The Trailblazing Life of Viola Desmond: A Civil Rights Icon by Rachel Kehoe with Wanda Robson

Viola Davis was born in  1914 and grew up in the North End, where Halifax's Black community was located. Viola's ancestors had fled slavery in the United States in the 1800's. They came to Nova Scotia where they were free. However, life in Nova Scotia was not easy for Black people as society was segregated just like in the U.S. Black people did not live in the same neighborhoods or attend the same schools as white people. Few jobs were open to Black people and they were often refused service at local businesses.

Viola's parents, James Davis and Gwendolyn Irene Johnson had married secretly in 1908. Gwendolyn was of mixed-race heritage, but she considered herself Black. They moved in with James's parents in the North End and started what would be a very large family. Viola was the fifth of fifteen children, however only eleven of the children survived. Viola survived a bout of pneumonia, the illness that took the life of her younger sister, Hazel. She also survived the Halifax Explosion which severely damaged Halifax and in particular, the North End.

The Davises attended Trinity Anglican every Sunday. Viola took classes at Joseph Howe Elementary School which was integrated. She worked hard at her studies and was a top student at Bloomfield High School where she excelled in history, English and geography.

With the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929, the loss of jobs and a drought on the prairies, Viola's father worked occasional jobs. Viola graduated from high school when she was sixteen-years-old in 1930. She wanted to be a teacher, but because the teachers college in Truro did not admit Black students, Viola's application was rejected. Nevertheless, Viola was able to teach at the segregated schools when she was nineteen, after passing the provincial exam. As someone who held herself to high stands, Viola also held her students to the same level.

Viola also became and advocate for her younger sister, Wanda who was twelve years her junior and experiencing racism in her class. Wanda attended Alexandra Elementary School in Grade 2. Her teacher, Ms. Reid, placed Wanda at the back of the class along with other Black students who she ignored. Ms. Reid had a rule that children who achieved top marks could sit at the front of the class. However, when Wanda achieved top marks and was moved to the front of the class, her teacher seemed upset and refused to let her answer questions. Then she sent Wanda to the Grade 3 class where she told the teacher not to assign Wanda any work. Eventually Wanda was returned to her Grade 2 class but was placed at the back of the room. When Parents' Day came around, Viola and her mother had to intervene.

Viola eventually made the decision to become a beautician, as there were almost no Black beauty salons in Canada. Black women were unable to attend beauty school in Halifax, so Viola saved her money and travelled to Montreal to attend school there in 1936. During her time in Montreal, Viola married Jack Desmond. In 1937, Viola, now a trained beautician, opened Vi's Studio of Beauty Culture in Halifax's North End.

In 1939, Viola attended the Apex College of Beauty Culture and Hairdressing in Atlantic City, N.J. to learn more about Black beauty techniques. By 1944, she opened the Desmond School of Beauty Culture so Black women could train to be hairdressers and beauticians.

But on November 8, 1946, Viola's life would take a very different turn. She travelled to Sydney, Cape Breton to deliver beauty products. When her car broke down, Viola found herself stranded in New Glasgow for the evening. She decided to take in a movie, The Dark Mirror at the Roseland Theatre. Viola bought a ticket for the downstairs section of the theatre. Patrons could sit downstairs or in the balcony. Because Viola had poor eyesight she wanted to sit close in the downstairs area. 

Viola took her seat in the downstairs section when she was told by the usher that her ticket was for the balcony. Puzzled, Viola returned to the cashier to pay extra for the downstairs ticket but was told she was "not allowed to sell downstairs tickets to you people." Viola knew that the woman at the desk was referring to Viola being Black. Viola refused to be intimidated and returned to her seat downstairs. With the movie starting, the usher returned, now advising Viola that if she didn't move, he would call the manager, Henry MacNeil.

The manager arrived and soon the police were called. Viola was on her way to jail for sitting downstairs in a movie theatre. Viola spent the night in jail and was taken before a judge the next day, without legal representation and not given the chance to make a phone call. "She was was accused of not paying the difference in tax for the downstairs ticket - a single penny." She was found guilty and fined twenty dollars plus the cost of Henry's court fees. This would be the impetus for the civil rights movement in Canada. It would be over forty years later that Viola would receive a pardon and her efforts to be treated equally would be recognized.

Discussion

The Trailblazing Life of Viola Desmond traces the life of Black Canadian, Viola Davis Desmond from her family's early roots in Nova Scotia in the 1800's to her untimely death in 1965 and her legacy into the 21st century. The authors were able to write an informative biography of Viola based on the interviews with her younger sister, Wanda Robson.

