Ablaze With Color: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas by Jeanne Walker Harvey

Alma was a girl who loved "the sparkling colors of nature": the "pastel purple violets and crimson roses crowned by bright green banana leaves". She always enjoyed being outside because the colours of nature made her feel good. 

Unlike her sisters who enjoyed cooking or sewing, Alma loved creating things, like bowls and cups she made from the red clay near her home. Her mother designed colourful dresses while her aunts painted.

But Alma and her sisters were not allowed to attend the nearby school which was for white people only. They also were not allowed into the local library or the museum. Alma's parents countered this by filling their home with books and inviting teachers into their home to talk about various subjects. 

Eventually, Alma's family decided to leave Georgia for Washington, D.C. where there were more opportunities for Black Americans.

After studying art in college, Alma worked at bringing art to the young people in her neighborhood.

In her spare time, Alma began working on her own painting and soon developed a new style for her artwork. She painted in "dashes and dabs", using "circles and stripes" and with lots of colour. Her paintings reflected how nature made her feel inside. Eventually her artwork was exhibited and as her reputation grew, the Whitney, a famous New York City art museum showed her work.

One of Alma's paintings, was chosen by the first Black President of the United States to hang in the White House. Sadly,  Alma didn't live to experience this honour, 

Discussion 

Ablaze with Color tells readers about African-American painter, Alma Thomas. She was born in Columbus, Georgia on September 22, 1891. She grew up with her parents and three younger sisters in an Victorian house situated on a hill overlooking their town. As a child, Alma enjoyed the many colours of nature and dreamed of becoming an architect some day.

In 1907, her family moved to Washington, D.C. to escape the racial violence in the south. She eventually enrolled in Howard University and was the first graduate of the fine arts program in 1924, At this time she began teaching art in a junior high school, organizing student art shows and lectures for the students. She would go on to teach art for thirty-five years.

Her teaching career allowed Alma to work on her own art. Her former professor and mentor, Professor James V. Herring encouraged Alma to try abstract art. It wasn't until she retired that Alma was able to fully develop her own style and work on her art full-time.

 While teaching Alma earned her Masters in Education from Columbia University in 1934. In the 1950's she studied art at the American University in Washington, focusing on colour and abstract art. But it wasn't until she was seventy-five years old that Alma first exhibited her abstract art in and exhibition at Howard in 1966.

In Ablaze With Color, Walker Harvey focuses on Alma's interest in colour, her use of it in her art and how nature influenced her work. The informative text matches Loveis Wise's richly coloured illustrations with descriptions such as, "quivering yellow leaves", "the warm glow of sunsets", "moist red clay" and "sizzling sun" - that convey how Alma saw the world around her. As Walker Harvey describes Alma's development of her own style, the illustrations mimic the colours of her paintings with the use of dabs of  dark greens, bright pinks and yellows, and rich reds.

The Author's Note at the back, further explains Alma Thomas's use of colour, while the Illustrator's Note provides images of her work and the painting titled, Resurrection that hangs in the White House Old Family Dining Room. A detailed Timeline featuring important events in the life of Alma Thomas and in the United States can also be found at the back.

Book Details:

Ablaze With Color: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas by Jeanne Walker Harvey
New York: HarperCollins Children's Books     2022

One Wish: Fatima al-Fihri and the World's Oldest University by M.O. Yuksel

In the ninth century, Fatima al-Fihri was a little girl with a deep love of learning and a big dream. While a small child, she wanted to learn about the world around her. At this time, while boys attended school, girls such as Fatima were educated at home by tutors. So, she studied the Qur'an and worked on her math problems. Her faith taught her that knowledge was very important. As a result, Fatima had a dream to build a school for all students.

Then one day, war came to her town, and Fatima and her family had to flee to Fez, Morocco. Still Fatima continued to hold on to her dream to build a school one day, to continue her education. Life carried on, with Fatima accompanying her father to work at the souq. Eventually, Fatima grew up and got married. Her family prospered and became wealthy. But then her father and her husband both died.

With the fortune left to her by her father and her husband, Fatima began to consider how best to use this money. She decided to build a school where students from all over the world, including the poor and refugees could live and study for free. This school would teach many subjects including history, geometry and poetry and offer degrees.

Fatima drew up plans for the school and during its construction, she fasted to show her "passion, gratitude, and faith." She was involved in every aspect of the construction including the type of stone used, the mosaics on the walls and even the carvings on the ceiling. She named the school, al-Qarawiyyin, the name of her hometown in Tunisia. It was a school, a mosque and a library. 

