Run For Your Life by Jane Mitchell

Azari's life has been split in two. The first part of her life was in her village in her home country with her mother and father, her older sister Sharnaz, her younger brothers Kashif and Musa, and her friends Iman and Ruba. The second part of her life is in Ireland where they arrived after hiding among the containers on a ship. 

After being brought to land, Azari and her mother go to the International Protection Office where they are interviewed by a man. In Azari's culture, women do not speak to strange men. Her mother who cannot read or write, refuses to be interviewed by him, leaving fifteen-year-old Azari to answer his questions. Although it is irregular, they allow Azari to tell her story, one that brings up powerful memories, ones she is scared to remember, scared to forget.

After filing an application for asylum, Azari and her mother leave the Centre where they have been staying and go into an old, dark house that is part of the Direct Provision. Azari's mother spends most of her days in bed sleeping, leaving Azari to figure out things on her own. She arranges to meet Sheila from legal aid, who reviews her story. Sheila is not happy that she has to interview Azari rather than her mother.

Weeks pass, Azari begins to learn English and begins to consider resuming running. She purchases leggings, running shorts, and running shoes, after traveling by herself to a nearby department store. But her mother is frantic because respectable women don't go out alone and they don't run. Soon Azari and her mother are moved to another Direct Provision Centre in a small town. They are placed in a room on the first floor that has one large bed and a broken wardrobe. Azari begins running as a way to cope with these changes, giving her a feeling of control. Although this upsets her mother, a black woman named Princess who also lives in the building, encourages Azari.

She starts school in January, in a class with girls two years younger. Azari finds reading English difficult and has never studied geography, history, science or advanced maths. She also attends what the Irish girls call "Black School", a mix of students from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East to help them catch up. In gym class, Miss Cullen encourages Azari to join the runners club but she has no means to travel there and there are other issues as well. Azari begins to gradually make friends: an Irish girl named Emer invites her to join the school's lunchtime book club, and Robert, a boy who is part of Miss Cullen's running club, asks her to join him for runs around the village. Running with Robert brings Azari great joy but at the same time she knows this will not meet with her mother's approval. 

As their application for asylum moves forward towards the interview, Azari and her mother must also deal with increasing racism from the villagers, that eventually puts all the refugees in danger. Nevertheless, Azari's taste of freedom, helps her to stay focused on moving forward in every part of her new life in Ireland.

Discussion

Run For Your Life explores the plight of new immigrants to Ireland, the Direct Provision Office which handles immigrants to the country, and the practice of honor killings in some countries. The main character, Azira narrates events as they settle in Ireland, but in flashbacks, also reveals why they had to flee their country, leaving behind family and culture.

Mitchell tackles a large number of issues in this novel including honor killings, forced marriage, domestic abuse, the education of girls, garment factory workers rights, and even acid attacks on women. These issues are significant for the girls and women in Azari's home village. For example, Sharnaz is to be married off, against her will, to an old villager to pay off the family debt. When she runs away and is recaptured, she is to be stoned to death to restore the family and village honor. Sharnaz and Azari, like many girls in the developing world, are taken out of school and sent to work long hours in poor working conditions in a garment factory. Their father frequently beats their mother, who has little say in anything that happens to herself or her children.

Once she arrives in Ireland, Azari is exposed to views that are quite different from those in her village. For example, she has been told by her mother that she must never be alone with a boy or a man, that they will hurt her and bring shame to her. "Boy's aren't safe.", her mother warns. As a result, Azari, doesn't know if she is safe to run with Robert, or even to spend time with him just talking. To do so in her culture back home is shameful. "Then of course, there's the boy in the library. He had a friendly face. I liked talking to him. I liked his smile. But Mother, Sharnaz, Father, the village women, the Farooqs, in fact, probably every person I have ever known, would tell me no respectable woman should be alone with a boy. Men take a woman's honour." However, Princess challenges Azari, telling her, "Sure, some men are not safe...but not all men and boys are not safe and not all the time."

Azari also encounters a much different perspective about her body and menstruation. Azari has been told by her mother that during menstruation she is "impure and unclean" and she is given a set of rules to follow: she cannot attend school, cannot cook food, and must keep her period a secret. Significantly, she is sent to forage in the village rubbish heap. The pamphlets Azari finds in the library change everything. "They tell me things I never knew about my own body. How it works. How I'm not unclean or impure, although that's still how I think of it.  I open the packets and wrappers. Look at the products. Think about how this changes everything I thought I knew. And how I might change what I do from now on."

Mitchell emphasizes the difficulty refugees have in settling in Ireland. Not only are they faced with differences in culture and beliefs as mentioned above, but they also enter a system, called Direct Provision in Ireland, that sees them languishing for years as their application for asylum is processed. In the meantime, they experience poor, crowded living conditions, have limited access to higher education and are often isolated, affecting their mental health and making integration more difficult. 

