Heroes by Alan Gratz

Frank McCoy and his best friend Stanley Summers live on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, located ten miles west of Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. It is a little island in the middle of the harbor which is both a body of water and the name of the United States military base. While Stanley has grown up in Hawai'i, with his father and his Japanese American mother, Mitsuko, Frank has moved there from Pensacola, Florida where his father was previously stationed. Frank, along with his older sister Ginny and their parents now live next door to Stanley in a row of bungalows they call Nob Hill. Frank's father is a Navy pilot, while Stanley's father is a flight crew chief at the air station. He is in charge of fixing the planes that Frank's father flies. Frank's sister Ginny who works as a secretary at Dole Pineapple in Honolulu,  is dating Brooks Leonard, a seaman second class on the USS Utah. 

Frank and Stanley have a shared interest in creating a comic book with Frank doing the story and Stanley doing the illustrations. Making their way home from baseball practice in a small aluminum boat, the two friends discuss their ideas for a superhero they want to name, the Arsenal of Democracy. When they arrive at Ford Island, they find two boys, Arthur Edwards and Johnny Ross picking on a younger boy, Charlie Moon. When Stanley goes to intervene, he gets attacked by the boys and punched. But instead of coming to the aid of his best friend, Frank freezes up and watches as Stanley is beaten. This angers Stanley who can't understand why Frank, who is much bigger than the other boys, didn't come to his aid. What his best friend doesn't know is that Frank is terrified of almost everything.

When they arrive at their homes, Frank's sister Ginny immediately senses the tension between the two boys but she thinks it is due to an argument. 

Brooks offers to take Stanley and Frank on a tour of the Utah early on Sunday morning. For Stanley it means a break from Japanese school. Frank meanwhile is struggling to tell his friend why he didn't step in to help him during the fight. On Sunday morning the two friends take their boat down carrier row where the Utah and the light cruisers, Raleigh and Detroit are docked. They are greeted by Brooks Leonard when they climb aboard the Utah. The ship feels safe, powerful and invincible. 

Just as Frank begins to explain to Stanley why he didn't come to his aid during the fight, they see a squadron of fighters approaching from the northwest. This is quickly followed by fiery explosions on Ford Island. Confused and surprised, everyone believes this is a drill but as the planes buzz the Utah Frank sees a "meatball" on the bottom of the plane's winds. This is what  the red rising sun of the Japanese flag is called by Americans.

Quickly Frank, Stanley, and Brooks realize the Japanese are attacking Pearl Harbor. Within seconds the ships are being torpedoed. The Utah begins sinking, tilting toward the harbor. Stanley wants to get off the ship but Brooks tells them to take cover behind the large stacks of timber on the deck. Caught in the middle of an attack, with the Utah capsizing, Frank, Stanley and Brooks must abandon ship. This will mean jumping into the shark infested waters of Pearl Harbor with torpedoes and bullets exploding all around them? 

Discussion

Heroes is another historical fiction book written for middle school readers, this time with the focus on the attack on Pearl Harbor. Set against this dramatic scene, Gratz explores what defines a "hero". 

Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, thirteen-year-old Frank McCoy stands frozen to the side as his best friend Stanley is beaten by two boys. Despite being bigger than both of the boys who attack Stanley, Frank doesn't step in because he's afraid of getting hurt. This creates tension between the two boys as Stanley has no idea why Frank didn't help him.

The reality is that Frank lives in constant fear of getting hurt. He worries about sharks, eels, volcanoes and plane crashes. About getting struck by lightning, or burning himself on the barbecue, or wearing flip flops. Frank took advanced swimming lessons in case he ever had to swim to shore. Ironically, this skill does help him save a trapped sailor during the attack.

Upset by his friend's seeming cowardice and not yet knowing the cause, Stanley tells Frank what he believes defines a hero. The boys are talking about the design of their comic book superhero when Stanley tells Frank what defines a hero. "A real hero steps in when they see people getting hurt, no matter what." He explains to Frank he likes Superman because "...he uses his powers to help people who're in trouble, for no other reason than it's the right thing to do." 

Frank does eventually come clean to Stanley but it isn't until the boys are on Ford Island as it's being bombed by the Japanese. Frank now feels that he doesn't have to hide his fear and that maybe Stanley will understand. He explains that a vicious dog attack in third grade is behind his fear of getting hurt. The attack left him with ropy scars on his stomach and a lasting state of fear. Since that time, he is constantly evaluating the relative danger of everything.

However, Frank's actions during the bombing of Pearl Harbor demonstrate that he is no coward. Initially he behaves as he's been doing for the past five years - either trying to avoid danger or freezing when confronted with danger. This is seen when Stanley saves a sailor from tracer fire on the deck of the Utah while Frank remains frozen in fear. But when Frank and Stanley are in a launch that needs to go to the Raleigh to get a torch to free sailors trapped in the Utah, it is Frank who suggests they swim the rest of the way to Ford Island, allowing the launch to do the rescue. 

Then on their way to taking a wounded sailor to the hospital on Oahu in a boat, Frank and Stanley encounter a young sailor trapped in the water by a ring of burning oil. To Stanley's shock, Frank decides he will swim underwater to rescue the sailor. His decision to take this risk is a dramatic change, one that Stanley does not want to be involved in. Stanley wants them to save themselves, but Frank knows he can save this sailor from a gruesome death despite the sharks, eels, fire and risk of running out of air.

"Who was this Frank McCoy who wanted to jump into burning water to try and rescue some man he'd never met before....Was I the Frank McCoy who froze up when the going got tough? Or was I the Frank McCoy who could be brace in the face of danger? Who stood up for his friends in a fight? Who helped people when they were in trouble? I was still afraid. Of pretty much everything.....But of all the things in the world I was afraid of, I suddenly realized that my greatest fear was being too scared to do the right thing."

Gratz's portrayal of the chaos and destruction during the Pearl Harbor attack seem very realistic with the exception of the two boy's continued focus on how their superheroes would behave. It's likely that the terror, chaos, and the immediate prospect of death would quickly replace any ideas of superheroes in these young boys minds. They have seen the dead body of a young sailor Brooks Leonard whom they both know. Suddenly the reality of the attack and the possibility of their own deaths would be foremost in their minds. They would be focused on surviving and helping others to survive.

