Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code by Joseph Bruchac

In October, 1929, eight-year-old Betoli, a member of the Navajo nation, was forced to leave his family , his home, and his goats and sheep to attend boarding school. The school was run by missionaries who decided they would rename him Chester.

At the school, called Fort Defiance, Chester had his long hair cut and he was told not to speak Navajo. For many of the children, Fort Defiance history stirred memories of the Navajo people being held prisoner and force-marched to New Mexico. Chester would comfort those younger children who had scary dreams.

In June, 1932, Chester was able to return home where he could freely speak his own language, care for the sheep and goats he loved so much and pray using corn pollen. His loneliness retreated. But when he returned to school in September, he was once again forbidden to speak Navajo.

As he grew up, Chester worked hard to master English and to pray as the Catholic missionaries taught him, but he also kept his Navajo ways too. Chester was in grade ten when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Although the United States had treated the Navajo as enemies, Chester felt he was part of the country and wanted to defend it.

In April 1942, the U.S. Marine Corps visited the Navajo Reservation, looking for men who spoke Navajo.Their Navajo language, once considered unimportant was now needed to send coded messages. The Americans needed to create a code the Japanese could not break. So Chester along with twenty-nine other Navajo, were chosen among hundreds to form Platoon 382 to work on the code.

At Camp Elliott, Chester and the rest of Platoon 382 were told to create an unbreakable code. They were to make one word for every letter of the alphabet. After choosing an English word for each letter, for example, ant for A and bear for B, they chose Navajo words to replace the English words. Ant became wol-la-chee and bear was Shush.

Discussion

Well-known Native American author, Joseph Bruchac presents the story of Chester Nez, a Navajo Code Talker who served in the Pacific theatre during World War II in this informative picture book. 

 

Chester was born on the Navajo reservation in Chi Chil Tah, New Mexico in 1921.His mother died when he was very young, so he was raised by his father, grandmother and maternal aunt.  His family owned one thousand sheep but in the 1930's, the livestock reduction program forced the removal of seven hundred sheep. This was devastating to Chester's family. 

 

Chester began attending school when he was eight years old but his family removed him from the school and he was sent to a boarding school in Fort Defiance. Although there was likely more food at this institution, there was physical and emotional abuse. Like many Indigenous children in the early 20th century, Chester was not allowed to speak his native language; he was punished if he spoke Navajo.

Chester was recruited into the Marine Corps in 1942 and after boot camp he was along with other Navajo recruits were sent to the Navajo Communications School at Camp Elliott to devise an unbreakable code. They came through, devising a code that was easy to learn and which the Japanese were never able to break. Navajo POWs who were tortured by the Japanese, never revealed the code.

When Chester and the other Navajo talkers arrived in Guadalcanal in 1942, the U.S. Marines had already fought months of bitter battles with the Japanese. The Navajo code talkers quickly proved their code worked and came to earn the respect of their commanding officers. There was little doubt that the Navajo Code Talkers helped win the war in the Pacific.

For Chester, war was a terrible experience, the sight of dead bodies, experiencing "banzai" attacks and seeing and enduring much cruelty. Chester was part of several other brutal battles: the Battle of Bourgainville, the Battle of Guam in which he was wounded, and the Battle of Peleliu. When he returned home, he needed to heal and so an Enemy Way healing treatment was developed. 

In Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code, Bruchac writes about the development of the Navajo code and Chester's role in creating the code as well as his faithful service to the country that had treated he and his people so poorly. The mistreatment of the Navajo by the U.S. government is only briefly explored but offers readers a chance to explore and learn more about this aspect of U.S. history. Despite the abusive treatment Chester and other Navajo experienced, their willingness to defend the U.S. is a testament to their integrity, faithfulness and determination. Bruchac also highlights the toll war took on Chester and how he struggled to heal himself from his experiences at boarding school and from his war service.

Chester's story is also told in the rich artwork of illustrator Liz Amini-Holmes. Bruchac includes a short Author's Note about Chester's life after World War II as well as some of the Navajo code used by Chester and the Navajo Code Talkers. 

Further Research:

You can explore more about Chester Nez from the Library of Congress's Chester Nez collection at the Veterans History Project.

 

Navajo Code Talkers in World War II

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian's online exhibit

Navajo Code Talkers Foundation

Information about Canada's Cree Talkers used in World War II

Book Details

Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code: A Navajo Code Talker's Story by Joseph Bruchac
Chicago: Albert Whitman & Co.     2018

Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson

Twelve-year-old Homer, his sister Ada and their Mama had runaway from Southerland Plantation. Their plan was to go north to freedom but Mama had gone back to get Anna, a slave Homer had promised to help run. Now Homer and Ada are being tracked by Stokes, the overseer and his dogs, and his two brother-in-laws, Ron and Rick. Homer manages to escape one of the dogs which has bitten him and he and Ada head towards the river.

