White Bird by R.J. Palacio

White Bird picks up the story of Julian Albans from Wonder by R.J. Palacio. Julian was the boy who bullied Auggie Pullman. Julian reaches out to his grandmere who lives in France to help him with a school assignment. Julian is attending a new school, Beecher High. He tells Grandmere that he still feels badly about how he treated Auggie over his facial deformity. His grandmere explains that it is what we do after learning from our mistakes that matters most. Julian tells her that he wants to write his essay for school about her life. Grandmere is initially reluctant but then agrees to tell him the whole story even though it will be very difficult.

Grandmere's story begins with her life in the 1930's in France. At that time her name was Sara Blum and she lived in the village of Aubervilliers-aux-Bois in the Margeride mountains with her father Max, a renowned surgeon and her mother Rose, a math teacher and one of the first women to earn an advanced degree in mathematics. Her early life was idyllic, living in a comfortable home with beautiful furniture, pretty clothes and many toys. In the spring, Sara and her parents would picnic on the edge of the ancient forest called the Mernuit which surrounded their village. In the spring, the forest floor was covered with bright blue and violet bluebells, making it a magical place.

In June 1940, France surrendered to Nazi Germany, dividing the country into two zones, the Occupied zone and the Free Zone.Aubervilliers-aux-Bois was located in the Free Zone. This meant that life went on mostly the same for Sara; she was able to ride her scooter to school, walk to the market with friends and go to the cinema. But soon the Vichy government began to pass laws restricting what French Jews could do. They were banned from certain public places, they had Juif or Jew, stamped on their identity cards and soon an anti-Jewish propaganda campaign began, blaming Jews for the troubles in France. 

In the summer of 1942, Jews in the Occupied Zone were forced to wear yellow stars on their clothing. The Vel' d'Hiv roundup also took place in July. This was the mass arrest of 13,000 foreign Jews who were sent to a stadium in Paris. They were placed on trains and deported to the east, to concentration camps.

Sara found her school, the Ecole Lafayette to be a haven. In the spring of 1943, one day during math class, Sara was found daydreaming and sketching in her book. Although Mademoiselle Petitjean was kind, Sara fled the class when the bell rang, leaving behind her sketchbook. It was fortunately retrieved by her seatmate, a boy called "Tourteau" which means crab. This was not his real name but an unkind nickname given by his classmates because he used crutches after a bout of polio left his legs too weak to walk.  People said he had contracted polio from his father who worked in the sewers.

When Tourteau returns Sara's book, she thanks him but doesn't intervene when another classmate, Vincent pushes him to the ground. Vincent is very handsome and many of the girls have a crush on him including Sara. But when he makes an anti-Semitic remark to Sara after praising her drawing, she feels humiliated and angry. Her friends, Marianne and Sophie try to comfort Sara, telling her that his father works for the Nazis, but she now knows life has changed.

When Sara tells her parents what happened, they argue over leaving France. While her father wants to leave, her mother believes that things will improve. That night Papa asks Sara to promise to continue wearing her winter boots even though it is April. Although Sara promises, the next morning she takes them off and wears her pretty red shoes to school. 

That day in school, during math class, Pastor Luc enters Mademoiselle Petitjean's class. Mademoiselle asks Sara and Ruth to come with her. She tells them that there has been a round up of the Jews in Aubervilliers-aux-Bois and that the Nazis are on their way to the school to take the Jewish children. A maquisard (member of the French Resistance) will take them and the other Jewish students to hide in the forest. Sara has no coat so Mademoiselle offers her scarf.  At the beginning of their journey, when the maquisard starts running toward the woods with the twelve Jewish students, Sara doesn't follow. Instead she runs back into the school and hides in the bell tower. Sara doesn't want to ruin her beautiful red shoes.

When the Nazis arrive, Pastor Luc almost succeeds in convincing them that none of the Jewish students have shown up for school. But just when they are about to leave, Vincent yells to the Nazis that they have fled into the woods.  With the new snow, the soldiers are able to easily follow the tracks of the children and the maquisard whose name is Antoine. The Nazis execute Antoine and take the children away in the truck despite Pastor Luc and Mademoiselle's attempts to convince them to let the children go. Mademoiselle decides to accompany the children. Only Ruth survives the ordeal; they were taken to the camp at Beaune-la-Rolande and then forced to march in the snow to Pithiviers. The younger children could not keep up so Mademoiselle stayed with them. They were never heard from again.

