I Can Make This Promise by Christine Day

Edie Green's father is American and her mother is Native American. She knows her father has roots in Germany, England and Wales but she really doesn't know anything about her mother's family because her mother was adopted. But one summer day, while looking for her mom's Popsicle molds, Edie makes an unusual discovery.

While searching the attic for the molds with her best friends Amelia and Serenity, they discover a box containing the photograph of a young woman who looks remarkably like Edie. The eyes, nose and the shape of her cheeks are similar and like Edie she has a gap between her two front teeth. A letter dated December 14, 1973 is signed Love, Edith. Serenity asks Edie if she knows anything about her mom's family. Edie doesn't other than that her mother was adopted. She wonders who the woman in the picture is and why her parents haven't told her anything about this person who looks so much like her.While Amelia believes Edie should keep her discovery of the box a secret, Serenity thinks she should be honest with her mom.

At dinner, Edie asks her parents how they came to name her Edith since it's such an old fashioned name. But her parents don't really provide Edie with a satisfying answer and she believes they are lying to her. The next morning Edie secretly takes the box from the attic to her room, hiding it in her art chest.

After getting her braces, Edie, Amelia and Serenity begin looking through the box. They find private journals, handwritten letters, head shots of Edith and post cards. Serenity notes that all Edith's letters were sent to an address in Indianola, Washington. They also find her full name, Edith Anne Graham. A journal entry mentions Sacheen Littlefeather who rejected an Academy Award on behalf of Marlon Brando. From that entry the girls learn that Edith was inspired to travel to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the film industry. 

Amelia tells Edie that she wants to use Edith Graham as the inspiration for their film project at school. However, this doesn't seem right to Edie, since she doesn't really know who this person is.

A few nights later, Edie and her parents visit her Uncle Phil's home for his birthday party. When Edie is upset and rude towards her parents, Uncle Phil sits down with her outside to talk. Edie tells him about discovering the box and the journal entry she's read. She tells her uncle that she just wants to know who Edith Graham was and why she's named after her. He encourages Edie to talk to her mom about Edith Graham and when she presses him, he is firm in telling her that it's not his story to tell.

After a breakup with her friend Amelia, and after reading more of Edith's letters, Edie discovers part of the truth and decides to confront her parents. This pushes her mother to finally tell her story to Edie, revealing the painful truth about her past and in doing so, allows Edie to embrace her heritage.

Discussion

I Can Make This Promise is a story about adoption, identity and the meaning of family but at its heart is the story of a young Native American girl's journey to uncover her mother's past and her own heritage. In her Author's Note at the back, Christine Day indicates that she has drawn from her own life experience and her own family's history in crafting this engaging and timely novel. Day, like her main character, Edie Green, is the daughter of a Native American adoptee. A member of the Upper Skagit tribe, Day has incorporated many historical events and people into her novel, which makes the story realistic. This also makes I Can Make This Promise a good starting point for readers to research the Native American tribal nations of the Pacific Northwest, as well common practice of forced adoption of Native American children into white families. 

Day's treatment of the painful practice of forced adoption of Nation American children in the United States is told with sensitivity, through the character of Edie's mom as she explains how she came to be adopted. As the author mentions in her note at the back, "The goal of these coerced adoptions was to assimilate Native people into American society at the expense of tribal nations. Almost all adoptees experienced the loss of their cultures, their identities, and the complex relationships that build the foundations of Native societies." As Edie's mother explains to her, "Between the 1940's and 1970's, about one-third of Native children were separated from their families. Until Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978."

The revelation of her mother's past and her own heritage, not only strengthen Edie's relationship with her mother, but also creates in her a desire to learn more about her Native American roots. In Edie, Day has crafted a resilient, determined young girl who finally learns to trust the adults in her life and who learns to value the virtue of honesty. She also learns what makes a good friendship, like the one she has with Serenity who tells her to trust her parents, and that "Parents can be weird....They make mistakes. But they're not trying to hurt you, Edie."

