The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur

It is 1426, five years after the events in the ancient Gotjawal Forest. Eighteen-year-old Hwani is travelling to Nowon village on Jeju Island, a penal island for political prisoners.   She is disguised as a man and is travelling with her father's badly burned five-stitched black notebook. It was sent to her by a stranger named Boksun. How does Boksun know her father and why has she sent her the journal?

Hwani's father, Detective Min has disappeared on the island.Commander Ki told Hwani that her father had gone to Jeju to investigate the disappearance of several girls.

On the boat travelling from Mokpo port to Jeju, Hwani meets a middle-aged man who questions her about her journey. Without revealing her identity, she tells him that relatives of Detective Min have asked her to investigate his disappearance. He warns Hwani that she shouldn't listen to the rumours from the peasants in the village about their missing daughters. Hwani learns that this man is Magistrate Hong. He tells her that he told Detective Min that they girls were all pretty, tired of poverty and likely ran away to escape their lives.

Hwani wonders if she's been foolish in coming to Jeju. Commander Ki had declared her father dead after a twelve month investigation in which only the left sleeve of his outer robe had been recovered in Gotjawal Forest. She wonders though, why her father would care about this case since it's outside of his jurisdiction. But the note left in his chamber, questioning if a man can "undo his errors? Undo his sins?" bothers her.

Hwani becomes lost trying to find her way across Jeju Island to Nowon village. After asking an old woman for directions, Hwani asks about the village. The old woman tells her that thirteen girls have gone mission in the past four years but that recently an elderly resident saw the missing thirteenth girl running through the woods near Seonhul village. The girl, Hyunok did not return back to her parents ask expected and the woman thinks she may be dead.

With the old woman's directions, Hwani is able to remember the location of the shaman's hut. Hwani lived in Nowon for the first thirteen years of her life. She would visit Shaman Nokyung, the woman whom her sister Maewol was taken to by their father five years earlier at age ten.

When Hwani arrives at the jeomjip, the shaman tells her about a witness claiming to have seen one of the girls being taken by a man in a white mask. This immediately calls to mind the Forest Incident in which Hwani and her sister were found in the forest unconscious next to a dead girl. While Hwani remembers nothing, her sister saw a man in a white mask.  The shaman tells Hwani that her father returned to Jeju because he believed that Maewol as a witness, from the Forest Incident might be in danger. He hoped to solve the case. The shaman advises Hwani to return home, get married and live her life, that her father is dead.

However, later that evening the villagers arrive at the shaman's hut, asking that Shaman Nokyung come with them to Mount Halla where the body of the missing thirteenth girl has been found. Instead, Maewol and Hwani go. The victim's sister, Koh Iseul tells Hwani that a villager named Chul discovered Hyunok. They find her at the base of a cliff, face up. When Hwani and a man named Scholar Yu examine the body they find that Hyunok had been bound at the wrists and ankles.

As Hwani continues to investigate she learns from Maewol what really happened in the forest five years previous. She also begins to develop a list of potential suspects that include Convict Baek who was tied to Hyunok's family through a debt they owed him, Shaman Nokyung, Village Elder Moon who seems to have not been able to find enough evidence to convince the magistrate to act and Magistrate Hong who refuses to act.

But when Hwani with the help of Maewol begin to close in on the truth, events turn deadly. Can Hwani save herself, her sister and the missing girls?

Discussion

The Forest of Stolen Girls is the sequel to Hur's first novel, The Silence of the Bones. Set in fifteenth century Korea, the novel has as its basis the practice of human tribute, a practice in Asia of acknowledging a country's preeminence (usually but not restricted to China) through the payment of tribute. Hur explains the concept and practice very well in her Historical Note at the back of the novel. In thirteen-century Goryeo dynasty-era Korea, tribute was paid to the Mongol empire who ruled the country. Horses, fur and over two thousand Korean maidens were taken against their will as a form of tribute. When Mongul rule was followed by the Ming Dynasty in China, countries wishing to have a formal relationship with China were required to continue the tradition of paying the tribute. Korea was one of several countries who entered the tribute system. Once again, young Korean girls and women were taken against their will to the Ming dynasty. This practice in Korea ended in 1435.

Hur uses the practice of tribute as the event that triggers a series of disappearances and murders, including that of Hwani and Maewol's father, Detective Min. The story is a complex one that Hur adeptly weaves, leading readers to a thrilling resolution.The story is told by Hwani, a determined, intelligent young woman who amazingly survives attempted murder, poisoning by arsenic and a kidnapping. 

Set against the main story of Hwani attempting to determine her father's fate and unravel the connection between the missing girls and her family's encounter in the forest five years previous, is the devastating effect the tribute had on families in Korea. Families hid their young daughters, especially those who were considered very beautiful, father's scarred the faces of their beautiful daughters as Village Elder Moon had done, and bribes were offered to emissaries to save beloved daughters from the terrible fate. This later situation resulted in another girl being chosen to take her place. This is the situation Hwani uncovers in the village of Nowon.

A subplot is the sibling rivalry between Hwani and her younger sister, Maewol, supposedly abandoned by their father twice; once in the Forest Incident and then subsequently when it is believed she has a calling to be a shaman. This abandonment has resulted in the sisters not trusting one another when they are first reunited with Hwani's visit to Nowon. However, as they spend more time together, Hwani and Maewol begin to accept each other. Hwani, always believing their father loved her more, begins to realize that her father also deeply loved his younger daughter Maewol too. Together they solve the case of the missing girls and discover the fate of their father.

The Forest of Stolen Girls is highly recommended to fans of historical fiction as it explores a historical period in a country not often written about. As with her first novel, Hur does an excellent job of portraying fifteenth century Korea, populating her story with believable characters and creating exciting situations that engage the reader. The Forest of Stolen Girls has been nominated for the White Pine Award. 

Book Details:

The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur
New York: Fiewel and Friends Book      2021
369 pp.

Sergeant Billy by Mireille Messier

Sergeant Billy was a goat who travelled with a group of Canadian soldiers to the muddy trenches of France during World War I.

At the beginning of World War I, a train full of soldiers stop in a small prairie town and spy a goat named Billy. The soldiers ask Daisy, the young girl who owns the goat, if they can borrow him.They believe he will bring them good luck in the war. Daisy agrees and so Billy travels to training camp with the soldiers. They decide to call  him Private Billy.

