LibrisNotes

R.I.P. Eliza Hart is a novel that explores the pain and stigma of mental illness through the contrasting experiences of two young teens. The story is told using the dual narratives of Ellie Sokoloff who suffers from claustrophobia and Eliza Hart who has committed suicide and is in the process of dying. When Ellie is considered a suspect in Eliza's death, she decides to investigate and uncovers a deeply buried memory that offers the key to her own illness and to the death of her beloved childhood friend. Her narratives cover the period from March 16 to March 27, as police investigate Eliza's death and her family holds her funeral.

The novel opens with Eliza describing the pain of dying. Her narratives describe her own personal journey of suffering from unipolar disorder in which she had unremitting depression and how she struggled to keep this illness a secret from everyone outside her family. Eliza reveals that she had trouble sleeping all through her childhood and her thyroid was tested when she was thirteen.

Ellie James Sokoloff has been to eight therapists in an effort to overcome her claustrophobia, all to no avail. She's given up on the therapy but is hoping that by continuing to force herself into closets or bathrooms she might heal herself. But stuffing herself in the bathroom of the suite she shares with fellow student Sam Whitker isn't working. Ellie and Sam are students at Ventana Ranch, a boarding school located in the Santa Cruz Mountains on the California coastline. Approximately one hundred fifty high school juniors and seniors, all of whom study natural sciences. Except for Ellie who is the first liberal arts student in the school. Ellie had hoped for a fresh start at Ventana Ranch. Her claustrophobia attacks began after her parents divorced and moved from California back to the East Coast. This was after first grade when Ellie was seven-years-old and she and her mother were living in an apartment in Manhattan. Despite seeing a child psychologist, a therapist, Ellie suffered many attacks. Thinking maybe the attacks were triggered by moving from the open air of California to the urban density of New York city, Ellie decided to apply to a school in California in the hopes of curing herself.

Sam returns from a hike just as Ellie emerges from the bathroom in distress, telling her that someone is hacking the burls off of the redwood trees on one of the trails. Then they hear the sound of sirens and see the Coast Guard arrive.When Ellie sees them pull up a body with long blonde hair Ellie is shocked because it is Eliza Hart, once a childhood friend from kindergarten and grade one when Ellie lived in Menlo Park. Ellie was shocked to discover that Eliza was also enrolled at Ventana. Sam believes Eliza likely committed suicide but Ellie isn't so sure. Police set up floodlights around the area of the cliff where Eliza was found, leading Ellie to believe that the police are considering that Eliza might have been pushed off the cliff.

Ellie decides to walk down to the valley but on the way she overhears the Harts talking with Detective Roberts. He asks whether Eliza had depression and if there was anything strange about her in the days prior. While Mr. Hart is unresponsive, Mrs. Hart assures Roberts that Eliza was normal. They are joined by Alan Carson, the dean of students as well as Julian Alvarez who tells the detective that a week earlier he saw Eliza arguing with someone outside her dorm. Although he could not identify the person, he recognized Eliza by her blond hair. As a result of Julian's information Detective Roberts wants all students to remain on campus for interviews despite it being spring break, telling Dean Carson that police will monitor who comes in and out of the campus.

The next morning Ellie awakens to students gathering outside Eliza's dorm room window. The sight of the students brings back memories of the previous months and Ellie's struggle to fit in. By Halloween, the new start that Ellie had hoped for hadn't materialized; she was isolated and unable to make friends. In January, Ellie decided to reach out to Eliza and reconnect with her. She paid a visit to the suite Eliza shared with Arden Lin and Erin Smythe but her invitation to lunch was rejected by Eliza who accused Ellie of stalking her. Completely shocked, Ellie realized that it was Eliza who spread the terrible rumours that Sam told her at Halloween; that she is a pathological liar, sent to a school back east for troubled kids and who broke up her parents marriage. Ellie has no idea why Eliza hates her.

On Friday, Sam convinces Ellie to attend the memorial service for Eliza. She's reluctant because she knows everyone knows Eliza Hart hated her. But Sam is insistent. However, after the service, Erin and Arden confront Ellie and Sam. Erin threatens Ellie, telling her she will be telling the police about her stalking Eliza. Erin insists that it was Ellie fighting with Eliza that morning.

All of this distresses Ellie considerably. Sam tells her that the interviews will be conducted in Professor Clifton's old office which is small, meaning that Sam knows about her phobia. On Saturday the police begin interviewing students, so Sam suggests that they go for a hike as a distraction. During their hike on the Y trail, they encounter two men who are cutting the burls off of redwoods to sell. Ellie and Sam hide and listen as the men, one of whom is named Mack, talk about Eliza Hart. From their conversation it appears that they have been using Eliza's ID to gain access to the redwood forest on the campus that some of the money they earned through the sale of the burls was being split with Eliza. Ellie wants to go to the police but Sam insists that they do not have enough information.

With her police interview scheduled for 4pm that afternoon, Ellie decides that to learn more they need to follow Mack and the other man after they leave the forest. Ellie believes that learning more will help her clear her name and may help them understand what happened to Eliza. Little does Ellie know she will uncover a clue that will open the door to her own mysterious phobia while answering many of her questions about Eliza and her death.

Discussion

R.I.P. Eliza Hart begins as a murder mystery but evolves into a story focusing on mental health and the devastating effects it can have on sufferers and their families. After the body of classmate and former childhood friend, Eliza Hart is found on the cliffs adjacent to their school, Ellie believes that she is being considered a suspect in Eliza's death and she wants to know what really happened to this girl who inexplicably hated her. When she and roommate Sam discover that Eliza had a secret boyfriend and was involved with burl-poachers, Ellie decides to tell the police in the hopes of clearing her name. However, this information is not new to the police as Ellie later learns that Mack came forward to talk with them. When Ellie and Sam are unable to discover much about the Eliza's death, Sam believes they have to focus on the clue Mack gave them, that Eliza was afraid of Ellie because she saw something that happened involving Eliza's father.

It is Ellie's encounter with Alexander McAdams (Mack) that provides her with the clue as to why her friendship with Eliza disintegrated after first grade, why Eliza spread rumours about her and ultimately reveals what really happened to Eliza. Sheinnmel is able to create considerable suspense throughout the novel by having the character of Mack not reveal what Eliza had confided to him about Ellie. Mack tells Ellie that"'You're the one who knows about her family,' he spits. 'She told me everything. You were there the last time her dad - ' He cuts himself off, shaking his head." At this point the novel now presents readers with two mysteries; that of Eliza's death and the mystery of what Ellie saw years ago at Eliza's home. Both of these mysteries are connected in some way. To solve the mystery of what Ellie witnessed years ago, Sam suggests they visit Eliza's home during the funeral in the hopes it will trigger Ellie's memory. This is successful as Ellie discovers why Eliza was afraid of her. "Eliza wasn't a mean girl. She was a frightened girl." The visit also leads Ellie to suspect that Eliza suffered from mental health issues in the same way her father did.

While the overarching story line is the mystery of Eliza Hart's death, both girls narratives detail serious struggles with mental health issues. Ellie Sokoloff is struggling with claustrophobia that has dominated her life since she was seven-years-old. Its effects have been to isolate her from her peers and make her prone to bullying. Her mother sought help for her and Ellie was treated by eight therapists without much success and at great financial and emotion cost to her mother. No therapist had been able to draw out the terrible memory Ellie had of Eliza's father cutting himself and which Ellie eventually identifies as the likely cause of her phobia. Despite the lack of success, Ellie continued to see therapists and even tried to cure herself by doing her own immersion therapy where she would force herself into situations that would set off an attack. She never gave up and when she does uncover the hidden memory she tells her mother,"I want to start going to therapy again..." and she insists that she see a specialist, "Someone who knows about repressed memories and claustrophobia....I'd like to try to stay. With therapy. See if things get better."

In contrast Eliza gives up. Eliza's chapters reveal how difficult her life was, coping not only with her father's serious mental illness but also her own. She first witnessed her father's attempt to kill himself when she was in kindergarten.His treatment was complicated with mixed results. Eliza had seen her father go "to a dozen therapists and tried more medications than a cancer patient" without getting better she is skeptical about therapy..."Most people who don't live with it think that therapy and pills will fix it. I believed that the first few times we sent Dad off to get his medication adjusted: Just a little tune-up and a little time off, and he'd be back better than ever.""It was years before I understood that treatment for mental illness isn't that simple. It's like living with cancer that goes into remission after a course of chemotherapy. It's under control, but it could still metastasize."

Eliza is unable to admit to herself that she is ill despite suffering from insomnia and depression, and being unable to feel strong emotions. Eliza is lonely, an only child like Ellie. And yet despite this, she is high functioning; a straight A student, winning swimming medals, attending class and going to parties. When her mother confronts her, Eliza tells her she's paranoid, "But I was lying. I knew what it was. I just didn't want to admit it." Even knowing she was luckier that most because her parents could afford treatment, Eliza can't go on. "How many times could they adjust my meds and try again? How many therapists' couches could I sit on, complaining about a life that seemed so good on the outside?...I'd run out of fresh starts. I'd had enough."
Her situation is tragic. The full extent of her struggle is finally revealed when Ellie and Sam go to talk with Eliza's mother. For Eliza, keeping up appearances was more important than getting the help she needed. It is during this chapter that the real tragedy of Eliza's struggle becomes apparent and it is heartwrenching.

Besides the theme of mental health, R.I.P. Eliza Hart offers readers the chance to consider the themes of self-acceptance, the meaning of friendship, and identity.

One of the best features of this novel is its cover which shows a girl in distress underwater. This image portrays Ellie's own description of her claustrophobia: "...whenever a door closes in a windowless room --an elevator, a closet, a bathroom--my lungs behave like I'm twenty thousand leagues under the sea, with no escape in sight."Ellie tells Sam, "It feels like I'm underwater. It's not the walls that are closing in, but wave after wave of water, threatening to drown me."

Overall R.I.P. Eliza Hart is a well-paced, riveting novel that blends mystery and realistic fiction and deals with the heavy issues of phobias, depression and suicide in a way that is very balanced.

Book Details:

R.I.P. Eliza Hart by Alyssa Sheinmel
New York: Scholastic Press 2017
324 pp.

Breathe portrays the remarkable story of Robin Cavendish who contracted poliomyelitis in 1958 at the age of twenty-eight years old. As a result of this illness he was paralyzed from the neck down and completely reliant upon a respirator to breathe. Initially Robin wanted to die but with the support of his wife, Diana he was able to live a very full life and change the way severely disabled people were treated.

The movie opens with Robin Cavendish first noticing the beautiful Diana Blacker while playing cricket. His friends tell him he hasn't a chance with her as she is a notorious heartbreaker. But after he bats a ball into the china on a table near Diana, her interest in him is piqued. They date, fall in love and marry in 1957, despite her twin brothers Blogg and David expressing concern about the impending marriage. Marrying Robin will mean having to travel and live in Kenya, however Diana is quite agreeable to this.

The film then jumps to Kenya where the Cavendishs are with friends, Colin, Mary and Don who is a doctor. Robin mentions how much he loves the silence in Kenya. At a camp fire one evening, Don tells a story about sixty prisoners on Kome Island during the Mau Mau rebellion. Crammed into a small tin hut and with no possibility of being freed, the leader of the prisoners gives them permission to die. The next morning they are all found dead; Don's point being that people can will themselves to live or die. While Robin doesn't really believe the story, Diana emphatically states that she would choose to live. This scene is a foreshadowing of the coming trial Robin will face when he becomes seriously ill and must make the choice to live or die.

Shortly after this Diana reveals to Robin that she is expecting a baby and he is thrilled. The movie then jumps to the British Embassy in Nairobi in 1959. During a tennis match, Robin feels unwell and uncharacteristically loses to Colin. That night Robin becomes ill, shivering with fever and with terribly aching joints. He staggers to his friend's room and collapses. It would be the last time Robin would ever walk. He is rushed to hospital and when asked to move his arms or legs he can do neither. Soon he is struggling to breathe and is placed on a respirator. The diagnosis of polio is made with complete paralysis from the neck down. Diana is told Robin has a matter of months at most to live. When their baby, Jonathan is born, Diana places him next to Robin.

In 1960, Robin is flown home to England where he is placed in a hospital with other patients. Dr. Khan tells Diana that Robin is severely depressed and doesn't want to see her or his son Jonathan. When Blogg and David visit, Robin insists he wants to die. Dr. Entwistle who is in charge of the ward tells Diana that Robin is learning to swallow and if he can accomplish that he can learn to talk again. When he finally is able to speak, Robin challenges Diana as to why she continues to visit him. "You can't love this," he tells her, to which she responds, "Apparently I can."

Robin with his son Jonathan

In response to Robin's wish to die, Diana tells him that since the machine is breathing for him he's going to keep on living; she wants Jonathan to know him. So Robin asks her to get him out of the hospital. But when she approaches Dr. Entwistle, he refuses saying that no one with her husband's level of disability has ever left hospital care. Nevertheless, Diana purchases an old house and with the help of Dr. Khan, her brothers and a nurse, they attempt to sneak him out of the hospital. There efforts are discovered by Dr. Entwistle who orders them back, but Robin staunchly refuses. For Robin, being outside the hospital, seeing the blue sky, being around his family and friends is glorious and his mood improves immediately.

Robin is not satisfied with just being home, so with his friend Teddy Hall, an Oxford professor, they devise a chair with a battery to power the respirator to give Robin more mobility. The first chair was built in 1962. Mobile around his home leads Robin to want to explore further and in 1965 they are able to retrofit a van so that Robin can sit in the front seat. This leads to trips across England and even into Spain where disaster almost strikes when the van's power which runs Robin's respirator is shorted out.

In the spring of 1971, Dr. Clement Aitken, Director of the Disability Research Foundation is amazed by Teddy Hall's motorized wheel chair and questions how he created it. Aitken tells Hall that he wants him to create hundreds of chairs, something that isn't possible without some kind of funding. Their first attempt at funding is refused so they seek a private donor in the form of a dowager and are able to make ten chairs for two thousand pounds. Dr. Aitken tells Robin and Diana that there are thousands of patients living their entire lives in hospital beds when they could be living a much better life.

With the encouragement of Dr. Aitken, Robin and Diana accompany him to a European conference in Germany in 1973 on Managing the Lives of the Severely Disabled. Dr. Aitken and Robin go to see Dr. Erik Langdorf who has patients in a modern, sterile environment of iron lungs. They are immobile with only their heads visible. He is shocked when he sees Robin in an upright chair with a respirator. At the conference, Dr. Aitken remarks that it is odd that at a conference on the disabled there are none in attendance and brings in Robin who asks them why they keep their disabled hidden away.Robin tells his story and tasks them to go back to their hospitals and help their patients to truly live "open the gates and set them free..."

Eventually the use of the respirator takes its toll on Robin as his lungs suffer abrasions and begin to suffer from bleeds. These bleeds he is told will only get worse and eventually they will kill him; he will drown in his own blood. Robin decides with the help of Teddy that he will euthanize himself. To this end he has a series of parties and makes arrangements to have his respirator turned off. Although Diana is at first angered, she comes to accept his decision. Robin Cavendish passes away

Discussion

Breathe brings to life the extraordinary journey of Robin Cavendish, who after being stricken with the paralytic form of polio faces a shortened life confined to an institution. Instead with the determination and love of his wife, Robin is able to live a fulfilling and rich life the next thirty-six years, In that time he challenges how the medical profession and society as a whole view the severely disabled.

It was Robin and Diana's son John Cavendish, a successful British film producer who believed his father's story would make a good movie. To that end he enlisted William Nicholson who wrote the screenplay for the movies, Gladiators and Nell. Nicholson whose services would be quite costly, asked not to be paid until the film was actually made.

Robin (Andrew Garfield) and Diana (Claire Foy) in Breathe

Cavendish had formed a new studio, Imaginarium Studios which specializes in motion-capture filmmaking, with motion capture actor Andy Serkis. Serkis, probably best known for his work as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings films, was interested in making a movie and this seemed the ideal vehicle. Like Cavendish he too had a vested interest in the movie as his sister has multiple sclerosis and his mother has worked with the disabled.

Cavendish wanted to make sure the film about his father's life was not dark and depressing but uplifting. He wanted to portray the fact that his father's quality of life was good and that he led a life full of joy and adventure, sending the message that the severely disabled could have a life worth living. In this respect, Breathe is very successful. Serkis shows a very depressed Robin who is intent on dying during the period immediately following his illness. However, his wife Diana refuses to allow this but with some help, manages to remove him from the hospital setting. For Robin the choice is clear: he would rather live a fuller life with the risk of dying should his respirator fail than be bedridden in a hospital hidden away from family and friends. Once home his transformation is immediate and Robin is filled with ideas that might make his life better.

Breathe highlights the reality that the severely disabled can have a good quality of life with support from family, health care professionals and society. This is especially evident in the scenes where Robin and Dr. Aitken attend a conference in Germany in the early 1970's. The scene where Robin and Dr. Aitken are shown Dr. Langdorf's progress in treating polio victims is both shocking and heartbreaking. Breathe also serves as a reminder to a generation, which has never known the ravages of "childhood diseases" like polio, measles and whooping cough, just how dangerous these illnesses can be.

Claire Foy gives a captivating performance as Diana Cavendish; Andrew Garfield's job of portraying Robin Cavendish was much more challenging but he captures the range of emotions Robin experienced throughout the early years following his illness. The film has a solid cast of supporting actors as well.

Like The Theory of Everything which portrayed the remarkable life of Stephen Hawkings, Breathe challenges viewers to view the severely disabled differently, to recognize that though their bodies may be broken, inside are minds and hearts with dreams, desires and capabilities. We have a duty to give them the best life possible.

It is July 2001, and eleven-year-old Fadi Nurzai's family are fleeing their home country of Afghanistan. Fadi along with his father Habib,his mother Zafoona, his older sister Noor and younger sister Mariam are packed into a taxi hurtling across the dusty plain in the dark. Their driver is Professor Sahib, Habib's former teacher at Kabul University. After a six hour ride from Kabul, they arrive in Jalalabad, a city in the eastern province of Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. Here they will rendezvous with a truck to take them to across the Afghan border with Pakistan to Peshawar where Zafoona's cousin and her husband will meet them at the border.

Only a month earlier, Fadi's father had told them they were leaving Afghanistan. Zafoona needed better medical care for a cold that had turned into a serious illness. But also the Taliban had tried to recruit Fadi's father in what was a thinly veiled threat. Although he had put them off for the time being, it is inevitable that they will return.

Habib was born in Afghanistan but had travelled to Madison, Wisconsin where he earned a Ph.D in Agriculture. Afterwards he returned to his homeland inspired to help rebuild Afghanistan after the defeat of the Soviets by the Taliban.

When he and Zafoona had returned to their homeland along with their family, the Taliban asked Habib to rid the country of the poppy fields used for opium. Gradually Habib had been successful in this endeavour, getting farmers to grow food for the country. However, the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islam began creating problems as they began suppressing civil rights. Music, movies, books and photography were banned, women were forced to wear the burka, and schools for girls were closed. Fadi's father had hoped to obtain work at Kabul University in the agriculture department but it was closed because of the years of war. Instead, Habib opened a dry goods store in downtown Kabul to support his family.

Just past midnight an army truck shows up at the rendezvous point to take them to Pakistan. Habib, realizing this is their ride, orders Fadi to take Mariam, while Noor follows with their mother. As they move towards the truck, suddenly dozens of people emerge from hiding, running towards the truck. Fadi is gripping Mariam's hand tightly and tries to steer them towards his father in the back of the truck. In the chaos, with everyone scrambling to get on the truck, the Taliban arrive, creating even more panic. But as Fadi's father pulls him into the back of the truck, Mariam slips from his grip, trying to retrieve her pink Barbie, Gulmina which as fallen to the ground.

Panicked by the approach of the Taliban, the truck driver announces he is leaving. To Fadi's horror, the truck roars away, leaving six-year-old Mariam behind with many others and the Taliban in hot pursuit. Zafoona, already ill and exhausted is completely hysterical. Her pleas for the truck to return to retrieve Mariam are ignored while Habib who wants to jump out of the truck, is held down by the other men. Returning would mean capture by the Taliban and possible execution.

On the plane to London, Fadi berates himself, feeling responsible for losing Mariam. He thinks back to when they arrived in Peshawar. Once in Peshawar, Fadi's father went back over the border in an attempt to locate Mariam, but could find no trace of her. Zafoona's cousin, Nargis promised to contact them and let them know when she heard any news. Unable to delay any longer, Fadi's family had to go to the American consulate in Peshawar to pick up the papers "arranged with the help of Habib's old college advisor in the United States." Zafoona had wanted to remain in Peshawar but Habib told her that if they did not leave their asylum papers would expire and they would have been stateless - unable to return to Afghanistan but unable to remain in Pakistan.

When they arrive in San Francisco, Fadi and his family are met at the airport by Uncle Amin, who is married to Zafoona's younger sister Khala Nilufer. Once a doctor in Kabul's main hospital, Amin and Nilufer had left Afghanistan in 1998 along with his parents Abay and Dada, a month after Fadi's parents had arrived back in the country from the United States. Uncle Amin works two jobs as a lab technician to support his family but he generously offers them to stat with him at his home in Fremont. Fadi meets his cousin, Zalmay, who is his age. While eating lunch, the adults talk about little Mariam and how UN Refugee Agency has sent out a bulletin about Mariam and how there are many people looking out for her. However, Fadi's feelings of guilt overwhelm him and he hides inside the pantry.

