Courage To Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust by Neal Shusterman

In Courage to Dream, five historical fantasy stories are presented by award-winning author, Neal Shusterman.. 

In He Opens A Window, three sisters, Anna, Gretchen and Katja are in hiding in an upper room in Frau Muller's house. The secret room is hidden behind a bookcase and Frau Muller keeps the door locked. Every day a delivery book brings food which she brings to the girls. One day the delivery boy is late, held up by a parade of German soldiers of to the battlefront. After making his delivery to Frau Muller, he notices that the upper middle window of her house is missing!

That night when Anna wakes up and opens the curtains she sees an amazing sight: a brilliant sky filled with stars and suns. The next day the delivery boy brings more food from Herr Baumann, the grocer, to Frau Muller. However, Baumann has seen him stealing chocolate bars. Enraged, Baumann who promised the boy's parents to care for him, refuses to pay him and tells him he will be joining the Hitler Youth.

Meanwhile, the three girls eat the chocolate bars in their secret room. They tell Anna they also have seen the strange sights out the window. When Anna opens the curtains, this time they see islands floating in the sky above Hamburg. Anna tells them they cannot tell anyone and that the curtains must stay closed. 

Disaster strikes when Frau Muller picks up papers approved by Consul Ho for Shanghai but is hit by a truck on her way home. The girls' only connection to the outside world is lost and locked in their room upstairs they begin to starve. When they open the curtain, they see a devastated city of Hamburg. 

The delivery boy, now in the Hitler Youth, is questioned and pressured by the Gestapo to reveal who he's been supplying food . He is tricked into revealing the house and the soldiers break into Frau Muller's home. When Anna hears the soldiers climbing the stairs, she devises a plan to protect the girls using the magic window. 

In Legend Speaks of a Hero: The Golem of Auschwitz, the Jewish myth of the Golem comes to life.  The Golem was "a man formed from clay, infused with the name of God and inscribed with a brand of truth", called to life in the 16th century by Rabbi Judah Loew Ben Bezalel. The Golem came to the rescue of Jews in the city of Prague. Legend is that he either ran away or crumbled into earth once the special attributes given to him by the Rabbi were removed.

Duvid had heard about the Golem but a blow to his head had hurt his memories and thoughts. In Auschwitz some of the prisoners have heard the Golem came to Treblinka and despite the Nazis attempting to gas him and burn him, he survived and feed everyone. However, others believe this is a lie. The Rabbi believes that it is good to have hope, even if it is false hope. 

Trains arrived daily, packed to bursting with most people who were made to walk to the Birkenau two miles behind Auschwitz, to their deaths. One day a prisoner named Ben attacks a guard who had just beaten another prisoner. Ben is shot in the head in front of everyone. At night, Duvid is awakened to see something punching its way into the Nazi soldiers barracks. Duvid is awoken by the Rabbi who tells him to get back inside. At dawn, all the prisoners are lined up and told that an officer is missing. Duvid tells the Nazis that the Golem is responsible but they think he is joking.

When the prisoners are lined up for inspection to be send to Birkenau, to the gas chambers, Duvid learns his true identity and acts to free some of the prisoners.

In Spirits of Resistance, Baba and Izbushka watch as intruders invade their forest: a boy, Yosef and a girl, Hannah are being pursued by Nazi soldiers. They are found by Abe, a soldier of the Resistance who takes them to his camp deep in the forest. Yosef and Hannah escaped a transport to a death camp.

In the camp, Hannah tells Yosef she saw a house moving through the woods, and an old woman flying in a bowl. A resistance fighter tells her that was Baba Yaga who roams the forests of Eastern Europe, and eats little children. During the night, Yosef and Hannah are awoken to see the Fools of Chelm capturing the moon in a barrel.

The next day the Resistance plans to attack a train travelling to Treblinka, to save as many people as possible. Baba and Izbushka watch the attack and then confront Yosef and Hannah back in the resistance camp. Hannah tells Baba they want her help to fight the Nazis. After giving the children a piece of meat from Ibushka's left leg, Baba visits the resistance camp later that night and tells them she will help them. To aid her efforts, she enlists the help of the Chelmites. Meanwhile, the Nazis are preparing to lead a major offensive against the resistance fighters in the forest. But with the help of Baba, Ziz, Isbushka and the Chelmites, the Nazis have little chance.

An old family heirloom saves lives in Exodus. Jory Svedberg and Soren are friends even though Jory is Jewish and Soren is Lutheran. They simply consider themselves Danes. Denmark is under Nazi occupation but it wasn't until the summer of 1943 that they began to plan to deport Danish Jews to camps. One night when Soren stays for dinner at Jory's home, Jory's mother complains about how the curtain rod is always tearing their curtains. But Mr. Svedberg tells her it is a family heirloom, the staff of Moses. Jory reminds his mother it brings plagues and doesn't clean his room!

