One Last Shot by Kip Wilson

Gerda Pohorylle lives in Stuttgart, Germany with her parents, Heinrich and Gisela and her two younger brothers, Oskar and Karl, her Tante Terra and her husband, Onkel Moritz. Gerda's father runs a delivery business.

In 1921, eleven-year-old Gerda is aware that the Jews are being blamed for anything that goes wrong, including Germany losing the First World War. Her Tante Terra tells her to be her true self at home but to blend in outside the home in "German spaces". Gerda is the only Jewish girl in her class at the Konigin-Charlotte-Realschule. There, she fits in fine during the weekdays, but on Saturdays when attending school in the morning, her Shabbat duties mark her as different.

In 1925, Onkel Moritz hires Gerda's papa as a permanent employee in his delivery business. Gerda also becomes friends with Meta Schwarz, whose flat she visits everyday after school. In her teen years, Gerda begins to realize that she also wants to please herself and not just her parents.

In September of 1927, Gerda along with Meta, attends finishing school in Switzerland. Her tuition to the Villa Florrisant in Chamblandes-Pully is paid for by Tante Terra. At Villa Florrisant  the two girls discover "the sanctuary of their dreams".  Gerda dreams of making a future for herself and sees the school as helping her to do that. She excels in languages, becoming fluent in French and English, while also learning a bit of Spanish.

After returning home to Stuttgart, Gerda is noticed by a tall, young man named Hans Bote, while playing tennis with Meta. Hans, who is called Pieter, is not Jewish and works as a salesman for an American company. Despite the fact that neither her parents nor Tante Terra like him, Gerda agrees to many Pieter. However, when her father moves the family to Leipzig to expand the family business, their relationship becomes a long-distance one.

In Leipzig in 1929, Gerda falls in with intellectuals and fellow Jews, becoming politically involved and learning about the dangers of nationalism and the Nazis. She becomes involved in Leipzig's left-wing youth movement where she meets one of it's leaders, Georg Kuritzkes. After visiting Stuttgart, Gerda breaks off her engagement to Pieter.

After the stock market collapse of 1929 and into 1930, Gerda finds herself attending political rallies for equality and workers' rights, to abolish Nazism, fascism and nationalism. But the results of the Reichstag elections of 1930 see a weakening center and the Nazis gaining strength. By 1933, Hitler is appointed Chancellor and Gerda and others now focus on resistance, posting anti-Nazi posters and distributing flyers. Gerda's brothers are soon involved.

In March 1933, the Gestapo come for Oskar but take Gerda in his place when he's not home. She is held for three weeks at Gestapo headquarters before being released at the intercession of a Polish diplomat. Gerda learns that the Nazis have ordered a one day boycott of Jewish businesses. Her papa begins liquidating his business so the Nazis can't take it away. Gerda's parents now want her to leave Germany. Karl and Oskar tell her that they will help their parents survive.

In September 1933, Gerda heads to Paris, France leaving behind her family and friends. She shares an apartment with her friend Ruth Cerf, finds a job as a secretary, and spends time meeting people at the Paris cafes.

 In August 1934, Hitler is now President of the Reich as well as Chancellor. In September, Ruth insists that Gerda accompany her to a small park in Montparnasse, where a photographer, Andre Friedmann wants to photographer her. Gerda and Andre experience an immediate attraction to one another and begin to develop a friendship. At this time, Gerda is involved somewhat with Willi Chardack, a friend from Leipzig, with Pieter who visits her in Paris, and with Georg whom she visits in Italy. However, their common Jewish ancestry, and their desire "to do something big in this world" leads them to fall in love and into a partnership. With Andre, Gerda becomes a photojournalist, determined to capture the reality of war and fascism, no matter the personal cost.

Discussion

Gerda Taro's story is told by Kip Wilson in free verse, in seven parts titled Beginnings, Growing Up, Change, Independence, Partners, Success, and Extremes. Wilson, an amateur black-and-white photographer knew of Robert Capa but had never heard of Gerda Taro (Gerta Pohorylle).

To pen One Last Shot, Wilson had to rely on Gerda's biographers, Irme Schaker and Jane Rogoyska who wrote about many of the events portrayed in this novel. As a result, One Last Shot is not a biography but more a fictionalized account of Gerda's life. Primary sources for the life of Gerda Taro were quite limited as none of her family survived the Holocaust, and she left no diaries or correspondence.

In One Last Shot, Wilson portrays Gerda as a free-spirited young woman, full of adventure and determination. Wilson's poetry captures Gerda's zest for life, shown by the many friends she had. What is surprising was her involvement with many men at a time when society was still very conservative regarding women. She loved the cultures of the countries she visited and hated what fascism was doing to the people of Europe. Because of this, Gerda was determined to fight fascism any way she could. This resistance began with protests and joining groups but eventually Gerda became aware of the power of the photograph to show the realities of fascism, nationalism and war. 

Wilson captures Gerda's increasing disregard for the dangers present on the battlefield - the one last shot always being her goal. Unfortunately, this disregard for her own safety would result in her horrific and untimely death. But Robert and Gerda's style of photo-journalism would soon become the norm during most of the conflicts in the 20th century. It would allow the world to witness the reality of war, which continued to be glamorized.

Wilson's Authors Note, which details the inspiration behind the novel, also discusses fact vs. fiction in the novel and provides information on the Spanish Civil War and how Gerda's life came to light. Wilson also offers a list of the major characters in the story in Dramatis Personae, a Selected Sources listing, and a Glossary of German, French and Spanish terms used.

One Last Shot is highly recommended for readers who are interested in learning about amazing women trailblazers in the last one hundred years.

Book Details:

One Last Shot by Kip Wilson
New York: Versify      2023

405 pp.

Nothing Could Stop Her. The Courageous Life of Ruth Gruber by Rona Arato

Ruth Gruber was born in 1911, to David and Gussie Gruber who had immigrated from Russia. Her father owned a liquor store and their family of five children lived above the store which was located in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.  The Grubers were Jewish and in their village, people spoke Yiddish. They celebrated Jewish holidays, but on Saturdays - the Sabbath, Ruth's parents kept their store open. 

In public school, Ruth's "first grade teacher was a young Black woman who taught a class of Jewish, Irish, Polish, and Black girls." Her teacher encouraged Ruth's parents to care and support her because she was sure she was going to be a writer.

Ruth's family moved into a German neighborhood in 1921 where she and her sisters and brothers made good friends. But meanwhile, in Germany, Adolf Hitler was on the rise. 

Ruth was an exceptional student: she entered high school at the age of twelve and New York University at the age of fifteen. While majoring in German, Ruth had many interesting opportunities to explore the world outside of Brooklyn and to enter a summer program at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. In this intensive German program, Ruth did everything in German.

After completing her studies, Ruth won a fellowship with the University of Wisconsin's German department for the full tuition for the year-long master's program in German. She hitchhiked to Wisconsin and initially lived in a dorm named German House. Experiencing anti-Semitism from both the woman in charge of the dorm and the head of the German department, Ruth ended up boarding with a Norwegian family. 