Heroes allows young readers to experience through the eyes of two young boys, the cataclysmic event that pushed the United States into the war. The story also portrays how the pre-existing discrimination towards Japanese Americans led people like Stanley's mother to bury treasured family heirlooms to save their families. The story also tackles the issue of anxiety in children, with the main character, Frank McCoy having suffered for years from unaddressed anxiety. In the case of Frank, he seems to conquer his fears quite suddenly and become a hero.

Author Alan Gratz has included the comic book that the fictional Frank and Stanley produce after the war called The Arsenal of Democracy. Readers should note that the comic panels were drawn by the real life illustrator Judit Tondora. There is a map of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 showing the position of the various boats, submarines and Frank and Stanley's homes. The Author's Note includes information on the attack on Pearl Harbor and how the consequences of the attack played out for the war, for the United States and for Japan as well as the legacy of Pearl Harbor. Gratz also discusses how he incorporated the events of Pearl Harbor into his story. 

Book Details:

Heroes by Alan Gratz
New York: Scholastic Press   2024

219 pp.

Vision Saints Series Part 1

The Vision book series is a series of short biographies of Catholic saints and holy men and women. They were written for children, aged nine to twelve, and published in the 1950's. Because each book is written by a different author, the quality and style of writing varies. Some books are about well known saints like Thomas Aquinas or St. Theresa of Lisieux, while others are about lesser known saints such as Mother Cabrini and Father Damien. With the passage of time some of the books about men and women who led exemplary lives are dated in terms of the person's status in the church. For example, Father Damien de Veuster's cause is now complete and he is a saint whose feast day is May 10th.

Saint Pius X: The Farm Boy Who Became Pope by Walter Diethelm, tells the story of Guiseppe Sarto who became Pope Pius X. Bepi as he was affectionately known, was a poor farm boy who grew up in the village of Riese. This account stresses Bepi's life of holy poverty. As a priest, bishop, cardinal and even as the archbishop of Venice, Sarto gave away everything he had to help the poor.

Guiseppi Sarto was not just concerned about the material needs of people but also about their spiritual needs. While the spiritual director of the seminary in Treviso, Father Sarto diligently instructed his seminarians, leading them in prayer and doing all he could to ensure they would become faithful priests.

As Pope Pius X, he continued his support of the poor, giving away vast sums of money to support orphans and to help educate children. Pius X is most noted for changing the rules regarding the reception of Holy Communion for children. Before his pontificate, children did not make their First Holy Communion until they were eleven or twelve years of age. He was responsible for changing the rules to allow children as young as seven to receive the sacrament as long as they understood what the sacrament involved. Pius X was deeply distraught over World War I which was just beginning in 1914. He died before the war grew to involve most countries in Europe, desolate at the thought that so many would loose their lives.

In St. Helena and the True Cross, Catholic author Louis de Wohl traces Helena's transformation from the ambitious pagan wife of Legate Constantius to the devote Christian mother of her son, Emperor Constantine. Helena is believed to have been a royal princess of the Trinovants and the daughter of King Coel.

The story begins with Legate Constantius tricked into leaving his command in the province of Southern Britain to travel to Rome. Believing the request to come from the new emperor, Maximian, Constantius arrives in Rome to learn this was not the case. His two month journey has allowed a rebellion  led  Carausius and his Roman soldiers to succeed.

Back in Britain, Helena and her thirteen-year-old son Constantine flee north along with Centurion Marcus Favonius to escape the troops of Admiral Carausius who quickly takes control of the province of Britain.

Seven years later, Constantine, now twenty-years-old and his mother Helena are living in hiding in Verulam and still waiting for Rome to reclaim Britain. Carausius has been murdered and replaced by the traitorous Allectus. Then suddenly news arrives that Rome has returned to reclaim Britain. From a stolen report Helena learns that Constantius is leading a large force that has already reclaimed certain areas. She decides to return to their villa in the south.

However, things are not what Helena and Constantine expect. Helena and Constantine learn from Constantius's aide-de-camp, Legate Curio, that Constantius is now emperor over the West (Occident) while Galerius rules over the Orient (the East). Both Diocletian and Maximian ordered Constantius and Galerius to divorce their wives and remarry. Constantius is now married to Emperor Maximian's daughter, Princess Theodora.

A devastated Helena, returns to their house in Verulam with Constantine and Favonius. It is during this period of suffering over the abandonment by her husband that Helena first learns of the Christian faith through a slave. Out of curiosity she decides to see Albanus, a Christian priest who explains the beginnings of the faith to her. Although skeptical at first, Helena eventually comes to respect the Christians and advocate for them when they are persecuted. She begins to find the cruelty of the Romans towards slaves and Christians offensive.

When her son, Constantine eventually becomes Emperor, defeating Maxentius and capturing Rome, Christianity is made the state religion and the old Roman gods are abolished.  Through a series of visions, Constantine comes to believe that the God of the Christians is on his side. Soon after, Helena becomes a Christian. But the ambitious Helena, now elderly woman, is determined to find the one true cross of Christ. To that end, she travels to the Holy city of Jerusalem and begins her search.

In De Wohl's novel, Helena is portrayed as a dynamic character, regal, ambitious and open minded. Her suffering as a result of the abandonment of herself and her son by her husband Constantius opens her to the possibilities offered by the Christian faith. But Helena's conversion is gradual and takes place over many years.

Helena's discovery of the Christ's Holy Cross is also portrayed in this novel. Tradition holds that St. Helena discovered the true cross during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 326 A.D. Christians, now free to practice their religion were able to travel to the Holy Land and Helena undertook this journey with the intent of finding these holy relics. Helena traveled to Mount Calvary where she found a temple to the goddess Venus built by the pagan Romans to prevent Christians from worshipping at the place of Christ's crucifixion. Helen was able to locate three crosses as well as nails and the inscription placed on Jesus's cross. She was able to determine the true cross by having a very ill woman in Jerusalem touch all three crosses. Only one cross, the true cross healed her. In de Wohl's novel, a young boy is cured of a withered arm.

In Father Damien And The Bells, authors Arthur and Elizabeth Sheehan have written an engaging account of Damien de Veuster's journey to sainthood. Damien, who was born Joseph de Veuster, grew up in Tremelo, in Flanders, Belgium. His father was a farmer. Joseph or Jef as he was called, was the youngest in the family and was responsible for tending the sheep.