As the German army floods more soldiers into Denmark, the peaceful occupation ends. On August 29, 1943, the Danish government resigns as rumors suggest that the Danish Jews would be deported to concentration camps. Jews in Copenhagen began to flee or go into hiding. Then the Nazis come for Jory's family. But Jory has no intention of going with them. Picking up the rod, he quickly knocks out all three Nazi soldiers. But this is just beginning as Jory uses the rod to save Copenhagen's Jews and get them to safety across the Oresund Sound, separating Denmark and Sweden.

The Untold is a story of lives and a world that could have been. Caitlin's Grandmother Ida is dying. Caitlin loves her grandmother but is scared to see her because it means confronting death. Her grandmother tells her there are many stories that remain untold. She gives Caitlin a box and tells her to open it when she is feeling strong and when her heart is ready. After this, Caitlin's grandmother dies.

Puzzled and driven by curiosity about the unique gift, Caitlin finally opens the box weeks later. Inside, she finds a crystalline seashell. When Caitlin places the shell to her ear she hears hundreds of voices. When she goes downstairs for dinner, Caitlin is shocked to see a much larger dining room table and sees two strange boys in the living room. Caitlin is told they are Grandma Ida's grandnephews. Her mother tells her she should know this based on the family tree she did last year. But when Caitlin pulls out the family tree from her desk, she sees that is has many more branches than what she remembers.  When she lifts the crystalline shell to her ear again, she hears silence. 

Upon returning to the dining room, Caitlin finds everything as she expects with just herself, her brother and mother. And the family tree is as she remembers. The next day sees her not only experience a different home but also school is different. There are new kids she doesn't know and her history book states that World War II ended in 1942 with Germany not even in the war. When she shows her best friend Adam the shell, he disappears. Putting the shell back to her ear, Caitlin again hears the voices and she is back into the altered time line when she arrives home. There she learns that a brick has been thrown through a window in their house, and that anti-Semitism is on the rise in America. Her large family talks about emigrating to Palestine, and Israel doesn't yet exist. Not being able to deal with this Caitlin puts the seashell to her ear and she is back in her own timeline. She promises herself to leave it there until the 4th of July celebrations when she finds she is missing the large family in the alternate timeline. 

Using the seashell again, Caitlin returns to that timeline, a house filled with many family, "to be surrounded by a family you never had." But talk is about a book written by a congressman, on the front cover the Nazi symbol on the American flag. Horrified, Caitlin encounters her grandmother who explains what has happened and why she gave her the crystalline seashell.

Discussion

Courage To Dream is another very unique book by author Neal Shusterman. In this graphic novel, Shusterman who is an American Jew, has written "fantasy stories with a Holocaust theme". Most of the stories are a mashup of Jewish history during the Holocaust and Jewish folklore. In his Imagination and the Unimaginable note at the back of the novel, Shusterman mentions that writing from this perspective was both exciting but uncomfortable and asks, "Where is the intersection of fantasy and the grim reality of murdered millions?"

As the author notes, "These are stories of wish fulfillment where the tragedy lies in the fact that they can never be fulfilled." How many Jewish men, women and children imagined the Golem or some other hero coming to their rescue in the death camps? How many hidden Jews wished to fly out the window of their secret hideaway to a glorious world of freedom and safety? How many survivors of the Holocaust wondered what might have been had parents and siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends, husbands and wives survived?  As he wrote his stories, Shusterman began to realize the stories were "..a unique way of addressing the Holocaust and perhaps engaging readers who might not otherwise go there."

In the last story, The Untold, Shusterman tackles the idea of a world where the Holocaust never happened in the 1940's but instead could possibly happen in the twenty-first century. In the Untold, the main character, Caitlin discovers a huge family in an alternate timeline because World War II ended in 1942, before the implementation of Hitler's "Final Solution" - the systematic murder of European Jews. Her huge family is the result of people living to produce the succeeding generations. 

In that alternate timeline Caitlin wanted to believe that a world without the Holocaust was a better one, but instead she finds it is just as flawed as her own time, maybe even worse. When she confronts her Grandmother Ida in that timeline she tells her granddaughter, "The world that might have been always looks glorious at first but there are twists and turns in its spiral and depths that no one can see." Caitlin realizes that her grandmother gave her not the choice to live in an alternate world but a vision, enabling her to understand who she is mourning, when she remembers the Holocaust. 

The unique stores are told primarily by the wonderful artwork of illustrator Andres Vera Martinez who researched historical photographs so he could "...accurately depict clothing, architecture, uniforms, and even landscapes of the time." He also did considerable art history research into the various aspects of Jewish folklore/  The panels are set in a somber tan tone. Many of the illustrations are rich with detail and capture the fantastical element of the stories being told while also portraying historical events.

