Clan by Sigmund Brouwer

Clan is a novel about a boy's quest to find his place within his clan and to find redemption after disaster strikes. The story is set in prehistoric North America, during the end of the last Ice Age.

Atlatl is a member of the Clan led by his father Nootau. Their Healer, the Clan's spiritual leader is Banti, Atlatl's uncle and Nootau's brother. Atlatl's grandmother, Wawaetseka is Nootau and Banti's mother and the oldest woman in the Clan. Atlatl's clan winters in the Valley of the Turtle. "It was a vast valley; the low set of mountains on the western side, purpled by haze, were at least a day's walk away. Far, far upstream along the river that fed this valley was Ghost Mountain, where the Clan never traveled. Beyond Ghost Mountain was the land of the gods, where the Turtle god had been bound by the others to save the peoples from his anger not a place for mere mortals to tread."

Not yet a man, Atlatl struggles to walk, his left leg twisted at the knee from a fall off a cliff as a young child. Now on an outing in the afternoon on a late summer day, Atlatl is experimenting with a new weapon to hunt birds. Because of his limp, Atlatl knows that without two strong legs, he will never be allowed to join the hunters, led by his father. If he can devise a weapon to make hunting easier, he might be able to join the other men.

But while in the hills, Atlatl finds himself trapped by a saber-tooth tiger. The valley where his clan winters is filled with many predators including dire wolf, lion, cheetah, short-face bear and saber-tooth tiger. As the saber-tooth is preparing to attack, suddenly a cub scrambles from behind Atlatl towards the saber-tooth. Once she sees her cub she loses interest in Atlatl, but as she's preparing to take her cub back to the lair, she along with Atlatl are surrounded by a pack of dire wolves. Atlatl manages to save himself and the cub by climbing the rock face. The saber-tooth tiger is not so lucky. 

At the clan camp, Atlatl first encounters his cousin Powaw, who does not believe his story about surviving the saber-tooth and the attack by the dire wolves. The two boys are natural enemies, as their fathers do not get along. Powaw provokes the cub who scratches him and determined to see Atlatl lose the cub, promises to take his request to the Council of Elders.

Wawetseka and the other women, after hearing both boys decide that the cub may live among the dogs of the Clan and that as soon as it is weaned, it must be set free. Wawetseka asks Atlatl to report on the marker stone set by the river. It was the Healer's tradition to set an oddly shaped stone at the edge of the riverbank to warn of rising water. Atlatl's clan believes that when the other gods had defeated Turtle, he was weighed down with boulders and thrown into the lake behind Ghost Mountain. If he were ever to free himself, Turtle would flood the valley in retaliation. This is why it is the duty of the Healer to observe the marker stone. In Atlatl's clan, that duty falls to Banti but as he is away with the hunters, Wawetseka asks Atlatl to check for her. Although Atlatl has noticed a possible slight rising of the river, he decides not to upset his grandmother with something that might not be.

With the return of the hunters, tensions in the camp rise. Atlatl struggles as he sees his father teaching Powaw the techniques of tool making. He is ridiculed over his attempts to make a new weapon, a throwing stick that can throw stones very far. 

Then Wawetseka accuses Atlatl of lying to her about the marker stone. But the two discover that the river is changing and that the Clan must be warned. Meanwhile after many days, Powaw accuses Atlatl's saber-tooth of stealing meat from the drying rack. When Powaw pokes Cub with a spear, Atlatl grabs the weapon and Cub attacks Powaw, clawing his forearms and knocking him down. This scene is witnessed by Banti who brings it before the Council of Elders.

The Council decides that Cub, considered a member of the Clan, will be banished. But this judgement only sets up further tension within the Clan. Added to this is the discovery by Wawetseka and Atlatl that Banti is moving the marker stone to deceive the Clan about the river. When Wawetseka confronts her son, Nootau, he refuses to act, setting the stage for a catastrophe that will change their lives forever.

Discussion

Clan is a mashup of historical and science fiction, a story that incorporates all the features of a hero's journey while also exploring themes of forgiveness and redemption. The novel is divided into three sections, The Great Flood, Turtle God, and The Gathering, with the main character, Atlatl narrating. Atlatl's age is not specified, but he is still a boy, with a lame left leg, damaged in a fall off a cliff. At the end of the novel, it is revealed that his fall was not accidental but an attempt to kill him by his jealous uncle.

Atlatl is part of a small clan of only twenty-five that is led by his father Nootau. Atlatl's father is in conflict with his brother Banti, and this conflict has spilled down to their sons, Atlatl and Powaw. These conflicts have far-reaching effects for their Clan. The conflict between Nootau and Banti leads Nootau to refuse to move the clan from its camp near the river in order to avoid a confrontation with Banti leading to catastrophic results. The conflict between Atlatl and Powaw almost leads to banishment for Atlatl but disaster strikes before this can happen.

