LibrisNotes

Dorothea Lange was an American documentary photographer, famous for her Depression-era photographs of migrant and displaced farmers.

Dorothea was born in May 1895 in Hoboken, New Jersey to Heinrich Nutzhorn and Johanna Lange. She had a brother, Martin. When she was seven years old, Dorothea contracted poliomyelitis which damaged her right leg, leaving it weakened and shorter. This disability was to affect her profoundly for the rest of her life. It also made Dorothea more empathetic to the suffering of others.

Dorothea's father abandoned the family when she was twelve. Later on Dorothea dropped her father's surname of Nutzhorn and adopted her mother's surname of Lange.

She graduated from Wadleigh High School For Girls. In 1913, Dorothea began attending the New York Training School For Teachers but she was more interested in becoming a photographer. So she studied photography at Columbia University and undertook apprenticeships at several New York Studios. In 1917, Dorothea was able to take a class with Charles White at Columbia.

In January 1918, Dorothea and a friend, Florence Ahlstrom decided to undertake a trip around the world. Their journey which began by train, ended quickly in San Francisco when their money was stolen. Dorothea settled in San Francisco, working in a photography studio, meeting other members of the art community in the city and eventually opening up her own portrait studio. In 1920, she married Maynard Dixon, the renowned western painter.

Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange

With the onset of the Great Depression and the soup kitchens, employments lines and migrant workers, Dorothea changed her focus from portraiture to the people suffering from the economic crisis. Her photograph of a man looking away from a crowd in a soup kitchen captured the attention of the Federal Government and she was hired by the Farm Security Administration to document the situation of migrant workers, destitute farm families and sharecroppers. Her picture Migrant Mother as well as many others of this era were to launch her career as a photographer.

Discussion

Dorothea's Eyes captures Dorothea's story from her point of view focusing on her remarkable ability to see what others miss. Rosenstock suggests this is the result of Dorothea's illness as a child which left her with a damaged leg and made her want to hide.

Rosenstock describes Dorothea as watchful, curious and that she sees with her eyes and her heart. As a person who was ignored in her childhood because of her disability, Dorothea felt a strong empathy for the poor of the Depression Era, people whose struggles were being ignored by society. Her photographs opened the eyes of Americans to the suffering of the poor, the misplaced farmers and unemployed.Dorothea's photographs humanized these people. In some cases, her photographs helped bring relief in the form of food to people who were starving. Although Rosenstock doesn't mention this in her picture book story, Dorothea went on to capture the internment of Japanese Americans in special camps simply because of their heritage. Her photographs were confiscated by the American Army and were not seen for decades.

Accompanying Rosenstock's text are the illustrations by award-winning illustrator, Gerard Dubois, who created them using acrylic on paper and as well as digitally. The author includes a time line of Dorothea Lange's life, some of her remarkable photographs, a short note about her, a Selected Bibliography, Sources for Quotations and suggestions For Further Reading.

You can read more about the story of the Migrant Mother here.

Book Details:

Dorothea's Eyes by Barb Rosenstock
Honesdale, Pennsylvania: Calkins Creek 2016

image credit: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/stories/articles/2014/4/14/migrant-mother-dorothea-lange/

A Thousand Sisters: The Heroic Airwomen of The Soviet Union in World War II tells the thrilling story of three Soviet regiments, the 586, 587 and 588th each made up of over three hundred young women aviators - a thousand young women who became the first female pilots to fight in a war.

The book is divided into five parts, describing a specific part of the the World War II effort as it pertains to the women aviators.

Part I The Future War sets the stage by providing some of the backstory to how the Soviet Union came to incorporate women aviators in its air force. The beginning of the 20th century saw women agitating for greater rights and participation in society.In Imperial Russia, women wanted to fight in WWI; one example was Maria Bochkareva who joined a men's battalion and was a fearless soldier. Young women and men after the revolution grew up believing that some day they would have to fight a future war. Therefore, their education and training was geared towards that end and a patriotism for their motherland was instilled in them.

Part II The Great Patriotic War: The First Year: 1941-1942 explains how the womens aviation regiment came about.

Germany invaded Russia on June 22, 1941 along an Eastern front that stretched from the Black Sea in the south all the way to the Baltic Sea in the north. Three million German soldiers raced across Eastern Europe with the people of the Soviet states of Belorussia and Ukraine fleeing before them. In the Soviet Union, young people who had grown up with the belief that there would be a war in their lifetime, rushed to enlist. While women were pilots and instructors, there was no way for them to enlist in the war effort.

Marina Raskova approached Josef Stalin offering to form a womens air regiment as part of the Soviet air force. Stalin agreed and the Soviet Union became the only nation during World War II that allowed women into air combat roles.Order 0099, issued on October 8, 1941 by the People's Commissariat of Defense called for the creation of "a combat group of female aviators, including commanders, pilots, navigators, mechanics, armorers and ground staff, to be created and led by Marina Raskov." Women civil pilots as well as pilots from Osoaviakhim were to report to a specific location in Moscow. Hundreds of young women answered the call and were thrown into military drills and ill-fitting men's uniforms almost immediately.

Marina Raskova

But sorting through the recruits was not to happen in Moscow as the Germans were close to capturing the city. Some four hundred young women fled Moscow along with 150,000 civilians when the Germans overran the city. Eventually almost one thousand women answered Raskova's call to form a womens aviation regiment. They were sent to Engels, a town on the Volga River which also was the location of a military flight school. The formal name for Raskova's aviation unit would be the 122nd Composite Air Group.

The one thousand recruits were divided into pilots, navigators, and technicians, disappointing many of the women who wanted to be pilots. There were three regiments, the 586th Bomber Aviation Regiment commanded by Tamara Kazarinova, the 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment commanded by Raskova herself and the 588th Night Bomber Regiment commanded by Yevdokia Bershanskaya.These women would have to learn to fly various aircraft. The 586th flew new single-seat Yak-1s, while the 587 trained in new dive bomber and fighter planes called Petlyakov Pe-2. The 588th Night bombers were to fly noisy Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes. In March of 1942, two of the womens' regiments were ready for action; the 586th was assigned to protect Saratov, an important city on the banks of the Volga River. However, the 588th Night Bombers were sent back for more training in night flying after the deaths of four aviators in crashes during night flights.

In Part III The Great Patriotic War The Second Year: 1942-1943 Wein focuses the various exploits and disasters each of the women's regiments experienced. All three regiments are now flying: the 588th is sent into combat in May of 1942, while the 587th receives the new Pe-2 dive-bombers Marina ordered.

Enthusiasm for war was waning in the Soviet Union in part due to the repressive laws of Stalin. In 1941, Stalin had enacted Order 270 which stated that soldiers who were captured or surrendered were considered traitors. Now in the summer of 1942, Stalin's newest order, 227 "Not One Step Back" made even retreating from battle a crime. This meant POW's could be executed the minute they were freed and those missing in action or for whom there was no certainty they had died in battle would receive no official recognition, nor any compensation.

It was in this climate that the battle for Stalingrad began. Wein follows all three regiments in their assignments especially their contributions to the battle for Stalingrad. She also relates how war was especially difficult for women combatants and how they developed ways to cope with the tremendous stress and the loss of fellow aviators and friends.In January of 1943, the women aviators had to deal with the loss of their founder and mentor, Marina Raskova.

The success of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment in bombing the German troops at night was recognized in their being awarded the special title "Guards" become the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment.

Part IV The Great Patriotic War The Third and Fourth Years: 1943 to 1945. The year 1943 saw war throughout the world. The Battle of the Atlantic between German submarines and British battleships was ongoing. The United States was fighting Japan in the Pacific theatre and the Allies were pushing the Germans out of north Africa and up the Italian peninsula. While the Allies were bombing German cities and industries, the Russians were fighting on the Eastern Front.

Wein describes the continuing efforts of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation in harassing the German troops. However, their great success often came at great cost. On the night of July 31, 1943, the regiment lost four pilots and four navigators. After this tragedy, they devised a plan to help cut their losses during night bombing runs through the use of diversionary tactics. Eventually the 46th Guards came to be called the "night witches" by the German soldiers for their relentless bombings and the sounds their aircraft made flying low over the troops.

Lydia Litvyak who never returned from her Aug 1, 1943 mission.

The stress of battle was not dismissed so easily by the women aviators most of whom experienced extreme physical stress and terror during their missions. They were so successful that they were renamed the 46th Taman Guards for helping to liberate Crimea from the Germans. Meanwhile the 587th was renamed the 125th M.M. Raskova Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment after their significant contributions to the Battle of Kursk.

On June 6, 1944, the Allied invasion of Normandy resulting in the opening of the second front so long desired by Stalin and the Soviet Union. The three women's aviation regiments continued their battles. The 125th was renamed again as the 125th M. M. Raskova Borisov Guards after a town in Belorussian they had liberated from the Germans.

Part IV focuses on the remaining missions and the horrors of war the women aviators encountered as the Soviets raced to capture Berlin ahead of the Allies and end the war.

Part V After The War presents the personal toll the women pilots experienced after having been engaged in combat for one thousand nights along with the statistics for each of the three women's regiments. In the post-War period, although the Soviet Union helped the surviving women soldiers, they weren't allowed to talk about their experiences, nor to continue their military service in the air force. It wasn't until after Stalin's death in 1953 that the memoirs of the female aviators began to be published, beginning in 1957.

Today in modern Russia, women pilots have returned to the military, and the survivors of the World War II womens' regiments still meet regularly, although many are very elderly. These women flew on the winds of change, helping their country win a war that cost their country more lives than any other. The bravery and sacrifice of these thousand sisters lives on eternally.

Discussion

A Thousand Sisters is a comprehensive account of the Soviet women's regiments that fought from 1943 until the end of WWII to save their country from Nazi Germany. It's evident from the detail and the enormous Source Notes at the back of the book, that Wein undertook considerable research about a topic that is dear to her. While this book has been marketed for teens, it's more likely to interest older World War II history enthusiasts especially those interested in Russian and aviation history.

From the very beginning Wein uses the analogy of how a pilot must be attentive to the wind when flying to explain how several factors came together resulting in the Soviet Union utilizing women pilots in World War II both in support and combat roles.
"Navigating your way through life is like flying a small plane in a windy sky. To say that the wind is blowing with you or against you is too simple. Sometimes you need the wind behind you to speed things up; sometimes you need to head directly into the wind to help you take off."

Wein observes that people are often shaped by the politics and events and the world around them and Marina Raskova was no exception."Your future will depend on how you decide to adjust to the winds of change around you." The impetus behind the use of women pilots by the Soviets was a young pilot herself, Marina Raskova who had survived the upheavals brought about by the Russian revolution and who utilized the events happening around her to her advantage.

Later on Wein notes that the huge death toll that included people like Lilya Litvyak and Marina Raskova was the result of being "caught in a wind too strong for them."

At the end of her book, Wein encourages her readers to be the wind of change."If there is one thing to be learned from the thousand sisters of Raskova's regiments, it is that change is possible. It can begin with one person. Go out and change the wind."

The telling of the story of the thousand sisters - the three women's regiments - also makes reference to the issues of gender and sexuality. In the chapter "Life is life" Wein discusses some of the difficulties being a woman presented in the Soviet air force. The young women aviators had to cope with uniforms and boots that didn't fit. They had to wear mens underwear which didn't fit and was uncomfortable. In the latter situation, the women would attempt to obtain German parachute silk to make their own panties, but if they were caught, the consequences were serious.

Wein makes the point that "War is gendered, and it is not feminine. No matter how valiantly a woman proves herself in battle, her experience of war will always differ from a man's experience, because she is a woman. Dressing in men's clothes and using the same equipment as men does not turn a woman into a man." The latter point seems to be but lost today.

To cope Wein states that "the women made strong statements about their womanhood." They made themselves slippers and devised curling irons to do their hair. they put flowers in their planes, did needlework and made pillows out of their footcloths. They wrote poetry, produced newsletters and literary magazines and had talent shows. These feminine creative outlets were important to them. And in Marina Raskova they had the "model of perfection as a soldier, a woman, and a mother."The women aviators hoped someday when the war was over and they were victorious, they would marry and have children and a peaceful family life.

Unfortunately, Wein strays into the area of sexual orientation when she wonders if there were lesbian relationships between the women aviators, if the closes friendships that formed were more than just that. Viewing history through the filters of today's pervasive current climate of gender identity and sexual orientation is a disservice to those who lived through these difficult times. In life and death situations, it is likely that forming close emotional bonds was an important and healthy way to counter the fact that these women pilots faced the stress of a gruesome death at any time. The entire discussion seems moot since Wein concludes,"Regardless of their sexuality, most of them liked to remind themselves that, yes, they still identified as women."

Wein points out the significant loss the Soviet Union suffered because of the war. It is possible that the casualties were as high as forty-five million. But as Wein states, "Whatever the final numbers may be, they are just numbers. Who can measure the loss to the world of a person as complex and energetic as Zhenya Rudneva at the age of twenty-two? Or as driven and charismatic as twenty-one-year-old Lilya Litvyak?"As in any war, the loss of the young, with all their promise is the greatest tragedy.

Overall, A Thousands Sisters is a remarkable book about a remarkable group of young women who were determined to save their country. Wein captures their incredible determination, courage, resiliency and patriotism.Included is a map of Eastern Europe so readers can place the locations of various events as well as many black and white photographs of these amazing women.

Image Credits:https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/gallery/might-night-witches-stunning-colour-10827354

Book Details:

A Thousand Sisters. The Heroic Airwomen Of The Soviet Union In World War II by Elizabeth (Wein) Gatland
New York: Balzer & Bray 2019
388pp.

While many young girls today struggle at mathematics, history has recorded some women who made great contributions to the discipline. One such person was Sophie Germain, a French mathematician and physicist. She was born into a wealthy family in 1776 in Rue Denis, in Paris, France, to Ambroise-Francois Germain and Marie-Madelaine Gruguelin. It is believed her father was a silk merchant. He eventually became the director of the Bank of France.

Sophie lived during a tumultuous time of revolution. She was born the year of the American Revolution and was thirteen-years-old when the French Revolution began in her own country of France. Living in such an era likely had a strong influence on her to challenge the social norms of the times.

Forced to remain at home during the early revolution, Sophie began to read from her father's extensive library. Reading L'Histoire des Mathematiques by Montucla led Sophie to read a story describing the death of Archimedes at the hands of a Roman soldier during the capture of Syracuse. This motivated her to study mathematics and she also taught herself Latin and Greek which offered her the opportunity to study the works of mathematicians like Euler and scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton.

At this time it was not acceptable for a young girl to be interested in mathematics and her parents did everything to discourage her from continuing her studies. Sophie was kept in her room, and was denied warm clothing and firewood to keep herself warm. But Sophie persisted and her parents relented.

It was also not possible for a young woman to attend school so when the Ecole Polytechnique opened in 1794, Sophie was not able to attend lectures. She was eighteen by this time and very determined. Since notes from classes at the Ecole were made available to those who were interested, Sophie managed to obtain them. She was particularly interested in the lectures of J.L. Lagrange to whom she sent her observations about his lectures under the pseudonym of Monsieur Antoine-August LeBlanc. He in turn, was intrigued by the unknown writer's paper and managed to track down the identity to Sophie. Fortunately, Monsieur Lagrange was impressed and became Sophie's mentor.

Sophie became interested in number theory, corresponding with Adrien-Marie Legendre and later on Carl Frederich Gauss. When the latter mathematician eventually learned he had been corresponding with a young woman he remarked, "How can I describe my astonishment and admiration on seeing my esteemed correspondent M leBlanc metamorphosed into this celebrated person. . . when a woman, because of her sex, our customs and prejudices, encounters infinitely more obstacles than men in familiarising herself with [number theory's] knotty problems, yet overcomes these fetters and penetrates that which is most hidden, she doubtless has the most noble courage, extraordinary talent, and superior genius."