Shusterman who is known for his fantasy and dystopian novels,  has also included an extensive Bibliography and a Note about the Hebrew Letters In This Book. The first five letters of the Hebrew alphabet appear at the beginning of each story and are relevant to the story. Courage To Dream is a book that twelve years in the making, but rich in themes for readers and students to explore.

Book Details:

Courage To Dream: Tales of Hope In The Holocaust by Neal Shusterman
New York: Graphix, an Imprint of Scholastic Inc.  2023

Blood of Troy by Claire M. Andrews

Daphne has returned to Sparta after her successful mission to return to the gods, the Muses, caretakers of the Garden of the Hesperides. They had been stolen by the gods, Ares, Hermes and Nyx, and Daphne returned them to Olympus. This restored power to the gods.

After a poor performance training against Lykou, Daphne finds herself called back by the goddess of the hunt, Artemis, to her palace. Many of the gods are present including Demeter, Aphrodite, Poseidon, Athena, Hades, Hephaestus, Hera, and Apollo. Zeus tells Daphne that there will be a competition in Sparta to be a part of Queen Helen's personal guard and they want her to win it. Zeus wants her to protect his daughter, Queen Helen, who he believes is in danger. King Menelaus has called all the Achaean kings to Sparta for a conclave and when all the rulers of Greece are present, the gods believe that Nyx will seek her revenge.

Daphne returns to the home of her adopted parents, Revna and Ephor Apidanos Diodorus. They inform her that there is to be agon tomorrow. For her brother Pyrrhus, the agon is a chance to redeem himself from being the Deserter of Carneia. Daphne is overjoyed until she realizes that it is she who must win the agon.

As expected, Daphne wins the agon, but just barely, defeating Pyrrhus, who is furious. However, before she moves to the palace, Daphne is visited by the Moirai, "the keepers of destiny and children of Nyx" Each Fate shows Daphne a part of the future. 

The first Fate shows her a bloody battlefield strewn with corpses from Sparta, Tenedos, Athenia and Mycena. The second Fate, Lakhesis tells Daphne "There is a great war on the horizon, like none Greece has ever known. All the kingdoms from every corner of this world will take part and stake their claim. Should you fail in the task assigned to you by the gods, that which you love most will meet its end right here on this battlefield. The Sparta you know will be gone forever more on the bloody fields of Troy."  The third Fate, Atropos tells her they will welcome their destruction and that she will be the ruin of Olympus.  Klotho, the oldest Fate asks her to protect Troy when she fails to protect her queen. Daphne is devastated by what the Fates have revealed to her. And her horror is only compounded by a dream in which Nyx appears and she sees the kings of Greece all murdered on the palace floor.

Daphne quickly discovers that Menelaus, the husband of Queen Helen is a cruel man, determined to control who Helen sees and where she goes. Helen, who is half-sister to Artemis and Apollo, and has a daughter, Hermione, considers the palace her prison. King Menelaus is not friendly towards Daphne. 

Soon the kings from across Greece begin arriving: first  to arrive is Odysseus, Anax of Ithaca, followed by Achilles of Phthia and his Myrmidons, then Alcimedes of Locris, Ajax of Salamis, King Nestor and his sons, and Ariadne Princess of Crete along with the gods Dionysus disguised as Dion of Phrygia and Apollo as Appollodoris. They are followed by the Trojans, dark-haired Hector and golden-haired Paris, two sons of Priam King of Troy. The last person to arrive is Theseus of Athens, who supposedly Daphne killed.

The purpose of the conclave is to arrange potential trades in exchange for the Trojans dropping the Hellesport tax. To the surprise of the Achaeans, the Trojans accept their offer and agree to lift the tax. However, Daphne makes two discoveries that night. Theseus whom she killed is actually Ares, the god of war, and King Menelaus and his hateful brother Agamemnon are plotting a war with Troy. With the Trojans agreeing to lift the tax, initiating a war is now much more difficult. King Menelaus, Agamemnon and Ares decide the only way to bring about war is to capture the Trojan princes who are staying with Daphne's father and family. King Menelaus gives the order to kill the ephor -and his family. 

Horrified, Daphne goes to tell Helen and sends Apollo to warn her father. Helen and Daphne arrive at her father's home, only to find that the Achaeans are only doors away. Daphne learns that her adoptive father is actually Peneios, the river god. Peneios tells the group that the only way to flee Sparta for Troy is by the river Eurotas. The group is pursued to the banks of the river by Ares, Melenaus and the soldiers. At the river Penois won't reveal the name of Daphne's father, but Ligeia tells her that when the Midas Curse is removed, her questions will be answered.

