Freedom Seeker by Ruchira Gupta

Twelve-year-old Simran (Simi) Singh lives in Northern India with her mother, Henna Ali (Ammi) who is Muslim and her father Gurbeer Singh (Abbu) who is Hindu/Sikh. Ammi is a nurse while her father works on the family's farm. He was once a champion field hockey player. Simi loves field hockey. Her best friends are Ravi who is always late with his homework and Reena. 

Miss Sharma announces that Simi has been chosen to be captain of their middle school field hockey team. While Ravi and Reena offer their congratulations, Ashok who is one of Simi's classmates sends her a paper airplane telling her to leave. But Simi is determined not to let his threat get to her. Simi's team will play in the All-India National Youth Gold Cup in Delhi later in the year.

Their family's Eid celebration is marred when a rock crashes through their livingroom window. Simi sees a car with the bumper sticker, COMBAM race off. The rock is wrapped in a piece of white paper that reads, "Cancel marriage between Sikh men and Muslim women. Sikh and Hindu men are being lured to Islam with marriage. We will punish you. Go home, beef eaters."  Dadu (Gurdeep's father) believes that this intolerance will pass but Nanaji (Ammi's father) wonders if it will.

Simi recalls when a group of boys called her "Mozzy" and taunted her with "Mozzy daughter" and told her to go to her country. Ammi explains that a group called COMBAM which stands for Committee to Ban Marriages to Muslims, are against interfaith marriages. They want to "cleanse" India of Muslims.

At school the harrassment continues with a note on Simi's locker that reads "Go home, Captain Simi."  As coach of the hockey team and a leader, Simi has to be careful how she responds to these taunts. "Coach says a team leader has to be positive, thoughtful, and show no fear." At their field hockey practice, Simi gets pushback from Ashok and his friends who seem to be ignoring her. At a second practice, Simi confronts Ashok who tells her, "Your parents aren't legally married...Sikhs and Muslims can't marry." Ashok tells Simi that her mother "...isn't a real Indian" and that they should move to Pakistan. but Simi retorts that her mother's family goes back seven generations in their town. 

As Ashok continues to ignore Simi she decides to ignore him. She eventually challenges him to either participate or step aside. When he does what she wants, Simi praises him. The following week there are pamphlets on their doorstep from the Brotherhood for Justice - a political party. The three men come to the house and are taken into the livingroom by Dadi (Simi's father's mother). The men question Dadu and Dadi if there is a Muslim living in the house and if they have beef in the fridge. Simi realizes that the men want to know if her mother - a Muslim lives there.

That night Simi overhears her parents and her father's parents discussing what is happening. Dadu advises that Gurdeep, Henna, and Simi should seriously consider leaving India. They suggest going to America where Gurdeep's cousin, Kuldeep works as a taxi driver in New York. Later at her mother's parent's home, Simi questions them about her parent's marraige and how to change people's minds. They advise her to always act with respect and love.

At the school gate on Monday, two men are handing out flyers that state, "Preserve Pure Indian Genes"  Simi sees Ashok with the flyers stuck in her back pocket, leading her to doubt that she is having any impact on him. In an attempt to change the minds of the men handing out the flyers, Simi, Ravi, and Reena order samosas and jalebis for them at their construction site. After giving the men ten minutes to eat the snacks, they had the men flyers which explain the snacks were made by an Indian Muslim and that India's culture is richer for the Muslims.

But when Simi arrives home she learns that Abbu was attacked at the farm by men from COMBAM. He was badly beaten and his knees smashed. He was rescued by the farm workers and taken to hospital. After surgery on his knees, it takes over a month for him to heal. To pay for his surgery, Simi's family must give up part of the farm. Over the next few months the electricity is cut off and Dadi sees one of her gold necklaces.

They learn that more families have been attacked and there are rallies by the Brotherhood for Justice. Simi's family decidee that Gurbeer will go first to America and then Simi and Henna will follow. However, the U.S. denies Gurbeer's visa application. Nanaji tells Gurbeer that somehow he must leave the country because the situation in escalating. Interfaith couples are being targeted and some interfaith marriages are being prevented. He tells Gurbeer he will have to pay a smuggler to get him into America legally. 

The final plan is for Abbu to fly to Mexico via Spain and then smugglers take him across the US-Mexico border. Five days after leaving India, Abbu calls and tells them he is now with his cousin Kuldeer in New York.  With the help of a lawyer, Abbu will apply for visas for Henna and Simi to ger political asylum.

Then the Brotherhood wins a local election, meaning they can do what they want. For days the Brotherhood and COMBAM celebrate. After school one day, Simi is accosted by four boys, one of which is Ashok. However, he tries to stop the boys and eventually does protect Simi. Ashok asks if she is okay and Simi tells him if she isn't around to lead the team in Delhi, to remember to lead by example.

Abbu's petition for their visas is rejected. Nanaji tells Henna to go to the travel agent to pay for their way to America. Two weeks later, Ammi and Simi leave India for America. It will be a journey much more arduous than that of Abbu and Simi will face challenges that will change her forever.

Discussion

Freedom Seeker is a story that tackles the subject of religious intolerance in India, refugees, and illegal immigration in America. The novel is divided into three parts: 1 Fear and Flight, 2 Loss and Longing, and 3 Rescue and Reunion. The front matter contains a map showing Simi's journey.

The main premise of the novel is that Simi and her family are facing discrimination because of her parents interfaith marriage: Henna is Muslim while Gurdeep is Hindu. In the novel, the fictional group Brotherhood for Justice is seeking to outlaw such marriages and are harrassing and attacking interfaith families. When the Brotherhood for Justice wins the local election, this supposedly gives them the freedom to further their agenda against interfaith marriages. It should be noted that while there is no such group in India most Indians do not support interfaith marriage, believing it is better to marry within their own religious community. This various across regions, educational levels and even religious faiths. Laws now forbid brides or grooms from converting to their spouse's religion. This has resulted in attacks on couples in interfaith marriages. Hindus in particular are very much against interfaith marriages. The religious intolerance that Simi and her family are experiencing is a reality for those few interfaith families who do live in India. An Author's Note at the back of the novel providing some information on the situation in India might have been helpful to put the story within a proper context for younger readers. 

Simi's coach does not deal with Ashok and his friends, as they harrass and make life difficult for Simi. He doesn't step in to remind Ashok that his behaviour is unacceptable and poor sportsmanship. Simi tells her coach that it doesn't seem to be about her abilities but "...about who I am, where I come from." He reminds her that it is "about proving to yourself that you can rise above it, that you are more than their narrow views." Eventually Simi does get through to Ashok, so the coach's strategy does work. But it is also putting the responsibility on a young girl to deal with what might have become a more serious situation, given the growing intolerance. It does seem though that Simi's focus on drawing Ashok into the game he loves helps him see her differently. He does protect Simi when she is attacked by a group of boys.

It is also interesting that school officials do not act on the men who are passing out flyers just outside the school gates, making the situation for the students stressful. And when Abbu is badly beaten, Simi's family does not report his assault to the police. If they do, there seems to be no action by the police to apprehend those responsible. It would appear that this inaction by school officials, police and the community at large are the reason Simi and her family have no choice but to leave.

Ruchira Gupta seems to present a very balanced view of the illegal immigrant experience in the United States. Although there is no mention of who is leading the United States, readers are told that things have drastically changed in the weeks since Abbu illegally entered the country. The area where he crossed is now blocked by a high wall "...made of tall iron spikes wrapped with four barbed wire rolls on both sides."  As with many illegal immigrants, Simi and her mother and the people they are with must risk crossing the Sonora Desert in Arizona. Eventually Simi and Ammi become separated as often happens with the children of refugees. 

The novel portrays the difficulties illegal immigrants face in relocating loved ones and difficulties immigration officials experience in dealing with so many immigrants with such varied circumstances. Children become separated from family. There are cold cages where the children are placed initially and later on at Casa Phoenix, a slightly better situation but many rules. There are some very good people who help Simi such as Pablo who plays games with the children, the woman Coast Guard volunteer who promises to try to find out about Simi's mother, Sophia who is Simi's counselor, and Rini Pose the journalist who manages to reunite Simi with her parents. Then there are others like Paul, Simi's case manager who seems indifferent and overwhelmed.  

The novel also incorporates a few characters from various countries in order to portray the variety of people who take desperate risks to enter the United States illegally in search of safety and a better life. For Simi and her family it is because of persecution in their home country. For others like Jose, who is from San Pedro Sula in Honduras, it is the threat of gangs who run the city. 

In Simi Singh, Ruchira Gupta has crafted an intelligent and resourceful character. Instead of fighting with Ashok, she manages to open  who is determined to locate her missing mother. She decides to use her ability to write and speak English to enlist the help of an Indian woman reporter.  This resourceful move, expedites Simi's case and helps locate her mother and reunite their family. The novel ends on a very hopeful and positive tone with many people coming together to get Ammi to New York and to her family.

Freedom Seeker is a timely novel about illegal immigrants and the struggles they face, offering hope in spite of so many obstacles and challenges.

Book Details:

Freedom Seeker by Ruchira Gupta
Scholastic Press      2025
298 pp.

The Blossoming Summer by Anna Rose Johnson

It is 1940 and the Germans have invaded France and the Low Countries (Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg - neutral countries). Thirteen-year-old Rosemary Rivers lives with her mother's older brother, Uncle John and his wife, Aunt Katie Alexandra in London, England. On this night Rosemary can hear them talking through the floorboards of her upstairs bedroom. She learns that her father and mother are planning to come get Rosemary and take her and her two brothers back to America. This is happening just when her father has found steady work in a munitions plant and her mother is also working in Manchester.

