Emmy Noether: The Most Important Mathematician You've Never Heard Of by Helaine Becker

Emmy Noether is a little known mathematician "who solved the mystery of why some laws of physics, such as the law of gravity, never change." 

Emmy was born in Erlangen, Germany in 1882. In the late 1800's, girls were encouraged to be quiet and demure and to prepare for marriage and having a family. However, Emmy was different; she was interested in mathematics and puzzles and excelled at both.

When she turned eighteen-years-old, Emmy's father, a university professor, arranged for her to sit on some lectures. It soon became evident that Emmy was very intelligent; she often helped students with their work.

Three years later, the university allowed women to enroll as students and Emmy earned her degree. Emmy found a way to teach at university, something women were also not allowed to do at this time. 

When Albert Einstein presented his general theory of relativity, he was unable to explain how calculations (used to try to prove the theory) appeared to suggest that energy was being lost in the universe. This violated the principle of the conservation of energy. In a (closed) system, the amount of energy must be conserved; it can change form and move from one spot to another. Many scientists tried unsuccessfully to solve this puzzle.

Emmy Noether was asked to consider this problem. She took a unique approach, looking for larger patterns. When Emmy looked at a larger area of space she found that energy was being conserved, proving a part of the relativity theorem no one else was able to. Emmy's contributions to physics did not end there. She also discovered that mathematical laws of symmetry and the physical laws of conservation are connected, with each symmetry law paired with a conservation law. This became known as Noether's Theorem.Emmy made many more contributions to science, all of which where recognized by scientists but never acclaimed by the scientific world dominated by men. When war came to Germany in the 1930's, Emmy who was Jewish, was forced to flee to America. Sadly, became ill shortly afterwards and died. But her contributions to science continue to be used today.

Discussion

Helaine Becker has written an informative and engaging picture book on a woman scientist who made significant contributions to our understanding of the laws that govern the natural world. That scientist was mathematician Amalie Emmy Noether, born March 23, 1882 in Erlangen, Germany. Since girls were not allowed to attend college preparatory school, Emmy attended a finishing school to prepare her to teach English and French. Instead of teaching, she managed to audit classes at the University of Erlangen and in 1903 audited classes at the University of Gottingen. In 1904, the University of Erlangen began to allow women students so Emmy returned to their to study, earning her Ph.D in Mathematics in 1907. 

After working without pay at the Mathematical Institute of Erlangen from 1908 to 1915, Emmy joined the Mathematical Institute in Gottingen in 1915. There she began working with fellow mathematicians, Felix Klein and David Hilbert on Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. It was during this time that Emmy made her contributions to the general relativity theory and developed her Neother's Theorem.

Because she was a woman, her contributions were largely unrecognized and it wasn't until 1922 that she began to receive a small salary and become an associate professor at Gottingen University. Her political views, and ethnicity (Emmy was Jewish) also led to discrimination.

However, Emmy's contributions were not just limited to helping prove part of Einstein's general relativity theory. Her work was ground-breaking in many areas of mathematics. It wasn't until 1932 that Emmy received recognition with the awarding of the Ackermann-Tuebner Memorial Prize in mathematics. 

The rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany in the 1930's meant Emmy had to flee Germany for America. Unlike her countryman and fellow scientist, Albert Einstein who was offered a teaching job at Princeton University, Emmy was refused a position because she was a woman. Sadly Emmy died at the age of 53 from post-operative complications.

Becker offers her readers an accurate portrayal of Emmy Noether's life, highlighting Emmy's resiliency, intelligence, determination and perseverance. This book is a reminder to young girls of the obstacles women experienced in the last century simply because they were women, even when they demonstrated remarkable intelligence and ability. Emmy Noether was one of many women scientists and researchers who made substantial discoveries and contributions in many fields, only for their efforts to go unrecognized. 

Each page of Emmy Noether offers short, detailed paragraphs of text accompanied by the artwork of Canadian artist, Kari Rust. The illustrations were drawn by hand and then coloured digitally. Becker has included a very detailed biography of Emmy Noether in an Author's Note in the back matter. Also included are more book suggestions in a Further Reading section. 

To learn more about Emmy Noether, check out the Perimeter Institute's lecture

You can read more about the principle of the conservation of energy from Khan Academy.

Emmy Noether image:  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/emmy-noether-should-be-your-hero-180962591/

Book Details:

Emmy Noether: The Most Important Mathematician You've Never Heard Of by Helaine Becker
Toronto: Kids Can Press     2020
40 pp.

The Bug Girl by Sophia Spencer with Margaret McNamara

The Bug Girl tells about Sophia Spencer, a young girl from Sarnia, Ontario Canada who sought out support online after she was bullied because of her love of bugs.

Sophia first became interested in bugs when her family visited a butterfly conservatory. At the conservatory a butterfly landed on Sophia and stayed on her during her entire visit. Sophia's interest in bugs was born!

By the time she was five-years-old, Sophia had learned a lot about bugs. For example, she knew their biological name was arthropods. She loved to read books about bugs and watch videos about bugs. 

When Sophia was in kindergarten, the other children thought her love of bugs was pretty cool. They joined her bug hunter club, searching for bugs on weekends. The only rule Sophia's mother had concerning her bugs was that they had to stay outside on the front porch.

But in Grade One, that all changed. Instead of interest, Sophia faced ridicule for her love of bugs. When she brought a grasshopper to school to show her classmates, Sophia was ridiculed and the insect was killed. That night Sophia's mother tried to comfort her, telling her it was okay to love bugs. Despite her mother's reassurance, Sophia stopped bringing bugs to school. She was still made fun of by her classmates.

