In 1934 the American occupiers have left Haiti, but things are no better for the people ruled by corrupt and brutal section chiefs. When one of them kidnaps 16-year-old Lucille’s best friend and cuts down their favorite mapou tree, Lucille goes down to the police station to inquire. That puts her own family in danger, and they immediately send her to Port-au-Prince to work alongside her cousin as a servant to wealthy Madame Ovide, who has the wealth and power to protect her from the section chief’s vengeance. Yet the free-spirited Lucille struggles to follow the rules and won’t stop searching for her best friend. Then, she befriends Madame Ovide’s son, Oreste, who is home from university in France and unbeknownst to his mother, has connected with a group of revolutionaries seeking to bring democracy, the rule of law, and human rights for all Haitians. Suspicious of her son’s relationship with the new servant, Madame Ovide arranges for Lucille to work in a separate, faraway house she has rented to a guest from the United States, a Black woman in Haiti who is researching and writing a book. That woman is Zora Neale Hurston, whose own freethinking leads to a complicated mentorship with young Lucille and a new set of dangers.

The Haitian-American author, who now lives in Europe and has worked as a translator as well as an editor for the venerable translation publisher Enchanted Lion, imagines through powerful, eloquent verse the life of Lucille, acknowledged in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. Pinede creates a fully-realized character out of Hurston’s mention – a teenager with soaring dreams, a love for her land, and the passion and commitment to protect those she loves and to change the world around her. The first-person verse seamlessly incorporates words and phrases in Haitian Creole, making this an excellent choice for reading aloud. Teen readers will be inspired by this remarkable protagonist and her story.

When the Mapou Sings

Written by Nadine Pinede

2024, Candlewick

ISBN 978-1-5362-35661

Awards: Junior Library Guild Selection

Reviews: Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Booklist

You may buy a copy here or find it at the library.

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Lyn Miller-Lachmann is the author of the YA historical novel Torch (Carolrhoda Lab, 2022), winner of the 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature and a 2022 Booklist Editors’ Choice, and the YA verse novel Eyes Open (Carolrhoda Lab 2024), chosen by Booklist as a Top 10 Historical Fiction for Youth, 2024. She wrote the picture book Ways to Play (Levine Querido, 2023), illustrated by Gabriel Alborozo, and co-authored with Zetta Elliott the middle grade verse novel Moonwalking (FSG, 2022). Her nonfiction includes a biography of Temple Grandin in the She Persisted chapter book series from Philomel and Film Makers: 15 Groundbreaking Women Directors (co-authored with Tanisia “Tee” Moore) from Chicago Review Press. She translates books for youth from Portuguese to English, including the 2023 YA graphic novel Pardalita by Joana Estrela, published by Levine Querido, whichwas named a Batchelder Honor Book in 2024 and the forthcoming graphic novel Our Beautiful Darkness (Enchanted Lion), by the Angolan author Ondjaki, illustrated by António Jorge Gonçalves.