A Boy Is Not A Ghost by Edeet Ravel

In this sequel to A Boy Is Not A Bird, the saga of Natt Silver continues. Natt and his mother have been deported from their home in Zastavna to Siberia. 

It is the summer of 1941 and twelve-year-old Natt and his mother have been on a train for six weeks and two days. They finally arrived in Novosibirsk, Siberia, a city of four hundred thousand people where they are given soft bread, a steam bath, and their clothes are disinfected. Natt along with the other deportees is taken to a school with a fenced in schoolyard. On his fourth day in the schoolyard, Natt meets a boy and a girl who live in Novosibirsk, near the fence. The girl is Olga who who has been studying ballet and her brother Peter who wants to be a chemist. Olga tells Natt that her mother is a translation for the government. Natt and Olga form a connection over their mutual love of ballet and Beethoven and at Natt's request, she gives him her address..

Later that night, Natt helps a young mother named Felicia escape into the village with her baby. She has a distant cousin who has offered to help her, giving her a chance for her baby to survive. In exchange for this, Natt comes into possession of emerald earrings. Their group now consists of Natt and his mother, Elias and Cecilia and little Shainie and Irena, the young school teacher who joined the deportees in the hope of finding her mother.'

After a few days in Novosibirsk, their group along with most of the other deportees are shipped on three enormous barges north on the Ob River. A week into their trip, they detour to Tomsk and then continue up the Ob where every day a small group of "settlers" are let off. Natt and his mother are taken off the barge at Porotnikov where they are told at the Community House that they've been exiled for twenty years. There they manage to find lodging in a third of the kitchen of a house owned by a couple and their six or seven children.

Natt's Mama and Irena are forced to dig out tree stumps for eleven hours a day. Natt finds himself constantly hungry. But things get even worse when his mother is tricked into stealing a few potatoes and is arrested. His mother is taken to the jail in Bakchar.

Irena manages to get a clerk job in Bakchar and she and Natt quickly pack to hitch a ride with a farmer. Irena had promised Natt's mother she would look after him. They are able to rent a whole room to themselves that has a stove, a bed, cot, table and two stools in Bakchar.

The next day Natt meets a girl while on a walk at the beach. She speaks Romanian and offers him some soft cheese. He learns her name is Gabriella and she is only three months away from being twelve. Irena returns that night with a bag full of food. She tells Natt that she attended his mother's trial and that she's been sentenced to a year in jail in Tomsk.

But barely three weeks into his stay in Bakchar, Natt is faced with more changes. He learns that Irena who is Polish, is now free to go wherever she wants, and she plans to move to Moscow in the hopes of eventually reuniting with her parents. Natt is faced with the difficult decision of whether he should leave with Irena and be thousands of  kilometers from his mother or stay and be on his own in a city where he knows no one. The choice he ultimately makes nearly costs him his life but in the end, the prediction of the fortune teller comes to pass.

Discussion

As Ravel has previously indicated, the events in her first novel, A Boy Is Not A Bird, and in this sequel, A Boy Is Not A Ghost  are based on the real life experiences of her fifth-grade teacher, Nahum Halpern. Although some of the characters in these novels are fictional, Nahum really did experience many of the events Ravel describes in her books. Some of the real life events include Natt's travel on the barge up the Ob River, his winter in Porotnikova, living with the Mindrus, the sleigh ride and his serious illness that forced him into hospital. Also real are the people who helped Natt survive his ordeal in Siberia, including Yuri, Sima Israelovna, and the two NKVD officers. 

In A Boy Is Not A Ghost, Natt becomes so traumatized by the repeated hardships and sense of loss that the only way he could survive was, as he put it, to become a ghost. Becoming invisible, suppressing his feelings and withdrawing into himself are the only way he is able to cope with what he is experiencing. After surviving a brutal train ride into the heart of Siberia and experiencing every deprivation, Natt is unprepared to cope with the arrest of his mother. When his mother is jailed and he and Irena move to Bakchar to be near her, Natt states, "I stare at the passing trees in a daze. I'm starting to feel like a ghostly spirit, drifting from place to place. Every day I'm becoming more invisible and less solid. Solid kids have homes. Imaginary kids have imaginary homes." 

Just as things settle, Natt learns he will be losing Irena. As she struggles to find someone to take Natt in, he begins to feel numb. It isn't until he recovers from his illness at the Mindru's after being given the "water cure" for his fever that Natt begins to feel again. He notes that "It seems the water cure has woken up my emotions. I begin to cry and I don't even try to stop." He is comforted by Gabi who tells him they love him and that he has friends who love him.

Although Natt is cared for by the Mindrus and loses the feeling that he is a ghost,  when he receives a letter from his mother written in code, telling him that she and Natt's father are planning their escape from Siberia, he believes he must return to being a ghost again. "I also have to practice not calling attention to myself, so that when I do slip away, no one will notice, like Felicia when she stepped into the dark. I have to practice being a ghost again."

Being a ghost though is conflicting for Natt. After attending Mr. Goldman's clandestine Hanukkah party, Natt remembers past celebrations but this has mixed blessings. "I decide that remembering is both the best thing and the worst thing, but that you have to remember. If you don't remember, you really are a ghost."

When Natt obtains his travel pass to Tomsk he believes he must be like a warplane that flies very low to avoid being detected by radar. "That's what I have to do. Fly low. I need to be very boring, very small, nearly invisible." After Natt and his mother finally arrive in Moscow, he begins to feel that he has become a nobody, a ghost. He is humiliated and ashamed of how he and his mother look. "All this time, trying to be invisible, trying to be a nobody -- I suddenly feel as if I really have turned into a nobody...What if I'm not just a nobody, but a disgusting, stinky nobody."

Ultimately it is Olga and Peter and their father Edward who welcome them into their home, and who begin Natt on the path towards reclaiming his identity. Olga tells him she loves him because he's interesting and kind and not bitter about all the hardships he's endured. To Natt's surprise, he discovers he is not a ghost after all.

