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.

Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome

Langston lives in Bronzeville, a part of Chicago also called the Black Ghetto or the Black Belt. Langston and his father moved from Alabama one week after the death of his mama. They live in a kitchenette apartment at 4501 Wabash Avenue. It's a room with two beds, a table and two chairs and walls covered with newspapers to hide the holes but it does have running water and an indoor toilet. Langston attends Haines Junior High School while his father works at the Maxwell Brothers plant. A neighbour, Miss Fulton who teaches high school across town, lives above them and often asks Langston to help her bring groceries up the stairs.

Langston is usually the first one to get to school and sits in the front desk closest to his teacher, Miss Robins. His rundown shoes, overalls and the way he speaks marks him as poor and from the South, with some students calling him "country boy." Every day after school, Langston finds himself confronted by three boys, Lymon, Erroll and Clem but it is Lymon who mostly bullies him. Langston tries to ignore them allowing Lymon to push him around until he gets bored and leaves.

At home, Langston is sad, missing his mama's home cooking and life in Alabama. One day after school, after helping carry out a box for Miss Robins, Langston manages to sneak unseen through the fence away from school. By the time he stops to catch his breath, he realizes he is in a strange neighbourhood with neat homes and large trees. On the corner is a large building called the George Cleveland Hall Library. Remembering that his mama once told him a "library is a place you borrow books", Langston decides to find out what it's like.

A lady who turns out to be one of the librarians,  leads him into the library, telling him he can borrow any book he wants. Langston, scanning the shelves, pulls a book with his first name on the cover. The words in the book resonate with Langston, and he stays until the library closes. When he returns home late Langston lies to his father about the library, telling him he was out playing with some boys.

Langston returns to the library the very next day and asks the librarian, Mrs. Kimble about the photographs of colored people on the walls. She tells him that they are authors from a lecture series held at the library and that the library is named for a prominent Negro physician. Langston returns to the section of the library containing "the book with the words from my heart."  When it comes time to leave, Langston learns from Miss Cook, the children's librarian about taking out books using a library card. Langston is overwhelmed at this prospect and signs out the book of poetry by Langston Hughes.

As Langston struggles to adapt to life in Chicago, the library and the poetry of Langston Hughes prove to be the lifeline he needs to move forward.

Discussion

Finding Langston is a wonderful short novel, set in 1946 Chicago, chronicling a young black boy's struggle to adapt to life without his beloved mama in a strange city.

Langston misses just about everything that characterizes life in Alabama. In Alabama Langston had friends, and life was slower, the people more polite. Often Langston finds himself comparing Chicago to life at home in Alabama. "Streetlights shine through the window in the front of the room. In Alabama only lights I saw at night were the moon and stars. Sometimes so bright a curtain couldn't block them out...."

He finds the crowded busy city of Chicago difficult to get used to.
"Back home, we couldn't see a neighbor for miles. I'll never get used to people living on top of each other. I'll never get used to everybody knowing what time you get up in the morning and what you're cooking for breakfast. And everyone to busy to say a decent 'Mornin' when you see them on the street. Back home I had space to breathe. Had to walk down the road a ways to get to our nearest neighbor, but if somebody got sick, or was in need of a hand, folks were there to help 'fore you knew it. I knew I had to act right, because someone was always watching, waiting to get word back to my folks....."

Langston misses his friends and the sense of belonging. "Back home I had friends. Not a lot, but enough to make me fell like I fit. At lunch, outside, we'd play marbles together, sometimes climb the tree in the back of the school. No one laughed when I talked, or pointed at my run-over shoes and overalls."

But what Langston misses most is his mama. "But Mama made it seem like I was all she ever wanted. Like I filled her up. Like any more would have been too much. ...She loved me hard as she could till she left this world." Langston feels the loss of his mama keenly. "I close my eyes and try to picture Mama. I can still see her smile with the space between her teeth. Smooth brown skin and eyes that laughed along with her. Before I know it, the tears start and won't stop."

