YACUBA is a public service for school librarians, parents, and young people who want to locate and discuss quality, truthful books and resources on Cuba. The list focuses on books and web resources for Young Adults and is a place for anyone to post book reivews and to respond to the reviews of others.

YACUBA is a service of 4FREADOM.org, which maintains a website where YA and adult books are reviewed by professional librarians and authors. Members of the public can add their voice to the free debate over what kinds of books related to Cuba are appropriate for use in school libraries and for family and individual reading. While issues of politics and social problems will be discussed on the list, we will ask that such discussions be limited to specific claims in the actual books being reviewed.

We not only recommend books for inclusion, but also review books that parents and librarians should NOT buy. While Young Adult readers are at an age where they are better able to judge the information being presented as facts, most of them are not yet area specialists on Cuba. Therefore, books that lie about history, are poorly researched or which are heavily tilted in favor of blatant pro-Castro mythologies should not see the light of High School shelves, unless they are catalogued under fiction.

Such prudent and non-politically-correct choices are NOT examples of censorship; it is exercising wisdom and responsibility in selection. Of course, if a substandard book is already there, well the best we can do is move on and buy better books!

Let FREADOM Ring and join the discussion at YACUBA!