At the bank of the roaring river, Homer grabs Ada's hand and they jump, surfacing far downstream. They make their way to the bank, but not before Homer hits his head on the riverbed. On the bank of the river, Homer and Ada sleep before considering what to do next. They remember Two Shoes, so named because he wore Mr. Crumb's castoff shoes. His son Desmond had been sold off, leaving his wife Sally devastated. In hope of getting Desmond back, Two Shoes had revealed where Wilson, another slave had run away. But Mr. Crumb did not buy back Desmond and Wilson was found and whipped.

Hearing Stokes dogs, Homer pulls Ada deeper into the swamp. However, Homer soon finds himself sinking deep into the mud in a sinkhole. With Ada's help he gets free only to find a huge snake wrapped around his leg. As the snake is about to strike, an arrow kills it. 

A strange man with hickory brown skin and hair in long ropes descends from the trees to claim his arrow and also to stop Ada's questions. They hear Stokes nearby with his dogs, striking fear into Ada. Before she can run off, the man tears a strip off of Ada's dress wrapping it around an arrow with something sticky. From the treetops he sends a flaming arrow into the dry leaves below, igniting a fire in the swamp.

Homer and Ada follow the man, whose name is Suleman deeper into the swamp. After a complicated journey that involves trudging through the swamp for a day, travelling in a boat carved from a tree, passing through a secret door hidden in the brush, spending the night in a secret tree hideout

During their journey to Freewater, Suleman tells Homer and Ada that he ran away three times from the plantation, each time losing a finger as punishment. Suleman's work is to know about the various plantations and to steal what they need from them. Suleman leads Homer and Ada to a spot where they meet people disguised as brush, covered in leaves and mud. They are David, Ibra and Daria. The group then climbs into the trees to walk across a rope bridge in the canopy and into Freewater, a village of escaped slaves.

Meanwhile at Southerland Plantation, eleven-year-old Nora has discovered that Homer's mother, Rose has been caught and brutally whipped by Stoke's brother-in-laws. Nora is the youngest daughter of Master Crumb, owner of Southerland. When Nora was born, her father believed her to be unwell. She was born with a large red strawberry birthmark on the left side of her face. Her father once showed Nora a picture of an octopus, telling her the birthmark was like the octopus, "...with the oval shaped octopus head marked her temple, and from it sprang eight curving marks. Two that stretched to her left eyebrow, another three that unwound along her cheekbone, and another three that traveled down her jawline." Because her parents thought she was sickly, Homer's mother Rose was forced to wean him and become Nora's wet nurse. Soon Nora spent much of her time with Rose who was given a room off the kitchen. Nora was taught by a tutor and spent her days in the kitchen with Rose, reading. Nora refused to speak.

With only a month before Nora's older sister, Violet's wedding, the whipping of Rose is a disaster. For Anna, a slave in the house, the disappearance of Homer and Ada, and the whipping of Rose causes much trouble. Anna was considered a peculiar girl. She had been sold many times, often not lasting more than a year in a house. Anna's mother had cut her on the arm, making a sort of arm scar that seemed to Anna to be a hint to run North. Anna was determined to escape and find her mother, and Homer and Ada's escape, and the suffering of Rose, moves her to begin planning both her escape and her revenge.

Nora too begins planning. Overhearing her sister Violet complaining about her being at her wedding, Nora runs to find Rose, only to discover she is seriously injured from the whipping. It is a sight that makes her ill. 

In Freewater, Homer and Ada meet some of the inhabitants of the emancipated community. There is Sanzi who lives with her mother Mrs. Light who escaped years ago and her older sister Juna. Sanzi was born in Freeland, has never known slavery and wants to be like Suleman. She carries around a bow and a quiver of arrows and is often in trouble. Her father David patrols the borders of Freewater. Billy who ran away with his father Ibra, is fourteen-years-old. Billy stutters and is afraid of many things. He is certain the slave catcher who hunted him and his father is still out there waiting. He loves to work with wood and has crafted a wooden bracelet for Juna, whom he has a crush on. There is Ferdinand, Sanzi's rival who escaped from a ditch digging gang. He managed to steal the overseer's knife and it is his prized possession.

