My Nest of Silence by Matt Faulkner

Mari Asai, her older brother Makoto and their parents, Ichiro and Aki are living in the Manzanar prison camp in California. They were sent to the camp after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Like most other Japanese-Americans, the Asai were forced to sell their farm in Florino, California.

It's April, 1944 and with Mak turning eighteen, he's decided, against his father's wishes, to enlist in the U.S. army. After Mak leaves on a greyhound bus, Mari decides she won't talk anymore. She's angry at Mak for making this decision without talking to her and she's angry at her father for seeming not to care. But being silent hasn't been easy. Mari is hoping that being silent will bring Mak safely home, but her father feels Mari's silence is "abnormal" while Mama understands that Mari is "upset over Mak leaving." The adults at the camp see Mari's silence as insulting.

Finally after two weeks, a letter from Mak arrives. He tells her that the bus ride from Manzanar to Camp Shelby in Mississippi was long. Although he tells Mari that their drill sergeants are "not a bad bunch of fellows" they are yelled at, have their heads shaved and are sent on a five mile "hike" before bed. Mari suspects that Mak is not telling her the whole story.

Life at Manzanar consists of lots of dust and bad food, although it's not as bad as when they first arrived. Eventually, the Issei and Nisei took over cooking at the camp. But the dust and windstorms are still a problem. One of the oldest people in the camp is Oba-chan Yuki who Mari likes and who is a great storyteller. Oba-chan Yuki has a terrible cough which the constant dust makes worse. One morning after telling Mari and her mother a story, Oba-chan Yuki asks to see Mari's sketchbook. She tells them her daughter Eunice is a water colour painter who has created artwork for Reader's Digest magazine and she offers to have Mari meet Eunice.

Another letter from Mak in July, 1944 tells about the schedule at Camp Shelby and meeting boys who are from Hawai'i. He asks Mari to have Father write to him. A third letter mentions his friend Kazuo (Kaz) who is from Hawai'i and how the Hawaiian Buddhaheads and the Mainland Kotonks are at odds with one another.  But when Kaz learns that Mak's family is in a prison camp, he is proud that Mak enlisted. A fourth letter from Mak reveals that he's put in to be an army mechanic while his friend Whitey Kurasaki has been made a unit leader. 

Back in Manzanar, Mari meets Eunice who praises her artwork and invites Mari to join her art class at the camp. But during her first art class, Mari cuts her finger with a razor blade while sharpening her pencil and her father refuses to allow her to return to the class. After Oba-chan Yuki dies in her sleep, Mari falls ill with pneumonia. As she begins to recover, Mari learns that Eunice and her family have left the camp after obtaining a waiver to move to Chicago, and that baby Keiko and the other orphans have been adopted out. 

As the war drags on, Mari struggles to recover from pneumonia and she becomes emotionally distraught. Mari is worried and sad. After becoming delusional in the old camouflage factory, Mari is hospitalized with a serious fever.  As the U.S. government no longer sees the Japanese as a serious threat and more people leave Manzanar, Mari's parents  argue about where to move after the war, with Father wanting to return to their hometown and Mama wanting to move East where they will be accepted. 

Meanwhile, Mak is determined to help out the war effort in a more meaningful way then driving a jeep. He begs to be sent to the front so he can help his friends Kaz and Whitey but is refused. When the lieutenant he drives for, abandons his orders to go to the front at Bruyeres, Mak and Harry decide to push on and find themselves in a deadly situation that sees them going missing and almost costs them their lives. 

At home, Mari and her parents learn only bits and pieces of what is going on overseas, further adding to Mari's stress. With a second telegram, Mari is certain Mak is dead, leading to a serious crisis. Once Mak's situation is clarified, the Asai family make a decision for their future, Mari begins to hope that life will be better.

Discussion

My Nest of Silence is a novel that combines two stories, one written in narrative prose, the other in graphic novel format. The two stories serve to contrast one another: Mari and her parents struggling to cope amid the injustice and racism of the Japanese internment, while their brother/son willingly sacrifices for the country that has treated them so badly.