After completing her masters thesis, Ruth won a one-year exchange fellowship to the University of Cologne. But her parents were not keen on her accepting, and tried to dissuade her from going. They were concerned with the rise in anti-Semitism especially since Ruth would be there in 1931. In Cologne, Ruth stayed with Frieda Herz and her family. As the situation in Germany continued to worsen, Ruth decided to stay, especially after she was invited to earn a Ph.D. by Professor Schoffler, head of the English Language and Literature Department. Her research would be original and on English author, Virginia Woolf.  In November, Ruth read Hitler's book, Mein Kampf and was horrified at his beliefs about Jews and race. She personally began to experience the anti-Semitism being pushed by the Nazis. She attended a Nazi rally led by Hitler and had to leave, she was so disgusted.

In  August 1932, Ruth returned home to America. She had earned her Ph.D., the youngest in the world to do so. Ruth began writing articles for the Herald Tribune: this was the beginning of her journalism career. In 1933, Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany. In 1935, Ruth received a writing fellowship and she decided to return to Germany to study women in different political systems: fascism in Germany and communism in Russia. At the same time she would be the Herald Tribune's special correspondent while she travelled in Europe. Although her parents were upset with her decision and felt she should marry, Ruth was excited and determined.

When Ruth returned to Germany, she found it much changed. As the situation in Europe escalated to war, Ruth travelled to Poland where she was forced to leave because of anti-Semitism there, and then onto Russia where she encountered the realities of communism. She returned to Europe near the end of the war to escort a large number of Jewish and non-Jewish refugees seek safety in America and worked tirelessly for them to stay.  This was the beginning of Ruth Gruber's life work - to advocate through her writing and action for the Jewish communities throughout the world.

Discussion

Author Rona Arato has written an engaging biography of a remarkable woman, who ignored social conventions to live life on her own terms. Told in seventeen short chapters, the author describes Ruth Gruber's early life, her education and travels to Europe in the 1930's and 1940's. The book focuses on Ruth's early life and education, demonstrating how that led her to her life's work which was to advocate on behalf of refugees and various Jewish communities throughout the world.

The author captures Ruth Gruber's sense of adventure, her determination to help others and her openness to learning about other cultures and peoples. Ruth had the courage to actively push back against the anti-Semitism that was spreading throughout Germany. She read Mein Kampf to learn about Hitler's plans for the Jewish population and she refused to accept her friend Johann's belief that the Nazi's were doing good for Germany. Ruth used her journalism skills and her camera to capture what was going on in Europe and for the Jewish refugees in the Oswego camp in Oswego, New York.

Included in the text are separate boxes which highlight specific topics such as Russia's Many Peoples, Siberia and the Soviet Arctic, The Great Depression, and President Truman. Arato's Author's Note at the back, tells the rest of Ruth's story after the war, including photographs. Also included are a Glossary, Source Notes, a Timeline of Ruth's life, a Bibliography, and an Index. The illustrations were rendered digitally by Isabel Munoz.

Rona Arato has authored more than twenty books for children, many of them focusing on human rights issues. Nothing Could Stop Her highlights the determination of Ruth Gruber to help combat anti-Semitism. She would not be stopped by Nazis, Communists, the Arctic cold, or even the indifference of people to the plight of the Jewish people.

Book Details:

Nothing Could Stop Her: The Courageous Life of Ruth Gruber by Rona Arato

Minneapolis, MN: Kar-Ben Publishing   2023
139 pp.

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.

Winterkill by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Twelve-year-old Nyl Chorny and his father Tato have just returned from inspecting their wheat field when they see hundreds of uniformed young people, part of the Young Communist League, marching into their village of Felivka, near Kharkiv, Soviet Ukraine. Also marching are the Young Pioneers with their red ties, and adult marchers in city clothes. 

When Nyl and his father reach their house, he sees his nine-year-old brother Slavko and eleven-year-old sister Yulia along with his mother seated at their kitchen table. With them are two visitors from Canada, George White and his daughter Alice. They have come to assist with Stalin's "five-year-plan", to modernize the Soviet Union. But instead of helping people like Nyl's family, they are taking away their farms and forcing them onto one large collective farm called the kolkhoz. Now Comrade White and his daughter Alice are taking an inventory of everything in their house including "the decades-old pysanky - colorful hand-decorated eggs". Alice is disturbed at the presence of the icons on the walls and the prayer corner and advises Nyl's family to remove them or at least hide them. Comrade White, sounding like the lead shock worker, Tupolev, tries to convince Nyl's father to join the kolkhoz, the farming collective. He tells Tato they will give him tractors and modern equipment for farming, and that they will be able to grow more grain and be better off. When Tato refuses, Comrade White calls him a traitor and calls the farmers who won't join, kulaks. 

Everyone is called to the village square where they see many soldiers and a tractor being driven into the square. Tupolev tells them that the Soviet Union is the only country in the world that manufactures tractors, but Nyl is skeptical when he notices English letters on the tractor. When Tupolev's speech is interrupted by the ringing of the church bells, he incites the crowd to murder Father Ivan and his wife and tear down the church. Nyl and his family along with the villagers watch in horror at the brutal murders and their church being destroyed by a frenzied mob. Comrade Tupolev doesn't allow the villagers to have a funeral for the priest and his wife, however Nyl's mother leads them in singing Vichnay Pamyat, an ancient chant sung for funerals.

 

The violence continues with the murder of Nyl's Uncle Illya outside his own home by Comrade Chort. A shock worker enters the house telling them that Illya's wife and baby daughter, Auntie Pawlina and Tanya, must leave the house immediately. He states that Comrade Chorny was killed because he resisted arrest for being a kulak. He also  begins emptying the house of all the Chorny's belongings. The shock workers destroy the compilation of old folk songs the Chorny's were collecting. 

When Nyl returns to his own home, across the street, he finds their house too has been looted; the bowl of pysanky destroyed, their icons missing along with their altar. In its place is a Soviet flag, a framed portrait of Stalin and miniature toy tractors. Nyl's sister Yulia volunteers to bring home the atheist altar she made at school, something that shocks Nyl. Nyl's family decides to move their hidden stores of grain in the hopes they can save some for themselves. That night Comrade Chort and his wife Yelena move into Uncle Illya's home.

A few days later, Tato tells his family they need to escape but Nyl's mother believes there is more danger in leaving. Auntie Pawlina suggests they go to Polish Ukraine, to Ternopil where she has cousins.  

Then one day after school, everyone is ordered to be at the meeting hall in the village council building, both villagers and the kolkhozniks. After Tupolev reads a speech by Stalin stating that steeling property and killing people was not part of the plan, the villagers demand the return of their livestock and property. Led by the women, they raid the kolkhoz to retrieve their stolen property. Comrade Berkovich tells the villagers that the government wants to send in troops to settle down the village. To avoid this, he suggests they need to show that they are working together. He encourages people to farm their land this summer. so there will be a good harvest.

The summer of 1930, Nyl and his father plant fields of corn, millet and wheat and harvest a bumper crop. Tupolev's estimate of wheat they will be paid for leads Nyl's family to once again debate whether to stay in Felivka or leave.

As it turns out, Stalin betrays the people of the Soviet Ukraine including Nyl's family. After a harvest supper and dance celebrating the bumper crop, at the invitation of Tupolev and hosted in the kolkhoz, the landowners are tricked into meeting in the village council room. While they are locked in the building, the military arrives and steal the villager's entire harvest including their stored grain and their vegetables and potatoes. 

