Dinosaurs by Rachel Ignotofsky

Dinosaurs aims to present the evolution of life on Earth in an engaging way to young readers. Before embarking on this incredible journey through time, Ignotofsky provides readers with some background information. There are pages that provide explanations of the Geological Time Scale, What Is A Dinosaur?, Understanding Plate Tectonics, Ever Changing Geography, What Is a Fossil?, Reading The Rocks, Mass Extinction Events, and Understanding Evolution. This all sets the stage for exploring life on Earth.

The story begins with the PreCambrian SuperEon, the first four billion years of Earth's history, when the planet formed in the solar system. This period includes the Hadean Ion, the Archean Eon, and the Proterozoic Eon. There are many interesting facts about this time such as during the Hadean Ion the moon was close to fifteen times closer to Earth, during the Archean Ion the oceans were much saltier than they are today, and during the Proterozoic Eon the first mega continent formed. It was during the Proterozoic that the Great Oxygenation Event occured.

Life before the dinosaurs in the Paleozoic Era began to colonize land. The Paleozoic Era has been divided into six geological periods: Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian. The Cambrian saw many new life forms develop. This has been termed the Cambrian Explosion in which creatures with the first backbone, the first lungs and the first legs appeared. The Ordovician saw a huge increase in biodiversification, now termed the Ordovician Biodiversification Event  that saw the development of jawless fishes, tentacled cephalopods and starfishes. The Late Ordovician experienced a mass extinction event, the first of five such events to occur in geological history. The Silurian Period was a relatively quiet time during which fish continued to evolve.

In the Devonian Period much of the Earth's continents covered by warm, shallow seas." It was the age of fishes and coral reefs. A second mass extinction event, the Late Devonian mass extinction occurred but its cause is unknown.  The Carboniferous Period saw swamps and rainforests proliferate. The oxygen content of Earth's atmosphere was also very high at this time as carbon was trapped in the plants and trees. The largest terrestrial invertebrate to ever live, Arthropleura millipede which was eight feet long, inhabited the swamps of the Carboniferous Period.

The Permian Period saw the formation of the giant supercontinent Pangea, surrounded by the global ocean called Panthalassa. Reptiles thrived in the arid, warm interior of the continent. The Permian-Triassic mass extinction event closed out this period.

The Mesozoic Era was the age of the dinosaurs. Three periods have been designated in the Mesozoic: the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous.  The Mesozoic Era began with the worst mass extinction and would end with the devastation of an asteroid impact. Earth had no polar ice caps as the planet was very warm. A day in the Mesozoic Era was twenty-three hours.

The Triassic Period saw the development of a new branch of reptiles - the archosaurs that included the dinosaurs. They were not the large creatures expected but were small. The Jurassic Period saw Pangea begin to break apart due to tectonic activitiy. During this time, it became two separate continents, Laurasia and Gondwana. Rainforests replaced the arid deserts of Pangea, providing a significant source of food for dinosaurs. The Cretacious Period was the climax of the dinosaur's reign. Tyrannosaurus rex the apex predator on land, azhdarchid pterosaurs in the air and Mosasaurus in the oceans. An asteroid impacting the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico would end their reign.

The beginning of the Cenozoic era, the three main mammal groups were already established. These were the monotremes  (egg-laying mammals), marsupials (mammals that birth live young and carry them with a pouch), and placentals (mammals who give birth to live young from the womb).  During the Cenozoic Era, Earth developed large polar ice caps. There were three periods in the Cenozoic Era: the Paleogene Period, Neogene Period and Quaternary Period.

The Paleogene Period saw large fluctuations in climate. This period was one of mountain building with the creation of the Rocky Mountains and the Himilayan Mountains.

During the Neogene Period the abundance of grasslands saw mammals adapt to running from predators. Early hominids began to evolve to walk upright. The Panama Land Bridge connecting North and South America developed during this time. This land bridge allowed animals and plants to inhabit new areas in what has been called the Great American Biotic Interchange. It also separated the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, changing ocean currents and weather patterns.

The Quaternanry Period was dominated by multiple ice ages. Animals adapted by becoming large and furry and were known as megafauna. They included mammoths, woolly rhinos and saber-tooth tigers. Modern humans evolved during this period and migrated to all areas of the planet. Humans transformed Earth's ecosystems. 

Finally, the Holocene Epoch which represents the last eleven thousand years of Earth history, is the time in which humans formed civilizations.

Discussion

Dinosaurs is a colourfully illustrated and engaging large picture book that offers a detailed summary of the evolution of life on Earth.  The title is somewhat misleading as the book's focus is more on geological history rather than exclusively on dinosaurs.

After providing some information on important concepts that will be encountered in the book, Ignotofsky launches into descriptions of life during each of the geological eras and their periods. After introducing each period of geologic time life is described in more detail through several features. The Land and Sea provides an overview of each period and there is also a Fun Facts section. For example, in the Devonian Period Fun Facts, the Australian lungfish which has gills and lungs is featured. Each section also has a fascinating "Stories of Discovery" section which highlights various important discoveries relevant to that geologic time period. Some of the features include the Canadian Burgess Shale, and discoveries in the Silurian rocks near the village of Chuanhegai in China, and on Ellesmere island in the high Arctic of Canada. Once the story moves into the Mesozoic Era, life on Earth is divided into two sections, Life on Land, and Air and Sea.

Each geologic period has a Creature Feature which describes some of the life in that period, hopefully based on fossil evidence, although Ignotofsky doesn't specify what is the basis for the descriptions and illustrations. Nevertheless, this makes for a very interesting part of the book.

Overall, Dinosaurs is a very well done, well-written with many interesting facts, colourful illustrations with a well thought-out layout. But there is just so much information, much of it very detailed, that it is questionable as to what age this will appeal to. For younger readers, the visuals will be most appealing, especially the Creature Feature secction, but the large amount of text, most of it in very small font to accomodate the amount of information may feel daunting. Nevertheless, this adult with a background as a geologist found it very appealing!

Book Details:

Dinosaurs by Rachel Ignotofsky

New York: Ten Speed Press    2025

127 pp.

The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis

Eleven-year-old Parvana is sitting with her father on a blanket in the Kabul marketplace. Her head and shoulders are completely covered by her chador. She is there to help her father walk from home to the market. Parvana lives in Kabul with her mother Fatana and her father, her older sister Nooria, and her younger siblings, five-year-old Maryam and two-year-old Ali. 

Her parents are well educated having attended university; her father attended university in England and both her parents speak English. They came from well respected families and earned good money. This meant that "...they had a big house with a courtyard, a couple of servants, a television set, a refrigerator, a car."  Her father had taught in a  high school while her mother had been a writer for a Kabul radio station. Parvana had been in the sixth grade while Nooria attended high school. All that changed with the coming of the Taliban.

Before the Taliban, Afghanistan had been invaded by the Persians, Greeks,, Arabs, Turks, British and then Soviet Russia. War had been ongoing for more than twenty years. Parvana was born the year the Soviets left Afghanistan. The Taliban now ruled the country except for the northern regions. In Kabul they forced girls out of the schools, her mother was forced to leave her job and all girls and women in Afghanistan had to stay home. They were not even allowed out to shop.

Parvana's family had lost their beautiful home and had moved several times, each time to a smaller place. Now they lived in one small room with the possessions they managed to save from the bombings. Her father had lost his lower leg when his school was bombed but he had sold his wooden leg. So now Parvana helps her father walk to the market each day where he tries to sell some of their remaining possessions or reads letters for a fee. Most Afghans cannot read or write. Parvana can speak Dari and understand some Pashtu and because she has received an education, like her father she can read the letters.

They make their way home, her father leaning on Parvana. They now live on the third floor of a bomb-damaged building. To reach their apartment, Parvana and her father must use the damaged stairs on the outside of the building. Upon arriving home Parvana is sent out to get water, a task that means five trips to the outside tap. The single room they all share contains a tall wooden cupboard and two toshaks. The beautiful Afghan carpets and all their furniture has been destroyed in the bombings of their previous homes. What survived from the bombings Parvana's mother kept in the cupboard. This includes a parcel of Hossain's clothing. He was Parvana's older brother who was killed by a land mine when he was fourteen. Nooria has told Parvana how he loved to carry her around and play with her.

After their family meal, her father in his good white shalwar kameez begins telling a story from history. He was a history teacher at the time his school was bombed. The story is set in 1880 when the British attempted to take over Afghanistan and a young Afghan girl urged her country's soldiers on to defeat the British. Suddenly their joyful family moment is broken when four Taliban burst into their home. Two soldiers seize Parvana's father and drag him out while the other two ransack the wooden cupboard. They leave but not before beating Parvana as she tries to distract them from discovering her father's books hidden in the secret compartment at the base of the cupboard.

The next day Parvana and her mother set out to walk to the prison to free her father. Along the way her mother stops frequently to show a photograph of her father. Photographs are illegal but people just shake their heads. At the prison, Parvana's mother is initially ignored by the Taliban but when they both begin shouting for him to be released, the Taliban beat Parvana's mother and tear up the photograph. 

Parvana and her mother arrive at home, their feet bloodied and raw from the long walk. Her mother collapses on the toshak and weeps herself to sleep. For four days Parvana's mother doesn't get up. The room begins to smell from Ali's unwashed diapers and they finally run out of food. Parvana is sent out by Nooria to buy food. She is able to buy nan at the first stand but when she reaches the vegetable stand, Parvana is attacked by a Talib. After he strikes her, Parvana runs in terror, clutching the nan bread and runs straight into Mrs. Weera. In response to Mrs. Weera's question as to why she's running, she tells her she's running from the Taliban.