In August of 2001, Fadi's father and his Uncle Amin have contacted many family and friends in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, all searching on both sides of the border for Mariam. Meanwhile Habib moves his family out of Uncle Amin's house into an apartment at the Paradise Apartment Complex.

Fadi begins the school year at Brookhaven Middle School where he is in Mr. Torres' 6B class. Almost immediately he draws the attention of two bullies in his class, Felix and Ike. Fadi does a good deed by returning a classmate's wallet and she introduces herself as Anh Hong. Meanwhile at home, Fadi's family learns that Mariam may have been taken in by a family with two boys who were trying to get to Peshawar. This information upsets Zafoona and she argues with Habib telling him they should not have left Peshawar.Zafoona wants to return to Peshawar to search for Mariam but that requires money the Hurzai family does not have.

When Fadi learns about the school photography club and an upcoming contest with the chance to win tickets to India, he believes he just might have found a way to go back and help find Mariam. With the encouragement of Anh and Noor's money for the club fee, Fadi is determined to win. Meanwhile he must deal with the class bullies and his own feelings of guilt. When the contest doesn't produce the results Fadi is hoping for, he all but gives up until a remarkable meeting changes everything.

Discussion

The events in Shooting Kabul bracket the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City and throughout the United States. The novel provides young readers with insight into the immigrant experience during this time. Fadi's parents who returned to their homeland of Afghanistan with the hope of helping to modernize their country are now refugees in the United States. But their relief at escaping from the Taliban is marred by the loss of Mariam who was accidentally left behind in Jalalabad.

Shooting Kabul focuses primarily on the struggles of eleven-year-old Fadi as he experiences tremendous guilt and shame for not being able to hang onto his little sister Mariam when they were trying to board truck to take them out of Kabul. He is so certain of his own guilt in the matter that he is shocked to discover that each member of his family is also struggling with guilt. Shortly after arriving in San Francisco, Zafoona confesses her feelings of guilt to her sister Nilufer,
"'She's my baby. I'm her mother. It's all my fault,' cried Zafoona, and, she burst into ragged sobs...
'No you don't understand,' said Zafoona. 'If I wasn't so sick, I could have looked after her. But instead everyone was looking after me. Noor and Habib were so worried about getting me on board the truck that they lost track of Fadi and Mariam. It's my fault.'"

Despite hearing this, Fadi continues to believe Mariam's situation was his fault, and he withdraws, often withdrawing from his family. In their new apartment, Fadi overhears his sister Noor confessing her responsibility for the loss of Mariam to their father. Noor states that she was responsible for caring for Fadi and Mariam; "No, I'm the oldest. I should have taken care of them...It's my fault Mariam is lost!"Fadi is shocked to overhear this admission but he thinks, "Everyone things it's their fault she's gone. But it's my fault, not anyone else's. I'm the one who doesn't deserve to belong to this family. I'm the one who's torn it apart."

Fadi then hits on the idea that he will return to Peshawar to find his sister. However without money this will be difficult so he devises a plan to travel to Pakistan. Just how deeply Fadi feels the loss of his sister is demonstrated when he sneaks into the trunk of his father's taxi to hitch a ride to the airport. His plan is to board a flight to London and then to catch a plane to Peshawar. Fortunately for Fadi, when he is unable to get out of the trunk, disaster is averted when his father opens the trunk to place a passenger's luggage inside.

Fadi then becomes determined to win the grand prize of a trip to India, in a local photography contest. Although planning to enter the photography contest gives Fadi hope his pain and guilt surface in a destructive way when the family visits a Toys R Us store.
"From both sides of the aisle hundreds of Barbies stared down at him. Fadi closed his eyes. His body felt cold and his hand went numb...His eyelids flickered open. Cowgirl Barbie gave him an accusing glare. Artist Barbie stood next to her, holding a paintbrush, sharing a conspiratorial frown with Doctor Barbie....Assembled on the bottom row stood a platoon of Barbies from around the world. Native American, Korean, Spanish, Nigerian, and Austrian Barbie were whispering to one another...whispering about Gulmina." The sight of the Barbies triggers the image of Mariam "holding out Gulmina, asking him to put her into his backpack." Fadi becomes enraged and begins destroying the Barbie display. "He knocked off a line of dolls, and they crashed to the floor. He stomped on the slender rectangular boxes, his tennis shoes making crunching sounds. He fell to his knees and ripped of the lids and pulled out Diamond Princess Barbie. He shook her with all his might and started banging her and Soccer Barbie against the concrete floor. The store manager found him, huddled on a pile of crushed boxes and Barbies, sobbing." The scene is tragic and disturbing, portraying the trauma many refugees from war-torn areas experience.

Although both Zafoona and Noor have told someone about their guilt over Mariam, Fadi has been unable to confide in anyone, carrying his burden alone. However, after losing the photography contest and any chance of traveling to India, he confides in Ms. Bethune, telling her what happened that night in Kabul. Fadi is shocked that she does not consider him responsible and she helps him look at what happened in a different way, encouraging him not to blame himself for something he had little control over. Fadi never does tell his family about his guilt because the situation is resolved before he has the opportunity to do so.

Throughout the novel Senzai does an good job of incorporating recent Afghan history into the story so that younger readers have the background information to understand the events that occur. Readers experience the 9/11 attacks from the perspective of the Afghanistan refugees through the characters of Habib, Zafoona, Uncle Amin and others. The author also portrays how the Afghani people themselves view Osama Bin Laden, in the scene after 9/11 in the grocery shop in Little Kabul, and how they believe the events of 9/11 will impact their country. By incorporating many details about the country itself young readers from the United States and Canada are able to learn a bit about Afghanistan's a rich heritage and diverse ethnic groups.

Shooting Kabul is another fine novel from this author and is highly recommended. Senzai states in her Author's Note at the back that "I didn't want to write this book..." because it touched many sensitive and personal issues including Islam, Afghan history and politics. Senzai's father-in-law's experiences are mirrored in those of Habib making the novel a very personal story. But it is a story well worth reading because it provides young readers the opportunity to understand Afghan history and culture separate from the American perspective presented in the media and because it also portrays the challenges refugees experience in coming to a culture vastly different from their own.

Book Details:

Shooting Kabul by Naheed Hasnat Senzai
New York: A Paula Wiseman Book 2010
273 pp.

Interlude is a classic story of a boy and a girl thrown together unexpectedly, each struggling with their own problems but who fall in love. The novel opens with eighteen-year-old Mia Cox in her doctor's office. She's there to get tested to determine if she's a compatible match so she can donate a kidney to her younger sister Madison (Maddy). Dr. Mason discusses the risks of donating a kidney and tells Mia that she will know in two weeks.

Weeks later, Mia takes Maddy to her dialysis treatment which undergoes three times per week. Mia is very worried about her sister who is tired and withdrawn. She is in the final stages of kidney disease which is renal failure.

At dinner that night Mia gets a call from the doctor's office informing her that she is not a match and therefore not suitable to donate a kidney to Maddy. Mia retreats to her bedroom, completely distraught but also determined. She pulls out an old birthday card sent by her birth mother Carmen Santalina from fifteen years earlier. Mia and Maddy's mother Carmen, abandoned them when they were three years old. Her father moved to from New York to California where he remarried.

With a plan formulating in her head, Mia questions her father as to whether Carmen still lives in New York City. However,he will only tell her that Carmen won't care, even when Mia begs him to at least call her and tell her about Maddy's illness. Furious at her father's refusal, Mia googles Carmen's name to locate her in New York. She is interrupted by Maddy who come to her bedroom and then collapses. Mia screams for her father, the paramedics are called and Maddy is rushed to hospital.

At the hospital Maddy is stabilized but weak and she confides to Mia that she knows she's going to die, that a donor will not be found in time. Mia tries to encourage Maddy who believes it is too late for her. Determined to save her sister Mia goes home, packs a backpack, writes her father a note, and drives to the airport where she books herself onto a flight to New York City. Her hope is to find their birth mother and convince her to donate a kidney to Maddy.

On the flight, a guy about Mia's age, with dark hair and an eyebrow piercing, is seated next to her. He is slouched down in the seat, not talkative, his earbuds in listening to music. Part way through the flight Mia notices the distinctive tattoo on his arm. When he picks up an entertainment magazine, Mai mutters about not liking the band Blue Fire and the lead singer Jaxton Scott who are featured on the cover. Mia's remark is heard by this guy who questions her as to why she doesn't like them. Mia tells him she believes they have no talent, their image is creepy with the makeup and black nail polish and piercings and that they are fakers. The conversation makes Mia curious about the article on Blue Fire. As she's reading it, a closer look at the picture of Jaxton Scott leads Mia to recognize the tattoo on his arm is the same as the one on the guy sitting next to her. To her horror Mia realizes she's sitting next to Jaxton Scott.

Mia tries to apologize but Jaxton insists he's not offended and appreciates her honesty. Jaxton tells Mia that he is "taking a spontaneous vacation to New York. Indefinitely." He has no gig to be at and no girlfriend, no bodyguards or groupies. When Jaxton questions Mia about her trip at first she is reluctant to tell him her reason for flying to the city, only that she is sightseeing. However Jaxton can sense that Mia is not telling him the truth and that she's running from something. He reassures her that everything she reads about him is fake, that it is all show.

Mia tells Jaxton about her sister's terminal illness and that her trip to New York is to locate their birth mother who is the only other person likely to be a match. Jaxton tells Mia he is "The screw-up who's running away from his life." He tells her that his band formed in high school and by their junior year, they had a record contract. On tour he managed to finish his senior year of high school but there were also parties, tours and playing huge venues. Jaxton insists all he wants to do is write music. When Mia questions him as to why he's doing this if it's not what he wants, he tells her it is difficult to get out of contracts, so this trip is a break to try to figure things out by returning home to his family on Long Island.

After a lay over in Denver, Mia and Jaxton board their flight to New York. Jaxton arranges for Mia to sit next to him, and invites her to really listen to his music. When it becomes apparent that Mia has no where to stay and that she has no idea how to locate her birth mother, Jaxton insists on helping her. But Mia is reluctant to accept Jaxton's help because she really doesn't know him, so to remedy this, he spends some time telling Mia more about himself in the hopes she will feel safer. As their flight nears its destination, Jaxton offers to put Mia up in a hotel overlooking Central Park. Mia balks at this because she cannot afford it but Jaxton insists. As they spend time together, Mia knows she has to stay focused on finding her birth mother and helping save Maddy, even as her attachment to Jaxton grows.

Discussion

Although Sedgwick's novel, Interlude is a predictable YA romance, it is both enjoyable and sweet, with the added bonus of a happy ending. Mia and Jaxton, from very different worlds, each dealing with very serious life problems, are inadvertently thrown together and fall in love. Jaxton has the image of a bad boy rocker in contrast to Mia's clean girl image. While Mia seems to have her life together and knows what she wants, Jaxton is struggling to deal with his rock star lifestyle. Their time together is seen as an "interlude" in their lives.

The story is told from the point of view of Mia who astutely identifies the situation both she and Jaxton are in. "We're two people running from different things in our lives. One of us is running to save another, the other is running to save himself." Both Jaxton and Mia love music; Jaxton is a song writer and lead singer in a rock band, while Mia is an accomplished pianist. While talking on the plane about music, Jaxton mentions that he loves preludes which he describes as "...the most important part of the song, I think. It has to be distinct. Different than everything else out there. It's like the hook. Or the tease before the masterpiece, if you will." But Mia loves the interlude which she sees as the solo in the middle of a song, that gives a break from the lyrics. Their time spent on the plane is the interlude for both Jax and Mia, a time away from the stresses of their lives, where they can just be themselves and not deal with their worries. It is the break for Jax from his rock star life and for Mia it is a break from the worry about finding a donor for Maddy and her illness.

The themes of sisterhood and family can be found throughout the novel. Mia is devoted to her sister as evidenced by her willingness to take her sister Maddy to her dialysis treatments and to stay with her for the three hours it takes to clean her blood. Mia is determined to save her. She is willing to donate a kidney to her sister however when that becomes impossible Mia impulsively and in desperation decides to travel across the continent to find their estranged biological mother. Although this isn't successful in the way Mia planned, it does work out in the end.

Sedgwick's story stresses the importance of family. Jax tells Mia, "I talk to my mom at least once a week. My sister Jeigh, usually every day. We've always been really close. I have another sister, but she's a bit younger, so I don't hear from her as much. I love hanging out with her when I go home, though." For Mia, despite being abandoned by her birth mother at age three, she is very close to her father and her stepmother, Trista."I can't imagine living my life without Trista. She's been a wonderful mother to me." Because Mia has such a strong sense of family with her father, Trista and Maddy, she is stung by her birth mother Carmen's complete rejection of herself and Maddy being "family". Carmen tells Mia that Maddy is not her daughter. "I might have been a mother to you once, and I'm sorry for all the pain I caused you, but I was never a mother to Madison. I held her once...She's a stranger to me and she has no recollection of me either. I don't owe her anything."Fortunately for Maddy, Carmen's sister Ana does not feel this way and decides to undergo testing to see if she is a possible donor.

Sedgwick admits she had to do considerable research into kidney disease and organ donation. Live donor organ donation is somewhat controversial because of the risks to the donor. However, live donor kidney donation is the most common and the most successful of all transplants.

Interlude is a light, enjoyable read, with well developed and interesting characters. Suitable for ages 13 to 18.

Book Details:

Interlude by Chantele Sedgwick
New York: Sky Pony Press 2018
275 pp.

A Troubled Peace is the sequel to Under A War Torn Sky and tells what happens to Henry Forester when he returns to the United States after serving as pilot, being shot down, travelling through war torn Europe with the help of the French resistance, being captured and tortured by the Gestapo, escaping in an attempt to return to America.

Henry is back home in Tidewater, Virginia and all is not well. He is struggling with nightmares, flashbacks, restlessness and insomnia. He is often angry and does strange things. Anything can trigger a flashback that leads to him doing something strange. A shot by his father Clayton at a fox triggered Henry into believing he was being hunted by the Gestapo, resulting in him running for miles across the county. "He wanted the war in his soul to be over. He was home. Why couldn't he get back to normal? And why wouldn't Patsy marry him?" Henry had planned a perfect proposal, dancing at the tony John Marshall Hotel in Richmond. However, Patsy turned him down telling Henry that he seems angry and scares her.

Henry worries about the fate of those who saved him and relives events to save those who died along the way. "Henry was not quite twenty and already he carried an old man's worth of regret and mourning."All of this causes Henry to get up every night and walk the lane of the farm so his nightmares won't distress his mother. Everything comes to a crisis one night while Henry is out for a walk with his dog Speed and thinking about the blind loyalty of German troops and the stubbornness of the Nazis as they fight a hopeless battle against the Allies. Remembering his own experiences and how the Allies are now "responding to Hitler's unyielding stance with their own brutality, desperate to hasten the war's end." only increases Henry's internal conflict. Although he starts out walking and whistling a tune, soon Henry is running fast. Unable to outrun his memories he decides flying might help him distance himself from those memories and bring him closer to God.

This leads Henry to steal Old Man Newcomb's Curtiss Jenny, an open-cockpit, World War I biplane. "In Newcomb's Jenny, he'd leave his nightmares in the dust...No bombs, no flak, no fighters, no worries." In the air, "Henry's soul rang with a long-forgotten joy."Henry, mesmerized by the stars and the Milky Way attempts to take the little Jenny higher and higher until suddenly the engine stalls out. The plane begins plummeting to earth with Henry not reacting to the danger. At the last minute, believing he hears Dan's voice telling him to pull up, Henry manages to save himself, and land the plane, but unable to stop it crashes into the trees. Henry is knocked out, Newcomb's plane is badly damaged and Henry's father Clayton is furious.

Henry finally admits to his mother and father and Patsy that he "can't forget France. My friends who died. All those missions where I rained death on people, on civilian. All the people who helped me and may have been tortured and killed because of it...because of me. And that little boy Ma. Pierre. I keep worrying about where he is. If anyone is helping him." Although he tries to explain what happened with the plane, Henry knows his father doesn't understand. Nevertheless he accepts that what he did was wrong and the fact that he must pay for the damage done to Newcomb's plane.

Henry's mother Lilly understands and advises him that sometimes healing is brought about by helping others. She tells him, "But I don't think you'll rest easy until you know about that little boy. Maybe...maybe you need to go back to France and find Pierre?"

After three weeks at sea, Henry disembarks in Marseille, France. Patsy discovered a way over to Europe for Henry after he was unable to return to the Air Force due to being too thin and too battle fatigued. The newly organized United Nations was providing relief in the form of food, clothing, medicine and livestock to Europe. Henry became a "sea cowboy" shoveling manure, feeding and watering livestock and helping to birth foals on a merchant boat bringing over livestock to Europe. The livestock boat docked in Trieste, Italy but without the proper papers to enter the country, Henry had jumped ship and hired onto a boat sailing to Marseille. Now in France with cartons of cigarettes , tins of Spam and some cash, Henry sets out on a journey to find Pierre and in so doing, finds himself.

Discussion

A Troubled Peace is another finely crafted work of historical fiction by L.M. Elliott that provides readers with considerable insight into life in Europe - specifically France, during the post liberation period of 1944-45 and just prior to the end of World War II. Where A Troubled Peace excels is in portraying the effects of war both on a personal level and a national scope.

The tragic effects of war on individuals are ably demonstrated through the characters of Henry, Pierre, Claudette and Madame Gaulloise. For those who fought, it is best shown through the character of Henry Forester who returns to America suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, although during the 1940's this was largely unrecognized. Recently returned to the States, Henry is unable to settle back into farm life. His traumatic experiences from the war have left him a completely changed man. At first Henry doesn't realize what is happening to him and he attempts to pick up where he left off before enlisting by asking Patsy to marry him. Henry believes that "marrying Patsy was the way back, back to the life he'd planned before the war, before the missions, before all the killing."But Patsy tells him, "You seem so angry...so haunted. I worry that you think getting married will stop all that somehow. But what if I'm not enough? I don't think I can fix all that. It scares me Henry...You scare me."

Henry describes how he feels. "Was he haunted? For sure. Every day in his mind, he walked the hills and streets of France, imagining the fate of those who'd saved him. He reflew his last bombing raid wo that Captain Dan lived. He reclimbed they Pyrenees to save his friend, Billy." Henry doesn't know how to come down from constantly being on alert. "He had entrusted his life to strangers he couldn't understand, and lived off of adrenaline and suspicion, scrounging for food, scrounging for safety, rarely finding either, day after day, week after week, for months. He couldn't figure out how to shed that kind of battle-ready wariness, that kind of split-second instinct to fight, to run. Half the time, he felt like a lunatic race-horse in a start box. Nobody had said anything in debriefing about how to shrug that off."

In an attempt to flee his memories and find some peace Henry steals a neighbour's plane. "This night was about freedom. This night was about baptism -- washing himself clean of death and regrets and disappointment and fear, the beginning life reborn, redefined." But the accident with the plane merely reinforces that something is terribly wrong. In an attempt to heal, Henry returns to France to try to locate Pierre who saved his life.

Henry's journey through France does eventually help him to begin to heal and to provide the closure he needs. He learns the shocking fate of the people of Vercors. he finds Madame Gaulloise who saved Henry and many other downed pilots from certain death, he reunites with Claudette whom Henry saved from certain capture and he eventually does find Pierre. From Madame Gaulloise, Henry learns that she survived by building "a safe fortress with my memories, an inner peace that came from knowing that I had done what had to be done." She advises Henry to read Albert Camus, a French philosopher, who "wrote that man's grandeur lies in his decision to rise above his condition. There is no fate that cannot be surmounted with scorn." She tells Henry that "The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart."

While helping at the Lutetia's deportation center Henry begins to heal. "Seeing other people fight to survive, to walk away from the agonies they'd endured, was definitely prodding him to do likewise. " But it is when Henry spends time with Claudette the woman he talked out of a killing rage, that he finally understands what Madame Gaulloise was attempting to tell him. Claudette explains to him what Camus meant in his short work, Le Mythe de Sisyphe. Sisyphe was a king, condemned to roll a boulder to the top of a hill every day only to see it roll back down. Sisyphe's life should have had no meaning but instead it is his struggle that gives meaning to his life. This, Claudette tells Henry, is what he must find for himself again and the struggle to do so will help heal him. Henry comes to realize that taking Pierre back to America and helping him rebuild his life will give him a purpose. It is a beginning and one that was suggested by his mother Lilly, months ago. For Claudette, her purpose will be to rebuild her country into something better than what it was - country where women are treated as equals and where there are jobs.

