Song For A Whale by Lynne Kelly

Twelve-year-old Iris Bailey lives in Houston with her older brother Tristan and her parents. Iris lived by the ocean until after second grade when her family moved to Houston for her father's job. That meant living closer to Iris's grandparents who like she and  her mother, are deaf. 

In class one day Iris's teacher Ms. Alamilla plays a video about a whale called Blue 55. This whale is not part of a pod but swims erratically all over the ocean. Blue 55, whose mother was a blue whale and father a fin whale, has a unique call at a frequency of 55 hertz. Most whales have calls much lower, usually lower than 35 hertz. The video states that this likely means Blue 55 cannot communicate with other whales. 

Researchers from a marine sanctuary unsuccessfully attempted to place a tracker on Blue 55. His location is known only by underwater microphones that pick-up his song.

Iris is deeply moved by the video about Blue 55 because she understands what it is like to be unable to communicate with others. Her school, Timber Oaks has no Deaf students and no matter how good she is at reading lips, she often misses most of what her friends talk about. 

This leads frustration leads to an incident at school with classmate Nina who attempts to communicate with Iris by signing. Nina's signing makes no sense and begins to embarrass Iris. Frustrated, she pushes Nina away, causing her to fall and ending with Iris in the principal's office and being grounded at home.

Iris repairs old radios as a hobby. Her bedroom has three walls of shelves filled with her radio collection. A workbench contains tools, wires and electronic parts. Her most precious possession is a Philco 38-690 cabinet radio which took her five months to repair. Iris found it at Mr. Gunnar's antique shop and was able to bring it home. At four feet tall it stands on the floor in Iris's bedroom, beside her bed. Because of the altercation at school, Iris has to remove all her radios and tools out of her bedroom as punishment. Unknown to her parents and with the help of Tristan, Iris retrieves the TV/radio/record player she bought from the junkyard.

On the weekend, Iris does some research on Blue 55, learning about the sanctuary working to tag the whale. She discovers the person trying to tag Blue 55 is scientist Andi Rivera. The sanctuary website also explains how the piano can be used to mimic different whale songs. This inspires Iris to try to think of "...a way to sing back to him and hold his attention with something that sounded a bit like himself." Iris wonders if Blue 55 is deaf and messages Andi to ask. Andi responds that they do not believe this is the case. 

At her friend Wendell Jackson's house, Iris tries out various notes on the piano that the sanctuary website indicated were at the frequency of the various whale songs. She tells Wendell that she wants to find a way to talk to Blue 55. "He keeps singing this song, and everything in the ocean swims by him, as if he's not there. He thinks no one understands him. I want to let him know he's wrong about that."

Iris finds sheet music for whale songs online. There is music for humpback whales and even for Blue 55. Iris learns that only some instruments such as the tuba and bass trombone can play notes at 55 hertz. With this in mind, she approaches her school's music teacher, Mr. Russel about recording a song for Blue 55. He agrees to put something together with the music students and the next day with Iris playing the piano notes, they record Blue's song. Mr. Russell also shows Iris an app on her phone that allows her to create Blue's song using the same musical instruments.

Iris sends the recording of Blue's song to Andi Rivera so she can play it while she is on the boat. Iris believes if Blue can her his song it might entice him to stay by the boat so they can tag him. Andi Rivera responds, indicating that they have decided to use her recording the next time they attempt to tag Blue. However, they haven't heard Blue recently nor do they know his current location. Andi tells Iris she'll be able to watch the live webcast when they do attempt to tag him. Iris is not happy about this as she wants to be there when her song is played and Blue is tagged. So she writes Andi offering to help on the expedition. At the same time Iris lies to her parents, telling them Andi has invited her to join the expedition when it happens. But when another email from Andi confirms Iris's worst fears, that it is impossible for her to be a part of the expedition, Iris is furious.  Her anger is channeled into finding a way to get to the sanctuary no matter what. 

To that end Iris decides to sell some of her radios including her prized Philco which she sells to Mr. Gunnar, in order to buy a plane ticket to Alaska. However this doesn't work when she discovers she can't withdraw money from her bank account without her parents' permission. Needing to talk to someone, Iris visits Grandma at Oak Manor. But after listening to Iris, Grandma comes up with her own plan to get Iris to Alaska. That plan involves taking a cruise, some lies and deception. Iris is so desperate and determined to meet up with Blue 55 that she agrees.

It seems like her grandma's plan is working until Blue 55 changes course and doesn't show in Appleton, Alaska but instead is headed for the coast of Oregon, at Lighthouse Bay. Even worse, the sanctuary in Oregon has no interest in playing Iris's song. With some planning, sheer determination, and a lot of luck, Iris not only gets to play Blue's song but has an unforgettable encounter with Blue 55.

 Discussion

Song For A Whale is a well-written novel for middle grade readers that has a unique and intriguing story line. Iris Bailey, a young, deaf girl, struggling with her own issues of communication and belonging learns about a blue whale believed to be unable to communicate with other whales. Touched by the whale's desperate circumstances, Iris records a song at the same frequency as the whale song, to let him know he's not alone. Hoping to see the whale and play her song, she undertakes a journey that ends in much more than she could ever dream.

The story line was inspired by the true story of a whale the 52Hertz whale or 52 Blue, once dubbed "the world's loneliest whale". In 1989, US Navy hydrophones (microphones placed underwater) picked up a strange signal at 52 Hertz. Bill Watkins from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute recognized this signal as an unusual whale call. In 2004, after years of studying the recordings, Watkins published a paper on the unique calls. Public interest was tweaked when the press framed the whale as lonely and calling for companionship.

However, Christopher Willes Clark of Cornell University believed the 52 Hertz call was simply one of many types of whale calls and that if this is a whale call, he can be heard by other whales. Clark felt that blue, fin and humpback whales would all be able to hear the 52 Hertz whale call. Therefore to describe the whale as "lonely" or "sad" is likely not accurate. Researchers have no idea what exactly whales experience. So the media using such descriptions is simply a case of anthropomorphism - attributing human emotions to an animal.

The story is further complicated by the fact that no new calls at 52 Hertz have been recorded recently. And the last recorded calls were much deeper. This is part of a pattern discovered by scientists that whale calls have been changing over the past decades;  blue whale calls are deepening, while Atlantic right whales are singing at a higher frequency.  There have been theories that the 52 Hertz whale is actually a hybrid of a blue and fin whale. 

Much of the above information can be found in greater detail in the Author's Note at the back of the book. Author Lynne Kelly fashioned her story based on some aspects of 52 Blue to create a similar but fictional whale called Blue 55. Kelly's work as a sign language interpreter led her to craft the character of Iris, a young Deaf girl "who'd be compelled to track down the lonely whale, since she's one of the many kids who go through every day feeling like she isn't heard."

In Song For A Whale, Kelly uses the fictional story of Blue 55 a whale unable to communicate with other whales to mirror the issues Deaf persons like Iris Bailey must face on a daily basis. Blue 55 has a song that is very different from other whales. Because he is not associated with any known pod, scientists have assumed that he is unable to communicate with his own kind. This mirrors the struggles Iris encounters daily in attending Timber Oaks, a school that has no program for Deaf students. Although Iris has Mr. Charles, a sign interpreter, she has few friends. This leaves her feeling like an outsider in her own school. This is especially emphasized when she sits with her friends in the cafeteria and struggles to read their lips as they talk.

At home one night, Iris tries to explain about Blue 55, the expedition to tag him and how she wants to be a part of it. Her father, who is not deaf struggles to keep up with Iris and her mother as they sign. When he makes a joke that doesn't include Iris, she signs, "What if you couldn't talk to anyone around you? What if you tried, but no one understood?" When her father tells Iris to slow down because he can't understand, she signs, "It doesn't matter what I do. You don't understand anyway! What if your whole life was like this? What if you were that whale, in an ocean with no one to talk to?"  Iris understands the loneliness and isolation she is certain Blue 55 must be experiencing.

Iris tries to impress upon her family that she needs to go to see Blue 55 because he needs to know that someone hears him. However, her parents, quite reasonably tell Iris that such a trip, to Alaska, is not possible. Nevertheless, Iris feels that she isn't being heard and in her frustration she continues signing so fast that her family can't keep up. But Iris doesn't care: "I was like Blue 55, shouting into the void of the ocean, at a frequency too high for anyone to reach."