Sophie also became interested in elasticity and entered the Paris Academy of Science's contest to find a solution to a problem regarding Ernst Chladni's experiments with vibrating plates. Her initial entries did not win but after further work, Sophie did claim the prize, in 1815, becoming the first woman to do so. She was unable to claim her prize publicly because women were forbidden to enter the Academy of Science unless they were the wife of a member.

Sophie later on became interested in a mathematical problem called Fermat's Last Theorem. She wrote a potential solution to the problem, which although weak did advance mathematicians towards their goal of solving this problem.

Sophie died in 1831, after suffering from breast cancer. While ill she continued her work in mathematics and philosophy, a mathematician to the very end.

Discussion

The story of mathematician Sophie German is a remarkable one. She lived during a time when it was not acceptable for women to be interested in the sciences and when expectations for women were limited only to family and the home.

Bardoe captures all of the important events in Sophie Germain's life in her exquisite picture book. Her account focuses on Sophie's determination to pursue her love of mathematics despite all of the obstacles placed in front of her. She was not allowed an education in mathematics, she had few mentors and those that she often wrote to did not respond back, especially if they learned their correspondent was a young woman. Even when she was successful, that success was only grudgingly acknowledged by her peers. The lesson here for young, budding women scientists and mathematicians, is to be persistent and to find those who will support you in developing your interest. Hopefully, your parents will be more supportive than Sophie's parents were!

Nothing Stopped Sophie is illustrated by awarding -winning author and illustrator Barbara McClintock. In her note at the back McClintock reveals how she developed the illustrations for the story. McClintock used "colorful markers, gouache, and collage" to capture the story in what she describes as a nonliteral visual way. For example, McClintock illustration of Sophie receiving the academy's prize shows "Sophie's winning formula flows out of her pen around the all-male members of the academy, the top hats and coattails flying in the gale of numbers." McClintock's colourful illustrations capture Sophie's struggles but also the joy she found in mathematics.

Book Details:

Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain by Cheryl Bardoe
New York: Little, Brown and Company 2018

In the picture book, The Tree In The Courtyard, the story of Anne Frank is told from the point of view of the horse chestnut tree that stood in the courtyard opposite the house in which Anne and her family took refuge.

The tree with its "flowers foaming cones of white and pink" in spring and its "spiky seedpods" each fall lived in the courtyard growing and stretching towards the sky. Then war came and with it the explosions, rockets and soldiers.

The tree which looked out over homes and factories saw a new family come to one of the factories. Every day the tree would see the two girls, one of whom was spirited and who wrote often. But one day the tree no longer saw the girls, except at the window in the factory annex. Soon others came to join her in that annex. The tree, now tall and strong, could see into the attic window of the annex. It saw that the girl often wrote in a red and white diary. The war dragged on for four years until one summer the girl and her family were taken away by "men in gray uniforms".

Another set of seasons passed by before the war ended. The tree never saw the girl again; only the father returned to the rooms in the annex, filled with sadness. As the years passed, many people came to the rooms in the annex where the girl had lived. By the close of the century the tree was dying. When a lightning strike finally damaged the tree that it had to be cut down, its saplings were planted throughout the world - a reminder of the tragedy that happened long ago in the annex.

Discussion

The Tree in the Courtyard by Gottesfeld is a poignant and subtle retelling of the story of Anne Frank through the perspective of a beautiful stately horse chestnut tree that really did exist outside the Annex where Anne and her family were hiding. In peacetime, the tree grows into a towering shade tree with a view of the houses around it. When war comes, the tree cannot help but notice the terrible changes. It sees what others cannot see and it notices the girl never returns after the war.

Although the girl is gone, life goes on for the tree until it begins to die. When the tree itself is in danger of dying, and every effort is being made to save it, the tree notes, "...how few had tried to save the girl." But both the tree and Anne Frank are destined to live on. Just as Anne's diary has been published worldwide in various forms and editions for all to read, the tree also has spread throughout the world, its seeds and saplings now growing in many countries as a reminder of what happened to Anne and her family.

The Tree in the Courtyard offers a fresh and unique perspective on the story of Anne Frank and is a wonderful way to introduce younger students to the events surround Anne and the Holocaust as well as World War II.

Peter McCarty has created illustrations that are captivating in their simplicity, using brown ink on watercolor paper and which capture the gravity of the events of Anne's life.

Gottesfeld includes an Afterword that explains who the girl is and what became of the tree outside the Annex. A beautiful picture book and a must add to any collection.

Book Details:

The Tree in the Courtyard: Looking Through Anne Frank's Window by Jeff Gottesfeld
New York: Alfred A. Knopf 2016

Jamie Drake's family consists of his father and mother and his younger sister Charlie. Jamie's father, Commander Dan Drake is an astronaut who is currently on a mission on the International Space Station. His mission is to launch special probes into space looking for intelligent life. On Friday Commander Drake will travel from the International Space Station to the newly constructed Lux Aeterna launch platform.From there he will launch the nano-spacecraft called the Light Swarm probes by firing the Lux Aeterna's laser array. The sails of the probes will be caught in the laser beam and travel out as seventy-five percent of the speed of light. Their destination is a star called Tau Ceti, which is one hundred trillion kilometers from Earth. It will take approximately fifteen years for the probes to reach Tau Ceti. They will search for alien life in the system and relay the information back to Earth - which will take another fifteen years.

Jamie's 6th grade class is currently "learning about alien worlds, interstellar travel, and nanotechnology." His teacher, Mrs. Solomon assigns the class a project to "invent an alien".

After school Jamie is picked up by his grandfather, an aging has-been rocker with a pony tail. Jamie's granddad Neil used to be the lead singer of a rock group called Death Panda.

Jamie and his family live at Grandad Neil's home in Bramsfield. His family has moved around over the years due to his father's career as a Royal Air Force pilot. While waiting for dinner, Jamie decides to hike up to Beacon Hill where it is quiet and he can't hear his granddad's guitar. During a phone call from his dad, Jamie learns that there used to be an observatory on Beacon Hill. Afterwards, Jamie cliimbs to the top of Beacon Hill where he finds "half hidden behind a bank of trees, a squat redbrick building topped with a white dome-shaped roof." Near the derelict observatory Jamie sees a strange robotic mechanism.

At this point he is confronted by a older woman who forces him into the observatory. The woman is suspicious of Jamie but when he reveals that his father is Commander Dan Drake the woman recognizes him. She reveals that she is Professor Forster, an astronomer who happens to be searching for alien life in the universe. Unofficially, she is searching for a signal from the entire universe. Professor Forster explains Drake's Equation which is used to estimate how many intelligent alien civilizations might exist in the Milky Way, to Jamie. She also tells Jamie that we have been using radio telescopes to scan for alien transmissions since the 1960s. Now she is using the observatory as a secret location for the "mobile Laser Optical Ground Station that is hooked up to the Hubble Space Telescope." which she hacked into when it was in line to be retired.

While Professor Forster goes outside to do a quick check on the ground station, Jamie decides to recharge his phone by connecting it to a USB cable coming from her laptop. Suddenly Jamie realizes that his phone is receiving the incoming transmission from Hubble. Frantic he rushes to disconnect the phone, spilling tea over the laptop, just as Professor Forster returns.

Later that night, Jamie hears a strange buzzing sound from his phone and when he turns it on he sees a new icon in the shape of a golden spiral. The icon spins in time with the phone's buzzing sound. When he taps the icon, his finger suddenly glows. The next day during a math test, Jamie's phone begins buzzing again, and he taps the spinning icon which is now taking up half the phone's screen. The familiar tingle in his finger returns. But when he tries to use the phone's calculate, it begins spitting out numbers that don't seem to make sense. Things become even more bizarre when Jamie finds he suddenly knows the answer to the math problem. Even stranger is that his answer to a question to create his own equation results in a strange equation that he doesn't understand as well as pages and pages filled with unknown symbols and letters.

The unusual behaviour continues in art class when Jamie creates a stunning picture of a landscape "twin suns shine in a bright purple sky above a vast forest of giant plants and ferns. Black flowers bloom in every direction, and rising above these, huge golden spirals shimmer like trapped sunlight. The shape of these unearthly skyscrapers is the same as the spiral icon on my phone,...each golden spiral is actually a sprawling alien city winding into the sky."

But when Jamie's phone begins sending messages that seem to come from an alien needing help, he knows this is bigger than he realized. While his dad doesn't believe him, Dr. Forster does agree that it seems like some sort of extraterrestrial signal has been downloaded into his phone. However, it soon becomes apparent to Jamie that he is able to communicate with an alien whom he names Buzz. When Jamie's father is in danger of losing his life, both Jamie and the alien work together to help each other.

Discussion

The Jamie Drake Equation is a delightful story that mixes science with fiction. It's a sweet mashup that is reminiscent of the movie E.T. in which a boy befriends an alien in trouble and helps him out, all the while dealing with his own struggles in growing up. Although the novel incorporates plenty of science, ultimately this is a story about a young boy discovering what really matters and realizing that his parents are not perfect.

Jamie's father is a world famous astronaut who is on a mission on the International Space Station. The day his father is to launch important probes to seek out intelligent life in a distant system, happens also to be Jamie's birthday. Jamie not only has to share his father with the world, but he also has to share his birthday with an important event as well. His father's busy and demanding career means that Jamie doesn't get much time with him. When he tries to talk to his father about what's happening on his phone, his father doesn't believe him and thinks he's making it up to get his attention. When Jamie needs his father the most to help him solve a problem in HIS life his father isn't there for him. "Dad has always said I can tell him anything - any problem I've got, any worry I have, and he'll help me to sort it out....All I need is for Dad to believe me and then he'll be able to tell me what to do."

Adding to Jamie's worries about the strange messages and his father up in space is the shocking revelation that his parents are divorcing. While divorce is a reality for many children today, this was such a lovely, fresh story up to this point, that bringing the issue of divorce into the story was disappointing. It would be nice for children to be able to read some stories where parents succeed in their marriages - as many do. The divorce subplot is used to drive the story. Jamie's anger and frustration at his dad for leaving the family, his fear for his dad in space all reach a climax during an assembly at Austen Park Primary school.

During the assembly Jamie finds himself becoming increasingly angry, especially since his father and mother are divorcing. "Is this what life is going to be like now? Sharing my dad with a roomful of strangers and getting my birthday presents secondhand? Having everyone think that Dad's some kind of superhero, when really he's tearing our family apart?" His angry outburst at the assembly is an expression of the sadness and sense of loss he is experiencing over his parents' divorce.

Although Edge moves well into science fiction to resolve the disaster facing Jamie's dad in space, the conclusion is both heartwarming and satisfying. Jamie's relationship with an alien being he names Buzz is reminsicent of E.T. It turns out Buzz is an alien life form that calls itself the Hi'ive. They had to choose between their bodies and their minds, moving beyond the physical world, becoming energy. In this form Buzz can both help Jamie and be helped by Jamie.

Overall, the Jamie Drake Equation is a well written short novel, ideal for younger readers who might be interested in science, aliens and space travel. Edge includes lots of science tidbits for young readers to chew on and includes short chapter called The Science of The Jamie Drake Equation where he examines some of the science in the novel.

Book Details:

The Jamie Drake Equation by Christopher Edge
New York: Delacourte Press 2017
185 pp.

Our Castle By The Sea is a juvenile historical fiction novel set in southeastern England during the beginning of World War II.

Twelve-year-old Petra (Pet) Zimmermann Smith lives with her father Frederick, her mother Angela Helene whom they call Mutti as she is from Germany and her fifteen-year-old sister Magda (Mags). Pet's father operates the lighthouse located near the village of Stonegate so their family lives in the adjacent cottage attached to the lighthouse.

Their lighthouse has always been known as the Castle because it is surrounded by four granite megaliths known as the Daughters of Stone which look like buttresses or guard towers. The megaliths are believed to have been used by the druids. Pet's father once told them the legend of the stones. A fishing vessel named the Aurora failed to return to the harbour one foggy night. The daughters of the four men on board went each night to the clifftop to light a signal fire to guide the Aurora home. People believed the ship was lost to the Wyrm, a sandbank just offshore known to shift and sink ships. The last night of their vigil, the daughters sang a song to the sea, offering up their souls in exchange for the return of the Aurora. They sang all night and at dawn a ghostly boat returned with the men. In return for bringing home the Aurora, the Wyrm and they misty tentacles of fog turned the four daughters to stone. This story both entrances and terrifies Pet.

In the Autumn of 1939 Mag's comes home one day with a swollen eye and cut fists. She has been in a fight at school because people have been taunting her about Mutti. With the start of the war with Germany people in England are suspicious of anyone who is German.

Pet's father receives an order from the government to paint the lighthouse green, camouflaging it from the air. Not long after this, Pet and her family are frightened to see so many planes flying over the lighthouse. They seek shelter in the coal cellar of the lighthouse cottage and while there, Pet discovers a photograph of her parents wedding which she decides to keep. The picture interests Pet because no one looks happy and there are only two guests at the ceremony.

Gas masks arrive in the village and everyone is called to the village hall where Mrs. Baron the headmistress and magistrate at the court in Dover, demonstrates how to use them. Mrs. Baron announces that she will also be the Air Raid Precaution warden for the village.

Pet begins to notice that her sister Mags seems to be acting strangely. She also notices strange goings on in the village. Her father seems distracted when aiding a ship with the lighthouse foghorn and the optic light. Then Pet discovers Mutti leaving the cottage early one morning, and discovers she is following someone else.

In the Spring of 1940, Hitler invades France by way of the Netherlands and Belgium. The real war has now begun. One morning Pet and her family wake up to a fire in the village; someone has set fire to the village hall which was being used as a base for the Local Defense Volunteers and the Scout hut where equipment was being stored.

But then one day Mutti is summoned to a tribunal. Because she was born in Germany, Mutti was considered to be an "enemy alien". Every enemy alien had to be categorized according to the risk they were considered to pose; Category A aliens were a serious threat and locked up in internment camps, Category B were not locked up but were restricted on where they could live and work, Category C aliens were minimal risk and faced no sanctions.At the tribunal, Mutti is declared at Category A alien when a set of maps and charts are presented as being drawn by her. Despite Mutti's denials and little proof they are actually hers, she is sentenced to an internment camp.

In shock, Pet and Mags decide they must prove Mutti's innocence. But their investigations lead no where and Pet finds herself doubting everyone around her. But a shocking confession from Mutti in a letter and a stunning revelation overheard by Pet throws her world into chaos. What is the truth and will Pet's family ever be the same?

Discussion

Our Castle By The Sea is the story of a young girl, afraid and struggling to understand the world around her who overcomes her own fears to try to save her family from events beyond her control. Strange's novel is unrelenting in the tragedies the Smith family experience making it unusual for juvenile fiction. There is no happy ending here, but there is hope.

The coming difficulties for Pet's family are foreshadowed by her discovery of her parent's wedding photograph, hidden in the Castle's coal cellar. The photograph reveals a wedding that was not filled with joy and attended by only two other people. It suggests a troubled past that Pet doesn't know about and an uncertain future.

Strange weaves many historical details into her story which spans the time period of a year from Autumn 1939 to Autumn 1940. The war in Europe is just beginning. It's been only twenty years since the last world war which was supposed to end all wars. The Germans are in France and the threat of invasion is very real. The coast of France is a mere twenty miles away. The people are afraid and suspicious of anyone German. With little due process, anyone of German ancestry deemed "dangerous" is incarcerated in a camp. Pet notes how the war begins to change people so they turn on neighbours and friends, when her mother is one of those sent to an internment camp.
"...They were our friends. People from church, the village shopkeepers and fishermen, the parents of the children we had grown up with. But something had changed them. The war. The enemy plane. The things they had heard on the wireless and read in the newspapers. The rumors, the whispers. They were angry. And they were very, very frightened."

