Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal, Margarita Engle. Told in verse, this important story will shed light on the many Caribbean islanders that built the ever important Panama Canal in the early 1900s. Told in alternating voices between Mateo from Cuba, Henry from Jamaica, the young, beautiful, Native Anita, and the rain forest itself, we learn the perils of how this canal came to be. Immigrants earned silver coins for their backbreaking work, while the locals were paid in gold. The harsh working conditions, unfair treatment and blistering hours wake us up to the realities of how the two Americas were joined together.

This is a beautifully written book and important to understand an untold part of our history.