The devastating effect of war on civilians is shown through the fate of some characters from Under A War Torn Sky. Henry returns to Vercors, France, the home of little Pierre and his mother. Once a vibrant country village, he is shocked at the devastation.
"Beneath him should have been a lush green cup of fields and farms, wildflowers and sleepy cattle, ruled in the center by a little village of creamy houses with cherry pink-tiled roofs that were nestled around a church --its bell ringing out the hour, clear and sweet, rejoicing in another day.
Instead there was silence. A wide field of white crosses...
And where the village should have been --alive with roosters crowing, children yawning over cups of frothy warm milk, mothers humming as they poached eggs -- was rubble...
Henry could imagine the cries, the pleas, the refusals, the machine-gun fire, flames catching hold of timber, houses collapsing."

Henry learns the villagers of Vercors were encouraged to rise up against the Nazi's with promise of reinforcements, only to be left to face them alone. The Germans dropped incendiary bombs on the towns in retaliation, and landed SS troops with orders to exterminate everyone. French paratroopers, waiting in Sicily were never deployed, the people of Vercors sacrificed in a political move by de Gaulle.

As Henry searches throughout France for Pierre, he inadvertently finds himself in Annecy, the home of Madame Gaulloise. Arriving at her house Henry is at first thrilled that she might be alive and then shocked at her condition. "The invalid, the living scarecrow, was Madame Gaulloise...Henry could see that all that was left of her dark, glossy hair were little tuffs. Sores scarred her temples." Madame Gaulloise's condition is so tenuous after months of starvation that she can eat little food and she is dying of tuberculosis. Only a day after arriving, Madame passes away.

Henry discovers that Pierre Dubois is now an orphan, his mother shot as she attempted to escape Ravensbruck. Pierre, like many abandoned children in Paris, searches the train station for his mother, while living in a cardboard box beneath a bridge near Notre Dame. These are just a few of the examples that portray how the war affected individuals.

Elliot also presents readers with a solid picture of what Paris and France was like in the aftermath of the war. Although liberation has brought relief from the oppression of the Nazi's, France is socially and economically devastated. According to Elliott in her Author's Note at the back, "France was the largest supplier of manpower and finished goods to Hitler's Germany.To win the war, the Allies had to destroy its production of ball bearings, tires and other such items used for Nazi tanks, planes, and ships." This meant bombing factories, supply depots and railways. Bombing these targets often meant significant collateral damage to civilians and left much of France in ruins. Elliot portrays the ruin of France both socially and economically; black marketers who ship meat and cheese in suitcases, empty stores, starving and orphaned children who search for parents at the train stations or at hotels, train stations filled with family and friends waiting for "absents" - that is people deported to concentration camps - to return.

Few novels deal with the immediate post-war period and Elliott's descriptions of the crowds in Paris waiting at the train station for the absents are deeply moving. "But when people recognized a ghostly figure, they burst through the crowd with both cries of joy and horror, gathering their loved one up in kiss-filled embraces. Others rushed forward and then stood woodenly, shocked, bewildered, repulsed."

Elliott also touches on the tenuous political situation in post-war France. The resistance contains many communist sympathizers and the United States government, which worked with Stalin to bring down the Nazis is now concerned that France will fall under the influence of the Soviets. The author uses Henry's arrest by French police as a suspected black marketer to portray the work of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in attempting to identify communists and even working with Nazi SS officers to do so.

Henry believes that with the war now won, and peace declared, life will go back to normal. But George Orwell tells him,"The aftermath of war is a messy, brutal elbowing among political ideologies, as different groups that survived the war battle each other for power. They will smile at one another's faces while plotting coups and spying on each other...Peace? Peace is not that easy, that finite, my boy. War ends; then it takes along time to negotiate a real truce. Many times that peace is troubled and contains the embers for the next war, smoldering, just in need of a spark..."

The title of the novel is a direct reference to Orwell's comment to Henry. It is a reference to both the struggle for peace on a personal level as Henry is experiencing and on a national and social level as France and the rest of Europe will be experiencing post war.

A Troubled Peace offers so many themes to explore, forgiveness, the concept of peace, identity, and the struggle to find mean in life. It is a novel with richly crafted characters, realistic descriptions of settings and events and superb incorporating of historical details that make the immediate post war era come alive.

Book Details:

A Troubled Peace by L.M. Elliott
New York: Katherine Tegen Books 2009
289 pp.

Blood Water Paint tells the story of painter Artemisia Gentileschi, today considered one of Italy's most talented artists. Artemisia's story, told in free verse is juxtaposed between the stories of the Bible's heroines Susanna and Judith. These stories are told, in prose, to Artemisia by her mother, Prudentia Montone as she lay dying from a fever after giving birth to a stillborn daughter.

Artemisia's mother died when she was twelve years old. Her father Orazio Gentileschi is a mediocre painter for whom Artemisia works as an apprentice, grinding and mixing pigments as well as painting. His shop does commissions of "Bible tales, some portraits, ancient histories, myths."Artemisia finds it frustrating when she's taken away from her painting to cut up onions for their housekeeper Tuzia who often sends her shopping for linseed oil, and figs and fritters for her younger brothers. But Artemisia is determined to make the most of everything including a shopping trip to the Piazza di Santa Maria where she tries to notice colours and details.

Artemisia feels that her father is not able to portray feelings through his paintings. Although he attempts to lecture her on pigments and perspective, Artemisia knows more than her father is aware. To teach her about perspective, her father hires Agostino Tassi. Artemisia first meets Tassi when Tuzia lets him into the studio while Artemisia is working alone. She is overwhelmed by his large physical presence but she focuses on learning from Tassi. Signor Tassi encourages Artemisia to call him "Tino" which she does only reluctantly. He confirms to Artemisia that he has come to Rome for the Quirinal Palace commission, which Artemisia's father hopes to be involved in.

At this time Artemisia begins the preliminary sketches of Susanna. Although Artemisia needs to learn dual-point perspective before she can paint Susanna, her father wants her to focus on getting Tassi to include him in the palace commission. When Tassi at first declines based on the poor quality of Orazio's painting Artemisia offers a solution. Her father's name will appear on the works, but it will be she who will do the painting. Tassi appears interested in her proposal.

Later while working on her own painting of Susanna, Tassi stokes Artemisia's frustration over her father. She is moved by his apparent concern for her especially after he learns that she has been posing for her father. Tassi feigns concern, even questioning Artemisia as to whether her father abuses her. His concern moves Artemisia to kiss Tassi. The next day, on the way to Mass their carriage is stopped on the Via della Lungara by Tassi who insists on riding with them. His request is "a violation of the rules of decency, our code, our social order." Tuzia who is accompanying Artemisia, does nothing but Artemisia tells him he must not join them. When Tassi persists, stating that Artemisia has a chaperone, Tuzia orders Artemisia to make room for him.

Afterwards, Artemisia finds her thoughts preoccupied with Tassi. He returns to the studio the following day, "a hurricane of energy", telling Artemisia that he is falling behind on the Quirinal commission because he is captivated by her. She has a "horrid father", many responsibilities and a dreary studio. His solution is for Artemisia to come work in his studio. His offer is tempting to Artemisia because she believes she would not have to do many of the menial tasks her father makes her do, but instead might offer her other opportunities. However she also believes she would always be second in Tassi's studio too. When Tassi visits the next day he continues to press her to move to his studio; "Imagine what you would accomplish in my studio." and "...the things we could do together." To Artemisia, Tassi is speaking about marriage but Tassi has something quite different in mind. When he begins groping her, Artemisia struggles out of his way, telling him to stop.

Tassi returns to the studio, drunk, critical of Artemisia's Susanna. When he gropes her again, Artemisia orders him out of the studio. Instead Tassi, shreds the canvas and leaves, not returning for days. When he does, Artemisia tells him he is not welcome. Tassi warns her that her father is loyal to him and that payment is owed for her lessons. He rapes Artemisia in the studio, her screams are ignored by Tuzia.

Unable to paint or do much of anything after the brutal attack, Artemisia confronts Tassi when he returns the studio. Tassi acts indifferent, ignoring her orders to leave. Between his visits, Artemisia continues to suffer. Tassi again returns to the studio, attempting to win her over again, but this time, inspired by the stories of Judith and Susanna, Artemisia tells him that is going to tell her father. Tassi tells her he merely took what she offered, but Artemisia responds that he also destroyed her father's property - her painting.

Artemisia's father doesn't understand why she can't seem to focus on her work and doesn't know what it wrong with her. She tells him she will take no more lessons from Signor Tassi and when her father admonishes her for ruining their chance at the Quirinal commission, Artemisia tells her father the truth. Despite her father's warnings about how her accusations will be perceived and how she will be treated, Artemisia insists that her father accuse Tassi. Gaining inspiration and strength from the Biblical heroines Susanna and Judith whose stories her mother told, Artemisia prepares to face a trial that she hopes will bring her justice. But what little justice she receives will come at a great price.

Discussion

Blood Water Paint brings forth the story of Artemisia Gentileschi who was raped by painter Agostino Tassi. Artemisia who was born in Rome in 1593, was the eldest child of Orazio Gentileschi and Prudentia Montone. She was introduced to painting in her father's workshop, mixing pigments, preparing canvases and painting her own works. Her mother died when she was twelve years old. Her brothers were also trained as artists but none showed promise equal to Artemisia. Her father was greatly influenced by the style of Carvaggio and this influence was passed on to Artemisia.

Susanna and the Elders by Gentileschi

Artemisia specialized in painting women from the Bible and ancient myths. Her first recognized work was Susanna and the Elders which she completed when she was just seventeen-years-old. Shortly after this work Artemisia was raped by her father's friend and colleague, Agostino Tassi. Tassi had been hired by Orazio to tutor his daughter and she was often left alone with Tassi and his friend Cosimo Quorlis. When Tassi did not act on his promise to marry Artemisia to restore her honour, her father brought him to trial. Artemisia gave the judge all the required testimony indicating that what happened was in fact rape. Nevertheless she was tortured to see if her testimony was honest. Tassi was convicted but released by the judge.

After the trial, Artemisia married Pierantonio Stiattesi, an artist from Florence. She also painted Judith beheading Holofernes. Artemisia and Pierantonio moved to Florence where she became a successful painter, whose patrons included the House of Medici and Charles I, King of England. She was the first woman to be accepted into the Accademia delle Arti del Designo. She also lived and worked in Rome, Venice, Naples and London. Her reputation as a Baroque artist eventually surpassed that of her father.

In Blood Water Paint, McCullough uses free verse to imagine the events leading up to rape of Artemisia and the trial afterwards. Interwoven throughout are the stories of Susanna and the Elders from the Book of Daniel in the Bible, and the story of Judith from the book of "the same name in the Old Testament. Artemisia's mother Prudentia begins her stories before the birth of her child. She is not well and fears she is dying. As her strength wanes she seeks to educate her daughter in the dangers she may one day face as a young, attractive woman in a man's world.
"She knew I'd need Susanna
when I found myself
a woman in a world of men.

Girl as prey."

And so Artemisia's mother spends
"the last of her strength
to burn into my mind
the tales of women
no one else would
think to tell.

These stories
of a righteous woman,
her virtue questioned
through no fault of her own,
of a widow
with nothing left to lose..."

Prudentia tells her daughter the story of Susanna, the young, beautiful, virtuous wife of Joaquim who is accosted by two elders while bathing in the privacy of her home. Stunned and terrified, Susanna clutches at a robe to cover her nakedness. The two men tell her "Today I am your husband. Today I tell you to lower your robe, and if you deny me, the world will hear how the faithless wife of Jaoquim cavorted in her garden with a man who was not her husband." Terrified, Susanna refuses even when they threaten her with the certainty of being stoned for adultery. "Susanna could lower her robe to these monsters who believe they can take whatever they want simply because they have the power...But if she does what they ask, she will be dead tomorrow either way. "
The elders lie about what happened in the garden and Susanna is ready to be stoned when Daniel, a respected young leader happens upon the scene. He questions the elders, determines they are lying as their stories are inconsistent and has them stoned. Susanna is freed. From Susanna's story, Artemisia learns to speak her truth, to speak out and let her voice be heard. She learns to be strong.

The other story Prudentia tells Artemisia is that of Judith, whose husband, Malachi died after being sent to investigate how close the Assyrians have come to the Jewish city of Bethulia which they have besieged. Bethulia's rulers have decided to hunker down and wait out the siege, meaning certain death for Judith and her people and rendering Malachi's death a waste. Outraged, Judith formulates a plan and with her servant Abra, travels during the night to the Assyrian camp and into the tent of Holofernes, the captain of the army. There she seduces him and then beheads him with his own sword. Judith and Abra carry Holofernes' head back to Bethulia. The Assyrian army flees, abandoning the siege and Bethulia is saved.

From Judith's story Artemisia learns that she is strong, despite the fact that she will be told she is "too small, too weak, too feebleminded to be of use." Her mother counsels,"The world will tell you not to be outraged, love. They will tell you to sit quietly, be kind. Be a lady. And when they do? Be Judith instead."

These examples of strong women help Artemisia find her voice to accuse Signor Tassi and to endure a trial in the hopes of achieving justice. Like Susanna, Artemisia's story is not believed. Instead, she is tortured to determine if her testimony is true. Her hands are her life, but Artemisia submits to having thumb screws applied, severely wounding her hands, so determined is she to obtain justice for the rape.

Blood Water Paint is Joy McCullough's tenth novel. It began as a play which was eventually performed in 2015. As she was working on the play over the years, Mc Cullough began to see the possibility of it as a novel that might be of interest to teens.

In light of the recent #metoo movement, Blood Water Paint is a timely novel that asks the reader to consider the many issues surrounding rape and sexual harassment. These include victim blaming, sexual objectification and the trivializing of rape. McCullough also explores how social attitudes about sexuality and gender influence how rape is perceived and how it is treated by the courts and by society in general.

During the trial, Artemisia is treated by the court as though she is the one who has committed a crime. The trial drags on for months with Tassi showing up in court in "showy costumes", his story changing daily. Agostino testifies that she is a whore, "My studio is less for painting than for vulgar rendezvous", love letters are produced, despite the fact that Artemisia cannot write and a list of lovers given - including her father! The judge orders Artemisia examined by midwives for proof that her "pudenda" which in Latin is translated as "parts to be ashamed of" shows that she is not a virgin. The painful examination causes panic in Artemisia who feels like she is being raped again.
"My integrity must be tested
while Agostino smirks,
a man who raped
his wife,
her sister,
possibly even
had them killed."

McCullough, in her retelling of Susanna's story, has her appear ungrateful towards Daniel, questioning him as to what he would have done had the two elders stories not conflicted. Her point is that her testimony of what happened was never considered to be enough to prove her innocence. In the same way, Artemisia's account of what happened was also not considered sufficient. It was only accepted after she maintained her testimony was true under the pain of torture.
"...when I cried out
in the courtroom
like a child.

It's true.
It's true.
It's true."

The theme of contrasting perspectives is developed throughout the novel. The word "perspective" has two meanings, for the artist it is a way of portraying depth and distance but it can also mean an attitude or point of view about something. McCullough incorporates both meanings into her story. At first Artemisia mentions single point perspective,"one vanishing point. The place where all lines parallel to the view converge"'This is a foreshadowing of the violent convergence of Artemisia and Signor Tassi's lives.
Although Artemisia knows single point perspective, Signor Tassi is engaged to teach her dual point perspective, something she needs to paint Susanna. Artemisia's paintings of Susanna demonstrate this perspective but there is also another meaning - the dual or two points of view of the events the artwork portrays - that of Susanna and that of the evil Elders intent on raping her.

McCullough contrasts Artemisia's perspective of painting the attempted rape of Susanna with that of men such as her father. Artemisia knows that her father cannot paint Susanna in the same way she can.
"Father's made attempts at Susanna,
just like the other painters - men-
who think they have the right
to tell the story of a woman
always watched.

But one can't truly tell a story
unless they've lived it in their heart."

His version of Susanna is that of a girl welcoming the attentions of the men who have watched her bathe.
"It doesn't matter.
He never listened
to my mother's stories, never bothered
to notice the fear of women.
He'll tell Susanna
just like all the others."
Like the other masters before him who painted this scene, Artemisia's father cannot comprehend "a woman's feelings in that moment."
Their paintings do not reflect the reality of a woman's experience, the feelings that only a woman can know.

"...The way the masters paint her,
the men are monstrous,
creeping, loathsome beasts,
obvious villains.
Yet Susanna wears
a smile that says
she welcomes their attentions."
The masters are perpetuating the myth that a woman who has been raped enjoyed it and indeed may have even encouraged it. Ironically this is exactly the perspective Signor Tassi, a rapist, takes. His "perspective" later on is to question Artemisia, "What was wrong with taking what you offered?"

Blood Water Paint is an interesting blend of poetry and prose, and of storytelling and painting. Fans of historical fiction will find this novel an engaging read while those interested in the social issues surrounding rape, especially from a historical perspective will find McCullough's novel has much to offer. There are many themes, some of which have been touched on here to further explore.

Book Details:

Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough
New York: Dutton Books 2018
292 pp.

The Kitchen Madonna, written in 1967 by renowned author Rumer Godden tells the story of a young boy's love for his family's Ukrainian housekeeper and his determination to make her feel at home.

Nine-year-old Gregory Thomas lives with his parents and his seven-year-old sister, Janet in London, England.Gregory's parents are both busy architects so they employ "help"' in the form of an older woman named Marta. Marta who has been with the family for three months now has made life much easier for Mrs. Thomas. "Marta was tireless, clean and a beautiful cook"although Mrs. Thomas believes she gives the children "...rather too rich and spicy foods."Janet wishes Marta could stay with them forever and Gregory is "so tired of changes" as they have had several helpers over the past two years. Gregory loves that Marta is "always there". He feels safe by her constant presence.

But Marta is desperately unhappy. Gregory's mother believes it is too lonely for her.Marta was a refugee, driven from her village by soldiers. Marta had been shot at by the soldiers and she never saw her parents again. Marta liked the kitchen in her home where everything was done, cooking, eating, sitting and sleeping. This astonishes Janet especially when she learns that Marta's family slept on top of the oven. Marta tells Gregory and Janet that their kitchen is empty, that it feels empty.

Gregory who never forgets, waits for a week before he finally asks Marta what exactly is missing. "' In my home, Ukrainian home,' said Marta, 'We make a good place. In the corner, there' and she showed an angle of the room. 'A place on top of cupboard, perhaps, or perhaps on shelf. Little place but it holy because we keep there Our Lady and Holy Child.'" Marta tells them that they keep a "picture" crusted with gold, "with gold and stones, pearls, rubies..." and that there were pieces of cloth on the picture as well. Gregory understand that Marta is talking about a type of icon. Gregory becomes determined to find Marta an icon.

Trips to the British Museum, and to Rostov's - a jeweller in Panton Place don't quite provide Gregory what he's looking for. Rostov's is far too expensive and the store clerks are dismissive. However, when Gregory and Janet unexpectedly seek shelter in a church during a rainstorm, it is in the church that Gregory receives his inspiration. Hanging on a pillar is a sort of picture. "It was a Madonna and Child, a Jesus-Mary, in a heavy painted frame, but both Mother and Child stood out of the picture - 'Because they are dressed whispered Gregory - dressed as Marta had described them in stuffs and gold. The crowns were gold lace carefully cut; the veil and cloak were blue edged with silver and stuck with sequins and beads that glittered. The Mother's robe was red, patterned with silver and the Child's small robe was red too, covered with silver and beads."The two children read that this is a picture of Our Lady of Czestochowa, Queen of Poland. Janet believes this is Marta's "icon" but Gregory tells her its not really and icon. Looking at how the picture has been decorated, gives Gregory an idea of just how he might make a picture for Marta so that their kitchen is no longer "empty".

As is often the case, helping others has the most unexpected consequences.

Discussion

The Kitchen Madonna is the first of several classic Rumer Godden books that will be reviewed on this blog in the coming months. Godden was born in 1907 in India, where she lived in the town of Narayanganj which is now part of Bangladesh. Rumer had an older sister Jon who was quite beautiful and popular and two younger sisters,Nancy who was her father's favourite and Rose who was the youngest. Rumer and her sister Jon lived in India until the end of World War I and then were sent to England to attend a High Anglican boarding school in East Grinstead. This was a terrible experience for the two sisters. Eventually, after being sent to various schools, Rumer settled in at a school while Jon was sent to art school. Rumer returned to India when she was seventeen and opened a dance school.

Rumer had a social awakening after reading A Passage To India, coming to realize the racial and class prejudices that existed at that time. It wasn't until after she married in 1934, that Rumer began writing. Her first book was Chinese Puzzle in 1936. Rumer Godden wrote several children's books including The Doll's House, The Fairy Doll, Candy Floss and Miss Happiness and Miss Flower. Among her more popular adult novels were Black Narcissus, In This House of Brede and Five For Sorrow, Ten for Joy. A dominant theme in her adult fiction is the loss of innocence and how that affects life. Rumer Godden converted to Catholicism in 1968 but much of her fiction has a touch of Catholicism and spirituality throughout.

She once stated that she felt writers are " simply an instrument through which the wind blows and I believe it is the Holy Spirit that makes the artist creative. My writing is something outside me that I've been chosen to do and I think that is what has enabled me to go on."