The narrative story focuses on a Japanese-American family, the Asai's, sent to Manzanar prison camp and is told from the point of view of their ten-year-old daughter, Mari who decides to take a vow of silence both to punish her father and to protect her beloved brother Mak who has enlisted in the U.S. Army.  Mari's narrative exposes the reality of  life in Manzanar, showing the suffering Japanese American families endured but also highlighting their determination and resiliency in the face of racism and injustice. Mari's family who were farmers in Florin, California have lost their home and all their possessions. They live in dusty, cold barracks, surrounded by barbed wire. Even orphans and the elderly are incarcerated.

Mari struggles to cope with her older brother Mak enlisting and what seems like a lack of understanding by her father. The camp conditions, stress and worry about her brother and their future, lead her to become seriously ill. But Mari's real crisis comes when she believes a second telegram is about Mak having died and she climbs into the rafters of the old camouflage factory. She is almost seriously injured but saved by her father. 

Interspersed with Mari's narrative is Mak's story told through the use of graphic art. Mari receives  letters sent home to her by her brother Makato. These are dated and have some short text. However, the content of the letters is contradicted by what is shown in the graphic novel panels. Mak reveals the strenuous training, awful food, and the struggle to get along with the "Hawaiian Buddhaheads" who dislike the Japanese-American (Kotonk) soldiers as well as their white (haole) superiors, and the racism they encounter from other soldiers. In his letters, Mak doesn't reveal to his sister or family the dangers he and his fellow Japanese-American soldiers encounter, nor the real extent of his wounds later on. Instead, knowing the difficulties his family must deal with at Manzanar, he is positive, encouraging and humorous.

But it is the graphic novel pages that really are the novel's outstanding strength. Faulker successfully captures the sacrifice, bravery and fortitude of these young Japanese-American men, who, in spite of being imprisoned along with their families, chose to fight for their country. They put aside the injustice, the hatred and indignity shown them, and enlisted, perhaps believing in a better America in the future. Set against this sacrifice, is the suffering of their families imprisoned back home.  It is a debt as Faulkner writes in his blog, that must be remembered: 

"I believe it's essential that our country regularly express regret for what we did. That expression won’t fix the vastness of what was done to that community. But it might help. Let’s learn the history of the internment and share it with others. Let’s never forget what we did as a nation to Japanese Americans, so that we can help them heal and so that we may never do it again. Not ever again."

It is novels like My Nest of Silence that will help Americans remember, and move forward the process of healing and forgiveness that is so necessary. 

Book Details:

My Nest of Silence by Matt Faulkner
New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers    2022

373 pp.

Last Flight by Kristen Mai Giang

Saigon, Vietnam is a city with busy streets. We were used to the sounds of sandals on the pavement and motorbikes. But the war brought new sounds: heavy boots and booms that felt nearer and nearer. When it was time for Ma to have her baby, Ba drove her holding a lantern on his motorbike. There were now eight in our family.

Then we learned that Saigon was falling. Since Ba worked for Pan Am, an American airline, he told us we would go to America. Pan Am promised to fly their workers out of the country. As the war came closer, the booms became louder and some days we could smell tear gas. Eventually only one flight out of the country remained and we had to be on that flight. 

However, we did not have the papers required by Vietnamese citizens to leave the country. In the hopes of solving this problem, Mr. Topping who was Ba's boss at Pan Am decided to declare his Pan Am Vietnamese staff as his family and signed adoption papers for over three hundred people!  But they also needed a plane and a flight crew.

The last night before the flight, we slept at Ba's office. In the morning buses took us to the airport. But Ma and Ba were worried because people were saying the airport was closed. However, at the airport we saw a Pan Am plane landing. President Gerald Ford had declared the flight an emergency rescue flight and a volunteer crew were on the plane. Hundreds of people clamored aboard the plane. When it was decided the plane was too heavy, we threw out bags to make more room. 

Soon the plane raced down the runway and was in the air. We left Saigon behind and faced the biggest job of all, starting over.

Discussion

Last Flight is the story of Kristen Mai Giang's family's escape from Saigon on April 24, 1975, a mere six days before the city's surrender to the North Vietnamese army. Kristen Mai Giang was only eighteen months old when her family left Vietnam. The story recounted in the picture book is a fictionalized version of what happened, based largely on her older sister Linh's memories as well as those of Allan Topping whom the author interviewed.  For example, her family never knew Allan Topping but his role in saving more than four hundred people just before the fall of Saigon is well documented. In addition to that, he was also responsible for evacuating more than six hundred Vietnamese orphans out of the country in Operation Baby Life, the week prior.