Faced with a winter of starvation, Nyl and Slavko decide to travel to the Kharkiv tractor factory seeking work. After working there they learn that the tractor factory won't be functioning for at least a year and return home. Their family decides that Aunt Pawlina and Tanya will travel to Ternopil with the money they have saved. Meanwhile Yulia decides to abandon her family and move to the kolkhoz, against her family's wishes.

In the spring of 1931, after the death of Tato, Nyls, Slavko and their mother decide to plan to leave for Ternopil. During the summer, they forage and save, storing  much food for their journey. However, their plans are thwarted by Comrade Chort who has their food confiscated and their mother jailed. After being released from jail, Nyl's mother is never the same again.  The following winter is spent hungry and then Nyls' mother is murdered by Chort in the spring of 1932. Nyls now realizes he and Slavko must leave Felivka if they are to have any chance of survival. Somehow they must make the journey to Ternopil to meet up with Aunt Pawlina and Tanya. But a chance meeting with Alice, changes everything for Nyls.

 

Discussion

 

Winterkill is a timely novel that explores the Holodomor,famine of 1932-33, a man-made catastrophe orchestrated by Josef Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union in the 1930's.  In Ukrainian, holodomor translates to "death by hunger". The main victims of the holodomor were Ukrainian farmers and rural villagers. Stalin, fearful of the growing Ukrainian culture in Soviet Ukraine began to systematically murder Ukrainian intellectuals, church leaders and those who supported previous Ukrainian cultural initiatives as well as the Ukrainian peasant class. As part of Stalin's Five Year Plan to collectivize agriculture, Ukrainian farmers were forced to give up their small farms, their livestock and their grain harvest. Any resistance was met with brutality, murder and forced deportation. Those who resisted were labelled kulaks and punished with deportation or simply murdered. Stalin instituted strict grain quotas that could not be met with the dissolution of the smaller farms; his collectivization of farms was a failure. When villages could not meet their quotas, the Soviet Red Army prevented people from leaving to find food and many starved to death.

 

In Winterkill, the story opens with the residents of Felivka being pressured to join the collective farms called kolkhoz, by giving up their farms and their land as well as their livestock. To effect this change, "shock workers" went from house to house inventorying everything possession, including foodstuffs and livestock. One of the workers was Alice White and her father.

 

Skrypuch incorporates many historic events known to have occurred in Soviet-occupied Ukraine, including the murder of Orthodox priests and the complete destruction of churches and family altars, the labelling of Ukrainian farmers unwilling to join the kolkhoz as "kulaks" , a demeaning term that meant "rich peasants", who were then deported or murdered, and had their property taken from them. the stealing of almost every scrap of food produced by the farmers including their own vegetable gardens, and the murder/deportation of those who resisted. Skrypuch wants her readers to know the reality of the Holodomor, which was not recognized as a genocide until 1953, based on the conditions set out by Raphael Lemkin, an international criminal law expert.

As events play out in the novel, eventually Nyls and his brother Slavko are left to fend for themselves and they realize they must flee if they are to survive. However, Slavko decides to stay at the factory while Nyls is determined to escape to what he hopes will be the chance at a better life. With the help of Alice, who has come to understand that they too were duped by Stalin, they encounter a Canadian journalist named Rhea, who advises them to escape to Russia.

Several characters in the novel are based on either real people or from the testimony of people who lived through the Holodomor. Rhea is based on Rhea Clyman, a Polish- Canadian journalist who was reporting on the Soviet reforms in the late 1920's. She soon became disillusioned with what she saw. Her travels by car in 1932 with two other women, through what she called the "Famine-Lands", from Moscow to Kharkiv revealed abandoned villages, starving people, and empty stores. Rhea was one of the first to report on the famine and she managed to publish forty-four feature articles in the Toronto Telegram from 1932 to 1933. Rhea also reported on the large number of "kulaks" who had been deported and were working as slave labour in the Soviet Union. Skrypuch has dedicated Winterkill to Rhea Clyman and her determined effort to get the truth out about what was happening in Soviet Ukraine.

The character, Alice White is based on a real person, Alice Mertzka whom Rhea and her companions met in Kharkiv. Alice explained that she was from Toronto and that she and her father who had been employed at Massey Harris in Canada, had come to work at the tractor plant in Kharkiv. However, they too found themselves starving. In Winterkill, Alice is confronted by Nyls who explains to her what is really happening and how her simple "inventory" resulted in the destruction of his own family. This leads Alice White to attempt to make amends by helping Nyls to escape the famine.

The main character and narrator, Nyls is based on Skrypuch's interviews with survivors and her research of survivor accounts of the Holodomor. Nyl's is an intelligent, thoughtful boy who witnesses the complete destruction of everything he has known: his village and his way of life, as well as the betrayal of his family by his sister and the loss of his beloved parents. Through his eyes, young readers come to experience this loss and hopefully learn more about this historic genocide.

Winterkill is well-written but does contain a some violence including brief descriptions of brutal murders and starvation. For that reason it is recommended for older readers aged 12 and up. Skrypuch  has provided an Author's Note at the back as well as a map of Soviet Ukraine and the loss of population as a result of the Holodomor genocide. Young readers are to be encouraged to explore this topic further. Another excellent offering by this well known, award-winning Canadian author, timely, in light of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Book Details:

Winterkill by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
New York: Scholastic Inc.     2022
266 pp.

Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli by Kyo Maclear & Julie Morstad

Bloom tells the story of fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli who was most famous for her creations during the interwar decades of 1920 and 1930's. Elsa was responsible for many significant contributions to fashion.


Elsa Luisa Maria Schiaparelli was born in Rome, in her family's home at the Palazzo Corsini, in 1890. She was born into a family with several accomplished intellectuals. Her father, Celestino Schiaparelli was a scholar whose research focused on the Middle Ages and who was Dean of the University of Rome. His brother, Elsa's uncle, Giovanni Schiaparelli discovered the canals on Mars. And a cousin of the Elsa's father and uncle, Ernesto Schiaparelli was the director of the Museo Egizio in Turin and a noted Egyptologist.

Elsa seemed destined from the beginning to be rebellious and unsettled.She had a rebellious childhood often playing pranks that had serious consequences. She attended the University of Rome, studying philosophy. During this time she wrote a book of poetry titled Arethusa, that her parents considered scandalous. Their response was to force her into a convent but she was able to leave after undertaking a hunger strike.  She left her family in Rome in 1913 and worked as a nanny in England to avoid marrying a Russian man whom her parents favoured. However, in London she became involved with Willem de Wendt, who also used the surname of de Kerlor and who was a sort of psychic involved in many different schemes including fortune telling. Many considered him a swindler. Elsa became engaged to him a day after meeting him! They married and were eventually forced to leave England, travelling to several countries before moving to America.

Elsa was eventually abandoned by de Kerlor in 1920, leaving her to care for their daughter, Maria Louisa Yvonne Radha whom she nicknamed Gogo. She returned to Paris in 1922 where she continued to receive support from her mother.  Although she had no training in the making of patterns and the sewing of clothing, Elsa began designing her own clothing. At first she made pieces for various clients. Her first big success came with hand knit sweaters featuring a black and white trompe l'oeil design. These took the fashion world by storm and Elsa's fashion career was off and running.

In the 1930's Elsa Schiaparelli became involved with many famous artists who were part of the Surrealist movement. These included Salvatore Dali, Jean Cocteau, Alberto Giacometti and Leonor Fini. In collaboration with these artists, Elsa created some very distinct and creative pieces of clothing, including a dress with a lobster painted on by Dali, and an evening coat featuring what appears to be a vase of roses but also two profiles facing each other.

