Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother. Stories of Loss and Love by Xinran Xue

Again and again, I cannot and will not believe that outdated customs combined with government policy can really force human beings to renounce that most beautiful and basic of human feelings, the parental instinct. It should not be possible, but it is.

Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother is a heart-rending, eye-opening account of women's lives in China. It is a recounting of the "tragic stories of what traditionally happened to abandoned girl babies and what continues to happen." Each of these stories sears the heart as the reader comes face to face with the clash of Chinese culture, traditional and modern, and the deepest desires of the heart in Chinese women.

Xinran's book is a collection of stories told to her as well as personal incidents she experienced when she worked as a reporter and radio broadcaster in China. These are painful stories, told by courageous mothers, to Xinran over a period of years either in person or in the form of letters. It took many years before Xinran could bring herself to tell these stories.

In her travels within China, Xinran discovered the crushing poverty of her fellow Chinese and how little she knew of Chinese history and culture. She came to understand that young Chinese did not know what their mothers and grandmothers had suffered. She also realized from her life in the United Kingdom that many Westerners had no understanding of the Chinese people. When she was asked if it was "true that Chinese women physically lack emotional cells and are mentally short of love" Xinran was devastated and angry.

This book, which she began to write in 2008 was to show that Chinese women have suffered terribly and continue to suffer so. It was to demonstrate the ability of Chinese mothers, daughters and grandparents to love deeply and unconditionally, but that their culture works against their feminine nature in ways that Westerners cannot comprehend.

During the course of writing books about Chinese society and Chinese mothers, Xinran received many letters from Chinese women who placed their daughters for adoption with Western families. By the end of 2010, Xinran writes that the number of Chinese orphans adopted numbers over one hundred twenty thousand!! - almost all of whom are girls. Why is this so? Why are the Chinese abandoning their girls?

Xinran believes that girl babies are abandoned in China for 3 main reasons:

1. traditional practices in Eastern farming cultures in which a preference for boys who can undertake hard manual labour. There is also the ancient system of land allotment in China in which males are given land and therefore are responsible for creating wealth, Females do not have such rights.
2. sexual ignorance and economics
3. one child policy which then made it imperative that in order for number 1 to hold, couples MUST have a male child if they wanted to increase their wealth and carry on the family name.

Discussion

Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother is not for the faint of heart. The stories leave one gasping at the seemingly callous perspective that pervades Chinese society, particularly in rural China, one that holds that girl babies are better off dead than living in any sort of existence. Xinran struggles to understand this mindset and what drives families to abandon their baby girls. Sometimes these encounters occurred during what appears to be an ordinary day - such as bicycling to work.

When Xinran rescued a baby girl abandoned in front of a public toilet she was admonished and harassed."The words rang in my ears but I kept repeating to myself: No, no, I'm not going to let this tiny creature die in front of my eyes. This is a human being. A real live human being capable of giving life to countless other lives."

When she rushed the baby to the hospital Emergency Department she was told that without a birth permit, they could not treat the baby. It was only when Xinran threatened to talk about this on her radio show that the nurse relented and the baby was saved. The duty nurse told Xinran that the hospital received so many abandoned baby girls that they had to hire night guards to prevent people from abandoning babies at their doors.

There is no doubt that Chinese women bear a heavy burden of suffering. It is very likely that the traditional cultural preferences for male children combined with the draconian one child policy have led to the abandonment and outright murder of millions of Chinese girls. As a result, it is estimated that tens of millions of Chinese girls are "missing". Human rights groups, population experts and social scientists have been warning for many years now of the effects of this gender imbalance will have on Chinese society.

Attitudes towards women and girls need to change in Asia especially in China and India. Public policy also needs to change. Governments have no business telling couples how many children they can have. Young women who become pregnant need the support of family and society to bear their children and if they so choose, to keep and raise them. Culture has no business telling women that girls are worthless. Without women, a society loses its heart and will inevitably die.

Xinran Xue's book is an important window into Chinese culture. It is highly recommended as is her website The Mothers' Bridge of Love: https://www.mothersbridge.org/

Book Details:
Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother. Stories of Loss and Love by Xinran
New York: Scribner 2010
239 pp.

deadly by Julie Chibbaro

We've all heard of "Typhoid Mary". Who was she? What was her story?
Deadly is a smart retelling of the story of Mary Mallon, an Irish immigrant who worked as a cook in New York City in 1907. Her story is told through the diary of 16 year old Prudence Galewski, a young Jewish girl living in New York City at the turn of the 1900's.

Prudence and her mother, whom she calls Marm, are alone and struggling to make ends meet. Prudence hase suffered the loss of both her father and her brother. Her father, Gregory Galewski is missing in action, having gone to Cuba to fight in the Spanish-American war of 1898, while her brother Benjamin died from gangrene. Prudence is interested in science and more specifically in why people get sick and die. She has a secret desire to understand the human body. This desire originated from her experiences helping her mother who is a midwife. Of course, in 1906, these sort of inquiries are not expected from young women.

Instead she is stuck learning how to walk on her toes, draw portraits and embroider at Mrs. Browning's School for Girls where she has been enrolled by her mother in the hopes of improving her social status. After applying for numerous typist jobs, Prudence is offered a unique job in the New York Department of Health and Sanitation. There she is an assistant to Mr. George Soper, a Sanitary Engineer who as head epidemiologist for the department, investigates the causes of disease epidemics. It is the perfect job for Prudence who tries to learn everything she can about the body, disease and how people get sick.

