Days of Sand by Aimee de Jongh

In 1937, twenty-two-year-old John Clark is rushing down the streets of Washington, D.C. to make an interview. He runs into a newsboy, scattering his newspapers on the sidewalk. But John can't stop to help - he needs to keep his appointment.

In the interview, John tells the man that he lives in New York City, working for a local newspaper as a photographer. The interviewer recognizes his name, which is the same as his father who was a well-known photographer. The man isn't sure John is the right person for the job when he sees that most of his portfolio is filled with photographs of the Black community. They are looking for a photographer to take photos in the south.

John pleads with him to give him a chance, that he can cover any subject. The interviewer then admits that his work is outstanding and he has the job. He learns that this government agency wants to send him to photograph farmers in "No man's land.", a phrase being used to describe the panhandle of Oklahoma. The interviewer explains that after the Wall Street crash in October, 1929, the country also crashed and farmers were hit especially hard.

Mary, the assistant in the office, tells John he will be in the area for a month and will send his film back by post to be developed in their lab. John worries that his photographs will not be good enough but Mary tells him that one way to get impactful photographs is to "help the truth a little" by staging the subjects. She also explains what the Dust Bowl is. Pulling out a dusty map, Mary explains that it covers parts of Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and the panhandle of Oklahoma. The name comes from the dust storms that now blow through this area, blocking out the sun. Because of the drought and the storms, people are leaving to find a better life. Because of the drought and storms, people are leaving to find a better life. They want his photographs to show what life in the "Dust Bowl" is like. John is given a script - a list of subjects to photograph.

So in the middle of the Great Depression, John returns home, stunned that he has landed a job. As he is packing for the trip, his mother gives him a photograph of his father telling him that his father did love him but had trouble showing it. And so early the next morning, John sets off for Oklahoma in what turns out to be a life-changing experience.

Discussion

Days of Sand is a historical graphic novel about life during the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma, in 1937. This richly illustrated novel effectively portrays life during the Dust Bowl and how challenging it was for the people who lived in the southern plains during this economic and environmental catastrophe.

The Dust Bowl, as briefly explained in the novel, encompassed areas in Kansas, Colorado, the Texas panhandle, the Oklahoma panhandle, and parts of New Mexico. The problems began in the 1920's when land not suited for agriculture was planted and farmers began to abandon soil conservation practices. After the stock market crash in 1929, an economic depression began. This was followed in the 1930's by a series of droughts, each one worsened by the fact that the land did not recover fully from the previous one. In total there were four droughts: 1930-31, 1934, 1936 and the last in 1939-40. 

There were a number of factors that came together to create the dust bowl. The land had been quickly settled a century earlier without much understanding of the ecology and environment of the southern plains. The methods of farming used by these initial settlers were better suited to the Eastern United States with its regular rainfall. In the southern plains, there were periods of plentiful rain but also short droughts from which the region recovered. In the novel, Betty Harrison tells John Clark how when her grandparents settled in Oklahoma in 1910, it was a paradise of "green grass, blue skies, clean air..."

With the economic downturn of the Great Depression, farmers began to cultivate land that was not suited for farming and to abandon what few conservation practices they were already using. It was a matter of simple economics: they needed to farm as much land as possible to make enough money to live. Mary tells John Clark, that "they brought this on themselves" is only partly true, as outside pressures such as economics also played an important role.

Days of Sand portrays the personal journey of fictional photographer John Clark as he travels into the heart of the catastrophe, ostensibly to photograph conditions so the government can understand what's happening. His journey begins as a photography job but becomes personal when he experiences the realities of life in the dust bowl. As he changes his focus from trying to get photographs from the script he's been given to actually getting to know the people, he begins to see the human side of the tragedy. The loss of a young mother has such a profound effect on John, that he comes to understand that no photograph can capture the pain, the loss and the heartbreak her family experiences. It is his belief that a photograph cannot capture the complexities of an event like the Dust Bowl, that photographs can be deceiving and can fail to capture the emotions, "...colors, tastes, scents and sounds."

In a letter to the man who hired him, John writes, "If I had to describe my time in the Dust Bowl...I would talk about the stinging pain I felt when the flurries of dust hit my skin. I would talk about how dust could make you fell you're suffocating with every breath. I would talk about the slow decay of the human spirit after endless days of sand. None of that can be captured in a photograph." He resigns believing he became a photographer in an attempt to please his abusive father. He hopes that others will have the courage to photograph their lives.

Interestingly, in the back matter, De Jongh has included many interesting black and white photographs, and a brief write-up on the Farm Security Administration, the Photography Program, the impact of this program, and some of the iconic photographs that captured life during the Dust Bowl. Some of these photographs were inspirational in other ways - for example author John Steinbeck used the FSA archive in his research for his book, The Grapes of Wrath.

Days of Sand is a beautiful graphic novel, with wonderful illustrations that complement this poignant story about life in the Dust Bowl of the 1930's. Highly recommended.

Book Details:

Days of Sand by Aimee de Jongh
London, UK:  Self MadeHero    2022
277 pp.

Berani by Michelle Kadarusman

Berani weaves together the narratives of three characters, two young teens seeking to make their world better and an orangutan in captivity in a novel about identity, activism and coming of age.

Thirteen-year-old Malia Kusarto lives a privileged life with her mother in Surabaya. Her mother who is from Toronto, Canada,  is a linguistics professor who speaks perfect Bahasa (the national language of Indonesia). Malia's father passed away two years ago and so her mother is planning to return to Canada. This prospect deeply upsets Malia who doesn't want to leave Indonesia where her father is buried and her best friend Putu lives.

Malia attends a private school, Sekolah Menegah Pertama (SMP) with Putu. The school which has students of many religions teaches classes in Bahasa. Malia has to give a presentation on how palm oil agriculture is hurting the native orangutan population in Indonesian through the destruction of their forest habitat. She plans on handing out a "petition to protest the banning of palm-free product labels" to her classmates. However, Malia's mother advises her to tell her teacher, Mrs. Harwono about the petition because the issue is a complex one: some of her classmates' families may be involved in the palm oil industry. Although Malia promises her mother she will do so, she begins handing out her petitions when she arrives at school.

Ari Aruna lives with his Uncle Kus who has a restaurant, Warung Malang which makes his specialty, sop buntut, or oxtail soup. The restaurant has two live attractions: a mynah bird named Elvis Presley who sings Elvis songs and an orangutan named Ginger Spice. His uncle got Ginger Spice when she was a baby, after her mother was killed in the jungle. At first she slept in the house and was cuddled like a baby but when she grew larger and stronger, she was placed in a cage. Ginger is now so large, she cannot fit through the door of the cage and mostly lies around.

Ari is living with his uncle so he can attend the local middle school. His parents are tenant farmers who grow rice, which means they do not own the land they farm and therefore, do not earn very much money. They could only afford to send Ari to school, so his cousin Suni, the better and more eager student and a girl cannot continue her education. Instead, she now works in the rice fields.

Ari is expected to do chores to help out his uncle. He cleans the cages and does the accounting and bookkeeping. When he cleans her cage, Ari avoids looking at Ginger Spice. He feels uncomfortable. He has been chosen to represent his school in a chess tournament being  held at a private school in Surabaya. His friend Faisel has been helping Ari with chess in exchange for coffee and pastry at the Warung Kopi.

The chess tournament is held at Malia's school and on his way into the games room, Ari and his student escort pass by Malia who hands Ari a copy of her petition. The tournament is a success for Ari who has discovered there is prize money. He wins five of his seven games and their team has qualified for the regional semifinals. 

Meanwhile, Malia does her presentation but soon realizes that Mrs. Harwono is not pleased about the petition. She gathers the petitions from the students and asks Malia not to give out any of the petitions to students until she checks with the school principal, Mr. Ahmad. However, Malia reasons that this does not apply to the online version she has set up on the class webpage. But when the petition goes online and goes viral, Malia discovers her actions have come with some serious repercussions to not only herself but those around her.

In Malanga, Ari finds himself becoming more distraught over Ginger Spice's situation. When Ari first reads her petition he is stunned to discover that keeping Ginger Spice is against the law. He feels her situation doesn't apply to the petition. Ari believes what Ginger Spice really needs is a larger cage but when she is attacked by a group of teenagers, Ari reaches out to Malia and together they work to set up the rescue of Ginger Spice. But will the loss of Ginger Spice

Discussion

Set in Indonesia, the novel, Berani explores the lives of two young teens amid the larger problem of the endangered orangutan and the destruction of the native tropical forests that serve as their habitat.