At the river bank, Daphne, Helen, Paris, Hector and Lykou flee in a boat while Penois, Revna, her maid Ligeia and Lykou's family  flee into the forest around Gythium. They are pursued by Ares and the Achaean soldiers. Daphne, Helen, Paris and Hector all manage to flee Sparta. Helen is distraught over leaving her young daughter Hermione. 

Daphne is taken to the wooded throne room in the pantheon. Hera the Queen of Olympus, Dionysus, Athena, Hephaestus, Poseidon, Zeus, Hades and other gods including Apollo, are present. Daphne begs the gods to stop the war but they refuse, telling her there are darker powers at work. Zeus tells Daphne she has failed to protect Helen, instead drawing her into the war. The gods are divided, some side with Zeus, other with Apollo and Daphne. Zeus, furious at Apollo siding with Daphne, binds his son's power. 

When Daphne returns to Earth she finds herself in the beautiful city of Troy. King Priam allows Helen to choose to stay or leave, and Helen decides to stay. Soon after Penthesila, Queen of the Amazons, her sister Hippolyta, along with the Amazons arrive in Troy. Hippolyta reveals that they have heard rumours of Helen being seduced and kidnapped by a Trojan prince. Soon Troy's other allies begin arriving.

As Troy heads towards war, Daphne must not only protect Helen but also deal with the schemes of the gods as they take sides in the war.  Daphne knows the walls of Troy were given a special power by Apollo to protect the city, which can only fall if the invader is invited inside. However, Daphne begins to understand that Troy's walls are protecting something being kept inside from being removed. Too late, Daphne uncovers what that secret is, and its unleashing leads to the destruction of Troy and much that she holds dear.

Discussion

Blood of Troy is the middle novel in the Daughter of Sparta series by Claire M. Andrews. It continues the saga of Daphne Diodorus, who is now tasked to protect Queen Helen of Sparta, but finds herself drawn into the Trojan War.

To understand the relationship between the many characters in this novel, it is helpful to understand some of Greek mythology. It's possible to read the novel without having this background but it makes the novel more enjoyable if the reader already has some knowledge of the gods and goddesses and their relationships to one another. Andrews does incorporate explanations within her novel of the Olympians and the Titans and events like the Titanomachy but a Foreword would also have been helpful in this regard.

The Titans were the twelve children of Uranus and Gaia. There were six sons: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus and Cronus and six daughters: Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys. Uranus and Gaia also birthed the Hecatonchires and Cyclopes. The first generation of Olympians, Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Hestia (Dionysus), Demeter and Hera were the result of the union of Cronus with his older sister Rhea. 

After the birth of these children, they decided not to have anymore children. When Uranus imprisoned six of their children in the Earth along with several of the Hecatonchires and Cyclopes, Gaia asked her other Titan children to help free them but only Cronus agreed to help because he wanted to rule the cosmos. Gaia wanted him to castrate Uranus, which Cronus agreed to do and accomplished with a special adamantine sickle! Cronus then became ruler of the Titans. Uranus cursed Cronus, that his own children would rebel against him.

Cronus, fearful of the curse, swallowed each of his children as they were born. But his wife, Rhea was able to save her youngest child, Zeus who grew to manhood. Zeus tricked his father into vomiting up Zeus's siblings. They, along with the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes, rebelled against Cronus and the Titans. After ten years of war, called the Titanomachy,  Zeus and the Olympians were victorious. The major Titans were imprisoned in Tartarus (a type of dungeon of torture) with the Hecantonchires as their guards.

In her Author's Note, Andrews asks, "What is the true story of Helen of Troy?...In actuality, we do not know much about the Trojan War, other than that the archeological evidence points to a war between the Achaeans (known then as Ahhiyawa) and Troy (known then as the city of IIius/Wilusa)..." From her considerable research, Andrews "sought to create a story that was both authentic and original, that does not diminish the myth that has persevered for many millennia, and that would still be a new experience for readers." 

In Blood of Troy, the story of the Trojan War is told from the perspective of a female warrior, Daphne Diodorus. who is an acclaimed Spartan warrior. It also includes other female characters, including Helen Queen of Sparta, Hippolyta and Penthesila of the Amazons, as well as the goddess of the night, Nyx. The retelling is fresh and engaging. Helen does not flee Sparta with her lover Paris, but flees while helping save two of the Trojan princes, Paris and Hector, as well as Daphne and her family who have been hosting the princes. In the novel, as in the Iliad, the gods take sides in the war, some helping Sparta and others like Apollo, Artemis, and Demeter on the side of Troy. The wooden horse, given as a departing gift to Troy by the Spartans, never enters the city unopened. In Blood of Troy, Daphne warns against bringing the wooden horse into the city and instead the Trojans set fire to it outside the gates, exposing the hidden Achaeans within, who are then taken prisoner. While the Spartans do massacre the Trojans, the city is destroyed when Pandora's jar containing Nyx's family is inadvertently uncovered by Daphne.