Initially, Soper is sent out to investigate an outbreak of typhoid at Oyster Bay on Long Island. When tests at the house fail to find the source of the outbreak Prudence makes an astonishing discovery that leads them to consider the cook as a possible source. That cook is Mary Mallon. When they approach Mary she is uncooperative, violent and refuses to be tested. And so begins the struggle to quarantine and test Mallon - one of the first recognized "carriers" of disease. When she is finally captured and Soper's theory is proved correct, they must deal with the ramifications of their actions. They have taken an apparently healthy adult woman, arrested her and placed her in quarantine with other patients who are sick.

Matters are further complicated when Prudence finds herself forming an attachment to Mr. Soper. Added to this, Prudence herself has also reached an important personal turning point in her life. Her acquaintance with Dr. Baker makes Mary aware for the first time of the possibility of studying medicine.

Prudence is more an observer to the actions of Soper and Dr. Baker than a participant. Chibbaro develops Prudence in the role of a character of conscience in deadly. She is someone who questions the actions and motives of the New York Department of Sanitation, the police and the medical profession in the case of Mary Mallon.

"How did he and Dr. Baker find the strength necessary to take the cook from her life they way they did? ... And was it right? I felt as if we had broken the law. We had no warrant for her arrest, no right to raid her employer's home. Her typhoid was still speculative. Weren't we obliged to release her?"

Prudence sees Mary as a person with dignity, instead of a unique medical case to be investigated.

"Besides the obvious question - does she really carry the typhoid germ? - there are still so many unknowns to her case. What is her history? Who is she, and where has she been?..."

"It's one thing to follow the course of a disease through observation and questioning. It is truly another to be out jailing human beings suspected of carrying germs....The whole incident was immoral."

This is in direct contrast to Mr. Soper who seems clinical and whose concern is focused more on the families who have hired Mary and the people who are sick. It seems his lack of concern for Mary begins when she starts to resist any attempts to test her as a carrier. She is robust and healthy and doesn't believe she could make anyone sick.

Eventually Prudence feels deeply conflicted over the Mary Mallon situation. The conflict she senses is that between a scientist's quest to learn and the dignity of the human person. There is also the balancing of the rights of the individual person with those of society. Prudence worries she will not be able to consider medical cases from a purely scientific point of view if she were to study medicine. In a meeting with Dr. Baker, she confides her concerns;

"I saw illness as a kind of week, something that could be found and cleaned away. I didn't think it could live inside a person without sickening or killing them, not like with Mary. Now it's as if the disease and the person are inseparable. When the police officer threw Mary in the snow and they locked her up, they were treating her like a disease...."

It is therefore, through the thoughts of Prudence, that Chibbaro wants us to consider Mary Mallon's position and what it must have been like for her. She tells us in her Author's Note that she wanted a sympathetic protagonist for her retelling of the story of "Typhoid Mary". She wanted someone who understood the immigrants position in early 20th century American society and how they might have perceived the Mary Mallon situation.

Typhoid was a bacterial disease that killed people by the hundreds and even thousands. Medical professionals and sanitation experts had been working for years to clean up the municipal water supplies and improve sewers and sanitation. They often faced great resistance from a public who couldn't understand the science behind the policies.

Mary Mallon was one of the first living examples in support of a new theory put forth by Dr. Koch of Germany; that a healthy person could be a carrier of disease without actually becoming ill from it.
This idea was so revolutionary, that many people had great trouble accepting it just as they had great trouble believing many years earlier that tiny microscopic organisms were responsible for disease. For Mr. Soper and Dr. Baker, it must have been supremely frustrating to deal with someone like Mary Mallon and her supporters. The scientific evidence pointed to her being the cause of the typhoid outbreaks, yet she saw herself as a victim of Irish prejudice and fear.

It's easy to judge the past from the comfort of the present given our modern, highly efficient investigative tools. Soper and Baker did not have much in the way to offer Mary Mallon as treatment and therefore this made the situation more critical and requiring more direct means of action. Chibbaro puts the Mary Mallon situation in to perspective considering the social situation and conditions that existed in the time in America

Chibbaro's novel is well written and engaging with the story having a touch of romance. Young readers will learn about a controversial event that had a major ramifications on public health policy. Along the way they will be rooting for a female protagonist living in society on the cusp of new scientific discoveries- discoveries that would forever change the day to day life of most people.

Book Details:

deadly by Julie Chibbaro
New York: Antheneum Books for Young Readers Simon & Schuster 2010
293pp

Daughter of Xanadu by Dori Jones Yang

Fifteen-year-old Emmajin, granddaughter of Emperor Khubilai Khan, watches on the balcony of the palace gate as the Mongol army rides into Khanbalik for the grand victory parade. Beside her is her cousin and best friend, Suren oldest grandson of Khan.

The army, led by General Bayan has just conquered a large city in the south, opening the way to Kinsay, the capital of southern China. Emmajin's father, Prince Dorji stands by the side of the seated emperor. Prince Dorji, the oldest of Khan's sons had run away to a Buddhist temple while Suren's father, Khan's second son Chimkin had gained great honour by leading armies and winning battles.

Emmajin races down to the main avenue, followed by Suren. At street level the parade includes a huge elephant with General Bayan seated atop in an open carriage. Emmajin is pulled onto a horse by her Uncle Todogen and becomes part of the parade that makes its way to the square in front of the Khan's palace. Emmajin wants to be a soldier in the Khan's army. 

