LibrisNotes

Blood and Sand is the first installment of Wyk's alternative historical fiction series. Set in Ancient Rome, in approximately 79 A.D., Blood and Sand presents an alternative story about the slave Spartacus and the rebellion associated with him. Except in this retelling, Spartacus is an eighteen-year-old Thracian slave called Attia.

Attia arrives in Rome along with twenty other women captives, shackled at their wrists and ankles, tethered together by a thick rope. When she was seven-years-old, Attia's father, Sparro, "swordlord of the legendary Maedi and war-king of Thrace" made her his heir after the death of her mother and unborn brother in childbirth. Attia is the last one to be auctioned and after a bidding war she is bought by Timeus. But Attia has no intention of remaining a slave. Instead, she fights to escape, breaking Timeus's bodyguard Ennius's leg, injuring the guard trying to untie her, breaking Timeus's nose with a kick, and leading vigiles on a chase through Rome. She is eventually captured and finds herself in the house of Josias Neleus Timeus, who tells her that she will be given to his champion and that if she tries to escape again she will be crucified.

Timeus's champion is Xanthus Maximus Colossus, Champion of Rome. He is Rome's favourite, an irony since Xanthus hates all Romans as he was taken at the age of ten as a slave from his Britannia when Rome conquered it. Now in the newly completed Coliseum, Xanthus plans to deliberately lose his match against Taurus the Butcher of Capua, and die. His fellow gladiators, Albinus, Gallus, Lebuin, Iduma and Castor, his fellow gladiators who he considers his blood brothers, suspect he is going to throw the fight and die. The horror of so much killing over the past ten years as a gladiator has simply become too much. But when a terrified Christian is sent into the arena, Xanthus knows he can't let the Christian die, so he decides to kill Taurus.

Afterwards at Timeus's house, Xanthus learns that his next match will be against Decimus who killed his master and was purchased by Tycho Flavius. Xanthus is determined to kill Decimus as he is the one who destroyed Xanthus' family.

Two weeks pass and Attia's wounds are still healing. She is taken to the Champion of Rome's room, a small space with simple furnishings. The minute Attia is untied by Xanthus, she attacks him, telling him she will kill him if he touches her. But Xanthus does the unexpected, he doesn't resist and falls to his knees, allowing her to kill him if she wants. This confuses Attia.

Attia decides she will learn as much as she can about Timeus's estate, doing the chores that Sabina assigns her. Attia discovers Timeus's study and her snooping about leads her to discover that Crassus Flavius was the Roman general who conquered Thrace and murdered her father. Xanthus reveals to Attia that Crassus was also responsible for his capture and the burning of his village.When Attia tells him what happened to her people, Xanthus realizes she is the daughter of Sparro, war-king of Thrace and a Maedi princess.

Timeus's sister, Valeria Bassus and her children, eighteen-year-old Lucius and six-year-old Aurora arrive at his villa. Attia is assigned to be Aurora's nursemaid. She finds Aurora to be a sweet girl, and is told the girl cannot go outside because she is ill. Valeria has Attia accompany them to the Coliseum where she witnesses Xanthus battle a very young boy, no more than fourteen years old.

Both Attia and Xanthus accompany Timeus, Valeria and her family as well as the gladiators and many slaves on a trip out of Rome to Pompeii where they will spend the rainy season. For Attia and Xanthus, the trip will further their blossoming relationship and events beyond their control will give rise to the beginnings of a legend.

Discussion

Blood and Sand is an alternative historical fiction novel which means that some events have been altered for the story. For example in her Author's Note at the back of the novel, Wyk writes that in real history, Emperor Vespasian was the legatus responsible for invading Britain in A.D. 43, not the fictional Crassus Flavius in her novel. And in 79 A.D., at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii, Rome was already an empire; Titus Flavius was emperor of Rome and not Princeps as portrayed in Blood and Sand.

The main alteration however surrounds the character of Spartacus whose name appears halfway through the novel. History records Spartacus as a male Thracian gladiator, possibly from the Maedi tribe. It is believed that he was initially a Roman soldier who then escaped, was captured and enslaved to train and fight as a gladiator in a ludus in Capua near Naples. Spartacus escaped the ludus with several other gladiators in 73 B.C and fled to Mount Vesuvius. Spartacus was brilliant tactician who managed to defeat several attacks by the Roman army. Eventually a wealthy Roman politician and general, Marcus Lucinius Crassus volunteered to end the rebellion and was placed in charge of a large force. He defeated Spartacus and the slaves in 71 B.C. and although it is believed Spartacus died in the battle, his body was never found. While most of the 70,000 followers of Spartacus died in battle, almost six thousand were hunted down and crucified by the Romans, their bodies lining the Appian Way from Rome to Capua. Historians believe Spartacus was not attempting to reform conditions for slaves in Rome or even abolish slavery. Instead it is most likely that his original goal, to flee Rome and to help those enslaved return to the homes, was changed by those who wanted to plunder Italy.

In Blood and Sand, Wyk's character, Attia, an enslaved Thracian female warrior becomes Spartacus after she helps her friend and eventual lover, Xanthus survive a night of battling fighters from Ardea. To aid her gladiator friend, Attia dresses in black, covering her face and gives herself the name Sparro after her dead father, king of Thrace. However, her name is inadvertently changed to Spartacus by Timeus's nephew Lucius. Spartacus's amazing deeds in this arena, lead Timeus to hire a mercenary to find her. That mercenary turns out to be her father's captain, Crius.

The author has also altered considerably the events surrounding the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii. On the morning August 24, 79 A.D. Pompeii was rocked by an earthquake. The eruption began around 1pm in the afternoon with violent earthquakes and pumice and ash falling on the town. An hour later, the sun was completely blocked out by the heavy ash and pumice, making it completely dark in Pompeii. By 4pm in the afternoon, almost six inches of pumice had fallen on the town, blocking the rivers, and clogging the port making escape via boat impossible. By 5pm, so much pumice and ash had fallen that the roofs of buildings began collapsing and people were trapped in some rooms. During this time many of the residents were able to flee, however many also stayed behind, probably believing the eruption would soon end. Pumice and ash continue to fall throughout the night. Around 1 a.m. on August 25, the giant ash cloud above Mount Vesuvius collapsed sending a scalding mud flow racing down its slopes, towards the town of Herculaneum which was completely destroyed. Close to 6:30 a.m., a third pyroclastic flow consisting of hot ash and gases raced towards Pompeii but was held back by the town wall. However, a series of several more flows overcame the walls, toxic hot gases that poured through the town, killing everything in its path. Anyone still in Pompeii were killed, the final flows of gases and ash almost completely burying the town except for the highest walls.

In Blood and Sand, Wyk describes the eruption of Pompeii very differently. "The blackened crest of the mountain spewed flame into the sky. The ground shook violently as a river of molten rock spilled out from Vesuvius and began to snake its way through the streets like a fiery serpent. It consumed the houses and people in its path, slowly but steadily." Attia, Xanthus and their friends are described as fleeing the flowing molten lava flow, through the crumbling ruins of Pompeii as it is also rocked by earthquakes. However, molten lava flows were not part of the Mount Vesuvius eruption - it was pyroclastic in nature. It was the poisonous hot gases that killed people where they lay. They were then covered with large quantities of hot ash and pumice preserving their body contours and allowing for the famed casts to be made almost two thousand years later. Wyk also describes red-hot rocks falling, so large they killed people. While some of the pumice and rocks were large, most were not. It was the quantity of pumice and ash that was the problem - a rate of about 6 inches per hour that quickly filled the streets and courtyards, and covered roofs making them collapse.

Nevertheless, Blood and Sand is an entertaining read. Wyk includes exciting action scenes beginning with the opening chapter, a blossoming romance between the two main characters of the novel, details about life in Rome and uses the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the novel's climax. The story is told in the alternating narratives of Attia and Xanthus.

Attia, her heart hardened by the destruction of her people and the loss of her beloved father, King Sparro, begins the novel wary of everyone in Rome, determined to seek revenge. However, the kindness of Xanthus and the advice of Sabina who reveals herself to be Thracian, help Attia begin to adapt to her life as a slave who has been given to Xanthus. Despite her harshness, Attia is kind to Aurora (who has the ridiculous nickname of "Rory" in the novel - something decidely un-Roman), the daughter of Timeus and Valeria. She also tries to comfort Lucretia, Timeus's concubine who is physically abused by the wealthy Roman. Although she falls in love with Xanthus, Attia never deviates from her plan to kill Timeus who enslaved her and Crassus who murdered her father and fellow Thracians, even when the opportunity to escape during the destruction of Pompeii presents itself.

In contrast to Attia who is portrayed as the consummate warrior, Xanthus whose real name is Gareth, hates killing so much, he considers deliberately throwing a match to end his own life. He kills only when he has no other choice. Xanthus is honorable and compassionate. He treats Attia with care and compassion, and has nothing but sympathy when Timeus's nephew Lucius is forced to kill a young boy, an act that hardens the naive young man.

Readers who enjoy historical fiction and books about Rome should enjoy Blood and Sand, provided they aren't interested in historical accuracy in this alternative history. Readers will also find the dialogue in this novel to be somewhat modern and not representative of the era.

Blood and Sand is Wyk's first novel. She admits to being influenced by modern blockbuster "sword and sandal movies" such as "Gladiator", "300" and the 2010 British television series "Spartacus", whose first episode is titled "Blood and Sand". It should be noted that readers who enjoyed Blood and Sand can read the first chapter of the sequel, Fire and Ash which is due out in 2019.

Book Details:

Blood and Sand by C.V. Wyk
New York: A Tom Doherty Associates Book 2017
310 pp.

Long Way Down by prolific and award winning author/poet Jason Reynolds tackles the troubling issue of gun violence. In this novel-in-verse, the events are narrated by fifteen-year-old William Holloman whose nineteen-year-old brother Shawn was shot and killed the day before. Will compares the loss of his beloved brother, who taught him how do a "Penny Drop", to having a molar pulled. For him it feels strange and hard to say "Shawn's dead.".

Will and his friend Tony were outside talking about their hope of growing taller, when they heard the shots and hit the pavement. When they looked up, Shawn had been shot.

Beside him was his girlfriend Leticia, screaming as he lay dying. The police arrived and asked if anyone saw anything but no one said anything because the rules are no crying, no snitching and get revenge.

Now a day later, back in their 8th floor apartment, Will is in the bedroom he shared with Shawn, covering his head with his pillow to block out the sobs of his mother. On the other side of the room, Shawn's side, sits his dresser with the middle drawer jammed shut. But Will knows what's in there: "A tool for Rule No. 3" Will believes it was Carlson Riggs who shot his brother because Riggs recently joined the Dark Suns gang and because he had to show he belonged with them. And because of the crime shows Will has watched with his mom. He always knew who the killer was. It is his special gift.

Will manages to force open the drawer enough to get the gun and decides he will avenge his brother's death. His plan is to wait for Riggs in the morning at the front of his building and shoot him with his brother's gun. Will slips quietly out of his apartment, careful not to disturb his mother, and enters the elevator. It is seven floors down to the lobby. Seven floors to think about what he's about to do. Seven floors for fate to intervene.

Discussion

**this review contains spoilers**

Long Way Down is a haunting novel that explores the impact of gun violence on the lives of young people today and the cycle of trauma, anger and loss that this violence breeds. The day after the murder of his older brother Shawn, fifteen-year-old Will takes his brother's gun with the intent to kill the person who murdered him. Will, like his father, his uncle, and his brother has been taught to follow, unquestioningly "The Rules" which consist of
1.No crying
2.No snitching
3. Always get revenge
After Shawn's murder, Will has followed the first two "rules"; he hasn't cried nor snitched and he is about to follow through on the third, by killing his brother's murderer.

He takes the elevator from his family's 8th floor apartment to the lobby but in those 60 seconds, the elevator stops at each floor and a new person enters the elevator, a time stamp marking their appearance. Will meets six people from his past who have lost their lives because ofthis rule; Buck who was Shawn's friend, Will's childhood friend Dani, Will's Uncle Mark who is his father's brother, his father Mikey Holloman, Frick (Frances) who is the man who murdered Buck, and finally his brother Shawn. Each of these people are ghosts, who Will can see, touch and talk with, but who have no reflection in the elevator doors. Each of these people challenge Will in a different way to reconsider what he's about to do.

Buck's presence shocks Will because he knows Buck is dead. Buck knows exactly what he's planning and tells Will he is no killer. "It's a long way down." he tells Will. When Dani enters, Will doesn't recognize her at first and is shocked she can see Buck. Dani was killed when she was eight-years-old and is wearing the flower dress she died in but looking eight years older. Her death led Shawn to teach Will "The Rules" and she questions him to consider what will happen if he misses, implying that this is how she died, hit by a stray bullet intended for someone else.

His Uncle Mark who was a drug pusher, walks Will through the scenario of Will actually killing Riggs:
"I mean, let's play it out,
how this whole thing it gon'
go down. Play it out
like a movie."

Will struggles to finish the end of the "movie" of him shooting Riggs. When he finally says the word "shoot" it is painful:
"it was like the words
came out and at the same
time went it.

Went down
into me and
chewed on everything
inside as if
I had somehow
swallowed
my own teeth
and they were
sharper than
I'd ever known."
Will believes after he kills Riggs it will end but Uncle Mark tells him "It's never the end, Never."

Will's father Mikey Holloman whom he doesn't really remember "was killed for killing the man who killed our uncle" as Shawn has told him. When Will's father questions him as to what he thinks he should do, Will responds, "Follow The Rules." However his father explains to Will how devastated he was when his brother Mark was killed.
"I was shattered. Shifted.
Never the same again.
Like shards of my own heart
shivving me on the inside,"
Mikey explains that when he followed "The Rules"; he killed the wrong man. To emphasize what it is like to kill someone, Mikey puts the guns to Will's head, terrifying him to the point that he pees his pants.

On the third floor, Frick whose real name is Frank, steps onto the elevator. He was a member of the Dark Sun gang who murdered Buck as part of his initiation into the gang. It was Frick whom Shawn murdered. Frick shows Will the reality of what he's about to do by showing him his wound, made by Shawn when he shot him.
                                                                           "See this?
he asked,
exposing a hole
in his chest,
dime-sized,
disgusting,
bloody
but not bleeding.
                                                                           Your brother's
                                                                           fingerprints are in
                                                                           there somewhere."
Will tells Frick that he intends on killing Riggs, but Frick doesn't know any Dark Sun member by that name.

The final person Will sees is his brother Shawn, who enters the elevator wearing blood stained clothing. Although Shawn greets his uncle and father, Shawn doesn't speak to Will, doesn't return his hug and doesn't smile at him. As Will fights the urge to cry, Shawn cries, breaking the first rule.
"his face was wet
with tears he wasn't
supposed to cry
when he was alive,"
By crying Shawn is showing Will, it is okay to break the rules, that they should not be followed. Will in turn begins to cry, thus breaking the first rule and opening up the possibility of breaking the other rules too, especially the last one - seeking revenge by murdering his brother's killer.

When he arrives in the Lobby, watching the dead leave, Shawn poses a question to his brother. It is the only thing he says to Will. Will must choose to either follow "The Rules" like his uncle, father and brother and likely end up dead or in jail for murder, or ignore the rules, mourn their deaths and live, breaking the cycle of violence. Each person he met in the elevator has left him with questions; What happens if he misses and kills someone else?, Does he know for certain Riggs killed his brother?, What if he kills the wrong person? His father showed him what it feels like to have a gun pressed to your head, knowing you will die. Together these people have forced Will to confront the reality of what he's considering doing; both the consequences to himself and to others.

Reynolds has stated that the inspiration for this thought-provoking novel was the murder of his close friend when he was nineteen-years-old. The gruesome murder led his other friends to consider murdering the person responsible. Reynolds noticed how the murder affected normally peaceful people who, because of their pain and trauma, wanted to kill someone. It was his friend's mother who made them reconsider what they were thinking of doing. He also wanted to write about the codes that exist in neighbourhoods were violence and poverty have been a cycle that has existed for several generations. That code is the no crying, no snitching and always seek vengeance when a murder happens and it leads to the cycle of violence.

Reynolds felt that verse was the vehicle of choice for this story because its attenuated form allows the writer to pass on the sense of urgency, claustrophobia, anger and pain that the main character, Will is experiencing. According to Reynolds,poetry has a way of being immediate and being urgent". The author's use of verse is masterful, employing imagery and metaphors, anagrams, shape poems and background shading throughout the novel. For example, the smoke in the elevator represents the confusion Will feels regarding the visits by the various ghosts and his intended course of action. It grows especially thick after Buck and Dani arrive but clears when his father who died when Will was three, enters. The elevator is frequently described by Will as a steel coffin, alluding to the fact that it holds all the dead people Will knows, those who lived by "The Rules".

Long Way Down is a powerful, realistic novel exploring the issue of gun violence and the pain and trauma this violence has on individuals in communities at risk. While it can be read quickly, Long Way Down challenges readers to really think about these issues in our communities. Readers should take the time to explore the imagery and use of metaphors in the novel. This brilliantly crafted novel is suitable for ages 13+ and recommended for teen book clubs.

Book Details:

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
New York: Atheneum    2017
306 pp.

Pioneer Girl is a picture book biography of one of America's most famous pioneers, Laura Ingalls Wilder and author of the beloved "Little House on the Prairie" children's novels. Laura Ingalls was born on February 7, 1867 to Charles and Caroline Ingalls in the Big Woods region of Wisconsin. She was the second of five children in the Ingalls family which included older sister Mary Amelia, and younger siblings Caroline Celestia, Charles Frederick, and Grace Pearl.

Laura Ingalls' story in that of a life on the move. When she was two-years-old, Laura's family moved to Kansas, where they settled on the Osage Diminished Reserve. However, they had been incorrectly advised that this land was available for resettlement. It was land that belong to the Osage Indians and so they decided to return to Wisconsin in 1871, to their old homestead in the Big Woods. They stayed there for the next three years. In 1874, when Laura was seven-years-old they moved to the wide open prairies of Minnesota, living first on rented land near Lake City. They then moved to Walnut Grove.

Laura's family lived through a locust plague that destroyed crops from the Dakota's to Texas. The Rocky Mountain locust which was responsible for this destruction, went extinct in 1902. Laura's family moved frequently during these years, to South Troy, Minnesota where Laura's brother Charles was born in 1875 ( He passed away at the age of nine months in 1876.), to Burr Oaks, Iowa, where Grace Ingalls was born in 1877 and returning to Walnut Grove in 1878.

Laura's father began working for the railroad, requiring him to move to the Dakota Territory in the spring of 1879. Finally Charles settled his family down, homesteading in DeSmet, Dakota. Laura Ingalls Wilder's novel, The Long Winter describes the severe winter of 1880-81, which Laura's family along with others in the state endured. The first blizzard hit in October of 1880 and the winter saw numerous storms that harvesting crops difficult in the fall, and train service unreliable by January of 1881. On February 2, 1881, a nine-day snowstorm raged filling the streets "with solid drifts to the tops of the buildings".

The Ingalls sisters: Carrie, Mary and Laura in the early 1880's.

