The Ghost Who Was A Quilt by Riel Nason

"Once there was a little ghost who was a quilt." This little ghost was different from his parents who were both sheets and who flew high and fast because they were so light. They could glide and float on the wind, unlike the little ghost who was weighed down by his heavy quilt fabric. His many layers made flying difficult.

Ghosts are terrified of people. So one day when people came to the park where the little ghost and his friends were, they quickly flew away. But the little ghost was not so quick. Instead, he draped himself over a bench. A family sat down on the bench and the little ghost was terrified. Even worse, the little boy sitting on the bench, eating an ice cream cone, dripped melted ice cream onto him!

The stain made the little ghost embarrassed and different, which he did not like. He didn't like that he was made of different pieces of fabric, which made his friends call him "Scrappy". What he did like was Halloween. 

Usually at Halloween, while the other ghosts pretended to be decorations in the trees so they could watch the goings-on, the little ghost had to place himself on a clothesline. But this year he decided to be bolder; he would lay over a chair on a porch!  In this way he would be very close to what was happening. But the little ghost had no idea just how close he would actually get to humans!

Discussion

There aren't too many picture books more delightful than The Ghost Who Was A Quilt. This sweet story about a ghost made, not from sheets but from a quilt touches on the themes of being different, not fitting in, self-acceptance and bullying.

The little ghost has trouble accepting himself. He's made from scraps of fabric to form a quilt while all the other ghosts are made from sheets. Even when he's told that his ancestors were a bit unusual, he still finds accepting himself as he is, difficult. "His mom told him he had an ancestor who was a checkered tablecloth. And he great-grandmother was an elegant lace curtain. Everyone said she was the most beautiful ghost they'd ever seen. Even knowing this, the little ghost didn't feel any better."

However, the ghost's experience around humans, who he had been taught to fear, emboldens him to place himself closer to the trick-or-treaters at Halloween. When he gets taken home by a little girl, the little ghost finds acceptance from the most unlikely of places - a human family. And he comes to understand that everything that happened was because he was different. He was a quilt that got picked up to keep a little girl warm. This story encourages children to embrace their uniqueness, that we all have a place in this world!

While the story alone certainly has its merits, it is the captivating illustrations by Byron Eggenschwiler that make this picture book so delightful. Eggenschwiler's artwork, rendered using pencil and digital techniques, capture the many emotions the little ghost experiences through each of his adventures. The Ghost Who Was A Quilt is not just a picture book for Halloween, but can be enjoy all year around.

Book Details:

The Ghost Who Was A Quilt by Riel Nason
New York:  Tundra Books      2020

All We Left Behind by Danielle R. Graham

Hayden Pierce lives with his parents, and his older sister Rosalyn on Mayne Island, in British Columbia. It is August, 1941, and Hayden has volunteered to help his ma help set up the craft fair rather than work with his dad, fishing. That's because Hayden is smitten with Chidori Setoguchi and plans to ask her on a date. So instead of healing his father and Chidori's uncle Massey who are out fishing on Massey's seine boat,  Hayden has volunteered to help his ma set up the craft tables at the Mayne Island Fall Fair just so he can meet up with Chidori.

Chidori and her brothers, Tosh and Kenji are setting up their vegetable at their permanent wood stand on the fairgrounds. Mr. Setoguchi grows cucumbers and tomatoes in his greenhouses. After watching Hayden talk to Chidori, Rory Bauer and his cousin Fitz taunt him over his attraction to Chidori who is Japanese-Canadian. With tensions rising between Japan and Canada, Canadians of Japanese heritage are increasingly being targeted.

At the fair, Hayden and his friend Joey talk about the ongoing war. Hayden has no interest in signing up on his birthday. But Joey reminds him , "...the Nazis are killing innocent people and stealing power from entire countries..." In the meantime, Hayden goes down to Miner Bay to help his father and Chidori's uncle Massey unload and sell their catch of chinook salmon. Afterwards, Hayden meets Chidori at her house and they row to Georgeson Island in her rowboat. She tells Hayden that she's been accepted to study at the University of British Columbia but that she's not going. She doesn't want to waste her father's money or her time when she's uncertain about what to study, and she believes the war will also change many things. At this time Hayden asks Chidori to go steady with him. She initially accepts but on their way home, another confrontation with the Bauers causes her to withdraw her acceptance, devastating Hayden.

At church on Sunday, Hayden confronts Chidori, but she doesn't know what to do. There are reports that an MP wants all Japanese stripped of their Canadian citizenship and returned to Japan. Days later, Hayden's sister, Rose leaves Mayne Island to start her nursing job in Vancouver. Rose is engaged to Earl who is a pilot stationed over in England. Chidori, and her brothers Tosh and Kenji are also at the pier, delivering a shipment of tomatoes to the Princess Mary steamship. Chidori hugs Rose but her and Hayden do not talk. 

The next time Hayden sees Chidori is at a fundraiser for the Red Cross at the Agricultural Hall. Hayden once again confronts Chidori, giving her a gift and begging her to reconsider. She agrees. At their next meeting, Chidori reveals that the dean at the University of British Columbia has written her, asking her to reconsider her decision not to attend and offering her a full scholarship for every year of her degree. However, Chidori tells Hayden that she is going to wait and see what happens with the war.

On the Thursday before Halloween, 1941, Hayden is invited to tea at the Setoguchi home. He and Chidori plan to attend the Halloween dance as Raggedy Ann and Andy. At tea, Tosh jokingly asks Hayden what his intentions are towards Chidori. Hayden tells Mr. Setoguchi that he plans to date her and hopes eventually to court and marry Chidori. But Mr. Setoguchi refuses to give Hayden permission or his blessing. Later that night, Chidori goes missing. Hayden, his father and Chidori's family go looking for her, but it is Hayden who finds her on stranded on Georgeson Island.