Airways Magazine has an excellent article that describes the situation leading up to the last Pan Am flight, identified as 1965/31. The details of the flight were kept secret so that the airport would not be overrun with people attempting to board. The flight would take not only Pan Am employees but anyone else it could, who wanted to leave the country. 

Giang, in her Author's Note, writes that she "wanted to highlight what seemed to me the real miracle of this story, -- the simple and sometimes stunning ways people choose to help each other." Last Flight does just that, showing how Linh helped her mother pack, how she put one stuffed puppy into a bag so her little sister could be brave, how she helped the little ones stay quiet at Ba's office and how her Ma and Ba gave money to help pay for more people to escape on the last flight.

The artwork for Last Flight was created by retired pediatrician, Dow Phumiruk using pencil and coloured using Photoshop.

Included in the back matter is a photograph of the author's familiy shortly after their arrival in the United States, an Author's Note, Flight Facts about the last Pan Am flight out of Vietnam, and a Bibliography.

Book Details:

Last Flight by Kristen Mai Giang
Montclair: Levine Querido     2023

Oolichan Moon by Samantha Beynon

Two sisters, Little Sister and Big Sister, loved visiting their grandmother and grandfather. They were respected Elders who lived according to the traditional ways of their people, Nisga'a. One thing they really loved was a tasty fish called oolichan.

When the sisters woke up they both wondered if this was the time of year the Nisga'a catch oolichan. They decided to go downstairs and ask grandmother (jiji). Grandmother told Little Sister that the oolichan are very important to the Nisga'a and that to some Elders they were known as the "saviour fish".  

They were considered the "saviour fish" because they were the first fresh fish of the new year.  After the long winter months their people sometimes ran short of the dried fish that helped them through the winter. In early spring, millions of oolichan filled the rivers.

Grandmother explains to the girls that there were many reasons why the oolichan were saviours to their people. The fish is rich in vitamins which helps keep people healthy.  They also are so rich in oil that they can be lit and used like a candle when they are dried. The oil is often administered to a person who is sick.

Even more important is that the oil is like liquid gold to the Nisga'a people. Grandmother tells Little Sister and Big Sister that the oolichan are boiled in large, watertight boxes called brentwood boxes. The oil was skimmed off and traded to other nations. And yes, Grandmother tells the sisters that this is the time of the oolichan moon! At the  door is Daada, their auntie with a bag of fresh oolichan!

Discussion

Oolichan Moon is about an amazing little fish, called oolichan by the Nisga'a, that has been central to their culture for generations. Known as Thaleichthys pacificus to biologists, this small, smelt-like fish spends most of its life in the ocean but returns to the freshwater streams and rivers where it was born, to spawn and die. The oolichan run usually happens in March.

As noted in this picture book, the oolichan was considered a saviour fish because it was the first fresh food of the spring, just as the First Nations peoples along the coast were running short of their winter stores. The fish were so plentiful that they could be caught using a net or an oolichan rake. Today, oolichan is considered an endangered species. 

Although the sisters in the story speak about loving to eat the tasty oolichan, the author in her note titled "Oolichan Grease" writes that most of the fish caught were used to extract the oil. Oolichan fat is more like olive oil than fish oil, with about fifty-five percent mono-unsaturated fats and a low polyunsaturated fat content. This type of oil content means the oil doesn't spoil as readily and is the reason the fish when dried can be lighted like a candle. Oolichan has also been an important medicine for the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest.

Young readers learn all about the oolichan through the interaction of two sisters, Little Sister and Big Sister with their beloved Jiji or Grandmother. Although Little Sister asks many questions and keeps interrupting, Grandmother is patient with her, happy that her young grandchildren want to know about their heritage and culture. Informing her grandchildren offers a vehicle for informing the reader too. Beynon not only highlights the importance of the oolichan in the Nisga'a culture but also demonstrates the importance of intergenerational relationships to Indigenous peoples.This relationship has been a way of passing on traditional knowledge to the younger generation.

Oolichan Moon is illustrated by Lucy Trimble who is from the Frog Clan. Trimble's richly coloured illustrations contain many elements of traditional Indigenous design and artwork. Author Samantha Beynon who is of Nisga'a, Ts'msyen and European heritage, has incorporated related Nisga'a vocabulary in her story and has included several separate pages at the back: Nisga'a Vocabulary, A Fish Central to Nisga'a Culture, Oolichan Grease and Oolichan Fishing.