Another event mentioned is the evacuation of children from areas considered dangerous such as the coast to villages further inland. The evacuation of Dunkirk is also incorporated into the storyline. When Pet's family learns that boats of all kinds are needed to rescue the trapped troops on the coast of France, Mags is determined to go. But their father insists that she not, although in the end Mags disobeys him. Instead he goes and is lost in the evacuation. Strange touches on all of these real events in her Historical Note at the back of the novel.

Strange incorporates the the legend of the Daughters of the Stone and the Wyrm throughout her story. The legend is presented early in the story and we see that it has a profound effect on Pet. She often dreams the Wyrm is pursuing her right up to the lantern room but never quite makes it. This motif of a shifting sea monster that is after her and her family represents Pet's fears associated with the war. She equates the war with the sea monster that haunts her dreams. "This war is a sea monster, I thought. Sometimes it destroys things violently and openly, and sometimes its tentacles squeeze in through the cracks of normal life, and it strangles us silently."

When Pa and Mags leave to help in the evacuation of Dunkirk, Pet keeps watch on the clifftop. But when it seems like they are not going to return, Pet believes like the Daughters of Stone, she must sing to bring them home."This was the moment that I had always known about in my bones, ever since Pa first told me the legend of the stones. This was the moment in which I would finally become part of this ancient story. The sky wrapped around me, gray as fate, enveloping me together with the stones and the cold-smoking sea." As she sings, a boat arrives in the harbor but it is Kipper and Mags and not her Pa. Later on Pet thinks, "I thought about the lullaby that I had sung to the sea as I prayed for Mags and Pa. I had felt so sure that some kind of magic was working...Just enough to bring Mags safely home, I thought. But not enough for my Pa." Pet continues to wonder, "Was there a price to be paid or not? Would I end up being turned to stone?"

After her accident on the clifftop which leaves her paralyzed from the waist down, Pet considers herself to be a Daughter of Stone. Now she sits in her wheelchair in the lantern room. "I was a Daughter of Stone now -- so, from up in the lantern room, from first light to twilight, I did what the Daughters of Stone do: I kept watch over our sky and sea." During her watch one night Pet someone enters the lighthouse, knocking out Mags and entering into the lantern room. At first Pet believes it is the Wyrm coming finally to claim her. In reality it is Mrs. Baron who turns out to be a traitor and a Nazi. Drawing on the legend, Pet thinks,"In that moment, I was aware of the Daughters of Stone outside on the clifftop, sparkling darkly, calling to me as one of their own - warning me, giving me strength."Mrs. Baron reveals much to Pet, including that she is in the lantern room to aid in the beginning of the Nazi invasion. With all the strength, courage and self-sacrifice of the Daughters of Stone, Pet helps to thwart Mrs. Baron's plans. Pet has been transformed from a girl, "...small and unnoticeable and frightened. A girl whose mother was locked away and whose father was lost at sea, who battled with monsters braving the raging skies and the darkness of the night..." Pet is now "Defender of the White Cliffs, Dragon Slayer, Daughter of Stone"

Our Castle By the Sea a mixture of historical fiction and adventure, a coming of age story with a thrilling climax. And despite Pet having suffered many losses, she demonstrates her resiliency, courage and maturity in her hope for the future, despite the ongoing war. She grows into a strong heroine through adversity.

This novel would definitely have benefited from lovely pencil illustrations. Sadly, illustration in juvenile fiction is mostly lacking today, but a good artist helps tell the story and fuel the imagination of the reader. Nevertheless, Our Castle By the Sea is a well-written novel that historical fiction fans will very much appreciate.

Book Details:

Our Castle By The Sea by Lucy Strange
New York: Chicken House 2019
319 pp.

The Bridge Home is a story of family, loss, forgiveness, redemption and second chances. Two sisters flee an abusive home, living on the streets with two boys until illness forces one of them to take a chance that will change all their lives.

Eleven-year-old Viji and her intellectually-challenged sister Rukku live in Chennai, India with their Amma and Appa. Their Appa is a violent man who beats Amma. One night Amma is so badly beaten that her arm is broken and she has to go to the hospital. The next day, Appa attempts to apologize by giving Viji and Rukku gifts but Viji rejects her father's attempt and he becomes physically abusive. Viji knows that unlike her Amma who hopes the beatings will stop someday, she must leave. The next morning taking food, extra clothing, a book her teacher gave her and some money, Viji leades Rukku out of their home to the bus station where they take the bus from their village to the city. In the city they barely escape from the bus driver who attempts to kidnap them. Their first bit of luck happens when they meet a kindly lady who runs a teashop with her husband. When Rukku breaks a glass cup, Viji offers to work to pay for the broken cup and it is then that they meet Teashop Aunty.

At night they wander onto an abandoned, ruined bridge with their newfound puppy Kutti. There they meet two boys, Muthu and an older boy, Arul. The next morning they return to Teashop Aunty who gives Rukku a large bag of beads and shows her how to tie knots and braid the strings together. The two girls wander to the temple looking for work but end up encountering a wealthy woman and her daughter Praba who wants Viji and Rukku's little dog. They are chased away by the gardener and their first day ends without work or food. That night Arul brings them food and a tarp for shelter. While telling Rukku a story, Muthu refers to Viji as Akka or older sister, which makes her feel like they are family.

Viji, Rukku, Muthu and Arul spend the next months working as ragpickers on various dumps in the city. This job disgusts Viji as it is smelly and covers her in grime and filth. Rukku uses the beads to make necklaces and they manage to sell all but one, earning a small fortune of hundreds of rupees. The four children are eventually forced to leave their tent homes on the bridge after they are pursued and set upon by the waste mart man who tries to kidnap them. Salvaging the remaining money from the necklaces they sold, the four children relocate to a graveyard and set up new tents against one of the tombstones.

The monsoon rains arrive and with them hordes of mosquitoes. On a visit to a Catholic church, the children encounter a kindly woman, Dr. Celina Pinto who is the director of Safe Home for Working Children. Celina Aunty as she is called, offers them a place to live, go to school and work. Viji is immediately attracted to this offer because she has a dream of some day becoming a teacher. Muthu and Arul run out of the church with Viji and Rukku following them, but not before Celina Aunty hands Viji her card. Later on Muthu reveals that he doesn't believe Celina Aunty because he was sold by his stepbrother into slave labour in a factory making handbags. There he was beaten and starved.

The monsoon and mosquitoes bring illness to both Muthu and Rukku. At first Viji tres to help by selling Kutti and buying medicine but it soon becomes apparent that both are very very ill. Viji must trust her instincts and reach out to Celina Aunty in the hopes she can save them and herself.

Discussion

Venkatraman who grew up in India, the daughter of a single mother, was introduced at a young age to charitable work for underprivileged children in her native country. Her interest and work with organizations devoted to helping the thousands of homeless and underprivileged children both in India and in the United States were the inspiration for this novel. It is evident from her portrayal of homeless children in India, that this is an issue close to Venkatraman's heart.

With sensitivity and compassion, Venkatraman portrays the plight of two young sisters who flee from their abusive father. Viji makes the decision to leave, partly to protect her younger, disabled sister."If I wanted a better future, I needed to change the live we had. Now." Fiercely protective of her sister Rukku who is developmentally challenged, Viji promises that they will always be together no matter what. It is a promise that is destined to be broken, although through no fault of Viji's.

Living on the street is difficult especially for Viji who wonders if her dream of being a teacher is lost forever. Viji wonders, "Could we ever recover enough to clean ourselves up and go to school? Or was that dream as impossible as pretending the trash dump was a treasure trove?" When Viji challenges Arul and Muthu to consider the future they tell her they only worry about each day but Viji is determined to hope and dream."I couldn't -- wouldn't let the boys destroy my hope we'd find a better life, somehow." She wonders how they can live without dreams.

When Rukku becomes very ill, Viji wants to reach out to Celina Aunty, a kind woman who has offered them help, but she doesn't know if she is able to trust her feeling that this woman is a good person. Eventually though, she must find the courage to trust Celina Aunty who proves that Viji's initial impression was correct.

Rukku's death from dengue fever and pneumonia devastates Viji. With Rukku gone, Viji's life seems to have no purpose. Celina Aunty attempts to help Viji cope with the loss of her sister, attempting to get her to write about it since she can't seem to talk about what has happened. Viji mistakenly believes that Celina Aunty is attempting to convert her and tells her that she doesn't believe in God. But Celina Aunty encourages her to "have faith in the goodness within yourself."

Viji must contend with the immense guilt she feels over Rukku's death. She reasons that Rukku would be alive today if she hadn't forced her to leave home. That guilt is "like a rock was sitting on my chest, weight me down so I couldn't rise out of bed." Viji is angry that her sister is gone; the loss of her sister makes her feel alone. Arul points out that he and Muthu are now her family and he admonishes her,"Start looking at what you haven't lost...Start giving thanks for what you do have."He points out that she has a second chance "to do something more with your life..."

Perhaps the most touching scene in the entire book occurs when Celina Aunty takes Viji to a home for people with disabilities like Rukku. The realization that Rukku could have gone to school causes Viji immense pain and grief. But out of this experience comes the first reawakening of a purpose in Viji's life; the desire to return and help at the school. Celina Aunty's suggestion that Viji may one day be able to teach there gives her hope. "Celina Aunty's words made my dream glimmer again. Faint and far away, but not lost."

Viji takes the first steps towards achieving that dream when she refuses to return home with her Appa during his visit to Celina Aunty's home. Recognizing that she must move forward Viji refuses her father's offer to return home. With a mixture of forgiveness and pity, and maturity and courage far beyond her years, Viji understands that her home and future is with Celina Aunty, despite her father's promises to be better.

Not only has Venkatraman crafted a feisty, strong heroine in Viji but her supporting characters are also well drawn. There is the thoughtful Arul who brings Viji and Rukku a tarp after their first night on the beach, and who offers to go to the waste man so that Viji and Rukku can"see the nice part of the beach..." There is Muthu whose playful ways help Rukku and there is Rukku who surprises even Viji. Viji marvels at how Rukku grows during their time out on the street. "Ever since we'd left, you'd been behaving so differently from before. You hadn't once lost your temper. You'd made friends. You even looked different, because you'd been holding your back straight all the time." In the end it is Rukku who helps Viji move forward in life, who gives Viji her purpose again, who gives her the strength to forgive and to remember. At the end of the novel Viji recognizes how Rukku really helped her in her life.
"All this while, I thought I'd looked after you, but now I see it was often the opposite.
You gave me strength.
By never letting me get away with a lie.
By showing me small miracles.
By laughing at all the wrong times.
Together we were such a good team."
Because of Rukku, Viji decides that she will face life "living with my whole heart...And imagining with my whole mind."

The Bridge Home is another fine novel by Padma Venkatraman, one that offers insight and understanding about the plight of poor and homeless children in the developing world, ending with a message of hope. Her novel gives young readers a sense of the childrens' humanity and dignity, by portraying them as young people with dreams and hopes like children everywhere, deserving of a childhood that is safe and nurturing. Perhaps we can all take Celina Aunty's advice to "try thinking about Good. About doing Good."

Book Details:

The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman
New York: Nancy Paulsen Books 2019
191 pp.

The White Rose is a historical novel about the White Rose resistance group formed by a group of medical students and a professor out of the University of Munich in the early 1940's. The group included Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie, Kurt Huber, Willi Graf, Alexander Schmorell and Professor Christoph Probst as well as others. After the defeat of German forces in the Battle of Stalingrad, with millions of wounded and dead, with the ongoing annihilation of Jewish citizens of Germany and other occupied countries, the destruction of the Polish aristocracy and forced labour, the White Rose group hoped to prick the consciences of their fellow Germans into rebelling. Sadly their resistance brought them only death. By 1943, it was too little too late for the German people who were completely under the control of the Nazis. It would be two more years before the Nazi regime would be brought to its knees by the Allies.

The novel opens with a section title "The End" on February 18, 1943 with Sophie and Hans having been taken to Gestapo headquarters where they are both being interrogated by Herr Mohr. Sophie naively believes she will be able to lie her way out of this dire situation.

The story then backtracks in a section titled "Before", to 1935 where fourteen-year-old Sophie enjoys life in Ulm with her four siblings Inge, Hans, Liesl and Werner. Her family has lived in Ulm in a rented flat in a building owned by Jakob Guggenheimer who is a Jewish businessman. Sophie's aim is to become "...the most of me" and "...the best of me". Sophie dreams of being a noble person. 1935 also sees the Fuhrer decree that young Germans must complete a mandatory six months of service.

In 1937 Hans leaves for Gopping for the Reichsarbeitsdienst to complete his labour service. Signs begin appearing, on bridges, in parks and on German Jewish storefronts, indicating that Jews arse not welcome. The Scholl's home is raided by the Gestapo and Inge and Werner are arrested. So is Hans on his military base. Hundreds of teenagers throughout Germany are also arrested, accused of being involved in illegal youth group. Inge and then Werner are released, but Hans is not. Eventually Hams is acquitted in 1938.

By 1938, Sophie begins to see the changes in Nazi Germany. She is glad to leave Ulm during a summer trip.
"escape
from the once overwhelming
civilization of Ulm, now
eroding
at its very
foundation with
        soft music turned harsh
        beloved books burned
        true art marked degenerate,
all hints that a terrible future
presses close,..."

Meanwhile returning to "The End", Sophie continues to be interrogated as Robert Mohr is determined to catch Sophie and Hans.

In 1939, Hans is now in Munich studying medicine and Sophie's boyfriend Fritz is away training soldiers. Although he's enjoying university, Hans knows the Reich doesn't value the knowledge they are learning. Instead it just wants the young men for war. Because Sophie's father is doing well in his business, he moves the family to a larger home on Munsterplaz.

1940 sees the Blitzkrieg in progress as Germany marches through Luxembourg to France. Sophie attempts to get her male friends to promise not to fire their weapons, to refuse to follow the Fuhrer blindly. A letter from Hans in May reveals that German soldiers are commandeering the best homes in France, making him feel like they are thieves. In July he writes about the casaulties. At this time Sophie begins to hear rumours of disabled children being deliberated killed in vans with poison gas. She wonders,
"Yet what can anyone
do
to stop it?"
She feels ignoring this would be cowardly.

In 1941, Sophie attempts to circumvent the Reichsabeitsdienst with teacher training. Instead, she is sent to Krauchenwies labor camp, with its forced ideology lessons and constant work. In May, Sophie is energized by the sermon of Bishop August Von Galen who reminds the German people that deliberating killing is murder and punishable by death. Von Galen's sermon is circulated as leaflets, giving Sophie hope people will act. In September, Jews are ordered by Reinhard Heydrich to wear the yellow Star of David. Shortly afterwards, rumours begin about Jews from Ulm being deported out of Germany. Sophie wonders where they are being sent.Sophie and her family refuse to participate in the collection drive for the Wehrmacht. She worries and prays for her brothers to survive the war.

1942 sees Sophie finishing her labor service in Blumberg and then entering university. Possibly inspired by Bishop Von Galen, Sophie asks Fritz to help her get money and a voucher for a duplicating machine. In Munich, Sophie is both uplifted and determined to make a difference. She meets Alex a half-Russian, half German student, and Christoph and his wife Herta with two small children, Han's girlfriend Traute. Sophie is given a leaflet like Bishop Von Galen's, encouraging passive resistance. Sophie is convinced that the leaflet is the work of her brother Hans. Sophie resolves when her brother returns from the front, she will not be excluded.

