about the book
Serafina, an eleven-year-old girl from Haiti, lives with her cheerful and hardworking father; her often tight-lipped mother; and Gogo, her wise grandmother. Serafina narrates her story in verse.
Recently, the family has been rocked by the death of Serafina’s younger brother, but hope is on the way as her mother is pregnant once again. One good thing came out of her brother’s death: Serafina saw the compassion and wisdom of the female doctor who tried to save her brother’s life, and now she secretly wants to go to school and become a doctor herself:
“In the quiet, / my own heart beat / its unspoken secret. / I promised myself / that one day / I would be a real doctor.”
However, the heavy rains and earthquakes may stop her dreams before they get off the ground.
about the author
Born in New York, Ann Burg lived her early years in Brooklyn. She spent her time writing and reading, especially poetry. When she was eight, her family moved to New Jersey and her love of poetry came with her.
Ann studied education in college and became an English teacher. She taught for ten years and in her spare time, wrote and published articles for newspapers in New Jersey and New York.
With the support of her husband Marc, and her son and daughter, Ann left teaching and started writing full-time. If you ask her, she’ll tell you that, even if she was never published, she would still be a writer.
Ann now lives in Albany, New York.
Sources:
Author website
Author biography: Sleeping Bear Press
Book Trailer: Serafina’s Promise
Also by Ann E. Burg:
Unbound : A Novel in Verse. Scholastic. 2016.
All the Broken Pieces. Scholastic. 2009.
Rebekah’s Journey : A World War II Refugee Story (Tales of Young Americans. Sleeping Bear Press. 2006.
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