Soon students began arriving and Fatima was thrilled. Her school, still open today, has taught students for over a thousand years.

Discussion

One Wish offers young readers the story of Fatima al-Fihri who fulfilled a life-long dream to create a school open to all students, including girls.

Fatima al-Fihri was born in Kairouan, Tunisia, into the family of a merchant, Mohamed al-Fihri. Her parents valued the education of girls. Fatima, her sister Miriam and father emigrated to Morocco along with many Tunisians during this century. It is possible that the violence that erupted over the un-Islamic taxes by the ruling government at the time, led to Fatima's family and many others to flee Tunisia. In Fes, Tunisia, Fatima's father became wealthy through hard work. When she came into significant wealth after the death of her father, she was able to move forward with her dream of creating a special school open to all students, from any country. 

Fes was a relatively new town, and as the population grew rapidly there were not enough schools. With their new wealth both Fatima and her sister founded mosques. Fatima's original school consisted of a mosque, library and a large number of classrooms but soon grew in size and prestige. The students were all boys but there was a means for girls to listen to teachers. The subjects offered for study included astronomy, languages and natural sciences. It was founded in 859 A.D. and eventually became the University of al-Qarawiyyin, - the first degree-granting educational institute in the world.  Fatima herself studied there and it is believed that Pope Sylvester II was also a student.

Its library is considered one of the oldest in the world with over four thousand manuscripts. It was recently renovated, the update designed by Canadian-Moroccan architect, Aziza Chaouni. You can see Fatima's original diploma - presented on a wooden board.

One Wish captures the essential facts as we know them of Fatima al-Fihir's life and her contributions. Although little historical information is available on Fatima's early life, Yuksel has presented her story with a focus on Fatima's dream of establishing a school, her love of learning and the belief that education should be available to all, including girls. Fatima and her sister Miriam could have used their newly acquired wealth in other ways, but their generosity ensured the education of many people down through the centuries. Her story is illustrated in the richly coloured panels created by artist Mariam Quraishi who used gouache and watercolor on Arches hot pressed paper. 

The author offers more biographical information about Fatima at the back of the book in the form of an Author's Note. There is also more information on The University of Al-Qarawiyyin.

Book Details:

One Wish: Fatima al-Fihri and the World's Oldest University by M.O. Yuksel
New York: HarperCollins Publishers      2022

March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell

This graphic novel is the first in a series telling the story of civil rights leader and former Democratic Congressman, John Robert Lewis, one of the "Big Six" leaders who organized the March on Washington in 1963. March opens in the present and then flashes back to Lewis' humble beginnings on his family's farm in Alabama.

John Lewis wakes up the morning of January 20, 2009 - the beginning of a very special day. Lewis shows up at the Cannon House Office Building where he meets Rosa Parks. Suddenly three people enter his office, a lady with her two sons, Jacob and Esau. She has brought them to see Congressman John Lewis' office. She wants them to "know how far we've come..."

As he points out some of the key photographs in the picture, one of the boys asks him why he has so many chickens in his office. This triggers Lewis' memory of growing up and he begins to tell them his story. He starts with when it was his responsibility to care for his family's chickens. They lived on 110 acres of land in Pike County, Alabama that his father bought in 1940 for three hundred dollars. Lewis knew all the different kinds of chickens on their farm and even named some of them. He loved them so much, he would conduct funerals for them when they died, and he would deliver a eulogy. He often protested his parents treatment of the chickens and wouldn't be at family chicken dinners. 

John's eyes were opened when he was taken on a trip north by his uncle, Otis Carter.  Otis lived in Dothan, where he was a teacher and school principal. The trip north meant no stopping at restaurants because there was no where for them to eat as black people. Uncle Otis knew which gas stations to stop at, offering colored washrooms. Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky were the states they had to be careful in. Once they got to Ohio, they felt safer. In Buffalo, New York, Lewis was thrilled; the city was busy and his uncle's home had white people living side by side with them. Lewis was able to visit a department store. He saw that life was different and after that trip he was different.

When Lewis started riding the bus to school that fall he could see once again how different life was for black Americans. Roads into "colored" communities were not paved until whites had to drive through them. The books and buses in Black schools were hand-me-downs. White schools were nice with playground equipment while the colored schools were cinder block with a dirt field to play in. Lewis also noticed the people working in the fields or on the prison gangs were usually blacks too. But sometimes, Lewis' family needed help on the farm. His father wanted him to stay home and help out but Lewis would hide. 