The two main characters, Malia and Ari are very different but are brought together by the issue of orangutan conservancy. Malia is part Indonesian, part Canadian and lives a life of privilege and wealth. Her father's family is wealthy as evidenced by his mother, Malia's Oma who is driven around in a Mercedes, her mother is a professor, and Malia attends a private school. However, Malia struggles with her identity: she is considered bule, a foreigner or a campuran the Indonesian term for a person of mixed race. She considers herself Indonesian and doesn't want to leave for Canada. However, when expressing her fear that she won't know who she will be in Canada, her Oma tells her, "Dear girl. You are not defined by where you live or where your parents were born or where you were born. You are defined by what is in your hear, by your actions, your words." She also tells Malia, "...You are what is in your heart, you impact others by your actions and your words. Remember this, my love. Indonesian. Canadian. Girl. Woman. Mother. Grandmother. If you limit yourself to labels you are only putting yourself in a cage."

Malia soon learns that her actions have defined her as someone who doesn't seem to be concerned about others. Her petition, in defiance of both her mother and her teacher has serious consequences: the teacher is suspended and her best friend is also implicated. Malia acted without regard to others and with little understanding as to just how complex the issue of orangutan conservancy is. Malia manages to save face by writing her own letter of apology, recognizing the harm she's done but vowing to continue her work to help orangutans.

In stark contrast to Malia, is another character,  Ari who is Indonesian and whose parents are poor rice tenant farmers. Their family can only afford to send one child in their family to school and certainly cannot afford a private school like where Malia attends. It is this hardship that motivates Ari to do so well in the chess competition after he learns there is prize money to be won. But it also results in an intense inner conflict for Ari who has been chosen over his cousin Suni who is not only the better student but intelligent and loves school. "In elementary school she was the clever one, not me, but I'm attending middle school, not her. I took the only place our family can afford. I stole the one chance she will ever have of continuing school. Instead, she is the one left behind to help tend the rice fields." 

Ari promised to visit Suni who hoped to use his textbooks to keep up. But guilt has stopped him from following through on his promise. It is Ari's decision to rescue Ginger Spice that helps him confront his guilt about Suni and act. After he and Malia work to have Ginger Spice rescued, Ari realizes his uncle didn't want to understand or know the truth about keeping orangutans captive. Similarly, Ari feels he too has been unwilling to know the truth about his schooling. "I have learned it is possible to ignore truths that are right under your nose. You can choose to ignore them, or you can speak up."

This prompts Ari to seek out the school administration and have Suni replace him while he earns enough money to return to school. It is a valiant act. Ari also demonstrates that from chess he has learned that "...there are many ways to reach your goal. There's millions of strategies and moves you can plan ahead in order to achieve what you want...I can be patient...I can play a long game and find my way back to school." Ari explains his position in chess terms and demonstrates to the school administrator his maturity.

There is a third voice in the novel, that of Ginger Spice, the captive orangutan. Orangutans are considered highly intelligent and share ninety-seven percent of DNA with humans. Giving human attributes to an animal - called anthromorphism - might be helpful for younger readers to understand an animal's plight but in some ways it's not realistic because as humans we don't truly know what or how they think. For certain, life in a cage is not natural and orangutans do not belong in cages and humans have the obligation to protect these endangered animals.

In her Author's Note, Kadarusman states that this novel was inspired by the experience her brother had when they were both living in Indonesia years ago. He encountered an orangutan in a cage in a small restaurant in the village of Malang, East Java. The orangutan was eventually rescued from the cage and like Ari's uncle in the novel, did not know much about orangutans. 

Kadarusman who grew up in Australia and now also lives in Toronto, Canada has included a short Author's Note, a Glossary, and some information about orangutans which are considered an endangered species.

Berani is another very well-written and enjoyable novel, offering middle grade readers a number of timely issues to explore.

Book Details:

Berani by Michelle Kadarusman
Toronto: Pajama Press 2022
211 pp.

Numb To This: Memoir of a Mass Shooting by Kindra Neely

When Kindra was thirteen-years-old, she and her mother moved from Wichita Falls, Texas to Oregon. Life was very different in Oregon compared to Texas. In Texas she played in storm drains, her school had metal detectors, police officers and police dogs. Life became more difficult when her mother had to leave her job at the air force because of a disability. Eventually they lived at the edge of town. Everyone carried guns in Texas so it felt normal. However, when there was a drive-by shooting a few houses down, Kindra's mother decided to move back to her hometown of Roseburg. 

In Roseburg, Kindra attended the same high school her mother, making lots of friends. With friends like Chloe, Brett and Casey she hung out at the river. Her school had security guards but their role was to make sure students attended class. 

When she was seventeen, Kindra was unsure what she wanted to do, so she, along with many of her classmates, decided to attend UCC - Umpqua Community College in Roseburg. Kindra knew she wanted to help others. She met many new friends there, including her best friend Jasmine. But one day her life changed in a terrible way.

One morning, after attending her geology lab, Kindra was on her way to the pool where she worked, when she heard shots. At first she was not sure what was happening. Was a shooting really taking place? Eventually she met her friends Cara and Kaleb and they told her that a shooter was in Snyder Hall. They decided to leave campus by taking the nature path but Kindra didn't feel right doing this. She was concerned for those students she'd already encountered on campus who were confused and didn't seem to know what was happening. So she returned to the campus.

On the campus, Kindra and some other students locked themselves in a classroom and then were finally given the all clear, that "it's over." But Kindra was confused. Where was she to go? Was work cancelled? Kindra went to the pool where she was let into the building and took a call from her friend Christian whose mom worked in Snyder. Because no one knew what was going on, they were moved to the gym. Kindra called her mom, telling her she has heard that there are twenty people dead. They wait three hours in the gym before the police arrive to take them to the fairgrounds

Kindra's friend Josh was with her as they were searched. Overhead she could hear the woompf of the helicopters. They were taken by bus to the fairgrounds where she finally met up with her mother and her friends, Chloe and Jasmine. Before she was even home, a picture of Kindra and Josh was published in the national newspaper. This made her angry because if felt like they were being violated.

Kindra and her mother along with many others attended a candlelight vigil that night. Students returned to school a week later although some of the buildings were still closed. Kindra was asked to make memorial for Larry, the professor who was killed. An avid fly-fisherman, he had finally seen a red dragonfly the week before the shooting. Kindra designed a beautiful memorial of dragonflies created with tiles.

As life moved on, Kindra decided to apply to SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) in Savannah, Georgia. At this time she struggled with many things in her life: what to study, her friendships which were strained. Everything felt off and wrong. Eventually she decided to enroll at SCAD. When she graduated, what should have felt like a happy moment, did not feel that way. Even when she won the Harry Jacoby Award for the person who shows excellence in school and community, Kindra felt distant and unimportant.

But on her twentieth birthday, Kindra had to face the reality of another mass shooting, this time in Orlando, at the Pulse nightclub. As these events seemed to be happening everywhere, fear began to take over. Kindra did not see the point in having another birthday if this is the way life would be. For the entire summer, Kindra felt numb and as if nothing really mattered. This feeling would continue until finally Kindra just decided she couldn't go on. It was a phone call from her best friend Jasmine who saved her life....and began her journey back.

Discussion

Numb To This explores one young woman's journey to heal in the aftermath of a mass shooting. Kindra Neely was a student at Umpqua Community College in October of 2015 when a twenty-six-year-old student shot and killed an assistant professor and eight students and wounded eight others. The college was closed for a week while police investigated.

The title, Numb To This,  is  a reference to then President Obama's speech in response to the shooting:
"Earlier this year, I answered a question in an interview by saying, “The United States of America is the one advanced nation on Earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense gun-safety laws -- even in the face of repeated mass killings.”  And later that day, there was a mass shooting at a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana.  That day!  Somehow this has become routine.  The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine.  The conversation in the aftermath of it.  We've become numb to this.

 

We talked about this after Columbine and Blacksburg, after Tucson, after Newtown, after Aurora, after Charleston.  It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun."

In this graphic memoir of a mass shooting, Kindra Neely takes her readers through her own personal journey of dealing with the trauma of a mass shooting and beginning to take steps to heal. After the shooting, and in light of another, Kindra found herself feeling that life was "pointless" because these shootings would simply continue to happen. This led her to simply want to stop living but a phone call from her best friend, Jasmine saved her life. 

Although life appeared to go on as normal for Kindra, inside she found herself struggling. She wanted to tell people that things were not right, "but everyone kept telling me how strong I was and I didn't want to disappoint them." She found moments of happiness such as at her friends' wedding but that would not be enough.

