The Blossoming Summer by Anna Rose Johnson

It is 1940 and the Germans have invaded France and the Low Countries (Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg - neutral countries). Thirteen-year-old Rosemary Rivers lives with her mother's older brother, Uncle John and his wife, Aunt Katie Alexandra in London, England. On this night Rosemary can hear them talking through the floorboards of her upstairs bedroom. She learns that her father and mother are planning to come get Rosemary and take her and her two brothers back to America. This is happening just when her father has found steady work in a munitions plant and her mother is also working in Manchester.

Rosemary's parents, Leslie and Louise came to England several years ago. Her father lost his job and was unable to find work in Eastbourne. In London he had one temporary job after another, so Rosemary's mother left to find work. This meant that Rosemary and her brothers, Kenneth and Patrick had to be separated. Uncle John and Aunt Katie Alexandra took in Rosemary but were unable to take in her brothers as well. So Patrick went to stay with a minister friend of the family in Birmingham, while Kenneth was sent to live on the coast near Liverpool with Uncle Stephen. Listening to her aunt and uncle Rosemary learns that her father plans to live with his mother, Charlotte Rivers, whom he doesn't get along with. Rosemary has never met Grandmother Charlotte but she's hoping that she can help keep the peace between her father and her grandmother.

Rosemary is told the next day by her aunt and uncle about this plan and that her parents will be arriving in a fortnight. They will be travelling by ship, the cost of the tickets being paid by Grandmother Charlotte and they will be living on her farm in Wisconsin. Her aunt and uncle caution Rosemary not to get her hopes up as her father doesn't get along with his mother. Rosemary is determined to be the peacemaker between her father and Grandmother Charlotte. Rosemary lets her best friend Beryl know about her leaving for America and promises to write. 

Rosemary's parents and her brothers, Patrick now eleven years old and Kenneth now eight years old, arrive at Uncle John's home. Rosemary is shocked at the difference in her brothers, who she hasn't seen in three years but she is thrilled to see her parents. They leave the next day taking the triain to the port, then travel by boat across the Atlantic. They arrive in Canada, sail past Quebec City and Montreal, across Lake Ontario to Rochester, New York where they disembark. They then travel by train to Chicago, Green Bay and then on to Rhineland in Wisconsin. There Rosemary's father manages to buy an old car and they drive to Hazen and to his mother's home.

Rosemary and her family are shocked when they see Grandmother Charlotte's home. The home is "...the most majestic house she'd ever seen." It has three stories, with large pillars and is surrounded by a field of wildflowers. It was like the house Rosemary had imagined in her secret world she'd named "Paradise". In "Paradise", Rosemary had imagined "...a grand white house..." and "...a glorious place of colorful flowers growing in happy profusion, and of orchards dotted with blossoming trees."  Rosemary's father tells them that it was a resort until recently and that is overlooks North Hackley Lake, with ten or fifteen cottages that his father had built.

After meeting Grandmother Charlotte, they are introduced to Aunt Ann who was married to Rosemary's father's late brother James, and her daughter Corinne. Corinne is not friendly and warns Rosemary they won't be friends. The next morning Rosemary makes an astonishing discovery - a beautiful garden of flowers behind the house. Worried that grandmother might be upset at her presence in the garden, Rosemary races back to the gate only to find it won't open. That is until a boy helps her. She learns that the boy is Jacob Parker, the son of the Grandmother Charlotte's maid. He works tending the garden and the grounds. Jacob refers to Rosemary's grandmother as Mrs. Riviere, leading Rosemary to confront her parents and grandmother about her heritage. Her father tells his mother that he used the name Rivers because of the prejudice he has experienced. It is Grandmother Charlotte who reveals to Rosemary that she is Indian and French.

Her father explains that he was also afraid of the prejudice they might experience in England, especially with what is going on in Europe with Nazi Germany. However, Rosemary doesn't accept her father's explanation that they never talk about her mother's family because in fact she knows that her mother is English and Irish and knows other information as well.