The catastrophe is a great flood that washes away the camp of the Clan. Atlatl, Nootau, Powaw, Banti and a young girl Atlatl loves, Takhi survive and are carried downstream. Eventually Atlatl and his father are separated from the others and reach the safety of a rock. However, Atlatl's father rejects him and so Atlatl sets out on his own, to journey to Ghost Mountain to confront the Turtle God. His journey is transformative; he develops a weapon that allows him to throw a spear very far and thus become a hunter, and he learns to survive on his own even using his new weapon to kill a short face bear. Atlatl also discovers the truth of the story of the Turtle god: that it was a story meant to protect the clans from the disaster of a flood, something had likely happened in the past. He and his father, who has been secretly following him, mend their broken relationship with Nootau accepting responsibility for not moving the clan from the valley as he was advised to do.

Atlatl's journey and his reconciliation with his father, lead him to work towards ending the conflict with Banti's son, Powaw. Nootau tells Atlatl, "My brother, Banti, and I were enemies from the moment we could both walk and speak. Only the laws of the Clan kept us from trying to kill each other. I silently hated him every single day of his life. That hatred, I have come to realize, has hurt me far more than it hurt him.... Banti and I used you and Powaw as we fought for power and position." Nootau urges Atlatl "...to set aside your hatred for Powaw, no matter how he treats you. Hatred is something that burns and consumes. If you can treat him as a brother that you love, you will never diminish yourself....Powaw is stronger than you in body, but he knows he is not as intelligent as you are, and it makes him feel weak. Can you promise me that you will try to make peace with him, and that no matter how many times he turns away from peace, you will keep trying?"

To this end, Atlatl shows his good intentions towards Powaw, after he and his father are allowed to remain with the Clan at the Council of Judgement during the Gathering of the Clans. Even after Powaw wrongly accuses Atlatl of trying to kill him during the flood, Atlatl works to carve Powaw a spear thrower and asks Powaw to be his brother. And even when confronted by the hatred of Banti, who is dying, Atlatl keeps his promise to his father. In offering Banti love and compassion, he saves his own life when the old man threatens to take Atlatl with him when he jumps off the cliff.

To write Clan, Brouwer undertook extensive research into Stone Age technology, the First People's of the Americas and the climate and geography of North America during the Ice Age. The Great Flood referenced in the oral history that Atlatl's grandmother Wawetseka relates, is based on the Missoula Flood which is estimated to have happened between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago in Montana and eastern Washington state. This flood was a glacial lake outburst flood in which an ice dam ruptured, allowing the glacial lake behind it to drain into the valley (in this case the Columbia valley) below the ice sheet. Eventually the ice re-formed, the glacial lake re-filled and the cycle repeated itself. Scientists believe this happened several times over a period of several thousand years. Brouwer includes a Notes section at the back that provides information about some of the animals mentioned in the novel as well as the Great Flood and the atlatl. 

Clan is a refreshing addition to Canadian children's literature. It is an exciting novel with an unusual setting that many readers will find fascinating. It is well-written, fast-paced with exciting action scenes involving animals that are now extinct. Sigmund Brouwer is an accomplished Alberta author who has been nominated for the Red Maple Award and has won the Christy Book of the Year and the Arthur Ellis Award. Clan is another outstanding

Book Details:

Clan by Sigmund Brouwer
New York: Tundra Books     2020
250 pp.

Louder Than Words by Kathy Kacer

Twelve-year-old Eldina Sternik lives with her mother and her younger sisters, six-year-old Gennadiy (Nadia) and baby Galya. They are Jews who live in the city of Proskurov, Ukraine. Dina's Papa had died a year earlier and her mother is planning to take over his job as a literature teacher at the local high school. Working fulltime means that the Sternik's need a housekeeper and to that end they hire Mrs. Pukas, who is a Catholic and who goes by the name of Nina. Although she is friendly and kind, Dina is reluctant to like her.

It is February, 1941 and there are reports that Hitler has invaded the Ukraine.Dina and her family have heard of the laws against Jewish citizens passed in other countries that Germany has invaded. There has been a long history of persecution of the Jews but so far only isolated incidents are happening.

When Dina's mother returns to work as a teacher, Nina begins walking Dina and Nadia to school every day with baby Gayla in the baby carriage. Their walk to school meant passing by Mrs. Timko who ran a candy shop in Proskurov. She was the happiest person Dina had ever seen and she always offered the children passing by her store a treat.

At school Dina meets up with her best friend Esther. In the playground, Avrum,one of the Jewish students is bullied by Ivan and a group of boys. One of the teachers, Mr. Petrenko approaches the boys to intervene but stops and doesn't move to help even when Dina begs him to do so. When Dina realizes no one will help Avrum she intervenes and stands up to Ivan. Later that night Dina's mother warns her to be careful, that incidents like this are happening at her high school too.