Private Billy marched and trained with the soldiers of the 5th Battalion. When it was time go to England then on to war, the Colonel told his soldiers they could not take Billy. However, they couldn't part with their mascot and they managed to sneak him onto the ship.

When it came time for the Fighting Fifth to leave England and begin fighting, they were told Private Billy could not accompany the troops. Mascots were not allowed at the front. So determined to bring Private Billy to France, they purchased a large wooden crate of oranges, sold them and used the crate to smuggle the goat onto the ship.

In the trenches, Private Billy didn't seem to mind the mud, the rats or the bad food. When rations were low, Private Billy ate the colonel's papers! For that he was arrested and put in jail. But Private Billy was forgiven when the colonel saw how unhappy his men were without their mascot. Private Billy was promoted to sergeant for his role in the battalion. At Ypres, he captured an enemy soldier. At Hill 63, Sergeant Billy got trench foot and at Hill 70 he was shell-shocked. He even saved some soldiers lives at Festubert when he butted them into a trench, saving them from an incoming shell. He even became a decorated war hero being awarded the Mons Star.

After the war, the Fifth Battalion returned Sergeant Billy to Daisy in 1919.

Discussion

Sergeant Billy is the true story of a goat adopted by a group of soldiers as they passed through Saskatchewan, enroute to war. It is a story reminiscent to that of Winnie, a bear cub found by Harry Colebourn at a train station and who would become Winnie the Pooh,

Billy the goat was adopted by the 5th Battalion C.E.F. in 1914 as the soldiers headed east by train.The battalion was organized on August 10, 1914 and headed by train to Camp Valcartier in Quebec. On the way, the train stopped at Broadview, Saskatchewan where they saw Daisy Curwain and her goat Bill. The men wanted Bill as their mascot and Daisy agreed. 

After their training at Valcartier, they travelled with Billy on the S.S. Lapland at Quebec in a convoy with naval escort from Gaspe" on October 3, 1914. They arrived at Plymouth on October 14, 1914 and disembarked at Devonmouth on October 20th. The battalion spent the winter of 1914-15 training on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. 

When the battalion received orders to go to the front,  they were told animals were not allowed to be brought along. The men, determined to bring along their mascot, purchased a crate of oranges from a woman and Billy was placed into the crate and spirited onto the ship. The battalion travelled on the S.S. Lake Michigan arriving at St. Nazaire, France on February 14, 1915.

Life in the trenches appealed to Billy who loved canteen beer and often ate any papers he found. All of the events described in Messier's delightful picture book actually happened. Messier tells all the basic facts of Billy the goat's service in World War II. At the back is a short section on animals in World War I along with some photographs of Sergeant Billy with his beloved troops and on display in the Broadview Museum in Saskatchewan. Canadian artist, Kass Reich handpainted the illustrations using gouache and then added details digitally. 

Sergeant Billy is another interesting picture book that highlights the role animals have in helping soldiers during war. In Sergeant Billy's case, he not only helped with morale but even saved the lives of some soldiers.

Book Details:

Sergeant Billy: The True Story of THE GOAT Who Went To War by Mireille Messier
New York: Tundra Books   2019

The Incredible Nellie Bly by Luciana Cimino and Sergio Algozzino

It is December, 1921 and the college periodical of Columbia University wants to publish a special issue celebrating American journalism in honor of the tenth anniversary of Columbia's Journalism school. Miriam, a fictional student at Columbia University's School of Journalism, wants to write about Nellie Bly's investigation of the insane asylum almost thirty years ago. Despite the passage of time, women journalists are still assigned frivolous topics and there are limited employment opportunities. Miriam hopes that by learning about Bly's experiences, she can highlight just how little has changed for women.

Miriam reaches out to Bly but is repeatedly turned away until finally Miss Bly gives in and agrees to see her. Miriam tells Bly that she wants to write an article about her to start a public debate about the issue of so few women admissions to Columbia's journalism school. But Bly remembers how in 1885, she wrote a letter to the Pittsburgh Dispatch, protesting an article denigrating those women who wanted to work. Bly signed her letter anonymously but came forward when Mr. Madden published an add asking the writer to come forward. Madden offered Bly whose name then was Elizabeth Cochrane, the opportunity to write an article about the status of women. She was paid and she got to know Wilson, the author of the offending article better. 

Miriam asks Bly how she came to have these modern ideas back then. Bly tells Miriam her real name and that she was born in 1864 during her mother's second marriage.  Her family lived in Pennsylvania and were well off, until her father's death. Her mother remarried a man who was violent and an alcoholic.Her mother left the abusive marriage and asked for a divorce. Seeing what her mother went through, Elizabeth decided she wanted to make sure she was economically independent.

When Bly refuses to tell Miriam about her investigation of the insane asylum because she believes she is "playing" at journalism, Miriam tells her she is "blinded by her own prejudice." Miriam informs Bly that she comes from a poor family and has had to work in a doctor's office. She reminds Bly that her mentor, Joseph Pulitzer founded Columbia's journalism school.

However, Bly relents and invites Miriam back the next evening to talk.But before talking about the asylum, Bly tells Miriam how she wanted to investigate the working conditions of female factory workers. There were stories about poor working conditions and low wages. Wilson convinced the paper's editor, Madden and suggested Bly disguise herself as a factory worker. Bly's reports caused a stir and threats from angry industrialists to withdraw their advertisements from the Pittsburgh Dispatch.

Bly continues, telling Miriam about her failed attempt to work in Mexico as a foreign correspondent, her decision to eventually leave for New York. In New York, Chief Editor Mr. Cockerill believed Bly to be an amateur and proposed that she prove herself by investigating Blackwell's Island, New York City's female mental institution. Posing as a mentally ill woman, Bly spent ten traumatic days in the institution but her report was ground changing.

Bly also tells Miriam about her investigation of women workers in factories, something she began while in Pittsburgh and her interview with Belva Ann Lockwood, who ran in the 1888 U.S Presidential election! She finally relates the events that led to her undertaking a journey around the world  for which she became famous.

Miriam comes to learn that some of Nellie's greatest accomplishments were ones that didn't garner much publicity. While she continued to cover the Pullman's Factory strikes and interview people like Eugene V. Debs, Emma Goldman and feminist Susan B. Anthony, she also reported from the front lines of World War I and quietly helped abandoned children and women in need.