On a surprise shopping trip to buy new clothes for Rosemary, Grandmother Charlotte asks her to help her with the garden so that she can win all the blue ribbons at the upcoming fall fair in August. Grandmother also reveals to Rosemary more about her Indian heritage: Charlotte's mother was a full-blooded Ojibwe, while her father was a Scotsman who was also French-Indian. Charlotte explains that she is Ojibwe Anishinaabe, descended from people who lived on the land in Wisconsin and Michigan and who understood the animals and the plants. She also explains that her husband (Rosemary's grandfather) was wealthy from the fur trade but when that money ran out, he opened the Indian resort. While Grandmother Charlotte and her son James were interested in carrying on their cultural traditions, Leslie, Rosemary's father was not because of the prejudice he experienced. 

 However her father's ongoing struggle to find work causes Rosemary to worry that once again her family will be forced to move and be separated.  Grandmother Charlotte however has her own plan, one that will make Rosemary's dream of Paradise come true.

Discussion

The Blossoming Summer is a sweet middle-grade novel about life in America at the beginning of World War II. 

The story is told by thirteen-year-old Rosemary Riviere who wants nothing more than the reuniting of her parents, her brothers and herself and for them to become a loving family once more. Rosemary is so desperate for this to happen that she had created for herself, an imaginary home which she calls Paradise. Paradise "...was a glorious place of colorful flowers growing in happy profusion, and of orchards dotted with blossoming trees...A grand white house that sheltered its family from the rain and wind and welcomed newcomers on bright summer days. It winked it eyes in the blizzards of December and kept fires burning in its hearths during January; it shone like chine in the June sun, and its lawns turned green as a parakeet's plummage in August...She also liked to imagine the family inside the Paradise house...there was a mother, a father, and three young children, and they were a remarkably special family. They never quarreled, and they always did things together, having a marvelous time..."

Rosemary's ideal family is unrealistic and reflects how desperately she misses her family and longs for a real home. It's not that her Uncle John and Aunt Katie Alexandra do not love her, but they are not her parents. It's clear the separation from her parents and her brothers has deeply hurt her. So when she learns that her parents  are reuniting their family and moving to America, Rosemary is hopeful and determined to make sure they stay together. 

Rosemary quickly recognizes that the reunion of her family may not be what she thought it would be. When her parents and younger brothers arrive at her Uncle John's Rosemary is shocked at how changed her brothers are. At dinner she notes that it is evident her parents have lived apart where one parent would mention something that the other parent did not know about. It was these "one-sided memories" that each parent brought up that was disconcerting. Later that night she reflects: "They were togerher, and yet...And yet, look at them. Perfect strangers in some ways. Still a family, but sundered, somehow, missing something. Kenneth, for example, barely knew her -- and worse still, he didn't even seem to care about her." She also notes considerable change in her parents: "Dad and Mum had changed a great deal since their last visit five months ago. Mum was now slim and lithe, almost too much so, and her eyes were limpid and sad...Dad's dark hair was grayer, and the scar on his cheek stood out more than it used to. He mostly spoke in bursts -- declarations and exclamations -- before growing silent again."

A hint of the revelation to come occurs on the Atlantic crossing when Rosemary is looking through her mother's scrapbook and finds her father's passport. His name is listed as Leslie Joseph Riviere instead of Rivers as is her surname. Rosemary believes the passport is incorrect. However, she learns from her grandmother that in fact, the name is correct and that she is of Ojibwe heritage. 

On a shopping outing, Grandmother Charlotte tells Rosemary that if she wins the blue ribbon prizes at the local fair, she will lease her father land to build a home on. To Rosemary, this feels like a dream come true, since her grandmother's home and land feel so close to the "Paradise" she's been dreaming of. In reality, adult readers will suspect Charlotte's true motives since Leslie Rivier is Charlotte's only surviving adult heir and it's likely her land would pass to him anyways. But as it happens, Charlotte's plan is to help her son recognize the beauty of his Indian heritage and the land he is tied to, and give his family a second chance to restart their lives after so much struggle and separation.She not only achieves this end but in the process helps to rebuild the bonds between Rosemary and her brothers, between the children and their parents and between Leslie and Louise, as well as between Charlotte and her estranged son Leslie. Grandmother Charlotte also begins to pass on her knowledge of the land and her Ojibwe culture and language to her granddaughter, thus reclaiming what her son Leslie rejected. 