This led Sophia's mother to reach out online to a group of entomologists in the hope they could offer Sophia support for her interest in bugs. An entomologist, Morgan Jackson saw the email and after obtaining Sophia's mother's permission, posted it to other scientists around the world. Soon Sophia began receiving messages from scientists all over the world, including many who were women interested in bugs just like her. Sophia was asked to do interviews and even helped Morgan Jackson write a scientific article on how to interest young people in bugs!

Discussion

The Bug Girl is a colourful picture book that highlights the obstacles girls who have an unusual science interest face and offers a way to help budding girl scientists. It recounts the story of now eleven-year-old Sophia Spencer who fell in love with bugs after a visit to the Niagara Falls Butterfly Conservatory. At first Sophia's friends seemed interested in bugs but in Grade One that interest turned to bullying when she brought a grasshopper to school.

Hoping to find some moral and scientific support for her daughter, Nicole Spencer emailed the Entomological Society of Canada asking for educational resources and perhaps an entomologist who could answer some of  her daughter's questions about bugs. Canadian scientist Morgan Jackson saw the email and posted it to Twitter along with the hashtag #BugsR4Girls .  The tweet went viral and Sophia was contacted by many bug scientists, some of whom were women.

The Bug Girl highlights one way girls are discouraged from showing an interest in subjects that might be considered more for boys. Because Sophia was so different from her classmates in her love of bugs, she experienced bullying. Her mother was able to find support for Sophia from the scientific community and today Sophia remains determined to become an entomologist when she is older. 

Accompanying this affirming story are the beautiful illustrations done by the husband and wife team of Marie Pommepuy and Sebastien Cosset who go by the pen name of Kerascoet. Their artwork which is rendered in ink, watercolour and coloured pencil capture all the emotions Sophia felt. From her elation at sharing her love of bugs with her friends to the sadness at being bullied, to the joy she felt when her interest was affirmed by other scientists, all these emotions are beautifully portrayed.

Sophia, who wrote The Bug Girl with the help of award-winning author, Margaret MacNamara has also included a section at the back called More Bug Facts which features information about bugs including some "super-cool bug facts", what entomologists do, a section on the life cycle of a butterfly, some tips on studying bugs in the wild and Sophia's "My Top Four Bugs, And Why". 

The Bug Girl will be of interest to girls AND boys who love bugs. This picture book also offers a great way to explore the themes of empathy, difference, the meaning of friendship and girls in STEM.

Book Details:

The Bug Girl (a true story) by Sophia Spencer and Margaret McNamara
New York: Tundra Books      2020

Bringing Back the Wolves by Jude Isabella

Bringing Back The Wolves recounts the very successful re-introduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park in 1995. For the previous seventy years, wolves were absent from a large area of the American west. Beginning in the late 1800's the American government placed a bounty on wolves that led to their complete elimination from the West by 1926. While such a policy was a boon to ranchers, it had a major impact on the ecology of the area.

The story begins by describing what happened in Yellowstone as a result of what turned out to be an "unintended experiment": removing one important member of an ecosystem. For seventy years, wolves were gone, completely eliminated due to hunting. In an effort to tame the West, hunters were encouraged to shoot cougars, wolves and grizzly bears.  By 1926, no wolves remained in Yellowstone. Because wolves are a keystone species, their absence directly and indirectly impacted the Yellowstone ecosystem. Elk, coyotes, aspen trees, songbirds and even the soil and streams were affected.

These are all part of the Yellowstone food web, an intricate relationship between animals, plants, birds, water, and soil. The absence of an apex predator, the wolf, allowed elk to increase in population, which led to over-grazing of grass and trees. The result was a transformed landscape and more impacts throughout the food web. But in 1995, that was about to change.

When wolves were re-introduced into the park in late January of 1995, there was plenty of prey for wolves. For the first decade after the wolf reintroduction, elk herds were so large, each wolf killed about eighteen to twenty-two elk per year. As the elk population began to decline, changes began to happen in the Yellowstone ecosystem. The park vegetation began to re-establish itself , with more grasses, and full grown trees. The populations of other canids, coyotes and foxes in the park also changed. As the years went by and the wolf population grew, the ecosystem began to heal and researchers saw more and more changes, all of them bringing about a more balanced natural environment.

Discussion

Bringing Back The Wolves is both engaging and very informative. Isabella has covered all the bases in this detailed nonfiction picture book that explores the ways the re-introduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park healed local ecosystem. Bringing Back The Wolves explains the complex relationships between the many species of animals and plants in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Readers will learn how the absence of the wolf harmed these relationships and how their return brought each part of the ecosystem back into balance. 

For example, the return of the wolves resulted in more elk carcasses for grizzly bears, allowing them to better prepare for the winter. These carcasses also provided food for various types of decomposers such as insects, bacteria and molds, which break down the carcass enriching the soil. More insects mean more food for birds.  Fewer elk also allowed willow, cottonwood and aspen trees to grow back, providing homes for birds, beavers and other animals. Fewer elk  allowed berry bushes to mature and produce more fruit for insects, birds and black bears. The interconnectedness in the food web is well explained in easy to understand text. Each page features colourful illustrations rendered in Photoshop by artist Kim Smith.

Isabella avoids any discussion about the controversy of the wolf reintroduction into the park or the delisting of wolves as an endangered species. This book focuses entirely on the ecology of the wolves in relation to Yellowstone and what scientists have learned in the last twenty-five years.