Rosemary's parents, Leslie and Louise came to England several years ago. Her father lost his job and was unable to find work in Eastbourne. In London he had one temporary job after another, so Rosemary's mother left to find work. This meant that Rosemary and her brothers, Kenneth and Patrick had to be separated. Uncle John and Aunt Katie Alexandra took in Rosemary but were unable to take in her brothers as well. So Patrick went to stay with a minister friend of the family in Birmingham, while Kenneth was sent to live on the coast near Liverpool with Uncle Stephen. Listening to her aunt and uncle Rosemary learns that her father plans to live with his mother, Charlotte Rivers, whom he doesn't get along with. Rosemary has never met Grandmother Charlotte but she's hoping that she can help keep the peace between her father and her grandmother.

Rosemary is told the next day by her aunt and uncle about this plan and that her parents will be arriving in a fortnight. They will be travelling by ship, the cost of the tickets being paid by Grandmother Charlotte and they will be living on her farm in Wisconsin. Her aunt and uncle caution Rosemary not to get her hopes up as her father doesn't get along with his mother. Rosemary is determined to be the peacemaker between her father and Grandmother Charlotte. Rosemary lets her best friend Beryl know about her leaving for America and promises to write. 

Rosemary's parents and her brothers, Patrick now eleven years old and Kenneth now eight years old, arrive at Uncle John's home. Rosemary is shocked at the difference in her brothers, who she hasn't seen in three years but she is thrilled to see her parents. They leave the next day taking the triain to the port, then travel by boat across the Atlantic. They arrive in Canada, sail past Quebec City and Montreal, across Lake Ontario to Rochester, New York where they disembark. They then travel by train to Chicago, Green Bay and then on to Rhineland in Wisconsin. There Rosemary's father manages to buy an old car and they drive to Hazen and to his mother's home.

Rosemary and her family are shocked when they see Grandmother Charlotte's home. The home is "...the most majestic house she'd ever seen." It has three stories, with large pillars and is surrounded by a field of wildflowers. It was like the house Rosemary had imagined in her secret world she'd named "Paradise". In "Paradise", Rosemary had imagined "...a grand white house..." and "...a glorious place of colorful flowers growing in happy profusion, and of orchards dotted with blossoming trees."  Rosemary's father tells them that it was a resort until recently and that is overlooks North Hackley Lake, with ten or fifteen cottages that his father had built.

After meeting Grandmother Charlotte, they are introduced to Aunt Ann who was married to Rosemary's father's late brother James, and her daughter Corinne. Corinne is not friendly and warns Rosemary they won't be friends. The next morning Rosemary makes an astonishing discovery - a beautiful garden of flowers behind the house. Worried that grandmother might be upset at her presence in the garden, Rosemary races back to the gate only to find it won't open. That is until a boy helps her. She learns that the boy is Jacob Parker, the son of the Grandmother Charlotte's maid. He works tending the garden and the grounds. Jacob refers to Rosemary's grandmother as Mrs. Riviere, leading Rosemary to confront her parents and grandmother about her heritage. Her father tells his mother that he used the name Rivers because of the prejudice he has experienced. It is Grandmother Charlotte who reveals to Rosemary that she is Indian and French.

Her father explains that he was also afraid of the prejudice they might experience in England, especially with what is going on in Europe with Nazi Germany. However, Rosemary doesn't accept her father's explanation that they never talk about her mother's family because in fact she knows that her mother is English and Irish and knows other information as well.

On a surprise shopping trip to buy new clothes for Rosemary, Grandmother Charlotte asks her to help her with the garden so that she can win all the blue ribbons at the upcoming fall fair in August. Grandmother also reveals to Rosemary more about her Indian heritage: Charlotte's mother was a full-blooded Ojibwe, while her father was a Scotsman who was also French-Indian. Charlotte explains that she is Ojibwe Anishinaabe, descended from people who lived on the land in Wisconsin and Michigan and who understood the animals and the plants. She also explains that her husband (Rosemary's grandfather) was wealthy from the fur trade but when that money ran out, he opened the Indian resort. While Grandmother Charlotte and her son James were interested in carrying on their cultural traditions, Leslie, Rosemary's father was not because of the prejudice he experienced. 

 However her father's ongoing struggle to find work causes Rosemary to worry that once again her family will be forced to move and be separated.  Grandmother Charlotte however has her own plan, one that will make Rosemary's dream of Paradise come true.

Discussion

The Blossoming Summer is a sweet middle-grade novel about life in America at the beginning of World War II. 

The story is told by thirteen-year-old Rosemary Riviere who wants nothing more than the reuniting of her parents, her brothers and herself and for them to become a loving family once more. Rosemary is so desperate for this to happen that she had created for herself, an imaginary home which she calls Paradise. Paradise "...was a glorious place of colorful flowers growing in happy profusion, and of orchards dotted with blossoming trees...A grand white house that sheltered its family from the rain and wind and welcomed newcomers on bright summer days. It winked it eyes in the blizzards of December and kept fires burning in its hearths during January; it shone like chine in the June sun, and its lawns turned green as a parakeet's plummage in August...She also liked to imagine the family inside the Paradise house...there was a mother, a father, and three young children, and they were a remarkably special family. They never quarreled, and they always did things together, having a marvelous time..."

Rosemary's ideal family is unrealistic and reflects how desperately she misses her family and longs for a real home. It's not that her Uncle John and Aunt Katie Alexandra do not love her, but they are not her parents. It's clear the separation from her parents and her brothers has deeply hurt her. So when she learns that her parents  are reuniting their family and moving to America, Rosemary is hopeful and determined to make sure they stay together. 

Rosemary quickly recognizes that the reunion of her family may not be what she thought it would be. When her parents and younger brothers arrive at her Uncle John's Rosemary is shocked at how changed her brothers are. At dinner she notes that it is evident her parents have lived apart where one parent would mention something that the other parent did not know about. It was these "one-sided memories" that each parent brought up that was disconcerting. Later that night she reflects: "They were togerher, and yet...And yet, look at them. Perfect strangers in some ways. Still a family, but sundered, somehow, missing something. Kenneth, for example, barely knew her -- and worse still, he didn't even seem to care about her." She also notes considerable change in her parents: "Dad and Mum had changed a great deal since their last visit five months ago. Mum was now slim and lithe, almost too much so, and her eyes were limpid and sad...Dad's dark hair was grayer, and the scar on his cheek stood out more than it used to. He mostly spoke in bursts -- declarations and exclamations -- before growing silent again."

A hint of the revelation to come occurs on the Atlantic crossing when Rosemary is looking through her mother's scrapbook and finds her father's passport. His name is listed as Leslie Joseph Riviere instead of Rivers as is her surname. Rosemary believes the passport is incorrect. However, she learns from her grandmother that in fact, the name is correct and that she is of Ojibwe heritage. 

On a shopping outing, Grandmother Charlotte tells Rosemary that if she wins the blue ribbon prizes at the local fair, she will lease her father land to build a home on. To Rosemary, this feels like a dream come true, since her grandmother's home and land feel so close to the "Paradise" she's been dreaming of. In reality, adult readers will suspect Charlotte's true motives since Leslie Rivier is Charlotte's only surviving adult heir and it's likely her land would pass to him anyways. But as it happens, Charlotte's plan is to help her son recognize the beauty of his Indian heritage and the land he is tied to, and give his family a second chance to restart their lives after so much struggle and separation.She not only achieves this end but in the process helps to rebuild the bonds between Rosemary and her brothers, between the children and their parents and between Leslie and Louise, as well as between Charlotte and her estranged son Leslie. Grandmother Charlotte also begins to pass on her knowledge of the land and her Ojibwe culture and language to her granddaughter, thus reclaiming what her son Leslie rejected. 

When Grandmother Charlotte doesn't win the ribbons she wanted, Rosemary believes she failed. She tells her parents, "I thought I had to be the one...The one to -- manage everything, to make things work. I didn't think anyone else could. I was sure that if I could just make everything perfect -- a kind of Paradise -- then everything would be...fine." Bur her parents tell her, "And it's also very true that you are not responsible for this family.That's for your mother and me to worry about." Her father also tells Rosemary that while they are not the perfect family, they are trying and that the long separation they've endured has made things more difficult. Her father tells her, "I'm truly sorry that you felt you had to be the one to fix things between us, and between the whole family, ....But that's what a family is for, you see? One person doesn't need to have sole responsibility -- and shouldn't." Her mother reiterates that they will not separate Rosemary and her brothers ever again, something that allays Rosemary's biggest fear of losing her family again. 

The Blossoming Summer is a sweet and very touching novel about how difficult times can force families into situations that are trying. It tackles the theme of an older child, often a daughter, who takes on the responsibiliies of keeping things together. This novel, from award-winning author, Anna Rose Johnson offers young readers a refreshing story that has a positive outlook on family life, on the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren, and on forgiveness and redemption. 

The author includes a map and also a glossary of Ojibwe terms. Highly recommended.

Book Details:

The Blossoming Summer by Anna Rose Johnson
New York: Holiday House   2025
276 pp.

Maryam's Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani by Megan Reid

This colourful picture book tells the story of an extraordinary woman mathematician, Maryam Mirzakhani. 

Maryam loved to tell stories to her younger sister every night. Maryam and her friend Roya loved to roam through a favourite part of their city and imagine themselves in their stories. At home Maryam loved to draw and write the stories she created in her mind. Reading and art were her favourite subjects and she hoped to be a famous writer some day. Maryam was fortunate to be able to attend school, now that her country of Iran was at peace.