Book Details:

Oolichan Moon by Samantha Beynon
Madeira Park, B.C. :  Harbour Publishing,   2022

The Tower of Life: How Yaffa Eliach Rebuilt Her Town in Stories and Photographs by Chana Stiefel

Yaffa was a girl who lied in a shtetl, a small Jewish town, called Eishyshok. Yaffa's family and most other families in the shtetl had roots that went back over nine hundred years. Their stories were part of the shtetl, and helped keep their faith and traditions alive. Yaffa and her brother Yitzchak played their way through the seasons, sledding and skating in winter, swimming in the lake in the summer. Yaffa would help her Grandma Chaya sell candles on market days. Yaffa and her friends would have their fortunes told for a fee. 

Yaffa's Grandma Alte has a photography studio above the family's pharmacy. Her grandfather brought a camera from America years earlier and Grandma Alte has now become one of the town's photographers. She photographed shopkeepers, newlyweds and babies. Pictures of the Jewish New Year were mailed all over the world to family and friends. Even Yaffa had her picture taken when she was six years old, feeding the chickens. But that year things changed...

German tanks and soldiers came to Eishyshok. Jewish schools and businesses were shut down and the Jews rounded up and forced into the synagogue. Yaffa's father fled out a window and fled with his family into the forest. Yaffa stuffed a few family photographs into her shoes. Almost all of Eishyshok's Jews were killed over a two day period. But Yaffa, her brother Yitzchak and her parents were saved by a kind farmer who hid them in his underground shelter.

As they hid over the months, Yaffa learned to read and her father shared stories of their town's holidays and weddings. During the war they would live in many different places but Yaffa kept safe the photographs she had saved. 

After the war, Yaffa did not return to Eishyshok, but instead moved to Jerusalem. She grew up, married and moved with her family to America. There she became a history professor.

When a new museum was being built in Washington that would document the Holocaust, President Jimmy Carter asked Yaffa to design a memorial. Instead of focusing on death and suffering, Yaffa chose to highlight the lives of those who were lost in the Holocaust. She remembered the people of her shtetl, the children, brides and grooms, the milkmen and the musicians. Remembering the photographs she carefully saved during the Holocaust, she wondered if others had done the same. Perhaps she could build a memorial to the lives of Eishyshok, photograph by photograph and that's what she set out to do.

Discussion

The Tower of Life gives young readers the backstory of a memorial known as the Tower of Faces which is part of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum located in Washington, D.C. The designer of the memorial, Yaffa Eliach survived the Holocaust along with her father and brother Yitzchak. Most of their village were not so lucky. In 1941, almost the entire Jewish population of the shtetl was murdered by the Einsatgruppen (the Nazi killing squads). When Yaffa returned for a visit in 1987, not only was there not one single Jewish resident in living in Eishyshok, but the Jewish cemeteries had been destroyed, the main synagogue was a sports center and the events of the massacre largely erased and forgotten. 

To commemorate what happened in Eishyshok, and to honour the lives of the Jewish people, Yaffa collected six thousand photographs of the residents of Eishyshok that were taken between 1890 and 1941.  Of these photographs, Yaffa chose just over one thousand photos to be used in the permanent memorial which opened in 1993. The photographs not only represent the innocent victims of the massacre but also shtetl life prior to the Holocaust. Of course for the late Yaffa Eliach (she passed away in 2016), the photographs were also a memory of what happened. 

Author Chana Steifel makes use of the picture book format to tell Yaffa's story and that of the creation of the Tower of Faces memorial. It is a compelling read that makes both the story of the Holocaust and the Tower of  Faces accessible to a younger audience. Illustrator Susan Gal's artwork mirrors the events  of Yaffa Eliach's life: life in the shtetl prior to the Holocaust is portrayed in vivid colours of greens, reds, yellows and blues, while the arrival of  the Nazis and the subsequent massacre sees the palette change to reds, oranges and blacks. The people of the shtetl in life before the Holocaust have recognizable faces and features, smiling and interacting with one another. They have a dynamic community, bonded by over nine hundred years of history.  During the massacre, all is chaos and darkness, with faces of fear. Yaffa's work to research and collect photographs for the memorial over a period of seventeen years, is portrayed again in vivid colours. The faces of relatives and friends, as they look at old photographs, are shown filled with the joy of remembering.