That isolation is even more evident when she visits her Deaf friend Wendell Jackson's school, Bridgewood Junior High. In this situation Iris cannot keep up with Wendell and his friends as they sign using American Sign Language (ASL).

As with the reporting on the 52 Hertz whale, Kelly also employs anthropomorphism in her novel. Separate, short chapters written in Blue 55's voice relate his struggles to fit in and find companionship. These chapters chronicle his failed attempt to join a new pod of humpback whales only to be rejected because they cannot understand him and his playing with dolphins. The whale asks "Was there anything out in the ocean like himself? He kept calling just in case his someone was out there."  Blue 55 even questions his existence! "What was a whale without a pod? What was a whale without a whale song?" However, all this changes when Blue 55 reaches Lighthouse Bay and hears Iris's song. He believes he has returned home and that "....after all the years of calling and searching, after so much time and loneliness, so many calls left unheard and unanswered....maybe, finally someone was listening." These chapters might mislead young readers to believe that whales experience their lives the way humans do. We do not. However, Kelly's use of anthropomorphism in this novel helps to mirror the loneliness Iris is experiencing in her life.

Iris Bailey is a fascinating character. She's strong, resilient and a bit quirky with her love of electronics and fixing radios. Through advocating for Blue 55, Iris learns to become an advocate for herself. After she returns home from her adventure, she argues for her desire to attend  Bridgewood Junior, a school with a large deaf education program. Although her grandma brings the issue up to Iris's mother, this time Iris doesn't back down, telling her mother that she's willing to accept the challenges that go with moving to a new school and making new friends.

Song For A Whale offers the opportunity for younger readers to learn more about the different types of whales and their calls and about whale research. Even more important, the novel offers some perspective into the lives of Deaf persons, the issues they encounter in their daily lives with communication and developing a sense of belonging. Although the anthropomorphism attached to Blue 55 and Iris's swim with the whale are a bit over the top, this is a sensitive and thoughtful novel that middle grade students will truly enjoy.

One last thought: The beautiful front cover art and inside illustrations were done by illustrator Leo Nickolls. More illustrations by this accomplished artist would have added greatly to the story. It's a shame so few middle grade novels are not illustrated these days.

Book Details:
Song For A Whale by Lynne Kelly
New York: Delacourt Press     2019
303 pp.

War Stories by Gordon Korman

Twelve-year-old Trevor Firestone is on a weekend access visit with his father Daniel and his great-grandfather Jacob Firestone in Marlborough, Connecticut. He lives with his mother, stepfather and twin half sisters, seeing his dad every other weekend. Trevor loves everything war related, mainly because his great-grandfather, Jacob Firestone fought in World War II. Private First Class Jacob Firestone of Bravo Company was awarded a Bronze Star by the French for his part in liberating a small village in France from the Nazis.

Jacob, whom Trevor affectionately calls G.G., has told Trevor many stories of his time fighting the Nazis in France. This has led to Trevor becoming almost obsessed with war, especially World War II. "He played video games about it, read books, watched movies, built models. Both his rooms... were plastered with posters commemorating military units and major battles."

Their lives change forever when a letter from the village council of Sainte-Regine in France arrives, inviting PFC Jacob Firestone, the last surviving participant of the Battle of Sainte-Regine to a commemoration ceremony in the town in May. G.G. is to be the guest of honour. Although Daniel believes his grandfather is too old to attend, G.G. is determined to go.

Trevor and his great-grandfather plan out their trip to include the entire route G.G. took from his "basic training in Georgia, to England for staging, and across the English Channel for the invasion of Normandy on D-Day." They will also follow his route through France to Sainte-Regine and they will attend the seventy-fifth anniversary of V-E Day at Reims.

However, while Trevor is excited for the trip and the part his hero great-grandfather will play in it, his father, Daniel is concerned. The Sainte-Regine Facebook page about the ceremony has a comment on it by Vive le Verite (Long Live the Truth) stating that Jacob Firestone is no hero and is not welcome. Jacob doesn't seemed surprised nor does he offer any explanation. Both Daniel and Jacob decide not to tell Trevor.

But when they land in Normandy and as they travel throughout France, Trevor notices two young French teens seem to be everywhere they are. Not only that but the tires on their rental car are slashed.

It soon becomes apparent that the liberation of Sainte Regine is not quite what G.G. has portrayed to his family. Confronted by the past,  G.G. must tell the truth to Trevor and Daniel. Along the way, two families, one French and one American experience forgiveness, healing and Trevor learns that often there is no glory in war.

Discussion

War Stories by acclaimed children's author, Gordon Korman is a novel that explores the theme of war through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy, Trevor Firestone and also through the experiences of a seventeen-year-old soldier - his great-grandfather Jacob Firestone. Trevor adores his great-grandfather Jacob Firestone who enlisted as a seventeen-year-old and fought in World War II. Jacob was in Bravo Company and as an infantryman saw the realities of war: pain, death and massive destruction. However, this reality is lost on Trevor who sees only glory in war.

Korman utilizes a dual narrative to tell his story. The first narrative is set in the present (the year 2020) and tells of Trevor and his family, including his great-grandfather, a World War II Veteran as they travel through France at attend a ceremony honouring his great-grandfather's role in liberating a French town during World War II. The second narrative set in 1943 to 1944 as a young Private Jacob Firestone, part of Bravo Company fights its way across France. The two narratives are juxtaposed against one another, describing events in the same locales, 76 year apart. Korman uses both narratives to make his point about war - it's ugly, destructive and is not to be glorified.

Through Jacob's narrative, set in 1944 as he battles his way onto the beach at Normandy and through France, the reality of war is never far away.  Seven weeks into his time as a soldier, Jacob is already overwhelmed by the reality of war his training never really prepared him for ."When Jacob closed his eyes, the picture of what bullets or shrapnel could do to a human being was never far away. He had already seen more death than he'd ever imagined possible. And more blood - it was hard to believe there could be so much of it. At times, he had found himself surrounded by so many bodies - from both sides in this war - that it became difficult to remember that these had once been people. Brothers and sons. Husbands and fathers and friends." He has lost some of his best friends and sees the vast destruction war causes.

In Trevor's narrative, set in 2020, Trevor comes to learn more about the realities of war as his family travels through France, revisiting the locations of battles G.G. encountered. In the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial at Normandy, France, his father points out that "Battles may look glamorous in movies and on posters, but this is what's left over once the smoke clears away." To Trevor they are heroes, but his father Daniel points out, "They were kids,...Not much older than you, when you think about it. Every single one of these graves is more than a life lost. It's a family torn apart and generations that will never be born. Look at your great-grandfather. If he'd been killed in the war, neither of us would be standing here right now. Not to mention your kids, and their kids, and so on..."

Despite this Trevor remains convinced of the glory of war and he can't "...wait to hear the full story of how Bravo Company had liberated Sainte-Regine. It was going to be epic!"  Their travels through the various towns that G.G. fought to liberate help Trevor to understand that the video games he plays don't accurately portray the realities of war. Tanks don't blow through obstacles, they break down or are destroyed by enemies and the soldiers in them die. Each battle won, each acre of land gained represents lost lives on both sides and destroyed villages and towns. The reality of the devastation caused by war is driven home when they visit Saint Lo, a town G.G. describes as being "flat as a pancake" by the time the Germans are forced out. 

However, the reality of war is really driven home when Trevor learns the truth of what happened during the liberation of Sainte Regine. His great-grandfather tells Trevor and his dad that he inadvertently revealed the location of a family, the LaFleurs, involved in the French Resistance - a mistake that led to the deaths of the entire family who had saved his life and nursed him back to health.

The revelation of what happened years ago leaves Trevor shocked but also with a different view of war.  "...he had always pictured war as a gigantic chess match, played by general, using pieces that represented armies. Everything went like clockwork. You executed your strategy, conquered territory, defeated your enemies." But what was missing in Trevor's image of war was the human cost; the villages destroyed simply because they were in the wrong place, a misplaced step that got a soldier killed or like his great-grandfather, a simple mistake that resulted in the deaths of an entire family. War "....looked cool on a movie screen or in a video game. But when real lives were being lost, snuffed out by sheer random chance, there was no glory." 