Meanwhile in the present of February 19, 1943 Sophie denies knowing anything about mailing "treasonous leaflets" in Munich and other cities. But then Sophie learns that Hans has confessed and that they have evidence from their flat. This leads Sophie to admit that she and Hans did in fact spread the leaflets because
"The war for Germany
                is lost,
young lives
              sacrificed in vain..."
They wanted to inspire others to follow them.
Sophie begins to realize her situation is dire,
"There's no way
out
of this cage."


Discussion

In her novel, White Rose, Wilson has crafted a deeply moving account of the events that led to the arrest and execution of members of the White Rose resistance group in Germany in 1943. Initially Sophie Scholl believes she and Hans will survive the interrogation. Instead they are considered traitors and are dealt with harshly; sentenced to death. The tragedy of Sophie and Hans Scholl is that Sophie hoped their deaths would spark more resistance. But it proved to be too little too late. Only defeat in war would bring the down Hitler and end the mass killing. Within Germany many members of the resistance were hunted down and executed. The leaflets found their way out of Germany and into the hands of the Allies who dropped them over Germany. But by this time, the people of Germany were too afraid to confront the Nazi regime which now had complete power over all of the country. They could only wait for the Allies and Russia to overrun their country.

Wilson portrays Sophie as a young, honourable woman whose father, Vati instilled in her the ideals of truth and justice and who was raised to be politically minded. Sophie is portrayed as a young person who sees her beloved country being destroyed from within and who longs for others to do something, for her fellow Germans to resist, but no one takes up the charge. It seems Bishop Von Galen's homily and the leaflets distributed afterwards are the impetus for Sophie taking action.

The story of the White Rose resistance group is told primarily from Sophie Scholl's perspective, in free verse. There are a few poems written in the voices of Jakob Schmid the custodian who saw Sophie and Hans with the fliers and who brought them to his superior, Roland Freisler the judge who condemns Sophie and Hans, Else Gebel a political prisoner who shared Sophie's jail cell, Robert Mohr the Gestapo investigator who interrogated Sophie. Wilson has divided events up sections titled "Before" which relate the events that lead up to her and Hans capture at the University of Munich, "Day Zero" which is a section of poems about what happens at the university when the leaflets are released and "The End" which deal with her interrogation, sentencing and execution.

Wilson has done considerable research into White Rose and the Scholls as evidenced by her extensive list of sources, both in English and German at the back of the novel as well as primary sources in German. She also provides readers with a Glossary and a list of the people involved as well as what happened to them.

Novels like White Rose are important because they challenge young readers to consider the actions of real people like Hans and Sophie Scholl and to ask what they might have done if they had lived in this time. Sophie and Hans originally supported Hitler and were eager to join the youth groups. But they quickly became disillusioned when they saw what policies and ideas these groups were promoting. Many of the issues that Sophie experienced are issues are similar to ones we face today; we live in an era of unprecedented propaganda and fake news, where inaccurate content can be created and spread quickly, where voices different from the accepted social/political narrative can be deplatformed and where even facts often don't hold sway.

White Rose is a well-written novel that is highly recommended. Although Sophie and Hans Scholl's deaths did not lead to the uprising she hoped, they are remembered today as one of the few voices that stood alone against the Nazi regime. And that is no small accomplishment.

For more information on the White Rose resistance group readers are directed towards these resources:

A Noble Treason: The story of Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Revolt Against Hitler by Richard Hanser

Sophie Scholl and the White Rose by Annette Dumbach and Jud Newborn

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Book Details:

White Rose by Kip Wilson
New York: Versify, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co.     2019
358 pp.

Twelve-year-old Lucy Everhart's lives in the town of Rockport, Massachusetts with her father Tom who is a detective and who also serves on the Salem Police dive team. Her mother, a marine biologist who studied sharks, passed away five years ago, after suffering an aneurysm while on a research boat. Lucy was seven years old at the time. Her best friend, thirteen-year-old Fred Kelly lives across the street from her house. Fred and Lucy share a unique relationship; they do almost everything together but they each have their own interests. While Fred is brilliant and science focused, Lucy loves to draw.

One summer morning, while Lucy and Fred are in the Country Store buying candy, when they hear that a local fisherman has brought in a shark. They race down to the wharf where they find a crowd looking at a huge great white shark hanging from a hoist. Fred suggests that they enter this into their field guide, "an extra-credit project for science class that is due in September." Fred had suggested they work on the field guide over the summer; he would do the writing and Lucy would do the illustrations. To date they have a black-capped chickadee from Pigeon Cove and a spotted salamander from a pond in the woods.

Sookie, a fourth-generation Rockport fisherman who caught the shark, tells Lucy that it was caught in their net while they were fishing for cod. Lucy's father is also at the wharf taking pictures. Lucy questions her father as to why the great white was so far north; he tells her that they follow their food and in particular seals which are beginning to return to the island in the area.

That night Lucy and Fred watch coverage of Sookie's shark on the news and see old footage of Lucy's mother talking about sharks. Watching her mother on television upsets Lucy because it feels like her mother is alive and will be home for dinner soon. She and Fred decide to head down to the wharf to work on their field guide. Lucy checks in with her neighbour, Mr. Patterson an elderly widower who enjoys listening to the radio and the police scanner. He tells Lucy that the police are keeping watch over the shark. Sure enough they find Officer Parrelli in his car at the wharf. Lucy works on her sketch of the shark and when it begins to rain, Officer Parrelli drives them home.

The next morning, Mr. Patterson tells Lucy that the big storm brought down trees, caused power outages and the shark is missing. At the wharf the meet Sookie with his father Paulie and Officer Parrelli. Fred believes that something happened to the shark during the storm. The next day they go to Folly Cove, a place Fred often goes to collect specimens for his aquarium. At the cove they find a "freakishly large" moon snail. Fred is amazed at how Lucy can recreate the snail on paper, making it look three-dimensional. She tells him she's not a "science person", that"...if you could tell science like a story, I'd pay attention."Fred eagerly obliges by telling Lucy several stories about the moon snail and shells which she finds interesting.

In the evening Lucy's father explains that they now know what happened to Sookie's shark; the storm broke it off the hoist and carried it out to sea. While Fred and Lucy are working on their science guide in Lucy's mother's library, Fred discovers file boxes and uncovers an proposal titled "Proposal for Cape Code White Shark and Gray Seal Study", Lucy's mother wrote in May 1991, a month before her death. Stunned and completely taken by surprise, Lucy reluctantly lets Fred take home the proposal, which he promises to return.

On Saturday night, Fred's sisters, Fiona and Bridget are preparing to go out when Lucy arrives at their house. Fiona does Lucy's makeup much to Fred's puzzlement. Fiona and Bridget tell their mother that they are simply "going over to Lauren's house to watch a movie...". Suspecting that they are meeting up with Bridget's new boyfriend, Dominick Maffeo, their mother insists that they take along Lucy and Fred. It turns out that they are going to swim at the Cape Ann quarries along with Lester, Sookie's deckhand and Simon Cabot. Soon bottles of cheap liquor are being passed around with Lucy and Fred also drinking. Impulsively, Fred jumps into the quarry and reluctantly Lucy follows him and the others. Suddenly Fred is no where to be found....

With Fred's death, Lucy's world is turned upside down. Can Lucy look beyond what she's lost and forward to what might be in the future. Her mother's past research proposal unexpectedly leads Lucy to find her way forward while grieving the loss of her best friend and her mother.

Discussion

The Line Tender is the debut novel for Kate Allen. The title is taken from the term "the line tender" used when divers are searching for a missing person in the water. "The line tender holds the line above the surface. The primary diver descends through the dark and cold until he hits bottom....It is so dark that even with a searchlight nothing would be visible....The line tender holds the line and directs the diver in an arch search, the primary diver moving in a three-foot circle around himself, feeling for the child." The line tender is someone who is essentially the life line for the diver who during a difficult search is completely dependent upon him.

This imagery is carried on throughout the novel after the death of Lucy's friend, Fred Kelly. Immediately after his disappearance, during the search, while Lucy is waiting in the ambulance, she imagines the line connecting her to Fred."In the back of the ambulance, with Fiona, I had tried to imagine a string that wrapped around my hand. It had threaded out the door of the truck. It had crossed the dirt path and avoided the feet of those watching the rescue efforts, draping over the cliff. It had dropped into the water, the end of the string moving toward Fred like there was a gravitational pull. And when it found him the string curled around Fred's wrist. I held the line."Lucy saw herself at that moment as the line tender, Fred's last hope.

Lucy spent all her time with Fred. Their relationship was moving from a childhood friendship into something more just before his death. Their first kiss happened during the evening at the quarry. Lucy must now deal with this second loss, only five years after the death of her mother. Without Fred, she must now come to terms with his death and find a path forward. That path turns out to be a rediscovered connection with her mother.

Lucy retrieves her mother's study proposal from Fred's room along with his backpack. When Fred had discovered the proposal in her mother's library, it brought back to Lucy a part of her mother that she never really knew much about because she was so young, only seven years old. "The 1991 box was like the kite on a snapped string, a loose piece of her that Fred had caught. It was her words, recorded at the point when she was as old as she was ever going to get....He had found a treasure." Little does Lucy know at this time just how important this lost treasure will be to her.

The proposal which now has Fred's notes along the margins, turns out to be a lifeline. It leads her to Vernon Devine, a shark expert and Lucy's mother's mentor, now long retired and suffering from dementia. Despite this, Lucy is able to learn more about her mother and her proposal from someone who was close to her and worked with her. Lucy is encouraged by Professor Devine who tells her the seals will return and along with them the great white sharks. In a moment of confusion, thinking she is Lucy's mother Helen, he tells her to do the census. A news report on television leads her to meet Dr. Robin Walker, another colleague of her mother. Dr. Walker tells Lucy that her mother's proposal is now being implemented and when a shark washes up in Chatham, she invites Lucy to the necropsy. While Lucy does sketches of the shark as it is being dissected, her father takes photographs. Later, when her father develops the film, he tells her that his favourite photo is one where she is intensely drawing. Her focus and attention to detail lead her father to remark that she would make a good line tender.
"...The line tender sees everything. Reads the divers' signals, the terrain, the equipment. Uses all the resources to stay connected to the other end of the line."

By following the leads from her mother's proposal, following the clues and holding onto the line that led back to her mother, Lucy has been able to rediscover her life and begin healing from the deaths of both Fred and her mother. The thread once lost between herself and her mother, has been recovered and reestablished.

Allen's idea to write this story came from her own experiences in 1996 in her hometown of Beverly, Massachusetts, when a fisherman caught a great white shark. Many people visited Beverly Harbour to see the shark and the necropsy.Years later in a writing class, she remembered this incident and wrote it up with the characters of Lucy and Fred, as the opening for a novel.

Overall, The Line Tender is a well-written debut, with a well portrayed setting and lots of facts about marine life. Xingye Jin's beautiful pencil sketches of different types of of sharks can be found throughout the novel. The relationship between Lucy and Fred is perhaps the most appealing aspect of this novel, and the death of Fred so soon in the novel is both tragic and unsettling. Readers may find themselves disappointed at this plot twist because Allen has crafted such a realistic and innocent relationship between the two friends. They accept each other as they are, their differences, quirks and strengths. and Allen portrays their friendship with a touch of humour. While Fred's death allows Allen to take the story in a direction most young readers might not be expecting, it's still disappointing because readers are already invested in the two main characters. Allen's last tribute to Fred Kelly is "Lucy's" drawing of Fred's arm hold the large moon snail: a fitting tribute to a character the reader grew to love in the story.

A great debut novel and readers should look forward to more from this gifted writer.

Book Details:

The Line Tender by Kate Allen
New York: Dutton Children's Books 2019
371 pp.

Most people know that diamonds are the hardest naturally occurring mineral and very valuable. For decades they have been marketed as a symbol of love. Diamonds were formed as a result of both high pressure and high temperature within the Earth's mantle at around 90 to 100 hundred miles below the surface, several billion years ago. They were brought closer to the surface either by deep seated volcanic activity or in subduction zones. These violent volcanic eruptions brought material from the mantle near to the surface in kimberlite pipes, a process that is believed to have happened very quickly.

It is a common misconception that diamonds are formed through the metamorphism of coal. However, they are found in rocks that are much older than coal. Most diamonds were formed from PreCambrian rock several billion years ago, whereas coal deposits are much younger. Diamonds are formed from carbon and are very hard because the bonds between the carbon atoms are very strong.

Diamonds can now be made synthetically in a lab under controlled conditions. Dr. Hall was the first who successfully created a diamond in the lab in a process that could be reproduced. For his work in creating artificial diamonds, Hall received the American Chemical Society's Award for Creation.

The Diamond and The Boy tells Tracy Hall's story. It was known how diamonds were created in nature and many believed that in time, the same conditions could be recreated in the lab. Dr. Hall and his team did just that using a hydraulic press on carbon while heating it to 5000 Fahrenheit. Synthetic diamonds were becoming increasingly necessary in the oil and aerospace industry, so there was a need to develop a process to create artificial diamonds easily and without significant cost. Artificial diamonds could cut precisely and unlike natural diamonds, could be designed for a specific task.

In The Diamond and The Boy, Hannah Holt, the granddaughter of Dr. Hall, tells the story of her grandfather along side a rock named graphite. The boy is poor and lives in a tent, while the rock lives deep down inside the earth. The graphite experiences the heat of the earth's mantle while the boy hides near heat to escape the bullies at school. Both experience pressure, the graphite the pressure from being buried so deeply in the mantle, the boy the pressures of hunger, cold and loneliness. While the graphite undergoes a violent eruption that brings it closer to the surface, the boy's talents are brought to light by his brilliance in school. Both wait for discovery, the diamond by the miners working the earth, the boy Tracy for graduation and a job in a science lab. Eventually, working after several trials, Dr. Hall was able to change rock into diamond.

Discussion

This picture book, geared for young audiences uses a dual narrative comparing the events a piece of graphite goes through to become a diamond to the events a young Tracy Hall experienced on his journey to creating artificial diamonds. The story is simply told, with the use of repetitive words such as HEAT, PRESSURE, "THE CHANGE" and phrases, "Mighty, unyielding, brilliant" to emphasize the some of the more important aspects of the story for younger readers. Holt compares her grandfather's life experiences of being bullied and poor to that of carbon, both undergoing a trial that makes them something better, stronger and unbreakable.

Tracy Hall was born in 1919 in Utah. He studied at the University of Utah obtaining his B.Sc. and M.Sc. there. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he returned to his studies, obtaining his Ph,D in physical chemistry in 1948. Hall eventually joined a team at GE which was focused on creating artificial diamonds. Hall and the team managed to create a synthetic diamond in December of 1954. There is some controversy surrounding Hall and his methods, but the end result is that he was able to develop a process for producing synthetic diamonds that was reproducible.

Holt avoids all the controversy and just sticks to the basic story which is aided by Jay Fleck's simple illustrations created with coloured pencils and digitally added texture. Holt includes a short write-up titled "Diamonds As Gemstones" and a short biography of Tracy Hall, a Timeline and a Selected Bibliography.

Book Details:

The Diamond and The Boy by Hannah Holt
New York: Balzer + Bray 2018

Sylvia Acevedo is the current Chief Executive Officer of the Girl Scouts of the USA. She is also an accomplished engineer and businesswoman.Sylvia tells her own story about growing up in New Mexico during the social changes of the 1960's and how she found her own path to the stars.

Sylvia was born in South Dakota while her father was stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base. Her father's family was from Mexico but he had grown up in Texas and spoke fluent English. Her mother grew up in Parral, Mexico, in the the state of Chihuahua and could not speak English. For Sylvia's Mami, life with two small children in a strange country was lonely and very different.