As Isabella concludes, "Twenty-five years after their reintroduction, about 500 wolves roam the great Yesllowstone ecosystem, staking their claim in the food web. Wolves have helped to balance the ecosystem just by being themselves, apex predators. But perhaps even more important, studying the wolves has exposed just how complex and interconnected the ecosystem is, revealing surprising links no one could have imagined."

Bringing Back The Wolves is highly recommended for anyone interested in ecology, wolves and for unit studies in school. Isabella rounds out the information with a Glossary, a list of Resources and an Index.

Those interested in reading more about the wolves in Yellowstone National Park are directed to the US National Park Service website.

Book Details:

Bringing Back The Wolves: How a Predator Restored An Ecosystem by Jude Isabella
Toronto: Kids Can Press   2019
39 pp.

Winged Wonders: Solving The Monarch Migration Mystery by Meeg Pincus

Winged Wonders is the story of how the mystery of monarch butterfly migration was solved through grassroots cooperation in North America.

 For centuries, people all through North America from southern Ontario in Canada, through the United States and into Mexico, have wondered about monarch butterflies. In southern Ontario people wondered, where do the butterflies go in the winter?

This picture book asks: "So who solved this age-old mystery? Who tracked these winged wonders from one end of the continent to the other? Who found their secret roosting place, a marvel of nature?"

Winged Wonders asks if it was "Fred, the Canadian scientist" and his research-partner wife Norah who spent time tagging monarch butterflies? Was it citizen scientists like science teachers, gardeners who caught, tagged and released the butterflies? Was it Ken and Catalina who travelled through Mexico for two years, tracking them? "Was it the villagers and farmers of central Mexico" who directed the couple to their oyamel tree groves? The answer of course is, YES!  All of these people, working together helped to solve the mystery of the monarch migration. 

Now that we know more about the monarch migration, the new question scientists are asking is "How will they survive?" in a world where chemical sprays, farming and pollution are having a serious impact. Like the discovery of their migration path, the solution to their survival depends on all of us working together.

Discussion

Winged Wonders: Solving the Monarch Migration Mystery is an engaging and informative look into how the mystery of monarch butterflies was solved. 

With a simple text, and the lovely, colourful illustrations by artist Yaz Imamura, the remarkable story of how monarch butterflies migrate from southern Canada and various areas of the United States to Mexico is told.

The driving force behind the discovery was a Canadian scientist, who had developed a fascination for insects and monarch butterflies as a child. Born in Toronto, Ontario Canada in 1911, Frederick Albert Urquhart went on to study biology in 1931 at the University of Toronto. He graduated, top of his class in 1935 and continued his graduate studies after being awarded the B. Arthur Bensley Fellowship. Urquhart graduated with a Ph.D in 1940. 

During this time the migration of monarch butterflies was not understood. They left in the late summer and returned the following spring. But where did they go? From where did they return? Urquhart's interest in this mystery did not wane over the years. Instead he was determined to find out.

His research into monarch migration began in 1937 and was to last almost thirty-eight years. Urquhart's investigations began by raising monarch butterflies in the home he shared with his wife Nora. They had married in 1945 and she become his partner in this research. At this time Urquhart was working both at the Royal Ontario Museum and at the University of Toronto. When both Fred and Nora were appointed faculty at University of Toronto in 1961, they were able to ramp up their research.

The Urquharts experimented with various tagging methods, most of which were not successful. Eventually they followed a friend's advice to use the sticky price tags for glassware. These tags, called "alar" meaning wing, were placed on the monarch butterfly wings and labelled, "Send to Zoology University Toronto Canada". After Nora Urquhart wrote a magazine article about the tagging and asking for volunteers, people began to sign up. 

The tagging program soon allowed the researchers to learn more about monarchs: they could fly up to one hundred thirty kilometers in a day, they never flew at night, and that not all monarchs migrate. The tagging showed that the overall migration pattern was one from northeast to southwest, across the North American continent. 

The final piece of the puzzle was put together in Mexico with the help of Ken and Catalina Brugger who spoke with local farmers and loggers and located a wintering site in a mountainous region of Mexico.

While Pincus's picture book doesn't go into such detail, it does cover all the basic facts and serves as a great resource for a unit study on monarch butterflies, the scientific method, international cooperation in research, animal migrations, and insects.

One last thing: in the Author's Note at the back, Pincus quite correctly writes that many personal contributions went into uncovering the route of the monarch migration. But she also writes, "It's also important to note that history depends on who tells the story - Mexican poet and environmentalist Homero Aridjis asks: 'Did the white scientists really 'discover' the wintering sites that people in Southern Mexico knew about for centuries?' What do you think?"  Well many Mexicans were not aware of the wintering sites and it took an American and his MEXICAN wife to sort out the information they were given by Mexican farmers. And one might also ask "Did Mexican's know where the monarch's went in the summer? Did they know the migration routes? Did they know about the super-generation monarchs?" Not likely since no one had yet pieced together the mystery of the monarch butterflies.  Just because it was a "white" male scientist (along with his scientist partner and wife, along with many people across North America, including many Mexicans, all of whom worked together to piece together the information and to map out the migration routes, and to connect them to the "wintering sites" ) does not devalue his work. Urquhart was a simply scientist attempting to solve a mystery about the natural world he lived in. Perhaps instead of viewing history through the polarizing lens of current thought, we might just all celebrate this discovery - as told in this picture book -  and learn from it, that when we work together, regardless of race or country we can achieve great things.

