Customer Reviews

Children of Cuba (World's Children)

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. . . or would it? Frank Staub's book "Children of Cuba" is well-written but can it do the job of waking up lethargic students? The geography IQs of U. S. citizens are sinking as attitudes of UNconcern become more widespread. GAP clothes are apparently essential to teens whereas the filling of knowledge Gaps is not. Too few want to study other countries, their politics & economic concerns, even their locations. Teens (& plenty of adults, too) probably think they don't need to fill that vacuum with facts because their computers are humming & they can simply "google" or click on Map Quest, etc. . .why clutter the brain cells? Do we fear that with knowledge comes caring?

The author attempts to make geography more palatable, even exciting. As part of a CarolRhoda/Lerner series, "Children of Cuba" has a wealth of sharp color photographs revealing life changes in this small, semi-tropical country with over eleven million inhabitants. The skies are no longer thick with parrots as in the days of Columbus but the world has witnessed the exodus of one million Cubans to find some security in the United States.

The Castro revolution and Communist government, with subsequent embargos, did not bring most rural people much relief from poverty but the government provides health care & there is work in cigar factories which are "doing a healthy business." In the same breath Staub writes that "any kind of smoking can kill you."

Imagine! It was July 26, 1953 when Fidel Castro began the attack against the dictator Batista but it was 6 more years before he established his own government. Reviewer mcHaiku suggests we may not be too many administrations away from seeing the barriers erased that were erected after Castro came to power, and that will be another chapter.