The Tower of Life is a fascinating account of  Yaffa Eliach's determination to remember the victims in a way that honored the best parts of their lives, their zest for living, for loving and being with family. The author has included a timeline of Yaffa's life in A Snapshot of Yaffa's Life and Legacy, as well as a Bibliography.

Readers may find this thesis, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Multivalent Tower of Faces by Grace Astrove to be very informative.

Book Details:

The Tower of Life by Chana Stiefel
New York: Scholastic Press      2022

The Secret Pocket by Peggy Janicki

Mary's 'Utsoo (grandmother) and 'Utsiyan (grandfather) had a smoke house next to their lake. The smoke house was used to smoke meat, fish, berries and maitlus (a cake made out of berries). 'Utsoo spent so much time in the smoke house tending the fire that she had a pad and pillows to rest on. There was Utsoo's hugs and sweetened tea, and the feeling of being loved.

But at the end of summer, this all changed when one day a priest and nun came to visit their family. Mary and her family were busy fishing at their lake, and she and her brothers and sisters were playing on the beach. It was decided that Mary along with her sister Aggie and her brother James would be sent far from home to Lejac residential school. 

At the school, Mary who was too young to attend Kindergarten, wandered the hallways during class time. She was homesick for 'Uloo, 'Uba, 'Utsoo, and "Utsiyan. She also rarely saw her brother James who lived on the boys side of the school. The were not allowed to speak Dakelh. 

At Lejac, Mary was always hungry and cold. They were taught by the Sisters who were strict and often cruel. Mary was often homesick. Fall, winter, spring and early summer were spent at the Lejac residential school. But when she was home, Mary helped 'Uloo (mother) with mending and learned to sew moccasins together, beading them. Mary's father who was Chief, would visit Lejac to check on his children. These visits had to be arranged ahead of time and Mary and her siblings were given extra food so that it appeared they were being cared for.

But Mary and the other girls found ways to survive. They soon learned that it was fairly easy to take food from the kitchen. Then they had a brilliant idea! With rags from the rag box, Mary and her schoolmates used their sewing skills to sew pockets into their petticoats. The pockets were used to hide the food they took from the kitchen. They took apples, carrots and bread to feed themselves and their school mates. This extra food ensured they had enough to eat and to survive.

Discussion

The Secret Pocket tells how a resilient group of young Indigenous girls, struggling in one of Canada's residential schools came up with a brilliant idea that helped them survive. The author, Margaret (Peggy) Janicki is an award-winning  Dakelh teacher from the Nak'azdli Whut'en First Nation. Her mother, Mary attended Lejac residential school but never spoke about her experiences until later in life. In her Author's Note, Peggy Janicki recounts how her mother shared the story of the secret pocket while recovering from a broken hip. This story has since been gifted to Indigenous graduates at the University of the Fraser Valley in the form of a secret pocket sewn into the stole of each graduate. The secret pocket holds a copy of Mary's story. More about Peggy Janicki can be found at her website.

The Lejac residential school opened in 1922 on the shore of Fraser Lake in British Columbia. It was run by the Oblates of Immaculate Mary and the Sisters of the Child Jesus. The school remained open until 1976. As with many residential schools, former students indicated they were physically and sexually abused, and there were deaths of students at the school as well. In 1937, four young boys froze to death after running away from the school and attempting to make the journey home to the Nadleh reserve.

Mary's story is one of resilience, courage, and perseverance. The Secret Pocket is yet another story that highlights the suffering Indigenous children endured in the Canadian residential school system but more importantly also demonstrates their ingenuity and determination. As Mary reflects back on this period of her life, she notes, "Now as a great-grandmother, I look back at this time and see what sweet little geniuses we were. In the full face of genocide and cruelty, we secured our families' path for generation to come. We sewed our survival into every stitch. We come from a strong line of artists and geniuses, so we stitch with easy skill." In other words, the secret pockets thwarted the goal of assimilation and destruction of the Indigenous culture. It was a fight for their future.

