Island of Spies by Sheila Turnage

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

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

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

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

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

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

On Sunday January 18, Stick's Papa leaves to sail down the coast. Stick, Neb and Rain take to staking out the store, while Faye confronts Tommy Wilkins about his brother Otto stealing Neb's lunch and "shaking people down". Just as Reed is about to shoot pool, there is a tremendous boom that cracks the store window and rattles the tins on the shelves. Everyone races to the shore, to see a tanker burning and then explode, sending oil and debris into the ocean. Grand orders the family men to take their people home while the single men patrol the beach. At home Stick's Mama tells them the Germans are hunting boats, and that their lights have to stay off.

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

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

Discussion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Book Details:

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

Rescue by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Margaret (Meg) Kenyon's father left home in May of 1940 to fight the German army massing on the French border. Meg and her parents were forced to leave their home in Auxonne, near the German border and flee to their grandmere's farm in an area known as the Perche. 

Unfortunately, France surrendered six weeks after the invasion. The Perche is in the Occupied Zone, controlled by the Germans. This area includes French cities like Paris, Nantes and Bordeaux, as well as some of the best farmland in France. To the south is Free France, also called Vichy France. Meg's family home is near Auxonne, only fifty kilometers from the Forbidden Zone, an area the Germans intend to settle with German citizens.

Almost two years later, in Feb of 1942, Meg has not heard from her father in 657 days and she wonders if he's still alive. Today she has a job to do: to help the French resistance by supplying them with any information that can help.

Meg often goes to town to sell food on the black market and today she places some potatoes in her bag and covers them with a few school books. Before she leaves for town, Meg's mother tells her that she also has a few errands to run but she doesn't elaborate.

In town Meg goes to her usual abandoned building, once a flower shop to wait for her regular customers. After selling potatoes to a woman, a boy she doesn't know, an "inconnu" arrives and asks for food. He tells her his name is Jakob and that German soldiers have just arrived in town. 

As she's leaving, Meg sees the soldiers and knows they are in town to search for members of the resistance, the partisans. One of the Germans, Lieutenant Becker is a cruel and dangerous German. In a cafe, Meg sits, pretending she is studying, while listening to Becker. She learns he is searching for a "her" and a "him". Meg doesn't know who these people might be, so she decides to follow Becker when he leaves the cafe. But he quickly realizes she is following him and stops her to question and check her bag. Eventually he lets her continue her journey home.

Trained by a young partisan named Yvonne, Meg leaves a message in code behind a loose brick in a wall on the edge of the forest, warning them that the Nazis are conducting searches in the Perche. Returning to Grandmere's farm, Meg immediately notices the barn door ajar and blood on the snow. Meg discovers Captain Henry Stewart of the Royal Air Force has taken refuge in the barn. He's injured and asks Meg for help. She agrees despite her suspicions and brings him stew and rags for bandages.

While she and Grandmere wait for Meg's mother to return, Meg works on deciphering the last code in the jar of codes her papa left for her before the war. It is Meg's dream to work as a cryptologist in London, helping with the war effort. The last code, JAIMIE STAYED is difficult to solve.

Captain Stewart finds Meg's code journal hidden in the barn and questions her, warning her to burn it as it will incriminate her if the Germans find it. Stewart reveals that he did parachute out of a plane to meet up with Sylvie Kenyon a radio operator with the S.O.E.. As it turns out, Sylvie is Meg's mother. 

When Meg is called back into the house she finds Jakob, the boy she gave potatoes to earlier and her mother. Jakob tells her that the Nazis are conducting searches of all the homes, looking for a British spy. At this point, Captain Stewart enters revealing Meg's secret. In perfect French, he tells Jakob he was supposed to meet them but was injured. Sylvie tells Stewart that when she transmitted a message, the Nazis were able to locate her and she had to flee, never sending the message that he was injured. She tells Stewart that her radio was damaged. 

The next phase of Captain Stewart's mission was to involve himself and Jakob but it is obvious he is too injured to complete it. Meg and her family must hide all evidence of Captain Stewart's presence and hide him. Stewart is hidden beneath the floorboards of Grandmere's bed, while Meg and her mother try to clean up all evidence of their work for the partisans. At the last minute Meg throws her small journal into the fire.

Just before the arrival of the German's Meg's mother reveals the extent of her work for the resistance. She tells Meg that she "connects the partisans in the forest with the spy offices back in London." Her information helps them plan their secret missions. Meg's mother gives her a yellowed paper that Captain Stewart passed along to her. It appears to be written in code by Meg's father.

With the arrival of Lieutenant Becker, Meg pretends to be asleep in bed while Becker and his soldiers search their house. But when Becker finds Meg's half burned journal in the fireplace, he decides he will stay the night and question her in the morning. Luckily for Meg, that doesn't happen as Becker needs to leave. But his plans to return, result in Meg, her mother and Captain Stewart forming their own plans for Meg to leave.

Captain Stewart, who is with the Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.), is too injured to complete his mission, that of escorting a family, the Durands into Spain. Albert Durand helped Meg's father get to a safe house from a German prison camp. Albert however, will not reveal Meg's father's location until he is safely in neutral territory. However to help his family, Meg's father gave Albert a letter which he passed onto Captain Stewart. Meg now has the letter but she will need to decipher it to learn the message her father has sent her. It is  up to Meg to lead the Durands to safety while also attempting to decode the message her father sent.

Discussion

Rescue by Jennifer A. Nielsen is the latest novel in her series of World War II historical fiction. Set in occupied France during 1942, the story revolves around a young French girl with a knack for deciphering code, helping two German citizens flee the Nazis. Nielsen incorporates the use of codes by the partisans into her story, offering her readers the puzzle of a lengthy code Meg's father has left for her to decipher.

Meg is a determined, resourceful heroine who loves her country and wants to help defeat the Nazis. She doesn't want to cooperate in any way with the Nazis. In Paris, Meg struggles to understand the treatment of the French Jews. "A large sign pasted to a brick wall depicted a monstrous drawing of the Jewish people. A young couple passed it, their heads bowed down....My eyes crossed between them and the horrible drawing. That couple was no different than any of us, and I wondered how the other people here on the street couldn't see that. Maybe if we just looked at one another, if we stopped hating and pointing fingers of blame, maybe then we could stand together against the true enemies of France."

However, Meg finds herself challenged to see people as they are by Jakob. When she tells Jakob that she doesn't feel sorry for the Durands because they are German, Jakob confronts her belief that  "...everyone is the same, just because they come from the same place." Meg wants to see Jakob as a friend at this point, but she cannot. However, later on in their journey, Meg comes to realize that events are more complicated and that one cannot judge who is good or bad based on where they come from.  She learns that Jakob's parents were taken for hiding Jews, that Albert helped her father escape and that Liesel was forced into betraying them on their escape into Switzerland.

While Rescue is an exciting read, there are some weak areas in the plot. For example, Lieutenant Becker suspects, with good reason, that Meg and her mother are involved with the partisans. He has retrieved Meg's half burned journal from the fireplace and it is obvious it is a code book. He want to question Meg but remarkably, waits until morning after being told Meg needs her sleep. The Germans were never this accommodating. Meg is spared his questioning when Becker is suddenly called away the next morning. Becker leaves the farm without stationing a soldier behind to ensure that Meg and her mother do not flee. Not leaving a guard behind would have been very unlikely given the high flight risk that Meg and her mother would pose.

The story line is also becomes somewhat confusing when Meg leaves the "Durands" at Pole, after learning of the disappearance of her mother and grandmother. She travels back to her family home near Auxonne but this is never clearly stated. While Nielsen has provided her young readers with a map at the front of the novel, it would have been helpful to have Meg's journeys marked on this map.

Nielsen incorporates plenty of plot twists in the story: no one is who they seem to be, including Meg's mother and Jakob. The Durands are not a family but instead are two Germans who worked for the Nazis and who have changed sides. 

Overall, Rescue is a solid story that will capture the interest of middle grade readers and young teens. It has a suspenseful but happy ending. The back of the novel includes pages on Secret Codes and also on the Special Operations Executive.

Book Details:

Rescue by Jennifer A. Nielsen
New York: Scholastic Press Inc.    2021
387 pp.

My Real Name is Hanna by Tara Lynn Masih

My Real Name Is Hanna is the fictional account of a Ukrainian-Jewish family's struggles to survive the Holocaust. Fourteen-year-old Hanna Slivka lives in the village of Kwasova with her younger sister Leeba and her younger brother Symon and their parents Adam and Eva. Kwasova is a town comprised of Galicians from Poland, Russia and Ukraine. Hanna's family is part of the Jewish community, her family having moved to the town in 1927. As Jews they have lived side by side with farmers and townspeople, working together and even sharing the Ukrainian Community Hall with their them. But some Russians and Poles are not so tolerant of their Jewish neighbours. Often when walking home from the market, Hanna and her sister Leeba must deal with bullies.
 
Kwasova is part of Poland when Hitler invades the country on September 1, 1939. However, with the German invasion, the Russians race to occupy the eastern half of Poland. As a result, Kwasova becomes part of Soviet Russia with the arrival of the Red Army. Polish flags are replaced by the Soviet red flag with its sickle and hammer,  the Polish street signs are replaced with Russian ones and classes are taught in Russian.

