Patricia's Vision: The Doctor Who Saved Sight by Michelle Lord

In the late 1940's a young Patricia Bath walked by a man begging in the street in Harlem, New York and wondered why his eyes were cloudy?  She wondered what it was like to live in a world of darkness. This made Patricia want to be a doctor but all the doctors she knew were men. And, a medical degree was expensive and took years to obtain. Patricia's family did not have the money to send her school. 

Her parents felts a good education was very important. Her father worked in the marine merchant while her mother cleaned and cooked at a Park Avenue apartment to save for her education. Patricia's mother gave her a chemistry set to further encourage her interest in science. Patricia practiced sewing and mending and treating her dolls!

In high school Patricia studied and worked hard. In college she continued to work hard at her studies while volunteering to read to those who had vision problems. Patricia then enrolled in medical school and by the time she finished she knew she wanted to be an eye surgeon.

Dr. Patricia Bath began working at the Harlem Hospital Eye Clinic where she saw many patients who had never seen an ophthalmologist. She was able to enlist the help of her professors at school to help for free at the clinic.She then joined the Jules Stein eye Institute in California as an ophthalmologist, becoming the first woman to do so. But her office was located in the basement next to the lab animals. Patricia wasn't willing to settle for this and demanded an office similar to what her peers had. She also noticed that she was given the more difficult cases. Undaunted, she accepted them and got to work.

When a blind veteran arrived at her office one day, Patricia wondered if it might be possible to restore the man's sight. He had a damaged cornea and Patricia believed if she could find a way to replace his cornea he would see again. In the operating room, she replaced his cornea with a plastic one, delicately sewing it into place. After the operation, her patient was able to see again.

Another patient sought her out when her sight deteriorated. Dr. Bath discovered that a thin membrane had grown in the eye causing her to be blind. After much thought, Patricia had the idea that using a laser might be the solution. Although lasers had been used on other parts of the body including the cornea, they had not yet been used on a cloudy lens. But Patricia's idea was "to focus a laser beam through a tiny fiber as thin as a single strand of hair." To that end, she travelled to Europe to study this possibility in 1986. After trying several types of lasers she was successful using an xenon chloride laser that quickly vaporized the cataract. She patented her new invention, the Laserphaco Probe on May 17, 1988.

Even in retirement, Dr. Patricia Bath continued to help those less fortunate. She helped a school for the blind in Tanzania obtain computers with braille keyboards. She saw possibility where others only saw obstacles.

Discussion

Michelle Lord discovered Dr. Patricia Bath while researching a project about women who were "female firsts". Like Dr. Bath, Lord also wanted to become a doctor and today is a radiographer, a radiologic technologist who uses X-rays, CT scans and sonograms to make diagnostic images of the body. The author was able to interview Dr. Bath via a series of telephone calls, to learn more about her remarkable life.

Patricia Era Bath was born on November 4, 1942 to Rupert and Gladys Bath. Her parents encouraged her in all her schooling. She worked very hard and was able to attend a cancer workshop sponsored by the National Cancer Foundation when she was only sixteen-years-old. Her accomplishments at this workshop were so impressive, that the program head, Dr. Robert Bernard incorporated them into a conference paper. This led to Patricia being awarded the Merit Award by Mademoiselle Magazine in 1960.

Patricia completed high school in two years and graduated from Hunter College in 1964. Her academic path led her to medical school at Howard University, graduating in 1968. This was followed by an internship at Harlem Hospital. During her fellowship at Columbia University in ophthalmology, Dr. Bath discovered that African Americans had a much higher incidence of blindness and glaucoma. 

In the 1970's Patricia Bath achieved several milestones: she was the first African American to complete a residency in ophthalmology in 1973, she was the first female faculty member in the Department of Ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Institute at UCLA, and she co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in 1976.

As Lord highlights in her picture book, Dr. Bath invented the Laserphaco Probe for which she received a patent in 1988. She was able to restore the sight of people who became blind due to cataracts.

Patricia's Vision focuses on how Patricia Bath saw possibilities where others simply saw problems that could not be fixed. With this determined attitude she was able to make great strides in eye care and help people who had little hope. The ability to think outside the box and devise solutions was Patricia Bath's singular gift to ophthalmology. Lord includes a Timeline of important dates in Patricia Bath's career and life, as well as a Note from the Author and a page long biography of Dr. Patricia Bath. There is also a Selected Works Cited and a list of Additional Reading About Other Women in Stem that readers may find of interest.

Patricia's Vision is a well written and informative picture book about a woman doctor and scientist that few may know about but whom many owe the gift of sight to today.

Book Details:

Patricia's Vision: The Doctor Who Saved Sight by Michelle Lord
New York: Sterling Children's Books    2020

Sugar Falls: A Residential School Story by David A. Robertson

Sugar Falls is the fictional story of a girl's experience in Canada's residential school system but is based on the experiences of  Cree Elder, Betty Ross, a survivor of Canada's residential schools.

In a local high school, students are given the assignment to talk to an Elder, while considering several questions. Their teacher encourages them to speak with respect, offering tobacco, one of the four sacred medicines. One of the students in the class, Daniel, tells his friend April about having to find an elder to talk about the residential schools. He wonders if April, who is native, knows anyone he can talk to.

As it turns out, April's kokom, grandmother is a survivor. of Canada's residential school system She offers to see if her kokom might be willing to do this. and after speaking with her tells Daniel that she has accepted his request.

The three meet one afternoon in the Round Room, where April's kokom feels safe with its sacred medicines and star blanket. April's kokom wears bright traditional clothing and holds an eagle feather "to honor the past and move forward with courage, honesty and truth." She has never told her story before so Daniel begins by asking her why she had to go to a residential school.

April's kokom, Betsy tells him that she was forced out of her home by her mother at the age of five, after her mother claimed she could no longer take care of her. What she did not know was that her mother was a survivor of the residential school system. This abandonment was horrific for Betsy.

She spent the night underneath a canoe in frigid conditions and was found by a man who took her to his home. He and his wife brought her into their family and cared for her. However, things were soon to change for the worse. To help Betsy, her adoptive father took her to Sugar Falls, so named because of the way the water passes over the rocks. Betsy's father put sacred medicine into the water and it calmed immediately. He told her to remember the relationships to one another, to their traditions and to their ancestors, as a source of strength. 

When they returned home, Betsy was forcibly taken away by the priest to the residential school across the lake from her home. She was vigorously scrubbed by a nun until her skin was red and sore, and had her long hair cut short. In the school, Betsy's day began at six o'clock in the morning with prayers and Mass, breakfast and chores. 

