An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo

This delightful little book, suitable for children between the ages of 9 to 12, is based on a true story about two children and their mother who escape from the bombed city of Dresden with a young elephant, in February, 1945. The story is told by an elderly woman, Lizzie, who is a resident of the nursing home where the narrator of the novel works as a nurse.

The nurse's son, Karl, has developed a friendship with the elderly Lizzie and she frequently tells him about how when she was a girl, she came to have "an elephant in the garden". At first Karl's mom is skeptical but on February 13, they find the old woman very upset in her room. When Karl's mom asks Lizzie if the date has any special meaning for her, Lizzie tells her that it was the day her life changed forever; "On February the thirteenth I am always sad. The wind in the trees, it makes me remember."

At this point they encourage Lizzie to recount the events some 65 years earlier. Lizzie who was known as Elizabeth then, her mother whom they called Mutti and her younger brother Karli, lived in Dresden. Elizabeth's father was a German soldier serving on the Eastern Front, fighting the Russians, while her mother worked at the zoo in Dresden. The people of Dresden worried about the bombing of their beautiful city, which so far had been spared. But the Allies where concerned that Dresden would be used as a headquarters to attack the advancing Russians and so there were rumours that a bombing was coming. Because of this Mutti and the staff of the zoo worried about what they would have to do to the animals should such a thing occur. They knew that all the wild animals would have to be shot. Karli was very distraught over this and Mutti hatched a plan to save Marelene, a young elephant.

One night Elizabeth and her brother, are surprised to see an elephant in the garden. Mutti has brought Marlene to stay with them at night. The young elephant has become increasingly distraught over the death of her mother and Mutti is trying to help the animal cope.

On the night of February 13th, Elizabeth, Karli and Mutti decide to take Marlene for a walk in a nearby park. When Marlene is enraged by a barking dog, she takes off after it, leading them away from home and the center of Dresden. Suddenly, they hear the air-raid sirens and soon after the bombers approaching the city. Too late for them to hide, Elizabeth, Karli and Mutti can only watch in horror as waves of Allied bombers fly over the city dropping incendiary bombs. With Dresden burning, they have no choice but to flee to the countryside to escape the flames. One of the strongest memories Lizzie has is of the burning, sucking wind that threatened to draw them back towards the burning city.

Eventually they do make it into the countryside traveling with the elephant seeking food and shelter and heading towards the west and safety. As a result of this journey, Elizabeth's family meets up with a downed Canadian airman hiding in a barn. This chance meeting changes Elizabeth's life forever.

Discussion

An Elephant in the Garden is an engaging short novel for readers in the 9 to 12 age range. The are lovely ink and wash sketches throughout the book, which aid in bringing the story to life. But those wanting a story with a bit more depth will be disappointed. Morpurgo's style is unadorned and there is appeal in telling a story in this way.

Historical notes on this important event and a map at the beginning of the novel would have helped young readers immensely. The bombing of Dresden is an important and controversial historical event within World War II and some background material at the end would have added a nice touch to this book. That is part of the depth that is characteristically lacking in his books. Nevertheless, this story is a great introduction for young readers to an important event.

Book Details:
An Elephant In The Garden by Michael Morpurgo
London: HarperCollins Childrens Books 2010
233 pp.

Warhorse. Movie Review

War Horse is a drama about a boy and his beloved horse, whom he loses to the cavalry in the Great War (World War I).

Albert Narracott (Jeremy Irvine) and his parents, Ted and Rosie, are tenant farmers on the estate of a wealthy man named Lyons (David Thewlis). When Ted attends a local auction, he gets into a bidding war with Lyons and ends up paying 30 guineas that he cannot afford, for a thoroughbred horse that is skitterish, stubborn and completely useless to him.

When Albert sees the horse his father has purchased he is thrilled because he has loved this horse from afar for some time. He reassures his father that he will train the horse whom he names Joey, to pull the plough. Despite ridicule and hostility from Lyons and his sons, Albert does succeed in training Joey to plough and his gentle ways with the horse calm and tame him. They form a bond that is deep and lasting.


However, when disaster strikes, Ted is forced to sell Joey to the British cavalry in order to save the farm. World War I has just broken out and this means that Joey will go overseas with the British army to fight in the war. Albert is stricken to learn this but he is reassured by Captain Nicholls who has purchased Joey, that he will write to him and take good care of Joey.

What follows are the adventures of Joey throughout the Great War, as he passes from Nicholls who dies during a cavalry charge against the Germans, into the hands of many different people including the German army. Joey is deeply traumatized as a workhorse in the German army and flees through the trenches and into No Man's Land, in a final effort to escape. There in a frenzied terror, he is trapped in the barbed wire, unable to free himself and horribly wounded. When the English and Germans realize what has happened, they work together to free the injured animal. Who he will go with is determined by a toss of a coin; the English win and Joey is taken to a field hospital.

Meanwhile when Albert comes of age, he joins the war effort and is sent overseas. Albert is seriously injured in a gas attack and is taken to a field hospital to be treated. It is there that he is reunited with his beloved horse.

Discussion

In War Horse, director Steven Spielberg has taken an great animal story and made it into an old style Hollywood movie. The cinematography is incredibly beautiful with the gorgeous Devon countryside in stark contrast to the stark, macabre reality of No Man's Land. The acting is superb; no actor overwhelms the story and takes it away from the main character - which is of course, the horse. Jeremy Irvine is an adequate Albert. Many of the secondary characters who are soldiers are well cast.

War Horse is a book written by British author, Michael Morpurgo for children ages 9 to 12 and the movie takes this into account. Spielberg captures the reality of war without all the gore and blood. For example, when the two young German deserters are caught, their execution in a field is blocked out by the timely passing of the blade of a nearby windmill. No Man's Land, pock marked, filled with corpses, smoke and fire, is eery but not overly frightening. Even Joey, when completely caught in the barbed wire, has injuries that are suggested but not really shown. A horse racing through fences and fences of barbed wire would be a bloodied mess. Just watching Joey race through the black doom of No Man's Land is enough to convey the absolute distress of the horse and the horror of it all. The occasional use of humour to provide comic relief is well done. One of the best scenes in the movie is the interaction between the British and German soldiers as they work together briefly to free Joey. 

Unlike the movie version, in the book Joey's reuniting with Albert is much less dramatic, though no less emotional. For Albert has joined the Veterinary Corps as a verterinary orderlie in the hopes of finding his beloved horse. And find him, he did. In this aspect the book is very different from the movie where Albert is a member of the British infantry who leads a charge across no-man's land, only to be gassed.

This is a great movie, well suited for boys aged 9 to 12 years of age. At almost 2 hours in length, it's a bit long and could have been shortened somewhat by about 20 minutes. But otherwise, it is highly recommended because it does provide a somewhat realistic portrayal of the brutality of war on men and animals.

Far to Go by Alison Pick

Either way, when I think of the human potential stolen, of the millions of little lights snuffed out, I can't help but wish that the living, at least, would embrace what was taken from the dead.

Far To Go is the interweaving of two stories - a current narrative which overlaps a historical one. The present day narrator is an elderly woman whose identity isn't revealed until almost the end of the novel. The past narrative is the dominant one of the novel and recounts the story of a Jewish Czech couple, Pavel and Annelise Bauer who are living in the Sudetenland in 1938 and who struggle to survive in the rapidly deteriorating conditions prior to the Nazi annexation of the Sudetenland and the beginning of World War II. It is told by the Bauer's governess, twenty-three-year-old Marta Mueller, who comes from a troubled background.

Pavel and Annelise live with their son, Pepik, in a small town in the Sudetenland, where they own a factory built by Pavel's father. Pavel, whose father fought for the Germans in World War I, is a Czech nationalist. Pavel is the eternal optimist while Anneliese is emotionally distant, fashionable and more practical.