Young readers will be drawn to I Can Make This Promise by the colourful cover and the high interest story, with such a relevant theme involving the Indigenous peoples of North America. This is an excellent debut novel from a promising Native American author.

Book Details:

I Can Make This Promise by Christine Day
New York: HarperCollins     2019
266 pp.

DVD: Lion

Lion brings to the big screen, the remarkable story of Saroo Brierley who was lost at age five, adopted by an Australian couple and who as an adult eventually located his family in India. This beautiful film, directed by Garth Davis, tells the story of Saroo's efforts to find his long-lost family.

In 1987, Saroo whose real name was Sheru Munshi Khan, was allowed to accompany his fourteen year old brother Guddu to beg for food. Sheru lived in Ganesh Tali with his mother and his brothers and sisters. Their father had abandoned the family and they were very poor, so the boys often begged for food.

On that fateful day, Guddu and Saroo took the train from Khandwa station to Burhanpur. While Guddu went to look for food, Saroo slept on a bench. When he woke up, Guddu was no where to be found. Thinking he was on the train waiting in the station, Saroo boarded. However, the train was not in service and Saroo ended up travelling over 1500 miles to Calcutta. Lost, confused, and unable to speak the local dialect of Bengali, (Saroo spoke Hindi) he spent weeks on the streets before being taken to the Nava Jeevan orphanage by an older boy. The orphanage was run by Saroj Sood. Eventually, Saroo was adopted by a couple, John and Sue Brierley from Tasmania, Australia.

In Australia, Saroo quickly settles into his new life. He is raised in the Brierley's loving home with another Indian orphan, Manosh. However, Saroo never forgot his brother nor his mother. In the movie, which is based on the book, A Long Way Home written by Saroo Brierley, when a now grown Saroo is in Melbourne studying hotel management, an Indian dinner with friends forces him to confront his past. He admits he was adopted and explains to his friends, including his girlfriend Lucy, what happened to him as a young child. They suggest that he try this new feature called Google Earth to try to locate his village.

Sunny Pawar as young Saroo

At first Saroo is dismissive of this suggestion but he soon begins his search. His time searching causes him great inner turmoil as he struggles to cope with the knowledge that his mother and his brother may still be searching for him and likely thinking of him each and every day. Using Google Earth and social media, Saroo is able to locate his village but will his family still be there? Saroo travels to India and is reunited with his family after twenty-five long years.

In Lion, a young Saroo is portrayed by Sunny Pawar, Abhishek Bharate is his older brother Guddu and Dev Patel is cast as the adult Saroo Brierley. Nicole Kidman and David Wenham of Faramir fame from Lord of the Rings play Saroo's adoptive parents. Pawar is captivating in his performance, endearing himself to viewers as we watch this small, innocent boy struggle through his fears and loneliness to survive on the streets of Calcutta. To better portray the reality of young Saroo's situation, the movie contains many scenes, shot overheard, showing the little boy in the contrasting, sweeping vistas that exist in India, and among crowded streets and dirty slums.

The second half of the movie is devoted to a grown-up Saroo's struggle to locate his family in India, based only on the vivid memories he retains from his childhood. His search begins using the satellite images on Google Earth and over a period of months he finally locates what he believes might be his family's village. Saroo could remember only that the nearest railway station began with the letter B and when he found Burhanpur station he begins to recognize features on the satellite images. Davis does a great job of showing us the images Saroo would have viewed and the map he created as he worked his way through eliminating possible villages. These are juxtaposed with images Saroo remembers from his memories of what happened. His reunion with his mother is tender and emotional; Dev Patel and Priyanka Bose who portrays Kamla Munshi, probably capture only the barest essence of what this truly must have felt like.

Saroo with his family in India.