However, things gradually begin to change for Hanna and her family and their Jewish community as well as for others in the town. Stalin forbids all public practice of religion so in April of 1940, the Jews must hide their preparations for Passover. The last Shepherd's Parade held in the shtetele happens in 1941, only because Hanna's father is able to convince the Russians to allow it.  Her father has considerable standing in both the Jewish and Ukrainian/Russian community. He is not only a sheepherder, but also is able to repair things for the Russians. This allows him to be on friendly terms with Commissar Egorov who is in charge of the NKVD officers stationed in Kwasova. Hanna's family live in the only brick house on the lane that leads to the meadows where the sheep graze. The only other dwelling on the lane is Mrs. Petrovich's thatched cottage. This older lady is a good friend of Hanna's family, hired as their Shabbes goy, doing work Hanna's parents cannot do on the Sabbath.

One night Hanna overhears the men talking downstairs. Visiting their home are the two Cohan twins Pavel and Jacob, Mr. Rabinowitz, and Mr. Stadnick who is Hanna's friend Leon's father. The Cohan brothers who are able to travel freely in the area and are the only source of information reveal that the war has come to their country now. The Ukrainians are welcoming the German army in the hopes that they will be free from the Russian occupation and will sponsor an independent Ukraine. The Red Army is fleeing, the NKVD has left. Gradually the Jewish community finds itself more and more isolated from Kwasovians.

In the winter of 1942, Hanna's family is drawn into sheltering refugees fleeing north from the Germans. When Hanna questions her father about their secret guests he tells her only that they have come from Romania and "are people like us." Hanna's father gives her a leather bound copy of Mark Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc.

In the spring, a Ukrainian farmer, Stepan Illiouk drops off two very young boys whom he helped on their journey north. While Hanna and her mother are attempting to figure out what to do, Mrs. Petrovich quietly deposits a basket of fresh chicken eggs on their doorstep. This means she has seen the two boys come to their home. Mrs. Petrovich makes pysanky eggs for her clients for Easter and Christmas which Hanna helps to deliver. It is now clear that Mrs. Petrovich is an ally. Hanna and her mother come up with a scheme, disguising the two boys as being injured in a farm accident. After dark, Hanna's papa escorts them to the house of the Ukrainian Catholic priest, Father Dubrowski, who is baptizing Jews and creating new birth certificates for them, in the hopes of saving them.

Eventually the refugees stop coming, the Wehrmacht soldiers advance into the valleys, followed by the Einsatzgruppen with their guns, dogs, gas vans and classical music. The borders are closed.  Life becomes much harsher for everyone but especially for Jewish families. Hanna still attends school although as the oldest pupil she just reads. However the Polish students are careful to sit far away from the Jewish students. Hanna's friend, Leon now attends a small private school in the town for the Jewish boys. The many shops in the market square close and there are long lines for what little food can be found. Because Hanna has blond hair she is sent to stand in line for the two ounces of bread their family is entitled to. In line, Hanna sees the poster warning people to avoid Jews in case of typhus. In a bold move Hanna manages to secure double their bread ration.

Gradually time begins running out for Hanna's family and the other Jewish families in Kwasova. The dreaded SS invade smaller rural towns and villages. In September they arrive Kwasova with a long line of Romanian Jews. They steal the horses and what little food remains in the town. Hanna's family watch from a hilltop outside of town waiting until the Germans move on. From the Cohan brothers, they learn the Germans massacred all the Jews marching with them, near the village of Borszczow, disguising the sound of machine gun fire with classical music played on a gramophone.

In Kwasova, the Jews are ordered to register and to wear a blue Mogen David or Star of David. However, Hanna's father forbids them from doing either, counting on their neighbours not to turn them in. The SS and the Ukrainian police are searching barns for hidden Jews whom they force into ghettos or murder. Hanna's Uncle Levi and her father dig underground bunkers to hide in during raids, while Hanna, her mother and sister will hide in an attic bunker. A pane of glass is removed from Hanna's bedroom window and the family takes turns listening at night for an unanticipated raid. That raid does happen and for two days Hanna and her family hide.

On an afternoon in the fall of 1942, the Germans force the closure of the schools for good, and the Ukrainian police steal Hanna's family's sheep to feed the Germans. On September 26, 1942, Mrs. Petrovich comes to Hanna's home bearing wooden crosses. She tells Hanna's father this evening, the Germans are coming through the town to forcibly remove all Jews to make it Judenfrei. Any home without a cross will be considered Jewish. Hanna's father takes the cross and brings one to his brother Levi. The night passes and Hanna's family and her cousins are safe. In the morning they learn what happened through the blackness of night from Stepan Illiouk. Many Jews were murdered in their beds, others were marched to a culvert near Stepan's fields and shot in groups while the Germans ate confiscated food and played classical music. Stepan is horrified that he now has a graveyard at the edge of his field.

Hanna and her family finally understand that this is no short-lived pogrom they they can survive but the systematic annihilation of every Jew. They set out to save themselves, not realizing just how much it will cost them and how much their lives will change forever.

Discussion

My Real Name Is Hanna is based somewhat on the real life story of Esther Stermer who saved the lives of her family and five other families by hiding in the gypsum caves in Eastern Ukraine during World War II. Esther and her husband Zaida lived in the small Ukrainian village of Korolowka, when it was invaded by the Germans in 1941. Determined to save her family, Esther and Zaida, along with five other families packed up some belongings and fled into the dark, cold night to the network of gypsum caves near their village. They were told about the caves by a forester in the District of Galicia. Thirty-eight persons would live in the caves for five hundred and eleven days, a record that still stands today, only emerging in when the Red Army had pushed the Germans out of the area in 1944. The families lived in a second cave which had good ventilation and lakes, creating areas to bath and digging latrines. Artifacts from their time in the caves were discovered in the 1990s by cave diver, Chris Nicola. Eventually he was able to discover the story behind the artifacts.

In Masih's novel, the characters are all fictional except for the historical figures of Adolf Hitler and Gestapo Chief Koelner. The author strove "...to be historically accurate in as many ways as possible." in spite of the fact that there were few personal accounts that survive, and the history of the region has been suppressed by both the Ukraine and Russia. In this regard, she succeeds admirably. As a result, Masih relied heavily on Esther Stermer's memoir to craft some of the details of Hanna's story, but she also created her own events too. For example, the Slivkas escape first to the forest, something the Stermers did not do. When that becomes too risky, as a last resort they realize their only chance to survive is to retreat to the caves, a horrifying prospect, effectively portrayed in the novel.

Masih's characters are varied and realistic. There is the lovable, kindly Mrs. Alla Petrovich, a Ukrainian Christian who creates pysanky and who does as much as possible to help Hanna and her family. She recognizes their differences, but is tolerant and caring.  And there is the Ukrainian farmer, Stepan Illiouk and Yuri the forester who also help. Stepan does all he can to help his Jewish friends and is devastated when he witnesses the murder of hundreds of Jews near his fields.

Hanna is a strong, intelligent protagonist whose compassion is a central feature of her personality.  On her birthday a family fleeing persecution is hidden in their barn. "I listen, eyes wide. A whole family in our barn? Fleeing for their lives? I think of the cold barn, the lack of heat, wind whistling down from the mountains and through the drafty boards, the miles they still have to travel." Hanna gives her father the warm, long scarf her sister Leeba made for her birthday.  Later on from the safety of the hilltop, Hanna watches all the Jews huddled together in the town. "My heart breaks to see their misery. How I wish I had many scarves to hand out." When her friend Levi is depressed on his sixteenth birthday because no one notices, Hanna does notice and offers him a handful of dried crabapples.

As a character, Hanna feels very realistic. When they are ready to leave their home for the forest, Hanna struggles to pray. "I am not much in the mood to be thanking God for things that seem frightening, like living in the forest, but when we thank God for the food we can finally eat, I join in." Hanna struggles terribly at times, wondering how Sonia could possibly have a baby when life is so terrible. She has little hope for the future but in the end that hope is restored.

Despite all the evil around them, Hanna's parents endeavour to teach her not to become like the Germans. This is best demonstrated when Fedir Wolinski appears half-dead at their hideout in the forest. Wolinski was the lamplighter in Kwasova, friendly to everyone before the war. But when the Germans came he turned on his Jewish neighbours and became the Tzeler, a Death Counter, actively looking for Jews in hiding and keeping track of the dead in the shetele. When the Germans shoot his wife, Wolinski knows his time of reckoning is coming and so he flees. Hanna learns from her parent's actions. "But my parents taught me something when they took in the Death Counter. Life is not good, however you are living it, if you become like those who don't value you."