With the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, things turn ugly fast. Uncle Massey is arrested along with Kenji's girlfriend Michiko and her family.Eight days later, Massey's boat along with the boats of the entire Japanese-Canadians are impounded.Chidori tells Hayden that it is likely her family along with all the other Japanese-Canadians will be forced into work camps in the interior of the province.By February, 1942, the Canadian government orders all Japanese Canadians to leave the coastal areas on April 21.

In an attempt to protect Chidori, Hayden asks her to marry him, which she accepts. However on April 21, Chidori, along with her family are evacuated inland. The day only gets worse when a letter from Rose reveals that her fiance, Earl was shot fleeing into the woods after parachuting out of his airplane. With the war now on their doorstep, Hayden wonders if he will ever see Chidori again. But maybe enlisting and working towards ending that war will help shorten their painful separation and bring all those they love home.

Discussion

All We Left Behind is a poignant, heart-breaking novel about war, racism and forbidden love. The story is told from the point of view of Hayden Pierce, as he struggles to deal with the unraveling of his life, his hopes and dreams, as war overtakes ordinary life. Chidori's point of view is expressed in her journal entries as she too tries to process what is happening to her family, and watches as her dreams of attending school and her marrying Hayden are all disrupted. 

Graham was inspired to write the novel while working on a "psychology master's paper on the intergenerational impact of the internment on Japanese Canadians."  The novel effectively portrays the racism already rampant in Canada against Japanese-Canadians and their parents and grandparents, while also capturing the horrors of war.  

Graham demonstrates how racist attitudes and fear of those who look different were very prevalent in  early 20th century Canada. The racist attitudes of ordinary people are exemplified by Hayden's mother who believes Chidori is not a suitable woman for her son Hayden to marry simply because she is Japanese. She has no answer to Hayden's challenges and brushes off his arguments as him not understanding the world. 

Graham also shows how these attitudes informed Canadian government actions and policies, which were often illegal.Government officials assumed that anyone of Japanese heritage was a potential traitor, even those who had been born in Canada. This fear often led to irrational policies such confiscating radios and cameras. Chidori, writing in her journal, notes that her research has shown her that "...the Canadian government can't intern Canadian citizens who have been convicted of no crime. It violates the Geneva Convention and is illegal for a country's government to do so. But then I noticed that the newspaper articles have carefully not used the word internment. They call it an evacuation or detainment, presumably to skirt the Geneva Convention." As the war progresses, government actions grow more extreme and harmful. The land and possessions of those families in internment camps is sold off by the government, often at very reduced rates. In the end, the Setoguchi's like most other Japanese Canadians lose almost all their possessions. Many never returned to the East Coast.

Hayden's solution to solving the situation with Chidori is to enlist and help bring an end to the war, thus facilitating Chidori and her family's return to Mayne Island. However, when he becomes a prisoner of war, he has to cope with the most horrific conditions and it is only his faith in a future with Chidori that helps him to survive. After three long years in prison as well as the loss of his beloved sister Rose, leaves Hayden with little hope. Ironically, it is a young Jewish orphan, Marguerite, now living in Chidori's old home, who tells Hayden, "I know your kind of sad. The one that haunts you." that ultimately helps him, encouraging him to find Chidori.

Despite its intensity, All We Left Behind leaves readers with the happy ending they yearn for. This is a novel that is suitable for older teens due to the more mature content. Well-written, All We Left Behind leaves readers with a sense of the immense injustice done to Canadians of Japanese heritage during the Second World War as well as the realities of war.

Book Details:

All We Left Behind by Danielle R. Graham
London, UK: One More Chapter       202
352 pp.

She Caught The Light by Kathryn Lasky

Willamina was born more than one hundred years ago in Dundee, Scotland. Called Mina, she was the daughter of a carver and gilder who also had photography as a hobby. Mina was a bright and curious baby who loved to watch her father polish sheets of silver plate.Mina loved to watch photographs emerge onto the plates and she had many questions about this process.

Mina's father died when she was seven years old. As a result everyone in her family had to go to work. Mina began teaching when she was fourteen years old. 

She married James Fleming at the age of twenty and then they set sail to Boston. However, in Boston, James disappeared leaving Mina along and expecting a baby. 

Mina managed to find a job as a maid to Professor Edward Pickering who was director of the Harvard College Observatory.  Elizabeth and Edward Pickering noticed that Mina was smart. Professor Pickering studied the spectra, or the colours of light emitted by stars. His assistants recorded these colours using a telescope's spectroscope. However, Pickering found his assistants were making many mistakes. His wife suggested he get Mina to help.

Mina understood that Pickering was studying not only the position of stars but also what elements they were made of. She also understood that the light from the stars passed through a prism in the spectroscope which then broke the light into its different colours. These were then recorded on glass plates in black and white, as a series of vertical lines. Each star had its own pattern, similar to our finger prints. However, at this time because Mina was a woman, she was not allowed to use the telescope, but only to work with the glass plates. Nevertheless, Mina became accomplished at working with the spectral lines.

With her baby due soon, Mina decided to return to Scotland, where she gave birth to a boy she named Edward. However, Mina could not forget her work in Boston and she returned to work with Professor Pickering who by this time had hired more women to work as "human computers". It was during this work that Mina made an astonishing discovery -The Horsehead Nebula located in the constellation, Orion. 

As she cared for her son, Edward, Mina continued to work with the glass plates, even though she was paid much less than men doing the same work. She also began working on glass plates sent from an observatory in Peru and made many discoveries of stars and other astronomical features in the southern skies. 