August and Jef loved to hear their mother read stories from The Lives of the Holy Martyrs and Hermits. After four years of study at the Werchter village school Joseph stayed home to help his father on the family farm. He was a strong young man who loved physical labour. However his father, Francis de Veuster worried about Joseph and believed that he was different and destined for something else. So he arranged for his son to attend the academy in Braine-le-Comte, located in Hainault, southern Belgium so that Joseph could learn French. After that he would learn the grain business to help the family farm.

Meanwhile Joseph's brother Auguste entered the seminary of the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts, taking the name Pamphile.

At Braine-le-Comte, Joseph soon endeared himself to his classmates. But he was a deeply spiritual young man, often spending his nights in prayer. He was beginning to feel the call to a priestly vocation. At this time his sister Pauline entered the Ursiline Sisters in Holland. When his letter to his parents suggesting his vocation was not immediately answered, Joseph mentioned his intentions to Pamphile during one of his visits. His brother suggested he join the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts and eventually that is what came to happen. Upon his entry he took the name of Damien.

In the seminary of the Picpus Fathers in Louvain, Damien's unusual physical strength and good health did not go unnoticed. He practiced many denials, often sleeping on the floor and giving up his portion of meat at meals. In July of 1863, Pamphile learned he was to sail to the missions in Honolulu, Hawaii in October. But it was not to be. Pamphile became ill in October, during the typhus epidemic of 1863 and was unable to travel. Determined to take his brother's place, Damien wrote the Father General asking permission to travel to Hawaii. His request was granted.

This was to set Damien on the path as a missionary in Hawaii and ultimately his life's work with the lepers on Molokai. Father Damien's love of hard work, his unusual physical strength and his compassion for those suffering from what was in his time an incurable disease were to mark his ministry.

Discussion

Overall the quality of these three Vision novels is good. Each writer succeeds in giving readers a sense of what life was like in the time the saint lived. Each book manages to identify for young readers,  the virtues that these holy men and women practiced, and which ultimately led them to lead sainthood.

In the case of St. Pius X, it was his practice of prayer and poverty at an early age that set him on the path to sainthood. He routinely gave everything away he had, including his money, food and even his coat. St. Helena, is remembered for  her work for the church and for the poor and for her determination to find the relics of Christ's crucifixion. In the case of St. Damien, young readers will get a definite sense of how the practice of the Catholic faith was a part of daily life for Dutch Catholics. This holy family produced four religious vocations: his older sisters Pauline and Eugenie became nuns and his older brother Augustus became a priest.

For all three saints the path to holiness took a lifetime. For St. Pius X and St. Damien their faith was nurtured within the family where it was taken seriously and a part of everyday life. For St. Helena her conversion occurred gradually over the course of her life, nurtured by the example of the Christian community. De Wohl suggests that the kindness of Christians towards her situation led Helena to consider the faith, as her gods offered her nothing. She was resistant to conversion because as a Roman citizen she struggled with the manner of Christ's death - his crucifixion. "How could she believe in a God who allowed himself to be crucified, who died the most shameful death, hanging between two criminals?" For Helena, the cross was a barrier to her conversion. Albanus tells her that the cross is the obstacle to most Christians but that unlike the pagan gods, the Christian God has suffered both with us and for us. In de Wohl's account, it is her discussion with Albanus, who relates how trees are central to many pagan religions, that plants within Helena the seed of a desire to find the true cross.

Helena was a woman who did nothing by halves. From Butler's Lives of the Saints we read, "It appears from Eusebius, that St. Helen was not converted to the faith with her son, till after his miraculous victory; but so perfect was her conversion, that she embraced all the heroic practices of Christian perfection, especially the virtues of piety and almsdeeds...."

Many of the Vision books have been republished by Ignatius Press in the last 20 years with refreshed covers that are appealing to modern readers. Excellent for children and teens interested in learning more about specific saints. Suitable also for adults.

Book Details:

St. Pius X: The Farm Boy Who Became Pope by Walter Diethelm, O.S.B.
San Francisco: Ignatius Press   1994
163 pp.

St. Helena and the True Cross by Louis de Wohl
San Francisco: Ignatius Press   2012
158 pp.

Father Damien and the Bells by Arthur and Elizabeth Sheehan
San Francisco: Ignatius Press    2004
168 pp.

The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

Sixteen year old Nixie lives on the Temptation, "a striking caravel, her black hull copper clad below the waterline to keep out worms (and worse depending on what waters we traveled). She rode on a keel...carved with labyrinthine runes from stem to stern, and at the prow, a red-haired mermaid bared her breasts to calm the sea." Her father, Slate, is the captain of the Temptation and also a Navigator who uses maps to travel from one time to the next.

The story opens with Nixie and the Temptation in 1774 India carrying a two Bengal tigers in bamboo cages. Nixie's father is determined to return to Honolulu, 1868. There is a map on offer at Christie's auction house and the tigers will give him the cash to pay for the rare map. Slate is planning to sell the tigers to the leader of a Chinese gang who uses them to kill his rivals in 1981 New York.  They would then travel to New York 2016  to the auction sale to get the map that would take them to Honolulu 1868. Nixie has planned this route through the different time eras to see as much as possible because she believes once her father returns to Honolulu 1868 her life will be over. However, the map of 1981 fails and the Temptation with Nixie, her father Slate, best friend Kashmir, first mate Bee and Rotgut arrive off the coast of Manhattan in late May 2016.

After a brief encounter with the US Coast Guard, they drop the tigers off at the home of a philanthropist wildlife lover in the Hamptons and then travel on to New York where they moor at Red Hook. While Nix and Kash repair the mast, Slate tells them the auction at Christies is in the morning.

Meanwhile Nix tells Kash her backstory which she learned from Rotgut. Her father was born in 1965 but arrived in Hawaii by using an old map "The Sandwich Isles" by Augustus Mitchell dated 1866. Slate met Nixie's mother in an opium den where she made pipes. She died after giving birth to Nix from an infection.  Nixie's father was at sea and did not know Lin was pregnant. He was away hoping to make money to marry Lin. He used a map of Hong Kong in 1850 to go to China to obtain opium and smuggle it back. And he had an 1869 edition of a map of Honolulu to return to Lin. However when he returned in 1869, Lin was gone and only Nix remained in the opium den. Slate took her aboard his ship and he's been looking for an 1868 Honolulu map ever since to try to save her. She tells Kash she has no idea what the impact will be on her life if her father arrives back in Honolulu in 1868 before she is born. "Some people think that reality would split into two versions, or that it already has split and I just don't know it. But others think that if the past is changed, I might just..."