In Run For Your Life, Azari faces racial discrimination at school and outright hostility in the small community where they are re-located. Eventually, their Direct Provision house is attacked and set fire to, forcing them to be moved again. Despite all the challenges Azari has encountered, she is courageous, and determined to live a life of her own choosing. Run For Your Life ends on a hopeful note, with Azari excited for the future and the possibilities it holds.

Run For Your Life offers a unique perspective on the refugee situation in Ireland. The colourful cover design blends together images from Azari's home country (possibly India??), colourful and sunny, and her new home in Ireland, rainy and green.

Book Details:

Run For Your Life by Jane Mitchell
Dublin, Ireland:    2022
251 pp.

Finding Narnia: The Story of C.S. Lewis and His Brother by Caroline McAlister

Jack and Warnie were two brothers who were very different.  Jack used his imagination to create new worlds while Warnie preferred to create worlds that were like the real world and how it worked. Warnie would pretend to be an Indian raja whose world was like the real world with trains. Jack pretended he was a brave knight in a world ruled by a mouse king.

Despite their differences the two brothers were close and spent time playing together, often in each other's worlds.

When they moved to a new house, the two brothers discovered an old wardrobe in a room next to the attic. It smelled strongly of moth balls. Jack wondered, as he felt into the deep, large wardrobe, if it had no end!

When Jack and Warnie's mother became very ill, the two boys created their own imaginary world which they called Boxen. The brothers each created specific parts of Boxen's kingdom.

Sadly their mother died, leading their father to send them away to boarding school in England. Jack didn't like his time in England. Instead of being able to read, he spent much time working on math problems. When war came, both Jack and Warnie enlisted but were sent to separate regiments. After the war, while Warnie stayed with the army, Jack gave lectures as a teacher at Oxford. 

When Warnie retired from the army, he came to live with Jack in a spacious house that contained the same wardrobe from their home in Ireland, years ago.

When a second war broke out, the English sent their children to the countryside to be safe. To help the displaced children, Jack and Warnie took in two girls. One day while exploring their new home, the two girls found the wardrobe and wondered, "What was on the other side of the door?"

So did Jack! Soon his imagination was filed with ideas: a lamppost, a faun, two boys and two girls who entered a strange world through a wardrobe, a place covered in snow called Narnia and a white witch.

Discussion

Most readers know C.S. Lewis for his Chronicles of Narnia series or his many books exploring Christian and philosophical ideas including The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity.  In Finding Narnia, McAlister provides young readers with the background story of Lewis and how his love of imagination created one of the world's most beloved stories. 

Born Clive Staples Lewis in 1898, he adopted the name of Jacksie after the death of his beloved dog of the same name. Eventually that would be shortened to Jack. His older brother Warren Hamilton Lewis (Warnie) was Jack's best friend and childhood playmate.

As a child Jack loved fantasy and especially loved Beatrix Potter's stories. With Warnie he created a fantasy world called Boxen that featured talking animals but also Warnie's technology.  As a teenager, he read Norse and Greek mythology as well as Irish mythology. This love of fantasy and mythology led him to become a Fellow and Tutor of English Literature at Magdalen College. In 1954 he became the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Magdalen College at Cambridge University. 

Eventually, Jack would meet J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the Hobbit and creator of the Lord of the Rings saga and the world of Middle Earth. Jack, along with Warnie were members of a literary group called The Inklings that met at Oxford. Tolkien was to be a profound influence on Jack, helping him to rediscover Christianity and inspiring Jack to further develop his Narnia world. This is the one very important influence lacking in McAlister's account: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien's friendship was to result in two of the most important works of fiction written in the 20th century.

McAlister's picture book provides readers with the integral points about Jack and Warnie; their deep friendship that bound the two brothers together and their creativity and imagination that led Jack to write the Narnia stories. However, in her Author's Note, McAlister fleshes out the story of Jack and Warnie Lewis's lives in more detail, offering readers

McAlister's biography is illustrated with the watercolor artwork of Jessica Lanan. A unique feature of this picture book biography is the comprehensive Illustrator's Note at the back in which Lanan goes through each illustration and explains specific details. For example, on pages eight and nine, the famous wardrobe that inspired the magical wardrobe in the Narnia chronicles is portrayed. Lanan writes that although, "It is darker in color than I have depicted here, ...I tried to be true to the size and decoration of the original."

Finding Narnia is a great addition to any unit on C.S. Lewis and for those who are reading the Narnia Chronicles and may want to learn something about the author and how his imaginary world came to be.

Book Details:

Finding Narnia: The Story of C.S. Lewis and His Brother by Caroline McAlister
New York: Roaring Book Press     2019
39 pp.