That night as Emmajin and Suren wait for Old Master, the court storyteller, to tell stories, she wonders if there are any Mongol women soldiers. Emmajin knows about Mulan, the Chinese woman who fought against her Mongol ancestors. She remembers her great-great-grandfather Chinggis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire, and how his mother and his first wife showed courage and determination. She also recalls how the mother of Khubilai Khan trained her sons to rule the Empire. Old Master tells how the Mongol army laid seige to Hsiangyang and used Persian catapults to destroy the city. Old Master empties a sack of ears from the enemy onto the floor. Suren recoils and Emmajin feels horror, while Temur, Suren's younger brother is thrilled. Emmajin decides to enjoy the moment and in her excitement reveals to Suren that she wants to join the army. He will be joining in Ninth Moon. Temur, tall and handsome, announces and archery contest for all boys of the court, the following day on what is Emmajin's sixteenth birthday. 

When Emmajin returns home, she learns that her father, Prince Doji has arranged for her to meet the eldest son of General Aju at noon. She is to sit quietly and to serve them to prove she can be a proper wife.  Unlike her sister Drolma, Emmajin isn't interested in marrying or in embroidery, dancing, and music. She knows that once she is betrothed, her chances of joining the army will vanish forever.

General Aju, a high ranking military commander and his son Jebe arrive early. as Emmajin is serving them, she cannot resist asking Aju about the catapults used in the seige. This puts off Aju and the betrothal talks end,leaving her father chagrined. She has sabotaged four betrothal attempts now.  At this, Emmaji boldly asks her father to allow her to join the army. He tells her the Khan would never agree and that it is wrong to kill humans. Prince Doji refuses Emmajin's request, giving her an amulet of Tara, the Great Protectress but Emmajin doesn't follow his practice of Buddhism. Undaunted, she participates in the archery tournament that day.

When she arrives in the courtyard for the archery contest, Emmajin is confronted by Temur, but Suren as the eldest grandson insists that she be allowed to compete. As she awaits her turn, Emmajin notices a heavily bearded foreigner watching the competition.  When it is time for Temur, Suren and Emmajin to compete, she asks the Khan that she be allowed to compete and if pleased, he allow her to join the army. The Khan makes no promises but she is allowed in the contest which will be mounted archery.

On her horse Baatar, a golden palomino stallion, Emmajin watches as Temur hits the target three times and Suren misses twice. However, now Emmajin struggles with what to do: should she beat Suren who is the eldest grandson and heir to the throne? Emmajin's first two shots hit the target but when an image of the strange foreigner enters her mind, she loses her concentration and misses her third shot. Baatar stumbles throwing Emmajin into his mane. Bleeding profusedly and deeply humiliated, Emmajin is furious at the bearded foreigner. She insults him by spitting blood at his feet.

The next day, the fifth day of the Fifth Moon and also Emmajin's sixteenth birthday, "the Khan, his court and most of the Golden family" are leaving for the summer palace in Xanadu. While Emmajin doesn't want to get up, her mother tells her she must as she has the honour of riding with the Great Khan. Xanadu or Shangdu  is located on a high plateau separated from Cathay (northern China) by a group of hills. The Khan spends time relaxing in a smaller palace there. The trip to Xanadu will take three days. 

In the courtyard, Emmajin sees four giant elephants who are tethered together with an ornate pavilion set across their backs. In the pavilion she finds the Great Khan and his chief wife Empress Chabi who is her grandmother, seated on benches. The Great Khan tells Emmajin that he has a special assignmment for her. Riding with them will be three Latins who are merchants from the Far West. The Khan plans to conquer their lands after he subdues China. To achieve this goal he wants Emmajin to gather "intelligence" for him: to kow their religion, kings, language, their lands and what riches they have.  Emmajin agrees. The foreigner who she must spy on is Marco Polo, the man who distracted her during the archery competition. He is a young man of twenty-one, with a dark heavy beard and green eyes.  Emmajin is confused by his behaviour and has no idea out to deal with this "unpredictable, outlandish man". However, her time with Emmajin begins to change her perspective on other cultures and more importantly war. Her friendship with Marco will have life changing implications for young Emmajin.

Discussion

In Daughter of Xanadu, Dori Jones Yang has crafted a fascinating historical novel centered around the visit of Marco Polo to the Great Khubilai Khan who was a grandson of Genghis Khan. Also known as Kublai Khan, he was the 5th Khan to rule the Mongolia Empire from 1260 to 1294. Among his major conquests was the subjugation of China and the forming of the Yuan Dynasty in 1271. The Great Khan met Marco Polo's father, Niccolo and his Uncle Maffeo when they travelled to Asia years before. Daughter of Xanadu takes place when Niccolo and Maffeo return to China, this time with a young Marco.

In this regard, Daughter of Xanadu is a romanticized fictional account of some of Marco Polo's adventures in Xanadu. According to the opening of the story, it tells "the story of two adventurous hearts from thousands of miles and worlds apart: one from medieval Venice and the others from the royal court of the Mongol Empire."

Although she doesn't mention this in her forward, the fictional character of Emmajin in many ways resembles a real historical female Mongol warrior known as Khutulun who was born in 1260. One of the great-great-granddaughters of  Genghis Khan, Khutulun's father was Kaidu, a cousin of Kubilai Khan who came to rule over parts of eastern Asia and who challenged Kubilai Khan. Khutulun was a warrior princess who excelled in horseback riding, archery and wrestling and who was known as a formidable warrior. She often accompanied her father into battle and she also met Marco Polo who described her in his book about his travels. Khutulun is mentioned in Daughter of Xanadu by Marco Polo who tells a story to the Great Khan of "...a woman named Ai-Jaruk, daughter of King Kaidu...". Ai-Jaruk is one of the names Khutulun was known by. 