In an effort to avoid being bullied, Langston discovers a nearby public library that is open to all people regardless of the colour of their skin. And it is there that he discovers a book by a poet, Langston Hughes who has the same first name. At first, the coincidence of their same first names seems unimportant to Langston, who has no idea why his parents chose his name.

When he reads some of his mama's letters to his father, he comes across several lines of poetry,

Langston Hughes 1942

"My black one,
Thou are not beautiful
Yet thou hast
A loveliness
Surpassing beauty."
Langston is moved by these lines but is certain they were not written by his mama who had no time to read, something she did before she was married, and definitely even less time to write poetry. 

Langston signs out a book, The Weary Blues, by Langston Hughes and discovers a poem, "Poem 4: To The Black Beloved" that has the words he saw in his mama's letter. This makes Langston understand that his mama also loved the poetry of Langston Hughes. He knows his father doesn't know the words in her letter were from a Langston Hughes poem, a secret he decides not to reveal.
"She never told him that Langston Hughes made her heart sing the way he does mine. That she wanted to name her baby boy after the poet she copied in her letters." Langston believes that his mama, in naming him after Langston Hughes whose poetry she loved, gave him a way to deal with the pain of her death and the loneliness of a strange city and ultimately to find a place to belong.

The library and poetry books also bring together Langston and his first friend in Chicago. When the boy who has been bullying Langston rips pages out of The Weary Blues, Clem retrieves all the pages and helps Langston explain to the librarian what happened. It is the beginning of a friendship. The two boys discover they have both suffered the loss of a loved one: Langston has lost his mother while Clem's father was killed in the munitions explosion on the SS E.A. Bryan in what came to be known as the Port Chicago disaster.

Langston is an endearing character, whose struggles are portrayed in a genuine and affecting way to all readers by Cline-Ransome. In spite of his loneliness, his sadness over the death of his mama and the difficulties of fitting in, Langston stays true to his southern values of honesty, kindness and helping others. But he also begins to find those same values in people like Clem who has also suffered the loss of someone he loves, and in his neighbour Miss Fulton, who shares his love of poetry.

Finding Langston is a truly beautiful story about loss, hope, starting over and belonging. It is about the power of libraries, and the written word and how books help us deal with life. It is as Clem says, after Langston explains why he likes poetry, " So the poetry you read is a way of putting all the things you feel inside on the outside."  Poetry and stories will always be a help to understanding both the joys and troubles of life.

Author Lesa Cline-Ransome offers some historical context in her Author's Note at the back, explaining the migration of hundreds of thousands of blacks from the South to cities in the North. The result for Chicago was the development of a rich cultural scene that included people like Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters, Gwendolyn Brooks and many others including the poet Langston Hughes. The library in Finding Langston is real. The George Cleveland Hall Branch of the Chicago Public Library was built due to the efforts of Dr. George Cleveland Hall who wanted a library for the constituents of Bronzeville. Unlike libraries in Alabama in 1946, everyone was welcome.

Langston Hall image:  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Langston-Hughes/images-videos#/media/1/274926/11795

Book Details:

Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome
New York: Holiday House    2018
107 pp.

Meet Viola Desmond by Elizabeth MacLeod

On November 18, 2018 a new ten dollar bill was released, featuring for the first time the image of a Canadian woman. For some time, the Royal Canadian Mint has faced pressure to put a Canadian woman on the country's currency instead of a Canadian man or British royalty. After public consultation, it was decided that the new bank note would feature Viola Desmond, a black Canadian businesswoman and civil rights activist. It was no surprise that few Canadians had ever heard of Viola Desmond which made her the perfect choice for the new bank note.

Viola Irene Desmond was born on July 6, 1914 in Halifax, Nova Scotia to Gwendolin and James Davis, a biracial couple (Viola's mother was white). The Davis's had a large family of ten children and were active in their community.  Like many African Canadians, Viola was treated differently than people who were white. She wanted to train as a hairdresser (her father was a barber) but no beauty school in Halifax would accept her, so she had to attend school in Montreal as well as New York and New Jersey.

Viola Desmond in her beauty salon.

When she returned to Halifax she opened both her own beauty salon as well as a beauty school known as Desmond School of Beauty Culture. The beauty school was dedicated to training other African Maritime women so they could open their own businesses in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec.