It's difficult to comprehend the hardships people in Eastern Europe endured under both Nazi and Soviet occupation, especially under Stalin. A Boy Is Not A Ghost succeeds in portraying to readers these unimaginable hardships in a way that is realistic but also with a touch of humour for so serious a topic. It's important that experiences like those of Nahum Halpern not be forgotten because they help us understand how important it is to preserve the freedoms we often take for granted in Canada.

Ravel has included a map showing the locale of the story, an Author's Note and a detailed Historical Background that touches on Russia during the rule of the Czars, World War II, Stalin and the post war period. Another excellent novel by Canadian author Edeet Ravel.

Book Details:

A Boy Is Not A Ghost by Edeet Ravel
Toronto: Groundwood Books, House of Anansi Press   2021
239 pp.

Lines, Bars and Circles: How William Playfair Invented Graphs by Helaine Becker

Lines, Bars and Circles tells the story of the eccentric William Playfair. 

William Playfair was a dreamer with an annoying sense of humor. When his father died, Will's education was taken over by his older brother John who moved back to the family home near Dundee, Scotland. William liked to play practical jokes, but with John as his teacher he soon became and excellent mathematician like his brother.

A dreamer, Will found himself restless and left home when he was fourteen with the intention of making his fortune. He found a job with Andrew Meikle, an inventor. But he left this job after a few years to become an assistant to James Watt.

This new position inspired William to try to dream up his own inventions, but this made him make mistakes on the job.He soon left Watt and decided to start his own business using a machine he developed. This machine made objects out of silver and William opened a shop to sell them. The shop failed.

Undeterred, William tried many different ventures, writing, making cannon parts for the British army and starting a bank. Sometimes his schemes got him in to trouble with the law.

In spite of all this, William continued writing and his books earned him a living. For one of those books, he needed something to show the information he was trying to portray. He created the first line graph to do this. The line graph made it easier to see what the data. King Louis XVI was impressed by Williams graphs and he rewarded him with a royal permit.William wanted to use this permit to "build a steam-powered rolling mill that would manufacture all kinds of objects out of steel." But before he could do this, Louis was overthrown.

Because of his bad reputation, scientists refused to endorse William's graphs. Instead, it would be almost one hundred years before they were rediscovered.

Discussion

Lines, Bars and Circles gives readers a fun and engaging treatment of the life of William Playfair who is credited with developing line and bar graphs as well as the pie chart. Illustrator Marie-Eve Tremblay's digitally created artwork adds humour to this telling of what might be a somewhat dry subject for children.

William was born on September 22, 1759 to Reverend James Playfair, a minister in Liff, Scotland. His father died in 1772 when William was twelve-years-old. This meant his older brother John had to care for William and his younger and older brothers. John would go on to become a respected scientist,  Professor of Natural Philosophy, Mathematics and Geology at Edinburgh University. 

After completing his schooling, William undertook an apprenticeship with the inventor of the threshing machine, Andrew Meikle. He then became the personal assistant and draftsman for the illustrious James Watt at Boulton & Watt in Birmingham in 1777. After this, William began the first of several business ventures over the years, most of which, would fail. 

In 1787, he moved to France to try to make his fortune there. He was involved in numerous "adventures" in revolutionary Paris, eventually fleeing France for Germany in 1791. He returned to London where he started a bank which also failed. William then earned his living as a political and economic writer. It was in these writings that he began to make his points with the use of line graphs and bar charts. These illustrations had never been used before. His Commercial and Political Atlas, published in 1786 was the first demonstration of these new techniques. The first pie charts were used in his 1801 Statistical Breviary.

As Becker writes in her note on William Playfair, "More About William and His Charts", William's ideas were lost for almost a hundred years partly because of his reputation as a "scoundrel". During the time period he lived, a person's reputation was very important and William's was not good. Becker's light-hearted text along with Tremblay's modern, funny illustrations make for an interesting read. 

Lines, Bars and Circles is a welcome addition to a suite of picture books that have been written in the last few years on mathematical concepts. This picture book could be used to give students some context to one of the most important mathematical tools we use today to portray data in an understandable form. It's helpful for students to understand how specific mathematical tools such as line graphs and pie charts were developed. Even better if it is done in a way that makes math fun!

Book Details:

Lines, Bars and Circles by Helaine Becker
Toronto: Kids Can Press   2017

Under The Iron Bridge by Kathy Kacer

Fifteen-year-old Paul Ritter lives in the Unterbilk suburb of Dusseldorf with his parents. His mother is an obstetrician at St. Martin's hospital in the city center while his father is an orthepedist who specializes in bone and joint disorders.

It is August, 1938, and Hitler now rules Germany with an iron fist. He has annexed Austria and will likely take over other countries too. In Dusseldorf, flags with swastikas fly over every building. Hitler's picture can be found in businesses, department stores and even Paul's classroom. 

Most boys Paul's age belong to the Hitler Youth. It was the best thing his friend Harold Becker felt he had done. But Paul doesn't want to join. "The Hitler Youth was the official organization of the Nazi party and brought boys between the ages of fourteen and eighteen together and trained them to eventually become part of the military that served Adolf Hitler." Paul once belonged to the Boy Scouts but that group has now been banned. 

As they walk home from school, Paul confronts Harold, questioning him about Hitler's views on the Jewish people. Harold doesn't like what Hitler says but isn't really concerned. However, Paul's parents have taught him that all people are equal and that what is happening to the Jewish people is wrong. 

The next day, Paul's teacher, Herr Bentz, continues to indoctrinate the class with false ideas about the Jewish people. Paul knows these ideas are false because he has a good friend, Analia Morgenstern who lives in the Kasernenstrasse district of Dusseldorf. Paul and Analia have been friends since childhood: she attended his school and they often ate lunch together. But with the new laws, Analia has had to leave school.

In class, one boy, Ernst Wagner states that he would turn in his own parents if necessary. Each day students speak up, informing on those who help Jews or criticize Hitler. After Herr Bentz corners Paul, questioning him as to why he hasn't yet joined the Hitler Youth, he reluctantly decides to join. 