Davis says that he sees his film as having two parts; the first part portrays the outside journey Saroo experiences as he travels across India alone in a the train, then in search of his brother and his family and finally to Australia, the second part of the film portrays the inner journey of Saroo as he struggles to understand his past and find his family. Saroo has stated that he does not see himself as having two identities, but instead as having two families: one in India and one in Australia.

If you haven't seen Lion, go see it. It's a wonderfully realistic portrayal of one man's journey back home that feels authentic and honest.

Threads by Ami Polonsky

Threads is a parallel narrative, telling the stories of twelve-year-old Clara Clay who lives with her parents in Evanston, Illinois, and thirteen-year-old Yuming Niantu who is an orphan in China. Their lives intersect in a way neither can ever imagine, tied together by the thread of one action. The novel opens with a copy of Yuming's note hidden in a purse on May 16 while she is working in a factory in Hebei Province, in China.

Clara and her parents are still grieving after the death of Clara's older sister, Lola who was adopted from an orphanage in China. Lola, who was abandoned in a cardboard box in Molihua Park in Shanghai, was found by a man and taken to an orphanage where her birthday was estimated to be October 1. Unfortunately, Lola developed acute lymphoblastic leukemia and despite chemotherapy, she relapsed and died.

Clara's narrative opens with her being dropped off at Bellman's department store on July 1 with her "used-to-be best friend", Dahlia. Clara has known Dahlia since they were babies. Their families met through an adoption support group because both Dahlia and Clara's sister Lola were adopted from China. Clara decides she doesn't want stay with Dahlia and she tells her she's leaving. Since Lola's death on May 15, after her long battle with cancer, Clara feels disconnected from Dahlia. She hides from Dahlia and texts her father asking him to come pick her up. They arrange to meet in twenty minutes but in the meantime Clara hides from Dahlia in a booth that has leather purses on display. While waiting for her father to show up, Clara spots an ugly yellow purse on clearance and wondering why it's on sale looks inside. In an inside pocket Clara discovers a piece of white paper and a photograph. Unbelievably the photograph is of Molihua Park in Shanghai where Clara and her family have visited and also where Lola was found as a baby. The note is written by thirteen-year-old Yuming Niantu who is a prisoner in a pink factory along with twenty-two other children. In her note Yuming Niantu asks for help.

Clara's father can't imagine twenty-two children trapped in a factory making purses. At Clara's urging he decides to call the Chinese consulate in Chicago where Susan Zhau takes his call and the information about the note and photograph. She is abrupt with Clara's father, Al and requests that he send the note and photograph to the embassy before hanging up on him. Clara is doubtful the consulate will help but she makes sure that her father makes copies of the photograph and the note. Clara remembers visiting Molihua Park when she was ten and Lola was eleven - more than a year before Lola's relapse. Unconvinced that the Chinese consulate will act, Clare wonders if she might be able to help Yuming herself.

The next morning Clara and her mom take the note and photograph to the consulate and meet Susan Zhau who treats them curtly. When Clara arrives home she begins searching for flights to Beijing and at lunch makes the suggestion to her parents that they plan a trip to China. Her parent's shocked response causes Clara to run out of the house and catch the bus they used to take to the hospital where Lola was treated for her cancer. There, Clara is recognized and comforted by two nurses who cared for Lola. They contact her parents who come to the hospital. After a discussion with Clara, her parents decide to take a trip back to China in the hopes it will help her process Lola's death. But for Clara the trip is about trying to find and save Yuming.

Meanwhile in alternating chapters, Yuming's story is told. It has been six weeks since Yuming placed the note into the pocket of a purse she was sewing. No help has been forthcoming so she knows she will have to find another way to escape the factory. Yuming was living in Yemo Village in Anhui Province with her grandmother Wai Po and grandfather Wai Gong. Her older brother Bolin left to work in the city and eventually her grandmother, and then her grandfather passed away. Three months ago in early April, Yuming sat near the fountain in Molihua Park in Shanghai. She had come to the city to look for her older brother Bolin who last worked at a food stand in the park. However her efforts proved fruitless. While resting on a park bench, Yuming was forcibly taken from the park by an older man and pushed onto a bus with two boys and driven out of the city to the north. The man, Mr. Zhang, told them they are to work in his factory and he also told them what to say if they were questioned. They arrived at a pale-pink factory where they were taken to a basement room and taught how to sew. 