In Greek mythology, the gods are often busy interfering in the lives of humans, sometimes helping them, other times creating chaos. And in the novel,  the Trojan War is one such event where they interfere in a big way. When Daphne asks the gods of Olympus to help stave off a war between Sparta and Troy they refuse, telling her there are darker forces at work. Lykou  notes the absence of funeral games, their brilliant leader Paidonomos Leonides and the unusual Spartan battle formations, suggesting something evil is in the Achaean camps. When Nyx appears on the battlefield, Daphne begins to suspect that she is working for the downfall of Troy, but to what end she doesn't know. 

Between the deadly skirmishes, Daphne must deal with various gods who are either trying to help or hinder her. Some of the gods help her: Apollo gives Daphne a bangle to wear around her bicep with golden stones that glow different colours. This bangle, he tells her, will protect her when she cannot, and does save her life. Hermes takes her to the island of Lemnos where the god Hephaestus makes her armor and weapons to fight the gods. He also trains Daphne further, so she will be able to fight Ares who has already challenged her.  Other gods are more interested in killing her, including Hera, Ares and Nyx.

Since the Trojan War takes up much of the novel, the story features Daphne in battles against both Spartans and various gods with plenty of blood, gore and death.  Daphne, who is an accomplished Spartan warrior, has struggled all her life to be accepted in her adopted home of Sparta. She doesn't know the identity of her father, which adds to her internal conflict. In addition to this, she must deal with the gods who continue to ask for her help, while never fully divulging their reasons. Her devotion and loyalty to her family comes into conflict because of the tasks the Olympians set for her. By the time Troy falls, she feels she has betrayed by everyone she loves. 

Andrews offers her readers a map of the Greek world and of the city of Troy. Historical fiction should seek to portray the setting as accurately as possible and Andrews definitely accomplishes this. At a whopping 461 pages, Blood of Troy is not a quick read, but it is exciting, filled with action, and a touch of romance. Blood of Troy is suitable for older teens and those adults who love Greek mythology.

Book Details:

Blood of Troy by Claire M. Andrews
New York: Little, Brown and Company     2022
461 pp.

The Leopard Princess by Rosanne Hawke

The Leopard Princess is the sequel to Daughter of Nomads, concluding the story of fourteen-year-old Jahani. The novel picks up where the first ended with Jahani having refused Azhar's offer to fly to the northern kingdoms on his flying carpet. Instead she has returned to the nomads.

After awakening from yet another dream, Jahani receives a warning from Chandi. She immediately alerts Tafeeq and Rahul who order her to stay in the women's tent. They believe the war lord Muzahid Baig's soldiers are preparing to attack. At dawn as expected, the camp is attacked by Muzahid's men. When soldiers attempt to attack the women's tent, Jahani mounts Chandi and helps Neema and a young boy defend it, rescuing Kamilah. After the attack the nomad prince, Rahul is discovered missing. As it turns out he has been captured by Muzahid who is determined to force Rahul to find him the red haired shehzadi "who holds the key to the northern kingdoms". This is the second time Rahul has been captured and tortured by Muzahid, the first being when he was a ten-year-old boy. Dagar Khan wanted Muzahid to marry Jahani then hand her over to him so he could kill her. Rahul insists that the story of the lost shehzadi from the Kingdom of Hahayul is a legend, but Muzahid believes it to be true and offers Rahul the promise of land when he becomes Tham of Hahayul. He tells Rahul that he has disposed of  the shehzadi's adoptive parents, Baqir Abbaas and his wife Zarah. When Rahul refuses to help Muzahid locate the shehzadi, Muzahid has Rahul's middle finger cut from his right hand.

In the nomad camp  Jahani is visited by Yazan, the snow leopard who tells her that they need to travel north. That night Jahani and Anjuli riding Chandi and Rahul on his mare Farah leave Lalazar for the Babusar Pass. They are attacked in the small pass by badmarsh bandits.

Meanwhile Azhar is devastated that Jahani has refused to travel north with him on his magic carpet. When he learns that Jahani has left the nomad camp, he travels to the Babusar Pass. There he finds Muzahid's men waiting for Jahani. He also meets Jahani's foster mother, Hafeezah on her mare Sitarah, heading north to the Kingdom of Hahayul. She is travelling north to her home in Hahayul with Baqir Abbaas's troops under the command of Saman Abdul. Hafeezah informs Azhar that Muzahid has murdered Baqir and Zarah. Azhar has Hafeezah take his horse Rakhsh north, while he travels by carpet to this father, Kifayat in Jask. There he meets Bilal, the former wazir of  Hahayul. Azhar confesses his concern that Rahul may be taking Jahani to Muzahid. However, his father tells Azhar that Jahani's journey to the Qurraqoram Mountains will help prepare her and raise support.