When Nina asks Dina to teach her more about the Jewish faith, Dina decides to take the housekeeper to the local library. However, she discovers that Nina can't read, so Dina sets out to teach her. This act of kindness will save their lives in the not too distant future. 

In early spring, Dina and Esther set out to have a picnic in the park. However, when they arrive at the park, they find signs stating that Jews are no longer permitted in the park. While Dina wants to defy the order, Esther is worried someone might see them and the two girls return home.

At home, Dina's mother tells them they must not draw attention to themselves. However, the situation rapidly deteriorates over the coming weeks. Dina, Esther and all the other Jewish students are moved to the back of their class in school.Then Mama comes home one day with a bag of yellow Stars of David that must be sewn onto all of their clothing. Then one morning on her walk to school, Mrs. Timko refuses to give candy to Dina. Even worse, Jews were no longer allowed to shop in stores and had to obey a curfew. Even worse, Mama and the other Jewish teachers are let go at the high school. 

But their life takes a turn for the worse when their house is set on fire by the Nazis. Although they are taken in by Mama's brother, they need a new plan as Dina's Uncle Leo and Aunt Maria are not keen to take them in. The daring plan Dina's mother devises might just save all of them!

Discussion

Louder Than Words is based on the true story of  Frima Sternik, a Jewish high school teacher who lived in Proskurov with her daughters and her Catholic housekeeper, Nina Pukas. As in the novel, Frima's home was destroyed by fire along with her important identity documents. To protect her children, she registered her children as belonging to Pukas, giving her children a chance to be protected from the Nazis. Although Frima did not survive the war, her children did, thanks to the efforts of Nina Pukas.

Kacer, whose own parents survived the Holocaust, successfully portrays the wide range of people and their beliefs during the Nazi occupation.  The novel includes both Christians who helped their Jewish neighbours as well as others sided with the Nazis and joined in the persecution. For example, the character, Mrs. Timko who owns a candy store in Proskurov, is described as "the happiest woman" and a "devout churchgoing woman who was always talking about what the Lord did and didn't do for us. She crossed herself and looked up to the sky as if she was waiting for someone or something to answer her."  However, when the Nazis invade Proskurov and persecution against the Jewish population begins, Mrs. Timko is one of the first to single out Dina and her family and other Jews by refusing her candy. 

There is Mr. Petrenko, Dina's teacher who doesn't support the Nazis but who is too afraid to act, even among children who are bullying Jewish students. Yet he does try to help in his own small way when Dina goes looking for her mother who has disappeared. And of course the focus of the story is Nina Pukas, in real life, Ludviga (Nina) Pukas, a Catholic who risked her own life to take on the care of the Sternik children. If she had been discovered by the Nazis, Nina Pukas would have been executed for hiding Jews. Her actions speak "louder than words", the title of the novel.

However, Kacer gets it wrong when she has Nina tell Dina about the "blood libel". When Nina expresses an interest in learning more about the Jewish faith she tells Dina that "My own church teaches us that Jewish people tortured Christian children -- even sacrificed a child once during the Easter celebration." This has NEVER been a teaching of the Catholic church and it is misinformation to imply that it ever was. It is not known when the myth of blood libel began but it dates back to Roman times into the Middle Ages where it gained some acceptance. It was opposed by many popes, among them Pope Gregory X who noted that his predecessors held the same, and who wrote, “Most falsely do these Christians claim that the Jews have secretly and furtively carried away these children and killed them, and that the Jews offer sacrifice from the heart and blood of these children, since their law in this matter precisely and expressly forbids Jews to sacrifice, eat, or drink the blood, or to eat the flesh of animals having claws. This has been demonstrated many times at our court by Jews converted to the Christian faith: nevertheless very many Jews are often seized and detained unjustly because of this.”

So while this may have been a horrific belief amongst Catholics and Christians that persisted into the 20th century and while it might have fueled the antisemitism so rampant throughout Europe, it was NEVER a teaching of the Catholic church as Nina Pukas suggests in the novel and it is wrong to teach young readers that it was. 

In this third of four books in the Heroes Quartet, Kacer effectively portrays the drastic situation that develops for Jews in the Ukraine, once they are invaded by the Nazis. But Kacer also demonstrates just  how fortunate Dina and her sisters are, especially once Dina sees the ghetto where her mother has been imprisoned and where she also recognizes her friend Esther, by her red coat. They do not survive the war.

Louder Than Words is another well written novel for younger readers that features a true heroine, Ludviga (Nina) Pukas whose brave actions were "louder than words". The back matter features a short Author's Note about the Nazi invasion of Proskurov and about the real life events that inspired the novel.

Sources:

https://sites.sju.edu/ijcr/2020/04/01/blood-libel-never-a-church-teaching-says-prominent-us-catholic-academic-as-defenders-of-antisemitic-italian-painting-come-forward/

https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/g10-jews.asp 

Book Details:

Louder Than Words by Kathy Kacer
Toronto: Annick Press 2020
231 pp.