When Grandmother Charlotte doesn't win the ribbons she wanted, Rosemary believes she failed. She tells her parents, "I thought I had to be the one...The one to -- manage everything, to make things work. I didn't think anyone else could. I was sure that if I could just make everything perfect -- a kind of Paradise -- then everything would be...fine." Bur her parents tell her, "And it's also very true that you are not responsible for this family.That's for your mother and me to worry about." Her father also tells Rosemary that while they are not the perfect family, they are trying and that the long separation they've endured has made things more difficult. Her father tells her, "I'm truly sorry that you felt you had to be the one to fix things between us, and between the whole family, ....But that's what a family is for, you see? One person doesn't need to have sole responsibility -- and shouldn't." Her mother reiterates that they will not separate Rosemary and her brothers ever again, something that allays Rosemary's biggest fear of losing her family again. 

The Blossoming Summer is a sweet and very touching novel about how difficult times can force families into situations that are trying. It tackles the theme of an older child, often a daughter, who takes on the responsibiliies of keeping things together. This novel, from award-winning author, Anna Rose Johnson offers young readers a refreshing story that has a positive outlook on family life, on the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren, and on forgiveness and redemption. 

The author includes a map and also a glossary of Ojibwe terms. Highly recommended.

Book Details:

The Blossoming Summer by Anna Rose Johnson
New York: Holiday House   2025
276 pp.

Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar

Across So Many Seas tells the stories of four young girls of Jewish ancestry in four very different eras.

The story begins in Toledo, Spain in the year 1492. Benvenida Toledano lives in Toledo with her parents and her brothers, Isaac and Jacob. It is a bright sunny March 31st morning, as Benvenida and her family listen to the officer-at-arm as he reads the proclamation from the King and Queen of Spain. It states that all Jews must leave the Spanish kingdom by the end of the month of July or they will be executed. They will only be allowed to stay if they convert to Catholicism. King Ferdinando and Queen Isabella want to unite the kingdom under the Catholic faith, Many Jews have already converted, including Benvenida's father's two sisters, her aunts Leah and Rachel and their families. As well, Benvenida's two best friends, Susanah and Deborah have also converted and no longer play with her.

Benvenida is able to read and write in Hebrew and Spanish and knows some Arabic. Although women aren't allowed to read, her father allows this because Benvenida's mother's family are printers. Her father's sisters, now known as Asuncion and Juana press him to convert as they did, so his family can remain in Spain. But her father, who is a hazan, flatly refuses. And so her father begins selling their possessions while her mother writes letters to her family in Naples, telling them they are coming. Benvenida's mother's family moved to Naples after her birth years ago.

Eventually, after delaying in the hopes the decree would be relaxed, Benvenida's family leaves their home taking the key to their house. Her father is also determined to carry the Torah on his shoulder, wrapped in Benvenida's shawl. Along with the remaining Jews of Toledo, they walk through villages and plains in the hot sun. One of the women, Naomi gives birth beside the road to a baby girl named Preciada. On one occasion they are met by priests offering them to convert to Catholicism and some elders do so. 

In Siete Aguas, they are aided by an innkeeper, a converso who helps them obtain passage on a ship, in a closed cabin, travelling to Naples. On the voyage, Benvenida's father dies and is buried at sea. In Naples, they are reunited with Benvenida's mother's family including her mother's sister, Tia Mazal and brother, Tio Yehuda. Tio Yehuda reveals that the situation in Naples is not ideal either There is famine and cholera and the Jews are being blamed for these problems. They are planning to leave for Constantinople soon because the Muslims there do not try to convert the Jews. The day to leave soon arrives and Benvenida and her family arrive in the city to start over.

The story now moves four hundred years into the future in the newly independent country of Turkey under President Ataturk. It is 1923 and Reina, a descendant of Benvenida lives with Mima and Papa and her sisters, eight-year-old Dina and ten-year-old Suzi in Silivri. Their neighbours with whom they share a courtyard are a Muslim family: Ahmet and his wife Afrah and their three sons Sadik, Emir and Nazim.

Twelve-year-old Sadik is friends with Reina and invites her to watch the all night fireworks at a party at the port. Reina wants to go but her father forbids it. However, Reina is determined to make her own choice and when everyone is asleep, she sneaks out of their house. With Sadik, Reina goes to the beach However, she quickly realizes she is the only girl among the Armenian, Greek and Muslim boys. The lone Jewish boy, Benny asks her to play her oud and sing a song for them which Reina does. But this ends up leading to an altercation in which her oud is scratched by Benny. 