War Stories is also about forgiveness and redemption.  Jacob Firestone has carried the scars of war with him through his entire life.  At the ceremony honoring him for his role in the liberation of Sainte Regine, Jacob is confronted by Rene LaFleur's descendants, Juliette and Philippe and acknowledges his costly mistake. With the help of Trevor, who points out to Juliette that his great-grandfather volunteered to come to liberate France and that he has suffered too, she is able to forgive. This forgiveness brings healing and ultimately unites the two families.

Jacob also finds redemption in an act of mercy he committed shortly after learning of the deaths of the LaFleur family.  He spared the life of a young German soldier outside the LaFleur farmhouse and meets that boy, now an old man like himself. "...the German showed photographs of his wife, their three children, seven grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren."  Puzzled as to why his great-grandfather is lingering over the pictures, Trevor realizes what his father tried to explain to him earlier in the trip about the cost of war, "...None of those people would ever have been born if G.G. had done his duty and killed this man so many years ago. A snap decision -- a moment of mercy -- and all those lives became suddenly possible."

War Stories is a thoughtful novel that explores the themes of war, forgiveness, mercy and redemption. Well-written by veteran author Gordon Korman, it is a timely novel that encourages young readers to think about how war impacts soldiers and civilians and the lessons we might learn from previous wars. Ironically, Korman could not have known there would be a world wide pandemic in 2020 and so Trevor and his family's trip to France could not have happened in April and May. But in the world of fiction, anything can happen! Although Korman's Sainte Regine is fictional, Operation Overlord  - the Battle of Normandy was not. A map showing the general locations in the US, England and France would be helpful to young readers.

Highly recommended.

You can read about the invention of the Higgins boat from the Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/invention-won-world-war-ii-180972327/

Book Details:

War Stories by Gordon Korman
New York: Scholastic Press      2020
231 pp.

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

 A young girl named Won-a-pa-lei lives on the island in the village of Ghalas-at with her father, her younger brother Ramo and her older sister Ulape and the rest of their tribe. They see the impending arrival of an Aleut (Russian) ship to their island, something that is not unusual.

Won-a-pa-lei's father, the chief of Ghalas-at greets the captain of the ship, Captain Orlov. In an unusual move, Won-a-pa-lei's father reveals his real name as Chief Chowig. Everyone in their tribe has two names, "the real one which was secret and was seldom used, and one which was common, for if people use your secret name it becomes worn out and loses its magic."  Won-a-pa-lei's secret name is Karana.

Captain Orlov has come with forty Alakan Aleut men to hunt sea otter. However, Karana's father is skeptical because a previous hunt by the Russians/Aleuts years ago, led by Captain Mitriff resulted in great trouble between the two peoples. Orlov offers to do the hunting and reluctantly agrees to divide the catch.

A hint of the trouble to come is given when one day Karana's tribe has the good fortune of catching a large number of fish, some of which the Aleuts wanted. Chief Chowig refuses to share the fish telling the Aleuts they can work to catch their own fish. Karana expresses her concern about how many otter the Aleuts are killing but her father tells her the otter will return to the kelp beds surrounding the island.

However, tragedy strikes the Ghalas-at community when the Aleuts and the Russian crew attempt to leave without upholding their end of the bargain. The two groups fight and the Aleuts flee the island but not before a battle that sees most of the Nicoleno men killed including Karana's father. Only fifteen men remained, seven of them, old men.

A new chief is chosen, a very old man named Kimki. With so few men, the women now must hunt, a situation that begins to cause trouble within the tribe. Karana and her people also have to deal with the loss of so many of their families. The following spring, Kimki decides to travel across the sea to the east to a place he had visited when he was a young man. He does not return after several months and a new chief is chosen.

The following year, the islanders see a different ship on the horizon. At first they fear it is the Aleuts returning but they soon learn it is a ship of white men who had met Kimki and were told to come to the island to take them away. As she prepares to leave the island, Karana is told that her younger brother Ramo is already on the ship, after being told he could not return to the village for his spear. However, as the ship is leaving the island, Ulape points to Ramo on the shore waving his spear. Karana is told the ship cannot turn back as it might founder on the rocks. Horrified, Karana leaps into the sea and manages to swim to shore.

So begins Karana's eighteen years marooned on San Nicolas. During that time she will confront death, make a decision about her future, deal with the wild dogs that roam the island and learn now to live with her loneliness.

Discussion

The Island of The Blue Dolphins is a classic children's novel based on the real life person, a woman given the name of Juana Maria who was the last surviving member of the Nicoleno tribe who survived alone for eighteen years on the island of San Nicolas. The island is one of the most remote of the Channel Islands located off the coast of California. Exactly how she came to be marooned on San Nicolas Island, and whether she lived eighteen years entirely alone, without seeing another human being remain uncertain. It is based on the true story of the only survivor of the tribe.

The Nicoleno Indians had lived on the island for centuries. It was visited frequently by the Russians who came to hunt otter for their pelts. There are several versions as to how the young woman came to be alone on the island. One story is that the remaining members of the Nicoleno Indians were being removed from the island when it was discovered that a boy had been left behind. A young woman, possibly the boy's mother or sister returned to the island.

In 1853, Captain Nidever returned to the island to hunt and encountered a middle-aged woman, who spoke to them in an unknown language. Nidever had been counselled by the Catholic fathers at the Santa Barbara mission to bring the woman to the mainland if they found her. This they did. No one was ever able to learn her name so she was given the name Juana Maria when she was baptized. 

When Juana Maria was brought to the Santa Barbara Mission by George Nidever, no one was able understand the language she spoke. She died seven weeks later, taking her story with her. In that time she had earned the title of the Lone Woman of San Nicolas, adding even more mystery to her.  Island of the Blue Dolphins therefore, is largely fictional, using Juana Maria's story as a framework for O'Dell's novel. Through his character Karana, O'Dell is able to give his readers a sense of what life might have been like for this young woman. She had likely already mastered the skills necessary to survive on the island. O'Dell portrays her as having remarkable ingenuity, intelligence and resourcefulness as she is able to cope with many different situations, some of them life-threatening.

But what makes this a fascinating and engaging story is that it is told by Karana who is the sole character in most of the novel - a difficult task for any writer. Whether she is fending off the wild dogs, hunting a sea lion, or attempting to leave her island and journey east, Karana is portrayed as brave and determined. To assuage her loneliness, the leader of the wild dogs whom she was set on killing becomes her companion. She is able to construct a safe and comfortable rock house for herself.  Rounding out the story are the  many interesting descriptions of the life on the island and in the surrounding sea.

Island of the Blue Dolphins is a classic that most readers aged nine to twelve will enjoy. It offers a refreshing break from the fantasy novels that so dominate books for this age group.  To learn more about San Nicolas Island, the people who inhabited these islands and the story told in Island of the Blue Dolphins, check out the National Park Service website which has a webpage: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/islandofthebluedolphins/index.htm.

Book Details:

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt         1988
pp.177

Wink by Rob Harrell

In Wink, twelve-year-old Ross Maloy has been diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer called mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the lacrimal gland. Ross's story is told in the present as he goes through a series of radiation treatments with flashbacks to how his battle with cancer began.

Ross lives with his father who is a trial lawyer and his stepmother Linda. His mother, a talented illustrator died of cancer when Ross was five but he doesn't remember very much about her.

His life changed forever one summer day in July when Ross's father notices his right eye was puffy. After two days of icing his eye, they decide to take him to see Dr. Sheffler, an eye specialist. What followed was a CT scan and an immediate consultation with Dr. Sheffler who revealed that the scan showed a tumor in the lacrimal gland above Ross's right eye. A biopsy of the tumor revealed the diagnosis of a rare cancer that Dr. Sheffler had never encountered before.

Dr. Sheffler brings in Dr. Inzer who tells Ross and his dad that the only way to treat his cancer is to remove his entire right eye and socket and then to do radiation. She offers to do the surgery in two days. This treatment would mean the complete loss of Ross's vision.  Ross is completely devastated. To help him cope his father takes him to see Abby Peterson, his "best friend since the third day of first grade."

The day after this terrible diagnosis and prognosis, Dr. Sheffler contacts Ross's father and arranges for them to meet Dr. Throckton. He tells Ross and his father that he can save both of Ross's eyes. First he will have a more modest surgery that removes the lacrimal gland, recover from that and then undergo eight weeks of proton radiotherapy. The radiotherapy will gradually destroy the sight in Ross's right eye but his left eye will be protected to save the vision.