Before The Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson

It's 1999 and ten-year-old Zachariah Jr.'s (ZJ) father is a famous football player who has won several Super Bowl championships. His famous father, a tight end, is known as "Zachariah 44" Johnson.

ZJ has three best friends: Ollie, Daniel and Darry. Ollie who loves math, who has green eyes and a red Afro was left outside a Texas church as a baby. He was adopted by a preacher and his wife. His mother, Bernadette is a widow and sometimes visits ZJ's mom for a cup of coffee.

ZJ's life begins to change when the new millennium comes. While celebrating New Years Eve, December 31, 1999 with Ollie, Darry and Daniel at his home, ZJ's father becomes angry over the noise. They are listening to Prince's 1999 and his dad comes into their room, yelling and asking who the boys are. ZJ and his friends at first think he was joking, but ZJ's father didn't seem to know who they were.

The next Friday after school, when ZJ asks his friends to come over, they each find an excuse not to come. However, on Sunday Daniel shows up and the two boys work together on a puzzle during the rainy afternoon.

ZJ's father says his head hurts all the time. Other times, everything seems fine. ZJ and his parents have a delicious dinner, his father and mother dancing in their living room. As his father's headaches worsen, he is told he has to stop playing football and eventually can no longer drive. As the doctors struggle to determine what's wrong, ZJ struggles to cope with what this means for his father and their family.

Discussion

Before The Ever After tells the story of a young boy whose life begins to unravel as his father starts to experience symptoms of what is now called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is a degenerative brain disease that often occurs in people who have suffered concussions and other repeated head trauma over a period of time. Athletes such as football and hockey players, boxers, and soldiers who have experienced brain injury from explosive blasts on the battlefield are at risk, but so are those who suffer head injuries in other settings as well. These injuries result in a build up of a protein called tau in the brain. This protein which smothers brain cells, affects the areas of the brain that are responsible for memory, the regulation of emotions and other important functions. 

CTE was discovered by Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-born doctor who studied the brain of former NFL player Tim Webster whose mental health had seriously deteriorated prior to his death of a heart attack in 2002. Omalu found tau proteins in Webster's brain. Omalu named the condition Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and in his paper to the medical journal, Neurology, in 2005, he suggested that Webster's health issues were directly related to the hits he had taken as a football player. 

His paper was not well received by the NFL, which suggested his research had serious flaws. Undaunted, Omalu examined the brain of a second NFL football player, found the same proteins in his brain and wrote a second paper to Neurology. Again the NFL refused to accept his findings, but further investigations on the brains of more ex-football players continued to support Omalu's conclusions. His work caught the attention of the media and eventually CTE gained acceptance as a real and serious disease.

In Before The Ever After, ZJ's father, Zachariah is an outstanding tight end with a professional football team and has won Super Bowl championships. The story is set in late 1999 into the year 2000, before Dr. Bennet Omalu's research and the discovery of the effects of repeated injuries to the brain. Zachariah's story is told through the eyes of his twelve-year-old son, ZJ as he remembers how his father's illness began, the events leading up to his beloved father's hospitalization and how he, his mother and his friends struggled to cope.

 In the poem, Before the Ever After, ZJ describes life before his father, "Zachariah 44" who is only thirty-four years old and in the prime of his career, became ill. Before the ever after there was going to Village Ice Cream, people recognizing his father, pointing and smiling, picnics on Sunday afternoons in Central Park, and ZJ and his father making up songs. ZJ's father calls him "little man" and often endearingly refers to ZJ's friend Ollie who was abandoned at birth as "my son from another mother and father."  These descriptions portray ZJ's father as a kind, involved father who cared about those around him.

But as his illness progresses, there are changes, subtle at first, like the shaking hands and the incident on New Years Eve 1999,  the headaches and the memory loss. It soon becomes apparent that ZJ's father is not quite well.  In the poem, The Trees, about the trees in their front yard that ZJ and his father named, he describes his father:

"Some days he seems just like that tree.
Like he's not his whole self anymore. Like one by one
somebody or something
took his branches."

Many of the poems in the novel emphasize what ZJ's  father is experiencing and how ZJ and his mother struggle to understand what is happening as the the man they love fades. ZJ often describes his father, a big man at 233lbs as looking small when he is experiencing his memory problems and confusion. Each of these memories remain strong for the young ZJ.  In the poem, Call Me Little Man, ZJ remembers the first time his father forgot the name he always called him by. 

"The first time you forgot my name
feels like yesterday. Feels like an hour ago.
Feels like I blink and you forgetting
is right there in front of me."

Another poem, Audition, drives home how ZJ's father at times couldn't managed even the simplest of tasks. This poem relates how it took seventy-two unsuccessful takes for a commercial. His father was unable to remember his line, "I'm Zachariah Johnson, and this is my car." and get into the car.