Mrs. Weera and Parvana's mother had been in the Afghan Women's Union and she has been meaning to visit to get her help with the women's magazine. She and her granddaughter accompany Parvana home. There Mrs. Weera manages to get Parvana's mother up, washed and dressed. The next morning, Parvana is stunned to learn that they are asking her to pretend to be a boy so that she can go to the market. The plan is that Parvana will cut her hair, change her name to Kaseem and pretend to be their cousin from Jalalabad. And if anyone asks her family where Parvana has gone, they will tell them she is visiting her aunt in Kunduz. Mrs. Weera tells Parvana, "It has to be your decision...We can force you to cut off your hair, but you're still the one who has to go outside and act the part. We know this is a big thing we're asking, but I think you can do it..."

Parvana agrees and with her hair cut short and dressed in Hossain's clothing, she ventures out to the market to buy food for her family. This time she is not harassed and she becomes the "breadwinner" for her family. Mrs. Weera decides to move in with Parvana's family so she and Parvana's mother can work on the women's magazine. But for Parvana, dressing as a boy offers her not only freedom but the unexpected friendship of another "boy".

Discussion

The Breadwinner is the first novel in the series about an Afghan girl named Parvana living under Taliban rule in Afghanistan. The story is narrated by Parvana who is eleven-years-old. Under Soviet and then Taliban rule, her family has suffered significant loss. Her family, once flourishing and well off, has lost their home, most of the possessions, and their son and brother, Hossain. 

Afghanistan has had a complicated and violent history but especially so in the twentieth century. The country was invaded in 1979 by the Soviets who wished to install a communist, Soviet-backed government. The Afghanis fought this takeover with help from the United States and Pakistan. In 1989, the Soviets had had enough and left the country in a chaotic state that led to another civil war. In the early 1990s, a new Sunni Islamist movement called the Taliban began to develop in the religious schools or madarasas in Pakistan and southern Afghanistan. This movement spread throughout the southern provinces and in 1996, the Taliban captured the city of Kabul, killing the president of Afghanistan and establishing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. 

In the Islamic state, the Taliban implemented Sharia Law under which women have almost no rights. The Taliban banned girls and women from attending school or studying, they are not allowed to work, they can only leave the house with a male chaperone and if they do so they must be fully covered with a burkha. They are not allowed to show any skin in public. Women cannot be involved in public speaking or politics. The ground floor windows of the home must be covered so that the women inside cannot be seen by passersby. Relatives who advocate for women or who help them break any of these rules are at risk of being punished by the Taliban. Women also cannot access health care provided by men. 

It is in this world that Parvana lives. Author Deborah Ellis effectively portrays to her young readers the devastating effect the civil war and the rise of the Taliban has had on Parvana's family. Although the term "Sharia Law" is not mentioned in the novel, this is what Parvana and her family have lived under for the last year and half.  Her mother, once a writer for a radio station in Kabul, cannot work and must stay home. Nooria and Parvana can no longer attend school. The family, once prosperous, has lost their home and most of their belongings. Their oldest son, Hossain died after stepping on a land mine, and Parvana's father has lost his lower leg during the bombing of the school where he taught. Civil war and the Taliban have impoverished them to the point that they must resort to selling their possessions in the Kabul market.

The Taliban also have a brutal punishment system for crimes based on a strict interpretation of Sharia law. These punishments can include flogging, amputations and executions that are often carried out in public spaces such as stadiums. Ellis portrays this in The Breadwinner when Parvana and her friend Shauzia slip into the stadium believing they are attending a soccer game. Instead they witness the gruesome amputation of  the hands of men accused being theives. The experience is traumatizing for the two girls.

Although no dates are given in the novel Parvana notes that they have lived under Taliban rule for the last year and a half and that her mother and Nooria have not been outside their home during that time. This likely places the novel in the early in the year of 1998. Near the end of the novel, Parvana and her father learn that Mazar-i-Sharif has been overtaken by the Taliban. This event happened in August of 1998.

Parvana and her friend Shauzia realistically portray the reality of life for girls during war and under Taliban rule. The two girls must worry about things that no child should have to worry about. But because they are girls living under Sharia Law, they have no voice and few choices. Parvana is in a better situation because her parents are well educated and they support girls being educated. Nevertheless, Parvana finds her situation stressful and she longs to just be a child. "Parvana was tired. She wanted to sit in a classroom and be bored by a geography lesson. She wanted to be with her friends and talk about homework and games and what to do on school holidays. She didn't want to know any more about death or blood or pain." Parvana sees the starving women in burquas begging and the hungry and sick. "And there was no end to it. This wasn't a summer vacation that would end and the life would get back to normal. This was normal, and Parvana was tired of it."

Shauzia's situaton is difficult too. Her father has died, her brother left for Iran and her mother is sick all the time. Shauzia, her mother and her two little sisters live with her father's parents who do not believe in girls being educated. She tells Parvana that everyone fights in the house. The situation is so difficult that Shauzia is planning to leave Afghanistan and hopes to travel to France. She hopes to leave by the spring when she will have saved enough money. However, Shauzia worries that she may have left it too late as her body is now beginning to change. Leaving her family means leaving them to starve as she is their only means of support. She tells Parvana, "I just have to get out of here. I know that makes me a bad person, but what else can I do? I'll die if I have to stay here!"  Later on Shauzia reveals to Parvana that her grandfather is looking for a husband for her because as a young girl she will "fetch a good bride price and they will have lots of money to live on." Such a view is extremely common in strict Islamic cultures. When Parvana asks how Shauzia's mother will eat, Shauzia's dilemma to save her mother or herself is revealed. Shauzia responds, "What can I do?" Shauzia asked, the question coming out as a wail. "If I stay here and get married, my life will be over. If I leave, maybe I'll have a chance. There must be some place in this world where I can live. Am I wrong to think like this?"

Parvana suggests that Shauzia should accompany Mrs. Weera and her granddaughter when they travel to Pakistan. However, Mrs. Weera suggests that Shauzia is deserting her family just because things are tough but does she really understand the situation Shauzia is in. Mrs. Weera was able to have an education and become a teacher. That future or most any other is no longer open to Shauzia if she stays in Afghanistan. Mrs. Weera seems to have forgotten that Shauzia is a child who has the right to be safe, to make some choices about her future and that includes the right to be educated. It is a dilemma that Parvana, at this time, cannot resolve.

The novel ends with Parvana and her father ready to begin a journey to Mazar which is now under the control of the Taliban, to find her mother, Nooria and Ali. This leads nicely into the second novel in the series, Parvana's Journey.

Book Details:

The Breadwiinner by Deborah Ellis

Toronto: Groundwood Books/House of Ansai Press     2021

176 pp.

Seabird by Michelle Kadarusman

It is 1892. Kartini is the second oldest daughter and one of eight children of her father Sosroningrat, Regent of Jepara, Java, in the Dutch West Indies. Her mother (Ma) is her father's first wife. Kartini sisters include her eldest sister, Lastri who is married and lives on Sumatra Island as well as two younger sisters, Rukmini who is eleven and Kardinah who is ten years old. Her older brothers are Sosroningrat, Boesono and Kartono while her mother has a baby boy named Wito. Kartini's father also has a second wife whom Kartini addresses as Mother. She is from a royal line and outranks Kartini's mother. She has 3 children. While "...Mother is powerful and sophisticated" Kartini's Ma is "uncomplaining and soft-hearted." 

Because Kartini will soon be thirteen-years-old, she has been taken out of school. She is now forbidden to leave the walls of their family compound to attend school, to go to the beach, the market or anywhere. She must remain hiddent at home until she is chosen for marriage. "Javanese girls of high birth are secluded before age thirteen until their wedding day." This allows them to take the title of Raden Ayu when married.

Kartini is summoned by the Lady who admonishes her to "...behave like a proper Javanese girl of your high birth." Nur, the Lady's maid has told that Kartini was chasing her little brothers in the garden. The Lady tells Kartini she must learn to speak softly, take small steps when she walks and that she must learn how to be Raden Ayu. However, Kartini doesn't want to learn this. She was learning many things in school: languages, art, music, and literature. While her mothers continue to uphold their Javanese customs, Kartini believes her father would rather be more modern.

Kartini had a good friend in Lesty whose father, Eduard Claasen was the Colonial Resident until last year when he was recalled to the Netherlands. Kartini has been waiting anxiously for a letter from Lesty. Although she has written many letters to her friend in Amsterdam, she hasn't received a single letter in return. However, this day she spies Ma holding a letter and they meet in Kartini's bedroom. There her mother reveals that she has a letter from Lesty but that she must first give it to the Lady and Kartini's father. It is at this time that Kartini realizes that her letters to Lesty were never mailed.

Kartini decides that she will not wait for her mother to bring up the issue of the letters but will advocate for herself. In the presence of her parents, Kartini tells her father that she can settle her "galloping legs" by working to improve her Dutch language skills through correspondence with her Dutch friend, Lesty. The Lady agrees to this and Kartini's father suggests she can also read his Dutch newspapers and magazines. However, her father reminds Kartini that her reading and writing will be "empty pastimes" and lead her no where. However, Kartini believes that this will not be the case for her.

Kartini reads Lesty's letter and the two begin regular correspondence. In her response, Kartini explains what it is like to be secluded, telling Lesty that although their home is beautiful, it is still a beautiful cage.

It is 1893 and Kartini is in the garden pagoda writing the afternoon play for her siblings to perform. Her brother Kartono comes in and tells Kartini that he has been accepted to the Hogere Burgerschool grammar school in Semarang. After that he will go to the Netherlands to study there. Kartono tries to encourage his sister but Kartini tells him she will never be free, that the only way she will leave their house is when she is married.  Meanwhile a letter from Lesty reveals that she is struggling at school because she has been labelled "Slaver". She doesn't understand why she is tainted with this as slavery is long over and she had no part in it.