One subject Maryam disliked was math. She did not like numbers. But when Maryam was twelve-years-old, she began studying geometry in math. Suddenly Maryam found herself liking math because "Every number held a story. It made those numbers into shapes -- and those shapes into pictures."

Maryam and Roya entered a competition for young mathematicians called the International Mathematical Olympiad. This was the first time girls had made the Iranian team and they did not disappoint. They both won medals. The two friends continued to practice for the competition the following year which was held in Toronto, Canada. At that competition, Maryam won the grand prize with a perfect score. After college, Maryam attended graduate school at Harvard where she spent time with her professors discussing mathematical formulas and theories. As she did when she was younger, Maryam would spread sheets of paper on the floor of  her home to work on mathematical problems. Her daughter, Anahita would tell friends that her mother was a painter! Maryam continued to work on problems that dealt with infinity and she also wrote papers and presented her new ideas.

One of those new ideas was called " 'the magic wand theorem' because it worked like magic to solve many problems that scientists had been puzzling over for more than a hundred years." In 2014, Maryam won the Fields Medal for this theorem, marking her as the first woman and first Iranian to win the coveted prize. Sadly, at this time Maryam was also diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. She died in 2017. Her lifelong friend, Professor Roya Beheshti, herself a mathematician, spoke about how Maryam was a girl eager to learn, with a kind heart. She was both a mathematician and a storyteller.

Discussion

In the picture book, Maryam's Magic young readers are introduced to a woman mathematician who  made significant contributions in the field of mathematics and who is virtually unknown outside that specialty. Few young girls are drawn to the discipline of mathematics, often developing a strong dislike for it, early on. This was the case with Maryam.

Maryam was born in Tehran, Iran in 1977. Maryam loved to read and wasn't initially attracted to mathematics. In fact, she wanted to become a writer. Maryam was inspired by the many biographies she watched on television of famous women. The Iran-Iraq War was ending as Maryam completed elementary school. She was able to secure a place at the Tehran Farzanegan School which was run by the National Organization for the Development of Exceptional Talent. There she made a friend in Roya Behesti and the two girls scoured bookstores, buying the cheap books to take home and read. 

Initially Maryam did poorly in mathematics but in her second year at the school she had a different teacher who encouraged her. When she and Roya began attending the high school, they were able to solve some of the questions from that year's national mathematics competition. The two girls went to their school principal and asked for classes in solving math problems like those offered at the boys school. Even though Iran's National Mathematics Olympiad had never had female entrants, their principal was undeterred. 

Maryam entered that Olympiad and she won the gold medal for mathematics at the Iranian National Olympiad in 1994. Maryam went on to win gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Hong Kong in 1994 and again at the International Mathematical Olympiad held the following year in Toronto. 

Maryam completed her B.Sc. in Mathematics from Sharif University of Technology in 1999. She then moved to the United States where she earned her Ph.D at Harvard, under the tutelage of Chris McMullen who had also won a Fields Medal. As she attended McMullen's classes, she asked many questions in English, she took her notes in Farsi. Her 2004 dissertation has been described as a masterpiece and "truly spectacular" and parts were published as separate papers in the top three mathematical journals.

She became an assistant professor at Princeton and a research fellow at the Clay Mathematics Institute. Maryam then joined the faculty at Stanford. It was Maryam's intellectual curiosity and her determination to consider problems that couldn't be solved that set her apart. Maryam married Jan Vondrak, a Czech applied mathematician and they had a daughter named Anahita.

Maryam's Magic captures the enthusiasm Maryam Mirzakhani had for mathematics, and especially for tackling difficult problems. While the text provides all the necessary details of Maryam's life and even explains in a very simple way some of her work, it is the illustrations by artist, Aaliya Jaleel that capture her joy at doing math and her unique method of working on problems. Maryam's imagination which she developed at a young age from her reading, was put to good use as a mathematician studying abstract surfaces. This too is captured in Jaleel's exquisite artwork.

Maryam initially didn't like math, but with an encouraging teacher, her attitude changed. With support, she grew more confident and did not feel intimidated by mathematics. Perhaps this is the key to success in math for girls. It also helped that Maryam had another friend who shared her interest. Maryam's fearless approach to mathematics, her courage to lead the way  and her humility in the face of her outstanding accomplishments are important lessons for girls everywhere. 

Reid's presentation of Maryam Mirzakhani's life and accomplishments offers encouragement for those girls interested in science and mathematics to persist and to be courageous. There is a place for them in the STEM world and they have much to offer! In addition to the Author's Note, Reid has included an Important Dates section and a few suggestions for readers to learn more about Maryam Mirzakhani.

Book Details:

Maryam's Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani by Megan Reid
New York: Balzer & Bray       2021

Fallout: Spies, Superbombs and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown by Steve Sheinkin

World War II has ended with the United States and Russia emerging as the two dominant world powers. For the United States, that domination is partly due to the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But now the race is on to dominate in the age of nuclear weapons.

In June, 1953, paper boy Jimmy Bozart was collecting for his paper route. He often was tipped an extra nickel or dime. From the two retired teachers on the top floor of the apartment building, Jimmy was given a quarter and five nickels. But on his way down the stairs, he slipped and the change spilled. Jimmy found the quarter and four of the nickels. The fifth nickel was in two parts: the back and a hollowed out front containing what looked like a tiny piece of film.

Jimmy raced home, wondering if the strange nickel was somehow connected to Soviet spies. The Cold War was intensifying and any bit of information might help. By 1953, the Soviets and United States were locked in a deadly race to build atomic and nuclear weapons of mass destruction.

Eventually the nickel came to a classmate's father who was a detective in the New York police and he passed it on to the FBI. They questioned the two teachers and did further investigation into the origins of the nickel but were unable to determine anything. The film was sent to code breakers in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, the man who actually crafted the nickel was living in Brooklyn, not far from Jimmy Bozart's family. That man was Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy who had entered the country via Canada.

It wasn't until August, 1949 that the Soviets successfully tested their first atomic bomb, a weapon they were only able to make after stealing the technology from the United States. In early 1950, President Harry Truman announced the United States was working on a new, more powerful bomb, a hydrogen bomb or H-bomb. Abel was working to steal that technology in the hopes of giving the Soviets an advantage.

But the H-bomb would become a reality very quickly. Edward Teller, a Jewish physicist who fled Germany during the war, came to work at a secret lab called Los Alamos in New Mexico. After working on creating the atomic bomb, Teller along with other scientists wondered if it were possible to make a big bomb by fusing atoms together. It was Teller and Stanislaw Ulam who solved this problem. In November 1952, the United States successfully tested a H-bomb. By 1956, the U.S. would have 3,700 bombs. By 1959, the U.S. had over 12,000 bombs.

In the months after Josef Stalin's death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev managed to seize control of power in Soviet Russia. He was determined to see the spread of communism throughout the world. In 1955, the Soviets successfully tested their own hydrogen bomb. The nuclear arms race was now on. Like the U.S., the Soviets began stockpiling bombs and building planes and rockets to deliver those bombs.

As both the United States and the Soviet Union continued to develop, test and stockpile nuclear weapons, a series of events over 1960 and 1961 would draw the superpowers into the ultimate nuclear showdown. 

Discussion

With Fallout, Steve Sheinkin continues the story of the arms race and the development of weapons of mass destruction that began during World War II and was told in his book Bomb. In this book, he follows the events that led up to the showdown between the Soviet Union which was placing nuclear missiles in Cuba and the United States, the intended target of those missiles.

The series of events were many and all connected. The first was the capture of U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers who was on a final reconnaissance flight over the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960. These flights, in the era before satellites, had provided the United States with valuable military intelligence about the Soviet build-up of weapons.

The second was the growing alliance between Khrushchev and the new leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro. President Eisenhower considered Castro a growing threat not only to the U.S. but also to other countries in South America. The third was the election of John F. Kennedy as President of the United States in November, 1960. He was the youngest president ever elected to the office and he was relatively inexperienced. Khrushchev saw him as weak and immature but it was Kennedy's reluctance to escalate the conflict that helped avert a war.

The fourth event was the invasion of Cuba by the United States with the intent to remove Fidel Castro. There was evidence the Soviets were sending military supplies to Cuba. After much planning and denial by the U.S., the invasion occurred at Bahia de Cochinos, the Bay of Pigs and was a massive failure. 

This was followed by the successful launch by the Soviets of a cosmonaut, Yuri Gagurin, into space - the fifth event. It meant the Soviets now had the potential capability to send a nuclear warhead over the ocean to America. 

Finally, the building of the Berlin wall served to increase tension dramatically in Europe. This was the one place where communism and the free world directly faced off. After World War II, Germany was a country divided: West Germany was democratic while East Germany was a communist dictatorship. Similarly, the capital of Germany, Berlin was also split in two. East Berlin was part of communist East Germany while West Berlin was part of democratic free West Germany. Life in East Germany and East Berlin was difficult as both were oppressive, police states. As a result, people fled from east to west and by 1962, over a thousand a day were leaving. This infuriated Khrushchev who wanted to take over the entire city of Berlin. To stop the drain of people, Walter Ulbricht suggested building a wall between East and West Berlin.