With her family now settled in DeSmet, Laura was able to attend school regularly. She made friends with Almanzo Wilder whom she called "Manly" and who was ten years her senior. Laura began teaching school to help her parents, just shy of her sixteenth birthday. Laura would continue to teach while still attending school herself until she married Almanzo in 1885. Their first child, Rose was born on December 5, 1886. A second child, a son was born in 1889 but died twelve days after birth.

Laura and Almanzo's life was challenging and interesting; they suffered illness, crop failures and the loss of their home. They left DeSmet in 1890, living briefly in Florida but returned in 1892. They then moved to Mansfield, Missouri in 1894 where they purchased land outside the town. They named their farm Rocky Ridge and built it into a successful mixed farm that included dairy, poultry and fruit. They would live at Rocky Ridge for the rest of their lives.

In Pioneer Girl, William Anderson offers young readers many interesting details of Laura Ingalls Wilder's life from her childhood in Wisconsin, through to her later years when she was famous for her Little House on the Prairie novels which were written for children. Accompanying the simple text are the lovely full page colour illustrations by Dan Andreasen. Anderson has written extensively about the Ingalls and Wilder families including a biography about Laura Ingalls Wilder and The Laura Ingalls Wilder Country Cookbook.

Pioneer Girl is a must read for young readers who would like to know the real story and chronology behind the Little House on the Prairie books. Although Ingalls Wilder claimed her books were autobiographical, they were not and in fact contained many fictional characters and events. Nevertheless, Laura's novels provide a unique insight to the pioneer experience in America in a way that is both interesting and informative.

Book Details:

Pioneer Girl: The Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder by William Anderson
New York: HarperCollins Publishers 1998

A Land of Permanent Goodbyes tells the story of one boy's journey to escape war in his beloved Syria. This deeply moving novel makes the Syrian refugee crisis painfully real to young readers. The story is narrated by "Destiny"

Tareq is Nour and Fayed eldest child. Eventually his family came to include his brother Salim who was two years younger, his younger sisters Farrah and Susan and the twins Ameer and Sameer. Tareq's paternal grandmother also lived with them. The family was not well off but their small apartment was filled with love. On a hot summer night in 2015, Tareq's family was shattered forever when his neighbourhood was bombed. While trapped beneath the slab of concrete that had been his family's kitchen wall, Tareq dreams of his family, his five month-old twin brothers, his sisters watching television, his mother making food and his tetya (grandmother) drinking tea. He remembers his brother Salim who has great affection for their sisters and his love of soccer.

But Tareq's nightmare is all too real as he is pulled from the ruins by men in white helmets. The bodies of his mother, tetya and his younger sister Farrah are pulled from the crushed apartment building and Tareq is sent to the hospital. While he is being treated, Tareq shows the doctor pictures on his phone of his siblings and learns that Susan will be fine. But Ameer and Sameer are dead, Salim missing. Tareq weeps as his father holds him.

Tareq's father, Fayed drives to Raqqa to meet his older brother who has promised to help him leave the country by giving him money. Raqqa is now controlled by Daesh, al-Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham-or or ISIS. These religious fundamentalists have set up their own brutal laws. All Fayed knows is that he has to get his two surviving children out of the country. As they travel to Raqqa, Tareq notices the effect the drought has had on the land, "the once-lush greenery that held beautiful loquat and citrus trees had disintegrated into dusty brown cracked earth." Each checkpoint is a harrowing nightmare; at one they encounter a young government army soldier who extorts money from Fayed, they meet the shabiha who are the pro-Assad civilian militia who are equally terrifying, and at others Daesh soldiers angrily yell at Fayed, questioning his small beard, Susan lack of a proper head covering, telling Fayed that he is kafer.

Once in Raqqa, Fayed and Tareq see the full horror of life under Daesh. There are heads mounted on spikes on the main roundabout. Tareq is shocked to see that Raqqa has also changed. The streets with many bombed-out buildings are empty, patrolled by men with long beards carrying Kalashnikov rifles. A shopping trip with his cousin Musa quickly turns into a terrifying experience as the two boys are forced to Naim Square where they witness the shooting and beheading of a young man. On the drive home, Musa realizes they have been followed. Within minutes of their arrival, men come to the house but Tareq's Uncle Waleed and his father manage to talk the men out of taking the two boys, who they want to recruit for Daesh.

As a result of this, Uncle Waleed tells Fayed and Tareq they must leave the city immediately and continue on to Turkey. Only a few weeks after they leave, Daesh close off the city. Tareq, along with his father and sister, his cousin Musa and Shams and Asil who are a neighbour's daughters, travel through the Aleppo countryside, arriving finally at the Turkish border. Having missed the bus crossing the border, the group walks the last exhausting mile into Turkey.

In Turkey, Musa and Tareq travel to Istanbul in an effort to make money for the trip to Europe while Fayed and Susan live in Gaziantep. However, making money proves to be more difficult than Tareq realizes. In Istanbul, Syrians are not well treated,and Tareq is almost cheated out of his payment for working at a new restaurant. Musa tries to encourage Tareq to stay, to work harder to make Turkey his home, but Tareq is determined to leave for Europe. He's had enough of Turkey, and is concerned for the well being of his little sister Susan.

To that end Tarek meets his father and sister in the coastal city of Izmir where they hope to find someone to help them cross over the Aegean Sea to Greece. In Izmir they find not only Syrians but people from Afghanistan who are also feeling war and the Taliban. Tareq's journey will continue in a leaky boat with fake life jackets, leaving behind his beloved father. It is a journey that will almost cost him and his sister their lives, but will teach Tarek the importance of finding the helpers, those people who care and who give of themselves.

Discussion

A Land of Permanent Goodbyes tackles the Syrian refugee crisis in a haunting and memorable way that captures the reality and puts a human face to this tragedy. The refugee experience is told by "Destiny" which describes itself "...as the end of a sequence of events that you and your kind actively shape." and as "just the end result of your choices". This unbiased witness tells the story of a Syrian boy whose life is forever altered when his home is bombed by the Syrian military. Abawi used Destiny as the narrator because she felt this was the best way to tell the refugee story as Destiny sees events from all points of view, the refugees, the helpers, and a group of people Abawi calls "the hunters" those people who rape, murder or act with cruelty. Destiny has also seen the past.

Abawi also chose to use Destiny to tell the story because she felt this was the best way to help her readers fully understand the refugee experience:

"In life, for some people it is very difficult to put oneself in another’s shoes and see the world from their perspective. It’s also challenging to share your struggles with others who you feel would not understand it, or even judge you for them. Each and every one of us also has thoughts and secrets that we are afraid to express. In terms of this novel I think that Destiny could be that voice for each character so they don’t have the opportunity to hide behind the protective wall all humans construct."

Abawi sets the stage by having Tareq dream, as he lays half buried in the rubble of his home, about his family as they were before the bombing. He remembers the most intimate details of his mother, "hair in a bun and a mole on the side of the neck", "breathing in her scent of perfumed flowers and spiced cooking." He remembers his tetya, his sisters Susan Farrah who was the little tomboy, his twin brothers Ameer and Sameer, playing soccer with his brother Salim, before he regains consciousness in the horror of a completely destroyed home filled with the dead. This happy, loving life will be only a memory for Tareq and his father as they flee their homeland of Syria.

Abawi uses her characters to inform readers, providing background information about the Syrian conflict. For example through the character of Musa, readers learn about the radical Islamic terrorist group called Daesh. When Tareq is in Raqqa his cousin Musa explains Daesh to his cousin, telling him, "...this city has been taken over by the world. They come from France, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, America, Kuwait, Britain, Libya-everywhere. I swear I hear them speaking more French and English than Arabic, wallahi!" He tells Tareq that Daesh originated in Iraq and that they fear them the most. In a conversation with his cousin, Musa tells him, "These people don't know the first thing about Islam...I guarantee most of them have never even read a Quran in their lives. They are criminals in their home countries. ..Do you know that they even found out some of the guys who came here from England had purchased a Quran for Dummies book instead of the actual Quran?" He also references the Salafism, stating,"The Salafi cancer has spread.", claiming "...But the Saudis have had the oil money to spread this deadly disease...Think about it. The world buys Saudi oil-they're so rich, they have golden toilet seats. They also have the money to print their own interpretation of the Holy Quran in every language you can think of and ship it out. They claim to have the purest form of Islam, when in reality they created it more than a thousand years after the Prophet Muhammad's death!...And then on the other side, you have President Assad, the Alawite, and his backing from Iran and the Shias."

Throughout Tafeq's journey readers learn about the many problems Syrian refugees usually encounter as they make their way through Turkey, across the Aegean Sea, through Greece, Macedonia and on towards eastern Europe to Germany. For example, Syrian refugees working to earn money for the crossing are frequently cheated out of wages in Turkey. Refugees are charged exorbitant fees for being smuggled across the Mediterranean, and are placed in leaking boats with fake life jackets. Women and girl refugees are particularly at risk, repeatedly raped by smugglers, while others are stolen and trafficked for the sex trade. Even crossing the Aegean, the Turkish coast guard attacks refugee boats with the intention of sinking them rather than helping. These are just a few of the problems Abawi highlights in her novel.

Abawi doesn't shy away from the horrors of the Syrian conflict nor the brutality of ISIS. Tareq and Musa witness the brutal execution and beheading of a young man, his parents in attendance. "A battery of bullets ripped through the young man, whose body convulsed. His mother collapsed, his father too shocked to try to lift her back up. The firing eventually came to a halt. But the horror didn't end....He grabbed the limp head by its mane, lifting it from the puddle of blood it had rested in, and ran a sharp blade back and forth across the neck, slashing the flesh. The boy's father finally fell next to his wife, thumping to the ground."

Abawi also portrays those who do care, the numerous helpers who come from many countries - characters such as Alexi an American from Connecticut who came to Greece to visit family. However Alexi's life is changed forever when she sees the refugees and is moved by their suffering to volunteer. There are others too from every country around the world: Michael who is from Singapore, Sivan and Mariam two medics from Israel, Hashem a British born Syrian, Famke from the Netherlands, Hilda from Germany and Tina from China.

Destiny focuses on Alexi who, in an attempt to bridge the gap between cultures, organizes a small dinner with the workers and Tareq and a few other refugees in the transit camp. Their sharing of food and stories brings hope and relief. "They talked about the beauty of their cities and the destruction of their lives and loved ones. Both volunteers and refugees shed tears, salty droplets of relief as they set free the stories that were trapped in their hearts and minds." Alexia encourages Tareq by telling him what she learned as a child from Mr. Rogers."I'll never forget the advice he said he got from his mother. 'Always look for the helpers.' ...she explained. "Look, you've had a pretty horrible journey so far. And it's not even close to being over. But when you think that the world is against you, please just take a moment and look for them-the helpers.' She shrugged. 'I don't know, it may make things better.'"

There is also an interesting discussion between Tareq and the London-born Syrian, Hashem. Tareq expresses the view that "there are a lot of people who hate us."but Hashem states this is fear and not hate. Tareq doesn't accept this. "My point is, we are the ones afraid. We are the ones who have suffered. How can complete strangers be afraid of those of us who have seen what real suffering is? They can't be afraid of the weak. We should call it what it is: hate." Abawi presents a rather simplistic view to her readers of how the refugees are viewed in Europe when in fact the issue is much more complex. Tareq is partially correct in that some of the European reluctance to take in refugees might be based on "hate", but the issue is more complex than the character Tareq is shown to understand. For European countries , many of whom are struggling economically (Greece for example has received billions in bailout money), other factors come into play. For example, the sheer volume of refugees, how to integrate refugees who have a culture that is very different from secular, post-Christian Europe and the lack of response by other Arab/Muslim countries such as Yemen, Saudi Arabi and Lebanon are important considerations.

Abawi ends her novel on a somewhat hopeful tone; Tareq receives some happy news and he and Susan do make it safely to Germany. There is also a hint of a future perhaps with Jamila, a young Afghani woman who lives with her sister Najiba and their aunt in Frankfurt.

A Land of Permanent Goodbyes, is both revealing and deeply moving, and exquisitely crafted novel,offering young readers the opportunity to experience the refugees plight and the challenge to be helpers, not hunters in this human tragedy.

Book Details:

A Land of Permanent Goodbyes by Atia Abawi
New York: Philomel Books 2018
272 pp.

Seventeen-year-old Dimple Shah lives to code.And she fully intends to go to Insomnia Con 2017 on the San Francisco State University campus during the summer. Participants must design a ground-breaking app. Dimple hopes to meet Jenny Lindt, a famous web developer.The only catch is the program costs a thousand dollars. Dimple has already convinced her parents to allow her to attend Stanford, likely because they hope she "will meet the I.I.H. (Ideal Indian Husband) of her, no, their -- dreams at the prestigious school."

During a visit by Ritu auntie and her daughter-in-law, Seema, Dimple brings up her idea to attend Insomnia Con. To her utter shock, her parents agree to send her to the summer program.

Meanwhile, eighteen-year-old Rishi Patel isn't too impressed with the photograph of Dimple Shah. For one thing, she doesn't look too happy. His parents have known Dimple's parents, Leena and Vijay Shah for decades. Their families are from the same part of Mumbai. Rishi has agreed to attend the web development program in San Francisco to meet Dimple. Rishi believes that since she's attending, she must be agreeable to meeting him as their families are interested in arranging a marriage between the two. Rishi will be attending M.I.T. in the fall but he's certain that despite the distance, they can work things out.

Dimple arrives in San Francisco early , too early to meet her roommate Celia so she heads to the coffee shop to get an iced coffee. It's there that she is approached by Rishi who greets her with "Hello, future wire...I cant' wait to get started on the rest of our lives!" Completely unnerved, Dimple flings her coffee at him and runs away. They end up meeting later on in the main lobby of their dorm and Dimple is puzzled that this boy knows her name. When Rishi explains that their parents know one another and that they have shared pictures, Dimple can't believe it. But fate seems to intervene when she and Rishi are partnered for the Insomnia Con. Forced to work together, Dimple finds herself falling for the honourable, sweet Rishi. But can they really forge a lasting relationship when they are so different and when they will be attending schools on opposite coasts?

Discussion

When Dimple Met Rishi starts out as a cute romance involving two young Indian teens, eighteen-year-old Rishi Patel and seventeen-year-old Dimple Shah whose parents are hoping to eventually set up an arranged marriage. Rishi signs up for Insomnia Con knowing he's attending to meet Dimple, but she has no knowledge of the arrangements their parents have made. Dimple is there to code and advance her career. Their paths cross and a strained relationship quickly develops into a love affair as they are partnered at the coding course both are attending. Up to this point, the novel is funny and sweet as Rishi tries to whoo the "spirited" Dimple first into friendship and then into dating.

However, the story falls into the typical modern teen drama/romance trope and loses its way. The story devolves into sexual escapades and a talent show involving bhangra dancing. Dimple and Rishi eventually have sex (it is Dimple who badgers Rishi into relenting despite his concern for tradition and wanting to wait), and Dimple's roommate, Celia hooks up with not only her coding team partner and but also with Rishi's younger brother, a rebellious sixteen-year-old who shows up unexpectedly at SFSU. Their antics seemed befitting for a slightly older crowd and feel out of place in this novel. Although the inclusion of a tidbit of Indian culture - the popular Krrish superhero movies is interesting, it feels out of place in this novel. All of this causes the story to temporarily veer away from some of the issues hinted at, that both Dimple and Rishi are dealing with in the first half of the novel.

Those issues revolve around the responsibilities and expectations young Indian teens face from parents and their culture. Menon uses the character of Rishi to highlight these pressures. Rishi is a gifted artist who over the last three years has created and developed his own character, Aditya the Sun God/superhero. However, Rishi keeps his talent hidden and considers it something that will always be a hobby in his life. When Rishi attends the Little Comic Con at SFSU and meets his hero Leo Tilden a famous graphic novelist, he decides against showing him his sketches. To Rishi, doing so feels like betraying his parents who believe he is at SFSU for the coding course and to meet Dimple. Rishi tells Dimple, "...I know what's important to me -- I want a life. I want to get married and have a family. I can't support a family working as a waiter and hoping to break out as a comic book artist." When Dimple encourages him to "Do what you love, what you're passionate about. So what if it's not the most practical thing? You're eighteen, you don't have to be practical for a long, long time..." But Rishi tells her he has made promises to his parents and that he has duties and obligations.

It isn't until Dimple tells him she can't be with someone who doesn't have the courage to follow through on the own dreams, that Rishi decides to reconsider. But Rishi who respects his parents, talks things out with his father, telling him, "Pappa, I was...engineering doesn't feel right for me. It feels right for you. I'm an artist in my soul. Not an engineer. Not a corporate machine." In the end, his Pappa relents and Rishi is able to get accepted and enroll at SFSU. Rishi's conflict with his parents over a choice of career is a common one in certain cultures which place precedence on certain professions such as medicine, law and engineering over other "lesser" occupations such as visual art or teaching.

Dimple too struggles with expectations but as a young woman, her issue is much different. She believes her mother wants her life to revolve around marriage and family, something Dimple is not sure she will ever want. At seventeen, not surprisingly, Dimple doesn't want a boyfriend and she doesn't want to marry. Yet she finds herself doing exactly what she never intended to do, have a serious boyfriend who is "trustworthy and practical and stable." Instead Dimple wants "adventure and spontaneity and travel" and she feels she needs "to make a few bad decisions and have a few boys break her heart." Her aspirations sound decidedly trite. Is this the message that Sandhya Menon wants to send young women? People make bad decisions all the time, but it isn't usually something one plans on or looks forward to doing.

However, Dimple experiences a serious crisis when she loses the main prize at Insomnia Con to a team consisting of Evan Grant, Hari Mehta and Isabelle Ryland. Winning was central to Dimple's idea of advancing her career and she behaves badly, sulking and is not a gracious loser. She blames her relationship with Rishi for the loss; "There was no doubt about it -- if they hadn't been going out, she would've spent almost all of her free time working on her prototype. Tweaking it. Making it better. And maybe one of those tweaks would've sent her over the edge..." And so she quite unkindly dumps Rishi. Yet only later back at home, in the presence of her Mamma, does Dimple admit that she loves Rishi. But her fear is that she will lose herself. "But there's no way to make it work without one of us sacrificing something big. And you know how it is. It's usually the woman who ends up sacrificing. And I can't do that. I won't." Dimple's mother points out that in rejecting Rishi, she is already sacrificing something - love.

One last point and it is about a question that Dimple asks herself not long after she and Rishi have met. Dimple questions Rishi's reference to the Indian gods and he responds that this is his way of trying to educate people about his Hindu faith. Dimple asks herself "Why was Christianity always the default?" The answer to this question of course is that the United States was founded by Christians and so the vast majority of people in the country are Christians which is why it is the default belief. Even in the post-modern era, our laws, our codes of behaviour and our civic life are based on the default belief of Christianity. In India, the vast majority of people there are Hindus and thus the country is considered a Hindu nation. Young readers may wonder at this, and in this novel unfortunately, Menon offers no answer.

