Cuban writer wins Children's Literature Award in Puerto Rico

(San Juan, April 23, 2023) The SM Foundation Puerto Rico celebrated the fourth call for the El Barco de Vapor CARIBE 2023 Children's Literature Award, which saw the participation of hundreds of writers from the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.

Out of a total of 139 children's and young adult literature manuscripts, Cuban writer Leidy González Amador emerged as the winner of the Caribbean's most prestigious children's award with her work “Faruk y la cabra” (Faruk and the Goat).

“We are honoring this work for its extraordinary ability to move, surprise, and captivate the reader. We are very pleased to grant this award of excellence to this young author who stood out among hundreds of representative manuscripts from the three participating countries,” expressed Juan Reyes, General Director of SM in Puerto Rico, noting that the manuscript “Las ventanas de las palabras” by fellow Cuban Elena Beatriz Corujo was the winner of the III El Barco de Vapor CARIBE 2022 Award.

Reyes pointed out that the objective of this award is to promote literature among children and young people to foster a love for reading and, in turn, promote human, social, cultural, or religious values that help build a dignified world.

The winning manuscript was selected by a jury composed of poet, translator, and children's literature writer Georgina Lázaro León (Puerto Rico); translator and children's literature author Géraldine di Santis (Dominican Republic); poet, translator, and professor Alexis Romay (Cuba); author, educator, and head of SM Dominican Republic Mónica Volontieri; and SM Puerto Rico editor Ariana Rosado Fernández.

The Cuban writer and winner will receive, as part of the El Barco de Vapor CARIBE 2023 Children's Literature Award, $15,000 in cash, along with the publication and marketing of her book.

Winning Work

«Faruk y la cabra» is a work of exquisite, engaging, and enchanting narration. Despite the story taking place in a location far from the Caribbean—the Middle East—the themes, characters, and plot capture the reader from start to finish thanks to its literary richness and the skill González Amador possesses in weaving a beautiful and fast-paced adventure in the picaresque style.

Faruk is a boy from Bhola, a village in Bangladesh. Due to the havoc caused by the monsoon season, Faruk is forced to set out with his goat and his best friend Begun for Dhaka, where he works to save money to help his family, who have lost their crops and herds due to cyclones. There he meets Nasima, a new friend who accompanies him through the rest of his journey, which involves fleeing from his evil uncle—among other new and villainous enemies—participating in camel races, and enduring countless adventures that will lead him back to where it all began, not without the help of new friends and his precious goat, until having to set off again for the port city of Chittagong, where he will embark on another adventure...

SM Puerto Rico:

SM is a cultural and educational project with two fully integrated areas of action: the work of the SM companies, dedicated to the development of educational content and services, religious publications, and children's and young adult literature; and the social work of the SM Foundation, which allocates the group's profits to improve the quality of education and bring teaching and culture to the most disadvantaged sectors of society. Currently, SM is one of the most prominent actors in the Ibero-American educational sector, with clear leadership in its fields of action.