Early in the novel, Hanna is given a copy of Mark Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc which she treasures. To Hanna, her journey to survive parallels that of Joan. When she leaves her village, just as Joan left hers, Hanna understands what Joan feels. "I am at the end of the first chapter in Joan of Arc, where Joan, at seventeen, is looking back on her distant village, 'trying to print these scenes on her memory'. I am doing the same."  Hanna begins to use Joan of Arc to keep track of time. Like Joan, Hanna notes, "It is easy to lose track of time in one room you never leave, away from normal routines..."  Like Joan too, a tree plays an important part in Hanna's life. "I find a beech tree in the Joan of Arc story as well. A fairy tree. A mystical tree connected to the children of Domremy, the hamlet she grew up in. I feel like I am following in her footsteps...." For her it is the Witness tree which is used as a means of communication in the forest. And as Hanna and her family  struggle to survive in the gypsum caves, she tries to draw on Joan's heroic example. "I try to be like Joan, who endured prison and torture. 'A great soul, with a great purpose, can make a weak body strong and keep it so,' Mr. Twain wrote." Hanna's purpose is to live.

My Real Name Is Hanna is a well written historical fiction novel that focuses on the plight of the Jewish population in Ukraine during World War II. Not many readers will know how deeply the Jewish people living in Eastern Europe suffered. Very few Jews in the Ukraine survived the war. And years later, Chris Nicola, attempting to learn the origins of the artifacts in the caves, would discover this history hidden. This is a novel that will place readers securely into a little known event, allowing them to experience the trauma of being hunted to the point of having to live for over 500 days in a dark cave.

Book Details:
My Name is Hanna by Tara Lynn Masih
Simsbury, Connecticut:   Mandel Vilar Press  2018
195 pp

Within These Lines by Stephanie Morrill

Within These Lines is a heartrending story of love and loyalty in a time of when war breeds hatred and fear. It tells the story of two teenagers, one white and one Asian, a mixed race couple, a forbidden love and two people who choose to challenge the social conventions of a country at war. Within These Lines begins three months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. The story spans the period from March 21 to December 25, 1942 and is told in the alternating voices of Evalina Cassano and Taichi Hamasaki.

Evalina Cassano, an Italian-American awakens to the news that over sixty Japanese Americans living in Los Angeles have been voluntarily relocated to Manzanar in Southern California.

When Evalina expresses her concern to her mother that all the Japanese, even those born in America such as the Hamasaki children will also be forced out, her mother tries to reassure Evalina that they are safe. But Evalina is concerned because she has been secretly seeing Taichi Hamasaki, whose family supplies the produce to Alessandro's, the Casanova family restaurant.

Distraught, Evalina heads down to the market on the waterfront. But the Hamasaki's green Chevy truck is not there and someone else occupies the space where their table is usually set. This leads Evalina to take the ferry to Alameda.

Taichi's family live on a farm in Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco. On the same morning, Taichi's family is visited by FBI agents who search their home. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Taichi's family burned everything they owned that tied them to Japan including letters, family photographs, Japanese books and kimonos. Taichi's family is in the process of packing suitcases because they are moving to his Aunt Chiyu's home.

Evalina phones Taichi and they meet at the dock. Before he leaves to see Evalina, Taichi's older sister Aiko forces him to tell her about his secret relationship with Evalina. She was also in a forbidden relationship with a Caucasian and suffered a miscarriage. When Evalina and Taichi meet, she admits her fear for him. Taichi reveals that his family has reallocated their land back to their neighbours, the Medinas while they are away. The bombing of Pearl Harbor has changed all of Evalina and Taichi's future plans. Evalina has earned a scholarship to attend University of California Berkeley and they hoped Taichi would be able to do the same. The war has also changed the future for others too; Taichi's best friend Diego Medina will not enlist in the U.S.Navy and Eva's best friend Gia LaRocca is planning to marry her boyfriend Lorenzo.

Several days later, Taichi and his father Katsumi make their last delivery to the Cassano's restaurant. During this meeting, Taichi passes a note to Evalina asking her to meet him at Lafayette Park. The two have an emotional meeting, with Evalina giving Taichi her address, begging him to write and let her know what's happening. The Friday afternoon before they are due to leave, Taichi visits Evalina's home, expecting her to be alone. Instead her mother greets him and with Evalina the two say their goodbyes. Taichi reveals that they will be evacuated on Tuesday, likely to Manzanar. In a private moment, Evalina learns the Hamasaki family will leave from the civic center at noon. After Taichi leaves, Evalina's mother offers her sympathy and understanding, but Evalina is not sure how much her mother understands about her relationship with Taichi.

On Tuesday April 7, Taichi and his family arrive at the civic center to leave San Francisco. They find a long line of other Japanese American families, overseen by guards. A group with the First Congregational Church hands out sandwiches and water. It is hot and tiring waiting. Aiko spots Evalina, who as promised has come to see them. Just before he boards the bus, Evalina promises Taichi that she will wait for him and will write him.

The next morning Evalina is furious at the coverage of the "evacuation" in the local newspapers. Meanwhile Taichi and his family arrive at Manzanar and come to realize that the camp is not ready for them. As the months pass by and life goes on for Evalina, Taichi begins to wonder if they can really continue their relationship. Will he ever leave the camp? While Evalina continues to advocate for the Japanese Americans, Taichi finds himself drawn into a deadly revolt that costs a friend his life and endangers his own family.

Discussion

Within These Lines tackles the shameful imprisonment of thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II in response to hysteria over the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese.  Japanese Americans were displaced from their homes and businesses, and placed in prison camps merely because they looked like the enemy. In this well-crafted novel, Morrill weaves together the forbidden relationship between two American teens and the events of the Japanese internment to portray the reality of life at this time.

Evalina Cassano is an Italian-American whose family has a past history of involvement in the Mafia in Chicago. She forms a strong attachment to Taichi Hamaskai, a first generation Japanese-American boy whose family supplies her family's restaurant with fresh produce. The two teens keep their relationship secret not only because they suspect their families won't approve but also because interracial marriages are illegal in California. The realization that Taichi and his family will be sent away, is devastating to both teens.

Morrill uses Evalina to express the injustice of the government actions. Unlike many of her fellow Americans, Evalina's relationship with Taichi helps her to view Japanese Americans differently, not as potential enemies but as loyal Americans who have the same dreams and desires as any other American. When Evalina visits Taichi at Manzanar and experiences the reality of the internment camp, she is further angered by the injustice of the camps and the mistreatment of these American citizens.

Initially, Evalina writes numerous letters to government officials including General DeWitt as well as to newspaper editors in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Her letters to newspapers have been signed anonymously.  initially expresses her views against the internment to parents and friends. When her mother refers to the evacuees as "Japanese", Evalina points out that "the majority of the Japanese Americans who are being evacuated" have "....done nothing except be born to parents who have Japanese heritage. And most of their parents would have become citizens long ago, except that our government has denied them that option since the 1920s." 

At college Evalina's activism on the internment question spills over into her Comparative Politics class taught by Professor Blake. Despite her having visited two of the camps, Evalina receives a poor grade on her paper discussing the Japanese internment. When Evalina confronts Professor Blake about her mark, it is clear he considers her a Japanese sympathizer and later on tells her she is young and misguided. Over time however, Evalina becomes not only more vocal but also more courageous about speaking up for the rights of Japanese Americans. When Grace Bishop asks Evalina to write an article she decides it's time to sign her name. Evalina had told herself that she would be taken more seriously if people did not know she was an Italian American teenage girl. But she finally admits that she has been afraid. "I have felt afraid of people knowing that it was me, Evalina Cassano, who wrote those angry words. Afraid of being laughed at, ridiculed, told that I should just be quiet and feel grateful. Told that I'm too young to understand or too Italian to be a real American...I feel afraid of people knowing that this fight I'm fighting isn't just about the evils of racism, but that it's personal to me...." Evalina begins signing her name to her writing....

Morrill captures the era with her realistic portrayal of 1940's America attitudes and customs, especially as they related to Americans of Asian heritage. While Evalina's parents are more accepting and compassionate towards Japanese Americans, Evalina encounters others who are not. For example, her best friend's mother, Mrs LaRocca derogatorily refers to Japanese Americans as "Japs", and states, "I know I'll feel a lot better when they've been cleared out....Not that there aren't nice Japs among them, but why risk it?" This view encapsulated many Americans thoughts on the their fellow Americans of Japanese heritage. Morrill also highlights the common Caucasian tendency to lump all people from Asia together. When Evalina arrives at the market and discovers the Hamasaki's are not there she also notices that Mrs. Ling has posted a sign at her table that reads "We Are Chinese". Mrs. Ling tells Evalina that she has posted the sign because, "Some white people get confused. They think we are the enemy." 

As expected, the newspapers of the time propagandized what was being done to Japanese Americans. Evalina is furious when she reads the account of the evacuation because it is portrayed as something joyful, with "the air of an outing." The public is told that military guards were there to protect the Japanese Americans from curious onlookers when in reality the soldiers were guarding the evacuees as though they were dangerous. "Was I at the same place as this moronic journalist? Because I saw no victory signals. No broad smiles. No bobbing heads. And the only raised thumb was mine to reassure my friend that I was okay. What a load of propaganda. In America! In my own newspaper!" Evalina wonders how many Americans will think that for the Japanese Americans, this will be a fun experience. "He made having your property seized and being loaded onto a bus while surrounded by military police sound like heading off for some kind of vacation!" 