The meetings are held every Saturday morning across the Oberkassel Bridge, in a fairground. Paul finds the entire experience disturbing: lots of swastika flags and the message that they are being prepared to be soldiers. As Paul and Harold return home from the meeting, they argue about the merit of joining the Hitler Youth. Harold believes that Hitler has done so much for Germany but Paul responds that he jails those who don't agree with him and treats the Jewish people badly. When the two boys witness Ernst's parents being led away by the Gestapo they realize he has done exactly as he bragged he would do in class, he has reported them.

On the weekend, Paul's parents decide he needs to join the Hitler Youth in order to protect himself and his family. Paul finds the meetings draining emotionally. Then one weekend, the boys in their group are forced to jump over a fire to prove their bravery. Although Paul, who is athletic is able to do this, Harold is not and his leg is badly burned. But Paul's success only serves to attract the attention of the youth leader, Franz as well as their school bully, Ernst. 

Paul's life changes unexpectedly through a chance meeting the following weekend. Distraught over what he's experiencing in the Hitler Youth, Paul rides his bike to the beach at Lake Kaarst where he has fond memories of times spent with Analia. There he overhears a song against Hitler and eventually meets a group of young people who turn out to be resisters. They tell him their group is part of the Edelweiss Pirates, a group with members throughout Germany. They are doing what they can to resist and to stop Hitler.

He meets Luka and Kikki, brother and sister who are in charge of this group and decides that he too wants to join. Paul decides not to tell his parents that he's involved in the Edelweiss Pirates. But as the situation in Germany rapidly deteriorates, Paul finds himself drawn further into resistance and less able to pretend he's a Nazi. He is forced to make a choice: follow the Nazis and their brutal regime, or begin to really help people like Analia.

Discussion

Under The Iron Bridge focuses on one group of Nazi resistors, the Edelweiss Pirates. It's likely the Pirates, which were mostly found in western Germany, began sometime after membership in the Hitler Youth was made mandatory in 1936. Almost every city in western Germany had a group, although they sometimes had different names.

The pressure on young people to conform to Nazi ideals was tremendous. Boys were expected to join the Hitler Youth, while girls were expected to belong to the League of German Girls. As Kacer writes in the novel, "The girls underwent physical training that included long hours of marching and hiking, just like the boys. Hitler wanted young German girls to be strong and fit, even though they weren't being groomed to be soldiers." As Kikki tells Paul, they are to be mothers who pass on Nazi values to their children.

While many German youth held similar views to  the character in the novel, Ernst Wagner, who turns in his own parents to the Gestapo, there were young Germans like Paul's friend, Harold who simply went along with what was happening because they were probably too afraid to resist.

Initially Paul believes "It was better to be seen going along with the others than to keep resisting." He is afraid that he will be informed on by one of his fellow students.However, as the situation for the Jewish people in Dusseldorf becomes more threatening, Paul finds it harder to "go along". When he and his Hitler Youth group are pressed into forcing Jews to scrub the pavement, Paul does nothing. This is especially painful, because within this group is his dear friend Analia. He experiences shame that she likely believes he holds the same views as the other boys.

The Pirates offer Paul a chance to act according to his conscience. At first these acts are small, but dangerous; painting slogans on a Nazi building. This earns him the Edelweiss pin. "His cheeks glowed and his eyes sparkled as he thought of Analia. There was no question that a part of him was doing this for her. But he was also doing it for the old Jewish man who had very nearly been beaten, and for all the other Jews who had been humiliated that day on the streets of Dusseldorf. And above all, he was doing this for himself, affirming hid desire and responsibility to be a good and moral person, no matter what the risk."

Paul proves that he's up to the risk, when he drops food off for Analia and her family, when he partakes in a mission to wreck the Gestapo cars and when he distributes pamphlets at the train station. But he takes the biggest risk of all, in saving Analia during what comes to be known as Kristallnacht. 

Kacer realistically portrays the internal conflict some German youth experienced as the Nazis indoctrinated Germans to hate their Jewish neighbours. This is done through the interactions of the characters of Paul, Harold and Ernst. Paul has been taught that all people are equal and knows the Nazi views of Jews is wrong. Harold also believes what is being taught to them is wrong. Ernst however, is an avid Nazi. In class when Ernst Wagner states that he would turn in his own parents, Paul notes that only a few students looked uncomfortable with this idea. His friend Harold struggles to reconcile what he knows to be right with his participation in the Hitler Youth. Deeply conflicted he tells Paul, "But what are we supposed to do?....We have to be part of the Hitler Youth. We have to obey the rules. You saw them take away Ernst's parents. I don't want that to happen to my family --or yours!" While Harold believes resistance is impossible, Paul is not so sure. He's not willing to accept that they can do nothing.

Under The Iron Bridge is another excellent novel by Canadian author Kathy Kacer. In her Author's Note at the back of the novel, Kacer informs readers on many different topics and events covered in her story including Kristallnacht, The Hitler Youth and the Edelweiss Pirates. The novel takes its title from the iron bridge the Pirates used as a secret meeting place from which to plan their acts of resistance. Look for more outstanding novels from Kacer in the future.

Book Details:

Under The Iron Bridge by Kathy Kacer
Toronto: Second Story Press    2021
222 pp.

Borders by Thomas King

Borders is a story that explores citizenship and identity from an indigenous perspective. This graphic novel is an adaptation based on one of indigenous author, Thomas King's short stories. It is told in retrospect,  by a young boy, who along with his mother, are preparing to visit his older sister who left their reserve in Canada and who now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. She left when she was seventeen, and her brother seven or eight years old. Now twelve or thirteen, the boy is thrilled that his mother has decided to visit his sister in Salt Lake City.

He remembers when Laetitia left home. Because their father was American, from Rocky Boy, Montana, this meant they had no trouble travelling across the border. Laetitia had not left home with her mother's blessing. Nevertheless, their mother was proud of all that she had achieved and that she had made this decision independently.

After Laetitia packed, they drove to the Canada-U.S. border at Coutts, Alberta. While Laetitia and her mother drank coffee and talked about her leaving, the boy had an orange soda and went to look at an abandoned museum. Laetitia and her mother eventually said their goodbyes and she walked across the border into Sweet Grass, Montana.