These events were all important catalysts. But it was the fact that the Americans had bases all over Europe including a new operational one in Turkey and that the Soviets were still behind in the nuclear arms race that led Khrushchev to undertake what he later admitted to his son, was "a bluff". "The missiles in Cuba had always been a bluff....The goal was to give the Americans a taste of their own medicine, to make them live with a bit more fear. That would even out the global balance of power. The Soviets could refocus on driving the Americans out of Berlin, and the march to Cold War victory would continue from there."  

It was unbelievable that it was this irresponsible "bluff" which brought the world to the brink of  nuclear war. It seems President Kennedy and Soviet naval Captain Vasili Arkhipov who was the chief of staff for the four Soviet subs near the naval blockage and who had seen the horrors of radiation poisoning from the K-19 nuclear submarine disaster, were the two men who likely prevented nuclear war. Kennedy couldn't imagine starting a nuclear war, despite intense pressure from his military staff and Arkhipov refused to allow the launch of a nuclear missile from one of the subs.

Fallout is well researched, and a fascinating read. The events are told in three parts bookended with a Prologue and an Epilogue. Each part presents black and white photographs of the major players in the events described. Sheinkin does an excellent job of portraying all the moving parts of these events including Russian spies, world leaders, and ordinary citizens including a young paper boy. Despite being well written, this is a book for much older readers and adults. The events are complex and all interconnected.

Sheinkin undertook the research and writing of this book before being interrupted by the pandemic. Nevertheless, he was able to continue his research and talk to Francis Gary Powers Jr. as well as Dr. Sergei Khrushchev, son of Nikita Khrushchev. Dr. Khrushchev was able to provide valuable insights into the events from the Soviet perspective.

Fallout is a must-read for those who want to understand Europe as it exists today and the current events unfolding between Russia and Ukraine.

Book Details:

Fallout: Spies, Superbombs and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown by Steve Sheinkin
New York: Roaring Book Press     2021
341 pp.

Luck of the Titanic by Stacey Lee

It's April 10, 1912 and Valora Luck is waiting at the first class gangway to board the White Star's newest ocean line, Titanic. Valora's former employer, Mrs. Sloane had secretly purchased the tickets for them without telling her grasping son and his wife. However, she died suddenly over a week ago and Valora's here now, taking her place.

Dressed in one of Mrs. Sloane's traveling suits, Valora is determined to board Titanic to find and reunite with her twin brother Jamie Luck. He is one of seven Chinese men from the Atlantic Steam Company being transported to Cuba to take on a new job.

Despite her ticket, Valora is refused entry because she is half Chinese. The Chinese Exclusion Act bars Chinese from entering America. Valora lies and tells the officer her lady is expecting her, but to no avail.

Undaunted, Valora manages to board Titanic by hiding underneath a Renault being hoisted into the ship's hold. When Valora is seen climbing out of the hold by a crewman, she is reported to Officer Merry. Luckily she is saved by a Miss Hart who distracts the officer, allowing Valora to concentrate on finding Jamie.

Valora knows from the late Mrs. Sloane's list of passengers, that Mr. Albert Ankeny Stewart, part owner of the Ringling Brothers Circus is on board. Her plan is to find Jamie, convince him to do the routine they choregraphed with Ba months ago for Mr. Stewart and get hired.

Valora is able to find Jamie's cabin, but the Chinese sailors don't trust her and offer no help. However, as she wanders through the ship, Valora stumbles upon Jamie who she finds helping Miss Charlotte Fine with her poodle. Jamie is with two young Chinese boys, Olly and Wink and a young Chinese man, Chow Bo Wah who works as a fireman on Titanic. Valora tells Jamie about her plan for them to go to New York and become circus performers by impressing Mr. Stewart. But Jamie isn't interested and he reminds Valora that he doesn't want to go to America and that it's illegal for them to do so.

Jamie's attitude makes Valora angry but determined. Tired, she makes her way to B-Deck and when confusion arises over the room that Mrs. Sloane would have occupied, Valora is offered a beautiful stateroom after identifying herself as Mrs. Amberly Sloane. With Mrs. Sloane's dress and her face covered by a veil of bees lace, Valora has created the perfect disguise.

As the ship leaves Cherbourg, Valora finds herself settling into her new role when April Hart knocks on her door. April knows who she is and makes Valora the offer of having her wear her own creations from House of July, her haute couture fashion label. At first she refuses but April reveals that she knows exactly who Valora is and suggests they can help each other. She tells Valora she could be the "Merry Widow" and "the mysterious woman in mourning" and that she can help her hide in first class. Valora agrees to model April's outfits in exchange for her finding out about Mr.Stewart. Now all she needs to do is convince Jamie to perform their act for Mr. Stewart so they can start their new life in America. 

Discussion

With Luck of the Titanic, New York Times best-selling author Stacey Lee has crafted another riveting novel for teen readers. She has taken the well known and much written about historical event of the sinking in 1912 of the White Star ocean liner, Titanic and focused in on the little known fact that there were eight Chinese passengers on board the ship. Six of the Chinese survived and sadly these men were shamed for surviving. 

With this detail as her foundation, Lee has created a believable and moving story. The challenge, when using a historical event like the Titanic in which the outcome is well known, is to write a good, plausible story with believable fictional characters whose fate is not known to the reader. Lee accomplishes this remarkably well. Also, as she notes in her Author's Further Note at the back, "The challenge of writing historical fiction lies in creating a fictional story within the confines of the historical record without doing to much damage in the process." Lee has remained faithful to the events of the Titanic disaster while also educating her readers on the discrimination so prevalent against the Chinese, that there was a specific law barring them from entering America and that their efforts to survive the disaster were considered dishonourable and shameful.

In Luck of the Titanic, the main character, Valora Luck is posing as her recently deceased employer, the wealthy Mrs. Amberly Sloane. Valora initially planned to board Titanic as Mrs. Sloane's maid but when that attempt fails she manages to sneak onto the ship - perhaps the most implausible part of the entire story. Her goal is to find her brother Jamie whom she knows is on the ship working on the boilers. Valora wants to go to America and begin a new life there as a circus performer and part of the act she and her brother developed as Valor and Virtue. Jamie is simply not interested in Valora's idea, although he eventually decides to help her. Their plans are never realized as the ship strikes the iceberg and begins to sink. 

However, before the tragedy, Valora comes to realize that what she thinks is best for her might not be the right thing for Jamie. This realization in the cabin of Mr. Stewart of Ringling Bros. comes at the exact moment the Titanic strikes the iceberg. "Life is a balancing act, and the better you get a juggling, the better you get at living. But juggling is not an act of holding tight. It's an act of letting go -- of giving the people you love the time and space to find their own orbit. And it's an act of catching. I'll always be there for Jamie, just as he'll always be there for me." And so Valora makes a deal that works for both her and Jamie, giving him the freedom to live his life as he chooses, not as she wishes. And as it turns out that is for the best as the tragedy of the sinking unfolds.

One contentious detail in the novel is whether Valora would be able to move so easily about on Titanic between first class and the quarters where the Chinese crew are housed. Lee does add a touch of realism to this as Valora's true identity is eventually revealed.

Lee also makes use of considerable foreshadowing in the novel through Valora's dreams and also with the gift of the carved whale that Bo gives Valora. When questioned as to why a whale, Bo tells her, "A whale rules the sea. It goes where it wants without fear. And if troubled, it can become a bird --he flaps his hands, his long fingers moving gracefully -- "beating wings hard enough to stir up the sea. It means being in control of your destiny."

The novel's gorgeous cover is sure to draw readers in but Titanic is so overdone in novels, that the theme may be off putting for some readers. Those that do take up the challenge however, will find an enjoyable, well-crafted story with a very bittersweet ending. The novel includes a List of Characters in her novel and maps of the layout of the R.M.S. Titanic. 

Book Details:

Luck of the Titanic by Stacey Lee
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons        2021
366 pp.

Amina's Song by Hena Khan

Amina Khokar is in the final days of her visit to Lahore, Pakistan with her older brother, Mustafa and  mother. Amina and her family decided to visit Pakistan after Thaya Jaan became ill earlier in the year. 

Amina is at the Anarkali Bazaar hoping to purchase some gifts for her friends back home in Greendale, Wisconsin. After her cousin Zohra bargains with the shopkeepers for various items, Amina and Mustafa travel by rickshaw to Wazir Khan Mosque where they meet Mama and Amina's uncle Thaya Jaan. Being in the mosque which was built by the Emperor Shah Jahan reminds Amina of her mosque back home and how it had to be shut down for six months after it was vandalized. Thaya Jaan tells Amina's family that people who do bad things are not often evil but misguided.

In the evening at her uncle's home,  Amina and Zohra sit on the rooftop terrace. Amina invites Zohra and her brother Ahmed to visit America during  the winter but Zohra isn't keen to do so, because she feels she won't be welcome there. When it is time to leave, Thaya Jaan makes Amina promise to show Americans "the beauty of Pakistan".  

As Amina struggles to acclimatize to life at home, she feels her friends aren't much interested in her experiences in Pakistan. Determined to show her friends and classmates that Pakistan is more than what they hear on the news, Amina decides to focus on Malala Yousafzai. But when her first presentation leaves the wrong impression, Amina struggles to figure out how she can show the beauty of the Pakistan she loves so much.

Discussion

Amina's Song is the sequel to Khan's first novel, Amina's Voice. It picks up where the first novel left off with Amina and her family visiting family in Lahore, Pakistan. 