Menon ends her novel happily with all the current conflicts resolved. When Dimple Met Rishi is a suitable exploration of the pressures teens from certain ethnic backgrounds can experience but loses its way in the middle of the story. There are better written YA contemporary romance novels to be read.

Book Details:

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
New York: Simon Pulse 2017
378 pp.

The classic western novel, Shane penned by Jack Schaefer in 1949 tells the story of a mysterious stranger who rides into in a small Wyoming valley one day in the summer of 1889 and forever alters life there. In the process he teaches a young what it means to be a man.

Young Bob Starrett sees the man riding towards their ranch from several miles away. His clothes are unusual, with dark trousers, a finespun shirt and a black hat,"with a creased crown and a wide curling brim swept down in front to shield the face." But what impressed Bob even more was the man himself. "He was clean-shaven and h is face was lean and hard and burned from high forehead to firm, tapering chin. His eyes seemed hooded in the shadow of the hat's brim. He came closer, and I could see that this was because the brows were drawn in a frown of fixed and habitual alertness. Beneath them the eyes were endlessly searching from side to side and forward, checking off every item in view, missing nothing..."

The stranger stops at the Starretts, requesting water. Bob's father, Joe Starrett welcomes him, offering him water and an invitation to stay for dinner and rest over night. He accepts and reveals his name to be Shane. After bringing his horse into the barn, the three head into the house where Joe introduces Shane to his wife Marian. Supper is hearty with Joe, Shane and Bob trying to eat as much of Marian's delicious cooking. Bob's mother and father are unsuccessful in their attempts to learn more about Shane. Bob notes,"His past was fenced as tightly as our pasture. All they could learn was that he was riding through, taking each day as it came, with nothing particular in mind except maybe seeing a part of the country he had not seen before."

Afterwards, sitting on the porch with Shane, Joe tells him that "The open range can't last forever" as it is a poor business, using up too much space for too little return. Instead, putting up fences to grow crops to help support the farm while having a small, well fed herd that is larger and better beef than what ranchers like Fletcher who's on the opposite side of the river, raise. Joe reveals that Fletcher can no longer use the range on this side of the river because of the settlers coming in and laying claim to parcels of land. After Bob is sent to bed he overhears his parents talking about Shane and his father telling his mother that Shane is dangerous but not to them.

The next morning a sudden storm has Shane delayed again from leaving and Joe convinces him to stay so he can show him around the farm and also rest his horse. As Joe shows him around, with Bob tagging along, Shane notices the big old stump with the huge roots that came out in every direction. While discussing the stump, Jake Ledyard arrives on his sorrel pulling a buckboard wagon. He has Joe's new seven-pronged cultivator which he offers to him for the price of a hundred and ten. But Shane tells Joe that he's seen the same in a store in Cheyenne for sixty. Eventually Joe and Jack settle on the price of eighty. Shane decides to work on the stump and the two men eventually chop through the roots and upend the huge stump. For Bob watching his father and Shane, it the most exciting thing he's ever seen.

The next day Joe Starrett asks Shane to stay on and help him get the farm in shape for the winter. Shane correctly understands that Fletcher is "crowding Joe" and wants his land. He agrees to stay on. Although it's obvious he's no farmer, Shane keeps up with Joe Starrett, never shirking even the hardest work.

Things remain quiet for most of the summer as Fletcher has travelled to Fort Bennett in Dakota and then onto Washington where he's trying to "get a contract to supply beef to the Indian agent at Standing Rock, The Big Sioux reservation over beyond the Black Hills." But when summer draws to a close, Fletcher returns to the valley, he is determined to run Joe Starrett and the other farmers off their land. With the nearest marshal a hundred miles away and no sheriff in their small town, the farmers are vulnerable. They know the ownership of their land is guaranteed by the government and are intent on staying. It soon becomes apparent Fletcher will use any means to scare off the farmers, but what he doesn't count on is a real man like Shane who is brave enough to stand up to him.

Discussion

Shane is one of the most popular Western novels of the twentieth century. The Western genre is probably one of the least favourite genres of fiction. Western novels are generally set in the American West, during the latter half of the 1800's. Western novels commonly have plots that are centered around a lone cowboy or gunfight who roams from town to town, mysterious, brooding and dangerous. There are many common storylines: in Shane the plot centers around homesteaders pitted against a cattle rancher's attempts to drive them off their land. Because the usual path of justice via a sheriff, courts and a judge are not possible, "frontier justice" is administered by way of gunfights. The most famous and popular authors of western novels include Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour.

Shane is told from the point of view of Bob Starrett whose parents are homesteaders. Through the eyes of a young boy, the reader learns about the qualities that define a real man; loyalty, honesty, self-control, watchfulness, and kindness. Both Joe Starrett and Shane exhibit the qualities of real men and are admired by Bob.

At the very beginning of the novel,when Marian questions her husband taking on Shane as hired help because he is so obviously not a farmer, Joe points out to her that although Shane might not have the knowledge of farming, his other qualities are more valuable. "What a man knows isn't important. It's what he is that counts...Anything he does will be done right...He knows I'm in a spot and he's not the man to leave me there. Nobody'll push him around or scare him away. He's my kind of man."

Joe's assessment of Shane is proven to be correct early on when he insists on taking the pitchfork into town to get it welded. Joe is reluctant to let Shane go alone, because he suspects that Fletcher's men will go after him just as they did to Morley, the man who previously worked for Joe. However, Shane is not put off by this, he goes to town to face whatever might happened. While there he doesn't allow one of Fletcher's men to goad him into a fight. Instead he shows restraint and self-control, recognizing that Chris has courage to do what Fletcher has asked of him, that is to confront Shane. Later on in the novel, Shane is confronted by a group of Fletcher's men at the saloon. Bob who has stationed himself outside because he's not allowed in the saloon, sees the group coming and rushes in to warn Shane. But Shane refuses to run away, instead standing his ground and fighting them even though the odds are very much against him.

True to the western formula, Shane metes out "frontier justice" several times, the first when Chris continues to make derogatory remarks all over town about Joe Starrett and the other farmers. Yet it isn't something Shane relishes. Instead he feels sadness over having to fight Chris and tells Red Marlin to take care of him as Chris "... has the makings of a good man." Shane is proved correct at the end of the novel when Chris shows up at the Starrett farm, asking Joe Starrett to take him on as hired help.

Shane delivers true "frontier justice" at the climax of the novel in a confrontation between himself and Wilson, the gunslinger Fletcher has hired to provoke the farmers. Wilson tricks Ernie Wright into a gunfight, killing him. Shane now knows Fletcher's game and knows he must act. The person Fletcher and Wilson really want is Joe Starrett because he's the only farmer who has been courageous enough to stand up to Fletcher. Shane knows that Joe will fight Wilson if he has to and he will die. There is only one way to see justice done and there is only one person who can accomplish it.

Bob is puzzled by the fact that Shane doesn't carry his gun around with him. In the lawless West, carrying a gun defines a man. Bob asks his father if it's because Shane doesn't know how to use it properly. Here Schaefer employs both irony and foreshadowing; Shane is actually a deadly shot and his not wearing his gun suggests that he will use it in the future. Shane's decision not to wear his gun is based on the fact that he considers it a tool, as he tells young Bob: "A gun is just a tool. No better and no worse than any other tool, a shovel -- or an axe or a saddle or stove or anything. Think of it always that way. A gun is as good -- and as bad -- as the man who carries it. Remember that." It isn't something that makes him a man, which he points out to Wilson, Fletcher's gunslinger later on."You talk like a man because of that flashy hardware you're wearing. Strip it away and you'd shrivel down to boy size." In the end, after Shane confronts Wilson and then leaves town, Bob remembers Shane exactly as he wanted him to. "I would see the man and the weapon wedded in the one indivisible deadliness. I would see the man and the tool, a good man and a good tool, doing what had to be done."

Shane is an slow paced novel that sets the stage for the inevitable confrontation between Shane and Fletcher. Although some of the language is dated, especially with a few derogatory references to Native Americans, Shane is still an important novel for the themes and symbols of manhood that it tackles.

Book Details:

Shane by Jack Schaefer
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company 1949
214 pp.

Lucille Ellerby Godbold or Ludy as she was called, was one of America's first Olympic champions. Ludy was born in Marion County on May 31, 1900. She was part of a large family that included seven children. Her family moved to Estill in Hampton County, South Carolina.

While attending Winthrop College, Ludy set records in the shot put, the discus throw and the triple jump. The college sent her onto Mamaroneck, New York where the qualifying meet for the U.S. track and field team was being held. This team which included Ludy, went on to compete in the First International Track Meet for Women - also known as the Women's Olympic Games in 1922 in Paris, France. Unhappy with the number of women's events in the Olympic Games, the Federation Sportive Feminine Internationale under the direction of Alice Milliat decided to organize their own Women's Olympics, called the 1922 Women's World Games. Athletes from five nations participated including Ludy Godbold.

At the Women's Games, Ludy won gold in the shot put with a throw of twenty meters and twenty-two centimeters. She also won gold in the triple jump, called the hop-step-jump. Ludy won silver in the basketball throw and was third in the javelin. She placed fourth in both the 300 meter dash and the 1000 meter run. Ludy was an international star!

Ludy graduated from Winthrop College with a degree in physical education in 1922 and was appointed athletic director of a private women's college, Columbia College in Columbia, South Carolina. She went on to teach physical education at Columbia for fifty-eight years. Ludy was the first woman inducted into the South Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1961. In 1971, Columbia College named its new physical education center after her. She passed away in 1981.

Ludy Godbold

Jean L.S. Patrick presents Ludy's amazing accomplishments in an enjoyable and descriptive manner. The text captures the sensations and emotions of the most significant events in Ludy's life. Patrick describes Ludy as "six feet tall and skinnier than a pine tree." When Ludy's coach encourages her to try the shot put, Bartlett writes,
"Ludy scooped up the heavy iron ball and placed it between her fingers. She bent her knees, pushed her long arm upward, and released! The ball soared across the sky.
Her heart boomed. Her long arm tingled. She loved the explosion of power."

At the Women's Olympics, after an amazing throw by France's world-record holder, Violette Gourand-Morris, Barlett describes Ludy's nerves as "Ludy's long arms wobbled like French custard. How could she beat that throw?"

The wonderfully expressive text is accompanied by Adam Gustavson's colourful
illustrations. Gustavson effectively portrays Ludy's unusual physical appearance - she was tall and lanky. The book's full page illustrations were done in oil paint while gouache on waterpaper was used for the spot illustrations.

Patrick has obviously done considerable research using primary sources and it shows in the information this picture book presents to readers. She has included a section at the back on More About Ludy, The Women's Olympics and also has an Author's Note and a Selected Bibliography. Patrick writes that "...Ludy didn't become fully alive to me until I traveled to South Carolina to research her story. With awe, I read Ludy's diary, paged through her scrapbook, and saw her small, precious medals. Every item brimmed with emotion and determination." Patrick has more than succeeded in bringing that "emotion and determination" to the pages of Long-Armed Ludy for young and older readers alike.

Book Details:

Long-Armed Ludy and the First Women's Olympics by Jean L.S. Patrick
Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge 2017

image credit: http://www.wikiwand.com/en/1922_Women%27s_World_Games

In The Island at the End of Everything, twelve-year-old Amihan lives on Culion with her mother Nanay who has leprosy and was one of the first to arrive on the island. Amihan was born not long after. One day Sister Clara comes to their home to tell them that there will be a meeting in the church. Amihan, Nanay, their neighbours Capuno who also has leprosy and his brother Bondoc who has come to the island to live with him, also attend. After prayers and a sermon by Father Fernan, a stranger, Mr. Zamora is introduced. He is from Manila and he tells them that there are new changes. Despite the fact that the nuns and Father Fernan have preached abstinence so that married couples do not have children, Mr. Zamora notes that they are "breeding" as he crudely describes it. Mr. Zamora tells the people of Culion that to help these children, the island will be segregated with lepers restricted to areas labeled "Leproso", while those who are clean will live in areas marked "Sano".

When Zamora refuses to answer Nanay's question about the fate of families, she removes the cloth covering her disfigured face and confronts him. Nanay wants to know what will happen to her daughter who is clean despite living with "her demonstrably dirty mother, for all her life." Zamora states that they are "introducing the segregation to save the innocents." who will be sent to the neighbouring island of Coron. Sister Margaritte and the others are stunned at this. Zamora tells her they will be sent to an orphanage. When Sister Margaritte reminds him that the children have parents, Zamora tells her they would be living in what will become the largest leper colony in the world if they stay. He reveals that both Father Fernan and Dr. Tomas have agreed to this plan.

Everyone on Culion must undergo a medical inspection; those children under the age of eighteen who do not have leprosy will "enter the care of the Director of Health...and will be transported to the CORON ORPHANAGE." As expected Nanay is found to have leprosy but Ami is designated as "clean" meaning she will have to leave her mother and go to Coron. Nanay is devastated.

Bondoc along with his brother Capuno who has leprosy, Nanay and Ami go with Sister Margaritte to present a petition to Mr. Zamora requesting that the children of those parents with leprosy be allowed to stay in the areas marked "Sano" on Culion. However Mr. Zamora cruelly rejects the petition telling them, "We want to end this disease. And do you know how we kill a disease? We stop ...it...breeding."

In their remaining time together, Ami and Nanay do many things together; plant a vegetable garden, and spend several days visiting their favourite beach, catching shrimp and crabs. One day they see a boat arrive filled with over one hundred "Touched" - that is people with leprosy. When Ami goes to help the boat moor, Nanay becomes frantic believing she is trying to get leprosy so she can stay on Culion.

Then Ami learns that the next day she along with the other "clean" children will be leaving Culion for the island of Curon with Mr. Zamora.She tells Nanay that she will return and that she will write her. Nanay tells Ami a story which turns out to be about herself and Ami's father. Nanay loved a boy who loved her too. They wanted to be married but were too young and he was too sick. They lived together in a house with a blue roof and red gumamella flowers climbing the walls. However, Nanay's family found her and took her back home. However, she soon contracted leprosy and she was sent to Culion. There she discovered that she was pregnant and when the baby was born she named it Amihan after the winds that bring the monsoon rains.

The next morning Ami and Nanay are told by Sister Margeritte that instead of leaving from the nearby port, Ami and the other children will ride in a cart with Mr. Zamora to the "Sano" port. Along with her is Kidlat, a little five-year-old boy and several girls from school. Mr. Zamora who studies butterflies, brings along five brown boxes with air holes in the tops, and a glass case filled with chrysalises which he angrily protects.

The long ride to the Sano port is punctuated by a catastrophe in which Mr. Zamora loses a box of his butterflies when the horse is startled. After the crossing to Coron, Ami and the others arrive at the orphanage to settle in. Will Ami ever see her beloved Nanay again? However when Mr. Zamora becomes increasingly hostile and paranoid, resulting in a serious accident and the threat to send Ami and her new friend Mari away, Ami knows she must find a way back to see her desperately ill Nanay.

Discussion

The Island at the End of Everything is a fictional account of a young girl's experience living in the leper colony on Culion Island in the Philippines in 1906. Culion Island is part of the Calamian archipelago in the province of Palawan. The island came under American jurisdiction in 1898 when the Spanish sold the Philippines to the Americans. The island was seen as an ideal location for a leper colony, the purpose of which was to eradicate the disease rather than simply help those with leprosy. Leprosy afflicted almost four thousand people on the Philippine Islands in the early twentieth century. With over a thousand new cases each year, it was a serious public health concern. Culion Island was formally established as a leprosarium in 1902 as segregation of leprosy patients became public health policy in the Philippines under American occupation. In 1906, the first patients from Cebu Island arrived via Coast Guard boats and soon patients from other islands were brought to Culion. Many Filipinos were resistant to the segregation as it meant separating family members in a culture that was strongly family oriented. Culion was staffed by the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Paul of Chartres as well as a Jesuit priest and Dr. Charles de Mey who was the colony's physician.

The author bases her story on the historical fact but incorporates fictional characters to create a story. The story is divided into three segments, a prologue written in second person present tense which introduces the reader to the unique setting of this novel - a beautiful green island that became the world's largest leper colony, the main body of the story written in first person present tense and the epilogue in which the reader meets Ami thirty years later, written in third person past tense suggesting that she has been telling Sol her story all along.

While all the characters in this short novel are fictional, Millwood Hargrave has stated that Nanay is based off of her own mother. The Island at the End of Everything has richly developed characters; Ami in a caring compassionate young girl who devotedly cares for her sick mother. Despite her mother's disfigured face with it's missing nose, Ami sees her humanity. She is so determined to be with her mother when she becomes desperately ill that she undertakes a remarkable journey that almost costs her her own life. Ami demonstrates how strong the bond can be between mother and daughter. Then there are Sisters Margaritte and Teresa who are courageous and kind, attempting to protect the children from an uncaring bureaucrat who has a distorted view of illness.

In contrast to these characters is Mr. Zamora. It is the character of Mr. Zamora, the government's representative in charge of the orphanage on Curon who drives the plot. Zamora is a lepidopterists, someone who studies butterflies. His room is filled with numerous mounted butterflies "lined up like school children, or an army, in neat rows." Zamora refuses the parents (of Untouched children) petition to allow their children to remain on Culion. He believes what the government is doing is a kindness to the Untouched children,"giving them a clean life."He compares it to what he does with the butterflies, "Take these butterflies, he says gesturing at the walls. 'They have never known disease, or danger. I even give them a clean death -- is that not a kindness? They are beautiful. Clean. Untouched by the world." Never once does Zamora consider how the government's actions nor his treatment of the lepers and their families on Culion might affect them. Instead Zamora views the children who do not have leprosy like his butterflies, to be preserved at all cost.

Yet despite his cruel treatment of Ami and her friends Kidlat and Mari, she forgives him, recognizing that his fear was a part of his sickness. Ami is able, years later to see the good in Zamora - she admits his first book on butterflies is exceptional. But she tells Sol, "By all accounts he lived in a prison of his own making by the end. His sickness got worse and worse -- it was punishment enough, I think." Ami believes "He did not have a life even a quarter as good as mine has already been."

The Island at the End of Everything is a poignant exploration of the themes of forgiveness, the meaning of family and friendship, purity and how society views those with serious illnesses such as leprosy. Kiran Millwood Hargrave is a London-born, poet, playwright and novelist whose poetic prose allows younger readers to explore worlds very different from their own.

Book Details:

The Island at the End of Everything by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
New York: Alfred A. Knopf 2018
243 pp.

It is January, 1475. Sixteen-year-old Ginevra de' Benci Niccolini is seated in the front row with her friend Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci at a joust being held in the Piazza di Santa Croce."The Medici had organized this joust to celebrate Florence's new diplomatic alliance with Venice and Milan." Simonetta, "the publicly celebrated Platonic love" of Guiliano Medici, the younger brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent, has been honoured as the joust's "Queen of Beauty". Prior to the joust there had been a parade through Florence to Santa Croce, led by Guiliano, nine trumpeteers and two men-at-arms carrying pennants of the Medici coat of arms. Guiliano himself carried an enormous banner with Simonetta depicted as Pallas, the Greek goddess of wisdom and war. Considering all of this makes Ginevra jealous of Simonetta's appeal, but her friend informs her that the new Venetian ambassador, Bernardo Bembo has shown an interest in her.