Read University of Toronto Magazine's article, Where Do You Go, My Lovelies? about Fred and Norah Urquhart's quest to understand the monarch butterfly.

Book Details:

Winged Wonders: Solving the Monarch Migration Mystery by Meeg Pincus
Ann Arbor, Michigan: Sleeping Bear Press    2020

On The Horizon by Lois Lowry

 In her newest book, On The Horizon, Lois Lowry, award winning author of Number The Stars and The Giver, has penned a collection of poems about lives lost or forever changed in the bombing of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor and the dropping of the atomic bombs in Japan.

These events are told through Lowry's own personal experience of having lived both in Hawaii and in Japan during the time they took place.  

Lowry was born in Honolulu in 1937. Her father was an Army dentist so this meant Lowry's family moved frequently. She lived in Hawaii until 1940 when her family moved to New York. Years later, Lowry watched an old home movie her father had taken in 1940 of her playing on the beach at Waikiki. In the distance, the silhouette of the fated USS Arizona could be seen. A little over a year later, on December 7, 1941, almost all those men would be dead. The USS Arizona would sink during the bombing of Pearl Harbor and 1.177 men would perish. Lowry moved to Tokyo, Japan in 1948 when her father was stationed in the city.

In various forms of poetry, Lowry begins her story with the sinking of the USS Arizona. Part I On The Horizon is comprised of a poetry Lowry has composed about the men on the USS Arizona. There are poems about seventeen-year-old Leo Amundson whose Scandinavian heritage is shared by Lowry. Other poems are about George and Jimmie Bromley, one of thirty-seven sets of brothers on the Arizona,  Everett Reid a machinist who lived off the ship and survived because he was at home celebrating his birthday, the musicians - Neal Radford, Alexander Nadel, Bill McCary and Curtis Haas in the ship's band, and Captain Isaac Campbell Kidd whose "Naval Academy ring was found melted and fused to the mast."

Part 2 Another Horizon is about the dropping of the atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima in southern Japan. Lowry's poetry features the victims of the bomb, naming them and describing what they were doing at the time of the explosion. There is Koichi Seii in a town called Tabase, Takeo playing tag in a schoolyard, Shinichi Tetsutani on his red tricycle, Akira Ishida a high school student operating a tram, Chieko Suetomo and Shinji Mikamo. 

Part 3 Beyond The Horizons several events from Lowry's life in the post-war period in Japan are described. Lowry lived in Shibuya, a part of Tokyo. Her father had bought her a green bike when she first arrived in Japan. At that time Koichi Seii along with his mother and sister, survivors of Hiroshima,  had also moved to Shibuya. In a series of poems, Lowry tells about riding her green bike through the city and how with her blue eyes and blond hair she stood out. In the poem Girl On  A Bike Lowry recounts stopping outside a school to watch the children, and they watched her. In the poem, Gaijin, unknown to her, Koichi Seii was a student at the school and he watched the girl with the blond hair on the green bike.  In the final poem, a triolet titled Tomodachi, Lowry expresses how they could not yet be friends, as they needed to heal.

"We could not be friends. Not then. Not yet.
Until the cloud dispersed and cleared,
We needed time to mend, forget."

Discussion

On The Horizon is a touching tribute to the human spirit, the power of forgiveness and how our lives are often connected in ways we don't realize. Lowry who grew up during World War II and the post war period, weaves together the threads of her life to show a remarkable interconnection of people, places and events. This is done through a series of beautifully composed rhyming poems. 

Beginning with an old family home movie that captured a young Lowry playing on the beach at Waikiki with the outline of the USS Arizona on the horizon unnoticed at that time. Lowry weaves a thread that connects this beginning to many other events. A little over a year later, the USS Arizona sank during the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  In the poem, Child On A Beach, Lowry wonders about the things we don't notice, the connections we miss...

"I think back to that sunlit day
when I was young, and so were they
If I had noticed? If I'd known?
Would each of us be less alone?...

I've learned that there will always be
things we miss, that we don't see

on the horizon. Things beyond
And yet there is a lasting bond
between us, linking each to each
Boys on a ship. Child on a beach"

When Lowry's family moved to Tokyo to join her father, she was given a green bike. Lowry stopped one day to watch the Japanese children playing in the school yard. Unknown to her, young Kochi Seii was watching back, the memory of a blond haired girl with a green bike to stay with him over the years. Unbelievably, years later in 1994, Lois Lowry and Kochi Seii now known as Allen Say, met at a library convention. They discovered their lives had intersected years before. In the poem, Girl On A Bike Lowry muses about how they had lived in each other's country, and from their own horizons had experienced war without realizing their lives had intersected,

"I'd lived in his country, then.
And now he's moved to mine, so when
we met (his name was Allen now),
we mused and pondered how

from our horizons we had viewed
a war begin, a war conclude.
We were young.We were alike.
Boy in a scholyard. Girl on a bike."

On The Horizon also offers readers the chance to reflect on war, on the innocent lives lost, but also how with time, two countries healing from war can come together both individually and collectively. This is shown in her poem Now which tells about Japanese tourists bowing as they look down at the wreck of the Arizona, while Lowry herself at the Hiroshima memorial bows and weeps too.

Perhaps Lowry's final words in her Author's Note say it best:

"It has taken many years for me to put these things together, to try to find some meaning in teh way lives intersect -- or how they fail to. I guess the important thing is also the simplest: to acknowledge our connectedness on this earth; to bow our heads when we see a scorched tricycle or a child's message to his lost grandpa; and to honor the past by making silent promises to our fellow humans that we will work for a better and more peaceful future."