Projekt 1065 by Alan Gratz

Alan Gratz's novel centers around Projekt 1065 which had begun prior to World War II. Projekt 1065 was a real program undertaken by Germany to build an aircraft that used a turbojet engine, meaning it could fly faster than propeller craft currently in use. But the Germans were not the only ones working on development of a jet engine and they weren't the first either.

In the 1920s British Royal Air Force engineer Frank Whittle designed a turbojet engine. Seven years later, German physicist, Hans von Ohain came up with his design.

Eventually under Projekt 1065, the Germans developed a jet airplane, the Messerschmitt Me 262 was developed. It's first flight using a jet engine was in 1942, but recurring various problems meant it did not see real action until 1944 - too late to really have a significant impact on the outcome of World War II.

In this novel, a young boy is tasked with gaining knowledge of the German plans for construction of a jet plane in the hope of giving the Allies the edge in the war.

Thirteen year old Michael O'Shaunessey lives with his parents Davin and Megan in Berlin, Germany. Michael's father is the Irish ambassador to Nazi Germany, a post he was given in 1937. Ireland has remained neutral in the war and so maintains an embassy in Berlin. Like all youth in Germany, Michael is a member of the Nazi Youth but he is no Nazi. Instead, he pretends to like the Nazis, pretends to hate Jews and pretends to want them to win the war.

Since 1937 Berlin has changed dramatically. When Michael and his family first arrived Berlin was a city wrapped in the red Nazi flags and with streets filled with happy people and plenty of parades. But in November of 1938 Berlin changed forever. On their way home from viewing a film about the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Michael and his family were caught up in Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass". On this infamous night the windows of Jewish businesses were smashed and any Jews in the streets were viciously attacked. Michael's parents reveal to him that they cannot stop to help anyone because they are not only ambassadors but they are also on a mission for the Allies. And that now involves Michael. Berlin is has morphed into a suspicious city, where "people kept their eyes down, whispered if they had to talk, crossed the street to avoid having to give the Hitler salute to someone they knew in case they didn't say 'Heil Hitler!'"

During dinner at the house of a man who is connected to Daimler-Benz, the German automobile company that makes engines for the Nazi military, Michael is tasked with hunting down information about the location of a new engine factory. He finds the information he needs in their host's study and with his photographic memory is able to remember it and pass it along to his parents.

Michael's teacher is Herr Professor Doktor Major Melcher an elderly man with white hair who had fought in the First World War and who used to be a college professor. He's not friendly to the students whom he doesn't really want to teach. Herr Melcher informs them that Berlin is now officially "Jew-free" and secondly that all seventeen-year old boys will be called up to serve in the German army. Unlike his classmates who only know the propaganda that the Nazi regime is feeding them, Michael knows that this is due to the surrender of the German Sixth Army to the Russians at Stalingrad. This means that Michael and the rest Jungvolk will graduate a year earlier to the Hitler Youth.

Not really understanding how badly Germany is doing now in the war, the boys celebrate.  Hitler Youth Leader Horst has the boys burn books but a short, timid boy who doesn't fit in well, Fritz Brendler refuses to burn his. Michael goes to Fritz's defense although both he and Fritz are beaten up. But Michael vows that one day he will "teach Horst how to take a beating." The Junkvolk are called away from their book burning by the SRD -Hitler's Youth's "Patrol Force" to help search for the pilot of a British plane that has been shot down outside Berlin. Michael knows he must find the pilot before the German's do or he will be tortured and killed.

While searching the barn for the downed pilot, Michael reveals to Fritz his overwhelming fear of heights. Fritz tells Michel he won't tell anyone as both boys know that "In Nazi Germany every weakness was punished." Michael manages to locate the pilot who is injured, before the other boys find him. He hides the British airman in the barn but the pilot tells Michael he needs to find the camera he hid in one of the haystacks as it contains important reconnaissance photographs. Later that night Michael and his parents return to the farm and pick up the British pilot who identifies himself as Lieutenant Simon Cohen. He is Jewish.

Messerschmitt ME 262 www.nationalmuseum.af.mil

Although taking Simon back to Berlin is extremely risky, Michael's parents have no other recourse. They hide him in a secret room off of da's study. Simon tells them that he was flying in daylight because the Nazis are "developing some kind of airplane...Works without propellers...Super fast...Caught it on the runway during testing...They call it...Projekt 1065." Unbelievably the next day in class, an exhausted Michael is shown the first page of the blueprints for the secret plane the Nazi's are developing by Fritz.  Fritz tells Michael that this is a new plane with two jet engines that can "go twice as fast as any other airplane in the world!" Fritz reveals that his father works on the design team for the plane. He shows Michael because he tried to save Fritz from being beaten up by the rest of the troop. Michael races home during an air raid and informs his parents and Simon about the blueprint he has just seen.