Many poems highlight the difficulties medical doctors were experiencing at this time to understand what was happening to football players like Zachariah. In the poem Waiting, ZJ talks about how they are always waiting. 

"We're always waiting.
Waiting for another doctor.
Waiting for more tests. Waiting for test results.
Waiting for new treatments."

It is evident the doctors don't know what is wrong with his father. In the poem, The Broken Thing, ZJ describes how the doctors don't know what is wrong.

"There's not a name for the way
Daddy's brain works now.
The way it forgets little things like
what day it is and big things like
the importance of wearing a coat outside
on a cold day. There's not a name
for the way I catch him crying
looking around the living room like
it's his first time seeing it." 

Before The Ever After is also a novel about friendship and how friends can help one another deal with loss and the difficulties of life. At first ZJ's friends abandon him when they witness his father's unusual angry outburst on New Years Eve. It is more out of fear, as they don't understand what is happening. However, as his father's condition deteriorates, ZJ's friends rally around him. He is still part of their circle, going for bike rides and snowball fights. When his mother holds a birthday party for his dad's thirty-fifth birthday, his friends arrive to celebrate. In the poem, "Company", Ollie, Daniel and Darrie meet ZJ in the schoolyard after his father is hospitalized.

"We heard about your dad, they say.
You know we got you, ZJ.
Ollie even gives me a hug, bro style, pounds my back,
then Daniel and Darry do the same.

This is a whole nother kind of pigskin dream
to have your boys surrounding you,
telling you they got you,
their hands on your shoulders,
their arms around your neck."

Professional football has offered many young men a chance to escape poverty and difficult circumstances. Before The Ever After simply and effectively highlights the price many of these men and their families have paid for such a chance. With Dr. Bennet Omalu's research, perhaps some families will be spared such a price. Jacquelline Woodson has crafted a deeply touching novel that explores this issue for younger readers.

Book Details:

Before The Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson
New York: Nancy Paulsen Books      2020
161 pp.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discussion

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

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

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

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

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

Book Details:

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

A Boy Is Not A Bird by Edeet Ravel

It is the summer of 1940 and Nathan (Natt) Silver and his best friend Max Zwecker are playing a game called Life and Death on the High Seas when Max's mother tells Natt he has to go home. Natt lives in Zastavna, with his mother, his father who runs a grain business and their housemaid, Lana. The village has a large Ukrainian population and is only a few hours from Czernowitz, the largest city in Burkovina. Natt speaks many languages including German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Hebrew and Yiddish.

When Natt arrives home, he is surprised to find a large number of people crammed into his parents' bedroom listening to the radio. It is the BBC broadcasting in German. Among the "guests" listening, is their lawyer Bruno Jacobson, whom Natt and Max have nicknamed Bruno the Bald, the dentist Dr. Schiff whose daughter Lucy visits often and Natt's violin teacher, Mr. Drabik and his wife.

After their guests leave, Natt's father explains that in the past year Hitler signed a pact with Stalin meaning that Russia is now taking over this part of the country. The hated Iron Guard are leaving and Natt will be learning Russian with new teachers.

Natt's family could have been safe from all of this, had they followed through on their plan to leave five years ago. At that time his parents were going to move to Montreal, Canada where relatives lived, but at the last minute his mother changed her mind.

Several days later, Natt's  parents tell him they are burying a box of gold coins in their backyard. This seems very strange to Natt. The Russians arrive, singing songs and telling the people that their friend, Stalin will look after them. 

Changes happen at school as well. Gone is Mrs. Bubu, the teacher everyone doesn't like. Instead their new teacher is Comrade Minsky, who used to be a professor at a famous Moscow university. There is also Comrade Martha who hands out candy canes and introduces the class to Comrade Stalin on the poster on the wall. She tells Natt, Max and the other students their goal is to become Pioneers.

Natt's life begins to unravel quickly after the arrival of the Russians. They lose their home, which is taken over by the Russians to be used as a bank, and have to move into the apartment attached to their home. The men who helped Natt's father in his grain business leave. Hebrew school is no longer allowed, and churches are being closed down.

Then Natt wakes up unexpectedly at his Aunt Dora's home one night. At his insistence, he is taken home where he learns that his father has been arrested. In a strange event, Natt and another student at school, receive a prize for showing outstanding revolutionary spirit. The prize is a baby book for three year olds written by famous author Daniil Kharms, a revelation that causes Comrade Minsky to weep.

Meanwhile Natt's father continues to be held in jail, despite his mother's numerous packages of food in an attempt to bribe the NKVD, the Russian secret police. As the weeks go by, Natt is shunted from one relative to the next, eventually ending up at the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Shapiro. Before Natt's twelfth birthday, he and his mother are allowed to walk by the prison to see his father at the window. But Natt, conflicted over the communist indoctrination he's receiving at school and his father in prison, refuses to look at him. This causes him much regret afterwards.