Then in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the doctrine of "separate but equal" upon which segregation was based, was ruled unconstitutional. Lewis was certain things would change, that he would be going to an integrated school with a nice bus. Lewis noticed that the ministers at church never mentioned the injustices that were happening.

In 1955, he heard a young preacher out of Atlanta, Georgia on the radio. His name was Martin Luther King Jr. and he preached the social Gospel. That spring another ruling by the Supreme Court, which struck down segregation, saw segregationists insist they would defy the law. In August, the body of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till, a black boy visiting Money, Mississippi was pulled from the Tallahatchie River.  He had been forcibly taken from his relatives' home after calling a white woman, "baby". Despite the testimony of a black farmer who witnessed what really happened, the white men were acquitted. 

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to sit at the back of the bus and was arrested. Martin Luther King led a boycott of the buses in Montgomery, Alabama. Lewis was inspired by King and so five days before his sixteenth birthday, he preached his first sermon.

The woman in his office wants to know how he managed to attend college. He tells her that his mother helped him by encouraging him to apply to the American Baptist Theological Seminary, a school for Black men and women. He was accepted Lewis got a job washing dishes and serving food. But he wanted to do more for Black rights.

Lewis wanted to attend Troy State, which was closer to his parents' home, but Black students weren't accepted. He applied as a transfer student but when he never heard back he wrote to Martin Luther King Jr. He also began communicating with Rev. Ralph Abernathy and a lawyer, Fred Gray who represented Rosa Parks.

In the spring of 1958, Lewis met up with Fred Gray and Martin Luther King Jr. After questioning him, they told Lewis that if he wanted to attend Troy, he would have to sue both the State of Alabama and the Board of Education. Because he wasn't old enough, Lewis would need the permission of his parents. They also pointed out that he and his parents would most likely face serious repercussions. Ultimately, Lewis' parents decided against giving him their permission to proceed.

Lewis is interrupted in telling his story and told he must leave to meet Rosa Parks, but is also told he has a message from Jim Lawson. In 1958, Jim Lawson ran a series of workshops on non-violent action and passive resistance. After this, Lewis and others, as part of the Nashville Student Movement began protesting segregation at department store lunch counters. It was the beginning for Lewis, of real action, nonviolent protest to end segregation in Nashville and across America.

Discussion

March is the first of three comic books that tell the story of John Robert Lewis, a congressman and civil rights leader. Lewis, who was born near Troy, Alabama, was the son of sharecroppers and by his own admission grew up poor. Most of the area where he lived and grew up had few white people, yet everything was segregated. He and his siblings were denied the use of the local public library, being told it was for whites only. His trip north to Buffalo, New York opened Lewis's eyes to the extent of segregation and its impact on himself and his family. He saw that things could be profoundly different and he wanted to change America, supposedly founded on the belief that "all men are created equal" and yet not in practice.

Lewis had to counter not only white America and its segregationist practices, but the views of the older Black generation exemplified by Thurgood Marshall and local Black ministers who seemed to want to maintain the status quo. And yet, as is told in March, Lewis and the Nashville Student Movement were successful in their first nonviolent protests. 

The beginning of Lewis's civil rights work is a story of courage and determination. Lewis acted on his belief that all men are created equal and that he and other African Americans had the same rights as white Americans. To achieve the goal of dismantling segregation, Lewis and many other civil rights leaders began to implement nonviolent forms of protest, at great personal risk. He states that he felt this calling at a young age and it seemed to intensify as he grew older and saw the world as it really was.

Lewis' story is told with the assistance of  Andrew Aydin, who served as his Digital Director & Policy Advisor while Lewis was a Congressional representative. It is told as a story within a story: the book begins with Lewis getting ready to meet Rosa Parks in 2009 in preparation for attending the inauguration of Barak Obama as president of the United States. Illustrating Lewis' story is the artwork of Nate Powell, an accomplished and award-winning graphic novelist. 

The graphic novel format makes John Lewis' story accessible to readers of all ages and backgrounds. The visual character of the graphic novel conveys  the reality of what segregation entailed for millions of Black Americans in the 20th century and highlights the significant efforts these early civil rights activists had to resort to, in order to undo a deeply entrenched system of discrimination and hatred. It also visually portrays the violence, hatred and ugliness of those determined to prevent Black Americans from gaining their God-given right to be treated with respect, dignity and equality.