The Kitchen Madonna is a beautifully crafted story portraying the sacrificial efforts of a young boy to help alleviate the sadness of his family's live-in housekeeper, a middle-aged Ukrainian woman named Marta. Marta fled her home, was shot at by soldiers and suffered the loss of her parents. The exact details of what happened are not presented, but the reader comes to understand that Marta is deeply unhappy. Gregory is a sensitive, quiet boy who intuitively understands that "Marta's sadness had nothing to do with her country, it was of now." He is determined to learn the root of her sadness. Marta tells the Thomas family that their kitchen has no "good place" - a place for the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Holy Child. Marta explains that this is a special kind of picture with "gold and stones, pearls, rubies...Sometimes real, sometimes no." Gregory immediately grasps that this is a kind of icon.

Marta's sadness touches something deep within Gregory and he becomes determined to get her an icon. Although Marta hopes God will send her a picture, Gregory knows that he's the one to get the picture Marta desires. "'God won't give her that picture, nor Mother, nor Father. I shall,' said Gregory." However, this proves far more difficult than Gregory or Janet imagined. They encounter a series of obstacles mostly due to the fact that they are young children without much money nor a means to travel around the city of London. But each obstacle is overcome with ingenuity and sacrifice that demonstrates the children's love for Marta and results in .

Their journey begins with a trip to the British Museum that will take most of their money. Janet is reluctant to give up her shillings because she is saving up for a pony. However Gregory admonishes her. "You mustn't be selfish." he tells his younger sister. They soon discover that an icon costs much more money than either of them have. And their money woes are compounded when they lose Janet's purse on the way home from the church near Rostov's store.

Gregory and Janet's sacrifices take on a much more personal note when Gregory actually begins creating the picture. When working out how to make her picture, Gregory decides he will use the frame from his beloved ship picture and paint it gold. But soon he discovers that he needs even more than that. Gregory is unable to find any scrap of material from Madame Ginette's donations that will work for the sky. Janet attempts to help, trading a pencil-sharpener and "a whole packet of peppermints" for a piece of pale blue velvet. When this doesn't work, "Janet almost cried with disappointment." Janet feels her sacrifice of peppermints was useless. When Janet suggests that he use the sky from his "ship picture" Gregory is breathless, questioning "Cut up my ship picture for Marta?"

But this supreme sacrifice for what Gregory calls a more important picture, results in the picture coming together much more quickly and easily. "It was the first right step and almost at once he found the next...he found a piece of coral coloured cotton that, he suddenly saw, would make the veil and the Baby's robe..." Gregory's final sacrifice comes when he offers Mrs. Bartholomew his watch in exchange for a pound of toffee.Barty as she is called refuses his watch, instead writing him an I.O.U. Although Gregory is completely prepared to sacrifice his watch it is not necessary.

In helping Marta, and with each sacrifice, Gregory undergoes a journey that changes him. At the beginning of the novel, Gregory is described by his sister Janet as someone who "hardly ever does anything". "Gregory is a quiet boy, always first in his class at school but oddly out of things at home. 'He puts himself out of things,' Janet would have said and Mother complained, 'Gregory keeps himself to himself.'" Gregory's quietness is not understood by his mother who states,"'He never hugs you as Janet does,...He's so wrapped up in himself that sometimes I wonder if he has a heart -- and he's so possessive." Gregory also has the knack of never forgetting, he doesn't like to touch people and the Loft where he reads, is off limits to all.

As Gregory works on obtaining a picture for Marta, he begins to come out of himself. For example, when they are at the British Museum, it is Gregory who surprises Janet, asking where the icons are kept. He even carries on a conversation with a complete stranger in the icon room and gets their next lead in the search for an icon. At Rostov's, Gregory "quailed" at the shop door, fearful of entering, but he eventually works up the courage to do so. And while the shop's vastness and brightness makes Janet want to leave, Gregory is not afraid. While Janet "jibbed like a frightened little calf" , Gregory states that he wants to see the owner. "His voice, in its clearness and grandeur, reached all around the room, even to where an older man with white hair was writing at a desk at the back."When the men in the shop ridicule the children, Gregory stands his ground, "We didn't come here to be laughed at."he tells them. Although the visit to Rostov's ends badly Gregory has seen the kind of icon he believes Marta has in mind.

Gregory has his own space at home which he calls the Loft. It has a drawing table similar to his architect-father's drafting table, and he also has a favourite "painting of a little ship ploughing along in a rough sea under a pale blue sky with cotton wool clouds". Instead of asking Janet to leave his special space as he normally does, Gregory allows her presence as he considers the problem of Marta's picture. As he works away, Gregory notes, "Janet still breathed down his neck as he worked but something seemed to stop Gregory from snapping at her; perhaps it was those two pairs of pictured eyes that looked so steadily at him. He was patient with Janet and let her stay where she had never been allowed to stay before, in the Loft. He even let her go on with her questions."

When Gregory is unable to find the pieces of fabric for the Madonna, he acts on Janet's suggestion to visit their mother's milliner, Madame Ginette. Puzzled by Gregory's request, Madame Ginette asks him to explain why he needs the scraps. "For the first time Gregory smiled and then he, who never, as Mother complained, told anyone anything, told Madame Ginette about Marta, the good place and the Kitchen Madonna." When Janet learns of Gregory's visit, she is stunned that Gregory went to Madame Ginette's alone AND that he spoke to her.

Determined to finish the picture, Gregory continues to reach out to those who might have what he needs. When he needs more wrappers for the border of the picture, he decides to visit the sweet shop, whose proprietor he has never spoken to and whose name he doesn't know. "What made him decide to carry out this business too without Janet he did not know, but he went alone and stood studying the toffees in their big glass jar." His explanation of why he needs the wrappers, stuns Mrs. Bartholomew. "Who would ever have thought you were that kind of boy. Proper stuck-up I thought you were: never a word for anybody...."

And when Gregory and Janet present the picture to their parents, telling them the entire story of how it came to be made, Gregory gives his sister her credit,"'Because of Janet,' said Gregory -- and Janet glowed with pleasure -- 'Because of Janet I found a way to make the picture after all.'" When Gregory cannot understand his mother's tears, she explains,
"'What have you don?' said Mother through her tears. 'Lots of things. You began by sharing Rootle with Marta. You gave up your ship picture. You were ready to give up your watch, and here we all are in your Loft where you would never let us in.'....

'Yes!' said Mother. 'You let us in, Greg, and you have come out,' said Mother, which they did not understand."

The Kitchen Madonna is such a sweet story, chronicling how small acts of love can have such significant consequences in our lives.

Book Details:

The Kitchen Madonna by Rumer Godden
Toronto: Macmillian and Company Ltd. 1967
93 pp.

Love and War picks up months after the marriage of Elizabeth Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton. It is April 1781 and the War of Independence is raging. Elizabeth is living at the Pastures, her parents' estate in Albany. Eliza, desperately missing Alexander, has been out with her sisters, Angelica, Peggy, five year old Cornelia and eight-year-old Rensselaer picking a rich harvest of berries.

Eliza is impatient to move out of her parents home, wishing that she and Alex could set up their own home soon but they have been apart more than they have been together. After their marriage he had rushed back to General Washington's headquarters. Before Alex leaves to report back to duty, Eliza's family have planned a goodbye party this evening.

Eliza's father General Philip Schuyler, her husband Alexander Hamilton, as well as Angelica's husband John Barker Church have gone into town on business. In the back room of the Schuylkill Tavern the three men seal a munitions agreement where Church will "provide five hundred rifles, twenty barrels of powder, and two tons of shot to General Washington at Newburgh, and the Continental army will pay you one thousand pounds sterling." When pressed, Alex reveals that he plans to ask General Washington for his own unit to command.

This greatly concerns his father-in-law who fears that Eliza will be left a widow. Alex tells General Schuyler and John that he intends to fight at Yorktown, Virginia where the British under General Cornwallis has gathered his troops. It is a matter of pride - he doesn't want to thought of as a coward who "spent the war in a paneled office with a pen in his hand and a warm fire at his back..." When further pressed if he has revealed his ambitions to Eliza, Alex admits he has not done so yet. Alex know this will break Eliza's heart but he is determined.

Meanwhile in the Schuyler mansion, Eliza pays her mother a visit in her parents' bedroom. Eliza's mother, Catherine is due anytime to deliver what will be her last child. Catherine asks Eliza to play host to the party in the evening, concerned that Angelica's connection to her husband who is British makes her unsuitable as host. The party turns out to be a large affair with many important persons in attendance including George Clinton, governor of New York State. Eliza is thrilled to be with Alex again. However her happiness is ruined when she learns from Governor Clinton that Alex is intending to lead a regiment into battle at Yorktown. Shocked and deeply hurt by her husband's lack of consideration, Eliza argues with Alex and they part for the evening unreconciled. For two days the young couple are not together but when Alex takes his leave to travel to General Washington, Eliza shares her concerns while Alex apologizes profusely.

Alex is given the command by General Washington he so desperately wants and marches to Williamsburg with his soldiers. On the way he gets to know them better, by sharing in the hardships of the march.At Williamsburg, Washington and Count de Rochambeau, the French General, finalize their plans for the battle at Yorktown. During their discussions, Alex learns from his friend the Marquis de Lafayette, that Lafayette's aide, Major Jean-Joseph Sourbader de Gimat will lead Alex's troops - the First and Second New York and the Fifteenth Connecticut into battle. Dismayed and angered, Alex passionately makes his case for being allowed to lead his troops into battle and wins General Washington consent. The patriots succeed in winning the battle ending the war for the colonies' independence from Great Britain.

Back in Albany, Catherine Schuyler gives birth to a healthy girl who is named after her mother. Three months after Catherine's birth, the Schuyler family is accosted by redcoats at the Pastures. Eliza confronts the men in a friendly manner, bluffing that her father is on his way back with twenty armed men and fortunately for the Schuyler family, they leave.

With the defeat of the English at Yorktown, Alex resigns his commission and heads for home. As Washington and others begin working to build a new nation, Alex and Eliza commence their new life too, in New York City. It will prove to be a trying time for the young couple both in their marriage and financially but it will also see Eliza cement her position in New York society and Alex establish his reputation as a lawyer of considerable skill.

Discussion

Love and War is the second book of the trilogy by Melissa de la Cruz about the life of Alexander and Eliza Hamilton and continues their story a few months after their wedding. De la Cruz's version presents a sort of 'bare bones' version of Eliza and Alexander's early years of marriage in Part I which covers the year 1781 to the end of 1783. Eliza did not remain with her family in Albany but travelled to Windsor to be near Alex while he was part of General Washington's army. They also had their first child, Philip in January, 1782. De la Cruz admits in her Author's Note that she deliberately left out any children in the her retelling of the Hamilton's story. This is a fairly big departure from their real life story which de la Cruz uses to drive the increasing tension between Alex and Eliza.

In Part I the major tension between the couple is due to Alex's determination to fight in the War of Independence. Alex doesn't tell Eliza and when she learns of his intent, she is devastated. Confronted by Eliza, Alex tells her, "I am a soldier, Eliza, and a good one. Without a command, I would never rise in the ranks, never gain the respect and honor I am due,...Please, try to understand. I am no one, I am nothing. I did this for us." However, Eliza retorts that this is something a man might do, "...But a husband -- never," While Eliza argues that Alex's sharp mind could be put to better use helping"the transition from colony to country", for Alex it is a matter of pride. "What kind of man would I be if I was content to send others to the front lines while I took shelter in the general's tent?"

Part II of Love and War deals with Eliza and Alex's early life in New York City where they moved in 1783 as he launches his law career. This part of the novel deviates significantly from the real life story of the Hamiltons. Well into their marriage, they are no longer newlyweds, and have no children. Alex's focus is on his law practice while Eliza remains at home, considering her china and silverware. Eventually she does become involved in New York society but finds that she and Alex have little time together. This is in stark contrast to her portrayal in the first part of the novel as a strong woman involved in society, who undertook "fund-raising and fabric drives that had made her simultaneously the most admired and most dreaded girl in the capital region." De la Cruz also has Eliza sitting for her portrait by Ralph Earl who is in debtors prison in 1784 but her portrait was not painted by Earl until 1787. By this time Eliza and Alex had three children.In Part II, the focus is on an increasingly distracted and inattentive Alex who works late and often forgets to communicate with his wife. Eliza feels abandoned and finds herself beginning to notice the attentions of another man. Meanwhile, Alex heads off the attentions of a loyalist war widow he is representing in court. This sets the stage for the third novel which will likely feature the crisis in their marriage

Love and War, although rich in detail about life in colonial America, is in some ways a very modern retelling. In the spring of 1781, Eliza's views on children and marriage are presented. Eliza considers her mother's twelve pregnancies, "astonishing", an attitude that would have been unlikely for that era as it was common for women to have many children, often well into their forties. Of those twelve pregnancies, seven children died, some before they could be baptized. Eliza wonders, "True, seven lived and provided their parents with all the joys that children can impart, but one death for every life? It seemed almost too high a price to pay." This attitude was also probably uncharacteristic for a woman in this era as both maternal and infant death was an acknowledged part of life. There was very little understanding of how to prevent deaths in childbirth, which were not the result of too many pregnancies but to poor nutrition and lack of obstetrical knowledge. Doctors had limited means of intervention in the late 1700's.

Eliza also exhibits a very modern view of motherhood, marriage and life. She wonders at the awesome responsibility of becoming a parent at a young age. It is likely Eliza would have been prepared for this role in life by her mother and the social norms that existed at the time. In the 1700's she would expect to marry young and to bear children at a young age. However her thinking about her own place in the world of colonial America is decidedly progressive. "How could she expect to rear and mold a brood of her own, when she was still trying to decide not only who she was, but how she would be in the world?"Eliza remarkably states that she doesn't think "that raising children should be all a woman concerned herself with either." Although maybe a wealthy woman like Eliza Hamilton could entertain the possibility of doing things other than raising children, for most women, raising a family was their sole occupation and was considered an important duty.

Love and War will definitely appeal to fans of the Broadway musical, Hamilton. Readers should not expect an accurate portrayal of Alex and Eliza Hamilton's lives or their attitudes at that time, but one that will definitely fuel their interest and which may encourage them to research the real story behind these two famous Americans who lived at a time when a new country was being forged.

Book Details:

Love and War by Melissa de la Cruz
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons 2018
366 pp.

Bloom tells the story of fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli who was most famous for her creations during the interwar decades of 1920 and 1930's. Elsa was responsible for many significant contributions to fashion.

Elsa Luisa Maria Schiaparelli was born in Rome, in her family's home at the Palazzo Corsini, in 1890. She was born into a family with several accomplished intellectuals. Her father, Celestino Schiaparelli was a scholar whose research focused on the Middle Ages and who was Dean of the University of Rome. His brother, Elsa's uncle, Giovanni Schiaparelli discovered the canals on Mars. And a cousin of the Elsa's father and uncle, Ernesto Schiaparelli was the director of the Museo Egizio in Turin and a noted Egyptologist.

Elsa seemed destined from the beginning to be rebellious and unsettled.She had a rebellious childhood often playing pranks that had serious consequences. She attended the University of Rome, studying philosophy. During this time she wrote a book of poetry titled Arethusa, that her parents considered scandalous. Their response was to force her into a convent but she was able to leave after undertaking a hunger strike. She left her family in Rome in 1913 and worked as a nanny in England to avoid marrying a Russian man whom her parents favoured. However, in London she became involved with Willem de Wendt, who also used the surname of de Kerlor and who was a sort of psychic involved in many different schemes including fortune telling. Many considered him a swindler. Elsa became engaged to him a day after meeting him! They married and were eventually forced to leave England, travelling to several countries before moving to America.

Elsa was eventually abandoned by de Kerlor in 1920, leaving her to care for their daughter, Maria Louisa Yvonne Radha whom she nicknamed Gogo. She returned to Paris in 1922 where she continued to receive support from her mother. Although she had no training in the making of patterns and the sewing of clothing, Elsa began designing her own clothing. At first she made pieces for various clients. Her first big success came with hand knit sweaters featuring a black and white trompe l'oeil design. These took the fashion world by storm and Elsa's fashion career was off and running.

Elsa Schiaparelli from Vogue

In the 1930's Elsa Schiaparelli became involved with many famous artists who were part of the Surrealist movement. These included Salvatore Dali, Jean Cocteau, Alberto Giacometti and Leonor Fini. In collaboration with these artists, Elsa created some very distinct and creative pieces of clothing, including a dress with a lobster painted on by Dali, and an evening coat featuring what appears to be a vase of roses but also two profiles facing each other.

Elsa's contributions to fashion included the wedge shoe, the jumpsuit, paper clothes, transparent raincoats, specialty furs, the scarf dress, and coloured hosiery. She popularized pants and shoulder pads and her signature colour was a vibrant magenta which she named "Shocking". Many famous actresses of the period wore her clothes including Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Katherine Hepburn and Joan Crawford.

Kyo Maclear presents a very simple version of Elsa Schiaparelli's life, bringing out some of the more interesting details that are sure to capture the interest of younger readers. Elsa's life is portrayed as that of a child not welcomed by her parents. Hoping for a boy, her parents had no name for her and gave her the name of a nurse. According to the story in Bloom, Elsa's sister Beatrice was the favourite of their parents who often referred to Elsa as "Brutta". Although her life was complicated, Elsa persevered, overcoming "Mamma's harsh words and Pappa's judgement" and opened her first shop at the age of thirty-seven! According to Maclear, Elsa's success is marred by the belief that her parents and Beatrice "will never approve of the path I have taken."

Throughout Bloom, Maclear incorporates quotes from Elsa's autobiography, "Shocking Life: The Autobiography of Elsa Schiaparelli". This picture book employs brilliant magenta throughout - reminiscent of Elsa's favourite colour. Elsa's story is brought to life by the colourful artwork of Julie Morstad who utilized liquid watercolour, gouache, and pencil crayons to create the illustrations for Bloom.

There's no doubt Elsa Shiaparelli is a fashion designer largely forgotten by most today. But her influence can be found in much of the clothing considered fashionable by women. Bloom helps to remind readers, young and not-so-young about this famous Italian designer whose major competition was Coco Chanel!

The website, Kaleidoscope Jewellry has an interesting post on Elsa Schiaparelli's twelve commandments for women featuring some photographs of her exquisite embroidery that are worth checking out.

Book Details:

Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli by Kyo Maclear and Julie Morstad
New York: Tundra Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada Young Readers 2018

Jeanne Bendick was a well known author of many books, most of them focused on science. Jeanne was born in 1919 in New York City. Her career as an illustrator began while attending the Parsons School of Design. During this time she created illustrations for the children's magazine, Jack and Jill. After graduating in 1939, with the start of World War II, both Jeanne and her husband became part of the war effort. She joined the American Woman's Voluntary Services while her husband enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force.

Jeanne wrote about many different topics with an appealing simplicity. "Jeanne Bendick had a remarkable ability through her straightforward writing and illustration to present complex scientific concepts in a form that was understandable by children."She was part of a group of three authors who wrote a science textbook for elementary school-aged children, Jeanne's last book, Herodotus and the Road to History was published in 2009 when she was ninety-one!! Jeanne was writing books on science at a time when there were few women in the science disciplines. Jeanne passed away on March 14, 2014 at the age of ninety-five.

Jeanne's book, Galen and the Gateway to Medicine traces the life and achievements of Galen, doctor to the Roman emperors. Galen was born in 129 AD in the Greek city of Pergamum during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. At the time of Galen's birth, Pergamum was a city within the Roman empire which included all of "the lands around the Mediterranean Sea, much of Europe (including England), part of Africa, the whole Middle East and some of Asia.

Little is known about Galen's family except that his father was Nicon, a famous engineer and architect who "was also a mathematician, a philosopher, an astronomer and a botanist."Nicon taught Galen during his early childhood and then he was sent to study in school as other Greek youths did. As a student, Galen studied history, philosophy, science and geometry. He especially loved math.

Galen's study of medicine began at the Temple of Aesculapius in Pergamum. Aesculapius was the Greek god of medicine, the first physician. After completing his studies at the Aesculapium, and with the death of his father, Galen decided to travel and study medical practices in other places. First he travelled to Smyrna where he studied with Pelops, a famous physician. Then he continued on to Corinth and from there travelled to Alexandria, Egypt to the most famous medical school in the ancient world, The Museum. It was here that Galen developed many of his ideas about the human body and how it worked. Although some of his theories were very wrong, "Galen was trying to put together what he observed into a theory that explained how the parts of the human body functioned together as an interconnected system."

After nine years away, Galen returned to Pergamum where he worked as a physician to the gladiators in his home city. But his greatest adventures lay in the greatest city at that time, Rome. It was here Galen's reputation as a great physician came to be known throughout the Roman world and his work passed down through the centuries.

Discussion

Galen and the Gateway to Medicine traces Galen's path to becoming the most respected physician of his time, one whose writings on the human body were considered definitive for the next 1500 years!

The author incorporates historical information into each phase of Galen's interesting life in a way that is engaging and yet informative for younger readers. For example, at the beginning of the book, readers are given a detailed picture of what life would have been like for a young Galen in second century Pergamum. Everything from what Galen might have had for breakfast to the foods found at the market, the types of houses in Pergamum to descriptions of the gymnasium and the baths. In describing Galen's studies in school in Pergamum, readers are introduced to many famous historical figures including Herodotus, Plato, and Aristotle.

