A Thousand Sisters by Elizabeth Wein

A Thousand Sisters: The Heroic Airwomen of The Soviet Union in World War II tells the thrilling story of three Soviet regiments, the 586, 587 and 588th each made up of over three hundred young women aviators - a thousand young women who became the first female pilots to fight in a war.

The book is divided into five parts, describing a specific part of the  World War II effort as it pertains to the women aviators.

Part I The Future War sets the stage by providing some of the backstory to how the Soviet Union came to incorporate women aviators in its air force.  The beginning of the 20th century saw women agitating for greater rights and participation in society.In Imperial Russia, women wanted to fight in WWI; one example was Maria Bochkareva who joined a men's battalion and was a fearless soldier. After the revolution, young women and men grew up believing that some day they would have to fight a future war. Therefore, their education and training was geared towards that end and a patriotism for their motherland was instilled in them.

Part II The Great Patriotic War: The First Year: 1941-1942 explains how the womens aviation regiment came about.

Germany invaded Russia on June 22, 1941 along an Eastern front that stretched from the Black Sea in the south all the way to the Baltic Sea in the north. Three million German soldiers raced across Eastern Europe with the people of the Soviet states of Belorussia and Ukraine fleeing before them. In the Soviet Union, young people who had grown up with the belief that there would be a war in their lifetime, rushed to enlist.  While women were pilots and instructors, there was no way for them to enlist in the war effort.

Marina Raskova approached Josef Stalin offering to form a womens air regiment as part of the Soviet air force. Stalin agreed and the Soviet Union became the only nation during World War II that allowed women into air combat roles. Order 0099, issued on October 8, 1941 by the People's Commissariat of Defense called for the creation of "a combat group of female aviators, including commanders, pilots, navigators, mechanics, armorers and ground staff, to be created and led by Marina Raskov."  Women civil pilots as well as pilots from Osoaviakhim were to report to a specific location in Moscow. Hundreds of young women answered the call and were thrown into military drills and ill-fitting men's uniforms almost immediately.

Marina Raskova

But sorting through the recruits was not to happen in Moscow as the Germans were close to capturing the city. Some four hundred young women fled Moscow along with 150,000 civilians when the Germans overran the city. Eventually almost one thousand women answered Raskova's call to form a womens aviation regiment. They were sent to Engels, a town on the Volga River which also was the location of a military flight school. The formal name for Raskova's aviation unit would be the 122nd Composite Air Group.

The one thousand recruits were divided into pilots, navigators, and technicians, disappointing many of the women who wanted to be pilots. There were three regiments, the 586th Bomber Aviation Regiment commanded by Tamara Kazarinova, the 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment commanded by Raskova herself and the 588th Night Bomber Regiment commanded by Yevdokia Bershanskaya.These women would have to learn to fly various aircraft. The 586th flew new single-seat Yak-1s, while the 587 trained in new dive bomber and fighter planes called Petlyakov Pe-2. The 588th Night bombers were to fly noisy Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes. In March of 1942, two of the womens' regiments were ready for action; the 586th was assigned to protect Saratov, an important city on the banks of the Volga River. However, the 588th Night Bombers were sent back for more training in night flying after the deaths of four aviators in crashes during night flights.

In Part III The Great Patriotic War The Second Year: 1942-1943 Wein focuses the various exploits and disasters each of the women's regiments experienced. All three regiments are now flying: the 588th is sent into combat in May of 1942, while the 587th receives the new Pe-2 dive-bombers Marina ordered.

Enthusiasm for war was waning in the Soviet Union in part due to the repressive laws of Stalin. In 1941, Stalin had enacted Order 270 which stated that soldiers who were captured or surrendered were considered traitors. Now in the summer of 1942, Stalin's newest order, 227 "Not One Step Back" made even retreating from battle a crime. This meant POW's could be executed the minute they were freed and those missing in action or for whom there was no certainty they had died in battle would receive no official recognition, nor any compensation.

It was in this climate that the battle for Stalingrad began. Wein follows all three regiments in their assignments especially their contributions to the battle for Stalingrad. She also relates how war was especially difficult for women combatants and how they developed ways to cope with the tremendous stress and the loss of fellow aviators and friends.In January of 1943, the women aviators had to deal with the loss of their founder and mentor, Marina Raskova.