When Sylvia's father was discharged from the army, her family moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico.There they moved in with her father's older sister, Tia Alma and her family. The home was crowded but filled with children to play with. Sylvia's father found work at New Mexico State University as a chemist in the physical science labs. Sylvia's mother who had a sixth grade education, stayed at home to look after the children but also worked cleaning homes in El Paso, Texas. Eventually Sylvia's family moved to another house on Solano Street. Her aunt, her mother's younger sister, Tia Angelica came to stay with them because her mother was expecting a baby. Soon, Sylvia's younger sister, Laura was born.

Shortly after Laura's birth, Sylvia's father was fired from his job because he did not take his work seriously and often made mistakes. He found a new job at the White Sands Missile Range as an analytical chemist, a job he took much more seriously. The family moved again, this time to Griggs Street. In Las Cruces, Sylvia's Mami loved the close knit community and knew many of the families.

When Mario was six-years-old and Sylvia was four-years-old, they began taking lessons from Hermana Amelia Diaz who taught them English. Sylvia's Mami wanted them to be able to understand the language before they began attending Bradley Elementary School. Sylvia learned the Pledge of Allegiance, and learned to read in English but not Spanish.

Sadly, tragedy struck when Sylvia's younger sister Laura was only nineteen months old. She contracted meningitis and was hospitalized for months. Laura survived the illness and eventually returned home, but much changed. She had been a boisterous, happy child who chattered but now she was quiet, withdrawn into her own world. Initially her vision had been affected by the meningitis, and she was unresponsive, unable to walk or talk. Although she would mostly recover, Laura's illness changed Sylvia's family in many ways. Her father stopped going to church, her mother decided to learn how to drive, reasoning that if she had been able to, they might have gotten Laura medical treatment sooner. Her mother also decided that they needed to move away from their poor neighborhood where the streets weren't paved, the houses close together with feral dogs wandering around.

Before attending Grade One at Bradley Elementary School in the fall, Sylvia was enrolled in the Head Start program, despite many neighbors being wary of the government program. However, Sylvia flourished in the program, learning to read books, and becoming a confident speaker to her classmates.

Sylvia's family moved again, this time across town to a house on Kay Lane in a neighborhood where everyone spoke English and there were few Mexicans. This move meant attending a new school, Alameda Elementary School where Sylvia found it difficult to fit in. Initially she was placed in the remedial grade two class, which stunned Sylvia even though she quickly moved out of the class. Sylvia found it difficult to make friends, feeling sad and fearful, afraid she would be moved back in class if she gave the wrong answer. One aspect of attending school at Alameda was that Sylvia was not the only girl who played on the swings and monkey bars.

But Sylvia's life was about the take a very different path because of one classmate who reached out to her. One day after school, Sylvia was invited by a classmate, Sylvia Black to attend Brownies, a part of Girl Guides for younger girls. With her mother's permission, Sylvia accompanied her classmate to Brownies. For Sylvia, Brownies offered her hope from the very first meeting. When she is quickly and firmly corrected on how to safely pass scissors, Sylvia is so impressed that she decides she really wants to be a part of Brownies.The skills and attitude towards life, she would learn in Brownies and later on in Girl Guides would stay with Sylvia and help guide her towards the goals and life she envisioned for herself. Ultimately, these skills would help her reach for the stars and further than she could have ever foreseen.

Discussion

Path To The Stars chronicles Sylvia Acevedo's journey from a young girl uncertain about her future but determined to have "adventures" to an industrial engineer at NASA. After graduating from the University of New Mexico with a degree in industrial engineering, Acevedo worked as an engineer for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Projects she participated in included the Solar Polar Solar Probe and the Voyager 2 flyby mission to Jupiter. Voyager is still operational as of this post! Eventually Sylvia went on to obtain her Masters in Systems Engineering from Stanford, one of the first Hispanic-Americans to do so.

While doing an interview about Stanford in the mid-2000's, Acevedo remembered how her Girl Scout experience positively impacted her life, giving her the skills and confidence to succeed. Acevedo came full circle when she was nominated to serve on the national board of the Girl Scouts.

Path To The Stars portrays Sylvia as an intelligent, determined, resourceful child who grew into a confident young adult. The first signs of her determination and resourcefulness are shown when Sylvia is determined to save for her first library card. Although her older brother Mario did not have to save money for a library card, Sylvia did. Instead of buying treats with the leftover change from errands, Sylvia would save the change. She eventually saved more than eight dollars. When she was placed in the remedial class for second grade, she writes, "...By the end of my first day, I'd made up my mind that I would not stay the worst student in the worst second-grade class. I didn't know how I'd do it, but I'd find a way to move up." She did just that with her strong reading skills.

Joining Brownies had a profoundly positive influence on Sylvia's life. At her first meeting she learned two things. The people in Brownies, "...care about how to do things correctly and safely, and they wanted to teach me these things too. And, I realized, that meant they cared about me...Brownies could tell me how to do things the right way." Her sister Laura's illness had made Sylvia feel as though she had no control over events in her life. Brownies offered Sylvia that possibility.

From her Brownies experience of selling cookies to raise money for a camping trip taught Sylvia "how to plan and save for the future." This was an important lesson for her because her family's precarious financial situation meant that unanticipated expenses often caught her parents by surprise. "Selling cookies completely changed the way I thought about my life. I had learned invaluable skills: how to sell and how to create opportunity for my Girl Scout troop -- and for me. I could create possibilities for myself. That gave me confidence and the courage to dream big dreams."

Earning badges in Brownies gave Sylvia the courage to learn how to bowl."Because of the badges, I knew that I could teach myself to fulfill a goal and work as a member of a team. " Brownies also opened up the Sylvia the path she would choose later on as a young adult. Her Brownie leader, Mrs. Beeman noticed Sylvia's love of the stars and suggested to her that work on the Observer badge from the older Cadette Girl Scouts. Resourceful and determined Sylvia sent away for a rocket kit and with the help of older brother Mario, launched her rocket. Her cooking badge taught her that she could do science.

"At the end of my time in Junior Girl Scouts, I loved the way my sash looked, with its rows of colorful badges. I was proud of what the badges represented, each one showing that I'd mastered a new skill. Every badge reminded me of the community to which I belonged.... Whether those skills belonged in the kitchen or to the outdoors, we were all gaining confidence in our own abilities."

As a young teen, Sylvia began to understand that her parents were not good planners and often weren't prepared for emergencies. After several serious incidents which placed Sylvia and her family in either life threatening or serious situations, she came to the realization that she would have to be the"one who did the planning ahead for my family...""Over and over in Girl Scouts, I had learned that planning ahead and doing things properly could help you get what you wanted."

Sylvia grew into a teenager who knew what she wanted. In Junior High School she signed up for a free class on car maintenance and learned how to change the oil, something she did for her family on a regular basis after that. Once again life lessons learned in Girl Scouts were the driving force. "It was just as the Girl Scouts had taught me: be prepared, and you can take control of your life. Cars and furnaces don't have to break down, and people don't have to be stranded in the desert." This determination was to stand her in good stead later on as she experienced resistance from universities in entering her chosen field of industrial engineering. She was questioned merely because she was a woman interested in what was a mainly male scientific field.

Sylvia's local library was also instrumental in influencing her life. A book about Clara Barton that her parents purchased for her, intrigued Sylvia because "It was the first time I'd ever read about a woman who did important things, even helping to win a war." In the library Sylvia liked to read "biographies about the childhoods of famous people". At times the local library was a place of refuge, such as when her mother planned to leave her father.

Sylvia also touches on the different expectations for her and her brother Mario from their father. "Papa expected me to get good grades in school, but it was never with the same interest that he took in my brother. Papa never asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, the way Mami did. I knew he expected me to get married, have children, and keep house, just like Mami. He even said so sometimes."Her desire to attend college led Sylvia to refuse attending the home economics class in high school. Sylvia stood up to her father who felt that this was a class she needed. "But now, I refused to go every day to a class that was preparing me to be a homemaker. I was going to college, and I needed to learn other things besides cooking and sewing. And that's what I told Papa."At first her father refused to sign the paper exempting her from the class but eventually gave in. Sylvia took an extra math class.

Sylvia Acevedo's biography is fascinating and well told. Her story is that of a girl who grew up with big dreams and found a way to make them happen. She was part of that generation of young women who forged a new path, overcoming obstacles, pushing themselves to be the best they could be, and taking risks. She was given the skills through her experiences in Girl Guides and certainly took to heart the motto, "Nothing is impossible if you work hard and develop the skills you need to succeed."

Path to the Stars should be read by any girl wanting a career in science, by any girl with big dreams. Her experiences entering university and the work world are familiar to those women, myself included who had to deal with discrimination simply because we are women. A well written and engaging story for all young readers!

image credits: https://money.cnn.com/2017/05/19/news/girl-scouts-new-ceo/index.html

Book Details:

Path To The Stars: My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist by Sylvia Acevedo
New York: Clarion Books 2018
309 pp.

The events described in A Grain of Rice are loosely based on the experiences of Tran-Davies family when she lived in Vietnam and then fled after the war. Five-year-old Nhung, along with her mother and five siblings was sponsored to come to Canada in 1979, after fleeing their homeland by boat to Malaysia. Vietnamese who fled by sea in rickety boats came to be known as the "boat people". Many lost their lives on the journey, others were attacked and robbed or worse by sea pirates. Today Nhung Tran-Davies is a physician who lives with her family just outside of Edmonton, Alberta.

In A Grain of Rice, a young girl flees Vietnam with her family to escape the worsening oppression and living conditions in the country just a few years after the end of the Vietnam War.

A Grain of Rice opens with a horrific storm that floods the Mekong River next to their home in Vinh My, a village on the river, where thirteen-year-old Yen, her mother Huong, younger sister Tien, and their adopted brother Quang live. As the water floods into their home, Yen races to grab Tien, while her Ma searches for Quang. The family shelters in the loft of their home, waiting for the storm to abate.

The next morning, when Ma is not home, Yen goes in search of her, but encounters their neighbours Co Sau and Cau Sau who lament that they have lost everything. Yen's Ma arrives at Bac Minh's home carrying a dead child, Trinh who was also a neighbour, but cannot find Trinh's brother and sister. Yen is devastated by the death of Trinh; only a few days earlier she was playing with him and his brothers and his sister Mai. Trinh's parents were away at the markets downriver when the flooding happened. They will return to find their entire family gone.

That night Yen mentions to her mother that they should go find Ba in Ca Mau but her mother refuses telling Yen they don't need him. Ba had been taken away by the southern soldiers prior to the fall of Saigon. After he was returned, when Yen was ten-years-old and Tien was not quite a year old, Ma left Ba, taking her family to the Mekong Delta.

Later that night Yen's two older siblings, her brother Lam and her sister Muoi return home from Saigon where they attend high school. Toa Cu who is a teacher but also owns a crayon factory, pays for their school tuition. They bring home a notebook for Yen and crayons for Quang. As the family talks about their journey home, Muoi indicates that Toa Cu has indicated that their family should "escape"with him. Yen is not quite sure to what they are referring.

Ma decides that she needs to travel downriver to Ca Mau for supplies. This trip puzzles Yen. "We hadn't been back to Ca Mau since we stole away three years ago, just months before giai phong. Ma had not even mentioned Ca Mau since then. What had changed? It was unusual for her to choose Ca Mau when there were other closer markets, although they were smaller."

On the trip down the Mekong with Ma, Yen questions her mother about travelling to Ca Mau, her mother will only tell that it is for business. In Ca Mau, after being accosted by a government soldier, Yen and her mother set up a spot to sell their crabs and bananas in the market. They are shocked to see Co Sau begging for food, which they offer her. She tells them that they came to Ca Mau looking for an old friend but the friend and his family have disappeared.While Ma takes Co Sau to someone who can help them, Yen decides to wander off to find her father. She remembers how he was taken away by the soldiers from the south for being an informant for the Viet Cong and kept for two years and beaten.

When she finds her father, she tells him that Ma and Muoi are planning to escape, although she doesn't quite understand what this means. Yen asks her father to help them so that Ma will stay. but he is not sympathetic. Yen is shocked to see that her Ba has a wife and small child. Furious she runs out and returns to the market, only to find her mother and their items are gone.

Yen finds her mother in the temple, making offerings to Buddha. Yen has already been robbed by a one-legged beggar, and now they are confronted by the same officer who gave them trouble when they arrived in Ca Mau. But this time they are lucky as a stranger wearing a jade pendant intervenes.

Before they leave Ca Mau, Ma and Yen visit a friend Co Thanh who runs a fabric store. Co Thanh's husband has been gone for the past three years, taken to a labour camp to be "re-educated". She seems to indicate that her son is dead but also that he only has hope if he leaves the country. While Yen is confused her Ma seems to understand.

Back home, Ma begins to prepare for their journey that will lead them to escape the country. Yen is frustrated because no one will tell her anything. But when Bac Minh arrives one night warning them they must leave at once because soldiers are looking for them, Yen must discover her courage to make the long and dangerous journey, leaving behind the country she loves for an unknown future.

Discussion

A Grain of Rice is an interesting story that provides young readers with a sense of what life was like in the years immediately following the end of war in Vietnam. The country, previously divided into the communist North and the democratic South was now reunited and ruled by a communist government. In A Grain of Rice, young readers will learn that the Vietnamese people continued to suffer long after the war ended. The repressive communist government began punishing South Vietnamese civilian and military officials, sending them to re-education camps. Many never returned. Nguoi hoa or ethnic Chinese living in Vietnam and who considered themselves Vietnamese were particularly targeted, losing their businesses and property. With worsening economic conditions and widespread corruption and human rights abuses, millions fled the country. These refugees fled by boat into the South China sea where they faced drowning, dehydration, attacks by pirates, rape and murder. Many were picked up from rickety vessels and brought to the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong where they spent months and years in refugee camps. At the time, the Vietnamese refugees were referred to as "boat people" which some consider a racist term today.

The Tran family

The story in A Grain of Rice is based on Tran-Davies experience as a refugee from Vietnam. Tran-Davies was born in December of 1973, just over a year before Saigon was overrun by the Viet Cong. Her father died during the war leaving her mother a widow with five children. To support her family, they moved to a small village where her mother worked as a seamstress. But they experienced famine and flooding, the latter meaning they had to live in the loft of their home, as Yen does in the novel. Life was so difficult, the future so dismal, that her mother decided to risk everything for a better life. Tran-Davies and her family were lucky, they survived the trip and ended up in a refugee camp in Malaysia. After eight months in the camp, Tran-Davies' mother's prayers were answered and they were sponsored by Canadians from Alberta. Tran-Davies was five years old when she arrived in Canada. Today Dr. Tran-Davies is a physician in Calmar, Alberta where she shares a family practice with her husband Dr. Grant Davies.

In A Grain of Rice, Yen and her family are nguoi hoa or ethnic Chinese and are not treated well. Yen's experiences reflect the corruption and fear that the Vietnamese people experienced daily under the communist regime. When they first arrive in Ca Mau, Yen and Ma are accosted by officials who show disdain that they are nguoi hoa and force Ma into giving them money. Yen remembers a time years earlier when they had been stopped by uniformed officials on the river. "They had used their badges to stop us, then confiscated all our merchandise." In the market at Ca Mau with Ma, they are warned when a "yellow-uniformed official" approaches. "Police officers. They're in cahoots with the northern army. They take everything from us and send it to their friends and families..." When they visit the fabric store run by Ma's friend, Thanh, Yen immediately notices how much has changed. "I could see that the walls, once lined with rolls and rolls of fabric coils in every colour, texture and pattern, were now virtually barren. No silk or satin. Only brown, white or black polyester and cotton."