Kindra began experiencing panic attacks: rooms with only one exit, helicopters and the anniversary of the shooting triggered flashbacks. Another shooting, on the anniversary of the UCC shooting but in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017 that would kill 60 people and injure over eight hundred people, triggered a complete emotional breakdown for Kindra. This started a vicious cycle of debilitating panic attacks and led Kindra to see danger everywhere.

When a fellow student at SCAD had a sister who experienced a mass shooting, Kindra reached out hoping to help. While attending the March For Our Lives in 2018, one of Kindra's friends, Josh had a panic attack. This led Kindra to truly see what she herself was experiencing as she viewed what Josh went through and that she should seek help.

Part of her healing process was the creation of "a book to show people like me that they aren't alone or that their feelings are normal." It wasn't until the third anniversary of the shooting that Kindra did seek help through student counselling. As mass shootings continued, Kindra began to be honest with friends and family about what she had experienced. Kindra's message is for us to listen with patience and humility to the survivors. They are who should be seen and heard. This was very much the opposite of what she and others experienced immediately after the shooting.

Kindra Neely has crafted an informative and sensitive graphic memoir. Her beautiful colour illustrations capture the intense emotions, the confusion, pain and suffering that survivors of mass shootings experience. It also portrays just how difficult the path to healing can be, with survivors like Kindra experiencing denial, encountering the expectation they will be "strong", experiencing difficulty in finding the right kind of help in a timely manner and struggling to learn to live again.

Her message, using the medium of a well crafted graphic novel is powerful, much needed and encourages us all to support the survivor community. 

Book Details:

Numb To This: Memoir of a Mass Shooting by Kindra Neely
New York: Little, Brown and Company       2022
192 pp.

Radium Girls by Cy

Grace Fryer arrives at work to find that Miss Rooney wants her to train a new hire, Edna Bolz. Grace is to teach Edna "lip-pointing". She tells Edna, it's not difficult and that by the end of the week, she should be painting two hundred-fifty dials a day. The paint, called Undark is rare and expensive so a very small amount of paint must be used. Edna is told to first smooth the brush with her lip, dip it into the paint and then paint the dial. "Lip-dip-paint." Grace encourages her "to tip the brush several times per number" if she needs to.

At lunch break, Edna doesn't plan on eating because she has no money for food. However, Grace offers to lend her some money in advance and so they go to lunch. At lunch Edna meets some of the other girls: Katherine Schaub, Albina Maggio and her sisters Amelia "Mollie" Maggio and Quinta Maggio.

Edna tells them that her cousins are jealous because she's found a good paying job with such a prestigious company. But she admits the paint tastes metallic. Grace says that many girls quit because of the taste while Amelia reveals that now Edna is part of a very exclusive group, "the Ghost Girls". She is told she will understand that night when she goes to bed. And that night when she blows out the candle to get into bed, Edna sees that her hands glow in the dark.

The girls have fun with the paint that makes them glow in the dark. At a party, Mollie's party dress that she wears to work glows in the dark along with her nails which she surreptitiously painted with Undark. And Marguerite plays a joke on her boyfriend, painting her teeth with the paint so they glow. He is not amused.

Edna is concerned about drinking alcohol which is illegal during Prohibition but her friends tell her they are already breaking the law because the party is at a speakeasy (an illegal club that sells alcohol).

Then one day at work, Dr. Von Sochocky tells Grace not to put the brush to her lips as it will make her sick. This causes grave concern among the girls who question why he would say this if the paint is safe. They decide to question Miss Rooney about what Mr. Von Sochocky, who invented Undark paint, has said. Miss Rooney's response is that they would not ask the girls to do something that is harmful.

Life goes on with the girls going to movies and swimming. Then one day they learn  from the newspaper that Dr. Von Sochocky will be replaced by Arthur Roeder. Mollie who has not been very talkative lately, reveals that she has a toothache. Later on the girls learn that she was diagnosed with syphilis and has died. They express disbelief in this diagnosis.

Grace eventually leaves her job and finds another working in a bank. When Grace meets up with the girls from the United States Radium Corporation, Katherine reveals that Helen Quinlan and Irene Rudolph are dead and that Marguerite Carlough is very ill in a hospital in New York. Both Grace and Edna state that their teeth are beginning to hurt as well as their feet. They believe this is just a coincidence. But as it will turn out, this is the beginning of a terrible fate that will befall all the girls who have worked at USRC and that they will become known by a new name, the Radium Girls.

Discussion

Radium Girls is a fictionalized account of a real historical event using the graphic novel format. The event is the poisoning of women workers at the United States Radium Corporation. Female workers were poisoned at three different factories but Radium Girls focuses on the factory in Orange, New Jersey in 1918. The women had been told the radium paint, made from powdered radium, gum arabic and water was harmless. This luminous paint, called Undark, was developed by Dr. Von Sochocky.

The women were hired to paint dials and were encouraged to use the "lip-dip-paint" procedure as it was then called and as described in the novel because the camel hair brushes would quickly lose their fine point during painting. Meanwhile, scientists who knew of radium's dangerous radioactivity took precautions. This was portrayed in one of the novel's panels where the scientists are masked while the women workers on the floor below are working unprotected. In fact, as Cy portrays in her panels, they often painted their nails and even their teeth with Undark.

Amelia "Mollie" Maggia was one of the first women to fall ill and suffered terribly from exposure to radium, first losing teeth and then her jaw. She eventually died in 1922, but doctors diagnosed her as having had syphilis! Whether this was due to ignorance or negligence is not fully known. 

As more women became ill from the radium paint, their employers refused to acknowledge any connection to their work, even refusing to accept the findings of several independent studies. It was Dr. Harrison Martland who eventually proved the women were dying of radium poisoning. Beginning with Grace Fryer, the women attempted to sue, but encountered many obstacles including lawyers who wouldn't take their case, and the radium industry fighting every step of the way. Many succumbed before they could get any compensation, but eventually, they won.

Their cases brought about significant change in employer laws, making companies responsible for the health and safety of their employees and the creation of the United States Occupational Health and Safety Administration. 

Author Cy, tells the story of the "Radium Girls" from the perspective of a group of friends and the friendships that develop as a result of their work and eventually their illness. The novel portrays their life together before they began to sicken, attending parties, movies, going to Coney Island and enjoying life as young women did at this time. This friendships grew beyond work and led to them working together to seek compensation from their employer.

The graphic novel medium worked exceptionally well for this story. The panels were done in coloured pencil using a limited palette of eight colours including purple, blue, red, black, white and radium green. In the transcript of an interview at the back of the novel, Cy mentions that she limited her colour palette to "avoid making a color faux pas".

As she tells the story of the women poisoned by radium paint, the author includes many historical details, portraying life for women in the 1920's. Women were finally given the vote in August of 1920. In Radium Girls, the girls are divided as to the value of being able to vote but some point out they will now be able to vote on laws that directly affect them. However, many things in life are still very restrictive for women: when they go swimming  and Mollie shows up in a new bathing suit that is too many inches above her knee, she is threatened with a fine and harassed by the police.

At this time Prohibition was in full force, banning the manufacture and distribution of alcoholic beverages.  Grace and the other girls visit a speakeasy, an illegal business that sells alcohol. Edna is very concerned but the other girls laugh off her worries.

Throughout the graphic novel, readers will note that the author has included illustrations and references to beauty products containing radioactive ingredients. This was very popular in the early part of the 1900's. Radioactivity had only been discovered in the late 1800's and it was not very well understood even into the 1920's and 1930's. Radium was discovered in 1898 by Marie Curie, who would eventually die from her research with radioactive substances. It was believed that radioactive substances could increase vitality and overall health, and so radioactive substances were added to many products.

Radithor, a tonic believed to restore vitality was in fact distilled water with small amounts of radium. Radium wool, portrayed in the novel as a large advertisement on a building, was a real product that advocated dressing your baby in clothing that contained radium. Thor-radia was a face cream containing small amounts of radium and thorium, claiming to regenerate the skin. It was no wonder, that into this world, the girls painting radium onto dials of clocks felt their work was safe. But scientists knew better.

Radium Girls is a well-crafted graphic novel that captures the story of these inspiring women whose lives and suffering were forgotten until recently. It offers young readers a window into life during the 1920's and captures the Radium Girls' determination to seek justice and compensation for their suffering. Cy has indicated that one of the main sources for her novel was Kate Moore's book, The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women. Cy's Radium Girls serves as a good introduction to this topic.

Book Details:

Radium Girls by Cy
Chicago: Iron Circus Comics      2022
135 pp.