On his twelfth birthday, Natt learns that his father has been sentenced to five years in jail. But he later learns the truth from his friend Lucy who tells him that his father is being sent to work in the gold mines in Magadan, Siberia, more than eleven thousand kilometers from home. He will be in a new kind of prison called a gulag run by the NKVD.

Devastated, Natt seeks out his friend Matt who tells him to open his eyes to what is going on around him and to trust only a very few people including his parents. Then his mother goes into hiding, something Natt only learns about when he is arrested. In the filthy prison, without food or water, Natt is questioned and terrorized by the police until his mother shows up. At this point things get much worse. He learns that they will have to pack and leave for Siberia. When he and his mother arrive at the train station they are stunned to see that hundreds of others are also there. They are being deported to Siberia. It is the beginning of a terrible journey which will require Natt to be the courageous hero that his father has encouraged him to be.

Discussion

A Boy Is Not a Bird is a book based on the life experiences of Nahum Halpern, who taught the author during her childhood. Nahum was exiled to Siberia along with his family in 1940. Although based on the events in Nahum's life, the characters and conversations are entirely fictional creations of the author. The story is told from the point of view of Natt Silver, a young boy who is beginning to grow up but whose parents, in particular his mother, attempt to protect him from the harsh realities of war. 

Natt's mother spends much of her time pretending that everything is normal, as things go from bad to worse. Natt knows from the beginning that his mother is not telling him the truth. When she tells him about the Hebrew school and the churches closing, she forces herself to laugh. But Natt finds this unsettling. "It's a bit spooky. That type of fake laugh, especially when it's your mother who's putting on an act."

Natt's mother tells him his telescope is in safe keeping, yet he overhears her telling Aunt Dora and Uncle Isaac it has been sold. Natt believes that after the war, he will get everything back. When Natt's father is sentenced to five years in jail, his mother doesn't tell him what has really happened, only that he's likely safer in prison than in the army. But from his friend Lucy, he learns that his father has been sentenced to hard labour in the gulag. 

Natt begins to realize that his mother's actions are a façade. When his father is sentenced to the gulag, Natt's mother remarks that he will likely be safer in prison than in the army. When they drive by their house on the way to the train station to be deported, she tells Natt they are lucky to have the chance to say goodbye to their home. As they are being deported, his mother's words are in stark contrast to what Natt feels and he realizes,  "Mama is not only putting on an act for the people in charge. She's also putting on an act for me. She doesn't want me to be scared, so she's pretending that everything is fine and dandy...So she's pretending and I'm pretending. Neither of us can say what we really feel about the old house....Neither of us can say or show what we feel about Papa being sent to Siberia and the two of us following him -- and not even to the same place, as far as we know."

Natt's parents while protecting him, try to prepare him for the horrors of war in a more general way. His parents have different advice for him. The novel takes its title from a story that Natt is told by his mother about how war has a transient effect. "When two countries are fighting...there can be a lot of confusion. You can't predict from one day to the next what will happen." She tells him that "...war is like a dog barking at a flock of birds who are sitting quietly on a haystack. The birds fly away, but then when the war ends, they come back to where they were."  In other words, the effects of war are transient, and some day things return to the way they once were.

His father however, advises Natt to have courage and be a hero. "War is when you get a chance to be a hero. Because every day that you get through it, you've done something heroic." When Natt asks what this means his father responds, "Get through whatever comes your way...And you Natt...are definitely hero material. No matter what, you will always be courageous, keeping in mind that the birds as Mama says, will find their way back after the war." However, a boy is not a bird, and it's not always possible to be courageous and to find one's way.

While this sounds romantic, by the time Natt is almost in Siberia, he knows differently. "I think a lot these days about what Papa said. In wartime, just getting through the day makes you a hero. But I don't feel like a hero. I think it's the opposite really. War makes you feel smaller and smaller. You keep shrinking, like Alice in Wonderland, until you're so small you're practically invisible. A person that tiny can't be a hero." But what Natt has experienced, how he has already endured many weeks of suffering and deprivation, demonstrate that he is very much a hero.

Ravel captures the horror of the deportation by train into Siberia that millions experienced. The story is set in Zastavna but doesn't identify exactly where this is. Zastavna was part of Romania in 1940 but is now part of Ukraine. There is also mention of the Iron Guard and how Natt and everyone in Zastavna feared them. The Iron Guard was a fascist movement that sided with Germany. In 1940, Romania lost much of its territory to the Soviets, including the area around Burkovina, where Natt's village is located.

A Boy Is Not A Bird is the first book in a planned trilogy. Ravel includes an Author's Note which explains his inspiration for the novel, as well as a map and a Historical Note.

Book Details:

A Boy Is Not A Bird by Edeet Ravel
Toronto: Groundwood Books   2019
229 pp.