Daughter of Xanadu focuses on Emmanjin's relationship with Marco Polo and his influence on how she views her Mongol culture and how she views war. When she first encounters this bearded stranger with his green eyes and red hair and beard, she finds his exotic appearance and manners attractive. His accounts of knights and "courtly love" are very alien to Emmajin: the idea of a man serving a woman seem preposterous to her. "Could love for a woman actually enoble and inspire a man, rather than weaken him, and distract him from his duty?...Women were meant to serve men not the other way around." This foreign idea confuses Emmajin. "My ambition had always been to be a warrior, but thie foreign notion, courtly love, appealed to something so deep in me I had not known it was there."

As her friendship with Marco grows, Emmajin begins to feel conflicted over her assignment by the Great Khan to learn about potential weakness of the countries in the west, so that they might be conquered.  The possibility of someday riding to war to conquer his homeland disturbs her. Yet she believes she must remain loyal to her people and to the Khan.  It is only when talking to Marco's Uncle Matteo that Emmajin realizes how the Mongols might overtake Christendom: if they help to free the Holy Land, Mongols from Russia and Asia might attack Christendom while its warriors are in the Holy Land. In this way " ...the whole west would fall at once, into our Empire." 

Emmajin reveals what she has learned to Chimkin. Unexpectedly Marco learns what Emmajin has done and confronts her. "From the beginning, then, your purpose was to gather information about my homeland, so the Great Khan could decide how best to invade and conquer it."  Emmajin's words to Marco reveal her inner conflict. She explains that it was her assignment and if she did well she might be allowed to join the Khan's army. But as she tells him this, Emmajin wonders, "...What have I done? This man had never harmed me, never tried to control me. He had trusted me. Now I had sown the seeds of destruction of his homeland." 

Emmajin realizes that in spending time with Marco Polo she has learned to see the world through his eyes, offering her a different perspective. After the Great Khan watches Emmajin and Suren training, she tells him that she has no desire to be a part of an invasion of Christendom. The Great Khan reminds Emmajin that "...every man you kill in battle has a father, an uncle, a homeland, some skill...". At this time Emmajin sees her ability to identify with Marco as a weakness. Later on as a soldier, when she listens to Marco Polo speaking with General Abaji, she decides that her time with Marco "...had gradually reshaped my view of the world, polluting my Mongolian idealism...I was robbed of my central faith, faith in the absolute glory and wisdom of Chinggis Khan. " But Emmajin's experiences as a soldier will change that.

Emmajin's view of war and conquest changes with time. When Marco attempts to explain to her how the people of Christendom love peace and freedom. But Emmajin responds, "The only way you can make peace is through conquest.And the only way to keep it is to suppress rebels and bandits by force." Marco attempts to explain that sometimes peace can be achieved through talk. However, Emmajin believes that his country is better under the rule of the Mongols. Marco tells her how the Mongols known as Tartars are dreaded in the west. "If my people could see the splendors of Xanadu they might change their minds. But we hear horrible stories of the hordes that invaded Christendom. Those warriors raped, looted, massacred innocents by the thousands. They cut off the ears of each person they killed." However, to Emmajin, "Eternal heaven ordained that the Mongols conquer all lands, from the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun. This is out destiny."

As a soldier, Emmajin's first doubts come in Szechwan, when in a small village that has been burned to the ground by Mongol troops led by Kubilai Khan twenty years earlier, she sees an enormous pile of bleached bones. Realizing that some of the bones were those of children, Emmajin is horrified. "It seemed impossible that brave Mongol soldiers would kill so many. That the great Kubilai Khan, with his good humor and intellectual interests, could have ordered it..."  Emmajin has dreamed of gaining glory by killing many enemy soldiers, "...But a village of ordinary people, including women and children? In resisting the Mongols, they had merely been defending their homes. No wonder Marco wanted to prevent this from happening in Christendom." 

It is after the battle of Vochan in which Emmajin's beloved cousin, Suren dies that she begins to face the reality of war. While others including Marco Polo and General Abaji praise Emmajin for her fighting, she finds no satisfaction. "Suren was dead. Marco and I were alive. I had proved I could fight like a man. But there was no thrill in it." Her idealizing of war and facing its reality has changed Emmahjin. "Losing Suren and nearly losing Marco had made me rethink what was important to me. Before I had met Marco, all that had mattered was my ambition to join the Khan's army and achieve glory in battle. Now I had achieved those goals, but they were empty vessels. Glory on the battlefield had come with a price to high to bear."

As they begin the journey away from Vochan, Emmajin listens as the tales of the battle grow and she realizes that the stories the Old Master tells are false, enriching the glory of battle to encourage men to fight. Emmajin's perceptions of war, manhood, valor, and life and death are forever changed.This realization plus her affection for Marco lead to a crisis for Emmajin. After speaking with her father, Prince Dorji at the buddhist temple, Emmajin realizes that she wants to work to prevent war, specifically her Mongol people from attacking Christendom. With Marco Polo, she wants to work for peace. To that end, Emmajin who is now in love with Marco Polo is able to convince Kubilai Khan to allow her to travel with Marco Polo back to Venezia to attempt to bring peace between the Mongol Empire and Christendom.