Discussion

She Caught The Light highlights the significant contributions made by another woman scientist who is not well known to most readers and has been largely forgotten. Willimina Stevens Fleming, had no formal training as an astronomer, yet despite her lack of education and her significant personal trials, she became an accomplished astronomer, all the while raising her son Edward. She was a member of the Harvard Computers, a group of women that included Annie Jump Cannon and Florence Cushman. These women were responsible for processing the spectral data from the Harvard Observatory in order to create a catalog of stars. You can learn more about the Harvard Computers at ScienceFriday. Willimina discovered fifty-nine nebulae, over three hundred variable stars and ten novae. She also discovered the first white dwarf, which is a star that has depleted its nuclear fuel. She was made an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society of London in 1906.

Lasky captures Willimina's story in an engaging way, aided by the beautiful illustrations of Julianna Swaney. The artist used watercolour, gouache, colour pencil and Photoshop to create the lustrous pictures of the sky, and the earthy portrayals of everyday life. Lasky's telling focuses on Williamina's youthful curiosity, her resiliency in overcoming the abandonment of her husband and move to a new country, and her intellectual ability to work with astronomical data and help map the stars.

In her Author's Note at the back, Lasky highlights how women like Willimina Fleming, Henrietta Swan Leavitt and others laid the groundwork for  the future discoveries that would come in the 20th century. There is a short biography as well as a Bibliography included as well. Highly recommended for budding girl scientists and girls everywhere!

Book Details:

She Caught The Light by Kathryn Lasky
New York: HarperCollins Publishers    2021

Rescue by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Margaret (Meg) Kenyon's father left home in May of 1940 to fight the German army massing on the French border. Meg and her parents were forced to leave their home in Auxonne, near the German border and flee to their grandmere's farm in an area known as the Perche. 

Unfortunately, France surrendered six weeks after the invasion. The Perche is in the Occupied Zone, controlled by the Germans. This area includes French cities like Paris, Nantes and Bordeaux, as well as some of the best farmland in France. To the south is Free France, also called Vichy France. Meg's family home is near Auxonne, only fifty kilometers from the Forbidden Zone, an area the Germans intend to settle with German citizens.

Almost two years later, in Feb of 1942, Meg has not heard from her father in 657 days and she wonders if he's still alive. Today she has a job to do: to help the French resistance by supplying them with any information that can help.

Meg often goes to town to sell food on the black market and today she places some potatoes in her bag and covers them with a few school books. Before she leaves for town, Meg's mother tells her that she also has a few errands to run but she doesn't elaborate.

In town Meg goes to her usual abandoned building, once a flower shop to wait for her regular customers. After selling potatoes to a woman, a boy she doesn't know, an "inconnu" arrives and asks for food. He tells her his name is Jakob and that German soldiers have just arrived in town. 

As she's leaving, Meg sees the soldiers and knows they are in town to search for members of the resistance, the partisans. One of the Germans, Lieutenant Becker is a cruel and dangerous German. In a cafe, Meg sits, pretending she is studying, while listening to Becker. She learns he is searching for a "her" and a "him". Meg doesn't know who these people might be, so she decides to follow Becker when he leaves the cafe. But he quickly realizes she is following him and stops her to question and check her bag. Eventually he lets her continue her journey home.

Trained by a young partisan named Yvonne, Meg leaves a message in code behind a loose brick in a wall on the edge of the forest, warning them that the Nazis are conducting searches in the Perche. Returning to Grandmere's farm, Meg immediately notices the barn door ajar and blood on the snow. Meg discovers Captain Henry Stewart of the Royal Air Force has taken refuge in the barn. He's injured and asks Meg for help. She agrees despite her suspicions and brings him stew and rags for bandages.

While she and Grandmere wait for Meg's mother to return, Meg works on deciphering the last code in the jar of codes her papa left for her before the war. It is Meg's dream to work as a cryptologist in London, helping with the war effort. The last code, JAIMIE STAYED is difficult to solve.

Captain Stewart finds Meg's code journal hidden in the barn and questions her, warning her to burn it as it will incriminate her if the Germans find it. Stewart reveals that he did parachute out of a plane to meet up with Sylvie Kenyon a radio operator with the S.O.E.. As it turns out, Sylvie is Meg's mother. 

When Meg is called back into the house she finds Jakob, the boy she gave potatoes to earlier and her mother. Jakob tells her that the Nazis are conducting searches of all the homes, looking for a British spy. At this point, Captain Stewart enters revealing Meg's secret. In perfect French, he tells Jakob he was supposed to meet them but was injured. Sylvie tells Stewart that when she transmitted a message, the Nazis were able to locate her and she had to flee, never sending the message that he was injured. She tells Stewart that her radio was damaged. 

The next phase of Captain Stewart's mission was to involve himself and Jakob but it is obvious he is too injured to complete it. Meg and her family must hide all evidence of Captain Stewart's presence and hide him. Stewart is hidden beneath the floorboards of Grandmere's bed, while Meg and her mother try to clean up all evidence of their work for the partisans. At the last minute Meg throws her small journal into the fire.

Just before the arrival of the German's Meg's mother reveals the extent of her work for the resistance. She tells Meg that she "connects the partisans in the forest with the spy offices back in London." Her information helps them plan their secret missions. Meg's mother gives her a yellowed paper that Captain Stewart passed along to her. It appears to be written in code by Meg's father.

With the arrival of Lieutenant Becker, Meg pretends to be asleep in bed while Becker and his soldiers search their house. But when Becker finds Meg's half burned journal in the fireplace, he decides he will stay the night and question her in the morning. Luckily for Meg, that doesn't happen as Becker needs to leave. But his plans to return, result in Meg, her mother and Captain Stewart forming their own plans for Meg to leave.

Captain Stewart, who is with the Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.), is too injured to complete his mission, that of escorting a family, the Durands into Spain. Albert Durand helped Meg's father get to a safe house from a German prison camp. Albert however, will not reveal Meg's father's location until he is safely in neutral territory. However to help his family, Meg's father gave Albert a letter which he passed onto Captain Stewart. Meg now has the letter but she will need to decipher it to learn the message her father has sent her. It is  up to Meg to lead the Durands to safety while also attempting to decode the message her father sent.