Discussion

The Incredible Nellie Bly is an engaging account of the early life of Elizabeth Cochran Seaman whose pen name was Nellie Bly. A solid Introduction written by British journalist and author David Randall provides the basics of Nellie's life and is the perfect lead-in to this well done graphic novel. The authors use a story within a story to portray Nellie Bly's remarkable life. Fictitious journalism student Miriam decides to interview Nellie in 1921 in order to highlight the barriers women still are encountering in gaining admission to Columbia's school of journalism. Through these interviews, Nellie tells her story to an admiring Miriam.

Nellie's early family story is a bit unclear from the graphic arts panels: Her father,  Michael Cochrane had ten children with his first wife, Catherine, remarried and had five more children with his second wife Mary, including Elizabeth Cochrane. It was Elizabeth's stepfather, her mother Mary's second husband who was an alcoholic and abusive. However, for the most part the details of Nellie's story are well portrayed in the graphic artwork and the accompanying text.

Cimino and Algozzino incorporate not only the important events of Nellie's professional career but also their significant impact on social conditions of the late 1800s. For example, her investigative report on Blackwell's Island resulted in more funding to mental institutions and major reforms of other public institutions, while her investigation of women workers in factories helped increase the number of women editorial staff at The World.

Nellie also encourages Miriam to be persistent in spite of how she's treated by her editors and by Karl, when she takes her to see Belva  Ann Lockwood's grave. She also encourages Miriam to consider having both a career and marriage after Karl proposes but tells Miriam her work as a  journalist is a "hobby". 

Graphic artist Sergio Algozzino writes in his About The Artist at the back of the novel, that he was looking for a different technique to tell Nellie Bly's story. He "wanted a full, important line..." and after struggling to find the right tool, ended up creating the superb panels digitally.

The Incredible Nellie Bly captures her courage, determination and willingness to break social conventions in order to gain the right for women to be treated with respect and equality. This is still a timely lesson for today's young women and is done beautiful in this excellent graphic novel.

Book Details:

The Incredible Nellie Bly by Luciana Cimino and Sergio Algozzino
New York: Abrams Comic Arts  2019
144 pp.

Trapped In Hitler's Web by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

It is October 1942. Nathan Segal and Maria Fediuk are considering the ad on the wall outside the Reich Employment Office, in Nazi-occupied Lviv, Ukraine. Nathan and Maria are from the village of Viteretz which they have fled because Nathan is Jewish.  He had escaped the Nazis and arrived at Maria's home begging for refuge. Now under the assumed identity of a Christian by the name of Bohdan Sawchuk who had been murdered by the Soviets, Nathan along with Maria have fled to Lviv. Maria has left behind her mother and her older sister, Krystia. 

Maria believes applying to work for the Reich, if effect, hiding in plain sight, might just be what works. The necessary forms are filled out and Maria sees that they have been assigned to work in a metalworks factory. The young typist, scans their forms and realizes Maria is only eleven years old and Nathan, just twelve years old. She carefully changes their work assignment to farm work in the Austrian Alps. They will be on the Huber farm in Thaur, Ostmark, the Nazi name for Austria.

At the train station, they are directed to the tracks where the train will take them to Innsbruck. Only Maria and Nathan along with a young girl Maya and her sister Krystia are waiting for that train. Maria learns that they were captured on the way to school.

When the train arrives, they are loaded onto a boxcar crammed with other kids, all exhausted. The train stops in Belzec where some children are removed and again in Vienna. Then at Salzburg, Nathan is forced off the train and Maria is made to go onto Innsbruck alone.

Maria is terrified, wondering if Nathan will be able to pass as a non Jew and if she will be able to survive without him. She arrives in Innsbruck but is locked up until the following morning when the farmer comes to pick her up. The man who comes to pick her up is Herr Lang, the father of Frau Huber who runs the farm. Herr Lang promptly takes Maria's passport and her identity papers.

Maria is surprised at the size of the Huber farm, which consists of "one large house, barns and sheds, and vast vegetable fields" many chickens and eight cows. The vegetable fields are filled with beets, carrots, cabbage and onions. There are also large fields of potatoes.

Beatrice Huber is disappointed at the arrival of only Maria when they were expecting many more workers. She sends Maria to dig potatoes with Bianka, another worker kidnapped in Warsaw.  At noon, Frau Huber tells Bianka and Maria they can take two potatoes from the field every day but warns them not to let anyone see them do this.

At lunch, while eating her ration of one black bun, the Maria and the other workers are visited by Blockleiter Doris Schutt who visits the farms, keeping track of the foreign workers as well as reporting on the Aryans like the Hubers and Langs.  She gives Maria a badge with the letter P on it signifying she is Polish. Bianka explains that because the area of the Ukraine she is from was part of Poland before the war, she is considered Polish. There are other workers who are from the Soviet Ukraine as well as Aryan workers from countries allied with Germany.

As the days pass, Maria begins to doubt her decision to work for the Nazis as a way of hiding from them. Harvesting the potatoes makes Maria think of all the starving people back in the Ukraine. As she is forced to cook delicious meals for the Nazi youth who come to the farm to help the harvest, Maria can't help but think of those who were robbed of the food they need to survive. Maria also learns that, despite what the poster said, they do not get Sundays off nor are they paid. She and the other workers must also deal with the cruel Blockleiter who continues to visit and scrutinize the workings of the farm almost every day. Even worse is Frau Huber's daughter, Sophie who belongs to the League of German Girls. Sophie is dismissive and abusive towards Maria and Bianka, calls her mother by the formal Frau Huber and spies on her own family for the Nazis.

When Frau Huber's son Otto returns from the Eastern Front, with a leg wound, he is not what Maria expects. After Sophie calls the Russians "subhuman", Otto reminds her that the people she considers "subhuman" are fighting with intelligence and bravery. Otto repairs the barn that Maria and Bianka sleep in and thanks her for the work done on the family farm. Unexpectedly he then offers her information on how to escape to Switzerland. With this new knowledge, Maria decides she has to try to find Nathan in Salzburg and pass on the information to him. But how will she travel to Salzburg without her identity papers?

Discussion

Trapped In Hitler's Web is another outstanding novel by Canadian author, Marsha Skrypuch. This book continues the story of the Fediuk family begun in her earlier novel, Don't Tell The Enemy. The focus on that novel was on the character of Krystia, Maria's older sister. Now Maria's story is told in Trapped In Hitler's Web, as she and Nathan flee further into the Reich, hoping to save themselves and help those back home.