Homer and Ada spend the next three weeks adjusting to life in Freewater. But Homer is determined to help his mother and Anna escape Southerland. He is forced to act when he uncovers the betrayal of Two Shoes. His plan to return to Southerland is discovered by his new friends, Sanzi, Ferdinand, Billy, and Juna and they insist on coming with him, as does Ada. They set out, hoping to arrive during the busyness of Violet's wedding. Meanwhile, Anna and Nora both begin to develop their own plans to leave Southerland. But Violet's wedding becomes a special day for Homer, Ada, Rose, Anna and Nora and a day that Violet and Southerland won't easily forget.

Discussion

Amina Luqman-Dawson has crafted an enjoyable and interesting story with her debut novel, Freewater. In Freewater, Luqman-Dawson creates a story inspired by the maroon communities living in the Great Dismal Swamp which was located in southeastern Virginia and the northeastern part of  North Carolina prior to the Civil War. It had been inhabited by Indigenous peoples for centuries before the coming of the maroons who were enslaved people who had freed themselves by escaping the plantations they worked on.

Conditions in the Great Dismal Swamp were difficult, with hot, humid weather, dense bush and vines, bears, poisonous snakes and insects. These conditions made it almost impossible to track and recapture runaway slaves. Despite the obvious hardships, life was preferable in the swamp to living the life of a slave on a plantation. The maroons built homes on higher ground in the swamp. Since they had few tools and even clothing, they often raided nearby plantations for tools, food and other goods.

In Freewater, Homer and Ada along with their mother Rose, flee Southerland plantation to a community hidden deep within the nearby swamp. However, their freedom is marred in Homer's mind because they have broken their promise to take another slave, Anna with them. This leads Rose to return to try to bring Anna, but she is recaptured and whipped. For Homer, there is no freedom until he brings his mother to Freewater.

Luqman-Dawson has crafted a diverse cast of characters, from the brave Sanzi struggling to find her place in Freewater, to Billy who stutters and is overwhelmed with the fear of being recaptured, to Homer who tries to adapt to life in the swamp while his mother is still enslaved. Then there are the Crumbs,  Mr. and Mrs Crumb and Violet Crumb who see their slaves as mere possessions, there is Anna, a young slave girl who has been sold so many times and who has no memory of her mother, Two Shoes who repeatedly betrays others in an attempt to bring back his beloved son Desmond, and Old Joe and Miss Petunia, elderly, faithful slaves. And there is Nora Crumb, whose eyes are opened to the truth about the slaves at Southerland.

Nora, the youngest daughter of Master Crumb, begins to comprehend the reality of slavery when she discovers Rose has been brutally whipped. Watching Rick and Ron pour salt onto Rose's wounds, makes Nora ill. Later, overhearing her father planning to recapture Homer and Ada causes her to wonder about the type of person her father is. "Nora held her breath. She'd heard talk about catching runaways all her life, and she hadn't thought too much of it. Rose, Homer, and Ada, they were different, weren't they? But something in Nora's father's words made her blood run cold. It didn't match the father who tucked her in at night." When Anna returns a book Nora left for Rose, telling Nora that her father will give Rose the lash again if he finds the book, Nora thinks, "To hear her father connected to the idea of hurting Rose turned something in Nora. Yes, Stokes was mean. He was cruel and feared. But her father? Anna's words were like a first small crack setting into a sheet of lake ice." 

Nora, unlike anyone else at Southerland has a special relationship with Rose. Born with an octopus-shaped birthmark that extends down the left side of her face, Nora is an outcast in her family. Her mother insists that Nora wear her hair down to cover the strawberry mark. Mrs. Crumb seems unconcerned about how her daughter feels about her actions and words. This leads to Nora feeling unloved and unwanted. But Rose, who nursed her as a baby, has always accepted Nora. When Rose recovers from her wounds, Nora can see that Rose is heartbroken, because she doesn't know the fate of her children, Homer and Ada. At a dress fitting, Nora is forced to sit on Rose's back by her mother who prattles on about how Nora's hair can cover her birthmark and who has no concern for Rose's evident pain. Nora can feel the scars of the whipping and seeing Rose's tears, she jumps up and runs off. Later on, Rose tells Nora how Violet also used to come to the kitchen when she was small  and talk to her, but that eventually she stopped coming. Nora realizes that her sister "used to visit Rose, but she never spoke to Rose now. Never. To her, Rose didn't exist, except to cook. Nora was nothing like Viola. Was she?"  Nora realizes that when her sister was younger, she saw Rose as a person and spent time with her, but as she grew up, Rose became a possession, to be used. Nora is afraid she will become like Violet and she doesn't want that to happen.