Viola once again experienced the racism that seemed so prevalent and tacitly accepted. On the evening of November 8, 1946, while travelling from Halifax to Sydney, Nova Scotia, Viola's car broke down in New Glasgow. While waiting for her car to be repaired, Viola decided to catch a movie,  at the Roseland Theatre. At this time theatres like many other venues were segregated, (although there were no segregation laws in effect in Halifax) with whites seated downstairs and black patrons seated in the upstairs balconies. Viola requested a downstairs ticket but was given a ticket to the balcony. She tried to take a seat in the downstairs section reserved for whites, only to be prevented by a theatre employee. Viola returned to the cashier believing she had been given the wrong ticket and requested a ticket for the main floor of the theatre but cashier Peggy Melanson told her she could only sell her a ticket for the upstairs. The reason Viola was given, was that she was black.

Viola knew that she was being discriminated against and attempted to return to the main floor of the theatre. She was confronted by the manager of the theatre, Henry MacNeil but Viola pointed out that she had a ticket and offered to pay the difference between the two tickets but was refused. Eventually police were called and Viola was forcibly removed from the theatre and taken to jail where she spent the night. The experience was frightening and infuriating.

The next morning she was brought into court, charged and convicted on the trumped up charge of tax evasion of one dollar - the difference in price between the two tickets. She was fined a total of twenty-six dollars. Viola's civil rights were ignored as she  had no counsel and was never advised of her right to an adjournment to prepare a defense. She was convicted simply because of the colour of her skin. When she returned home, her case was taken up by the NSAACP (Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) and although the case was lost on a technicality in the provincial Supreme Court, it did much to raise awareness of racial intolerance in Nova Scotia.

Discussion

Meet Viola Desmond is a picture book that introduces Viola Desmond to younger readers in an appealing comic book style. Her story is told in a straightforward way with a narrative below each comic book style illustration. MacLeod who has written many other biographies, effectively captures the frustration, anger and determination that Viola felt about her situation. The colourful illustrations effectively aid in conveying all of these emotions.

According to the description in the back by the publisher, illustrator Mike Deas created the drawings "using a blend of digital tools with traditional media. Sketches were created with a Wacom tablet and Photoshop, then traced onto watercolour paper, where colour and texture were added using gouache and watercolour paints. Ink was used to add the black line to finish the art."

MacLeod has included a two page timeline of Viola Desmond's life along with some photographs and a stamp issued in her name. At the right is an image of the ten dollar bank note issued with Viola Desmond's image. It is unusual in that it has her portrait placed vertically on the bank note.
Readers can learn more about Viola from the online Canadian Encyclopedia: https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/viola-desmond   Image credits: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/viola-desmond

Book Details:

Meet Viola Desmond by Elizabeth MacLeod
Toronto: Scholastic Canada Ltd. 2018
31 pp.

White Sands, Red Menace by Ellen Klages

White Sands, Red Menace picks up the story of Dewey Kerrigan and Suze Gordon, post-World War II.The novel covers the span of approximately one year from May 12, 1946 to May 15, 1947.

It is May 12, 1946 and the United States has won the war in the Pacific, dropping two atomic bombs, which Dewey and Suze's parents helped to build, on cities in Japan. Casualties were in the hundreds of thousands and the public, including the scientists remain divided over the use of nuclear technology. 

Dewey continues to live with the Gordons who are now located in Alamogordo, New Mexico, a hour from the Mexican border and only sixty miles from the Trinity test site. The novel opens with Dewey and the Gordons driving to the White Sands Proving Grounds, a flat expanse of arid desert where the US government is testing the launch of the first American rocket launched into outer space.

The American army captured three hundred boxcars full of V-2 rocket parts along with the instructions, all written in German. The German scientists who were working on the rocket, including Wernher von Braun, have been brought over to America to help the country build its own rockets. Dr. Gordon tells Dewey and Suze that this is the first rocket to travel straight up into the outer atmosphere. The launch is successful.