March is a book for people because it is only in reading about and studying the past, can we make a better future for everyone.

Book Details:

The March by John Lews, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell
Marietta, Georgia: Top Shelf Production   2013
121 pp.

The Red Palace by June Hur

The Red Palace is yet another outstanding historical fiction novel by author June Hur. This time the setting is 18th century Korea.

Baek-Hyeon (Hyeon) is an eighteen-year-old nae-uinyeo or nurse who works in the Hyeminseo, "a vast walled-in compound that held the medical office and its spacious courtyards." Hyeon and her fellow nurse, Jieun are called by Royal Physician Nanshin to accompany him from the Royal Apothecary to Joseung Pavilion, the main house in the Donggungjun compound. It is the residence of the Crown Prince, Prince Jangheon. 

There in a darkened chamber, Lady Hyegyoung, wife of the Crown Prince tells them that he has been feeling ill the past two days. However, when Hyeon glances up as Physician Nanshin examines the patient, she is shocked to see that it is the old eunuch in the bed and not the Crown Prince. 

Lady Hyegyoung remarks on how much Hyeon resembles the Crown Prince's deceased older sister, Princess Hwahyup. She also requests that both nurses continue to tend to the Crown Prince and if the king questions them, they are to tell him that his son is ill. Hyeon is uneasy about this lie and wonders, "Where had the real Prince Jangheon disappeared to?"

Suddenly Eunuch Choe arrives, informing Lady Hyegyoung that he has been unable to locate the Crown Prince as she had ordered him to do. He also brings news of a terrible massacre in the capital. Hyeon and Jieun are ordered to leave, but Hyeon overhears the eunuch state that four women have been murdered at the Hyeminseo.

At the Hyeminseo, Hyeon manages to lie her way in to see the crime scene, where she finds the bodies of the four murdered women covered by straw mats. Hyeon's examination of the bodies reveals nineteen-year-old student nurse Bitna, twenty-year-old Eunchae also a student nurse and the elderly Head Nurse Heejin, their throats all slashed. She also finds Court Lady Ahnbi who served Madame Mun, one of the king's concubines. Lady Ahnbi, who was dressed as a servant, had been killed by a single stab to the throat.

Commander Song questions Nurse Jeongu who insists that she saw nothing. Song, not believing her, orders Jeongu tied up and taken to the prison block. Meanwhile, Hyeon is confronted by a man she believes is a police servant. They argue about her presence and he threatens to take her to Commander Song. Hyeon explains that she is a nurse investigating the crime. After sharing some of what she's uncovered, Hyeon is helped by the police servant over the stone wall that encloses the Hyeminseo.

The next day Hyeon returns to the police station with a letter that she hopes will help Nurse Jeongsu. But on her way she sees that someone has put up handbills claiming the Crown Prince is a murderer. At the police bureau, Hyeon meets Nurse Inyeong who tells her she was the one who reported the murders. She tells Hyeon she encountered a frightened Lady Ahnbi running away and tried to follow her. Later on when she looked into the open gate of the Hyeminseo, she saw the murdered women.

Commander Song questions Nurse Jeongsu as to her whereabouts during the night as she was seen leaving her home around midnight and not returning.Jeongsu claims to have been out for a walk but she admits to having no alibi. Commander Song doesn't believe her, insisting she had an accomplice to help her plan and carry out the murders, and he has her taken away. 

Sulbi, a damo at the police bureau, tells Hyeon she believes Nurse Jeongsu is innocent and that Commander Song holds a personal grudge against her because Jeongsu was unable to save his wife and son during labour. She also tells Hyeon that anonymous handbills claiming the Crown Prince committed the murders at the Hyeminseo were posted all over the capital. Hyeon tries to have Sulbi give her letter to Commander Song but is interrupted by the arrival of her father, Lord Shin who works for the Ministry of Justice.

Hyeon is terrified of her father and hasn't spoken to him in five years. He tells her that the Commander will only be swayed by evidence and that her letter is useless. Lord Shin tells her to not to meddle and that as a "vulgar commoner", she has nothing to offer the investigation. After this encounter, Hyeon rips up her letter but remains determined to uncover evidence that will exonerate Nurse Jeongsu. Hyeon is devoted to her because it was Nurse Jeongsu who took her in after she was abandoned at the age of eight outside Gibang House in midwinter. 