Kartini's two maids, Uka and Yanti bring to her a "gift" that has been given to their mother by a pedicab driver. The package was given to him at the harbour to give to two girls at the Regent's home. Uka gives Kartini a card with a symbol printed on it in dark purple ink. Because they do not know who gave the gift nor the intention, Uka and Yanti cannot keep the gift of two combs wrapped in batik cloth. This gift makes Kartini realize that just like her, these village girls are also not free. They cannot accept this gift on the chance it might bring dishonour to their families or even danger. Kartini promises to try to find out about the symbol and what it means and that she will keep it secret.  In another letter to Lesty, Kartini tries to explain to her friend the perspective of the Javanese who were once enslaved by the Dutch and how they still control their land and the governance of the country. She also explains that her family as part of the elite of Javanese society have worked alongside the colonial government.

Kartini meets the wife of the new Colonial Resident, Marie Ovink-Soer. Marie is a writer who has admired the paper that Kartini wroteShe is a writer and Marie is introduced to Kartini as the writer of a paper on local woodcarvers she admired. Marie is entranced by the Javanese percussion music called gamelan and she asks Kartini to explain it further.  Marie read her article in a copy of the De Echo, a Dutch-language magazine for women and asks Kartini what studies she has planned. However, this question is deflected by Kartini's older brother, Boesono who is jealous of her ambitions. She gives Kartini a small book of her short stories for young children as well as a book written by Helen Mercier called Verbonden Schakels. Tante Marie, as she asks Kartini to call her, asks Kartini to consider writing an essay to De Echo but again Boesono tells her that won't be possible. However, Kartini knows in her heart that she wants to be a writer.

Another letter from Lesty reveals her excitement to attend the International Colonial and Export Exhibition in which twenty-eight countries will present their colonial trade.  There will be a Javanese pavillion. In her response, Kartini describes her home, which Lesty has never visited, in more detail. She also mentions the gift to her maids, sister Uka and Yanti and her discovery that the symbol on the card is Chinese and that it is the name of a woman, South Sea Starling, who commands her own merchant ship. South Sea Starling is the granddaughter of the infamous Pirate Queen. She asks Lesty to see if she can find any information about the Pirate Queen.

By 1894, Kartini's restlessness grows as she is determined to gain her freedom and make her own choices about her life. When she attempts to visit her father to press her case, her older brother Boesono tells her that soon she will be married. The possibility of a marriage proposal leads Kartini to confront Ma who tells her that her father has gone to speak to her uncle about it and that she will know soon enough. Kartini's mother is not well but she finds Kartini's determination to do other things before marrying to be foolish. Kartini herself falls sick with bone fever for weeks. When she awakens her sisters tell her that Ma is still sick with the coughing illness. However, Kartini now has no desire to get well. What is the point when she doesn't have the freedom to choose her own life.

It is in 1895 when Kartini's essay is published in the De Echo that her father's pride in this accomplishment motivates him to finally begin to see things from Kartini's perspective.  

Discussion

Seabird is a fictional account of the life and work of Rayden Ajeng Kartini. Born in Jepara, Central Java, Kartini on April 21, 1879, Kartini was able to attend the Europeesche Lagere School because she was part of the Javenese nobility. However before her thirteenth birthday, Kartini was forced into seclusion. As described in the novel, Kartini was determined to continue her education by correspondence with Dutch friends and by reading her father's Dutch magazines. She was determined to effect change for Javanese women, allowing them the opportunity to be educated just like their Javanese brothers, and to choose how they wanted to live their lives.

Canadian author Michelle Kadarusman grew up with an Indonesian father who was fiercely proud that his country had finally achieved independence from their colonizers, the Dutch in 1949.  In this respect, Kadarusman has a connection to the people and culture of Indonesia that makes Seabird a very special novel.

The novel is divided into four parts, labelled by the years 1892, 1893, 1894, and 1895. The chapters within these parts include Kartini's narrative as well as the fictional letters between her and her real life  Dutch friend, Lesty Claasen. The novel opens with Kartini beginning pingit, the custom of Javanese seclusion until marriage. Kartini is only twelve-years-old and doesn't want to be considering marriage at this time but wishes to continue her schooling. However, in seclusion she can no longer leave her family's compound for any reason, even to attend school. The loss of furthering her education deeply affeccts Kartini. But also the fact that she cannot go anywhere leads her to wonder what it must be like to be a boy. "What must it feel like, to be a boy? To walk confidently toward the compound gates, knowing they will be opened, at any time, at any age, like magic?"

Kartini struggles to accept the limitations that her culture places on women. These limitations are very evident when Kartini's maids, Uka and Yanti are given a gift of combs by someone. Kartini realizes that village girls like her two maids are no freer than she is. "Never mind that they are servants and I am the edaughter of a regent, we young women, all of us, must tread so carefully, because one foot wrong might set us on fire." The two girls cannot accept the gift openly because they do not know who the sender is and why it was sent.

By 1894, Kartini is growing increasingly restless. While she acknowledges that she has her sisters and her books and is helping her maids solve a mystery, Kartini wants her freedom. She wants her freedom in a way that she knows is not possible: to be able to run to seashore to see the ocean, to visit the capital of Batavia and see the grand buildings, take a steamship to Europe and study with her brother Kartono, to skate on the frozen canals in Holland and to walk to a library and learn about anything that interests her. "I want to be my own person. I do not want to be someone's wife." 

After being very ill for weeks, Kartini gives in to despair. "What is the point of getting up if I can't leave this house? To wander paths that always end in a stone wall? Reading books about places I will never go? Writing essays that will never be published? Keeping correspondence with a friend I will never see again? 

What is the point of a life where your voice is silenced at every turn? A life where you must whisper. Where you are not even allowed to show emotion? A paper doll." 

Eventually though, Kartini recovers her spirit and determination and with the information from Lesty about the Pirate Queen, she is able to help Uka and Yanti in a way that offers them another choice than remaining as maids. 

And Kartini finally confronts her father because she questions "...who has the right to give or take away dreams? Surely no one has the power to do this, even your own parents."  When she approaches her father who is sitting with Ma in her pavillion, Kartini tells him that perhaps Ma had dreams beyond her room, that she dreams of being a writer, and Rukmini dreams of being an artist. Kartini asks her father if he wants his daughters to be on their knees for their entire lives, or to be a second or third wife. She explains that by allowing them an education he has given them glimpse of lives they can never have. Instead they are placed in a cage and expected to forgo any dreams they might have for their lives.

In 1895 Kartini has her essay published on gamelan music and her father, proud of her accomplishment and recognizing her determination, understands things are changing and that they must change too. He tells Kartini and her sisters, "I believe intelligent men...must honor what is past, but also prepare for what lies ahead. And when necessary, make changes to keep in step with the times."  He agrees to allow his daughters to make their own choice to uphold the tradition of Raden Ayu. And he also grants her permission to attend the Governor General's reception as the first step to her freedom.

The novel's title Seabird is a reference to the white seabird which represents freedom. Kartini's family compound contains hanging cages holding birds.  One evening, Kartini sees a blue and yellow colored bird in its bamboo cage and she wants to open it and set it free. "I want to open the cage and set it free. Why should it be a prisoner here, its only purpose to provide us with its morning song. It's a cruel practic and I feel the creature's fate deeply in my gut...I know that if I were to let it out, it would not survive. It knows nothing of living in the wild. It is a fragile thing that is fed and pampered and only kept so we might look at it and think it pretty and delight in its song."  In the bird, Kartini sees a reflection of herself, also caged, her only purpose to be the wife of a man. And like the bird, if she stays in the cage long enough, she too will not be able to live outside her cage, because she will know nothing of the outside world. 

Kartini's struggle for independence mirrors her own country's struggle for independence from their Dutch colonizers. Her friend Lesty reflects the change that is beginning to happen in Europe regarding the colonies. At first Lesty is upset when she is called a "slaver" for being part of the Dutch who lived in Java. In her letter to Kartini, Lesty states that slavery has been abolished and that their maid, Larni was not a slave but a paid servant. However, Kartini responds that while "...slavery was abolished years ago, but that doesn't mean my people are not still enslaved to the Dutch. It is the Dutch who still control our land. And all the rules are governed by them. But it is the javanese locals who must build the roads, bridges, and railroads for which they receive nothing.The local farmers are left with very little for their hard work and must pay high taxes to the Dutch for their crops.The wealth of our land is stripped from us." Although Lesty has written that the two girls are equals, Kartini asks her to consider if this is really true. It is when Lesty attends the International Colonial and Export Exhibit to display colonial trade, that she begins to understand the situation from the Javanese perspective. The Javanese exhibit leads Lesty to explain to her father, "The Javanese are not curiosities to be stared at, like these things behind glass...This show of riches taken from their soil -- it makes me sick to see us claim it as our own when the truth is that it is all stolen." For Lesty, the people taken without their parents or family's permission to the exhibition and displayed is like placing them in a zoo to be viewed. It is a sign that the peoples of Europe are beginning to see the countries they have "colonized" in a different way, not as objects to be used but as human beings with a right to self-determination. This would take many more decades to become the reality.

Seabird is a short novel about an important women's rights advocate that most readers will not be familiar with. Kartini is proof that young girls can and do have a voice and the power to effect change. Kadarusman has included a portrait of Kartini and a short biographical note, About Kartini. There is also a note, About the Dutch Colonial rule in Indonesia, and one on Human Zoos. A map showing the location of the Dutch West Indies as it existed in the late 1890s would have been helpful. Well-written, engaging, with an attractive cover, and a must-read for readers of all ages.