In this novel, Skrypuch focuses on life in the Third Reich, specifically daily life in Austria, renamed Ostmark by the Nazis. Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938 and like other countries, its riches plundered to supply Germans and the Nazi army. The people who lived in Eastern Europe, in Poland and the Ukraine were labelled Slavs by the Nazis and considered "subhuman". It was Hitler's intent to starve and work them to death, emptying the rich lands of these countries so they could be resettled with German "Aryan" citizens. The war created a labour shortage in Germany and workers were brought in from Eastern Europe. While Jews were outright murdered in Eastern Europe, people like Maria, labelled Slavs and Poles and therefore considered subhuman, were tricked into coming to work in the Reich, believing they would be well fed and paid. This was not the case as Maria and Nathan quickly discover.

Maria is sent to a farm owned by Herr and Frau Lang and managed by their daughter Frau Huber, whose son Otto and husband are away fighting on the Eastern Front. The Langs do not support Hitler, but Frau Huber, although kind, seems to dislike "Slavs". However, as time passes, Maria realizes that Frau Huber tries to defy the Nazis in little ways, such as allowing the workers to take extra food.

Skrypuch portrays how Nazism effected family life in Austria. In particular, young people were indoctrinated to believe they were superior to other races and therefore had the right to treat them any way they wanted, even to beating and murdering people. In the novel,  Frau Huber has watched her daughter Sophie becoming increasingly more strident in her beliefs,  brainwashed by the Nazi youth group she belongs to. For example, at Christmas, Maria learns that Sophie and her family no longer celebrate Christmas. Instead of decorating a Christmas tree with traditional candles and festive ornaments, Sophie hangs a silver swastika on the Christmas tree. She tells Maria  "We celebrate Rauhnacht. Christ was a Jew. Why would we celebrate a Jew's birth? Our celebration is to give tribute to our holy father, Adolf Hitler." Sophie considers "A hanged Jew swinging on a scaffold" to be both interesting and funny. Shocked, Maria wonders, "What kind of world did I live in where people like Sophie thought it was funny to hang a replica of a murdered Jew onto a Christmas tree?"  When the tree is eventually cut and put up, Frau Huber does not allow her daughter to place the hanged Jew ornament on the tree.

This scene serves to show how Nazism perverted traditions. This scene is based on an old Bavarian tradition known as Rauhnaucht, celebrated during the Christmas season, and somewhat similar to Halloween in North America. People use incense to cleanse their homes of evil spirits (hence the word Rauch which means smoke) and sometimes dress in costumes, making noise to drive away monsters and evil beings. As with Halloween, children sometimes go from house to house asking for treats. But for Sophie, Christmas has lost its meaning and has turned macabre.

Skrypuch demonstrates how Nazism perverted family structure as well, removing children from the guiding influence of their parents, whom they were encouraged to address formally rather than the respectful, Mutter and Vater.

The years of Nazi socialism has also distorted social classes with the Aryan class simply stealing the property of murdered Jewish citizens. When Maria accompanies Frau Huber to Salzburg as she visits her wounded son, she begins to see the consequences of years of Nazi rule. The house Frau Schwarz lives in, has been stolen from a Jewish family who were likely executed.  Frau Schwarz steals designer dresses, has the labels removed and new false labels of her own shop sewn on. Maria sees people on the tram who are healthy looking, in contrast to the starving, emaciated slaves working on farms and on the bridge. Using the descriptions of every day events, Skrypuch is able to portray to her readers the contrast between those people enslaved by the Nazis and the "Aryan" population.

Throughout the novel, Maria struggles to come to terms with working for the Reich. Her initial intentions were good ones, to save Nathan and support her family. But when neither seems to have happened she experiences much internal conflict. As a result, she finds it difficult to accept Otto's thanks for her help on his family's farm. "I had mixed feelings about assisting anyone who was working on the Nazi side. I had come here for my own goals -- to help Nathan escape and to earn money so Mama and Krystia could survive the war. This farm was producing food for my enemy, and while I was helping the wrong side, what had I done for Mama, Krystia, or Nathan?"

One of the more poignant events in the novel occurs when Maria and Anna kneel in a small park opposite a Catholic church to hear Mass in Salzburg. Forbidden from entering the church by the laws in place, Maria and Anna find a place near the church. They are seen by the priest who blesses them and leaves the door ajar so they can hear the Mass. It's a touching example of the devotion many Catholics continued to have, despite serious persecution.

Trapped In Hitler's Web is a well written, interesting story that continues the saga of a cast of Ukrainian characters during World War II. The novel ends with Maria meeting up with her sister Krystia and learning some heartbreaking news about her family. They flee the Huber farm, narrowly escaping a death squad in the forest. With the death of Hitler and the end of the war, they finally arrive at a refugee camp and begin plans to travel to their Aunt Stefa Pidhirney in Toronto, Canada. 

The novel holds special significance for Marsha Skrypuch, whose father-in-law escaped both the Soviets and the Nazis by fleeing into the Reich where he worked as a farm laborer. He survived the war, ending up in a refugee camp. Trapped In Hitler's Web is a fine testament to him and many other survivors of the brutal Nazi regime.

Book Details:

Trapped In Hitler's Web by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
New York: Scholastic Inc.    2020
228 pp.

Escape From Syria by Samya Kullab, Jackie Roche & Mike Freiheit

In 2013, Amina lived with her entire family in one house. She loved walking home from school and visiting her Uncle Mahmoud to read his books. She would eat apples with her grandfather. Amina's family never thought Syria would be at war but her father explained that the roots of the conflict originated when Hafez al-Assad took control of the country. People lived in fear until 2000 when his son, Bashar came to power. Syrians were hopeful until a year into his rule, when he arrested those calling for democratic elections. Free speech, public gatherings were restricted and people were careful not criticized the government for fear of being watched.

But on March 15, 2011, everything got much worse when students in Dara'a, in southern Syria graffitied a wall with a resistance slogan. The students were arrested and possibly tortured. This outraged people and they began to demonstrate throughout Syria. As the unrest grew, Syria fell into civil war with soldiers from the Syrian army defecting to form a new group, the Free Syria Army or FSA. People were afraid that Assad was preparing to attack his own people in Aleppo.