Viola Desmond, like her family and other Black Canadians spent most of her life dealing with racism. The systemic racism that existed in Canada in the first half of the 20th century was to shape their lives in almost every way. Slavery was abolished across the Empire by the British parliament on August 1, 1834. Although people of African descent living in the British colonies were legally free, they continued to face prejudice and inequality, even ninety years after the legislation. 

In the early 20th century, in Nova Scotia, schools, churches and theatres were segregated. The segregation was not uniform either within the same town or from community to community. Some hotels and restaurants would not serve Black people. Canadians of African descent lived separate from white people in their own neighborhoods. Black schools were similar to those in the United States, lacking in books, blackboards and other basic supplies. Black people couldn't work as teachers because the teachers college in Truro wouldn't admit them.  There were few jobs open to Black men and women, and those available were low paying.

Viola and her family encountered many of these prejudices and inequalities which affected the choices they made in their lives. Viola wanted to be a teacher but was refused entry into the college at Truro. Although she did teach for a time in Black schools, Viola decided to become a beautician. As a Black woman who prided herself on always looked her best, Viola would not have been able to be served in a white beauty shop. It is also possible that many beauticians of this era would not have known how to treat or style the unique hair of Black women, and likely had no inclination to learn. Viola set about learning her craft and bringing that knowledge back to Nova Scotia where she eventually opened her own shop and beauty school, and made available beauty products designed for Black women and men. 

All of this would set the stage for Viola's act of resistance in the New Glasgow theatre in 1946. She was jailed for simply wanting to sit in the downstairs area of the theatre. Her inequality extended into the Nova Scotia court system where she was found guilty and fined and then to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court where she lost her case. In that instance, the case was not about segregation. However, one judge, Justice Hall knew that Viola was treated this way because she was Black.

Although Viola Desmond was not the first to resist (journalist Carrie Best was turned out of the Roseland Theatre in 1941 for the same reason), her actions marked a turning point in the fight for equality that was beginning in the post-war period in North America. Kehoe and Robson highlight some of those individuals in sidebars. For example, Pearleen Oliver a community activist and cofounder along with her husband, Rev. Dr. William P. Oliver of the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NSAACP),was successful in getting Black women the right to attend nursing schools in Canada. However, progress was slow. It wasn't until 1959 that the Fair Accommodation Practices Act was passed in Nova Scotia, banning discrimination in housing. In 1963, racial discrimination was outlawed with the passage of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act.

Viola never lived to see the changes that happened after her untimely death in 1965. Her small act of resistance was mostly forgotten but not by her sister Wanda who had initially been embarrassed by Viola going to jail. But as she matured, Wanda came to understand and began speaking about what happened. Viola eventually received a full pardon, posthumously in 2010. Today Canadians are reminded of Viola's desire for equality by her picture on the ten dollar bill. 

The Trailblazing Life of Viola Desmond is a well written biography incorporating the "personal experiences" and "treasured memories" of Viola through the interviews of her sister Wanda Robson. Readers will learn about what it was like for Black Canadians living in Nova Scotia and Canada in the early 20th century and how they fought for equality. 

What is lacking in this chapter book for young readers, are photographs of Viola Desmond and her family, and many of the places of importance in her story. It would have been extremely interesting to see items available from the Nova Scotia archives: for example an article from a provincial newspaper covering her Supreme Court case (noting that she was charged with fraud ), articles from The Clarion, one of the first Black newspapers in the province, and the Notice of Motion to take the case to the Supreme Court. At issue also is the over-use of digital illustrations which are so common in juvenile nonfiction and biographies. The authors include a Time Line, a Glossary, a list of Resources and an Index. 

Book Details:

The Trailblazing Life of Viola Desmond: A Civil Rights Icon by Rachel Kehoe with Wanda Robson
Orca Book Publishers Ltd.     2023
87 pp.

The Scarf and The Butterfly: a graphic memoir of hope and healing by Monica Ittusardjuat

The Scarf and The Butterfly is a short graphic memoir of Monica Ittusardjuat's life, exploring how the residential school experience impacted her life and her identity as Inuit.

The memoir opens with a memory of Monica and her friends, Umik, Ilupaalik, and Akittiq out for a walk to catch butterflies. Monica is wearing a beautiful scarf her mother gave her before going into the hospital. During their walk, Monica lost her scarf but she was able to find it. This was Monica's life before she was taken away to attend the residential school at Chesterfield Inlet.

Monica was born prematurely in an iglu at her family's winter camp at Akkimaniq on the western side of Baffin Island. Because her mother was very ill and in danger of dying, Monica's aunt took her for a time. Her mother recovered and Monica was reunited with her family.