Book Details:

Seabird by Michelle Kadarusman

Toronto: Pajama Press Inc.     2025

199 pp.

A Storm Unleashed by Carol Matas

Twelve-year-old Marianne (Mia) Kaufmann lives in Berlin with her father, Dr. Adam Kaufman who is a Jewish veterinarian who owns his own clinic.  Mia's mother Johanna died from an infection she contracted shortly after Mia was born. Mia's parents met when her father was attending to the animals on her mother's family's farm. This farm is where Mia's mother's parents -- that is Mia's Oma and Opa still live. Ever since her mother's death, Mia's Auntie Lil, who is her mother's sister, has been coming into the city from Monday to Friday to keep house and make lunch and dinners. She returns to the family farm on the weekends to help Opa with the chores.

The novel opens on May 3, 1935.  Mia is sitting on a park bench in the afternoon observing birds. Beside her is her beloved Max, her German shepherd. Mia has just noted a common redstart when a girl in the unifrom of the League of German Girls approaches her and demands that she give Max to her. Quickly Mia puts her notebook into her backpack and bolts down the street with the girl in pursuit. After slipping through the lobby of a nearby apartment building, Mia makes for the train station and boards the train that will take her to Oma and Opa's farm. She needs to get away from Berlin as fast as possible to save Max. Mia remembers that her father gave her Max because of what happened two years earlier in 1933.

At that time, Hitler had been appointed Chancellor only three months ago, and his Nazi party is now in power in Germany. Mia had not attended school that day, April 1st because of a headache and was allowed to accompany her father to his veterinarian clinic. But as they were going downstairs they met her friend, Sam Landenberg whose parents own a sweet shop. Mia decided to go with Sam to his family's sweet shop and while there they hear the breaking of glass coming from Herr Schwatz's hardware store next door. With Herr Landenberg leading the way, Mia and Sam found Herr Schwartz on the ground, bleeding after having been attacked by men in brown uniforms. The men paint Jewish stars on the sweets shop and stand outside with signs urging customers not to buy from Jewish shops. Sam was angry at Mia whom he accuses of not paying attention to what has been happening in Germany. 

As Mia's friend Sam explained, one of the first things Hitler did upon gaining power was to start a trade war with Germany's neighbours, Denmark and Sweden, placing taxes on good coming from those countries. This had affected the Germany economy but Hitler and the Nazis blamed the Jewish population for the poor economy.  While the other customers in the shop believe this will pass, Sam doesn't think so. Mia tries to go back to her books and her birds but two weeks later, something else happened.

It was her father's birthday. Mia, her Auntie Lil and her friends, Frieda Liebermann and Sam bake a lemon cake for her father but instead of her friends being allowed to stay, Auntie Lil asks them to leave. On that day her father arrives home with a German shepherd puppy whom Mia names Max. Mia began to train Max immediately and soon she and Max were inseperable.

Mia and Max arrive at Oma and Opa's farm which was built in 1790. The farm consists of a large, two-storey farmhouse, "...a large barn, a pig shed, a chicken coop surrounded by fencing to keep out the foxes and  a stable for the horses. There is also a granary and a hay shed." Mia tells Oma and Opa what happened and they immediately phone her home to let Auntie Lil know what has happened. Mia questions Oma as to whether she should have stood up to the Nazi girl, but Oma tells her that the time was during the election but the people chose differently. Opa sends Mia out to tend to the chickens and afterwards she takes Bertha out for a ride and then brushes the horse down. When Mia returns to the farmhouse, her father and Auntie Lil have arrived. Although Mia feels frightened to return to their home in Berlin, her father suggests that she simply avoid the park where she encountered the Nazi girl.

Mia returns to her public school. Things are very different with the Nazis in power: they have passed the Law Against Overcrowding which has resulted in many Jewish students leaving the public schools to attend Jewish only schools. Mia once had the highest marks in the class, was asked to help out by the teachers and had a wide circle of friends, but that isn't the case anymore. Her teacher, Frau Koch is a fanatic Nazi and begins every class by having Mia read aloud. This is followed by her humiliating Mia in front of her classmates while teaching the students Nazi propaganda and lies. She tells the class that although Mia is the classic Aryan beauty with her blond hair, blue eyes and round head, she has Jewish filth polluting her blood. Mia begs Rachel, the only other Jewish student in her class not to tell her father because she doesn't want her father to know either.

After school that day, Sam reveals that his family is fleeing to France and that Herr Schwarz and his family are also leaving as the Nazis have taken over their store. On Saturday with Sam now gone, Mia waits for her father for lunch. However when he doesn't show, Mia decides to visit his clinic. At the clinic, Mia is told by a strange man named Herr Fischer that her father is at the dog-training school and will be there all afternoon. Frau Weber, his receptionist, takes Mia to the school in her uncle's luxury car.

At the dog-training school which trains police dogs, Mia is shocked to see her father give the Nazi salute and call one of the men a name. He has her demonstrate teaching a skill in front of an SS officer. When they are at home later, Mia's father tells her that now she is expected to go to the dog-training school every Saturday to help train the dogs. While Mia is excited at this prospect, she is also upset at her father for not telling her about the school. He admits he doesn't know why the training center is so secret but he does reveal that the only reason he has been allowed to keep his clinic and train the dogs is because of his war service.

The next day Mia attends a training session and she watches as the men train the dogs to "bring down". Back at home, Mian and her father further discuss training dogs but also if people can be trained to act and think a certain way.

At school on Monday morning, Frau Koch continues indoctrinating the students about race using Mia as an example and telling a story which she insists proves that some people are "vermin". When Mia attempts to counter her propaganda, she is made to sit in the hallway the rest of the day. This upsets Mia so much that when she is climbing trees with Frieda she wants to let go and deliberately hurt herself. This shocks Frieda who comforts Mia and encourages her not to think this way. The two girls quickly leave the park with Max and go to Frieda's home to avoid the Nazi girl. There they meet Frieda's mother, Dr. Lieberman who was a gynecologist at the Berlin hospital but who now is only allowed to work privately as a midwife. Frieda's father, once a professor of literature now teaches at one of the Jewish schools. Frieda helps Mia get home safely with Max without encountering the Nazi girl.

The night Mia's father talks to her about what happened that day when she was with Frieda. It is at this point that Mia finally tells her father what is happening at the school. This leads to a family meeting at Opa and Oma's farm and Mia's father, grandparents and her Auntie Lil decide that they will tell the school that Mia has suddenly fallen ill with scarlet fever. Since it is almost the end of the school year, she will be recovering at the family farm. It is decided that after the summer, Mia will begin attending Frieda's Jewish school. Despite the sign saying Jews are not welcome in the farming community, Mia's father will come to visit the farm every Sunday. While on the farm, Mia begins training Max to "bring down". It is a skill that will save her and Frieda a few weeks later.

Mia returns to Berlin in August to start at the Jewish school. However, it quickly becomes apparent that the situation for Jews in Berlin is escalating. Mia's family barely escapes being attacked after Hitler's Storm Troopers target a restaurant and Frieda's father is viciously assaulted. It is Frieda and Mia who come up with a brilliant plan that will save both their families and offer them a chance at a new life. But it will require both sacrifice and separation.

Discussion

A Storm Unleashed is a another well-crafted historical fiction novel written by Canadian author Carol Matas. This thoughtful novel explores the events in prewar Germany as it gradually comes under complete control by the Nazis and their dictator Adolf Hitler. 

Carol Matas explains in her Author's Note how she came to write about Hitler's dog army. "...it was an accidental discovery -- while researching another book about the Holocaust I came across an article on Hitler's army of 200,000 dogs. The largest dog-training school was at Grunheide, just outside of Berlin. They trained 2000 dogs at a time. The school pretended to be a training facility for police dogs so that they would not overtly break the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which had imposed a limit of 100,000 dogs on Germany for military purposes. K-9 army units were trained at Grunheide and scattered throughout police units so as not to arouse suspicion." As Matas points out in her note, these dogs are present in almost all books and movies about the Holocaust. In those movies, the Nazi dogs are always shown as very vicious and invoking deep fear. Matas writes that "...without these dogs, the roundups of Jewish people, the train evacuations, even keeping order in the concentrations camps, would not have been possible..." 

The novel is set in prewar Berlin, in the mid 1930's as Hitler begins to establish his grip on Germany. 1935 was a critical year for Hitler as this was the year Hitler began to rearm Germany. He established the Luftwaffe and reintroduced conscription to bring the German army up to half a million men - both breaking the Treaty of Versailles.  Although she states in her Author's Note that she leaves the discussion of how Hitler was able to come to power in Germany, Matas does use several characters to discuss how Hitler has come to power and why people believe what he is telling them. 

At the beginning of the novel, Mia is focused on her books, training Max and her bird watching. Her friend Sam tells Mia, who he considers as not having kept up on the situation in Germany, that Hitler began targeting allies with tariffs on their goods, and when the economy began to slow, he began blaming the Jewish population. Mia believes that because she hasn't been paying attention, she didn't know what to do when she was confronted by the Nazi girl who wanted to take her dog. This event changes Mia, because it forces her to begin thinking about what is happening in Germany.

Mia questions why people elected Hitler and what they were thinking. Her Oma explains, "They weren't really thinking at all...They were feeling something. They were feeling mad and wanted someone to fix everything."  At school, her fanatical teacher Frau Koch teaches the lie that "the Treaty of Versailles was used against Germany, and that Germany was not responsible for the war." which Mia discovers through her own research is simply not true.