The reality of life in the internment camps is seen through Taichi's narratives. The camp consists of crudely constructed houses that in reality are barracks. There are armed guards to greet them. The barrack "floors are bare planks, coated in a layer of sand that's blown up and in. The only thing separating us from the other families already living in the barrack are the olive-colored blankets like those we're holding in our hands draped from the roof beams. One bare lightbulb dangles over each apartment, which I can see because of the open rafters." There are few working toilets, little privacy, and strange food.

Morrill describes the humiliation and shame the evacuees feel through the character of Taichi. When Taichi sees that his family of five will share a twenty-five by ten foot space for an indefinite period, he thinks, "My heart feels like a fist as it pounds in my chest. This is too much. Too much to take in. Too much to be asked of us. Too much dignity to lose all in twenty-four hours. How can this be real?"  During his first night when he has to use the toilet, a searchlight follows him from the barrack to the toilet and continues to light the steps until he reappears, following him back to his barracks. "I lie on my lumpy mattress, hot with shame as the cold Manzanar wind continues through the night." While the average American believed the camps were a place of leisure and plenty, the reality was much different.
 
The poor living conditions are not the only difficulty as Taichi and his family discover. Although the Hamasaki family is fictional, the conditions described at Manzanar and the riot that occurred there were not. The Black Dragons were are real gang that were pro-Imperial Japan and who attempted to take over the camp.

Morrill's characters are realistic, well crafted. The forbidden romance between Taichi and Evalina, set in the uncertainty of war and displacement serves to successfully draw the reader into the story. If you didn't comprehend the reality of the internment of Japanese Americans, you will after reading Within These Lines. Look for further information about the camps and the events described in the author's About The History in the book's back matter.

Book Details:

Within These Lines by Stephanie Morrill
Grand Rapids, MI: Blink     2019
350 pp.

Lovely War by Julie Berry

In Lovely War, Berry uses the frame story, a literary device in which one of the characters in a story narrates another story. In this case, the frame story, that of Aphrodite, Ares and Hephaestus leads readers into a second, main story narrated by Aphrodite about lovers during the First World War.

Although not necessary, it's helpful to know the story of the Greek gods and goddesses referenced in the frame story. Hephaestus, the god of fire, forges and metalworking was the son of Zeus and Hera. Hephaestus, unlike the other gods and goddesses was very ugly while Aphrodite, the goddess of love was so beautiful that she was desired by most of the other gods. To prevent a war between the many gods seeking to marry her, Zeus forced Aphrodite to marry Hephaestus. As a result, Aphrodite was unfaithful to Hephaestus, having affairs with both gods and men. One of those gods was Ares, the god of war and Hephaestus's brother. To catch his unfaithful wife, Hephaestus designed a golden net which he used to catch Aphrodite and Ares making love.

In Lovely War, Berry sets this illicit romantic encounter in December, 1942 in a swanky hotel in Manhattan, New York. Ares and Aphrodite are captured by Hephaestus who uses his golden net. Hephaestus offers her a bargain, to renounce Ares, come home with him and be a faithful wife or he will take her to be tried before Zeus and the other gods on Mount Olympus. The thought of going on trial before the other gods, especially her virgin sisters Artemis and Athena makes Aphrodite blanche. So she offers him a third option, a trial in the hotel room where Hephaestus can be both judge and jury.

Aphrodite pleads guilty and Hephaestus shows her the evidence he has complied of her trysts with Ares. The goddess reveals to Hephaestus and Ares that she doesn't love either of them or anyone else, that although she is the source of love, no one can ever love her, not gods nor mortal men. Instead, Aphrodite is embedded in every love story, true and trivial. So she offers to tell Hephaestus two true love stories, in which she played an important part in bringing about. Hephaestus agrees and so begins the second story, about two couples who fell in love amidst the turmoil and butchery of World War I. As she tells her stories, Aphrodite will call other gods as witnesses.

In November, 2017 nineteen-year-old James Alderich first sees eighteen-year-old Hazel Windicott at a parish dance held at her London borough church, St. Matthias in Poplar.  The fall dance is a benefit to send socks and Bovril broth powder to the troops in France. Hazel, the daughter of a music hall pianist and a factory seamstress, is wearing a mauve lace dress. Tonight she is responsible for playing the piano at the dance. She doesn't notice James until Aphrodite sits beside her and directs her gaze towards him. James does approach Hazel, telling her how much he enjoys her playing and when Mabel Kibbey takes over the piano, James and Hazel dance. James and Hazel quickly learn some basic details about one another, that James has two younger siblings, Maggie and Bobby and that he worked for a building firm.

After the dance James asks Hazel if he can see her again before he ships over to France. Hazel agrees, kissing James on the cheek and telling him her address. James decides to walk to her home above the barbershop at the corner of Grundy and Bygrove. Hazel isn't asleep either and when she sees James she drops a note to the pavement telling him to meet her at the J. Lyons tea shop on Chrisp Street at Guildford at 8am. The two meet the next morning, their breakfast filled with discovering the basics about one another. James invites Hazel to attend a concert at the Royal Albert Hall with him the next day.

The concert featuring Miss Adela Verne was divine, James loved the music and Hazel knew this man was for her. Hazel wants James to kiss her but her tells her that he will, only it will be "on the train platform at Charing Cross next Saturday. Before I set off overseas." This however, does not happen as James is required to travel to Calais the next morning, board a ship to Boulogne and then take a train to the British Expeditionary Force base camp at Etaples in France.

Hazel unable to stay quietly at home, waiting for James to return some day from war, decides to join the war effort as an entertainment secretary in a YMCA relief hut in France where she will play piano for soldiers.Hazel arrives in Saint-Nazaire, France on January 4, 1918.It is here that she meets Colette Fournier, a beautiful blond Belgian girl with a sultry voice.

Aphrodite's first witness is Apollo, the god of dance, music, healing and plagues. Apollo's narrative introduces the male half of another couple in Aphrodite's story.  It begins back in 1912 at Carnegie Hall where James Reese Europe's Clef Club Orchestra is about to perform a "Concert of Negro Music". The orchestra includes over one hundred performers including fifteen-year-old Aubrey Edwards who plays piano. Aubrey discovers his love of performing that night. Five years later Aubrey is playing for the now Lieutenant James R. Europe in the Army Band of the Army National Guard, 15th New York Infantry Regiment in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Their black regiment is stationed at Camp Wadsworth. Aubrey and his friend Joey Rice had enlisted in the regiment in the spring of 1917, to play ragtime with Jim Europe for the troops over in Europe. In early January of 1918, Aubrey Edwards along with forty soldiers from the 15th New York travel across the Atlantic Ocean on the USS Pocahontas, and then travel by train to Saint-Nazaire, the American military training base on the coast of France. It is here that Aubrey will meet Colette.

Aphrodite's second witness, Ares, who tells about James's training for trench warfare and his ability to excel at shooting, a skill that will save his life later on.

Her third witness is Hades, god of the underworld.  Aphrodite now begins her story about Colette Fournier, a girl who, in 1914 lived in the town of Dinant, Belgium with her brother Alexandre and her parents. In 1914, Colette's childhood and best friend, Stephane has fallen in love with her. On a walk up to the medieval citadel overlooking the town, Stephane tells Colette of his feelings for her leading to their first kiss. Ares and Hades take up the story. The young couple, hopelessly in love, do not see the tragedy about to overtake them. On August 15, after the citadel is captured by the Germans, it is quickly retaken by the French. On August 23,  Germans enter the village setting fire to homes, and executing men, women children and babies in retaliation for firing on German troops. Almost seven hundred civilians are massacred including Colette's father, her brother and many other relatives as well as Stephane. In the aftermath, Colette flees to her Aunt Solange in Paris where she enlists into the YMCA, arriving at Saint-Nazaire.

At Saint-Nazaire, Hazel and Colette meet Aubrey Edwards who Hazel dubs "The King of American Ragtime" for his ability to transform any piece of music into jazz. But it is Colette and Aubrey who are taken with one another and who begin a forbidden relationship because Colette is a white female volunteer and Aubrey a black male soldier. Volunteers are forbidden to fraternize with the soldiers and even more so white women and black men. But Aubrey, transfixed by Colette's voice, stung by the tragedy she has endured, falls for her.

At this point all the main characters have been introduced and their connection to one another described. James is at the front, now a sharpshooter, Hazel and Colette and Aubrey are at Saint-Nazaire. From this point on Aphrodite weaves her story of  prejudice, love, war, and death. With the help of Apollo, Ares and Hades the story of Hazel and James and Aubrey and Colette is brought to its satisfying conclusion.


Discussion

Lovely War is a mashup of Greek mythology and historical romance fiction that works marvelously. Berry has crafted a poignant novel that blends the passion of first love with the horrors of war and prejudice. It is a masterful story of acceptance, loss, and second chances told by Aphrodite, the goddess of love who has been caught in a tryst with Ares, the god of war by her husband Hephaestus.

It turns out the entire thing is a setup in an attempt by Aphrodite to get Hephaestus to accept her love for him. Readers don't learn of this until the very end, when Aphrodite confronts Hephaestus. For the gods, perfect in every way (except for Hephaestus), love is easy but shallow. It's easy to love Aphrodite, perfectly beautiful and desirable. Aphrodite envies mortal men because their frailty and mortality make love true and enduring, something she cannot experience as a god. Her story is told in an attempt to teach the other gods what real love is.