Yuming now sits next to a girl, Jing, who often helps her and who has been in the factory for years. In the three months that have passed, Yuming does nothing but sew and sleep and often dreams about her life in her village. On July 2, two new boys arrive - an older boy named Kai and his younger brother Li. Yuming overhears Kai and his brother talking about escaping. That night Li refuses to go sleep with the younger boys, so Yuming volunteers to keep him company in the barracks. In the morning she tells Kai she knows a way to escape and tells him she is coming with him and Li. Later that week the three of them make their escape. Li pretends he is sick and needs to get to the bathroom. Kai and Yuming help him to the bathroom. The bathroom in the factory is a room without a ceiling and when Jing joins them the four help each other over the high walls and to freedom.

Once out of the factory, Yuming, Jing, Kai and Li race into the forest and continue to run until they reach the safety of a cave. That night they head out of the woods to the nearby village where they break into a store to find something to eat. Jing reveals that she has been at the factory for almost five years, and Yuming learns that Kai and his brother are from a village near Beijing. Kai tells the group that the plan is for them to make money at the tourist sights, in particular the Great Wall of China. With money, Yuming hopes to be able to return to her village.

From this point on the two storylines intersect frequently as Yuming and her friends struggle to survive and steal enough money to make it home, while Clara and her parents travel to Beijing and Shanghai. Clara believes the spirit of Lola is there to guide and encourage her in her quest to find Yuming's factory, while Yuming relies on the spirits of Wai Po and Wai Gong to help her in her quest to return home. 

Discussion

Ami Polonsky has crafted a touching story that captures those tenuous and momentary connections that exist between people, sometimes known but mostly unknown in this life. These connections happen frequently throughout Threads, making it an captivating story while set against the backdrop of forced labour in China.

Yuming places a note inside a purse hoping someone in America will find it and act. In a remarkable coincidence, her note is found by a young American girl with ties to China. But the coincidences do not stop there. When Clara and her family arrive at the Great Wall on July 7, Clara sees a city bus stop with a commotion going on in the back. "Suddenly, four of the windows open and, at the exact same moment, four kids jump out, one from each window. They have identical hair-cuts and are wearing brightly colored T-shirts that are way too big on them." The reader already knows from the previous chapter that Yuming, Jing, Kai and Li are "all wearing oversize, brightly colored T-shirts." Clara is unaware that she is seeing Yuming, and Yuming is unaware that Clara is the person who has seen her note and is actively trying to help her.

As Clara and her parents walk along the Great Wall, they "pass the four kids who escaped from the bus windows. They're jogging down the path, and I hope the bus driver is long gone by now."  As Clara walks along the Great Wall she is remembering when she last visited this famous site with Lola and how they played Rock, Paper, Scissors. Meanwhile Yuming, Jing, Kai and Li are jogging along the Great Wall path, searching for someone. As Yuming is keeping a careful lookout for Mr. Zhang, she notices "...people from many places: the wealthy Chinese families, the South Koreans laughing...the American girl in sun glasses and a baseball cap who seemed lost in thought, playing Scissors, Rock, Cloth discreetly with herself..." Unknown to Clara she has walked right past Yuming and Yuming does not know she has passed the girl who carries her note and picture in her pocket.

A third encounter happens in the city of Sunma during the kite festival. Clara looking for a way to get to the pink factory she has spotted from the gondola, sees "...a Chinese kid run to one of the cabs, say something to the driver, and shove a wad of money into his hand before jumping into the backseat." Unknown to Clara this is Yuming using the last of her money to take the very ill Li to the hospital. But this gives her the idea to use the cab to try to find the pink factory.