In order to gain access to all twelve pages of the plans, Michael decides to befriend Fritz. However, Michael's decision to get close to Fritz means he will have to make choices and do things he knows are wrong. It also may mean sacrificing everything he holds dear for the greater cause of helping to defeat the Nazis.

 Discussion 

Projekt 1065 is a well written historical novel set in 1943 Berlin. The son of the Irish diplomat joins the Hitler Youth and is drawn ever deeper into spying when he learns a member of his Jungvolk troop has access to the blueprints of a top secret jet plane the Nazis are working on.

Author Alan Gratz has done a good job of recreating life in World War II Berlin. Set in 1943, the German army has suffered a catastrophic loss on the Eastern Front with the surrender of the German Sixth Army and the loss of almost 300,000 soldiers. Berlin is being constantly bombed by the British at night and the Americans by day. People work for the Nazis because resistance will mean arrest and deportation to a concentration camp. Children are heavily indoctrinated in Nazi ideology about race and the superiority of Germany.  Gratz's focus is on the Nazi indoctrination of the youth. Their lives revolve around the Hitler Youth which takes precedence over both family and school. The are taught that it is honorable to die for the Fuhrer and the Fatherland. Any sign of weakness is seized upon, meaning the children often bully and fight one another.

What happens to the young people of Germany is best demonstrated by the character, Fritz Brendler, a thirteen year old boy who "was so small he looked like he was ten years old..." At first Fritz doesn't want to burn books, he's timid and he doesn't fit in. He is attacked by Horst, the cruel leader of the Hitler Youth and beaten up by the other boys.  Horst spews Nazi doctrine, telling the boys that "Compassion is a weakness,". Horst tells Fritz that someday when he becomes a real Nazi he will turn in his parents, burn books and give his life for Germany. It is a foreshadowing of what's to come for Fritz as he gradually transforms from a young boy into a ruthless member of the junior Gestapo.

Despite the fact that's he's considered weak, Fritz is determined to join the SRD, the Hitler Youth's "Patrol Force" - the junior equivalent of the dreaded Gestapo. At first Michael is doubtful that Fritz believes everything the Nazis have taught him. Fritz tells Michael he wants to join the SRD "For Germany" "For the Fuher" "Everything I do is for the greater good of the Fatherland." Michael doesn't know if Fritz really believes what he is saying. The day of the Hitler Youth tests, Michael passes the different events easily while Fritz struggles but Michael notes "He had a wild look in his eyes, like he refused to fail." The second part of the test involves boxing and Michael is horrified to learn that he must fight Fritz who is no match for the experienced Irish boy. So determined is Fritz to make the SRD, that their brutal match results in Michael being forced to beat Fritz senseless. Both boys make it into the SRD.

At first Fritz still retains some of his innocence. He shows Michael his secret collection of British and American mystery novels and the two boys spend an hour enjoying them. However their first assignment is a raid on the Edelweiss pirates - a resistance group of young Germans. Astonishingly Fritz volunteers to lead the raid. Fritz's eagerness results in SS-Obersturmfuhrer Trumbauer giving him the nickname of Quex, the same nickname given to one of the most famous Hitler Youth ever, Herbert Norkus. He tells Fritz to report to him for assignment to a special team which turns out to be a group of SRD assigned to assassinate a famous scientist. It is this assignment that begins Fritz's complete transformation into an increasingly cruel boy.

Emboldened by his new rank, Fritz tells Michael that Herr Professor Doktor Major Melcher is a "doddering old man who serves no purpose to the war effort," Instead of obeying his teacher, Fritz refuses in a cold showdown that is only ended by an air raid. Michael notes, "Whatever it was Fritz was doing before and after school for the SRD with Max, it was changing him. He was harder now. Colder. Meaner." Fritz returns with the other SRD boys and they beat Melcher before taking him to the Gestapo. Later on, Michael finds Fritz burning his collection of mystery books. When he tries to stop him, Fritz punches him in the face. Michael tells him, "You'd burn something you love just to be on top for once in your life. Even if it means turning your back on who you are." Fritz tells Michael, "This is who I am. I'm going to lead Germany into the future. I'm going to help Hitler rule the world.  Even as he fights Fritz on the roof of the cable car, Michael still struggles to believe that Fritz is who he says he has become.

As Michael is drawn deeper in the workings of the junior Gestapo he must deal with the intense conflict between his actions and his beliefs. Repeatedly he must participate in Nazi cruelty so that he does not blow his cover and he can finish his mission to obtain the remaining pages of the jet plane blueprints. When Herr Professor Doktor Major Melchor is attacked by Fritz and the other SRD boys, Michael knows he has to participate. "I was about to say something, stand up to the SRD bullies, tell the police about Melchor's son, tell them how Fritz and the other boys were wrong. If I said something, I might save Melcher's life. But I would ruin everything else Simon and my parents and I had worked for..." Likewise he has to help man the anti-aircraft guns and the thought that he has shot down a British plane makes him sick. But the greatest conflict Michael must face is the possibility that, in order to be placed on the science team that's being sent to Switzerland to kill a scientist, he must turn in Simon, endangering both the British pilot's life and that of his parents too.