Discussion

Rescue by Jennifer A. Nielsen is the latest novel in her series of World War II historical fiction. Set in occupied France during 1942, the story revolves around a young French girl with a knack for deciphering code, helping two German citizens flee the Nazis. Nielsen incorporates the use of codes by the partisans into her story, offering her readers the puzzle of a lengthy code Meg's father has left for her to decipher.

Meg is a determined, resourceful heroine who loves her country and wants to help defeat the Nazis. She doesn't want to cooperate in any way with the Nazis. In Paris, Meg struggles to understand the treatment of the French Jews. "A large sign pasted to a brick wall depicted a monstrous drawing of the Jewish people. A young couple passed it, their heads bowed down....My eyes crossed between them and the horrible drawing. That couple was no different than any of us, and I wondered how the other people here on the street couldn't see that. Maybe if we just looked at one another, if we stopped hating and pointing fingers of blame, maybe then we could stand together against the true enemies of France."

However, Meg finds herself challenged to see people as they are by Jakob. When she tells Jakob that she doesn't feel sorry for the Durands because they are German, Jakob confronts her belief that  "...everyone is the same, just because they come from the same place." Meg wants to see Jakob as a friend at this point, but she cannot. However, later on in their journey, Meg comes to realize that events are more complicated and that one cannot judge who is good or bad based on where they come from.  She learns that Jakob's parents were taken for hiding Jews, that Albert helped her father escape and that Liesel was forced into betraying them on their escape into Switzerland.

While Rescue is an exciting read, there are some weak areas in the plot. For example, Lieutenant Becker suspects, with good reason, that Meg and her mother are involved with the partisans. He has retrieved Meg's half burned journal from the fireplace and it is obvious it is a code book. He want to question Meg but remarkably, waits until morning after being told Meg needs her sleep. The Germans were never this accommodating. Meg is spared his questioning when Becker is suddenly called away the next morning. Becker leaves the farm without stationing a soldier behind to ensure that Meg and her mother do not flee. Not leaving a guard behind would have been very unlikely given the high flight risk that Meg and her mother would pose.

The story line is also becomes somewhat confusing when Meg leaves the "Durands" at Pole, after learning of the disappearance of her mother and grandmother. She travels back to her family home near Auxonne but this is never clearly stated. While Nielsen has provided her young readers with a map at the front of the novel, it would have been helpful to have Meg's journeys marked on this map.

Nielsen incorporates plenty of plot twists in the story: no one is who they seem to be, including Meg's mother and Jakob. The Durands are not a family but instead are two Germans who worked for the Nazis and who have changed sides. 

Overall, Rescue is a solid story that will capture the interest of middle grade readers and young teens. It has a suspenseful but happy ending. The back of the novel includes pages on Secret Codes and also on the Special Operations Executive.

Book Details:

Rescue by Jennifer A. Nielsen
New York: Scholastic Press Inc.    2021
387 pp.

Journey Around The Sun: the Story of Halley's Comet by James Gladstone

Journey Around the Sun  tells the story of Halley's Comet from the point of view of the comet.The comet states that it has seen our past and will see our future. In the past, people looked at the comet in wonder, questioning what it was. Aristotle, a famous Greek philosopher, believed it was formed from super hot gases. In the city of Cairo in 898, the comet was called a planet with a tail and was seen for twenty-two days.

The comet notes that it has been given many names: a hairy star by the medieval English monk Eadwine in 1145, a bushy star by Chinese astronomers in 374, and a great sword of flame by the Flemish astronomer Gottfried Wendelin in 1607.

The comet, so often throughout history has been part of drawings and paintings.It notes that it has often been seen as a harbinger of misfortune but it says, "...I am only a comet, neither good nor bad -- a part of nature." 

No one knew that each sighting was of the same comet until Edmond Halley in 1758. Once this was known, people began to watch for the comet and it noted that in the twentieth century, scientists began to take photographs using telescopes. The Giotto probe came within 370 miles of the comet in 1986.

Now the comet is traveling far from the sun but it hopes that those reading this picture book will watch out for it in the future!

Discussion

Journey Around the Sun is a richly illustrated account of Halley's comet, a short period comet that is visible from Earth every seventy-five to seventy-six years. It was Edmond Halley's observations that led him to determine that previous sightings were of the same object. Halley was able to determine that comets seen in 1531, 1607 and 1682 were the same comet and he predicted the comet would return in 1758. Halley didn't live to see its return but it's reappearance was confirmed by Johann Pulitzch on Christmas night in 1758!

Gladstone has crafted an informative picture book that is written from a unique perspective, that of the comet. From this point of view, Gladstone is able to highlight the many changes the comet might have witnessed over many thousands of years, as it journeys past Earth every seventy-five years or so. The narrative also offers readers many interesting facts about Halley's Comet, including various attempts through the centuries to study it. Accompanying this informative text is the beautiful artwork of illustrator Yaara Eshet. Her colourful illustrations bring alive the comet and it's history in a very real way.

James Gladstone indicates in his A Note from the Author that he was able to view Halley's Comet when he was a teenager in 1986 but will only see it again if he lives to be very old. A unique presentation on an interesting natural feature of our amazing universe!

Book Details:

Journey Around The Sun: the Story of Halley's Comet by James Gladstone
Toronto: Owlkids Books    2021

Kafka and the Doll by Larissa Theule

One day Franz Kafka and his friend Dora Diamant were walking through a park in the city of Berlin when they encountered a young girl crying. When Kafka questioned her as to why she was crying, she told him her doll, Soupsy was lost. Kafka told the girl, whose name was Irma, that Soupsy was not lost but simply travelling as dolls like to do. He also told her  that Soupsy had written her a letter but that it was at home in the pocket of his coat. As a volunteer postman, Kafka explained that he would bring the letter to her tomorrow. 

