Muhammad Najem, War Reporter by Muhammad Najem and Nora Neus

January 2011 in Eastern Ghouta, Syria. Eight-year-old Muhammad loved being in his father's carpentry shop where he always felt safe. He was his parents' "miracle child", born after his older sister Hiba and two brothers, Firas and Fada, when his parents thought there would be no more children. Then President Bashar al-Assad's men came one day to their city to search for military-aged men to serve in his army. Because the men hide, Assad's soldiers searched homes including Muhammad's father's shop.

At home, Muhammad's father (Baba) explains that the mukhabarat or secret police are everywhere and that even the candy-seller on their street might be working for them. Therefore, they are not to go near him. 

In March 2011, after other uprisings in Egypt and Libya, known as the Arab Spring, protestors began demonstrating against Assad in Syria. When Assad's men came to their city, Muhammad's family would flee to a small apartment outside the city, returning when his Baba determined it was safe.  When they returned to their home, they, along with Muhammad's Uncle Nazar and Aunt Nasrin, would often find their shop had been broken into and damaged by Assad's soldiers. 

By February 2012, despite the fighting and tanks coming closer, life had some happy moments. Muhammad's family had a parrot now and his mother had a baby boy named Karam in June. They often had to flee the city at a moment's notice.

In 2015, when Muhammad was twelve-years-old, the fighting in Syria continued on, drawing in other countries and factions: ISIS, Kurdish fighters, the United States and Russia.

Muhammad's brother, Firas has been selling photographs of the planes, the airstrikes and the aftermath of the bombing to support their family which now included a new baby girl, Batul.

Once again Muhammad's family was forced to flee - this time to an abandoned apartment. They had to leave behind their beloved parrot. Later on when Uncle Nazar arrives, he tells them their home and workshop has been completely destroyed.

They moved into another apartment. They continued to have to flee to the basement during bombings. Hiba's university had closed so she was unable to finish the two remaining classes for her medical degree. She began working at a clinic a short bus ride away, while Baby volunteered at a soup kitchen. He would always bring home some food for the family. One night, Muhammad's father told him about Emad, a painter from Damascus who lost his entire family in an airstrike.  He reminded Muhammad that everyone has a story and it is important to listen to people because it makes them feel seen. 

That night, while praying in the mosque with Uncle Nazar, Muhammad's father is killed by a missile. Muhammad and his family are stunned at such a loss. Devastated, Muhammed is certain Baba would want them to help the people in their neighborhood and to listen to their stories. For Hiba it meant working at the medical center and Firas it meant telling the world what was happening by selling his videos. But Muhammad wondered what it would mean for him.

In December, 2017 while talking to Firas about his videos, Muhammad asked why he doesn't video kids, asking them how they revolution has affected them. When Muhammad suggested that he do it, Firas encouraged him, telling him he could publish his own videos on social media. These videos would show the world how the war is impacting Syria's children. But Firas cautioned Muhammed because once posted, he would not be able to take the videos back.

So as the bombing continued in Eastern Ghouta, Muhammad attended school run by Hiba and a man named Mourad, and posted videos of the bombings, the devastation and how his friends were affected. As he posted more and more videos, Muhammad began to attract the attention of the western media. In February 2018, Muhammad was contacted by Nora Neus who worked for CNN news. Nora would give Muhammad a wider platform to tell the world the reality of the Syrian conflict, as his best friend Selem lost his little sister Raghad, as his Uncle Nazar was killed in a bombing and as he and his family were forced to flee their home north to Idlib. There Muhammad continued to report and soon found himself attracting even more attention. When Assad targeted northern Syria, Muhammad and his family decided it was finally time to leave for the safety of Turkey.

Discussion

Muhammad Najem, War Reporter tells the story of a young Syrian boy determined to tell the world what is happening in his country during the civil war. Muhammad wanted the world to know the impact of the war on children like himself and his friends.

The use of the graphic format for this purpose was ideal as the illustrations by Julie Robine are very well done and capture the many aspects of life during war. The artwork is clean, colourful and fresh, with the different members of Muhammad's life easily recognizable, making the story easy to follow. Muhammad is able to portray to his young readers life during the Syrian civil war: living underground for days at a time, the lack of food, fresh air and exercise, the loss of family and close friends -fathers and uncles, sisters and cousins, and the struggle to continue attending makeshift schools. The artwork also effectively captures the fear and isolation Muhammad experienced, the terror of the bombings and being trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings, but also the wonderful family moments too. This makes the loss of his beloved father and then later his Uncle Nazar who took the place of his father even more profound. 

