A novel in verse, Wild Dreamers by Margarita Engle is dedicated to scientists and future scientists. It features two Cuban American youth: Leandro and Ana Tanamá, who take inspiration from Jane Goodall and other conservationists to protect the planet by rewilding. Rewilding efforts attempt to restore biodiversity.

Seventeen-year-old Leandro fled Cuba at the age of seven with his family. His father drowned saving his son, so Leandro blames himself and has suffered from  uncontrollable attacks of dizzy panic ever since. His service animal, Cielo is a blue merle dog who shares her perspective intermittently in the novel.

After living in Florida for a time, the family moves to California, where Leandro’s brother surfs the big waves as a Maverick. His risky behavior causes him to change his ways.

Despite her mother’s good job as a government botanist at the San Francisco airport, Ana and Rosa are unhoused, or homeless, depending on one’s semantic perspective.  Given that the family car is her bedroom, Ana loves the feral park, an urban wilderness that prevents development and provides a “safe zone for both wild creatures and houseless humans” (9).  Eventually, Ana and Rosa move to a cottage, where a family friend operates a nursery.

When the two teens cross paths, they share a love light: “There’s a glow between us. We flare up inside like sunlit prisms, a brightness that flow through the skin and can’t be ignored” (61).

As the two work through their various challenges, they never stop collaborating on their efforts to protect the pumas and other wildlife in California through a rewilding club at school. Ana also clings to the notion that hope is a science: “It’s a science with four skills for me to study: Goals, Pathways, Confidence, and Support” (84).

When Ana is forced into hiding because her fugitive, militant father has tracked down his former family, Leandro loses hope. “So much for thinking of hope as a science. It’s more like an archaic form of torture” (143).

Engle’s story is a tender one about two teenagers who are discovering the natural world and their place in it. Cielo the singing dog also plays a key role as a companion and matchmaker.

  • Posted by Donna

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