The author includes a Glossary of terms at the back as well as an Author's Note that explains how she came to learn about the secret pocket from her mother. The digital illustrations were done by "Eastern Fraser Valley-based artist Carrielynn Victor who is a descendant of Coast Salish ancestors that have been sustained by S'olh Temexw (their land) since time immemorial and Western European ancestors that settled around Northern Turtle Island beginning in the 1600's."

The Secret Pocket offers Canadian readers of all ages another opportunity to reflect on the history of Canada's residential schools and the chance for all to experience intergenerational healing through the stories of our Indigenous peoples.

Book Details:

The Secret Pocket by Peggy by Janicki
Orca Book Publishers     2023

The Watchmaker's Daughter by Larry Loftis

Those who have read Corrie ten Boom's autobiography, The Hiding Place will relish this new, well-researched offering by New York Times award winning author, Larry Loftis. The Watchmaker's Daughter begins by setting the stage for the drama that would play out during World War II and the Nazi occupation of Holland. In Chapter 1, The Watchmakers, the history of the ten Boom family and the start of their watchmaking business is described. The story really begins in 1837 when Willem ten Boom rented the house at Barteljorisstraat 19 in Haarlem, Holland. In 1844, Willem, now married to Geertruida van Gogh, began praying for "God's ancient people", the Jews. This practice would be passed on to his children and grandchildren in the years to come.

Geertruida passed away from tuberculosis in 1856 and in 1858, Willem married Elizabeth Bell. Their first son, Casper eventually opened his own watchmaking shop. After the death of his father, Casper and his wife, Cor, along with their family of four children, Elisabeth (Betsie),  Willem, Arnolda (Nollie) and Cornelia (Corrie), returned to Haarlem, where they took over the shop. It was Corrie who expressed interest in continuing the family business, while Willem decided to study theology at the University of Leiden. Eventually he became pastor at a church in Zuylen near Utrecht. Willem became interested in the development of anti-Semitism, which was particularly evident in both France and Germany. 

Corrie's mother died in 1921, the year that Corrie became the first licensed female watchmaker in Holland. Meanwhile, Willem continued studying the evil of anti-Semitism and accepted a position as a special missionary to the Jews in Amsterdam. Incredibly, he studied at the Institutum Judaicum in Leipzig, Germany where for the next three years he completed work on his doctoral thesis, "The birth of modern racial anti-Semitism in France and Germany". At this time, Adolf Hitler was writing Mein Kampf which was published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926. Willem's dissertation was published in 1928, just five years before Hitler would rise to power in Germany. 

After finishing his Ph.D, Willem began his ministry to Jews in Amsterdam. In 1933, German president Paul von Hindenburg installed Adolf Hitler as chancellor of Germany and the persecution of Jews began. Boycotts of Jewish businesses, and the barring of Jews from all civil service jobs, schools and universities included, as well as the prohibition of Jews from practicing law or medicine became the law. The Nuremberg Laws, enacted in 1935 stripped German Jews of citizenship and made it illegal for them to marry "Aryans". Persecution of Jews and Christians who opposed the persecution was ramped up after the 1936 Olympics. 

While the situation remained normal in Holland, in March 1938, Germany annexed Austria and the persecution of Austrian Jews began. The Munich Agreement between Germany, France and Britain did little to stop Hitler. The attempted assassination of Third Secretary Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan in retaliation for the forced transport of eighteen thousand German Jews brought on Kristallnacht - Night of the Broken Glass on November 9th. 

The first hint of the coming storm in Holland arrived within the Beje when Casper had to fire a young German apprentice, Otto Altschuler after they learned he brutally assaulted a man the shop had hired to help with repairs. That man was the elderly, gentle Mr. Christoffels.

As Hitler began his march through Europe, Holland was invaded on May 10, 1940. Despite fierce resistance, the Germans quickly occupied the Netherlands and began to target the Jewish population with ever-restrictive laws. As the persecution raged on in 1941, Corrie and her father, Casper began discussing and planning how they would help their Jewish neighbours. Soon they began hiding Jews who came to Beje for help, sending them on to safe houses. But this was only the beginning of resistance by the ten Boom family and in particular Corrie and her brother Willem. They quickly became involved in the underground, and built a secret room at the back of their house which became "the hiding place". What was once just a simple task of hiding Jews for a night before they could be moved, became a high stakes "cat and mouse" game with the Nazis. Corrie and her family would not escape unscathed.