The first surgery date is cancelled and Ross has his surgery two days later leaving him with a scar and a "closed, squinty, permanently winking eye." Beside him, through the post-operative pain is Abby. Soon after his first surgery and just before school starts, Ross has more surgery to place special "BBs" in his forehead to direct the radiotherapy beams.  Most of the above information about his cancer is given in chapters that are flash backs which Ross labels as Bad Days.

Harrell opens his novel with Ross's story in the present as he attends his first proton radiotherapy session and returns to school, after missing the first week. At the clinic he meets Jerry an elderly man who is also a patient, and Frank, the radiation tech who encourages him to bring his own music to help the sessions pass quickly. Their discussions about music help Ross to cope with the treatments.

School is more challenging because all Ross wants to do is fit in. He's spent previous grades just flying under the radar. In contrast to Ross, his best friend, Abby stands out with her tangerine-colored hair and her "eccentric sense of fashion." Next to Abby, Ross is invisible and that's how he likes it. But his classmates can't help but notice Ross's eye. Jimmy Jenkins, the gum-chewing, spitting kid who sits next to Ross in class, mocks and bullies Ross.

His cancer diagnosis gets Ross attention from Sarah Kennedy, the smartest, prettiest girl in his grade. Sarah tells Ross that there is a Christmas talent show in December at the end of semester. Ross has no idea what he would possibly do but he's thrilled to be noticed by Sarah. As he goes through treatments, the side-effects lead classmates to make fun of him, posting cruel memes online. In his attempt to find comfort in the music that Frank has given him, Ross realizes that it is guitar that resonates with what he is feeling. With Frank's help Ross begins to learn how to play guitar and in the process discovers the importance of friendship, learns to cope with his illness and discovers the key to fitting in.

Discussion

Rob Harrell has written a funny, engaging book that tackles some pretty heavy topics for juvenile readers, among them cancer and death, as well as friendship and change. These topics are handled in a deeply personal way for young readers, but with a touch of humour that lightens the story. Not only are there many funny situations, but Harrell incorporates numerous comic panels of the adventures of Batpig, Ross's alter-ego and the comic character he created.

Wink is based on Harrell's own experience when he battled the same type of cancer in 2006, having many of the same experiences as his character, Ross Maloy. Because he was able to draw on his own experiences, Wink feels realistic and believable, despite its somewhat formulaic structure (sick kid scores big at the school talent show).

In Wink, Ross and his father are shocked to learn he has a very rare form of cancer. Their family lost Ross's mother to cancer when he was very young, so Ross's diagnosis seems especially devastating. As a boy beginning Grade Seven, all Ross wants to do is fit in, be normal and remain invisible and cancer won't let him do that. His surgery leaves him with a scar and a permanently winking eye while the radiation treatments cause him to lose his hair and to have to use a messy ointment for his damaged eye. To hide these changes,  Ross takes to wearing a cowboy hat to school which earns him even more unwanted and unpleasant attention in the form of bullying and some nasty online memes mocking him.

But Harrell has created a dauntless character in Ross. Despite the anger, fear, repeated humiliations in front of classmates, and sense of loss, Ross grows throughout his ordeal. In a conversation with Jerry, an older man who is also going through cancer treatment, Ross learns that Jerry, who was a really good trumpet player, never followed his dream further because he was told it was something normal people don't do. Ross comes to understand that being "normal" is not necessarily a good thing to aspire to. Jerry tells Ross, "But different! That's another matter. Different moves the needle. Different is where the good stuff happens. There's strength in different."  It is advice Ross takes to heart.

After realizing that music is helping him cope with his intense feelings, Ross asks Frank to teach him guitar. This leads him to form a reluctant partnership with classmate Jimmy Jenkins that blossoms into a true friendship. Music offers Ross the opportunity to form new interests and friends, something that will be important in the second semester when his best friend Abby will no longer be at school. It also allows  him the chance to transition from being invisible to "standing out", when he performs with Jimmy and Abby in the Christmas talent show.

Ross also comes to recognize the importance of friendship and what it means to be a good friend. Before his cancer diagnosis, Abby, Ross and Isaac Nalibotsky had been good friends since grade four. However, when Ross is diagnosed with cancer, Isaac simply cuts out of their group. Eventually Ross confronts Isaac who tells him he freaked out and "had zero idea what to do. What to say to you. Zero."  In other words, Isaac had no idea how to deal with a friend who has a serious illness. This is a minor theme that Harrell gives some attention to at the beginning of the novel when classmates react to Ross's return to school with curious looks. "Now I can't walk the length of a hallway without someone studying me to see if I look sick. Or just staring. Or even worse, they ask how I'm feeling." Ross even mentions how some people cope with illness or death by mentioning their own experiences. Eventually Isaac does realize what he did was hurtful and he attempts to make it up to Ross by giving him a new cowboy hat before the Christmas talent show.

In contrast to Isaac, Abby doesn't let Ross's cancer diagnosis influence their friendship. She listened to him talk about his cancer diagnosis, was with him after his surgery, and was willing to be with him for his first radiation treatment. Her loyalty through a difficult time mark her as a true friend. Her ability to treat Ross the same through his illness, helps him cope with what is happening and adds some normalcy to his life. Ross describes Abby as "She's the only person who jokes with me about my 'situation' -- she's done it through most of this whole ordeal -- and I literally could not appreciate it more. It makes me feel like something in the world is normal." Abby is the friend who encourages Ross in his guitar lessons and to play at the talent show.

Abby also teaches Ross that a good friend is someone that can also listen and reciprocate. Ross learns that friendship is both receiving and giving, that his relationship with Abby mustn't always be all about his problems. This happens when he visits Abby and learns she is upset about her family's move. "Do you realize my whole life is about to change? Everything! I'm being uprooted! Why am I even bothering with homework? It's not like anything matters. It's so stupid. I mean, I know you're dealing with a lot -- I can't imagine -- but for God's sake Ross! Am I not allowed to have my own...." The two fight and Ross leaves feeling angry but also knowing in his heart Abby is right. He has a difficult time at first, experiencing empathy for Abby's situation. "Does she really think her problems compare to mine? I have a life-threatening disease! I could friggin' die!..."  Eventually, Ross comes to understand Abby's worries telling her, "I think I've been way up my own butt."  Ross helps Abby deal with her worry about "sticking out", telling her that she "stands out" in a good way.

Ross also learns that people may not always be what they appear to be on the outside. This is demonstrated by the characters, Sarah Kennedy and Jimmy Jenkins. Sarah is smart, pretty and popular while Jimmy is large, rude and has the disgusting habit of spitting in a jar. Ross wants nothing to do with Jimmy who harasses him constantly in class. However, he tries desperately to impress Sarah each time humiliating himself. When a series of hurtful memes ridiculing Ross are shared online, Ross believes Jimmy is the perpetrator. This results in a brawl in class and Ross accusing Jimmy in front of the principal. It turns out that Jimmy, who doesn't own a phone, is not the culprit and he genuinely tells Ross,  "...Those pictures or memes or whatever. They sucked."  Eventually it is Jimmy who learns the truth,  revealing to Ross that Sarah Kennedy is responsible. Ross learns that Sarah's popular, pretty face hides a mean heart, while Jimmy has become a caring friend.

Despite the heavy topic of cancer, young readers will find Wink to be a well-written novel with many funny moments. The numerous Batpig cartoons placed throughout the book are enjoyable and serve to ease the tension in the story. Fans of Wonder will definitely enjoy Wink

Book Details:

Wink by Rob Harrell
New York: Dial Books for Young Readers   2020
315 pp.

Village of Scoundrels by Margi Preus

Village of Scoundrels is a fictional story based on true events that happened in Le Chambon-sure-Lignon and nearby villages located in southern France during World War II. These villages worked together to save countless Jewish children from being murdered by the Nazis.

The story begins in early December of 1942 with the arrival of twenty-two-year-old Inspector Perdant to the fictional village of Les Lauzes. The region where the village is situated has been "living in its own little way outside the rules of the current government". Perdant is determined to see that change. He knows that the village boarding houses are likely hiding foreign Jews and other "undesirables".

Leon and Sylvie, brother and sister, live in a boarding house called Sunnyside. Henni, along with Madeleine, lives in a house called the Beehive along with many children who have come from French concentrations camps. Henni was rescued from the concentration camp at Guz by Madame Desault, who is a Jew. The Beehive is run by Monsieur Boulet. Food and care have transformed the children from being malnourished, angry and prone to stealing, to smiling and healthy.