The Bauer's story, as told by Marta, opens with ominous indications that the Germans will occupy the Sudetenland, which they lost after World War I. Czech Jews are beginning to experience the effects of marginalization, their factories and businesses are being occupied,  including Pavel's factory. Other Jews are beaten to death or attacked. Anneliese wants to leave while they still can, but Pavel refuses, saying that they must "live what we believe in". Because Pavel insists upon staying, Anneliese decides to take matters into her own hands and does something that drives a permanent wedge between her and Pavel.

Eventually, the family along with many other refugees, relocates to Prague amid further chaos, in the belief that Czechoslovakia will safe. They are mistaken and as the crisis intensifies, they see their options slowly dwindle and eventually disappear. Unable to obtain the necessary exit visas and travel permits, in desperation, the Bauers make a decision that changes their lives forever. They decide to try to get Pepik onto the Kindertransport out of Czechoslovakia to safety in Britain.

Within Pavel and Anneliese's story is that of Marta. Marta is romantically involved with Ernst Anselm, a married man and Pavel's assistant at the factory. But Marta learns that Ernst is not loyal to Pavel and is a Nazi sympathizer. In fact, he is a sadistic and cruel man who thinks only of himself. Marta is a complex person, undecided about who to be loyal to and quite frightened of being abandoned. She has no family and is terrified she will be left behind by the Bauers, whatever they decide to do. Ernst warns her that she will ultimately have to choose and soon. Marta experiences great conflict, changing her mind frequently based on what happens in the Bauer household. The choices Marta makes directly impact the Bauers, in ways she could not have fathomed resulting in tremendous guilt. However, this guilt never seems to really impact how Marta behaves. She simply does what she feels she needs to - perhaps what many people do in dire situations.

Interwoven, infrequently with the Bauer's story, is the present day story told by an elderly narrator who is a Holocaust researcher by the name of Lisa. Among her many areas of research, Lisa also has studied the Kindertransport. The Kindertransport was a program in which Jewish children were sent out of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Germany to safety in Britain. It began after the pogrom of November 9 and 10, 1938, known as Kristallnacht.  Lisa is trying to make contact with someone, a person she has spent her entire life looking for. Finally, after all her years of hard work, cutting through the reticence of Holocaust survivors to share their stories, she has managed to locate this one person whom she has more than a passing connection to. Lisa sets up a meeting with this survivor which eventually reveals to the reader how all the narratives fit together -the past finally catching up to the present.

Discussion

Far To Go is an engaging historical novel. The writing in this novel is brilliant and eloquent. It's difficult not to read the Bauer's story and feel a sense of impending doom and overwhelming tragedy. Readers know that if the Bauer's don't act quickly, it will be too late and know what lies in their future. Their story is all the more poignant because as Europe careens towards war, their relationship unravels, the result of personal tragedy, personal loss, betrayal and the developing crisis in Czechoslovakia. There is tragedy on many levels too - ethnic, national and personal.

Author Allison Pick excels at depicting the gradual descent of Europe as a region and also on an individual level, into racial hatred and war.  This is especially well demonstrated by the character of Ernst, who whispers to Marta, asking her if she's noticed whether Jews smell.When he blurts this out during one of their clandestine meetings, he immediately retracts it. He's not sure what he should or should not say. Later on Ernst talks about how he's is beginning to feel that Germany and the Sudetenland would be better off without Jews and that it's not about religion but race. While Marta doesn't know what she believes, she does make a point of noting whether or not her Jewish employer,  Pavel Bauer smells. However, Ernst is an opportunist, or maybe worse yet, a predator. He begins to actively try to seize all of the Bauer's assets. But he still has a glimmer of conscience when he appeals to Marta for affirmation. "He was more uncertain than he was letting on, about  his feelings towards the Jews and how his old friend Pavel might fit in with them. He wanted to be bolstered, reassured. Ernst too, Marta realized, felt guilty. Even if he himself was unaware of it."

Pick keeps her readers engaged by the ongoing mystery of the identity of the book's narrator and her connection to the Bauer family. It works well and creates a multi-faceted story that holds till the very end. Far To Go is a unique blend of historical fiction combined with a modern mystery. There are themes of identity, loss, and betrayal throughout. A few unnecessary items creep into the story but overall a brilliantly conceived piece of story-telling.

For more information on the Kindertransport please check out the Kindertransport Association website at www.kindertransport.org.

Book Details:
Far To Go by Alison Pick
Toronto: House of Anasi Press    2011
314 pp.

Under The Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Under The Mesquite is another fine young adult novel written by a newcomer and Mexican-American author, Guadalupe Garcia McCall. This exquisitely crafted novel in free verse tells the story of fourteen year old Lupita from Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. When she was six years old, Lupita's family left Mexico for the United States, moving to Eagle Pass, Texas. Lupita is the oldest in a family of eight children, six girls and two boys, the four youngest children having been born in the U.S.
The novel is divided into six parts each following Lupita and her family's life over the past eight years. 

Part One, The Weight of Words 

The premise of the novel is presented in this first part. It is fourteen-year-old Lupita's freshman year of high school in Eagle Pass, Texas. She knows her mother is keeping a secret and so Lupita searches her mother's purse in an attempt to learn that secret. 

Lupita was born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico in a little blue house on Avenida Lopez Mateos. A year later her sister Analiza was born, and two years later Victoria, followed by her brother Paco. Lupita's family moved to Eagle Pass, Texas when she was six-years-old. Her papi planted a mulberry tree in their backyard, while Mami planted a garden of rosebushes in their front yard. It has been eight years since they left Mexico and there have been four more children added to their family: Tita, Juanita, Rosita, and Benito. However, growing in the rose garden now is a mesquite tree which Mami cannot seem to remove as it repeatedly returns. Lupita as the oldest, knows there is something different about Mami: she is distracted, worried, and at night she can hear her crying. Lupita notes that Mami's two closest friends, Lucia and Serafina visit and offer her mother sympathetic glances. It is when she is caught eavesdropping that Mami confirms what Lupita suspects - her mother has cancer. 

Lupita's best friend, Mireya tells her that this means Mami will die but Lupita insists that the eventual operation will help her. Mireya's blunt assertion leads Lupita to end their friendship. 

Lupita prepares for her confirmation with a class at Sacred Heart Church led by Mother Magdalena. In the chapel during a break, Lupita begs Jesus for a miracle. Mami is having her operation to remove the cancer in her uterus. Lupita's faith has always been a source of strength in her life, soothing pain and fears, bu tnow she has doubts. She offers to dedicate her life to Jesus. "Just...please...don't let her die." During the second part of the confirmation lecture Lupita raises her hand when a nun asks if anyone is considering committing their life to doing God's work. However, Mami refuses to allow the nuns to take Lupita away, telling them she will go to college. This angers Lupita but Mami tells her she will thank her some day.

Part Two Remembering 

The story shifts back to Lupita's life Piedras Negras , in Coahuila, Mexico to when she was six-years-old and Mami is pregnant with her fifth baby. This set of poems tell of Lupita longing for the culture and landscape of Mexico and her family's visits to her Abuela Inez. Garcia McCall's lyrical poems convey the beauty and simplicity of life in Mexico, but also the difficulty learning a new language. At this time Papi worked in the United States and was never home. But when he did return on Friday nights, he would teach Lupita the letters of the alphabet, telling her "You have a talent for letters." Her papi tells Lupita that words will make her successful in the Los Estados Unidos. 