As Hitler's control over Germany deepens and his agenda against the Jewish people becomes more organized, Mia believes they should stay and fight but Sam explains why many Jewish people are leaving. "There is no court to turn to because all the judges who stood for the law rather than for Hitler are gone -- fired or resigned or working for the Nazis now. There's no lawyer to hire because all the lawyers who believed in the real laws, not Hitler's laws, are gone -- fired or resigned or working for the Nazis. There's no newspaper that will uncover this story and tell it to its readers because the only papers that are allowed to publish are those that print Nazi propaganda.  So we stay and do what?"

As Mia considers the training happening at the school, she begins to ask questions about whether dogs can be trained to be bad dogs and this leads her to question if people can be trained to bad. Her father tells her that it might be possible to train someone to treat people badly but that a way to tell if something is wrong is that if you don't want to be treated a certain way do not do that to others. This leads Mia to consider the Nazi girl who wants to steal her dog, Max. "Did she choose to believe in the Nazis and their hatred of Jews? Did she choose to be a bully and take what she wanted? Or has she been trained? By her parents? By her classmates? By the newspapers and all the horrible things they print? By teachers like Frau Koch, who every day drums into our heads how noble Nazis are and how vicious Jews are?" Mia considers that if people are similar to dogs and can be trained to believe something. She notes that every day at school they "...are forced to repeat how great Hitler is, how great the Nazis are -- and how terrible the Jews are. When do people stop repeating this and start believing it?"

Once Mia is out of the public school and being taught at her grandparents by her Auntie Lil she comes to realize just  how much propaganda they are being fed at school instead of what really happened in history. "It is an odd feeling knowing a large portion of the country believes things that are simply not true. I can't help but wonder if I also believe things that aren't true. If so, how would I know?" Auntie Lil explains that "People who are curious and look at all sides of an issue are less likely to turn into lemmings who would follow anyone and do anything. People like the Nazis are swept up in a fever, a fervour, a blind obedience."  Mia sees just how far this fervour goes when she and her family and friends are attacked at a restaurant.

The novel also considers just how far one should go in terms of cooperation with evil, to simply protect oneself and those dear to them. Mia learns that two of her Jewish classmates are terrified of Max because it was a German shepherd dog who helped in the arrest of their father who was eventually murdered. This leads her to confront her father and he reveals that he has learned that Hitler is rebuilding Germany's military, likely in preparation for war. 

Matas includes two interesting scenes in her novel. The first is a series of dreams that Mia has involving her dead mother who advises her to trust her father. These two dreams are both puzzling but comforting to Mia. The other interesting scene is her discussion with a rabbi regarding race and how the Nazis have twisted their view of the human race to exclude certain people like the Jews so they can be murdered.

A Storm Unleashed, the title of which is a reference to Hitler training and unleashing trained and vicious army dogs against the German Jews, is well-written and will appeal to young readers who enjoy animal stories and historical fiction. 

When reading this novel it's hard not to think about the parallels between what happened in post-World War I Germany and what is currently happening south of the border in the United States. It's interesting to see how there is an economy to the breakdown of democratic rule. As did Germany in 1933, the United States has also legitimately elected a leader who has promised to make the country prosperous again using an agenda that has been previously described and promoted. It includes focusing the blame on a specific group (illegal immigrants) for many of the country's complex problems, targeting that group with mass roundups, incarceration and no due process, targeting political opponents, the judiciary who may rule against policies and the media who may speak out against them. It includes threatening to annex weaker countries (Panama, Greenland, and Canada), promoting falsehoods about trade, breaking existing treaty agreements and initiating a punishing tariff war with its most faithful allies.  A Storm Unleashed asks young readers to consider how a people can subscribe to ideologies and policies that in the end can have far-reaching national and global effects. It is a question well worth considering and this short novel offers readers that opportunity.

Book Details:

A Storm Unleashed by Carol Matas

Toronto: Scholastic Canada Ltd.      2025

236 pp.

The Voyage That Changed The World by Thekla Priebst

The Voyage That Changed The World tells  the remarkable story of the first crew to sail around the world.

The story begins with a spice called cloves or cengkih. Hundreds of years ago this spice grew only on five islands in the Moluccas, an archipelego located in the Indian Ocean. The Moluccas were known as "the Spice Islands". There, on five islands grew cloves. They were used to give food a distinctive flavour and also to preserve food and in medicines. They grow on tall trees, beginning as small buds. These buds are carefully picked by hand and dried. As they dry they turn from green to brown and the clove buds give off a very distinctive smell, "both sharp and sweet at the same time." 

Cloves along with many other spices eventually made their way to Europe via several maritime trade routes that tracked through East Asia, "through the islands of Indonesia, around India to the Middle East, where they crossed the Mediterraneean to reach the heart of Europe."  There were routes across land too, through Alexandria to Tunisia and on to Genoa, Italy.

Spices had been traded for millennia by "Greek, Roman, Arab, Persian, Indian, Javanese, Malay, and Chinese merchants along natural trade routes that span half the globe."  But in the late fifteenth century, spices became very precious and Europeans decide to find a direct route to the Spice Islands. The two countries most determined to claim the Spice Islands are Spain and Portugal and they choose different routes to explore. Portugal travels east reaching the southern tip of Africa (now called the Cape of Good Hope) in 1488. Spain travels west with Christopher Columbus claiming he had reached India, but actually landing in the Americas in 1492.  

In an attempt to resolve things, the two countries sign the Treaty of Tordesillas. All territories to the west of an imaginary line from the North Pole to the South Pole belong to Spain, while those to the east are claimed by Portugal.  The Portuguese win the race to the Spice Islands with Vasco da Gama reaching India in 1498 and Portuguese gaining control of the city of Malacca in 1511. But the question remains: Where is the dividing line between the poles on this side of the world? Who do the Spice Islands "belong" to?

In September 1519, King Carlos I (also known as Charles V Holy Roman Emperor) approves a Spanish expedition consisting of five ships to "find a passage for Spain through the new continent".  It is led by Fernao de Magalhaes (Ferdinand Magellan), a Portuguese navigator who had travelled twice to India. Among those accompanying Magellan are Juan Sebastian Elcano who is a boatswainand Enrique of Malacca, an interpreter and also Magellan's slave. Magellan as the Captain-General of the expedition is in charge of five ships: San Antonio, Concepcion, Victoria, Santiago, and Trinidad. It is an expedition that will ultimately reach the present day Philippines and . But it will be considered a failure by the Spanish king because Spain cannot lay claim to the Spice Islands. Magellan's calculations have determined that they have crossed the Treaty of Tordesillas line.  The Moluccas lie in territory claimed by the Portuguese! 

An attempt to form alliances and form trade agreements for Spain within the Philippine archipelago go badly when some of the indigenous peoples on the islands do like the Europeans. The ensuing conflict has devastating consequences for Magellan the remaining crew of his expedition.

Discussion

The Voyage That Changed The World is an engaging and informative account of the expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan to find a route to the Spice Islands. Magellan was generally considered to be the first to circumnavigate the globe but in fact that is not considered likely not to be true. He was murdered after attacking the Indigenous peoples on Cebu and never completed his voyage.

Author Thekla Priebst first presents the background story behind the desire to find a route to East Asia - spices! The driving force was the desire of Europeans to obtain the spices directly rather than through traders who brought the spices to Europe. At that time, knowledge of far off lands was very limited and the desire to explore was also a factor. From this point on, the focus is on the Magellan expedition and the main players in the expedition, the organization of the ships and crew are well explained. 

Besides telling the story of Magellan's expedition, Priebst also provides her readers with a wealth of information about topics related to the expedition. For example, there are separate features throughout the book on the various indigenous peoples Magellan and his crew encounterd: the Tupinabi on the eastern coast of Brazil, the Tehuelche of Patagonia, the peoples of Tierra del Fuego, Polynesian seafarers, and the CHamoru of the Marianas.

Throughout this account, the author explains how the Europeans of the late fifteenth century viewed their world and their place in it. The Doctrine of Discovery was an important part of this view - it was the belief that explorers could claim as their own, land that was already inhabited by people with their own language and culture. This belief would have far-reaching consequences for the indigenous peoples the Europeans encountered, consequences that are still felt today.

European explorers like Magellan did not respect the people they encountered. For example, Magellan wanted to bring back to Spain two Tehuelche men to prove they actually existed. However the Tehuelche were not willing to leave their land and so Magellan tricked them into boarding his ship and then imprisoned them. These men did not survive the journey to Spain. As Priebst writes, "...they saw the people they were encountering as items of interest rather than fellow human beings."

It was Magellan's attempts to create an alliance with the King of Cebu in April of 1521 that led to his murder. On a neighbouring island of Mactan, Datu Lapulapu rebelled against the Europeans and their influence. In an attempt to punish Lapulapu, Magellan attacked Mactan, believing he could easily subdue them, only to be killed during the battle on April 27, 1521.

For centuries Magellan was believed to have been the first to circumnavigate the globe however, historians now belief that honor may actually go to his slave and interpreter, Enrique. Magellan bought Enrique in 1511 and on Magellan's voyage, he travelled far enough to return to the land where his native language was spoken. 

The Voyage That Changed The World is filled with colourful and informative artwork, created digitally, and includes maps, charts and other graphics. Among the most compelling are two graphics whosing the number of men who began the expedition (240) and the number of surviving sailors who made it home to Spain (18). 

For those interested in the age of explorers, The Voyage That Changed The World is a must read! 

Image credit: Molucca map https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maluku_Islands_en.png

Book Details:

The Voyage That Changed The World by Thekla Priebst
Beverly, MA:  Wide Eye Editions     2025

79 pp.