One night Perdant, out walking the deserted streets, catches young Jean-Paul Filon, a seventeen-year-old riding a bicycle without a headlight and tickets him. Later that night, in his boarding house called Sunnyside, Jean-Paul tells Sylvie that the ticket is useful because it acts as a proof of identity signed by a local policeman. This further cements his forged identity as Jean-Paul Filon. He shows Sylvie his identity card, anxious to see if it is good enough. Leon examines it and believes it to be very good.

Jean-Paul tells them about working as an office equipment repairman. His real name is Otto and one day he went to the office of the prefect of Nice on the pretext of repairing a typewriter in the prefect's office. There he was able to type a letter authorizing the release of his mother Eva Grabowski. The letter worked and they were able to come to Les Lauzes, with fake identities: Otto as Jean-Paul Filon and his mother as a middle-aged Turkish-Russian spinster named Mademoiselle Varushkin.

Inspector Perdant's attempt to "pay a friendly call" on the Beehive boarding house one snowy evening is thwarted by Sylvie, Leon and Jean-Paul. Hannukah celebrations are happening in the boarding house and if Perdant enters, it will be disastrous. To prevent this, Sylvie, Leon and Jean-Paul engage him on the doorstep of the boardinghouse. When Perdant mentions that he heard singing, they begin to sing the Marseillaise loudly, drowning out the sound of the Hannukah celebrations going on inside and saving the Jewish children from certain discovery.

The next day Jean-Paul is visited by ten-year-old Jules who offers to help him. Jean-Paul warns Jules that helping is risky, that he can't know what the documents he delivers say or who they are for. Jules is undeterred and determined so Jean-Paul takes him on.

By December, 1942, wounded German soldiers are billeted at the hotel next to the boarding house where the Jewish children are living. Some of the children believe the presence of the Nazis is due to a letter some wrote protesting the roundup of thirteen thousand Jews in Paris, including four thousand children. However, some of the children believe that they must speak out against the Nazis and their French collaborators.

On Christmas Day 1942, the service at the village church prompts many to think about what is happening in their country and their little village as the pastor recounts the Christmas story. While each of the children have their own thoughts, Perdant is consumed by his thoughts about the teenagers in attendance. "Like that row of teenagers. That redheaded kid, for one. He'd seen him once pulling his sled along in the middle of the night. What had he been doing out at that hour?"

At the end of the service, Pastor Autin invites Perdant to his home for dinner but Perdant turns him down. Instead, Perdant warns Autin that he knows "...there are homes full of non-Aryans and anti-patriots." and that if he isn't careful he may be arrested too.

Perdant continues his snooping, determined to find out how the Jews are being safely brought to the village. He is determined to do something about the pastors whom he believes are deeply involved in rescuing Jewish children. In the winter of 1942-43 the two pastors and the school director are arrested. More men join the maqisards hiding in the forests. Leon disappears from school. Henni writes her aunt in Switzerland to try to get a visa. Jean-Paul, aided by Leon and Sylvie continues forging documents, ration cards and identities. And Madame Creneau who locates safe houses for the Jewish refugees and who helps them cross into Switzerland, decides that it is no longer safe to hide people. She asks Philippe to take on the task of helping them across the border into Switzerland.

When Jules and his friend Claude Dupont are caught painting anti-German slogans on the road, they are taken to Perdant who questions them. Protecting Claude who is actually giving Perdant clues as to what is going on, Jules maintains that Claude is slow. Perdant lets Claude go but decides to use Jules, whom he suspects of knowing much more than he lets on, as an informant.

As the Gestapo sets up more and more raids, and Perdant becomes determined to sniff out those helping hide the Jewish refugees it becomes necessary to move the refugees out of the village and plateau.  Philippe, Jean-Paul, and others work to help the refugees, while Jules works to convince Perdant that he has chosen the wrong side.

Discussion

Village of Scoundrels tells the story of a fictional French village that works together to save thousands of Jewish refugees from certain death during the Nazi occupation of France. The story is based on the real life events that occurred in the village of Le Chambon-Sur-Lignon during the course of the Second World War.

From 1940 until 1944, the residents of Le Chambon, led by Pastors Andre Trecome and Edouard Theis, helped over five thousand refugees, including up to three thousand Jewish refugees. The village is situated on the Vivarais Plateau in south-central France. Its past history of persecution of the largely Huguenot by French Catholics during the 16th to 18th century may have played a significant part in the resistance activities of the villagers who did not support the Vichy government led by Marshal Petain. However, the efforts to help the Jewish people in this region involved people from all faiths including Catholics, Jews, Evangelicals and nonbelievers.

Preus tailored many of the characters in her novel after real people. At the beginning of the novel Preus provides readers with a helpful alphabetical list of the cast of characters. At the back of the novel in the Epilogue, she describes the real life people who each character is based on. For example, Jean-Paul was based on Oscar Rosowsky, a Jewish teenager who wanted to study medicine and who became a master forger during the war. Oscar was able to forge a letter ordering the release of his mother from Rivesaltes internment camp. The character of Philippe who leads people to safety in Switzerland was inspired by Pierre Piton, who also was a passeur or "people smuggler". Catherine Cabessedes Colburn inspired the character of Celeste, the young girl from Paris who eventually carries messages and contraband for the maquis. Madame Desault, Madame Creneau , Henni and Max are also based on real life people. The character of Jules is based somewhat on Paul Majola who did make deliveries for Oscar Rosowsky. Inspector Perdant is loosely based on policeman Leopold Praly who was shot by the maquis eight months after arriving in Le Chambon.

Village of Scoundrels is a novel whose overarching theme is that of journeys. There are the physical journeys of the refugees rescued from the concentration camps on their way to safety in Les Lauzes, of the refugees from France to Switzerland. But there are also many personal journeys, ones from fear and inaction to courage and resistance. 

An example of this journey can be found in the character of Celeste, a young French girl who watches as events unfold in the village. However, at some point she can no longer just watch. When Mme. Creneau asks Celeste if she knows of anywhere they can hide the refugees safely for a short period of time, "Celeste's urge was to go home, climb into bed, and pull the covers over her head. " She believes everything is falling apart until Sylvie reminds her that "as long as there was something to do, there was hope." This inspires Celeste to tell Mme. Creneau about the abandoned chateau. Mme. Creneau now gives Celeste many responsibilities, which she steps up to take on.

As she and Philippe rush back to the chateau to help those hidden there, Celeste explains to Philippe how she became involved. "For a long time I watched you and others doing things, and I admired you...but I was too afraid. I didn't think I could do it -- I was sure I'd mess up. Then I went on a little mission. I was still afraid, but I was doing something. I had a little power. I could actually do something to resist. To fight back. And the oddest thing happened. That huge dark fear of what could happen -- it went away...I guess I had to do the thing I dreaded most in order to lose my fear of doing it."

Perhaps the most dramatic journey is that of Inspector Perdant. He is sent to a small French village to check up on the locals. It is suspected that the villagers are hiding Jewish children and other "undesirables" as Perdant refers to them. Upon his arrival, Perdant definitely senses that something is amiss in the village, although he's uncertain as to what it might be. He's determined to find the Jewish children he believes are being hidden. He comes to believe that almost everyone from the pastors, to the children to the farmers are complicit. And he is correct.

 His initial warnings and threats have little effect on the pastors or the farmers, so he decides to pressure ten-year-old Jules, a young boy who tends his goats on the hills surrounding the village. But Jules is not afraid of Perdant. In fact, quite the opposite. He becomes Perdant's conscience pushing the young policeman to face the morality of his choices as hunts down those helping save the Jewish refugees.

Perdant is pushed into action when the Gestapo conducts a raid on one of the boarding houses. Humiliated at being outdone by the Gestapo, Perdant is decides he must act despite his repulsion at the brutality of the raid. But he is deeply conflicted.  He goes to the river and throws stones into the water.
"Each stone a bad decision he had made.
The decision to join the national police.
His desire for pormotion that had led him here.
His fawning admiration for the leaders of Vichy and, worse, their German overlords."

Like most French, Perdant doesn't like the Germans but he wonders "Why did he want to do what he did?" Perdant had started out wanting to help France. "He didn't know what to believe anymore, except that he'd seen these kids on their sleds and bikes, singing as they hiked in the woods. They were hardly dangerous. They were just kids! All they wanted was to have a life." Yet Perdant is not yet ready to give up. He wants to make that big arrest.