After having unseated one opponent already, Guiliano's next opponent in the joust is Signor Morelli. When it appears the two combatants are tied, Signor Morelli graciously concedes the round, and offers his exquisitely painted banner of a reclining nymph to the Queen of Beauty. Ginevra believes the banner to be better than the one Botticelli painted for Guiliano. Simonetta tells Ginevra that Maestro Verrocchio painted the banner with the help of one of his apprentices named Leonardo from Vinci.

The rounds continue until well into the evening. Guiliano's opponent is Renato de Pazzi who enters the lists on a large black horse belonging to Guiliano's godfather who refused the horse to his godson. Simonetta explains the political power play that exists in Florence, how the Pazzi who are nobles continually attempt to undermine the powerful influence of the Medici. The challenge is made "a la guerre", meaning "Unhorsing a rider would be the aim and the only honorable way to win." The joust between Pazzi and Medici is violent but Guiliano unseats Renato and is declared the champion of the joust.

As she is leaving, Ginevra is introduced to the Venetian ambassador, Bernardo Bembo by Lorenzo de Medici. Lorenzo tells Ginevra that Bembo is interested in meeting citizens of Florence who love poetry. Lorenzo invites Ginevra to a dinner at his honour and to share one of her poems at the function. Ginevra's Uncle Bartolomoeo accepts the invitation on her and her husband Luigi Niccolini's behalf.

The next morning Ginevra greets Luigi and briefly discusses the joust with her husband. He is a member of the cloth merchant guild, the Arte di Calimala and Ginevra's scarlet soft wool cape with its gold border and her dress "embroidered with intricate flower blossoms of red and emerald threads" Although Ginevra and Luigi have consummated their marriage she sleeps alone. Ginevra's marriage to Luigi Niccolini had been arranged on the previous January, against her will. Ginevra's father died in 1468, after which her Uncle Bartolomoeo had sent her away to Le Murate's convent school. She left the convent permanently her uncle was now head of the family and in exchange for a position on one of Venice's eight priori, Ginevra was sold in marriage to the Niccolini family.

Ginevra does receive an invitation to the Medici dinner which is held in early March. When she and Luigi attend the function , the meet Verrocchio and his former apprentice Leonardo da Vinci. The latter believes Ginevra would make a "excellent subject". At the Medici dinner, Ginevra is enthralled by the naked bronze statue of David, the courtyard centerpiece done by Donatello. A discussion with Bernardo Bembo makes Ginevra blush. Bernardo's advances become more prominent and more transparent leading Ginevra to inner conflict.

As Ginevra is drawn further into the world of Florence's cultural elite, she finds herself drawn into a Platonic relationship with Bernardo Bembo. It is a relationship that pulls her into the Medici circle and into Florence's rich artisan culture, leading to a portrait that immortalizes her for posterity.

Discussion

Elliott has crafted an impressive fictional account of the life of sixteen-year-old Ginevra de' Benci's life and the painting of her portrait by Renaissance master, Leonardo da Vinci. Set in the High Renaissance, the mid-15th century in Florence, Italy, Elliott weaves a masterful story that incorporates many details of life during this era including cultural and religious practices, political intrigue in the Italian city states, and detailed descriptions of a working art studio. Elliott undertook significant research so that she could give her readers an encompassing view of life in the city-state of Florence in 1475.

All of the characters in the novel were real people who lived at the time Ginevra's portrait was painted except for Sancha, her maid. The basic details of Ginevra's life are incorporated into the story: She was born into a family of Florentine notaries who were connected to the wealthy and powerful Medici family and educated at Le Murate, a convent run by Abbess Scolastica Rondinelli and patronized by Ginevra's family. Ginevra was known in Florence as a poet. In 1474, she was married to Luigi de Bernardo Niccolini, a widower and wool merchant, who was much older than Ginevra The marriage was likely arranged by Ginevra's Uncle Bartolomeo who may have known Niccolini.

Many aspects of life in the High Renaissance are portrayed in Da Vinci's Tiger. In the fifteenth century, Italy was comprised of a series of city states. The main republics were Florence, Milan, Genoa, Pisa and Venice. Unfortunately these city states were often at war with each other and at various times with the Pope. Eventually a peace was negotiated between Venice, Florence, Milan, Naples and the Papal States (areas controlled by the pope).

Painting of 15th century Florence

This period of peace and its recovery from the devastation wrought by the Black Death allowed Florence to flourish as a center of business and trade. It soon became the cradle of the Renaissance, a movement that saw the rediscovery of classical Greek and Roman art and a focus on understanding the natural world through direct observation. Florence gradually came under the influence and control of the Medici family whose bank, became increasingly important. They were the leading family in Florence, their influence beginning with Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici who was involved in negotiating peace with Milan. His grandson, Lorenzo (the Magnificent) de' Medici received a humanist education and became a significant patron of the arts. Great families like the Medicis began to build beautiful estates, forgoing the austere homes of the Middle Ages. They began to build churches, convents, hospitals and held special feasts and entertainment. In Da Vinci's Tiger, the importance of the Medici family is explained by Ginevra, who states that they exerted their influence in subtle ways, through the patronage of the arts and festivals, "granting favors and loans", brokering "advantageous marriages and business partnerships." Lorenzo Medici was seen as especially as a patron of literature, inviting"artists, writers, and scholars to his country villas at Fiesole and Careggi to listen to music and poetry read aloud. They discussed the nature of man's supreme good, his summum bonum, as explored within classical texts. He also sponsored a Platonic Academy within the city, led by the great philosopher Marsilio Ficino..."

In Da Vinci's Tiger, Elliott portrays the sumptuous pageantry and the ongoing political intrigue and rivalries that marked life in 15th century Florence. For example, in June 1475, Ginevra like most other Florentines attends the Festival of John the Baptist. Elliott describes it for her readers through the eyes of Ginevra. "Florence had nearly a hundred public holidays during the year, but St. John's Feast was its grandest -- a two-day extravaganza celebrating both our material successes and our earnest piety." The festival begins with a "government-ordered mostra -- a lavish display of the city's riches as homage to the blessings out patron saint bestowed upon us...Festooning their shops with colorful banners, merchants put out their best merchandise --gold cloth, silver plates, painted panels, tapestry, jewelry, carved wood, embroidered leather...Florence's clergy donned elaborately embroidered vestments and processed through the streets with Florence's holy relics -- a thorn of the Holy Crown, a nail of the cross, a finger bone of John the Baptist. Following them came the city's secular dignitaries dressed as angels and biblical figures, with musicians of all sorts playing and singing." On the morning of the second day of the festival "The city's guildsmen circled the Duomo cathedral to approach the ancient, octagonal Baptistery and its gates of paradise -- huge bronze doors decorated with scenes of St. John's life. Carrying painted candles, they slowly marched under blue canopies painted with stars and lilies that were stretched across the streets to replicate the night sky." The palio, the horse race that caps the festival is a vibrant, heart-pounding event that Ginevra finds thrilling. "Now I could see the leading horses, legs flying, dirt churned up and sprayed, jockeys hunched and clinging to handfuls of mane. They had little hope now of steering their mounts, frenzied by the competition, frantic at the mass of humanity and their guttural shouts of encouragement.""

But there are also troubling aspects to life in Florence. For example the tamburi,"locked wooden boxes placed near major churches by the Ufficiali di Notte, the Officers of the Night. In those boxes, Florentines could denounce their neighbors for vice by leaving secret accusations of crimes against decency that brought arrest and trial in front of a tribunal of old men." Early in the novel, Ginevra and her maid Sancha witness Leonardo da Vinci attempting to break into a tamburi. It is a foreshadowing of an accusation made against him later on in the novel.

A significant portion of the novel revolves around Ginevra's relationship with a young Leonardo da Vinci. Elliott provides readers with much detail involving Leonardo, his physical appearance, his thoughts, his relationship with master Andrea del Verrocchio as well as his artistic endeavours in this early period. In her detailed Afterword, Elliott writes that "Much of Leonardo's dialogue comes from his own writings..." The reader learns much about Leonardo through the character himself as his friendship with Ginevra develops and he tells her about himself.

Leonardo da Vinci was the illegitimate son of Ser Piero, a notary in the village of Vinci and Caterina, a peasant girl who worked for the family. Leonardo lived with his mother when he was very young but eventually went to live with his father and grandfather. He spent much of his time with his tutor and uncle, Francesco who instilled in him a curiosity about the natural world. At age fifteen, he was apprenticed to Andrea del Verrocchio of Florence. Leonardo was a polymath, having substantial gifts in many areas of science, art, architecture, music and engineering. His paintings, sculptures, and many scientific discoveries continue to amaze today.

Ginevra de Benci by Leonardo da Vinci

The novel highlights the significant contributions Leonardo was beginning to make in the art world. While Verrocchio and Leonardo were adept at using egg tempera to paint, Elliott, through the character of Ginevra states,"But Leonardo was one of the first in Florence to attempt using the oils preferred by the northern painters in Flanders. Oil paints did provide subtler, more varied, and translucent tones but were difficult to mix evenly and to spread with the brush."

His portrait of Ginevra marked an innovative change in how portraits were painted, in that her portrait was painted in the three quarter pose.Elliott suggests in her novel that this was the (unlikely and feminist) idea of Ginevra who saw this as "the chance to make men listen -- and see -- what women had in their hearts and minds." Ginevra wanted a "larger metaphor" for herself. In the novel she states, "My eyes would gaze unblinking to allow people to look into them and wonder about me. I, a mountain tiger, like the one that showed no fear when hunted, whose fierce dignity prompted imaginings about her soul and her courage -- a creature with her own past and own story." However, it was Leonardo's decision to paint her in this way, to show her as a real person.

Da Vinci's Tiger deals with some mature themes including the attempted seduction of Ginevra by her Platonic love, Ambassador Bernardo Bembo. The concept of platonic love is explored throughout this novel. During the Renaissance, the renewed interest in Greek and Roman thought led to the practice of choosing a platonic love. This questionable practice, is explained by Ginevra as such, "According to Ficino's Neoplatonic philosophy, if a man could keep his ardor for a woman to a Platonic friendship -- in a look-but-do-not-touch idolization -- and only contemplate her physical loveliness as being naifestation of her virituous spirit and absolute beauty, then his soul was purified. His love would, in essence, replicate the selfless love of Christ for us and bring the man closer to God." As Scolastica warned, Ginevra discovers this is often not what happens. Instead such relationships were often used to hide sinful behaviours and sometimes led to the birth of illegitimate children.

Elliott also incorporates Leonardo's arrest for sodomy after someone denounces him and three other men. The accusations are serious because as Sancha indicates,the punishment can be severe especially for homosexual men. At dinner, Luigi tells Ginevra that he obtained Leonardo's freedom as a favour to the Medici family. But he also intimates indirectly to Ginevra that he too is a homosexual, thus explaining his lack of romantic interest in her. Whether Luigi Niccolini's homosexuality is fact or fiction is not addressed in Elliott's Afterword.

There are plenty of interesting historical aspects to investigate in this novel and Elliott has done a good job portraying the era and giving readers a sense of the genius of Leonardo da Vinci and the background behind the painting of one of his more famous works. Ellitott's characterization of Ginevra de Benci Niccolini is inspiring and realistic, that of a young woman of conviction, strength, intelligence and compassion, who wrote poetry and inspired one of the most famous artists of all time. One only needs to gaze at her portrait to see that Leonardo da Vinci succeeded in portraying her as a real person, whose "motions of the mind" can be entertained simply by the pose portrayed.

Book Details:

Da Vinci's Tiger by L.M. Elliott
New York: Katherine Tegen Books 2015
287 pp.

Eleven-year-old Cara Donovan's world is turned upside down when her family is forced to flee from raging wildfires and her beloved rust-coloured mutt, Mike goes missing in the chaos.

Cara's town of Pine Grove in British Columbia has been on evacuation alert for days. Cara's mother has her and older sister Sloane pack keepsakes into plastic bins just in case they need to leave quickly.Cara packs her overnight bag with a change of clothes and a few special treasures.

Then one day a police officer shows up at their door. They must evacuate immediately. Cara was in the backyard with her dog, Mike but when she goes to retrieve him, he is no where to be found.Cara is forced into the family, leaving her beloved dog behind. The drive out of Pine Grove is harrowing and slow, with sparks flying across the road, smoke billowing and deer rushing to safety.

Cara is devastated at the loss of her dog Mike. She got him two years earlier at the animal shelter in Braeburn. While her parents were interested in the cute fluffy goldendoodle puppies, Cara was drawn to Mike, a
"skinny
grown-up
already-got-in-a-fight
dog
with one eye
and a tattered ear?"

The man at the animal shelter raved about Mike's sweet nature and so they took him home. Once in the city they arrive at the evacuation center. Because Cara's family rescued a cat on their way out of Pine Grove they are taken to the gym where found animals are taken. Immediately Cara questions a woman if she's seen a rust-coloured dog with one eye, despite the fact that it's unlikely Mike is at the shelter. After registering, Cara's family is slated to stay with a host family, Jasmeet Bains and her husband Bill. The Bains have two children, two boys who are away at camp and a foster child, thirteen-year-old Jewel.

Jewel is very sympathetic to Cara's feelings of loss over Mike. Cara believes that she has abandoned Mike, but Jewel tells her
"No," she says,
"he got lost.
It makes a big difference what words you use
to tell something."

Jewel helps Cara to cope by making posters to put up for Mike. She finds a website for pets lost due to the wildfire and posts Mike's picture online. At the evacuation center, Cara and Jewel put up a poster of Mike.

As the wildfire advances and consumes parts of Pine Grove, Cara becomes increasingly distraught about Mike. She imagines terrible scenarios and eventually makes some poor choices that endanger herself and Jewel. As Cara struggles to keep faith and be hopeful, she wonders, will she ever see her beloved Mike again?

Discussion

Missing Mike is a timely novel that explores the meaning of family, the resilience of the human spirit and the importance of community in times of disaster.Green uses wonderfully descriptive free verse captures the danger Cara and her family experience as they travel to safety with the flames raging around them.

"It's dark as night
--black smoke so thick
I can barely see the car ahead of us.
Wind hurls glowing embers
across the road
orange sparks fly
like hailstones made of fire.
Sweat beads on my forehead."

The wildfire forms the backdrop for the story of an eleven-year-old girl who has inadvertently left behind the one thing most precious to her, her beloved dog Mike. Mike isn't a cute little puppy but a dog who has had a rough past as evidenced by his torn ear and missing eye. Despite his fear of coyotes which leads Cara's family to believe that he was once attacked by them, Mike has stood his ground against one to protect Cara. He is special to Cara.

While Cara and her family stay with a host family, the Bains, Cara begins to considers what defines home. When Cara first leaves Pine Grove, she is pre-occupied with the loss of her dog Mike. She doesn't worry too much about her home, after all it will still be there after the fire she thinks. While working on a crossword puzzle, Jewel asks Cara for a 5 letter word for "home" and reveals that she "lived in a car once and it was home." Jewel explains to a shocked Cara that although she's lived in many houses after the car, the car was home because she was with her mom. However, now Jewel feels it isn't necessary for her to have her mother with her for a place to be called home. Instead being safe and wanted make the Bains' house "home". Cara wonders if it possible to have a home without family.

Later on at the shelter, Cara meets her music teacher Miss Francesca Passerini who
"lives in a house surrounded
by overgrown gardens
chock full of flowering plants
and an unusual number
of bird feeders."
In other words, Miss Francesca has a beautiful home which contains her music and her beloved piano which she might lose to the wildfire. But she tells Cara that it doesn't matter because she still has her music inside her. Cara realizes that "music is Miss Francesca's word for home."

Cara and her older sister Sloane meet a young single father, Wesley who has a little daughter named Angeline.When Cara questions him about if he loses his home, Wesley tells her
"But you know what?" he says softly. "This girl
has my heart.
As long as I've got her
I'm home."
For Wesley being with his daughter is all that matters and that is "home". Remembering this, Cara wonders if having family is what really matters and is what defines home.

When they learn that their house has been destroyed by the wildfires Cara wonders,where they will go and where they will belong if they have no home, no place that's theirs. If a house with it's rooms "where a family lived, shared celebrations and sadness, big moments and boring days"is nothing but a pile of bricks is home? Cara wonders if
"...there's something that remains
through it all
like if Wesley has Angeline
Miss Francesca still hears music
in her heart
Heather is with her relatives
and Jewel is safe
and wanted."

Thinking back on her and Jewel's struggle with the crossword puzzle to find that elusive word for home, Cara realizes that home means something different for every one.
"Turns out
home isn't always with family
but often it is.
It isn't always a place
but sometimes it is.
It isn't always within your grasp
but when you find it
you know to
hold on."

For Cara home is love, friendship and loyalty - something she has with her family and Mike (who she finds waiting at their burned out home). Cara realizes she hasn't lost her "home" at all, instead she's discovered what home really is for her. It is the not only her family but the bond she has with her beloved dog, Mike.

In light of the many wildfires in the past few years, especially in British Columbia, Alberta and northern Ontario, Green's book is very timely. Missing Mike will help young readers understand just how devastating disasters like wildfires can be for those who experience them. Cara and her family lose everything except what they were able to pack before evacuating and at one point Cara wishes she had packed certain special momentos. Maintaining an attitude of hope throughout their ordeal was a struggle for Cara and her family. The novel also portrays how the efforts of the local community at large helped make this challenging time more bearable for Cara and her family.

Overall, Missing Mike is a well written, touching short novel in free verse by Canadian author Sheri Green. Younger readers who love dogs and animal stories in general will enjoy Missing Mike.

Book Details:

Missing Mike by Shari Green
Toronto: Pajama Press 2018
245 pp.

Sixteen-year-old Adam Petrazelli has schizophrenia. He is unusual in that his symptoms appeared when he was young, around the age of eight. Adam sees things that other people do not see, like beautiful, tall, blond Rebecca, or huge bats. Since Adam won't communicate verbally with his therapist, he writes journal entries. He's also on an experimental drug, ToZaPrex. Because of problems at his previous school his mother and stepfather have decided to move him to a private school, St. Agatha's.

On his first day he is assigned a school ambassador, Ian Stone, whom Adam recognizes as a "douche". True to form, as soon as Adam goes to pick up his PE uniform, Ian ditches him. At this point he meets a girl, whose name he soon learns is Maya, who helps him get to his next class. There Adam meets Dwight Olberman with who he has most of his classes.

Adam is able to get out of religion homework by rewriting "the mysteries of the rosary, the Prayer of St. Augustine, and the Hail, Holy Queen from memory." But this has consequences in that he is signed up for the Academic Team. One day after gym class, Adam hears splashing in the pool and when he goes to investigate, discovers Maya floundering and drowning. He saves her and they soon become friends and then a couple.

Adams entries tell about his abandonment by his father, his mother remarrying a lawyer named Paul, his love of cooking, and is growing relationship with Maya. But soon, the new drug Adam is taking presents health risks, resulting in researchers slowly lowering the dosage and withdrawing him from the study. Adam hasn't told his friend Dwight nor his girlfriend Maya. It isn't until a disastrous situation at prom, that the truth comes out and Adam must confront the reality of life with his secret revealed.