Tran-Davies manages to capture all the terror and tragedy that Yen and her family and the other refugee's experience as they attempt to flee their country. Before they leave, Yen discovers Co Sau's body on the beach after the previous night's boat sank. Terrified and fully aware of the danger she faces, Yen refuses to leave. On their own journey they deal with rain, a violent sea, sea-sickness and long days trapped in the reeking hold of the boat. Their boat is attacked by pirates who rob them, murder several men and rape some of the young girls. Their boat sinks when the Malaysian Coast comes not to rescue them but to tow them out to sea. Yen's life and death struggle to survive the sinking fortunately ends well.

Although the novel has a somewhat happy ending, readers will be left with many questions. What has become of Lam and Muoi? What will happen to Yen and her family in Malaysia?

A Grain of Rice is well written and will give younger readers a sense of what some refugees experience as they search for a place to live in freedom and safety. Novels such as these help create empathy for those less fortunate and provide an opportunity for younger readers to learn about other cultures, other countries and systems of government which do not offer citizens the freedoms that we enjoy in Canada.

image credit: https://mcccanada.ca/stories/journey-refugee-sponsorship-nhung-tran-davies

Book Details:

A Grain of Rice by Nhung N. Tran-Davies
Vancouver: Tradewind Books 2018
167 pp.

"...We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too....
But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun--almost as hot as it is here today--and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out--then we must be bold."

President John F. Kennedy's speech at Rice Stadium, Houston, Texas, September 12, 1962

In 1962, Kennedy committed the United States of America to landing a man on the moon before the end of the 1960's . On July 16, 1969 at 9:32 a.m., Apollo 11, the mission to accomplish that feat, was launched into space via a Saturn V rocket from the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island in Florida. Aboard were Commander Neil Armstrong, lunar module pilot Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Command module pilot Michael Collins. Four days later, on July 20th, Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon and spent over two hours walking on its surface, while Collins orbited in the command module.

The documentary, Apollo 11 follows the mission just prior to launch until splash-down on July 24, 1969 in the Pacific Ocean just west of Hawaii.

Apollo 11 is unique in that it relies on archival footage of the mission, from inside Mission Control, to camera footage shot by the astronauts themselves. NASA also located thousands of hours of uncatalogued audio from Mission Control. This was combined with the archival footage to create a film that followed a timeline from the point of the Saturn V rocket being wheeled to the launchpad to the splashdown and quarantine and the conclusion of the voyage. In addition, director Todd Douglas Miller forgoes interviews and narration to chronicle the historic voyage giving viewers a unique insider perspective of the entire voyage.

Apollo 11 presents viewers with some of the most beautiful clear images of the moon landing, of the lunar module in space and of the docking of the lunar and command modules. There are many images of Buzz Aldrin and not so many of Neil Armstrong who held the camera most of the time while on the moon's surface.

To help viewers understand some of the more technical aspects of the voyage, animation of the orbital path around the Earth, the various burns to orient the spacecraft a certain way, the orbital path around the Moon and the separation and docking of the lunar module with the command module were created as well as the re-entry path were created. Other interesting features are a few recordings of the physical condition of the astronauts during the launch and during the descent to the moon's surface. Interestingly during the launch Armstrong's heart rate was 110, while Buzz Aldrin's was a mere 88.

Buzz Aldrin setting up the seismometer at Tranquility Base.

For those old enough to remember watching the launch and who followed Apollo 11 throughout its mission, the film brings back so many memories and emotions; excitement and awe, along with the ever-present fear that something might go seriously wrong. Indeed, the film especially captures the moments of anxiety the various teams at Mission Control experienced. Their relief was palpable for example when communication was re-established every time the command module re-appeared on the side of the moon facing Earth or during the nine minutes of blackout during re-entry at the end of the voyage. And no film about any event in this era would be complete without the voice of Walter Cronkite Jr., news anchor for CBS Nightly News.

For those for whom the voyage of Apollo 11 was merely an event in history, this documentary is very much recommended. It might not have the thrills of modern movies and documentaries, but the complexity of the mission, the enormous number of people involved, the risks undertaken and the courage to do so, and the fact that for the first time in history man stepped onto another world far from Earth, make Apollo 11 an important record of that accomplishment.

image credit: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/hires/a11_h_40_5949.gif

Sweetgrass Basket is a heartrending story of two Mohawk sisters sent to a residential school by their parents with the belief that this is best for them. Instead the sisters discover an institution focused not so much on educating them as in destroying their heritage.

Matilda (Mattie) Tarbell and her younger sister, twelve-year-old Sarah are sent by train to a school in Carlisle for Indian children. When Mattie was unhappy about this her father told her, "You must go to school.
Life will be better for you.
It is for the best."
Their brothers and sisters were sent to other schools, some closer to home, others further away.

They are met at the train station by Mr. Davis whom Sarah describes as "the blackest man I have ever seen...". There are four other children besides Mattie and Sarah who ride with them in "the strangest, strangest thing on wheels."

Although Mr. Davis assures them they will be alright and will like the school, Mattie and Sarah immediately experience harsh treatment at the hands of Mrs. Dwyer who runs the school. Dressed all in black, with "eyes that look like tiny chunks of coal set into a snowbank muddied by a January thaw."Mrs. Dwyer immediately makes both Mattie and Sarah fear her. an severe and unfriendly face and who constantly taps a ruler in her hand, Mrs. Dwyer elicits fear is almost all the students.

Mattie states the first thing they learn how to do is march, which they do whenever they go anywhere in the school. Mattie is able to read and speak English and her writing is deemed beautiful by Miss Weston, a kind teacher who becomes Mattie's favourite. Although Miss Weston loves Mattie's essay about the sweetgrass baskets her mother used to make, Mrs. Dwyer refuses to allow it to be printed in the school's paper.

While Sarah struggles to adjust, Mattie finds a friend in Gracie Powless from the Onondaga. Their days are filled with work and lessons. The girls are taught by Miss Prentiss how to use a sewing machine: Mattie excels at mending, a skill her mother taught her. Miss Prentiss decides that she will have her do finer work. Meanwhile, Sarah works in the laundry under the tutelage of the kindly Miss Velma. But when Sarah is allowed to rest outside after the heat causes her to collapse in the laundry, she is scolded by Mrs. Dwyer and Miss Velma is sent away.

When Mattie is accused of stealing Mrs. Dwyer's brooch, a chain of events is set in motion that will lead to tragedy and a heartbreaking loss for Sarah.

Discussion

Sweetgrass Basket is a much needed novel about the experiences of Native Americans who were sent away from the their families to residential schools to be "educated". Carvell provides an Author's Note at the very beginning of the novel in which she explains that The Carlisle Indian Industrial School did in fact exist from 1879 to 1918. Located in southern Pennsylvania, it was the first off-reservation school for Native Americans in the United States. Children from many different tribes attended the school, among them children from the Mohawk nation. The author's husband's great-aunt Margaret attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the early 1900's and this novel is based on her experiences.

Set in the early 1900's, Sweetgrass Basket is told from the perspective of two fictional Mohawk sisters, Mattie and Sarah Tarbell, using free verse. In some instances, events are described by both sisters, at other times, their alternating voices carry on the story. Both Mattie and Sarah do not want to attend the school but do so in obedience to their father. However, instead of being treated with dignity and compassion, with understanding and kindness, the young Indian girls are subjected to physical abuse and in some cases even neglect. The Indian children, in a strange environment far from home, find themselves at the mercy of the school matron, Mrs. Dwyer, a dour, cold woman dressed in black. It soon becomes apparent that the focus of the school is not just to educate them but to wipe out the practice of their own culture and replace it with the ways of the white people.

In the Carlisle school, the children are given new names that are different from the names given to them by their parents. Unlike the other students, Mattie and Sarah both have English names, but they also have Mohawk names. Their father advised them to tell only their English names which they obey.
"He said our Mohawk names are special,
and we should keep them for special times."

The words written above the chalkboard in the classroom, "Labor conquers all things." are eerily similar to the words, "Arbeit macht frei" or "Work sets you free" that will be placed on the gate at Auschwitz 1 years later in Nazi-occupied Poland. The girls are told by Mrs. Dwyer,
"...if we work hard,
we will be as good as white people.
She says this is our chance to prove
we are as good as white people."
Sarah and Mattie and the other Indian girls are made to feel inferior, less than white people.

They are not allowed to bring anything from home that might remind them of their culture. However, Sarah and Mattie keep the memory of their home alive in their minds, remembering life at home with their parents and their siblings. In secret, they use Mohawk words to describe their world, reminding each other of their heritage. For example, Sarah reminds her sister that as Mohawks they are Keepers of the Eastern Door. Mattie states,
"She said I must always remember that we
the KANIEN'KEHAKA, the Mohawk people,
are Keepers of the Eastern Door,
and that long ago it was through us
that people were allowed to travel the lands
of the HAUDENOSAUNEE, the Iroquois;
that we allowed all to pass through our lands,
as long as we knew they traveled in peace."

The title of the novel is a reference to the sweetgrass basket that belongs to Mattie. Although they were told not to bring anything from home, Sarah brings a scarf that their mother made for her and Mattie's sweetgrass basket. Mattie had wanted to bring the basket but their father had told her not to bring it. Having "...heard the tears in her heart." Sarah decided to pack the sweetgrass basket with her. When she reveals it to Mattie one day at school, she feels she has lifted the sadness from her sister's heart. After showing her best friend Gracie, Mattie hides the basket in her bottom drawer. It will be a special basket where she and Sarah will keep their womanly thoughts.

The basket becomes a metaphor for Mattie and Sarah's Indian culture. After being accused of stealing Mrs. Dwyer's brooch, Mattie's basket goes missing from her drawer. She is unable to discover who took the basket. After Mattie is accused by Mrs. Dwyer of stealing her brooch and runs away, the basket ends up in the possession of Mrs. Dwyer, who calls Sarah into her office to question her about it. In a move symbolic of what she stands for - the destruction of Indian culture, Mrs. Dwyer crushes Mattie's sweetgrass basket in the presence of Sarah.

"But as I lift my arms to take it from her,
she pushes her hands together in one sharp
movement, and Mattie's beautiful basket
made from our mother's love
is turned instantly into a misshapen mass
that now looks oddle like a small winter squash
flattened on one side from where it grew....

Mrs Dwyer takes two steps to her right
and drops the object of her scorn
into the waste bin that sits beside a wooden chair..."
The message is clear, the Indian culture has nothing redeemable about it, it is something to be jettisoned in favour of the white man's culture.

Although there is heart-breaking tragedy in the novel, Carvell does leave her young readers with a sense of hope. At the very end,Sarah is given Mattie's basket, saved from the garbage by the kindly Mr. Davis who enigmatically tells Sarah he has fixed her bottom drawer. Puzzled, she checks the drawer:
"There, tucked in among my nightclothes,
there under the scarf my mother made with love for me,
was Mattie's gift from her.

Mattie's beautiful basket.

Mattie's beautiful sweetgrass basket."

The return of the basket signifies hope for the future that their way of life can and will be preserved.

In a delicious twist near the end of the novel, it is Sarah who finds Mrs. Dwyer's brooch, but convinced she will never be believed, she disposes of it. Had Mrs. Dwyer been more understanding, the brooch she cared so much for, might have been returned to her.

Sweetgrass Basket is a well written novel that is both timely and overdue. Carvell's simple poetry is deeply moving, allowing readers to experience the pain, the sense of loss and the anger Mattie and Sarah experience as young Indian Americans who have been suddenly separated from their family and their way of life. Those who read this novel with sensitivity will weep at the fate of Mattie, at the lack of care for these young girls and at the lack of understanding of their way of life. Although we cannot change the past, through novels like Sweetgrass Basket which explore the Native American experience in residential schools, we can remember it, learn from it and change the future.

Book Details:

Sweetgrass Basket by Marlene Carvell
New York: Dutton Children's Books 2005
243 pp.

Marti's Song for Freedom is a dual language picture book (English/Spanish) about Cuban patriot, Jose Julian Marti y Perez who worked towards Cuban independence from Spain.

In this picture book, Jose was a young boy who loved the countryside of his country Cuba. However, Jose was disturbed when he saw people enslaved by the wealthy land owners. These people worked cutting the sugar cane in the fields.

Jose had learned about the Civil War in the United States which ended slavery in that country. He knew the people enslaved in his own country should be free too and he wanted to abolish slavery in Cuba. However, Cuba was ruled by Spain and the Cuban people were not allowed to be a part of the government so they had no say in how their island was run.

In 1868, Cubans began fighting Spain for independence and to gain control over their country. Jose was too young to fight so he used words, in the form of pamphlets that he handed out. For this he was taken away to jail and sentenced to forced labour in a quarry. Eventually he was freed but on the condition that he leave Cuba. But Jose Marti would never stop fighting to free his beloved Cuba.

Discussion

Emma Otheguy's picture book, Marti's Song For Freedom portrays the life of Jose Marti, an important human rights activist and Latin American intellectual. Marti was born in 1853 in Havana, Cuba, to Mariano Marti Navarro and Lenoro Perez Carbrera. He was the eldest of eight children, having seven younger sisters. When Marti was twelve-years-old, he attended Escuela de Instruccion Primaria Superior Municipal de Verones which was run by Rafael Maria de Mendive who would become an important influence and mentor. His best friend was Fermin Valdes Dominguez, whose family owned slaves.

Marti enrolled in several schools but in 1867 he was studying at the San Pedro school for his undergraduate degree. What would become The Ten Years War, a decade long struggle for Cuban independence, resulted in the formation of many groups supporting the war. Marti became a strong supporter not just of Cuban independence but also of the emancipation of of slaves. He expressed his views in poems, some of which were widely published. In 1869 when he was only sixteen years old he was arrested for his political involvement in the war against Spain.

Deported to Spain, Marti earned an M.A. and a law degree from the University of Zaragoza in 1874. He continued to be politically active, publishing many political essays. He returned to Cuba in 1878 but was once again exiled back to Spain.Marti travelled to many different countries including Mexico, Guatemala, and the United States and Venezuela. In 1891 he wrote Versos Sencillos (Simple Verses) which is quoted throughout Marti's Song For Freedom.

Marti continued to grow more and more politically active and eventually began organizing an armed Cuban revolution to gain the country's independence. He returned to Cuba in 1895 and died in the Battle of Dos Rios leading a two man charge into battle when others had withdrawn. Cuba eventually gained independence in 1898.

Marti's Song for Freedom is Otheguy's debut picture book. Written in verse, in both English and Spanish, Otheguy crafts a fascinating portrait of Marti who is considered Cuba's first most patriot and poet. Otheguy presents Marti as a person sensitive at a young age to the plight of the Cuban people who were forced by the Spanish to work as slaves on their own land. But while living in New York, he also saw in Americans a blindness to the less fortunate, the poor and the homeless that surrounded them. His time in the Catskill Mountains brought him back in touch with nature and its beauty that he so loved.Otheguy's biography is enhanced by the colourful artwork of illustrator Beatriz Vidal who incorporates many symbols onto the pages containing text. For example, the verses telling about Marti sent to jail as a young teen feature a caged bird, and when he returns to Cuba one last time, Otheguy quotes a verse from Marti's poetry and an eagle is featured as a symbol of freedom and power.

Otheguy's verses are complemented with a few chosen verses from Marti's Versos Sencillos giving readers a sense of Marti's passion, his love for Cuba and the island's people, his appreciation of nature and his expressive poetry. At the back of the picture book Otheguy includes an Afterword which provides detailed information on Jose Marti's life as well as a Selected Bibliography. Lavishly illustrated with short verse, Marti's Song For Freedom is an excellent resource for young readers to learn about some of the history of Cuba, and to discuss the themes of equality, national independence and the right of people to govern themselves.