At school Betsy was severely punished if she made mistakes copying out the Bible in Latin, and she and the other students were subjected to sexual abuse by the priest. They were also brutally punished if they were caught speaking Cree. Betsy and her friend Flora desperately wanted to escape the school and return home. For Betsy, her home, which she could see from the windows of the residential school, was just across the lake. Her friend Flora, unable to cope with the abuse any longer, decided to try to swim the lake in an attempt to flee the school and drowned.

After Flora's death, Betsy had only anger left. She was angered by the priest whom Flora had been running away from, preaching at Flora's funeral. Betsy also attempted to flee the residential school, she was pulled out of the water by a nun. After this unsuccessful attempt, she remembered the promise to her father to "listen to the sound of the drum of our hearts beating in unison." From this she gained the inner strength to survive the horrors of the residential school.

Discussion

Sugar Falls is the fictional retelling of the real life experiences of Betty Ross, Elder from Cross Lake First Nation. Ross began attending St. Joseph's Residential School in Pimicikamak First Nation when she was only eight years old. She suffered terrible abuse, even being kicked in the head by a nun (the incident is portrayed in Sugar Falls) that resulted in the loss of hearing in her left ear. Ross later attended Assiniboia Residential School in 1960.

The 10th anniversary edition of Robertson's telling of Betty Ross's story highlights the resiliency, strength and character of Betty Ross, qualities even more impressive considering she was a child at the time. This comic format also highlights the abuse Indigenous children experienced, informing non-Indigenous readers in a very real and graphic way. Sugar Falls helps non-Indigenous readers comprehend in some way, the impact the residential schools had on Indigenous children and the inter-generational trauma that they experienced. Ross was abandoned by her own mother, also a residential school survivor, when she was only five years old. Betty also experienced difficulties in her own life post-residential school. She married and had four children, but admitted she did not know how to parent as she had no family experience to draw upon.

Sugar Falls is a welcome addition to the Canadian Indigenous literature about the residential school system. Truth in the form of stories must come before reconciliation. The stories and experiences of Canada's First Nations peoples must be told.Sugar Falls is one such resource that does exactly that.

Book Details:

Sugar Falls: A Residential School by David A. Robertson
Winnipeg, Manitoba: HighWater Press      2021
40 pp.

Beyond The Mapped Stars by Rosalyn Eves

Beyond The Mapped Stars is the story of a young Mormon girl's journey to find her path in life in pioneer Utah.

Elizabeth Bertelsen lives with her father Anders and her mother Hannah, and her nine siblings in Monroe, Utah. She and her family belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church.

Elizabeth's father, whom she calls Far, had a first wife, Aunt Elisa and who died when Elizabeth was five years old. Far and Aunt Elisa married in Denmark, and then travelled to Utah with the Mormon missionaries. He met Elizabeth's mother, Hannah in Salt Lake City, and took her as his second wife. After Elisa's death Far married, Olena, making her his second wife. This upset Hannah and she threatened to divorce him.

It is June 28, 1878. Elizabeth is reading a dime novel about Texas Jack, while sitting on an outcrop overlooking Little Green Valley. As she walks home, after hearing her mother call for her, Elizabeth notes the positions of the Big Dipper and other constellations as darkness falls. She will record them in her notebook at home. In less than a month, there will be a total solar eclipse, the first in a century, visible in the western territories of the United States. "...The path of totality will cross through Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Texas." Elizabeth won't see the eclipse however, because it will not be visible in Utah. Arriving back at the house, Elizabeth's mama admonishes her for "moonin' after the stars..." telling her she "should set your mind on higher things."

The next morning Far arrives with the horses for Elizabeth's mama who plans to spend the day in Richfield. She is curt towards her husband, unhappy that Far spent the night with Olena. Mama warns Elizabeth to watch the boys and her younger sister Rachel while she is gone. Elizabeth had been hoping to accompany her mother to the town. 

After spending most of the morning caring for Rachel and trying to amuse herself by re-reading Mormon newspapers, Elizabeth finds herself wanting ideas. While Rachel naps, Elizabeth convinces her brother David Charles to stay at the house while she runs to see Miss Phoebe Wheeler, a teacher at the Presbyterian school, who lends her books to read. Elizabeth's mother wouldn't let her attend the school, fearful she would be converted away from her Mormon faith. On her way she meets Samuel Willard, a boy a few years older than her, who wonders where she's going.

Miss Wheeler lends Elizabeth a new science book about the physical sciences written by a woman. Miss Wheeler explains to Elizabeth that the author, Miss Somerville is a real scientist. But on her way home, Elizabeth meets David Charles on the road, and learns that Rachel has gone missing.

While her brothers go to fetch Hyrum from their father's mill, Elizabeth discovers Rachel in the creek. Hyrum manages to revive Rachel, but she remains unconscious and is carried back to the house. Rachel's condition deteriorates, and soon Elizabeth's parents arrive home. After Rachel is prayed over by Sister Larsen, Elizabeth spends the night watching over her sister, promising herself and God that she will give up the stars and never quarrel with her mother again.

As Rachel gradually recovers, Elizabeth's mother begins talking about Elizabeth marrying and has suggested she become the second wife of Brother Yergensen. This idea is repulsive to Elizabeth who doesn't want this life for herself. Then they receive a telegram from Rebekka, Elizabeth's half sister, daughter of Far and his first wife, Elisa. She is close to having her baby and her husband Ammon wants family to be with her. Rebekka has lost her first four babies, so everyone is concerned. Elizabeth volunteers to go and help out. 

Far arranges for Samuel Willard  and Vilate Ann to take Elizabeth to Salt Lake City where he is dropping furniture to his brother. On the journey to Salt Lake City, Elizabeth and Samuel Willard share their hopes for their lives. He challenges Elizabeth as to why she would give up her dream of being an astronomer just because others tell her it's not a suitable thing to aspire to. She tells him how she has given up on her dream to attend Vassar College and study with Maria Mitchell, an American female astronomer. Like Samuel, Elizabeth has decided to be someone no one has to worry about. However, the two have a falling out just before she arrives at Salt Lake. 

On the train to Cheyenne, Elizabeth and the passengers are robbed. With the tracks destroyed, Elizabeth decides to walk back to Rawlins with Alice and Will Stevens, who are wealthy and descended from slaves. Their grandfather escaped slavery as a boy and made his fortune by moving west and opening what has become one of the finest hotels in Denver. 

Meeting the Stevens proves providential for Elizabeth. She meets Thomas Edison and Dr. Henry Morton, president of Stevens Institute of Technology, two people interested in the upcoming eclipse which is only eighteen days away.  Elizabeth also discovers that Alice is an aspiring artist, hoping to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and then onto Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. While in Rawlins, Elizabeth is able to view the heavens through Dr. Draper's telescope, seeing the Hourglass Nebula.