Meanwhile Dewey and Suze continue to develop their areas of interest: Dewey with building various machines and Suze with her art creations. In their shared bedroom, the two girls work on creating a wall of artwork and mechanical pieces that they name "the Wall".  In July, Dewey receives a cheque for three thousand dollars from her grandmother, Nana Gallucci's estate, plus her jewelry and her Nana's clothing. She also finds a picture of her grandparents and her father Jimmy Kerrigan and mother, Rita Gallucci Kerrigan when they much younger.

Suze's father continues to be very involved in the development of a rocket, while her mother works from home to stop further development of nuclear weapons. A chemist, her efforts are no longer needed by the military and she desperately wants to resume her career at Berkley. Longing for a connection to her mother, it is Suze's father who takes her to the desert to see the beautiful sunset and the stars. He tells her that he's going to be out at the base again for some time, involved in launch tests.

Over the course of the next year, Suze and Dewey make new friends. In August, Suze meets a girl, Ynez Esquero, from the southern part of Alamogordo which is primarily Mexican. This part of town is known as "Little Chihuahua" and the Hispanics are not allowed to live north of Tenth. Ynez is selling tamales which Suze discovers she really likes. Suze visits Ynez's home and learns that she wants to live in Hollywood some day. Ynez's mother, Dona Luisa, teaches Suze how to make tamales.

The school year starts and Dewey who is now attending Alamogordo High, is forced to take Home Economics and to repeat Algebra instead of being allowed to enroll in the grade nine trigonometry class. Dewey and Suze are in English, Social Science and Home Ec together. When a film is to be shown in Home Ec class, a boy named Owen Parker brings in the projector but has trouble getting things running. Dewey unobtrusively helps him and later on Owen helps her by taking her to his father's repair shop to teach her how to solder. Through the school year Dewey and Suze build new friendships while their own relationship becomes more secure. And as each face startling new situations to deal with, the true meaning of family is discovered.

Discussion

White Sands, Red Menace is a fitting conclusion to the story of Dewey and Suze and the beginning of the atomic age. Once again Klages does an excellent job recreating the setting for her novel - this time, life in postwar America, late 1940's.

The social and political fallout from the development of the atom bomb is shown throughout the novel. Sometimes the consequences are personal for Dewey and Suze, other times they are more indirect. For example, Suze comes home one day to find her mother grieving over the death of a colleague, Lou Slotin who died from radiation sickness as a result of a plutonium accident.  Terry Gordon reveals to her daughter Suze that only the first hundred thousand casualties in Hiroshima where due to the actual bomb explosion. The rest died from radiation sickness like Slotin, which horrifies Suze. In Social Science class Suze confronts Mrs. McDonald telling her the government won't let the newspapers print the truth about Japan "because it might scare people and turn them against 'our new friend, the atom.' " When she tells the class what is really happening she is sent to the principal's office.

Klage uses a conversation between Dewey and Suze to hint at the hypocrisy of the American government in executing the remaining Nazi's at Nuremberg while not executing scientists like von Braun whose rockets killed thousands in Britain. Suze tells her, "My dad says it doesn't matter, 'cause we need 'em to teach our army how to work the controls and stuff." When the Gordons have one of von Braun's crew, Rudy Mueller and his son Kurt over for Thanksgiving, Kurt tells Suze, Dewey and Owen how the Germans were able to use many "workers" to make so many rockets at Nordhausen.  Suze realizes that Kurt is referring to the Nordhausen concentration work camp, where the U.S. troops discovered the bodies of 3,000 slave laborers and where 20,000 slaves died making rocket parts. Suze realizes that if she knows, likely her dad and the other government scientists know too.

There's plenty of cultural references throughout the novel. For example, Dewey and Suze go to the theatre to see Tarzan and the Leopard Woman which starred Johnny Weissmuller and Brenda Joyce. The theatre also shows Spider Woman Strikes Back and the previews show the atomic bomb test at the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific and Chapter Nine of Captain Midnight. In 1946 New Mexico, Black children are not allowed to attend Alamogordo High and could only attend school up to Grade Eight. Obviously this will affect the types of employment available to Black men and women. When Owen comes to visit Dewey he tells her about seeing a television in El Paso, Texas. In 1946, a ten inch television cost four hundred dollars. At this time there was no television station in El Paso but one in Los Angeles. He's certain that soon televisions will soon be sold.