When they do move to the United States, at first Lupita misses los girasoles, the tall, unruly sunflowers that they had in the yard in Mexico. When Lupita and her family get homesick they would simply take the bus to the edge of Eagle Pass and walk across the International Bridge to the custom station in Piedras Negras. From the bridge they could look down on the waters of the Rio Grande. In Piedras Negras, they would stay with Mami's mother, Abuelita Inez who would make pinole which was roasted mequite meal seasoned with cinnamon and sugar.

Lupita's mother loved babies, who were "like pennies from heaven". To support their family, Papi worked in North Texas building houses. After the birth of each baby, Lupita's papi would open a bank account to place savings in for future Quinceanera parties or college tuition.

Part Three Crossing Borders

In the summer after Lupita's freshman year, Mami had a successful operation to remove the cancer. Papi quit his job to care for her as she had to stay in the hospital for six weeks, meaning most of their savings were gone. After her release, she must now return every other week for chemotherapy treatments. 

In the fall, Papi, Analiza, Victoria, Paco and Lupita cross the border to pray for Mami's recovery at Abuela Inez's church, Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe. Afterwards, Papi buys them los elotes calientitos, ears of roasted corn with butter and chili-powdered lime juice. Mami begins to recover, never losing her hair. She spends her time cooking and watching telenovelas with Lupita. Mr. Cortes, Lupita's drama teacher gives her a set of instructional CDs of voice lessons and tells her to use them to train her voice if she is serious about acting, so that she can lose her accent.

December 12th is the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe (Dia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe) and it is also Lupita's fifteenth birthday. There is no Quinceanera party because all their money has gone for Mami's chemotherapy, but Lupita is fine with this.  She doesn't want to dress up in a party dress and high heels. To replenish their savings, Papi has been working late constructing an overpass downtown. Although Mami looks tired, she insists she is fine. As Lupita begins to lose her Mexican accent, she is mocked by her friends Mireya and Sarita.

On spring break, Lupita and her family enjoy time in San Vincente, Coahuila, Mexico, swimming in the Rio Grande and taking in the sun. At the University Interscholastic League competition, Lupita wins first prize and a gold trophy in the Poetry Interpretation for her dramatic performance of "The Highwayman". Mireya and Sarita continue to mock Lupita about her changing accent. Mami is thrilled when Lupita arrives home with her trophy. 

Part Four Give Us This Day

In Lupita's junior year, Papi tells the family that Mami's cancer has returned, a year and half after her chemo and that this means more treatment. As she goes through the chemo, Mami continues to tend her rose garden which flourishes beneath the tall mesquite tree.  Papi finds a cancer clinic in Galveston, Texas that can offer more treatment to Mami but their family situation makes it seem impossible.  Lupita tells Papi she will stay in Eagle Pass to look after the family while Mami goes to Galveston and he works nearby in Houston. However, Lupita finds doing Mami's job of maintaining the family a challenge with only Victoria helping her. The younger children ignore Lupita and spend their time playing.

When she can, Lupita sits in the rose garden, beneath the mesquite tree and writes poems, pouring out what is in her heart. With her parents gone, life becomes a huge struggle for her and her siblings. They eventually run out of food as Papi hasn't been home in weeks. Fourteen-year-old Paco and his friends go out one night and return with bags of pomegranates, turtle doves and a bucket of perch. They are also helped by Papi's older brother, Tio Saul who brings a truck load of groceries and their neighbours also help.

Part Five Cut Like A Diamond

Just before Lupita's senior year, Mami comes home from the clinic, but she is so weak and frail that Papi must carry her into the house. Mami notices the mesquite and how it has grown. At Mami's request, Papi takes the entire family to Tio Rodrigo's ranch house in San Vincente. Mami is back home being cared for by her sisters Tia Maritza and Tia Belen. One afternoon after the family is home, Mami convinced she sees La Muerta, the skeleton of death outside their house and that she is going to die and cannot be comforted. 

At school Lupita shows no interest in applying for the lead in the school play and these leads Mr. Cortes to talk to her after class. Lupita breaks down and reveals what life is like for her at home: that her mother has reached the end of her cancer treatments and is dying. Lupita, seeing the distress of her younger siblings, has told her father it is better Mami dies in hospital so that the younger children do not remeber their mother in so much pain. As a way to deal with this, Mr. Cortes suggests that Lupita direct her pain into accting as a way to cope. 

"...True performers are able to turn

their most painful experiences

into art that other people

can connect with.

You do this exceptionally well..."

In hospital Lupita keeps a vigil by Mami who is heavily medicated. She cannot bear to leave her mother but eventually Papi arrives to stay with Mami. Lupita returns to school and works on her script until one night they learn that Mami has died. 

Part Six Words On the Wind

Before Mami's death and with her being too ill to tend to them, her rose bushes began to die and now are all gone. The mesquite tree however is flourishing and Lupita often sits against its trunk writing her poems. While she does attend prom at the end of her senior year, Lupita continues to struggle with the devastating loss of Mami. Mr. Cortes tells her,

" 'Lupita, no matter how much it rains,

the roads won't stay flooded.

Eventually everything dries out again,

It just takes awhile."

Lupita must move forward but with the painful loss of her mother she struggles to reclaim her life. It will be many months and a trip to Mexico before Lupita comes to realize that her mother would want her to be happy and to work towards the goals they both once talked about.

Discussion

Guadalupe Garcia McCall's novel, Under The Mesquite is a beautifully crafteed novel which portrays a teenager's struggle to cope with the life changing events of moving to another country, her mother's illness and death from cancer, and the transition to adulthood. Garcia McCall's poetry captures the beauty of family life in Mexico and the opportunities and struggles in America; learning a new language and the tragedy of Mami's illness and death. The novel explores many themes including the power and weight of words, the immigrant experience, identity, and the devastating effect of illnesses like on families.

The novel opens with a section titled, "The Weight of Words".  Lupita considers the weight of words both spoken and unspoken. She suspects that something is wrong with her Mami and eventually realizes that her mother is ill with cancer.  This knowledge is unspoken between them. Her mother will not speak the word because of what it means, hence the title, "The Weight of Words." 

"It's okay," I whisper

against her cheek. "I know."

My heart aches

because I have heard the word

that she keeps tucked away

behind closed doors.

The word "cancer" carries with it so many terrible connotations, but especially that of death. Lupita's friend Mireya expresses this weight out loud telling her that her mother will die, even with the operation.

" 'That doesn't mean she's

going to beat it,' Mireya says.

'People with cancer usually die.' "

These words are poison to Lupita and she wants to end their friendship.

As a new immigrant struggling to learn English, Lupita notes how this new language feels strange and difficult.

"And I doubted los girasoles

would understand me anymore,

because now I was speaking

a different language.

I swallowed consonants

and burdened vowels with a sound

so dense, the works fell straight

out of my mouth and hit the ground

before they could reach the river's edge."

Lupita's words begin to change as she loses her accent and she is mocked by Mireya who accuses her of talking "...like you're one of them...Sarita sneers. "You talk like you wanna be white." They accuse Lupita of thinking she is better than them. But when Lupita wins a trophy at the arts competition, Mireya relents and congratulates her. But Lupita tells her,

"Changing how I talk

doesn't change who I am,

I know where I come from, "

Lupita finds solace in the words she writes in her poems. But eventually these words weigh her down, preventing her from moving forward after Mami's death. In Mexico it is Lupita's abuelita who tells her that sometimes it is best to simply start over. 

"I sit on the grass,

reach for my journal,

and start to tear out pages.

I rip out all the sad, tortured

poems I've written

since Mami's funeral

and pile them on the ground

in front of me. I'm wondering

what to do with them

when, without warning,

as if deciding for me,

the wild wind kicks up again

and scatters the tattered

pages everywhere."

With this, Lupita is able "...to let Mami go." 