After helping Rebekka deliver her baby safely, Elizabeth is encouraged by her sister to follow her dreams and to return to Denver for the solar eclipse. As Elizabeth finds herself coming closer than she ever thought to achieving her dreams, she tries to fit in by not being true to herself. Eventually she realizes that half-truths will not work. But can she be a scientist and still be a good Mormon woman? What about her promise to God to obey her mother? Is it possible to have faith and be a scientist? All these questions, Elizabeth must answer for herself.

Discussion

Beyond the Mapped Stars is a historical fiction novel with a unique storyline, well defined characters, set during a little known celestial event. The novel occurs over the span of a  little more than a month, from June 28 to July 31, 1878. 

The story focuses on the main character, Elizabeth Bertelsen's desire to follow a different path from most women in her era and especially that of a Mormon woman: she wants to be an astronomer. This desire sets off intense internal conflict in Elizabeth. Her mother tells Elizabeth that she wants too much and that she "...follow God's will, not your own." But Elizabeth reasons that God has "...planted yearnings in our hearts to drive us to bigger things."

"Sometimes I feel as though there's an Elizabeth-shaped hole in my life that I'm supposed to fill neatly. But parts of me - ideas, desires - keep spilling out like tentacles of some sea creature. I'm forever stuffing them back in, smashing down ideas I'm not meant to have, shutting my lips on words I'm not meant to say."

Elizabeth's internal struggle is between what she wants for herself and what her mother believes she should aspire to as a young Mormon woman. When Elizabeth tells her mother her desire for "ideas" is "like a steady, low hunger constantly gnawing at my soul" her mother believes Elizabeth to be ill. She advises her daughter to "...spend more time with your Bible, and less time in your books. Turn your thoughts to heaven, put you longing in God." But for Elizabeth, her desire to understand the stars doesn't take away from her faith. 

Elizabeth discovers that her older brother Hyrum is also struggling with what he wants in life. Like Elizabeth he has been taught that "...the highest level of heaven is for husband and wife, sealed together." but what does that mean for those who do not want a married life. In addition to this, Elizabeth struggles with the idea of polygamy which she does not want for herself.

As was common in the late 19th century, Elizabeth like many women in her era is discouraged by a male scientist, Dr. Morton. When she tells him of her dream of becoming an astronomer, he suggests she "study something more conducive to your own happiness, like domestic sciences." 

This only intensifies the conflict within Elizabeth. "I want Denver, with the coming eclipse and its accompanying talk of ideas. I want the entire universe, the stars in the sky. If the glory of God is intelligence, if God is both wise and good, can't I serve God as well by learning as by serving others?"

Elizabeth's sister, Rebekka encourages her to see the eclipse in order to determine what her path in life is to be. "I think of the telescope, back in Rawlins, how a smudge sprang into clusters of light under the right focus. Maybe my own conflict is like that smudge - the effect of asking the wrong question, of choosing the wrong focus. Maybe I'm not meant to be a wife and mother, to be my mother. Maybe I am meant to study the stars instead."

It is Elizabeth's exposure to the debate about the incompatibility between science and religion that ultimately helps her determine her own path. In a discussion on this topic during tea at Dr. Avery's home, Maria Mitchell states, "We cannot have science held back by religious tradition..." while Miss Culbertson, a student of Miss Mitchell who aspires to be a doctor, tells the women "..But that's just what Mr. John Draper argues in his book, that as scientific discovery continues to progress, it will grow more and more estranged from organized religion. Ultimately the two are not compatible." This stuns Elizabeth who begins to wonder if her mother's advice, that her interest in science will drive her away from God, is correct. So when pressed if she is Mormon, Elizabeth doesn't profess to being one and in pursuit of her goals, she also lies about her experience with telescopes.

Unfortunately, this interesting scene in the novel digresses into a discussion about Mormon polygamy. It's the one drawback of this novel, it forces the reader to contend with too many issues at once; discrimination of Mormons in the late 1800's, the issue of polygamy, women and science, the right of women to obtain an education and choose a career outside the home, the parallel efforts of black feminism, and Elizabeth's own personal, internal conflict. There is also several allusions to same sex attraction with Hyrum's situation and that of Miss Culbertson. While all of them are nested together, it makes for a daunting challenge to readers.

Elizabeth is eventually confronted by her new friend Alice over her intellectual and personal dishonesty, and even by Miss Mitchell who doubts her resolve, telling her that women who do not do good scientific work will hold back other women.Miss Culbertson believes that Elizabeth being a Mormon could adversely affect Miss Mitchell's work and asks her to consider both her faith and her involvement in Mitchell's work. Ultimately Elizabeth finds another path to viewing and working on the eclipse. After the eclipse, the climax of the novel, Elizabeth has a moment of clarity in which she decides she can live her life as both a Mormon and a scientist, in marriage and with work. 

"For so long I have seen my life as a question of faith or science, as though choosing one meant abandoning the other...Maybe I have been looking at everything  wrong, seeing "or" where I should have seen "and". When I watched the eclipse today, I wasn't a woman of faith or a woman of science. I was both."

The character of Elizabeth is presented in a realistic way in a historical era that is portrayed authentically. Many readers will be attracted to the theme of a young woman who wants to be a scientist in a world not yet ready for such a possibility. However, others may find the novel tries too hard to incorporate too many themes in an attempt to be diverse and relevant.

Rosalyn Eves is a Mormon so she knows the history of her religion well. The subject matter is dear to her and that is evident in her writing. The main character was inspired by the real life Elizabeth Bertelsen, the author's great-great-grandmother, who was eighteen years-old in 1878. In an extensive Author's Note at the back, she provides a great deal of background information on Mormons and the American West, Race in the American West, notes on various historical characters who are included in the novel, and Changes to the Historical Timeline. It should also be noted that there really was a solar eclipse on July 29, 1878.

Book Details:

Beyond the Mapped Stars by Rosalyn Eves
New York: Alfred A. Knopf     2021
367 pp.

Try It! How Frieda Caplan Changed the Way We Eat by Mara Rockliff

When Frieda Caplan began working at the Seventh Street produce market she felt things needed to change. The market offered a very limited selection of produce; potatoes, tomatoes, apples and bananas. Frieda felt that people should try something different. Something new!

So she began selling mushrooms.The men at the market were skeptical telling her no one eats mushrooms. But Frieda decided to sell them anyways and soon people were buying her mushrooms. In fact, she sold so many that she became known as "The Mushroom Queen"!