Overall Projekt 1065 is a thrilling, engaging novel that conveys to readers a good sense of what it was like to be a young person in Germany under the Nazis. Michael O'Shaunessey is a classic hero who shows great courage under pressure and who is willing to fight for what is right. Michael also demonstrates maturity in being able to wait until the time is right to get his revenge on Horst instead of acting on impulse. Despite admitting to having a hatred of the English, he forms a strong bond with the British pilot, Simon and is devastated at his cold-blooded murder.

Gratz provides a detailed Author's Note at the back which puts into perspective some of the events that occur in the novel. Projekt 1065 is highly recommended to readers who enjoy historical fiction with a bit of action and adventure.

Book Details:

Projekt 1065 by Alan Gratz
New York: Scholastic Press     2016
303 pp.

Deception's Pawn by Esther Friesner

Deception's Pawn is the sequel to Deception's Princess, a novel about life in Ireland during the Iron Age. In this novel we learn what becomes of Lady Maeve, after she insists she be allowed to determine her own destiny.

Maeve, princess of Connacht, daughter of the High King, Lord Eochu Feidlech, is now living in the house of Dun Beithe as a fosterling, under the watchful eye of Lady Lassaire. Maeve has come to Dun Beithe to start a new life and to find her missing kestrel. Lady Maeve's first taste of self-reliance had come when she had saved her father's bard, Devnet from Lord Morann's schemes.

The novel opens the morning after the welcoming feast hosted by Lord Artegal and Lady Lassaire. Maeve is sharing a chamber with three other girls, blonde Gormlaith who has lived at Dun Beithe for the past eleven years, red head Ula and Dairine. Also at Dun Beithe is Kian, the young man who holds Maeve's beloved kestrel, Ea.

On this morning, Devnet is returning to the High King along with Fechin, her father's charioteer. Lady Maeve says her goodbyes but does not weep, something Gormlaith notices. At Dun Beithe, Maeve feels included in contrast to her own home at Cruachan where people befriended her in order to obtain favours. When her embroidery lesson goes badly, Lady Lassaire assigns her eldest attendant, Lady Moriath, to give Maeve lessons privately. In an attempt to improve Maeve's embroidery, Lady Moriath questions Maeve about what she would like to embroider. Maeve tells her that she especially loves birds of prey and this leads Lady Moriath to show her the beautiful kestrel in a shed, not knowing that this is Ea, Maeve's kestrel. When Lord Kian happens upon the two women he becomes concerned for the kestrel and has his mother rescind her request that Lady Moriath give Maeve private lessons. However Maeve artfully is able get Lord Artegal to order her lessons restored.

When Kian and Maeve meet again in the shed, Maeve insists she knows how to handle a sword. In exchange for proving this, she wins the right to have him help her improve her skill.Her first sword lesson is her last due to the difficulty of training in a long dress. Kian instead offers to teach her how to use a sling. The two meet frequently to take Ea out to hunt and to practice with the sling, leading her fellow fosterlings and Lady Lassaire to suspect that she is romantically involved with Kian.

However, Maeve's life is about to change with the arrival of Lord Conchobar, king of the Ulaidh. Conchobar tells Maeve he has a message from her sister, Derbriu, that she is well and expecting her fifth child. Maeve asks him to be a messenger between them but learns that Derbriu has been in touch with the High King on many occasions. The High King felt he would lose Maeve if he told her about Derbriu and so ordered that no one was to speak of her.

During winter, Maeve intercedes for the slave girls at Dun Beithe by approaching Lord Artegal and asking that the warriors leave them alone. A second visitor to Dun Beithe, a former fosterling, Bryg, returns from Avallach, where she was taken to be healed.  It is Bryg who will set Maeve on the path to her destiny of independence and queenship.

Discussion

The Deception duology would have been better left as a single novel rather than continuing the story of Lady Maeve's struggle to be the mistress of her own destiny. It's a book where the middle section gets bogged down which is a shame because Friesner's Deception novels are an attempt to bring to life the fascinating story of Queen Maeve better known as Medh when she was a very young women. 

Medh was the warrior queen of Connacht who is thought to have had five husbands and numerous children. She followed her father as ruler of Connacht and ruled for sixty years. Like the women of her time, Queen Maeve was considered equal to any man. Women in Celtic Ireland were considered equal to men before the law; they could own property and shared in decisions concerning family and children. They could raise their own armies and they could actively participate in the court system that existed at this time. Women could not be forced to marry and marriages could be ended as they were contracts. Women could also become druids, warriors, priestesses and bards.