Slate returns from Christie's having bought the map and tells Nix and Kash that they will leave in the morning after the map is delivered. That evening Nix questions her father telling him that even if he returns to 1868 Honolulu he will only meet a different version of her mother because it all depends upon the version of the map they obtain. But Slate tells her Navigation also depends on the belief of the Navigator.

The next morning, using the map from Christie's, the Temptation travels back in time to Honolulu. As they travel towards the harbour Nix sees the flags on the Iolani Palace and realizes that the map did not work because in 1868 the Iolani Palace did not exist. Instead they find themselves in Hawaii on October 24, 1884, sixteen years ahead of the date Slate was aiming for. Slate is devastated because he believed this was the map that would take him back to the right date so he could save Lin.

Nix decides to walk through old Honolulu, walking through Chinatown where she meets a young man with blond hair with a horse. The man who likes to sketch in Chinatown shows her his drawings including a map of the city that includes some of the ancient ruins in the area. He introduces himself as Blake Hart. After they part ways, Nix finds herself at the Joss Happy House Apothecary. Nix tells Auntie Joss that she needs a cure for addiction but Auntie Joss seems to know who Nix is. She tells her that king has passed many new laws since her father was last in Hawaii and not to ask her about her mother. Auntie Joss tells Nix that her mother knew no one else on the island and that her father promised to take her away from the opium den that Joss once operated. Auntie Joss reveals to Nix that her name means nothing but spelled backwards is Xin which means happy in Chinese and that her lucky number is 5 or wu which means me and also not. She offers to tell Nix's future but she refuses. Auntie Joss also reveals that her mother's number was 4 which means death and her father's number was 7 which is the number for togetherness and ghosts. She also gives Nix a small serpent in a jar and when Nix tells her she's looking for maps Auntie Joss tells her she may have something for her.

At the ship a man arrives wanting to speak to Slate, offering a "treasure map" from 1868 in exchange for his help. Nix recognizes that this man was sent by Auntie Joss. Kashmir takes Nix to get fitted for new clothes so she fits into the late 1800's and after dinner they go to a saloon where they get into trouble. Back on the boat Slate recognizing that Nix has developed feelings for Kash, warns her not to get attached. Nix tells Slate about her meeting with Auntie Joss and that Joss has sent a man with an offer for a map.

The next day the man who goes by the name of Mr. D, returns and makes an offer to Slate. He presents a copy of a map of Honolulu dated November 1868 which has all the locations of the bars, brothels and opium dens from that time period. Joss's place had become Hapai Hale or Happy House because a woman working there had become the talk of the town. Nix does not know that Happy House is a play on the Hawaiian word, hapai which means to be pregnant and that this is a reference to her mother. Mr. D tells Slate that the artist of the map is now dead so there is now way to verify the authenticity of the map. He also informs Slate that in order for him to take possession of the map he must give them nine hundred thousand dollars - from the vault at Ali'iolani Hale, the Royal Hawaiian Treasury. Slate and Nix are shocked but Mr. D tells them that Hawaii requires a strong leader.

Slate wants to see the original map so Mr. D suggests that they meet at the home of the brother of the deceased artist, who is holding a soiree. At first Nix refuses to participate, then she wants Kash to steal the map in the hopes she can thwart Slate's involvement in Mr. D's scheme to destabilize Hawaii. Nix's efforts to obtain the map lead to an unexpected friendship, new revelations, her learning how to navigate and a daring plan involving time travel to the Emperor Qin's hidden tomb in the hopes that they can gain possession of the map and save the royal treasury.

Discussion

The Girl From Everywhere is another young adult novel with the currently popular time travel theme.The story is told through the eyes of Nix Song, a sixteen year old girl who time travels with her father Slate aboard his ship, Temptation. Slate's goal is to return to the year 1868 to attempt to prevent the death of his beloved Lin. However, Nix, while wishing to help him save her mother, worries that he may undo her life and cause her to cease to exist. But in time travel fiction anything is possible!

One of the most appealing aspects of this novel is the story line which is original from beginning to end. Because Nix and Slate have the ability to "navigate" to any era in history as long as they have a map, Heilig had many possibilities for her novel. The author chose many interesting eras for her story including 18th century India, present day New York City and Hawaii in the 1880s. Heilig also chose to have Nix, Slate and Kash travel into the tomb of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. An archeological wonder, the largely unexplored tomb contains thousands of terra cotta figures of soldiers and took more than thirty-eight years to complete. A description of Qin Shi Huang's tomb was written by the Han dynasty historian, Sima Qian. As Nix mentions in the novel, once the burial rites were completed, all the workers and craftsmen were trapped in the tomb so the tomb's treasures and the measures devised to protect them would never be revealed.  It is also believed that rivers of mercury protect the tomb underground. 

The setting of Hawaii also seems to be popular in young adult literature these days. In The Girl From Everywhere, the setting is Hawaii in 1884. At this time Hawaii was still an island kingdom with a population of just over 80,000. When Nix and her crew arrive, the great-granddaughter of Kamehameha I, Princess Bernice Pauahi has just died. By this time in its history, much of Hawai'i's native population had been decimated by diseases brought to the islands by Europeans. Native Hawaiians did not have resistance to measles, smallpox and influenza. Many living on the islands were Americans and Europeans. During Kamehameha II's reign, many traditional Hawaiian cultural practices such as the hula dance were discontinued as a result of the christianization of the native Hawaiian population.  The Hawaiian League whom Nix and Slate encounter in this novel was not organized until 1887 but probably many were of the mind of Mr. D who is likely a reference to Mr. Sanford Dole who was a member of the group and as Heilig indicates in her Author's Note at the back of the novel, became president of the Republic of Hawaii. It was known also as the Committee of Safety and was a secret society composed of Americans (many of whom were descendants of the Protestant missionaries who came to the islands) and Hawaiians intent upon overthrowing the Hawaiian monarchy and making the islands part of America.