When she got her own spot at the market, Frieda branched out. She began selling mushrooms, and kiwi fruit, jicama, blood oranges, cherimoya and black radishes. People were not used to these strange fruits but they began to eat them. Frieda said if she felt it in her elbows, she knew these unusual fruits would catch on. 

The Seventh Street produce market still sold potatoes and tomatoes but now there were many other fruits to choose from. Every year Frieda would bring in something different and new. Farmers, cooks and reporters came to Frieda with questions.

As time passed, Frieda's own daughters helped her and they brought their own ideas to Frieda's as well. 

Discussion

Try It! How Frieda Caplan Changed the Way We Eat is a fascinating account of how the food we buy has changed so much due to the influence of Frieda Caplan. Young readers won't remember the limited selection of fruits and vegetables in groceries stores, especially in colder countries like Canada during the winter months. In the 1960's and 1970's vegetables and fruits were limited to potatoes, cabbage, carrots, apples, pears, onions, turnip and squash. Oranges and grapes were often imported. But over the last four decades, the selection of fruit and vegetables has diversified significantly.

Frieda was born in 1923 in Los Angeles, to Rose and Solomon Rapoport. She attended UCLA and earned a bachelor's degree in Economics and Political Science in 1945. In 1951, she married Alfred Hale Caplan and had two daughters, Karen and Jackie. After the birth of Karen, Frieda wanted a job with flexible hours, and she found such a job at her husband's aunt and uncle's wholesale produce business. There she worked as a book-keeper. While her relatives were away on vacation, Frieda visited the Los Angeles Produce Market and found a box of brown mushrooms sitting unsold. With a bit of marketing know-how, Frieda got these mushrooms sold.

In 1962, Frieda started her own company, initially calling it Specialties Produce Inc. Her sign had black lettering on a purple background, the only colour the printer could supply at the time. The colour would become her brand. Frieda's Finiest/Produce Specialties Inc.became the first wholesale produce business to be owned and operated by a woman.Today Frieda's daughters Karen and Jackie run the company, along with Karen's daughter, Alex Berkley. The focus of Frieda's was specialty products like kiwi fruit. In 1962, one of the first unusual items she began selling was kiwi, which at that time was called Chinese gooseberry. Someone suggested to Frieda that she change the name of the fruit to kiwi because it resembled the kiwi bird, native to New Zealand. By 1986, kiwi could be found in most grocery stories in North America. Frieda became known as the "Kiwi Queen." 

Over the years Frieda has introduced over two hundred exotic fruits and vegetables to North Americans including star fruit, rambutan, tamarillo, passion fruit, spaghetti squash, black garlic and mangosteen are just a few. To  help sell the unusual items, Frieda's labelled their product with directions on how to store and prepare the items as well as recipes.

Try It! introduces young readers to this remarkable woman, providing them an outstanding example of a successful woman entrepreneur, whose creative idea, changed the way North American's would eat. At the time Frieda started her company, the produce industry was a male domain, but Frieda was undaunted. Rockliff highlights the many different items Frieda brought to market, and her innovative marketing plan. The colourful illustrations by artist Giselle Potter, rendered in watercolour, help readers visualize the many unusual items Frieda promoted. Try It! offers an interesting and engaging picture book that would be useful for a unit on nutrition. Included is a section at the back titled, Fabulous, Fearless...Frieda! Frieda Caplan passed away at the age of 96 on January 18, 2020.

Book Details:

Try It! How Frieda Caplan Changed The Way We Eat by Mara Rockliff
New York:  Beach Lane Books    2021

Kate's Light: Kate Walker at Robbins Reef Lighthouse by Elizabeth Spires

Thirty-four-year-old Kate Kaird from Germany arrived in America in 1882 with her son Jacob. A widow, Kate quickly found work as a cook at the Officer's Quarters at Fort Hancock, New Jersey.

It was at the Officer's Quarters that Kate met John Walker, keeper of the Sandy Hook Lighthouse. As Kate did not speak much English, John helped her learn the language. They married and John, Kate, and her son Jacob lived onshore in a house next to the Sandy Hook Lighthouse.

John soon was hired as the keeper at Robbins Reef, a small lighthouse in New York Bay between Manhattan and Staten Island. Kate was not happy about moving to the lighthouse because it was on a granite foundation with no grass or trees. There would be no where for Jacob to play, and no where for a garden. 

When she arrived at the lighthouse, Kate did not immediately unpack her trunks. Gradually she began to make the five-story lighthouse look like home: she put plants in the windows and colourful rugs on the floors. Her sewing machine was placed by one of the windows and her rocking chair by the big black stove. Kate unpacked her trunk.

Although Jacob attended school on land, boarding with a family there, in the summers and weekends he returned home to the lighthouse. Kate applied for and got the job of assistant keeper. She and John had to track the amount of coal and kerosene they used, note the weather conditions, clean the lenses on the light once a month.

During their first spring at Robbins Reef, Kate gave birth to a daughter, Mae. The following October, the Statue of Liberty opened - a celebration they watched from the lighthouse catwalk. After several happy years at the lighthouse, John fell ill with pneumonia in February. Despite Kate's care, he continued to worsen and she sent up a distress signal, the American flag flown upside down. 

Sadly John died from his illness and Kate was told she had to leave Robbins Reef in ten days. However she managed to persuade the Lighthouse Board to allow her to stay on until a replacement was found. However, when no man could be found to accept the job, Kate was hired on, in 1895, as one of the first women on the Eastern Seaboard to be in charge of an offshore lighthouse. The following year, Jacob was hired as her part time assistant.

Kate was a strong rower and became known for her rescues of stranded sailors whose boats foundered on the nearby reef. Kate retired from her position as lighthouse keeper when she was seventy-one-years old. She lived out her remaining years in a cottage on Staten Island with Mae, near her family and friends.

Discussion

Kate's Light tells the remarkable story of Katherine Walker who was born Katherine Gortler in Germany in 1848. After emigrating to the United States, she married an light keeper and eventually became a light keeper herself. Kate was light keeper at Robbins Reef until her retirement in 1919, passing on the job to her son Jacob who was keeper until 1921. Although Kate died in 1931, she is not forgotten by those who sail in the waters of New York Bay today.

In this lovely picture book, Spires highlights for younger readers, Kate Walker's courage, determination and resiliency as she encountered each new challenge in her life. She was a widow with a young son when she emigrated to the United States. Unable to speak much English, she quickly found a job, married and learned a new language.