The final encounter between Clara and Yuming happens at the Molihua Fountain in Shanghai which is the one thing that ties Clara, Lola and Yuming together. Clara, upon learning that the factory has been located by Chinese officials, feels that Yuming will probably be safe. After spreading Lola's ashes in the fountain, Clara leaves Yuming's photograph on the fountain ledge securing it with a stone. As she walks through the narrow archway out of the park, Clara steps "...aside to let two girls in matching blue sweatshirts pass by. The way their arms are linked, they remind me of Lola and myself-- how we were, and how we could have been -- and I wonder if they're sisters. I smile at them. They both smile back at me."  Earlier, Yuming describes how she and Jing, waiting for their train to Shanghai, buy a package of food and "two matching blue sweatshirts." Unbeknownst to Clara and Yuming, they have met and even smiled at one another. At the end of the novel Yuming mentions looking at her framed photograph of herself and Wai Po and Wai Gong - the one she sent with her note, which Jing found at the fountain. It's also possible that Yuming now realizes that someone has seen her note in the purse.

Although Clara set out on a journey to China to help and unknown girl, Yuming, it is this quest which helps Clara begin to heal from the loss of her sister Lola. Clara realizes that she undertook the quest of trying to save Yuming because she could not save Lola. When she learns that the Chinese authorities are now investigating the factory, she is able to let go of Yuming and accept that she will likely be fine. Returning to the fountain where Lola was found as an abandoned baby, Clara releases Lola's ashes, bringing her closure and acceptance.

"The stone tiers of the fountain shine under a coat of dew. The drops are sparkling like glitter -- like tiny drops of life -- and I step closer to the edge. I stand in the spot where Lola was found almost fourteen years ago, and I think about all the layers of living that are always passing over and under one another like threads in a tapestry."

Although Clara could not directly see these layers and how they pass over and around and under one another, she has come to understand this because of the fountain which is the connection between herself and Yuming. It was where Lola was found and it was where Yuming's picture was taken. And unknown to both girls it is where their lives finally connect for one brief, happy moment. It is these connecting threads that weave the tapestry of our lives.

Threads  that takes recent events of consumers having found notes in merchandise made in Chinese prisons and factories, from Chinese workers asking for help. These notes often mention deplorable working and living conditions in specific factories. The fact that these notes reach people halfway around the world, exposes the global interconnectedness we all have to one another, even if we never meet face to face, even if we don't recognize those connections. 

Polonsky has taken these events and crafted a story that features two young girls, worlds apart whose lives briefly touch and yet they never actually meet.  At the heart of the story is one's girl's struggle to deal with the loss of a sister, while the other girl must deal with the loss of family and freedom.  Ami Polonsky writes in her Author's Note, "Sometimes I lie in bed at night and think about the fact that my life is, in one way or another, connected to every single other life on the planet. It's as though there are invisible threads that bind us all, and occasionally, when I envision these invisible threads, they feel charged with unseen energy. Every now and then, like in the cases of the man in the factory and the woman in New York, and Clara and Yuming, an invisible thread becomes exposed. The energy creates tangible, visible sparks and, from these sparks, come stories."

Threads asks young readers to consider these invisible threads and to try to recognize them.

Book Details:

Threads by Ami Polonsky
New York: Disney Hyperion     2016
pp. 240

Anything but normal by Melody Carlson

Anything but normal is the first book of Melody Carlson's that I've read.Carlson is a well known author of teen fiction that explores issues from a Christian perspective. In this book it is the issue of teen sexual activity and teen pregnancy that is explored.