Although Aphrodite tells the tale of two couples, the focus is on the story of Hazel Windicott and James Alderidge's relationship. In the beginning, James and Hazel are attracted to one another in a somewhat superficial manner. They find each other attractive. When Hazel meets James he is wearing a forest-green necktie and a gray tweed jacket. His figure is slim, his face grave, his shoes shined and his dress shirt crisp. His lean, smooth cheeks look soft and he has "the scent of bay rum aftershave and clean, ironed cloth..." about him.  James is entranced by Hazel's exquisite piano playing, her lilac-scented hair, her mauve lace dress. Their feelings for one another are intense but will need the passage of time to develop. The few times they are together both before and during the war, see their affection for one another grow. But it will be soon tested in the furnace of war.

Involved in Operation Michael, the German offensive intended to break through the Allied lines and seize the Channel Ports, James sees his friend Frank Mason blown to bits by a shell. James survives, killing many Germans but is so shell-shocked he refuses to leave his bunker and is eventually carried out by another soldier. He is shipped back to England to Maudsley Military Hospital where he spends a few weeks before being sent home. James, suffering from shell shock refuses to respond to Hazel's letter or to see her. He decides he is unfit for her affection and he must kill it. "He was no more eligible for the love of any girl, good or bad. He was on a shell of a man. A shell of a boy, cringing in the small bed in his childhood bedroom in his parents' home. Utterly unfit to be what any girl might want now."

Hazel however feels very differently.  She visits his hometown and upon their first meeting she tells him, "I came to see if you were alive,...and to be with you, if I could, to help you with your recovery, if you weren't well." Hazel's love for James is not superficial, she has no intention of abandoning him simply because he is unwell.  "The sight of him frightened her. He looked pale and thinner than in Paris. And he was changed.....But he was still her beautiful James." It soon becomes apparent to Hazel that James' scars are deep and hidden. This doesn't matter to her and she pursues James, following him on the train to Lowescroft as he goes to see Frank Mason's widow. Hazel's faithfulness allows James to begin to heal, knowing that he is loved unconditionally. James' kindness towards Frank Mason's widow is returned when Frank appears to him as he and Hazel are on the beach. Frank urges James not to give up Hazel, that she will help him heal. James tells Hazel, "You know that I can never be the boy you used to know...What I've done, and what I've seen, will always be with me." Her response is to ask him to let her too always be with him.

Only months later, the tables are turned. Hazel almost loses her life (Aphrodite intervenes) when the train she is on is hit by a shell. Hazel is badly injured and her face deeply scared. In contrast to James' wounds, Hazel's are exposed, can be seen by all and will never get better. Now it is Hazel's turn to refuse love. She tells him "I can't let you promise our forever to this out of pity, or noble duty." Echoing James' words only months ago she tells him "I'll never be the same..."  Hazel seems to think that James is better and therefore should not burden himself. James challenges this notion, pointing out that he still struggles. He points out that just as she could see past his wounds, so he can see past hers, despite them being more visible. He admonishes Hazel, telling her that she has no right to ask him to stop loving her. The war has changed them both, but their love has grown to accept those changes.

In the relationship of Aubrey and Colette, Berry explores interracial love, between a black American man and a white French woman, very forbidden in 1918. Such relationships were severely punished during this era. When the American marines learn that Aubrey has been seeing a white woman, he is targeted for death. In a twist of fate, it is his best friend Joey who dies.  Aubrey is shipped out to another city in an effort to save his life. Discouraged and racked with guilt over his friend's death, Aubrey decides to abandon his relationship with Colette but Aphrodite has other plans and will not see her efforts thwarted.

Lovely War is a multi-layered novel that explores the depth and challenges of love, and the unlimited strength of the human spirit. Through her work with Hazel and James, and Colette and Aubrey, Aphrodite demonstrates to her fellow gods how human love, tried in the furnace of conflict, misunderstanding, physical and emotional trauma, can blossom and become an enduring love.

Berry's novel sets these relationships within the turmoil of World War I, although the gods themselves are currently meeting during World War II. The title of the novel,  Lovely War, is taken from a World War I song, "Oh, Its a lovely war" performed by Courtland and Jeffries. It's purpose was support troop moral in the trenches but also to promote the idea that joining the war effort was exciting and fun. Berry's considerable research is evident in the realistic portrayal of war, in this case, the Great War, a conflict that was touted as the war to end all wars. Berry portrays the life of soldiers as they prepare (mostly inadequately) for hand to hand battle, which they never really encountered. Also well portrayed is the physical and psychological trauma of trench warfare as experienced by James Alderidge, and the culture around war in the early 20th century. She also portrays civilian life in England, America and France during this time, the social norms that were common and how women contributed to the war effort. Berry touches on the atrocities of war, mentioning the Dinant massacre by Germans and how this would have effected those like Colette who survived. 1918 saw the beginnings of what was to be come the Jazz Age and Berry's makes mention of soldiers becoming ill, the beginning of the influenza epidemic that kill millions.

Despite this, Lovely War ends on a hopeful note mainly because of the enduring spirit of both Hazel and James, and Colette and Aubrey, who marry and have families. As well Aphrodite begs Hades not to undo her work and to leave their children untouched as they fight in the current war, World War II.

At a whopping 450 + pages, Lovely War is clearly one of the best young adult novels written in the past few years and is not to be missed. Readers will revel in the romance, the detail, and find themselves thoroughly engaged to the finale.

For more information on the Battle of Dinant please see The Capture and Punishment of Dinant, 1914.

 Book Details:

Lovely War by Julie Berry
New York Viking      2019
468 pp

In Another Time by Caroline Leech

Seventeen-year-old Margaret (Maisie) McCall wanted to take control of her life. She was too young to join the Women's Auxiliary Air Force or the Auxiliary Territorial Service but she was able to volunteer for the Women's Timber Corps. The WTC was formed to obtain wood from Scotland's forests. The German blockade in the Atlantic and the enlisting of the foresters has meant both a shortage of wood and lumberjacks.

Maisie is now two weeks into her six weeks of WTC training as a lumberjill at Sandford Lodge under the direction of Miss Cradditch. The training isn't easy: Maisie has blistered and bloody palms from wielding four-and-a-half-pound axes, six pound axes, crosscut saws, hauling chains and cant hooks. Her feet are blistered and her shoulders ache. Maisie's friend Dorothy (Dot) Thompson, shorter and slighter, is struggling to master the forestry skills Mr. McRobbie is teaching them.

That evening, Maisie, Dot and the other WTC recruits attend a dance at the Brechin Town Hall. The evening becomes more interesting with the arrival of a group of men, whom the women believe are American service men. Maisie receives an awkward invitation to dance from a handsome, dark-haired man named John Lindsay. John notices Maisie's wounded hands and tells her to use pig fat to heal the blisters, showing her his own scars. Their attempt to dance is disastrous, with John stumbling and stepping on Maisie and eventually rushing out the door, leaving Maisie embarrassed and the center of jokes by the lumberjills.

During their final chopping lesson with Mr. McRobbie, Maisie finally finds her rhythim, but her friend Dot struggles on. Even learning to drive seems beyond Dot, who scares their instructor, Mr. Taylor. To finish out their training, Maisie and Dot and the other recruits visit Mitchell's Sawmill in Tannadice to learn how to feed large tree trunks into the table and routing saws. Their day is marred however when one of the women, Lillian is badly cut by a saw. Dot discovers her calling when she calmly administers first aid to Lillian, who is taken to hospital.

When their training is complete, the new lumberjills receive their assignments. Helen and Phyllis are posted in Perthshire, Mary, Mairi and Cynthia are sent to Ad camp near Grantown-on-Spey, while Dot and Maisie are sent to the WTC camp at Auchterblair, Carrbridge, Inverness-Shire. Before she leaves for the camp, Maisie decides to send a postcard to her family, letting them know about her posting. Maisie's parents were not happy that she'd signed up for the WTC. Her mother was upset that she'd chosen not to finish her schooling and her father was very angry, viewing Maisie as abandoning them. Only Maisie's younger sister Beth, almost sixteen, had been supportive, wanting to walk her to the bus stop.

 At Auchterblair, while out on a walk to calm herself after a mean-spirited letter from her father, Maisie has a surprise encounter with John Lindsay. Maisie discovers John sitting by an abandoned croft, smoking a cigarette. He reveals to her that he is not American but a Canadian with the Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit at Cambridge. It turns out that John McCrae, author of the poem In Flanders Field is John's uncle and who he is named after. Like his famous uncle, John writes poetry, some of which he shares with Maisie, lending her his uncle's book of poems.

Maisie and the other lumberjills along with the NOFU's travel to Inverness for a dance, stopping at the La Scala Cinema to view a newsreel of the Women's Timber Corps that was filmed by Pathe News. The dance at the Caledonian Hotel Ballroom turns into a disaster when Violet gets drunk. She confronts John Lindsay mocking him for not dancing. Horrified at what has happened, Maisie confronts John outside the dance hall. He reveals to her that he is missing part of his right leg and that he was reluctant to tell her earlier because he felt she would view him differently and treat him as though he only cares for himself.