After her marriage to John Walker, Kate met the challenge of living on an offshore lighthouse by quickly adapting to yet another very different lifestyle, one more isolated and requiring the discipline of caring for the lighthouse. She knew lives depended on her and her husband operating the light that guided sailors to safety in the bay. When her husband died, once again Kate showed resiliency and self confidence in taking over the job of keeper of the lighthouse. Her incredible courage was displayed in the many rescues Kate undertook during her time as light keeper.

In her note at the back of the book titled, About Kate Walker, Spires makes special mention of what life was like in the Robbins Reef lighthouse: "...Kate lived without the conveniences of modern life. The rooms were lit with kerosene lamps. Because the lighthouse had no electricity, Kate had no refrigerator, washing machine, or electric iron, and no hot water except for what she could heat on the coal stove in the kitchen. A cistern in the basement held filtered rainwater that was pumped by hand to the first floor. There was no indoor plumbing. With no central heating, the upper floors of the lighthouse were cold in winter."

The telling of Kate Walker's story is enhanced by the lovely illustrations by artist Emily Arnold McCully. Rendered in watercolor, pen and ink, McCully captures the atmosphere of late nineteenth century life on New York Bay. Many illustrations are filled with the blues, greens and greys of the water. Readers will especially enjoy her illustrations of the bay, which capture the peaceful calm of rowing out to the lighthouse, the harbour when it is busy with ships and the fearsome wildness of the water during storms. In contrast, are the idyllic paintings of life in the cozy lighthouse.

One interesting addition to this picture book is the illustration by Currier & Ives of 1892 titled The Port Of New York: Bird's-Eye view from the Battery, Looking South which can be found in the inside of the front and back covers. A closer view of this image is available from the Library of Congress website: https://www.loc.gov/resource/pga.00863/.

Kate's Light is another excellent addition to picture books that highlight the often forgotten contributions and achievements by women over the years. Elizabeth Spires provides extra information in her About Kate Walker section as well a Notes and Additional Information

Book Details:

Kate's Light: Kate Walker at Robbins Reef Lighthouse by Elizabeth Spires
New York: Margaret Ferguson Books      2021
37 pp.

How I Survived Four Nights On The Ice by Serapio Ittusardjuat

Inuit author, language specialist and cultural advisor, Serapio Ittusardjuat is the author of a book about his personal experience of survival:  his snowmobile broke down on the ice on the return journey home from a ice fishing camp.

His survival adventure occurred in December of 2008 when Serapio was making a journey to Iqaluit, a fishing camp north of Igloolik to pick up some maktaaq (walrus skins) his son had left. On his way home to Igloolik, in his attempt to follow the trail across the ice, Serapio became lost. His snowmobile did not have lights, making the trail difficult to see.

The trail from Igloolik and the Iqaluit Fishing Camp crossed a wide expanse of the ocean between Baffin Island and the Melville Peninsula. With the cold weather the ice closest to shore freezes first, while the ice farther out freezes much later. He was now in an area of rough ice, filled with icebergs. Serapio decided to leave behind his qamutiik (sled) which kept getting stuck in the snow. Before moving on, he ate the food that he had brought with him and continued on with just his snowmobile. 

However, soon his snowmobile broke down. Night was approaching so Serapio decided to shelter in place, on his snowmobile. He knew that the most important thing was to stay dry because getting wet could lead to hypothermia. When he lived in an iglu he had been taught to put his mitts under the caribou-skin bedding to keep them dry. Being dry guarded against hypothermia.

So Serapio put his mitts in his snow pants and slept on his snowmobile. The next morning he was able to see that the choke on the snowmobile had broken. He could not repair it.

Serapio found himself very thirsty so he was able to get water to drink by forming two staggered basins in the snow and setting a fire in the upper- most to melt water.

He thought about travelling on foot back to Igloolik but he had had surgery and it was difficult recent surgery and he was still recovering. He also was not wearing caribou-skin clothing, so this meant if he walked, he would sweat, his clothing would become damp, and he would be at risk of hypothermia. Serapio decided to wait on the snowmobile for rescue. He knew that because he had not returned home within a reasonable time, a rescue party would be organized.

The second and third days passed with Serapio working to keep himself dry and warm. His second attempt to create drinking water from the snow was unsuccessful, because he had not done it quite properly. The melted water was contaminated with gasoline from the fire. Although it was difficult to stay put, Serapio did so, walking about the area near his snowmobile. But it was not until the night of the fourth day that Serapio woke to see snowmobiles approaching. His ordeal was over. He had survived.

Discussion

How I Survived Four Nights On The Ice is a graphic novel about the real life experience of Inuit elder, Serapio Ittusardjuat. He credits his survival to the knowledge he was taught when younger of how to survive in the unforgiving north.

Serapio was born in 1945 at Akunniq, Nunavut. He attended the residential school in Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut and at Fort Churchill, Manitoba. Serapio was known for his tremendous knowledge of walruses, not surprising since his family had a history of hunting walrus. He was a certified journeyman mechanic but had also studied jewelry-making and metalwork at the Ottawa School of Art and Nunavut Arctic College. Serapio often advised on traditional Inuit knowledge. Sadly, Serapio passed away this year.

Serapio's story highlights the importance living off the land and survival skills have in the lives of Indigenous peoples. In the past, these skills were passed down from one generation to the next. And as Serapio's story illustrates, knowledge of them could mean the difference between life and death.  Serapio believed they are still relevant today in the far north.

His story is aptly illustrated by Australian illustrator, comic book author and animator, Matthew K. Hoddy. The digitally created illustrations capture the essence of Serapio's four nights on the ice, the isolation, and the vastness of the far North.

How I Survived Four Nights On The Ice is another excellent novel about the lived experience of Indigenous peoples in the far north.

Book Details:

How I Survived Four Nights On The Ice by Serapio Ittusardjuat
Iqualuit, Nunavut: Inhabit Media Inc.    2020
45 pp.

Fred & Marjorie: A doctor, a dog and the discovery of insulin by Deborah Kerbel

Dr. Frederick Banting had just finished a long surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children. On his break he walked by a room where the parents of a young girl are just being told their daughter has diabetes. As there is no cure, she has a few months, maybe a year before she will die. As Fred and another doctor try to relax on the steps of the hospital, a stray street dog begs for food and Fred gives it a bun.

At a hospital some of the sickest patients were those with juvenile diabetes. In 1920 doctors knew that diabetes was somehow connected to problems with the pancreas. But the connection was not understood. What was known was that the only treatment was starvation.

Meanwhile the stray dog continued to wander the streets of Toronto, even hanging around the hospital.