So he seeks out Jules who he orders to take him to the abandoned Chateau de Roque. Jules knows the maquis are using this old building as a place of refugee so he tries his best to physically thwart Perdant. At the same time Jules attempts to get Perdant to see how his actions are morally wrong.  Perdant believes that "Someone has to keep law and order...." and questions Jules as to why the people of Les Lauzes do not follow the law, stating they cannot "choose the laws you like or don't like, willy-nilly." But Jules tells him that it is not a case of people not "liking" the laws, instead they believe the laws are wrong. "...Everybody knows what is wrong, but some people are too afraid to say or do anything. And some people manage to do a lot of twisty turns in their minds because they wish it to be right. But you can't make it right by wanting it to be right."

Perdant insists that people have to follow the law, but he knows that he is really trying to fill a quota demanded by Hitler in retribution for two German officers killed. Remembering his one successful arrest of two Jewish brothers brings no comfort to Perdant because it is not the capture of the brothers but the resistance of the young teenagers in an attempt to save the boys that fills his mind.

Eventually Jules, desperate to stop Perdant, confronts him with the policeman's gun, asking him what he thinks he is accomplishing by his spying, hunting and arresting of people. It is a question Perdant has asked and now has no answer. "Now he tried to rouse himself to answer with his usual patriotic fervor -- to save France for the Frenchmen, save the country from anti-patriots, communists, immigrants, the Jews who had been working to undermine the civilized nations of Europe....The problem was, he wasn't sure he believed it anymore."

It is only when Jules is seriously wounded that Perdant comes to his senses. He now sees all the resistance's activities with complete clarity,but even more importantly he sees his own actions compared to those of the teens in the resistance. He now must decide what to do with his life; he can continue to go down the path he is on or he can change direction.  Perdant acts to help them. He stalls the police and gendarmes as they arrive at the chateau. When they do raid the chateau, he has bought them the time to escape. It is the beginning of Perdant's redemption.

Village of Scoundrels is a beautifully crafted novel based on a true story of courage and resistance that occurred in France during World War II. It is a novel of courage and resistance in the face of great fear, and redemption. That Preus did extensive research prior to writing the novel is evident. She also visited the region of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.

There is a wealth of supplementary material at the end of the novel including the detailed Epilogue with information on many key figures in the resistance, a Historical Timeline and a detailed Bibliography listing many resources for further research.

Well written and highly recommended.

Book Details:

Village of Scoundrels by Margi Preus
New York: Amulet Books        2019
302 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.

Degas, Painter of Ballerinas by Susan Goldman Rubin

"Drawing is not what one sees, but what one can make others see." 

Degas, Painter of Ballerinas is an exquisite biography for young readers of this famous artist, known for his sketches, paintings and sculptures of dancers.From 1852 to 1912, Degas produced over a thousand dance pictures. While many artists were part of the Impressionist movement, Degas' interest was much different. Impressionists painted landscapes outdoors. Degas spent hours indoors at the Paris Opera observing dancers.The dancers were known as petits rats or "little rats" because they were always hungry. The petits rats would practice different ballet moves over and over to perfection. Degas would sketch their poses as they stretched, rested on a bench or worked at the barre.

Because he spent so much time at the Paris Opera, Degas was very familiar with the different ballet moves and would sometimes do a pirouette or an arabesque. He formed a fatherly friendship with many of the dancers whom he treated as if they were his own children. He saw how hard they worked and  how difficult the art of ballet was.

Degas did his sketching in the ballet studio or his own studio where the dancers were invited to pose. Afterwards he would combine these sketches into his paintings which were done when he was alone.

As time passed, Degas' art changed and developed. He explored different techniques,  and as his eyesight deteriorated, Degas moved to creating sculpture. The result was art that is timeless, beautiful and now considered very valuable.

Discussion

Degas, Painter of Ballerinas is an fascinating exploration into the process and technique of this famous artist.  Rubin keeps younger readers engaged with her simple explanations and with the many wonderful colour plates of Degas' paintings, drawings and sculptures, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Rubin informs her readers on some of the different techniques Degas applied to his work. For example, he often used a single color to create an accent, making a canvas "come to life" or mixed pastels with charcoal and tempera paint. He even used bleach and steam to create different effects in his paintings.The layout of the book is such that there is a bit of text on each page accompanied by many wonderful pictures of Degas' artwork. Rubin mentions Degas poor eyesight, something that plagued him even as a young man and how he tried to preserve his eyesight by wearing blue tinted glasses. As his eyesight worsened, Degas turned to sculpture, creating incredible wax sculptures of dancers in certain poses.

While the first part of the book focuses more on Degas art. Rubin also includes a fairly detailed biography of the artist in a separate section at the back of the book. This gorgeous edition with the beautiful cover and the pink satin spine would make a lovely gift for either a young aspiring dancer or someone interested in art and artists.


Book Details:

Degas, Painter of Ballerinas by Susan Goldman Rubin
New York: Abrams Books For Young Readers    2019
60 pp.

Where The World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean

Where The World Ends is a fictional account of a real life event that occurred in the St. Kilda archipelago, located in the Atlantic Ocean, northwest of Scotland.

The island of Hirta which is the home for the twelve characters in the novel,  is the main island in the archipelago. Hirta was populated by very small number of inhabitants until 1930, when the remaining population was evacuated to mainland Scotland.

In 1727, a group of nine boys and men were set on Stac an Armin also known as Warrior Stac to hunt the birds and eggs, the main staple in their diet. They became stranded on the stac for nine months when a smallpox epidemic on Hirta devastated the community there. Very little is known about this event which was recorded in the diary of a Christian missionary. This provided McCaughrean with the opportunity to imagine what being marooned on a rugged stac in the stormy Atlantic for nine months without any hope of rescue might be like.

The story is told from the point of view of Quilliam who is part of the fowling party that includes Domhnall Don, Mr. Farriss, Mr. Cane, Murdo, Kenneth, Calum, Lachlan, John, Euan, Niall and Davie. To get ashore, everyone has to  jump from the boat onto the craggy stac. It was Calum's father who brought them to the stac and it will be up to him to return in three weeks time to bring them back.

Their first stop is Lower Bothy, a dark, dank, stinking cave where they temporarily stow their gear of ropes, fowling nets, cooking pot, egg baskets, bundles and boots. The next task is to kill the King Gannet, the lookout bird, who guards the Overhand and warns the other gannets of danger. Whoever kills that first lookout bird earns the title of King Gannet for their time on the stac. Quill succeeds in this task and earns himself the title. The fowlers then move from the Lower Bothy to Midway Bothy. This cave is no more comfortable then the lower cave but it allows them to descend on ropes and harvest the birds in this area.

They harvest storm petrels for their oil and meat, gugas (gannet chicks) for their meat, as well as puffins and other birds. The feathers are plucked by the younger boys and stuffed into sacks. Eighty cleits, "little towers built of rocks" are used to store the dead birds, acting like smokehouses to dry out the carcasses.

Two months before the fowlers left for Warrior Stac, the boat arrived from Harris, carrying Murdina Galloway, the niece of Mr. Fariss, the school master. With Murdina and the boat that brought her, came a bundle of clothes belonging to Old Iain who had died, tossed onto the shore by the skipper, Mr. Gilmour. That bundle of clothing was stored in the schoolroom to be shared out amongst the islanders. Murdina brought sentences, songs and laughter to Hirta. And Quilliam was entranced by her and her mainland ways. On Warrior Stac she occupies Quilliam's thoughts frequently.

Shortly after the fowling party left for the stac, the Reverend Buchan, a missionary on Hirta was slated to return to the mainland, along with Murdina. Quilliam believes it unlikely he will ever see Murdina again.

Stac an Armin

The next three weeks are spent gathering birds' eggs, wicking petrels (the oily birds are used like candles, burning down to their feet) and hunting birds. Four weeks pass, then three more. Finally Callum asks the question everyone is thinking, "Why do they not come?" Every possible reason is discussed; the weather, the tides, a problem with the boat. Euan, one of the younger boys faints and then prophesies that all on Hirta have gone up to heaven. Because of this,  many in the band of fowlers believe that God has decided to end the world and that they have been left behind on the island. However, Mr. Fariss and Mr. Don believe that they should try to build a raft and cross to Boreray so as to make a signal to Hirta for help. Quilliam, overwhelmed by the conversation, leaves the Bothy and to distract the younger boys who are also upset, helps them set afire one of the cleits containing gugas and puffins. Although they burn,  the signal goes out and there is no rescue.