The next day Kafka brought Soupsy's letter to Irma. It revealed that Soupsy had impulsively jumped into the basket of a passing bicycle and was now on her way to hiking via a train! Kafka assures Irma that Soupsy will write again because "People on adventures like to tell about them."

A second letter comes, followed by a third which reveals that Soupsy is in Paris, eating croissants!  

Soupsy travels to many different places including England, Barcelona, Morocco, and Egypt. Although she does many exciting things in each of these countries, her letters get shorter.

Irma notices that Kafka has a cough like what her grandfather had. Then one day Kafka does not show up at the park. After several days, Dora arrives at the park with a letter from Soupsy. Dora explains to Irma, that Herr Kafka has a headache behind his eyes. Finally one day Kafka comes to the park. He is pale and Irma suspects this will be the last time. The letter from Soupsy states that she is going on an expedition to Antarctica. It will be her last letter as she will not be able to write from there. Soupsy tells Irma she was proud to be her doll.

Irma tells Herr Kafka that some day she wants to travel like Soupsy and experience the things she did. Kafka gives her a notebook and tells her to write about her adventures so that they remain. The two part ways, "...one to play and explore and one, finally to sleep."

Discussion

Larissa Theule has crafted an touching fictional account of an event that Dora Diamant, Kafka's lover related years after his death. The identity of the young girl was never discovered and the letters were lost, so only Dora's account survives. Theule has adapted the story to fit modern expectations. In her Author's Note at the back of the picture book, Theule writes, "Dora said Kafka struggled to know how to end the letter campaign and finally decided to have the doll get married and start a family of her own. Most likely the reflected the girl's understanding of the world and her place in it, for girls in the 1920s had few options for their futures apart from marriage. But times have changed, and I felt the ending should reflect the wide world of possible futures available to children (and dolls!) today, which is why I sent Soupsy on a scientific expedition to Antarctica."

Theule's Soupsy is likely nothing like that of Kafka because as Theule states, "...no one can write like Kafka." The letters written to a lonely girl, were Kafka's attempt to "heal a child's wounded heart". He would have understood her pain, given his own difficult upbringing under a domineering father. Accompanying her version of this story is the digitally created artwork of Rebecca Green.

You can read more about Franz Kafka at Franz Kafka Online.

Book Details:

Kafka and the Doll by Larissa Theule
New York: Penguin Random House LLC      2021

Ground Zero by Alan Gratz

Ground Zero is the story of  the past and present, of 9/11 and the U.S. war on terror in 2019 told using two narratives. In the first narrative, it is September 11, 2001 and nine-year-old Brandon Chavez has to spend the day with his dad, Leo Chavez at the World Trade Center.  Brandon's father is a kitchen manager at the restaurant, Windows on the World, located at the very top of the North Tower, on the 107th floor.

Brandon and his father are a team, working together to survive, after the death of Brandon's mother from cancer, when he was only five years old. Getting into a fight at school was definitely not good for their team as Brandon was suspended. His father reminds him that fighting is not the way to deal with problems.

In the restaurant, Brandon is put to work filling flower vases on tables. When a fire breaks out in the kitchen, Brandon uses the distraction to slip into the elevator. His plan is to get to the underground mall to buy the Wolverine gloves his friend Cedric lost in the fight at school.

Brandon is in the elevator that only goes to the Sky Lobby on the 78th floor. After several people get on, the elevator begins swaying back and forth after a tremendous THOOM. Then the elevator begins sliding down and only stops when Brandon manages to hit the emergency stop button. When they call the emergency phone they learn that there was some kind of explosion on the 91st floor.

Black smoke begins creeping through the seems in the ceiling and the elevator begins getting very hot. Cellphones don't work. Brandon and the people trapped in the elevator struggle to free themselves by first forcing open the doors of the elevator and then chipping a hole through three layers of drywall.

Brandon manages to squeeze through the hole and onto the 85th floor where he runs to find help. With the help of some men from the bank, and a fireman's axe, they manage to break open a larger hole and rescue everyone from the elevator before it plummets down the shaft. When Marni, who was trapped in the elevator calls her husband she learns that a passenger jet has flown into the tower. While the rescued people decide to climb down 85 flights of stairs, Brandon decides to  head back upstairs to find his father. But Brandon has no idea of how catastrophic the damage is to the North Tower. Can he save himself and his father?

Alternating with Brandon's story is that of Reshmina, a young girl living with her family in a rural village in Afghanistan.  Her village is built into the mountainside with the houses stacked on top of each other. A long set of  switchback stairs cut into the rock offer the only way to reach her home. Eleven-year-old Reshmina lives with her parents, her anaa- grandmother, her older sister Marzia, her brother Pasoon and her little brother Zahir. Reshmina's eldest sister, Hila was killed when her wedding party was attacked by American's believing them to be Taliban.

Reshmina and Pasoon climb the rock stairs to their house, watching as the ANA and Americans search house to house. Pasoon is furious to see the Afghans taking orders from the Americans. Soon the soldiers are at Reshmina's home. A short, broad-shouldered American soldier tells them in English that they are not here to hurt them. Reshmina is thrilled to discovered she can understand him. Unlike Pasoon, she has continued with her English lessons at school. She's even more amazed to encounter an Afghan woman working as a translator for the Americans. None of the women Reshmina knows work outside the home: they are all wives, mothers, and daughters. The translator tells them that the Americans have been told there is a cache of Taliban weapons in the village.

Outside their home, the American soldier tells Baba, Pasoon and Reshmina they need to keep the Taliban out of their village. This makes both Reshmina and Pasoon angry as cooperating with either the Taliban or the Americans brings problems.

