In 1914, the world celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal, which connected the world's two largest oceans and signaled America's emergence as a global superpower. It was a miracle, this path of water where a mountain had stood--and creating a miracle is no easy thing. Thousands lost their lives, and those who survived worked under the harshest conditions for only a few silver coins a day.
From the young "silver people" whose back-breaking labor built the Canal to the denizens of the endangered rainforest itself, this is the story of one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, as only Newbery Honor-winning author Margarita Engle could tell it.

This book has been graded for interest at 12-17 years.

There are 272 pages in this book. This book was published 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company .

Margarita Engle is a Cuban American poet, novelist, and journalist whose work has been published in many countries. She is the author of young adult nonfiction books and novels in verse, including The Surrender Tree , a Newbery Honor Book; The Poet Slave of Cuba ; The Firefly Letters ; and Tropical Secrets . She lives in northern California.