As the weeks pass, Quilliam and the other fowlers must now face the prospect of a long winter, possible starvation and death. As tension mounts between Col Cane who has set himself up as a minister of God and the rest of the party, the struggle to stay alive grows more desperate with each passing week. Has the world truly ended? How will they survive the winter?

Discussion

Told from the point of view of protagonist Quilliam McKinnon, Where The World Ends is a story of extreme survival. Eleven inhabitants of Hirta are set on a rocky outcrop in the middle of the sea to harvest birds for their community over a period of three weeks. But when the boat does not return for them, they must find a way to survive through the harsh winter. Every aspect of their being will be tested; physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual. It is a tale of inner strength, resiliency, and courage.

McGaughrean immediately creates the setting and atmosphere for her story through her descriptive narrative. The stac is described in imposing terms. "Warrior Stac grows bigger the closer you get. You would swear it was pushing its way upwards -- a rock whale pitching its whole bulk into the sky, covered in barnacles, aiming to swallow the moon...Warrior Stac is so big and so dark that all the fowl of the air since Creation haven't been able to stain it. It looms there, as black and fearful as one horn of the Devil himself. And it teems with birds." Quill doesn't want to think ill of the stac. "It was not a living thing, only a slab of rock in a big, cold ocean at the edge of the world." It is evident from the beginning, that even in the warm summer months, survival on the stac will be a formidable challenge.

Map of St. Kilda showing the location of Stac an Armin

When the boat fails to return for them, it soon becomes evident to the group that they are marooned, likely for the winter and possibly permanently. The incredible challenge of staying alive through the winter is ably portrayed by McGaughrean. They have plenty of food in the form of birds and eggs, although they must deal with the rain and cold. So initially, the most significant challenge the men and boys face is psychological; the realization that for some unknown reason, no one is coming to take them back to Hirta. Each character deals with this realization in their own way. Murdo wants to partition off areas of the island so each can have his own area to hunt and store birds. Mr. Fariss contemplates suicide but is talked out of it by Quilliam. Mr. Don makes a practical plan to build a raft out of driftwood so they can sail to Boreray where they will have a much better chance of surviving the winter. Col Cane takes refuge in rigid religious belief.

From the beginning, Col Cane appoints himself as a "Minister", controlling the group by playing on their fears. Quilliam does his best to counter these fears but is largely unsuccessful. For example, when Quilliam tells the younger boys a story that draws on mythology to distract them from their dark thoughts, Cane decides he is a pagan who is to be shunned. Cane dictates Sundays as days of prayer and ordering the fowlers to "confess" not only their own sins but the sins of others too! As winter approaches, Cane's beliefs and demands become more extreme as he orders the group to stop fowling and stay in the Bothy to pray and sing hymns. Quilliam sees the folly in this; they will run out of food if they stop harvesting birds. "It was insane. The birds would be gone soon. The party must keep fowling for as long as possible. Their were cleits needed mending." Eventually Quilliam is banished by the increasingly unstable Col Cane. This sets Cane up as the main source of conflict in the novel.

Although not much is known about the people living on Hirta before the 1800s, online research indicates that the islanders did not take much to Christianity in the 1700's and that Alexander Buchan, the missionary mentioned in the novel, was largely unsuccessful in his efforts to evangelize them. They still clung to their Druid beliefs as much as to the new religion of Christianity. McCaughrean captures the mixture of Christian and pagan beliefs that these men might have had in the 1700's. Col Cane seems able to use his distorted views of God and death to gain considerable control over the marooned fowlers. Although the fowlers would have been practical men, focused entirely on staying alive into the spring when they could hope for rescue by a passing ship, they would have also searched for omens. They young boys, often Euan remind them to do so.

McCaughrean has crafted a dark tale that might be more appropriate for older readers. Quilliam and Murdo talk about never having the chance to be with a woman, one character attempts suicide but is saved by Quilliam, another dies a gruesome death and various characters suffer serious injuries. There is also the situation of John who turns out to be a girl of fourteen, whom the older boys determine should be married off to one of them. McCaughrean's descriptions of the state of the fowlers as winter ends leave little to her readers' imaginations. "They sneezed incessantly and their skin crawled with parasites. Itchy, scabby and sore, their flesh cracked open at the least cause, like crabs whose backs split as they outgrow them." And there is the matter of Kenneth's toes....

Despite the harrowing, gloomy storyline, the novel has a surprisingly sweet ending for the main character, Quilliam, who survives by frequently imagining his love, Murdina by his side. After their rescue, that dream becomes a reality in a chapter narrated by Murdina.

Overall, Where The World Ends is an interesting but dark fictional account of a real life event that happened almost three hundred years ago. This is a remarkable survival story with many themes to be explored. McCaughrean includes a map of the setting, an Afterword, and a set of drawings of the various birds the fowlers would have found on the stac.

Readers can get a good sense of the novel's setting from this article on the BBC about the isolated island of Hirta and its unique people.

Stac an Armin image: Bob Jones [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)] from geograph.org.uk

Map credit: Eric Gaba (Sting - fr:Sting) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]


Book Details:

Where The World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean
London: Usborne Publishing    2018
330 pp.

My Real Name is Hanna by Tara Lynn Masih

My Real Name Is Hanna is the fictional account of a Ukrainian-Jewish family's struggles to survive the Holocaust. Fourteen-year-old Hanna Slivka lives in the village of Kwasova with her younger sister Leeba and her younger brother Symon and their parents Adam and Eva. Kwasova is a town comprised of Galicians from Poland, Russia and Ukraine. Hanna's family is part of the Jewish community, her family having moved to the town in 1927. As Jews they have lived side by side with farmers and townspeople, working together and even sharing the Ukrainian Community Hall with their them. But some Russians and Poles are not so tolerant of their Jewish neighbours. Often when walking home from the market, Hanna and her sister Leeba must deal with bullies.
 
Kwasova is part of Poland when Hitler invades the country on September 1, 1939. However, with the German invasion, the Russians race to occupy the eastern half of Poland. As a result, Kwasova becomes part of Soviet Russia with the arrival of the Red Army. Polish flags are replaced by the Soviet red flag with its sickle and hammer,  the Polish street signs are replaced with Russian ones and classes are taught in Russian.

However, things gradually begin to change for Hanna and her family and their Jewish community as well as for others in the town. Stalin forbids all public practice of religion so in April of 1940, the Jews must hide their preparations for Passover. The last Shepherd's Parade held in the shtetele happens in 1941, only because Hanna's father is able to convince the Russians to allow it.  Her father has considerable standing in both the Jewish and Ukrainian/Russian community. He is not only a sheepherder, but also is able to repair things for the Russians. This allows him to be on friendly terms with Commissar Egorov who is in charge of the NKVD officers stationed in Kwasova. Hanna's family live in the only brick house on the lane that leads to the meadows where the sheep graze. The only other dwelling on the lane is Mrs. Petrovich's thatched cottage. This older lady is a good friend of Hanna's family, hired as their Shabbes goy, doing work Hanna's parents cannot do on the Sabbath.

One night Hanna overhears the men talking downstairs. Visiting their home are the two Cohan twins Pavel and Jacob, Mr. Rabinowitz, and Mr. Stadnick who is Hanna's friend Leon's father. The Cohan brothers who are able to travel freely in the area and are the only source of information reveal that the war has come to their country now. The Ukrainians are welcoming the German army in the hopes that they will be free from the Russian occupation and will sponsor an independent Ukraine. The Red Army is fleeing, the NKVD has left. Gradually the Jewish community finds itself more and more isolated from Kwasovians.

In the winter of 1942, Hanna's family is drawn into sheltering refugees fleeing north from the Germans. When Hanna questions her father about their secret guests he tells her only that they have come from Romania and "are people like us." Hanna's father gives her a leather bound copy of Mark Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc.