Amina experiences internal conflict as she becomes more comfortable with life in Pakistan learning to appreciate the city of Lahore and her Pakistani roots. At the same time,  she also feels lost. In Pakistan with her relatives, Amina struggles to fit in. "It becomes obvious that I don't quite fit in with my relatives, although the same blood runs through my veins. I don't share their language, their sense of humor, or their memories. When someone busts out with an expression, or a line of poetry, and everyone chimes in with a laugh or comment, I can't help but feel like an impostor, or a shapeshifter who appears to be a regular Pakistani girl on the outside but doesn't know how to act like one."

Amina wants to stay longer in Pakistan and learn Urdu. Her feelings are further conflicted when her cousin, Zohra refuses to visit America because she's "not wanted", leaving Amina hurt.  "She's talking about my country, the one that's a part of me and made me who I am." She reminds Zohra that there is good and bad everywhere. Back in America, this internal conflict that Amina feels continues but in a different way; Amina feels that her friends do not appreciate her culture and show little interest in what she experienced over the summer.

As a way to keep her promise to Thaya Jaan, Amina decides to focus on Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai for her class's Living Wax Museum assignment. However, after her first presentation on Malala leaves her classmates believing that girls in Pakistan have no rights, Amina is embarrassed. Her brother Mustafa points out that people know only what they hear about a country and he reminds Amina how she was afraid to visit Pakistan.

Khan thus sets the stage for the main character to inform her young American readers about some of the contributions Pakistani women have made to their country, demonstrating that Pakistan is more than what they might hear on the news or read on the internet. As well, Amina's Baba explains that each country has its own challenges. "Every culture has shameful parts of its history and groups of people who do things that are wrong. Pakistan is no better or worse."

Khan also portrays some of the struggles an American-born child of immigrants might face, growing up in a culture with very different values. For example, Amina's mother is strict about the clothing her daughter wears to school, not allowing Amina nor her brother to wear clothing that is ripped or has holes. Amina has to convince her mother to buy her a dress for the school dance, refusing to wear the salwar kameez her mother prefers. And when she brings her new friend Nico - a boy,  home, Amina's mother shocks her by asking what his intentions are.

Overall, Amina's Song offers a satisfying and positive conclusion to the story of Amina. It follows the typical formula for books about immigrant families, with the main character experiencing conflict over their identity as they struggle to navigate two cultures which often have opposing values. Amina is a thoughtful, well drawn character who is able to see the good in both her American and Pakistani cultures, thus setting a positive tone at a time when newcomers are viewed with fear.

Book Details:

Amina's Song by Hena Khan
New York: Salaam Reads (An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Div.)    2021
280 pp.

Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom by Teresa Robeson

In the town of Liuhe, China, the Wu family celebrated the birth of a baby girl. Unlike many people at this time, the Wu's did not hold the common view that girls were not as smart as boys and therefore should not attend school. Instead they believed their daughter would be both smart and brave and so they named her Chien Shiung which means "courageous hero".

Before Chien Shiung's birth her parents were already actively involved in the education of girls. Her father had left his engineering job to open a school for girls and her mother encouraged families in their village to send their daughters to school.

At the school in Liuhe, where her father was the principal and her mother a teacher, Chien Shiung quickly learned how to read, write and do mathematics. Her parents decided to send her to a girls school in the city of Suzhou, fifty miles away. This meant that Chien Shiung would have to live away from home, except for summer and winter vacations.

In Suzhou, Chien Shiung enrolled in the teacher training program but she also taught herself from the academic program which covered the sciences.By day she studied her own program, at night she did what she called "self-learning" from the academic textbooks borrowed from friends.

Because of her hard work, Chien Shiung was seen as a leader and eventually came to lead a student underground group that was fighting against the government. 

When she was seventeen-years-old, Chien Shiung graduated with top honours and continued her studies in Nanjing at the National Central University to study physics. At university, she continued to be an influential student leader attempting to get General Chiang Kai Shek resist the invasion of China by the Japanese prior to World War II.

In 1936, Chien Shiung left China and travelled to Berkeley, California to continue her study of physics. She was particularly interested in the study of atoms and beta decay. From this point on, her studies on the atom would lead to Chien Shiung understanding beta decay better than almost anyone in the world. As she solved problem after problem, Chien Shiung unfortunately received little recognition, never winning a Nobel Prize for some of her most valuable research. However, she came to be known as the Queen of Physics.

Discussion

Most adult readers will probably never have heard of Wu Chien Shiung and therefore know little about her incredible contributions to the field of atomic physics. But Queen of Physics will give readers of all ages, the important details of Chien Shiung's life and her research in the interesting format of a picture book. 

Chien Shiung Wu was born on May 31, 1912 to Wu Zhong-Yi and Fan Fu-Hua. She had an older brother Chien-Ying and a younger brother Chein-Hau. In Queen of Physics, Robeson emphasizes the role Chien Shiung's parents played in her development as a scientist. It was their belief that girls could accomplish as much as boys and that girls should be allowed an education. Although Robeson doesn't go into much detail in this children's picture book, in the autobiography, Madame Wu Chien-shiung: The First Lady of Physics Research by Tsai-chien Tiang, Chien-Shiung's father was a major force in her youth. Wu Zong-Yi was a progressive and knowledgeable man who was very close to his only daughter. He was well read and exposed to the Western ideas of democracy and freedom, but he also valued Chinese culture and traditions. He wanted his children to be prepared for the changes that he felt were coming. He recognized the Chien Shiung was gifted and set about to help her cultivate those gifts. This close relationship and mentorship between father and daughter is a feature many famous and accomplished women scientists share.

Chien Shiung also worked hard to achieve the success her parents believed she was capable of but this success came at the price of never again seeing her parents when she left for the United States in 1936. World War II and the Communist revolution prevented her from returning while her parents were still alive.

Queen of Physics also highlights the difficulties women scientists have had in achieving recognition of their outstanding achievements. Robeson describes how Chien Shiung made at least three significant contributions to particle physics, each important to the work of other scientists. Despite this, her contributions all of which were major discoveries, were not recognized along with those whose research she helped, when the Nobel Prizes were awarded. In this regard, Chien Shiung was in good company with the likes of Rosalind Franklin, Lise Meitner, Vera Rubin and many other stellar women scientists whose contributions went unrecognized for decades.

Robeson interesting biography is accompanied by the artwork of Rebecca Huang which incorporates features of Chinese culture and mathematics and physics notations. Included is a Glossary of terms used in the biography, a short note on Wu Chien Shiung's life, a Bibliography and suggestions for further reading.

Book Details:

Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom by Teresa Robeson
New York: Sterling Children's Books    2019

Across A War-Tossed Sea by L.M. Elliott

Fourteen-year-old Charles Bishop and his ten-year-old brother Wesley are celebrating Labor Day 1943 with their American host family, the Ratcliffs at a pond that feeds Four Mile Creek. Charles and Wesley have been sent overseas to America to escape Hitler's bombing of London. The Radcliff family has taken in Charles and Wesley because their father saved Mr. Ratcliff's life during World War I. Now they are living in Tidewater, Virginia with a family that includes seven-year-old twins Johnny and Jamie, two older boys Bobby and twelve-year-old Ron and their older sister, sixteen-year-old Patsy.

Tidewater, is located near Richmond, Virginia, an area heavily involved in the war effort, with factories at Richmond producing parachutes and other war materials, while east along the James River, the U.S. Navy has a base at Norfolk.  From Norfolk, the U.S. military deploys servicemen out of Hampton Roads to the war in Europe and North Africa.

Even though they are thousands of miles away from the war, Wesley continues to have nightmares about the bombing and the treacherous Atlantic crossing. One such nightmare occurs during their Labor Day outing after Wesley falls asleep because of the oppressive heat. Charles is embarrassed by Wesley's struggles but Patsy tries to comfort him. This leads Wesley to tell her about being attacked in the Atlantic and how their ship was not allowed to stop and save those whose ships had been torpedoed. But Ron ridicules Wesley whom he bullies constantly, which makes Charles angry. Patsy intervenes to prevent a fight. 

In September of 1943, Charles begins high school. He's on the football team as a tight end, while Bobby is the quarterback. As some of his school chums are now nighttime air raid wardens, Charles worries that he will be considered a coward. So when he writes home he tells his parents he wants to return to help the fire brigade in extinguishing the incendiary bombs in London.

Meanwhile Wesley finds himself "skipped ahead" to grade seven, the same grade as Ron. While Charles has a best friend in Bobby, Ron is not interested in being Wesley's friend. Instead Ron resents the presence of the Bishop brothers and bullies Wesley constantly. Ron accuses Wesley of cheating on a test but their teacher, Miss Darling discovers the paper he was holding was a telegram from his parents. Charles tries to encourage Wesley to stand up to Ron, telling him to ignore him and to work at being really good at something that Ron isn't so he will look foolish when he bullies him. Wesley decides on working at the spelling bee but although he makes it to the county championships he loses when he spells a word in the British way.

With the approach of Halloween, Charles and Bobby are busy preparing for the football championships, so when Mr. Radcliff asks the boys to help out with harvesting of pumpkins and the mowing and bringing in the hay, Bobby tries to decline. This leads his father to suggest that because help is hard to find he might have to hire the German POWs. Charles becomes so upset he leaves the dinner table and Mr. and Mrs. Ratcliff instead decide they will hire the sons of a local man, Ed. Wesley is sent to tell Charles so the two of them can visit Ed to ask him, but he's unable to find Charles. Instead he decides to visit Ed's house alone and while there he meets Ed and Alma and their son Freddy. Wesley leaves that evening believing he may have found a friend.