When an explosion destroyed their home, Amina's father said they needed to leave. Amina's family - her parents, Walid and Dalis and her younger brother Youssef,  travelled to Lebanon where they planned to stay for only a few months and then return home. But their money ran out and they were forced to leave their apartment and live for two years in a refugee camp in Bekaa Valley. In the camp, Amina wants to work but her father tells her she must continue to go to school so that when the war ends she can attend university.

Lebanon was swamped with 1.3 million Syrian refugees. The country was still recovering from a fifteen year civil war and fears of another war were increasing.

Syrians were not allowed to assimilate into Lebanese society and were kept separate. This was because many extremists in Syria attempted to enter Lebanon to fight Hezbollah who were helping Assad. These extremists would bomb areas where Hezbollah had control. Because Lebanon did not have the infrastructure nor the money to cope with so many new people living conditions deteriorated and the schools were crowded. Amina was lucky to be able to attend school, learning in a new language. 

But one day Youssef became very ill with bacterial meningitis. The medication to save his life was expensive and the decision was made to have Amina leave school in order to work to help pay for Youssef's medications. Her father also made the difficult decision to not renew his residency papers meaning he could be arrested at any time in Lebanon. To make matters worse, the war in Syria was growing worse with many soldiers now abandoning the revolution and the emergence of jihadist and Islamist groups. Their dream of returning one day to Syria appeared to be vanishing.

Then Walid learned from his cousin about a potential way out of Lebanon. But when that failed, and just as the situation appeared even more dire, a new possibility appeared.  But do Walid and Dali have the courage to take it?

Discussion

Author Samya Kullab is currently a Baghdad-based Iraq correspondent for the Associated Press. In 2017, Kullab, in collaboration with illustrator Jackie Roche and colourist, Mike Freiheit, wrote Escape From Syria, about the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon. From 2013 to 2016, Kullab was a reporter and editor for Lebanon's Daily Star, covering the refugee crisis as it unfolded. 

Kullab observed first-hand, the refugee experience as well as the social and economic impacts on Lebanon as it absorbed almost a million displaced Syrians fleeing the war. In her novel's introduction, Kullab outlines some of the problems Syrian refugees experienced, problems which she vividly portrays in Escape From Syria.

This powerful graphic novel portrays the impact of the Syrian conflict through the character of Amina and her family. Kullab switches the narrative back and forth between the different time periods, gradually filling in the backstory as to how Amina and her family arrived in Canada. Amina and her family are now safe, living in Toronto, Ontario but she remembers times before the war when her mother made delicious dinners and her father, who owned a shoemaking business travelled the world. She also recollects the outbreak of the conflict and fleeing into Lebanon.Unlike many other refugee stories, the focus is not on Amina's family's escape from Lebanon. Fortunately, there was no dangerous sea crossing, although her father Walid almost drowned during his failed attempt to leave via human smugglers. 

Instead, Kullab focuses on what life was like in the refugee camps and how desperation can make good people do things they would never ever have considered. Conditions in the camp are terrible, with little food, poor sanitation and almost no schooling. A child who spends five to eight years in a camp, with no education, has poor prospects for a good life.Walid is determined Amina stay in school, until their circumstances become so dire that she is forced to work so they can pay for Youssef's medication.

The desperation is especially seen in the panels that show Amina meeting her friend Mona who was in her class in Aleppo. Mona offers Amina an invitation to her wedding but Amina is stunned because her friend is only thirteen years old! She is being married because her parents are afraid the camps are no longer safe. When Amina's mother brings up this idea, telling her they are considering the same, Amina refuses and runs out. Later at the UNHCR, Amina tells the case worker her mother wants to arrange a marriage for her as a means of protecting her.

Kullab reminds readers that even after finding safety in another country such as Canada, Syrian refugees struggle, feeling like outsiders as they work to adapt to a new country and culture. Walid tells Amina, "In Syria, I knew who I was. I knew the logic of the place, even when there was war. But here, I'm swimming in an ocean and I'm still searching for my footing."

Escape From Syria offers young Canadian readers an overview of the Syrian refugee crisis and how war, fleeing one's homeland and living in a refugee camp has a significant impact on the people experiencing these situations. The story is simply told, the art panels well crafted and coloured. Kullab presents the context of the story in her introduction and in the back matter fills in the details of quotes from the text in the End Notes. A brilliant, effective collaboration. Well done!

Book Details:

Escape From Syria by Samya Kullab
Toronto: Firefly Books       2017
95 pp.

Gaijin: American Prisoner of War by Matt Faulkner

It is Koji Miyamoto's thirteenth birthday on Sunday, December 7th, 1941. He has the radio on, listening to the Lone Ranger when the broadcast is interrupted by the announcement that the Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor. Koji and his mother don't know where Pearl Harbor is, so they get out their atlas. Meanwhile they learn that thousands are reported dead or wounded.

Koji wonders if his father might have flown one of the attacking planes but his mother tells him this is ridiculous. Rumors are that President Roosevelt will declare war on Japan.

Although Koji tries to focus on his homework, it is impossible. That night he has a dream that his father was flying on the planes.

The next day Koji begins to experience hostility from people as he walks to school. He overhears people suggesting that every Japanese person should be sent back to Japan. And at school he gets into a fight after another student calls him a "Jap". Instead of helping him, Principal Dorfman accuses Koji of being a troublemaker.

Koji eats lunch alone and is refused entry onto a streetcar. He arrives home to find his mother crying and learns that FBI agents have taken their radio from anyone who is Japanese.

Koji's mother believes that things will quiet down, but the abuse continues both at school and on the street. Then they receive a letter informing them that Koji is to be sent to a "relocation camp" because he's considered an "enemy alien". 

The next morning his mother's attempted intervention at the army office doesn't work and instead Koji and his mother are assigned to the Alameda Downs Assembly Center. At home they learn they can only take two suitcases with them and they sell the rest of their possessions. They are also questioned by the FBI who want to know when Koji's mother last heard from her husband and Koji's father, Ichiro. She tells them he returned to Japan because his father was ill.

On relocation day, Koji and his mother Adeline are placed on a bus where they meet Ichiro's former employers, Hana and Yoshi Asai. They travel across San Francisco Bay to the Alameda Downs Assembly Center, which used to be a horse-racing track. There they are assigned to Stall 33, a horse stall that stinks of horse manure and urine. Dinner is a large room crammed with people eating spam, beans and turnip. 