Island of Spies by Sheila Turnage

Best friends twelve-year-old Neb, ten-year-old Rain and twelve-year-old Stick form the Dime Novel Kids, (the Dimes) a detective agency on Hatteras Island, off the coast of North Carolina. Their headquarters is at the top of the abandoned Hatteras Lighthouse. They hope to garner more business and become FBI agents some day but for now their current investigations include Tommy Wilkins who steals anything left out and Postmistress Agnes Wainwright who they believe is a spy.

Nebuchadnezzar Alfonzo MacKenzie lives with his mother Irma and his father Noah who used to be the keeper of the Hatteras lighthouse but who has been unwell for some time. Neb follows the rules of the Boy Scouts which he consults from the 1918 handbook. Neb has two sisters, Ruth and Naomi.

Rain lives with her mother who has been given the name Miss Jonah because they washed up on the Hatteras during a violent storm. Stick's mother saved Miss Jonah's life by helping her out of the water just as she gave birth to Rain. The whereabouts of Rain's father are unknown. Rain is of mixed race with her father being Black and her mother white and they are not welcome on the Hatteras. Rain and her mother live in a huge wine casket that washed up on the beach. Rain is a budding artist who paints with bold colours.

Stick's full name is Sarah Stickley Lawson, "apprentice scientist and pre-FBI agent" who lives with her  sister, sixteen-year-old Faye who is dating Reed, her mother Ada who is the island healer, and her father who sails along the coast bringing in supplies for the family store, Titus & Son General Store. The store is run by her grandfather Titus, affectionately known as Grand. He is a World War I vet who seems to have a romantic interest in the Postmistress Agnes Wainwright.

The story opens, January 12, 1942 with Tommy's younger brother Otto visiting the Dimes and attempting to extort them to pay him protection money for when the war reaches America. Everyone is nervous because the U.S. is now at war with Japan after they bombed Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. This also means that America is at war with Germany and that as in World War I, U-boats will probably be patrolling the Eastern Atlantic coast.

The Dimes refuse Otto's "offer" and instead tell him they are determined to solve the mystery of who is stealing Neb's lunch every day.

Stick's Papa arrives home from his trip along the coast, in his sloop with the red sails, along with his crew, Onslow Banks and a Black man from Pea Island named Richard Oscar. He's been gone three weeks and brought home an odd assortment of goods much to the consternation of Grand. Stick's father plans to sail immediately the next morning to bring in more supplies before the war really ramps up and rationing begins. However, her Mama refuses to let him go until Sunday.

On Sunday January 18, Stick's Papa leaves to sail down the coast. Stick, Neb and Rain take to staking out the store, while Faye confronts Tommy Wilkins about his brother Otto stealing Neb's lunch and "shaking people down". Just as Reed is about to shoot pool, there is a tremendous boom that cracks the store window and rattles the tins on the shelves. Everyone races to the shore, to see a tanker burning and then explode, sending oil and debris into the ocean. Grand orders the family men to take their people home while the single men patrol the beach. At home Stick's Mama tells them the Germans are hunting boats, not people but that their lights have to stay off.

In the morning they learn that there were no survivors from the blast and that two more ships were sunk last night by U-boats. The Dime Novel Kids return to school where their teacher, Miss Pope talks about the war, explaining that the attack on Pearl Harbor has decimated the U.S.'s ability to fight off the German submarines. Both Neb and Stick wonder if there might be Nazi spies in their community. And so they begin staking out various member of their village: Miss Agnes, the Ringers or outsiders who have come to play baseball for the Knnakeet team - Carl Miller and his cousin Ralph and two new travelers, Julia Cornwall and her brother Dirk, artists who are staying in Miss Agnes' cottage.

As the U-boat action ramps up and Stick's father is soon long overdue, the Dime Novel Kids work to figure out who is a spy. Their keen detective work begins eventually brings them into the path of a group of German spies and double-agents and plenty of danger.

Discussion

Island of Spies is an enjoyable novel, set on Hatteras Island, off of North Carolina. The events in the novel cover the span of time from January to August of 1942, as World War II ramps up and U-boats begin to hunt down and destroy American vessels attempting to supply Britain. 

The story is told by twelve-year-old Sarah "Stick" Lawson, a young girl who looks at the world through the lens of science and who frequently draws facts from the encyclopedias she reads. She and her friends have formed their own detective agency based on Dime Novels that they have read and draw tips from. The novel opens with a chapter which mentions that there are "three graves hidden in the heart of Buxton Woods, all three held down with ballast stones painted white.We aren't saying who's resting in those graves and who's not...All we're saying is there's three graves if you know how to find them." What follows are the events that led to those three graves.

The pacing in the first half of the novel is somewhat slow as the author builds her main characters and introduces a slew of new ones who come to the island as strangers. The main characters who form the Dimes are interesting and gradually developed in the first half; from the smart and outspoken Stick who is a "pre-famous scientist", to the artistic mixed-race Rain who in the end learns the real names of her parents. to quiet, intelligent Neb who lives in the Hatteras Lighthouse and is trying to deal with the possibility that his father may not live long. Turnage has crafted these characters from people she has encountered in her own life. 

The new characters add to the developing mystery: the "Ringers", Carl and Ralph who are supposedly players brought in by a rival team to play baseball,  and the Artists Julia and her brother Dirk whose family in has been sent to Auschwitz, are considered by the Dimes to be possible German spies. 

Things pick up when the school is destroyed by the blast from a ship that was targeted too close to shore by a German U-boat in March of 1942. With school now out for the year, the Dimes ramp up their detective work, staking out Miss Agnes' "lair". They eventually learn Miss Agnes's true identity and agree to work with her.

The novel's most entertaining point occurs when the Dimes attend the dance at the Oceanside Club at Nag's Head. Turnage's descriptions of disguises and events are enormously funny and delightful. But it is after this point that events become darker and more fast-paced. Stick's Papa is missing at sea, some of the locals begin to turn against Miss Jonah and Rain, and as the Dimes uncover more clues and a secret code, they find themselves in a life-threatening situation that requires all the ingenuity and courage they can muster.

Turnage has crafted a unique historical fiction novel based on the real life threat posed by U-boats to the Eastern seaboard during World War II. This forms the framework for her story of a small community trying to adjust to the changes war brings about while also dealing with old prejudices and expectations. The community struggles with the prejudice towards people of colour when they accuse Miss Jonah a shipwreck survivor who has a mixed-race child of being a thief and a spy. In wartime the expectation that women will continue to be at home is challenged by the women of the community who show up at the boys and men only security meeting and when Faye organizes her Security Brigade. It is the women who ultimately save the day in this story.

As she mentions in her informative From The Author To You, Turnage "uses a lot of spy codes, lingo and gizmos - all actually used by spies." making Island of Spies appealing to middle grade readers. This author's note at the back, lays out what is fiction and real history in the novel.

Although Island of Spies takes a bit of time to get going, it's worth the read, filled the mystery of three unknown graves in a woods, twists and turns, loads of spy-craft, quirky characters and a little-known historical context as the framework. A map showing the location of  Hatteras Island and possible shipwrecks from U-boat attacks would have added just that little bit extra!

Book Details:

Island of Spies by Sheila Turnage
New York: Dial Books for Young Readers  
374 pp.

Cher Ami by Melisandre Potter

Many different animals have been recruited during wars to help soldiers. In World War I, homing pigeons were one animal that was used.

Cher Ami was a little pigeon who lived on a farm in England. She would fly across meadows and streams, over rooftops and trees with her friends. Cher Ami always returned home.

When World War I began, pigeons were needed to carry messages to troops. So Cher Ami was sent to a training camp in France. Each day she underwent training to learn to fly farther and farther will messages. 

A tiny metal canister with a note was fastened to her leg. Her trainer would toss her into the air in the direction of her coop across the field where her dinner was waiting for her. 
The distance was increased daily until Cher Ami could travel long distances. 

Finally in October she was ready to be sent to the front lines along with six hundred passenger pigeons. This was very different than her training grounds: the sounds of war were loud and frightening but Cher Ami was brave. She took messages to the troops at different parts of the battlefield, completing twelve dangerous missions.

Her most dangerous mission occurred when a group of American soldiers were trapped in a ravine and surrounded by the enemy. The soldiers were being fired on by not only the enemy but their own troops who did not know where they were. The trapped soldiers sent Cher Ami on a desperate mission to inform their headquarters their location. Two other passenger pigeons had failed but Cher Ami succeeded despite being badly wounded. The message would save the lives of one hundred-ninety-four soldiers.

Surgeons saved Cher Ami's life although she did lose her leg. Afterwards, she was sent to America and became a mascot of the American Army.

Discussion

Cher Ami was born April 12, 1917 in Britain and was donated to the U.S. Signal Corps for use in France, during World War I.