Monica's family lived a subsistence way of life along with her two uncles, Mamattiaq and Tattiggat and their families. The evening was a time to relax and listen to hunting stories and legends, and play traditional games. In the spring, they traveled from one camp to the next, hunting and fishing. Summer saw the families hunt caribou, walrus, beluga, and seal.

Monica was sent to residential schools beginning in 1958, entering the Qallunaaq world. She returned home in the spring of 1969 after having attended three residential schools in Chesterfield, NWT, and in Churchill and Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her experiences at these residential schools changed Monica.

She married a residential school survivor and the marriage was violent and dysfunctional. Their children witnessed many horrible things. Later on, Monica would discover that her husband had been abused. Like her, he has also experienced "the loss of culture and spirituality." So like many other Inuit, Monica set out on a personal journey to reclaim her culture and her identity, a process that continues today.

Discussion

The Scarf and the Butterfly focuses on the effects of the residential school experience, rather than the actual events that took place during the author's time at the various schools. It is memoir of the journey to healing and hope. Monica writes that her healing journey began when her granddaughter, Grace turned six-years-old. Witnessing Grace's free spirit and happiness, made Monica remember that she was once like this before attending school. She realized some of what she had lost and this caused her to grieve.

Monica explains how being sent to a residential school, far away from her family, affected her mother and their relationship. Each fall, as her children were sent back to the school, her mother noticed the silence in their home, making it as though "...someone had died." And in a way, the residential schools were killing the relationship between Indigenous children and their parents and elders. When Monica's mother became ill later in life, she wanted to know what had made them so emotionally distant. Monica explained that the bond between them was broken because of her being at the residential school. She learned to stop crying and accept this loss.

In the residential school, Monica witnessed abusive behaviour by a teacher towards students. These events brought about a deep sense of guilt and shame as she questioned whether she was to blame in some way. Even bringing a claim forward years later was devastating to Monica as it was traumatic to admit that she had been "damaged" by her experiences. She experienced feelings of "...self-hatred, shame, guilt, helplessness, and despair..." that led to reviving old addictions.

When reflecting back on her experiences at a retreat in 2002, Monica came to realize that she was "stripped of my identity and there was nothing of my culture left in me." Some of her earliest memories were of sleeping next to her parents in the deep cold of the Far North and feeling safe, and of watching her father in the early morning darkness prepare for the day's hunt. These early memories reminded Monica of her Inuit identity.

Through her difficult personal journey, Monica has been able to reclaim some of her Inuit culture: she can make Inuit clothing and jewelry, cook country food, drum dance and sing ajaajaa songs. She continues to struggle to understand what has happened to Inuit culture and her place in that culture. The process of reclaiming her own identity continues and is an ongoing one. This includes self-forgiveness, self-affirmation and forgiving those who harmed her.

The Scarf and The Butterfly portrays to readers just how complex and difficult this process has been and continues to be for residential survivors like Monica Ittusardjuat. Despite this difficult journey, Monica's memoir is one filled with hope, faith, acceptance and perseverance. She writes, 

"I am who I am, and I've become comfortable with that. I am Inuk and I have had a Qallunaaq upbringing, and I accept a bit from each. I am not the same as my Inuit friends or family, and I offer no apology for that. I have fought to become who I was meant to be. Adversities have not broken me; they have made me, and the victory is sweeter when you have fought for it than when it has been given to you."

The rich illustrations in this memoir by artists, Coco Apunnguaq Lynge and Scott Plumbe capture the beauty of Canada's Far North and our Inuit brothers and sisters, and accentuate Monica's message of healing and hope. Highly recommended for adults, teens and older children.

Book Details:

The Scarf and The Butterfly by Monica Ittusardjuat

Toronto: Inhabit Education Books Inc.    2023

67 pp.

The Cricket War by Tho Pham & Sandra McTavish

Eleven-year-old Tho Pham loves challenging his best friend, Lam to cricket fights. Lam, who lives next door, spends much time training his crickets but they rarely win. Tho lives with his parents, his older brother Vu, and his two sisters, Thao and Tien. Tho's father lost his well-paying job at the bank after the Communist takeover of Sai Gon in the spring of 1975. Now even though both his parents work, they don't make enough money. As a result, they have been selling off furniture and other possessions.