Unfortunately, the first one hundred and fifty pages tell of Lady Maeve's life at Dun Beithe as a fosterling and her relationship with Kian, Lord Artegal's son. The story then focuses on Lady Maeve's bullying, instigated by the return of Bryg, a fosterling who was sent away to be healed at Avallach, a druid healing center. When the bullying becomes fierce, Maeve decides to leave to search out her long lost Odran who she learns is recuperating from a serious illness. However, when she arrives at Avallach, her relationship with Odran does not go as planned. Living secretly with him does not bring the two closer together and when her presence is discovered, Maeve decides to return to her father's home. But the discovery that her father has called all the Lord's to Tara in order to question them regarding his missing daughter leads Maeve to travel there. Underneath all this is the beginnings of a plot to unseat her father, Lord Eochu by Lord Cairill and possibly the young king, Lord Conchobar, whose father Eochu killed. There is also a reluctant love triangle that never quite gets developed between Lord Kian and Lord Conchobar for Lady Maeve.

Friesner does give her readers a good sense of life in Iron Age Ireland. Families lived in fortified structures called ringforts which had circular ramparts that could be defended. Young highborn children were often sent to live with another lord's family who became that person's foster parents. Fostering was taken seriously and it would have been considered a serious matter for a high born child such as Lady Maeve to go missing. In fosterage women learned how to cook, sew weave and embroider just as Maeve did. The sons of kings were also sent to live with farmers so they could learn the conditions that poorer families lived under and what their needs were. Fosterlings often had a great love for the families who hosted them, as Maeve demonstrates in Deception's Pawn. Despite being bullied to the point where she felt she had to leave, Lady Maeve saves her father in a way that preserves Lord Artegal's reputation and does not lay blame. She has a genuine affection for this man and his family and even returns to set things right between her the other fosterlings.

The novel's climax takes place at Tara, which was considered by many to be the seat of the High King of Ireland. It was considered a sacred place and the entrance to the Otherworld. There are many monuments and earthen structures on the Hill of Tara including the Stone of Destiny and the Mound of the Hostages which dates to 2500BC and was used by kings to keep other lords until they submitted to the king's will. There are many other passages at Tara and it seems that Lady Maeve used one of these to convince her father and her fellow Celts that she had returned from the Otherworld after being taken by the Fair Folk. Unfortunately, Friesner doesn't really provide readers with enough background about Tara and the passageways for them to fully understand how Lady Maeve's plan would be convincing.

Like most of Friesner's novels, Deception's Pawn has a beautiful cover, one that would probably make the real Medh somewhat pleased; she looks bold and strong, but perhaps a bit too clean.A slingshot and a falcon would have been a good addition to the cover.

If you'd like to read more about Queen Maeve check out queenmaeve.org

Book Details:
Deception's Pawn by Esther Friesner
New York: Random House 2015
314 pp.

Deception's Princess by Esther Friesner

Set in Ireland (Eriu) during the Iron Age, Deception's Princess tells the story of Maeve, daughter of the King of Connacht. Eleven year old Maeve is the youngest of the King Eochu's six daughters and high-spirited.

Maeve lives within the ringfort of Cruachan, with her parents, Lady Clithfinn, King Eochu and her sisters, Derbriu, Clothru, Mugain, and twins Eithne and Eile. The stone entryway to Cruachan is framed with the severed heads of warriors who had fallen in battle to the king. The most recent trophy is the head of the High King of Eriu, Fachtna Fathach, who betrayed King Eochu and paid the price with his life.

Now that her father is High King, life changes dramatically for Maeve and her sisters. Her sisters are sent out to fosterage, a custom where highborn children are sent into other homes to learn skills that will prepare them for life as adults. However, Maeve is not sent because she is King Eochu's most favoured daughter. This came about becuase of what happened when she was a mere five years old. At that young age, Maeve demonstrated her courage and boldness by going out and cutting off the tail of her father's largest black bull, Dubh. King Eochu considers Maeve to be the son he does not have and  he decides to keep her at home.

Being left at home however, causes Maeve to despair. In her loneliness she takes long walks throughout the countryside. During one of these walks, she is saved from a wolf by Kelan, a fosterling boy at Cruachan. Soon Kelan and Maeve form a friendship that sees Kelan reluctantly agree to teach Maeve the art of sword fighting and other warrior skills. However, Maeve's skill is discovered when she is forced to defend herself during an attack by a wolfhound. Instead of being proud of her, King Eochu's is enraged that someone taught his daughter to be like a man. Several days later,  Kelan is murdered in a challenge by one of her father's men, Cailte.