Many of the poems are illustrated with the black and white artwork of SCBWI Golden Kite Award Winner, Kenard Pak.

Book Details:

On The Horizon: World War II Reflections  by Lois Lowry
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt      2020
72 pp.

Song For A Whale by Lynne Kelly

Twelve-year-old Iris Bailey lives in Houston with her older brother Tristan and her parents. Iris lived by the ocean until after second grade when her family moved to Houston for her father's job. That meant living closer to Iris's grandparents who like she and  her mother, are deaf. 

In class one day Iris's teacher Ms. Alamilla plays a video about a whale called Blue 55. This whale is not part of a pod but swims erratically all over the ocean. Blue 55, whose mother was a blue whale and father a fin whale, has a unique call at a frequency of 55 hertz. Most whales have calls much lower, usually lower than 35 hertz. The video states that this likely means Blue 55 cannot communicate with other whales. 

Researchers from a marine sanctuary unsuccessfully attempted to place a tracker on Blue 55. His location is known only by underwater microphones that pick-up his song.

Iris is deeply moved by the video about Blue 55 because she understands what it is like to be unable to communicate with others. Her school, Timber Oaks has no Deaf students and no matter how good she is at reading lips, she often misses most of what her friends talk about. 

This leads frustration leads to an incident at school with classmate Nina who attempts to communicate with Iris by signing. Nina's signing makes no sense and begins to embarrass Iris. Frustrated, she pushes Nina away, causing her to fall and ending with Iris in the principal's office and being grounded at home.

Iris repairs old radios as a hobby. Her bedroom has three walls of shelves filled with her radio collection. A workbench contains tools, wires and electronic parts. Her most precious possession is a Philco 38-690 cabinet radio which took her five months to repair. Iris found it at Mr. Gunnar's antique shop and was able to bring it home. At four feet tall it stands on the floor in Iris's bedroom, beside her bed. Because of the altercation at school, Iris has to remove all her radios and tools out of her bedroom as punishment. Unknown to her parents and with the help of Tristan, Iris retrieves the TV/radio/record player she bought from the junkyard.

On the weekend, Iris does some research on Blue 55, learning about the sanctuary working to tag the whale. She discovers the person trying to tag Blue 55 is scientist Andi Rivera. The sanctuary website also explains how the piano can be used to mimic different whale songs. This inspires Iris to try to think of "...a way to sing back to him and hold his attention with something that sounded a bit like himself." Iris wonders if Blue 55 is deaf and messages Andi to ask. Andi responds that they do not believe this is the case. 

At her friend Wendell Jackson's house, Iris tries out various notes on the piano that the sanctuary website indicated were at the frequency of the various whale songs. She tells Wendell that she wants to find a way to talk to Blue 55. "He keeps singing this song, and everything in the ocean swims by him, as if he's not there. He thinks no one understands him. I want to let him know he's wrong about that."

Iris finds sheet music for whale songs online. There is music for humpback whales and even for Blue 55. Iris learns that only some instruments such as the tuba and bass trombone can play notes at 55 hertz. With this in mind, she approaches her school's music teacher, Mr. Russel about recording a song for Blue 55. He agrees to put something together with the music students and the next day with Iris playing the piano notes, they record Blue's song. Mr. Russell also shows Iris an app on her phone that allows her to create Blue's song using the same musical instruments.

Iris sends the recording of Blue's song to Andi Rivera so she can play it while she is on the boat. Iris believes if Blue can her his song it might entice him to stay by the boat so they can tag him. Andi Rivera responds, indicating that they have decided to use her recording the next time they attempt to tag Blue. However, they haven't heard Blue recently nor do they know his current location. Andi tells Iris she'll be able to watch the live webcast when they do attempt to tag him. Iris is not happy about this as she wants to be there when her song is played and Blue is tagged. So she writes Andi offering to help on the expedition. At the same time Iris lies to her parents, telling them Andi has invited her to join the expedition when it happens. But when another email from Andi confirms Iris's worst fears, that it is impossible for her to be a part of the expedition, Iris is furious.  Her anger is channeled into finding a way to get to the sanctuary no matter what. 

To that end Iris decides to sell some of her radios including her prized Philco which she sells to Mr. Gunnar, in order to buy a plane ticket to Alaska. However this doesn't work when she discovers she can't withdraw money from her bank account without her parents' permission. Needing to talk to someone, Iris visits Grandma at Oak Manor. But after listening to Iris, Grandma comes up with her own plan to get Iris to Alaska. That plan involves taking a cruise, some lies and deception. Iris is so desperate and determined to meet up with Blue 55 that she agrees.

It seems like her grandma's plan is working until Blue 55 changes course and doesn't show in Appleton, Alaska but instead is headed for the coast of Oregon, at Lighthouse Bay. Even worse, the sanctuary in Oregon has no interest in playing Iris's song. With some planning, sheer determination, and a lot of luck, Iris not only gets to play Blue's song but has an unforgettable encounter with Blue 55.

 Discussion

Song For A Whale is a well-written novel for middle grade readers that has a unique and intriguing story line. Iris Bailey, a young, deaf girl, struggling with her own issues of communication and belonging learns about a blue whale believed to be unable to communicate with other whales. Touched by the whale's desperate circumstances, Iris records a song at the same frequency as the whale song, to let him know he's not alone. Hoping to see the whale and play her song, she undertakes a journey that ends in much more than she could ever dream.