Maisie tells John that this does not change how she feels about him, but when she intervenes in a fight between John and a drunken sailor, he becomes enraged, telling her he doesn't need a woman to protect him. As the days pass, Maisie struggles to work through her own conflicted feelings over John. Does she really think differently about John, does she treat him as though he can't do anything for himself?  When John and his friend Elliott are injured in a terrible forestry accident, Maisie and John are forced to confront these issues and either resolve them or forever lose each other.

Discussion

In Another Time is a historical fiction novel set in the Inverness area of northern Scotland during World War II. The main character in the novel is Maisie McCall, a young Scottish woman who joins the Women's Timber Corps against her family's wishes. Maisie falls in love with John Lindsay, a young Canadian man who is a member of the Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit working in Scotland. Although the two are definitely attracted to one another and there are tender moments, their relationship is often fraught with misunderstanding and difficulties. Maisie comes to learn this is because John is recovering from devastating physical and psychological wounds acquired during the evacuation of Dunkirk and because he blames himself for the death of his two best friends, Walter Clarkson and Lofty McGinnis who saved his life. The tension between the two of them and how they manage to come to an understanding, forms the main story line.

A subplot involves Maisie's strained relationship with her mother and father, leading her to leave home prematurely to join the lumberjills.  The climax of the story, which sees John and another lumberjack seriously injured in a forestry accident, sets Maisie on the path to resolving this conflict when her mother travels to the hospital, demonstrating that she really does care for Maisie. At this point her mother explains how events in the past led to the current problems in their family and the two women come to an understanding.

With John however, the process takes longer. He gradually opens up to Maisie after the accident, explaining how he lost his leg, but also revealing the guilt he has over what he believes is the certain fate of his two friends.  It is only when he seeks help in dealing with his war trauma, that he is able to move forward, forgive himself and be able to open his heart to Maisie.

The setting of the novel, within the Women's Timber Corps, offers readers a chance to learn about a little known and only recently recognized contribution to the British/Canadian war effort. The Women's Timber Corps was formed to replace the foresters who had enlisted in the British army. Almost five thousand women joined the WTC doing tasks such as felling trees, snedding, driving tractors and trucks, working sawmills and living in very basic accommodations. Their war contribution was not fully recognized until recently: they never marched in parades nor were there separate wreaths acknowledging their effort. But in 2007 that changed with the installation of the Women's Timber Corps Memorial at the Lodge Forest Visitor Centre near Aberfoyle in the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park.

Leech's Author's Note at the back of the novel is detailed, offering some supplementary information on several historical aspects of her story including the Women's Timber Corps, the NOFU, Pathe News, some information about the Halifax 100 - a group of Canadian soldiers who were at Dunkirk, and the evacuation of Dunkirk. Leech notes that "As a historical novelist, I place my fictional characters in a world of historical fact. My stories are not so much what did happen but what could have happened in a particular time and place." Leech does include a lesbian relationship in the novel. While it's obvious that same sex relationships have existed throughout history, they were not openly tolerated and in 1940's Scotland, such relationships were illegal. People who had these attitudes and relationships would likely have been more circumspect than is portrayed in the novel. 

Maisie is a solid lead character, showing determination, grit, and courage. She stands up to her parents who want her to remain at home, to Violet Dunlavy who bullies the other lumberjills and to John Lindsay whose self-pity and inner struggles to overcome his guilt threaten to overwhelm Maisie. John Lindsay is a character filled with conflict: he has guilt over surviving Dunkirk, and struggles to live up to his uncle, John McCrae - the legendary poet and physician-surgeon's reputation. He must deal with both being an amputee and suffering from post-traumatic stress, all the while working as a lumberjack - a feat that would seem very difficult indeed given the state of prosthetics in the 1940's. In true romantic novel fashion, John, who finds he can't live without Maisie,  ends up getting himself well enough to propose to Maisie and they return to Canada to live happily ever after. Given all of John's deep-rooted problems, it seems not very realistic, but many battle weary soldiers managed to live a good life in the post-war years. In the this way, In Another Time ends on a hopeful note.

In Another Time is a story about friendship, loss, redemption and first love.  Author Caroline Leech is the author of another historical fiction novel, Wait For Me.

Book Details:

In Another Time by Caroline Leech
New York: HarperTeen    2018
361 pp.

Island War by Patricia Reilly Giff

Island War opens in 1941. Europe is at war with Nazi Germany while Japan is preparing to attack the United States as well as several Asian countries.

In a small town in Connecticut, Isabel (Izzy) is busy packing her suitcase to travel to an island off the coast of Alaska. However, her mother, a bird watcher, isn't keen to go despite the fact that Izzy's father had made the plans and gotten their tickets. A little over two months ago, Izzy's father was killed in a car accident. Now Izzy is keen for a change of scene, to go to the island, to watch the birds and for the snow and the wind. Her Gram convinces Izzy's mother to travel to the island that Izzy's father spent so much time on.

Fourteen-year-old Matt loves rowing out on Long Island Sound. One day Matt learns from his father that the two of them will be travelling to an island that is part of the Aleutians, an island chain off the coast of Alaska. Matt's father feels they need some time together, but Matt doesn't want to go. He's not close to his father who is always away and who always seems annoyed when he comes home.

Izzy and Matt first run into one another on the boat taking them to the island. Izzy, running around on deck, trips over Matt who is sitting against the railing. Izzy recognizes Matt as a boy from school who is a few grades ahead of her. But their interaction is not friendly. On the island, Izzy and her mother live in a wooden cottage with three rooms. Izzy and her mother are welcomed by the women on the island. Izzy makes friends with a girl named Maria. Remembering her father's stories about a cave where he could watch kittiwakes and cormorants, Izzy asks Maria if she knows where the cave might be located. Maria tells her there are many caves on the island. Instead she's more interested in whether Izzy brought books with her. But unknown to Maria, Izzy finds reading difficult.

Izzy finds herself attending a school with only five students including Matt. Their teacher Mrs. Weio tells them about the legends associated with the island. However, outside of school the students are more interested in the threat of war coming to the islands which belong to the United States. Japan lies only a thousand miles to the southwest.

Meanwhile Matt is preoccupied with thoughts about home. An older boy, Michael shows Matt a baidarka, a single person kayak with a sea lion skin stretched across the frame. Matt's first try in the kayak is scary as he struggles to learn how to use it and it overturns. However Matt soon masters the kayak, travelling along the coast and also how to right himself. But one day Matt's father tells him he cannot go out in the kayak. Japan has bombed Hawaii and sunk half the American fleet. The day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Izzy and the other islanders learn that America has declared war on Japan. While Mrs. Weio believes they will all be evacuated before war comes to their island, others are not so sure.

Winter passes in to the spring of 1942. One day an unknown ship appears on the horizon. Some believe it might the American navy but after church, Izzy and others discover that Japanese soldiers have arrived on the island. The soldiers force everyone into the church while they go through the village looting and damaging the homes. Eventually Izzy and her mother along with the other residents are allowed back into their damaged homes. The next morning Matt, his father and the other men are ordered to fish while everyone else remains in the village. Every day the men bring home fish which is divided up. The Japanese soldiers also string a wire fence around the village homes, making them prisoners.

In September, Matt figures out a way to get past the wire fence and get to his kayak hidden in a little cove. Each night he goes out to the cove and paddles his kayak. It is Maria, who is recovering from scarlet fever who clues Izzy into what Matt is doing. Watching one night, Izzy sees him and tries to follow but is caught by a guard. Then later in the week, Matt's father reveals that he knows about Matt's nightly trips to the kayak but also that he has learned that they are to be taken to a prison camp on the Japanese mainland either that night or in the morning. Matt's father wants him to leave tonight for his kayak and that he will meet him later on with a two man kayak that he has hidden in the back of the shed. He also tells Matt that he really does love him and that he is proud of his resourcefulness.

However things do not go as planned. Matt leaves for the hidden kayak as planned but Izzy also manages to get out of the camp. On Thor Hill she sees a line of people boarding a ship, one of whom looks like Matt's father. Izzy loses her glasses but makes it back to the village only to discover that her mother and everyone else in the village have left. Her mother's note tells her she has been taken to Japan. Matt too discovers the villagers gone. Each at first believe they are alone until they discover they are the only ones left on the island and must work together if they are to survive the coming winter.

Discussion

Reilly Giff uses an unnamed Aleutian island as the setting for a remarkable survival story set during World War II. In A Note at the back of her novel, Reilly Giff indicates that her "story is loosely based on the island of Attu, the farthest west in the chain of the Aleutian Islands..." The Aleutians are an island chain stretching some 1900 km into the Pacific Ocean, partly belonging to the United States with some islands also part of Russia.  War came to the Aleuts on June 3, 1942 when two islands, Attu and Kiska were occupied by Japanese troops. They were considered strategically important by both the United States and Japan in the war as they would allow either country a route of attack on enemy territory. The Americans did offer to evacuate the residents of Attu prior to the Japanese invasion, but they refused. They were eventually deported to the a prison camp in Japan.