As they travel north, Rahul tells Jahani he is uncertain that she is the shehzadi that has been foretold.  He tells Jahani how he came to find her twelve years earlier. The summer the royal family of Hahayul were murdered, the nomads travelled farther north than usual into the northern kingdoms. They stayed a few days in the town of Baltit in the Kingdom of Hahayul. Rahul was nine-years-old and while in the town, he learned that a terrible tragedy had occurred in the kingdom. While walking back to the nomad camp, Rahul saw a  lost, red-haired child fall into the river. He managed to rescue her and took her to the bazaar to see if anyone had lost a little girl. Her clothing was covered in blood and had burn marks. The chai walla seeing her red hair told him to hide Jahani as soldiers were out capturing any red-haired girls. The nomads quickly left Baltit, as armed men arrived in the town. Rahul, who had lost his mother and sister, had his Aunt Yasmeen care for her. At ten, Rahul was kidnapped by Muzahid who tortured him and cut off a finger on his left hand. Rahul's father Tafeeq and Aunt Yasmeen believed Jahani would be safer with Zarah and Baqir.

Jahani continues her journey northward for several days. At the Mazeno Pass, they are again attacked by bandits but are helped by Yazan. One night as they are resting, Jahani is warned by Chandi that men are approaching. They are confronted by men dressed in mismatched green shalwar qameezes, led by an unknown man. The man tells them that he is here not to fight but to talk. He identifies himself as Ali Shah, the second-in-command in the tham's army under Dagar Khan.  He refused to support Dagar when he rebelled and fled to avoid execution/ 

Ali tells Jahani the story of what happened when she was very young. He was part of a troop left behind to guard the tham - her father, the ghenish, the little shehzadi and their ministers. When troops were overcome by Dagar's men, he managed to get the shehzadi out into the street, but in the confusion they were trampled and the little girl fell into the fire. He was able to put out the flames and they escaped to the river. However the boat to take them to safety was not there and he was wounded by an arrow. The little child got away and ran to the river in fright. And Ali lost her. Now he is commander of the Makhfi, the hidden army, who are loyal to the royal family of Hahayul.

Jahani is shocked because Ali is describing her recurring dream. When Ali Shah asks Jahani her name, Rahul becomes angry but Yazan instructs her to do so. Jahani tells him her name and lowers her dupatta which covers the bottom half of her face. Ali tells her that Jahani was the nickname for the shehzadi and that her full name is Jahanara Ashraf Shaheen Khan. He also reveals that Dagar Khan is a distant cousin to her father, the late tham. Dagar Khan wants to produce the body of the shehzadi so that he can finally have his rule over the Kingdom of Hahayul accepted by the people. Despite her appearance and Rahul's story, Ali Shah is still unconvinced but when he sees the taveez around her neck, Ali is certain he has found the lost shehzadi.

Ali tells Rahul that he has one hundred men and that "another ten thousand are stationed in the forest near the town of Gilit with my captain, Irshaad." Men are infiltrating Dagar Khan's cavalry, training to overthrow him. He also reveals that Jahani's grandmother escaped the massacre and has been quietly organizing support.

These revelations overwhelm Jahani who now realizes she has a surviving relative and has finally discovered her identity. This leaves her with many questions: "What if she couldn't do what the people expected of her?...Would a man like Ali Shah want to rule for her?,,,Is this why Muzahid wanted to marry her? Did he know she was the shehzadi?" She wonders how she can defeat Dagar Khan.  Jahani's path to the throne of Hahayul will prove to be more dangerous and difficult than she could ever have imagined. With the help of Rahul and Azhar, Chandi and Yazan and many others, Jahani will have to overcome many obstacles including

Discussion

The concluding novel to the Jahani Tales, written in third person past tense,  is exciting and filled with intrigue. In The Leopard Princess, Hawke ties up all of her loose ends and crafts a tension filled but satisfying conclusion.

The novel picks up where the first one left off, with Jahani returning to the nomad camp, unaware of her true identity. Azhar has not revealed what he knows about Jahani, and Rahul is doubtful about the existence of the shehzadi, believing it to be legend. Through various characters, Jahani's past and her identity are gradually revealed to her.  In The Leopard Princess Jahani learns about her past and her heritage from Ali Shah, Rabb's cousin Nusrat, from Shehzadi Zeb-un-Nissa, from Kabeer Yazeed who is Jahani's uncle and imprisoned in Muzahid's dungeon, from her grandmother Kaniza, and even from Dagar Khan. But it is Ali Shah who reveals her identity.  When Jahani meets Ali Shah, his story coincides so remarkably with her nightmare of fire and terror, which he could only have known if he experienced it, that she realizes he is speaking the truth.