When Reshmina attempts to follow the group of soldiers so she can watch the Afghan translator, Pasoon tells her she can't and reveals that the Americans have been lured to their village as a trap by the Taliban. They plan to attack the Americans as they leave the village. Reshmina is shocked at the betrayal and what it means. But before she can tell anyone, the Taliban attack happens.

After the attack, Reshmina encounters a badly wounded American soldier, his face scorched and his eyes blinded. If he is found by the Taliban, they will kill him. Reshmina wants to slip away, but when he asks for help in English which she understands, she knows she cannot refuse. 

At her home, Reshmina's baba agrees to take in the wounded American. Reshmina realises that the soldier has the same small stuffed toy attached to his vest as the American soldier who searched their home only a few minutes earlier. He tells them his name is Taz, after the small stuffed Tasmanian Devil toy on his vest.

Reshmina's mother is horrified to see the soldier in her house. When Pasoon returns he is overjoyed at the success of the attack which killed everyone including the woman Afghan translator, Miriam. But when he sees the wounded American soldier, he is furious and determined to inform the Taliban. While Pasoon runs off, Baba assures Taz they will not let the Taliban take him.

Because Taz needs medical treatment at a hospital, Reshmina's father decides to travel to the ANA base, five kilometers away to let them know about Taz. But Reshmina knows she has to find Pasoon and stop him from joining the Taliban and telling them about Taz. If he tells them about their family hiding the American soldier, they and their village will be punished by the Taliban. Can Reshmina save Pasoon, Taz and their family

Discussion

Ground Zero is a fictional story about the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 and the ongoing American involvement in Afghanistan as a result of the terrorist attacks almost two decades ago. It is a story about how revenge leads to more war and loss, and how choosing a different path, that of working together makes for a better world.

Gratz connects the past event of 9/11 with the ongoing current events in Afghanistan through the use of alternating storylines. Nine-year-old Brandon Chavez finds himself in the North Tower, his father trapped at the very top, while he struggles to get to safety. Eighteen years later, eleven-year-old Reshmina struggles to prevent her brother from joining the Taliban and save her family from a retaliatory strike by American forces after a Taliban attack leaves an American soldier badly wounded. 

 Gratz aligns similar events in each narrative perhaps to demonstrate that war and violent acts have a particular economy - they play out much the same regardless of the country or the people or the cause, with death and destruction and often with many innocent victims.For example, when Brandon is buried in the rubble of the fallen tower, in the following chapter, Reshmina and her family and village are buried alive in the cave after an attack by the Americans. Brandon escapes to see the towers destroyed while Reshmina survives to see her entire village crumbling down the mountainside.

The novel also highlights how the innocent victims often have no understanding of the events they find themselves caught up in. While he's making his way down the stairs of the North Tower, Brandon is told about the 1993 bombing of the tower by terrorist who wanted the U.S. out of the Middle East. He wonders who is attacking them. "Brandon still didn't understand. What purpose did attacking the Twin Towers serve? Hurting all these innocent people." Eighteen years later, Reshmina also has no understanding of the war between the Taliban and the Americans nor of the 9/ll attacks. The pictures Taz shows her of the Twin Towers burning mean nothing to her, her parents, grandparents or the other elderly villagers. But the fear and loss Brandon experienced during the events of 9/11 are the same fear and loss that Reshmina experiences years later as the American soldiers fight the Taliban.

Reshmina's situation reminds Brandon of the lesson he learned that day years ago after surviving the 9/11 attack. Before the attack Brandon viewed his father and himself as being "against the world". But that changed. "It isn't me against the world, Brandon realized. It's everyone working together. And not against the world either, but for each other. That was how they survived." Reshmina reminds Taz that the U.S. needs to stop doing the kind of "helping" they are doing. "You can't help us by rebuilding villages and destroying them at the same time. " 

Ground Zero, published in time for the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, is a thoughtful treatment of the terrorist attacks and the War on Terror. Gratz is able to show the human cost while advocating through the character of Reshmina (and Taz ) for another path. At the end of the novel, Reshmina spots her brother Pasoon who waves to her, but she doesn't return his wave. Instead, she tells her baba they will choose another path - not only down the mountain but also a path different from the one Pasoon has chosen, which will only lead to more death and destruction.

Ground Zero is a thrilling read, with lots of tense moments. Well-written, this is another excellent novel for young readers by this outstanding author. Gratz is able to impart some of the history about the Twin Towers attacks through various characters and about Afghanistan through the character of Reshmina's grandmother who grew up in Kabul before the Soviet invasion. In this way, young readers become informed about these events and can consider current policies and actions within some context. The author has included significant resources at the back of the novel including a map of the World Trade Center and Afghanistan as well as a detailed Author's Note explaining the 9/11 attacks as well as the war in Afghanistan and America's current involvement.

Book Details:

Ground Zero by Alan Gratz
New York: Scholastic Press   2021
304 pp.

The Age of Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte

The Age of Dinosaurs tells the fascinating story of how dinosaurs came to be the dominant species on Earth for over 150 million years. Their story covers the Mesozoic Era which includes the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods from 250 million to 66 million years ago.

The story begins in the early Triassic when there was one land mass, a supercontinent called Pangea. To understand this story this first chapter gives a short explanation of fossils and the importance of the rocks they are found in and how they can tell scientists about life long ago. A brief overview of the Earth's history is given up to the end of the Permian when great changes led to a mass extinction. Brusatte's visit to Poland to investigate the tracks of an animal called Prorotodactylus and his research there set the stage for the opening chapter title The Ancestors of Dinosaurs. Based on the tracks, paleontologists believe that this animal was an archosaur, a type of reptile that survived the Permian extinction as was a forerunner of the dinosaurs. The archosaurs were divided into two branches; one group which includes crocodiles and their extinct cousins and a second group which includes the dinosaurs.