The next evening after dinner Reina's father reveals  that he has learned she was at the beach the night before with Sadik. Furious that she disobeyed him and that she has shamed their family he tells her "You are not my daughter anymore. To me you are dead."  Several weeks later Mima tells Reina that her father is sending her to Cuba with his sister, Tia Zimbul, where she will marry a distant cousin named Moshico. Reina's journey to Cuba will open a new chapter in her life that leads to more journeys for her daughter and her granddaughter and a wonderful discovery that despite what happened so long ago, a friend never forgot her.

Discussion

Across So Many Seas is a historical fiction novel that weaves an engaging ancestral story portraying one Jewish family through the centuries. The story features the daughters who carry on the traditions of the Sephardic Jews as they move through time and location.

The author, Ruth Behar, decided to focus on young girls, "...since the voices of young girls are too often missing in the records of the past."  Behar's paternal and maternal grandmothers both arrived in Cuba in the 1920's, one bringing "...the Yiddish language and the Ashkenazi culture of Eastern Europe..." and the other "...the language of Ladino, or Judeo-Spanish, and the culture of the Sephardic Jews, who trace their ancestry to Spain before the 1942 expulsion."  Her abuela's life, as a Turkish Jew who was sent to Havana to be married, provided the inspiration for this story. Like Reina, she played the oud beautifully as a young woman.

The novel moves seamlessly from the events in the late fifteenth century to the early twentieth century in 1923. Behar decided to skip these four hundred years as those who have Sephardic heritage are often unable to trace their lineage that far back. They do know that their families originated in Spain so that seemed to be a logical way to structure her story. The novel also incorporates important historical events that form the background to each character's story. In the Sources section at the back of the novel, Behar offers short explanations regarding both the important historical events and the Jewish customs incorporated into the story. 

Using these important historical events as the backdrop to the lives of these young women allows readers to learn about events that affected millions of people over the last four hundred years. For example, the Spanish Inquisition which was formalized by Pope Sixtus IV led to the Edict of Expulsion. For centuries prior, Jews and Catholics had lived together in Spain.  There were conversions over the centuries from Islam and Judaism to Catholicism. These people were called conversos. It's likely many of the initial conversions were not genuine, either being forced or motivated by other desires such as ambition, as only Catholics could hold public office in Spain.  But it is likely that later generations of the initial conversos were faithful Catholics. 

The Reconquista of the Iberian peninsula (from the Moors) led to strong anti-converso and anti-Semitic feelings. During this time Spain was forging a new national identity - one that was strongly Catholic in light of finally reclaiming Spain from the Moors.  The Spanish Inquisition came to Spain to deal with those conversos who had done so under false pretenses, It had no authority on practicing Muslims and Jews. It was in this nationalistic environment that led the Spanish crown to request Jews either convert or leave. Many chose to convert but many also chose to leave as Benvenida's family did. 

In this regard, Behar's account of what happened, from the Jewish perspective does ignore history from the Spanish Catholic perspective and judges it without regard to the Spanish experience. While touring the Sephardic Museum, their guide Mari Luz, points out a large facsimile of the Edict of Expulsion hanging on the wall stating, "You can see the signatures of King Ferdinando and Queen Isabel, and the date, March 31, 1492. It's here so we won't forget the horror they unleashed with their words of intolerance and hate."  The Spanish Crown gave the Jewish people time to convert or leave before the penalty applied. Was it cruel and harsh by today's standards? Absolutely. But it was also the action of a king and queen attempting to finally bring lasting peace to their country which had been at war for over seven hundred years. As a result, Spain would avoid the religious wars that came to be a part of life in the rest of Europe.

All four major characters, Benvenida, Reina, Alegra and Paloma  are intelligent, resilient young women. Benvenida endures deadly prejudice that forces her family to flee both Spain and Italy. Reina experiences the loss of her family as a result of the social restrictions that still existed on girls and women in the early twentieth century. Alegra wants to help others learn to read but must flee her country because of the Communist regime. 