When Galen attends medical school at the medical school at the Temple of Aesculapius Bendick describes how the Greeks treated illness, their beliefs about how the human body functioned and how the number four, an important number to the Greeks, influenced the way they viewed the natural world around them.

Bendick uses Galen's travels to Smyrna, Egypt and Rome to describe modes of transportation, the tools a physician might use in his practice, life in Alexandria - a great center of learning in Galen's time, and the gladiators in Rome. In describing Galen's life in Rome, Bendick covers many aspects of life in the Roman Empire in the second century including what it meant to practice medicine and pharmacology during this era. The author also cover's

The chapter "After Galen" explores the advances made in medicine, almost fifteen hundred years after Galen's death. Galen's ideas about the human body and illness were considered untouchable for generations, until the Middle Ages. Bendick explores what led to rethinking Galen's ideas in the Renaissance.

Galen and the Gateway to Medicine is a fascinating exploration into the history of medicine. Bendick writes in an easy style that flows naturally from one chapter to the next. The text is accompanied by the author's hand drawn maps and line illustrations and portraits. A worthwhile read for those interested in the history of science and medicine.

Book Details:

Galen and the Gateway to Medicine by Jeanne Bendick
Bathgate, ND: Bethlehem Books Ignatius Press 2002
131 pp.

When Vincent Montague was young, he had two pictures in his bedroom. One he painted in his Primary art class after his teacher, Miss Weatherly had them "paint a story". Vincent painted an "old traveller sitting on the steps of his gypsy caravan, h is piebald horse grazing the grass nearby" with a police care also in the painting. The inspiration for the painting was a story he had read in a book. The other painting was a picture by someone named "Vincent". It was of "four boats on a beach, with the sea and sky behind."

When he was older, Vincent discovered that the boat picture was painted by Vincent Van Gogh, "down by the sea, just a few miles from where he was living, in a town called Arles." He learned from this book about Van Gogh from a bookstall in town. This created in Vincent a desire to see the places Van Gogh had visited and painted.

It was at this same time, while studying for his six form exams in his family's home in Watford, that Vincent discovered a note taped to the back of the Van Gogh picture. The note was from his grandparents, dated January 277, 1964. It told him that they visited "this beach in the Camargue region in the south of France, where Vincent Van Gogh had gone when he painted this picture."

Because of the boat painting and the note, Vincent decided to leave Watford after completing his exams and "follow the bend in the road". During the summer following exams, Vincent travelled to the Camargue in the south of France. While walking on "a causeway with pink lakes on both sides" with "flamingos nearby, strolling languidly through the shallows" Vincent became very ill and collapsed. He felt himself being carried and awoke to find himself in a small cottage. He meets Lorenzo, the tall man who found him and Kezia Charbonneau, who tells Vincent that she and Lorenzo are like brother and sister but are also best friends.

Fishing Boats on the Beach at Sains-e Maries, June 1888.

Vincent learns that Lorenzo Sully doesn't speak much, that he likes only those people who are kind and that he loves the flamingos which he watches over and cares for. Kezia tells Vincent that he is "on a farm far out in the marshes,... a few kilometres down the road, along the canal from a little town called Aigues-Mortes." When Vincent enquires as to how Kezia came to speak English so well, she tells him when he is sufficiently recovered she will tell him the story of how this came to be.

Gradually Vincent begins to recover, growing stronger from the rest, the delicious soups and crusty bread Kezia makes. Vincent also beings to understand Lorenzo more, how he speaks and his love of the flamingos. When he feels better, Vincent, in response to Kezia's questions, explains how he came to be wandering through the Camargue. This leads Kezia to begin to tell Vincent how she and Lorenzo who was known as Flamingo boy when he was little, met and how their lives became forever entwined. It is a story of friendship, trust and of mutual understanding.

Discussion

Award-winning British author, Michael Morpurgo was inspired to write Flamingo Boy because of his grandson autism. A trip to the Camargue in the South of France was the inspiration for both the setting and the idea of an autistic boy who couldn't relate well to others, but understood the world of animals. Morpurgo then set his novel during the occupation of France by the Germans and wove into it the painting by Vincent Van Gogh. It is the main character and narrator, Vincent Montague's love of the painting that sends him on his journey at the age of eighteen to visit the Camargue and ultimately changes the course of his life.

Morpurgo employs two narrators, Vincent Montague who is narrating the story in the present about meeting Kezia and Lorenzo when he was eighteen years old in 1981, and Kezia Charbonneau who takes over the book's narration and relates the story of her youth during the 1940's in occupied France. Morpurgo uses Kezia's innocence of youth in her narrative to keep the horrors of the Holocaust and the discrimination of those who are different somewhat distant, almost impersonal, diminishing the emotional impact of the story. Kezia's mother warns her about the Germans in a general sort of way."The Germans, they don't like Roma people, Kezia. I mean, more than most people they don't like us...They hate Jewish people too...Jewish people, Roma people -- the German's, the Milice, they want to be rid of us...And they hate children like Lorenzo too...Because he is different, Kezia --the same reason they hate us, and the Jews, because we are different." But the terror of the German occupation is diminished both by the isolation of the Sully farm and by the kindness of the local German Caporal.

Morpurgo uses the character of Caporal Willi Brenner, a teacher from Tubingen, Germany to demonstrate that not all German soldiers were Nazis. Many like Brenner were sometimes forced to fight against their will for the Third Reich. Brenner tells them that he was sent to Russia to fight, an experience so traumatic it turned his hair white and resulted in him losing toes due to frostbite. Brenner helps Kezia's family rebuild their carousel by bringing them wood which is scarce. He also helps both Kezia and Lorenzo's families by warning them about the Milice and the Gestapo, by having his soldiers block the road to the Sully farm so as to protect Kezia's from being taken by the Milice. Morpurgo often incorporates a sympathetic character in his novels to portray a more balanced approach, although the vast majority of German soldiers truly believed in what they were fighting for.

Flamingo Boy is classic Michael Morpurgo that most young readers, especially boys, will enjoy. Like most of Morpurgo's novels, the beautiful cover invites readers inside.Although Morpurgo delayed writing a novel that tackled the subject of autism because he felt he couldn't do it justice, he's done a fine job here. Lorenzo is an endearing character whose unusual ways help both Kezia and Willi Brenner learn to trust. Morpurgo's descriptions of a boy for whom trust and loyalty are paramount and who loves the flamingos of the Camargue, provide readers with a better understanding how someone with autism encounters the world in a way that is refreshing.

Book Details:

Flamingo Boy b Michael Morpurgo
London, England: HarperCollins Children's Books 2018
288 pp.

Mary's Monster by Lita Judge explores the life of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. Written in free verse accompanied by the author's impressive black and white illustrations, Judge tells the story of Mary Shelley's life and how she came to create one of the most famous novels of all time. There are nine parts to the book which spans the time period from 1801 to 1823. Judge employs two narrators; the Creature and Mary Shelley.

The book's opening Prologue is written in the voice of The Creature who tells the world that Mary Shelley created him as a way to expose the cruelty of the world.

In Part I Exile, fourteen-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft is on the deck of the Osnaburgh, heading for Scotland. Mary is feeling sad and isolated, remembering that her father did not see her off; only her sisters Fanny and Claire were there. She reminisces about her childhood.

Mary was born the night Herschel's comet blazed across the London sky. Mary's father told her the story of the comet and its discovery by a woman, Caroline Herschel leading Mary to believe she could do anything in life. She was encouraged to read, to be independent and to use her imagination. But that changed in 1802 when her father married the Widow Clairmont, bringing into their family her daughter Claire Clairmont and a son named Charles.

In 1805 the family moved from their home in Somers Town to an abandoned shop in Holborn, a block from the gallows at Newgate Prison. Mary's stepmother hoped that her father would write and sell books from the shop and get them out of their financial troubles. But her father was more interested in political and social issues. At this time Mrs. Godwin convinced Mary's father to send her away. She lives with a widower name Baxter and his daughters.

Part II My Second Birth, covers the period from June 1812 to March 1814. Mary is living at Mr. Baxters home at Broughty Ferry with his daughters. She soon develops a close friendship with Isabella Baxter who has a passion for the French Revolution. The Baxter's library contains many books including those written by both Mary's father and mother. Reading her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft's novel, Maria, encourages Mary to take up her mother's ideals. Scotland becomes Mary's "Eyrie of Freedom".

Part III Return to Darkness March to April 1814. Mary returns to London to live with her family in the overwhelming stench and squalor of Holborn. Her stepsister Claire is now fifteen, her sister Fanny is thin and withdrawn. Fanny is Mary's half-sister: she has a different father, a married man who abandoned their mother. A young poet named Percy Bysshe Shelley has been corresponding with Mary's father.

Part IV The Poet May-July 1814. Twenty-one-year-old Percy Shelley begins visiting the Godwins almost every day. Well-born and in line to inherit a fortune, Percy has been abandoned by his wife Harriet who is pregnant. Mary finds herself attracted to Percy from their first encounter. Soon Mary and Percy, along with Claire go for long walks, talking about galvanism, alchemy, gravity and astronomy. Fanny reminds Mary however, that Shelley is still married, that his wife is due to give birth to their second child soon, and that Shelley cannot be trusted - just as the man that got their mother pregnant abandoned her. However, Mary believes that people in love should be together. In late June, Mary and Percy make love beside her mother's grave after Percy reveals his tormented soul. Mary believes he simply needs to be loved.

Her decision to live with Shelley angers her father and stepmother. Shelley has promised Mary they will live in Switzerland like other free thinkers. Claire who passes letters between Mary and Shelley begs Mary to take her with them. Mary's father refuses to allow her to leave but on July 28, 1814, Mary and Shelley along with Claire race to Dover and then cross over to Calais, France. For Mary it is the beginning of life on her own terms, one that will result in much pain and loneliness but which will result in the creation of a new literary genre and one of the most famous works of literature of all time.

Discussion

Lita Judge, an awarding winning children's author and illustrator was inspired to write Mary's Monster after contracting a virus that led to her developing an serious autoimmune illness. During the next two years as she convalesced, Judge found herself rereading a favourite novel, Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein or A Modern Prometheus". Judge was fascinated by the fact that Shelley had written her novel when she was only eighteen years old. As she delved deeper in Shelley's life by reading her journals, Judge found herself and this led Judge to want to tell Mary's story and how she came to write Frankenstein.

The widely accepted account of how Mary Shelley came to write Frankenstein is that the germ of the story resulted from a dream Mary had after nights of reading ghost stories at the villa of Lord Byron. However, Judge's belief is that Mary Shelley's troubled life, her experiences of being mistreated by her father's second wife, of being sent away to Scotland, of being abandoned by her father when she became pregnant by her married lover Percy Bysshe Shelley and her many other hardships, were in fact the genesis of Frankenstein. In her Author's Note at the back, Judge writes,
"The popular myth is that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was conceived spontaneously on a stormy night in answer to a dare to write a ghost story. That evening did occur, but countless events in Mary's life before and after that evening played a much greater role in the horror novel's creation. My story is an attempt to trace the many origins of her genius. It's a testament to a resilient girl whose imagination, forged by isolation, persecution, and loss, created a new form of storytelling as a means of connecting with the very society that had socially exiled her."

In her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley explores the themes of pain, isolation and abandonment as Dr. Frankenstein rejects the creature he created. Her novel was also a commentary on the use of science in the early 1800's. During this time, many new discoveries were being made in science about the natural world. Mankind was on the cusp of the scientific age and hoped to tame the world through the use of science, especially the disciplines of alchemy and galvanism. Mary saw man's ambition to create life and to dominate nature as potentially destructive to the world and to man himself.

Like her father William Godwin, and mother Mary Wollenstonecraft, Mary also rebelled against the social norms of her day. Mary Wollstonecraft was a firm believer in the rights of women, believing that they were equal to men. She sets out her beliefs in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, written in 1792, probably her best known work. She had an affair with a married man, Gilbert Imlay, an American who ultimately abandoned her. Mary gave birth to a daughter, Fanny while in France where she was writing and studying the ongoing French Revolution. She attempted to restart her relationship with Imlay but he refused, resulting in two suicide attempts by Mary. Back in England Mary met William Godwin, an advocate for the abolition of marriage. Yet they married when Mary Wollstonecraft became pregnant. Mary died after giving birth to their daughter Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. William Godwin was a radical who had anarchist tendencies. His publication of his wife's biography after her death which acknowledged her affair with Imlay, her illegitimate child and her two suicide attempts brought him much criticism because all of these behaviours were seen as scandalous and immoral. Having read her father's biography of her mother and been exposed to his ideas, Mary attempted to live her life in accordance with those ideas but found the reality was much different. Her father did not approve of her relationship with Percy Shelley and when she became pregnant outside of marriage, she was shunned.

Judge accomplishes her goal with a brilliant retelling of Mary Shelley's life in nine parts, the number nine being significant because it is the number of months of pregnancy and Mary's Frankenstein was written over a period of nine months, while she was pregnant with her second daughter Clara. She considered her novel her creative progeny. Through Mary's story, readers learn of the events in her life that ultimately influenced her writing Frankenstein. By writing her story in free verse, Judge pares Mary's life down to the important essentials while still retaining the pain, loneliness and sense of betrayal that Mary must have felt. Judge's ink, watercolour and pencil illustrations capture the dark moods of Percy Shelley, the emotional and physical struggles Mary endured, and the pain of the creature. The author story-boarded much of the book before beginning the writing process. Her timeline of creating the novel can be found on her website page, Mary's Monster Timeline.

Mary's Monster also includes an "Introduction" which introduces readers to both Mary Shelley and her novel Frankenstein. In her "Author's Note" at the back, Judge explains how she drew on a wealth of primary sources including Mary Shelley's journals, which events she excluded and provides an interesting exposition on parts of Mary's life. Her "What Became of Them" details the lives of family and several contemporaries of Mary Shelley. There is also a "What Were They Reading" section that lists what Mary and Percy were reading during their lives and a "Notes" that provides references for events in Mary's Monster.

Overall Mary's Monster is really quite an outstanding work and is a must read for fans of Frankenstein. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully executed.

Book Details:

Mary's Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created FRANKENSTEIN by Lita Judge
New York: Roaring Brook Press 2018
312 pp.

Daughter of Nomads is the first of two novels set in the Mughal Empire in 1662 about a young girl struggling to find her destiny. The novel opens in Sherwan, a village in the Kingdom of Hazara. Jahani lives with her mother, Hafeezah in a mud home in the village. Hafeezah is different from the other women in their village. She wears an embroidered cap with a white dupatta and her mother tongue is Burushaski, the language spoken in Hahayul, the most northern kingdom of the Qurragoram Mountains on the Silk Route. However, Hafeezah has insisted that they only speak Burushaski at home and Hindustani in public. Hafeeza is always concerned for Jahani's safety, often whispering blessings over her and even making Jahani wear a silver taveez, a sort of good luck token.

Jahani awakens after a recurring nightmare, excited because this day, she and her best friend Sameela will be travelling to the bazaar to buy henna for Sameela's mehendi party. Sameela will be married next week after seven days of festivities. Jahani is taken to the bazaar with Sameela in a horse-drawn carriage, a tonga. When their tonga gets caught in a throng of donkey wagons and people, Jahani and Sameela jump out. As they leave a shop after Sameela buys henna and bangles, the two girls are pushed and fall to the ground. Jahani is unhurt, but Sameela has been knifed. A stranger takes them back to Jahani's house where Sameela's father comes to claim his dead daughter. Jahani is devastated by the death of her best friend.

That night after Sameela's funeral and wake, Hafeezah reveals that she is not Jahani's birth mother and that her real parents are Aunty Zarah and Uncle Baqir who live in the Kingdom of Kaghan near the Kingdom of Hahayul in the Qurraqoram Mountains. When Jahani was four years old, someone tried to harm her but she was saved by the young son of Baqir's master of horse and by a snow leopard. The next day Zarah arranged for Hafeezah to take Jahani away to Sherwan. Now Hafeezah believes Jahani is once again in danger.

The next morning Jahani tells Hafeezah she intends to journey north to find Zarah and Baqir despite Hafeezah forbidding it. Hafeezah arranges for Jahani to have an armed escort - the young man who brought Jahani and Sameela home from the bazaar. The young man, Azhar Sekandar has been guarding Jahani for some time. He advises they leave immediately to avoid the rainy season, bringing war horses for them to ride. That night Azhar flies southwest to to Persia on his Persian carpet. Azhar first learned that Jahani was alive when he was seventeen years old. His foster father, Kifayat Ullah indicated Jahani was alive but hidden in a village she had been taken to nine years earlier. Kifayat had made Azhar wait a year before searching for her, until he mastered flying the Persian carpet. This would allow him to return to Kifayat in Jask regularly. Azhar became Jahani's protector with the knowledge of Hafeezah.

Azhar wants to take Jahani to north to the mountains, but Kifayat advises Azhar to make the journey in stages so that Jahani can learn about her identity gradually. He returns to Sherwan, and early the next morning, with Jahani on a white horse named Chandi and Hafeezah riding Sitarah, they quietly leave. From the beginning their journey north is fraught with difficulties. Two days in they discover a Hindu village that has been completely wiped out with the exception of a little girl named Anjuli.

The following day they take Anjuli to her mother's family in a nearby village but they refuse too take her. So Anjuli stays with Jahani's party. That night after making camp, Azhar kills a scout tracking them. They leave immediately and spend the next weeks riding at night and resting during the day. Just inside the Kingdom of Kaghan, Azhar fights off another attack, this time with the help of Jahani. Eventually they arrive at Lake Saiful Maluk where Azhar is greeted reverently by his friend,Rasheed. In the safety of the hut, Azhar reveals that they are being followed by "the men of Dagar Khan from the northern Kingdom of Hahayul". He tells Jahani that he is a new King Zahhak - a new "Demon King" like that in the legends.

Meanwhile at Baltit Fort in the Kingdom of Hahayul, Dagar Khan, the self-appointed tham receives a report from a commander who insists that despite burning villages, they can find no evidence of the girl he seeks. However, Dagar Khan is insistent because his seer, Pir Zal continues to claim she is alive. His vision warns Dagar Khan that she will come to claim his throne and that she must be killed if he is to rule over all the northern kingdoms. He orders the commander to continue looking and also to take a message to the warlord Mazahid Baig.

Azhar flies to Jask to consult with his father. When he explains how Jahani helped him during a fight, Kifayat gives him a special scimitar called Shamsher, the Lion's Tail. This fabled curved sword has a hilt made of jade and embedded garnets. He orders Azhar to teach Jahani "all you know as if she were a boy." When Azhar returns, he is almost seen by Jahani on his flying carpet. She notices his beautiful Persian carpet which she believes is his prayer carpet. Azhar gives her the scimitar, telling her to "keep it hidden until the time comes to wear it openly."

They leave the lake for Naran where Jahani will finally meet her parents. Jahani dresses as a boy to avoid recognition by those hunting for a girl with red hair. Although it will be only a five mile journey, Rasheed's son, Mikal has gone ahead to warn Baqir and Zarah of Jahani's arrival. Their journey turns deadly when they are attacked by armed men wearing red turbans. In her head Jahani hears repeated warnings and advice during the attack. She is able to fight off an armed attacker using Shamsher although the circumstances of the fight are bizarre to Jahani. She is met by Saman Abdul, commander of Baqir's troops. While Jahani is escorted safely into Naran, Saman and his troops go to Azhar's aid.

In Naran, yet another revelation awaits Jahani. Jahani feels distressed that she has no feelings for Zarah, her mother. But in Naran, Jahani learns much more about her life before she came to Sherwan. When her father arranges for her marriage to Mazahid Baig, who protects Naran, Jahani begins to suspect all is not as it seems. An overheard conversation between Zarah and Baqir as well as more revelations from Azhar convince Jahani to flee Naran, determined to uncover her true identity and her real destiny.

Discussion

Daughter of Nomads is probably Hawke's best novel to date. The novel combines the elements of a historical novel with mystery, adventure and a dash of fantasy to create a wonderfully engaging story. Its setting within the Mughal Empire during the seventeenth century is unusual and offers young readers a chance to learn about a culture and era they likely would not study in school. To help readers understand the context of events in the novel, Hawke includes a large map showing Jahani's journey north through the Mughal Empire. A note about the Mughal Empire would have been very useful.

The Mughal Empire was essentially a Muslim empire with strong Persian and Indian influences. It ruled most of the Indian subcontinent from the early sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth century. The Mughal dynasty was characterized by its successful integration of both Indian and Muslims into a coherent, functioning state and by its ability to govern over such a large area. The empire was founded by a descendant of Genghis Khan. The Chagatai Turkic Prince Babur was descended from Timur and Chagatai, the second son of Genghis Khan. Through a series of military conquest, Babur was able to conquer all of northern India. At the time of this novel, the Emperor Aurangzeb ruled. This story is set is the most northern region of the empire.

The story is told in the third person narratives of Jahani, her protector, Azhar Sekandar and Dagar Khan, "the self-appointed tham of the Kingdom of Hahayul". who is determined to capture Jahani and kill her. Jahani begins the story believing she is a simple girl with a limited future, living in an small village. She knows that without a father and a dowry, she will never marry. Jahani's real future is foreshadowed in her daydreams of being "a warrior girl wielding a scimitar like Gordafarid daughter of an old Persian hero..." She also hopes to be "loved passionately like the Emperor Shah Jahan loved his wife, Mumtaz."