Discussion

The Watchmaker's Daughter is a moving account of the life of Corrie ten Boom, beginning from her early life, through the war years as she and her family worked to save Jews, her arrest and imprisonment in various concentration camps, and her ministry after the war to both camp survivors and the German people.

Loftis who had authored a number of narrative nonfiction books focused on World War II espionage, was looking for new subject material. He knew about Corrie ten Boom and that her experience focused on the Dutch Resistance - potentially a new topic to explore. Corrie had written six books about her family and the war, including The Hiding Place, but much of what happened was not included. Loftis was able to draw on a number of key primary sources to write The Watchmaker's Daughter: long time refugee Hans Poley's Return to the Hiding Place, nephew Peter van Woerden's memoir The Secret Place, and Corrie's own collection of letters, photos and much more which were held in an archival collection at Wheaton College. Loftis also wanted to focus on Corrie's efforts after the war, to heal the wounds suffered by so many, including the German people. 

Writing The Watchmaker's Daughter had a lasting impact on Loftis as well. He writes in his Author's Note that "...writing about Corrie's message of faith, hope, love, and forgiveness was an empowering experience for me..."  Loftis succeeds in capturing this message throughout The Watchmaker's Daughter. In fact, the most inspirational aspect of Corrie's story is not her survival, but the heroic virtue displayed by her entire family, but most especially by her sister Betsie, in the face of great cruelty. The ten Boom's encounters with Lieutenant Hans Rahms at Scheveningen Prison, proved that such virtue could change minds and hearts. 

Loftis takes care to set Corrie's story within the larger context of events that were occurring each year during World War II. For example, he includes not only historical details from the war, but also mentions Audrey Hepburn who played a part in the Dutch Resistance, and Anne Frank and her family who were in hiding in Amsterdam, until their betrayal in August of 1944. There are also many black and white photographs throughout, helping readers to know many of the people in Corrie's story.

The Watchmaker's Daughter is ultimately a story of hope and forgiveness. This is very evident in Corrie's struggle both during the war, but even more so after the war. Especially poignant, is the account of her meeting the man, who had been an SS guard in a shower room at Ravensbruck, at a speaking event in Munich. Repulsed at the sight of this man who had been so cruel, Corrie struggled to offer him the forgiveness he asked for. And yet she did, through God's grace, despite this man not apologizing for what he did to her.

To those who loved The Hiding Place, this work provides a richer context and backstory, informing readers as to how the ten Boom's resistance to the Nazis began a century earlier with their immense love and charity towards God's "ancient people", the Jews. Loftis lays out the history that shaped a family and their courageous resistance at great personal cost.

Loftis offers his readers a list of major people in the Dramatis Personae at the front of the book. This includes the members of the ten Book family, refugees in the Beje and the Dutch Resistance. At the back of the book, The Rest of the Story informs readers of the fate of many of the major German and Dutch people in the book. An Appendix offers a list of Jewish or Dutch diver refugees at the Beje during the war. The author has also provided an extensive Notes section for each chapter. Maps of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Germany during World War II would have been much appreciated.

The Watchmaker's Daughter will appeal to not just those interested in Corrie ten Boom, but also those interested in  World War II history and resistance.

Book Details:

The Watchman's Daughter by Larry Loftis
New York:  HarperCollins Publishers     2023
370 pp.

The Roan Stallion by Alfreda Beartrack Algeo

It is the summer of 1930 and Alfred is on his way to work at the Looking Rock Ranch, southwest of Reliance. Alfred tames horses for the ranch owner, Mr. Looking Rock. At Beaver Creek, Alfred decides to stop at a favourite spot and that's when he spots a blue roan stallion which he identifies as a Medicine Hat horse, sacred to his Lakota people. Alfred is so distracted by the beautiful horse that he doesn't notice the approaching tornado and he and the horse are caught up in it but survive their ordeal. 

Since his father left to find work in the big city over two years ago, Alfred, his younger brother Elmer, and his mother have been living with his grandparents on their farm. But his grandfather is getting older and finding the farm harder to work. Alfred has a secret plan: to win the relay race at the White River Frontier Days and with the prize money, purchase a tractor for his grandfather.  He needs one more horse for his relay team, and the blue roan just might be that horse!