On Monday morning, Tho waits for Lam to meet him outside his house but after ten minutes, he still hasn't appeared. Even after calling his name, Lam doesn't come out of his house, so Tho leaves for school. Lam doesn't show up at school either. After school and a pick-up game of soccer, Tho asks Lam's sister, Mai if Lam is fine. She tells him that Lam and An have gone to visit a sick uncle at his farm. However, Tho knows Mai is not telling the truth. Since the Communist takeover, people from their neighborhood just disappear. Sometimes one person or two, or even a family. Boys who come of age are conscripted into the Communist army, so to avoid this fate, they are sent away by their families. Tho knows Lam and An are gone and will not be returning.

When Tho sees two soldiers banging on Lam's family's door, he tells them that soldiers have already come to take away An. Vu overhears this and admonishes Tho for doing this, telling him that he will be punished instead. Vu is also worried because he is almost eighteen and will be conscripted soon. In an attempt to prevent this, Vu wants Tho to chop off his trigger finger. Fortunately, they are stopped by their father.

One day in May, 1980, Tho and Vu are told by their father that he has arranged for them to leave Vietnam. They will travel on a boat owned by someone he knows. They leave immediately, taking an xe lam to the home of Mr. Binh. However, Mr. Binh tells their father he can take only one boy, as their father has only paid enough gold for one. They leave the older brother, Vu behind to escape with the help of Mr. Binh. A month later they receive a telegram from Vu stating that he has arrived safely in Malaysia. A few letters later on reveal that he is most likely in a refugee camp there.

A year later, in May 1981, Tho is now a year older. Tho knows that the disappearing furniture is an indication that his parents are trying to earn money for his passage out of Vietnam. With the disappearance of Mr. Binh, Tho's parents take him to his mother's sister, his Aunt Linh, who has learned that a boat is leaving near her village. Linh's husband and their five oldest children have already fled Vietnam. Only Aunt Linh and her youngest son, Phat remain. Tho's mother gives him a plastic bag with a pair of shorts, a T-shirt with a gold chain sewn into the hem. He is also given his Uncle Quang's address in America. To travel to Linh's home, Tho and his mother make the journey of over two hundred kilometers, first taking a long bus ride, then making two ferry crossings. 

After a feast of roasted pig, vermicelli and spring rolls, Tho and his mother, along with Phat, are led by Aunt Linh to the back of the house which faces the river. With a full moon to see by, they board a small boat, along with six other people. After a long trip, Phat docks the boat and Tho and the others quietly board a larger boat. Phat waves good-bye to Tho, who never was able to hug and say good-bye to his mother. 

Tho's journey to escape Vietnam has begun, as the larger boat travels towards the sea. Tho falls asleep but when he awakes in the morning he vomits in the boat. He is astonished to see Mai and her parents in the boat. She tells him her mother found out about the boat from his mother. For Tho, having Mai and her parents with him makes him feel less lonely and that someone will be there to help him. But his journey is only beginning. It will test Tho's courage and resiliency as he encounters pirates, hunger, death and even the loss of friends.

Discussion

The Cricket War is another personal account of a Vietnamese refugee from the Communist takeover of the country. Almost fifty years after this event in 1975, many memoirs and children's nonfiction books are being published about the experience of fleeing Vietnam in the aftermath of the war and the fall of Sai Gon. 

The events in this short novel are based on the experience of Tho Pham as he fled his homeland in 1981 and landed as a refugee in Toronto, Canada. Tho was twelve-years-old when his parents arranged for him to escape Vietnam alone. Unlike the character Tho in The Cricket War, the real Tho was the only member of his family to escape Vietnam at the time. His two brothers and his parents remained in Vietnam, and his older brother was eventually conscripted into the Vietnamese army. Many of the events in the novel are based on Tho's experiences during his journey from Vietnam. These are explained in the Afterword found at the back of the novel.

The authors do provide a short note on Vietnam's history in A Brief Recent History of Vietnam at the back of the novel. The Cricket War explains why many Vietnamese chose to make the dangerous journey to freedom, despite knowing it could cost them their lives. This is done through the character of Tho and Vu's father, who explains to his sons how the Vietnamese have endured centuries of occupation and simply want to rule themselves. However, to many Vietnamese, the Communists are simply another occupier. He explains, "It is torture living in a Communist country...If you had money, or a big house, or lots of land before the Communist regime, they took it from you. The control what you learn, what you say in public, even how you practice your religion. If you vocally disagree with them, they will silence you by force or intimidation, or send you away to what they call 're-education' camp. At these camps, people are treated like prisoners and forced to do hard labor. Sometimes they die of starvation or beatings. If you try to leave the country and are caught, you are sent to prison. You also might be tortured or simply disappear."