Nix is a strong female protagonist, determined to live her own life. She wants to learn how to "Navigate", as this will be the one skill that will allow her to determine her own fate. From Aunt Joss Nix learns that Slate will never succeed in returning to Hawaii in 1868 as long as she is with him because she cannot exist twice in the same time. This knowledge gives her the freedom to make decisions about her future. But Nix also experiences a great deal of conflict; she wants to love her father but is hurt by his focus or more accurately, his obsession with saving Lin from her fate. Nix also begins to experience conflict over her feelings for Kash and later for Blake.

Heilig's novel ends happily although Slate's problem remains unresolved and leaves readers wondering what adventures lie ahead for Nix, Slate, Kash and Blake. Overall The Girl From Everywhere is a long novel whose concept was well executed by Heidi Heilig. Heilig has included maps of the settings for each of Nix's time travels and a detailed and interesting Author's Note at the back of the book.

Book Details:

The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
New York: Greenwillow Books, an imprint of Harper CollinsPublishers     2016
454 pp.

The Girl At The Center of the World by Austin Aslan

The Girl At The Center of The World is the sequel to The Islands At The End of The World. Seventeen year old Leilani Milton and her father returned to their home on the Big Island. Three months after The Arrival of the Emerald Orchid, an alien being orbiting the Earth and responsible for disabling all electronic and power grids, Leilani and her family lead a subsistence lifestyle, farming their own crops and rationing everything.

Leilani's epilepsy has resulted in her being able to communicate with the Emerald Orchid who returned to Earth to spawn as she has done before. An astronomer, Buzz living at the observatory on Mauna Kea helped Lei talk to the Orchid. The alien along with its baby was about to leave Earth but Lei and her father discovered that the Orchid has the ability to absorb the harmful radiation spewed out from nuclear meltdowns. With nuclear reactors no longer able to cool their fuel rods, catastrophic nuclear meltdowns began occurring all over the planet. Lei while in contact with the Orchid during her seizures was able to witness these meltdowns occuring all over the planet. Yet no excess radiation has yet to be measured. When the Orchids communicated their love of the "sweetness", Lei came to understand that this was a reference to the radiation which they absorb.

While the Orchid's leaving would have allowed the power grid to be restored, the nuclear meltdowns would have left the planet uninhabitable. So Lei managed to convince the Orchid to stay a while longer and to absorb the "sweet" radiation.  Lei's connection with the Orchid is strong but similar to a child holding onto a helium balloon. If she lets go, the Orchid will leave for her home in the depths of space where there are many more like her.

However, Lei's problem is that the longer she keeps the Orchid in orbit around Earth the more difficult it will be to recover from the extended period without power. She needs to get a message out to everyone about the nuclear plants, to tell them to stop trying to save the reactors and to let them go critical because the Orchid can absorb the harmful radiation. The question is how to do this.

Leilani's father, mother, her seven year old brother Kai and her Grandpa are safely hidden in their little valley. Her family celebrates Lei's seventeenth birthday along with Keali'l who is Hawaiian and whose parents died in the first tsunami wave. Keali`l worked for Lei's mother, a biologist at University of Hawai`i and now she's taken him in.

During one of her contacts with the Orchid, Lei finds the Orchid hinting at releasing something which Lei doesn't really understand. At her birthday party, which is attended by Tammy, Keali`l and Buzz, Lei feels ill and her parents worry that she might have appendicitis. However Lei experiences a seizure and realizes that the Orchid is releasing a meteor (Lei refers to this as a pearl) which she wants to send into the ocean. Lei asks the Orchid to send the meteor into the mountain on Hawai`i, Mauna Loa because if the meteor hits the ocean it will cause a tsunami. When she awakens there is an earthquake and a meteor shoots across the sky and into the shield volcano's flank.

Witnessing this, Tami Simpson who is Lei's best friend, realizes that Lei is able to communicate with the Orchid. Lei tells Buzz that she calls the meteor "the pearl". Buzz tells the Leilani's family he will hike up the volcano to check out the impact site and sample the pearl.

At night Tami and Lei meet Keali`l at the breakwater on Hilo Bay. The bay is filled with tsunami debris and the hills around Hilo are dark. Keali'l brings a dive light and the three go diving for slippahs (lobsters). However their diving is interrupted by Hanamen, the sheriff's men,  who fire shots at them and demand their dive light and their bag of lobsters. Lei leads her friends through a hole in the breakwater. One of the Hanamen is a guy named Two Dog. Two Dog and the other Hanamen notice a sailboat passing the bay and decide they are going to attack. Leaving a man behind to watch for Lei and her friends, Two Dog and two men head out after the sailboat. Lei leads Tami and Keali`l through the breakwater but Tami cuts herself badly on a piece of concrete. Fearing she will draw sharks as she is bleeding and having been seen by the Hanaman on the breakwater, Tami begins swimming for the sailboat. The three teens manage to convince the man and woman on the sailboat to pick them up, warning them that people are planning to take their boat.

Marcus who is a doctor and Rachel agree to sail to Onomea Bay where Lei's house is located. Lei tells them her family will help them if they treat Tami's serious leg wound. On the sailboat while talking with Keali`l, Lei has an important revelation that she could use the Emerald Orchid to send a message via Morse Code to others on Earth, by causing the Orchid to dim and brighten. To test the possibility that this might work, she asks the Orchid first to fade then to go back to her normal brilliance. It is successful.

Keali`l stays with Rachel on the sailboat while Lei, Marcus and Tami hike to Lei's home where they fill her parents in on what happened. Marcus tells Lei that Tami must have antibiotics for her leg which has a deep cut that must heal open. The next day Marcus relates his story of escape from Phoenix Arizona to San Carlos, Mexico. Lei and her family stock up Marcus and take him back to Onomea Bay and then she and Keali`l head into Hilo to search for the IV antibiotics Marcus has told them to search for. Finding nothing at the clinic they head to the hospital where the doctor, Dr. Madsen, after learning how she was injured tells them that they must bring Tami in. Tami is brought in and receives the antibiotics she needs because of Keali`l. Lei knows Keali`l has gotten the antibiotics at a great personal price. Meanwhile Lei runs into Aukina, the soldier from the military camp on O`ahu. He agrees to teach her Morse code, although he doesn't know her reason for wanting to learn.