Soon everyone is working hard to bring in the harvest; Mr. Ratcliff and Ed and shredding cornstalks, Ed's sons and two friends are raking the hay into a tractor baler and Bobby, Ron and Charles and the twins are plowing the cornfield and planting winter wheat. When the mules bolt, dragging Charles it is Freddy who saves him. Although Wesley and Charles are grateful, Ron is angry that his brother Bobby is more concerned with Charles.

Charles and Wesley have many good and bad experiences; a haunted house for Halloween, a hunting trip that Wesley almost doesn't make because he shoots off a rifle in the Ratcliff home, Wesley's unexpected meeting of a Chickahominy Indian man and Charles joining Patsy whom he is crushing on, to plane-watch. But it is a series of events in the new year of 1944 that change many things for both the Ratcliffs and the Bishop brothers. Wesley gets into a brawl with Ron and his friends but tells Mr. Radcliff only part of the story to make Ron look good. This changes how Ron is viewed by his family and makes he and Wesley friends. Patsy learns that her beau, Henry Forester is missing in action over Europe. And Charles learns from a letter from a school chum that their school has been bombed. Feeling ashamed that he's not at home to help, Charles decides to attempt to canoe down the river to the Newport News-Hampton Roads docks where he hopes to stowaway on a cargo ship for Britain. This almost costs him his life.

Summer brings with it new challenges especially as the German POWs begin to work on the Ratcliff farm. For Charles and Wesley this means confronting their own prejudices and fears.

Discussion

Across A War-Tossed Sea is the third book in a trilogy that includes Under A War-Torn Sky and A Troubled Peace. This book is set in Virginia and tells the adventures of two English boys sent to the safety of America during World War II.

Although safe from incendiary bombs and the threat of invasion, Charles and Wesley Bishop must cope with homesickness, the trauma of their war experiences in London as well as living in America with its very different culture from that in their home country of England. Charles finds the American practice of talking about feelings annoying, especially when it comes to their war experiences in London. "Did they really think that talking or hugging or those molasses cookies and lemonade they endlessly offered could wash away the memories or houses shattering, friends trapped under rubble, or ships exploding and burning while survivors clung to wreckage in ten-foot-high waves?"

Charles' major struggle centers around the shame he feels at not being back in London to help with the war effort. At fourteen, he believes he can contribute and, to his school mates, it looks like he ran away. "Even though he and Bobby were good mates and he was enjoying high school, Charles was antsy to return to England and do his part. Several of his old school chums had become nighttime air raid wardens. Charles feared some of them called him a coward for evacuating to the U.S."  It is this shame after receiving a letter from England from a school chum, that leads him to run away from the Radcliff farm and attempt to canoe down the river to the sea. "More to the point, it felt to Charles as if he school chum's letter had implied that he was a coward for not being in London when the city desperately needed every able hand - a sense of guilt that had dogged Charles ever since he had walked up the gangplank of the ship evacuating him to America."  Charles' attempt to canoe to the Newport News-Hampton Roads docks almost ends in disaster. He does realize the serious repercussions his actions have for both himself (he develops pneumonia) the Ratcliff family (who use their savings to buy medication to save his life) and works to make amends. Eventually Charles is allowed to come home when his father is seriously injured in a bombing.

Charles tries to take the place of their father for his younger brother Wesley,  imagining how he might help Wesley deal with the bullying while coping with his own problems.  "Since crossing three thousand miles of ocean and settling in on the Ratcliff farm, Charles had had to play dad, mum, and big brother all to Wesley. No one comforted him when he was racked with similar nightmares!"

Meanwhile, Wesley struggles to overcome what is clearly post traumatic stress disorder due to the bombing in London and the attack on the ships during their Atlantic crossing. He experiences nightmares and is triggered by loud noises. The novel opens with Wesley experiencing one of his nightmares, much to Charles' annoyance. When Wesley accompanies Freddy and his family to London to see the launch of a aircraft carrier Freddy's father has been working on, he experiences a flashback of a air raid in London. "Abruptly, the five o'clock siren sounded, signaling the end of the work day for some, the beginning of it for others. Most didn't react to the blaring sound. But Wesley flinched and stiffened. Being around big ships all day had brought back a lot of very bad memories. Now the siren's wail sounded like the alarm he'd heard over and over again back home when the Luftwaffe was coming loaded with hellfire. The truck backfired again...He looked nervously to the sky, waiting for the first whistling scream of a bomb falling through the air. He backed away from Freddy, not seeing him, only the rush of hurrying people...He needed to find the nearest shelter, quick!"  Freddy's father and mother help Wesley calm down. However, with time and living in a safer environment, Wesley finds he has fewer

Wesley also has to deal with bullying by Ron Ratcliff. Although his older brother Charles tries to encourage Wesley to ignore Ron, Wesley decides a different way to deal with him. Recognizing that Ron needs affirmation, Wesley points out the good act Ron did when he is attacked by Ron's friends. Although Ron pushed Wesley first, in the end he saves him from a serious beating and Wesley helps him fight when they turn on him too. Affirmed by both his father and his older brother Bobby, both of whom are shocked at Ron's good behaviour, Ron becomes friendlier and stops picking on Wesley.

Charles and Wesley are unaware of  how different life in America is compared with England. Charles likes that Americans have "an ease with giving out compliments that, generally speaking, Brits didn't." Wesley discovers that in America, Negroes must sit at the back of the bus, segregated from white people and that some white Americans are very prejudiced against blacks. However, when a white bus driver helps Freddy and his family when they are threatened by white teens,  his actions demonstrate not all American's feel this way.

But both Charles and Wesley are forced to confront their own prejudices and hatred - against Germans when the German POWs come to work on the farm.  To Charles and Wesley, all Germans are Nazis but they soon discover that this is a very simplistic view when they meet Gunter, a young German soldier who doesn't believe in the Nazi ideology.

When Gunter expresses relief over the Allied invasion of Europe and the hope that the war will end soon, as so many Germans are dying, his strong emotions shock Wesley. "Were those tears in the Jerry's eyes? Wesley was amazed. He had to blink away the image Gunter painted, knowing well the type of horrifying scene he described. Wesley had never though much before about German families suffering the same kind of terror he and Charles had." Wesley and Gunter connect through their mutual interest in "Indians" and the Wild West and their love of reading.

For Charles, it is not so easy. When he learns that the German POWs who are sympathetic to the Americans are at risk of being murdered by other German POWs, Charles feels little sympathy. He is forced to confront his feelings of hate when Gunter is bitten by a deadly water moccasin and is in danger of dying. His moans bring back memories of a neighbour horribly injured in a German bombing but Charles also remembers how Gunter saved the Ratcliff twins from a crashing plane. Putting aside his feelings, Charles helps Gunter by sending Freddy for help and attempting to suck the poison out of the snake bite (a practice that does NOT work). Gunter, who believes he is dying from the snake bite, tells Charles, "...Kill if you must to serve your country. But revenge is a  poison. Like this snake. Fight to end hatred. Fight to bring peace. Yes?" Charles agrees and learns that he must forgive if he's going to do what Gunter asks. "For the first time in a long while, the Lord's Prayer filled Charles's mind and heart: 'Forgive us our trespasses as we...' -- he paused and emphasized the words to himself --'as we forgive those who trespass against us.' " When Charles does leave for England he knows he going "back into a war-tossed world. But he was ready to face it now, to fight, as Gunter had advised -- not for revenge -- but to stop those who brought war and delighted in it."

The novel ends on a positive, upbeat note, despite the fact that the war is still ongoing. Charles is returning to England but he feels differently about Americans than when he first arrived and is grateful to the Ratcliffs. "He'd learned so much from them -- about friendship, about generosity, about standing up to trouble." Wesley has overcome bullying and he tells Charles he's fine to stay behind; he hasn't had nightmares for some time and he's made two good friends in Freddy and Ron.

Elliott successfully recreates the 1940's war era in rural America through the experiences of two young British lads. This author is skilled at incorporating many details of life into the story; racial segregation that existed at this time, farming practices, the war effort in America, the dangers the merchant marine encountered bringing supplies to England and life in general for Americans at this time. Also incorporated seamlessly into the story are facts about the war, Hitler's soldiers and life in London during the war. For example, while Charles is fuming about the German POWs he notes that some are from Rommel's elite panzer divisions that served in Africa. Elliott uses this opportunity to inform readers how SS troops were branded- a practice implemented so they could be quickly identified. "They were tall, muscular, blond, haughty -- perfect Aryan specimens. They probably had the telltale 'SS' tattoo under their armpits, marking them as true believers, devotees of Hitler's racist beliefs." In this way, readers learn historical facts without really realizing it.E lliott has included an Afterword that provides further detailed information on life in wartime Britain, U-boats, segregation, V-1 rockets and German POWs in America.

Across A War-Tossed Sea suffers somewhat from uneven pacing; young readers may find the first hundred pages of the novel slow going. After the first hundred pages though, there are many exciting adventures and experiences which occur quickly, one after the other, engaging the reader to the very end of the novel.

Overall, Across A War-Tossed Sea is another well-written and appealing story by Elliott that explores the themes of tolerance, forgiveness and redemption.

Book Details:

Across A War-Tossed Sea by L. M. Elliott
New York: Disney-Hyperion Books      2014
247 pp.

Soldier Boys by Dean Hughes

Dean Hughes' Soldier Boys is the tragic story of two young men who enlist to fight for their countries in World War II. It is a gritty, realistic account of the horror of war told in alternating narratives.