Although Cher Ami successfully delivered twelve messages for the Americans in the Verdun sector, it was his valiant effort to deliver a message on October 3, 1918 to division headquarters that he is best remembered for. Over five hundred men, under the command of Major Charles White Whittlesey were trapped behind enemy lines in a ravine. The first two homing pigeons they had sent with messages asking for help were shot down by the Germans. Cher Ami was their last hope. He too was shot down, receiving a bullet through the breast, blinded in one eye and a leg hanging by a tendon. But Cher Ami rose up and flew 

In the Author's Note Potter mentions that Cher Ami was assumed to be male but was later determined to be female by a taxidermist at the Smithsonian. However, the U.S. Army Signal Corps has always listed Cher Ami as a hen while the Smithsonian has always listed Cher Ami as a Black Check cock carrier pigeon - a male. However, modern DNA testing has confirmed that Cher Ami was male as initially classified by the Smithsonian. The only evidence that led the Smithsonian to originally classify Cher Ami as male was from correspondence from Captain C.C. Hungerford of the Signal Corps to the Smithsonian in which he used the pronouns "he" and "his". It would be decades later that this could finally be confirmed.

Potter has told the story of Cher Ami in a simple and appealing way, focusing on his many contributions to American soldiers in France during the war. Of course the highlight is Cher Ami's miraculous flight  that would save many trapped men. For this, Cher Ami was awarded the Croix de Guerre medal and in 2019 was awarded the Animals in War & Peace Medal of Bravery.

Melisandre Potter's daughter, Giselle provided the illustrations for Cher Ami. In her A Note From the Artist, Giselle indicates that she viewed photographs of Cher Ami but that her artwork was created to keep this famous homing pigeon the focus of the story. For example, the pigeons were transported to France in crates and not wire cages but her illustration shows the later so that readers can see the pigeons. Giselle Potter's illustrations were rendered in watercolor and ink on paper.

Cher Ami will be of interest to those young readers who love animals, and especially birds. The back matter also contains A Note from the Author and a Sources page.

Book Details:

Cher Ami by Melisandre Potter
New York: Christy Ottaviano Books: Little, Brown and Company    2022

Life In Hot Water by Mary Batten

This picture book explores the fascinating and unique world that exists around thermal vents found in the world's ocean trenches.

At the bottom of the oceans lie the most extreme environments on Earth: hydrothermal vents that gush water hot enough to melt lead! Uncovering this world has been a grand adventure.

Hydrothermal vents were predicted to exist in the deep ocean by geologists. In an attempt to locate these vents, the National Science Foundation funded several ocean expeditions during the early 1970's. Remotely operated vehicles called ROVs were used. Through the use of deep-sea cameras and temperature sensors, the mid-ocean ridge near the Galapagos Islands was identified as a potential location for the vents. A rise in temperature had been recorded close to the seafloor in water that should be freezing.

A pilot and two scientists discovered the cause of this temperature rise on the morning of February 17, 1977 when they descended into the deep in a deep-diving HOV (human-occupied vehicle) called Alvin. They were part of the  Galapagos Hydrothermal Expedition which was searching for the cause of the temperature rise. Alvin descended a mile and a half below the surface of the Pacific Ocean to total darkness on the ocean floor. When they turned on the lights they saw "jets of  hot, dark-coloured liquid exploding upward like geysers..." Even more incredible and completely unexpected were the living creatures they saw living on the rocks around the hydrothermal vents. This was the beginning of many remarkable discoveries that would be made around these vents in the coming years.

Discussion

In Life In Hot Water: Wildlife at the Bottom of the Ocean, author Mary Batten describes the incredible ecosystem that scientists have discovered existing around the hydrothermal vents that form along the mid-ocean ridge. Invisible to humans until technology was developed to enable scientists to explore the deepest regions of the oceans.

Batten takes her readers first to the discovery of the hydrothermal vents and then describes how they are formed along the mid-ocean ridges. As the tectonic plates move, volcanoes erupt along the mid-ocean ridges, opening more fissures in the Earth's crust. The cold seawater seeps into these fissures it is heated to high temperatures by magma. This causes the seawater to react with the minerals in the surrounding rocks, causing a plume of mineral and chemical rich water. Scientists discovered two types of hydrothermal vents which they named black smokers and white smokers, based on the colour of their plumes and their unique chemical composition. 

Even more intriguing and very unexpected was the unique life forms that the expeditions discovered living around the hydrothermal vents. These life forms were discovered to use chemosynthesis, a  process animals use to produce the energy needed to survive, that was previously unknown. Batten details the remarkable creatures who have adapted in the most unusual ways to live in this extreme environment. The "iron snail", the Hoff crabs, the Pompeii worms, and the vent octopus are just a few of the vent animals who have changed the way scientists think about life.

The fascinating science information presented in Life In Hot Water is accompanied by the beautiful artwork by illustrator Thomas Gonzalez. Rendered in pastel, coloured pencils and airbrush, Gonzalez has captured the mysterious environment of the deep ocean with a palette of black, blues, greys and whites.

There is a summary of important facts covered in the book, and an Author's Note as well as a Glossary and a Selected Bibliography for further reading. This informative and well done picture book is highly recommended for budding scientists of all ages.

Book Details:

Life In Hot Water. Wildlife at the Bottom of the Ocean by Mary Batten
Atlanta: Peachtree Publishing Company Inc.     2021

Call Me Bill by Lynette Richards

The story begins with a family on Marrs Island, Nova Scotia, March, 1873. The Clancy's have lived on the protected side of the island for three generations. Sarah Jane's husband, John O'Reilly fished with her father and uncle.

On April 1, 1873, Sarah Jane heard a strange noise, saw flares in the night sky across the island, and awakened her father, Michael, telling him people were in trouble. As he set out, he came across a man on the path, frozen and delirious. Michael sent a man to get help as bigger boats were needed for the open sea.

Across the island, the men found the bodies of women strewn on the rocks. People were clinging to the rocks and out on the water lay the S.S. Atlantic on its side.

At dawn, the bigger boats arrived from Upper Prospect and Terence Bay. The men battled the sea, saving the survivors. The dead they piled on the granite rocks of Ryan's Island. It came to be called "the Hill of Death".

When Captain Williams tried to identify the dead, he was stunned to find that one young sailor who looked like a boy, was a woman. No one knew who she was or how she came to be on the S.S. Atlantic.

But nine months earlier, in June of 1872, in Trenton, New Jersey, Cicely offers Margaret her father's old clothing. Using the name Billy, she took the 4:25 AM train to Jersey City, then the ferry to New York.

In New York City, Billy was hired on by the captain of the S.S. Hutton. It sailed out of New York on July 1, 1872, with Billy as the Engineer's Steward. Finding Billy a good worker, the captain asked her to stay on to China, but Billy was intent on travelling only as far as England. Despite feeling self-conscious in her father's clothing, Billy liked how she was treated when dressed as a man.

In London, Billy left the ship, stayed at the Sailors' Home Boarding House, and purchased sailor clothes and oilskins. While there, Billy saw many injustices but also how women were agitating for social change. To earn money to return to New York, Billy signed on to the Eskdale which was sailing to Genoa, Italy.

On the trip, Billy was bullied by another sailor. She tried to avoid the man as much as possible but eventually Billy decided to fight back. The result was her identity as a woman was discovered by the captain's wife. Margaret admitted to the captain and his wife that she was Maggie Armstrong but that when she wore "pantaloons" she called herself Billy.

Maggie's sailor chest, clothes and oilskins that she'd purchased were confiscated and she was forced to dress in women's clothing.

In Aberdeen, Scotland, Maggie was reprimanded by the judge who ordered her to return to New York in the steerage class on the S.S. Victoria. She was told if she returned she would be jailed. On the Victoria, Margaret met Ralph Keeler, a reporter for the New York Tribune. Margaret told Keeler about her life growing up on her family's farm in New Jersey, how she began wearing her brother's clothing when she was nine-years-old, her mother's Quaker activism for social reform, her brother Jame's death during the Civil War and how his death led to their mother's early death as well. 

Keeler and Margaret disembarked at Castle Gardens: he told her to seek support at Harry Hill's Concert Saloon. There Margaret dressed and lived as Bill. But she missed the sea, so she returned, working on the S.S. Atlantic, a passenger liner owned by the White Star Line. It would be Margaret/Bill's last journey at sea.

Discussion

Author Lynette Richards has crafted an engaging fictional account of the life of Margaret Armstrong, set against the tragedy of the sinking of the passenger liner, the S.S. Atlantic in 1873. Margaret,  a young Dutch New Jersey woman who was able to pass herself off as a male sailor in the late 1800's. Richards, using the graphic novel format, pieces together Margaret's unusual life and her tragic death from primary sources from the Aberdeen Journal, the New York Tribune and the Halifax Chronicle, . Some of these sources are included in novel's illustrations.