In an attempt to relax, Lei goes swimming at Rainbow Falls and suffers a grand mal seizure during which her contact with the Star Flowers is interrupted by an unknown person telling the Orchid to leave Earth. Shocked, Lei has no idea what to make of this. As Tami's leg heals, Lei begins to learn Morse Code from Aukina and struggles to learn who might be contacting the Orchid. Against the backdrop of the growing tension between the tribes, Lei begins practicing dimming and brightening the Orchid so she can eventually send her message out about the nuclear reactors. But will her efforts be thwarted by the unknown person attempting to convince the Orchids to leave?


Discussion

The Girl At The Center of The World is an exciting sequel that focuses on Leilani's attempt to save her planet and on the survival of her family and friends. There are plenty of descriptions about how the Milton family is working on building a sustainable lifestyle.

However Lei's focus is on a much larger and grander scale. Through her contact with the Orchids she experiences first hand the melt down of nuclear reactors in different areas of the world. "A silent pop of white flashes off the coast of New York. A ball of water crowned with radioactive mist swells along the morning's edge. The atomic poison of this explosion mixes with the fallout of other nuclear disasters that blanket the globe. But my Orchid draws up the venom, neutralizes it." Lei knows the longer the world remains without the ability to make electricity the harder it will be to recover. But her discovery that the Orchids have saved the planet from nuclear fallout means she must eliminate all of the danger from the nuclear reactors before she can let the Orchids leave. She must get the message out to the rest of the world to allow their nuclear reactors to go critical so the Orchid can finish the job of absorbing the excess radiation and then be released. An unexpected development is the introduction of an unknown person who attempts to get the Star Flowers to leave. Lei doesn't know the identity of this person but attempts to block his communication with the mother Orchid and to form a strong bond with her baby.  All her attempts to communicate and reason with this person fail. This sets up a mystery and also a source of conflict that complicates Lei's mission. The resolution to this conflict in the novel is really anticlimactic partly because once the identity of the other contact is revealed, Lei seems to quickly and rather easily convince him to leave and partly because the second storyline is more exciting.

That second storyline continues the conflict hinted at in the first novel between Lei's Tutu who was once a police officer and the sheriff of Hilo who has taken control of the island. Lei's grandfather and the sheriff have a complicated past which comes back to haunt them both. Bands of gangs called Tribes are fighting for control of Puna and Hilo. The sheriff of Hana from Maui who put a gun to Lei's father's head in the first novel is in control in Puna. His Hanamen control the plantations and agriculture. When the sheriff learns about Lei's ability to connect with the Star Flowers he begins to search for her family's farm. This leads to a deadly confrontation which provides the main source of tension for the novel.

Aslan's storyline is unique as is his setting - the exotic islands of Hawai`i. He touches on some of the native Hawaiian culture and beliefs, and of the islands' annexation by America and the desire of Hawaiians to exercise self government. This is main reason for the sheriff's desire to have the Orchids stay. "What we're building here is too important. These Flowers leave, the occupiers --the tourist droves --return. I won't allow that to happen."

Unlike the first novel which focused on survival during the crisis, The Girl At The Center Of The World focuses more on relationships; Lei's relationship with her beloved grandpa who reveals his connection to the sheriff of Hana, her friendship with Tami who is her best friend and the blossoming romance between Lei and Aukina. Aslan ties up all the loose ends neatly - and perhaps too conveniently but the novel ends on a hopeful tone.  Power is gradually being restored and civilization is beginning to return to the world.

The Girl At The Center Of The World is a solid conclusion to the novel and will appeal to those who enjoy a unique science fiction story set in an exotic location. Austin Aslan was inspired to write these two novels while doing his masters in tropical biology in Hawaii.

Book Details:

The Girl At The Center Of The World by Austin Aslan
New York: Wendy Lamb Books     2015
337 pp. 

The Islands At The End of the World by Austin Aslan

Set in Hawaii, The Islands At The End of The World tells the story of a father and daughter trying to survive in world devastated by the presence of an alien entity.

Sixteen-year-old Leilani Milton lives with her parents and seven year old brother Kai in Hilo, on the big island of Hawai'i. Her father who was originally from New Mexico, is Dr. Michael Milton, a professor of ecology at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo and white. Her mother is pure Hawaiian and also a professor of ecology at UH at Hilo too. They have only lived on the island for three years.

The story opens on Sunday, April 26 with Leilani surfing with her best friend, Tami. On their way to get ice cream afterwards, Leilani and her father hear the siren warning of a tsunami. A few hours earlier, there was a meteor strike in the northern Pacific, eight hundred miles south of Alaska. Eventually the threat is downgraded.

Leilani, whose name means "Flower of Heaven", is leaving at six the next morning with her father for Honolulu, on the island of O'ahu. She will undergo special tests and a drug trial for her epilepsy. It was epilepsy that resulted in her being dropped from the gymnastics team when she was twelve. That was the age Leilani had her first grand mal seizure. She had been having petits mals for years. Once at O'ahu, Leilani will stop her meds, then started start a trial medication. If the medication works and she has no grand mal she will continue. If she has a grand mal, the trial will stop. All of this is making Leilani very nervous.

Before she leaves though, her grandpa arrives that evening so he can see her off in the morning. Leilani's grandpa is determined to keep alive the cultural practices of his Hawaiian ancestors. He was in the navy and then become a cop on Maui. Now retired, grandpa is Leilani's kahuna or spiritual adviser.  Grandpa tells her that Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of lightning, lava and volcanoes is her guardian spirit.

Their forty-minute flight on Monday, April 27 takes them over Maui, Lana'i, Moloka'i to O'ahu. In Honolulu, they drive to the clinic where they meet Dr. Makani who tells them more information about the trial. Meanwhile, bizarre things begin to happen around the world. Leilani and her dad learn that the U.S. President is recovering from surgery for appendicitis. At the clinic while some tests are being done on Leilani, they learn that the stock exchange has been shut down, the Vice President is missing as is the Prime Minister of Japan, Congressional offices have closed, the Euro has collapsed and several British banks have failed. Trying not to worry, Leilani and her father check into their fancy hotel on Waikiki Beach.

While talking with her mother and Kai, Leilani and her father also watch the President of the United States as he addresses the nation. However, the transmission dies as does their internet connection with her mother and Kai. All they know is that president was trying to tell them something very important and to warn them about something. Leilani experiences a petit mal seizure during which she hears a voice saying strange things in what seems like a dream. "These islands and their sacred tides call me forth." and "Come drift upon me, and spread. Bring me the means of life." Later on Leilani recalls these words and finds them to be strange, since she never dreams or hears things during seizures.