While Daughter of Xanadu is a novel that focuses on a fictional Mongol princess, Emmajin, her desire to become a warrior and her relationship with Venetian explorer and trader Marco Polo, it does incorporate a great deal of history into the story. Marco Polo was born while his father Niccolo and his Uncle Maffeo were away and after the death of his mother, was raised by an aunt and uncle. Niccolo and Maffeo travelled from Constantinople through Asia where they met Kubilai Khan who had founded the Yuan dynasty. Niccolo and Maffeo returned to Venice in 1269 but set out on a second voyage, this time with seventeen-year-old Marco with them. When a new pope was elected the Polos carried a letter from the pope to the Great Khan inviting him to send emissaries to Rome. They then travelled to Xanadu (also called Shangdu). The Khan sent Marco Polo on various missions throughout his empire, including India and Burma (now Myanmar). Marco would spend seventeen years travelling throughout China. The Great Khan would not allow the Polos to return to Christendom until sometime around 1291. They did arrive in Venezia until 1295. 

Although the novel's main theme initially focuses on Emmajin's struggle to become a warrior in the Mongol army, the story gradually becomes a romance that at times doesn't feel believable. And yet it is possible as there is a legend in the Veneto region of Italy, that Marco Polo fell in love with one of the daughters of the Great Khan, married her and returned with her to Venice, in 1295. His Chinese wife was not well accepted in Venetian society as she was different in appearance and culture and was not a Christian. The legend also states that when Marco was captured by the Genoese and imprisoned in 1298, his jealous sisters told his Chinese wife that he had been executed. In despair, she threw herself into the canal outside their home. The Malibran Theatre was built on the location of the old Polo house and excavations following a devastating fire uncovered the skeletal remains of an Asian woman along with a tiara and a robe.

  
Daughter of Xanadu is well written, with lots of detail about life in Xanadu and the customs of the Mongolian people in the late thirteenth century and even the Battle of Vochan between China and Burma. Young readers will find the romanticized story Marco Polo's time with the Great Khan appealing. Emmajin is a well developed character who, with her feministic character will appeal to young women readers.

Book Details:

Daughter of Xanadu by Dori Jone Yang
New York: Delacorte Press 2011
336 pp.

Threads and Flames by Esther Friesner

Threads and Flames is a fictional account of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire which occurred on March 25, 2011. This disaster forever changed the way factories treated their workers and helped to create support for workers unions and workers rights. At 4:45pm at the end of a Saturday workday, workers were in the process of leaving the building and collecting their belongings when fire broke out in the scraps of material beneath a table of sewing machines.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Company had the practice of locking all the doors and searching employees at closing time to make sure they did not steal from the company. All the doors in the building opened inwards which would have disastrous consequences for those trying to flee. The company also insisted that its building was fireproof and that the fire escape at the back of the building was sufficient to evacuate the building should a fire happen. Only 27 buckets of water were available to use in dousing any initial fire.

When the fire broke out on the eighth floor, it spread quickly due to the large amounts of cloth, bins of rags, hanging patterns and sewing machine oil. Trapped by the locked doors, barred windows and a fire-engulfed stairwell, many young women chose to leap from the eighth and ninth floor windows. The other choice was to burn to death. Witnesses at the scene describe the sickening sound of body after body hitting the pavement. In all 146 people either burned to death or leapt to their death.

More than anything, it was the sight of young women leaping to their deaths that motivated people to seek changes in the fire prevention laws and also in workplace safety laws. Although the owners of the factory were prosecuted, they were acquitted because they broke no existing fire laws.

Discussion

Friesner's novel starts off slow, carefully building both setting, background and characters. We first meet thirteen year old Raisa as she is recovering from typhus. There is a foreshadowing of the future catastrophe in Raisa's life in the description of Raisa's illness. "Raisa's world was fire. The blaze was everywhere. She was lost in the heart of the flames. Wherever she turned, walls of heat beat against her like hammers. The air throbbed and rang, filling her head with merciless thunder."

When she recovers from her illness, Raisa learns that her older sister Henda, who emigrated to American four years earlier to escape the unwanted attentions of an obsessed suitor, has saved enough money for her to come to America. We follow Raisa as she leaves the Polish shetl and her beloved Glukel, a neighbour who took care of both her and Henda after the death of their mother. On the voyage to America, Raisa befriends another young Jewish girl, Zusa Reshevsky who is joining her family in New York. She also takes on the responsibility of caring for an orphaned child, Brina whose mother dies on the voyage. Upon arriving in New York city, Raisa soon learns that Henda has vanished from the tenement house where she was last living. From the information Raisa can gather, it seems that Henda was very distraught, believing that her sister Raisa had died from typhus. Raisa's search for Henda thus becomes a subplot within the storyline.

Despite initial struggles to find a place to stay and work, Raisa and Brina eventually settle in with the Kamensky's and their son Gavrel who is studying to be a rabbi. After several months, Raisa manages to get hired on at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory as a seamstress, thus setting the stage for the tragedy. Gradually Raisa begins to fit into American society, taking extra classes to learn English and even falling in love. But is she destined to lose everything, the man she loves, even her own life when tragedy strikes?

Friesner works in many details about young immigrants coming to America, the promise and expectation of a better life and the difficulties faced due to language barriers, poverty and discrimination which help us to form an understanding of life in America at the beginning of the last century. We learn how workers were taken advantage of in sweatshops and how they organized and fought to obtain respect and decent, safe working conditions. Friesner also portrays how segregated American society was at this time, with each ethnic group having it's own insular community often prejudiced towards outsiders as well as the strong class distinctions that still existed at this time.

Ultimately, despite the tragic setting of the novel, readers will be satisfied and will have learned much about American society during the early 1900's.

Highly recommended.

Book Details:

Threads and Flames by Esther Friesner
New York: Viking Group 2010
390 pp.

Cate of the Lost Colony by Lisa Klein

Cate of the Lost Colony is a fictional account of the settlement of Roanoke Island in Virginia Colony in 1587.