The years immediately following the atomic bombing of Japan saw many products in the US marketed as "atomic" suggesting they had special abilities. Suze had expected her parents and the other scientists would be heroes for ending the war in the Pacific through the use of the atom bomb. However, when the world saw the damage done by the bombs, there were no celebrations, but America could not admit this. It would be unpatriotic. So Suze believes that instead American businesses try to minimize the harm of atomic technology by marketing it as beneficial to society.  "Songs, ads, comic -- everything was 'atomic' now, like just using the word would make stuff special? Atomic-like action! Who in their right mind wanted a cleanser that worked like the Bomb? It would blow up your sink, your kitchen, turn your whole neighborhood into ashes and rubble and radiation. Some way to clean."

Readers will get a good sense of the social norms of the post war era in which women had to conform to certain expectations. During the war, women worked in factories while men were overseas fighting but with the end of the war, society returns to the traditional roles expected of men and women. Men are to learn mechanical skills like welding and woodworking, while women are expected to learn domestic skills like cooking and hygiene. Klage uses the character of Dewey, who is different from most girls her age, to portray how difficult it was to fight the social norms of the times. Dewey will be in Grade Eight and wants to take shop but is told, "Oh no. Those are boys' classes." Instead, she is forced to enroll in Home Economics. In fact Dewey is not even allowed to go into that part of the school only because she is a girl. She worries that not taking shop will affect her chance of attending MIT for engineering.

Klages portrayal of the relationship between Dewey and Suze is very realistic: life is  not all roses. There is sibling rivalry and the typical teenage angst. The Gordon's have taken in Dewey when her father died. Dewey and Terry Gordon form a bond based on their love of science and the fact that they think in a similar way. This aspect of their relationship causes Suze to feel left out and jealous. Dewey seems to recognize this and tries to help Suze. When the girls have a fight over Dewey going to practice driving with Suze's mother, Suze finally admits to her friend, "I feel like an orphan. Dad's off with his rockets, and Mom's always busy." The fight leads Suze to talk to her mom about how she's feeling and her mother tells her,
 " 'I'm glad. Because I do love Dewey. As much as if she was your real sis--sibling. But that doesn't mean I love you any less. You know that, don't you?
'I guess so.'
'Oh, that was convincing.' She turned in her chair so they sat knee to knee. 'You're my daughter, no matter what. Always will be.
'Even though I don't like science much,' Suze said in a small voice. 'You're not disappointed I'm not more like you?' She paused, 'And Dewey.' "
Suze's mom reassures her of her love and tells Suze that she's more like her mom than she suspects. She shows Suze a picture of her and her friends, how she was tall like Suze at the same age and just as curious.

Dewey herself must also come to terms with the relationship between herself and her mother, who reappears in her life later in the novel. She learns the truth about her parents and why her mother left and she must make the difficult decision about what part her mother will play in her own life. In this regard, Dewey is presented as a very mature fourteen year old who knows what her goals are and who is determined to achieve them. With the help of her best friend Suze, Dewey takes the unusual step of taking control of her own destiny.

There are a few historical facts peppered throughout the novel. For example Louis Slotin was a real historical figure, a Canadian physicist who worked to assemble the nuclear core of the Trinity bomb. Slotin died from a massive dose of neutron radiation when he accidentally caused a critical reaction to occur. The type of testing Slotin was involved in was called criticality testing and was considered very dangerous. Another historical fact is the McMahon Act which placed atomic research in the hands of the scientists removing it from military control.

White Sands, Red Menace is a fascinating read about the period of history just prior to the start of the Cold War. Klages offers a detailed Author's Note at the back which provides some further information and resources on the 1940's, the V-2 Rocket Program and the Atomic Bomb. Fans of historical fiction will enjoy this reading about life in the years immediately following the war.

Book Details:

White Sands, Red Menace by Ellen Klages
New York: Viking Press       2008
337 pp.