Elsa's contributions to fashion included the wedge shoe, the jumpsuit, paper clothes, transparent raincoats, specialty furs, the scarf dress, and coloured hosiery. She popularized pants and shoulder pads and her signature colour was a vibrant magenta which she named "Shocking". Many famous actresses of the period wore her clothes including Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Katherine Hepburn and Joan Crawford.

Kyo Maclear presents a very simple version of Elsa Schiaparelli's life, bringing out some of the more interesting details that are sure to capture the interest of younger readers. Elsa's life is portrayed as that of a child not welcomed by her parents. Hoping for a boy, her parents had no name for her and gave her the name of a nurse. According to the story in Bloom, Elsa's sister Beatrice was the favourite of their parents who often referred to  Elsa as "Brutta". Although her life was complicated, Elsa persevered, overcoming "Mamma's harsh words and Pappa's judgement" and opened her first shop at the age of thirty-seven!  According to Maclear, Elsa's success is marred by the belief that her parents and Beatrice "will never approve of the path I have taken."

Throughout Bloom,  Maclear incorporates quotes from Elsa's autobiography, "Shocking Life: The Autobiography of Elsa Schiaparelli". This picture book employs brilliant magenta throughout - reminiscent of Elsa's favourite colour.  Elsa's story is brought to life by the colourful artwork of  Julie Morstad who utilized liquid watercolour, gouache, and pencil crayons to create the illustrations for Bloom.

There's no doubt Elsa Shiaparelli is a fashion designer largely forgotten by most today. But her influence can be found in much of the clothing considered fashionable by women. Bloom helps to remind readers, young and not-so-young about this famous Italian designer whose major competition was Coco Chanel!

Book Details:

Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli by Kyo Maclear and Julie Morstad
New York: Tundra Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada Young Readers      2018

DVD: The Race

"'Cause you know, out there on that track you're free of all this. The moment that gun go off, can't nothing stop me. Not color, not money, not fear, not even hate. There ain't no black and white. There's only fast and slow. For those ten seconds you are completely free."

The Race is a dramatization of Jesse Owen's quest to run in the 1936 Olympics which were held in Nazi Germany. The Olympics were awarded to Germany in 1931 with the intention of supporting the country, but two years later, the country found itself under the control of Hitler and his Nazi party. As the racial policies of the country became known more and more Americans began to question their country's participation in the Berlin Olympics, which would be seen as supporting Hilter, the Nazi party and its policies.

The movie opens in 1933 with Jesse Owens, played by Canadian actor, Stephan James living with his mother, father and sister Laverne in Cleveland, Ohio. He has a passion for running. As a high school athlete Owens tied the record of 9.4 seconds for the 100 yard dash. In the fall of 1933 Jessie prepares to leave for Ohio State University in Columbus.

Before leaving for Ohio State University (OSU) Owens goes to visit his little daughter, Gloria and her mother, Minnie Ruth Solomon who works as a hairdresser.  He promises Ruth he will return to marry her.

In the past three years OSU has had a poor showing at the national college championships. Track coach Larry Snyder, himself once a great runner, is being blamed for the losses and his career looks like it might be finished. He's looking for fresh talent to restart his track team. Snyder has Owens come to his office where he asks him why he came to OSU, a school considered to be very bigoted towards black athletes. Owens tells him that his coach Charlie Riley told him he's a natural runner and that Snyder was the best. Snyder tells him that records don't matter, only gold medals matter. He asks Owens if he wants to run in Berlin in 1936 and Owens indicates that he's concerned that the Germans don't like blacks. But Snyder points out that the same attitudes exist in the United States. He warns Owens that if he wants to run and win he must spend the next 28 months training hard every day.

Meanwhile at a meeting of the U.S. Olympic Committee Convention, Avery Brundage, a former track athlete and Olympian, and now a wealthy businessman head of the American Olympic Committee (AOC) is told that Germany's racist policies towards Jews and Romany Gypsies is a major concern and that a boycott of American athletes is being considered. Officials from the Amateur Athletic Union point out that the Germans are not allowing Jewish athletes to join sports clubs and therefore they are unable to qualify for the Olympics. The Germans also do not want Negroes to compete at the Games. Brundage believes that Germany needs the Olympics and Ambassador Charles Sherrill states that they have assurances from Germany they will not discriminate. However Judge Jeremiah T. Mahoney of AAU states that they cannot trust the Nazis and that he will recommend a boycott. They decide to send Avery Brundage over to Germany to talk to German officials.

Meanwhile at OSU, Owens struggles to find the time to attend practice and work. He writes Ruth and sends her money for their daughter and tells her he has applied for a marriage license. Confronted by Snyder about missing practices, Owens reveals his dilemma and tells Snyder he needs to find a way for him to make money and train.

In 1934 Berlin, Brundage is shown the stadium under construction and is told everything is being recorded by Miss Leni Riefenstahl who was hand-picked by Hitler. Brundage sees for himself the situation in Berlin: Jewish stars on businesses, people being dragged from their homes. Brundage meets Leni and Dr. Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda at a lunch. While Leni tries to explain that she wants her film to showcase the Olympic ideals, Brundage doesn't believe her. He tells the Germans that they risk an Olympic games without America unless they come into line and allow Jews and Negroes to participate. He also tells them they have to clean up their press. Goebbels states he will agree if Brundage agrees to support them with the AOC (American Olympic Committee).

Back in Columbus, Snyder gets Owens a job as a page at the Ohio legislature paying him $60 a month and allowing him to train. They work on his start. Jesse continues to face racism and ridicule from the football team which is all white but coach Snyder tells Jesse that this is just a distraction and that he must learn to filter all of this out while he is at the Big Ten meet.

Just before the meet at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1935, Jesse injures his back trying to high jump with friends. In pain he completes in four events over the span of 45 minutes and sets three world records and ties a fourth. Owens competes in the 100 yard dash, the broad jump, the 200 yard dash and the 225 yard hurdles.

Owens and Snyder head to Los Angeles for the NCAA Track and Field Championships. Held at Edwards Stadium in Berkley, Owens wins four events. During his time in LA he meets a woman at a jazz club and becomes romantically involved with her. During this time Brundage returns to Berlin where the situation appears to meet his expectations. He tells Goebbels taht the Americans will be voting soon on whether to participate. Goebbels attempts to bribe Brundage by offering him to be involved in the building of a new German embassy in Washington designed by Albert Speer. Brundage is drawn into looking at the plans and it appears he accepts Goebbels offer.

Back in the United States, Owens affair with Quincella Nickerson gets into the papers and Minnie Ruth threatens to sue him for breach of promise. Owens unsuccessfully attempts to call Ruth. At a meet in Nebraska, Owens loses the 100 yard dash to his rival Eulace Peacock. The next morning Owens breaks up with Quincella and when he returns to Ohio he goes to see Ruth in Cleveland. At first Ruth runs him out of Ida's Beauty Salon, but not to be deterred, Jesse waits for her to leave and eventually convinces her to marry him.

