new sibling, Serafina tries to please and help her family. Burg follows her debut, All the Broken Pieces, with this quieter yet compelling novel in verse about sensitive, ambitious 11-year-old Serafina, who lives in poverty in rural Haiti with her cheerful, compassionate father hardworking, tightlipped mother and wise grandmother, Gogo.
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