The story begins in England in the 1500's. Fourteen-year-old Catherine (Cate) Archer was the daughter of a Hampshire gentleman, Sir Thomas Archer who died fighting in the Netherlands. With her mother dead and only a blind, elderly nurse left to care for her, Cate was taken in by her aunt and uncle who had three daughters. Without an inheritance, Cate's aunt did not really want her. But two months later, a letter dated October 13, 1583 from Queen Elizabeth I requested that she attend her as one of her ladies-in-waiting.  This was a favour for the sacrifice of her father to his country.

Catherine is met at the queen's palace by Lady Mary Standish and taken to the maids' dormitory which is under the rafters. There she meets two other maids of honour, Emme and Frances.

In the morning the queen treats Catherine kindly telling her to think her as her mother. At Whitehall Palace Catherine's job is to help Emme and Frances care for the queen's clothing. She learns that the queen has an extensive wardrobe that includes many bodices, skirts, chemises, coifs, pantofles and shoes. The mistress of the wardrobe is Lady Veronica who explains that clothing out of fashion is either remade or given away to whomever of her ladies is in her favour. Catherine finds caring for the wardrobe a demanding task.

One day Catherine, Emme, and Frances accompany Queen Elizabeth and her court on barges along the Thames River to the Tower of London. Accompanying Catherine and Emme on their barge is Robert Dudley the Earl of Leicester, whom Emme claims the queen loves but who is married, Thomas Graham, Lady Veronica, and Lady Anne, the queen's cousin. Along the way they see Walter Ralegh's ship, the Roebuck. Emme tells Catherine that Raleigh was sent to Ireland to put down the rebellion there, and then to the Netherlands. This leads Catherine to believe that Ralegh possibly knew her father.

The Tower of London is where Elizabeth's mother, Anne Bolyen was beheaded. Elizabeth is visiting the menagerie which includes a lion, a leopard and a bear, but Catherine doesn't see them as she is overcome with fear and has to leave. After leaving their barges upon returning, Catherine is stunned to see Walter Ralegh offer his beuatiful embroidered cloak for Elizabeth to walk on instead of the mud. 

Meanwhile, Walter Ralegh wants to continue the work of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and explore North America with the hope of finding the northwest passage to China and the Indies. His attempts to earn her permission for such are initially not successful, despite poetry and gifts of a diamond. At a banquet hall, Ralegh spies Catherine Archer, the daughter of Sir Thomas whom he knew in the Netherlands. Ralegh finds her black hair and grey eyes attractive. Finally on March 27 1584, Ralegh writes that the queen has granted him Humphrey's patent to explore and bring back silver and gold. Ralegh has two ships, captained by his servants Barlowe and Amadas, and piloted by Portuguese sailor, Simon Hernades to conduct reconnaissance voyates.  However, since the royal treasury will not be financing the voyages, Ralegh must find investors. 

Meanwhile Catherine earns the nickname "Cat" from the queen which pleases her. Like the other ladies in waiting, Catherine is determined to earn the favour of Elizabeth and being given such a nickname is a sign of favour. Frances tells Catherine that if she wants to know what the queen thinks about anything she should ask Walter Ralegh. On a trip to Durham house with the Queen and Frances, Catherine wonders how she will approach Ralegh, but before the trip Emme advises her to keep quiet for fear of making the queen jealous. While the queen is with Thomas Harriot in his room viewing his radius astronomicus, Catherine questions Ralegh about his plans to travel to America. He explains that he travelled with his relative, Sir Humfrey Gilbert twice but that on last year's voyage they were forced to return and Gilbert was drowned in a storm off the Azores. his goal is to bring back riches as Francis Drake did. The two talk quietly and Ralegh gives Catherine his hankerchief.  When Elizabeth returns she tells Ralegh that the purpose of his voyage "...must be to bring the true religion to the pagan peoples and induce them to follow the laws and customs of England."

After their meeting, Catherine discovers that the hankerchief Ralegh has given her was a gift to him by Elizabeth, while Ralegh cannot remember what he's done with Elizabeth's hankerchief. The two begin a romantic correspondence and at a meeting in the palace garden, Catherine urges Ralegh to take back his hankerchief. She suspects the queen knows about it but Ralegh tells her that Elizbeth is simply "sporting" with her. As Catherine learns that Elizabeth is concerned about her cousin Queen Mary she begins to realize that corresponding with the queen's favourite courtier may not be safe. But although she attempts to end her correspondence with Ralegh, he persists in writing to her.

As Walter Ralegh's expeditions do not succeed in the New World, Queen Elizabeth is faced with the dilemma as to what to do about her cousin Queen Mary of Scotland. Meanwhile Catherine  learns that he has been sending her letters but she has not received them. Eventually Catherine is betrayed by Frances who steals her letters from Ralegh and gives them to the queen.  Elizabeth is furious when she discovers the relationship between Catherine and Ralegh and she imprisons Catherine in the Tower of London.

After several months of imprisonment, Catherine learns from the Earl of Leicester that Elizabeth has decided to banish Catherine by sending her along with the colonists to Roanoke. This prospect delights Catherine who had told Walter Ralegh that she wanted to be a part of the colony. She had advised him that for it to succeed he needed to bring families there and not soldiers who had no interest in forming a colony but in privateering. Unknown to Catherine is that Emme accosted Ralegh and scorned him to beg the queen to forgive her former maid. Ralegh does this but manipulates the queen into sending Catherine to Virginia with Ralegh's ships. However, he is outplayed by Elizabeth who tells him he will not make the journey but will remain by her side in England. And so Catherine boards the Lion, on her way to an uncertain future in the New World. What will be her fate?