Freedom Seeker by Ruchira Gupta

Twelve-year-old Simran (Simi) Singh lives in Northern India with her mother, Henna Ali (Ammi) who is Muslim and her father Gurbeer Singh (Abbu) who is Hindu/Sikh. Ammi is a nurse while her father works on the family's farm. He was once a champion field hockey player. Simi loves field hockey. Her best friends are Ravi who is always late with his homework and Reena. 

Miss Sharma announces that Simi has been chosen to be captain of their middle school field hockey team. While Ravi and Reena offer their congratulations, Ashok who is one of Simi's classmates sends her a paper airplane telling her to leave. But Simi is determined not to let his threat get to her. Simi's team will play in the All-India National Youth Gold Cup in Delhi later in the year.

Their family's Eid celebration is marred when a rock crashes through their livingroom window. Simi sees a car with the bumper sticker, COMBAM race off. The rock is wrapped in a piece of white paper that reads, "Cancel marriage between Sikh men and Muslim women. Sikh and Hindu men are being lured to Islam with marriage. We will punish you. Go home, beef eaters."  Dadu (Gurdeep's father) believes that this intolerance will pass but Nanaji (Ammi's father) wonders if it will.

Simi recalls when a group of boys called her "Mozzy" and taunted her with "Mozzy daughter" and told her to go to her country. Ammi explains that a group called COMBAM which stands for Committee to Ban Marriages to Muslims, are against interfaith marriages. They want to "cleanse" India of Muslims.

At school the harrassment continues with a note on Simi's locker that reads "Go home, Captain Simi."  As coach of the hockey team and a leader, Simi has to be careful how she responds to these taunts. "Coach says a team leader has to be positive, thoughtful, and show no fear." At their field hockey practice, Simi gets pushback from Ashok and his friends who seem to be ignoring her. At a second practice, Simi confronts Ashok who tells her, "Your parents aren't legally married...Sikhs and Muslims can't marry." Ashok tells Simi that her mother "...isn't a real Indian" and that they should move to Pakistan. but Simi retorts that her mother's family goes back seven generations in their town. 

As Ashok continues to ignore Simi she decides to ignore him. She eventually challenges him to either participate or step aside. When he does what she wants, Simi praises him. The following week there are pamphlets on their doorstep from the Brotherhood for Justice - a political party. The three men come to the house and are taken into the livingroom by Dadi (Simi's father's mother). The men question Dadu and Dadi if there is a Muslim living in the house and if they have beef in the fridge. Simi realizes that the men want to know if her mother - a Muslim lives there.

That night Simi overhears her parents and her father's parents discussing what is happening. Dadu advises that Gurdeep, Henna, and Simi should seriously consider leaving India. They suggest going to America where Gurdeep's cousin, Kuldeep works as a taxi driver in New York. Later at her mother's parent's home, Simi questions them about her parent's marraige and how to change people's minds. They advise her to always act with respect and love.

At the school gate on Monday, two men are handing out flyers that state, "Preserve Pure Indian Genes"  Simi sees Ashok with the flyers stuck in her back pocket, leading her to doubt that she is having any impact on him. In an attempt to change the minds of the men handing out the flyers, Simi, Ravi, and Reena order samosas and jalebis for them at their construction site. After giving the men ten minutes to eat the snacks, they had the men flyers which explain the snacks were made by an Indian Muslim and that India's culture is richer for the Muslims.

But when Simi arrives home she learns that Abbu was attacked at the farm by men from COMBAM. He was badly beaten and his knees smashed. He was rescued by the farm workers and taken to hospital. After surgery on his knees, it takes over a month for him to heal. To pay for his surgery, Simi's family must give up part of the farm. Over the next few months the electricity is cut off and Dadi sees one of her gold necklaces.

They learn that more families have been attacked and there are rallies by the Brotherhood for Justice. Simi's family decidee that Gurbeer will go first to America and then Simi and Henna will follow. However, the U.S. denies Gurbeer's visa application. Nanaji tells Gurbeer that somehow he must leave the country because the situation in escalating. Interfaith couples are being targeted and some interfaith marriages are being prevented. He tells Gurbeer he will have to pay a smuggler to get him into America legally. 

The final plan is for Abbu to fly to Mexico via Spain and then smugglers take him across the US-Mexico border. Five days after leaving India, Abbu calls and tells them he is now with his cousin Kuldeer in New York.  With the help of a lawyer, Abbu will apply for visas for Henna and Simi to ger political asylum.

Then the Brotherhood wins a local election, meaning they can do what they want. For days the Brotherhood and COMBAM celebrate. After school one day, Simi is accosted by four boys, one of which is Ashok. However, he tries to stop the boys and eventually does protect Simi. Ashok asks if she is okay and Simi tells him if she isn't around to lead the team in Delhi, to remember to lead by example.

Abbu's petition for their visas is rejected. Nanaji tells Henna to go to the travel agent to pay for their way to America. Two weeks later, Ammi and Simi leave India for America. It will be a journey much more arduous than that of Abbu and Simi will face challenges that will change her forever.

Discussion

Freedom Seeker is a story that tackles the subject of religious intolerance in India, refugees, and illegal immigration in America. The novel is divided into three parts: 1 Fear and Flight, 2 Loss and Longing, and 3 Rescue and Reunion. The front matter contains a map showing Simi's journey.

The main premise of the novel is that Simi and her family are facing discrimination because of her parents interfaith marriage: Henna is Muslim while Gurdeep is Hindu. In the novel, the fictional group Brotherhood for Justice is seeking to outlaw such marriages and are harrassing and attacking interfaith families. When the Brotherhood for Justice wins the local election, this supposedly gives them the freedom to further their agenda against interfaith marriages. It should be noted that while there is no such group in India most Indians do not support interfaith marriage, believing it is better to marry within their own religious community. This various across regions, educational levels and even religious faiths. Laws now forbid brides or grooms from converting to their spouse's religion. This has resulted in attacks on couples in interfaith marriages. Hindus in particular are very much against interfaith marriages. The religious intolerance that Simi and her family are experiencing is a reality for those few interfaith families who do live in India. An Author's Note at the back of the novel providing some information on the situation in India might have been helpful to put the story within a proper context for younger readers. 

Simi's coach does not deal with Ashok and his friends, as they harrass and make life difficult for Simi. He doesn't step in to remind Ashok that his behaviour is unacceptable and poor sportsmanship. Simi tells her coach that it doesn't seem to be about her abilities but "...about who I am, where I come from." He reminds her that it is "about proving to yourself that you can rise above it, that you are more than their narrow views." Eventually Simi does get through to Ashok, so the coach's strategy does work. But it is also putting the responsibility on a young girl to deal with what might have become a more serious situation, given the growing intolerance. It does seem though that Simi's focus on drawing Ashok into the game he loves helps him see her differently. He does protect Simi when she is attacked by a group of boys.

It is also interesting that school officials do not act on the men who are passing out flyers just outside the school gates, making the situation for the students stressful. And when Abbu is badly beaten, Simi's family does not report his assault to the police. If they do, there seems to be no action by the police to apprehend those responsible. It would appear that this inaction by school officials, police and the community at large are the reason Simi and her family have no choice but to leave.

Ruchira Gupta seems to present a very balanced view of the illegal immigrant experience in the United States. Although there is no mention of who is leading the United States, readers are told that things have drastically changed in the weeks since Abbu illegally entered the country. The area where he crossed is now blocked by a high wall "...made of tall iron spikes wrapped with four barbed wire rolls on both sides."  As with many illegal immigrants, Simi and her mother and the people they are with must risk crossing the Sonora Desert in Arizona. Eventually Simi and Ammi become separated as often happens with the children of refugees. 

The novel portrays the difficulties illegal immigrants face in relocating loved ones and difficulties immigration officials experience in dealing with so many immigrants with such varied circumstances. Children become separated from family. There are cold cages where the children are placed initially and later on at Casa Phoenix, a slightly better situation but many rules. There are some very good people who help Simi such as Pablo who plays games with the children, the woman Coast Guard volunteer who promises to try to find out about Simi's mother, Sophia who is Simi's counselor, and Rini Pose the journalist who manages to reunite Simi with her parents. Then there are others like Paul, Simi's case manager who seems indifferent and overwhelmed.  

The novel also incorporates a few characters from various countries in order to portray the variety of people who take desperate risks to enter the United States illegally in search of safety and a better life. For Simi and her family it is because of persecution in their home country. For others like Jose, who is from San Pedro Sula in Honduras, it is the threat of gangs who run the city. 

In Simi Singh, Ruchira Gupta has crafted an intelligent and resourceful character. Instead of fighting with Ashok, she manages to open  who is determined to locate her missing mother. She decides to use her ability to write and speak English to enlist the help of an Indian woman reporter.  This resourceful move, expedites Simi's case and helps locate her mother and reunite their family. The novel ends on a very hopeful and positive tone with many people coming together to get Ammi to New York and to her family.

Freedom Seeker is a timely novel about illegal immigrants and the struggles they face, offering hope in spite of so many obstacles and challenges.

Book Details:

Freedom Seeker by Ruchira Gupta
Scholastic Press      2025
298 pp.

Fitting Indian by Jyoti Chand

Sixteen-year-old Nitasha Gupta lives with her mother and father and her older brother Shaan in Southern California. Her family is East Indian. Nitasha hates the constant smell of tumeric and garam masala in her hair and on her clothing. Her mother is always on the phone to her sisters or yelling at Nitasha. She resents her parents always telling her to say "haanji like an obedient India robot." They don't seem to like her having an opinion and want her to study to become a doctor. Like her brother, Shaan. He has the perfect job and is "Perfectly engaged to a perfect Indian lawyer." His fiance is Karishma.