Over the next couple years the boy and his mother received postcards from Laetitia that seem to suggest she is doing well in Salt Lake City. She has a good job and lives in an apartment that has a pool.Each postcard invited them to visit. 

Finally one day his mother purchased two new tires for their car, they got nicely dressed, packed a lunch of sandwiches and fruit, along with blankets and pillows.

They left the reserve in the morning and drove to Coutts where the boy's mother got a coffee at the convenience store. Then they drove up to the border crossing and were met by an older man who was the border guard on duty. He asked where they were headed, the purpose of their visit, and their citizenship. To the latter question, the boy's mother responded, "Blackfoot." Not knowing what to do the border guard calls a second guard who also asks her to declare her citizenship. Again she states that she is "Blackfoot". They were told to park their car and come into the border building. There they meet Inspector Pratt who explains why they need to declare their citizenship. She offers to have Laetitia's mom verbally declare her citizenship which will not be recorded on the sheet. But this offer is refused and they are told they must return to where they came from. 

They drive back to the Canadian border where they now face the same questions and the same issues as at the American border crossing. The boy and his mother are now caught between the two borders, sleeping in their car and spending time in the Duty-Free shop. That is until the press show up.

 Discussion

 This adaptation of Borders, originally published in 1993, is a graphic novel with illustrations by Natasha Donovan, a Metis illustrator originally from Vancouver, British Columbia. Thomas King is an American-Canadian indigenous writer of Cherokee and Greek heritage. 

Borders explores the concept of identity and citizenship, and the indigenous understanding of our relationship to the land. To the Blackfeet people, the border between Canada and the United States is a European construct. The Blackfeet people were nomadic, their ancestral lands encompassing what is now southern Alberta and Saskatchewan and northern Montana. In pre-contact times, they followed the migration of vast herds of bison which roamed the western plains. These magnificent animals provided everything they needed to survive. Like other indigenous peoples, the land wasn't owned; they belonged to the land. And they didn't cross "borders" to follow the bison.

In Borders, when the mother is asked her citizenship, she declares Blackfoot. Although she lives on the reservation in Canada, she does not identify as Canadian but as Blackfoot. But Blackfoot isn't recognized as a nation that one can belong to: she must choose only between Canadian and American citizenship, and so she finds herself caught between the two countries. Eventually with the help of the media, they are allowed into the U.S. and spend some time visiting with Laetitia.

Today members of the Blackfoot Confederacy, a group made up of four indigenous groups have dual citizenship as they consider themselves a sovereign state. So they may hold dual citizenship: Blackfoot and Canadian or American.

Donovan's realistic illustrations aid superbly in the storytelling. The characters are well drawn, very stylized, the palette vibrant and varied depending on the setting. 

Borders is a good addition to a school's graphic novel collection, encouraging readers to consider the meaning of citizenship and how it is tied to the land. You can learn more about the Blackfeet Nation at their website: https://blackfeetnation.com.

Book Details:

Borders by Thomas King
Toronto: HarperCollins Publishing Ltd.  2021
175 pp.

Watercress by Andrea Wang

 A young girl is driving along a country road in Ohio with her parents and her older brother. They are in the family's old red Pontiac. Suddenly her mother spots watercress in the ditch beside the talk stalks of corn. They stop and out of the car trunk, comes a brown paper bag and rusty scissors. Her parents are remembering a time in China.

The young girl and her brother are told to remove their sneakers and socks, roll up their jeans and help them gather the watercress. The water is cold and the mud squelches between her toes. As they gather bags of the small plant, the young girl hopes no one sees her in the ditch with her family. Her brother shoves some watercress, dripping muddy water and snails near her face.

At home that night, a dish of watercress is served for dinner but the young girl refuses to eat it. Her parents try to convince her to try it, but to the young girl anything different is bad.

 The young girl's mom shows her an old photo of her family, her China family. She never talks about her family. She points to her young brother, the girl's uncle and for the first time speaks about her family in China. During the great famine, they ate whatever they could find. But it was not enough, and her young brother died. Looking at the picture of her uncle who never survived and at the watercress, the young girl is ashamed of being ashamed of her family. And so, she makes a decision.

Discussion

Watercress is a story based on author, Andrea Wang's experiences as a child of Chinese immigrants growing up in a town in Ohio. In her poignant "A Note From The Author" at the back of the book, Wang writes that she "was very aware of how different my family and I were from everyone else. It's hard to feel like you don't belong, and collecting food from a muddy roadside ditch just made that bad feeling more intense for me -- something my very practical parent's didn't understand." Wang writes that her parents didn't talk about their life in China and the hardships they experienced during war. At the same time, she feels it's important for children to know their heritage.One way to learn this is through the memories parents offer. These memories, according to Wang, "...have the power to inform, to inspire, and to heal."

This simple story is full of meaning, rich with the power memories have. This is captured so beautifully by the expressive artwork of illustrator Jason Chin. The illustrations are rendered using watercolour on 140 pound cold press Saunders watercolor paper. In his "A Note From The Artist", Chin writes that he chose the medium of watercolour which is common to both Chinese and Western art. He writes that his colour palette and technique were also carefully chosen to reflect the themes in the story. In an attempt to "add another layer to Andrea's remarkable story", Chin "drew on my own memories of exclusion, loss, and guilt". He has succeeded admirably. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this exceptional picture book, is the ability of the illustrations to convey these exact emotions so deeply and purely.The reader experiences the shame, the anger and the guilt of the young girl as she struggles to come to terms with her identity and her heritage. Highly recommended.

Book Details:

Watercress by Andrea Wang
New York: Holiday House    2021

One Step Further by Katherine Johnson

In One Step Further: My Story of Math, the Moon, and a Lifelong Mission, Katherine Johnson, famed human computer who helped with the space race, and her daughters tell their story and how her life influenced them.

Katherine Johnson loved numbers as a child. This love she passed on to her daughters, Joylette, Connie and Kathy. At this time she was married to Jimmie Coleman. In her own home, math and music were prominent. They went to Sunday school and regular school.

During the time that Katherine's children attended school, Jim Crow laws were in effect. This meant that black people had to be kept separate from white people. Often the segregated facilities were not as nice as those for white people. Although life was hard, the three sisters were protected by the community they lived in.