The novel opens a week after Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, unleashing the German blitzkrieg. Ten year old Dieter Hedrick, a member of the Jungfolk, is intimidated into jumping into a icy pond by seventeen-year-old Hans Keller, a Scharfuhrer with the Hitler Youth. Dieter is both afraid of the water and ashamed to be seen naked by the older boys, yet he wants to be complimented by Hans, who is funny and fierce, and whom he idolizes. Dieter is thrilled by Hitler's speeches and the victories achieved by the German army, the Wehrmacht. "Dieter thrilled to the words hoping that the day would come when he could prove himself the way these valiant soldiers were doing." Dieter sees Hitler as standing-up for Germany.  However, Dieter's father is not impressed by Hitler as he fears years of war.  To Dieter his father seems weak and he is ashamed. Although he's reluctant, Dieter jumps into the cold water of the pond, not once but twice. He believes that given the chance, he will go to war and make his family proud.

The story jumps ahead to December, 1941. Fifteen-year-old Spencer (Spence) Morgan is a Mormon living just outside Brigham City, Utah with his mother, father, his nineteen-year-old brother Robert, his sister Louise, and his eleven-year old brother, Lloyd. His family runs an orchard, growing peaches, cherries and apricots. Robert is determined to sign up to go fight the Japanese.  Spence who is crushing on LuAnn Crowther, tries to impress her by stating that when his time comes, he too will sign up.

The narrative jumps ahead two years to November, 1943. Spence who is sixteen, is flunking high school and he's determined to enlist. But his father is not happy, telling Spence that he is not mature enough and that he suspects Spence wants to prove something to LuAnn. Although she and Spence did date a bit, they parted ways and LuAnn has been dating Dennis Stevens and it is rumoured they plan to marry when she graduates high school. In the end, Spence's father relents and signs his papers. Spence promises his dad he will turn to God for support and that he won't take extra chances. When Spence meets LuAnn he tells her he plans to join the paratroopers. Later on his older sister Louise confronts him, stating that he's only joining "to show-up LuAnn" which Spencer vehemently denies.

Spence passes the intelligence test and is sent to Georgia for basic training and jump school for the Airborne to become a paratrooper. There he meets Ted Draney from Colorado and the two become fast friends, talking each other out of dropping out of paratrooper school. They spend the next thirteen weeks preparing for their first jump and eventually make it through paratrooper school. After spending time in a camp on Salisbury Plain, west of London, Spence and Ted who are part of the 17th Airborne Infantry Division, are being sent to the Ardennes Forest. Hitler undertook a surprise attack across the Belgian and Luxembourg borders, penetrating deep into the Ardennes Forest. This bulge in the American defense lines has become known as the Battle of the Bulge. The day after Christmas Spence's battalion gets dropped off closer to the front. He's about to get his first taste of war.

In September of 1944, Dieter Hedrick is now fifteen and working with crews of Hitler Youth, digging antitank trenches near the Mosel River in Luxembourg, along the Siegfied Line. With the Allies pushing out of Normandy and across France, this is Germany's attempt to stop them from invading Germany. Dieter is now a Scharfuhrer, having distinguished himself during weapons training camp. He was part of an antiaircraft battery in Augsburg. Dieter soon sees death when one of his crew is killed by aircraft fire, and a deserter is tied up and shot. To reward his efforts, Dieter along with many other young boys is taken to a train car where he meets Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and Hitler himself, who awards the boys the War Service Cross, First Class. Filled with Nazi fervor, Dieter becomes determined to enlist, hounding Lieutenant Feiertag. He gets what he wants and is shipped out to the front, a member "in a company of soldiers in the Forty-seventh Panzer Corps, part of the Fifteenth Army." There he meets Colonel Schaefer who challenges everything Dieter has been told about war, Germany and Hitler and the reason he's fighting.

Discussion

Soldier Boys is a tragic story that portrays how the idealization of war and military propaganda draws young people in, where they are eventually confronted with its horrific reality. The book follows the paths of two young men from two countries at war - Germany and America as they become soldiers. Both boys are under-aged and immature, enlisting for the wrong reasons. One is heavily propagandized and brainwashed, patriotic to a fault; the other naïve and hoping to prove his worth on the battlefield.

Dieter enlists out of patriotic emotions that are the result of indoctrination by the Nazis. He believes Germany has the high ground in the war and is simply protecting itself from America, Russia and Poland. When he is ten years old Dieter listens to "Hitler's fine speech to his people" and he believes that Poland had provoked Germany into attacking. Dieter views Hitler as someone "standing up for the Fatherland, making it a great nation again."

However, Dieter's views clash with his father, a veteran of the Great War, who never talks about "the brave German boys". Instead his father spoke about the reality of war: the trenches, the mud, the food and being one of the lucky ones to survive. Dieter believes his father may have been a coward, given that he shows no evidence of having done anything great. Eventually over the next few years, Dieter works tirelessly in the Hitler Youth and gets himself sent to the front in 1944. By this time the tide of war has turned against Germany, morale is low, and the Wehrmacht that Dieter loves is armed with the very old and the very young.

Dieter's "idea of an honorable death had always been glorious and clean." However when he sees another Hitler Youth die a gruesome death, he is forced to confront the reality of death. The truth about the war is revealed though by Schaefer who tells him: "You believe all these lies. You know nothing. We attacked London early on in the beginning. We wiped out Warsaw. We're as much to blame as anyone for all this killing of children and women and little boys." Dieter's response is to not believe Schaefer and to consider him a traitor. Schaefer warns him that the war is already lost, "Germany has already lost the war. The Russians have won in the east...Don't die for that pig Hitler." He tells Dieter to try to save his own life. He also reveals the truth behind the Nazi propaganda about the Jews, that millions are being gassed. Even though Dieter is sickened by this he still refuses to believe Schaefer, telling him he's a coward.

As they face their last battle, Dieter finds himself reconsidering death and heroism. "He knew that a hero shouldn't fear death, but where was the glory in dying for his country and never knowing it --just lying on the battlefield, gray and hard as ice? It was nice to think of a statue in his village, at least a placard with his name on it, but it wouldn't happen, he supposed, and even if it did, what would it mean to him, once he was one of those frozen corpses?"

Spencer's narrative is not as well developed and his reason for enlisting seems superficial. Spencer's father hopes he will be a missionary and preach, however Spencer isn't interested. Instead, his reasons for enlisting are to prove himself to LuAnn Crowther, the girl who rejected him. Spencer believes he is not good looking; he has buckskin-colored hair, freckles and crooked teeth. Spencer, like every other boy wanted LuAnn to be his girl, but after dating for a short time they each went their separate ways and she's now dating a wealthy boy named Dennis Stevens. He believes that LuAnn can't really see the kind of man he will be. "He was no coward. LuAnn would know, when the time came, what kind of man he could be." After enrolling Spencer believes that LuAnn pities him and he is hopeful he will return as a hero. Spencer's father recognizes his reason for wanting to join, yet still signs his papers.

Like Dieter, Spencer's view of the military is highly idealized. He sees the respect paratroopers get and so he becomes determined to get into Airborne training. When he's finished his training he wants to go home so LuAnn could see the man he's become but that doesn't happen. Eventually he's sent as an infantryman into The Battle of the Bulge. War is very different from what Spencer imagined. "He didn't understand any of this. He had seen war in his head so many times, imagined it, but this was all wrong. It was digging and waiting, with guns miles away blowing people up. How was he supposed to be brave against something so big, too far off, to face and fight?"

In the heat of the battle, with his best friend dead as well as many other soldiers, Spencer is sick with the realization of what war really is. "And suddenly he was furious. He hadn't known it would be like this, hadn't understood what he was getting into when he had signed up. Some idiot had sent the company down that hill, sacrificed them for no good reason. Who was running this war? Did they know what they were doing? Did anyone even care that Ted had died for nothing?"

Refusing to accept the norms of war, that you simply let the enemy die, when Spencer hears the cries of a young wounded German soldier he knows he has to act. "What would he want someone to do, he asked himself, if his own little brother were the one down there?" In the end his act of heroism is remembered, but he's not there to witness it. Spencer's heroic act is not what he thought it would be - the killing in battle of another soldier. Ironically, he loses his life trying to save the life of an enemy soldier. It is an act Spencer's father knows the people of Brigham City will not understand.

Hughes captures the essence of war, the horror, the fear, the human cost, the waste, that comes along with it through the eyes of two young boys. Soldier Boys asks us to consider the cost of war to those who become soldiers. It demonstrates how the propaganda of war is used to deceive people into believing war is glamorous and honourable. In the end, there are no winners.

Soldier Boys is a short, quick novel that offers plenty of themes for readers to consider.

Book Details:

Soldier Boys by Dean Hughes
Toronto: Atheneum Books for Young Readers    2015
194 pp.

Loving vs Virginia by Patricia Hruby Powell

Loving vs. Virginia is touted as a "documentary novel" about the famous civil rights case which struck down laws prohibiting interracial marriage in the United States. Mildred Jeter, a young black woman of mixed ethnicity, married Richard Loving in Washington, D.C. in 1958. The returned to their home in Virginia and were arrested five weeks later. In 1967, their case went to the United States Supreme Court. The court's decision, issued on June 12, 1967, overturned their conviction of violating Virginia's laws on miscegenation. At the time of the ruling in 1967, all sixteen southern states had laws forbidding interracial marriage.

Patricia Mruby Powell's novel in verse tells Mildred and Richard's story while also presenting "bites" of background historical information in the form of pictures, quotes and brief articles. The story is told in the alternating narratives of Mildred and Richard.