Nitasha wants to work but her father tells her to focus on her studies, while her mother tells her "Young girls don't go to work." However, Shaan worked in high school. 

Nitasha and her family attend Arya Samaj every Sunday. Nitasha knows it is not good to drink at a religious ceremony but she gets small bottles of alcohol from her friend Ava's house. The havan or ritual is led by Nitasha's paternal grandmother. She lived with Nitasha's family but left when Nitasha was four-years-old after a fight with her mother. At this week's havan, Nitasha meets Nick whom she's known all her life. He was Nitasha's first and only boyfriend and her first and only kiss. However when her father found a love letter she wrote Nick, he took her for a drive and emphatically reminded her no boyfriends, and no love letters. But Nitasha is determined they will not choose her husband. There is much Nitasha doesn't understand including arranged marriages, calculus, Hinduism. But she does like Arya Samja.

Nitasha is worried because she doesn't have a date for homecoming. Her best friend, Ava has had many boyfriends. She's going to homecoming with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Dylan. Nitasha wishes her mom was like Ava's mom who lets her do what she wants. But Ava doesn't really know Nitasha, that she wishes she was "hot. Blonde, Skinny, tall, pretty." Nitasha asks Ava to help her dye her hair blonde.

After an confrontation with her mother over her phone, Nitasha cuts herself. She lies to her parents, telling them she's tutoring Ava in AP Chemistry. Instead, they go to Ava's new friend Chloe's home where they do a makeover of Nitasha, dyeing her hair blonde. Chloe and Ava discuss losing their virginity, but Nitasha isn't interested in this aspect of Henry, a boy she likes. She tells Ava and Chloe "there's so much more to him."

At the party at Jack's house, Nitasha drinks so many shots of tequila that she is sick and at the Samja the next day doesn't feel well. While talking with Nick outside the Samja, Nitasha reveals that her grandma hates her mother therefore her and that although she loves her dad, he doesn't stand up to his mother.

In Nitasha's ceramics class, her teachers notices Nitasha's cuts on her arms. She asks if Nitasha is alright but Nitasha makes the excuse that she cut herself on the laundry basket. The teacher reminds Nitasha that she is always welcome to come to the art room during lunch hour. During lunch, Henry who just flirted with another girl, approaches Nitasha to ask her to help tutor him in biology. He flirts with her too. What Nitasha doesn't realize is that Henry likes Chloe.

That night while Ava is over, Nitasha learns that Henry has asked Chloe to homecoming. This devastates Nitasha especially when she realizes that her friend knew Henry was not really interested in her. This situation leads to Nitasha drinking and cutting.

Nick's family comes over for dinner and while their parents gossip, Nick and Nitasha talk about her missing homecoming. When they kiss, Nick realizes that Nitasha has been drinking and questions her. Nick's father has been in recovery for six years and he's concerned that Nitasha is drinking alone. She reveals that she was sad because of what happened between her and Ava, and Chloe and Henry. Just then Nitasha gets a text from Ava asking her to come to the afterparty.

The afterparty turns into a disaster for Nitasha, leading to devastating consequences. Nick and Nitasha attend the afterparty at Henry's home. However to do so, Nitasha lies to her mom, telling her they are going to get Froyo. Nick says they might check out the new Hindi movie afterwards. They arrive at the afterparty and dance together. Ava comes over and apologizes to Nitasha and the two girls begin drinking shots.  After doing four shots Nitasha wants to dance but Nick wants to leave. Ava promises to get Nitasha home safely and Nick leaves. With Nick gone, Nitasha takes Henry upstairs but he's not really interested in what she has in mind. Very drunk, Nitasha begins undressing and dancing on his bed. It is at this point that Chloe enters the room and is furious. She takes a video of Nitasha dancing on the bed and leaves vowing to get revenge.

The next morning at Ava's house, Nitasha is sick and gets and angry phone call from her parents telling her to come home immediately.  Ava tells Nitasha that Henry is worried about her and that Chloe is furious at finding her with Henry. While they talk, Ava discovers that Nitasha is cutting herself and questions her as to why she does this. Ava asks Nitasha why as best friends, she's been lying to her. She begs Nitasha to stop hurting herself and Nitasha promises to stop if she won't tell anyone.

At home, Nitasha's family is angry with her as they had no idea where she was. Her father brings her something to eat and tells her "This is not how Indian girls behave." When Nitasha argues with him, he tells her that she can't behave like American girls.

At school, things quickly unravel for Nitasha. When she goes to apologize to Chloe, she angrily tells Nitasha, "I'm going to make sure you go down for this." Chloe posts the video she took of Nitasha in Henry's room and it quickly garners millions of views. When Ava expresses surprise at Chloe, she responds, "Who cares? She has cuts on her arms and thighs that you can't see on the video. She's legit psycho."  Nick picks Nitasha up from school and expresses remorse about leaving her there but he explains that because of his father's alcoholism, he can't be around alcohol like that.

Twenty-four hours later, Shaan has seen the video and angrily confronts Nitasha. He tells her this can have consequences far into the future for her as colleges Google applicants. Soon the consequences spiral out of control as the video spreads. There is a magazine feature with the video about teens and drinking. Nitasha's parents learn of the video and are furious with her. Her Ama slaps her in the face and Shaan states that Karishma's parents have seen the video and want to break off the engagement. Ama ji screams that Nitasha's parents are at fault for giving birth to her and she tells them they are no longer welcome at her Samaj. Then Nitasha's father disowns her and her mother cries that she has ruined their name. In an act of utter despair and wanting to feel nother, Nitasha cuts, drinks and then overdoses on pills.

But this desperate act opens the door to self-discovery, revelation and healing both for Nitasha, her mother and others in their South Asian community.

Discusion

Fitting Indian is a graphic novel that explores the struggles first generation Indian-Americans encounter growing up and how parental and cultural expectations can sometimes be overwhelming. The author, Jyoti Chand states in her Acknowledgements that many of the events in the novel were inspired by her own life events.  She "deeply struggled" with her mental health as a teenager and eventually was able to also overcome issues with acohol consumption. Chand writes that although this is Nitasha's story "...it's also familiar to so many of us-young South Asian women who were put into a box too early in life and told how life should play out. Many of us struggled and still struggle silently, and some of us were lucky enough to have second chances to live a more fulfilling life."

Nitasha Gupta is a first generation East Indian teen girl who struggles under the weight of her cultural expectations. "Good Indian girls" do not work, they do not have boyfriends, and especially do not write love letters. However, it seems the same expectations are not placed on her brother Shaan who was allowed to work in high school. This cultural expectation likely revolves around the East Asian culture of arranged marriages in which families scout for good marriage prospects for their daughters and sons. A girl who works or has had boyfriends may be considered difficult or unsuitable as a prospective bride and there are many expectations placed on young Asian women. However, Nitasha doesn't want her parents to choose her husband. She wants to make her own choice. She wants to date, to attend homecoming, prom and have a boyfriend.

Nitasha is also dealing with parental expectations. She loves her ceramics class and wants to be an artist but her parents envision her going to medical school to become a doctor like her older brother Shaan. These expectations place enormous stress on Nitasha at a time when she is struggling to understand herself and determine what she wants in life as she enters adulthood. These pressures lead to Nitasha drinking and to cutting as ways to deal with her pain and her lack of voice. She is pushed over the edge when a video of her intoxicated and partially undressed goes viral, causing her embarrassment and shame for her parents.

Through the character of Dr. Baizley, Jyoti Chand offers some perspective on mental illness in the  Asian community. She points out to Nitasha that there is a stigma around mental health issues in some cultures, in this case Asian and South Asian communities. Nitasha points out that her aunt is bipolar but that no one in her family acknowledges her illness nor talks about it. And as Nitasha journeys through counselling and group therapy it is revealed that Nitasha's mother also attempted to take her own life  many years earlier. No one spoke about what happened, the silence and secrecy influencing the Gupta family dynamics. The unresolved issues led to continued conflict between Nitasha's mother Sunita and her mother-in-law that eventually began to affect Nitasha as well. 

When Nitasha and Shaan's father is hospitalized with high blood pressure, Shaan reveals that he found their mother when he was fourteen years old. He tells Nitasha, "The only thing I kept thinking was that she didn't love me anymore. Like, why would she do that if she loved me?"  However, when he found Nitasha, he has realized that it has nothing to do with him but that his mother was in pain.

Nitasha's struggles lead her to confront her family's attitudes towards mental illness but also those of the her South Asian community. With the help of Shaan's fiance Karishma, Nitasha arranges for one of Karishma's friends, who is a therapist to begin offering group therapy at their Samaj. Nitasha stands up to her grandmother who doesn't want this to happen.

The novel ends on a very upbeat, happy tone. Karishma's family allows the engagement to Shaan to proceed. Nitasha's parents both stand up to Ama jji. Her father sees the letter Nitasha wrote him and realizes that he has been very harsh with his daughter. He stands up to his mother, protecting both Sunita and Nitasha.Nitasha comes to recognize that her parents really do love her. Nitasha does receive an apology from Chloe for what she did. Nitasha tells Chloe she hopes she's learned her lesson. Readers learn that Chloe was bullied at her last school and in an effort to fit in at Nitasha's school she herself became a bully. Although Henry asks her to prom, Nitasha takes the lead and asks Nick. 

Chand uses the motif of the lotus flower to show how Nitasha is like the lotus. Her mother explains "A lotus lives in the murkiest waters yet remains clean and beautiful. It is always pure regardless of what comes its way. The lotus flower always rises above." She reminds Nitasha, "I want you to remember  that, no matter how muddy things get around you, be like the lotus and keep reemerging more beautiful each and every time."  This is a message all readers can take to heart in times of struggle.