Muhammad Najem, War Reporter also captures the immense resiliency, determination and courage of the Syrian people as they resist Assad. This is shown by Muhammad's father who, after losing his carpentry shop to the bombing, decided to help those around him, working at a soup kitchen and when necessary, just listening to those who have suffered the loss of family, friends and all they own. This sense of service to others passed to his children, Firas, Muhammad and Hiba after his death. They all work in their own way, to help their fellow Syrians. 

For Muhammad,  the way to help was to give a voice to the people of Syria being targeted by their own government. His method was to post videos of the aftermath of Assad's bombings on social media, a risk he was willing to take. But his decision was not without doubts and inner conflict, especially early when his videos did not have many views. Instead of remaining anonymous, Muhammad identified himself, posting videos of bombings, what it was like to live in Syria at war and even filming his family as they were trapped after a bombing. Now living in Turkey, Muhammad continues to report on behalf of Syria, still at war and suffering the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. 

This graphic novel is yet another medium for Muhammad to inform the world about what is really happening in Syria and more importantly to reach a younger audience who might relate to him. Muhammad Najem, War Reporter is well crafted, informative and offers readers colour photographs of  Muhammad and his family and friends at the back.

Book Details:

Muhammad Najem, War Reporter by Muhammad Najem and Nora Neus

New York: Little, Brown and Company      2022
314 pp.

Hattie Ever After by Kirby Larson

This novel is the sequel to Hattie Big Sky which was written in 2006. It's hard to write a sequel so many years after the first successful book but Larson does a reasonably good job. The conclusion to the Hattie story will garner Hattie, a new generation of fans.

Hattie Ever After picks up Hattie Inez Brooks' story after she has left her Uncle Chester's homestead. It is now June 1919 and Hattie has been working at Mrs. Brown's boardinghouse in Great Falls, Montana, as a maid. She has just posted the final cheque payment to Mr. Nefzeger for her uncle's IOU. 

Hattie doesn't know what's next but she does know that she wants to be a reporter. And then there's the matter of her dear friend, Charlie Hawley who's returned safely from the trenches of World War I, and who wants to settle down and marry her. It's not that Hattie doesn't love Charlie, but Hattie's not sure her place in the world is with Charlie.

At night after work, Hattie spends time scribbling in notebooks, copying poems and inspiring words. She also writes "practice" articles, the first being about Mrs. Brown's neighbour, Sam Blessing. She's written movie reviews and about library programs but has submitted nothing for publication.

Hattie's life takes a dramatic turn, when a vaudeville troupe, the Varietals, arrives at the boarding house, and the wardrobe mistress, Sylvia elopes with the magician, Cecil Hall! Impulsively, Hattie decides to accept an offer from Miss Vera Clare, an actress with the troupe. Hattie will travel to San Francisco with the Varietals, replacing the missing troupe member, at which point they will look for someone to replace her. Hattie receives a letter from Leafie Purvis and inside is a second letter that was sent by Ruth Danvers from San Francisco to Chester Wright with a Mercury coin as a token of her love for him. The letter asks him to return the toke in person in San Francisco. Hattie wonders just who was Ruth Danvers and was she possibly Chester's lost love?

Then as Hattie is preparing the large mid-day meal, Charlie Hawley arrives at the back door. It's been two years since Hattie saw him off to fight in the war and now he's a young man at nineteen. After the midday dinner, Hattie goes for a walk with Charlie and he tells her that he has been hired by The Boeing Airplane Company in Seattle. Although Hattie is thrilled for Charlie and she knows he expects her to move to Seattle to be his wife, she reveals that she cannot go with him at this time. Hattie states that homesteading has changed her and that the war has changed  him. She reveals that she is leaving for San Francisco the very next day with the Varietals, that "...this is my season for something else." Charlie is stunned and deeply hurt. They part ways with Hattie promising to write and Charlie saying he may not be able to return the favour.

In San Francisco, Hattie is impressed by the size of the city, the streetcars and the stylish men and women. Maude Kirk who is a member of the Varietals helps Hattie adjust to life with the troupe.While Mr. Lancaster and Miss Clare are checked into the Fairmont, Hattie, Maude, and the rest of the troupe are put up at Hotel Cortez. Hattie has her first meal at a Chinese restaurant and the next morning visits "Newspaper Row" where the offices of the Chronicle, The Examiner and the Call are located. She decides to enter the Chronicle building and finds herself whisked into the elevator by a group of girls applying to be a telephone operator. But all Hattie finds herself applying for is a cleaning position at the Chronicle as she isn't a high school graduate, can't type and hasn't been to a secretarial school. 