The next day at Changdeok Palace, Physician Nanshin warns the palace nurses against indulging in the rumour about the Crown Prince. Nurse Inyeong and Hyeon volunteer to check on the king's concubine, Madame Mun and her infant daughter. It is during this visit that Hyeon learns more about Inyeong: that she was a damo for nine years so that she could continue serving in the police bureau in Gwangju to help with a murder investigation. The murder was solved and with the death of her mother, Inyeong finally passed the exams to fulfill her mother's dream of her becoming a palace nurse.

Madame Mun attempts to blackmail Hyeon into becoming a spy for her, threatening to tell the king anything she wants about her. She does tell Hyeon that a servant saw Physician Khun and Lady Ahnbi arguing.  Hyeon decides to pay a visit to Physician Khun's home but when she arrives, she finds the police servant is also there, this time disguised as a scholar. At the house, they discover a single garakji ring, implying that Physician Khun and Lady Ahnbi were in fact married. When Hyeon presses the servant, who has identifies himself as Seo Eojin, to tell the Commander of their find, he refuses telling her the Commander will only believe when they have discovered the real killer.

The police servant reveals his true identity as Police Investigator Seo Eojin, and asks Hyeon to work with him solve the mystery of the murders and uncover the truth of what happened in the Hyeminseo. As they draw closer to the truth, Hyeon and Eojin encounter political intrigue and unexpectedly... the blossoming of first love.

Discussion

The Red Palace is another well-written and engaging murder-mystery novel set during the reign of King Yeongjo (1694 to 1776) in the Joseon Dynasty.  Crown Prince Jangheon, also known as Crown Prince Sado, was the second son of King Yeongjo. He was born in 1735 to Lady Seonhui, a concubine of King Yeongjo. He lived in his own palace with his own eunuchs and staff. Prince Jangheon became heir to the throne when his older brother died prematurely. 

Prince Jangheon was married in 1744 to Lady Hyegyeong, whose accounts provide some of the information about his life. Their actual married life began when he was only fourteen-years-old. When he was ten-years-old, Prince Jangheon became seriously ill and it was around this time that his behaviour started to change. At times, the young prince seemed to be mentally unstable.

Sadly, his relationship with his father was strained. King Yeongjo was often critical of the young crown prince, scolding him publicly. It seemed the young prince could do nothing right. As time went on, the prince's erratic behaviour grew worse, further straining his relationship with his father.

His mental health deteriorated when his father's adoptive mother and wife, both of whom Jangheon was close to, died. He would beat his eunuchs, and once brought in the head of an eunuch he had murdered. He was known to kill palace staff and assault the ladies within the court. He was even physically and sexually abusive towards his own wife. 

In the summer of 1762, the situation was so dire, with threats of violence by Prince Jangheon, that King Yeongjo was persuaded to act. He ordered Prince Jangheon into a wooden rice chest which was then sealed. Eight days later it was opened and the Prince was dead. The king reinstated him as Crown Prince and he was renamed Sado.

In The Red Palace the events are set against the backdrop of palace intrigue and murder during King Yeongjo's reign. Palace nurse Baek-Hyeon is determined to save  Nurse Jeongju who has been her mentor and saved her life eight years earlier. She is relentless in her pursuit of the truth, taking great personal risks.

Hyeon, with the help of a young, police inspector, Eojin, risks everything she has worked towards, to prove her mentor's innocence. Along the way, Hyeon finds a true friend in Police Inspector Eojin Seo who treats Hyeon as his equal and with great respect and care. Hyeon is not used to this, especially since Eojin is "highborn" and therefore, her "better". As they work together to solve the murders, Hyeon finds their friendship blossoming into the beginnings of an unexpected romance.  

Hyeon's strained relationships with both her parents are an important driving force in her actions.  Hyeon dreads the disapproval of her father who has abandoned her mother and her family. To gain his approval she worked hard to become a palace nurse, often suffering nose bleeds due to a lack of rest. Hyeon believed if she could gain his approval, others would view her more favourably. However, her investigation into the murders sets her father against her. He repeatedly warns her to stop "meddling" and when Hyeon persists in her investigation, her father has her demoted and removed as a palace nurse and forces her family to leave his house. 