Discussion

Cate of the Lost Colony is a romanticized fictional account of the Roanoke Island Colony also known as the "Lost Colony".  Lisa Klein incorporates some of the history into the beginning chapters of  her novel. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was awarded a charter in 1575 by Queen Elizabeth I to colonize the unclaimed areas of the New World. He claimed the land known as Newfoundland in 1583 but drowned on the return voyage to England.

After Gilbert's death the charter was divided between Sir Gilbert's brother Adrian and his half-brother Walter Raleigh. Raleigh's portion was the lands south of Newfoundland and he was to establish a colony by 1591 or lost the charter. As Raleigh was not allowed to undertake the voyages by Queen Elizabeth who wanted him at court, he had to arrange and oversee everything from London.

The first voyage in April 1584 consisted of two ships captained by Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, with Simon Fernandes as pilot. Eventually they reached the West Indies in July and then travelled north where they arrived at Roanoke Island. The Indigenous peoples, the Secotan were friendly. This expedition returned to England along with two Indigenous passengers: a Secotan named Wanchese and a Croatan named Manteo. Both would return to their people in the New World. The English claimed the land was good for settling. This impressed Queen Elizabeth who knighted Raleigh and named the land "Virginia" and Raleigh as its governor. 

The first colony was a military one on Roanoke Island in 1585. The voyage from England to the New World was beset with many problems including lost ships and encounters with the rival Spanish. The military outpost was founded by Ralph Lane but was abandoned in early 1586. Just over one hundred colonists had settled in Lane's colony due to a lack of provisions - most of which had been lost due to the wreck of one of the ships. A supply ship was redirected elsewhere during that year, meaning the colonists had to rely on the Indigeous peoples for help. Exploration by the colonists failed to locate gold or silver. In June 1586, Lane and the colonists returned to England with the help of Sir Francis Drake. It was at this time that tobacco, corn and potatoes were introduced to England.

Despite the unsuccessful military colony, Raleigh was given a charter in 1587 to found a new colony with John White as governor. Approximately one hundred fifteen colonists signed up including White's daughter Eleanor who was pregnant and her husband Ananias Dare. The colonists were Londoners and included women and children. Three ships left England on May 8 1587 and arrived  at Croatoan Island in mid-July. White located Lane's colony but found it deserted. Fifteen men had been left at Roanoke to continue Raleigh's claim by Richard Grenville, whose supply mission to the colony had been delayed in 1586. Those men were never seen again.

Unfortunately, the relationship between the Indigenous peoples and the English colonists was strained especially after the death of one of the colonists by a native. In August, Eleanor Dare gave birth to a daughter christened Virginia. As the situation became more desperate, the colonists moved and persuaded John White to return to England with the ships to ask for help. It was his intention to return with supplies in 1588 but war between England and Spain prevented this until 1590. The Spanish were aware of the attempt by the English to develop a colony at Roanoke, but a search of Chesapeake Bay in 1588 revealed nothing. Eventually White returned to the New World in the summer of 1590 and although his party found smoke and fresh tracks they were unable to locate any of the colonists. The houses had been scavenged and White's trunks looted. A palisade post was found with the word "Croatoan" carved into it. Eventually White was forced to return to England, and subsequent expeditions failed to locate the colonists and it became known as the "Lost Colony". It is widely believed that the colonists simply assimilated into the Indigenous peoples near them.

The novel employs three narrators: Catherine Archer, Walter Raleigh (spelled Ralegh in the novel), and Manteo, a member of Croatoan tribe. While the main character, Catherine Archer is fictional, many of the characters in the novel are historical figures. To help her readers Klein has provided a list of characters in the novel, identifying the historical figures and those who are fictional. The personal details of all the characters have been imagined. It is evident that Lisa Klein did significant research on Elizabethan England, the voyages, and the Indigenous peoples for her novel. Elizabeth I, who reigned from 1558 to 1603, is portrayed as a jealous, quick-tempered woman who demanded absolutely loyalty. Walter Raleigh, a staunch Protestant English stateman, was one of Elizabeth's courtiers who was in and out of favour with the queen. Raleigh secretly married Elizabeth (Bess) Throckmorton, one of Elizabeth's ladies-in-waiting, incurring the queen's wrath and the couple being committed temporarily to the Tower. 

The character of Catherine portrays the English sentiment towards Catholicism and the Pope, a mere fifty years after Henry VIII's break with Rome. By Elizabeth I's reign, state Protestantism (Anglicanism) had replaced Catholicism. However, Catherine's understanding of her own country's religious roots is flawed. For example she states, "I only knew that Spain was wicked for wanting to rule England and to force its Catholic religion on the people of Britain"  England was a Catholic nation until the rebellion of Henry VIII against Rome in 1534 when he severed ties with the Catholic Church and made himself head of the church in England. If anything, Catholic Spain was attempting to restore Catholicism to the Netherlands. and eventually England. The attitude towards Catholics is further seen in the reaction of the colonists when they discover they have several "papists" as Catholics were called, among them. 

The first one hundred and fifty pages of the novel focus on Catherine's in the Elizabethan court as a maid to Queen Elizabeth. Klein incorporates much of the information that is known about the Elizabethan era of the late 1500's and what is known about the English attempts to start a colony in the New World. As historical documents indicate, the English did not settle on Chesapeake Bay but instead returned to Roanoke Island because the pilot, Simon Fernandes refused to take them there. Many details of the settlement on Roanoke Island were integrated into the story, making Cate's narrative feel authentic. For example, Cate describes the condition of the settlement they find on Roanoke Island: "The dozen cottages built by Grenville's men had fallen into decay. Their doors sagged and the rush roofs were collapsing. Weeds grew waist high and melons with their thick, wide leaves twined like snakes through the windows." There are interesting historical "tidbits" incorporated into the story: for example the planting in Ireland of the potato plant brought back from the New World. 