Shortly after this, a druid priest Master Iobar and his son Odran arrive at Cruachan. Druid priests were to be given great respect and treated well. So when they arrive at the ringfort, King Eochu welcomes them with great honour.

Odran is a strange young man who keeps a fox around his neck and a stoat (a weasel) hidden in his clothing. Maeve discovers that Odran is a sensitive kind boy who loves animals and who wishes to care for them. But Odran does not get along with his father. Maeve and Odran develop a secret friendship that sees Odran teach Maeve how to care for animals. One of those animals turns out to be a kestrel whom they name Ea.

However, their friendship is not to last as Odran's father, Master Iobar, attempts to betroth Princess Maeve to Odran, against both Maeve and the King's wishes. From this point on, Maeve's life rapidly changes. Her mother gives birth to triplet boys, who will now inherit King Eochu's land, making Maeve a dead end to the high seat of Connacht. But in a ploy to remove King Eochu, one of his enemies, Lord Morann imprisons the king's bard, Devnet, and requests Maeve to be sent as a fosterling to Fir Domnann,  in exchange for the life of the bard.  King Eochu suspects that Morann's true intentions are to marry Maeve to Conchobar, the surviving son of Fachtna Fathach, in the hopes that they can gain lordship over Connacht.

Determined to meet Morann before he arrives at Cruachan, Maeve secretly leaves the ringfort. She wants to meet him on her terms and secure the Devnet's release without giving herself up. Eventually she does meet up with one group of her father's men who have been sent to find her. She also discover's Morann's camp. Can Maeve save herself and her father's rule, despite the terrible secret she's uncovered?


For historical fiction fans, Friesner has crafted another interesting and unique novel that is in her own words a mashup of myth and fiction. There was no Princess Maeve of Ireland, but there were undoubtedly strong, capable young women in Iron Age Ireland.

It`s a challenge designing a cover that is both appealing and accurate for teen historical fiction. The model on the cover of Deception`s Princess, with her mass of wavy, red hair and the style of dress, is reminiscent of Merida from the animated movie, Brave. While the cover for Deception's Princess is quite attractive, it is not historically accurate for Iron Age (Celtic) Ireland. Men commonly wore a tunic and trousers, while women wore dresses or long tunics fastened with brooches, not the more medieval dress pictured on the book jacket. As Friesner mentions throughout the novel, important members of tribes often wore torcs (torques) made of gold, silver or iron which the cover does not show.

Nevertheless,  Deception's Princess succeeds as a historical novel because it gives readers a good idea of family life and how society was structured in Ireland during the Iron Age.Not much is known about the Iron Age in Ireland but despite this, Friesner creates a believable setting for her story. Ireland was never invaded by the Romans and so much of its historical record begins with the coming of Christianity.  For example, little is known about the druid priests and their actual rituals in Ireland except that they had a high social status and that they could call down curses upon both kings and common folk alike. During the Iron Age, the people of Ireland were organized into clans but there was no real ruler over all of Ireland. Farming and hunting were the primary means of survival and wealthy men owned many head of cattle and also horses. Bards who sang of the events in the lives of these people, were highly esteemed. Friesner portrays all of this, giving her readers a strong sense of the Iron Age period. The map of Ireland at the front of the novel helps readers understand the geography of the setting and at the back of the novel is an interesting guide to pronouncing the different Celtic names.

The unusual time period alone makes Deception`s Princess an intriguing tale that is furthered by Friesner`s creation of a well developed female protagonist and several strong supporting characters. Maeve is physically capable, kind-hearted, brave and intelligent. She's also impulsive and a bit self-absorbed at the beginning of the novel. She doesn't want to be a fosterling. She doesn`t want to be married. However as a favoured daughter, she accepts (although reluctantly at first) that she will be married to a warrior from another tribe, cementing his allegiance to her father. As Maeve matures, she comes to see this as practical and necessary.

It was good to see the author develop her character in a way that was probably realistic for the time period. There is a tendency in modern historical novels to portray young women as going against the gender norm of their culture and time period. While this appeals to modern readers, it is not always historically accurate and the sense of the era is then lost. This doesn't happen in Deception's Princess. For example,  even though Maeve goes against Master Iobar when he tries to marry her to his son, she does so in a way that is entirely plausible. She couches her refusal in terms of her personal responsibility towards her father, the High King. The saving grace for Friesner is that very little is known about Iron Age Ireland, allowing for some historical license and the blending of myth and fiction.

Although the novel drags a bit in the middle section, when Maeve and Odran are involved in their work to save injured animals, readers are rewarded with an interesting and very satisfying conclusion.

As with her other novels, Friesner plans a sequel, to be titled Deception's Prize. Look for the return of Odran and more about her three younger brothers,Bres, Nar and Lothar who now stand to "inherit the lordship of his lands".