When Jahani finally discovers who she is and what her destiny is, she initially experiences conflict over who to trust, Rahul or Azhar and self-doubt as to whether she can truly rule her father's Kingdom. The Leopard Princess follows Jahani's personal journey from internal conflict and self-doubt to courage, trust and self confidence to act as a true queen for her people. Faced with the reality that she is the lost shehzadi whom the people of Hahayul have placed all their hope in, Jahani is filled with doubt. "With Yazan by her side, Jahani felt better. But still doubt had crept into her mind. How could she rise to this challenge and be the shehzadi when she hadn't been raised to rule?" Yazan advises her "You must be yourself."

Once Jahani accepts the truth of her identity she immediately begins to act on it despite her doubts. She makes the decision that "It would be best to regain the kingdom with peace, not war." even though she believes Ali Shah would ridicule this goal. Partly this is because Jahani now believes in the vision Yazmeen shared with her of a  "lost shehzadi, a girl with red hair and a snow leopard, come to the northern kingdoms, and she brought peace without a war." Jahani is not to be deterred; when Rahul counsels that she could return with him to the nomads Jahani tells him " You can return, but I would always feel I hadn't fulfilled my destiny."

The main challenge Jahani must confront is discerning who to trust. Partly this is the result of her being passed from family to family, from the nomads to Baqir and Zarah, then to Hafeezah and back again through her life. Because everyone around her seems to have a motive for helping her, Jahani is distrusts Ali Shah's motives and so she tells him,  'I want you to consult me in any plans as I need to learn about my position. What if I do not agree with your decisions?" When Ali balks at this she tells him, "And another person will rule in my name since I knew nothing...I think not." Jahani is inspired by the Angrezi rani - Queen Elizabeth who ruled England in the 1500s.

Although initially she trusted Azhar who has been protecting her since she lived in Sherwan, she begins to doubt after Rahul warns her about him. This doubt re-surfaces when Jahani accompanied by Rahul and Ali Shah, meets Azhar who suddenly appears on his magic carpet at the Indus River, offering to take her across the river to safety. Even though Chandi warns her to go north quickly, Jahani determined to make her own decisions, refuses Azhar.  This turns out to be a bad decision that results in her capture and eventual arrival in the harem of Muzahid.

In Muzahid's harem, talking to Shehzadi Zeb-un-Nissa, makes Jahani realize that she's "had no experience, no emperor or tham as father, no paternal authority to tell her what she could or couldn't do...Now many men told her to do what they wanted: to be safe, who to trust, who to marry. That would have to change."  

Unfortunately in her attempt to be independent, Jahani turns away the one person whom she can trust, Azhar Sekandar Khan. This is partly because Jahani doesn't know Azhar's true identity either. Hafeezah defends Azhar's actions in not revealing himself to her and cautions her, "We must always be careful that pride or hurt feelings don't blind us to truth." Although Jahani feels that she has acted in the best interests of the Kingdom of Hahayul, her heart tells her otherwise.

When Jahani feels betrayed by Azhar for his part in keeping her identity secret, and feels that there is no one she can trust, it is her grandmother who tells her that she has more allies than she knows.  Jahani comes to recognize that she has not treated Azhar fairly, that he is an ally and can be trusted. She calls for his aid and when Azhar arrives outside the zenana of Dagar Khan, Jahani learns how many people have come to her aid and just who she can trust.

In Jahani, Hawke has crafted an intelligent, courageous heroine, who is not afraid to act. Trapped in Muzahid's zenana or harem, Jahani isn't resigned to her fate but devises a plan to take out the war lord on her terms. She confronts him in his bedroom no less, demanding the use of her charmed sword, Shamsher and then with the help of Yazan slays him. When she arrives in Baltit, Jahani disguises herself to visit her grandmother Kaniza who is imprisoned in the the fort by Dagar Khan. She decides on a second visit because her grandmother  "Kaniza had seen her husband and her son ruling Hahayul; Jahani needed to tap that knowledge." And she decides on a very courageous path, turning herself into Dagar Khan, whom she knows will kill her in a public spectacle. Jahani shows just how important achieving peace in her kingdom is to her, when she is willing to offer her life for her people. She has changed a great deal from the young girl who witnessed the murder of her best friend only months earlier.

 In The Leopard Princess, all of the characters are fictional except Zeb-un-Nissa, who was a Mughal princess and famed poet who wrote under the pen name of Makhfi. She was the eldest daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb and his chief wife Dilras Banu Begum. Zeb-un-Nissa was highly intelligent and well educated in both the Quran and in the sciences.

Hawke rounds out her novel with  a map showing Jahani's convoluted journey to her kingdom, a list of main characters which is helpful but should have been placed at the front of the novel with the first map which details Jahani's journey up to that point, A Note About Languages, and a Glossary.