The Aberdeen Journal's article mentions a Margaret Armstrong, from New Jersey, who dressed as a sailor, called herself Bill and was exposed as a young woman by the wife of the captain of the Eskdale which sailed from Aberdeen to Spain. Ralph Keeler's article in the New York Tribune also describes a young woman who calls herself Maggie Armstrong except when she wears pantaloons and is then called Billy. Maggie was hired on to the Eskdale to travel to Genoa Italy but was exposed as a woman after a fight with one of the men. Then comes the article in the Halifax Chronicle after the sinking of the Atlantic and the discovery that one of the young sailors was in fact,  a young woman. As Emily Burton Rocha indicates in her informative introduction, its likely the woman described in these three articles, penned within a matter of months in 1873, is the same person.

Ralph Keeler, author of the Tribune article, is himself an interesting character: he worked in minstrel shows, dressed as a woman and did Black face. So it's not surprising that he would have been interested in the unconventional Margaret Armstrong and want to interview and write about her.

Call Me Bill is a story of resilience, grit and determination. Margaret Armstrong was a woman who felt constrained by the social norms and expectations placed on women in this era. Dressing as a man, gave Margaret the opportunity to be treated better (something she readily noticed) and to support herself - an option that was not common at this time for women. The expectation was that a woman marry. A sailor's life was hard, but it also offered the opportunity to see the world and a measure of freedom that Margaret would never have had living on a farm in New Jersey.

Richards who serves on the Board of Directors of the S.S. Atlantic Heritage Park and Society, frames Margaret's story with the sinking of the Atlantic. In her Author's Note, Richards writes, "I set out to tell the true story of the SS Atlantic wreck and the heroic rescue through the lens of the mysterious 'female sailor'. Newspapers provided facts, but did not, could not, recount the substance of the person. I recognized myself in this person, and I suspect many readers will too. This story presents the opportunity to explore identity, courage, and the radical imagination of a young person who took huge risks to occupy space that others would have had difficulty imagining."

Although she wrote a long version of this story, Richards decided to use the graphic novel format, "...to activate readers' interest and imaginations around th eimportant history of the SS Atlantic, and the heroic efforts of local Nova Scotian villagers." Her beautiful panels were rendered in grey watercolour washes which she references in her Author's Note. 

Call Me Bill is well-written, interesting and beautifully illustrated. A must-read for those who love graphic novels, unusual historical figures, and Canadian history.

Book Details:

Call Me Bill by Lynette Richards
Wolfville, Nova Scotia: Conundrum Press     2022
96 pp.

Arthur Who Wrote Sherlock by Linda Bailey

In recent years there have been several movies and a series about Sherlock Holmes, that great English detective. But who came up with the idea of Sherlock and what inspired the creation of one of literature's great characters?  In Arthur Who Wrote Sherlock, young readers will find the answers to those questions.

Arthur loved stories, especially the ones about knights of long ago, told by his mother as she made porridge. His mother taught him how to read and soon he was reading library books and writing his own stories.

Arthur's family was not well off, so they moved often. He also didn't always have new clothes to replace the ones he outgrew. His father didn't work because he struggled with mental illness and had a drinking problem.

When Arthur was nine-years-old he was sent away to boarding school, paid for by his wealthy uncles. Arthur found school boring and he didn't do well. But he loved sports and telling stories!

At the age of seventeen, Arthur enrolled in medical school and became an assistant to Dr. Joseph Bell, his favourite teacher. Bell had an amazing ability to observe, which often led him to uncover information about patients without asking questions. While in medical school Arthur had to work to earn money. He signed on as a medical officer on ships travelling to the Arctic Ocean and to Africa where he had many adventures. When he finally became a doctor, Arthur's practice was slow, with few patients.

With so much time on his hands, Arthur began by writing short stories. He decided to write a detective story but he needed to develop a detective character! Remembering the brilliant Dr. Bell, Arthur decided to model his detective after his friend who was observant, intelligent and brilliant. He decided on the name Sherlock Holmes. 

The first story Sherlock Holmes appears in is well received but then is forgotten. But when his stories are published in The Strand Magazine, readers grow to love Sherlock and his partner, Dr. Watson. However, the fame, and fan mail simply became too much for Arthur, so he decided to kill off his beloved detective. But this did not go over very well with readers who were completely dismayed, even angry. Eight years would pass before Arthur resurrected Sherlock  with The Hound of the Baskervilles and a unique explanation bringing Sherlock back from the dead.

Besides his wonderful Sherlock stories, Arthur leads a full life but he will always be remembered for creating Sherlock Holmes!

Discussion

Most young readers may not have read any of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories but they may very well have encountered him through recent movies and the BBC television series, Sherlock, starring the eccentric Benedict Cumberbatch.  Arthur Who Wrote Sherlock offers the perfect introduction to the the man who created one of literature's most famous characters. 

Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born in 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland to Irish Catholic parents, His family was temporarily split up in 1864 due to his father's struggles with alcoholism but reunited three years later. His father struggled most of his life with mental illness and died in an institution. Arthur was educated in strict Jesuit schools which he later indicated were abusive and did not foster learning in a positive way. 

 

Arthur was a trained physician and well educated but his medical practice did not thrive. So he began writing. His first published story, A Study In Scarlet was the inaugural appearance of Sherlock Holmes and his loyal assistant, Dr. Watson. Sherlock  Holmes became so popular that when Arthur killed off his character, readers were upset. Circumstances in Arthur's life eventually led to return to writing more adventures of Sherlock Holmes, after he provided a way to bring back the famous detective from what had appeared to be an untimely death!

In Arthur Who Wrote Sherlock, author Linda Bailey highlights the influences that played an important part in Arthur Conan Doyle's development of both his famous character and his writing: the exciting stories his mother told him as a child, his love of reading, his training as a medical doctor, and his work with the intelligent and observant Dr. Joseph Bell who was to form the genesis of Sherlock Holmes. Arthur himself was an equally interesting person: he liked to drive fast cars, take to the air in hot air balloons and early airplanes, ran for public office several times, travelled to New York and also Canada and even tried to enlist in the Boer War and in the First World War (he was deemed unfit for service.)

Assisting in portraying Arthur Conan Doyle's life is the artwork of Isabelle Follath which was done using "watercolor, pencil, a pinch of Photoshop and gallons of coffee."

This well-written picture biography provides an informative introduction to Arthur Conan Doyle and his character, Sherlock Holmes. There is an Author's Note at the back along with a Sources page for further research.

Book Details:

Arthur Who Wrote Sherlock by Linda Bailey
Toronto: Tundra Books     2022

FLY by Alison Hughes

Fourteen-year-old Felix Landon Yarrow, known as FLY "to anyone and everyone in a ten-mile radius" is on a quest of Don Quixote proportions. FLY lives with his mother who works as a caretaker: his father passed away when he was only three years old.

FLY has cerebral palsy and is wheel-chair bound,  his gangly body "arms and legs, hands and fingers flex-locked in cramped, crumpled contortions." He's hard to understand if you don't listen carefully because of his clenched teeth and wayward tongue. He carries around a copy of Don Quixote to remind people that there is more to him than meets the eye.

Because he's confined to a wheelchair, FLY has an aide named Levi, an eccentric young man who wears purple pants and tells FLY everything. Levi is always trying to help him make new friends but FLY isn't very interested. He feels that he goes mostly unnoticed by his fellow students, the exception being Daria. She noticed FLY when his book fell and she picked it up. Unlike others who don't see him, Daria looked into his eyes and smiled. That's when FLY developed a huge crush on her and began watching her.

But in watching Daria, FLY has noticed a group of boys who seem to be rude and are focused on her. FLY notices one boy, Carter, a boy "who walks like he owns the world" and who seems to be center of attention and now seems to be focused on Daria. So for three months FLY watches Carter, invisible to him. FLY has heard Carter boast about cheating on exams and stealing. FLY has a plan to bring down Carter. But plans don't always go as expected and FLY's plan most certainly does not!

Discussion

FLY is a short novel, done in verse, that explores the theme of living with a disability and making assumptions about people without really knowing them. Felix, confined to a wheel chair as a result of cerebral palsy, struggles because people often don't see past his disability. He refers to himself as "Nobody" because he feels he is invisible, a nobody who's not noticed. Sitting in his wheelchair in the hallway, is like being a fixture, a piece of furniture. His disability elicits pity and low expectations. 