Discussion

Readers looking for a novel that tackles the topic of schizophrenia in an honest, accurate way without getting bogged down in tropes,won't find it in Words On Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton. Although Walton's character, Adam, a young teen diagnosed with schizophrenia is witty and intelligent, the portrayal of this mental illness is decidedly one dimensional and the novel unrelenting in its misrepresentations about the Catholic faith.

Although Adam is in therapy he won't talk to his therapist. "I don't always say the things I mean to say when I talk to someone. It's impossible to swallow words after letting them out, so it's better for me not to speak at all if I can help it..." Instead he writes about their sessions afterwards in the form of journal entries. These entries, dated from August 15, 2012 to June 26, 2013, form the story of Adam's life as he struggles with his mental illness.

Adam claims that he is an expert on his condition. At the beginning of the novel he tells readers, "There really is no clear path for the disease to travel. Some people have visions. Some people hear voices. And some people just get paranoid."To be diagnosed with schizophrenia, specific diagnostic criteria must be fulfilled. According to the current DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5) Manual, two or more of the following symptoms must be present for a significant period of time to merit a diagnosis of schizophrenia: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, grossly disorganized or catatonic behaviour, and negative symptoms (flat effect, avolition, and anhedonia). Yet Adam has only hallucinations (seeing/hearing things that are not really there) and technically doesn't meet the criteria for someone with schizophrenia.

Walton's portrayal of stigma surrounding mental illness is well done. Adam admits that his greatest fear is that "someday I won't be able to watch the parade of hallucinations without doing what they tell me to do because I'm afraid the drug will stop working. And everyone might have a good reason to be afraid of me." This is a fear that anyone with any medical condition requiring medication often has but must be particularly acute for those with a mental health condition.

Adam's worry about losing control is brought to the forefront after the Sandy Hook shooting and a classmate's suggesting that the shooter should have just killed himself. Adam doesn't say anything in response because he fears it will show sympathy for the shooter."...I was angry because whoever had said it has no idea what it's like to lose control. They don't know what it's like to be haunted by your own mind. They don't understand the mad desire to make the voices stop even if it means doing what they tell you to..."

While this is supposed to be a novel about a rare situation of a teenage boy with schizophrenia and all that entails, the author has gone out of her way to mock Catholics and the Catholic faith. In fact readers may question the author's true motive here - is it to bring about understanding of mental health issues or to bash Catholics. It seems the setting of the story in St. Agatha's, a private Catholic school was chosen so that every possible trope about Catholics, Catholic schools, the sacraments, nuns and the faith could be employed. By his own admission Adam has received all the sacraments, but doesn't regularly attend Mass and doesn't believe in God and isn't a practicing Catholic. So it is puzzling that his mother would send him to a Catholic private school when she herself places little value on her faith and her son isn't practicing.

Adam's cynical, derisive voice is especially strident when describing anything Catholic. Holy Communion is "You know, where they hand out pieces of Jesus made of stale wafers." Adam states he doesn't " like the idea of some old guy shoving food in my mouth." or sharing a wineglass with someone with a cold sore (very few churches offer Holy Communion under both species.) Sister Catherine who teaches Adam religious theory is often described in derogatory terms, "...Sister Catherine's mouth was twisted in a maniacal grin..." Some of his worst remarks are saved for the Knights of Columbus who are"...old men with papery skin and knobby knees" with a"creep factor". Adam's mother doesn't like them because "...it's they way they protect family values, but only families that like like theirs. I think it's also the way they like to quote Leviticus." - a reference to the Catholic church's teaching against same sex marriage. No one is forcing Adam's mother to stay in the Catholic church - if she doesn't believe in its teachings she is free to leave.

The author brings in the Sandy Hook shootings in which twenty children and six adults were shot to death by Adam Lanza in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012. Lanza had the same first name as the novel's main character but was not schizophrenic - a fact never clarified in the novel. He had been diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, depression, anxiety and OCD. Walton uses the shootings to bring up the discussion around mental illness and mass murder.

But here again Walton has Adam inexplicably attack the Catholic faith. The school board head, Ian Stone's father has a meeting with Adam's parents which upsets Adam greatly. Apparently the school board has objected to the secrecy surrounding Adam, a student they did not have to admit. Adam views this with his typical derogatory cynicism,"I knew they'd want to have a board meeting, perhaps a public inquisition to keep things Catholic." So the entire situation seems unreasonable and ridiculous. Adam who in the first one hundred plus pages has ridiculed almost every aspect of Catholicism complains "This conflicts with the church's actual teachings though, which is highly inconvenient for them. The Bible teaches tolerance. I doubt that that Jesus would have encouraged people to 'out' me as a schizo."

Walton's attack on Catholicism reaches a new low when Adam and Maya have sex in a school closet, after having just rehearsed the "Stations of the Cross" (really a passion play) Adam still in his costume as Jesus Christ and Maya who portrays Mary Magdalene.

Walton had the chance to demonstrate how faith can help people to cope with mental illness. A study done by University of Missouri researchers found that "better mental health is associated with increased spirituality." Adam as a Catholic could have received significant emotional support by having a good spiritual director in the form of a regular confessor. Instead Adam and his family see their church as unsupportive and intolerant.

Words On Bathroom Walls could have been a great book that explored the issues surrounding mental illness, especially schizophrenia which many people misunderstand and are therefore fearful. While there are some excellent passages, such as Adam's thoughts on what it feels like to lose control, most of this novel is unrelentingly anti-Catholic and deeply offensive. I can't imagine the same novel being written set in a Muslim school as it likely would have been refused publication.

The premise of Words On Bathroom Walls is to ask for tolerance, understanding and acceptance for people with mental health issues especially those who have a serious illness like schizophrenia. Ironically this novel does not encourage that same tolerance, understanding and acceptance to those who are Catholic.

Addendum:
For those who are experiencing mental health issues please know that your Catholic church loves and cares for you. Most Catholic high schools recognize the struggles of young people today and have social workers and youth workers as well as other resources available. Many Catholic school boards have specific policies on mental health and work to foster a climate of respect, love, compassion and concern for those dealing with mental illness. Bullying of those with mental health issues is not tolerated.

National Catholic Partnership on Disability

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops statement on the Newtown tragedy.

There are several renewed teaching orders of sisters in the United States and Canada including but not limited to the Dominican Sisters of Our Lady Mother of the Eucharist and the Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate. As evidenced by their websites, these orders a young, vibrant and faithful to Catholic teaching.

Book Details:

Words On Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton
New York: RandomHouse Children's Books 2017
pp. 288

Small Things is a picture book without words about the timely topic of anxiety in children.

The book begins with a young boy in school gym class. He wants to fit in with his classmates, to be chosen to play but gets excluded. After class he grabs a basketball to bounce it, trips and falls, the other children laughing at him.

Lunch hour isn't much better as he tries to join a group of children sitting in a circle but no one welcomes him.He is waved over to a picnic table. Tiny creatures, his first feelings of anxiety begin to appear.

After lunch, the boy finds himself taking a math test. Word problems are horrible at the best of times and this test has word problems. The math test means even more anxiety. As the clock ticks on, his test is marked and a grade of C is the result. Upset, the boy goes to see the teacher who encourages him. But the boy knows his marks have been slipping over the past weeks. At first he had marks of A+ and A but now his grades have fallen to a C.

Walking home, the boy's anxiety is intense, manifested by the tiny demon-like creatures following him, taking chunks out of his arms and legs. Looking at his bedroom wall the boy sees many certificates of merit and student awards. This does not comfort him but only increases his anxiety.

That night while trying to do math problems, he struggles and is overwhelmed by his anxiety. He takes this out on his older sister who is practicing her violin. She tries to comfort him, to reassure him. But in bed that night he is overwhelmed by anxiety. The tiny demons representing his anxiety swirl around him and the bed.

The next day another math work sheet receives an even lower mark. The anxiety the boy feels eats away at his very self. Overwhelmed the boy strikes out at his only friend, a girl who has invited him to eat lunch with her when others have turned away. She received a mark of a B on the test. At home, the boy's anxiety is so great that he feels as if huge chunks of his very self are being eaten away. He cannot sleep.

His big sister comes in to see him and at this point the boy shares his anxiety and his pain, showing her the huge chunk missing from his arm. His sister rolls up her sleeve, revealing the wound on her arm - she too suffers from anxiety. Her anxiety is related to her music and in fact her hand that holds the violin contains many cracks.

His sister convinces him to tell their parents about the math test and his marks.Their parents offer him comfort and sit down at the kitchen table to help him work out the problems. That night the boy goes to sleep with the anxiety demons still present but not near him or his bed.

When the boy returns to school the next day, he sees that many of his classmates, including his new friend also carry anxieties with them.

Discussion

Small Things is a graphic picture book created by Mel Tregonning a young Australian illustrator. It began as a comic strip about a boy struggling with his inner demons of anxiety but was never completed. Sadly Mel took her life in 2014. Her family realized that the comic strip reflected her own struggles with anxiety and depression.

Mel was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1983. When she was sixteen-years-old, Mel had a short comic, titled Night published in 2009 by Gestalt Comics. In this comic, which can be downloaded for free from Gestalt,a young girl struggles to cope with the demons of anxiety. Mel knew about anxiety and depression having struggled with both throughout her life. Unfortunately, her moment of crisis came in 2014, after having been recently released from hospital.

Although Mel died before she completed her book, her family decided to finish her work and have it published as a way to spread awareness about mental health issues. To complete the last three pages of the book, award-winning illustrator Shaun Tan was contacted. Tan had already been contacted by Mel so her family felt that he was the one to complete those last few pages. Her original illustrations had been done in soft graphite on medium weight paper. Tan carefully considered those drawings so that he could emulate them sufficiently.

The tiny demons that surround the young boy are his anxieties and worries. They are black, complex and fearful looking as only anxieties and worries can be. They are so consuming they eat away at him, causing him tremendous physical and emotional pain. Each worry takes away a bit of the self, diminishing the person. But Tregonning's message seems to be that children with anxiety should be encouraged to talk to an adult, a parent and/or a friend. One illustration near the end of the book, showing the boy sleeping, tucked safely in his bed while his anxiety demons hover in the distance, implies that reaching out will help, will keep those demons at bay. Reaching out also means we discover we are not alone.

Anyone suffering from anxiety, whether they be a child, teen or adult will find Small Things very relevant. Young children will learn from Small Things that they are not alone, that we all have our struggles and that there are people who care. My hope is that Mel Tregonning is at peace. Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord.

Book Details:

Small Things by Mel Tregonning
Toronto: Pajama Press Inc. 2018

Fifteen-year-old Hortense Beauharnais is a survivor of the French Revolution. It is 1798, four years after the Reign of Terror ended with the beheading of its architect, Robespierre. Hortense's father, Alexandre was guillotined days before the end, but her mother survived barely, due to be executed the next day. After the murder of her father, twelve-year-old Hortense was sent to the Institute, an all girls school run by Maitresse Campan and located in a chateau that used to belong to a wealthy family in Montagne-du-Bon-Air. Hortense's mother, Rose, now called Josephine, is re-married to General Napoleon Bonaparte who is with the French army in Egypt as is her older brother Eugene.

Also attending the boarding school are her cousin Emilie and Maitresse Campan's niece Adele Auguie who is nicknamed Mouse. Emilie attends the school because she has no family to care for her; her father fled during the Reign of Terror and her mother was imprisoned but is now married to her former prison guard. Emilie is newly married to Captain Antoine Lavalette, an arranged marriage to an officer in Napoleon's army in Egypt. Almost every girl in the boarding school is from the aristocracy and has terrible memories of the revolution.

Hortense has just recently returned to the school after spending three months caring for her injured mother. The story opens with Hortense suffering from a yet another nightmare of her father approaching and reaching out for her, his body headless. Her school mates believe that Hortense has seen a ghost.

As a "Multi", that is an older girl who wears a multi-coloured sash, Hortense is responsible for helping the younger girls who are divided into levels by colour, get up and get dressed in the morning, get to the dining hall and to learn proper etiquette. Her charge is 4-year-old Nelly.

One of the Multis is Bonaparte's sister, Annunziata who like the rest of the family has changed her name, calling herself Caroline. She has been late at least five times so Citoyenne Florentine who is the night monitor assigns her to the Table of Repentance. Maitresse Campan takes time to speak to Hortense, concerned about her recurring nightmare of her father and telling her she once met her father and saw him dance with the Queen. Maitresse also informs Hortense that she will be taking music lessons from the new music instructior, Citoyen Hyacinthe Jadin, who also teaches as the Conservatory in Paris.

Hortense's mother Josephine returns to Paris and has her daughter accompany her to a "civic celebration of Bonaparte's victorious Battle of the Pyramids and his triumphant entry into Cairo" Hortense is concerned for her mother who seems deeply upset but who won't let on what is troubling her. However, when Hortense returns to the school she learns from Eliza that the entire French fleet has been sunk by the British - all thirteen ships and that they now control the Mediterranean.

Out of concern for her brother Eugene, Hortense continues writing him letters which she does not mail. In these letters she also mentions her concern for Major Christophe Duroc whom she is infatuated with.

Hortense Beauharnais

Then terrible rumours circulate that Napoleon has been assassinated by an Arab. However, they soon learn that this is not true, but that Eugene was injured. In the summer of 1799, Hortense returns to her mother's home, Malmaison. Hortense questions Em about her father because Caroline has hinted that he is not really her father. Em reveals to Hortense the difficult situation between her parents and their separation but does tell her that in the end her father acknowledged that she was his daughter. Unfortunately, the two girls quarrel when Hortense tells Em that her affections as a married woman for Louis Bonaparte are wrong. During the summer Em is stricken with small pox and although she recovers, her face is badly scarred.

Hortense, Em and Caroline return to the Institute but soon after Hortense becomes ill and is forced to return to her mother in Paris. Meanwhile Josephine attempts to convince the Directors to send a fleet to rescue Bonaparte but they refuse. Then she learns that Bonaparte and Eugene have managed to travel to the port in the south of France. Determined to meet her husband before his family, Josephine along with Hortense travel to the south of France but they miss Bonaparte. Instead they journey back to Paris to find Bonaparte already there and refusing to see Josephine. Eventually it is Hortense and Eugene who convince him to see her and they reconcile. Josephine's home becomes Napoleon's base with many soldiers coming and going. This results in Hortense seeing Eugene's fellow aide-de-camp, Colonel Christophe Duroc.

Napoleon survives a coup and the Directors running the government are disbanded. A three person Consulate is formed that consists of Napoleon Bonaparte and two previous directors. Napoleon moves Josephine and her family into the Petit Luxembourg. They do not know it yet but this is beginning of Napoleon's rise to rule France. For Hortense it marks the beginning of her life in French society with many opportunities to meet Christophe Duroc. Soon enough she will be pulled into the political intrigue of Napoleonic France.

Discussion

The Game of Hope was authored by Sandra Gulland who has written extensively on Hortense's mother, Josephine Beauharnais Bonaparte. She was asked to write a YA biography on Josephine's daughter, Hortense but Gulland was curious to know if Hortense's life would be interesting enough to write about and she learned that it was. To that end, Gulland has crafted a fascinating account of Hortense Beauharnais's life and a revealing account of life in France in the years immediately after the Reign of Terror and during the rise of Napoleon. Not only do young readers learn about Hortense but also about her mother Josephine, the rapidly changing political scene in France during the period immediately following the Reign of Terror and Napoleon's rapid rise to power.

Hortense and her family visiting her father in prison.

Gulland had to pick and choose what she was going to include in her story. For example she states in her Afterword that in real life there were many more relatives and friends than could be included in the story. Families in Catholic France were much larger and many well-to-do families had servants. To keep the number of characters manageable, many were left out of the novel.

The Game of Hope portrays a France struggling to come to terms with the horrors of the Reign of Terror. Hortense has recurrent nightmares of her father's execution. While Hortense is aware that her mother escaped being guillotined by only a day, her cousin Em's mother - Hortense's aunt was not so lucky. She jumped to her death the day before Robespierre was executed, so as to save her daughter from being impoverished. Convents are empty because their previous occupants have been executed. When Josephine and Napoleon move into the Tuileries, Josephine is

Gulland has crafted a believable portrayal of Hortense Beauharnais, a young woman who was a gifted composer and who was tutored by Hyacinthe Jardin a promising young composer who died prematurely of tuberculosis. Hortense struggles to come to terms with the past that includes her father's tumultuous relationship with her mother and his horrific death at the guillotine. But she also must reconcile her view of her mother who seems to be romantically involved with Citoyen Hippolyte Charles while her mother's second husband and Hortense's stepfather, Napoleon Bonaparte is in Egypt. Hortense dislikes the entire Bonaparte family. Gulland portrays a young Hortense coming of age, discovering her attraction to the older Colonel Christophe Duroc and their blossoming friendship as they attend balls and other social functions.

The novel takes its name from a card game that was originally invented as a parlour game to be played with dice. It was forgotten but resurfaced in 1799 when Mlle. Lenormand began using the cards for fortune telling, an activity still forbidden by the Catholic church. Gulland's novel is divided in to eight parts featuring a card from the Game of Hope. Gulland has Hortense use the cards on several occasions, in an attempt to predict what her future holds at a time in France when life was very unpredictable. Of course, no card game can predict one's future life as Hortense soon learns.

Gulland in her extensive Afterword, reveals how Hortense's life really played out. She was never able to marry her love, Christophe as both her mother and Maitresse Campan counselled against it and wanted her to marry Louis Bonaparte. Hortense did relent and marry Louis but their marriage was not a happy one, nor was Christophe Duroc's marriage to a wealthy and beautiful woman. Marriages at this time were often made to cement political alliances and the feelings of those involved were not really considered. This was demonstrated in the novel by her cousin Em's arranged marriage to an older man, Antoine Lavalette whom she despises. Eventually his care towards her after her beauty is marred by small pox, kindles her love for him.

Although Game of Hope is well written, it will likely appeal mostly to die-hard historical fiction fans and those with a specific interest in the post-French Revolution era and Napoleon.The story is mostly character driven, with Gulland's fine attention to historical detail. The author has included a Cast of Characters, a Glossary, a map of Paris as well as a list of the cards from the Game of Hope.

Hyacinthe Jardin's compositions are still performed today. Below is his F Minor Op. 1 No. 3 written for violin, viola and violoncello.

Book Details:

The Game of Hope by Sandra Gulland
New York: Viking, an Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC 2018
370 pp.

Hortense image: By Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson - www.rijksmuseum.nl, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1228587

Lucy Maud Montgomery is perhaps best know for her novel, Anne of Green Gables that told the story of a red-haired orphan, Anne Shirley who is adopted by siblings, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. Published in 1908, the novel is set in the fictional town of Avonlea in Prince Edward Island during the late 1800's. Based on many events in her life, the novel was immediately popular. L.M. Montgomery went on to author many other novels, including Emily of New Moon, The Blue Castle and The Tangled Web and a large number of poems and short stories.