The Vietnamese refugees were called "the boat people" because this was the primary escape route out of the country - often by rickety, unseaworthy boats across the South China Sea to Malaysia and the Philippines. As in The Cricket War, these refugees were attacked by sea pirates, often the boats sank with considerable loss of life, or they were captured by the Vietnamese and towed back to land to end up in re-education camps. 

Tho Pham's experience fleeing Vietnam mirrors that of most other Vietnamese refugees. The wooden boat was barely seaworthy and was overloaded with over seventy people, many who quickly became "sick, tired, hungry and scared." They were exposed to the scorching sun, the cold at night and violent storms. During Tho's journey, his boat was attacked daily by pirates, who robbed them of food and any valuables. Later attacks saw the pirates leave some food and water for the refugees. As in the book, Tho was fortunate to have survived multiple pirate attacks, even hiding on one of the pirate boats! He was rescued by the Cap Anamur, a German ship dedicated to help Vietnamese refugees, and brought to a refugee camp.

The Cricket War captures all of the terror and suffering the refugees experienced but it also portrays the resiliency and ingenuity of the Vietnamese people. For example, the refugees devise a way to catch fish and are able to cook their catch on the charcoal stove on the boat. They actively help one another, working together to try to survive. The novel, written for young readers is never graphic in recounting life under the Communists in Vietnam, nor in describing the pirate attacks, while still conveying what life was like in these circumstances. 

Canada was one country that took in many Vietnamese refugees. They have repaid our country many times over by contributing in almost every area of life in Canada. Many like Tho, were sponsored by individuals and church groups. 

The authors have included a map of Vietnam and neighbouring countries as well as a Pronunciation Guide to Vietnamese names and words. The Cricket War is highly recommended.

Book Details:

The Cricket War by Tho Pham & Sandra McTavish
Toronto: Kids Can Press Ltd.
160 pp.

Stars of the Night by Caren Stelson

Stars of the Night relates the incredible story of Nicholas Winton and the Czech kindertransport.

In 1938 Czechoslovakia, life for young children in the old city of Prague was good. There were picnics in the park with dark bread with cheese and slices of their mother's sweet honey cake. In the winter, skating on the rivers was followed by a trip to the local coffeehouses for hot cocoa with whipped cream. The children, who were Jewish and eight, nine and ten years old played with friends who were mostly not Jewish. This didn't matter to them. They attended school. Prague was a peaceful city.

But in November of that year, things began to change. Tent camps were set up outside the city, filled with people, who the children were told, were refugees. In Germany, the stores and synagogues of Jews were vandalized and burned. The people in the tents were seeking safety. Soon the Jewish children of Prague found they were being yelled at too. Their parents began to worry, but were too busy to explain. Soon they decided they had to meet the man who was offering to make arrangements. But what man were they meeting in Prague?

In March 1939, the German army entered Prague, with their leader Hitler standing in a car, his arm straight out in front of him. Everywhere the red flags with the black zigzag were hung.

When the childrens' fathers received replies to their letters, the packing of suitcases began. The children were told they were taking a trip to England. And they were told, "There will be times when you'll feel lonely and homesick. Let the stars of the night and the sun of the day be the messenger of our thoughts and love."

The childrens' journey beganat Prague's Wilson Railway Station. The train station was filled with mostly Jewish families who were saying tearful goodbyes to their children as they boarded the trains. At the German border, the children alone, on their train without their parents were afraid of the gruff German police who checked travel documents and searched suitcases. From Germany they travelled through the Netherlands to the English Channel where they boarded boats. After another train ride in England, the children arrived in London where they were welcomed by the English families who would care for them. The children didn't know that the man their parents had written to was a man in London who had made this all possible. 

In England, they soon learned that war had broken out and as the years passed they saw pictures of people being made to wear yellow stars, and being forced into cattle cars on trains and sent to terrible places. Were their parents safe at home in Prague? They didn't know. When the war ended, many of the children were much older, seventeen and eighteen and were able to travel back to Prague to search for their parents. They soon realized that their parents were gone, that they were some of the people put on the cattle cars and sent away.  Many years passed, the children grew up, married and had their own children.

Then one day a scrap book was found with the names and photographs of children, their passports and letters and a plan of escape. In the scrapbook was also the name of the man who organized all this - Nicholas Winton. The children, now older adults, finally met him to thank him.

Discussion

Stars of the Night tells the story from the perspective of  669  brave children, who made the journey from Czechoslovakia to Great Britain just as Hitler began his rampage across Europe. As children, at the time, they didn't really know what was happening in their communities, and in the world at large. They were told they were being sent away, but they couldn't possibly understand what that really meant. These children were part of the larger kindertransport - an attempt to save the children of Jewish parents from inevitable death. One person determined to do that was Nicholas Winton. 