Katherine had graduated summa cum from West Virginia State college, earning here degree in math. She found work as a teacher but it was considered a dangerous job for a black woman due to discrimination. Many did not want Black children to be educated. So Katherine and Jimmie moved their family to a new place. But even in their new home, Katherine's daughters still experienced segregation. 

Then Katherine got a new job at the National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics as a human computer. Instead of computers, humans would make the calculations that engineers relied on to help planes fly farther and faster. So every morning, Katherine dressed in her pearls and a good skirt and jacket, went to work with many other college-educated African-American women who worked as mathematicians. Katherine's daughters found role models in these women.

Because white people felt that African Americans were not as smart, Katherine felt that they had to look and be perfect. Like the society they lived in, her workplace was also segregated.

Unlike most of the other computers, Katherine wanted to know the why of the math and how it was being used. After pressuring to attend meetings, Katherine was allowed to go. At this time NACA was renamed NASA and it's mission was to send humans into space. This work was top secret so she couldn't talk about it at home either. At night Katherine would talk to her daughters about the stars, pointing out the Big Dipper and Orion's Belt.

As her children grew up they became involved in the fight for equality. Her daughter Kathy attending college peacefully protested to end racial segregation. 

John Glenn Jr. was chosen to be the first American to fly into space. To help with the space race, NASA began to use machine computers. While these machines were faster than the human computers, were they just as accurate. John Glenn wasn't so sure and he would not fly until the machine calculations were checked by Katherine! She also helped with the calculations that were needed to send man to the moon. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins blasted into space on their way to the moon.

Katherine's daughters did go one step further inspired by their mathematician mother: Joylette worked at NASA, while both Kathy and Connie became teachers. Katherine retired from NASA in 1986.In 2018, NASA named an entire facility after Katherine Johnson.

Discussion

This engaging picture book tells the story of Katherine Johnson, human computer and mathematician extraordinaire. One Step Further not only tells Katherine's remarkable story but focuses on how her life and accomplishments encouraged her own daughters to go "one step further". It is a story of a brilliant, determined African-American woman who overcame  several social obstacles to become a major force in the race to put a man on the moon. Despite the obvious obstacles racial segregation presented, Katherine also had to confront sexual discrimination in the workplace. One Step Further portrays Katherine as a woman who did not back down. In this way, Katherine is presented as a good role model for women and especially women of colour to confront and break down barriers.

And Katherine's daughters were able to go "one step further" due to changes brought about by the civil rights movement and their own determined efforts. Joylette Goble Hylikc received a Masters of Science in Management Information Systems and worked at NASA before working at Lockheed Martin as a senior requirements engineer. Katherine Goble Moore also received a masters from Montclair State University and worked as an educator for thirty-three years. Connie Goble Boykin Garcia passed away in 2010. She also worked as a teacher after completing a bachelor's degree from Hampton Institute/University.

Accompanying the text, are many interesting photographs of Katherine and her children, as well as historic photos of racial segregation, protests against segregation  Katherine working at NASA, John Glenn Jr. and Buzz Aldrin. The photographs of racial segregation are important as they show younger readers what living under Jim Crow laws was like for Katherine and her family and other African-Americans.

Illustrator Charnelle Pinkney Barlow, granddaughter of Caldecott-winning illustrator Jerry Pinkney, wanted to portray both Katherine, John Glenn Jr. and Buzz Aldrin in a way that fit with the photographs included, adding a layer of context to the story.

The back matter includes detailed Historical Notes & Context: Racial Segregation in the United States and About Katherine Johnson, as well as a Timeline and a Glossary. 

A very well-done children's biography about an amazing woman, whose contributions to space science were considerable and long overdue in being recognized.

Book Details:

One Step Further: My Story of Math, the Moon, and a Lifelong Mission by Katherine Johnson
Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Kids    2021

Paying The Land by Joe Sacco

Renowned graphic artist, Joe Sacco explores the life of the Dene in the Northwest Territories as well as the issues they have experienced over the past decades as a result of colonialism and European influence.

Part 1 offers the insights of Paul Andrew, an elder and former chief of the Tulita who tells about the Dene way of life. He was born when his family were travelling in a moose skin boat. Paul lived on the land, "learning about relationships and connections with the land and the animals." Their day began at dawn and they went to bed with the sunset. Their lives were dictated by their environment and the animals. When the fish ran, they caught fish, when the moose hide was thick, they hunted moose.

A nomadic life meant people had several teams of dogs and travelled light. Children were identified at a young age as to what they might be best at: a leader or a hunter. By the time a child was five, he knew what his role in the community would be. There were no separate roles for men and women: for example, men learned to sew. Everyone had to learn different skills in the event they found themselves alone on the land. Everyone looked at what needed to be done and then acted. Andrew states that although there were times they were hungry, their bodies adapted like the animals did.

From the Europeans they used tents, stoves, guns and knives but he remembers his uncle showing him how to use flint to skin a moose. People were close to one another, marrying into other tribes and meeting with other families in July.

In Part II Shauna and Joe take a red Toyota pickup and travel north along the Mackenzie River Valley to Norman Wells, travelling along winter roads. Shauna lives on an island in Great Slave Lake, in a cabin that is off the grid. She knows the people and the region. 

The Northwest Territories, with a population of less than forty-five thousand, is the size of France and Spain combined. Shauna tells Joe that the oil and gas industry has had a significant impact on the northern ecosystem and the Indigenous peoples, just as the fur trade did previously.

Shauna and Joe are staying with her non-Indigenous friends in Tulit'a in the Sahtu Region where the Great Bear River meets the Mackenzie River. The Dene, whose name means "the people" have a culture rooted in the land. When Paul Andrews lived in the bush, the Dene were referred to as "Indians" and Tulit'a was called Fort Norman. 

Shauna tells Joe that fracking, the process of injecting chemicals and water into shale to release the hydrocarbons has divided the community. Douglas Yallee tells him that fracking has led to doubts and increased social issues. But unable to find scientific evidence that fracking harms the environment Douglas acknowledges there have been benefits. In Yellowknife, Darrell Beaulieu, president and CEO of Denendeh Investments, states that while communities want development they do not want the land damaged. 