In House of Dreams, Liz Rosenberg delves into the life of Maud as she preferred to be called. Maud was born in Clifton, Prince Edward Island on November 30, 1874. Her father, Hugh John Montgomery was the son of Senator Donald Montgomery and her mother was Clara Woolner Macneill, whose family was one of three founding families of Cavendish, P.E.I.

The Montgomerys and Macneills could not be two more different families. Maud's great-great-grandmother Mary Montgomery was responsible for the family settling on the island. As the story goes, profoundly sea-sick, Mary refused to return to their boat marking the end of their voyage. Maud's paternal grandfather, Donald Montgomery was a Conservative who served in the provincial legislature for over forty years, and had a career in the Senate too. In contrast, the Macneills were Liberals. Maud's maternal great-great-grandmother was not happy to be settled on Prince Edward Island. In protest, she refused to take of her bonnet.

Maud at age 6

Maud was born almost nine months after her parents married. Hugh John and Clara struggled to make a living from a small country store they operated. Neither were adept at managing a small business and the store failed. Clara soon became ill with tuberculosis, and John Hugh moved his family to Cavendish where the Macneills could care for their daughter. Sadly Clara died in September of 1876, when Maud was not quite two years old.

Although Maud worshiped her father, he struggled to support her and increasingly left her in the care of her strict Scottish grandparents, Alexander and Lucy Macneill who had a farm just outside of Cavendish, on the north shore. John Hugh eventually moved to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, abandoning Maud when she was just seven-years-old and beginning a new life, remarrying later on and starting a new family. Instead of being angry with her father, Maud continued to adore him.

Maud's grandmother, Lucy Macneill was to play an important role in her life, advocating for her granddaughter, and paying for her education, when Alexander refused to support her. The Macneills were staunch Scottish Presbyterians, who took few trips and kept to themselves. They did visit relatives at Park Corner, John and Annie Campbell. Maud's cousin Frede Campbell would become Maud's closest friend. The Macneill home was cold in the winter so Maud had to sleep downstairs but in the spring and summer, her favourite seasons, Maud was able to live upstairs. She had her own bedroom, and a den which "became her essential and cherished place to dream and work." Throughout Maud's life, her "moods soared or plummeted according to the seasons." It is likely Maud suffered from seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Maud at age 28.

Rosenberg traces Maud's life through her youth, adult life and into old age. Maud was able to attend Prince of Wales College and earn a first class teacher's license. She also attended Dalhousie University in Halifax. Her adult life was filled with many troubles and much literary success. Maud seemed unlucky in love; she was courted by John Mustard whom she had no intention of marrying, became engaged to her cousin Edwin Simpson whom she felt she could never marry, had a romantic relationship with the already engaged Herman Leard during this time, broke off her engagement and eventually married Ewan Macdonald, a minister who unbeknownst to Maud had serious mental health issues. However, in 1908, her novel Anne of Green Gables, which had been repeatedly rejected by publishers only a few years earlier was published by L.C. Page of Boston, Massachusetts. This marked the beginning of Maud's extensive literary career.

Sadly Maud's life was not always happy. She had a difficult marriage to Ewan Macdonald, who had serious mental health issues. Maud and Ewan moved to Toronto after their marriage where they had two children and a baby that was stillborn. Her oldest son Chester was a difficult child and grew into a man with serious problems. Despite her many personal challenges, Maud continued to write. Her books were enjoyed around the world and her successful literary career allowed her to earn enough to live comfortably.

Lucy Maud Montgomery will be forever remember for Anne of Green Gables, but House of Dreams shows there was much more to her story than just this one novel.

Discussion

House of Dreams is Liz Rosenberg's revealing biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery presents many details of her life, gleaned from the extensive primary sources. Rosenberg used Maud's many journals, daybooks and letters to family and friends as her primary source material. Sadly almost all of Maud's early writings, poems and journal entries were destroyed before the age of fifteen by the author herself, something she later regretted. Despite this Rosenberg is able to piece together Maud's early life for her readers.

While some might know that L. M. Montgomery had an unsettled life, many probably did not know just how troubled her personal life was. Her journals paint a picture of a woman suffering from depression and anxiety, who may have had manic episodes and who was prone to debilitating bouts of deep despair.

Her youth and early adult life were certainly difficult as Maud had an intense desire to be a writer, but this dream was definitely not supported by her stiff-necked grandfather, Alexander Macneill. Maud was an excellent student but did not have the finances to fully achieve the education she desired. A good education would have allowed her to support herself and write. Instead her grandfather refused to help in any way refusing both money and transportation and it was her grandmother who gave Maud the necessary money to attend school. Maud showed resiliency and determination, often taking two years course load in one because she did not have the financial means to attend for two years.

Green Gables Heritage- farmhouse

Rosenberg demonstrates that many events and people in Maud's life were the germ for the characters in her novels. "Everything in Maud's early life led to the writing of that book, but she had to overcome a hundred obstacles to achieve it."

Maud grew up in a family of storytellers so it's not surprising she felt compelled to write her own. Her grandfather Alexander and her great-aunt Mary Lawson were especially influential as they had reputations a great storytellers. Anne was also influenced by one of her teachers, Miss Hattie Gordon who encouraged her Cavendish students to write.

Maud took everyday events of her life and worked them into her most famous novel, Anne of Green Gables. The novel grew out of an idea Maud had had a few years earlier about an elderly couple who decide to adopt a boy but end up with a girl instead. Maud "...transformed her own history of abandonment into a story of rescue. Maud put herself into the fictional Anne: her own vivid imagination; a passionate love of nature; her habit of naming inanimate objects; the imaginary cupboard friends; her hungry affection for books; her own vanity, pride, stubbornness; and a deep, abiding attachment to those she loves."

The fictional Avonlea was based on Cavendish, the Lake of Shining Waters was the pond at her cousin's home in Park Corner. Rosenberg writes that"Anne's house, Green Gable, was loosely based on a house belonging to two other cousins, David and Margaret Macneill." Maud took some of the characteristics of her father John Hugh and her grandmother, Lucy Macneill for Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. However, although Matthew Cuthbert shared John Hugh's shy disposition, he was a devoted father to Anne, unlike Maud's own father. And Marilla's "keen sense of humour and understanding" was very different from Maud's grandmother.

"Anne of Green Gables is a book about creating lasting family. It is a celebration of place, a story about belonging.No one but Maud Montgomery, with all her checkered history and heart-hungry longing, could have created it."

Although modern readers mostly focus on the love story between Anne and Gilbert in Anne of Green Gables, it is as Rosenberg points out and as Canadian author Margaret Laurence has stated, really the growing love between Marilla and Anne that dominates this first novel. Anne and Gilbert's relationship blossoms into love in a later novel.

House of Dreams will appeal to keen fans of Anne of Green Gables. Reading Liz Rosenberg's biography will give readers a true sense of L. M. Montgomery's life and how her own story shaped those she created. Julie Morstad has produced lovely line drawings done in ink which can be found at the beginning of each chapter.What this books lacks are photographs of Anne and her family, and perhaps Nevertheless, House of Dreams is well written, definitively researched and engaging. Rosenberg includes an Epilogue in which she explores the circumstances surrounding Maud's death. There is also a Time Line of L.M. Montgomery's life, Source Notes and a Bibliography.

Fans interested in further exploring the life and writings of Lucy Maud Montgomery are encouraged to check out the University of Prince Edward Island's L.M. Montgomery Institute.

The Canadian Encyclopedia has a detailed entry on Lucy Maud Montgomery.

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography entry on Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Images of Lucy Maud Montgomery are from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
Green Gables Heritage Park - farmhouse image: http://cavendishbeachpei.com/members-operators/green-gables-heritage-place/

Book Details:

House of Dreams: The Life of L.M. Montgomery by Liz Rosenberg
Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press 2018
339 pp.

Twelve-year-old Lucy Callahan was struck by lightning four years ago. Lucy was playing with her friend Cecelia, outside the apartment building she and Nana lived in when a sudden thunderstorm developed. Lucy decided to climb a chain link fence which was struck by lightning. The lightning strike knocked Lucy unconscious, stopping her heart, and her friend to the ground. Lucy's life was saved by the apartment maintenance man who was able to restart her heart with a defibrillator. Other than burns to her hands, Lucy seemed to be fine. That is until a week later.

While watching television with Nana, Lucy was inexplicably able to calculate the cost of a car from monthly payments in her head. Suddenly, Lucy who was in Grade 2 and learning addition and subtraction, could do difficult math calculations. Doctors diagnosed her with acquired savant syndrome, meaning she had developed a profound talent - in her case, the ability to do mathematics.

In reality, Lucy's brain was damaged by the lightning strike, part of the left lobe of her brain was shut down, resulting in the right side working overtime. Lucy can do advanced mathematical calculations, calendar math, recognize mathematical patterns and she "sees" math with every number having it's own colour and shape. Lucy also has a fear of germs which leads her to sanitize every surface she touches and she needs to sit/stand three times before she sits anywhere. She also needs to count all the words before she can read anything.

Because of all her peculiar habits, Lucy has been homsechooled since her accident and now at the age of twelve has passed high school, the GED and gotten perfects chores on her SATs. She wants to attend college but her nana believes she is too young.

Lucy's beloved Uncle Paul who is a marine visits their apartment before he moves away to California. He gives Lucy a pendant of a lightning bolt. During his short stay, he supports Nana in her decision to have Lucy attend public school. Lucy doesn't want to go to middle school but instead wants to go to college. She believes she can do everything online. However she hasn't left the apartment in four weeks and her only friends are online ones that she's made through the various math forums.

After a brief tour and a meeting with Dr. Cobb, principal of East Hamlin Middle School, Lucy is enrolled in Grade 7. Nana insists she attend for a year, "Make 1 friend. Do 1 thing outside o f these walls. Read 1 book not written by an economist or a mathematician." Lucy is certain that attending school will be a disaster.

Despite her strange habits and the fact that she's new to the school, Lucy does make two friends; Windy Sitton who loves musicals and is intrigued by Lucy's strangeness and Levi Boyd, a boy with two moms who loves photography and is caught cheating off of Lucy during their assessment in math class. Lucy is made fun of and her strange habits earn her the label "cleaning lady". She spends most of her time attempting to hide her mathematical genius. She calculates how many questions she should get wrong on tests to that it won't look like she is hiding something. Lucy uses her math abilities to help her group of Windy and Levi in their class project. As her friendship with her two classmates grows, Lucy calculates that she can let them in on her secret - that she's really a math genius. However, Lucy begins to realize that while numbers can help predict certain things, not everything in life can be determined mathematically. She might be a math genius but Lucy discovers she's making many miscalculations about trust and the meaning of friendship.

Discussion

The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl is an enjoyable story about a young girl trying to come to terms with her differences while learning to trust and build friendships.

After her brain is damaged by a lightning strike, making her a math savant, Lucy Callahan believes her life is set, the equation of life has been solved - she will go to university and study math. Her unusual repetitive behaviours have forced her into the solitude of home, where she is taught by her Nana. But her wise Nana knows this is not healthy for Lucy and forces her into a year of school, to make a friend, and do something within the community. She knows this will be a difficult task for her young granddaughter who sees everything as numbers, but she hopes it will broaden Lucy's perspective.

And so Lucy enters school with the intention of simply surviving the year. However middle school forces her to interact with other people, something her mathematical abilities cannot really help her to do. Lucy uses her mathematical abilities to help her navigate life. She sees everything in mathematical terms. For example, the colours of clothing people all have numbers for Lucy. "I wear a teal-and-pink-striped shirt (like the colors of 107 and 42) and dark jeans."What Lucy can't understand are people and this difficulty leads to the inevitable crisis.

Initially she makes a good decision about who to tell about her mathematical gift. Although Windy is her budding friend, Lucy decides first to tell Levi about what happened to her at age eight. "I can't explain it, but I trust that Levi will keep my secret." Despite the fact that Levi cheated off of her on their assessment and got them both in trouble, Lucy reasons, "Unlike Windy, he rarely talks about other people. I know I should get it over with and tell her, too. She's my best friend, and she shares every detail of her life with me...The problem is, she also tells me about everyone else. From her mom - who needs to wax a mustache - to which kids repeated kindergarten. There's no controlling information once it's in Windy's head. No vault. No lock and key. No secret combinations."

As it turns out Lucy was correct in her assessment of both Levi and Windy. She does eventually tell Windy who is upset that Levi knew before her. Levi explains to Windy that Lucy struggles to trust people. "Give her a break," Levi says, opening another box of candy. 'She did tell you a minute ago. Lucy's like a nervous teacup Chihuahua. She takes a while to trust someone.'" Levi likens himself to a trusty golden retriever. Windy breaks Lucy's trust by revealing her secret at her birthday party.

While Lucy can understand advanced mathematical concepts she cannot understand Windy's betrayal of her secret."For someone who is supposed to be smart, I can't figure out how to get Pi adopted, and I can't figure out Windy. Why did she tell my secret to someone who is always mean to her. She chose Maddie over me. Maddie." Lucy's miscalculation results in her feeling betrayed and angry. But when Windy confronts Lucy, apologizing for her actions, she forces Lucy to really listen to her. Lucy believes Windy told her secret"to get the other girls to like you by making fun of me..."however, Windy reveals that she wanted her friends to be Lucy's friends too. Lucy questions why Windy wants to be her friend and Windy states, "You never complain about my love of musicals or my causess. You don't try to change people. It's like you're only trying to understand people." Windy tells Lucy that she feels accepted. However for Lucy people will always be an unsolvable equation. "I will never understand people. In algebra, you can solve an equation when you have 1 unknown variable. People are equations with dozens of variables. Basically unsolvable."

By the end of the novel, Lucy is beginning to understand that life is not an equation with a set solution. For example, where she once thought that she would just want to move on to college, she now has several possibilities for schooling in January: she can continue on at East Hamlin, she can attend NCASME or she can home school. Attending school has also helped Lucy understand that others have their own problems something she comes to realize about classmate and mean girl, Maddie.

McAnulty has crafted a delightful novel about friendship, forgiveness and acceptance. The Miscalcuations of Lightning Girl is populated with realistic, endearing characters from the trustworthy Levi, to Windy who thinks big and wants to save the world, to the understanding, kind Mr. Stoker who pushes Lucy to share her gift with the world. Overall The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl is an enjoyed read.

Book Details:

The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty
New York: Random House 2018
293 pp.

It is August 1914. Patryk is one of seven boys who form a group in a small village in Poland which at this time is occupied by the Russians. On this late summer day the boys are hanging out at the old ruins in the forest. The group consists of Makary, a small boy who is the fastest runner, Raclaw whose father is the village lawyer able to speak Polish, Russian and German, Jurek a boy who is caned often at school and who insists he is a descendant of King Boleslaw, Wojtex who is the chubby son of the village butcher, Drugi who is the smallest, a frail boy always trying to understand things and Ulryk who wants to be a priest.

Jurek believes the ruins are those of an old castle belonging to Poland's first king, King Boleslaw the Brave. He claims to be the descendant of this ancient Polish king and that he owns both the ruins and the surrounding forest. However, the boys mostly thing this is a joke. Jurek is the leader of the group, the one who thinks up new things for them to do and who is always daring them. Jurek lives with his eighteen-year-old sister in a one-room shack on the edge of the village. His sister washes the uniforms of the occupying Russians and in this way supports them as their parents are both dead.

Patryk is more fortunate as he lives with his parents in a three-room wooden house with a main room that serves as his parent's bedroom, a kitchen and at the back, his father's workshop. Patryk's father is "a wheelwright repairing and making wooden wagon wheels." Patryk is learning this trade from his father.

One day Patryk finds a small rusty button near the castle ruins. Jurek wants the button and tries to Patryk to give it to him. When he refuses, Jurek becomes enraged, screaming and threatening Patryk with a large stick. Patryk holds his ground and then tosses the button into the forest. He is shocked by the hatred he sees in Jurek's face.

Later in August, as Patryk is going to school he witnesses the bombing of the old wooden school house by the Germans. It burns to the ground, killing the school teacher and a nine-year-old boy named Cyril. Makary wants to know why the war has come to their tiny village. The boys tell him that although the village is in Poland it has belonged to Russia.

Raclaw reveals that his father was told by the Russian commandant Dmitrov that they are leaving the village because the Germans are advancing. Meanwhile Jurek and Patryk take Raclaw to Jurek's backyard where he too cuts a button off a Russian uniform. Jurek claims that his button with the knight fighting the dragon is the best.

The three boys leave for home but Patryk, wanting to get a Russian button like Jurek's and realizing that with the Russians leaving this might be his only chance, sneaks back to Jurek's house. He steals a button, one that is exactly the same as Jurek's.

The next morning the seven boys watch from the village water pump as the Russians march out of the village.They discuss the withdrawal of the Russians and the coming of the Germans. Jurek brags about his button but when he sees that Patryk has the same button, he becomes enraged and then announces his dare.
"Wait! Got a great idea! We'll have a contest! Whoever gets the best button wins. Winner gets to be king. Means everyone has to bow down to him. Best dare ever. Buttons." Jurek insists that they cannot ask for a button but must "get" one.

Shortly after this the German's bomb the retreating Russians. Jurek leads the boys out of the village, to where the bombing happened, and they find many dead Russian soldiers. Jurek determined to find a winning button, climbs into a bomb crater. All the boys follow him but Patryk who is disgusted. This doesn't resolve the button challenge however, and Jurek tells the other boys they must wait until the Germans arrive to get better buttons.

Back in the village the boys decide to scavenge through the ruins of the school house. Ulryk uncovers their late teacher, Mr. Szujski's wooden cane that he used to beat the students with. Jurek snatches the cane away from Ulyrk, insisting that the who wins the button dare - the button king should have the cane. He promptly strikes Drugi hard on the arm. Remembering Jurek's anger in the forest, Patryk knows he cannot let Jurek win the cane or the button dare. "Knowing that if Jurek won the cane, he would use it in the worse way -- as he just had. And that told me that I absolutely couldn't let Jurek be the button king. He'd go crazy."

Patryk's worst fears are realized in ways not even he could have imagined, as the button dare escalates and pushes the boys into the most dangerous of situations.

Discussion

Avi whose real name is Edward Irving Wortiss is the author of many acclaimed children's and teen novels. Like many of the best stories, The Button Warhad its germ in a story Avi was told by his father years ago. On Avi's website he explains his father's story:
"The story he told was rather unusual. He was raised in a village somewhere in Eastern Europe, but with so many national boundary changes, he could not even say precisely which country. During World War One, he said, his village was invaded and taken over by now this army, now that, from different nations. When these armies took over his village, the soldiers commandeered the women to wash their uniforms. Once washed, the uniforms were hung out to dry. The boys in the village—so my father-in-law related—would sneak about, cut the buttons from the uniforms, collect them, and trade them amongst themselves. This in the midst of The Great War."

As Avi explains, the button dare, which escalates, becoming both increasingly reckless and violent, mimics the escalating conflict that was to become the Great War. The boys begin by stealing buttons from Jurek's sister's clothesline, but are soon retrieving buttons from dead soldiers. From this they quickly move to following the soldiers and eventually even becoming involved in the conflict. The consequences are terrible.Their desire to collect buttons knows no bounds and directly results in the deaths of several of the boys; Drugi is beaten to death by an Austrian soldier for attempting to steal a button and Wojtex is executed for having a Russian button because the German's believe he is a traitor. Jurek's desire to obtain the best button leads him to become involved with the Russians helping them to set up the ambush of German soldiers which results in Raclaw being seriously wounded. As the boys are either killed or drop out, the contest becomes one between Jurek and Patryk.