Nicholas Winton was born in 1909 in West Hampstead to parents of German Jewish ancestry. He worked as a stockbroker. In 1938, Winton's life was about to change forever. Germany had taken over areas of Czechoslovakia that were predominantly German-speaking, called the Sudetenland. This was allowed by the Munich Agreement. After this, in November, the Nazis conducted an organized attack on Jewish citizens in Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland in what became known as Kristallnacht. As a result, Jewish refugees from these areas began to arrive in Czechoslovakia, on the outskirts of Prague.

Due to this attack, the British government decided to allow children under the age of seventeen from Germany and other areas annexed by Germany, to enter Great Britain. The requirements were that they have a foster family willing to take them in and that there were certain financial commitments made.

It was at this time in December, 1938 that Nicholas Winton's friend, Martin Blake asked him to visit Czechoslovakia instead of travelling to Switzerland for a ski trip. Winton arrived in Czechoslovakia as an associate of the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia, an organization created in response to the refugee crisis in Prague. There he met Doreen Wariner who arranged for him to visit refugee camps filled with Jews and political opponents of the Nazis.

Winton knew of the Kindertransport to rescue Jewish children from Germany and Austria, and he decided to organize a similar operation for Czech Jewish children. He first began organizing from his Prague hotel room and then in an office. Winton soon had thousands of distraught parents attempting to apply. He returned to England to raise money for the transport of Jewish children to England.

The first kindertransport organized by Winton from Czechoslovakia left Prague on March 14, 1939. Seven more transports would follow, these by train and ship, as portrayed in Stars of the Night. When Germany invaded Poland, and Great Britain declared war on Germany, the transports ended. Nicholas Winton's remarkable efforts remained hidden until his wife Grete discovered a scrapbook with the names and photographs of the children he saved. In 1988, the year the scrapbook was discovered, the children, now adults, were finally able to meet the man who saved them, on a British TV show.

Author Caren Stelson, who is Jewish, focused on five children from the Kindertransport in her story, giving each a different colour that is consistent throughout. Sisters Eva and Vera Diamantova wear orange and red respectively. Eva and Vera were ten and fifteen-years-old when they left their parents on July 20, 1939 and boarded the Czech Kindertransport to England. Vera would use the diary her father gave her, to write about her experiences and to write down the words her mother told her, about the stars of the night and the sun of the day being the messenger of their thoughts and love for her. Vera remained in England becoming a writer while Eva moved to New Zealand and became a nurse.

Brothers Josef and Ernest Schlesinger are portrayed wearing dark blue and light blue respectively.  Josef was eleven and Ernest, nine-years-old when they left Bratislava to travel to England. Sadly, Josef and Ernest's parents did not survive the Holocaust. Canadians will know Joe Schlesinger as a famous foreign correspondent for CBC. Renata Polgar wears green in Stars of the Night. She was only eight-years-old when she left her parents in her hometown of Brno to live with the Daniels family in Britain. She remembered happy times with this family. Renata was one of only five children whose parents both survived the Holocaust.

The illustrations in Stars of the Night were created by artist Selina Alko with acrylic paint, colored pencil and collage. 

Stars of the Night is a picture book that introduces the Czech kindertransport to younger readers in a simple manner, allowing for further exploration and learning about this event and the remarkable Nicholas Winton who orchestrated one aspect of it. His story demonstrates how one person can make a significant difference in the lives of many. As Joe Schlesinger remarked about Nicholas Winton, "This is the man who gave me the rest of my life."

Book Details:

Stars of the Night by Caren Stelson
Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books 2023

Courage To Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust by Neal Shusterman

In Courage to Dream, five historical fantasy stories are presented by award-winning author, Neal Shusterman.. 

In He Opens A Window, three sisters, Anna, Gretchen and Katja are in hiding in an upper room in Frau Muller's house. The secret room is hidden behind a bookcase and Frau Muller keeps the door locked. Every day a delivery book brings food which she brings to the girls. One day the delivery boy is late, held up by a parade of German soldiers of to the battlefront. After making his delivery to Frau Muller, he notices that the upper middle window of her house is missing!

That night when Anna wakes up and opens the curtains she sees an amazing sight: a brilliant sky filled with stars and suns. The next day the delivery boy brings more food from Herr Baumann, the grocer, to Frau Muller. However, Baumann has seen him stealing chocolate bars. Enraged, Baumann who promised the boy's parents to care for him, refuses to pay him and tells him he will be joining the Hitler Youth.