This event completely changes Nora and her view of her life. Filled with shame over what has happened to her beloved Rose, Nora starts to investigate life around Southerland. "After a lifetime of hearing the soulful songs coming from the fields, Nora ventured out to see their origin. She hid among the rows of tobacco and listened to the crack of Stokes whip and saw that the eyes of the field hands looked much like Rose's. The pain she saw frightened her and sent her running back to the house, and back to being within her mother's reach. Suddenly, the tobacco fields she'd seen in the distance every day didn't look beautiful. Nora knew they were pain-filled. Her home wasn't what she'd thought. Maybe this was why Rose had run off in the first place." 

Nora clearly recognizes the way her family is treating their slaves and especially Rose who has raised her is not right and she sets out to try to right that wrong, first by trying to free Rose with a fake note of manumission. When that fails she decides to try to help Anna. In the end she is able to help both Rose and Anna.

Nora's transformation is symbolized by her washing away the white powder on her face that her mother forced her to wear to cover her strawberry birthmark. Nora's reality is that she has a birthmark on her face just as the reality is that slavery is evil and hurts those who are enslaved like Rose and Anna. Her transformation continues when Nora speaks for the first time, ordering Stokes to leave Anna alone. Up until this time, Nora has never spoken but now she finds her voice and uses it for good.

Freewater is not only a story about slavery but also one about personal journeys; among them, Homer's journey to free his mother Rose, Sanzi's journey to find her place in Freewater, Billy's journey to overcome his fears and have the courage to tell Juna how he feels, and Nora's journey to assert herself in Southerland. This is a well written, interesting novel, with realistic characters, a good story in a setting that many young readers will likely not know much about.

Book Details:

Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
New York: Little, Brown and Company      2022
402 pp.

Muinji'j Asks Why by Muinji'j and Shanika MacEachern

One day Muinji'j comes home from school upset. She tells her grandparents that they have been talking about the residential schools and what happened to the children in these schools. However, when she tried to tell her teacher what her grandparents had told her she refused to listen. So her Nana tells her that she will tell her the story of the Mi'kmaw people and what happened to them regarding the residential schools.

In what is now called Nova Scotia, a people called the Mi'kmaq lived in wigwams and travelled using canoes made from the trees. They called their land Mi'kma'ki.  From the animals they hunted, they got their food and their clothing. They wasted nothing, giving thanks for the Earth's gifts by leaving dried tobacco on the land. The Mi'kmaq especially cherished their children because they were the knowledge keepers who learned from the stories the Elders told. 

The Elders taught them to respect the land and water, that they were connected to the people of the past and the future and that their long braids "held the teachings of their people and that they would give them strength."

When new people came to their land, the Mi'kmaq welcomed them, traded with them, explored their land with them. The two peoples made promises to share the land. However, with the passage of time, the new people forgot what they had learned from the Mi'kmaq about the land. They called the land Nova Scotia and they decided the land belonged to them.

Eventually the Mi'kmaq were displaced from their lands, pushed onto smaller pieces. Mi'kma'ki was now Nova Scotia, part of a new country called Canada.

Since the Mi'kmaq thought, talked and dressed differently, the new people decided to force the Mi'kmaq to change. They were forced to move to new lands called reservations. Despite this, the Mi'kmaq refused to abandon their traditions and culture. They were then told that they could not leave their communities, practice their traditions nor have large gatherings, otherwise they would be sent to jail. To counter this resistance, the new people decided they would build schools and force the Mi'kmaq children to attend them. This would allow them to learn the "Canadian way of life".

In Nova Scotia, Mi'kmaq children attended Shubenacadie Residential School, which overlooked the Shubenacadie River. The school was a Catholic residential school that accepted children from all over Eastern Canada. It was run by Catholic priests and nuns. At the schools, the children had their braids cut, their clothes thrown away and they were forbidden to speak in their own language.

Muinji'j notes that only her great-grandmother can speak a language she does not understand. Her grandfather tells her Kiju speaks Mi'kmaq which is the name of their language. Muinji'j's grandparents explain to her what happened at the schools and how their beliefs, culture and traditions were forgotten by the children who attended the schools.

Discussion

Muinji'j Asks Why tells the story of the Mi'kmaq and the Shubenacadie Residential School. The Shubenacadie Residential School was one of many residential schools used to remove Indigenous children from the influence of their families and communities, destroying their culture and traditions and the ability to speak their own languages. The Shubenacadie Residential school, located in the Sipekni’katik district of Mi’kma’ki, was open from 1930 to 1967 and was the only residential school in the Maritimes. It was funded by the government of Canada, managed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Halifax and later the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and staffed by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. The school was demolished in 1986. 