Through the character of Patryk, Avi demonstrates how its possible to lose sight of what is right and be drawn further into a conflict. While many of the boys are eager at first to partake in Jurek's dare, only Patryk seems to understand the consequences should Jurek win.Patryk was the biggest and the strongest of the boys. His father tells him that God made him this way "to help the weak." Mindful of this, Patryk stays in the dare to try to win because he knows that Jurek will treat the other boys in a brutal manner if he becomes the button king. However, fighting on Jurek's terms doesn't help, as Patryk discovers, because Jurek keeps changing the conditions of the dare. As long as Patryk continues to play by Jurek's rules, he loses and becomes more and more like Jurek and is drawn in deeper.Just as Jurek does, Patryk desecrates the dead by stealing buttons from them and he steals from the living. He risks his life several times, all for buttons. He just can't seem to quit and walk away.

It is actually Ulryk, the boy who wants to be a Catholic priest, who does the right thing. He goes to Father Stanislaw, confesses and then throws his buttons in the river. When Patryk tells him that if he leaves, Jurek will be king, Ulryk, responds, "Not for me." and walks away. Even after Makary is killed by Jurek, Patryk still doesn't give up. He still intends to beat Jurek but the war intervenes. It doesn't stop Jurek who will now kill anyone to win. Finally Patryk does what Ulryk did - he throws the one button he still has away in disgust and runs out of the village to find his parents.

All of this is an allegory for the madness of the Great War where countries fought for four years over small patches of mud-filled, cratered, blackened land for no reason and where men were executed for desertion or bullied into enlisting. Even when it was obvious that no one was winning and that millions of lives,both soldiers and civilians were being lost, no one country would call a truce and end the war.

The Button War, reminiscent of William Golding's Lord of the Flies, is a dark, tragic novel. It is well written, with realistic characters and a well-created setting that portrays life in a village caught in the middle of a war.

Book Details:

The Button War: A Tale of the Great War by Avi
Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press 2018
229 pp.

There are many young adult novels that tell the heart-wrenching story of the Holocaust, the increasing restrictions on the Jewish citizens in Germany and throughout Europe, the forced removal of Jews from their homes and placement into ghettos and camps where they were worked and/or starved to death or outright exterminated. However, What The Night Sings takes a different approach. It is a historical fiction novel that portrays the life of a Holocaust survivor in the year after the war. The novel is divided into five part spanning the period from April 15, 1945 to the winter of 1947.

The novel begins with Part I Liberation Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp April 15 - 1945. This first part of the novel tells the story of sixteen-year-old Gerta Rausch who has been at Bergen-Belsen for a year. She is barely alive and ill with typhus. Her previous three bunk mates have died; and old woman who was diabetic and had a seizure, two younger girls slowly starving to death. Her current bunkmate, Rivkah is from Koln and knew Gerta's parents. She is also dying of typhus.

But Gerta is saved when Bergen-Belsen is liberated by British soldiers on April 15, 1945. Gerta is taken from the filthy barracks, stinking of death. Lying on the ground next to her is a boy, "another skeleton" who "looks like a marionette, with glass eyes and a smile painted over his skin-wrapped skull." He tells her that they are free and the British are rounding up the SS. He is only starving, so once he begins to eat, his strength improves. The boy feeds Gerta and tells her the SS guards are now being forced to bury the thousands of dead.

Ten days later, Gerta watches as the British soldiers round up the women from neighbouring villages and walk them "...through the corpse-woods, past the stinking mass graves, into the storage rooms where luggage molders unclaimed and shorn hair piles up in a corner, destined to be stuffed into mattresses and woven into cloth for SS uniforms." A month post-liberation and Gerta learns the red-haired boy who helped her is Levi Goldszmit.Gerta and Lev share their past with Lev telling Gerta he is from Kielce, Poland. Reflecting back on her childhood, Gerta begins to realize that her father hid the reality of their life from her. She remembers thinking, "The war was hard on everyone, but thank goodness we weren't Jews, I thought. How awful to be harassed, beaten and humiliated in the street, to not be allowed to work or go to school. At least that didn't apply to us."

Part II briefly tells Gerta's experiences in various camp. It flashes back to when Gerta was six-years-old and living in Koln. Music is a big part of Gerta's life: her papa is first chair-viola and she loves to sing. At age twelve, Gerta and her papa now live in Wurzburg with Maria Buchner, the renowned Kobratursporano diva and now Gerta's stepmother. Gerta is part of a choir composed of the children of the symphony musicians. Maestra Buchner decides that Gerta should attempt a solo, so she begins to teach her operatic technique.

Shortly after she turns fourteen, Gerta's voice changes, meaning she can no long hit high notes. Life becomes more complicated and puzzling to the sheltered girl. She remembers that "...constellations of yellow-starred people filed out of town -men, women and children carrying bundles of clothes, blankets, books tied together in stacks, weaving through the streets to the train station." Gerta knows they are Jews and believes they are leaving by choice to a safer place. They rarely go out now and the doors are kept locked. Gerta is tutored at home. Many people are wearing yellow stars on their clothing but Gerta doesn't as she's is German. However her papa has only a few students and he is now last chair in his section of the orchestra.

On June 17, Gerta is awakened by pounding on their apartment door. Soldiers enter their apartment, ordering Gerta and her papa out. They quickly pack their bags, and with Gerta carrying her father's viola, leave as Maria watches. They are marched down Hofstrasse to the Residenz Square and then to the Wurzburg Station. There they are packed into cattle cars. In the train, Gerta's father reveals to her that they are Jews, their families having lived in Germany for generations. Gerta's mother was killed when she was four years old in a raid on the Jewish club. With her mother's wedding ring, Gerta's father was able to have their identification papers - the Ahnenpass forged. They became the German Richters instead of the Jewish Rausch's. They moved to Wurzburg and were able to pass as German until someone betrayed them.

Gerta and her father arrive in Theresienstadt where they are separated, he to the musicians building, she to the girls building. What at first looks like a quaint town with lovely buildings is in fact a camp, with filthy, cramped, lice-ridden barracks, little food and many dead and dying. Gerta meets Roza a girl who plays piano and works in the clothing shop. After a year, the camp now very crowded, hosts the Red Cross who are there to make a movie. Before the Red Cross visit, Gerta's papa breaks his leg when he is tripped by a guard. Afterwards they are sent by train to Auschwitz where once again Gerta is separated from her papa who is in terrible pain from his broken leg. Gerta has her head shorn, is tattooed with a number, stripped and forced into striped pants and shirt. She learns the awful truth about her papa, that he has been killed, the smoke from the crematorium stacks, the only thing that left of him and many others.

Part's III, IV and V return to the present year of 1945 as Gerta struggles to recover from her ordeal, and find her own identity amid the loss of everything that once mattered to her. Help comes from the one person who understands what she has suffered, unexpectedly blossoming into a love that both challenges and heals.

Discussion

What The Night Sings is an unforgettable, riveting portrayal of the immediate post-Holocaust years for a young teenage survivor. As Vesper Stamper writes in her Author's Note at the back of the the novel, that despite growing up in a Jewish home in New York City, she had never made the connection between the pogroms in Europe, the Holocaust and the founding of the State of Israel. She found little information on the period between the end of the Holocaust and the creation of the new state of Israel. "I had never connected the two, and I was fascinated by the human stories behind this seldom-discussed era. The fact that survivors, after losing everyone they loved, made the seemingly illogical decision to get married and bring new children into the world -- this seemed to me the absolute bravest act I had ever heard of. At the core of what it means to be human is the ability to choose not just to survive, not just to hope, but to love. A fire rose up in me to tell this story."
What began as a short story, blossomed into a project that saw Stamper personally trace her character Gerta's journey from Wurzburg to Bergen-Belsen by visiting the locations of death camps. This emotional journey left Stamper feeling that through her novel she "could invite others to remember with me."

The main character is Gerta who survives the Holocaust only to find herself facing the profound and frightening question of "Who am I?". When she was forced from her home in Wurzburg as a fourteen-year-old girl along with her father, Gerta did not know she was Jewish. As the situation worsened in Germany Gerta remained unconcerned because as far as she knew she was German. She learns about her Jewish ancestry from her papa on the transport to Thereseinstadt. In an attempt to protect Gerta, her papa had assumed a fake German identity. He gave up all outward signs of his Jewish faith when Gerta is very young, meaning that their Jewish customs and identity were not passed on.

One of the many illustrations by Vesper Stamper in What The Night Sings

Once Gerta beings to heal physically she soon begins to struggle with who she is and what her life will be. Various people she meets in the displaced persons camp at Bergen-Belsen help Gerta discover the answers to these questions. These people include Levi Goldszmit, Michah Gottlieb, Roza and Helene.

In the camp Gerta meets the handsome Michah Gottlieb with whom she is infatuated and who is arranging passage to the Jewish homeland - Eretz Yisrael. Gerta believes that she can go back to Koln but Michah tells her this is impossible. "...Koln is a total ruin. and where exactly do you think the Nazis went. They're back home, sweetheart, getting their jobs back, still in charge, but without the brown shirts. Do you think that once you get out of here, your neighbors will suddenly be in their right minds just because the war is over? That you'll somehow emerge into a sane world?" Michah tells Gerta that they have no future in Europe and that the Jews need their own homeland where they don't have to worry about another pogrom. Gerta insists she is German but Michah counters that this hatred has existed for centuries, for two thousand years. But his reasoning only makes Gerta angry as she asserts, "...I'm not some Zionist. I'm - I'm barely anything at all. And I don't have to be. I don't have to do any of this!"

Gerta's best friend is Lev but Lev with his deep Jewish faith and a lifetime of Jewish customs to draw on, wants to marry Gerta, something Gerta is not ready for. She tells Lev, "Besides, until all this happened, I didn't even know I was Jewish. And my experience of what that means? It's this place. It's fear. It's death. I don't want that life. I don't know a god, I don't know a family, I don't even know myself..." Lev is ready to "rediscover what it means to be Jewish." and is hoping that together they can grow young together. However while Lev's faith is a comfort to him, to Gerta it is not. Gerta struggles with the age-old questions about God, suffering and evil. To Gerta, God "took away everything, everyone we loved..." But Lev challenges her to recognize who really was responsible. "I'm not sure who took them, Gerta...Who? Hitler? The SS?... Or was it our neighbors? The ones who wanted your house or your silver..."

It is Helene who voices Gerta's internal conflict after Gerta the painful truth about her friendship with Michah. When she first meets Helene, Gerta identifies herself as "a musician first" but Helene reminds Gerta that is not who she is. She tells Gerta,"I wonder how many other girls are walking in your shoes. So young, coming of age with no family, no sense of who you are. You keep to yourself, not wanting to lose anything more, not know what's next. Is that right?" Helene invites Gerta to partake of the ritual bathing, in which she will wash away the terrible memories and begin to be healed.

With her voice seemingly ruined, Gerta begins to realize that her life will not be what she thought it would be - that she would someday be a famous mezzo-soprano. Gerta considers her lost voice the price of her survival, "We all paid with some part of ourselves. None of us escaped unbroken."Lev has a different more positive perspective. "We survived with the best part of us still intact" he tells Gerta, meaning that she has her music and he has his father's faith. It is Roza who helps Gerta recover what is really an important part of who she is - her voice. Before the transport, Gerta thought of herself as an aspiring singer. She learned to play her father's viola but it was her singing that she lived for. In the displaced persons camp she cannot sing. Roza tries to understand why and Gerta explains "They took my voice...I have nothing to sing for." Instead she plays her father's viola because she'd "rather have that than try to sing form someplace dry and dead and empty." Roza tells Gerta not to let the Nazis take her voice and that sometimes you have to do things "out of brokenness." With Roza's help Gerta begins to sing again, discovering that her voice is not gone but just different. Although her first attempt to sing publicly in the camp fails, her reconciliation with Maria Buchner whom Gerta wrongly thought betrayed them to the Nazis, sets her on the path to recovering her gift of singing. Maria encourages her to continue, that her voice will ripen as she heals and lives.

Gerta, filled with happiness. Illustration by Vesper Stamper.

Eventually Gerta is able to fall in love with Lev whom she begins to realize does understand her. Both Lev and Gerta are trying to make sense of their new life, to begin again but they soon realize that the past must be left behind. This is very evident when they return to Lev's hometown of Kielce, Poland and encounter intense anti-Semitism. Their only hope is to travel to the new Jewish homeland in Palestine, which eventually becomes Israel.

The cover of What The Night Sings, features a black butterfly as it passes out the window, turning to a deep blue.The motif of the butterfly can be found throughout the novel as a symbol of Gerta's voice, innocence, hope and freedom. The butterfly comes to her when she's a child, giving her songs to sing but is lost during her suffering in the camps, only to return when she enters the mikvah to cleanse herself of the haunting memories of the Holocaust. In Israel, as she rediscovers herself, her heritage and recovers her voice, the butterfly escapes through the window.

Accompanying the story of Gerta and Lev are the dark, sepia-like illustrations by the novel's author, Vesper Stamper, a gifted artist too. They are done in ink wash, white gouache, and graphite. These moving illustrations enhance the story's themes of war, fear, inner conflict, faith, and identity.

Stamper has included a detailed Author's Note explaining her writing process, a Glossary, a map of Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia and also Palestine, and a list of Resources. Born out of watching the movie Fiddler On The Roof, What The Night Sings is well-researched, deeply touching and very relevant to teenagers who often struggle with finding their path in life. This beautiful novel is a work of art in every sense of the term.

Readers are encouraged to check out Vesper Stamper's website, Vesper Stamper Illustration to see her artwork, books and to learn more about this amazing new author.

Book Details:

What The Night Sings: A Novel by Vesper Stamper
New York: Alfred A. Knopf 2018
266 pp,

YaTa "who is my daughter" lives with her mother and father and her five brothers, Issac, Jacob, Abraham, Elijah and Caleb, in a small village in Nigeria. Her papa loves to listen nonstop to his radio which can often be found on his shoulder. Her best friends are Sarah who also attends school with her and Aisha who is Muslim and who was married recently and now expecting her first child. Aisha no longer attends school so YaTa brings her notebooks for her friend to read. YaTa especially loves Aisha's goat-meat pepper soup.

YaTa has big dreams. She dreams of acing the Borno State scholarship exam so she can attend the special girls boarding school in Maiduguri. She dreams of being the first in her family to attend university. But she also dreams of someday being happily married,"being a good wife who kneels to serve her husband his meals and who bears him healthy sons."

Malam Zwindila who teaches in the village school praises YaTa because she knows more than all the boys. She has written the Borno State scholarship exam and now waits anxiously for her result.

At first papa's radio reports mostly Western news such as the Academy Awards nominations. Boko Haram attacks are secondary news. But soon the increasing number of attacks dominate the news. A car bomb kills at least seventeen people in Maiduguri where YaTa hopes to attend school.

One day after church, Pastor Moses's son, Success who is studying law at university, spends some time talking to YaTa, telling her about his travels and life at university. When he learns she has no books to read, Success promises to bring home books like Nancy Drew for her to read. At church Pastor Moses prays for those who are being killed by Boko Haram which wants the country to be governed by Islamic laws. Although these attacks have been going on for years they are now increasing in intensity. He also announces that his son will be getting married and the entire congregation is invited to the wedding in Jalingo. YaTa is upset because she has a crush on Success. But she eventually learns that it is Pastor Moses's oldest son, Prosper who is to be married.

As the days go by, people in the village become increasingly preoccupied with Boko Haram. Papa's radio announces that the terrorist group has attacked Izghe, a village only 190 km from YaTa's village. They learn that Boko Haram kill the men and make the women and girls "disappear". They attack public spaces by loading goats, cows and donkeys with explosives which are then placed in markets and streets. They are known to be hiding in the Sambisa forest. But there are many myths too. Such as that "A child born to any of them would automatically share its father's ideas and beliefs. It would grow up to kill, steal, and destroy."

Malam Zwindila attempts to ridicule Boko Haram's belief that if will turn Nigeria into an Islamic state. But YaTa is frightened. "What if the legends surround Boko Haram are true. " she wonders. Pastor Moses decides that the Christian community will undertake a month of prayer and fasting, hoping to protect them from the ravages of Boko Haram. Fear of the terrorist group begins to affect their daily life: when YaTa and Sarah are visiting Aisha to watch a movie, Aisha's husband Malam Isa asks them to return home before dark for their own safety.

YaTa learns from her principal, that she has been selected for the Borno State government scholarship program. The government will pay for anything she wishes to study up to a master's degree. This means that next term YaTa will be in a special boarding school, away from her best friend Sarah, her little brother Jacob who loves to chases lizards, helping Mama cook and clean. She cannot wait to share her news with Success who will be arriving soon.

In the meantime, YaTa is left in charge of the house while Mama is away for two days, traveling to Jalingo for Prosper's wedding. While she is making tuwo and vegetable stew into the living room, YaTa, and her family her what seems to be thunder. But when they rush outside after hearing men on motorbikes yelling "Allah ya'kawo ruwa!" and "Allahu akbar!" and firing guns. When YaTa's father grabs his machete, he is shot dead. After her father and brothers along with all the men and boys of the village are shot dead, YaTa and the other girls and women are forced into trucks. The dreaded Boko Haram has arrived in their village. YaTa now must struggle to survive, her life and her dreams shattered.

Discussion

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani has written a novel based on the kidnapping of 276 female students from the Government Secondary School in Chibok, in Borno state in Nigeria, on April 14, 2014 by the militant, terrorist group Boko Haram. Although fifty-seven girls managed to escape, many were kept for years, married off to Islamic fighters in the group. Boko Haram is a terrorist group raging jihad in northern Nigeria with the intent to install Islam and sharia law in Nigeria. They believe that western education corrupts Muslims, turning them away from the faith and that girls as young as nine should be married off. They specifically target Christians, killing the men and boys and enslaving the women, forcing them to convert to Islam, although Muslims too have been targeted. The kidnappings of young women in Nigeria continue to this date.

In an Afterword written by Viviana Mazza, she states that she and Nwaubani"decided to document this tragedy in a way that nobody else had done: from the point of view of the girls and their families." Both Nwaubani and Mazza wanted to write a book about what was happening, so the two women connected and began collaborating. They arranged to meet some of the Chibok families in Aduja where many have fled to safety. While Adoabi Nwaubani was able to travel to Chibok to talk to people in the town, Viviana Mazza, a white woman had to forgo the trip so as not to endanger the group.
"We wanted these girls to be seen not just as numbers but as the curious, ambitious, and lovely daughters whom their families wanted to see again.
We wanted their parents' anguish to be understood. Their daughters were taken alive, but not knowing what had happened to them was, in some ways, worse than if they had died. Their parents couldn't mourn. They lived in limbo."

