‘My Brigadista Year’ by Katherine Paterson

In 1960, in a speech at the United Nations, Fidel Castro announced a campaign to officially end illiteracy in Cuba. My Brigadista Year by Katherine Paterson is the story of a 13-year-old girl who volunteers to be a teacher in the Cuban countryside.

The protagonist, Lora, is idealistic and proud to be a brigadista. She is 13 years old and up to this point, has led a sheltered life. Told in first-person, broader events are presented through a lens consistent with Lora’s character and her direct experience.

(In an afterword, author Katherine Paterson offers additional historical information about censorship and repression under the Castro regime, but she also points out that, for decades, Cubans have received universal free education and health care.)

What I liked about this book was the idea that young people can make a difference. In this case, Lora was among 250,000 Cubans who taught fellow country-members to read and to write. (Paterson shares that more than 700,000 Cubans learned to read and write during the literacy campaign, which officially opened Jan. 28, 1961, and concluded Dec. 22 of that same year.)

The idea that I’d hope young readers took away after picking up this book, would be the idea that they, like Lora, can make a positive difference and that the world can change because of them. My Brigadista Year recently arrived in my school library as a Junior Library Guild selection.