The purpose of the school, like other residential schools was to suppress Indigenous culture and have the children conform to European culture. Children from the Mi'kmaq and Wolastoqiyik were forced to attend despite objections from parents and Indigenous leaders. They endured harsh conditions, punishment, physical and sexual abuse and forced labour. Due to incomplete records, it is not entirely possible to determine all those who attended the school.

Shanika MacEachern, a Mi'kmaw woman and Native Student Advisor with Annapolis Valley Centre for Education in collaboration with Breighlynn (Muinji'j) MacEachern, a grade 3 student and young Mi'kmaq have crafted a well-written account of the Mi'kmaq experience with Canada's residential school system. 

Muinji'j's grandparents explain to her what happened to their people with the coming of the white Europeans to Atlantic Canada, how their traditions were made illegal and they were confined to reservations their experiences with the residential school system which broke apart families and destroyed traditional beliefs and practices, and how the Mi'kmaq now live by Etuapmumk, or "'two-eyed seeing': one eye for the Mi'kmaw ways and one for the Canadian ways. We as L'nu understand the Canadian ways and accept them as part of our lives, but we also hold strong to our traditions and culture." The authors have written in a honest, forthright manner, with these events portrayed by the richly coloured digital art of Zeta Paul.

Muinji'j AsksWhy is highly recommended as a resource for young readers to learn about the Mi'kmaq, and the residential school experience. 

For more information on the Shubenacadie Residential School.

Indigenous Perspectives

Book Details:

Muinji'j Asks Why by Muinji'j and Shanika MacEachern
Halifax, N.S.: Nimbus Publishing Ltd.       2022

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

I Must Betray You is a chilling portrayal of life in communist Romania under the brutal regime of Nicolae Ceausescu just as the Soviet Union is collapsing.

One gray October day in 1989, seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu is called to the office by the school's Comrade Director. Terrified, Cristian finds himself being blackmailed by an agent of the Securitate, Romania's feared secret police, into becoming a spy. 

Cristian's mother, Mioara, works as a maid to a U.S. diplomat, Nicholas Van Dorn. While waiting for his mother to finish work, Cristian is friendly with the diplomat's son, Dan; they talk and trade stamps which is illegal in Romania. The Secu, whom he calls "Paddle Hands", threatens Cristian with this knowledge and coerces him into spying for the Secu. In return, Cristian's grandfather, Bunu will receive medicine to help his leukemia.

After meeting with the Secu agent, Cristian encounters Liliana Pavel, the girl he's been trying for days to "co-incidentally" meet after school. As they walk home together, they meet "Starfish" a boy a few years older than Cristian who is involved in the black market. Starfish invites them to his video night on Saturday.

Cristian, his twenty-year-old sister Cicilia (Cici), his parents, Mioara and Gabriel and his grandfather, Bunu live in a cramped, fourth floor apartment in Bucharest, Romania. Cristian sleeps in the closet by the front door. He keeps a journal hidden under the blankets on the floor. Because people believe that listening devices are hidden everywhere, at home everyone speaks in whispers except for Bunu. They hide Kents - Western cigarettes which are used for bribery, trade or the black market.  On the balconies of the apartments, the "Reporters", women who spy on their neighbours are ever watchful.

So Cristian begins spying on Dan Van Dorn. Cristian believes he can outwit the agent at his own game so he starts by noting things he believes the Secu agent might be interested in such as the location of rooms and furniture but which are harmless. 

Eventually Cristian meets up with Dan Van Dorn again and makes mental notes about the apartment while Dan looks for stamps to trade with Cristian. At this point, Cristian realizes that Dan knows he is under surveillance. He also meets Dan's parents.

Cristian also believes he knows who informed on him - his best friend Luca Oprea, a kind boy who plans to study medicine. When he and Luca are assigned to help harvest vegetables, Cristian beats Luca.

At a second meeting with the agent, Cristian tells him about the Van Dorn's apartment and is tasked with noting what's on the father's desk and also to accompany Dan to the American Library.  The next day Cristian and his family, like every other family in Bucharest, must stand in line for anything they want at the Alimentara, the grocery store. It is bitterly cold, and Cristian reflects on how each member of his family takes their turn in the lines.