After his residency at Sick Kids ends, Fred left Toronto for London, Ontario where he set up a small medical practice. But business was slow, so Fred decided to visit the University of Western Ontario to see if he could obtain a teaching position. He was able to work as a part time instructor in anatomy and surgery.

A few weeks into his teaching job, Fred had to prepare a lesson on the pancreas. It was something he knew nothing about, so he spent time reading and researching. And then he had idea as to how to determine the pancreas's involvement in diabetes.

On the advice of Professor Miller from the University of Western, Fred sought out Professor J.J.R. Macleod at the University of Toronto. Macleod, a professor of physiology listened as Fred described his idea. It was to remove the pancreas from a dog making it diabetic, after which they would tie of the external ducts in the pancreas of a second dog to isolate whatever substance the pancreas is making. This substance would then be injected into one group of diabetic dogs to see if they regained their health. 

Professor Macleod was skeptical because Fred was an orthopedic surgeon with no research experience. Nevertheless, Fred begged Macleod for a lab to conduct his experiment and a team of dogs. Macleod agreed but told Fred he had to wait until the end of the school year for a lab to be free. The stage was now set for the unbelievable discovery that would save the lives of millions of people from a slow death due to diabetes.

Discussion

Frederick Banting and Charles Best's work to isolate what would become known as insulin, was one of the most significant medical discoveries of the the twentieth century. Until their groundbreaking work, insulin which is the hormone produced by the pancreas to allow the body to process sugar, was unknown at the time. Extracting, identifying and developing a way to purify it so it could be given to diabetics, saved hundreds of millions of children from death. It was so monumental, that the 1923 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Banting and Macleod.

Frederick Banting was born on a farm near Alliston, Ontario in 1891. Initially Banting enrolled in a general arts course at the University of Toronto in 1910 but he did not complete his first year. He then enrolled into the medicine program in 1912, with a specialty in surgery. With the onset of World War I, Banting attempted to enroll in the Canadian Army but was rejected due to poor eyesight. He was accepted into the Canadian Army Medical Service. Banting graduated with a bachelor's degree in medicine in December, 1916. 

Banting was eventually sent to England where he first worked at the Granville Hospital. Banting was sent over to the front lines and was wounded in the Battle of Chambrai. After spending some time healing in hospital, Banting eventually returned home where he worked at the Christie Street Hospital for Veterans in Toronto. After he was demobilized, Banting completed his internship in surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children. 

The graphic novel Fred & Marjorie picks up Banting's story at this point. His idea for a possible treatment of diabetes came to him, October 31, 1920 while takes notes from Moses Barron's in preparation for a lecture. Initially he presented his idea to Dr. F.G. Miller at the University of Western Ontario who referred him to Prof. J.J.R. Macleod at the University of Toronto. Although Macleod was skeptical of Banting's idea, he made arrangements for Banting to carry out his experiments at Toronto in the spring. With the help of his assistant, Charles Best, a recent graduate of physiology and biochemistry, the two men worked diligently, overcoming many problems. By the end of July they were able to inject one of the diabetic dogs with the extract from the pancreas which resulted in lowering the animal's blood sugar level. They knew they were on the right track.

In Fred & Marjorie, Kerbel focuses on Frederick Banting's contributions, and his relationship with a stray dog he named Marjorie. In her retelling of this remarkable event, Kerbel notes that it is "based mainly on firsthand accounts as they were recorded at the time and remembered years later, although some parts of the timeline were condensed in the interest of pacing." As a result, this graphic novel is short, and to the point, focusing on the most important events in the time line it covers, and limiting the telling to just the two major characters, Banting and research as well as his relationship with one of the research dogs, Marjorie.

Marjorie was also known as Dog 33. Her life before she became one of the laboratory dogs was imagined by the author, but her contributions to the experiment were real: she survived very long on the insulin treatments, proving that there was a way to treat diabetes.

In her note titled, An Ethical Dilemma, Kerbel  discusses the use of animals, and in this case, dogs in medical experiments. She mentions that Banting experienced conflicting emotions about the use of dogs in the experiments. He was after all, taking healthy dogs and making them diabetic in order to test his theory that something produced by the pancreas controlled the level of sugar in the blood. Kerbel captures some of Banting's conflict in her story. She portrays Banting developing a friendship with many of the dogs, despite Charles Best telling him researchers should never allow themselves to become emotionally attached to the animals. However Banting, who grew up on a farm and who loved animals, couldn't help himself. There are panels showing Banting concerned for the dogs, making sure they get out of the stuffy, hot rooms for some air during the summer heat, and even having their pictures taken because he considers the dogs to be heroes. 

Eventually the stray whom Banting names Marjorie becomes part of the research and is eventually chosen for the most important step of their work, a longevity experiment. Kerbel portrays Banting's intense emotions when he knows that Marjorie, surviving seventy days on the pancreatic extract, must be put down.The panels show Banting in tears, devastated at her death.

Fred & Marjorie is illustrated by Canadian artist, Angela Poon.

Fred & Marjorie will appeal to fans of graphic novels, to those interested in science and Canadian scientists. Short and sweet, beautifully illustrated, this graphic novel is engaging and informative.

You can read more about the discovery of insulin from the University of Toronto's website, The  Discovery  and Early Development of Insulin: https://insulin.library.utoronto.ca/

Book Details:

Fred & Marjorie: A doctor, a dog and the discovery of insulin by Deborah Kerbel
Toronto: Owlkids Books     2021
55pp.

The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity by Amy Alznauer

In 1887, Srinivasa Ramanujan was born in a small village in South India, by the banks of the Kaveri River. His mother whispered to him that prior to his birth, "the goddess Namagiri leaned down and whispered in your grandmother's ear that someday she would write the thoughts of God on your tongue." She decided to name him Ramanujan.

For the first three years of his life Ramanujan was silent. To help him, his grandfather would trace numbers in the rice and count aloud in Tamil. This led Ramanujan to being to speak. He would ask questions such as "What is small?" and "What is big?"

At five years of age, Ramanujan attended  a small school held on the porch of a house. He became bored and would often wander away.His mind was filled with questions like,  What else is small? 

He thought of a mango cut into smaller and smaller pieces, until there were infinite pieces. Ramanujan continued to be intrigued by numbers, big and small. 

In school he would scratch numbers furiously on his slate, irritating the school master who wondered what he was doing. Not surprisingly, Ramanujan hated school. After trying new schools every year, his parents finally sent him to Kangayan Primary.

While his schoolmates played goli gundu, Ramanujan spent his time after school on the front pial of his home, working with the numbers he loved so much. Numbers were everywhere for Ramanujan, in the songs his mother sang and in his dreams at night.