In the spring, a Ukrainian farmer, Stepan Illiouk drops off two very young boys whom he helped on their journey north. While Hanna and her mother are attempting to figure out what to do, Mrs. Petrovich quietly deposits a basket of fresh chicken eggs on their doorstep. This means she has seen the two boys come to their home. Mrs. Petrovich makes pysanky eggs for her clients for Easter and Christmas which Hanna helps to deliver. It is now clear that Mrs. Petrovich is an ally. Hanna and her mother come up with a scheme, disguising the two boys as being injured in a farm accident. After dark, Hanna's papa escorts them to the house of the Ukrainian Catholic priest, Father Dubrowski, who is baptizing Jews and creating new birth certificates for them, in the hopes of saving them.

Eventually the refugees stop coming, the Wehrmacht soldiers advance into the valleys, followed by the Einsatzgruppen with their guns, dogs, gas vans and classical music. The borders are closed.  Life becomes much harsher for everyone but especially for Jewish families. Hanna still attends school although as the oldest pupil she just reads. However the Polish students are careful to sit far away from the Jewish students. Hanna's friend, Leon now attends a small private school in the town for the Jewish boys. The many shops in the market square close and there are long lines for what little food can be found. Because Hanna has blond hair she is sent to stand in line for the two ounces of bread their family is entitled to. In line, Hanna sees the poster warning people to avoid Jews in case of typhus. In a bold move Hanna manages to secure double their bread ration.

Gradually time begins running out for Hanna's family and the other Jewish families in Kwasova. The dreaded SS invade smaller rural towns and villages. In September they arrive Kwasova with a long line of Romanian Jews. They steal the horses and what little food remains in the town. Hanna's family watch from a hilltop outside of town waiting until the Germans move on. From the Cohan brothers, they learn the Germans massacred all the Jews marching with them, near the village of Borszczow, disguising the sound of machine gun fire with classical music played on a gramophone.

In Kwasova, the Jews are ordered to register and to wear a blue Mogen David or Star of David. However, Hanna's father forbids them from doing either, counting on their neighbours not to turn them in. The SS and the Ukrainian police are searching barns for hidden Jews whom they force into ghettos or murder. Hanna's Uncle Levi and her father dig underground bunkers to hide in during raids, while Hanna, her mother and sister will hide in an attic bunker. A pane of glass is removed from Hanna's bedroom window and the family takes turns listening at night for an unanticipated raid. That raid does happen and for two days Hanna and her family hide.

On an afternoon in the fall of 1942, the Germans force the closure of the schools for good, and the Ukrainian police steal Hanna's family's sheep to feed the Germans. On September 26, 1942, Mrs. Petrovich comes to Hanna's home bearing wooden crosses. She tells Hanna's father this evening, the Germans are coming through the town to forcibly remove all Jews to make it Judenfrei. Any home without a cross will be considered Jewish. Hanna's father takes the cross and brings one to his brother Levi. The night passes and Hanna's family and her cousins are safe. In the morning they learn what happened through the blackness of night from Stepan Illiouk. Many Jews were murdered in their beds, others were marched to a culvert near Stepan's fields and shot in groups while the Germans ate confiscated food and played classical music. Stepan is horrified that he now has a graveyard at the edge of his field.

Hanna and her family finally understand that this is no short-lived pogrom they they can survive but the systematic annihilation of every Jew. They set out to save themselves, not realizing just how much it will cost them and how much their lives will change forever.

Discussion

My Real Name Is Hanna is based somewhat on the real life story of Esther Stermer who saved the lives of her family and five other families by hiding in the gypsum caves in Eastern Ukraine during World War II. Esther and her husband Zaida lived in the small Ukrainian village of Korolowka, when it was invaded by the Germans in 1941. Determined to save her family, Esther and Zaida, along with five other families packed up some belongings and fled into the dark, cold night to the network of gypsum caves near their village. They were told about the caves by a forester in the District of Galicia. Thirty-eight persons would live in the caves for five hundred and eleven days, a record that still stands today, only emerging in when the Red Army had pushed the Germans out of the area in 1944. The families lived in a second cave which had good ventilation and lakes, creating areas to bath and digging latrines. Artifacts from their time in the caves were discovered in the 1990s by cave diver, Chris Nicola. Eventually he was able to discover the story behind the artifacts.

In Masih's novel, the characters are all fictional except for the historical figures of Adolf Hitler and Gestapo Chief Koelner. The author strove "...to be historically accurate in as many ways as possible." in spite of the fact that there were few personal accounts that survive, and the history of the region has been suppressed by both the Ukraine and Russia. In this regard, she succeeds admirably. As a result, Masih relied heavily on Esther Stermer's memoir to craft some of the details of Hanna's story, but she also created her own events too. For example, the Slivkas escape first to the forest, something the Stermers did not do. When that becomes too risky, as a last resort they realize their only chance to survive is to retreat to the caves, a horrifying prospect, effectively portrayed in the novel.

Masih's characters are varied and realistic. There is the lovable, kindly Mrs. Alla Petrovich, a Ukrainian Christian who creates pysanky and who does as much as possible to help Hanna and her family. She recognizes their differences, but is tolerant and caring.  And there is the Ukrainian farmer, Stepan Illiouk and Yuri the forester who also help. Stepan does all he can to help his Jewish friends and is devastated when he witnesses the murder of hundreds of Jews near his fields.

Hanna is a strong, intelligent protagonist whose compassion is a central feature of her personality.  On her birthday a family fleeing persecution is hidden in their barn. "I listen, eyes wide. A whole family in our barn? Fleeing for their lives? I think of the cold barn, the lack of heat, wind whistling down from the mountains and through the drafty boards, the miles they still have to travel." Hanna gives her father the warm, long scarf her sister Leeba made for her birthday.  Later on from the safety of the hilltop, Hanna watches all the Jews huddled together in the town. "My heart breaks to see their misery. How I wish I had many scarves to hand out." When her friend Levi is depressed on his sixteenth birthday because no one notices, Hanna does notice and offers him a handful of dried crabapples.

As a character, Hanna feels very realistic. When they are ready to leave their home for the forest, Hanna struggles to pray. "I am not much in the mood to be thanking God for things that seem frightening, like living in the forest, but when we thank God for the food we can finally eat, I join in." Hanna struggles terribly at times, wondering how Sonia could possibly have a baby when life is so terrible. She has little hope for the future but in the end that hope is restored.

Despite all the evil around them, Hanna's parents endeavour to teach her not to become like the Germans. This is best demonstrated when Fedir Wolinski appears half-dead at their hideout in the forest. Wolinski was the lamplighter in Kwasova, friendly to everyone before the war. But when the Germans came he turned on his Jewish neighbours and became the Tzeler, a Death Counter, actively looking for Jews in hiding and keeping track of the dead in the shetele. When the Germans shoot his wife, Wolinski knows his time of reckoning is coming and so he flees. Hanna learns from her parent's actions. "But my parents taught me something when they took in the Death Counter. Life is not good, however you are living it, if you become like those who don't value you."

Early in the novel, Hanna is given a copy of Mark Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc which she treasures. To Hanna, her journey to survive parallels that of Joan. When she leaves her village, just as Joan left hers, Hanna understands what Joan feels. "I am at the end of the first chapter in Joan of Arc, where Joan, at seventeen, is looking back on her distant village, 'trying to print these scenes on her memory'. I am doing the same."  Hanna begins to use Joan of Arc to keep track of time. Like Joan, Hanna notes, "It is easy to lose track of time in one room you never leave, away from normal routines..."  Like Joan too, a tree plays an important part in Hanna's life. "I find a beech tree in the Joan of Arc story as well. A fairy tree. A mystical tree connected to the children of Domremy, the hamlet she grew up in. I feel like I am following in her footsteps...." For her it is the Witness tree which is used as a means of communication in the forest. And as Hanna and her family  struggle to survive in the gypsum caves, she tries to draw on Joan's heroic example. "I try to be like Joan, who endured prison and torture. 'A great soul, with a great purpose, can make a weak body strong and keep it so,' Mr. Twain wrote." Hanna's purpose is to live.

My Real Name Is Hanna is a well written historical fiction novel that focuses on the plight of the Jewish population in Ukraine during World War II. Not many readers will know how deeply the Jewish people living in Eastern Europe suffered. Very few Jews in the Ukraine survived the war. And years later, Chris Nicola, attempting to learn the origins of the artifacts in the caves, would discover this history hidden. This is a novel that will place readers securely into a little known event, allowing them to experience the trauma of being hunted to the point of having to live for over 500 days in a dark cave.

Book Details:
My Name is Hanna by Tara Lynn Masih
Simsbury, Connecticut:   Mandel Vilar Press  2018
195 pp