The story line was inspired by the true story of a whale the 52Hertz whale or 52 Blue, once dubbed "the world's loneliest whale". In 1989, US Navy hydrophones (microphones placed underwater) picked up a strange signal at 52 Hertz. Bill Watkins from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute recognized this signal as an unusual whale call. In 2004, after years of studying the recordings, Watkins published a paper on the unique calls. Public interest was tweaked when the press framed the whale as lonely and calling for companionship.

However, Christopher Willes Clark of Cornell University believed the 52 Hertz call was simply one of many types of whale calls and that if this is a whale call, he can be heard by other whales. Clark felt that blue, fin and humpback whales would all be able to hear the 52 Hertz whale call. Therefore to describe the whale as "lonely" or "sad" is likely not accurate. Researchers have no idea what exactly whales experience. So the media using such descriptions is simply a case of anthropomorphism - attributing human emotions to an animal.

The story is further complicated by the fact that no new calls at 52 Hertz have been recorded recently. And the last recorded calls were much deeper. This is part of a pattern discovered by scientists that whale calls have been changing over the past decades;  blue whale calls are deepening, while Atlantic right whales are singing at a higher frequency.  There have been theories that the 52 Hertz whale is actually a hybrid of a blue and fin whale. 

Much of the above information can be found in greater detail in the Author's Note at the back of the book. Author Lynne Kelly fashioned her story based on some aspects of 52 Blue to create a similar but fictional whale called Blue 55. Kelly's work as a sign language interpreter led her to craft the character of Iris, a young Deaf girl "who'd be compelled to track down the lonely whale, since she's one of the many kids who go through every day feeling like she isn't heard."

In Song For A Whale, Kelly uses the fictional story of Blue 55 a whale unable to communicate with other whales to mirror the issues Deaf persons like Iris Bailey must face on a daily basis. Blue 55 has a song that is very different from other whales. Because he is not associated with any known pod, scientists have assumed that he is unable to communicate with his own kind. This mirrors the struggles Iris encounters daily in attending Timber Oaks, a school that has no program for Deaf students. Although Iris has Mr. Charles, a sign interpreter, she has few friends. This leaves her feeling like an outsider in her own school. This is especially emphasized when she sits with her friends in the cafeteria and struggles to read their lips as they talk.

At home one night, Iris tries to explain about Blue 55, the expedition to tag him and how she wants to be a part of it. Her father, who is not deaf struggles to keep up with Iris and her mother as they sign. When he makes a joke that doesn't include Iris, she signs, "What if you couldn't talk to anyone around you? What if you tried, but no one understood?" When her father tells Iris to slow down because he can't understand, she signs, "It doesn't matter what I do. You don't understand anyway! What if your whole life was like this? What if you were that whale, in an ocean with no one to talk to?"  Iris understands the loneliness and isolation she is certain Blue 55 must be experiencing.

Iris tries to impress upon her family that she needs to go to see Blue 55 because he needs to know that someone hears him. However, her parents, quite reasonably tell Iris that such a trip, to Alaska, is not possible. Nevertheless, Iris feels that she isn't being heard and in her frustration she continues signing so fast that her family can't keep up. But Iris doesn't care: "I was like Blue 55, shouting into the void of the ocean, at a frequency too high for anyone to reach."

That isolation is even more evident when she visits her Deaf friend Wendell Jackson's school, Bridgewood Junior High. In this situation Iris cannot keep up with Wendell and his friends as they sign using American Sign Language (ASL).

As with the reporting on the 52 Hertz whale, Kelly also employs anthropomorphism in her novel. Separate, short chapters written in Blue 55's voice relate his struggles to fit in and find companionship. These chapters chronicle his failed attempt to join a new pod of humpback whales only to be rejected because they cannot understand him and his playing with dolphins. The whale asks "Was there anything out in the ocean like himself? He kept calling just in case his someone was out there."  Blue 55 even questions his existence! "What was a whale without a pod? What was a whale without a whale song?" However, all this changes when Blue 55 reaches Lighthouse Bay and hears Iris's song. He believes he has returned home and that "....after all the years of calling and searching, after so much time and loneliness, so many calls left unheard and unanswered....maybe, finally someone was listening." These chapters might mislead young readers to believe that whales experience their lives the way humans do. We do not. However, Kelly's use of anthropomorphism in this novel helps to mirror the loneliness Iris is experiencing in her life.

Iris Bailey is a fascinating character. She's strong, resilient and a bit quirky with her love of electronics and fixing radios. Through advocating for Blue 55, Iris learns to become an advocate for herself. After she returns home from her adventure, she argues for her desire to attend  Bridgewood Junior, a school with a large deaf education program. Although her grandma brings the issue up to Iris's mother, this time Iris doesn't back down, telling her mother that she's willing to accept the challenges that go with moving to a new school and making new friends.

Song For A Whale offers the opportunity for younger readers to learn more about the different types of whales and their calls and about whale research. Even more important, the novel offers some perspective into the lives of Deaf persons, the issues they encounter in their daily lives with communication and developing a sense of belonging. Although the anthropomorphism attached to Blue 55 and Iris's swim with the whale are a bit over the top, this is a sensitive and thoughtful novel that middle grade students will truly enjoy.

One last thought: The beautiful front cover art and inside illustrations were done by illustrator Leo Nickolls. More illustrations by this accomplished artist would have added greatly to the story. It's a shame so few middle grade novels are not illustrated these days.