The story opens in the fall of 1952 in Central Point, Caroline county, Virginia where Mildred Jeter lives with her mother, stepfather, her older sister Garnet and seven brothers.  Mildred attends Sycamore School, her brother Lewis is in grade 1, Garnet is in grade 7, and Mildred is in grade 6. It is a one room school with all the grades sharing. The Jeter ancestors have lives in Central Point for centuries; her parents are part Indian as well as descended  from African slaves and their owners. In the spring Mildred's family plants a garden of corn, string beans and greens, they have their own cow for milk and make their own butter, and slaughter their own hogs and chickens. On the weekends, folks come to the Jeter household: Mildred's big brother's Theo, Edward, Richard, George and James, Otha and their friends come. They play softball in the field. When darkness falls, Mildred's father brings out his banjo, and her brothers play guitar, fiddles and mandolins. Soon everyone is laughing and dancing as one of the fathers calls a square dance.

"If I stop and watch
I see young and old --
Indians, Negroes, Whites --
all mixed together.

Everyone likes each other
in our neighborhood.
Everyone dancing
TOGETHER."

During the fall of 1952, while driving home in his friend Ray's car, Ray and Richard are stopped by Sheriff R. G. Brooks. Sheriff Brooks hates "colored people" and he questions Ray calling him "boy" but Richard who is white is called "son". Brooks doesn't much like Richard either partly because he hangs around the coloreds and also because his father drives a truck for P.E. Boyd Byrd, a colored farmer known to be very good-natured.

In October 1955, Mildred is a freshman at Union High School. She loves school and plans to graduate, unlike her older brothers, Otha and Theo who have dropped out of school to work. At a dance at their neighbor's, the Fortunes, Mildred and Otha dance up a storm. Richard Loving notices Mildred and insists on driving her and her family home. That night Garnet suggests to Millie that Richard likes her. Her observation is proven when Richard takes everyone to the drive-in a few nights later. He tells Mildred that he offered to take everyone because he knew she might turn him down. They have their first kiss.

In the fall of October 1955, Richard and Millie's relationship continues to grow. In the spring of 1956 Millie is back at school. Richard comes regularly to see her. People don't like that Richard is with Millie and sometimes they hear comments, but Richard tells her that it would be worse if he was black and she was white. He would be lynched. In September 1958, Millie realizes she pregnant and she's terrified she will lose Richard. She tells him one night after she is refused entrance into a square dance Millie's father and brother's band are performing at. The dance is at Sparta school, the white elementary school Richard once attended. Richard is upset and drives her home. In January of 1957, with Richard's mother Lola Loving attending her, Millie gives birth to a beautiful little boy she names Sidney. In February 1957, Richard visits Millie, apologizing for abandoning her and asks her to take him back. He meets his little son.

In May of 1957 Sheriff Brooks harasses Richard and Millie, pulling them over when they are out driving. He warns Richard not to break the law and to "take that little Negress home where she belongs." Richard meets Millie's family in June of 1957. In April 1958 Millie finds herself pregnant once again. At first Richard seems upset but when Millie presses him, he tells her they need to find out her due date so they can make plans to marry. This makes Millie very happy because she knows Richard will stay.

Richard's decision to marry Millie doesn't sit well with his best friend Ray who encourages Richard to do what others have done and simply live next door to her. But Richard believes that Millie deserves better. Ray challenges Richard telling him he can't marry Millie because it's illegal and that the sheriff will never let it go.  Meanwhile Millie who is now five months pregnant, her baby due in October, quits school.

Richard and Millie along with family drive to Washington, D.C., first doing the paperwork at City Hall. They go to the preacher's house and are married. Richard knows Millie doesn't know they are breaking the law by getting married. He hopes that once they return home to Virginia they'll be forgotten. But on July 11, 1958, Richard and Millie go to bed on a hot, sticky Virginia summer night only to be awakened by Sheriff Brooks shining a light in their faces. Richard tells the sheriff they are married and points to the marriage certificate on the bedroom wall. The sheriff tells them not in Virginia and both Richard and Millie are taken to jail.

Richard is put in a cell with other men and the next morning is bailed out by his sister. He is told if he bails Millie out he will be re-arrested. Millie is in a cell upstairs. Alone for days and pregnant she worries she might have her baby in the rat infested jail. She is visited by her mother who tells her that her brothers and father can't come because they believe they will be arrested. On her seventh day in jail Millie is bailed out by her daddy who pays her $1000 bond. Millie goes to live at her parents home, while Richard stays at his parent's home. She learns that she and Richard can't be married because race mixing is forbidden and illegal. Richard visits Millie secretly and tells her he will come again. This reassures Millie that he won't abandon her. In October Millie gives birth to a baby boy whom Richard names Donald. After her hearing Millie, Richard and their two children Sidney and Donald move to Washington, D.C. to live with Millie's cousin Alex.

In January, 1959 Mildred and Richard return to Virginia for their hearing at the Bowling Green Courthouse. On the advice of their lawyer, Mr. Beazley, they plead guilty and Judge Bazile sentences them to one year in jail or a suspended sentence for twenty-five years if they leave Caroline County and the state of Virginia immediately and do not return together for those twenty-five years. Upset, Millie asks Beazley if they can return in twenty-five years and he tells them likely not as they could be sentenced to another twenty-five years. He suggests they go visit their families but do not stay together overnight. However, when they try to return for Easter 1959, Richard staying at his parents and Millie along with the children at her parents, Sheriff Brooks forces them to come to the jail. Their lawyer talks to Judge Bazile and they are released but they must leave immediately.

Mildred and Richard spend the next years living in Washington, D.C. with Alex. Richard works in Caroline County. Millie delivers their third child, Peggy at her mother's home with the help of Lola Loving. In the summer of 1963, Millie, fed up with living in the city, missing her family and watching her husband have to commute daily, decides to act. Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, she decides to write Attorney General, Bobby Kennedy. He tells her to contact the ACLU in Washington. Mildred and Richard meet with an ACLU lawyer, Mr. Cohen and set in motion a course of action that ultimately changes their lives forever.

Discussion

Patricia Hruby Powell and illustrator Shadra Strickland have crafted a remarkable book that informs readers about the journey of Mildred Jeter Loving and Richard Loving to live their lives as they chose to - as husband and wife. Using interviews, print resources and speaking with friends and family of Richard and Mildred (both of whom have now passed away), Powell presents in historical context, the backstory behind the landmark Loving vs. Virginia case. Richard and Mildred narrate events in first person that occurred through the 1950's and 1960's leading up to the landmark case. Powell uses pages, separate from Richard and Mildred's story, to outline the struggle of African Americans to achieve equal rights.

The novel opens with a timeline beginning with Emancipation in 1865 (slaves are freed) to 1952 when Mildred and Richard's story begins. There is also a reproduction of the 1924 New Virginia Law to Preserve Racial Integrity. The 1950's decade during which Mildred and Richard were growing up was a period where the integration of schools in the United States was intensely opposed. Unbelievably, the state of Virginia chose to close schools rather than integrate black students into white schools. As the civil rights movement picks up steam in the early 1960's Powell has included photographs of sit-ins in white-only restaurants, explanations of the Freedom Riders of 1961 (students who rode public buses in mixed-race groups to protest continued segregation), and quotes and photographs from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches, letters and The March on Washington in 1963.

Mildred Jeter Loving and her husband Richard P. Loving
January 26, 1965

The time was ripe for defeating laws banning interracial marriages in the 1960's. The civil rights movement began building momentum during that decade aided by the determined and charismatic Martin Luther King Jr. When Mildred contacted the ACLU in Washington, she and Richard were contacted by two young, intelligent and inexperienced lawyers determined to win them the right to be married.  Loving vs. Virginia includes a photograph of Mildred and Richard with Bernard Cohen and Philip Hirschkop. Separate pages outline how Cohen and Hirschkop prepared each step of their case that ultimately led them to challenge the Loving's conviction under Virginia's racial purity law in the nation's Supreme Court.

The views of elected officials, most notably Governor George Wallace are presented. Some are quite remarkable to read.When Judge Bazile issued his ruling in the Loving case in January of 1965 he wrote, " Almighty God created the races, white, black, yellow, malay, and red and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."

Shadra Strickland illustrated the Loving's story using "a style of illustrative reporting from the Loving's time called visual journalism...Visual journalism was often characterized by a loose, impromptu drawing style that allowed lines to overlap and preserved the informal feeling of sketches in the final composition." Strickland used photographs of the Lovings from Life Magazine as well as from her own mother's childhood in the 1950's to create the illustrations in the novel.

Powell's narratives are believable, capturing the characters of Richard and Mildred. They are portrayed as simple, everyday folk who want to live their lives as they wish. Mildred's fears of being abandoned by Richard and Richard's determination to protect Millie and his love for her are well captured.  As Richard states in one of his narratives, "We just want to live as husband and wife in Virginia." After winning their case, Richard and Mildred were reluctant to attend a press conference, but were persuaded by their lawyers because of the importance of their case.

Despite their win change would continue to come slowly. In 1967 when the Supreme Court issued a ruling in the Loving vs. Virginia case, there were sixteen states which still had anti-miscegenation laws on the books. The last law against inter-racial marriages was finally struck off in 2000 in the state of Alabama.

Image credits:

1959 protest image: https://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/loving-vs-virginia-an-interview-with-patricia-hruby-powell/

Mildred and Richard Loving image: https://www.britannica.com/event/Loving-v-Virginia

Shadra Strickland illustration: https://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/loving-vs-virginia-an-interview-with-patricia-hruby-powell/

Book Details:

Loving vs. Virginia by Patricia Hruby Powell
San Francisco: Chronicle Books 2017
260 pp.