Refugee by Alan Gratz

Refugee tells the stories of three refugees from different countries and different time periods in alternating narratives.

Josef Landau 1938

Twelve-year-old Josef Landau, a Jewish boy living in Berlin in 1938, is awoken one night to the sounds of Nazi Brownshirts trashing his family's apartment and taking away his father, Aaron. Josef's father was forbidden to practice law because he is Jewish and he is hauled away for breaking the Civil Service Restoration Act of 1933. Later Josef learns that his family was not the only one who was attacked. In what has become known as Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, many other Jewish families and businesses were destroyed.Six months after he'd been arrested, Josef's father was released from a concentration camp called Dachau on the condition that he leave the country within fourteen days.

Josef, his younger sister Ruthie and his mother travel from Lehrter Bahnhof, Berlin's main railway station to Hamburg Central Railway Station. It is May, 1939 and Josef's family is to meet their father in Hamburg, board a ship that will take them to Cuba, the only country still willing to admit Jewish refugees. They ultimately hope to travel from Cuba to the United States.

In Hamburg, their rendezvous with Josef's father is frightening, as he is gaunt, and paranoid. He is determined they board the ship, the MS St. Louis immediately rushing up the ramp and past the soldier taking tickets. While Josef and Ruthie go on deck, the parents are left alone in the cabin. 

Their journey on the MS St.Louis will not be what they expect. Despite the happy mood of the refugees on the ship, Josef's father insists it is all a trap and that they will end up back in Germany. As his paranoia increases, Josef begins to wonder if their voyage will it offer them what they were hoping for, life in a new country, safe from the Nazis.

Isabel Fernandez 1994

Eleven-year-old Isabel Fernandez lives just outside of Havana in Cuba, in 1994. Isabel is hungry and poor, like everyone else in Cuba. With the fall of communism in 1989, the Soviet Union dissolving meant that Russia was no longer buying Cuba's sugar for eleven times the price and in exchange sending Cuba food, gasoline and medicine. With no one to buy the sugar cane, farms failed, refineries closed and people were out of work. Domestic animals were eaten to stave off hunger, even the animals in the Havana Zoo. Isabel's friend and neighbour, Ivan Castillo tells her his father is building a doghouse, but she knows they are making a boat to sail to the United States. If they are caught, they will be thrown into jail, like Isabel's father, Geraldo was when his second attempt to flee to the United States failed.

However, things turn very desperate for Isabel's father when a riot breaks out on the Malecon, a broad street in Havana. Isabel is on the street, preparing to play her trumpet. Busking is a way for her to earn a bit of money to help out her family. But when a riot breaks out over the food shortage, Isabel finds her father and grandfather in the middle of it. After her father tosses a bottle at the police line, he is singled out and beaten by a policeman. Isabel tries to intervene and is almost attacked herself, but she and her father are saved by Ivan's brother, Luis who is a new policeman. However, his attacker threatens to hunt him down and have him arrested. Isabel knows her father must now flee Cuba.

Back at home, while Isabel's mother is tending to her father's wounds, Fidel Castro comes on television and after a long rant, tells Cubans that those who want to leave the country may do so. Isabel's father is determined to leave but her grandfather, Lito is against the idea. He insists that Geraldo just needs to lay low for a while. However, Isabel comes up with the idea that they should all leave, even though her mother is due to give birth in a week's time. 

Isabel approaches her neighbour, Mr.Rudi Castillo who is working on his boat. Mr. Castillo refuses to include her family, telling Isabel he has no gasoline, so she sells her trumpet to a local fisherman in exchange for gasoline. When Isabel and her family along with the Castillos arrive at the beach carrying the boat, they are shocked to see hundreds of people doing the same. As they are launching their boat, Luis Castillo and his girlfriend Amara join them. Because the police are not allowed to leave, they are pursued by fellow officers and gunshots fired, but the boat gets away safely. 

Isabel and her family along with the Castillos immediately experience problems. The boat motor dies, and then they are swamped by a near-miss with a tanker which almost costs Mr. Castillo his life. But the dangers are not over yet, and by the time their journey is over, their chance at a better life will come at great cost.

Mahmoud 2015

Twelve-year-old Mahmoud lives in Aleppo, Syria with his mother, Fatima, his father Youssef, his baby sister Hana, and his ten-year-old brother Waleed. Aleppo had been a thriving, modern city in Syria until the coming of the Arab Spring in 2011. Protesting against President Bashar al-Assad had led to Assad attacking his own people. Now in 2015, war is all that Mahmoud and his family know. 

As they are finishing their afternoon prayer, a missile destroys the building housing Mahmoud's family. They manage to escape their apartment before the entire building collapses. Mahmoud's father, Youssef, who was an engineer with a mobile phone company, arrives home and  immediately tells them they are leaving Aleppo at once for Turkey. In Turkey, they will sell their car and travel north to Germany which is accepting refugees.