But when Cristian visits Dan in his home again, he cannot help but notice the stark contrast to his own living conditions. It is warm like summer, there is a large colour TV, and a video player with head phones. The contrast is even more extreme when Cristian watches a home made video of Dan's friends and is stunned to see the inside of a large refrigerator stuffed with food from top to bottom. "All kinds of food. In bottles, cans, cartons, dividers, and drawers. So many colors and quantities. Of food...Fresh. Ripe. Just waiting to be eaten." When Cristian confronts his mother about what he's seen at the Van Dorn's, she becomes defensive and angry, telling him it's no use dreaming about things they can never have.

At school, after a classmate confesses to being an  informer, Cristian realizes that everyone is informing on everyone. "The teacher must be an informer. He informed on the students. The school director was an informer. He informed on the teachers. The secretary was an informer. She informed on the school director."

Meanwhile at home, Bunu works to repair their broken radio. As he and Cristian discuss communism and the Secu, Bunu reveals that he was paid a visit by someone and given "medicine" to help him and that this was because someone in their home is an informer.

When Liliana and Cristian meet up and discuss what happened in Cristian's class, she wonders if the world knows what is going on in Romania. Thinking about how they can listen to broadcasts from Radio Free Europe, Cristian wonders if he could sneak his secret notebook to Mr. Van Dorn with a request to send it to Washington. He believes that Ceausescu has fooled the Americans into believing Romania is a successful country.

At his next meeting with Dan, Mr. Van Dorn writes the word TIME on paper and tells Cristian to look for the most recent edition at the American Library. This leads Cristian to believe that he can share the truth about Romania with him. When Cristian reads TIME at the American Library, he is stunned to learn that their neighbour, Hungary is free and no longer communist. He knows he has to tell Bunu.

But as it turns out, Bunu already knows because he's had their radio repaired. Listening to Radio Free Europe, Bunu believes East Germany will be next. As freedom spreads throughout the Eastern Bloc with the fall of communist regiimes in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria, Cristian plans to deliver his notebook to Van Dorn anonymously. Soon he finds himself drawn into the spreading revolution in Romania, along with freedom, will come terrible loss and painful revelations.

Discussion

Ruta Sepetys has crafted a brilliant historical fiction novel that effectively portrays the repressive regime of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu through the eyes of a teen character, seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu.

In 1945, the communists came to power in Romania due to the occupation and intervention of the Soviet Union.Prior to this, there had been a struggle as to whether Romania would adopt Western style democracy or Soviet communism.

From 1945 until 1965, Soviet-style communism with its antagonistic approach to the West controlled Romania. In 1965, with the death of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Rej, Nicolae Ceausescu came to power as leader of Romania's Communist Party. He worked to move Romania away from the Soviet sphere of influence, ending its participation in the Warsaw Pact military alliance and condemning the Soviet Union's invasions of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and Afghanistan in 1979. Unlike the Soviet Union and its Bloc countries, Ceausescu was not interested in shutting Romania off from the West: he was friendly towards the United States and signed trade agreements with the European Economic Community.

However this openness did not last. In 1974, Ceausescu became president of Romania but he also became increasingly authoritarian.  Romania had a much-feared secret police, called the Securitate and they began to develop a large network of informers. This caused much fear and division as people never knew who to trust and made any form of resistance almost impossible. The Securitate was responsible for the torture and death of thousands of Romanians. 

Prior to the 1980's, Bucharest was known as "the Little Paris of the East" for its cobbled streets, tree-lined boulevards, cafes, historic churches and monasteries, and many grand buildings. After the 1977 earthquake, Ceausescu was determined to remake the center of Bucharest into something more modern like what he had seen in North Korea. He demolished many parts of the city center including the Uranus district and levelled the Vacaresti Hill, the location of an ancient monastery. In place of these beautiful and historic buildings, Ceausescu built rows of concrete apartment blocks. He also built a huge, opulent palace while his own people did without many basics of life.

In the 1980's life in Romania became almost impossible. In debt to foreign banks, Ceausescu began exporting the country's agricultural and industrial products. As a result, people experienced shortages of just about everything including food, fuel, medicine, clothing and other necessities. 

As glasnost and perestroika spread throughout the Soviet Union in the 1980s, the communist regimes began to fall throughout the Eastern Bloc. A demonstration in Timisoara in which the Romania army fired on its own people became the flashpoint for the revolution and fall of the communist Romanian government and the trial and execution of the Ceausescus.

In I Must Betray You, Ruta Sepetys uses her characters to describe life under Romania's dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu. Cristian and Liliana Pavel discuss how their beautiful city of Bucharest has been destroyed as they walk home together. Liliana remarks, "My father said that Bucharest used to be called 'Little Paris'. There were trees everywhere, lots of birds, and even Belle Epoque architecture." Cristian recalls that his Bunu once told him that "...Bucharest was once a luxury stop on the Orient Express."