Hyeon also comes to realize that her belief that her mother doesn't love or care for her is not true. Hyeon has always felt anger towards her mother who seemed to favour her younger brother,  because he was a boy. Hyeon is certain her mother wanted a boy, but when Hyeon was born she was disappointed, so she gave her a boy's name. As an infant she was left to play in the dirt and be raised by a servant whereas her brother was carried in her mother's arms and provided tutors and treats.  

When Hyeon arrives home wounded, her mother tells her she must continue to investigate the murders, that she must be brave and continue to work to save Nurse Jeongsu. This is not how Hyeon expected her mother to act. Hyeon was certain her mother would be indifferent to her. Puzzled, Hyeon confronts her mother over the past and her abandonment outside Gibang House. Hyeon's mother tells her, "I wanted to raise you to be strong, to be prepared for the hardship that awaited you as woman of your status. Yet I almost crushed you instead, would have if Nurse Jeongsu had not intervened. I am forever grateful to her.She is more of a mother to you that I will ever be." Her mother encourages Hyeon to rejoin Inspector Seo, telling her that she is strong enough to continue. She informs Hyeon that she named her "...Baek, meaning eldest. And Hyeon, meaning 'virtuous, worthy, and able.'"

In the end, Hyeon more than lives up to her mother's expectations, while proving her father's belief that she is merely a "vulgar commoner" to be quite wrong. She courageously saves her own life and that of Eojin's, while helping to convince the murderer to confess. As a result she also exonerates the Crown Prince, earning the gratitude of the king. Her father however, is punished by the king for withholding the evidence as the Crown Prince's alibi. Despite how he has treated her, Hyeon asks the king to reinstate her father, rather than regaining her position as a palace nurse. She extends to her father the kindness and mercy he never offered her, but within her own boundaries. Hyeon no longer needs her father's approval. 

The Red Palace is another engaging novel that offers readers a window into court and political life in 18th century Korea. Hur's portrayal life during this period of  the Joseon Dynasty feels realistic, while providing readers with mystery, suspense and a touch of romance. Hur's novels are filled with a wealth of interesting characters: the main character is usually a strong, young woman who is intelligent and resourceful. Hur incorporates many cultural practices into her novels which helps develop the setting and atmosphere of her stories. Generally, Hur's novels have a wealthy of characters, and The Red Palace is no exception. What might be helpful to her readers is a list of characters at the front of the novel and a map of the palace buildings and compounds might also have been useful. 

The Red Palace is another wonderful novel, offering readers a unique cultural setting to explore. Overall, another stellar offering from this Korean-Canadian author. Readers will be awaiting Hur's next offering with great anticipation!!

Book Details:

The Red Palace by June Hur
New York: Feiwell and Friends     2022
321 pp.

Alias Anna by Susan Hood with Greg Dawson

Zhanna Dimitrinov Arshanskya was born April 1, 1927 in Ukraine, a part of the Soviet Union. Zhanna's mother Sara, an avid reader, chose the Russian name closest to Joan of Arc, beloved heroine of France.

Zhanna and her parents lived in the resort town of Berdyansk. Her father made fruit-flavoured candies and fine caramels which he sold on the street outside their home. Zhanna's father was a self-taught violinist who played at family weddings and in the cinema for the American silent movies. From the money he earned, Zhanna's papa bought a small, upright Bechstein piano from Germany. It was the heart of their home, a spiritual refuge from Communism.

Their home had no hot water, electricity, indoor plumbing or even a refrigerator, but it was a happy one with two grandparents, her mother and father, Zhanna and her baby sister, Frina.

As a three-year-old, Zhanna often wandered around Berdyansk. In the evenings, Zhanna would wait for her papa's good friend, Nicoli who came to their home to play piano. Zhanna delighted in the violin and piano, as they played Rossini, Bizet and Tchaikovsky. She often fell asleep in the living room to their music.

Zhanna refused to attend kindergarten. To stop her wandering, her papa had her study piano with a family friend and pianist, Svetlana. At first Zhanna did not co-operate but gradually as she watched Svetlana play, she grew to love her. Soon Zhanna was playing Chopin, Brahms and Beethoven. Her father began to have small concerts at home with family and friends. He often closed the shutters, darkening the room so Zhanna could display her mastery of the music and keyboard.