However, Jahani's life changes forever when her best friend is killed and Jahani learns that she was the intended target. From this point on, she discovers that there is more to her past than she knew. When she learns that Hafeezah is not her birth mother, Jahani embarks on a what becomes a journey or momentous self-discovery. With each attempt on her life, Jahani grows more puzzled. She doesn't understand why Dagar Khan is pursuing her. Jahani also finds herself seemingly able to communicate with Chandi her horse and is able to save the nomad sheep by stopping the wolves from attacking. Her strange ability to use Shamsher, a fabled scimitar is also puzzling to her. Her recurring dreams of a boy, a peacock and a snow leopard are based in reality as Jahani becomes convinced the boy is Azhar and the snow leopard is Zadi. Jahani feels a strong attachment to the mountains of the north, although she doesn't know why this is so.

In Naran, Jahani meets Zarah and Baqir but learns they took her from the nomads. With the nomads she meets Yazmeen whom she is led to believe is her mother, and sister of Tafeeq Baseer who rules the nomads along with his son, Rahul. However Jahani has much more to learn about her past. By the end of the novel, readers will know more about Jahani's identity than the character does. This remains for Jahani to discover in the second novel.

Although the reader is given many hints as to Jahani's true identity, for example the verse quoted by the seer Pir Zal, it isn't until later in the novel, in Azhar's narrative that the full story comes out. Kifayat tells his friend Bilal about how Dagar Khan simultaneously attacked the Kingdoms of Hahayul and Nagir. Azhar was six years old and living with Kifayat when Nagir was attacked first. He and Kifayat set out to warn the Kingdom of Hahayul about the attack but were too late.It was believed that the two-year-old shehzadi (princess) had escaped and Dagar Khan's men began kidnapping young girls with red hair. Kifayat continued to look for the little shehzadi and eventually found such a girl with the nomads. She knew her name was Jahani , spoke Burushaski and wore a silver taveez. Jahani lived with the nomads for two summers until she was adopted by Zarah and Baqir, wealthy landowners in the Kingdom of Kaghan. During this time Kifayat and Azhar followed Jahani, offering his services as a master of horses. When another attempt was made on Jahani's life at age four, she was hidden in a village in the south. Azhar also reveals to Bilal that he is Shehzada of Nagir, thought to have been killed in the attack. No one knows that he survived.

Hawke incorporates Persian fables and historical facts into Daughter of Nomads. The purpose of using the Persian stories is to foreshadow Jahani's destiny and true identity. For example, when Azhar is leading Jahani and Hafeezah northward, he tells them a story about the famous King Merdas and his evil son Zahhak who came to be known as the Demon King. This is a story from the famous Shahnameh, The Persian Book of Kings. When Hafeezah questions Azhar as to what happened to him he tells her about how the Demon King dreamed that he would be killed by a man named Feraydun. "The Demon King searched for him and killed his father, but Feraydun's mother saved the baby and secretly gave him to a cow herder to bring up safely. When he was in danger again, his mother took him to the mountains where he played in fields of wildflowers." In fact, Jahani has dreams in which she remembers playing with a boy and a snow leopard in a field filled with flowers. The story is a hint that Jahani will play a similar role in the demise of Dagar Khan who has been told that "the woman with the leopard's heat" will come to take his throne.

After Jahani tells Azhar about her strange experience with Chandi, he tells her a story about the northern kingdoms. "The first mir of the kingdoms of Hahayul and Nagir - for they were one kingdom at that time - was born of the union of the great Sekandar and a pari (fairy). It is said that the pari's powers appear sometimes in descendants - they are given gifts." When Jahani inquires as to what those gifts might be Azhar states, "They are able to understand certain animals, have unusual strength, or can wield weapons with minds of their own. Usually descendants have only one gift, but in rare instances more than one is inherited."This story of course is a hint of Jahani's true identity and the origin of her special abilities which are beginning to be manifest.

Hawke also infuses the story with some historical information as well. For example when they are entering the ancient village of Mansehra, Azhar tells Jahani how the large rocks at the entrance to the village were inscribed by Ashoka the Great, with the promise that he would only conquer by righteousness after conquering by massacring the entire village.This is in fact a real historical event that happened. Ashoka assumed the throne after killing all of his brothers, save on, in 272 B.C. He was known as a cruel and ruthless leader. In 265 B.C., he conquered the Kingdom of Kalinga, destroying cities, burning villages and murdering thousands. When he surveyed the carnage, Ashoka was overwhelmed by what he'd done and had a complete conversion. The story serves to provide some cultural background to the young reader.

Hawke has crafted a wonderful historical fiction novel for young readers with a strong, capable heroine in Jahani. In the character of Azhar, readers have a young man who exhibits self-control, courage, and respect towards women. Daughter of Nomads is based on a story Hawke told her children, years ago, when they were on vacation in the Karakorum Mountains in Pakistan. It is, as she describes it, an "alternate history what could have happened if the little kingdoms of the area now called Pakistan banded together and fought for their freedom." The map and lovely pencil illustrations were done by D.M. Cornish.

Daughter of Nomads is well worth reading; Jahani's story concludes in the second book The Leopard Princess. Suitable for ages nine and up.

Book Details:

Daughter of Nomads by Rosanne Hawke
St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia: University of Queensland Press 2016
290 pp.

Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus is a story about three teens with serious disabilities forming an unlikely friendship as they struggle to cope with everyday life.

Aven Green is a thirteen-year-old girl who was born without arms. She loves to make up crazy stories about what happened to her arms. "I got so tired of telling them the same boring story about being born without arms that I started making stuff up. It was stinking hilarious. I knew from the first moment I told a girl my arms had burned off in a fire, I had found a great hobby: making up stories. I loved the way her eyes grew wide with shock and the way her voice went all high-pitched with excitement as he asked me a bunch more questions about my charred arms."Her parents however stopped Aven's wild storytelling. Gradually Aven's classmates came to accept her disability and she never felt out of place in her school.

Aven's life changes drastically when her parents move from Kansas to Arizona to take over running a western-themed amusement park called Stagecoach Pass. Aven's father was unemployed when he was contacted by a guy named Joe Cavanaugh. They move into the small apartment over the Stagecoach Pass Saloon and Steakhouse, mainly because her parents must be available all the time.

At Stagecoach Pass Aven discovers the park has a gift shop, a gold mine offering gold spray-painted rocks, a soda shop that sells old-fashioned candy and ice cream and run by Henri who suffers from dementia and seems to already know Aven. There is a shooting gallery, a theatre that shows old black and white western movies, a jail were you can pay to have someone arrested for something silly and a petting zoo that contains an old llama named Spaghetti who has a large tumor on his head. There is also a steakhouse restaurant. But it is the museum that Aven finds most interesting because it contains a collection of stone arrowheads and framed photographs on the walls. Aven's curiosity is stirred by a blank spot on the museum wall and a nameplate that reads "The Cavanaughs, Stagecoach Pass, 2004".

Aven starts school at Desert Ridge Middle School a few days after arriving in Arizona. With a student population of a thousand kids, it's much larger than her school back in Kansas. In her old school, lunchtime was natural and easy with kids she'd grown up with. Aven would have sat with her friends, Emily, Kayla and Brittney laughing about teachers, complaining about parents and even catching the pretzels in her mouth that Kayla would toss at her. But at Desert Ridge she immediately feels awkward because Aven has to use her feet to do everything including eating lunch. So she decides to forgo lunch the first day and tells her mother she just wasn't hungry. After school Aven scouts out more of the park and finds an old shack with numerous "DO NOT ENTER" signs slapped on it. An old rusted padlock hangs from one of the doors. But without arms, Aven is unable to open it.

Although Aven's teachers are nice, she doesn't want them giving her special treatment, something that never happened at her old school in Kansas. Aven returns to eat in the large bathroom stall the next day and then tries to eat in the cafeteria the following day. That doesn't go well when she is questioned by a group of girls who are more concerned about whether they can catch her disability than actually meeting her and making friends. Her next strategy is to try eating in the library. While reading Journey to the Center of the Earth Aven hears a dog barking. She discovers that the barking is coming from a boy sitting near her. Believing he is making fun of her, Aven confronts him. Instead he apologizes and tells her that he has Tourette's Syndrome - " a neurological disorder that causes involuntary motor or oral tics." When he asks Aven about her missing arms, his honesty encourages her to tell him one of her crazy stories which he finds hilarious. The boy, Connor tells Aven he comes to the library every day for some peace. Like Aven, Connor is also new to the area and hasn't made any friends. He tells her about Tourettes and how his classmates mimic his barking and laugh at him.

Aven invites Connor to the Stagecoach Pass, showing her new friend the different attractions and showing him the mystery shed. Connor is able to wedge the door open and they discover it contains stacks of books, "the shelves stuffed with old books and papers and props" and seems to hold the possibility of providing some information about the mysterious Joe Cavanaugh who owns the park and hired her father and who no one ever sees. Also puzzling are the many books on tarantulas.

Aven and Connor's begin spending much of their free time together at the park. Aven adds another friend when she discovers Zion who is overweight eating in a quiet area outside the school. He tells Aven that he eats there so people can't watch him, "Everyone likes to watch a fat guy eat." Aven, Connor and Zion begin hanging out together, playing video games and searching the old shed for clues to the mystery of the Cavanaughs.As Aven and Connor's friendship blossoms they find the strength to support each other and the courage to let their light shine.

Discussion

The Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus is a juvenile fiction novel about belonging and how each person has something significant to offer the world. It is also a story about the importance of friendship in our lives.

Early in the novel when Aven is new to Stagecoach Pass and Arizona, she decides to take a walk into the desert behind the main park and discovers a large saguaro cactus that her father believes is over two hundred years old. Contemplating the span of two hundred years, and all the important events that have happened during that length of time including the Civil War and Martin Luther King Jr's famous speech, Aven believes her life and the events in it are insignificant."I am an entirely insignificant event in the life of this cactus. I try to remember that as the sky darkens and the lights of Scottsdale and Phoenix brighten the earth -- millions of lights for millions of people. And then there's just me, sitting in the dirt on a mighty hill..." Aven wonders then if it really matters that the kids at school ignored her or that they were afraid of her. As it turns out Aven's actions prove that she is anything but insignificant.

One way Aven proves to be significant is her effect on the life of her new friend Connor. When Aven meets Connor he is living a very limited life; he won't go to the movies, he won't eat out for fear of spitting his food and he believes he cannot ever go out in public. But Aven doesn't see the limitations in Connor's life, instead she sees his possibilities. She has him over for dinner, and she and her mother take him to see a movie. Aven encourages Connor to attend a Tourettes therapy group, even accompanying him. She stands up for Connor when he is mocked by other students in the hall. When Connor doesn't want to involve his mother in the therapy group, Aven comes to understand that Connor blames"himself for all his mom's problems - his dad leaving, this tiny apartment, her hectic work schedule." Aven realizes that "It wasn't at all that Connor's mom couldn't stand him, as he had said. It was that Connor couldn't stand himself." By wanting to spend time with Connor, Aven shows him that it is possible for others to like him and enjoy being around him. Aven even manages to get Connor to attend the Stagecoach Pass art festival even though there will be huge crowds attending.

Aven also has a significant effect on another student in the school, the overweight Zion. When Aven meets Zion eating alone outside the school office on the hot sidewalk she befriends him. "How could I just walk past him again, as though he were invisible? As though he were some speed bump in my way?"Aven's way to include Zion is to join him for lunch each day bringing along Connor. Through Aven, Zion becomes friends with Connor.

Aven has a significant impact on the park when she comes up with a plan for Stagecoach Pass to have its own art festival. The event is a resounding success, bringing together Aven and her new friends, offering her a chance to shine her own light and help people see past her disability. For the park it means the beginning of a revitalization as new vendors are found for some of the empty stores in the park.

The theme of belonging is woven all through the events in the novel. Aven has left her home and school in Kansas where she definitely felt like she belonged. She had three good friends who behaved normally around her and accepted her disability. But in Arizona life is more challenging. At first Aven's response is to hide - in the bathroom, the library and then eating lunch mostly outside with Connor and Zion.By the fall Aven still has no other friends besides Connor and Zion. "Most of the kids at school were now ignoring me completely. I guess they were used to seeing me around...It was more like I just didn't exist."At this point Aven doesn't belong but she's also been hiding. Her initial experiences with the kids at the new school have not been positive.

When Connor insists that Aven is not being realistic about her life and what she can achieve, that she is in fact - disabled, Aven becomes angry. She tells her mother, "I don't ever want to be seen just as a disabled person...I don't want to just be Aven Green, that girl with no arms. I don't want to be labeled like that." However her mother reminds Aven that she has to be realistic about her life, that some things are difficult for her. Then Aven's mother offers her a chance to show people that she is more than just someone with a disability by performing on stage with the band hired for the art festival. Aven adamantly refuses, "I'm not going to go up on stage so people can gawk at the girl with no arms playing guitar. I'm not some circus show."

Connor articulating how their disability makes them different causes a crisis in Aven. She too wants to be"like everyone else" so she can be invisible. But her father tells her, "No one lights a lamp and hides it under a basket. They put it on a table so it can shine for all to see." He tells Aven, "Don't be like everyone else, Aven. Be you." Aven makes the choice to go to the soccer tryouts. "It was hard to think about putting myself out there again, trying to be part of a new team, at a new school, with a new coach. Everyone watching me. But there are a lot of hard things in life. Who would I be if I gave up when things got hard?"With the support of her parents Aven makes the choice to do these hard things, trying out for the soccer team and performing at the art festival. Both of these choices open new possibilities for Aven, allowing her classmates to see beyond her disability and giving her the courage to try more new things like wearing a "strappy pink dress", forgiving her grandmother Josephine Cavanaugh for giving her up for adoption and even eating lunch in the cafeteria with Connor and Zion.

There is also the mystery of Aven's identity which is a minor subplot but which ties in with the theme of belonging. Bowling uses the character of Henry, an elderly man with dementia who runs the ice cream shop, to give hints to the reader that Aven is somehow connected to the park. Aven's appearance at the park is confusing to Henry. When Aven questions Henry about all the tarantula pictures on the wall of ice cream shop, Henry tells her that she loves tarantulas. Henry experiences confusion over Aven's lack of arms, asking her what happened to them and telling her she used to have arms. Later on he calls her Aven Cavanaugh, which angers Josephine Cavanaugh - because in fact Henry has just spilled the beans on Aven's real identity. Halfway through the novel it is revealed that Aven was adopted when she was two years old. Although younger readers might not suspect anything, it's not difficult to figure out that Aven is somehow connected to the park. Aven eventually discovers her connection to the park, she must forgive her grandmother and mourn a mother she never knew.

Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus is a sweet, funny read. Aven Green is a strong, determined heroine, whose disability make her intent on living life on her own terms. She is capable, positive and independent. Because of her own disability, Aven has considerable empathy for both Connor and Zion. She is able to see beyond Connor's Tourette's and Zion's weight to who they really are. In Aven, Bowling has crafted a realistic character, a young girl who wants desperately to belong and be like everyone else but whose circumstances mean a different path. The novel's positive message, delivered with some moments of great humour make what might be a heavy subject, accessible to young readers. Bowling's novel invites young readers to be empathetic and to consider the physical and emotional challenges those with disabilities must navigate every day.

The inspiration for the novel came initially from a cousin who was severely wounded and lost an arm after serving in Iraq. Bowling was further inspired by viewing a video of Barbie Thomas, a stay-at-home mother and bodybuilder who lost both her arms at age two from an severe electrical shock. Bowling invited another woman with limb differences, Tisha Shelton (who was born without arms) to review her manuscript.

Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus is highly recommended.

Book Details:

Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling
New York: Sterling Children's Books 2017
262 pp.

In early June, 1942, thirteen-year-old Kiska, only a few days from her fourteenth birthday, watches as the hunters in their baidarkas (kayaks) return home from seal hunting. Kiska has been collecting sea gull eggs on the high cliffs above her village and when she sees the boats, races down to the beach to meet her father and uncle. They both return with seals tethered to their boats. Kiska and her older sister Donia watch as their father and uncle skin the seals and cut the meat into pieces. Donia is nineteen-years-old and both a mother and a widow. Her husband never returned from a seal hunt, leaving her to care for their three-month-old daughter Mary. Donia became so depressed, she stopped eating but Kiska encouraged her to go on living for Mary's sake.

When they hear rumbling coming from the direction of Dutch Harbor, Kiska's father and uncle believe a storm is coming. But the storm that comes is unlike any they or their people have ever endured.

Discussion

Kiska attempts to tackle the difficult subject of the forced internment of the indigenous people, the Aleuts of the Aleutian Islands during World War II. The Aleutian Islands which were part of the Alaska Territory in 1942 were considered an important strategic location, offering whoever controlled them, domination over the Pacific. If they were captured by the Japanese, the Aleutians would provide a base for attacking the West Coast of North America.

On June 3, 1942, the Japanese bombed Dutch Harbor, where the Americans had a military installation. returning on June 4 to continue more successful bombing of the town. The Japanese then invaded the islands of Kiska on June 6 and Attu on June 7. There was little resistance from the indigenous Aleuts. In light of the invasion of Kiska the U.S. government offered to evacuate the Aleuts from Attu but they declined. When the Japanese invaded the Aleuts were imprisoned and eventually transported to an internment camp in Japan for the duration of the war.

Fearing that the rest of the Aleutian Islands would be invaded the United States ordered the evacuation of the remaining Aleutian and Pribilof Islands. A total of 885 Aleuts were removed. They had little time to gather personal possessions nor clean and lock up their homes. Although the U.S. Government had begun discussions to plan for the evacuation, it happened suddenly, leaving the government struggling to find locations to house the Aleut. The Aleut were eventually placed in abandoned canneries and warehouses at five locations including Funter Bay as mentioned in the novel.

Conditions in the U.S. internment camps were horrible. Like their indigenous brothers and sisters throughout the North American continent, the Aleuts had little resistance to European diseases such a measles and small pox. Unsanitary living conditions, subpar housing and poor food contributed to the deaths of many young and elderly Aleutians.

Unfortunately, what could have been a very informative novel, in fact contains some serious historical errors. The main character, now a grandmother is relating what happened long ago, to her granddaughter. She tells her after boarding the ship, the U.S.Army Transport Delarof, "Over the next week or longer, we stopped at seven more Aleut villages, including St. George and St. Paul on the Pribilof Islands...In all there were 881 of us from nine different villages crowded into the ship's dingy hold. " In fact, the Delarof did not transport all of the Aleut evacuees in one trip; the Delarof evacuated on residents of St. George and St. Paul before sailing to Dutch Harbor where villagers from Atka also boarded.And one hundred and ninety Aleuts from St. George were sent to Funter Bay.

World War II Aleutian Islands Resettlement Routes from Charles M. Mobley

According to a blog post by Melissa Green there are many further historical inaccuracies in this novel including the false proclamation read at each of the stops, villagers being held at gunpoint, the burning of three villages, the main cause of deaths at Funter Bay being due to measles, the naming of the character Agafon as a shaman, the presence of soldiers at Funter Bay and the relative passivity of the Aleuts during their internment to name a few. Readers are directed to the post in American Indians In Children's Literature for a more in-depth treatment of the inaccuracies that are strewn throughout this novel and which make its use as a teaching tool highly questionable.Such blatant inaccuracies in Smelcer's account call into question any of the other historical details he provides in the novel. If an author is going to write about an important historical event such as the internment of indigenous peoples during World War II, his/her research ought to be accurate and rigorous, especially if the goal is to educate young readers. There is no excuse for this in the digital age.

Readers may find the following resources useful:

World War II Aleut Relocation Camps in Southeast Alaska by Charles M. Mobley

Chapter 2 Funter Bay Cannery from Mobley's publication

Alaskaweb.org also has a detailed article on what happened to the Aleut people during World War II.

Book Details:

Kiska by John Smelcer
Fredonia, New York: Leapfrog Press 2017
180 pp.

"Once upon a time, there was a tree, living on the shores of a green-glass lake, breathing in hot desert air. Its black branches grew green leaves and snowy flowers, and bees lived in the blossoms. The tree was a gift, protecting the people in the village from injury, aging, disease. Death."

Hour of the Bees is an enchanting tale about several generations of a Mexican-American family with a connection to a magical past, and their struggle to hold fast to their roots.

The novel opens with twelve-year-old Carolina and her family enroute to her grandfather's ranch. Carolina dreads spending the next two months - her entire summer vacation - on her Grandpa Serge's two hundred acre sheep ranch in the middle of the New Mexico desert. Carolina's grandfather has dementia so her father (Raul) and her mother (Patricia) plan on moving him into The Seville, an assisted-living facility in Albuquerque and selling the ranch. Their number one goal this summer is "not to upset Grandpa".