                                                                                                                                                             

The mesquite tree is a metaphor for Lupita and her new life in the United States. The mesquite tree is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It has sharp thorns and long, deep roots and is able to survive in harsh climates. Mami's rose garden symbolizes Lupita's family which she has carefully tended and is flourishing. Lupita is one such rose in that gardent. Then "A thorny mesquite has sprouted in the middle of her rose garden." Despite repeatedly pulling out the tree by its roots, it returns. This frustrates Mami to the point of tears but Papi tells her 

"Its in the tree's nature

to be stubborn. It's a survivor."

It is a foreshadowing that Mami's roses, her children will survive but in a different form.

The mesquite tree, once considered like a weed in Mami's garden of roses, becomes Lupita's source of strength and her confidant. 

"In the squint of morning,

before anyone else is awake,...

the mesquite is my confidant. 

I lean back against its sturdy trunk

and read aloud every word

imprinted en mi corazon.

The mesquite listens quietly..."

It never tells a soul what Lupita writes in her notebook.

When Mami arrives home from the Galveston clinic, weak and bed-ridden she notes the mesquite tree outside her window. 

" 'Look at it, all grown up,' says Mami,

mesmerized by the sight of

the mesquite swaying sensually

outside the bedroom window.

With heavy pruning and much-needed

guidance, the tree has become

a graceful and impressing presence

in Mami's beloved rose garden.
'Who'd have known it would be

so beautiful,' she marvels."

At this point, Lupita envies the mesquite tree "its undaunted spirit, its ability to turn even a disabling pruning into an unexpected opportunity to veer in a different direction."  At this point, Lupita doesn't yet recognize that she too will turn this "disabling" time into a strength later on.

During Mami's illness and by the time of her death, all of her beautiful rose bushes die, despite being watered by the family. The only thing that has survived in her garden is the mesquite tree,  now a sturdy, permanent thing. Papi is concerned that Lupita will be crushed by the death of her mother. But Lupita feels that will not happen. 

"No matter how bad things get,

I can always be found here,

planted firmly in what's left

of Mami's rose garden,

with a pen in my hand, 

leaning against this same sturdy trunk,

still writing poems

in the shade of the mesquite."

Like the mesquite, Lupita is now permantly rooted, strong and sturdy, enduring the disabling pruning of caring for their family during her mother's illness and losing her Mami.

However, after Mami's death Lupita struggles to move forward. When she is in Mexico staying with her abuelita, Garcia McCall again employs the mesquite imagery to show how the roots Lupita has put down through Mama's illness help her. 

"Like a shoot growing

from what remains -- a tiny piece

of buried mesquite root --

determination flourishes."

After letting go of all the pain from Mami's death, symbolically represented by throwing away her poetry of pain, Lupita begins over again as her abuelita suggested.

"Later I find a tall mesquite

to sit under;

and with my pen i hand,

I open my journal

to a blank page and begin

writing a whole new batch of poems,

poems filled with memories

and hope, because that's

what Mami would've wanted."

If there is one thing this novel very much highlights is just how devastating an serious illness like cancer can be to a family, disrupting life in every way possible. The financial cost of serious illness is especially well portrayed. Papi and Mami are well on their way to achieving a good life in los Estados Unidos when Mami takes ill. Papi is working hard and they are saving money for their children. All of that is lost in the struggle to cure Mami. Lupita as the oldest child is well aware of the toll on her father, the suffering of her mother and the changes in their lives. Yet despite the tragic outcome, the resilience of Papi, Lupita and her family are very evident. 

Under The Mesquite is a somewhat autobiographical novel that is loosely based on some of the experiences that the author, Guadalupe Garcia McCall had while growing up: she was born in Piedras Negras, moved to Eagle Pass, Texas when she was six-years-old,  lost her mother to cancer when she was seventeen and had to care for her younger siblings during her mother's illness. Garcia-McCall has succeeded in writing a novel is beautifully written and deeply authentic. She has included a detailed list at the back of Spanish names and phrases with their English translation. Highly recommended.

Book Details:
Under The Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
New York: Lee & Low Books Inc. 2011
224pp.

Violet by Tania Duprey Stehlik

Violet is dreading her first day at her new school. She is worried she might not be liked by anyone, but her mother encourages her to just be herself.When Violet arrives at school she sees red kids, yellow kids and blue kids and she tries her best to blend in.

After a day of crafts and fun, while waiting for her dad to pick her up, someone points out to Violet that her father is blue. Caught off guard, Violet realizes that she is not blue or red or yellow like the rest of her classmates. Why isn't she blue like her father or red like her mother?With some help from her mother, Violet learns that it doesn't matter what colour your skin is.

Violet is a poignant story with an important message reminding us that the colour of our skin is unimportant. What is important is to be true to ourselves. Each person is unique in their own way, regardless of skin colour. Violet is beautifully illustrated by Vania Vuleta Jovanovic, a multimedia artist based in Toronto, Canada. Jovanovic's unique style further enhances the message of this delicious little picture book!

Book Details:
Violet by Tania Duprey Stehlik
Toronto: Second Story Press  2009

Movie Review: Hugo

Based on Brian Selznick's juvenile novel, The Invention of Hugh Cabret, Hugo is a beautiful story brought to life on the big screen in a dazzling manner. Directed by Martin Scorsese, Hugo is reasonably faithful to Selznick's story of a 12 year-old orphan boy living in the Paris train station during the 1930's. Hugo (Asa Butterfield) lived with his father who was a worker at the museum repairing clocks and other mechanisms.

One day his father returns home from work with an automaton, an intricate Victorian type of robot that works using clock mechanisms. This automaton is broken and so Hugo and his father set out to repair him, keeping detailed notes in a book. But before his work is completed, Hugo's cherished father dies in a fire at the museum and he is collected by his rough uncle who is in charge of keeping the clocks in the Paris train station in working order. Devastated by his change of circumstances, Hugo cherishes the automaton, which he manages to take with him, and sets out to repair it. When his uncle disappears, Hugo continues to maintain the clocks in the station while hiding from the eccentric station master(Sacha Baron Cohen) who delights in capturing children without parents and sending them to the orphanage.

But fate steps in, in a way that Hugo could never anticipate. Partaking of petty thievery in the station, in order to obtain the parts necessary for his automaton, Hugo is caught stealing by an elderly man who runs a toy booth. He takes Hugo's father's notebook on the automaton and refuses to return it. Desperate to retrieve the last item he has of his father, Hugo follows the old man to his home where he meets Isabelle, the old man's god-daughter. Isabelle is just waiting for an adventure and she agrees to help Hugo recover his book from Papa Georges and Mama Jeanne.

Hugo tells Isabelle he needs his father's notebook back because he is repairing something. Hugo takes Isabelle to the theatre to see the movies, something her "Papa" doesn't allow her. After leaving the theatre, Hugo and Isabelle have an incident at the station and it is at this time that Hugo sees that Isabelle has something he needs - something to make his automaton finally work. This opens the door not only to an amazing adventure for Hugo and Isabelle, but also reveals a secret long kept about Papa Georges and Mama Jeanne. We learn that Papa Georges is the long forgotten but once innovative Parisian filmmaker, Georges Melies. Papa Georges career petered out after the First World War, with most of his groundbreaking films lost or sold to be melted down.

Hugo and Isabelle delve into Papa Georges life and with the help of a film researcher, Rene Tabard, help to recover his lost history.

Hugo is a breathtaking cinematic version of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, with beautiful sets that are well shown in the 3D medium. My only complaint is that the visuals are so intense, especially enhanced by the use of 3D, that the characters sometimes have a tendency to get overwhelmed. It's hard not to focus on the stunning special effects, although Asa Butterfield is certainly able to capture and hold the viewers interest. With his intense blue eyes, Butterfield is a compelling actor with an expressive face. Both Asa Butterfield and Chloe Grace Moretz are engaging young actors, who were well cast for Hugo.