Meanwhile, the three girls eat the chocolate bars in their secret room. They tell Anna they also have seen the strange sights out the window. When Anna opens the curtains, this time they see islands floating in the sky above Hamburg. Anna tells them they cannot tell anyone and that the curtains must stay closed. 

Disaster strikes when Frau Muller picks up papers approved by Consul Ho for Shanghai but is hit by a truck on her way home. The girls' only connection to the outside world is lost and locked in their room upstairs they begin to starve. When they open the curtain, they see a devastated city of Hamburg. 

The delivery boy, now in the Hitler Youth, is questioned and pressured by the Gestapo to reveal who he's been supplying food . He is tricked into revealing the house and the soldiers break into Frau Muller's home. When Anna hears the soldiers climbing the stairs, she devises a plan to protect the girls using the magic window. 

In Legend Speaks of a Hero: The Golem of Auschwitz, the Jewish myth of the Golem comes to life.  The Golem was "a man formed from clay, infused with the name of God and inscribed with a brand of truth", called to life in the 16th century by Rabbi Judah Loew Ben Bezalel. The Golem came to the rescue of Jews in the city of Prague. Legend is that he either ran away or crumbled into earth once the special attributes given to him by the Rabbi were removed.

Duvid had heard about the Golem but a blow to his head had hurt his memories and thoughts. In Auschwitz some of the prisoners have heard the Golem came to Treblinka and despite the Nazis attempting to gas him and burn him, he survived and feed everyone. However, others believe this is a lie. The Rabbi believes that it is good to have hope, even if it is false hope. 

Trains arrived daily, packed to bursting with most people who were made to walk to the Birkenau two miles behind Auschwitz, to their deaths. One day a prisoner named Ben attacks a guard who had just beaten another prisoner. Ben is shot in the head in front of everyone. At night, Duvid is awakened to see something punching its way into the Nazi soldiers barracks. Duvid is awoken by the Rabbi who tells him to get back inside. At dawn, all the prisoners are lined up and told that an officer is missing. Duvid tells the Nazis that the Golem is responsible but they think he is joking.

When the prisoners are lined up for inspection to be send to Birkenau, to the gas chambers, Duvid learns his true identity and acts to free some of the prisoners.

In Spirits of Resistance, Baba and Izbushka watch as intruders invade their forest: a boy, Yosef and a girl, Hannah are being pursued by Nazi soldiers. They are found by Abe, a soldier of the Resistance who takes them to his camp deep in the forest. Yosef and Hannah escaped a transport to a death camp.

In the camp, Hannah tells Yosef she saw a house moving through the woods, and an old woman flying in a bowl. A resistance fighter tells her that was Baba Yaga who roams the forests of Eastern Europe, and eats little children. During the night, Yosef and Hannah are awoken to see the Fools of Chelm capturing the moon in a barrel.

The next day the Resistance plans to attack a train travelling to Treblinka, to save as many people as possible. Baba and Izbushka watch the attack and then confront Yosef and Hannah back in the resistance camp. Hannah tells Baba they want her help to fight the Nazis. After giving the children a piece of meat from Ibushka's left leg, Baba visits the resistance camp later that night and tells them she will help them. To aid her efforts, she enlists the help of the Chelmites. Meanwhile, the Nazis are preparing to lead a major offensive against the resistance fighters in the forest. But with the help of Baba, Ziz, Isbushka and the Chelmites, the Nazis have little chance.

An old family heirloom saves lives in Exodus. Jory Svedberg and Soren are friends even though Jory is Jewish and Soren is Lutheran. They simply consider themselves Danes. Denmark is under Nazi occupation but it wasn't until the summer of 1943 that they began to plan to deport Danish Jews to camps. One night when Soren stays for dinner at Jory's home, Jory's mother complains about how the curtain rod is always tearing their curtains. But Mr. Svedberg tells her it is a family heirloom, the staff of Moses. Jory reminds his mother it brings plagues and doesn't clean his room!

As the German army floods more soldiers into Denmark, the peaceful occupation ends. On August 29, 1943, the Danish government resigns as rumors suggest that the Danish Jews would be deported to concentration camps. Jews in Copenhagen began to flee or go into hiding. Then the Nazis come for Jory's family. But Jory has no intention of going with them. Picking up the rod, he quickly knocks out all three Nazi soldiers. But this is just beginning as Jory uses the rod to save Copenhagen's Jews and get them to safety across the Oresund Sound, separating Denmark and Sweden.