Book Details:
Song For A Whale by Lynne Kelly
New York: Delacourt Press     2019
303 pp.

DVD: Mr. Jones

Mr. Jones is a deeply flawed film that attempts to portray the efforts of a Welsh journalist to uncover the truth about events occurring in the Soviet Union in the early 1930's. At this time much of the country but especially the Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the Volga region was experiencing a severe famine. The famine in the Ukraine became known as the Holodomor; a catastrophe in which millions of Ukrainian peasants were deliberately starved to death as a result of Stalin's policies. The Western media was complicit in this crime against humanity as they knew what was happening but failed to report on it.

The film opens with scenes of squealing pigs as they feed on a farm,dissolving quickly into scenes of George Orwell beginning work on his novel, Animal Farm. In a voice over, Orwell states, "...The world is being invaded by monsters, but I suppose you don't want to hear about that. I could be writing romantic novels, novels people actually want to read...But if I tell the story of the monsters through the talking farm animals, maybe then you will listen, then you will understand. The future is at stake, so please read carefully between the lines."

From this, the film moves to Gareth Jones, foreign adviser to David Lloyd George addressing his cabinet. Jones tells them about being on a plane with Hitler and Goebbels and thinking if the plane were to crash, the course of history of Europe would be changed. Jones believes the Reichstag incident (fire?) was a diversion and that Germany intends to expand into Poland. Goebbels told Jones that the Reich will last a thousand years. Jones is certain the next Great War has already begun. This is dismissed with much laughter. Jones is taken out of the meeting when a call from Russia comes in for him, but the line goes dead.

Later in his office, Jones listens to Stalin on the radio talking about how the Soviets are making grade strides in building their industrial capabilities. Jones is skeptical. His point to the Lloyd George cabinent was that in a war with Germany, England will need an alliance with Stalin. Ms. Stevenson, Lloyd George's secretary tells Jones that he has been let go. In his meeting with Lloyd George, Jones tells him that he needs someone who will tell him the truth about what's happening. He has no answer on the Soviet question but suggests that Lloyd George could send him to Moscow to interview Stalin.

Jones is able to obtain a press visa from the Soviet embassy in London. He contacts friend Paul Kleb to let him know he's coming to Moscow. Kleb tells him to talk to Walter Duranty about possibly interviewing Stalin and that he really needs to talk to him, that he's found something big, that it's worse than they thought. The line goes dead.

Jones arrives in Moscow where he is met by Duranty who gushes about the Soviets, telling him that they have achieved more in five years than England has in ten. He encourages Jones to go visit the Soviet factories and talk to the British engineers at Metro Vickers. Jones questions Duranty as to how Stalin is paying for his factories and Duranty indicates that "Grain is Stalin's gold." As they talk in Duranty's office, Gareth explains that he has no expectations about getting an interview but that he has many questions, such has how the Kremlin can pay for the widespread industrialization when they are broke. Duranty stuns Jones by revealing that Paul Kleb was killed three days earlier in a robbery outside the Metropol. 

At the Metropol, Jones learns his reservations are only for two nights, contrary to what he was told in England. He meets up with a group of journalists that include John Cushny and L.C. Thorton from Metro Vickers and Eugene Lyons from United Press. They take Jones to Duranty's party which features drugs, booze and plenty of debauchery.  At the party Jones learns that journalists are confined to Moscow. 

After leaving the party, Jones meets Duranty's "star" reporter, Ada. She tells him that Duranty is attempting to lure the Americans to invest in the Soviet Union, in order to move forward the revolution. Jones returns to Ada's apartment the next morning and learns that Paul Kleb was working on the Ukraine and was heading there when he was murdered. After leaving the Metropol, Jones gets a room at a hotel but shows up at Ada's apartment to use her typewriter. He tells her he's going to the Ukraine and to that end meets with a Soviet official - Litvinov?? who is duped into inviting Jones to tour the Ukraine. Ada gives Jones Paul Kleb's notebook and he sets out on his journey to the Ukraine by train with Litvinov. However, Jones disembarks well before their destination of Kharkiv and he begins his journey through the countryside.

Jones finds himself pursued by Soviet soldiers, encounters starving families, dead bodies, abandoned farms and villages and children who resort to cannibalism before being arrested by soldiers and thrown in jail. He is released on the condition that he does not report what he saw but Jones does report on what he saw in the Ukraine and is criticized and ostracized for it.

Discussion

It is always interesting to watch a film that attempts to portray historical events. Are the events portrayed with some accuracy? How much dramatic license is taken with history and how much sensationalism is injected into the story to engage viewers?   Mr. Jones tells the story of Welsh journalist, Gareth Jones whose journey into Soviet Russia and Ukraine in 1933 led to his stunning expose of  widespread famine raging throughout the entire country. It is a film that could have offered viewers a lens into these events but unfortunately, the film gets only the bare bones of the real story right. Viewers are left with misinformation and many inaccuracies about the people involved and the events as they occurred. 

To provide some balance, the following is a synopsis of Gareth Jones and how he came to uncover the famine in Soviet Russia, a famine most international correspondents were loathe to report.

Gareth Jones

Gareth Richard Vaughn Jones, was born in Barry, Glamorgan, Wales, on August 13, 1905, to Major Edgar Jones who was headmaster of the local school and Anne Gwen Jones. Gareth's mother worked from 1889 to 1892 in Russia as a tutor to the children of Arthur Hughes. The stories his mother told about her time in Russia left Jones with the desire to visit the country and learn the language. In 1926, he graduated from University College of Wale,  Aberystwyth with a degree in French and then later in with degrees in French, German and Russian from the Univeristy of Strasborough and Trinity College, Cambridge in 1930.