Behar brings the story almost full circle with Alegra's daughter, Paloma, "the keeper of memories" and the three generations of women returning to their roots in Toledo, Spain. There, they encounter the parchment Benvenida placed so long ago in the wall of her home prior to leaving for Naples. It was her hope that someday it would be found and it was. Although Reina, Alegra and Paloma do not realize that this is their ancestor they are inspired to claim the writer as one.

Reina also learns that the boy who was her best friend, Sadik Topal, was their guide's father-in-law. Mari Luz reveals that her father-in-law Sadik learned to play the oud and never forgot Reina.  Sadly the two friends missed being reunited by a year, with Sadik's death a year earlier. This lovely connection brings the story full circle and helps Reina to heal from losing a friend so long ago.

Across So Many Seas is a touching and well-written novel that ties in several important historical events through the lives of several generations of Jewish girls.

Book Details:

Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar

New York: Nancy Paulsen Books     2025
258 pp.

Leila and the Blue Fox by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Twelve-year-old Leila Saleh is on her way to meeting up with her mother, Amani Saleh, a meteorologist and researcher in Norway. 

Leila has been living with her aunt and her cousin, seventeen-year-old Mona in her aunt's terraced home in Croydon, England for the past six years. All of them fled out of Damascus, Syria when Leila was just five-years-old.

At the airport in Tromso, Norway, her flight guardian guides Leila through immigration. But Leila's mom isn't there to meet her. Instead it is her mom's friend, Liv Nilsen. They are quickly joined by Liv's daughter Britt, who has just arrived from her school in Bergen. The drive to her mother's apartment is filled with surprises for Leila: the huge mountain and the tunnel under the sea, the Arctic Cathedral. In the apartment Liv shares with Leila's mother, she shows Leila a picture of a fox they have named Miso and have been following. Liv tells Leila that her mother couldn't meet her at the airport because she had a meeting regarding funding for studying this animal. 

Later that evening, Leila meets her mother in a restaurant along with Liv and Britt. In the restaurant, Leila's mother reveals that their funding to study the Arctic fox they've been following and recently put a tracking collar on, has been approved. Liv tells the group that the fox, who they've named Miso, was born in a litter on a beach in Svalbard and "has been walking for weeks now, across the sea ice, miles at a time, going north and then west." She has walked almost a thousand miles in one month. Liv states "She's proving animals can adapt through migration even in these most extreme times." The new funding will allow Liv and Amani to track Miso by boat, "...observing her interactions with other animals, seeing whether her coat changes color or her eating habits change." Then in a stunning turn of events, Leila's mother asks if Leila and Britt want to accompany them on the boat! The two girls agree, leading the four to have a remarkable journey of discovery and healing.

Discussion

Leila and the Blue Fox is a story that focuses on the strained relationship between a young girl and her mother, set against the backdrop of research in the high Arctic. The novel incorporates two narratives: that of Leila and her mother, and that of a blue fox, Miso as she journeys across the Arctic ice towards food and finding a mate.

Leila Saleh and her mother Amani's backstory is gradually revealed in the novel: Leila was born in Damascus and they fled the war in Syria when she was only five years old. Her father remained behind in Syria but Leila, her mother, her aunt and her cousin Mona all left. Even though it was seven years ago, Leila remembers the experience. "She remembers it all. The night they left Damascus, bombs lighting the sky like fireworks. Basbousa, terrified in his basket, handed to their neighbor who would not leave. The car into the hills, a truck to the border. The smell of gasoline, the sound of crying, energy bars like sawdust in her throat. Amma chanting....Walking awake, walking half-asleep, being carried, walking always in the dark. More cars, more trucks, a van where Mona had a panic attack...The boat...the boat." 

Leila, her mother along with Amma and Mona settled in Croydon in south London. However, Leila's mother, a meteorologist who studies climate change, was unable to find work in England and so she moved to Noway. There she got a job at the Tromso Arctic Institute. The result was that Leila has not seen her mom in six years. This long absence has created feelings of abandonment and intense anger in Leila who wonders why her mother left her. The long absence seems somewhat contrived: was Amani not able to find even a week to return to London to visit her daughter? Leila believes it is because Norway is "as far away from home as she can be. Because everything is different, from the food to the clothes to the weather, because she doesn't want to remember home. And really, though no one says it, because she doesn't want to remember Leila."