The occupation of an unknown Aleutian island becomes the backdrop for a story about survival and  working together with someone you don't like. Izzy and Matt are two young people who find themselves visiting the Aleutians and then thrust into the war. The two main characters, who tell the story in alternating chapters, are a study in contrasts. Izzy had come eagerly to the island with her mother who observes birds, while Matt has come reluctantly with his father who has some unknown job. While Izzy is close to her mother, Matt feels distant from his father, who appears critical of his young teenage son.

Initially both Izzy and Matt believe they are alone on the island but soon discover they share the fate of being abandoned with the one person they least like. Their mutual dislike stems from a misunderstanding on the boat coming to the island, when Izzy tripped over Matt's legs. Each believes the other deliberately did something to them.

Izzy, least prepared to survive, is willing to work with Matt but Matt wants nothing to do with her. When he discovers Izzy is also left behind, Matt's first reaction is "You!....In my house! Eating our food. I should have known."  He accuses her of being a thief and then tells her that she has to fend for herself, that he doesn't ever want to see her around his house again.  Matt continues to be mean towards Izzy even when she warns him that there are four enemy soldiers still on the island.

Despite being older than Izzy, Matt is immature. After he's injured, he wonders, "How had this happened to me? Did I feel sorry for myself? I did. And why not." He ungraciously complains about the bandages being pink, not recognizing Izzy's huge sacrifice for him. After all she has done for him, Matt appears to intend to abandon Izzy, only to lose his beloved kayak. Eventually though Matt does realize that he owes a debt to Izzy, "I thought of all she had done these long months. How could I have made it without her?"

Izzy is a resourceful, intelligent character who recognizes that in order to survive she and Matt must work together. Izzy shows herself to be patient and optimistic in the face of adversity. In this regard she is portrayed as the very opposite of Matt. She is motivated by the words of the teacher she never liked back home in Connecticut, "You could do anything, Izzy, if only you set your mind to it." 
Izzy finds Matt mean and self-absorbed. "How could one person think he was so perfect? And he'd gotten most of it wrong anyway." Despite Matt treating Izzy badly, she tells him about a cave that might be safer than staying in the abandoned village and she cares for him when he injures his knee. She is able to sacrifice something that she loves dearly, her pink velvet party dress, to use for bandages for Matt's injured knee.

Ultimately, Matt and Izzy do become friends, apologizing to one another for their misinterpreting of each other's actions. It is a friendship forged in adversity that appears to outlast their experiences on the island. Both characters learn about themselves; Izzy that she can achieve what she sets her mind to and that she has an inner strength, Matt that he is very much like the father he struggles to understand.

Island War  with its unique setting, believable characters and many themes, will be enjoyed by younger readers who have an interest in survival fiction.

Book Details:

Island War by Patricia Reilly Giff
New York: Holiday House    2018
203 p

Kiska by John Smelcer

In early June, 1942, thirteen-year-old Kiska, only a few days from her fourteenth birthday, watches as the hunters in their baidarkas (kayaks) return home from seal hunting. Kiska has been collecting sea gull eggs on the high cliffs above her village and when she sees the boats,  races down to the beach to meet her father and uncle. They both return with seals tethered to their boats. Kiska and her older sister Donia watch as their father and uncle skin the seals and cut the meat into pieces. Donia is nineteen-years-old and both a mother and a widow. Her husband never returned from a seal hunt, leaving her to care for their three-month-old daughter Mary. Donia became so depressed, she stopped eating but Kiska encouraged her to go on living for Mary's sake.

When they hear rumbling coming from the direction of Dutch Harbor, Kiska's father and uncle believe a storm is coming. But the storm that comes is unlike any they or their people have ever endured.

Discussion

Kiska attempts to tackle the difficult subject of the forced internment of the indigenous people, the Aleuts of the Aleutian Islands during World War II. The Aleutian Islands which were part of the Alaska Territory in 1942 were considered an important strategic location, offering whoever controlled them, domination over the Pacific. If they were captured by the Japanese, the Aleutians would provide a base for attacking the West Coast of North America.

On June 3, 1942, the Japanese bombed Dutch Harbor, where the Americans had a military installation. returning on June 4 to continue more successful bombing of the town. The Japanese then invaded the islands of Kiska on June 6 and Attu on June 7. There was little resistance from the indigenous Aleuts. In light of the invasion of Kiska the U.S. government offered to evacuate the Aleuts from Attu but they declined. When the Japanese invaded the Aleuts were imprisoned and eventually transported to an internment camp in Japan for the duration of the war.

Fearing that the rest of the Aleutian Islands would be invaded the United States ordered the evacuation of the remaining Aleutian and Pribilof Islands. A total of 885 Aleuts were removed. They had little time to gather personal possessions nor clean and lock up their homes. Although the U.S. Government had begun discussions to plan for the evacuation, it happened suddenly, leaving the government struggling to find locations to house the Aleut. The Aleut were eventually placed in abandoned canneries and warehouses at five locations including Funter Bay as mentioned in the novel.

Conditions in the U.S. internment camps were horrible. Like their indigenous brothers and sisters throughout the North American continent, the Aleuts had little resistance to European diseases such a measles and small pox. Unsanitary living conditions, subpar housing and poor food contributed to the deaths of many young and elderly Aleutians.

Unfortunately, what could have been a very informative novel, in fact contains some serious historical errors. The main character, now a grandmother is relating what happened long ago, to her granddaughter. She tells her after boarding the ship, the U.S.Army Transport Delarof,  "Over the next week or longer, we stopped at seven more Aleut villages, including St. George and St. Paul on the Pribilof Islands...In all there were 881 of us from nine different villages crowded into the ship's dingy hold. " In fact, the Delarof did not transport all of the Aleut evacuees in one trip; the Delarof evacuated on residents of St. George and St. Paul before sailing to Dutch Harbor where villagers from Atka also boarded.And one hundred and ninety Aleuts from St. George were sent to Funter Bay.

World War II Aleutian Islands Resettlement Routes from Charles M. Mobley

According to a blog post by Melissa Green there are many further historical inaccuracies in this novel including the false proclamation read at each of the stops, villagers being held at gunpoint, the burning of three villages,  the main cause of deaths at Funter Bay being due to measles, the naming of the character Agafon as a shaman,  the presence of soldiers at Funter Bay and the relative passivity of the Aleuts during their internment to name a few. Readers are directed to the post in American Indians In Children's Literature (see link below) for a more in-depth treatment of the inaccuracies that are strewn throughout this novel and which make its use as a teaching tool highly questionable.Such blatant inaccuracies in Smelcer's account call into question any of the other historical details he provides in the novel. If an author is going to write about an important historical event such as the internment of indigenous peoples during World War II, his/her research ought to be accurate and rigorous, especially if the goal is to educate young readers. There is no excuse for this in the digital age.

American Indians in Children's Literature:

https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2017/11/kiska-by-john-smelcer-historical.html

map image: https://www.nps.gov/aleu/learn/historyculture/removal-maps.htm which is from the National Parks Aleutian Islands World War II: Understanding Forcible Removal Through Maps: Aleutian Islands.

Readers may find the following resources useful:

World War II Aleut Relocation Camps in Southeast Alaska by Charles M. Mobley:

https://www.nps.gov/articles/series.htm?id=730CA036-1DD8-B71B-0BEFB9A92FB52305 
  
Chapter 2 Funter Bay Cannery from Mobley's publication:

https://www.nps.gov/articles/aleu-mobley-ch-2-pt-1.htm
:
Alaskaweb.org also has a detailed article on what happened to the Aleut people during World War II:

http://alaskaweb.org/military/ww2aleutintern.html

Book Details:

Kiska by John Smelcer
Fredonia, New York: Leapfrog Press    2017
180 pp.

Ahimsa by Supriya Kelkar

Ten-year-old Anjali and her friend Muslim friend Irfaan are caught vandalizing the house of Captain Brent the British officer who is the British Raj authority in her small (fictional) town of Navrangpur, India. In protest against the British occupation of India, many homes and offices of the British throughout India have been defaced with a black "Q" for Quit India.

Only a week earlier, Anjali's mother, Shailaja Joshi had been working for Captain Brent, translating decrees and legal notices of the British Raj. She also typed letters of rejection for mercy for people whose sons had been arresting fighting for independence from Britain. But she inexplicably quit her job. Now as Captain Brent is escorting them back to his house, they encounter Anjali's mother. Captain Brent's accusations are interrupted by Mrs. Misha's pleas that he pardon her son who is sentenced to hang for burning down a municipal building. However, Captain Brent is more concerned with Anjali's act of vandalism and he refuses Mrs. Misha's request. Even though it is evident that Anjali and Irfaan are responsible, Anjali's mother is furious at his treatment of Mrs. Misha and refuses to accept the British officer's accusations instead taking Anjali and Irfaan home.