Book Details:
Deception's Princess by Esther Friesner
New York: Random House    2014
324 pp.

Documentary: Waking The Titanic

Addergoole Parish in North County Mayo, on the west coast of Ireland became known in 1912 for one distinguishing fact besides its crushing poverty; fourteen of its own were involved in the Titanic disaster of April 14th of that year. Known as the Addergoole Fourteen, these young people were aboard Titanic, on her maiden voyage, to the New World, filled with hope for the opportunities of a better life. Only three of them would survive the sinking. For one hundred years, the families of the Addergoole Fourteen never spoke about what happened, about their terrible loss. Waking The Titanic , tells their story.

Lahardane, was a small village in Addergoole, comprised of only 96 souls living in twenty-two houses. The county was extremely poor, with large families often crammed into three room houses. The people of Lahardane led a very harsh life, with the average person dying in their forties or fifties, often from tuberculosis, due to the damp, cold homes.Despite the difficulties, families and communities were very close knit.

Nearly every family had a relative in America. Families often had between six and twelve children and at that time only one child could inherit the land. This meant the other children had to find work, but there were few jobs in Ireland. So these children, once they came of age, emigrated to America, Australia and Europe. Between 1855 and 1912, over four million Irish emigrated - a significant percentage considering the population was only eight million.

In the early 1900's the trans-Atlantic steamer transportation was big business and there was heavy competition between White Star and Cunard. Steerage passengers were the "bread and butter" of the business and steamer lines actively recruited and advertised for steerage passengers in Ireland. The cost of passage to America was expensive though - about seven pounds for steerage. It would usually take about three years to save this amount. Often the money came from those already in America and was known as remittance, that is money to pay for the next generation to go over. It was remittance that got the Addergoole fourteen onto the Titanic.

It was very important for Irish families to get their daughters to America, since there were very few options open to women in Ireland. And likely most women did not want their daughters to lead the hard life they had experienced. America was a land of opportunity. Catherine McGowan, one of the Addergoole Fourteen,  was a perfect example of this. She had come to America twenty-two years earlier and she was now wealthy. Catherine ran a boarding house for newly arrived immigrants. She returned to Addergoole to collect her neice, Annie McGowan to take her back to America. It was Catherine who convinced the other young people from Addergoole that they should all travel together on the same ship.

For the Irish, there developed the tradition of the American wake, which was held for those who left the Emerald Isle for America. Emigrating was like a death because the person leaving would most likely never return. It was a bittersweet time; sad to leave loved ones, but thrilled at the opportunities.

The Titanic was built in Belfast, about 100 miles away from Addergoole. Strangely, Titanic was never christened, nor was she blessed. Perhaps it was because she was considered "unsinkable". This was unusual and added to the superstition that is was unlucky to travel on a ship's maiden voyage. The Irish were very religious and very superstitious. It is claimed some of the Addergoole had premonitions that something terrible was to happen.

On April 10, 1912, the Addergoole Fourteen left home to travel to Queenstown, where Titanic would embark on her first voyage to America. When they boarded Titanic and settled into her third class berths, they were astonished at the incredible luxury. For many, it was the first time they had seen electric lights, used silverware, had a bed to themselves and had proper bathroom facilities. They were among the poorest passengers.

When the Titanic struck the iceberg, the collision went mostly unnoticed. Steerage passengers were told to remain calm and stay where they were. At first they did so, but as the ship began to develop a steep incline, the Addergoole Fourteen knew something was seriously wrong. They were unable to get access to the second class lifeboats and they knew there were not enough boats for everyone on board. Since there was no way to get to the lifeboat deck which was in first class, they climbed three or four decks until they found a ladder leading to the lifeboat deck.

What they found was chaos and soon they became separated from each other. There were only three lifeboats left. In the end, only three of the Addergoole Fourteen survived; Annie Kate Kelly, Delia McDermott, and Annie McGowan, the niece of Catherine McGowan. Of the eleven who perished, only the body of Mary Mangan was recovered. She was buried at sea.

The three survivors were taken to St. Vincent's Hospital in New York where they stayed for two weeks. They were very traumatized and did not speak about the tragedy afterwards. They simply "moved on" and continued with their lives.

This docudrama tells the story of Ireland at the turn of the century, reenacts the tragedy of the sinking of Titanic as it pertains to the Addergoole Fourteen, and interviews historians and the direct descendants of the three survivors. It preserves for posterity, the story of the Addergoole Fourteen. The documentary, directed by Frank Delaney and produced by Gillian Marsh is gripping and emotional.

About ten years ago, the residents of Addergoole decided that they needed to preserve a remembrance of the tragedy for the younger generations that came after, otherwise this piece of their history would be lost forever. One can only imagine the sorrow of the families who lost loved ones and the bittersweet happiness of those whose children survived.