In the 1930's, Josef Vissarionvich Dzhugashvili - known as Josef Stalin, wanted to modernize the Soviet Union. To do that, he took over Ukraine's farms, shipped thousands of farming families to Siberia, and sold the grain to other countries in order to buy heavy industrial equipment. With their crops confiscated, the people began to starve. Zhanna saw beggars on the streets as people starved. Her father, who had never joined the Communist party, was repeatedly arrested and questioned. 

Eventually Zhanna's family had to leave Berdyansk. They left behind their grandparents, taking only their violin and small piano. It was now 1935 and Zhanna's family settled in Kharkov, a vibrant center of Jewish culture. Their home was a one room apartment on Katsarskaya Street. Dimitri earned money playing violin and giving piano lessons. 

Dimitri decided to take eight-year-old Zhanna and six-year-old Frina to audition at the renowned Kharkov Conservatory. The judges were so impressed that the girls were each awarded two hundred ruble monthly scholarships. They would study under renowned teacher, Abram Lvovsik Luntz. Under his tutelage, Zhanna learned Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu, with which she became obsessed. The school also paired the sisters together on two pianos. Their concert debut was enormously successful, resulting in many new opportunities.

In 1939, Zhanna was twelve and Frina was ten years old. Life seemed to get better with Zhanna's grandparents moving to Kharkov and opening a sweets shop. Zhanna and Frina continued to compete and after a competition at the Moscow State Conservatory, had a private audition with as classmate of Rachmaninoff, Alexander Borisovich Goldenweiser. He offered to take them on as pupils but their family could not afford to live on the meager scholarship he offered.

Meanwhile war raged across Europe, until finally in June of 1941 it came to Ukraine.Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. Kharkov was a German bombing target and so Zhanna's school became a refugee center. As Stalin's army retreated east, they destroyed everything burning crops and buildings. Over a million people fled Kharkov, and went east to the Ural Mountains and Siberia. Among those were Zhanna's aunt and uncle and her two cousins, Tamara and Celia. They begged Zhanna's mother to flee as well but her health was not good. So Zhanna's family stayed behind. They did not know about Hitler because Stalin had hidden news of Hitler's crimes from the people. They didn't know about the murders, or the mobile killing squads that murdered Communists, Romas and Jews.

On September 29, 1941, Babi Yar, the destruction of almost THIRTY-FOUR THOUSAND Jewish men, women and children occurred outside of Kyiv. This mass murder was done by the Einsatzgruppen. In late October, they came to Kharkov. First the Nazi soldiers terrorized Zhanna's family, demanding gold, then they returned to pillage their apartment, taking Dimitri's violin. Others were not so lucky. The bodies of more than one hundred people hung from the trees in Kharkov.

On December 14, 1941, all Jews in Kharkov were to report to the center of town. Zhanna said good-bye to her best friend Svetlana Gaponovitch, not knowing if she would ever see her again. On December 15, they were told they were being sent away to work.Just before leaving, Zhanna raced home and retrieved the music to Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu. Then, Zhanna, Frina, her parents and grandparents began the long march to an abandoned tractor factory along with sixteen thousand other Jews.They spent the next two weeks in the abandoned factory barracks, in freezing conditions, with no bathrooms and no food. Twice Zhanna left the barracks and walked back to Kharkov to bring food scraps back to her family. She was helped by a family who took her in and allowed her to stay overnight and fed her.

The Nazis told them that they were being taken to Poltava, which happened to be Zhanna's papa's hometown. Her father suspected that they were being taken to their deaths, as the trucks left in the opposite direction to Poltava. Shortly after Christmas, it was Zhanna's family's turn to leave. They were to be marched four miles south to a ravine which would become known as Drobitsky Yar. Zhanna's father was determined to save Zhanna, so he bribed the Ukrainian soldier walking alongside them to look the other way while Zhanna left the march. He was successful.

Now on the run, Zhanna fled back to Kharkov, stopping once again at the home of the family who had sheltered and fed her on her trips back and forth to the barracks. In Kharkov, Zhanna was turned away by her friend, Svetlana Gaponovitch's family but taken in by another classmate's family whose mother was rumoured to be an anti-Semite. Thus began her long journey that would lead ultimately to freedom.