I also feel that although this is a kid's movie, the storyline might be a bit too complex for younger viewers - not entirely the fault of Scorsese. Selznick's books, although meant for juvenile and young teens, have detailed plots with plenty of twists. And the plot does drag a little in the middle. But overall, I felt this was an enjoyable, entertaining movie.

In Trouble. A Novel by Ellen Levine

In Trouble is a short novel that attempts to portray what it was like in the 1950's for young women experiencing a crisis pregnancy, hence the title "in trouble". The novel tells the story of two girls, Jaime Morse and her best friend Elaine over the span of four months, from March to June of 1956. The author sets her novel in the McCarthy era, when Cold War America was on the hunt for any type of communist infiltration of society. Attitudes towards people who were different were unaccommodating and the strict social norms of that period were not to be broken, for any reason.

Told in Jaime's voice, the novel opens with Jaime talking to Elaine who wants her to help set up a weekend away with her college boyfriend, Neil. Elaine wants to stay with Neil who has been pressuring her to become intimate, saying that he has told her "it's a sign I don't love him if I won't". Jaime agrees to help her friend although she doesn't feel this is the right thing for her friend to do.

Eventually Elaine confides to Jaime that she is pregnant. When Jaime offers to get her aunt to "help" her, Elaine tells Jaime that as a Catholic she cannot have an abortion. Jamie who is in high school also hints that something terrible that has happened to her. "Now when something happens -- I will not think about It. I will not remember It. I will NOT -- I cannot tell anybody, not Elaine, not Georgina, who's my closest friend now that Elaine is gone. Not anybody. Not ever."  Although Jaime won't tell anyone and she doesn't want to think about what happened, the reader soon learns that she went to visit her cousin Lois in Greenwich Village and was date-raped by her cousin's friend.

All of this is set against the backdrop of Jaime's father returning home after being imprisoned for just under eleven months for being a member of the Communist party years ago. As well the author sets the tone of what it's like to be pregnant and unmarried in 1956. Girls who are "in trouble" are suddenly sent away when their "time comes". There are the requisite discussion about sex education, condoms and abortion circa 1956.

Soon Elaine's parents learn of her situation and she is taken to Catholic Services where she signs away her baby to be adopted. In 1956, as a single mother, she doesn't have the option of keeping her baby.  Elaine loves Neil, who now won't have anything to do with her but who pressured her into relations in the first place. She wants his baby, but she isn't being allowed really to have any say in what will happen to her or her baby. Elaine's parents haven't been much help to her either - telling her that she's ruined their life!

Eventually, Jamie is able to tell Paul, a boy from the school newspaper when they are on a date, what has happened to her. The panic that she feels when she first suspects she might be pregnant is truly heartrending. She can't believe what is happening to her and Levine creates a great deal of empathy for Jamie in her descriptions of how she feels and the terror and helplessness Jamie experiences over becoming pregnant.

Elaine has her baby at a Catholic orphanage but it is taken away from her and she is understandably traumatized. Levine also effectively portrays the loss and the terrible pain Elaine feels in giving up her baby which she truly loves and wants. "They took away my beautiful baby." she tells Jamie.

Discussion

In Trouble is a typical biased look at the social issues of unwed mothers and unplanned pregnancy from a decidely anti-Catholic perspective.  As the representative Catholic character in the novel, Elaine is portrayed as stupid, unrealistic, ignorant and naive. She believes to the very end that her lover, Neil, will come get her at the maternity home and marry her. Although Jamie views Elaine as having been "forced" to have her baby, Elaine tells Jamie that she loves her baby and she loves Neil. Her "false hope" contrasts with Jamie's "realistic" view of her predicament. However, Elaine's hopes, while perhaps not realistic, are natural. It is natural to want the father of your baby to marry you. It is natural to love your unborn baby. In 1956 and in 20

In comparison, Jamie, who decides upon abortion, is portrayed as intelligent, realistic and in some ways very savvy. She knows how to get the information she needs to make the "choice" that will free her from the burden of her unwanted pregnancy.  But Jaime rationalizes her abortion choice primarily by denying the humanity of her unborn child. She tells Elaine that her unborn child is a "prebaby". "Elaine, hello. You don't have a baby. You've got a pre-baby in you. Not a baby.", to which Elaine responds, "A baby, Jamie, it's a baby and it's mine."  Later on she tells her parents, "I love you both," I said, and I meant it. "But I can't. I don't know all of the why. It's not just going to college." I touched my belly. "This is not a baby yet, and I can't let it be one. I mean, how could I have a baby and not take care of it?"

In Trouble contains a few bits of abortion rights rhetoric. For example, when Jaime tells her mother what's going on with her friend and that she is being forced to give up her baby for adoption, her mother admits it's a terrible choice. But Uncle Maury has the following response: "The only terrible thing," Uncle Maury said, "is when someone brings an unwanted child into the world."  Of course, Uncle Maury is referring to the oft-repeated feminist mantra of "every child a wanted child", implying of course that wantedness confers humanity and makes a pregnancy, a baby. Abortion in proabortion reasoning, will rid the world of unwanted children.

Unfortunately, the choice of adoption is portrayed as very traumatic one, while the choice of abortion appears to have little negative outcome. Readers are told how Elaine feels after the adoption - a choice she didn't want or really make. But in contrast, readers are not presented with the effects of abortion on Jamie, because the novel ends at this point. However, a point is made that the abortion allows Jamie to regain her life and that it is a good choice because it was the choice she wanted. 

In Trouble is a good starting point for a discussion about abortion, premarital sex, teen sex, rape, adoption and single parenting. It is also useful in providing a starting point for a discussion on how society has changed in its views of single mothers, premarital sex and rape. It was interesting to note that not one adult in the story reported the rape of their cousin/daughter. Lois simply sends her young male friend packing and Jamie's parents never really address their daughter's rape at all. Single mothers were strongly discouraged from keeping their babies mainly because at that time there was still great shame in having a baby outside of marriage and because there were few support systems in place for single mothers. 

In Trouble attempts to demonstrate to teens what it was like to have an unplanned pregnancy when abortion was illegal in the United States. It is based on the author's interviews with many women who experienced just such a situation in the 1950s. There is no doubt that society did not offer much in the way of emotional and physical support to women experiencing an unplanned pregnancy, often treating them with contempt while the men who pressured women to have sex or who raped women suffered few, if any consequences. And certainly the type of help that was offered to women in 1956, often being sent away to have their babies in secret while society gossiped and judged, did great harm. But that has all changed today. 

Levine states in her author's note that women now have choices and in particular the choice to abort and that they would do well to remember what it was like in the days of coat hanger and back alley abortions. However, abortion is not a reasonable choice to offer a woman in a situation that is both complex and intensely emotionally charged. In fact, abortion has not made the situation better. If anything it has added a new pressure to young women, telling them they are incapable of dealing with an unplanned pregnancy and that it will ruin their life. Abortion forces women to make a serious, unalterable and life-changing decision at a time when they are emotionally, physically and psychologically vulnerable. In the situation of rape, the woman must now manage both the trauma of the rape, as well as the trauma of abortion. The situation today for women with an unplanned pregnancy is much better - there is counselling, support during pregnancy and birth, the option to be a single parent or to adopt, including the possiblity of  doing an open adoption. In this respect, In Trouble, while portraying the situation sixty years ago, is not helpful in providing an intelligent and accurate perspective to the abortion debate.

Book Details:
In Trouble by Ellen Levine
Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Lab Lerner Publishing Group 2011
200 pp.