On December 23, 1935, the U.S. Olympic Committee meets to vote with Brundage arguing for participation and Mahoney arguing for a boycott. When Brundage wins the vote 58 to 56, Mahoney resigns from the AAU, not wanting to be involved in something he finds morally wrong. Owens and Snyder rejoice at this news. Knowing that he will be competing in a country that believes he is part of a inferior race, Owens sets out to win the gold medal in track and to deny Nazi Germany the propaganda it so desperately wants.

Discussion

The Race is a well done, timely movie about Jesse Owens and his winning four gold medals in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Almost forgotten today, there's considerable value in the making of move like The Race to remind us of people such as Jesse Owens, whose light shone brightly in times of darkness. The focus of the movie is on Owen's life leading up to and including his participation in the 1936 Olympics. The title of the movie has a dual meaning, both of a sports event but also referring to the race of a person - in this case Black Americans.

The overarching theme in The Race is the racial bigotry that existed in America in the 1930's and that bigotry was the same hatred that led to the murder of millions of Jews, Catholics, homosexuals and gypsies by the Nazi's in Germany. Like most Blacks in 1930's America Owens faced bigotry and discrimination in every aspect of his life. When traveling to Columbus, Owens and his friend sit at the back of the bus. When he meets Larry Snyder for the first time, Owens keeps his eyes cast down, as most Blacks were taught to do. Despite his athletic ability, Owens wasn't offered an athletic scholarship and he couldn't room on the campus of OSU.  After working out at the track, Owens and his friend are made to wait until the whites use the locker room showers, and black athletes are not allowed to play football. At the Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor, Owens is booed when he lines up for the 100 yard dash with the other white competitors. When he travels to Germany to participate in the Olympics, the rest of the team are in first class on the ship, but Owens and his Black teammate travel in steerage. Even attending a dinner in his honor, Owens and his wife must use the back entrance. At the end of the movie, it is noted that Owens athletic achievements were never acknowledged by the White House in 1936. Against this backdrop, the film shows the hypocrisy of America as it protests against the racial policies of Nazi Germany, threatening to boycott the Berlin Olympics, while it treats its own Black citizens poorly.

The Race presents a mostly sanitized Jesse Owens, focusing on his athletic accomplishments and his relationship with his coach, Larry Snyder played by Jason Sudeikis who gives a surprisingly good performance. Jesse is shown as a young man who believes in his ability to run but not so certain off the track. Owen's family was involved in the development of the script, and as a result The Race is a fairly accurate portrayal on the events that occurred. Canadian actor Stephane James trained at Georgia Tech working to get into shape and to run like Owens. The recreation of the 1936 Olympics and Owen's win in the 100 meter dash are amazingly well done.

Of particular interest in this film is Avery Brundage played by Jeremy Irons who makes Brundage look too old for the age he would have been in 1933 to 1936. Yet Irons captures the complicated character of Brundage whose backroom deal with the Nazi regime created a great scandal. Another fascinating character of this era was Leni Reifenstahl, Hitler's filmmaker who is portrayed as a moderate German caught in the middle of the conflict between Brundage and Goebbels. Reifenstahl, brilliantly played by actress Carice van Houten, created many films that propagandized the Nazi regime. She appears aloof, professional at times, but genial towards Owens, and determined to make her film, even when Goebbels orders the cameras not to record yet another potential Owen's medal. Goebbels was well portrayed by Barnaby Metschurat who gave the Nazi Minister of Propaganda a creepy, chilling persona. As for Hitler, director Stephen Hopkins made the decision to keep the German chancellor in the background and the focus on Owens, Snyder and the quest to win gold. Hitler's face is only ever seen from the side and he has no lines in the movie.

For more information on the movement to boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympics, check out the Holocaust Encyclopedia entry. The entry points out the conflict that developed between Brundage and Mahoney which is portrayed to some degree in The Race. One benefit of America's participation in the 1936 Olympics is that Jesse Owens proved Hitler's idea of one race being superior to all others as the nonsense it was. Owens won the gold medal in the 100 meter dash as well as gold medals in three other events. Of the eleven gold medals won by the United States at the 1936 Olympics, six were won by Black Americans.

Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke by Anne Blankman

Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke is the sequel to Prisoner of Night and Fog. This novel wraps up the duology about two young teens, one of whom is Jewish, who attempt to warn the world about the danger of Hitler coming to power in Germany in the early 1930s.

Now living in London with Doctor Alfred Whitestone's family, Gretchen Muller is struggling to adjust to life in a new country. She's been living the Whitestones for seventeen months. Alfred considers Gretchen his "daughter in every sense of the word that matters." Gretchen had met Alfred at her mother's boardinghouse in Munich where he had been studying the rise of Adolf Hitler. It was Dr. Whitestone's intention to write about Hitler's strange psychological profile in a medical journal in order to obtain a position at a London hospital. However, in order to protect Gretchen and Daniel, he has forgone this opportunity. He continues to work at the Oxford Psychoanalytical Clinic.

Gretchen and Alfred arrive home to a surprise 18th birthday party for Gretchen. Although she turned eighteen-years-old seven months earlier, they are staying true to Gretchen's fake identity which changed her birth date. Also there are Alfred's wife, Julia and their three sons, twelve-year-old Colin, ten-year-old Andrew and eight-year-old Jack and Gretchen's friend Mary. The best surprise though is the presence of her friend, Daniel Cohen who is working as a reporter at the Oxford Mail, writing a society column. It is a job he's not happy with especially after working in Germany at the Munich Post, writing about Hitler's rise to power and the National Socialist Party.  However, Alfred encourages Daniel telling him eventually he will prove himself.

Alfred brings to the attention of Daniel and Gretchen, Winston Churchill's words at a debate at Oxford University. Churchill, at a meeting of various unions, warned that Germany was on the threshold of war and that there are rumours about Jewish persecution. However, no one seems to be listening to Churchill whose time in English politics seems to be over. Daniel's experience has been that most Members of the English Parliament were also not interested in what he had to say about Hitler.

Unfortunately, Gretchen's birthday party is interrupted by the Whitestone's cook who tells them that Daniel's landlady just called to let him know a telegram from Germany arrived for him. Daniel races home leaving Gretchen very worried. She worries because of what her own family has experienced back in Germany. Her father was killed nine years ago by Hitler because he knew that Hitler had been diagnosed as a psychopath while in a military hospital during World War I.  Hitler shot Gretchen's father during a street fight between the National Socialists and the German police. Despite losing the presidential election, Hitler and the National Socialists continue to be favoured by the German people and just last month President Hindenburg appointed Hitler as German Chancellor.

When Daniel doesn't contact Gretchen the next day she visits his home on Iffley Road and is given a letter by his landlady. The note informs Gretchen that his cousin, Aaron Pearlman was attacked and is not expected to survive. Aaron was attacked when he refused to salute the National Socialists as they paraded through Munich. Daniel has returned to Germany to see that the men who attacked Aaron are brought to justice. Gretchen is horrified that Daniel has returned to Germany as she believes he is facing certain death if caught. 

For the next six days Gretchen struggles to go through daily life. Then they learn that on February 27, the Reichstag, which is the seat of the German government, was set on fire. The blaze was believed to be the work of either the Nazis or the Communists who are battling for control of Germany. Gretchen and the Whitestones learn that President Hindenberg and Chancellor Hitler have declared a state of emergency and suspended "all major civil liberties including freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and freedom to assemble."  Gretchen knows this means that Daniel will not be able to contact her and that all correspondence will be monitored. The newspapers reveal that twenty-four-year-old Marinus van der Lubbe was arrested for arson. Five days later, Gretchen receives a note from Daniel's editor at the Oxford Mail telling her that he received a mysterious telegram hinting that Daniel may be in serious trouble in Germany and that he is wanted for murder in Berlin.