Still hidden in the bell tower, Sara watches as the two gendarmes search for the three children who are missing from the roundup. Suddenly Tourteau appears in the tower, and tells Sara to follow him. He leads her out of the school, through the sewers to his home in Dannevilliers, fifteen kilometers from her own town. There he takes her to a dilapidated barn across from his home. When Sara tries to thank him, he asks her to call him by his real name, Julien Beaumier.

As Julien and his family work to keep Sara safe, she lives each day with the fear that she might be discovered and taken away to a camp. Although she learns the fate of her mother, Sara doesn't know what has happened to her father, her friends or her teacher until much later. As the days pass, and Sara and Julien's friendship blossoms, the danger of being discovered only increases. Little do they realize just how much danger Julien is in.

Discussion

White Bird builds on the story told in Palacio's first novel, Wonder and in the short stories from Auggie and Me. In this new story, told in graphic novel format, Julian Albans reaches out to his Grandmere Sara, to learn about what happened to her during World War II, as part of a school assignment. Her life story offers some important lessons for his own journey.

Julian was the class bully and treated Auggie terribly. Now he's ashamed of how he acted. However, Grandmere reminds Julian that it is what we do after we have learned from our mistakes that is the most important thing. Our mistakes do not define us. Julian's Grandmere wasn't harsh with her grandson because she recognized that youth often make mistakes and don't always understand the significance of events and actions when they are young. For example, in her story, Sara is more concerned about her beautiful red shoes. As a result, she disobeys her father and doesn't wear her winter boots to school. Then again she disobeys the adults at her school and runs off to hide instead of following the maquisard into the woods. When she witnesses the murder of the maquisard in the schoolyard, suddenly Sara's red shoes seem very unimportant.

One lesson Grandmere has for Julian is to encourage him to be someone who has a light inside him, rather than a person attracted to the darkness. Grandmere tells Julian how she questioned her father about why the Nazis hate Jews. Her father explains that he believes "...that all people have a light that shines inside of them. This light allows us to see into other people's hearts, to see the beauty there. The love. The sadness. The humanity. Some people though have lost this light. They have darkness inside them, so that is all they see in others: darkness. No beauty. No love. Why do they hate us? Because they cannot see our light. Nor can they extinguish it. As long as we shire our light, we win. That is why they hate us. Because they will never take our light from us."

At the end of her story, Julian tries to understand how the Holocaust could have happened. His grandmere tells him, "Evil is only stopped when good people finally come together to put an end to it. There must be the will." She encourages Julian to act, "If you see injustice, you will fight it. You will speak out." At the end of her story, Grandmere tells Julian, "...It always takes courage to be kind." Kindness can become a light and offer hope.

White Bird is a work of historical fiction that was both written and illustrated by Palacio. The graphic novel is divided into three parts as well as a Prologue and an Epilogue, separated by a black blank page, each with a thought-provoking quote. The illustrations, created digitally are exquisitely coloured, especially the panels showcasing the bluebells in the Mernuit forest.The title of the novel is taken from the motif of the white bird symbolizing freedom, that is found throughout the novel.

Palacio, in her Glossary writes that White Bird  "... was not based on any one person's story, but was influenced by the many inspiring stories I've read over the years about children who went into hiding during the Holocaust and the ordinary citizens who helped them." Stories like White Bird are important not only because they help others learn about and from the Holocaust, but to also because they inspire readers to work towards creating a world free of discrimination and prejudice. 

The graphic novel format is the perfect vehicle to do just this, to engage and inform young readers about such important topics like the Holocaust, bullying and prejudice in a way that is not overwhelming. Using this format has allowed author/illustrator Palacio to highlight both acts of cruelty and acts of courage and kindness.

White Bird is a fitting addition to the Wonder story.

Book Details:

White Bird by R.J. Palacio
New York:  Alfred A. Knopf     2019
220 pp.