The Wolf by Steven Herrick

Ever since I can remember,

my dad has talked about the wolf.

From the age of five,

I'd sit beside him on the back step,

We'd look across the paddocks of sheep

into the forest shimmering in the afternoon heat,

watching,

the two of us sure the wolf would come

if we sat here long enough.

Sixteen-year-old Lucy Harding lives with her mom and dad and her twelve-year-old brother Peter on Battle Farm. Her father is physically and emotionally abusive to Lucy and her mother who spend most of their time avoiding him.  He loves to shoot his gun but he often misses the paper targets Peter draws for him. He did hit and kill their pig Winnie one time shooting while drunk. 

Fifteen-year-old Jake Jackson lives in an old timber house close to Wolli Creek with his mom and dad. His great-grandpa Ellis settled here with two dogs and some prize Merinos. He married Lizzy Peacher and they had a large family who have all worked on the farm. 

Jake helped his dad build a veranda around the century house when he was ten years old. Every morning he goes to the hen house to collect eggs and often in the afternoon he likes to cook with his mom. She taught him how to make bread, so three times a week they make bread in the Early Kooka to give it that smokey flavour.  Since he was five-years-old, Jake's father has told him about the wolf. His father was twenty-years-old when he saw the wolf at Wolli Creek while fishing for trout. The wolf drank from the creek, looked at him and then ran into the bushes. He tells Jake that wolves supposedly do not live in Australia.

Jake along with Lucy and Peter take the school bus together to Coomuya Central School on what is the last day of school before winter holidays. Peter, Lucy and Jake are all in the same class because the school only has seven teachers for Prep to Year Twelve. Lucy has been allowed to read a book about the Triobriands, islands in the Pacific. She finds their unusual culture funny because of what the women do to the men during the Yam Festival. As she leaves school for holidays, Lucy cannot wait to spend the next three weeks reading books by Wolli Creek where she won't hear her dad shouting at her mom or Peter whining or the complaints on talkback radio. On the bus ride home, Nathan Stokes bullies Peter for his inability to read and Lucy comes to her brother's defense by slapping him in the face. 

At Jake's family farm, they lose their second sheep in a week to what Jake's father believes is a wolf. Jake and his dad along with their two dogs, Patch and Spud head out in the pickup with it's spotlight to see if they can spot the wolf. Jake and his father debate about shooting the lone wolf. Jake's father only shoots snakes and foxes because snakes kill people and foxes kill sheep. They don't find anything that night. But one night Jake hears the long, lonely howl of the wolf on Beaumont Hill, searching for a mate. Jake hopes he can one day meet the wolf and befriend him.

Lucy remembers the story that her grandma told her years ago about how one of their dogs went wild. Her father was walking down the stairs and stepped on their dog Shadow's tail. The dog latched onto his leg and would not let go. Her dad beat the dog until he let go and then ran inside to get his gun. But Shadow ran off with her father in pursuit of the dog for hours. He never found him but was certain he could hear his howls. Lucy also hears the howls up on Beaumont Hill and believes that is Shadow. Her father tells her he intends on finding the feral dog and killing it.

One day, Lucy, Peter and Jake are together at the Wolli River. While Peter speaks badly of Jake's father but eventually leaves. Lucy startles Jake with the claim that she knows where Jake's "wolf" lives: "Near Balancing Rock on Sheldon Mountain". She doesn't have proof other than she knows, but Jake agrees to let Lucy take him to Balancing Rock the following day. In fact, Lucy doesn't know where the wolf is. She just wants to get away from her family farm and she plans to tell Jake once they reach Balancing Rock that she is not going back. 

They meet up in the morning and walk along Wolli Creek. Lucy has packed her school bag and as she has no intentions of returning home, she steals her father's beers and empties them into the creek. Soon they reach Sheldon Mountain just as the mist begins to roll in. While Jake wants to turn back, Lucy refuses. And then the unexpected happens: Jake slips on the wet rocks, falling down the cliff and severely injuring his ankle. Lucy finds a cave and she and Jake spend the night on Sheldon Mountain. Their time together changes everything for both Jake and Lucy and their families.

Discussion

The Wolf  tells the story of two teens, fifteen-year-old Jake Jackson and sixteen-year-old Lucy Harding who are neighbours on opposite sides of the Wolli River in Australia. They spend a night together in the bush, after an attempt to locate a "wolf" they believe lives nearby goes awry. The story is told in alternating points of view, with the occasional poem by Peter.The story is told in free verse with a group of poems each forming a chapter. 

The Jacksons and Hardings live on opposite sides of the Wolli River in Australia but their two families could  not be more different. The Harding farm is described as overgrown with weeds, their livestock running wild, fouling the creek and knocking down fences. Lucy's father drinks, and spends his time shooting at targets and small animals. Lucy hears the call of a kookaburra only to see her father shoot it. Lucy remembers, "I've never heard the valley so quiet."  She spends her time hiding from her abusive father on the shed roof until the sun slips behind Beaumont Hill. Her narrative reflects the kind of life and home Lucy is a part of, the tone angry and defiant, filled with swear words and crass phrases.She refers to the librarian Mrs. Bains as stupid and old. Lucy loves to read but since they are only allowed to take out three books over the winter holidays, she decides to steal a few.

Lucy is a tragic character because she is a victim of verbal and emotional abuse. In a poem titled Lucy: bad luck she explains that one day she was a normal child running about on their farm and then next she was to blame for the drought, the bushfire and the floods. Her father used his words to blame her:
"Every day he laid into me

with his words,

as though blaming someone else 

made it easier for him.

And what he said stung

like a nest of bull ants,

but I'll tell you want hurt more.

Every day while this was going on,

Mom did nothing to stop him.

She kept cooking,

mopping the floor,

hanging the washing."

Lucy wonders if her mother thinks the same as her father or if she's glad it's Lucy who is being abused and not Peter. To shield herself from her father's hate, she grew her hair long so she could hide her eyes. What Lucy doesn't realize is that women in an abusive relationship often do not leave and do not defend their children from abuse. It's a puzzling paradox to people on the outside but there are many reasons why women may feel compelled to stay in an abusive relationship. In Lucy's mother's situation, her husband drinks, and his behaviour is often threatening.  As a child, Lucy doesn't understand that her mother may want to defend her, but feels overwhelmingly threatened too.

In contrast, Jake is calm and grounded because he has two loving parents who care for him and involve him in life around their farm. He helps his mother bake bread and works with his father on various projects. Unlike Lucy's father, Jakes father kills only those animals that harm people or his sheep. However, Jake's father doesn't like the Hardings and he tells Jake he doesn't trust them.

When the two are stuck on Sheldon Mountain because of Jake's ankle, they are mutually attracted. Lucy feels safe with Jake and tells him that she has lied and brought him out to Sheldon Mountain on false pretences. She explains that she did it because she wanted to be free. She then explains to him what her life is like in the Harding family with her father's slaps and his leather strap.  Jake recognizes Lucy's pain as real, lasting pain whereas the pain from his ankle injury will ease with time. 

"What Lucy is feeling, 

that's real pain.

The sort that stabs and pounds

and makes you shake with anger."

When Lucy believes she hears her father outside hunting for her nearby, to protect Jake she decides to leave early in the morning. On her way to get help Lucy sees the animal they've been searching for, perhaps a wild dog, or maybe a wolf. As walks to get help Lucy remembers what her grandma told her,

"Time only goes one way....

She was telling me

to hold tight,

to wait,

that it'll all pass."

Jake's care for her, gives Lucy courage. She now knows she is strong enough to face her abusive father rather than cringe and hide.

"My father can bash me

all he likes,

but I know now,

he can't touch me.