In a remarkable coincidence, it turns out that Maude's brother Ned is a reporter with the Chronicle and she intends for Ned to give Hattie a tour.But first Hattie decides to visit Ruth Danvers at Covington Apartment Hotel where she lives. However, Ruth is at work at the Pacific Building, as a personal assistant to Mr. Stuart Wilkes. Hattie meets with Ruth and fills her in on Chester and her life at the homestead. After lunch with Ruth, Hattie is helped to buy a new outfit and shoes and then she walks to the Chronicle. The newspaper had sent a message for her to come to their offices. But when she's there, Hattie inadvertently runs into Ned Kirk who immediately offers to give her a tour.

He tells her that Maude told him she has published homilies but Hattie swears him to secrecy. Ned also tells her that the young men hanging around the hallway outside the newsroom are just waiting for their big break. In the chaos of the newsroom she sees only one woman, Miss Marjorie D'Lacorte who is a writer after the way of Nellie Bly. From their Ned takes her to a noisy room housing the printing press, and the editorial room, as well as the "morgue" which holds all the back issues of the newspaper. At the end Hattie is approached by the woman who took her application for a job.  After discreetly leaving Ned, she accompanies the woman who  Hattie is given a job as a cleaner working the graveyard shift. However when she meets up with Ned again in the elevator it is clear he believes she's been hired as part of the steno pool. Hattie does not correct his misunderstanding. Instead she goes to dinner with him at a fancy restaurant.

During dinner at New Delmonico's, Hattie questions Ned about being a reporter and about women reporters. Ned tells Hattie that if she wants to become a reporter she has to write something new and different, that will have a connection to the San Francisco area. Hattie asks Ned to get her access to the morgue as she wants to investigate her Uncle Chester's past.

During a visit with Ruth Danvers, Hattie learns that Ruth's daughter, Pearl will now be coming home to San Francisco. She offers to help Ruth make Pearl a quilt but supper is off as Ruth has been invited to dinner with Mr. Wilkes. On her first night on the clean job at the Chronicle, Hattie meets Emmaline McLeary (Spot) and Bernice, Percy the night guard. As the days go by, Hattie uses her two o'clock break in the morning to search through the back issues of the San Francisco Chronicle. Hattie discovers that her uncle, Chester Hubert Wright arrived in San Francisco at least by Wednesday May 12, 1915 and was registered at the Sutter Hotel. It was the time of the Panama Pacific International Exposition.

While cleaning the newsroom, Hattie finds a note scribbled on a scrap of paper questioning the date of an event in a few years earlier. Hattie decides to research the event in the morgue and leaves a note on the typewriter providing the answer. Ned somehow learns that this was Hattie's doing and brings the managing editor, Mr. Monson to her. At Ned's suggestion she is offered a job as a researcher for the newsroom while still working as a cleaner at night. Near the end of her two-week probation, Hattie secures her first writing assignment covering a baseball game and is published under the nom de plume of Dora Dean used by the paper's women writers. Meanwhile, Hattie and Charlie have resumed their correspondence.

On a walk along the beach with Ned, Hattie is offered to work with him on a project about President Woodrow Wilson's work to create the League of Nations. Hattie agrees to work with him but only if she is allowed to do some writing and if it's published, they share a byline. Ned reluctantly agrees. And then suddenly Charlie shows up in Snn Francisco. The opera star, Luisa Terrazzini wants pilot Eddie Hubbard to fly her over San Francisco and Hubbard wanted Charlie as his mechanic. Hattie is driven to the airport by Marjorie D'Lacorte and when Luisa's ride is nixed by her manager, Hattie takes her place. This leads to a piece published on page two of the Chronicle.

Then one night Hattie stumbles upon a shocking discovery: Chester is accused of attempting to cash a forged bank draft. As if that isn't enough, Hattie experiences her first earthquake as San Francisco on September 4, 1919. At this time she hands out copies of her Female 49ers: San Francisco Women Who Find Gold In Their Work, a series of stories about women who work in the city. Hattie want's to give each of the girls she interviewed a copy. When Mr. Monson sees the article, he decides to hire Hattie as a reporter and plans to run her stories over a series of eight Sundays in the hopes of drawing in new women readers. But Hattie's really big break comes about when she ends up trapped in an elevator with President Woodrow Wilson for an hour and she gets published with her own byline. 

Just when Hattie believes she's making good progress she discovers that Ned is rewriting her Female 49ers stories! Hattie believed Ned was her partner, but maybe he's not what she thought he was. And as it turns out, neither is Ruth Danvers or her Uncle Chester. However, from these bitter experiences, Hattie is able to learn a very important lesson.