Cate of the Lost Colony digresses from the historical narrative in that Elizabeth I gives permission for Walter Raleigh to sail to the New World to support the English colonists in Virginia. At this time there was a blockade as England was at war with Spain. To get around the blockade and the likely refusal of her ministers, Elizabeth makes it known, falsely, that Raleigh is being sent to Ireland. As Klein notes in her Author's Note, there is no evidence Raleigh ever journeyed to the Virginia colony but there is a gap between March and October of 1590 in his biography. Klein used this time frame to imagine Raleigh accompanying John White to Virginia.  

In a reimagined history of the "Lost Colony", Raleigh in fact does locate the sixteen survivors of the Roanoke colony including the fictional Cate Archer. Out of desperation, hunger and survival they have abandoned the colony to live with the Croatoan people and married into their community. Having taken everything with them to the New World, and having given up hope of being rescued or resupplied, they have made new lives and do not wish to return to England. When Raleigh does finally find Catherine, she refuses to return to England with him telling him she does not love him and that he does not love her. Her life is with Manteo and his people.

After his encounter with Cate and his return to his ship, Sir Walter Raleigh's narrative is decisive "When we returned to the ship, I told the captain we had found no Englishmen on the island and no sign of their recent habitation. I decided we would give the same report to the queen, reasoning that because the colonists would not return to England, they should be considered as lost." Although White believes the queen would want to know the truth, Raleigh tells him that Elizabeth would order him back to hang the colonists, something he does not have the heart to do. It is likely that either all of the colonists eventually died due to illness, starvation, or at the hands of the Natives, or that they were eventually assiimilated into the native populations.

Cate Of The Lost Colony is an interesting read, well-researched, offering what is a plausible scenario of the fate of the colony. Because there is some mature content, this novel is for older teens.

Book Details:
Cate of the Lost Colony by Lisa Klein
New York: Bloomsbury 2010
329pp.

When Rose Wakes by Christopher Golden

When Rose Wakes by Christopher Golden is the penultimate twisted fairytale. Golden takes the basic story of Sleeping Beauty and adds elements of horror while bringing it into a modern high school setting that young adults can relate to.

Rose DuBois wakes after a two year coma to find that she doesn't really remember anything or anyone from the time before the coma. She recognizes her two aunts, Fay and Suzette who tell her that they use to live in France and that they have brought her to America to receive the finest medical treatment possible. After going through physiotherapy, Rose is brought home to Boston's Beacon Hill to live with her aunts.

As she struggles to regain her life, Rose is haunted by terrifying nightmares she cannot understand but which seem vaguely familiar and appear to hold the clue to her past. When she mentions the dreams to her aunts they try to comfort her by telling her that they are "only dreams" that have no meaning.Instead they tell her to drink a bitter tea they make for her every day to help her regain her memory.

Eventually, Rose begins classes as a sophomore at St. Bridget's High School in Boston's Back Bay where she is known as "Coma Girl". Rose struggles to fit in and cope with the typical high school cliques and conflicts. It doesn't take her long to meet and befriend a handsome junior, tall, muscular, Jared Munoz and make a best friend in Kylie O'Neill. But she also makes enemies with Courtney Sauer who takes an instant dislike to Rose often becoming confrontational with her.

As time goes on bizarre happenings continue to plague Rose. Besides the increasingly detailed nightmares, there is also a strange woman who Rose discovers is following her as well as the creepy presence of black crows who appear to be watching her every move. Her Aunt's persistent warnings that she stay away from boys - all boys move Rose to rebel against their warnings and to pursue a relationship with Jared. She feels that Aunt Suzette and Aunt Fay are out of touch and unreasonably old-fashioned. Yet there are hints from her nightmares that guys are dangerous.

Eventually Rose begins to realize that her dreams are very similar to the fairytale story of Sleeping Beauty.Is she the princess? Is there a curse on her too and if so what part of it includes love and intimacy?

It isn't until Rose is violently attacked at school by Courtney that her Aunts tell her the truth about her past,the present about themselves and about the actual curse on her. I won't reveal how Golden weaves into the modern setting the story of Rose's past and the Sleeping Beauty fairytale because that would simply give away too much plot. But from this point on, the story moves breathtakingly fast. There is an epic battle between good and bad that involves Rose, her Aunts and their spurned sister.

The ending is bizarre and unsatisfying in some aspects. For me, this bizarreness ruined the book. It was strangely out of character with the situations and the characters involved. If someone were really trying to kill you and you knew they would never ever stop, would you spare them? I also found the entire premise of the fairytale element unworkable because the present day situation and that which occurred in the past is actually based on the dishonourable behaviour of Rose's father, the Duke of Rigauld.

There is an element of horror in this story but it's not overwhelming and Christopher Golden writing is well done in this regard. I wished there had been more character development for Rose's aunts but Golden does a great job developing the sweet romance between Rose and Jared. It is this romantic element which helps to hold the reader's interest in the middle of the novel when there is not much action occurring.

Overall, I think most young readers will enjoy When Rose Wakes, especially if they are fans of Golden's previous books. When Rose Wakes is a good blend of romance, mystery and horror. But I hazard that they will ultimately be very disappointed in the bizarre ending.

Book Details:

When Rose Wakes by Christopher Golden
New York: Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster) 2010

312pp