The next morning they awake to a power outage, satellite networks and electronics are inoperative and flights are grounded. At the clinic, Dr. Makani tells them that his neighbour with NOAA indicated that there is some kind of geomagnetic storm or something that is interfering with the Earth's magnetic field. That night from her room at the clinic they notice "a hazy green knot dominates a quarter of the night sky". The next morning a local astronomer indicates that there seems to be a correlation between the green light seen at night and the blackouts and malfunctioning electronics. By Thursday morning, all the equipment at the clinic is not working and the newspaper has dubbed the green cloud the "Emerald Orchid". They also learn that tsunami struck O'ahu's Kailu Bay earlier on Wednesday as well as the area around Hilo on the Big Island. The tsunamis are believed to be due to the Emerald Orchid. Leilani's dad decides that they need to get home and they need to begin looking for ways off of O'ahu now.

Leilani is released from the clinic but their attempts to leave Waikiki are hampered when Leilani has another seizure. Again she dreams and hears a strange voice, "These islands are here for me, and I crave what they will offer. It is a good thing...I am Leilani. Spellbound, I blossom." By Friday chaos reigns. There are gasoline shortages, the National Guard and coast guard have been deployed, there is no way off the island for tourists, and no communication with the outside world. The government decides to send tourists to the Marine Corps Base at Kaneohe Bay to be evacuated by navy ships to the West Coast. First they try to leave via one of the smaller island airstrips, Kalaeloa Airport, but discover they can't book a flight until the following Tuesday. Talking with people at the airport, Leilani and her dad learn that the military is simply shuffling people around. Leilani's father decides to try to find someone to take them to the Big Island by yacht or sailboat. This also is unsuccessful. Leilani witnesses the brutal murder of a man who is caught stealing a boat and this brings on yet another seizure. Again Leilani dreams and hears a strange voice. "This is right. I am here. It is time. And this one spits fire. It oozes heat. This one has not warmed before. I will linger, then as I have done on other shores, and we both shall have our fill."

Two days later, on Monday morning, Leilani wakes in the hotel room in Waikiki. Their hotel is now under attack by gangs who are after the tourists. Waikiki has been looted and buildings are on fire. The Emerald Orchid now dominates the sky at night, complete with lightning bolts and meteor showers. Their attempt to reach Kaupa Pond is thwarted when they are diverted by the military to the Marine Corps Base. Arriving by bus at Kailua, Leilani and her father are forced to surrender their backpacks and food and are eventually placed in a makeshift camp. They are told to they will be called when their turn comes to be transported by helicopter to their home on the Big Island. While waiting, Leilani meets a handsome soldier, Aukina. As conditions deteriorate in the camps, Leilani decides to induce a seizure in the hopes they can get out of the camp. But like the other seizures, Leilani continues to hear voices. "You are Leilani. I am Leilani. Suckle. Gather your strength...Time to linger and grow strong on the heat."

Leilani's father now becomes determined to break out of the camp. Aukina tells Leilani that people on the islands are breaking into factions according to race. The Sovereign Nationers want to secede from the United States. He reveals that all the military are taking potassium iodide tablets in anticipation of the radiation fallout after the nuclear reactors fail. He tells them that the military is out of fuel and that what is left is being conserved for a special action. He wishes he could take her with him. The only thing he can do is provide Leilani with wire cutters. After stocking up on food from the warehouse, which Leilani breaks into, they flee the camp into the night.

The first place they flee to is the abandoned home of the chancellor of UH Hilo. After cleaning up and getting some rest, they are warned to leave. They manage to steal a boat, but Leilani's father is shot during the escape. They head towards Moloka'i but when they run out of gas, Leilani and her father now risk being smashed against the rocks of the island. Leilani manages to jump onto a ledge and eventually pull her father to the safety. Then from the direction of Kalaupapa, an outrigger canoe comes to rescue them. They are taken to a clinic on the beach where Leilani's father is operated on and she receives stitches for a gash on her forehead. The older man who rescued her tells her that he is a healer. Identifying himself as Uncle Akoni, he abruptly questions Leilani about her epilepsy and suggests to her that maybe her epilepsy is an "opportunity". 

As they both recover from their ordeal, they find Akoni's community a refuge. Akoni begins dropping hints to Leilani, referring to the Emerald Orchid as a ship that likes the radiation or "hotness". After four days, Akoni indicates that he must go to deal with other factions on Moloka'i. Akoni indicates that things might begin to get worse and he offers Leilani and her father a way to get to Maui. He tells Leilani's dad that through a ham radio, they have confirmed that nuclear reactor meltdowns are occurring all over the world as power systems fail and there is no means to cool the reactors. These meltdowns will continue as more and more reactors fail. However the strange thing is that no radiation has been detected. Akoni tells them that they cannot even read normal amounts of radiation. It is at this point that Akoni reveals what he knows to both Leilani and her father; that the Emerald Orchid, whatever it is, is preventing a catastrophic nuclear winter from happening. He tells Leilani that people with epilepsy like himself and Leilani can "hear" the Emerald Orchid and he begs her that upon her arrival in Hilo, to go up the mountain, listen and try to contact them.

As life on the islands begins to unravel further, the military abandons the islands and Leilani and her father struggle through the last part of their journey, Leilani begins to understand what is happening to her planet and how they are tied to the Emerald Orchid. She realizes she may be the only one who can save her dying planet.

Discussion

The Islands At The End Of The World is a story of journeys - human and alien. It is well-written piece of science fiction that uses the alien-comes-to-earth trope but with a twist. Instead of the aliens being highly intelligent beings, those of the Emerald Orchid are compared to sea turtles who follow their instinct to migrate to their ancestral breeding grounds. In this case that ancestral home is the atmosphere of the planet Earth. The first foreshadowing of this comes when Leilani and her father are on Moloka'i watching a sea turtle. Her father mentions that "some turtle species cross the entire ocean to lay their eggs...When the supercontinent of Gondwanaland was just breaking apart, the turtles would simply swim across a narrow strait, lay their eggs, and then head back home. Over the next hundred-or-so million years, the continents drifted apart, about an inch a year. The turtles went about their business, doing what they used to, what their parents used to do, each generation unaware of the imperceptible change. Now they cross oceans. And they'll be here still, following their ancient paths, inch by new inch, long after we're gone."