Against the advice of the Whitestones, Gretchen decides she must return to Germany as quickly as possible. Alfred drives her to the train station and gives her five hundred pounds to help her in her hunt for Daniel. Gretchen arrives in Munich to find the SA (Sturmabteilung) have stormed the office of Fritz Gerlich's newspaper, the anti-National Socialist, Der Gerade Wag. Gerlich tells Gretchen that he saw Daniel a few days after he arrived in Germany. He had been beaten and his money and false papers taken. Shortly afterwards, the party-sponsored newspapers announced that Daniel was wanted for the murder of a woman named Monika Junge. Daniel has not been seen since and the city is under attack by the SA who have been pillaging businesses. Gerlich informs Gretchen that nothing is done to stop the attacks because the SA have now taken over Munich's police force, with Heinrich Himmler now Munich's acting police chief. As Gretchen is leaving, Max Amann the head of the Eher Verlag, the National Socialist publishing house, arrives to arrest Gerlich. Flashing her swastika necklace to Amann, Gretchen is allowed to leave, while Gerlich is being beaten.

Her next stop is the office of the Munich Post which she hopes the SA have not yet attacked. However, she's too late. Desperate, Gretchen decides to visit her girlfriend, Eva Braun who is now Hitler's companion. She contacts Herr Hoffman's Photography shop where Eva works and asks her to find out if Daniel Cohen was arrested during the raid on the Munich Post. When Gretchen and Eva meet in Englischer Garten, she learns that Daniel was not arrested. Eva tells Gretchen that Hitler still talks about her and that she is not safe in Munich. 

Taking Eva's advice, Gretchen travels to the Hauptbahnhof where she plans to take the train to Berlin. Unexpectedly she meets Daniel who is also taking the same express train and they board together staying in a double compartment. Daniel tells Gretchen he cannot leave until he clears his name. Daniel fills Gretchen in on what happened when he arrived in Munich to investigate Aaron's death.  He learned from his friends at the Munich Post that the kind of attacks Aaron succumbed to are happening all over Germany. After leaving the offices of the Post he was assaulted by the SA and his papers stolen. He believes the SA in Berlin learned of his return to Germany and he was framed for the murder of a young woman. Daniel tells her that "If I can get proof that the National Socialists are behind the murder, I'll give it to a foreign correspondent friend I have in Berlin. He'll have the story printed in his paper in England. It'll be an enormous scandal for the National Socialists. All eyes will be on Berlin, and they'll have to let me leave the country." Daniel believes that he might even be able to bring down the National Socialists.

Just how difficult this will be is demonstrated when Gretchen and Daniel barely escape the train at Dachau as it is being searched by the SA. Cold, exhausted and hungry they make their way to Gretchen's grandparent's farm. Gretchen is shocked to discover her mother living in abject poverty and not welcoming towards Daniel. They travel to Daniel's parent's home in Berlin where his parents are not welcoming to her and his mother reveals the depths of Daniel's unhappiness in England. Knowing that both their families do not accept either of them, Gretchen and Daniel set about the task at hand; to determine who killed Monika Junge and discover why Daniel was framed for her murder. As they dig deeper, they soon uncover a plot that leads them back to the Reichstag and the fire of February 27.

Discussion

In Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke, author Anne Blankman has crafted a good piece of historical fiction that incorporates one of the most significant events in the rise of the Nazis to power in Germany, the burning of the Reichstag which was the seat of the German Republic.  Blankman's story revolves around the mystery that surrounded the fire at the time. 

The Reichstag was set on fire on February 27, 1933, days before parliamentary elections were to be held on March 5. Chancellor Hitler was determined to see a majority of Nazis elected and anything that would push the German people to vote for the Nazis was encouraged.  A lone person, Marius van der Lubbe, who was an unemployed brick layer with links to the Communist party, was arrested for the arson. When Hitler heard that a communist had been arrested he was furious. He was quoted as saying, "You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in German history...This fire is the beginning."

The Nazi's used their radio and press to put forth the propaganda that the fire was evidence the Communists were planning to seize control of the government. The fear of a Communist revolution led to the immediate passage, the day after the fire, of the Reichstag Fire Decree. This decree suspended all democratic rights for the German people, including the freedom of the press and the freedom to associate.

However, many people both in Germany and throughout the world, believed that the Nazis were responsible for the burning of the Reichstag. They could then use the fire to gradually pass laws that would restrict the rights of the press and the people, setting the stage for Hitler to eventually become dictator. The Enabling Act, which Blankman mentions in her novel began the process of creating a dictatorship in Germany.  As Blankman writes, "On March 23, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, effectively voting itself out of existence." Within a month almost all Communist deputies were incarcerated. Although Blankman states in her Author's Note that research after World War II appears to conclude that the fire was the work of only one man, van der Lubbe, controversy still exists as to who really set the Reichstag ablaze.

In her detailed Author's Note at the back of the novel, Blankman writes that while many of the main characters in the novel are fictitious, there are many real historical figures included in the story. These include Adolf Hitler, Marius van der Lubbe, Eva Braun who committed suicide along with Hitler as the Russian army entered Berlin, Ernst Hanfstaengl, Ernst Gennat, Fritz Gerlich, Max Amann, Sefton "Tom" Delmer and of course Winston Churchill. She provides a brief sketch of each of these historical figures.

Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke is really a mystery romance with Daniel and Gretchen racing to clear Daniel of murder before the Enabling Act is passed. Blankman does an excellent job of portraying a Germany slowly slipping into brutality and anarchy. People begin disappearing, people on the street murdered or beaten with people unwilling to intervene out of blind fear. Any newspapers in opposition to the Nazi's are sacked, their reporters intimidated, arrested or murdered. The average person struggles not to stand out so as not to attract the attention of the SA or the dreaded SS. The terror, which could happen at any moment, is well demonstrated when Gretchen and Birgit are walking on the street and a car appears. Ordinarily this would not be a frightening event but life in Germany is anything but ordinary. "Up and down the avenue, men stopped walking, their shoulders tense, their heads swiveling as they watched the car drive past....
The car doors sprang open. Men scrambled out, about five or six of them. They wore the brown uniforms of the SA. In their hands, they clutched truncheons...
The SA men strode to the nearest shop. As she watched, they raised their truncheons high, then smashed them down on the darkened shop's windows. The glass shattered.
Break everything in sight!" one of the men shouted.
Comprehension flashed through Gretchen's mind. It was a Strafexpedition, an excursion made by National Socialists into a Jewish or Communist neighborhood to punish the people who lived there."

The book takes its title from a conversation that Hitler once had with Gretchen's father, who was a friend of Hitler before he murdered him. "They'll swallow anything if it's repeated often enough, he had said, clapping her father on the shoulder. Like blood and smoke, eh, Muller? The truth doesn't matter. Only the appearance of it." As Gretchen ponders these words she wonders what Hitler meant by them.  "She frowned. Hitler had said that he didn't need to tell the truth; he merely needed to appear as though he did. He had sounded as if he were planning on deliberately misleading others. Like setting fire to Berlin's seat of government, a terrorist attack reported all over the world, and then blaming your strongest political opponents for it."