I'm unbreakable.

I'm strong.

Stronger than any fist."

It is Jake's acceptance of Lucy as she is and his keeping an open mind despite what he's been told about the Hardings that gives Lucy the strength to go back for help even though it will mean having to go back home. As it happens, that is not the outcome as her mother decides to confront her father forcing him to leave. 

Jake's immediate acceptance of Lucy, whom he really doesn't know feels somewhat contrived as does their hinted at intimacy in the cave. He's injured and in a lot of pain and she is in tremendous emotional pain and very vulnerable. Peter's narrative felt unnecessary to the storyline. The mystery of the "wolf" remains just that - unresolved.

Readers looking for a story involving a wolf will find a superficial novel that deals with family abuse and teenage relationships. Not recommended.

Book Details:
The Wolf by Steven Herrick
Australia: Allen & Unwin 2006
214pp.

Bunheads by Sophie Flack

Sophie Flack's debut novel, Bunheads tells the story of nineteen year old Hannah Ward, a member of the corps du ballet in the prestigious Manhattan Ballet company and her internal struggle to determine the direction of her life.

Hannah, who always wanted to be a ballet dancer, left home at age fourteen to train at the company's school and is now a senior corps member, performing three to four ballets in an evening. Other members of the corps include Beatrice (Bea)Hall, Daisy, and the highly competitive, Zoe Mortimer. Otto Klein, the director of the Manhattan Ballet, is the one who chooses the ballets the company will perform and who will dance the solos. Each dancer in the corps du ballet dreams of promotion, working hard to attain this goal, often at great personal sacrifice.

One evening after being selected to understudy a solo part, Hannah decides to have dinner at her cousin, Eugene's West Village restaurant. There she meets Jacob, an NYU student who is still struggling to find his groove in life and who is also a singer at the restaurant. As her on-again, off-again relationship with Jacob develops, Hannah begins to reconsider her life and her goals. Jacob has opened her eyes to the world outside of ballet.

At the same time Hannah is also being pursued by a handsome wealthy balletomone, Matt Fitzgerald, whose jet-set lifestyle intrigues her. While Matt opens Hannah's eyes to the lifestyle of the rich and famous that ballet dancers sometimes step into, Jacob is more down to earth and relevant to Hannah's background and life.

But Hannah faces a difficult choice; to put everything into dance. "Don't think, just dance." or to step outside the only world she has known to do some of the things she as an adult would now like to do.

Discussion

Bunheads is definitely one of the better teen reads for 2011.This novel succeeds because the author knows her subject. The majority of readers will not have any concept of what it is like to be a ballet dancer in a major company; the long exhausting hours of practice, the pain endured in pushing the body to its limits, the exhilaration of performing on stage and obtaining the recognition so dearly desired, the complex relationships that exist within a major dance company and the difficulty of having any semblance of a normal life outside of training and performing. But Sophie Flack is able to take the reader into that world, fill it out and make it real and comprehensible to her readers.

Hannah is a believable character who struggles to discover just what it is she wants for her life; the insular world of ballet or to discover more about the world around her. Despite her driven, high-achieving nature, when Hannah begins to see the cost of success in the world of ballet, she begins to rethink her priorities and her goals.

Bunheads is a nice change from the usual young adult fare and will appeal to those teens who are involved in the arts world, especially the world of dance. It gives them the opportunity to both the positive and negative aspects of a dance career. The novel touches on issues prevalent in the ballet world; dieting and anorexia, injuries and the social world of ballet.

Book Details:
Bunheads by Sophie Flack
New York: Little, Brown and Company 2011
294pp.

The Tiffin by Mahtab Narsimhan

The Tiffin is an beautifully crafted story about a young boy full of courage, integrity and hope written by Bombay-born Canadian author,  Mahtab Narsimhan. 

The story opens in April, 1982,  with the hint of tragedy about to befall a young unmarried woman, Anahita Patel. She has written a note to her lover, Anurag Parekh, telling him she has to meet him that very night. She placed the note in between two warm chapatis, in his tiffin, a tin lunchbox which is delivered by dabbawallas throughout the city of Bombay. The note bears shocking news which Anahita must get to Anurag and the safest way to do this is to place it in his lunch. 

When her regular dabbawalla, Amit is sick, Anahita is concerned that her tiffin might get lost or stolen -  almost unheard of. It is a foreshadowing of what is to come. The tiffin must get to Anurag Parekh at Mittal Towers, Nariman Point.  The replacement dabbawalla assures Anahita the tiffin will be delivered.

At Andheri Station, the tiffins are sorted by a group of men under the direction of Vinayak. He is concerned about Amit's replacement, who is now late. He arrives late at the train station, the tiffins are quickly sorted and as the train starts to leave, they are loaded on with the dabbawallas. But Amit's replacement was the last to get on, struggling to pull in the carrier containing the tiffins. As the train passed a telephone pole, the carrier hit it and a tiffin at the very end fell out onto a wooden sleeper. In a one in six million chance, Anahita's tiffin doesn't make the train to Bombay and is lost, with tragic consequences.

The novel skips ahead thirteen years to tell the story of a boy named Kunal who works as a waiter in a Bombay dhaba (restaurant) named Bombay Bahar. The Bombay Bahar supplies food for customer's tiffins, which are then sent to the train station and into the center of Bombay. Over two hundred thousand tiffins are delivered precisely at noon daily usually without ever losing a lunch box.

Kunal's life is not a happy one. He has been told that he is an orphan, dumped on the doorstep of Mrs. Seth and her husband, Sethji who own the dhaba. Kunal is given little to eat, often beaten, verbally abused and there are suggestions that he is enduring sexual harassment by both customers and some staff because he is very good looking. Kunal doesn't like Badri, the new cook who has eyes only for him, while one of the waiters harasses him. Lalan, the dishwasher tries to protect him.   Kunal does have one friend though, and that is the older Vinayak, a dabbawalla who frequents the dhaba for breakfast every day. 

Kunal tells Vinayak he'd rather be a dabbawalla than a waiter, but Vinayak tells him every job has good and bad points. Kunal reveals to Vinayak that he plans on leaving the dhaba. As he goes to serve an order, another hulking customer comments about Kunal's attractiveness and makes a derogatory comment about his mother. This causes Kunal to drop the plates. He challenges the customer, leading Seth to get involved. He smacks Kunal, calls him a liar, and orders him to apologize. However, Vinayak comes quickly to Kunal's aid, telling Seth that Kunal is an honest boy. He tells Seth if he's not fair, he will speak to the Dabbawalla Association about seeking another supplier for the tiffins. Mrs. Seth eventually diffuses the situation but the customer threatens Kunal with revenge. 

The dhaba fills tiffins everyday which will be delivered to their owners at noon. After carrying the tiffins to the entrance, Kunal asks Vinayak if he can help him sort them. Vinayak agrees and explains to Kunal how the number-letter combination on the tiffin works. Vinayak offers Kunal a place of refuge if he should ever need one, telling him his address and that he can get to his chawl within ten minutes. 

The next day begins as any other, with Kunal serving customers, wiping down tables and avoiding the leering customers and their rude comments. Sethji sends Kunal on a delivery to Pandit Road. After making the delivery, Kunal decides to check out the "...gaudy, pink house halfway down... " Mangal Lane - a place all the older boys spoke about. He wants to know why many of the boys want to make the deliveries to Mangal Lane. On his way there, Kunal sees Vinayak drinking in a bar and is surprised. 

Kunal returns from his delivery and shortly after Lalan arrives at the dhaba badly beaten, having been robbed. He tells Lalan that he is leaving for good. This news is devastating to Kunal because Lalan has been protecting him from the advances of the dhaba's cook, Badri. He panics and is outside trying to process what this means, when Sethji catches him and tells him that he will stay an extra hour that night helping Badri clean the kitchen. This further crushes Kunal. 