Discussion

Alias Anna tells the story of Zhanna Dimitrinov Arshanskya, the mother of co-author, Greg Dawson and her escape from certain death at the hands of the Nazis in Ukraine during the Holocaust. Alias Anna is a true story, told in verse. It's important because it was written for children. As Greg Dawson writes, "Alias Anna brings the story of the Shoah in Ukraine to a vast new audience, arguably the most important of all, the next generation to inherit the world and become keeps of the flame. 'Never again.' "

Zhanna's story is divided into six parts, Overture, Prelude, Fugue, Invention, Variations and Bridge - each named for a musical term. Her story is told using poems in free verse. In a section titled Poetry Notes at the back, Hood writes about the many poetic forms used in the novel. These forms include a tercet which is a poem with stanzas of three lines, a reverso poem which "reads one way going down and presents another idea or point of view when the same lines are read going up.", an elegy which is used to "praise or mourn the dead," and a haiku, "a traditional Japanese form of unrhymed poetry, originally written as one vertical line and measured in morae, or breaths. There are many more forms used in the telling of Zhanna's story as noted at the back.

The novel opens with a real life event involving Zhanna's granddaughter, Aimee, who is Greg Dawson's daughter, writing a letter to her grandmother about a history project that requires her "to find out as much as possible about our grandparents and what was going on when they were 13 years old..." Zhanna had only spoken to her son Greg, once about the Shoah. The events were so traumatic they were sealed inside her heart never to be spoken about again. Until Aimee's request. According to Greg Dawson, as related in the section titled, Finding Zhanna's Story, his mother wrote back a lengthy letter and found the determination and courage to share her story.

In Alias Anna, Hood portrays Zhanna's early life living in the small village of  Berdyansk so readers understand what life was like before both Stalin and the Holodomor and before the Shoah. Although they did not have any of the modern amenities we take for granted today, their life was a happy one. That is until Stalin began to plunder the farms and resources of Ukraine, leaving the people starving. But the arrival of the Nazis heralded a new form of terror: the beginning of the mass murder Ukrainian Jews. This was the beginning of the Hitler's final solution, a terror that would spread to other European countries and for which the Nazis would devise more efficient ways of achieving via gas chambers.

In addition to being a brilliant pianist, Zhanna was also a resourceful, courageous and intelligent girl. Despite the trauma of losing her parents, she focused only on what her father's last words were, "I don't care what you do. Just live."  So when Zhanna escaped the massacre of her parents and other Jews in what came to be known as Drobitsky Yar, she and Frina (who also escaped) had to forge new identities and learn to survive. Those new identities were Anna  and Marina Morozova, forming the basis of the novel's title, Alias Anna. Eventually, the two talented girls found themselves giving nightly performances to German soldiers - those same soldiers who murdered Jews by day but by night were the epitome of respectability and culture. This must have been both painful and disgusting for Zhanna and Frina. But they did this to survive, to honour the sacrifice her parents made.

"How could she do it?
Play for the enemy
who had killed her family?
'I don't care what you do. Just stay alive.'
This was what it took to stay alive.
So Zhanna closed her eyes and played
for the memory of her family."

Alias Anna is such an important novel because it's intended for middle grade readers who often do not know about the Holocaust. It's timely in light of the current conflict in Ukraine, an area of Europe that has experienced ongoing conflict for decades. Zhanna questioned how it was possible to bring such a story to children. In his With Gratitude section, Dawson writes, "This is how: with rhythmic, accessible verse in service of a faithful abridging of the story for youthful sensibilities." Alias Anna does just that. It doesn't overwhelm young readers with horrific details but gives them just enough to understand what happened. Zhanna's story is told in an interesting way, with easy to read poems, the style of which vary, engaging readers as they move through the book. 

The authors open the novel with a map of the region, indicating Zhanna and Frina's journey throughout World War II. At the back of the novel are extensive notes for readers including sections on Photographs, The Letters which explores the significant of Zhanna's letter to Aimee, Finding Zhanna's Story which details Greg's discovery of his mother's incredible story, a list of The Pieces Zhanna and Frina Played, Hitler Stalin and Music, Field Trips and Places of Note, Poetry Notes on the types of poems in the novel, Sources, Quote Sources, Websites, News Reports, Films, and a Bibliography. Hood and Dawson have offered many resources for readers, educators and parents to explore.

Teachers, librarians and parents are all encouraged to make use of Alias Anna as a way to educate young children about the Shoah, the Holodomor and as to what can happen when bullying, bigotry and racism are allowed to grow. We owe it to the Zhannas and Frinas of the past to pass on these lessons learned as such a terrible cost.

Book Details:

Alias Anna by Susan Hood with Greg Dawson
New York: HarperCollins Children's Books   2022
339 pp.