Leila's anger and sense of abandonment are intensified when she arrives in Tromso, Norway only to learn that her mother is not at the airport to meet her but instead has chosen to attend a meeting for research funding. When Leila meets her mother at the restaurant she refuses her touch and is angered by her mother's use of her childhood name of "La-La". Six years have passed and no one calles Leila that pet name anymore. To Leila, her mother's "...work was clearly more important to her than being a mom." Later on Leila states that her mother "...was following the fox anywhere ti led, when she hadn't even come to find Leila, even though she knew exactly where she was." 

A chance for healing of the rift between mother and daughter happens when Amani and Liv invite their daughters to accompany them on a boat trip as they track the blue fox Miso's journey westward across the ice. The journey towards healing between Amma and Leila is mirrored in Miso's struggle to find a safe place to live.

While on the boat tracking Miso, Leila continues to struggle with her feelings regarding her mother, both hating and loving her. In London, she was able to hide her hurt, keeping busy with life. "But now Leila is here with her, feeling her warmth and hearing her laugh, the absence feels sharper, ragged. Being with her has made all that time without her far more painful." 

In close quarters on the boat, Leila finds herself drawn into her mother's research and even understanding her mother's love of the Arctic. She becomes the research team's social media manager, posting information about Miso's journey on Twitter. Becoming involved helps Leila begin to understand her mother. But being on the boat with her mother, experiencing her also bring back memories of a life lost - in Damascus. "With them arrive feelings so big she can't fit them all inside her head: sadness and happiness and the feeling Britt described, of a lost life, a half life it is easier to forget."

Both Liv's daughter Britt and Leila struggle to cope with mothers who appear to be self-absorbed and disconnected from their daughters. Britt tells Leila that her mother never asks questions about her boarding school and doesn't know about her friends, the books or music she likes. Britt tells Leila her mother "...knows the names of every whale but nothing about me." Leila can relate to Britt's pain because of her own mother's focus on Miso and her research and the fact that she won't tell Amma and Mona about the research and about being on the boat.

When a crisis sees Leila's mother arrested by the Canadian Coast Guard and Leila must tell Amma and Mona what has been happening, "She realizes she loves Mum, but she loves Mona and Amma as well. That they are more than enough." And Leila tells Mona she plans to return to London. Eventually when Amina returns she finally reaches out to Leila explaining why she left England and never returned. Amina reveals that she didn't fit in and didn't feel safe. She decided to stay in Norway because it allowed her to support Leila and her aunt and cousin. "I didn't leave because of you...I left for you. To provide for you, as well as for myself..." 

This helps Leila understand what has happened and why, and helps her to come to terms with her feelings of loss and abandonment. But it also doesn't explain why Amani did not return at least for holiday visits therefore seems shallow and incomplete. Nor does Leila question why her mother never returned for at least a holiday visit. However, she does ask her mother to visit "even once a year" which she agrees to do.

The author does tie together Leila's family's "migration" with that of Miso's. Leila's mother tells her,  "We had to leave our home, because of war. But what if it was because of water, or lack of it? Or the weather? Patterns are changing. Miso's journey proves that migration is necessary for survival. What Miso did, what we did, was leave home to find something better."  The message for young readers is that refugees often do not want to leave their homes, but come because they must, because they are seeking a safer, better life.

Miso's journey across the Arctic ice from Svalbard a group of islands in the Barents Sea is based on the real life journey of a female Arctic fox named Anna who travelled from 3,500 km from Norway's Svalbard archipelgo to Ellesmere Island in Canada. Anna began her journey on March 26, 2018 and arrived arrived in Canada on July 1. The arctic blue fox had  been fitted with a radio collar in 2017 and was tracked by researchers at the Norwegian Polar Institute. The fox travelled via sea ice and across glaciers. Her journey demonstrated how important sea ice is to animals in the Arctic.  Although Miso's narrative is short, there are lovely illustrations by Tom de Fresten.

This novel was well written and will definitely appeal to middle grade readers interested in animals and the High Arctic as well as young refugees seeking a better life.

Book Details:

Leila and the Blue Fox by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
New York: Union Square Kids      2022
243 pp.