Book Details:

Fitting Indian by Jyoti Chand

New York: Harper Alley    2025

The Blossoming Summer by Anna Rose Johnson

It is 1940 and the Germans have invaded France and the Low Countries (Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg - neutral countries). Thirteen-year-old Rosemary Rivers lives with her mother's older brother, Uncle John and his wife, Aunt Katie Alexandra in London, England. On this night Rosemary can hear them talking through the floorboards of her upstairs bedroom. She learns that her father and mother are planning to come get Rosemary and take her and her two brothers back to America. This is happening just when her father has found steady work in a munitions plant and her mother is also working in Manchester.

Rosemary's parents, Leslie and Louise came to England several years ago. Her father lost his job and was unable to find work in Eastbourne. In London he had one temporary job after another, so Rosemary's mother left to find work. This meant that Rosemary and her brothers, Kenneth and Patrick had to be separated. Uncle John and Aunt Katie Alexandra took in Rosemary but were unable to take in her brothers as well. So Patrick went to stay with a minister friend of the family in Birmingham, while Kenneth was sent to live on the coast near Liverpool with Uncle Stephen. Listening to her aunt and uncle Rosemary learns that her father plans to live with his mother, Charlotte Rivers, whom he doesn't get along with. Rosemary has never met Grandmother Charlotte but she's hoping that she can help keep the peace between her father and her grandmother.

Rosemary is told the next day by her aunt and uncle about this plan and that her parents will be arriving in a fortnight. They will be travelling by ship, the cost of the tickets being paid by Grandmother Charlotte and they will be living on her farm in Wisconsin. Her aunt and uncle caution Rosemary not to get her hopes up as her father doesn't get along with his mother. Rosemary is determined to be the peacemaker between her father and Grandmother Charlotte. Rosemary lets her best friend Beryl know about her leaving for America and promises to write. 

Rosemary's parents and her brothers, Patrick now eleven years old and Kenneth now eight years old, arrive at Uncle John's home. Rosemary is shocked at the difference in her brothers, who she hasn't seen in three years but she is thrilled to see her parents. They leave the next day taking the triain to the port, then travel by boat across the Atlantic. They arrive in Canada, sail past Quebec City and Montreal, across Lake Ontario to Rochester, New York where they disembark. They then travel by train to Chicago, Green Bay and then on to Rhineland in Wisconsin. There Rosemary's father manages to buy an old car and they drive to Hazen and to his mother's home.

Rosemary and her family are shocked when they see Grandmother Charlotte's home. The home is "...the most majestic house she'd ever seen." It has three stories, with large pillars and is surrounded by a field of wildflowers. It was like the house Rosemary had imagined in her secret world she'd named "Paradise". In "Paradise", Rosemary had imagined "...a grand white house..." and "...a glorious place of colorful flowers growing in happy profusion, and of orchards dotted with blossoming trees."  Rosemary's father tells them that it was a resort until recently and that is overlooks North Hackley Lake, with ten or fifteen cottages that his father had built.

After meeting Grandmother Charlotte, they are introduced to Aunt Ann who was married to Rosemary's father's late brother James, and her daughter Corinne. Corinne is not friendly and warns Rosemary they won't be friends. The next morning Rosemary makes an astonishing discovery - a beautiful garden of flowers behind the house. Worried that grandmother might be upset at her presence in the garden, Rosemary races back to the gate only to find it won't open. That is until a boy helps her. She learns that the boy is Jacob Parker, the son of the Grandmother Charlotte's maid. He works tending the garden and the grounds. Jacob refers to Rosemary's grandmother as Mrs. Riviere, leading Rosemary to confront her parents and grandmother about her heritage. Her father tells his mother that he used the name Rivers because of the prejudice he has experienced. It is Grandmother Charlotte who reveals to Rosemary that she is Indian and French.

Her father explains that he was also afraid of the prejudice they might experience in England, especially with what is going on in Europe with Nazi Germany. However, Rosemary doesn't accept her father's explanation that they never talk about her mother's family because in fact she knows that her mother is English and Irish and knows other information as well.

On a surprise shopping trip to buy new clothes for Rosemary, Grandmother Charlotte asks her to help her with the garden so that she can win all the blue ribbons at the upcoming fall fair in August. Grandmother also reveals to Rosemary more about her Indian heritage: Charlotte's mother was a full-blooded Ojibwe, while her father was a Scotsman who was also French-Indian. Charlotte explains that she is Ojibwe Anishinaabe, descended from people who lived on the land in Wisconsin and Michigan and who understood the animals and the plants. She also explains that her husband (Rosemary's grandfather) was wealthy from the fur trade but when that money ran out, he opened the Indian resort. While Grandmother Charlotte and her son James were interested in carrying on their cultural traditions, Leslie, Rosemary's father was not because of the prejudice he experienced. 

 However her father's ongoing struggle to find work causes Rosemary to worry that once again her family will be forced to move and be separated.  Grandmother Charlotte however has her own plan, one that will make Rosemary's dream of Paradise come true.

Discussion

The Blossoming Summer is a sweet middle-grade novel about life in America at the beginning of World War II. 

The story is told by thirteen-year-old Rosemary Riviere who wants nothing more than the reuniting of her parents, her brothers and herself and for them to become a loving family once more. Rosemary is so desperate for this to happen that she had created for herself, an imaginary home which she calls Paradise. Paradise "...was a glorious place of colorful flowers growing in happy profusion, and of orchards dotted with blossoming trees...A grand white house that sheltered its family from the rain and wind and welcomed newcomers on bright summer days. It winked it eyes in the blizzards of December and kept fires burning in its hearths during January; it shone like chine in the June sun, and its lawns turned green as a parakeet's plummage in August...She also liked to imagine the family inside the Paradise house...there was a mother, a father, and three young children, and they were a remarkably special family. They never quarreled, and they always did things together, having a marvelous time..."

Rosemary's ideal family is unrealistic and reflects how desperately she misses her family and longs for a real home. It's not that her Uncle John and Aunt Katie Alexandra do not love her, but they are not her parents. It's clear the separation from her parents and her brothers has deeply hurt her. So when she learns that her parents  are reuniting their family and moving to America, Rosemary is hopeful and determined to make sure they stay together. 

Rosemary quickly recognizes that the reunion of her family may not be what she thought it would be. When her parents and younger brothers arrive at her Uncle John's Rosemary is shocked at how changed her brothers are. At dinner she notes that it is evident her parents have lived apart where one parent would mention something that the other parent did not know about. It was these "one-sided memories" that each parent brought up that was disconcerting. Later that night she reflects: "They were togerher, and yet...And yet, look at them. Perfect strangers in some ways. Still a family, but sundered, somehow, missing something. Kenneth, for example, barely knew her -- and worse still, he didn't even seem to care about her." She also notes considerable change in her parents: "Dad and Mum had changed a great deal since their last visit five months ago. Mum was now slim and lithe, almost too much so, and her eyes were limpid and sad...Dad's dark hair was grayer, and the scar on his cheek stood out more than it used to. He mostly spoke in bursts -- declarations and exclamations -- before growing silent again."

A hint of the revelation to come occurs on the Atlantic crossing when Rosemary is looking through her mother's scrapbook and finds her father's passport. His name is listed as Leslie Joseph Riviere instead of Rivers as is her surname. Rosemary believes the passport is incorrect. However, she learns from her grandmother that in fact, the name is correct and that she is of Ojibwe heritage. 

On a shopping outing, Grandmother Charlotte tells Rosemary that if she wins the blue ribbon prizes at the local fair, she will lease her father land to build a home on. To Rosemary, this feels like a dream come true, since her grandmother's home and land feel so close to the "Paradise" she's been dreaming of. In reality, adult readers will suspect Charlotte's true motives since Leslie Rivier is Charlotte's only surviving adult heir and it's likely her land would pass to him anyways. But as it happens, Charlotte's plan is to help her son recognize the beauty of his Indian heritage and the land he is tied to, and give his family a second chance to restart their lives after so much struggle and separation.She not only achieves this end but in the process helps to rebuild the bonds between Rosemary and her brothers, between the children and their parents and between Leslie and Louise, as well as between Charlotte and her estranged son Leslie. Grandmother Charlotte also begins to pass on her knowledge of the land and her Ojibwe culture and language to her granddaughter, thus reclaiming what her son Leslie rejected. 

When Grandmother Charlotte doesn't win the ribbons she wanted, Rosemary believes she failed. She tells her parents, "I thought I had to be the one...The one to -- manage everything, to make things work. I didn't think anyone else could. I was sure that if I could just make everything perfect -- a kind of Paradise -- then everything would be...fine." Bur her parents tell her, "And it's also very true that you are not responsible for this family.That's for your mother and me to worry about." Her father also tells Rosemary that while they are not the perfect family, they are trying and that the long separation they've endured has made things more difficult. Her father tells her, "I'm truly sorry that you felt you had to be the one to fix things between us, and between the whole family, ....But that's what a family is for, you see? One person doesn't need to have sole responsibility -- and shouldn't." Her mother reiterates that they will not separate Rosemary and her brothers ever again, something that allays Rosemary's biggest fear of losing her family again. 

The Blossoming Summer is a sweet and very touching novel about how difficult times can force families into situations that are trying. It tackles the theme of an older child, often a daughter, who takes on the responsibiliies of keeping things together. This novel, from award-winning author, Anna Rose Johnson offers young readers a refreshing story that has a positive outlook on family life, on the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren, and on forgiveness and redemption. 

The author includes a map and also a glossary of Ojibwe terms. Highly recommended.

Book Details:

The Blossoming Summer by Anna Rose Johnson
New York: Holiday House   2025
276 pp.