When he was ten years old, Ramanujan began attending Kumbakonam Town High School. There a schoolmaster finally recognized Ramanujan's gift with numbers. He had the ability to solve math problems quickly and although shy he entertained his classmates. Ramanujan found a college mathematics textbook and was able to solve all the problems. He began keeping a notebook which he used to write down his mathematical ideas in green pen. 

He loved to ask unusual questions such as "How many sums are inside two hundred?" and "Will an endless list of tiny numbers add up to 1 or infinity?" Unfortunately, Ramanujan failed college and returned home. He was twenty years old and had no job. His mother demanded he get a job and arranged a marriage for him. He eventually obtained work as an account clerk with Port Trust in Madras.

But still Ramanujan continued to work on his math problems. The British, working in Madras were convinced Ramanujan was brilliant and urged him to write a letter to Cambridge University, in England. After many letters and no responses, Ramanujan wrote to G. H. Hardy, a top mathematician at Cambridge who had studied the concept of infinity. Hardy was stunned by Ramanujan's ideas and urged him to come to England. In 1914, after praying in the temple, Ramanujan left behind his amma and appa, and his young wife and sailed to England. He brought with him his notebooks and his ideas which would change the study of mathematics forever.

Discussion

The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity presents the story of Srinivasa Ramanujan whose life was also the subject of the 2015 movie, The Man Who Knew Infinity. 

The author, Amy Alznauer has a direct connection to Ramanujan's story because it was her father who discovered Ramanujan's "Lost Notebook." As Alznauer writes in her Author's Note, she was six years old when she travelled to England with her father who was a mathematician. Her father was Professor George Andrews, attending a conference in England in 1976, and who was invited to look at some materials stored at the Trinity College Library belonging to the estate of the late G. N. Watson. Watson had been Mason professor of pure mathematics at the University of Birmingham and had spent ten to fifteen years studying Ramanujan's work. Professor Andrews found a collection of 138 pages containing over six hundred formulas in a box of materials. These pages he called "The Lost Notebook".

Andrews was a recognized authority on the work of Ramanujan and published papers on his work in the journal, Advances in Mathematics.  Alznauer is also a mathematics graduate who teaches calculus and number theory at Northwestern University.

The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity portrays Ramanujan as a boy obsessed with numbers. He spends all his time writing on his slate and rubbing the numbers off with his elbow so he can produce more formulas and numbers/ For Ramanujan, numbers "leaped and roared." As a child he saw numbers every where. "Numbers were everywhere. In the squares of light pricking his thatched roof. In the gods dancing on the temple tower. In the clouds that formed and re-formed in the sky."

Ramanujan is driven by his desire to understand numbers, and the concept of infinity. "If he could crack the number 1 open and find infinity, what secret would he discover inside other numbers? It felt like he was setting out on a grand chase." It is Ramanujan's personal relationship with numbers, a voyage of discovery that occurred every day, that Alznauer portrays to her young readers. In her Author's Note she writes, "Every morning when Ramanujan woke, numbers rose with the sun and spread to every corner of his mind. From the time he was a little boy, he learned mathematics not from books or teachers but by experimenting with numbers himself. He dusted off their bones and looked for their hidden structures. So I show him discovering ideas like primes and partitions and infinite sums even before he knew what to call them."

The author writes that she "focused on the development of Ramanujan's young mind and his struggle to be understood." In her portrayal, Ramanujan is shown as often being misunderstood as he spent hours with his slate, writing and working with numbers. Because of this he often faced challenges in school and even from the people around him.

For Ramanujan mathematics was an adventure, one that would ultimately lead him from India to England. As he grew older and his questions became more sophisticated, he developed formulas to help him answer those questions. And eventually he had the overwhelming desire to share his ideas about numbers. He wanted to seek out others who were also looking for answers. His experience in England gave him that opportunity.

Adding depth to Alznauer's portrayal of Ramanujan's extraordinary relationship with numbers, is the artwork of illustrator Daniel Miyares. Rendered in ink, the illustrations are colourful, capturing the wonder Ramanujan seems to have had with numbers.

The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity is recommended for those who are interested in science, and for use in STEM and math classes. Math is portrayed not as something to be feared, but as an exciting challenge. Ramanujan was considered a brilliant mathematician, and Alznauer's picture book offers readers a glimpse into life of possibly one of the greatest mathematicians ever.   

Book Details:

The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity by Amy Alznauer
Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press     2020

Freiheit! The White Rose Graphic Novel by Andrea Grosso Giponte

In this graphic novel, the story of a group of German resistors called The White Rose is portrayed.

The story opens on February 18, 1943, at the University of Munich. Hans Scholl and his younger sister, Sophie have entered a building at the university to drop off leaflets they have written and printed. The White Rose, comprised of Sophie Scholl, her brother Hans Scholl, Christoph Probst, Willi Graf, Alexander Schmorell and Kurt Huber are determined not to leave Germans in peace.

Nine months earlier, in May 1942, while travelling to Munich to meet Hans, Sophie is asked for her identity papers on the train. At Hans's apartment she discovers they have a huge library of books, even ones written by a German Jew named Heinrich Heine. As they walk through the woods later on, Hans reads a passage from Gottfried Keller. Alex believes this is good for their flyers.

At a lecture by Professor Kurt Huber in June, 1942, he tells students that Fichte invites the Germans "to think, to be responsible, not to endure". He warns his class that Fichte "warns us not to be surprised by the sweetness of servitude. The danger is precisely that or not feeling the weight of oppression. Suffering the poison with a slow addiction. Almost unconsciously." After class Sophie finds  a flyer on the desk and shows her friend Marie who tells her to hide it. But Sophie is determined to show her brother Hans. The leaflet urges the German people "to work against the scourge of humankind, fascism and any similar system of totalitarianism." Sophie tells her friend, her boyfriend Fritz has asked her to marry her. When she returns to the apartment, Hans is not there but she sees a book open on his desk. The title is "The Awakening of Epimenides" by Goethe. Sophie rides her bike over to Alex's house where she finds Christoph and Hans operating a small printing press, making leaflets.

Has tells her to leave and forget what she has seen, but she reminds him the Gestapo are already watching their family. This leads Sophie to decide to join Hans and his friends in their resistance because she feels being honest is what makes a person totally free.

They discuss how to get their leaflets to other cities. Alex has issues with some of the ides in the leaflets especially those that call for sabotage. He feels only the army can rid Germany of the Nazis, but Hans feels they cannot wait. They decide to mail the leaflets. The leaflets come to the attention of the Gestapo. When Hans goes to buy two hundred stamps, he is pursued by the Gestapo but gets away. 