Instead of continuing on to the ranch, Alfred returns home, only to find his beloved yellow lab, Chepa has died. Devastated, Alfred places Chepa on his horse, Anpo and sets out to bury his dog. But while preparing the grave, Chepa opens his eyes and Alfred realizes that his dog has eaten his mother's dough, causing him to pass out. He returns home, thankful that Chepa is alive.

A week later and it is branding day at the ranch. Alfred decides to stay overnight at the ranch  in the bunkhouse so he can start work early the next day. At the ranch he meets Mr. Looking Rock's nephew, Johnny Krugerbery. Johnny takes an immediate dislike to Alfred and threatens him in the bunkhouse. However, the round-up and branding goes without incident.

As the summer moves on, Alfred learns some important information about his father. He also begins training the blue roan to become part of his relay team. But when Johnny attempts to take over his uncle's ranch, Alfred and his friends are not only in danger of missing the relay race, but their lives as well.

Discussion

The Roan Stallion continues the story of Alfred Swallow and his family. Beartrack-Algeo engages her readers immediately with a series of events involving Alfred. On his way to a nearby ranch, Alfred encounters an unusual horse, a blue roan stallion which he identifies as a Medicine Hat horse, he gets caught in a tornado and almost loses his beloved dog Chepa. Beartrack-Algeo moves the story along quickly, having Alfred prepare for the relay race but also get caught up in the events going on at the Looking Rock ranch.

Readers may find this story a bit disjointed. For example, at the end of Chapter 4 Medicine Hat, Alfred's grandfather mentions that Alfred needs to "load your sacred pipe and go to your elder, Peter Flying Crow, to help you interpret your encounter with the sky spirit and the Medicine Hat horse." However, the next chapter skips over this entirely, fast-forwarding to a week later when Alfred is to work at the Looking Rock range. It would have been interesting to read about Alfred meeting Peter Flying Crow and what his interpretation of Alfred's experiences was.  Chapter 6 Big Day which focuses on the branding at the ranch, also does the same, ending with Alfred's decision to sleep over at the bunkhouse another night to see possibly what Johnny Krugerbery might be up to. However the next chapter leads off, several weeks into the future with Alfred talking about his training of the roan stallion. Did Alfred learn anything about what Johnny was up to? 

In The Roan Stallion, Alfred learns more about his father, whom he is eventually reunited with at the end of the novel. Beartrack-Algeo continues to develop Alfred as a character; he is boy determined to do the right thing and live a life of honor, in the tradition of his people, the Lakota. Alfred shows respect to his elders, to the animals and nature around him. He's also not afraid to confront evil when he and his friends take on Johnny and his gang. But at the heart of this story is Alfred, who seeing the difficulty his grandfather is having in working the farm, is moved to act: his goal is to win the relay race prize money so he can buy his grandfather a new tractor. 

Once again, the author also uses the character of Alfred's grandfather to show the impact of the white man on the Lakota way of life. When they are preparing for the relay race, Alfred remembers the day he helped Grandfather build fences for their pasture and how the idea of sectioning off the land and building fences is foreign to the Lakota.
"In the old days there no fences and no land ownership, and the buffalo were plenty. Now we find ourselves fenced in like prisoners on reservations. The government issues a card telling us we are Indians, as if we don't know who we are. We are the People, the allies. They ask us to show them this card in order to get food to feed our starving babies. They ask us to show them this card if we want permission to leave our fenced-in reservation. They want to know where we are going and when we will return. Maybe they approve the request, maybe not. Inside the fenced-in reservations, they gave us small parcels. Giving us our own land back? The land were my people hunted our buffalo and cared for our babies? I don't understand. They expect us to be farmers, to grow crops from the poor seeds they give us, but the crops often die. They expect us to be ranchers and fight over the land they gave us. but the sick cattle they send to replace the buffalo they killed often die. They expect us to build fences on the land they gave us, so here we are, Grandson...building fences."

The Roan Stallion is a short, heart-warming story set at the beginning of the Great Depression. It has plenty of action, and believable characters who highlight some important virtues such as charity, consideration, industriousness and determination. This short novel also informs young readers about the Lakota people who shared the prairies with the vast herds of buffalo and how their lives were changed forever by the coming of the white settlers. A third installment of this series is much anticipated!

Book Details:

The Roan Stallion by Alfreda Beartrack-Algeo
Summertown, Tennessee: 7th Generation Book Publishing Company     2023
121 pp.