 

People assume because his body doesn't work, his mind mustn't either. To counter this he carries a copy of the novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes which he refers to as "DQ".
"I take old
DQ everywhere,
like a good luck charm -
physical proof
to ignorant people
that there's a
mind
in this
body of mine."

"Can you blame me?
So many people
make false
connections
projections,
and assume that
because my
body malfunctions,

my mind must,

too."

Felix doesn't like the word "awesome" because it seems to be used in a way that is demeaning.
"Awesome.
It's the kind of praise
surprised people give me
for the smallest 
accomplishment

when they see

my body doesn't work
like theirs does,

and assume
my brain doesn't 
work at all."

He also knows he is not someone to be pitied.
"I am not a poor boy

I'm a smart one,

with talents

only a few will ever discover."

Felix knows that he goes unnoticed and he feels invisible, like a FLY on the wall. He knows people look past him in his wheelchair.

As with the character Don Quixote, Felix sees himself as a chivalrous knight out to save his classmate, Daria from bad boy Carter. In his misguided quest, Felix begins stalking Carter (and Daria) at school. Felix doesn't tell anyone what he suspects about Carter because he sees this quest as giving him purpose. This escalates to sending email messages online to Carter and warning messages to Daria. Sending the messages anonymously, online gives Felix a new sense of power which he enjoys. Felix considers that Daria is innocent and unaware of the type of person Carter is. He considers protecting her from Carter is a matter of fairness and justice. Believing he has the evidence Carter is dealing in drugs, Felix sets out to confront him at school, but that meeting doesn't go down as planned, with Levi getting injured. And his actions don't have the desired effect for Daria either. 

Although things don't work out as planned, the ensuing brawl makes Felix feel alive and that people like Constable Mah are finally listening to him. Even when Daria angrily confronts him, Felix still feels some exhilaration because she is talking and looking at him, even though she's not grateful. Daria tells Felix, 
"A person is more than
how they look.
Talk to them.
Have a
conversation."

This makes Felix realize he has been hypocritical, doing to Daria exactly what he doesn't want people to do to him:
"How many times
have I thought 

the same thing?
Wished the same thing?

That people would
talk to me,

understand me,

not glance and

judge

without a word..."

Felix begins to understand that when he finally reaches out to talk with Daria, he will learn what she is really like, not the damsel in distress as he imagined her to be. He realizes there are many things he doesn't know and now he wants to be open to new ideas and experiences. By the end of the novel Felix is questioning the possibility of giving Carter a second chance, of trying to find out the source of his bus driver Vic's crabbiness and maybe even trying to learn to ride a horse!

FLY is another addition to the juvenile fiction canon that includes Wonder and many other books, exploring life with a disability, and how people with a physical disability are challenged by other people's perceptions. Done as a novel in verse, Hughes succinctly portrays Felix's frame of mind, his experiences, how others relate to him and the events that occur because of his plan. Well-written, engaging, with lots of themes to explore.

Book Details:

FLY by Alison Hughes
Toronto: Kids Can Press    2022
197 pp.

Earth's Extraordinary Places: Galapagos by Tom Jackson

Galapagos is a fact-filled, colourful book for young readers about this extraordinary place. Galapagos opens with a detailed map showing the main islands (there are one hundred twenty-eight!) in the Galapagos archipelago. The Galapagos are the product of a hot spot - a plume of magma beneath the islands. Part of the Nazca Plate, one of many tectonic plates that make up the Earth's crust. As the plate drifts over the hotspot, new volcanoes form, creating new islands in the archipelago.

The shield volcanoes, types of lava, and some of the unique volcanic features on the Galapagos are also explored. Jackson then goes on to highlight the importance of the Galapagos' location in the Pacific Ocean and how the meeting of three ocean currents has created the nutrient-rich waters that sustain the archipelago's unique wildlife.

No book about the Galapagos Islands would be complete without information about the voyage of the Beagle and Charles Darwin's visit to the islands in 1835. Darwin's observations of the species of plants and animals unique to each island led him, later on, to write his Origin of Species, explaining his theory of evolution by natural selection.

A large part of the book offers an in-depth look at the wildlife on Galapagos, including reptiles (iguanas and large tortoises), birds, marine life and plants. 

The chapter on plant focuses on the five different plant zones on the islands and the unique trees, shrubs and other plants that thrive in each zone.

The final chapter, People and Preservation explores the people who live on the Galapagos - known as Galapaguenos and how the arrival of humans on the islands has impacted the ecosystems there.

Discussion

Galapagos is a detailed, colourful and engaging book for young readers, offering them an in-depth look at this unique archipelago. Readers are provided with maps throughout the book to help orient them and the Galapagos story begins with an explanation as to how the islands formed. Jackson then explains how life arrived on these islands which seem so isolated. This provides a clean seque into the voyage of the Beagle and Charles Darwin's observations that eventually led him to propose his theory of evolution.

There are plenty of colour photographs, colourful illustrations, maps and charts to hold the interest of younger readers. Each page is filled with interesting facts presented in short, simple text. Unfortunately, much of the text tends to very small and on some pages, the black text on a dark background, usually purples, blues and greens make reading difficult.

Overall, this is a well written, fascinating book about the Galapagos that will be sure to inspire young readers to learn more about this unique place, to work to preserve our planet's ecosystems and, maybe even to travel to the Galapagos one day. 

Book Details:

Earth's Extraordinary Places: Galapagos by Tom Jackson
New York: DK Publishing   2022
127 pp.

Northwind by Gary Paulsen

Northwind is a survival tale set along the coast of Norway. It tells the fictional tale of an orphan boy named Leif who goes on a journey north after yet another life-altering event.

Leif's mother died giving birth to him and his father died fighting a whale. No one could remember their names, so he was called Leif. He was born with a blood clot in his fist foretelling a life of hardship and danger.

On the docks, Leif was nursed by sucking on rags dipped in sour goat's milk and fish oil. When he was old enough to walk, Leif was taken on the boats to work, moving from boat to boat to boat. As he grew, he was made to work repairing nets and cooking eel meat. These ships hunted seals for their fur and meat. To find the best seals whose fur was the thickest, the boats had to go north.

When he was twelve-years-old, the ship set up an isolated fish camp where they left Leif, and "four used-up and part-crippled old men -- on named Carl" and a small boy named little Carl. They were to fish and smoke salmon while the ship travelled north to hunt seals. They smoked and dried enough to last at least six months, but the ship never returned.

 

The men had made a small cedar canoe but now they knew they needed a larger canoe. To that end they had felled a tree to begin making a dugout canoe. It was at this time that the dark ship came. The dark ship, was a wooden ship with dirty slack sails that drifted in during the fog. Its foul stink of death could be smelled before it was seen. The ship came into the cove during the nigh and in the morning four dirty men arrived on shore in a small boat. No one knew what the men from the dark ship were trying to tell them. When their ship began to drift back out, the men raced back to their ship. Old Carl said, "They are men who have lost their shadows."

Eight days after the dark ship's arrival, the men in the camp began to sicken and die. When Old Carl became ill he placed Leif and Little Carl, along with food and supplies into the cedar canoe. He told Leif to go north and to never return to the camp. Leif was scared to go off into the wilderness and sad. He paddled hard all the first day. However, the death that stalked the dark ship and the camp now found the canoe. First Little Carl sickened, vomiting with a fever and then soon Leif was overcome too. 

As he became sicker, Leif saw that Little Carl had passed away, his spirit had gone to Valhalla. But he was too weak and he sank into darkness. While he was unconscious with the illness, a pod of black and white whales came upon the canoe and decided to play with it. Eventually, one of the mother whales pushed the canoe onto a rocky beach out of reach of the young whales.

Leif alone survived the illness. After cleaning himself, eating and drinking a little, and washing out the canoe, he set out to find a place to bury Little Carl, a place where the animals could not reach the boy's body. Once this task was completed, Leif set out northward, as Old Carl had instructed. It was to be a voyage of learning and change. And a voyage of freedom.

Discussion

 

Gary Paulsen, master of the survival-story has written another brilliant novel, set centuries earlier off the coast of Norway. The inspiration for Northwind came from the stories Paulsen was told by his grandmother at a cook camp in northern Minnesota. Paulsen's grandmother was from Norway and her childhood had been spent by the sea. In his Author's Note, Paulsen writes of those stories, "...she told unforgettable stories of the sea, so real I could smell the salt and hear the creaking of rope and wood and picture North Sea waves so huge they raged far overhead and turned longboats into warping wooden sleds as they raced down the roaring-boiling face of water." Paulsen would become a sailor once day, sailing along the western coast of North America and also into the Pacific.