In Part III, Paying the Land, Joe talks with Paul Andrew's cousin, Frederick Andrew who is also Shuhta-ot'ine, Mountain Dene. He explains how he was taught by the elders to be careful on the land after being away for a time and to "pay the land". He talks with Fr. Rene Fumoleau who was born in France but came to Fort Good Hope in 1953 with the Oblates. He learned the language and spent the winters in the bush, travelling from family to family as they trapped animals. He tells Joe that over time, more people began to leave the land and get work.

In Part III, Joe explores the history of the treaties 8 and 11, "negotiated" with the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Territories. In the 19th Century, Indigenous peoples supplied fur pelts to the Hudson's Bay Company which unknowing to them, had been granted their land. In 1870, their ancestors land was given to the Dominion of Canada. However, when minerals and oil were discovered, Canada sought control of the land, including most of the Northwest Territories, through treaties. The Dene viewed the treaties as "a friendship pact guaranteeing their livelihood -- based on hunting, fishing, and trapping - that in no way prejudiced their relationship to the land."

Through interviews, Joe learns how the Dene began to fight back through court challenges asserting their aboriginal rights to the land. The Paulette Case and the Berger Hearing were just the beginning. The latter challenge saw the Dene begin to reclaim their identity, calling themselves by their true names rather than referring to themselves as "indian". However, what began as a collaborative effort among the various Dene-Metis groups, soon collapsed with the northern-most Dene tribe leaving. After this, some Dene like Stephen Kakfwi and Jim Antoine joined the colonial system to try to enact changes that way. They both served as premier of the Northwest Territories and were able to accomplish some changes.

In Part IV, Our Culture Is Slowly Dying, Joe highlights the Dene's attempts to keep alive their skills that have helped them over generations survive in the bush. Jonas Antoine talks about how the Dene use many modern means of transportation to "get" to the land whereas in the past they were a part of the land. But Gordon Yakeleya remembers the hardships of living off the land when he was younger, compared to being a "wage earner" today. Cecile Raymond also remembers the hardships of bush living. Peter Redvers who has conducted ethnographic research in the Dehcho region states that the shift to living in towns and villages changed the culture of the Dene.This transformation has resulted in a loss of their language, their traditional laws and customs.

In this section, there are interviews with Dene who talk about the problems alcohol has created both in the community at large and within families. Binge drinking and drugs have led to a cycle of physical and sexual abuse. It is at this point that Sacco, through talking with many in the Dene community, details the horrific impacts of Canada's residential school system.

In Part V, Sacco explores the impact on the Dene of becoming more connected to the outside world. He talks with Dolphus Jumbo, chief of the Dehcho region community of Trout Lake, a town of fewer than one hundred people. It is located one hundred kilometers  from the Mackenzie Highway. 

Trout Lake has always been seen as being least affected by civilization. Dolphus himself is a survivor of the residential schools. In Trout Lake, the old ways lasted until the 1970's when the last family came in from the bush. Slowly, Trout Lake was transformed from the old Dene ways of nomadic life to settling down in a house with a mortgage. Despite his experience with the residential schools, he's not willing to condemn all the priests, mainly because of his experience with Father Mary, a French priest who worked in the area for over thirty-five years and who became part of the community, learning the language and eating the food. Dolphus believes that they have to continue the Roman Catholic faith because it's become part of the Dene culture. At the same time, he feels that the community of Trout Lake has not really been finding the right balance between modern culture and the old ways.

Jessica Jumbo, Dolphus's daughter explains how the community changed over time with land claims and the problems bred by handouts: self-sufficiency versus dependency on welfare. Trout Lake is very different than its sister community, Fort Liard, which used to be part of the same band. Fort Liard broke away from the Dehcho Process instituting their own land claim, and confronting neighbouring Dene communities (Trout Lake and Nahinni Butte) have made others hate them. Chief Harry Deneron of the Acho Dene Koe First Nation is interested in bringing in the resource extraction industry to remove the social handouts that have devastated his community.

In Part VI, Sacco interviews the younger Dene who are interested in advocating for their communities. Willard Hagen says the government process of pulling people out of the bush to educate them, took away their independence. When the jobs in the resource sector dried up, they turned to welfare. He's interested in promoting the economy, but he says they need to determine how to get the benefits without too much impact to the land.

Eugene Boulanger, a Shuhtaot'ine Dene from Tulit'a believes that they must do better, be better men and challenge themselves. He belongs to the group, Dene Nahjo "The Dene Way" whose motto is "land, language, culture - forever." These younger Dene are rediscovering their culture, reclaiming aspects of the way their ancestors lived, pre-contact. This way of life was lost in the generation that attended the residential schools.

Discussion

Paying The Land offers a detailed look into the ongoing Dene efforts in reclaiming their ancestral lands and their identity, through interviews with many of the stakeholders in the Dene communities. Accomplished comic artist, Joe Sacco wanted to write about how "resource extraction intersects with indigenous peoples." Eventually he was able to arrange a visit to the Northwest Territories with the help of Shauna Morgan who planned the trip, acted as driver and guide. Sacco made those visits in 2015 and 2016 and after years of writing, has produced a truly informative book that explores the effects of colonialism, the residential schools, and resource extraction on the Dene people.

The graphic novel format is often associated with fiction and less serious subject matter. However, Sacco's renowned artistic abilities, and his attention to detail, help to make this format the ideal medium to educate and inform readers on the issues of land claims, indigenous identity and governance. He's done an admirable job that he hopes will meet the approval of the indigenous communities he met during his visits.

At times, the stories are truly heartbreaking; the effect of alcoholism in families that leads to physical and sexual violence, suicides and self harm, the children forcibly taken from their large, loving families, the destruction of their beliefs and language.