The ranch contains an old barn, a farmhouse that is run down and a dozen boney sheep wandering in a browned pasture. Carolina notes that "there's a black scabby tree stump on the edge of the pasture". Carolina's grandfather, Serge has a thin green oxygen tubes running into his nose, watery blue eyes and pale skin. After Carolina and her one-year-old brother Luis (Lu) are introduced, she stays on the porch to watch Lu and her grandfather. Serge tells her that there has been no rain at the ranch for a hundred years,"and no rain for a hundred years means no bees." He explains that no rain means no flowers and therefore no bees. But Carolina is certain she has seen at least two bees when they arrived.

Carolina's father attempts to convince Serge that they need to move him into a home and sell the ranch to pay for his care at The Seville. This doesn't go over very well with Serge whose relationship with Raul is strained. Raul left home twelve years ago and never returned. Now with the impending sale of the ranch, Serge feels that his son Raul is turning his back on his heritage. Over the next few weeks, Carolina and her family begin cleaning Serge's home and packing up his belongings.

Curious about her grandparents including her deceased grandmother, Carolina questions her father about his parents and his relationship with them. He tells her that Grandma Rosa was stubborn, fiery and adventurous, loving to travel. She died of cancer twelve years ago on Raul's birthday. But he refuses to talk about why he doesn't get along with Serge.

Unlike her father and mother and her older sister Alta, Carolina seems drawn to her grandfather. When she can't sleep one night, after spending time helping her father in the sheep pasture, she sits on the porch with Serge. He tells her there used to be a lake just beyond the ridge near the house. While Carolina believes this is Serge simply exhibiting more "word salad" - random words due to his dementia, Serge insists on telling her a story.

The story is about a boy named Serge and a girl named Rosa who lived in a village. The village was founded in 1480 by a group of Spaniards, in search of gold. Instead of gold they found an oasis, a "green-glass lake"and a huge tree. The tree was unlike anything ever seen before, having black bark and emerald green leaves. It bloomed all year long, with beautiful, fragrant white blossoms that gave off a "honey-vanilla fragrance". The tree, Father Alejandro told everyone, was a gift. "Bees made colonies in the branches, and like good tenants, they kept the blossoms tidy...The bees kept the whole tree alive."

Father Alejandro, who accompanied the exploration party, founded the village and built the mission. They built homes of stone and red desert clay and married the local women, keeping sheep and goats. "Their children and grandchildren built huts of their own on the lakeshore. No one ever left. No one ever died. Those sailors grew old, yes, enough to be called elders of the village., but their aging was slow. They were cheating time."

People were born and aged slowly. Infancy took decades, people grew up and stayed. Whenever someone was hurt, the injury simply healed. In the story Serge tells Carolina, the boy named Serge watched one day as a cut to the bone on his friend Rosa's leg heals instantly. Father Alejandro explained that in the outside world people suffered pain and even death from wounds. But within the village, the gift of the tree made pain and aging impossible. For the young Serge this was a puzzling notion. Nevertheless Serge loved the village and the beautiful tree and he fell in love with Rosa who always seemed so full of life and who always had a cloud of bees trailing behind her.

However, Rosa was restless. Whenever Father Alejandro spoke about his travels, Rosa glowed with excitement. While Serge was content to stay in the village, Rosa was determined to leave it. She seemed to have an insatiable wunderlust."I've had enough of this lake, these stars, this tree,...We've seen everything there is to see here." Serge understood Father's stories,"that the world was the empty clam shell and the tree, the pearl. Nothing outside the village would ever compare with what they had."

Eventually Serge and Rosa married and as a wedding gift, Serge promised to travel with Rosa. But when the time came for them to leave Serge kept postponing their departure until eventually Rosa packed a bag and decided to leave. To keep her safe, Serge made Rosa a bracelet containing the bark of the black tree. Rosa left and did not return for years. But when she did she revealed to Serge the bark from the tree protected her from harm. And this leads Rosa to a decision that changes the course of the village forever.

As the weeks of the summer pass with Carolina spending time with her grandfather and listening to his story, she finds herself drawn to him. "If it was anyone else, I'd be bored to tears, but when Serge talks, it feels like the only sound. My ears are magnets for his words." She also begins to understand his connection to the ranch and the land. Perhaps Serge's story is not just a story after all but the key to Carolina and her family's past and their future. Will they be like Rosa and throw it away or like Serge and remain faithful?

Discussion

In Hour of the Bees, Eagar makes use of the literary device known as a story within a story. In the novel the outer or framing story is about Carolina and her family packing up her grandfather's ranch and helping him make the transition to an assisted living facility in Albuquerque. He has dementia so his random statements about the drought and the lack of bees seem like a symptom of his illness mixed in with his confusion about where he is. There also appears to be a strained relationship between Grandpa Serge and Carolina's father who left the ranch twelve years ago. Grandpa Serge feels that his son has "spit on his roots" and he advises Carolina not to do the same.

Within this story is the second story, a remarkable story about a village where no one ever dies. This gift is tied to a huge black tree with emerald leaves, its roots touching a "green-glass lake". As a result, no one ever leaves the village nor has the desire to leave. That is until Rosa, who is determined to some day find a way to leave. Her leaving brings about a catastrophe of immense proportions upon the village and its inhabitants who, filled with a desire to see the world, also leave.Their abandoning of their heritage and their gift leads to their demise. The reader is never sure until the very end whether the story is based in reality or part of an old man's imagination and dementia.

Carolina is eager to hear more of the story throughout the summer months, as her bond with her Grandpa Serge grows. Serge is determined to share with her the meaning of the story. He tells her to imagine the beautiful black tree and states, "No matter how far away you are when you bloom, you are always tied to your roots...Your roots are part of you, Caro-leen-a. You must never spit on them." Serge's story causes Carolina to begin to question her parents decision to sell the family ranch. Serge tells her, "Some people are afraid of the future. Your father is terrified of the past."

As Carolina hears more of the story she becomes convinced that the story Serge is telling her is a story about what really happened to the village, the ranch and how the hundred-year drought came about. It is a story about her family's heritage and she's desperate to hear the end of it. From the very beginning of the novel there are hints that the story might actually be based in reality. The reader follows Carolina as she makes discoveries on the ranch that are part of Serge's story. She notes that "there's a scabby black tree stump on the edge of the pasture" and in a foreshadowing of an event in the story, wonders "Whose bright idea was it to chop it down and get rid of the only shade for miles and miles?" While cleaning out Serge's closet, Carolina and Alta discover all the treasures that Rosa accumulated from her travels. When she questions her father about the items he tells her that only Rosa travelled, just as in Serge's story. In amongst the treasures, Carolina finds the bark bracelet Serge made for Rosa before she left the village,"Black bard strung onto a leather bracelet... The bark swirls, grains trickling into formation, a cellular wooden waterfall frozen in time. It feels like staring at eternity, looking at this bracelet."It is the one item Carolina chooses from the closet as a keepsake. Carolina also finds an unusual black seed which she decides to plant. Later on she wonders about Serge's story because "So much of his story is stolen from real life." She wonders if Serge was always such a masterful storyteller and if he believes the stories he's telling her. As Carolina eventually discovers, Serge's story is all too real.

Her time at the ranch changes Carolina's perspective on many things including how she values her Mexican heritage, how her family lives and even how she views the elderly.As a result of her grandfather's story, Carolina is challenged to reconsider how she has rejected in a simple but significant way her Mexican heritage. For example she and her friends have changed their names to hide their Spanish origin but Grandpa Serge urges her to use her full name. "Caro-leen-a...is a beautiful, strong, Spanish name." Carolina who goes by Carol considers, "My friends Gabby and Sofie are really Gabriela and Sofia, but we don't call them that, not since Manuela Rodriguez...started going by Manny." Later on when Mr. Gonzalez the real estate agent comes to the ranch, Carolina finds herself telling her mother that her father should care about his history, his family, and his roots. "I'm surprised, too - this sounds nothing like me. Caring about my roots? Worrying about what will happen to this ranch, this land?" By the end of the summer when they do leave the ranch Carolina is distraught that her family is giving up the ranch. The city, once comfortingly familiar now feels strange. "It's loud. Not just the traffic, but the city itself. A million people talking at the same time, no one listening. A million televisions on full blast, no one watching. The humming and buzzing of the bees has been replaced with the sound of electricity...It's deafening." Carolina feels "There's no air in the city." The air is "not real air, not like out in the desert." Her "street is a row of birdhouse, all of us boxed into our own yards by identical picket fences." Carolina begins to wish she lived in the desert.

Her perspective on her grandfather changes too. At the beginning of the novel she sees her grandfather as"a rusty old man parked on the porch like a leaky, broken-down car." When her sister Alta states that Serge is "like the Crypt Keeper" with "Old-man eyes", Carolina notices "But there's something alive behind them. Like he has X-ray vision to your thoughts." As she goes to help her grandfather with the sheep, Carolina admits that she feels differently about him. "When my parents told me we'd be spending the summer here, I expected to have stiff, forced conversations with this grandfather I'd never met. I expected he'd ask me about school, about my friends, about what I wanted to be when I grew up. I didn't think he's have anything interesting to say. I didn't think he'd spin a magical story about a tree and a lake and a girl..." Carolina's inward change is mirrored by and outward change too. When she sees herself in the mirror while trying on her new clothing for the upcoming school year, she asks "Who is this girl?" Her hair "notoriously frizzy but usually tamed by a straightening iron, is a ball of tangled black yarn" and her skin "is leathery with tan", her eyes "sunken into my face with exhaustion, are dull and black". She describes her look as "feral, wild."

By the time Carolina leaves the family ranch she finds herself worrying about "Things like a lonely grandfather who still has a story to finish." When she goes to the Seville with her family, Carolina is shocked at the changes in her grandfather. She recognizes only his blue eyes, and instead sees a person "bloated like a fish with infected gills, chalk-faced, drooling." He is sedated to calm him and unable to talk at all. She is shocked that Serge is locked into the Seville unable to leave for a walk and she fights to see him, for her family to make time in their busy lives for him.

Eagar ties up all the loose ends to craft a touching conclusion to this novel, where Raul is reconciled with both his father and his heritage, where Carolina begins to take pride in her roots and where Alta, black sheep of the family who doesn't share Carolina's roots with Serge, is invited to be a part of their family. Ironically it is when Carolina begins to accept her family's past and plants the strange black seed that the rejuvenating rains return.

The only drawback to this novel, is the unimaginative, bland cover discouraging young readers from ever cracking the cover. Eagar has crafted a lovely story that deserves a beautiful cover and there certainly was enough material in the story to design something that would draw readers in. What a shame. I encourage librarians, teachers and parents to entice young readers to ignore the cover and read the book! This is a lovely, unique novel for young readers looking for something very different to read.

Book Details:

Hour of the Bees by Lindsay Eagar
Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press 2016
360 pp.

Among The Red Stars relates the experiences of two young, fictional Soviets, one in the Red Army, the other as a member of the famous female bomber regiment that earned the nickname "the night witches", as they fight to free their country from the Nazis. The story covers the time period from 1938 to the end of the war.

The novel opens September 1938 with the disappearance of the new experimental bomber, Rodina on a flight from Moscow to Komsolmos crewed by Pilot Valentina Grizodoubova, copilot Polina Osipenko and navigator Marina Raskova. Valentina (Valka) Sergeevne Koroleva, her best friend Pavel (Pasha) Kirillovich Danilin and her cousin, Iskra Ivanovna Koroleva are following the flight which aims to set a record for the longest straight line flight by a woman.

The story jumps ahead to three years later. Valka is now eighteen and a pilot. One day she takes her close friend, Pasha on a flight out of the aerodrome in their town of Stakhanovo. On their flight over the town they are waved down by Pasha's sister. On the ground, they learn that Nazi Germany has broken the non-aggression pact and is at war with the Soviet Union. While the radio announcer insists they will prevail, as they did over Napoleon, Valka's father states that Hitler wants to exterminate them, not just conquer the country.

Despite the war, Valka is turned down by the VVS as a pilot and is encouraged to help in another way, even to consider becoming a mother. Pasha though, has received his draft orders. When Valka comes to see him off, Pasha, whom she has known since they were toddlers, asks to write her.

At this point in the novel, their story is told mostly through their correspondence with one another, as well as through Valka's narration. Through his basic training, Pasha, who has synesthesia - he hears colours, is mentored by a big, older soldier named Vakhromov. Pasha who is in training to be a radio operator is terrified of Pashkevich, his NCO that he reports to. Another soldier, Rudenko is in charge of carrying the battery pack. On October 1, he is mobilized, part of the 336th Rifle Regiment.

In mid-October, Valka and Iskra learn from their flight instructor, Iosif Grigorevich that the Komsomol Central Office is looking for female pilots, navigators and aircraft mechanics to serve in all female fighter and bomber regiments. He has forwarded their documents to the Komsomol Central Office to Major Marina Mikhailovna Raskova, Valka's idol. They must be at the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy in Moscow by Monday October 13. In order to make the deadline, Grigorevich flies the two girls to Moscow. At the Zhukosvsky Air Force Academy there are over a thousand girls waiting to be interviewed. They meet Yevdokiya Bershanskaya, who is an airline pilot and who has been sworn in as a lieutenant. Valka passes her interview with Raskova who is impressed with her ability to fly a plane without a fully operational engine. She is assigned to Aviation Group 122. Valka knows that if she's lucky she will "be assigned to the fighter regiment and become one of Stalin's falcons. But if she's unlucky she will be assigned to the day bomber regiment or if "woefully unlucky" she will end up as a night bomber.

The pilot recruits endure a nine day journey in a boxcar south to Engels, "an industrial city in the barren steppe." During the trip, Valka and Iskra meet Zhenya Zhigulenko whom Valka decides to call Zhigli, a girl named Lidiya Vladimirovna Litvyak who goes by Lilya. In the presence of Zhigli, Valka inadvertently makes reference to Iskra's family's crime - her parents were "wreckers" in the 1937 Soviet census, which they were working on. The census showed that the Soviet Union and especially the Ukraine were not flourishing as Stalin claimed and that the population was actually declining. Valka's own experience of seeing starving peasants fleeing their farms seemed to confirm this. However, Stalin placed the blame on those working in the census bureau and it wasn't long before Iskra's mother and then her father were incarcerated for ten years. Valka knows her cousin, although innocent, is tainted by association. But she does not trust Zhigli to not report her cousin.

In Engels, the three hundred trainees are billeted in a gymnasium. Captain Militsa Kazarinovna orders their hair cut and they begin training on the Polikarpov U-2s. Tamara Kazarinovna, sister of the captain, is made commander of the fighter regiment. Then unexpectedly, Iskra doesn't show up for class or dinner. The following day Valka reports her cousin missing to the chief of staff, Kazarinovna. She is told that "an irregularity in her autobiography" has led to her being investigated. Valka is convinced that Zhigli is responsible for her cousin's arrest. In the hopes of helping her, Valka appeals to Raskova but is told to focus on her training. In an attempt to comfort the devastated Valka, Lilya reveals to her that her father too was taken in 1937.

Meanwhile Pasha discovers that Rudenko is a believer, an Orthodox Christian. On December 5, 1941, Pasha's unit is part of the offensive to drive the Nazis from Moscow. During the fighting, he sees his first soldier die. The offensive is successful as the Germans begin retreating from Moscow, except for one salient, the territory around the town of Rzhev. When Pasha hears of Iskra's disappearance he tells Valka that the Red Army too is undergoing a purge. In his letter, Pasha mentions article he has read in Pravda. It is about a young Russian partisan, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who was assigned to burn the village of Petrishchevo where a German cavalry regiment was stationed. Zoya was tortured and hanged, supposedly by the Germans. Little does Pasha know that this event will have grave significance for him in a few months time.

On February 8, 1942, Valka finally learns her assignment - she along with Vera, Zhigli and Tanya are assigned to the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, with Bershanskaya as her commander and Ilyushina as the regimental engineer. However, Valka has no assigned navigator. That is until Iskra unexpectedly shows up, and simply states that she was investigated and cleared.

Pasha's unit, without Rudenko who was killed by shrapnel from a shell, capture a German barracks. As he and Vakhromov work to patch the walls, Vakhromov catches a young boy attempting to steal food. The boy, Petya is only eight years old and at the pleading of Vakhromov is allowed to stay with the soldiers. In August Pasha and his unit are assigned to the Rzhev salient. There, heavy rockets nicknamed Katyushas cause Petya to scream in terror. The battle triggers Petya to reveal to Pasha and Vakhromov and the commissar about a soldier girl killed by the Hitlerites in his village of Petrishchevo. She was tortured and hanged by the Nazis who recorded her death in photographs. The commissar is certain that Petya witnessed the murder of Zoya Kosmodenmyanska and he believes the photographs will allow them to identify the culprits and glorify Zoya. Pahsa is filled with dread as to what this might mean for his unit and for Petya.

In October, 1942 Pasha's fears are proven correct when Comrade Stepanova arrives to hear Petya's story. The German cavalry unit that was in Petrishchevo has been located within the Rzhev salient and Stepanova is determined to take Pasha's unit into the battle to locate the photographs of Zoya whom she was good friends with. It is a mission Pasha doubts he will survive.

By May 24, 1942, Valka is now Junior Lieutenant Valentina Koroleva. The 588th is at the front, at their new base in the village of Trud Gornyaka, under the command of Major Bershanskaya. Although their initial practices in front of the division commander, Colonel Dmitry Dmitrievich Popov go badly, with more training the squadron improves and by June they are flying three missions a night. Valka's goal is now to do as much damage as possible to the fascists and survive the war.As the night bombers reputation grows, Valka finds herself falling in love with Pasha, and worrying over his increasing danger on the battlefield. It is Valka's love and determination that save Pasha when a risky mission during Operation Mars goes terribly wrong.

Discussion

Among The Red Stars is the second YA novel to tackle the story of the "night witches", the German nickname for the women night bombers of the Soviet Union's 588th Regiment. The first novel, Night Witches by Kathryn Lasky offers the basic story of the these intrepid pilots but in no way compares to Katz's novel.

Polikarpov U-2 biplane used by the night bombers.

The Night Bomber regiment was formed in October, 1941 by Major Marina Raskova and led by Major Yvedokiya Bershanskaya on orders from Stalin. They came to be feared by the Nazi German army for their persistence and precision. These young women pilots flew Polikarpov U-2 biplanes made of wood and canvas on over 23,000 missions and were a significant factor in the Soviet war effort.

Katz has created a believable story that meshes together the fictional characters of Valka, Iskra, Pasha and his fellow soldiers with real people such as Marina Raskova, Yvedokiya Bershanskaya, Lidiya Litvyakwho, Yvegeniya Rudneva, Galina Dukutovich (Galya) and others who were part of the war effort. For example, in her Author's note at the back, Katz writes,"Zoya Kosmodenmyanska was a real person, and her execution took place as desccribed. The photos of her execution were later found on the body of a German officer near Smolensk. She was posthumously made a Hero of the Soviet Union, the first woman to receive that award during the war. In one of the photos, a young boy is visible, watching her being marched to the scaffold."

Among The Red Stars takes these fictional characters and seamlessly sets them within their proper historical context. Although Katz changed dates and combined events, what emerges is a detailed picture of what it was like to be a woman pilot in the 588th in Stalin's Soviet Union during World War II.

Katz manages to present the accomplishments of these amazing women pilots who were so feared by the Nazis, without glorifying the brutal Communist regime of Stalin. At the same time she gives young readers a snapshot of the fear that existed living under the Stalin regime. Both Valka and Pasha know of people who have simply disappeared as a result of Stalin's ongoing purges.

Several times, Stalin's infamous Order 270 "There are no Soviet prisoners of war, only traitors." is mentioned by characters in the novel. The character Lilya explains to Valka that she is more afraid of going missing in action, surviving a crash or being taken prisoner. "Unless they have proof that you were killed in action, they'll treat you as a deserter." Next of kin get no survivor benefits. In real life, Lilya Litvyak went missing on August 1, 1943. Her body was never found and she was declared a deserter under Order 270. When squadron commander Olkhovskaya and her navigator do not return from one of the first missions, Valka tells Pasha in a letter,"Gone without a trace. Do you know what that means, Pasha? It means that two airwomen who were eager to fight are now listed as deserters. It means that their families get nothing, not even the right to say that their daughters were killed in the Great Patriotic War."

Set against the backdrop of war, is the blossoming relationship between Pasha Danilin and Valka Koroleva. To Katz's credit this romance never overshadows the story of the female bombers. When Pasha leaves for war, he is no more than a friend to Valka, but they grow closer through their correspondence, as they share their war experiences. Pasha admits his growing admiration for Valka and certain that he will not see her again he opens his heart to her. "to say things I would never tell you to your face. Like how beautiful you are. You're going to say I'm remembering wrong, but I can still picture your face perfectly. The brightness in your eyes and the color in your cheeks when you've finished flying." As their relationship develops they are able to confide in each other about the terrible things they've witnessed, what they consider shameful instances of cowardice or weakness. Their letters soon use terms of endearment; Pasha calls Valka, "Valyushka" and she begins calling him Pashenka.