Later Anjali along with her mother, Baba, Uncle Chachaji and their maid, Jamuna listen to a rebroadcast of Mahatma Gandhi's August 8, 1942 "Quit India" speech. The Indian people want the British to leave India with  Gandhi is urging a nonviolence form of resistance called ahimsa. Each family is requested to send one person to the fight for independence. As it turns out, this is why Anjali's mother has quit working - she will be the "freedom fighter" from their family as Anjali's father must work to support them.

Immediately Anjali's life begins to change. One day after school she arrives home to discover her parents burning all their foreign-made clothing. Anjali is also made to burn all of her beautiful ghagra-cholis, which makes her both sad and angry at her mother. Instead of wearing British-made exquisite clothing, Anjali and her family will wear Indian-made cotton clothing called khadi. And if that isn't enough, Anjali's mother shows up at school the next day to teach her classmates how to spin cloth. At first Anjali is ashamed but then when her mother pricks her finger she steps up to help.

At home, Anjali meets Mohan, a boy only a few years older than her and from the Untouchable caste, who cleans their backyard toilet waste each day. Untouchables are the lowest caste and are not allowed to enter temples for fear of "polluting" them. People believe they make everything they touch unclean and so they are shunned. When Chachaji chases Mohan away, Anjali's mother decides to clean their toilet. "We should be thanking them for cleaning up this mess. Why are they dirty for cleaning it? It's our mess, isn't it?"  Chachaji is against the Quit India movement and the movement to change things in Indian society because he believes people will get hurt or die.

Anjali and her mother attend a meeting of fifty freedom fighters, both Hindu and Muslim, men and women, held in the Khadi Shop which makes homespun cotton clothes from Indian cotton. At the meeting Anjali's mother announces that they will be teaching the children living in the Untouchable basti following the Diwali festival. The leader of the meeting, Keshavji Parmar who is from the Untouchable caste strongly approves.

During their Diwali celebrations, Anjali and her family are joined by her Muslim friend, Irfaan who loves to eat badam barfi. Anjali's mother decides to take a tray of badam barfi to Mohan's basti to offer to the people in celebration of Diwali. Unfortunately this does not go over very well as the people are reluctant to take the food and Mohan is offended by Anjali's use of Gandhi's term "Harijan" to describe the Untouchables. He tells Anjali that the Untouchables prefer the term "Dalit" which was what Dr. Ambedkar had named them. The Monday after Diwali, Paro and the other children in the basti have their first day of school. Keshavji meets Anjali and her mother at the basti but Anjali is even more surprised to see her school teacher there too.

In an effort to understand the experience the Dalit experience and to break from the caste system Anjali's mother decides to start cleaning their own outhouse. Mohan points out that he will not be able to support himself if she does his work, but Shailaja is determined to continue. Although Anjali finds the task repulsive she does help her mother. However their efforts to overcome the prejudices of the caste system results in Anjali's neighbours and classmates shunning and taunting her.

The Dalit children, Paro, Rohit, Urmila, Jyoti and Vijayuain continue to learn at the basti school, making good progress. In a confrontation with a vegetable vendor who objects to the presence of the Dalit children outside their basti, Anjali has the idea to integrate her school, bringing in the Dalit children. With the help of her mother and Masterji, they began working to achieve this. However, many of their friends and neighbours are not happy about this nor their work with the Dalit. They threaten to withdraw their children from Masterji's school and Anjali is taunted by her classmates. This challenge turns out to be the beginning of many Anjali and her family must face when rioting between Muslims and Hindus begins, their home is vandalized and Anjali's mother is arrested. Anjali must decide if independence and social reform are worth the sacrifices her family finds themselves making.

Discussion

Ahimsa is the fruit of fourteen years work for author Supriya Kelkar. Although the village of Navrangpur is fictional as are the characters of Keshavji and Anjali, the character of Shailaja Joshi was inspired by the life of her great-grandmother, Anasuyabai Kale, who worked with Mahatma Gandhi, and who was imprisoned for civil disobedience. After India gained its independence from Britain, Kale was elected to two terms as a Congresswoman.

In Ahimsa, Kelkar explores the efforts of the freedom fighters to gain India's independence from Great Britain and to also undertake social reforms within Indian society. This is done through the characters Anjali and  her mother, Shailaja. The freedom fighters believed that one way to unite the people of India as they fought for independence from the British was to work towards overcoming prejudices in Indian society due to the caste system. This struggle to overcome the day-to-day prejudices dominates the story.

The prejudices against certain castes are so ingrained that even Anjali and her mother hold them and must unlearn them. For example when Shailaja picks up Mohan's broom, "Anjali's stomach grew queasy." Anjali worries that her mother will become ill, but Shailaja tells her "We have always told you that people are people, regardless of their religion or caste." Shailaja then goes on to explain to her daughter how the caste system came to be. "See, our leaders divided people into castes thousands of years ago to ensure that everyone did the work that was needed for the society to function. The unfortunate Untouchables got stuck with the dirty work. Over the years, the Untouchables got a terrible stigma attached to them for no fault of their own...This irrational fear of people, calling them Untouchable, that is probably all there just to keep the status quo." Shailaja tells Anjali that this is wrong and that if Indians don't see one another as equals they cannot blame the British who see themselves as better.

Despite Anjali and her mother's efforts to integrate the Untouchables in their community, the old prejudices prove difficult to overcome. Uncle Chachaji refuses to eat a ladoo Anjali gives him, saying he won't eat anything that is going to the Dalits even though the dessert has never been touched by the Dalits. The vegetable vendor is furious when a toy belonging to a Dalit child lands in his cart, screaming that his eggplants are ruined yet he doesn't realize that it is their waste that fertilizes the gardens that grow the vegetables. Anjali's neighbours upon learning that the Dalit children will attend their school at first refuse to send their children and then reluctantly agree only if the Dalits will sit at the back of the classroom.

Anjali recognizes that in order to change others she must change herself first. After reluctantly helping her mother clean their family outhouse, Anjali examines her own feelings. "Why was she ashamed to clean up after herself? Why did she feel embarrassed doing something that Gandhiji had been trying to teach the country about for so long? Something that would free countless people and improvy hygiene for so many, saving them from dying from preventable illnessess? Why did she feel humiliated helping her mother with such a great idea? And worst of all, why was she so okay with letting Mohan hold the wagon and continue to be isolated and considered unclean?...She had to change her own attitude before someone like Suman would change hers." 

Anjali not only has to fight prejudices between Hindus but also the prejudice that exists between the two cultures that make up India: Hindu and Muslim. The Hindu-Muslim rioting places a strain on the friendship between Anjali and Irfaan and for a time their friendship breaks down. Anjali's mother tells her "Hindus are the grass. Muslims are the water. Mother India needs both to survive...If you give her just one...she will still need the other."

Kelkar has created a strong, determined and resilient heroine in Anjali. At first Anjali isn't interested in becoming involved in the fight against the British. She can't understand why her mother has quit her good paying job and she's very upset when her mother burns all her beautiful ghagra-cholis. However as Anjali is encouraged to consider what is happening in her village and her country she begins to really notice the world around her.  "For the first time, Anjali also noticed how many children stood in the streets, homeless and hungry and her smile disappeared. The kids were sweeping the roads, carrying garbage, sitting on corners, holding their naked infant siblings, begging for money..."  This makes her want to work for a better society, where everyone is treated with dignity.

Because Anjali comes from the privileged Brahmin caste she believes that change can come about immediately. But she soon discovers that changing the way people view their world takes time. For example when Anjali attempts to include the Dalits into her school she encounters strong resistance. Instead she must compromise - the Dalits can attend but must sit at the back. In the end, nine Dalit students and seven children from other castes attend a makeshift school after their building is vandalized. Anjali recognizes that this is a small but important change.

Anjali perseveres even though her mother is in jail, her school has been closed and the vandalized, and she has lost her two best friends, Mohan and Irfaan. Instead, Anjali is determined to fight on especially after she sees her mother fasting in jail. "...But now that I see you here...I'm not going to quit. I'm not going to give up. I'm going to keep fighting for what you started. One way or another. I'm going to continue your work." Anjali is severely tested when a protest against the British burning of the Khadi Shop turns violent and Captain Brent's life is endangered. Despite Captain Brent refusing to pardon her mother, Anjali does the right thing and intervenes to saves his life. Her act of mercy begets another act of mercy that saves her mother.  While the novel ends on a positive note, the reality is that many of the prejudices that existed in 1942, still remain a problem today in Indian society. This is particularly true for the Untouchable caste and women.

Ahimsa incorporates many themes to explore; tolerance, prejudice, identity, social activism and acceptance are just a few. Ahimsa provides the opportunity for young people to think about how they treat those who are different and what they can do to be more accepting of others, making it an outstanding novel for younger readers. There are also references to several important historical figures; Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Ambedkar who was a Dalit and who crafted India's constitution. Kelkar includes an extensive Author's Note at the back of the novel which fills in the details of India's struggle for independence from Britain.

To learn more about the inspiration behind the novel check out Supriya Kelkar's website. India achieved independence in 1947, but it was partitioned into two countries, India which was predominantly Hindu and Pakistan which was predominantly Muslim.


Book Details:

Ahimsa by Supriya Kelkar
New York: TU Books, An Imprint of Lee and Low Books Inc.  2017
302 pp