An hour out of Aleppa, Mahmoud's father is forced to stop by armed soldiers and give them a ride to the highway. However, before they reach the highway their car is attacked and Mahmoud and his family barely escape. As they flee in terror from the gun battle, they leave behind everything they own except their phones and chargers. After a long walk Mahmound's family arrive at the Turkish border along with thousands of other refugees. At the border near the city of Kilis,  they show their papers, and are admitted to the country. Almost immediately, Mahmoud's father manages to make arrangements with a smuggler to take them by boat from Ismir to Greece. But after a two day ride across Turkey in cars and buses, they arrive at Ismir only to be told that the boat will be ready the next day. 

After days of waiting, their boat is finally ready to take them across the Mediterranean Sea to Greece. Crammed into a black inflatable rubber dinghy with an outboard motor, the crossing turns into a terrifying disaster that almost sees the family drown. Mahmoud makes a split-second decision to save his baby sister Hana. Their long journey to a better life will come with much sacrifice but with hope too.

Discussion

Refugee follows three families as they flee their home countries for the safety of another land. For each family the reason is different; for Josef, a German Jew, it is persecution by the Nazi government, for Mahoud it is war that makes life impossible, and for Isabel it is poverty and the communist government of Cuba. 

Gratz seamlessly weaves together the three narratives, while drawing his readers into each separate story with exciting chapter endings.  Despite the expansive time frame stretching from 1939 to 2015, Gratz, through the stories in Refugee, demonstrates how all of us are interconnected through time, place and people. And in ways least expected.

These connections become apparent only near the end of the novel. For example, Josef's family along with the other Jewish passengers on the MS Louis are eagerly awaiting permission to disembark the ship and begin life in Cuba. Instead of being allowed to leave, Cuban policemen are sent on board. When Josef's father attempts to commit suicide by jumping overboard, he is saved by a young Cuban policeman, Mariano Padon. Years later, that same Cuban man, now Isabel's grandfather Lito, decides to jump out of their boat as a diversion to the U.S. Coast Guard, giving Isabel, her mother and father and the Castillo's the chance to get to the beach at Miami. 

Lito tells his granddaughter Isabel that he kept hoping things would change but did nothing. "I see it now Chabela. All  of it. The past, the present, the future. All my life, I kept waiting for things to get better. For the bright promise of manana. But a funny thing happened while I was waiting for the world to change, Chabela: It didn't. Because I didn't change it. I'm not going to make the same mistake twice." Lito makes the decision to sacrifice his chance to get to the US and to act as a diversion for the Coast Guard, giving Isabel and the people in their boat the chance to get to freedom.

Josef's family also becomes connected to Mahmoud's family in 2015 when Mahmoud and his family arrive as refugees in Germany. They are taken in by an elderly German couple, Saul and Ruthie Rosenberg. She tells Mahmoud and his parents that she was once a refugee too and how she lost her brother Josef and her mother, who both died in a concentration camp. Ruthie, now very old, understands what it is like to be refugee and she acts by bringing a Syrian family into her home.

The connection between each place in the story is interesting to consider. One country, dangerous in 1939, is now a place of refuge in 2015. Josef's family is seeking to flee Berlin, Germany, while Mahmoud's family is struggling years later to find safety in Berlin. Another place, Havana Cuba, potentially a place of safety in 1939, is a dangerous in 1994 to those not supportive of Fidel Castro.  Josef's family hopes to find safety in Havana, Cuba, while years later, Isabel's family is fleeing that very country, for the safety of the United States. These connections are not lost on Mahmoud. "Mahmoud knew from his history class back in Syria that Berlin had been all but destroyed by the end of World War II, reduced to a pile of rubble like Aleppo was now. Would it take another seventy years for Syria to return from the ashes the way German did?..."

There are many other connections to explore in Refugee. These include the similarities in the journeys of the refugees. For example, all of the refugees in the story travel at some point by boat. Their journey on water is fraught with danger and in each case, they experience the loss of someone dear to them. 

In Refugee, Gratz does a remarkable job portraying the humanity of the different refugees and in challenging readers through these portrayals, to consider how they are not so different, with hopes, dreams and the desire to live in freedom. The  novel demonstrates that the reasons people flee their homeland are similar regardless of era or place and that their experiences in their adopted countries are also similar. The reasons the Jews fled Germany in 1939 is similar to why Cubans left their island in 1994 and why Syrians fled in 2015. 

Refugee is another outstanding novel by Alan Gratz. The author has included maps at the back, showing the journey of each refugee and there is an extensive Author's Note providing the backstory to each refugee's narrative. Refugee provides an excellent opportunity for students in Grades 5 to 8 to explore the issue of refugees and the world's response to the crisis of displaced persons.

Book Details:

Refugee by Alan Gratz
New York: Scholastic Press     2017
338 pp.