Both characters are deeply affected by their war experiences. At the death of Rudenko, Pasha reveals a compassion and tender side, writing to Valka, "He was my closest friend in the whole squad and he'd died cold and scared and hurting. I don't know where he is now or what he's feeling, but I hope that he went to be with his God." When Pashkevich shoots two young German soldiers, Pasha wonders if he would have had the courage to do differently. "I could make excuses. I could say this wasn't my place to say anything or that it wouldn't have made any difference. But the truth is that he was hurting them and I was afraid that if I tried to stop him, he would hurt me. Or worse, give me the pistol." Pasha believes that if he was ordered to shoot the Germans he would have done it out of fear.

Likewise, Valka wonders at how war had changed her too. She notices that she has become desensitized to killing. "...I've killed people. I know I have. Some as evil as Hitler. Others, maybe, an innocent as you. It bothers me less than it should. The details are hidden from me. I don't know how many casualties I've caused, whether they died quickly or whether their deaths were long and lingering. Without knowing, without having to see my handiwork up close, it's easy to put it from my mind, easy to laugh and sing with my friends as we head back to the village at the end of a good night. I haven't told the others how effortless I've found it to become a killer. I'm afraid of what it says about me."

Later on Valka writes to Pasha on how they had no idea what they were getting into. She writes, "War is not natural for women -- that's what the other girls say. We are made to create and nurture life, and to destroy it goes against our fundamental nature. They're right that war is unnatural, but I think of you singing or quietly reading and it seems to me that nobody could be less suited for combat than you....No one should find war easy. "

In the Rzhev salient, the screaming rockets whose sound Pasha describes as "blindingly bright, yet black, pure jet black" terrify Pasha. "I retreated to the far end of our dugout and huddled there, trembling, my eyes squeezed shut and my arms covering my head." Before battle, Pasha, faced with possible death, finally sends Valka a letter in which he confesses his love for her. "I love, Valyushka. I have since I was a child. You're everything I'm not: daring when I'm afraid, bright and hopeful when I'm despondent, willing to fly across a country to pursue your dreams while I helplessly wait for the inevitable." His feelings of love mirror Valka's own which she demonstrates when she risks her life and her career to rescue Pasha from the Rzhev salient.

Katz has stated that she learned Russian in order to access primary sources for her research before writing Among The Red Stars. Her detailed research is evident as Among The Red Stars is a well-written, engaging novel that provides a realistic portrayal both of war and of the Soviet female pilots. Many of the characters in the novel have depth and Katz takes the effort to develop the relationship between various characters.

Among The Red Stars offers many themes to explore including courage, the role of women in war, the effect of war on soldiers and pilots and the Stalin regime which seems all but forgotten today. This novel is one of the best historical fiction novels written for teens in the past two years. Well worth the read.

Book Details:

Among The Red Stars by Gwen C. Katz
New York: HarperTeen 2017
376 pp.

The Man Who Loved Libraries is about an American philanthropist who built 2,500 libraries all over the world, but mostly in the United States and Canada. Andrew Carnegie, a self-made millionaire was a staunch believer in free libraries and the value of free education. Carnegie built over 2,500 libraries throughout the world; the first one in his hometown of Dunfermline, Scotland. He spent $2,556,600 building one hundred eleven libraries in Ontario Canada and an additional fourteen libraries throughout Canada. The first Carnegie library in the province of Ontario was opened in Chatham on September 14, 1903. Many of these libraries in Ontario are still functioning today and a list with accompanying pictures can be found on the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport website. Ontario received the greater number of Carnegie libraries due to its larger population and the recognition of the importance of libraries in the province. The architectural style of the Carnegie libraries varied from Beaux-Arts to Italian Renaissance, Baroque, Classical Revival and Spanish Colonial.

Andrew Carnegie was born in 1835 in Dunfermlime, Scotland, the son of a weaver. However, increasing industrialization meant he could no longer support his family with his trade so they emigrated to the United States in 1848. In the United States, Andrew had to work to help support his family. He was a very enterprising young man. Because his formal education had ended, Andrew turned to the personal library of his employer, Colonel James Anderson to learn. Eventually Andrew worked his way up in the business world and soon became wealthy. In 1901, Carnegie sold his Carnegie Steel Company for the astounding sum of $500,000,000! From this point on, he devoted himself to philanthropy which included not only the building of free libraries but also the support of academic endeavours too. Carnegie was a firm believer of self-improvement through learning.

Larsen's picture book tells Andrew Carnegie's story from when he was growing up in Dunfermline, Scotland to his life in the United States. Readers will learn how libraries played a significant role in Carnegie's life and how he was determined to help others in the way he had been helped. Carnegie's story is told in a simple, forthright manner. The back of the book contains a two page spread on Andrew Carnegie's Legacy. The Man Who Loved Libraries is illustrated by the colourful artwork of Katty Maurey.

Book Details:

The Man Who Loved Libraries: The Story of Andrew Carnegie by Andrew Larson
Toronto: Owlkid Books Inc. 2017

The Leopard Princess is the sequel to Daughter of Nomads, concluding the story of fourteen-year-old Jahani. The novel picks up where the first ended with Jahani having refused Azhar's offer to fly to the northern kingdoms on his flying carpet. Instead she has returned to the nomads.

After awakening from yet another dream, Jahani receives a warning from Chandi. She immediately alerts Tafeeq and Rahul who order her to stay in the women's tent. They believe the war lord Muzahid Baig's soldiers are preparing to attack. At dawn as expected, the camp is attacked by Muzahid's men. When soldiers attempt to attack the women's tent, Jahani mounts Chandi and helps Neema and a young boy defend it, rescuing Kamilah. After the attack the nomad prince, Rahul is discovered missing. As it turns out he has been captured by Muzahid who is determined to force Rahul to find him the red haired shehzadi "who holds the key to the northern kingdoms". This is the second time Rahul has been captured and tortured by Muzahid, the first being when he was a ten-year-old boy. Dagar Khan wanted Muzahid to marry Jahani then hand her over to him so he could kill her. Rahul insists that the story of the lost shehzadi from the Kingdom of Hahayul is a legend, but Muzahid believes it to be true and offers Rahul the promise of land when he becomes Tham of Hahayul. He tells Rahul that he has disposed of the shehzadi's adoptive parents, Baqir Abbaas and his wife Zarah. When Rahul refuses to help Muzahid locate the shehzadi, Muzahid has Rahul's middle finger cut from his right hand.

In the nomad camp Jahani is visited by Yazan, the snow leopard who tells her that they need to travel north. That night Jahani and Anjuli riding Chandi and Rahul on his mare Farah leave Lalazar for the Babusar Pass. They are attacked in the small pass by badmarsh bandits.

Meanwhile Azhar is devastated that Jahani has refused to travel north with him on his magic carpet. When he learns that Jahani has left the nomad camp, he travels to the Babusar Pass. There he finds Muzahid's men waiting for Jahani. He also meets Jahani's foster mother, Hafeezah on her mare Sitarah, heading north to the Kingdom of Hahayul. She is travelling north to her home in Hahayul with Baqir Abbaas's troops under the command of Saman Abdul. Hafeezah informs Azhar that Muzahid has murdeed Baqir and Zarah. Azhar has Hafeezah take his horse Rakhsh north, while he travels by carpet to this father, Kifayat in Jask. There he meets Bilal, the former wazir of Hahayul. Azhar confesses his concern that Rahul may be taking Jahani to Muzahid. However, his father tells Azhar that Jahani's journey to the Qurraqoram Mountains will help prepare her and raise support.

As they travel north, Rahul tells Jahani he is uncertain that she is the shehzadi that has been foretold. He tells Jahani how he came to find her twelve years earlier. The summer the royal family of Hahayul were murdered, the nomads travelled farther north than usual into the northern kingdoms. They stayed a few days in the town of Baltit in the Kingdom of Hahayul. Rahul was nine years old and while in the town, he learned that a terrible tragedy had occurred in the kingdom. While walking back to the nomad camp, Rahul saw a lost, red-haired child fall into the river. He managed to rescue her and took her to the bazaar to see if anyone had lost a little girl. Her clothing was covered in blood and had burn marks. The chai walla seeing her red hair told him to hide Jahani as soldiers were out capturing any red-haired girls. The nomads quickly left Baltit, when armed men arrived in the town. Rahul, who had lost his mother and sister, has his Aunt Yasmeen care for her. At ten, Rahul was kidnapped by Muzahid who tortured him and cut off a finger on his left hand. Rahul's father Tafeeq and Aunt Yasmeen believed Jahani would be safer with Zarah and Baqir.

Jahani continues her journey northward for several days. At the Mazeno Pass, they are again attacked by bandits but are helped by Yazan. One night as they are resting, Jahani is warned by Chandi that men are approaching. They are confronted by men dressed in mismatched green shalwar qameezes, led by an unknown man. The man tells them that he is here not to fight but to talk. He identifies himself as Ali Shah, the second-in-command in the tham's army under Dagar Khan. He refused to support Dagar when he rebelled and fled to avoid execution/ He was part of a troop left behind to guard the tham, the ghenish, the little shehzadi and their ministers. When troops were overcome by Dagar's men, he managed to get the shehzadi out into the street, but in the confusion they were trampled and the little girl fell into the fire. He was able to put out the flames and they escaped to the river. However the boat to take them to safety was not there and he was wounded by an arrow. The little child got away and ran to the river in fright. And Ali lost her. Now he is commander of the Makhfi, the hidden army, who are loyal to the royal family of Hahayul.

Jahani is shocked because Ali is describing her recurring dream. When Ali Shah asks Jahani her name, Rahul becomes angry but Yazan instructs her to do so. Jahani tells him her name and lowers her dupatta which covers the bottom half of her face. Ali tells her that Jahani was the nickname for the shehzadi and that her full name is Jahanara Ashraf Shaheen Khan. He also reveals that Dagar Khan is a distant cousin to her father, the late tham. Dagar Khan wants to produce the body of the shehzadi so that he can finally have his rule over the Kingdom of Hahayul accepted by the people. Despite her appearance and Rahul's story, Ali Shah is still unconvinced but when he sees the taveez around her neck, Ali is certain he has found the lost shehzadi.

Ali tells Rahul that he has one hundred men and that "another ten thousand are stationed in the forest near the town of Gilit with my captain, Irshaad." Men are infiltrating Dagar Khan's cavalry, training to overthrow him. He also reveals that Jahani's grandmother escaped the massacre and has been quietly organizing support.

These revelations overwhelm Jahani who now realizes she has a surviving relative and has finally discovered her identity. This leaves her with many questions: "What if she couldn't do what the people expected of her?...Would a man like Ali Shah want to rule for her?,,,Is this why Muzahid wanted to marry her? Did he know she was the shehzadi?" She wonders how she can defeat Dagar Khan. Jahani's path to the throne of Hahayul will prove to be more dangerous and difficult than she could ever have imagined. With the help of Rahul and Azhar, Chandi and Yazan and many others, Jahani will have to overcome many obstacles including

Discussion

The concluding novel to the Jahani Tales, written in third person past tense, is exciting and filled with intrigue. In The Leopard Princess, Hawke ties up all of her loose ends and crafts a tension filled but satisfying conclusion.

The novel picks up where the first one left off, with Jahani returning to the nomad camp, unaware of her true identity. Azhar has not revealed what he knows about Jahani, and Rahul is doubtful about the existence of the shehzadi, believing it to be legend. Through various characters, Jahani's past and her identity are gradually revealed to her. In The Leopard Princess Jahani learns about her past and her heritage from Ali Shah, Rabb's cousin Nusrat, from Shehzadi Zeb-un-Nissa, from Kabeer Yazeed who is Jahani's uncle and imprisoned in Muzahid's dungeon, from her grandmother Kaniza, and even from Dagar Khan. But it is Ali Shah who reveals her identity. When Jahani meets Ali Shah, his story coincides so remarkably with her nightmare of fire and terror, which he could only have known if he experienced it, that she realizes he is speaking the truth.

When Jahani finally discovers who she is and what her destiny is, she initially experiences conflict over who to trust, Rahul or Azhar and self-doubt as to whether she can truly rule her father's Kingdom. The Leopard Princess follows Jahani's personal journey from internal conflict and self-doubt to courage, trust and self confidence to act as a true queen for her people.Faced with the reality that she is the lost shehzadi whom the people of Hahayul have placed all their hope in, Jahani is filled with doubt. "With Yazan by her side, Jahani felt better. But still doubt had crept into her mind. How could she rise to this challenge and be the shehzadi when she hadn't been raised to rule?" Yazan advises her "You must be yourself."

Once Jahani accepts the truth of her identity she immediately begins to act on it despite her doubts. She makes the decision that "It would be best to regain the kingdom with peace, not war." even though she believes Ali Shah would ridicule this goal. Partly this is because Jahani now believes in the vision Yazmeen shared with her of a "lost shehzadi, a girl with red hair and a snow leopard, come to the northern kingdoms, and she brought peace without a war."Jahani is not to be deterred; when Rahul counsels that she could return with him to the nomads Jahani tells him " You can return, but I would always feel I hadn't fulfilled my destiny."

The main challenge Jahani must confront is discerning who to trust. Partly this is the result of her being passed from family to family, from the nomads to Baqir and Zarah, then to Hafeezah and back again through her life. Because everyone around her seems to have a motive for helping her, Jahani is distrusts Ali Shah's motives and so she tells him, 'I want you to consult me in any plans as I need to learn about my position. What if I do not agree with your decisions?" When Ali balks at this she tells him, "And another person will rule in my name since I knew nothing...I think not." Jahani is inspired by the Angrezi rani - Queen Elizabeth who ruled England in the 1500s.

Although initially she trusted Azhar who has been protecting her since she lived in Sherwan, she begins to doubt after Rahul warns her about him. This doubt re-surfaces when Jahani accompanied by Rahul and Ali Shah, meets Azhar who suddenly appears on his magic carpet at the Indus River, offering to take her across the river to safety. Even though Chandi warns her to go north quickly, Jahani determined to make her own decisions, refuses Azhar. This turns out to be a bad decision that results in her capture and eventual arrival in the harem of Muzahid.

In Muzahid's harem, talking to Shehzadi Zeb-un-Nissa, makes Jahani realise that she's "had no experience, no emperor or tham as father, no paternal authority to tell her what she could or couldn't do...Now many men told her to do what they wanted: to be safe, who to trust, who to marry. That would have to change."

Unfortunately in her attempt to be independent, Jahani turns away the one person whom she can trust, Azhar Sekandar Khan. This is partly because Jahani doesn't know Azhar's true identity either. Hafeezah defends Azhar's actions in not revealing himself to her and cautions her, "We must always be careful that pride or hurt feelings don't blind us to truth."Although Jahani feels that she has acted in the best interests of the Kingdom of Hahayul, her heart tells her otherwise.

When Jahani feels betrayed by Azhar for his part in keeping her identity secret, and feels that there is no one she can trust it is her grandmother who tells her that she has more allies than she knows. Jahani comes to recognize that she has not treated Azhar fairly, that he is an ally and can be trusted. She calls for his aid and when Azhar arrives outside the zenana of Dagar Khan, Jahani learns how many people have come to her aid and just who she can trust.

In Jahani, Hawke has crafted an intelligent, courageous heroine, who is not afraid to act. Trapped in Muzahid's zenana or harem, Jahani isn't resigned to her fate but devises a plan to take out the war lord on her terms. She confronts him in his bedroom no less, demanding the use of her charmed sword, Shamsher and then with the help of Yazan slays him. When she arrives in Baltit, Jahani disguises herself to visit her grandmother Kaniza who is imprisoned in the the fort by Dagar Khan. She decides on a second visit because her grandmother "Kaniza had seen her husband and her son ruling Hahayul; Jahani needed to tap that knowledge." And she decides on a very courageous path, turning herself into Dagar Khan, whom she knows will kill her in a public spectacle. Jahani shows just how important achieving peace in her kingdom is to her, when she is willing to offer her life for her people. She has changed a great deal from the young girl who witnessed the murder of her best friend only months earlier.

In The Leopard Princess, all of the characters are fictional except Zeb-un-Nissa, who was a Mughal princess and famed poet who wrote under the pen name of Makhfi. She was the eldest daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb and his chief wife Dilras Banu Begum. Zeb-un-Nissa was highly intelligent and well educated in both the Quran and in the sciences.

Hawke rounds out her novel with a map showing Jahani's convoluted journey to her kingdom, a list of main characters which is helpful but should have been placed at the front of the novel with the first map which details Jahani's journey up to that point, A Note About Languages, and a Glossary.

Young readers, aged 10 plus will enjoy the The Leopard Princess. Parents should be aware there are several murders, a reference to the rape of Jahani's mother and her murder while pregnant and also Jahani's placement in a harem or zenana. The author merely states these things and there are no graphic descriptions.

The Tales of Jahani are Rosanne Hawke's best works to date. It's obvious this story was dear to her heart and that reflects in the care with which these novels were crafted. The setting of the story, in the mountainous northern kingdoms of the Mughal Empire in 1662, the endearing heroine, the magical animals who aid her, the hint of something more between Azhar and Jahani, all combine to make this a unique historical fiction novel.

Book Details:

The Leopard Princess by Rosanne Hawke
St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia: University of Queensland Press 2016
345 pp.

Not many Canadians have heard of Maritime folk artist Maud Lewis. Maud was born in 1903 in the town of Yarmouth, in Nova Scotia to John and Agnes Dowley. She was born with several disabilities including misshapen hands, hunched shoulders and a very small chin. She was also very petite. Uncomfortable around others because of her physical differences, Maud was a loner. She was often teased at school and eventually dropped out at aged fourteen. Despite this Maud had a happy family life with her parents and her brother and was known for her sweet disposition and lovely smile. To help her, Maud's mother had her paint Christmas cards to sell to their neighbours. She learned to play the piano but eventually her arthritis became too painful.

Life changed drastically for Maud after her father's death in 1935 and her mother's death in 1937. Around the time of her parents deaths, Maud had a child, a baby girl who was put up for adoption.

Maud lived with her brother who inherited the family home and then moved in with an aunt in Digby, Nova Scotia. It was in Digby that she met her husband Everett Lewis, a fish peddler. Maud and Everett married in 1938. They lived in a small house in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia. Their little house which lacked basic amenities such as electricity and indoor plumbing, would be Maud's home for over thirty years. Despite their very different personalities, Maud and Everett seemed to get along very well. Everett encouraged Maud in her painting but because they were so poor, Maud used any materials she had at hand, including board, cardboard and even household items such as baking trays and dustpans. Maud's worsening rheumatoid arthritis meant she wasn't able to do housework so Everett cleaned house while Maud painted and supported them through the sale of her art.

Her colourful oil paintings, done in the primitive style often portrayed interesting details of everyday life and became increasingly popular. A simple sign that said "Paintings for Sale" drew in buyers and her reputation grew. As is often the case with artists, Maud's talent was largely unrecognized during her lifetime. That began to change in the 1960's when CBC produced a documentary on her in 1965.

Maud's health began to decline after she fell and broke her hip. Years of exposure to wood smoke and paint fumes added to her health problems. Maud died in 1970 and in 1979, Everett passed away. Their house, filled with Maud's paintings on the walls and other surfaces, began to deteriorate. Eventually the house was given to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax and can be viewed there.

Maud Lewis in her home.

Capturing Joy is aptly named for Maud's painting were both colourful and exuded the joyful moments of life. Author Jo Ellen Bogart includes many interesting details about Maud's life. Accompanying the text are Mark Lang's pencil sketches while each opposite page is a photograph of one of Maud's paintings which are exhibited in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Bogart's picture book is a welcome addition to the literature about Maud Lewis because it helps acquaint younger readers with Canadian art and artists.

The inspiration for the picture book resulted from a visit by Bogart to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia where Maud Lewis's paintings are on exhibition and where her little house permanently resides. Bogart states "I went to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia where there is this magnificent display of Maud Lewis' work and the little house she lived in. The entire house is actually in the gallery. Well, this just made it so real. I stood at the door of that house forever, looking in, imagining Maud's life in a structure the size of one room in today's house. I had known her work and liked it, but it was a very peripheral thing because I was busy with other things. All of a sudden, it was front and centre, and I was confronted with her life and her work. I knew before I left the gallery that day that I wanted to do that book." Bogart noticed that there were no books for children on this Nova Scotia artist so she decided to remedy that.

Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis is a beautiful picture book that captures Maud's remarkable talent and tells her story in an appealing way for readers of all ages.

Book Details:

Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis by Jo Ellen Bogart
Toronto: Tundra Books 2002

R.I.P. Eliza Hart by Alyssa Sheinmel

DVD: Breathe

Shooting Kabul by Naheed Hasnat Senzai

Interlude by Chantele Sedgwick

A Troubled Peace by L. M. Elliott

Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough

The Kitchen Madonna by Rumer Godden

Love and War by Melissa De La Cruz

Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli by Kyo Maclear & Julie Morstad

Galen and the Gateway to Medicine by Jeanne Bendick

Flamingo Boy by Michael Morpurgo

Mary's Monster: Love, Madness,and How Mary Shelley Created FRANKENSTEIN by Lita Judge

Daughter of Nomads by Rosanne Hawke

Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling

Kiska by John Smelcer

Hour of the Bees by Lindsay Eagar

Among The Red Stars by Gwen C. Katz

The Man Who Loved Libraries by Andrew Larsen

The Leopard Princess by Rosanne Hawke

Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis by Jo Ellen Bogart