Overall, Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke is a fitting conclusion to the story of Gretchen and Daniel. At times Gretchen's narrative is overwhelmed by her romantic feelings towards Daniel. Blankman even creates a bit of romantic tension between the two when Gretchen learns that he has not been happy in England and she wonders if they have a future together. Perhaps a little less romance and bit more editing would have helped. Nevertheless, fans of historical fiction will delight in this fine novel about a very interesting and frightening period in world history.

Image credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire#/media/File:Reichstagsbrand.jpg

Book Details:

Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke by Anne Blankman
New York: Balzer & Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers      2015
393 pp.

The Listening Tree by Celia Barker Lottridge

Nine-year-old Ellen Jackson lives on a farm in Saskatchewan with her mother, Martha, and father, Mike. It is November 1933, and Ellen and her mother are waiting at the train station in Moose Jaw as her father prepares to jump onto the freight train heading west. After a summer without rain, and now no snow this winter, Ellen's father along with other farmers are heading west to find jobs.

Ellen worries about her father as she's heard all kinds of rumours about the men who have left to find jobs: some are in jail, others doing hard work on the railroad or in the mountains. 

Finally a letter arrives from her father letting them know he has work in a logging camp in British Columbia. He has included two dollars for Ellen and money for them. Two months pass and no letter.

School closes with the arrival of summer break. Another hot, dry and dusty summer without rain. Their cattle and the horses are gone and the garden has dried up due to lack of rain. Mr. Carson buys their last horse Chief. He advises Ellen's mom to consider moving back east where she has family. 

One morning Ellen learns that they will be moving from the farm. Ellen's mom tells her that they won't lose the farm as they didn't borrow money, and Jack Carson knows where they have gone so he can forward her tather's letters. She tells Ellen she has just enough money to buy them two train tickets to Toronto. Martha tells Ellen that she is going to accept her sister Gladys's offer to come live with her in Toronto. Gladys owns a boarding house and she can give them a room, and Ellen's mom can work helping her prepare meals. It also means they will be eating breakfast and dinner with others in the boarding house - complete strangers, something Ellen doesn't like.

Ellen tells her mother she does remembers when the farm had green fields and a cow that gave milk. Her mother is happy that she has this memory because the last time it rained was 1930 when Ellen was only four or five years old. Over the next two days they sort through their possessions and each pack a suitcase. Jack Carson drives Ellen and her mom to the train station but they stop on the way so that Ellen can say goodbye to her best friend Sarah Murray. Ellen and Sarah were the only two girls in their class at North Star School. Sarah asks if Ellen will be back in September, but Ellen doesn't know.

The train trip to Toronto takes three days. They are met by a very excited Gladys who notes how skinny both Ellen and her mother are. Outside Union Station Ellen sees streets filled with streetcar, cars honking their horns and many people. They take a taxi to Gladys's boarding house which she has named Saskatchewan House. The street it is situated on has many brick houses, each with a porch. Aunt Gladys tells Ellen there are many children on the street, so she will soon have some friends. And in fact the house next to Saskatchewan House has six children on its porch, all staring at Ellen. Aunt Gladys  takes them to their room, located on the second floor at the front of the house with a large bay window and huge tree in front of it. While her mother has the large room with the bay window, Ellen has a smaller room separated from her mother's room by green velvet curtains, with a bed, desk and a tall window that also looks out onto the tree, a large Elm tree.

At dinner that night, Ellen and her mother are introduced to the other boarders: Miss Sprucedale who works in the millinery department at the Eatons store, three young women students: Addy, Bertha and Caroline who attend university, The girls are not in class during the summer but are working cleaning houses. Mr. Martineau who was a lawyer but is currently working as a streetcar driver. There are two brothers who are not at dinner but who work at the waterfront and who are helping their parents on the family farm. They pay their rent in fruit and vegetables and eggs, which is why the boarding house has plenty of food.

Ellen feels overwhelmed about meeting so many new children at once. After dinner upstairs in her room she discovers that she can open the tall window, climb out onto the flat roof of the front porch and be completely hidden from anyone on the street by the leaves of the Elm tree. She can hear the children on the street playing hide and seek.

Ellen's mother feels that she needs to get a job as helping her sister Gladys just won't be enough. She quickly finds a job as a housecleaner to an older lady, Mrs. Bartholomew who lives near the abandoned Casa Loma. Her house is huge and while there is plenty of work to be done, Martha also believes the woman is lonely. And so her mother gets up a six o'clock and after breakfast is gone to work by eight in the morning. Ellen helps clear off breakfast and has free time in the morning. For the first three days she doesn't go outside but on the fourth day, bored, Ellen decides to go out onto the porch roof and manages to climb into the tree next to their house. From this point she can hear the children next door, Joey and his older sister Charlene and their sister Gracie.

Ellen and her mother receive a letter from Mike telling them he is working on a farm in Peace River, Alberta where there hasn't been crop failures. He sends along two dollars to help them out. Ellen takes the two dollars and hides them in her desk along with the two dollars her father has already sent her. The other good news is that Mrs. Bartholomew has given Ellen's mother dresses her granddaughter has outgrown. While some are too big, Ellen ends up with four new dresses. 

Every morning is the same at the boarding house: once breakfast is done and cleaned up, Aunt Gladys spends time in her rooms downstairs in the basement. Ellen tidies her room and then climbs out to sit in the elm tree. From her eavesdropping she knows that Charlotte is in charge of looking after her younger brother Joey and her sister Gracie who is four-years-old. Charlie often plays up at the "castle", Casa Loma which is abandoned with a group of boys. Charlotte, who has to mind Gracie plays with two other girls on their street, Pearl and Jeanette. Ellen calls the elm tree her "listening tree".

The boys from the third floor, Tony and Al return to living at the boarding house, and bring with them not only vegetables but six hens. The hens are placed in the garage and Ellen is assigned to look after them. They are Plymouth Rocks and not the Rhode Island Reds that Ellen was familiar with.  It is the hens that instigate Ellen's first encounter with one of the children next door, when the dominant hen whom Ellen calls the Queen Hen, escapes. Queen Hen runs down the laneway behind the house and when Joey comes out of the garage next door he helps Ellen catch the chicken. 

Then one night while her mother is at Mrs. Bartholomew's helping with a supper, Ellen decides to climb into the Elm tree to see what it is like at night. It is dark, with the yellow glow of the street lamp barely showing. Then Ellen overhears two men talking below about the house next door, the one where Charlene, Joey and Gracie live. Their mother owes forty dollars in rent and has recently gotten a job. She has promised to pay the money owed but can only do it in payments of five dollars as she has to feed her children. But the two men have a devious plan. The one man states that he will tell the elderly lady who owns the home that the tenant won't pay and that he will get an eviction order. The police will then serve the eviction order later in the week and that leaves Charlene's mother one month to pay the rest of the money. But their plans go even further: they plan to trick the old lady into selling her house by claiming they can't get tenants and then push her to sell the house to his companion. These men plan to cheat an elderly lady out of the home she owns, and force a family out on to the street. 