The Untold is a story of lives and a world that could have been. Caitlin's Grandmother Ida is dying. Caitlin loves her grandmother but is scared to see her because it means confronting death. Her grandmother tells her there are many stories that remain untold. She gives Caitlin a box and tells her to open it when she is feeling strong and when her heart is ready. After this, Caitlin's grandmother dies.

Puzzled and driven by curiosity about the unique gift, Caitlin finally opens the box weeks later. Inside, she finds a crystalline seashell. When Caitlin places the shell to her ear she hears hundreds of voices. When she goes downstairs for dinner, Caitlin is shocked to see a much larger dining room table and sees two strange boys in the living room. Caitlin is told they are Grandma Ida's grandnephews. Her mother tells her she should know this based on the family tree she did last year. But when Caitlin pulls out the family tree from her desk, she sees that is has many more branches than what she remembers.  When she lifts the crystalline shell to her ear again, she hears silence. 

Upon returning to the dining room, Caitlin finds everything as she expects with just herself, her brother and mother. And the family tree is as she remembers. The next day sees her not only experience a different home but also school is different. There are new kids she doesn't know and her history book states that World War II ended in 1942 with Germany not even in the war. When she shows her best friend Adam the shell, he disappears. Putting the shell back to her ear, Caitlin again hears the voices and she is back into the altered time line when she arrives home. There she learns that a brick has been thrown through a window in their house, and that anti-Semitism is on the rise in America. Her large family talks about emigrating to Palestine, and Israel doesn't yet exist. Not being able to deal with this Caitlin puts the seashell to her ear and she is back in her own timeline. She promises herself to leave it there until the 4th of July celebrations when she finds she is missing the large family in the alternate timeline. 

Using the seashell again, Caitlin returns to that timeline, a house filled with many family, "to be surrounded by a family you never had." But talk is about a book written by a congressman, on the front cover the Nazi symbol on the American flag. Horrified, Caitlin encounters her grandmother who explains what has happened and why she gave her the crystalline seashell.

Discussion

Courage To Dream is another very unique book by author Neal Shusterman. In this graphic novel, Shusterman who is an American Jew, has written "fantasy stories with a Holocaust theme". Most of the stories are a mashup of Jewish history during the Holocaust and Jewish folklore. In his Imagination and the Unimaginable note at the back of the novel, Shusterman mentions that writing from this perspective was both exciting but uncomfortable and asks, "Where is the intersection of fantasy and the grim reality of murdered millions?"

As the author notes, "These are stories of wish fulfillment where the tragedy lies in the fact that they can never be fulfilled." How many Jewish men, women and children imagined the Golem or some other hero coming to their rescue in the death camps? How many hidden Jews wished to fly out the window of their secret hideaway to a glorious world of freedom and safety? How many survivors of the Holocaust wondered what might have been had parents and siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends, husbands and wives survived?  As he wrote his stories, Shusterman began to realize the stories were "..a unique way of addressing the Holocaust and perhaps engaging readers who might not otherwise go there."

In the last story, The Untold, Shusterman tackles the idea of a world where the Holocaust never happened in the 1940's but instead could possibly happen in the twenty-first century. In the Untold, the main character, Caitlin discovers a huge family in an alternate timeline because World War II ended in 1942, before the implementation of Hitler's "Final Solution" - the systematic murder of European Jews. Her huge family is the result of people living to produce the succeeding generations. 

In that alternate timeline Caitlin wanted to believe that a world without the Holocaust was a better one, but instead she finds it is just as flawed as her own time, maybe even worse. When she confronts her Grandmother Ida in that timeline she tells her granddaughter, "The world that might have been always looks glorious at first but there are twists and turns in its spiral and depths that no one can see." Caitlin realizes that her grandmother gave her not the choice to live in an alternate world but a vision, enabling her to understand who she is mourning, when she remembers the Holocaust. 

The unique stores are told primarily by the wonderful artwork of illustrator Andres Vera Martinez who researched historical photographs so he could "...accurately depict clothing, architecture, uniforms, and even landscapes of the time." He also did considerable art history research into the various aspects of Jewish folklore/  The panels are set in a somber tan tone. Many of the illustrations are rich with detail and capture the fantastical element of the stories being told while also portraying historical events.

Shusterman who is known for his fantasy and dystopian novels,  has also included an extensive Bibliography and a Note about the Hebrew Letters In This Book. The first five letters of the Hebrew alphabet appear at the beginning of each story and are relevant to the story. Courage To Dream is a book that twelve years in the making, but rich in themes for readers and students to explore.

Book Details:

Courage To Dream: Tales of Hope In The Holocaust by Neal Shusterman
New York: Graphix, an Imprint of Scholastic Inc.  2023