Sophie Ramsay is a 17 year old student entering her senior year in anticipation of having a great year. Sophie  met Dylan Morris at the camp they both worked at during the summer. He told her, her spirit and commitment to God were what attracted him to her. And indeed Sophie was committed to God - she had made a pledge to remain chaste until she married. Now at the end of the summer, Sophie feels deep pain and humiliation. Dylan said he would call her when he returned but never has. When Sophie attends an end of summer get together, where Dylan's family is, she realizes by his behaviour that their summer romance is over.

When she overhears her friends at school discuss guys and how Dylan is the type of guy who would respect a girl whose taken a pledge to remain chaste, she feels betrayed. Sophie knows Dylan isn't that type of guy at all. She struggles to come to terms with breaking her pledge and her guilt. But Sophie fell for his smooth talking and now she's a girl in trouble.

At first, Sophie's response to her situation is denial. She will simply pretend she's not pregnant but underneath she feels fear and hopelessness. When she sees an Unwanted Pregnancy ad at the school, she decides to check out the local clinic, even though she knows abortion to be wrong. At the clinic, Sophie wonders how she was not able to get an Advil at school for menstrual cramps without her parent's consent, but now could obtain a surgical abortion as a minor without her parent's knowledge. When Sophie says she wants an abortion, strangely the counselor suggests that adoption is an option. Not able to get an abortion that day, Sophie abandons the idea.


During this time Sophie attracts the attention of Wes Andrews who is genuinely concerned for her and who thinks she's cool and smart. He asks her to the homecoming dance and because he's so nice, Sophie agrees. While no one is aware of her predicament, Sophie manages to snag the coveted position of chief editor of the school newspaper. It is her writing for the newspaper that Carlson uses as a voice for a discussion on teen pregnancy.

Sophie needs to write an op-ed and decides to write a piece on teen pregnancy and how teens should not be sexually active because they are not mature enough to accept the consequences of such activity, namely becoming parents. When the piece creates controversy within the school, Sophie is confronted by the head of the school teen pregnancy center, who challenges her to visit the center. Sophie is surprised that there are so many girls and that they are from all different backgrounds. So she writes an article about the teen pregnancy center that is published on the front page. This further ignites the controversy and moves it into the community. Sophie finds that she must confront her friends' preconceived notions about the girls who get pregnant, all the while hiding her own condition.

Eventually Sophie decides that she can no longer hide her pregnancy. She feels like she is living a lie. She tells her family and friends, some of whom have difficulty reconciling her actions with the person they know her to be. However, when she tells Pastor Vincent what really happened he is appalled by Dylan's behaviour, mainly because Dylan professed to having a strong faith and a reputation that was respectable. In fact, he took advantage of Sophie and was quite willing to let her suffer the consequences of his actions, alone.

Sadly Dylan represents a lot of young men today, men who use young girls and then abandon them. His true character is revealed in the meeting between Dylan and Sophie's families.

Carlson pulls no punches in letting her readers understand some of what Sophie endures - the fear of discovering an unplanned pregnancy, the denial of the situation, the humiliation of being abandoned by a guy who tells you he loves you just to have sex, the embarrassing gynecological exams, the pain of delivery, the feelings of loss and sadness at giving up your baby, the judgement of friends and family. It's all there but not overdone.

Anything but normal deals with many issues including how many girls are pressured into early sexual activity by manipulative boys, the issues of abortion and adoption, birth control, attitudes towards pregnant teens and the role of abstinence in preventing pregnancy.

Overall I felt Carlson succeeded in presenting these issues in a balanced manner. Sometimes Sophie's voice seemed too mature, particularly when she was observing attitudes in the clinic. The clinic worker presenting the option of adoption seems improbable based on research and anecdotal evidence. Health and abortion clinics tend to promote abortion as the only choice.

I plan to read more of Melody Carlson's books. Readers need to be aware that she does write from a strong evangelical Christian point of view. This is not a drawback but it does affect the overall tone of the book.

Book Details:
Anything but normal by Melody Carlson
Grand Rapids: Revell Publishing  2010
254 pp.