In the early Triassic dinosaurs were not yet dominant but we know they existed from fossil evidence from the area of Pangea that is now Argentina.  They were rare throughout the rest of Pangea, likely restricted to the Argentina area of Pangea which was located south of the equator, an area cooler, wetter and more humid. Dinosaurs at this time included both meat-eaters and plant-eaters.  Instead, huge amphibians, called super salamanders dominated the waters, while thousands of species of crocodiles ruled the land. But on Pangea, dinosaurs were rare. They were likely restricted to the Argentina

Dinosaurs began to dominate in the Jurassic. At the end of the Triassic, the supercontinent of Pangea began to break apart. Increased volcanic activity resulted in climate change and another extinction however it was not a large as the previous Permian extinction but it was significant enough. "Many of the animals that ruled the Triassic world went extinct." This included most of the crocodile species and super salamanders. The dinosaurs survived, something that is not fully understood.

The first 30 millions years of the Jurassic Period saw dinosaurs evolve into many new species. This diversification continued throughout the Jurassic with different species inhabiting a wide range of ecosystems from the poles to the equator. Some examples of this diversity could be seen in the ornithischian dinosaurs which are plant eating dinosaurs. These dinosaurs had beaks and there stegosaurs with back plates and ankylosaurs with spiked armour. By mid-Jurassic (170 million years ago) dinosaurs were dominant, "...the most important animals in ecosystems all over the planet." 

Another group of dinosaurs, the Sauropods, were the largest animals to live on land.Sauropods, which were plant eaters, were found all over the world. The dominant predator was Allosaurus which lived in North America, Europe and possibly Africa.

The transition to the Cretaceous was much calmer with the continents continuing to move further apart, continuing climate changes, changes to sea level and the formation of islands and land bridges that allowed dinosaurs to migrate. These factors all influenced the evolution of dinosaurs. The sauropods declined but those that remained became huge. They were the titanosaurs and were truly colossal at more than one hundred feet long and weighing over seventy tons. Velociraptors were a new type of predator in the Cretaceous as were the carcharodontosaurs, a huge carnivore. But these were soon to be replaced by the tyranosaurs and the most famous of them all was Tyrannosaurus Rex.

From this point on, Brusatte goes on to detail the evolution of the tyrannosaurs, as well as the types of dinosaurs that dominated the various regions of the Earth (North America, Asia, the South and Europe) during the peak of their reign in the Cretaceous. There are also chapters on the dinosaur's evolution into birds,as well as what paleontologists believe ended the reign of the dinosaurs.

Discussion

The Age of Dinosaurs is a book for the young dinosaur enthusiast. Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh takes his readers through time beginning with the ancestors of the dinosaurs, to their rise as the dominant life form on our planet and to their sudden demise. The Age of Dinosaurs was inspired by Brusatte's book, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs which was published in 2018 for adult readers. As Brusatte notes in this current edition for younger readers, "It is the story of dinosaur evolution: how dinosaurs changed over time as their world changed around them." Brusatte pieces together the story as we currently understand it, in an exciting, engaging way for young readers.

There is plenty of information about many geologic concepts in The Age of Dinosaurs including explanations about fossils, how dinosaur species are identified, the use radioisotope dating and plate tectonics. Brusatte spends some time explaining where specific types of dinosaurs were found, for example tyrannosaurs were located mainly in the western United States and Canada and explains how the Earth's changing landmass over millions of years, influenced where certain species of dinosaurs lived. However, one drawback to this book is the lack of maps to help young readers visualize the changing Earth through the Jurassic and Cretaceous. For example maps showing Pangea separating into Gondwana, its gradual break up into the continents we see today would have been helpful. 

There are "boxes" that feature information about the research paleontologists are undertaking to learn more about dinosaurs. The book opens with a lovely pencil illustration on the title page of a dinosaur scene. Brusatte includes a detailed timeline and a dinosaur lineage chart that readers can refer to as they read the book. In the back, there is a Further Reading section, a Glossary and an Index.  Overall, this is a fantastic book, very informative, easy to read and chock full of interesting facts about dinosaurs that is sure to please older readers who are very interested in learning more about the subject. It may even inspire a future paleontologist or two!

Book Details:

The Age of Dinosaurs: The Rise and Fall of the World's Most Remarkable Animals by Steve Brusatte
New York: Quill Tree Books       2021
249 pp.

The Boy Who Thought Outside The Box by Marcie Wessels

Ralph Baer lived in Cologne, Germany and loved to play with his best friend Herbert. However, when Hitler became leader of Germany, he "blamed the country's problems on Jewish people." The Nazi soldiers had orders to attack Jews and many others whom they considered as "undesirable." It was no longer safe for Ralph to play outside.

Forced to stay in his home, Ralph began to tinker with his construction set. The models were easy to build, so Ralph began to think outside the box and work on new ideas.

When he was fourteen, Ralph was forced to leave school because Jews were no longer allowed to attend. At home he continued studying, taught himself English and eventually in 1938, he and his family fled Germany for the United States.

In New York, Ralph and his father obtained work in a leather goods factory, attaching buttons to cosmetic cases. At night the family did piecework to supplement their income. To help, Ralph designed a special machine to make their work go faster.

At seventeen, Ralph took a radio repair course and began repairing the radios of their neighbours. Life changed drastically when war broke out and Ralph was drafted into the U.S. Army at age twenty-one. During his time in the army, Ralph was able to build his own radio. After the war, Ralph studied at the American Television Institute of Technology. At this time, television was rapidly replacing radio as the most popular way people obtained their news and entertainment. Ralph's work in a lab designing television sets led him to envision another possible use for the television: to play games.