The next morning when Koji takes a walk through the camp he is set upon by a group of teens and called "gaijin". Kohi gets into a fight, breaks a window and is taken to the commander who assigns him to work with his family's friend Mr. Asai. 

As the weeks go by, Koji continues to deal with the Japanese boys who refuse to accept him because of his fair hair and freckles, and who force him into stealing. He also believes his mother's apparent friendship with the camp commander is the source of gossip about her. But with Mr. Asai's help, Koji is able to break free of the gang tormenting him.

Discussion

Gaijin is based on the real life story of the author's great-grandmother Adeline Conlin, an Irish American woman who married a Japanese man in the 1920's. This inter-racial marriage was not accepted in neither Japan where the couple lived and had a daughter named Mary, nor in America where Adeline and Mary returned after the devastating earthquake of 1923. However, they found they were not accepted in Boston either, so they moved to Los Angeles, California. Mary married and had two children. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, because Mary was part Japanese, she was forced to move with her two children to an internment camp. Adeline, who was not Japanese went with her daughter and grandchildren, travelling to Owens, California and then to Manzanar War Relocation Center. In 1943, the family was sponsored to move eastward, to Chicago. Falkner, in his back material titled, Finding Adeline, only learned about his family's past when he saw a post on the National Park Service-Manzanar website by Adeline's great-granddaughter, Anita asking for anyone who might be related to Adeline to contact her.

Through the graphic novel format, Faulkner portrays the story of a young Japanese American boy trying to find his place in the tumultuous world of World War II and the Pearl Harbor attack. The story is a personal one, because his own family experienced the lack of acceptance in both Japan and in America for being biracial. The focus in Gaijin is on the racism that a Japanese American boy, Koji experiences when America is attacked by the Japanese. The attack serves to focus the underlying racism towards Asian Americans that already existed in California and in other parts of the United States up until this time.

Koji not only experiences racism from white Americans, but when he arrives at the internment camp, he finds himself being attacked by Japanese Americans as well. He is called "gaijin", a derogatory term that means "outsider". Mr. Asai explains to Koji that the term is a very unkind one and he tells him to refer to his father as Issei or first generation, and that Koji is Nisei or second generation. 

Faulkner is able to effectively portray many of the problems Japanese Americans experienced during World War II. For example, many Japanese Americans were interrogated by the FBI who suspected them of being spies. In another example, Mr. and Mrs. Asai assume they have found someone decent to rent their home while they are away, in the internment camp. However, when Mr. Asai visits his property on a day pass, he discovers the tenants have broken into his shed and are using his property as though it is their own. Many Japanese Americans lost everything they owned prior to being sent to the camps, including their possessions, their homes, their businesses and their land.

Koji and Adeline's experiences are portrayed in illustrations using mainly brown, sepia and blue, creating a dreary and sad mood expected in being sent away to a concentration camp in a dusty desert. Koji's dreams are done in vivid red, orange and yellow.

Gajin offers young readers an excellent starting point for learning about this important era in United States history and to explore racism and how it impacts both perpetrators and victims.  Faulkner includes a variety of resources at the back including Books and Periodicals, Documentary Films and Websites.

Book Details:

Gaijin: American Prisoner of War by Matt Faulkner
New York: Hyperion Books      2014

The Triumphant Tale of the House Sparrow by Jan Thornhill

In this exquisite nonfiction picture book, author/illustrator Jan Thornhill explores the relationship between humans and the ubiquitous House Sparrow.

House Sparrows have lived around humans for more than ten thousand years. Despite the efforts to remove sparrows, they continue to thrive because they are so adaptable. In prehistoric times, another species of sparrow lived in the wild, in the Middle East. Every year it migrated. Then about twelve thousand years ago, as humans settled into an agrarian lifestyle, growing grain, the sparrow no longer needed to migrate to find food. Instead of building nests in the wild, it began to build them in the dwellings of humans, near wheat and oat fields.

The House Sparrow followed humans as they switched to an agriculture lifestyle, spreading from the Middle East into India, North Africa and Europe.As human settlements grew larger, from villages to towns and cities, the House Sparrow adapted, finding new ways to nest and feed. Their numbers increased to the point that they were considered a pest.

There is archeological evidence to show that the House Sparrow was used as a food source for humans and their pets.  An Egyptian tomb contained a falcon mummy with the remains of a House Sparrow in its stomach.

The House Sparrow's ability to adapt is shown by its spread throughout Britain. In 50 B.C. there were no House Sparrows in the British Isles. By the time the Roman army left Britain, four hundred years later, they were found everywhere on the island, likely brought across the English Channel by Roman ships.

As time marched on, the House Sparrow's ability to breed rapidly and in large numbers resulted in them being seen as a pest. Efforts in Europe to control their numbers were mostly unsuccessful. 

In the New World, the Americas and in Australia, there were still no House Sparrows. However, many new immigrants in America missed the song of the House Sparrow and it was finally successfully introduced in 1852. As with every other country, at first the House Sparrow was welcomed. But as its numbers increased drastically, it soon became a competitor for farmers and a nuisance in cities. This created a division in American society: some wanted to rid cities of the House Sparrow while others claimed their cheerful chirping and playful ways were beneficial. 

Despite a deliberate attempt to destroy House Sparrow nests and kill as many birds as possible, the population continued to grow. Until the beginning of the 20th century when the automobile began to replace horses. At this time, the Eurasian Tree Sparrow, a close relative of the House Sparrow, began to increase and become more widespread. In China there were so many Eurasian Tree Sparrows that in 1958 Chairman Mao declared a campaign to rid the country of the bird. Over one billion sparrows were killed. However, with the sparrows gone, insects destroyed China's crops and over the next three years, thirty million people starved. The drastic reduction in sparrows was a significant factor in the famine.

Despite this massive cull, by 1970 there were at least a billion of the House Sparrow and the Eurasian Tree Sparrow. Then the population of these two species began to decline drastically. It was listed as an endangered species. Scientist began to seek answers as to why the sparrows were not surviving. Part of that reason may be that we have changed how we live and the type of buildings we construct. Perhaps, like the canary in the coal mine, the decline of the house sparrow is indicative of some serious environmental issue. The House Sparrow is very adaptable and its population seems to now be recovering slightly.