Book Details:

Marti's Song For Freedom by Emma Otheguy
New York: Children's Book Press 2017

Maria Merian was born in 1647 to Matthaeus Merian and Johanna Sibylla Heim in Frankfurt, Germany. Matthaeus was a famous engraver who passed his exceptional talent onto Maria and her two older brothers Matthaeus Jr. and Caspar. Maria's father died when she was only three years old. Her mother remarried, to a painter named Jacob Marrel who taught Maria how to paint in watercolours.She did not learn to paint with oils because many Germany cities forbade women from selling oil paintings.

Maria married Johann Andreas Graff in 1665 and three years later gave birth to a daughter, Johanna Helena in 1668. That year they moved to Nurnberg, Graff's hometown. Maria spent time painting watercolours of flowers but during her painting of plants she began to observe the various insects on and around them. Her observations were captured in beautiful paintings which were also very accurate. Another daughter, Dorothea Maria in 1678.

In The Bug Girl, Merian is portrayed as a young girl who was deeply interested in the world around her. She observed the natural world, especially the plants, and insects that crawled and flew. Marsh explains that during this time the average person was very superstitious about the world around them. Very little was known about how insects came to be. It was widely believed that "creatures such as butterflies, moths, and frogs were born from mud puddles in a process known as 'spontaneous generation.'"Because of the belief that anyone interested in these creatures was likely evil, Maria had to study them secretly, trying not to attract anyone's notice.

To understand how caterpillars came into existence, Maria studied silk worms which were the easiest to find. When the eggs hatched she learned by trial and error that they liked to eat mulberry leaves.She also learned that the silkworm caterpillars grew large enough, they formed cocoons which eventually opened to reveal beautiful white moths. Her work confirmed the conclusions Francesco Redi had reached in 1668, that spontaneous generation did not exist. Instead they went through a process now called metamorphosis.

Maria continued to observe and paint and also to teach other girls how to do the same. Eventually she and her daughter, Dorothea traveled to Suriname in South America on a scientific expedition. On this journey, at the age of fifty-two, she would observe and paint many unusual insects. Maria was forced to leave Suriname after two years, due to ill health but she did publish a book of her observations that was well received. Maria passed away in 1717, leaving a legacy that has been rediscovered three hundred years later.

Discussion


Sphinx moth, Maria Merian

The Bug Girl brings to life the remarkable story of Maria Merian, a woman who broke the conventions of her time to observe and record the natural world around her. In the process Maria's work helped to dispel some of the superstitions common in the 1600's and contributed significantly to the field of biology. A unique feature of her beautiful, detailed paintings is that they featured insects in their natural habitat, portraying the plants and flowers that were key to their life cycles. Her many paintings were published in various books including Blumenbach (Book of Flowers) in three parts, Neues Blumenbach (New Book of Flowers) which was published in 1680, Der Raupen (The Caterpillar) which was a book about the life cycle of the caterpillar, part I published in 1679 and a second book published in 1683.

Her work from Suriname was published in a book titled Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium which was available both in colour and uncoloured. Despite the fact that she was a woman, her book was much sought after. Many of the plates of her illustrations were purchased by Peter the Great and now reside in St. Petersburg. In 2017, the 300th anniversary of her death in 1717, Merian's book on Suriname was republished, containing many plates of her art. Marsh has reproduced some in the front and back of her picture book.

Maria Merian's careful observations of insects, sometimes done overnight, meant that she captured aspects of the life cycle of insects that were not well known in the 17th century and early 18th century. She recorded the life cycles of one hundred and eighty-six insects! Maria's focus was mainly on insects, although she also studied frogs, amphibians and reptiles.

While Marsh's text captures the essence of Maria Merian's contributions, the illustrations leave much to be desired, especially considering the beautiful detail of Maria's own paintings. More attractive illustrations would like capture the readers interest and make this picture book biography more appealing.

image credit: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/science/maria-sibylla-merian-metamorphosis-insectorum-surinamensium.html

Book Details:

The Bug Girl: Maria Merian's Scientific Vision by Sarah Glenn Marsh
Chicago: Albert Whitman & Company 2019

All For One is the third and final installment in Melissa de la Cruz's Alexander Hamilton trilogy. The novel opens in June of 1785, with Alex and Eliza, happily married, living for the past two years in a growing and bustling New York City.Alex is beginning to make a name for himself as a lawyer having won the Caroline Childress case. Caroline Childress was the widow of a British soldier who fought against the Continental troops in the War of Independence. Alex and Eliza are at the top of the New World social ladder in New York, especially with Eliza's family connections to the Van Rensselaers, Livingstons and others.

Eliza and Alex meet her younger brother, seventeen-year-old John Schuyler who is arriving in New York to study at Columbia, formerly King's College. John who is nine years younger than Eliza is the only surviving son of the Schuylers and great things are expected of him. Other changes in their household include taking on a new footman. Simon, the son of their cook, Rowena has moved to the Beekman estate where he is working as a groom. To replace him, Eliza and Alex have taken on Rowena's nephew, Drayton Pennington, her sister Nigella's son.

Now well established in the home on Wall Street, Eliza and Alex are working on starting a family. However, after eight months of trying, there seems to be no baby on the horizon. Until Eliza begins complaining about Rowena's cooking and feeling unsettled in the morning. She soon realizes that she is pregnant after a dream in which her mother asks her to name the baby Philip after her father.

Their house sees two new additions; Drayton Pennington the new footman and Emma Trask, the orphaned cousin of Prudence Schlesinger and whom Eliza takes on as a maid.Soon Eliza finds herself wanting to match make, specifically Emma with her brother John. To that end she decides to hold a party in honour of her two new house members, John and Emma.

Meanwhile Alex is retained by the Reverend Provoost of Trinity Church to find a way around the church's charter which limits Trinity to an income of five thousand pounds per annum, so that a new and larger church can be built. As he's working on the Trinity file, Alex's clerk, Nippers ushers in a woman named Maria Reynolds. When Alex learns that she is married, he feels he is safe from any sort of indiscretion. However, Alex could not be more wrong.

Discussion

All For One concludes the Alexander Hamilton trilogy which capitalized on the Hamilton musical craze that began a few years back. De La Cruz has taken her readers through the meeting of Eliza Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton in Eliza and Alex and through the very early years of their marriage in Love and War. In this novel, De La Cruz tackles Eliza's first pregnancy and Alex's entanglement with Maria Reynolds. De La Cruz plays with the timeline somewhat: Alex and Eliza's first son, Philip was born in 1782 and not 1785, and Alex's affair with Maria Reynolds occurred in 1791-92 when Eliza was pregnant with their son John Church Hamilton.

All For One weaves together the lives of Eliza and Alex through two storylines; the first involves Eliza and her efforts to get her orphanage off the ground while dealing with her pregnancy and two new members of her household, and the second involves Alex's work on the Trinity case as well as his relationship with Maria Reynolds.

In All For One, Eliza's primary focus seems to be playing match maker, reminiscent of Jane Austen's Emma Woodhouse. Eliza insists that the new country not need to obey the Old World conventions of class and family status. To that end she attempts to match her brother John from her wealthy Schuyler family with the penniless, orphaned Emma Trask. Likewise Eliza suggests the ultra-wealthy Betty Van Renasselaer consider her handsome footman, Drayton Pennington. Although Eliza is in earnest, both Betty and John find her efforts comical and impractical. Eliza is convinced that the United States be different than "the hidebound ways of the Europeans." Eliza tells Betty and John, "...The rules came from the king down, and each step on the rung was clearly demarcated. Their roles restricted them, but it also gave them a sense of identity. Our generation is much more open to possibility. We can choose our own roles. We are not bound by expectations of family or class,...in the United States, one is free to fall in love with a gentleman as well as with a footman."

It is while visiting the Van Cortlandts that Eliza, like Austen's Emma realizes she has it all wrong. At a ball at the Beekman estate, James Beekman points out to Eliza that it is Emma and Drayton who are wooing one another, while Jane Beekman suggests to Eliza the following morning that in fact Betty and John appear to be "taken" with one another. These revelations stun Eliza who feels betrayed since her intention was to improve both Emma and Drayton's "stations" in life! When confronted later on, Emma tells Eliza"...You like to pretend that America is a classless society, and while that may be true in Mr. Hamilton's speeches and essays, in real life the world is still very much divided by how much money one has, and for how long. There are still rich and poor, and the former still have very strong ideas about the latter's place." Emma tells Eliza that "a snob like the wealthy Betty Van Renasselaer is easier to deal with. And at least she is honest about her place in the world and has a sense of humor about it as well."

The second storyline deals with Alexander Hamilton and his efforts on behalf of Trinity Church as well as his relationship with Maria Reynolds. It was interesting to see how De La Cruz approached the events surrounding Alexander Hamilton's affair with Maria Reynolds. Hamilton is portrayed as being willfully blind towards Maria Reynolds, convinced that her story about being ill-treated by her husband is true. Hamilton's trusted detective Miguel de La Vera uncovers evidence that suggests that Maria Reynolds is really Maria Lewis who has never married James Reynold and that the latter "uses women to swindle married men. Honest married men...". He warns Hamilton that she may be part of a effort to entrap and blackmail him. Instead, Hamilton decides,"No...She was a woman alone in the world, a woman in a position not unlike the one his mother had found herself in - and his mother was innocent and deserved a better life. So did Maria Reynolds. She deserved his trust, and if he were honest, he was lonely."And so instead of dropping her as his client, he goes to visit her.

While Eliza is visiting the Van Cortlandt's to secure a donation for her orphanage, she becomes seriously ill and spends a month at their home recuperating, leaving Alex alone. It is in her absence that Hamilton's affair begins with Maria Reynolds. In All For One, De La Cruz suggests that Alex forms a bond with Maria because they had similar life experiences. "She knew the world as it was, like he did, the cruelty and the coarseness, she knew abandonment an deceit and hunger and survival, just as he did. They were alike in a way that Eliza would never understand."

Alex is able to tell Maria about his past in a way he could never manage with Eliza."Alex told her the full story of his early years in St. Croix and Nevis. All the things he had never told Eliza, for fear that she would reject him for being too common...Maybe it was because Eliza, for all her independence and empathy, was still a woman of her class, a little too inclined to think of the poor as projects rather than real people, as evidenced by her meddling in the love lives of Emma Trask and Drayton Pennington, or maybe it was because he had never shared this part of his past with her..." It is this connection that seemingly leads him to commit adultery with Reynolds.

But it is Eliza who is the star in this re-telling of the Alexander Hamilton saga: she races from her sickbed to save her husband from possible death after learning of his infidelity and his pending duel with rival Aaron Burr (a duel that in real life did not occur at this time). And against all reason, she forgives him, saving her marriage, although her husband's reputation is ruined. Eliza explains,"Either she truly forgave her husband or she didn't. If she didn't, then there was no point in continuing the marriage. And if she did, then she must do it fully. She must remember the man she had married, and why she had married him." In the 1700's it is likely that the prospect of divorce was far worse than a husband's infidelity. Or perhaps Eliza Schuyler Hamilton was truly a remarkable woman.

All For One is the finale in De La Cruz's trilogy. At close to four hundred pages, All For One sometimes gets bogged down in extraneous detail that perhaps could have been edited out or at least pared down. For example there are detailed passages about what life was like in New York in 1776 and how it has changed in the last nine years. There are several pages explaining the situation with the Trinity church that Alex is retained to sort out. While some of these details are interesting, they tend to distract from the overall storyline.

Nevertheless, fans of Hamilton will enjoy this final installment with all its heartbreak and betrayal as well as the post-colonial detail of life in the newly founded United States of America.

Book Details:

All For One by Melissa De La Cruz
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons 2019
386 pp.

With the widespread influx of refugees to Europe from Africa and the Middle East in recent years, as well as the ongoing issue of illegal immigration in the United States, it's no surprise that this theme is beginning to show up in both young adult and even juvenile fiction novels. Ele Fountain's debut novel, Refugee 87 is one such novel that explores the journey of a young refugee with heartbreaking realism.

Fourteen-year-old Shiferwa (Shif) Gebreselassie lives next door to his best friend Bini in a two room house. Both boys are good students and ambitious about their futures. While Bini wants to be a doctor someday, Shif is considering engineering. Both boys have lost their fathers; Shif's father died when he was seven, while Bini's father left around the same time to find a better job but never returned. Every day Shif's mother goes to work taking his younger sister Lemlem with her to her job mending clothing.

One day Shif and Bini notice an army truck parked outside their school with four armed soldiers watching the students enter the school. At school the atmosphere is tense and Shif finds he is unable to focus. At home that night, Shif waits for his mother and Lemlem to return home. When they are late arriving he decides to go to the nearest shop to purchase some injera despite being forbidden by his mother to go out after school. It is a rule he has religiously obeyed until now. On his way home Shif hears soldiers knocking on the doors of houses and when a soldier calls out to him, he flees home. Later his mother tells him the reason for her strict rule, that by going out he makes himself visible to others and to the army.

The next day Bini doesn't attend school, despite having to write an important test. After school Shif tries to see Bini but Bini's mother, Saba tells him that he's at market and will not be returning to school. This news leaves Shif in shock because he knows his friend loves school. They have one more year of school and the mandatory two years of military school before they can apply to university. That night Shif questions his mother about these events and learns the stunning news that his father is likely not dead. A university lecturer, he had requested that teachers be paid more and was taken away by the government. He was imprisoned in a camp with others who had also spoken out against the government. His mother doesn't know for sure if Shif's father is still alive but she remains hopeful.

Shif's mother also tells him that the military is doing an operation known as a giffa, rounding up those boys and girls they believe are trying to escape military school. Because Shif is the son of someone considered by the government to be a traitor, if he is caught in the giffa he will likely never be released from military school. It is likely that he will be sent to the gold mines. The two mothers instead have planned for the boys to leave the country; they will leave in the morning with smugglers who will take them to the border and then north to the coast where they will take a boat to Europe. Shif's mother explains that he must learn her phone number as well as his Uncle Batha's number in case of emergency.

However, their plans are thwarted when, in the middle of the night, soldiers raid both boys' homes and drag Shif and Bini into the night and into the back of a waiting truck. Driven miles from home, into the desert and imprisoned in a metal shipping container with other political prisoners, Shif and Bini know their situation is dire. With the help of other prisoners, the two boys are given a second chance at life, a chance to escape and tell the world what is happening.

Discussion

Refugee 87 also published as Boy 87 is a riveting fictional account of one refugee's journey out of Eritrea to Europe. The title is taken from the name given to Shif when he is taken to a military prison by soldiers. Fountain who is a British writer, lived for several years in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at a time when the government enacted laws punishing those critical of the regime.

Fountain doesn't focus on the names of the countries in her novel, because she"...wanted the focus to be on his experience rather than the politics of one regime." While this is understandable, it means there is less context to Shif's experience. Instead, Fountain is appealing to her young readers on an emotional level. Fountain does hint at some of the reasons life in his country might be dangerous; for example, the government imprisons those who speak out against it. However, life goes on for Shif until he is targeted by the military.

Refugee 87 offers a good starting point to familiarize young readers with the refugee experience. But outside of the novel, the complex reasons why people leave their homes and families to undertake a dangerous journey need to be considered, even by young people. We don't see the mass migration of people from Europe to Yemen or Syria because of the West's values that focus on justice and rights and our democratic political systems. It would be helpful to encourage young people to think in a critical way as to why this is. What are the political, social and economic realities in these countries? Refugees generally don't want to leave their homelands with all the risks and loss that entails, so how can we in the West help them to stay and effect positive change in their own countries? What is the role of countries in the region? And for those who do want to leave how might we assist them?