Sent out on a delivery, Kunal knows he cannot return to the dhaba and so he makes the decision to flee to Vinaya's chawl. When he arrives at the old man's room, he realizes Vinaya has been drinking. Kunal asks to stay with him for a few days and if Vinayak can get him work as a dabbawalla. But Vinaya tells him it's not so easy. After Vinayak falls asleep, Kuna returns to the dhaba to retrieve his mother's green bangle and the money he believes Sethji owes him in wages.  

Kunal returns to the dhaba, steals about three thousand rupees from the till but is caught by Sethji,  who viciously beats him and locks him up. Mrs. Seth comes and tells Kunal he must leave quickly because Sethji is planning to sell him to Abdulla, known as the Beggar King, a vicious man who cuts off the legs of young boys to make them into pitiful beggars. With the help of Mrs Seth, Vinayak comes to take Kunal away but he is determined that Mrs. Seth tell him about his mother after she reveals that she should never have helped his her. Although he initially leaves with Vinayak, Kunal runs back, insistent that Mrs. Seth tell him what she knows. She gives Kunal a letter his mother, Anahita Patel, a financial analyst in the downtown area, gave her. Gurpreet Seth tells Kunal that she tried unsuccessfully to track his mother down. Suddenly Sethji storms into the room, but as he attempts to reach Kunal, Gurpreet slams the door giving Kunal time to flee. From the letter, Kunal learns that the Seth's took in Kunal  temporarily to help his mother as she tried to locate Anurag. When she never returned, he was left to his fate, and became a virtual slave in the Seth dhaba. This shocking revelation changes the direction of Kunal's life but fills him with hope. His deepest desire in life has been to be a part of a family and be loved. He believes the only way to achieve this is to find his mother.

From this point on, the novel tells the story of Kunal's attempt to find his long lost mother. With the help of Vinayak, Kunal learns the work of a tiffin carrier and devises an audacious plan to locate his mother. Will he succeed in what seems to be an impossible task and find the family he so desperately desires?

Discussion

The Tiffin is a novel that explores the concept of family amidst the backdrop of extreme poverty in India. Kunal is a boy who has spent the first twelve years of his life believing he is an orphan only to learn that his mother left him with Mrs. Seth, with the intention of returning to get him. Something happened to prevent her return. Once he learns the truth about his birth, Kunal becomes determined to find his mother, in the hopes she will want him. Both Mrs. Seth and Vinayak warn Kunal about trying to find his mother, telling him she has abandoned him and will likely not want him. His determination to find his mother blinds him to the family he has.

Kunal wants to become a dabbawalla so he can find his mother. He knows from the letter that his mother's tiffin was likely lost and that she left him with Gurpreet while she tried to find his father. The revelation of the lost tiffin leads Kunal to believe this is the key to finding his mother. To do that he needs to become a dabbawalla and then once he finds her he won't need these people anymore. Being a dabbawalla is a means to an end - to find his mother and be a part of a family. "He did not belong to their family and they hadn't included him in their celebrations. With any luck he'd have someone of his own, soon. Then he wouldn't need any of them, or Vinayak, ever again. "  It is at a meeting of the Association of Dabbawallas that Kunal hits on the idea of the notes in the tiffins. He will need to be a dabbawalla to do this, however, Kunal is initially rejected by the dabbawalla community who do not accept anyone who is not a Maharashtrian. A heroic deed by Kunal leads to all the dabbawallas helping him in his quest to find his mother, by printing out notes to be placed in the tiffins that will be sent to the financial district. 

As Kunal becomes single-mindedly focused on locating his mother, events play out between him and Vinayak in such a way that Kunal comes to realize that he already has the family he so desperately wants. It was Vinayak who "had taught him to read and write by smuggling an alphabet book and writing paper to him, and always looking out for him. " Vinayak reveals to Kunal that he too suffered a loss twelve years ago - his wife and son who were killed in a rickshaw accident. Despite the possibility that his mother has been located, Kunal agrees to stay with the elderly dabbawalla.

Kunal realizes this was the right choice when he returns to Vinayak's chawl to find a young woman waiting outside. Kunal knows this is likely his mother, but she says nothing and does nothing. "Say something, he thought. Say what I've waited twelve years to hear. The thudding of his heart was loud in his ears and he willed it to soften. He didn't want to miss a word. But she said nothing."  Instead, she asks for directions to the train station and quickly leaves. It is not the meeting Kunal was expecting. There is no room for Kunal in her life in contrast to Vinayak who has made room for him. He realizes this is what Vinayak had been trying to tell him about his mother - that she may not want him back. 

Nikhil not realizing that Kunal has just seen his mother, offers to take him to the Mittal Towers in the morning to see his mother. Kunal refuses. "His mother's face swam before his eyes, crumpled with pain yet, strangely, devoid of love. He remembered the deep satisfaction in Vinayak's when Kunal had accepted his offer to stay." He tells Nikhil he already has a family - with Vinayak. While it's not the ending the reader is hoping for, it does offer the opportunity to explore the concept of what makes a family. For some it might not be a biological parent but those who truly care. 

It's interesting that Nikhil discovers Kunal's mother at the Mittal Towers, which is where Anurag Parekh lived thirteen years earlier. This suggests that Kunal's mother may still be with Anurag, and that perhaps the reason she cannot take her son back, is not that she doesn't love him, but that maybe Anurag doesn't know of his existence. In the letter to Gurpreet Seth, Anahita states that her  mother sent her away to have the baby when she learned she was pregnant. It's possible that Anahita has a life now with Anurag and that taking in a son she abandoned may cause her problems.

Narsimhan has crafted an engaging novel with a realistic cast of characters: honest, innocent Kunal,  cruel Sethji who views Kunal as a slave, kindly Vinayak who offers Kunal refuge, and the hardworking dabbawallas who are committed to delivering thousands of lunch tiffins exactly on time every day.

The Tiffin offers young readers a rich portrait of life in poor Bombay. The author describes the sights, sounds and smells of life in the slums of the city. Descriptions of large black rats, the stench from the sewers and sweaty bodies, the beggar children whose legs have been amputated to make them more pitiful, the trains crowded with people sitting inches from the electrical wires are just some of the images Narsimhan offers. In Andheri Station, Vinayak and Kunal are pushed along by streams of people. "Vendors pushed gaudy plastic combs, cheap watches, and newspapers under their noses. Beggars ran to and fro harassing commuters for money, blessing and cursing them in the same breath. The smell of rancid oil and burnt milk hung in the air."  

Also included is a portrayal of the work of the dabbawallas, who rush to the train station with their carriers full of tiffins, each labelled, to be sorted by destination. This is hard work, which must be done exactly to maintain the near perfect record of never losing a tiffin. Not many North Americans know about tiffin lunches, although some restaurants now offer this service. The tiffin is used in India and some other areas of southeast Asia. It is a tin lunch box which at least two separate compartments for storing food. The food can be made hot and will keep warm for up to three hours. Wives of workers often make their husband's lunches or they can be supplied by a restaurant. The tiffins are then delivered by tiffin wallas, usually by train to all parts of the city with incredibly efficiency. Lost tiffins are rare.  Mahtab Narsimhan's novel is a great way to introduce an important aspect of Indian culture to Canadian readers.

Narsimhan grew up in Bombay and lived there for twenty five years. Now living in Toronto, Canada, she is an accomplished author who began her writing career in 2004. This novel is highly recommended for young teens.

Book Details:
The Tiffin by Mahtab Narsimhan
Toronto: Cormorant Books     2011
192 pp.