Cristian then describes the reality of what life has become under the repressive regime: "Families, like our family of five, were herded into one-bedroom, ashtray-sized flats. I looked at the cement apartment blocks we passed. Some weren't even finished. They had no doors, no elevators, no stair railings. Similar concrete hulks loomed around the city, gray staircases to nowhere. Concrete walls gave birth to concrete faces."

Even worse than the destruction of beauty is the fear and paranoia of life in Romania during the Ceausescu dictatorship. Like everyone else, Cristian tries to pass unnoticed.  "I pretended to follow the rules. I kept things to myself, like my interest in poetry and philosophy. I pretended other things too...I pretended that studying English was a commitment to my country... Many things were illegal in Romania - including my thoughts and my notebook." However, he soon discovers that no one goes "unnoticed" by the Secu.

When Cristian is sent to meet the Securitate agent he nicknames "Paddle Hands", he is terrified and doesn't know what he might have done to be in this situation. "What had I done? The truth was, most Romanians broke the rules some way or another. There were so many to break. And so many to report that you had broken them."  He learns that somehow the agent knows about his vintage stamp trade with Dan Van Dorn and the dollar he has come to possess. This situation creates a sense of betrayal and paranoia in Cristian, who wonders, "The agent had a file. Who informed on me? I threw a quick glance over my shoulder into the shadows. Was I being followed?"

Cristian being forced into becoming an informer, leaves him deeply conflicted, filled with disgust for himself at not being able to refuse. He doesn't want to be an informer, but does it in the hopes of getting medicine for his beloved Bunu. He tries to assuage his conscience by hoping that he can beat the Secu at his own game. The loss of his friendship with Liliana Pavel who is horrified at his betrayal, fills him with self-hatred. As people rise up against communism in other countries, Cristian fights back in the only way he knows how - with his words, in his journal which he decides to sneak into Mr. Van Dorn's study. 

Cristian's friendship with Dan Van Dorn, son of the U.S. diplomat, offers him a window into what life is like in a free country like America. Cristian observes how at ease Dan is walking through Bucharest to the American Library, noting that he can be himself.  Watching a home made video, Cristian, who like every other Romanian must line up to get even a rotten can of beans, is stunned by the amount of food in a family's refrigerator in America. 

Sepetys uses the character, Bunu, Cristian's grandfather to explain how the Ceausescu regime is able to control the Romanian people and how to fight back. He is the voice of  freedom and courage. For example, Bunu tells Cristian, "They steal our power by making us believe we don't have any...But words and creative phrases - they have power, Cristian. Explore that power in your mind." But he also reminds Cristian that the Securitate cannot control what he thinks. Bunu explains to Cristian how he can survive in such a repressive environment. "...You see, communism is a state of mind...The State controls the amount of food we eat, our electricity, our transportation, the information we receive. But with philosophy, we control our minds. What if the internal landscape was ours to build and paint?" 

Bunu is informed on by Cristian's mother, who hopes to save her two children. His voice of dissent must be silenced and so he is poisoned. Bunu's brutal murder demonstrates how the communist regime will tolerate no resistance, even that of an elderly, dying man.

I Must Betray You is a stunning novel, and a timely one. Romania's experience with communism mirrored that of most other Eastern Bloc countries; food and fuel shortages, rampant poverty, state police who tortured and murdered their own citizens, constant surveillance with almost no personal freedom. It is a reminder of the brutality and inhumanity of communism at a time when some see it as an plausible alternative to the struggles Western democracies are currently experiencing. Historical fiction can remind us of the lessons of the past, ones that must not be repeated. 

The novel includes many historical, black and white photographs at the back, along with a detailed Author's Note and a Research and Sources section that explains the research Sepetys undertook to write I Must Betray You. Sepetys's extensive research is evident in the believable characters she has crafted and her realistic portrayal of life in Romania in 1989.

Book Details:

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
New York: Philomel Books        2022
319 pp.

Thirst by Varsha Bajaj

Minni lives in Mumbai, in a part of the city that is very poor, where there is often not enough water. Her family doesn't have running water in their home, instead they rely on an outside tap that they share with their neighbours. Minni's Ma must wake up early to fill their buckets with water because the taps only supply water for two hours in the morning and one hour in the evening. 

Minni's fifteen-year-old brother Sanjay dreams of becoming a chef one day. Currently he is working doing food prep in  a restaurant. Minni's baba runs a tea shop named Jai Ho where the neighbourhood loves to hang out and hear the local gossip. Minni's best friend is Faiza, who is Muslim.