Discussion

The Triumphant Tale of the House Sparrow details the story of the House Sparrow and its close relationship to humans through the centuries. The story is a fascinating one that most readers are unlikely to know much about. Acclaimed author, Jan Thornhill includes information about the House Sparrow's unusual behaviours, such as pushing the eggs and nestlings of other birds out of nest boxes as well as some of the bird's unique ability to adapt. For example, Thornhill writes, "It has learned to stay up after dark to catch insects attracted by artificial lights. It has discovered that it can control the parasites that trouble its young by adding nicotine-laden cigarette butts to its nests. It has even learned how to open doors." Accompanying each page of detailed text are digitally created illustrations by the author.

Thornhill has included a world map showing the distribution of the House Sparrow, a description of it's life cycle and a Glossary. There is also an interesting section titled, Wild Animals That Choose To Live With Us which features a list of animals who live in close proximity to humans and have developed some skills to help them do so. This picture book also contains a Resources section, and Selected References. The Triumphant Tale of the House Sparrow is a book for young readers interested in birds and the natural world.

Book Details:

The Triumphant Tale of the House Sparrow by Jan Thornhill
Toronto: Groundwood Books   2018

Harvey Holds His Own by Colleen Nelson

Harvey's back in a new adventure, after being returned home to his beloved Maggie. Now she's beginning seventh grade at St. Ambrose Academy along with her best friends Brianne and Lexi. Students attending St. Ambrose must earn twenty hours of volunteering by their winter break. The school list of volunteer opportunities includes Brayside Retirement Villa. Maggie's not sure that she could volunteer at Brayside, considering that was where Harvey, her West Highland terrier was found. Austin, the boy who found Harvey after he showed up at the front of Brayside, had taken him home, brought him back and forth to the villa but never really tried to find Harvey's owners. Still, Maggie liked Brayside and so she decides to volunteer there.

On Saturday, after meeting with Mary Rose Aguilar, the head nurse at Brayside, Maggie is given a tour of Brayside. She meets Mr. Singh who loves to motor around in his Cobra GT4 scooter and several of the other residents, many of whom remember and love Harvey. Maggie learns now to play cribbage and ends up playing the piano for some of the elderly residents. However, when she tells Brianne and Lexi that she has begun her volunteer hours at Brayside, she can sense her friends' disapproval.

Meanwhile, Austin continues to volunteer at Brayside, where his grandfather, Phillip has been the head custodian for seventeen years. At first Austin didn't like working at Brayside but as he got to know the residents his view changed. And he met Mr. Pickering who told Austin about his life growing up on a farm, his dog, General and his best friend Bertie. It was Harvey, the West Highland Terrier who brought them together.

Now the man occupying Mr. Pickering's old room is moving upstairs and a new person, Mrs. Josephine Fradette is moving in. Mrs. Fradette arrives in style, driving a red 1958 Chevrolet Bel Air. 

When Maggie returns the following Sunday, this time with Harvey, the dog remembers Austin, who seems overwhelmed to see Harvey. Maggie tells Austin that she will be spending time organizing the library and asks if she can leave Harvey with him.  Harvey immediately sets out to find Walt Pickering's old room but instead of finding his old, familiar friend, there is Mrs. Fradette, who is certainly different but friendly. Mrs. Fradette is trying to choose the photos for the collage that will go on the wall outside her room.

Maggie is organizing the library when Mary Rose checks in on her and asks her to help Mrs. Fradette with her unpacking. Maggie can immediately see that Mrs. Fradette is very different from the other Brayside residents. She seems more spry with her jet black hair. They quickly discover a connection as Mrs. Fradette tells Maggie she also attended St. Ambrose many years ago.  She reveals that she never finished seventh grade because the flood in 1950 closed all the schools. 

When Maggie asks what happened, Mrs. Fradette tells her the river came up to the steps of the school, and that the entire city shut down. People had to evacuate and many lost everything. Mrs. Fradette went to stay with her mother's family in Laurier, in northern Manitoba. As a young girl, Mrs. Fradette considered her time in Laurier as a "great adventure" that gave her the time to spend with her beloved grandpa, whom they called Pepere. Mrs. Fradette shows Maggie some photographs of the flood and tells her that her sister Yvonne and brother Michel along with their mother travelled by train to Laurier while her older brother Ronny and her father stayed behind to protect their house.

After her first visit with Mrs. Fradette, Maggie becomes more and more interested in volunteering at Brayside and in hearing Mrs. Fradette's story. At the same time she finds herself drifting away from her best friends Brianne and Lexi and beginning to look for new friends as she learns the value of true friendship. When Mrs. Weston attempts to get students interested in entering the historical essay contest, Maggie believes she just might have the perfect subject to write about.

Meanwhile Austin and Harvey discover a puppy abandoned in the garbage in an alley near Brayside. For the second time, Austin must give up a dog, this time to the shelter because his mother won't allow pets. But it is the discovery of a job posting for head custodian at Brayside, the leads Austin to focus on saving his grandpa's job. 

While all this is happening, Harvey begins to investigate an intruder in the backyard of Maggie's home. It is a female raccoon looking to winter in the shed and Harvey is having none of it. Determined to protect his Maggie, he stands his ground and confronts the raccoon and is badly injured. As she waits while Harvey is in surgery, Maggie draws on the lessons of courage, perseverance and the meaning of friendship that she's learned from Mrs. Fradette.

Discussion

Harvey Holds His Own is the second book about the spunky little West Highland terrier named Harvey. In this story, Maggie O'Neil and Austin reunite when they both do volunteer work as Brayside. In the first novel, it was the elderly Mr. Pickering who captured Austin's interest. In this novel, the eccentric Mrs. Josephine Fradette draws the interest of Maggie with her story about the 1950 Red River flood in Manitoba and her determination to become a car mechanic.

Most of the storyline involves the human characters, Austin and Maggie, both of whom are dealing with problems in their lives. Maggie's work at Brayside serves to accelerate the breakup of her friendship with Brianne and Lexi and teaches her the meaning of real friendship. This causes intense internal conflict because she wants to fit in at school with her friends, but finds herself changing as a result of her work at the retirement home. Maggie realizes that she never expected to find real friends at Brayside but that is what happens. When she's forced to choose between going to Tubby's with her friends or attending the party for Austin's grandpa, Maggie chooses the latter and is ridiculed by Brianne and Lexi. She begins to realize that maybe she's outgrowing her friends but instead of breaking the friendship she "stretches" it and reaches out to Sooyeon, the only other student in the class to enter the essay contest.   