Nevertheless, Fountain's portrayal of the refugee experience seems realistic in the most tragic of ways. Through Shif's eyes we experience many of the dangers refugees face on their journeys toward safety and freedom. Shif himself endures cold and heat, starvation, and loneliness. Clues in the story suggest that Shif has travelled from his home country of Eritrea (where injera is a main staple, where the women wear a white netela and the coinage is silver with the words Liberty, Equality, and Justice) into Sudan (where the women wear brightly coloured headscarfs and the coinage is gold around the edge and silver in the middle. Later on in the story he also greets the mother and daughter with the phrase "Kemay hadirkin" which means "Good morning" in Tigrinya, a language spoken in Ethiopia and Eritrea. ) In this new country (likely Sudan which lies north of Eritrea), Shif cannot speak the language and receives only the barest of help. He doesn't know anyone, that is until he meets a family from Eritrea, Shewit, her husband Mesfin and their daughter Almaz.

But if Shif and the other refugees thought they were safe in Sudan they quickly discover the opposite. There is a new danger the refugees now face; human trafficking. Shewit warns Shif that he mustn't go to the refugee camp to the south because human traffickers lie in wait outside the camp. Almaz tells him this is also the reason they do not wear their white netela: the white scarf marks them as refugees who can be targeted by traffickers.

Refugee 87 also portrays the special risks that women and young girls face. In the market, Almaz is grabbed by a man who intends to sell her. She is rescued by Shif but this now marks them as targets for the traffickers.

Refugees are also at risk of physical injury and death. Shif badly sprains his ankle during his escape from the prison. Genet, a older woman refugee was injured by shrapnel when a land mine exploded. Without proper medical care, her condition worsens. By the time Shif resumes his journey, Genet is likely dying from sepsis. On their journey to the coast, Shewit breaks her leg when the truck they are traveling in crashes. She and her husband Mesfin are left by the roadside along with many other injured refugees, likely to die. And Fountain also portrays the harrowing boat trip across the Mediterranean during which Shif and Almaz almost drown.

Refugee 87 will help young readers to empathize with the plight of refugees who often leave everything and everyone familiar to them behind for the hope of a new life. Shif briefly explains what this means to him. "Inside my head I carry the stories of what went before. Those stories are the threads that will tie me to my other life. I am still Shif. But from now on there will always be two parts to me."

Fountain's well-written, moving novel proves that writers write best about those topics dearest to their heart and it's obvious the plight of those in Ethiopia is important to her. Highly recommended.

Book Details:

Refugee 87 by Ele Fountain
New York: Little, Brown and Company 2018
247 pp.

In Out of This World, American author, Michelle Markel tells the story of English artist, Leonora Carrington.

In Out of This World, young readers learn about the life of Leonora Carrington and her art. When she was four-years-old, Leonora loved scribbling on the walls of her home. Her imagination was fed by the "enchanting legends from Ireland" that her grandmother told. "These stories took Leonora to worlds that shimmered beyond this one, and when the spirits flew, and the gods stirred their cauldrons, and the fairies shifted shapes...." Although her drawings were "fanciful", her parents wanted her to follow a more traditional path, to become a lady and then marry a wealthy man. To that end, at age nine she was sent to boarding school. But Leonora rebelled until she was finally sent to Miss Penrose's Academy in Florence. There, she discovered that others were painting in the same way she was and this only fueled her determination to become an artist.

Leonora's parents eventually relented and sent her to art school in London where she met other artists who were known as surrealists, including Max Ernst, a famous surrealist. She eventually travelled to Paris to meet other surrealists. In 1940, with war coming to France, artists fled the country, many of them settling in Mexico. The exotic plants and animals of Mexico only stimulated Leonora's imagination further. She became friends with a Spanish painter named Remedios. Through her friend, she met a photographer named Chiki who eventually became her husband.

Even as a wife and mother, Leonora continued to create her eccentric paintings. Her first exhibition in New York City enchanted visitors. Through the years Leonora continued to paint, design theatre costumes and create fantastical sculptures.

Discussion

Leonora Carrington was an English artist whose paintings are known for their strange juxtaposition of objects - a type of art known as surrealism. A more detailed biography of Leonora Carrington follows. Leonora was born into a wealthy family in Cockerham, England in 1917. As a child she lived with her parents and her three brothers, Patrick, Arthur and Gerald on their family's large estate.

Raised in a Roman Catholic family, Leonora was often rebellious. She and eventually was sent to Mrs. Penrose's Academy of Art in Florence, Italy. In Florence, Leonora was exposed to the world of art through the many galleries in this beautiful city. She wanted to become a painter, a choice her mother supported but her father did not.

In 1935, she attended the Chelsea School of Art in London where she met artists who painted in a unique style that was so attractive to Leonora. These artists were part of the Surrealist movement which drew on the imagination and free conscious thinking to create art. Leonora became involved with Max Ernst, a much older artist, running off to Paris with him. There she encountered more artists who were part of the Surrealist movement including Pablo Picasso, Salvadore Dali and Yves Tanguy. It was at this time that she painted Inn of the Dawn Horse which was a self-portrait.

Inn of the Dawn Horse by Leonora Carrington

Leonora and Max continued to live together in the south of France until 1940 when Max was sent to a Nazi detention camp. Max's imprisonment was so distressing that Leonora fled to Spain where she was committed to a mental institution, Santander against her will, after suffering a mental breakdown. Leonora was able to escape from the mental hospital and travel to Portugal where she met and married Renato Leduc, a Mexican diplomat who helped her escape to the United States. She lived for a year in New York City, where she reconnected with the surrealist movement. At this time, Max Ernst was also in New York City but Leonora was not interested in rekindling their relationship. She then traveled to Mexico where she would live for the rest of her life. By this time she had divorced Leduc and was now a part of the vibrant art community in Mexico.

She became good friends with Remedios Vaso, a Surrealist Leonora had known in France. Leonora married Emerico Weisz, a Hungarian photographer who went by the nickname of "Chiki" and they had two children, Gabriel and Pablo. In 1947, a large exhibition of her work was hosted by the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York.

Leonora Carrington also found the time to write. Her works include a set of surrealist short stores such as the House of Fear written in 1938, Down Below which she wrote about her forced incarceration and The Hearing Trumpet which was a surrealist novel. In the 1990's Leonora created numerous large bronze sculptures. She was the last of the Surrealist movement artists, passing away in 2011.

As a picture book, Out Of This World does an excellent job of capturing the essence of Leonora Carrington's life and art. Leonora's work was influenced by the Celtic myths she learned from her grandmother, as well as her own dabbling in magical realism and alchemy. In Out Of This World, Markel focuses on Leonora's determination to forge her own path in life, even when she was a young girl. She rebelled against the constraints of the time and the expectations of her Roman Catholic parents. She did not want the traditional life of a wife and mother that was expected of her at the turn of the 20th century. She didn't want to be a debutante. Instead, she rebelled and did the very opposite expected. She lived with a man, Max Ernst which resulted in her father disowning her. She was married twice, also highly unusual in the first half of the 20th century. While her choices in early life were broke with tradition, eventually Leonora did settle down and marry and have children. She eventually found her home in Mexico and it was there that her style matured.

Leonora was a strong woman who survived the displacement of war, overcame mental health issues and treatment that was harsh and against her wishes, and emigration to countries halfway around the world. She persevered to create the art she felt inspired to paint. Markel writes that Leonora painted women in a way that was different from how men painted women, not as objects of beauty but both beautiful and strong."Instead of lying on a couch, they were listening to the stars. Instead of posing in gowns, they were going on magical processions. They were friends with monkeys, Minotaurs, and mythic birds." Her art, as her life, was not traditional but explored very unusual themes and was populated with strange objects, animals and people often strangely situated. Markel certainly portrays all of this in her book, aided by Amanda Hall's beautiful illustrations.

Illustrator Amanda Hall's artwork in Out of This World reflects this artist's unique life and work. Hall's art is fantastical, capturing Leonora's life in a way that she herself might have painted it. Hall's illustrations are filled with vibrant colours that depict Leonora's rebellious childhood, her Irish grandmother's influence, her life in Italy and France, her escape from France, and her life in Mexico. Hall writes that "...the specific challenge for me was to convey the spirit, themes, and sensibility she explored in her creative output without attempting to re-create literally any of her actual imagery."

A beautifully crafted picture book to inspire budding artists of any age.

Image credits:
https://www.amandahall-illustration.com/

Book Details:

Out of This World: The Surreal Art of Leonora Carrington by Michelle Market
New York: Balzer + Bray 2019

Twelve-year-old Amal lives with her parents and three younger sisters, Seema, Rabia and Safa. Her mother is expecting a baby any day and Amal and her sisters are excited. Everyone hopes this baby will be a boy. They live in a small Punjabi village in Pakistan which is controlled by Khan Sahib, a powerful landlord who lives in a large compound some distance away.

Amal loves school, and is the favourite of their teacher, Miss Sadia. She usually helps Miss Sadia after school but with her mother's baby due any day, her father wants her to come home and help. Amal's dream is to someday be a teacher and to attend college with her best friend Hasfa.

Amal frequently meets Omar, who is the son of their servant Parvin, after school by the stream near her father's sugarcane fields. Omar and Parvin live in the shed behind their house. Omar attends the boys school which has a much larger library than Amal's girls school. Their secret meetings offer Amal a way of gaining access to those books which Omar brings for her.

This time their meeting is interrupted by Seema who tells Amal that she must come home as the baby is coming. Her mother gives birth to a healthy baby girl, a fifth girl and not the boy her parents were hoping for. This sends Amal's mother into a serious depression. She spends all day in her bed sleeping and can barely care for the new baby. Amal realizes that she needs to stay home for a few days to help out. However after missing nine days, her father has other plans, insisting that Amal, as the eldest daughter, must now stay home as to care for her younger sisters, Safa and Rabia. Amal is devastated as this means she will fall further behind in school and likely miss exams.

Seema gives Amal hope as she brings home a folder with some of Amal's school work from Miss Sadia. Two of Amal's mother's friends, Fozia and Miriam Auntie arrive bringing laddus, one of her mother's favourite treats. During their visit, Amal overhears them talking about the Khan family and how Jawad Sahib who now controls the village, has a reputation for being cruel. Jawad destroyed the entire village of Hazarabad when the villagers banded together and refused to pay back their debts. He destroyed all of their orange groves and cotton fields. Amal's friend Hafsa stops by to talk and encourages Amal to continue to pressure her father to return to school so their dream of attending college together won't be lost.

However, Amal's life is ripped apart when she has a fateful encounter with Jawad Khan after shopping at the market. After purchasing a pomegranate as treat for herself, Amal steps out on the road to walk home and is struck by a black car driven by Jawad Khan. He offers to drive her home but wants to take her pomegranate for his mother. Jawad offers Amal a fistful of money for the fruit but Awal stubbornly refuses, tired of always having to give up things dear to her for someone else. Her refusal results in terrible consequences for her, but in the end offers Amal the chance to bring the Khan family to justice and free her village from their tyranny.

Discussion

Amal Unbound is a well-written novel for younger readers that tackles some of the issues girls in many developing countries face.These issues include the inability to make their own decisions about their lives, the lack of schooling for girls, the preference of boys over girls and the lack of freedom to do things girls in the West take for granted, like riding a bike or driving a car. These inequities are very much a part of Amal's life in Amal Unbound.

When Amal's friend Hasfa shows up at her house riding a bike, Amal questions her as to whether her parents know she's riding a bicycle. "Most people around here frowned upon girls riding bicycles, and Hasfa's parents had let her know they were one of them." But Hasfa insists that if her brothers are able to ride a bicycle, she should be able to as well.

With the birth of her sister Lubna, Amal is shocked to learn just how disappointed her parents are. "Of course I had known they wanted a son. I heard the conversations of our neighbors and the whispers in our own house. but staring at my parents' expressions right now, I saw they didn't look disappointed; they looked crushed."Because of the cultural belief that a boy is preferred over a girl, Amal's mother becomes severely depressed and unable to care for her family. Amal cannot understand why everyone is so disappointed and questions this belief when Miriam Auntie shows her dismay. "I knew everyone wanted to have a son, but I was getting tired of hearing this. Wasn't she once a little girl, too?" Amal doesn't understand why the women in her village have this view of girls as they were once girls themselves.

As a result of her mother's serious post-partum depression, Amal, as the eldest daughter is forced to stay home from school and care for the family. Her dream of going to college and becoming a teacher appears to be slipping away. And when she pushes back against her father's decision for her to remain home, her father questions her need for extensive education.

Amal confronts her father about returning to school after the birth of her sister, but he is noncommittal. His attitude is that she has had enough schooling for a girl. Her dreams are never broached nor considered."'In a week or so, we can see how things are going,' my father continued. 'But in any case, remember, you have already learned a lot. More than many of the neighborhood girls. You can read and write. What more do you need to know?'"

The attitudes towards girls lead to Amal standing her ground when confronted by Jawad Shaib. Instead of backing down as a girl would be expected to, she refuses to give her pomegranate to Jawad and snatches it back from him. "I thought of my father, who had no time for my dreams. My little sisters and their endless demands. Suddenly I felt tired. Tired of feeling powerless. Tired of denying my own needs because someone else needed something more. Including this man. This stranger. Buying me off. Denying me this smallest of pleasures."

When the crisis with the Khan family develops, Amal's mother seems to recover. It is at this point that Amal questions her mother about the preference for a boy over a girl."' Why is having a boy all anyone can talk about?'" Her mother's response references cultural practices in Pakistan,
'Who else will care for us in our old age? Who will run the farm and keep your grandfather's dream alive?'"
When Amal states that she or Seema can do this her mother responds that when she marries she will belong to her husband's family, that this is how the world works. It is a phrase that Amal will hear repeatedly but one which she eventually decides to tackle head on.

Aisha Saeed tackles all of these issues with sensitivity and in a way that is not judgemental but which encourages young readers to critically consider them. Through the character of Amal she expresses how girls might feel about being denied school or the choice to ride a bike. The author portrays girls in countries like Pakistan as having the same dreams as girls everywhere, only to see them frustrated by restrictive cultural views. When Amal confronts her mother about the preference for boys, her mother's reply resonates with resignation and acceptance.She tells Amal, "I wish it wasn't this way, but this is how the world works."

Saeed has crafted a determined, courageous heroine in Amal, who grasps the opportunity to bring down the family in control of her village. Forced into indentured servitude to the Khan family, Amal sees her entire life upended. Although she it treated well by Jawad's mother, Nasreen Baji, she is unable to continue her education and is separated from her family. She discovers what her father and mother have always told her that "life isn't fair". Despite being well treated, Amal never gives up on her own dream but she is motivated to try to bring down the Khan family when she sees how much harm they are doing and how families she knows are suffering. She has no idea if her efforts will be successful, but seeing how many people the Khan family has hurt, she decides to act. "If everyone decided nothing could change, nothing ever would."

This is the important message Saeed has for young girls today; you can make changes that will make life better for girls in countries like Pakistan or anywhere. In contrast to her mother who has accepted things they way they are, Amal takes the risk to change something. She is inspired by a teacher at the literacy center who tells her about how he comes from a family of lawyers and the expectation was that he too would be one. But he found a way to achieve his dream. Asif tells her, "I'm the first one to be a teacher in my family. No one supported me, but I did it because this is what I always wanted to do. If I thought nothing would change, nothing ever would." When Amal, Nabila and Bilal find the evidence they need against Jawad, Bilal admonishes Nabila telling her knowing will not change anything. But Amal thinks differently. "There is was again. Nothing would change. This family was so powerful, there was no use in trying to fight them. But..."Just because something seems impossible, does that mean we don't try?" I asked." Amal's big risk plays out into a big change for her village.

Amal Unbound with it's beautiful cover is a must read for young and older readers alike.

Book Details:

Amal Unbound: A Novel by Aisha Saeed
New York: Nancy Paulsen Books 2018
226 pp.

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