One night, Sanjay's friend Amit tells them that his uncle Ram, who is a chauffeur, has a new car tonight. Amit offers to take Sanjay for a ride. Both Minni and Faiza begged to be included. Ram Uncle agrees to take the four of them for a ride and they drive through Mumbai in delicious air conditioning. During the ride Uncle stops at a building near the Western railway tracks. Behind the tracks they see a large water truck . Instead of obeying Uncle, Amit and Sanjay leave the Mercedes promising only to go as far as the fence by the tracks. However, they climb over the fence and Minni, worried about her brother, steps out of the car. 

In the dark, Minni sees that a hose attached to the tanker truck is draining water from the pipeline nearby. When Sanjay sneezes, revealing their presence, a man begins searching the area where Sanjay and Amit are hiding. In the light of the flashlight, Minni notices that the man has a pale scar on his cheek. He grabs Sanjay but Amit kicks him in the leg and both boys manage to flee, crossing the tracks before an oncoming train. Ram Uncle returns to the car and they speed away to safety. 

When they tell Ram Uncle what happened, he is furious, admonishing them not to be curious about what "tankers are doing in the night." Amit tells him that Ravi who is from their neighbourhood, recognized them but told them to run. They believe he will not say anything. 

The next day, any hopes that this will blow over are dispelled when Minni returns home after to school to find Ram Uncle and Amit at their house. Minni's parents are furious and terrified especially when they see the newspaper headline, "Mumbai Ruled By Water Mafia". Uncle tells Minni's family that the water mafia are dangerous people and that they need to send Sanjay and Amit away. He tells them that Ravi has been talking about them, believing them to be part of a rival gang. Uncle explains that they steal water and sell it for huge profits.  When Minni suggests going to the police her father tells her that they wouldn't be believed because they are uneducated slum dwellers and that the police are often bribed.

Amit and Sanjay are sent away to Delhi where they will be taken to Uncle's relative's farm so they can work for him. Sanjay doesn't want to leave, but after quickly packing he and Amit leave with Uncle. The next morning Minni explains to Faiza what has happened and both girls are scared.

A week after Sanjay leaves home, Minni and Faiza receive their packages to help them study for the final exam which is less than a month away. However, Minni's mother seems to be ill: she is tired all the time and doesn't eat much. Minni takes her to the clinic where the doctor tells her to rest and takes blood for tests. Minni's mother decides that she will go to stay with her mother and youngest sister in their village. There, she can rest and be cared for. However, this means big changes for Minni. She will take on her mother's job as housekeeper at Anita Ma'am's home after school.

Minni faces a daunting new few weeks: she must do all her mother's chores, study for her final exam and work at Anita Ma'am's house after school. With the help of her neighbours and friends, Minni manages to do all of this. But then she uncovers the identity of the man responsible for stealing water. How can she tip off police while keeping herself and her family safe?

Discussion

Thirst presents young readers a window into the lives of the very poor, the slum dwellers of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India. Most young people in North America, take for granted having water, hot and cold, at the twist of a tap. But for residents of the slums of Mumbai, it's not so simple. 

According to an article in The Indian Express there are over ten thousand wells in Mumbai, but more than two thousand tanker trucks steal water from these wells and sell it to residents at high prices. Instead of dealing with the so called "water mafia" to prevent water theft, the local government is pursuing the development of a desalination plant.

Bajaj provides some information on the water mafia in her story. Mumbai is built on seven islands and its water supply comes from these islands. However, many residents in the lower income neighbourhoods like where Minni and her family live, must line up in the morning and evening to fill containers with water. Many buildings do not have water during the day. Bajaj demonstrates the risks poorer residents of Mumbai face as a result of a lack of clean water: Minni's mother is found to be suffering from Hepatitis A, a water borne illness that is easily preventable with clean water and also through vaccination. There is also the risk Sanjay, Amit and Ravi encountered of stumbling onto water theft and losing their lives for this knowledge.

In Thirst, Bajaj has crafted a clever, kind heroine in Minni, who like many young girls around the world, aspires to an education and often achieves it while overcoming enormous obstacles. The author also portrays the close-knit community that helps Minni achieve her dreams in whatever help they can offer, whether it is through meals, carrying water or sharing work. Bajaj shows them to be resilient, and hard-working.

Thirst offers a satisfying, happy ending, with resolutions to the many crises in the novel. Readers wanting to learn more about Mumbai's water issues can check out the website The Water Story. 

Book Details:

Thirst by Varsha Bajaj
New York: Nancy Paulsen Books    2022
179 pp.