After hearing this Ellen goes inside but the word eviction troubles her. She knows she has to tell Charlene in the morning what she's heard. The next morning Ellen goes out on the front step to wait until someone comes out of the house next door. Charlene comes out and is surprised to see Ellen.  Ellen tells Charlene what she heard and learns that her mother was without work for two months and fell behind on the rent. Like Ellen, her father isn't around but it is because he did something wrong and the police were after him. Although Ellen's father is also not around, she knows that some day he will be able to return home. Ellen realizes that Charlene was not surprised when she told her about the plan to evict them and Charlene reveals that one of the men is Mr. Braggs who collects their rent and that he bullies her mother. As Ellen and Charlene talk more about what is happening Ellen begins to suspect just who the old lady is that owns their house - an old lady who lives up near the castle. She decides to talk to Aunt Gladys to learn if her suspicions are correct. Together, with help from Gladys, Mrs. Bartholomew, and Mr. Martineau, Ellen and the three Kennedy children come up with a plan that just might save them from "flitting".

Discussion

The Listening Tree is an short novel set in Toronto, Canada during the height of the Great Depression.  The novel begins on a prairie farm in Saskatchewan where the author is able to portray just how difficult life had become for families there. The prairie drought that led to the Dust Bowl of the 1930's had its origins in the immigration and land policies in the early 20th century in North America. In Canada large numbers of immigrants settled in the western provinces on prairie land building farms to grow wheat and other grain crops. These farmers removed millions of acres of native grasses and shrubs, destroying the delicate prairie ecosystems. In the 1910s and 1920s good growing conditions and increasing demand for wheat led to more prairie land being converted to farming. With the beginning of the Depression in 1929 and 1930, wheat prices fell, resulting in farmers attempting to recover their losses by planting even more acreage. Then in 1931 there was a drought. The result was disastrous. Without the native grasses to anchor the soil and the lack of rain in the summer and snow in the winter, vast dust storms developed. Southeastern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan were most severely affected. Farms were repossessed and other abandoned. Almost 750,000 farms were lost in Canada between 1930 and 1935. Many of these farmers moved to northern parts of the affected provinces, to urban areas like Edmonton and Regina, and to Southern Ontario as in the case of Ellen and her mother in the novel.

The effect of the drought is well portrayed in the first two chapters of The Listening Tree. Ellen's mother asks her if she can remember the green fields of their farm. Ellen remembers shelling peas in the front yard and planting her own flower garden. Four years later and the farm is now barren, without cattle or horses, with Ellen and her mother close to starving. In 1934, the garden that Ellen and her mother plant in the spring has dried up. They are eating only oats and the occasional egg. Because he can no longer farm, Ellen's father has left to find work so he can feed his family, hitching a ride on a train. And Ellen and her mother leave their farm to move to Toronto where they hope to wait out the drought and the Depression.

While the novel doesn't portray many of the problems common to the Great Depression, such soup kitchens, homeless and unemployed young men, the author does portray how precarious life was for some families. Ellen's neighbours, the Kennedy family owe a significant amount of money in back rent after their father abandons them. They are being threatened with eviction by an unscrupulous man.  Families unable to pay their rent due to unemployment often "flitted", that is they quickly abandoned their rental homes, usually at night. In the novel, Charlene explains to Ellen they will "flit" before being evicted so they can save their furniture. Once they are served with an eviction, their furniture is thrown out onto the street and destroyed.  Families like the Kennedys who are struggling to pay rent, often had little to eat. Ellen realizes this when Joey helps her capture the runaway Queen Hen with a scrap of toast he was likely saving from his meager breakfast and she gives him two cookies.

The Listening Tree also sets part of the story at Casa Loma, at one time the largest home ever built in Canada. Unfortunately Lottridge doesn't give much background information in her note at the end of the book. It was built between 1911 and 1914 by Sir Henry Pellatt, founder of the Toronto Electric Light Company. Pellatt was a renowned philanthropist who loved the British royalty and all the attendant pageantry and pomp associated with the aristocracy. The castle was designed by one of the most prominent architects of the early 20th century, E.J. Lennox. Due to high debt, Pellatt was forced to abandon his royal castle in 1924. He passed away in 1939. Casa Loma operated as a hotel from 1926 to 1929 and also a night club. With the Depression in 1929 until 1933, Casa Loma was vacant and was repossessed by the City of Toronto for back taxes of more than $27,000. Although various projects were proposed for the estate, it remained vacant until 1937. In 1937 it began operating as a tourist attraction under the guidance of the Kiwanis Club of Western Toronto. In the novel, The Listening Tree, Casa Loma is abandoned but under surveillance by a watchman. For Joey Kennedy it is a place to explore during the trying times of the Depression.

The story is told by nine-year-old Ellen Jackson, who has moved from her family's farm in Saskatchewan to the big city of Toronto. It is 1934, in the middle of the Great Depression. Ellen, who is an only child, is shy and is struggling to adapt to life in a big city. Lacking in confidence to meet the children on her street, she takes to climbing into the Elm tree outside her bedroom window and eavesdropping, listening to the children playing. This tree becomes her "listening tree". "She looked up into the branches of the tree. They made a world where she was safe and alone, listening in on the world of the street. It's my listening tree, she thought. Up here, I can only listen. By listening I can get to know the kids down there, just a little, but they can't know me at all. "  This however, makes Ellen feel lonely. Gradually Ellen comes to realize that she doesn't belong in the Elm tree. One day after watching a squirrel jump from branch to branch Ellen undestands that although it's very beautiful in the tree she doesn't belong there like the squirrel does. 

After overhearing the plans of two men to evict the family next door and Ellen's determination to help the family, the place of the listening tree in Ellen's life comes into perspective. As she searches for ways to help the family make up the rent money owed, Ellen retreats to the tree. But now her view of the listening tree is different. She still loves sitting in the beautiful tree with its green leaves, but she knows it's only for a short time. " 'I'll come back when I can,' she promised the listening tree. 'I'll come back because I like it here. But I don't need to listen anymore.' "  Ellen's mother discovers her climbing into the listening tree and she understands when Ellen tells her that the tree helped her adjust because it was something only she had.

Author Celia Barker Lottridge ties up her story in a heartwarming way: Charlene's family is helped, Ellen finds her place in Toronto, making a new friend in Charlene Kennedy and helping Charlene's family to pay off their debt. She's a responsible, caring young girl who recognizes and understands hardship because she has experienced it first-hand. She understands how Charlene feels about the loss of her father.

Canadian author, Celia Barker Lottridge is an excellent author who lives in Seaton Village, a part of the Annex in Toronto, Ontario. Lottridge decided it might be interesting to explore what life was like in her neighbourhood during another era, in this case, the 1930's Depression. The author wanted children to learn about this era and what life was like in Canada during the difficult times of the Depression. “I saw it as a time when life was full of practical problems—the majority of people were having to cope with the day-to-day of getting money … the Depression had a huge impact here in Canada, but I don’t think a lot of children or adults have any idea of how extremely hard it was. We like to forget about hard times,”
(taken from http://gleanernews.ca/index.php/2011/01/19/a-seaton-story/#.UHSj1K542qg )

Several caveats: a map showing Saskatchewan and Ontario and the route Ellen and her mother travelled as, well as a map of Toronto and Casa Loma would have been helpful. The novel deserved a more engaging cover that would appeal to the 9 to 12 age group it is written for. And why does Ellen's mother refer to Ellen's father as "Mike' and not "dad" of "your father"???

Book Details:
The Listening Tree by Celia Baker Lottridge
Markham: Fitzhenry & Whiteside 2011
168pp.