Nwaubani has definitely accomplished all this and much more with Buried Beneath The Baobab Tree. The novel's narrator is unnamed, although in this post I have called her by the affectionate term "YaTa" that her father and mother use. YaTa represents every girl whose life has been impacted in some way by Boko Harum, those kidnapped and those who escaped such a fate.

The novel begins with the everyday aspects of life in a small Nigerian village, comprised of both Christians and Muslims who live peacefully, side-by-side. Life for the girls and women in YaTa's village is quite simple in some ways and yet complicated in others. YaTa has chores to do, helps her mother look after her brothers, cooks, cleans and also attends school. Like most young people throughout the world, YaTa has dreams too. Although she hopes someday to marry, her thoughts are far from marriage. Instead, she states, "I want to attend the special boarding school for girls in Maiduguri. I want to go to university and get a degree. I want to be a teacher and impart everything I know to other children like Jacob. I want to travel to the places I hear about from Malam Zwindila and from Papa's radio, countries in faraway corners of the world."

But there is pressure to marry young, meaning few women are well educated. YaTa's Muslim friend Aisha is already married and has withdrawn from school. A significant factor affecting girls' attendance at school is the lack of feminine hygiene products, something most Western women take for granted. YaTa misses days of school every month because of her period. She uses a piece of cloth carefully folded, but even then there are problems. Clothes are stained due to leakage and there is no toilet she can use at school.

Soon YaTa's community is steeped in fear because of the Boko Haram attacks. Then YaTa along with her friends Sarah and Aisha are kidnapped, their families murdered, and they make the difficult choice to do whatever they need to, to survive. They are forced to learn verses from the Quran, to "marry" Boko Haram militants and are indoctrinated with their version of Islam. But YaTa knows this is not true Islam because of the Muslim friends she has grown up with. It is this interpretation of Islam that Nwaubani is careful to repeatedly point out is radical.

Nwaubani captures the fear and intense internal conflict the girls must have felt as they struggled to survive with Boko Haram. Although YaTa hates living with Boko Haram, hates her husband who rapes her, she knows what each day will bring. But to try to escape means returning to a world she no longer knows. "But I have no idea what might be waiting for me outside the Sambisa. I have no clue how to navigate the new world out there.
A world with no Papa and no brothers. And maybe with no Mama....Maybe inside the Sambisa forest is better. Maybe the life I know is better than the one I do not know. Maybe my dreams of a different life are just a waste of time."
YaTa must also cope with the tragic deaths of her family, and her friends; Aisha dies in childbirth from lack of care and her friend Sarah is brainwashed into becoming a suicide bomber.

The baobab tree in this novel mirrors the devastation that YaTa and her community experience. The baobab tree is rightly called "the Tree of Life" in Africa. It is a symbol of life and health. A deciduous tree, it is able to absorb and store water in its trunk during the rainy season. It produces a fruit rich in nutrients including vitamin C, during the dry season, hence the description. Its leaves are edible and its bark is used to make cloth, rope, baskets and mats. The tree has an unusual appearance, looking like an upside-down tree with its roots sticking up in the air. These trees can live for thousands of years and grow quite large.

In her novel, Nwaubani makes reference to one of the many folktales surrounding the baobab tree. YaTa remembers her father's tale about the tree: "' A long, long time ago,' he said, 'one of the gods up in the sky threw down a baobab tree from his garden. It landed upside down on Earth but still continued to grow.'" YaTa mentions how her family uses the tree for most everything, from fruit gourds to scare away lizards and snakes, to Mama making miyan kuka soup for Papa, her older brother Abraham using the powder from the fruit on his pimples. It is an important place in the social life of the village too.
"Men and boys gather under the upside-down branches of the baobab tree in front of our villaage health care center, exchanging news or deciding who to vote for in the next election.
Women and girls gather under the baobab tree near the communal well, exchanging gossip or deciding what styles of clothes to sew next."
The tree is even important for the domesticated animals and wildlife.

Later on YaTa even likens Success, the boy she finds attractive, to the remarkable baobab tree. "Like a baobab tree among the trees of the forest, so is he among all the young men in the world. I delight to sit in his shade, and his alone, and his fruit is sweet to my taste."

But in the short chapter titled, Tree of Death, the baobab tree has been turned into a tree of death. YaTa and Sarah who has been renamed Zainab, are living in the Sambisa forest, prisoners of Boko Haram and starving. While out searching for vegetables, the stumble across a baobab tree. But their initial delight turns to horror when, as they approach the tree the stench is unbearable. Buried in a hole beneath the baobab tree are the bodies of Magdalene who refused to convert to Islam and others.

Buried Beneath The Baobab Tree ends on a somewhat hopeful note with YaTa being rescued, and reunited with Pastor Moses. The reader doesn't know how YaTa's reunion with her mother went, or what her future holds or what difficulties she faced reintegrating into her life once more, a task certain to have been difficult because she is pregnant. But her story and that of many other girls has been told, and that's what is important.

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani has written an deeply moving novel that brings to the forefront the plight of these girls and the desperate situation in Nigeria. It is important that the missing girls of Chibok and other villages are not forgotten.

Book Details:

Buried Beneath The Baobab Tree by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
New York: Katherine Tegen Books 2018
330 pp.

Cole is ready for bed when his mother asks him if he wants to hear the story of his stuffed bear. When he asks for something different, Cole's mother offers to tell her son the real story about his great-great-grandfather and his bear Winnie.

The story begins in the woods, where Bear is just emerging from her den inside a tree, for the first time. Mama bear watches as Bear climbs a tall tree, so high, she gets stuck and needs rescuing. But during this adventure, Bear meets two squirrels, Fancy and Tall whom she can understand and talk to. Mama warns Bear that only the trapper can his traps can hurt them. Sadly this is exactly what happens to Mama one day. With her front leg held fast in the trap and the trapper approaching, Mama warns Bear to hide up the tree and to be brave. Bear climbs the tree and witnesses the trapper shooting her Mama and hauling her away.

The next morning the little boy who was with the trapper returns to the tree with food. Each day he returns with food until one day Bear cannot resist the fish that lands at the base of the tree. The fish leads her to the freckled boy who gives her sticky delicious maple syrup. Bear is follows the boy home to an old wood and stone cabin where he lives with the trapper, his grandpa and grandma.

At the cabin, Bear meets Leo the dog and watches as the boy helps a white mare give birth to her foal. When the trapper sees Bear, he recognizes her as the orphan cub. Bear is put into a small wooden pen next to the chicken coop, but soon she finds a way out. This leads to plenty of trouble that includes eating all the flowers in the window box and getting into the cabin where she eats a pie and brings down a shelf of jars and bottles. Although the boy tries to keep her, his grandpa decides to take Bear into town

Bear is taken into White River to the Hudson's Bay Company but when the clerk wants to make her into a rug the trapper leaves. Eventually Bear is bought by a young soldier, Lieutenant Harry Colebourn from Winnipeg for twenty dollars. On August 24, 1914, Bear and Harry leave Port Arthur on the train. Harry introduces Bear as their mascot for the Veterinary Corps. Colonel Currie is not impressed however, threatening to "do away" with Bear should she be a problem. Harry decides to name the young bear Winnipeg or Winnie for short. And so begins Winnie's travels, across the country to Valcartier, and then on to England where Harry and his friends, Brodie, Edgett and Dixon prepare to go to war. But Winnie won't end up in France. Instead she spends the duration of the war in England, seeing Harry whenever he's on leave. But it is Winnie's time in England after the War is over that leads to the marvellous Winnie the Pooh stories.

Discussion

Winnie's Great War was written by Harry Colebourn's great-granddaughter, Lindsay Mattick in collaboration with writer Josh Greenhut. Using material from her family's archive that included Harry's diaries, photographs and other artifacts, as well as detailed research into World War II and also bears, Mattick has penned the story of her great-grandfather and the bear cub he named Winnipeg from her beginning as a bear cub to her purchase by Harry and then as they travel from Canada overseas to England during World War I.

Winnie and Harry

The story is told from the point of view of the bear cub's perspective beginning with when she was a cub in the forest with her mother to her capture, to when Colebourn purchases her and travels overseas, to her life in the zoo in London. Using the basic facts of Harry's short time with Winnie from his diaries, Mattick blends fact and fiction together to create an engaging story that is more detailed and will appeal to readers in the 8 to 12 age bracket. Some of the characters are real such as Harry Colebourn, Brodie, Edgett, Dixon and Currie. Others such as the many animals, Fancy and Tall, Sir Reginald, Victoria and Alberta and Black Knight (who are horses) are fictional, making the tale more appealing for the younger reader. When Cole complains that his mother is just making up the story of the animals such as Sergeant Bill, a goat, she assures him that some actually did exist; "There was a billy goat from Broadview, Saskatchewan, who came to England on the same convoy as as Winnie and trained in Salisbury Plain and fought with the Fighting Fifth in France...Later in the War, he butted three soldiers into a trench a split second before a shell exploded on the spot where they'd been standing. He could hear it coming, he saved their lives. Sergeant Bill received the Victory Medal before returning home to Canada."

Mattick's variety of animal characters are used throughout the story to promote the idea that listening to those who are different and tolerating one another leads to understanding and peace. In the novel, the author anthropomorphizes the animals in order to demonstrate how intolerance and misunderstanding can result in war. On the boat, Winnie discovers that the horses hate the rats who poison their food while the rats dislike the horses who stomp on them and kill them. Winnie finds herself caught in the middle because she listens and can understand both sides. Cole asks his mother if the horses and rats can understand what the other is saying. She tells him that they can't because they aren't taking the time to listen. Misunderstandings can then lead to war. "No. Because if you're not listening, it's impossible to hear.If you believe that somebody is so different from you that you can't possibly have anything in common, you'll never be able to hear them no matter what they say. That was the way with the rats and horses. And that's how it is in war." When both begin listening to the other's concerns they are able to broker a solution that works for both rats and horses.

Cole asks his mother if there will ever be a time without war, she tells him, "I don't know. As long as animals have roamed the earth, they've fought -- over food, over land, over everything. But maybe if we were better at understanding each other, there would be less fighting."

Mattick's novel is filled with lovely pencil illustrations by Sophie Blackall. There is an extensive section title The Colebourn Family Archive complete with many photographs of Winnie and Harry as well as some other interesting information.

Winnie's Great War is a short storybook that captures the essence of Harry and Winnie's remarkable relationship and how Winnie came to be the inspiration for the Winnie the Pooh novels authored by A.A. Milne. At the same time the author encourages young readers to be tolerant of those who are different or who hold different views and to work together in a way that fosters understanding and peace.

Image from Library and Archives Canada:
http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item?app=fondsandcol&op=img&id=e011067494-v8

Book Details:

Winnie's Great War by Lindsay Mattick and Josh Greenhut
Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 2018
227 pp.

Jennifer A. Nielsen's newest historical fiction for teens explores the courageous fight by hundreds of Jewish resistance fighters as they make their last stand during the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto in 1943.

The novel opens as Chaya Lindner, a Jewish teenager who has been working for the past three months as a courier for the resistance movement known as Akiva, attempts to lie her way into the Tarnow Ghetto in Krakow, Poland. Posing as Helena Nowak,she brings food, clothing and forged identification papers to the Jews imprisoned there, informing them of what is happening on the outside. The Tarnow Ghetto has been sealed since very early in the war meaning the people there do not know what is really happening. As a result the Jews in the ghetto were tricked onto trains, believing they were being relocated to work camps. In fact, they were being sent to death camps. The ghettos were merely a step in the German plan to exterminate the entire Jewish population.

Chaya's story flashes back to life three years earlier when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Before the German occupation, Chaya's father owned a shoe repair shop and their family, which included her younger brother and sister, Yitzchak and Sara, had a good life. With the Blitzkrieg, everything changed. All Jews were required to register, their homes were searched by German soldiers who took jewelry, foreign currency, and anything they wanted. National monuments were looted and synagogues burned. Jews were assigned to forced labour, and made to wear the yellow star of David on an armband.

In 1940, Chaya's father lost his business and her family sold most of their belongings to survive. Eventually they were forced into the Podgorze District where four families were crammed into each apartment. However, Chaya's name wasn't on the list of Jews who were to move into what would be called the Krakow ghetto. So Chaya's family sent her to live with her grandmother near the village of Kopaliny. On her way to her grandmother's home, Chaya remembered Shimshon and Gusta Draenger, the leaders of her Jewish scout group, Akiva who lived on a nearby farm. The Draenger's took her in and during the summer more Akiva scouts arrived. One of the Akiva leaders was a man named Dolek.

In the summer of 1942, Dolek brought Chaya devastating news: her sister Sara was taken by train to Belzec, a death camp. Yitzchak had disappeared. The story of Chaya's family was shared with the Akiva scouts leading Shimshon to tell them they must make a decision: they can wait until the Germans eventually come for them or they can fight back, join together with other resistance groups. The scouts chose resistance.

Chaya is asked to be a courier, a most dangerous job that would lead to certain death if she were ever caught. For the next ten months Chaya fights back against the Germans as part of the resistance. It is a fight that will lead her to the ultimate showdown as the Warsaw ghetto fights back against the German's final liquidation.

Discussion

Nielsen's well researched novel, Resistance is an engaging, well balanced account of the final stand taken by the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto to resist the mass deportations to labour and death camps. The ghetto's liquidation or total destruction and removal of all Jews was ordered by Heinrich Himmler in October, 1942. The Jews in the ghetto had organized several resistance cells, ZOB (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa) the Jewish Combat Organization and ZZW (Zydowski Zwiazek Wojskowy) also known as the Jewish Military Union. With a limited arsenal obtained from the Polish underground, home made grenades and Moltov cocktails and other weapons, the Jewish resistance held out for a month, led by Mordecai Anielewicz. In the end, all of the surviving Jews, over 40,000 souls, were deported to various concentrations camps, where they were murdered by the SS.

Resistance is told through the eyes of a sixteen-year-old Jewish girl, Chaya Lindner whose parents are trapped in the Krakow ghetto. With the certain death of her younger sister Sara and the disappearance of her brother Yitchak, Chaya's mother has lost her will to live. They refuse to use the false papers that Chaya brings them to save themselves, instead accepting their fate. The loss of her sister, motivates Chaya to fight against the Germans, eventually leading to her joining resistance fighters in the Warsaw uprising. Chaya participation escalates as she becomes increasingly determined to fight back against the Germans.

A subplot involves the relationship between Chaya and a new, inexperienced member of the resistance, Esther Karolinski. Chaya is convinced that Esther is not up to the task of working in the resistance and at first various situations seem to prove Chaya right. Despite Esther's mistakes, she does begin to learn, while pushing Chaya to rethink her own reasons for resistance. In the end, Esther courageously makes the ultimate sacrifice so that Chaya and her fellow fighters can escape the Warsaw ghetto as it's being liquidated.

One of the many themes explored in the novel is the meaning of resistance and how resistance might be different for each person. Esther feels compelled to challenge a Nazi sympathizer on the train, raising suspicions and almost getting them arrested. She tells an angry Chaya, "But isn't that the point of the resistance, to make the world notice us?" Chaya however has a different view of the resistance, "The point of the resistance is to save lives...Every single day, more Jews are dying. Our fight is to stop that from happening. Nothing else matters."

In the Lodz ghetto, Chaya attempts to help Avraham, Sarah and Henryk, three teens hiding out on the abandoned upper floor of an apartment building. They reject the option of working for the Nazis as a way to save themselves and have decided to give their lives to God. When Chaya offers to help them escape, Avraham refuses telling her "...No, we're choosing faith...The highest honor we can give God is to die in his name."Unable to understand, Chaya believes they are simply giving up but Esther explains, "No, Chaya. As much as the Nazis want to take our lives, they want to take our faith too. We fight for one, Avraham's friends fight for the other." When Chaya questions the importance of faith, Esther tells her, "We'll all die one day -- no one escapes that fate. Our only decision is how we live before that day comes. Our path requires courage, but so does theirs. Both paths, are ways to resist."

After their presence in the Lodz ghetto results in another Aktion, both Chaya and Esther struggle with the form resistance might take. They are challenged by the fact that their resistance so far seems to be ineffective and harmful whether it was the attack on the cafe or their trip to Lodz. Esther states, "We didn't stop the war or get the Nazis to leave Krakow. We can't even say that lives were saved because of what we did...What about in Lodz? All we did there was make things worse...we stole a weapon, lost food that could have saved lives, and ended up being the cause of an Aktion. Maybe what we're doing is as bad as the enemy!".

When Chaya and Esther arrive in the Warsaw ghetto she tells the resistance there that Akiva failed in it's goal of using resistance as a way to inspire other Jewish uprisings. However she hopes that the Warsaw uprising will inspire not only other ghettos such as Bailystok, Sobibor and Tarnow but also the Polish army and the Polish people to rebel against the Germans.

Their decision to make a final stand in the Warsaw ghetto gives Esther a sense of freedom which Chaya doesn't quite understand. "'We've never been more free. don't you see? They don't control us anymore. Since we already know how this will end, they can't even use the fear of death against us. There is nothing more they can take from us, but today, we have taken their superiority, and the belief in our submissiveness. No matter how this ends, history will recognize today for its greatness.'"

Although the Jewish resistance lose the fight in the Warsaw ghetto, Chaya vows to fight on for the memory of her friend Esther, for all of Akiva, for Avraham, Sarah and Henryk and those who died in the Aktion in Lodz, for the kind man named Wit who sheltered Jews on his farm, for her parents and her sister.
"Historians might say that the Jews lost every uprising we attempted in this war, that every resistance movement failed.
I disagree.
We proved that there was value in faith. There was value in loyalty. And that a righteous resistance was victory in itself, no matter the outcome."

The novel's balanced approach helps young readers understand how people reacted differently to the Nazi occupation of their countries. While many people supported the extermination of the Jewish population, others did not and Nielsen highlights some of the ways Jews were helped. Chaya observes, "...there were three kinds of Polish citizens in the country these days. The first were those who endeared themselves to the invaders, who proudly allowed their homes to be assimilated into the German territory and their lives into the Nazi culture...The second group of Poles, the largest group, were merely surviving, trying to blend into the background. They might've moved into homes abandoned by Jews who were sent to the ghettos, and might've taken over our shops and our possessions, but they felt little joy in it. They didn't help us, but they believed that at least ignoring our situation caused no harm...the third group of Poles was different. They helped. They snuck close to the ghetto at night and tossed bread over the walls...they took Jewish people into their lives, into their homes, and offered them a place to hide, a chance to escape the fate that tens of thousands of us had already suffered." Nielsen incorporates a few characters into her story that fit the third group; Wit Golinski, an older man who intervenes to protect Chaya and Esther from a woman who is a Nazi sympathizer and who offers them a ride, food and money, and the Catholic nuns who smuggle arms to the Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto and the Catholic priest who helps

Resistance is Nielsen's best historical novel to date. The novel's Afterword provides some detail regarding several key resistance figures and their fate. A map of Poland and of Krakow, Lodz and Warsaw would have provided some context to the setting for younger readers. Nevertheless, an engaging novel with a strong heroine and an interesting cast of supporting characters.

Book Details:

Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen
New York: Scholastic Press 2018
385 pp.

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