Discussion

Hattie Ever After continues the story of a young prairie girl determined to make it as a reporter in the post World War I era. In her Author's Note at the back, Larson writes that she never thought about writing a second novel, but fans of Hattie demanded one! This novel is set in San Francisco. The story is told is Hattie's first person narration, and includes correspondence between Hattie and Charlie, Ruby and Perilee. 

Hattie is an ambitious, young woman determined to become a reporter. The focus of this novel is on her efforts to achieve that goal.  It is 1919 and Hattie has left Montana for the big city of San Francisco.  She turns down her best friend, Charlie Hawley's offer of marriage, because she fears "...that saying yes to him was saying no to myself. I needed to find my own place in the world."  Charlie has just returned from serving in World War I and has the expectation that Hattie will marry him. This turns out to not be the case. Charlie, deeply disappointed by her decision, moves on, taking his job with Boeing in Seattle. 

In San Francisco Hattie, with some help from Maude Kirk and her brother Ned who happens to be a reporter, quickly manages to work her way in the San Francisco Chronicle, first as a cleaner, then as a cub reporter and finally as a reporter. As she works towards becoming a reporter, Hattie also attracts the interest of Ned Kirk. 

When Charlie arrives in San Francisco to help his friend Eddie Hubbard, he learns that Hattie is working as a cleaning lady as well as a researcher at the San Francisco Chronicle. He tells her, "I wish you'd been straight with me about the job. I think I deserved that." And he advises, "If a guy wants to be your fellow, he'd best learn to watch out for those snake balls you keep throwing.", a reference to Hattie's own type of pitch that hisses through the air and that most batters, including Charlie, cannot hit.

When Charlie presses Hattie about where he fits into her life, she doesn't have an answer for him. He tells her, "You know I wish the best for you. But I may have to start thinking about what's best for me. I'm sure you can understand that." And so Charlie goes back to Seattle to continue his work with Boeing. Despite her rejection, Charlie continues to support Hattie, offering her encouragement in his correspondence with her.  

In the meantime, Ned Kirk begins to be attentive to Hattie, suggesting that maybe they be together not just as partners at work. However Hattie quickly discovers that Ned has a jealous side: doesn't seem happy when she gets a scoop with the president and treats her like his helper, asking her to get him coffee. Hattie discovers he's rewriting her stories in her piece, Female 49ers.  But it is Marjorie D'Lacorte who provides Hattie with some perspective. As a successful woman reporter, Hattie considers her an icon to be looked up to. However, at dinner, Marjorie tells her, "This is a hard row you're hoeing, Hattie Brooks. I should know. I've been down it myself." When Hattie fails to understand her, Marjorie tells her that she noticed how both Hattie and Charlie were with each other - very happy to see the other. Hattie explains that he is a very good friend but that "...he wanted to make plans for us....And I need to make plans for me." Hattie believes that being a reporter and being married do not work. Marjorie tells her, "If you are looking for someone to emulate, I am not that person." Majorie intimates to Hattie that her life isn't all glamour. She also tells Hattie to  rethink her idea that she can have either a career or marriage.She points out that Hazel Archibald works at the Seattle Times and is married. As a result, Hattie to rethinks her relationship with Charlie, realizing that in him she has a faithful and supportive friend and with some imagination, she can have both the man she truly loves and the career she aspires to. 

It's important in writing historical fiction that the author be able to portray the setting realistically. Larson captured the essence of early 20th century San Francisco very well. The inclusion of postcards from the period help make the story feel realistic and allow the reader to visualize this bustling city. San Francisco has experienced many earthquakes and in this novel Larson does include the earthquake that occurred on September 4, 1919. This was not a major earthquake but it was felt in the San Francisco area. Readers are also given a sense of just how fast society is beginning to change in the early 20th century with Hattie realizing that her skirts are too long, airplanes and cars are the newest fads, and women who were working during the war want to keep their jobs! 

Larson does include a subplot involving Hattie's Uncle Chester, which adds some drama to the novel. Realistically this could have been left out of the story and while younger readers might not suspect Ruth Danvers, adults most certainly will! However, all of the troubles Hattie has experienced, losing the homestead,  and being cheated by Ruth Danvers do not teach Hattie to be less trusting of people as Ruth suggests. Instead, Hattie realizes that opening one's heart to a special person is what is important. And that is what leads her back to Charlie.  

A nice conclusion to the story of Hattie Ines Brooks Hawley!

Book Details:
Hattie Ever After by Kirby Larson
New York: Delacourte Press     2013
230 pp.