Then Hans and Sophie's father, Robert is reported to the Gestapo by his new secretary for making treason remarks about Hitler. At the Scholl family home in Ulm, Munster, Hans decides against writing a request for clemency. At this time Fritz visits to take Sophie out before he returns to the front in Russia. However, Sophie is unhappy over Fritz's participation in the war. 

As Hans, Alex, Willi and the others prepare to return to the Eastern Front, the are told by Professor Huber to keep in touch. Sophie is assigned to work in a munitions factory in Ulm. Meanwhile at the home of Christoph and Herta Probst in Ruhpolding in November of 1942, Christoph is urged to spend more time with his young family and to look after his wife.

Along the Ludwigstrasse in Munich, February 1943, Hans paints the word Freiheit or "Freedom" in bold white letters. The Sixth Army has lost the Battle of Stalingrad. Later Sophie tells Hans they have almost two thousand copies of the leaflet to distribute. Hans decides they will go to the university and spread the leaflets in the hallway during class. It is a decision that will have devastating consequences for all those in the White Rose.

Discussion

The dramatic story of the White Rose, a group of young German dissenters is boldly portrayed by Italian artist and graphic novelist, Andrea Grosso Giponte in this well-done graphic novel. Their story is introduced by a short note at the front of the novel which provides the backstory to the situation in Germany and the four young people whose consciences called them to action. 

The opening panels are of Sophie and Hans at the university releasing the leaflets. The story then flashes back to nine months earlier, as the White Rose begins to act on their beliefs that Hitler must be resisted, and the German people must be woken from their moral stupor and encouraged to rise up against their evil government. Done in muted earthy tones, Giponte's panels are at times extremely realistic, appearing to be like photographs, seamlessly leading the reader from one event to the next.

Giponte captures some of conflicts members of the White Rose experienced; Alex is concerned about the suggestion that armament plants and war industries be sabotaged, while Sophie worries about endangering their family especially after the arrest of their father. At first their acts of defiance are small such as printing the leaflets but they grow bolder; Sophie works slowly at the munitions factory while Hans paints the word freedom on a building. Even Christoph Probst's increasing involvement places stress on his marriage.

Although the members of the White Rose are guillotined, the graphic novel ends on a positive note, portraying the British use of their leaflets which were dropped by the millions over Germany in July, 1943. Giponte has reproduced the text of each of the six leaflets, translated into English by Arthur R. Schultz, so readers can explore the ideas in the leaflets. The leaflets are explicit in their condemnation of Hitler. From the fourth leaflet,
"Every word that comes from Hitler's mouth is a lie. When he says peace, he means war, and when he blasphemously uses the name of the Almighty, he means the power of evil, the fallen angel, Satan.  His mouth is the foul-smelling max of hell, and his might is at bottom accursed." In the fourth leaflet, the writer vows, "We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!"

A very well done, engaging graphic novel about the White Rose resistance group that will appeal to readers of all ages. Many may find themselves wanting to look up German philosophers like Johann Gottlieb Fichte and the German poet, Heinrich Heine.

Book Details:

Freiheit: The White Rose Graphic Novel by Andrea Grosso Giponte
Walden, New York:  Plough Publishing House     2021
111 pp.

On The Trapline by David A. Robertson

A young boy travels north to visit his Moshom, or grandpa who is taking him to see his old trapline that his family had when he was a boy. Moshom hasn't been to his trapline since he was a child.

Moshom explains that a trapline is "where people hunt animals and live off the land." When their plane lands, they are met by Moshom's old friend. They greet each other in their native language of Swampy Cree. The boy notices that in the north there is a lot of space and the houses are far apart.

First they go to a small house by a large lake. This is where Moshom's family lived after they left the trapline. In the winter, everyone slept together in one room, next to the wood stove, to stay warm.

Moshom shows his grandson the broken down building where he went to school after his family left the trapline. At school all the students had to speak English. To speak their mother tongue, Cree, they would sneak into the bush.

At the river at the end of the highway, Moshom, his friend and his grandson take a motor boat out onto the river. The boy sees beaver dams, eagles on the wing and paintings on the rocks. Eventually they arrive at Moshom's trapline.

Moshom tells him that while on the trapline, his family slept in one large tent to keep warm. Everyone shared the work, even the youngest children had jobs to do. He also shows his grandson one of the places he used to set traps to catch muskrats. This animal provided his family with meat, and the pelts were sold to buy flour, sugar and tea. While fishing on the way back, Moshom tells his grandson they also fished on the trapline and everyone shared what they caught with others.

At a community feast later that night, Moshom, who is an Elder, blesses the meal. His grandson serves him first because as an elder, Moshom eats first. It is a delicious meal of bannock, vegetables, berries, wild meat and fish.

On the flight home, Moshom remembers and can see his trapline. So can his young grandson.

Discussion

In this touching story about a Cree grandfather and his grandson, Robertson weaves a story of remembering that incorporates many aspects of indigenous culture and values. On an obvious level, there is the inclusion in the storytelling of many Cree words on almost every page; kiwetinohk which means "north", wakomakanak which means "family" and kiskisiw which means "he remembers" are a few examples.  But On The Trapline also highlights many important features of Cree culture and life, as through Moshom. For example, Moshom tells his grandson how every person on the trapline worked together and had a job to do, even the young children. He also relates how food was shared with others, demonstrating the generosity that enabled indigenous communities to survive. At the community feast, the value of older Cree members is highlighted by the young boy first serving his grandfather, an Elder, demonstrating respect for his wisdom and knowledge.

On The Trapline is a remembering of a way of life that vanished when Moshom's family left the trapline and settled into a house in a community. David A. Robertson writes in his A Note from the Author, that his father lived on the trapline until he was nine years old. His family left the trapline at the time and moved to Norway House, situated on the banks of the Nelson River in Manitoba. His father accompanied his own father on the trapline on and off but eventually never returned after his teens. In 2018, David accompanied his father back to the land. For his father, it was the first time in seventy years and for the author the first time ever.  As Robertson writes in his note, "Reconciliation is more than just healing from trauma. It's connecting, or reconnecting with people, culture, language, community."

The illustrations for On The Trapline were rendered using an earthy pastel palette on paper and then composed digitally. These were created by Swampy Cree and Red River Metis author, illustrator and artist, Julie Flett. Her family have a history as trappers and traders as well as hunters and fishers. Her son and nieces are reclaiming their traditions and skills through the learning of their language, living off the land and beading.

On The Trapline provides an excellent and informative introduction to the Indigenous experience in the early 20th century.

Book Details:

On The Trapline by David A. Robertson
Tundra Books    2021

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.