The event that triggers Leif's own voyage is the arrival of cholera at the fish camp. Centuries ago, cholera was a death sentence: few survived the illness, it often led to a horrible, swift death. Leif does survive and trades his existence as a virtual slave on fishing boats to one of complete freedom and daring survival.

 

Paulsen describes many survival skills and wildlife behaviours in Northwind. For example, he explains how Leif fashions a fish spear from a willow branch and the metal tang that Old Carl gave him, allowing him to hunt for food. Later on when he loses this valuable too, Paulsen describes how Leif makes a spear that doesn't have the metal tang, and how he adapts it when it doesn't quite work. There's a great description of killer whales creating a "bubble net" to herd salmon so they can easily feast on the trapped fish with the eagles and ravens picking up the scraps. 

 

In Northwind, Leif follows Old Carl's directive and travels "north". On this journey Leif encounters many situations and experiences, some of them life-threatening but through each, a learning experience that helps him to grow. What saves him is his ability to learn from his mistakes. Leif learns about the currents between the islands and islets after he almost loses his life, the cedar canoe and the few possessions he has, in a whirlpool. He learns to look for bear scat when he comes ashore, after coming face to face with a huge brown bear. Leif learns to observe the sea and understand what is happening so he can safely navigate along the coast. This is important for when he moves further north and encounters inlets and strong sea currents.

As a result of his experiences, Leif begins to understand that he is "...learning to learn: knowing more...As he moved north, saw more, lived more, he knew one thing for certain. He was the smallest part of everything he passed through....So he wasn't bigger. But he was still more in some way. Had grown so that he was truly different from the orphan boy in the ships and he knew, believed and knew, that he would never be that boy again. That nothing on Odin's earth could make him become that again."

It is Leif's experience of freedom that ultimately changes him and gives him hope for the future. At the beginning of his journey, Leif remembers what his life was like, when he had been shuffled from one ship to the next, "...a kind of galley thrall. Always down below, working at menial tasks:...dodging beatings that any man on the crew could administer to him for any reason whatsoever."  Now there was danger, from bears and the ocean but..." ...it was all up to him. He could eat or starve, depending on his own actions, his own thoughts, his own plans."  Leif demonstrates he is resilient and courageous. He has grit and is willing to learn. These traits are what enable him to survive.

When he was a slave on the ships, Leif remembers wanting to "...jump over the side and let the sharks have him.."  But Old Carl had stopped him with the suggestion that things might change and that they might get better. Near the end of the novel, Leif finds himself considering what he might do if he should spot a ship with men and he decides that at this time he does not want to return to that world just yet and that he wants to continue to learn.

 

Northwind is another excellent survival story for readers who may have enjoyed the author's Hatchet series.

Book Details:

Northwind by Gary Paulsen
New York: Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers    2022
246 pp.

On Her Wings: The Story of Toni Morrison by Jerdine Nolen

Toni Morrison began life as Chloe Ardelia Wofford. She was the second oldest of four children: an older sister Lois and two younger brothers, George and Raymond.

Chloe loved to listen to the stories told by her parents and grandparents. These were stories of the Bible, of myths and legends, of ghosts and the supernatural. But Chloe also loved to listen to the music they made, playing the violin and clarinet and singing. These stories stayed inside Chloe and stirred her imagination.

In Lorain, Ohio where she lived, Chloe attended Hawthorne Elementary School along with children from many different countries. These children often were just learning to speak and read English, so Chloe was often asked to read. Many people struggled to pronounce her name.

When Chloe was twelve, she decided to convert from her mother's African Methodist Espiscopal faith to Catholicism. Her baptismal name was Anthony, after St. Anthony of Padua. Her name was now Chloe Anthony Wofford.

As a teen, Chloe worked as a housekeeper and then at Lorain Public Library shelving books. Working in a library offered Chloe the opportunity to read many books.

Chloe's parents placed great importance on hard work and an education. Chloe attended Howard University. As in elementary school, her friends found her name difficult to pronounce so Chloe had them begin using the short-form, Toni, for Anthony. Chloe went on to study at Cornell University and then teach at Texas Southern University. She returned to Howard to teach English and met her husband, Harold Morrison who was an architect. Their marriage failed just before she gave birth to a second son, and Chloe decided to leave Howard and move to New York to work as an editor. This was to be the turning point in Chloe's life as she worked by day as an editor and wrote in the evenings. 

Her first novel, The Bluest Eye was published when she was thirty-nine-years-old, under the name of Toni Morrison, something she wasn't too happy about. But her career as a writer was just beginning. It was a career that would lead to the publishing of many books and a Nobel Prize in Literature, the first African American woman to be awarded the prize.

Discussion

On Her Wings describes Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winning author, Toni Morrison's remarkable life. It also distills the essence of Morrison's writing for younger readers. 

Her books attempted to help readers understand one another better, especially those who are different from what we know or understand. Having come from a family where storytelling was so important, Morrison recognized that it was the difficult stories that were important to tell. She had the courage to do so, in her own unique style. These were stories of the struggles of Black Americans to survive and thrive in the post-slavery era. Morrison's purpose was to foster acceptance and understanding. In On Her Wings Nolen writes, "Inside the world created in her books, she sought to empower and heal, especially around the topic of skin color. She showed that it was just fine that people come in many different colors."  

The author also attempts to convey to her readers the importance and power of storytelling, listening and words were to Morrison and how this influence came from her grandparents and parents and in turn, influenced her own storytelling. From listening to those stories early in her life, Toni Morrison was able to pass on the lessons she learned to her readers. "For Chloe the tales were frightening, thrilling, full of music and adventure -- stories that were at times painful, beautiful, and wise -- sometimes all at once. She learned those stories and retold them to others." In those stories, "Toni Morrison wrote about the history and pain of Black life in the United States...She had learned from her parents and grandparents and great-grandparents the language of fearlessness and dignity and, above all, to love and value yourself."  Nolen encourages young readers to go on to tell their stories too!

In her Author's Note at the back, Jerdine Nolen writes about how she initially struggled to read Morrison's first novel, The Bluest Eyes and how this was also the case with many of her other novels. However Nolen discovered Morrison's words opened up her "...her mind and heart to a new or another perspective." It would seem Nolen found Toni Morrison's books difficult to read but very much worth the extra effort. In additon to the Author's Note, Nolen includes a detailed section titled Learn More About Toni Morrison that lists her works, her official website, quotes and much more.

The beautiful illustrations of James E. Ransome, rendered in watercolour and collage portray the major events in Toni Morrison's life and capture the essence of Jerdine Nolen's message as well.

Book Details:

On Her Wings: The Story of Toni Morrison by Jerdine Nolen
New York: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers     

A Walk Through The Rainforest by Martin Jenkins

In this exquisite picture book, the author takes his readers on a short walk through the tropical rain forest using the beautiful artwork of illustrator Vicky White.

The journey begins with an illustration showing the tropical rain forest in Malaysia, in a place called Taman Negara. The rain forest is described as "Hot and sticky and pretty dark." Jenkins wonders where all the animals are since the forest contains wild cats, pheasants, pigeons, squirrels, frogs, owls and many different types of insects. However, listening to the sounds in the forest reveals that although they can't be seen there are many types of animals living there.

One thing that can be seen in the tropical rain forest is the trees! There are many different kinds including one called a tualang which is likely two hundred years old. When looking closer at the trees however, most are big and old: there are few young trees. How will the forest replenish itself if there are no young trees? That question is answered as Jenkins continues his walk through the tropical forest, uncovering clues that lead him to determine how tropical rain forests continue to thrive and regenerate!

Discussion

To highlight some of the more fascinating features of the tropical rain forest, author Martin Jenkins poses a question about the lack of young trees in the forest and sets out to find the answer. Along the way, readers uncover some of the hidden animals of the tropical rain forest, and the processes that bring about the growth of new trees in the dense forest. The text is simple and straightforward, with the reader being led through the forest by a description of animals and their behaviours. Clues found in the rain forest suggest answers to the question posed.

The detailed illustrations of Vicky White help young readers visualize a ecological system many will not be very familiar with. These gorgeous illustrations are done in pencil and oil paint and are richly textured. It is these illustrations that really make this picture book special.There's a section on The World's Rain Forests and a section at the back of coloured illustrations of Birds, Insects and other Invertebrates, Mammals, and Frogs and Reptiles, many of which have been included in the illustrations. Readers are invited to go back and see if they can find them in the illustrations.

In an era where many picture books have digitally created artwork, A Walk Through The Rain Forest is a treat, showing readers what traditional illustrations have to offer, while also highlighting some of the features of the tropical rainforest.

Book Details:

A Walk Through The Rainforest by Martin Jenkins 

Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press    2022