In 1931, Jones was hired by Dr. Ivy Lee of New York as a researcher for a book on the Soviet Union. This led to a trip to Soviet Russia with Jack Heinz II in the summer of 1931. A book was published anonymously that did mention that peasants in Russia and the Ukraine were starving due to the collectivization of farms. As the world sank deeper into the depression into 1932, Jones returned to England to work for David Lloyd George. By the fall of 1932, continued reports of widespread famine in the Soviet Union made Jones determined to return to the country to uncover the truth.

 In January and February of 1933, Jones first visited Germany where he not only met Adolf Hitler, newly appointed Chancellor of Germany, but was the first foreign journalist allowed to travel with new Chancellor on a flight to Frankfurt. In March, 1933 Jones set out from Germany to Soviet Russia.

At this time, most foreign journalists were not allowed to travel freely in the countryside. They were restricted to living in Moscow, but Jones was able to obtain a train ticket to Kharkiv, capital of the Ukraine. However, Jones got off the train near Belogrod in Russia. Travelling on foot, he journeyed through Russia and into the Ukraine, recording his observations in great detail in his diaries that are in existence today. People he met on this journey spoke of widespread hunger, death and indicated that conditions were even worse to the south, further into the Ukraine. Eventually Soviet officials caught up with Jones and he was put on a train to Kharkiv.  

Gareth Jones returned to Berlin in 1933, and his articles on the Soviet famine were published widely. They created a firestorm of controversy because they contradicted a series of articles New York Times reporter Walter Duranty's wrote, articles that won him a Pulitzer Prize. His prize was never revoked. Duranty was provided with many perks by the Soviet government and in return he wrote articles that covered up the failures of the Soviet collectivization plan, including the resultant widespread famine that killed millions.

Walter Duranty's article

Mr. Jones never really offers an accurate portrayal of the events surrounding Jones's trip to Soviet Russia in 1933 nor even his stunning expose of the famine in the country. At times it included people and events that have nothing to do with his story. For example, in the film's opening scenes, George Orwell is shown working on his novel Animal Farm. Gareth Jones did not meet or know George Orwell. And Orwell's novella, Animal Farm was not written at the same time as the events in the film but was authored in 1943 and 1944. By juxtaposing scenes of Orwell working on his novel, the movie implies that it was written contemporaneously.  

For a film portraying historical events, Mr. Jones offers no dates or timeline. It also incorporates many references without any context and misplaces others. For example, when Gareth Jone is riding on a train into the Ukraine he repeatedly questions the other passengers about Hughesovka, or Stalino. These references are connected to Jones but that is never made clear in the film. Hughesovka was named after Jones's grandfather who developed several industries in the area. In 1924 it was renamed Stalino. The film also misplaces a famous line attributed to Gareth Jones. He did not utter his prophetic line, " If this areoplane should crash, the whole history of Europe would be changed." to Lloyd George in a meeting but instead it was written as the lead sentence in his article about Hitler in 1933.

The film frequently states that Gareth Jones obtained an exclusive interview with Hitler and was determined to obtain the same sort of scoop with Stalin. However, Jones did not go to Russia to interview Stalin but to specifically investigate the many rumours of widespread famine that were being refuted or even ignored by the British and American press. In fact, Walter Duranty's articles which won him the coveted Pultizer Prize the year before, appeared to settle the question. But Jones was out to discover the truth for himself.

In the film Jones is aided by Ada, supposedly Duranty's "star". However, he never had a love interest in Russia. He was there to do a job. It's likely there was no Paul Kleb to give him a lead on where to go in the Ukraine. Gareth Jones knew what he needed to do in order to learn the truth.

Gareth Jones' stunning expose of the truth in Russia.

Jones's articles did not just focus on the famine in the Ukraine but instead reported on widespread famine throughout all of  Russia as well as the Ukraine. His article "Famine Rules Russia" suggested that the famine was the result of Stalin's Five Year Plan to industrialize Russia.  which destroyed "all that was best in Russia". His articles never cited carts of dead bodies or instances of cannibalism, like those portrayed in the film. But what he reported overall was in huge contrast to Walter Duranty's article only a year earlier. 

Gareth Jones was never arrested nor was he held in a Soviet jail. Instead he quietly left the country and returned to Berlin.

Director, Agnieszka Holland had the opportunity to produce a film that would inform an entire generation about Stalin, the reality of communism, the famine in Russia and the Ukraine that was caused entirely by policies of the Stalin government resulting in the death millions, as well as the coverup by Western journalists, desperate to keep on the good side of the communist regime. Instead, the film takes so much dramatic license with the real events, that the real story is mostly lost. This doesn't make the movie entirely without merit but viewers will be left wondering what is fact and what is fiction. Instead viewers should use it as a launching point for their own research, to learn more about what really happened. 

Information about Stalin's Five Year Plan can be found at the Library of Congress.

Readers can discover for themselves much more about Gareth Jones from a website his family maintains. His mother did considerable research after his diaries were discovered hidden under a stairwell in a suitcase.

The BBC website profile of Gareth Jones.

Image credits:

Gareth Jones: https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/waleshistory/2010/03/gareth_jones_investigative_journalist.html

Walter Duranty and Gareth Jones article images: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/10/red-famine-anne-applebaum-ukraine-soviet-union/542610/