Young readers, aged 10 plus will enjoy the The Leopard Princess. Parents should be aware there are several murders, a reference to the rape of Jahani's mother and her murder while pregnant and also Jahani's placement in a harem or zenana. The author merely states these things and there are no graphic descriptions.

The Tales of Jahani are Rosanne Hawke's best works to date. It's obvious this story was dear to her heart and that reflects in the care with which these novels were crafted. The setting of the story, in the mountainous northern kingdoms of the Mughal Empire in 1662, the endearing heroine, the magical animals who aid her, the hint of something more between Azhar and Jahani, all combine to make this a unique historical fiction novel.

Book Details:

The Leopard Princess by Rosanne Hawke
St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia: University of Queensland Press    2016
345 pp.

The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discussion

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

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

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

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

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

Book Details:

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

The Time Traveling Fashionista At the Palace of Marie Antoinette by Bianca Turetsky

Having recovered from her time travel to the doomed Titanic, Louise is ready for another  adventure. Louise, who lives with her mom and lawyer dad in Fairview, Connecticut has just barely recovered from her escapades on the Titanic. This installment of The Time-Traveling Fashionista opens with Louise's father having just been laid off from his law firm in New York City.

How her family will cope remains to be seen. Her mother grew up in England in a wealthy family that had maids and nannies and is used to a privileged life. Louise, an only child, is also used to a life where money isn't a problem but that is about to change. Her Grade 7 class is planning a school trip to France, but with her father being laid off, this trip is now likely only a dream.

It isn't long before Louise's worst fear is confirmed and her mother and father tell her they can no longer afford to send her to France. While her friends Brooke and Todd are excited about going, Louise is angry about her parent's decision.

Still upset about their decision, Louise decides to attend another Traveling Fashionista vintage sale. At first she is unable to locate the store which has a different location than the first sale. She finds the new store down a mysterious laneway at an address that doesn't show up on her phone. In the store she again meets Marla and Glenda, the two strange shopkeepers who show her dozens of fancy dresses. One dress however, catches Louise's attention. While her friend Brooke has caused the two shopkeepers to be distracted, Louise slips into the dress and time travels to France during the reign of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Louise slips into the life of a beautiful palace girl named Yolande Martine Gabrielle de Polastron,  Duchesse de Polignac, who is friends with both Marie Antoinette and the Princess de Lamballe. Living in Versailles, the palace of  Louis and Marie Antoinette, Louise experiences all the decadence and frivolity of the French court in late 18th century France. She wears gowns made of extravagant fabric and priceless jewels, and attends balls and dinner parties where rich food is plentiful. When she travels to Paris with Marie Antoinette to visit the couture dress shop of Rose Bertin, Louise comes to realize the extreme poverty of the common people. She tries to warn Marie Antoinette to take into consideration the situation of her adopted countrymen, but the young queen doesn't understand and seems oblivious to the plight of the French people.

All of this makes Louise reconsider her own situation at home, with her father now unemployed. She realizes that some problems, liking having enough money to live are timeless and that her situation is not so bad after all. As time passes, Louise realizes she needs to get home, but first she needs to find the beautiful dress that transported her to 18th century France. Suspecting an older woman in the court, Adelaide, of hiding her dress, Louise confronts her, only to learn an astonishing secret.

Discussion

This novel is a light easy read that combines fashion with history. The author shows how Marie Antoinette's love of fashion initially led her adopted country to admire and love her and how she initiated the beginnings of  haute couture. However, that love soon dissipated as the French court's extravagance led to a nationwide financial crisis that impoverished the French people. This crisis eventually led to their revolt and the wholesale murder of the French aristocracy.

Turetsky presents a balanced approach to the topic of Marie Antoinette, a much maligned historical figure. While Louise is deeply disturbed by the contrast between the aristocracy and the common people in France, she also is empathetic towards Marie Antoinette, who was sent to marry and live in a foreign country without any family around her. To help readers learn more about the people Louise meets in 18th century France, Turetsky has Louise research them on the internet to learn more about what happened to them once the country was thrown into revolution.

Although The Time Traveling Fashionista at the Palace of Marie Antoinette is a much improved story over Turetsky's first novel, there is still the puzzling question of why Louise time travels into the life of a person existing in that time, rather than simply being herself transported to the time period. Once again The Time-Traveling Fashionista is filled with illustrator, Sandra Suy's beautiful fashion drawings, which add to the overall charm of the novel. Readers will be delighted by the revelations Turetsky throws in near the end of her story about the Traveling Fashionista and there's a hint of future romance for Louise.

The third novel in this series,  The Time Traveling Fashionista and Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile is due out later this year. These novels are highly recommended for young teens.

Book Details:
The Time Traveling Fashionista At the Palace of Marie Antoinette by Bianca Turetsky
New York: Little, Brown         2012
258 pp.