There are many complex issues highlighted in the book. Today's young Dene leaders are attempting to reclaim their culture and their way of life. But their parents who are the product of the residential school system, have often lost their knowledge of the land and their culture. Some have been able to reclaim it but many have not. So their children are having to turn to the elders, their grandparents and great-grandparents to recover this knowledge. It is not just language skills, but how to cut wood, hunt caribou and moose, how to tan a moose hide, how to live as a community where everyone knows their place and their identity. And in some cases, it can be very difficult because there may be no one in a community who has such skills.

A second issue is the reclaiming of their ancestral lands from government treaties negotiated in bad faith by the various Canadian governments. The process of going through territorial and government organizations is complicated, time consuming and not very successful. Sacco is able to portray the complexity of the process and how it has come to divide communities and Dene nations. Some are now advocating that the Dene do what the Haida have done - simply live on the land and be Dene. It is their land and they have lived there since "time immemorial" .

A third issue revolves around what kind of life to live on their land: a return to the bush or working to set up sustainable industries on land that has many natural resources? These are options that no one person or Dene nation necessarily agree on. There are good and bad points to both ways, but one thing is clear from Sacco's many interviews, young people must be steered away from the government handouts and learn to be self-sufficient and to live productive lives without alcohol and drugs. Paying The Land shows that the Dene, like many other Indigenous peoples, are still struggling to overcome the inter-generational fallout from the residential system, the loss of their culture and the exploitation of their land by governments and businesses.

Sacco ends by questioning his own culture, one that doesn't consider the land. The Dene practice of paying the land means giving back to the land, respecting it. Near the end of the book, Joe and Shauna visit the Giant Mine, which extracted gold, and in the process produced tons arsenic trioxide. Joe wonders about his own culture, "What is the worldview of a people who mumble no thanks or prayers, who take what they want from the land, who pay it back with arsenic?"

For those looking to understand indigenous issues in Canada's far north, Paying the Land offers considerable insight in a truly engaging format. While Sacco includes many small maps throughout the book, a larger version of the maps showing the region, the different Dene nations and the land claims would have been helpful. Paying The Land is a must-read for those interested in exploring Indigenous issues in Canada's far north. It offers a good starting point to begin learning about these complex issues.

Further reading:

About the Dene nation: https://denenation.com/about/history/

Dene land claims: https://www.eia.gov.nt.ca/en/priorities/concluding-and-implementing-land-claim-and-self-government-agreements/sahtu-dene-and-3

Sahtu land claims:https://www.srrb.nt.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=176&catid=99

Fr. Rene Fumoleau's stories:https://www.storytellers-conteurs.ca/en/featured-storytellers/Rene-Fumoleau.html

The Canadian Encyclopedia: Comprehensive land Claims: Modern Treaties: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/comprehensive-land-claims-modern-treaties

Book Details:

Paying The Land by Joe Sacco
New York: Metropolitan Books/Henry Hold and Company      2020
264 pp.

DaVinci's Cat by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Eleven-year-old Sir Federico Gonzaga, son of Duke Francesco II of Mantua and Lady Isabella d'Este of Ferrara is a "guest" of Pope Julius II in the Vatican. He is in fact being held hostage by the pope to guarantee that his father, who leads the pope's army will not be lured away by France. So Federico lives in a villa with his nurse, Celeste, a quarter mill from the pope's residence.

On this night, Federico can see the people attending a banquet. The smells and sounds make him hungry so he sets off to retrieve a platter of figs from the pope's new study. Federico had been sitting in the study in the afternoon while Master Raphael Sanzio painted Federico's portrait. He decides to travel the corridor connecting the villa to the pope's palace. On the way Federico passes a large wooden box.

In the pope's new study, he finds Michelangelo Buonarroti at work. Federico is surprised to see the sculptor, but finds the figs and eventually walks back to the villa. But on his way he hears a sound near the strange box, which upon closer inspection appears to be a kind of closet. He finds a kitten, tawny coloured with black-tipped ears in the closet. After playing with Federico, the kitten enters the closet and disappears. As the bells of the church strike midnight, he hears the cat meowing but when Federico opens the door of the closet, he finds a full grown cat.

The next morning, Federico purchases a collar of red leather trimmed in pearls for the cat who keeps him company through his lessons. That night Federico attends a banquet hosted by a cardinal and his nephew where he learns that the strange wooden closet was a present from the King of France to the pope. Later that night when Federico examines the closet, he notices that the gems in the closet door are glass balls forming the tips of an eight point star with symbols above. The inside of the closet has eight mirrors and on the back of the closet door is a glass globe containing water.

As the church bells toll midnight, the cat leaps from Federico's arms into the closet. But when he reaches in to grab the cat, out steps a man, strangely dressed who asks Federico  where he is and the date. Federico tells him it is 1511 and he is in the Vatican Palace. While giving the man a tour of the Vatican, Federico learns the cat is called Juno and the man is Herbert Bother of New Jersey. Herbert has studied art and sells sketches. After sharing with Federico, chocolate filled with peanuts, he suggests that Federico bring him sketches from Raphael and Michelangelo in exchange for more chocolate. He tells Federico to return at midnight, which is when the closet works.

The next day the French ambassador reveals to Federico that the closet was designed by Leonardo Da Vinci, who now works for the King of France. The ambassador tells Federico that DaVinci had the idea to send things through the air, but there was an accident and he refused to use the closet any more. He told the ambassador that he'd lost his "little Juno". Federico sneaks into the pope's private office and steals a sketch of an old man signed by Michelangelo for his friend Herbert. As he's leaving he learns that Raphael's papers have been stolen.

At midnight Herbert returns via the wardrobe and Federico gives him the sketch in exchange for chocolate. Federico realizes that Herbert has stolen the Raphael papers and he tells him he needs to return them. Herbert cannot because they have already been sold in his time, making him well off. Herbert reveals to Federico that the closet on his side of time came from a trunk he found in a junk shop in Mantua. After reading a notebook by DaVinci about a closet machine, he was able to turn the trunk back into the closet. Out of the closet came a little kitten - DaVinci's kitten. Herbert explains to Federico that he comes from a country called America that does not yet exist in his time and that it is 1928 in his time. He now wants Federico to arrange for him to see Raphael and also the Sistine Chapel.