It is this exchange that helps Leilani to piece together the circumstances behind the Emerald Orchid five weeks after its appearance. It is while resting at a small plot of marijuana plants and smoking pot, that Leilani and her father have a detailed discussion of the "Emerald Orchid." They both notice that the Emerald Orchid has changed and seems to be made of two entities. It reminds Leilani of the jellyfish she's seen at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Remembering "those dark seizurescapes, the snatches of imagery, the voice, the echoes of thought flowing through with my own consciousness" results in Leilani realizing that the "Emerald Orchid" is alive and that like the sea turtles, it has come to Earth to give birth.

"I only put this together just now! But it is a ... cosmic sea turtle! It was born here. It's just returned to lay its eggs, or spawn, or whatever it does. It's feeding on the atmosphere. That's how it works!"

Leilani's father believes the "Emerald Orchid" may be the explanation behind the mass extinctions throughout Earth's history. For both Leilani and her father, this realization is overwhelming. "I catch a glimpse of my father's wonder: if our terrestrial turtles will cross oceans, unaware of the drifting continents, then how much grander are these creatures, who voyage between worlds?"

But the Emerald Orchid is different from Earth's sea turtle as evidenced by its response after Leilani makes contact and explains that they need it to stay and "to take up all the hotness until it is gone." Although the "Emerald Orchid" and its young one want to leave, they want also to help. "I want the depths, but I want to do the good thing more. The good thing is to stay." They decide to stay and feast on Earth's radiation, so that they can grow strong and so that Leilani can protect her young.

The story of Leilani and her father's journey back home is told entirely from Leilani's perspective. Her narrative is broken into five parts named after the Hawaiian islands. Fortunately for the reader, Aslan has provided basic maps both of the Hawaiian chain of islands as well as maps at the beginning of each new section that help to place the events for readers. At the beginning of their journey, Leilani and her father's world is encompassed by the Hawaiian islands. The islands located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean give the sense of isolation. By the end, they have a sense being a part of something much larger and much grander. In particular, Leilani has felt socially isolated because of her epilepsy; she was dropped from the gymnastics team and doesn't yet have her license because her doctor hasn't yet signed off on it. She's also of mixed ancestry on an island that prides itself on full-blooded Hawaiian ancestry. However, in this new world, Leilani's epilepsy is a gift that saves her world and her mixed blood is a call to all to co-operate in order to survive.

It's easy to recognize that author Austin Aslan lived on the Hawaiian Islands. The novel is filled with fascinating historical, geographical, cultural tidbits as well as some references to Hawaiian mythology. All are woven into the story seamlessly, both informing and engaging the reader.

One theme that appears early on is the conflict in Hawaiian society between the white and Hawaiian races. One group, whom grandpa refers to as "Sovereign Nation people" want the islands to be governed by those who are pure Hawaiians. While Leilani's grandpa acknowledges that "The seizure of Hawaii by the U.S. military was a despicable act." he is willing to recognize that people like Leilani's father who have married Hawaiians and now live on the island are just as much Hawaiian as he or Leilani's mother. This conflict becomes more dominant in the novel as conditions on the island worsen and civil authority collapses.

Overall, The Islands At The End Of The World is a debut novel well worth reading. Aslan has planned a sequel, ready for publication in 2016.

Book Details:

The Islands At The End Of The World by Austin Aslan
New York: Wendy Lamb Books      2014
358 pp.

Soul Surfer - the movie

Last night I had an opportunity to finally watch Soul Surfer on DVD. Unfortunately, where I live, this movie was only in theatres for a very short time and I missed that window. Most unfortunate, because this is a movie worth watching.

Soul Surfer is an exceptional movie about an exceptional young woman - Bethany Hamilton. It traces the sequences of events that led to that fateful day of Halloween, 2003 when Bethany was attacked by a On that day Bethany and her best friend Alana Blanchard and Blanchard's father and brother went surfing at Tunnels Beach on Kauai. Bethany had her left arm over the surf board in the water when she was attacked by a 14 foot tiger shark. It is unlikely she would have survived if it were not for Blanchard's quick action of improvising a tourniquet out of a surfboard leash to stem the loss of blood.

There are two things I especially liked about this movie. The first is that there was less focus on the dramatic attack and more on Bethany and her experience after the attack. The drama of the attack lasted only seconds and the race to get her medical help was well done, intense and frightening. But Bethany Hamilton is not to be defined by the attack but instead by her response. She showed herself to be remarkably poised and courageous.

That she survived at all after having lost 60 per cent of her blood, amazed doctors and her friends and family alike. God, in His providence, reminded her during the ambulance ride that he would not abandon her. One of the paramedics whispered this reminder in her ear during the run.

One of my favourite parts of the movie occurs when Bethany goes to see Sarah Hill (Carrie Underwood), her youth minister not long after she is out of hospital. When Sarah asks Bethany how she is, Bethany replies, "I'm good. Yeah. Everyone is doing real good." At that point Sarah tells Bethany that she can level with her and tell her how it REALLY is. Bethany tells Sarah that she has been trying to get some perspective, to step back and see things how they really are. She asks Sarah, "How can this be God's plan for me. I don't understand." Sarah replies, "I don't know why terrible things happen to us sometimes. But I have to believe something good is going to come out of this. I don't know what that is."

Of course, this is the struggle all believers eventually experience because all of us will experience something bad in our lives at some point. It wasn't God's plan for her to be attacked, but he had a new plan when that happened and she allowed God to work in her life. Her mother, in one of the special features on the DVD, relates that during the month prior to the attack Bethany and her family had been praying to understand what God wanted of Bethany in her life. This film does portray their strong faith and commitment to Christ, but not in an overhanded manner. It's subtle and believable.

Much of the actual surfing in the re-creation of the competitions was done by Bethany. This was apparently another of the Hamilton's goals in the movie, to demonstrate good surfing to those of us who know nothing about the sport. The surfing shots were brilliant and exciting. I can understand why Bethany felt such a desire to return to the ocean. The beauty and power of ocean was both awesome and inspiring.

This movie was well done and nice change from the usual Hollywood fare. Bethany's book of the same name continues to be a popular choice for teens, although it is written for very young teens and tweens.

You can catch all the latest on Bethany Hamilton at her website, including information on her injury to her right arm this summer.