In 1951 Ralph tried "to convince his boss to build games directly into television consoles" but his boss was not impressed. So Ralph simply packed his idea away for the next fifteen years as he worked on many other projects. It wasn't until 1966 that Ralph revisited his idea of playing games on the television. This time he had the idea to create a separate box. Eventually Ralph and his team got this working. But this time no one would make the "brown box" that was the controller for the games. It wasn't until 1972 that Ralph's idea finally came to market and the first video game system was sold for television!

Discussion

The Boy Who Thought Outside The Box highlights the creative ingenuity of Rudolph Heinrich (Ralph) Baer, the man who invented video games. Ralph's story is one of resiliency and determination in the face of great adversity. When he was persecuted for being Jewish and forced first out of school and eventually to flee his home country, Ralph spent time educating himself and later on developing his skills in electronics. Even when he came up with the idea to use the television to play games, an idea that was far ahead of its time, he was turned down. Although he shelved his idea for a period of fifteen years, it was not forgotten. His persistence led to the first video games being sold in 1975. Ralph ultimately persisted and his story is an inspiration for all inventors who may be told their ideas are not possible. You can explore more about Ralph Baer from his website.

Wessels brings to life a story most people aren't familiar with, how video games came to be. As the author indicates in her note at the back of the book, video games are now an integral part of our culture.  Popular home video games such as Wii, Playstation and Xbox are descendants of Ralph's Brown Box. But in the 1950's and 1960's such games didn't exist and it wasn't until the 1980's that video gaming really became popular. This shows how forward thinking Ralph Baer really was!

Accompanying Wessels' straightforward text are the colourful illustrations of Beatriz Castro, a Spanish illustrator. Wessels also includes an Additional Reading section and a Selected Bibliography. 

Book Details:

The Boy Who Thought Outside The Box by Marcie Wessels
New York: Sterling Children's Books

The Lady With the Books by Kathy Stinson

Anneliese and her brother Peter are hungry and wandering the ruined city of Munich. The streets are filled with the chunks of broken pavement and wrecked buildings. When she finds a discarded orange peel on the ground, she gives it to her brother. 

Anneliese spots a long line leading into a building and wonders if they are giving out food. So she and Peter get in line. But inside the great hall are more books than Anneliese could count! She remembers when her Papa used to take her to the library and when he read to her at bedtime. But Papa and the library are now gone.

Peter finds a book about an elephant that is wearing a suit and intrigued he begs Anneliese to read it to him. But she can't read in English. They spend the rest of the day looking at books in the hall until they are the only ones left. They must leave, but the lady in charge tells them they may return tomorrow. 

At home, Mama makes the last bit of cooked barley to Anneliese and Peter. Her mother hopes to trade oma's old teapot for some vegetables. At the market Anneliese is tempted to steal a sausage because she is so hungry. Instead, she and Peter head back to the hall with the books. There they find the lady reading The Story of Ferdinand to a group of children. Although the story is written in English, the lady reads it in German. Afterwards, the lady suggests some books  that both Peter and Anneliese might enjoy. Her suggestions are stories from many different countries.

Returning home, Anneliese finds that her mother has made a delicious stew, thanks to the generosity of the farmer and her lucky find of a pigeon. They now have a stew for two days. That night Anneliese decides she will help to clear the student near the library so that one day it will again be filled with books, just like the lady's with the book's hall.

Discussion

The Lady With The Books tells the story of Jella Lepman, a Jewish woman who returned to Germany during the post-war period to help the country recover from World War II. Jella Lepman was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1891. She attended school in Stuttgart as well as Lausanne, Switzerland. She married Gustave Lepman in 1922 and they had two children, Anne-Marie and Gunther. Gustave served in World War I but died in 1922 from injuries suffered during the war. 

Jella began working as an editor at Stuttgarter Neues Tagblatt after her husband's death. She began writing, publishing a children's book, The Sleeping Sunday in 1927 as well as a play. At this time, Jella also became politically active, joining the German Democratic Party, running unsuccessfully for a seat in the German Reichstag in 1929.

With the rise of Hitler and Nazism in 1933, Jella was no longer able to keep her job at the newspaper because she was Jewish. Eventually, she fled to England in 1936 with her two children. With Germany's defeat in 1945, Jella was asked to return to Germany, working with the United States Army in the American Occupied zone in the capacity of an advisor to determine how to help German children and women.

The Lady with the Books picks up the story of Jella Lepman from this point. Jella eventually founded the International Youth Library in 1949 and was it's director until 1957. She also went on to found the International Board for Young People (IBBY) in 1953. This organization is responsible for literacy in children and young adults.

Stinson has crafted a realistic story that highlights Jella Lepman's humanitarian work to rehabilitate the children of Germany in the postwar period. Many cities in Germany were reduced to rubble, society was fragmented with the widespread destruction and years of war and as always, it was the children and women who suffered the most. Lepman's work was based on the power of literature to heal and change. This was especially important in Germany, a country that had spent the previous twenty-five years labelling certain people as "undesirables". Her travelling exhibition of books featured stories from many different countries. As Stinson notes in the back pages of her picture book, Jella believed "that good children's books from around the world could create 'bridges of understanding' between people..." 

The simple story of a girl and her brother wandering the devastated city streets highlights the struggles in the aftermath of war that children encounter; hunger, poverty, and loss. But it is also a story of hope and redemption, as the main character, a young girl decides to work to help her city recover. The colourful artwork Marie LaFrance, an award-wining Canadian illustrator living in Montreal, Quebec, captures all of these aspects. Her colourful illustrations were rendered in graphite and coloured digitally in Photoshop. The Lady With The Books is ultimately a story of how each person can work to heal the world and make it a better place.

Book Details:

The Lady With The Books by Kathy Stinson
Toronto: Kids Can Press     2020