When Herbert returns the next night he tells Federico that twelve years have passed in his time. He has with him an unsigned sketch of a boy he found in the trunk from Mantua and both believe it was done by Raphael. Herbert wants Raphael to sign it so that he can sell it. This means travelling to Raphael's house in the middle of the night. However, his plan collapses when they are seen by the Swiss Guards and Herbert finds a girl dying in the gutter. He flees into the closet with the girl and does not return.

The story now moves into the twenty-first century with eleven-year-old Beatrice (Bee) Bliss and her mom staying at a house in New Jersey while her mother attends a conference. She was supposed to be visiting her grandparents in Italy right now but they won a last minute cruise. Her second mom, Moo helped the couple who own the house and they have offered the use of their house which was once the home of a doctor. Mom tells Bee that a sketch done by Michelangelo was found in the home and it was sold for millions of dollars. 

That evening Bee pulls the neighbour's cat away from catching a bird. When she takes the cat to the house next door, the elderly woman, Miss Bother startles Bee because she seems to recognize her.That night at the neighbours home, Miss Bother's tells them that her father saved her from diphtheria by rushing her to the doctor who owned the house they are staying in. She shows them a drawing hidden behind a painting her father Herbert Bother did of a peacock. The drawing is that of Bee with her scar from the can opener and a mole. She tells them that her father found it in Italy before he found her and that it is probably the work of Raphael.

When Bee's mom leaves for her conference, she is left alone at the house. Soon she realizes that Miss Bother is in trouble next door and makes her way into the house only to discover that the elderly woman has fallen on the stairs.As they are waiting for the ambulance, Miss Bother tells Bee that her father tried to go back to Rome to get Raphael's signature on the drawing but he found her and never returned. 

Puzzled by the elderly lady's story, Bee investigates the house and discovers the closet on the third floor in Herbert Bother's old office. Thinking the closet is like the wardrobe in Narnia, Bee decides to enter it. She doesn't realize she's about to embark on the greatest adventure of her life.

Discussion

DaVinci's Cat is a modern story of time travel, in which a young girl from the present meets a boy from 500 years in the past. Together they must work together to save their families from the changes they cause. This unique story is crafted around the real historical figures of Federico II Gonzaga, Pope Julius II, Michelangelo and Raphael.

Federico was indeed held hostage by Pope Julius II to ensure his father Federico I remained loyal. Federico was born May 17, 1500 to Francesco II Gonzaga and Isabella d'Este. He became Marquis of Mantua in 1519 under the regency of his mother. Although he was slated to marry Maria Palaeolongina, he eventually married her sister, Margaret after Maria died prematurely. Federico was a patron of the arts and had the Palazzo Te built for himself.

Pope Julius II was led the Catholic Church from 1503 until 1513. He was a patron of the arts in the High Renaissance, establishing the Vatican Museums, commissioning Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and Raphael to paint the frescos in the Raphael Rooms. Julius II was very much involved in Italian politics during his reign as pope and was a singular force in protecting the integrity of the papacy.

Murdock also offers a portrayal of Michelangelo Buonarotti, showing him as an intense, creative individual who felt his genius was not much appreciated. He is described as a smelly, uncouth given to being very impulsive. His rivalry with the younger Raphael is also featured in DaVinci's Cat.

The novel uses time travel to bring together two children from very different time periods. Federico Gonzaga is the son of an Italian prince. The device is a wardrobe or closet, reminiscent of the wardrobe in Narnia.  Did Leonardo DaVinci ever create the special closet in DaVinci's Cat? Not likely, but this Italian artist famous for his paintings of the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, was also an inventor who had many interesting ideas. And it's DaVinci's cat that travels back and forth between the two times, befriending both Federico and Bee.

In the novel Federico is separated from his family, lonely and very self-centered. His desire for a friend leads him to behave badly and make two wrong choices: he steals from Michelangelo and he steals the key to the Sistine Chapel and takes Raphael to see the ceiling, against the expressed wishes of Michelangelo who has forbidden anyone from seeing the paintings. This latter event has the effect of changing time; Michelangelo flees Rome in a fury, never to finish the Sistine Chapel which is painted over by Bramante. Both Michelangelo and Federico die in 1511, ending the Gonzaga family line.  Without the Sistine Chapel to study, Bee's mom and Moo never meet and she is never born. When Federico learns the consequences of his actions, he vows to never disobey again. Instead  he becomes focused on saving his family and makes many sacrifices to accomplish this task. He thinks his way through the problem at hand, appealing to Michelangelo's vanity, telling him he will become famous and live on in his art. In the same way, Bee attempts to save her family by also appealing to Raphael's vanity. Ultimately, Federico comes up with a way to ensure the drawing of Bee ends up back with the Bothers in the trunk Herbert finds in Mantua, five hundred years later.

However, it is the turbulent relationship between Michelangelo and Raphael that Murdock mostly focuses on and that drives the plot forward in the latter half of the novel. Although Michelangelo Buonarotti saw Raphael as a rival, the latter greatly admired Michelangelo's genius. When Michelangelo discovers that Raphael has seen his work, he impulsively abandons work on the Sistine Chapel. It is this action which sets in motion drastic changes to the timeline affecting both Federico and Bee.

Murdock does incorporate some modern themes into her storyline. Beatrice Bliss is part of a very modern family with two moms, whom she calls Mom and Moo. In contrast is Miss Bother who grew up with only an adopted father. The message to children of course, is that families can be of any arrangement. 

The exquisite book cover will be sure to draw in young readers.Those who enjoy time travel, adventure and learning about art will want to read DaVinci's Cat. There are plenty of ideas to explore here: the feasibility of time travel, the life and artwork of DaVinci, Michelangelo and Raphael, Pope Julius II, Federico Gonzaga and life in the High Renaissance. Younger readers will find Murdock has incorporated some interesting facts along the way, such as Italians eating spaghetti with cinnamon sugar (tomatoes would not come to Italy until the mid-1500s and were introduced by the Spaniards from Mexico), and hose with leather soles sewn into them. DaVinci's Cat is a interesting historical adventure novel for juvenile readers.

Book Details:

DaVinci's Cat by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
New York: Greenwillow Books    2021
278 pp.