A sign of Maggie's growing maturity is her ability to rethink how she views Austin and what happened when Harvey was lost. When Maggie first got Harvey back from Austin, she was furious that he hadn't tried to find Harvey's owners. But when Maggie returns to Brayside to do her volunteer hours and sees how Austin misses Harvey, she begins to soften. She "...wonders if maybe she judged him too harshly. Maybe Austin the Dognapper deserves a second chance."  And Austin is there for her when Harvey goes through surgery and begins to recover. "Of everyone in her life, he understood how much Harvey meant to her, because, she suspects, he means as much to Austin."

 Austin too notices the change in Maggie. "She's becoming like one of Mrs. Fradette's outfits, brighter and bolder. I'm not worried about Maggie using up her twenty volunteer hours anymore. She's here for the long haul." Mrs. Fradette provides an example for Maggie to make her own decisions. As her friendship with Brianne and Lexi seems to fall apart, Maggie realizes "She was used to going along with things, following Lexi's lead, but now..." Mrs. Fradette's act of defiance is the impetus for Maggie resisting peer pressure from Lexi to do whatever she suggests. This is a big step in her own personal growth.

The novel has plenty of heart-warming moments; when Mrs. Fradette is found at the train station with her pet deer by Pepere, Harvey's near death after his fight with the raccoon and Austin's surprise. Wanting to repay Austin for his friendship at such a painful time, Maggie manages to convince Austin's mother to let him adopt the abandoned puppy and arranges for friends at Brayside to pay for the adoption, vet costs and even a gift card. It's a touching moment, one friend giving back to another, but it also shows how much Maggie now thinks of Austin. He has been a steadfast friend.

Young readers will enjoy this unusual story that blends together many different themes seamlessly. Harvey, Austin and Maggie each tell the story from their third person perspective. Illustrator, Tara Anderson, seems to have captured Harvey perfectly in her lovely pencil sketches, despite never having met the author. A tribute to how well author Colleen Nelson has portrayed this delightful, spirited little Westie!

Book Details:

Harvey Holds His Own by Colleen Nelson
Toronto: Pajama Press    2020
282 pp.

Giant Sea Reptiles of the Dinosaur Age by Caroline Arnold

In 1991, a hiker in norther British Columbia discovered "fossil bones eroding out of the banks of the Sikanni Chief River." When Dr. Elizabeth Nicholls from the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology visited the site, she was astonished at both the size of the fossil bones and the completeness of the find. The bones were larger than any other known marine reptile and belonged to Shonisaurus sikanniensis, a species of icthyosaur that inhabited the world's seas during the Mesozoic era, the age of reptiles. During this time, pleisosaurs and mosasaurs also inhabited the world's oceans. These three groups were the largest marine reptiles ever known.

Ichthyosaurs lived throughout the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, from about 240 million years to 93 million years ago. Plesiosaurs first appeared in the Jurassic period around 200 million years ago and disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous at  65 million years ago. Mosasaurs existed during the late Cretaceous period from 90 million years ago, going extinct at the end of the Cretaceous.

One of the earliest ichthyosaur fossils to be discovered was found by amateur fossil hunter, Mary Anning, in 1812 when she was only twelve-years-old. Mary and her brother discovered the fossilized skull and verterbrae of what looked like a huge crocodile, eroding out of the chalk cliffs of Lyme Regis in Southern England.

At this time, little was known about these giant marine reptiles. As more fossils were found, in Nevada by miners in the 1800's, in the black shale quarries of Holzmaden in Southern Germany and in Australia, scientists have been able to piece together where and how ichthyosaurs lived.

Pelsiosaur fossils have been found on every continent of the world. When these fossils were first discovered, they were thought to be of lizards. As with the ichthyosaurs, Mary Anning led the way, in this case finding the first well preserved pleiosaur skeleton at Lyme Regis in 1824. 

Named Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus, it was a plesiosaurid, the earliest of the plesiosaurs. There are many different species of plesiosaurs, some with long necks and small heads, others with large heads and short necks. Those plesiosaurs with short necks were formidable predators who preyed on smaller reptiles as well as ichthyosaurs.

90 million years ago saw the first of the mosasaurs appear, replacing the plesiosaurs who went extinct. The first mosasaur fossil was discovered in 1780 in a limestone mine in the Netherlands. They were given the name mosasaur which means Meuse lizard because the bones were so large they were thought to belong to a whale. Although mosasaur fossils are found all over the world, they are especially plentiful in Kansas and South Dakota. This is because during the Mesozoic era, a vast inland sea covered much of central North America. The mosasaur's size, and scientists believ its ability to swim and to swiftly attack made it the top predator in this inland sea.

Like the dinosaurs, the giant marine reptiles also went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous. They were part of the great diversity of life in this era of large animals.

Discussion

Giant Sea Reptiles of the Dinosaur Age is a fascinating book about the giant sea reptiles who dominated the world's seas during the Age of Reptiles. Author Caroline Arnold takes her young readers on a journey through the Age of Reptiles, starting with the ichthyosaurs and then progressing through the Mesozoic as the plesiosaurs and mosasaurs appear. 

Many interesting details about each reptile group are included. For example, readers learn that "Ichthyosaurs cruised the oceans looking for food, sometimes diving to great depths. A favourite food of many ichthyosaurs were belemnites, ancient relatives of squid. Thousands of tiny fossilized hooks from belemnite tentacles have been found in the preserved stomach contents of ichthyosaurs, and also the remains of fish, crustaceans, and other sea animals."

Historical finds, such as that of Mary Anning are discussed as well as more recent discoveries.  "A Recent discovery of a short-necked plesiosaur in northwestern Mexico may be of an animal that was up to 45 feet (13.7 meters) long. It has been dubbed the "Monster of Aramberri" after the village near the fossil site."

Accompanying each entry are the realistic illustrations of Laurie Caple, rendered in watercolour, portraying these giant marine reptiles as scientists they may have looked. These beautiful illustrations add significantly to the book, helping readers to visualize life in the Age of Reptiles.

Giant Sea Reptiles of the Dinosaur Age is a must-read for those interested in geology, earth history and paleontology, and those interested in reptiles. Arnold includes a list of where to view the fossil remains of prehistoric sea reptiles as well as an index.

Book Details:

Giant Sea Reptiles of the Dinosaur Age by Caroline Arnold
New York: Clarion Books       2007
40 pp.