The success of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment in bombing the German troops at night was recognized in their being awarded the special title "Guards" become the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment.

Part IV The Great Patriotic War The Third and Fourth Years: 1943 to 1945. The year 1943 saw war throughout the world. The Battle of the Atlantic between German submarines and British battleships was ongoing. The United States was fighting Japan in the Pacific theatre and the Allies were pushing the Germans out of north Africa and up the Italian peninsula. While the Allies were bombing German cities and industries, the Russians were fighting on the Eastern Front.

Wein describes the continuing efforts of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation in harassing the German troops. However, their great success often came at great cost. On the night of July 31, 1943, the regiment lost four pilots and four navigators. After this tragedy, they devised a plan to help cut their losses during night bombing runs through the use of diversionary tactics. Eventually the 46th Guards came to be called the "night witches" by the German soldiers for their relentless bombings and the sounds their aircraft made flying low over the troops.

Lydia Litvyak who never returned from her Aug 1, 1943 mission.

The stress of battle was not dismissed so easily by the women aviators, most of whom experienced extreme physical stress and terror during their missions. They were so successful that they were renamed the 46th Taman Guards for helping to liberate Crimea from the Germans. Meanwhile the 587th was renamed the 125th M.M. Raskova Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment after their significant contributions to the Battle of Kursk.

On June 6, 1944, the Allied invasion of Normandy resulting in the opening of the second front so long desired by Stalin and the Soviet Union. The three women's aviation regiments continued their battles. The 125th was renamed again as the 125th M. M. Raskova Borisov Guards after a town in Belorussian they had liberated from the Germans.

Part IV focuses on the remaining missions and the horrors of war the women aviators encountered as the Soviets raced to capture Berlin ahead of the Allies and end the war.

Part V After The War presents the personal toll the women pilots experienced after having been engaged in combat for one thousand nights along with the statistics for each of the three women's regiments. In the post-War period, although the Soviet Union helped the surviving women soldiers, they weren't allowed to talk about their experiences, nor to continue their military service in the air force. It wasn't until after Stalin's death in 1953 that the memoirs of the female aviators began to be published, beginning in 1957.

Today in modern Russia, women pilots have returned to the military, and the survivors of the World War II womens' regiments still meet regularly, although many are very elderly. These women flew on the winds of change, helping their country win a war that cost their country more lives than any other. The bravery and sacrifice of these thousand sisters lives on eternally.

Discussion

A Thousand Sisters is a comprehensive account of the Soviet women's regiments that fought from 1943 until the end of WWII to save their country from Nazi Germany. It's evident from the detail and the enormous Source Notes at the back of the book, that Wein undertook considerable research about a topic that is dear to her. While this book has been marketed for teens, it's more likely to interest older World War II history enthusiasts especially those interested in Russian and aviation history.

From the very beginning Wein uses the analogy of how a pilot must be attentive to the wind when flying to explain how several factors came together resulting in the Soviet Union utilizing women pilots in World War II both in support and combat roles.
"Navigating your way through life is like flying a small plane in a windy sky. To say that the wind is blowing with you or against you is too simple. Sometimes you need the wind behind you to speed things up; sometimes you need to head directly into the wind to help you take off."

Wein observes that people are often shaped by the politics and events and the world around them and Marina Raskova was no exception. "Your future will depend on how you decide to adjust to the winds of change around you." The impetus behind the use of women pilots by the Soviets was a young pilot herself, Marina Raskova who had survived the upheavals brought about by the Russian revolution and who utilized the events happening around her to her advantage.

Later on Wein notes that the huge death toll that included people like Lilya Litvyak and Marina Raskova was the result of being "caught in a wind too strong for them."  At the end of her book, Wein encourages her readers to be the wind of change. "If there is one thing to be learned from the thousand sisters of Raskova's regiments, it is that change is possible. It can begin with one person. Go out and change the wind."

The telling of the story of the thousand sisters - the three women's regiments - also makes reference to the issues of gender and sexuality. In the chapter "Life is life" Wein discusses some of the difficulties being a woman presented in the Soviet air force. The young women aviators had to cope with uniforms and boots that didn't fit. They had to wear mens underwear which didn't fit and was uncomfortable. In the latter situation, the women would attempt to obtain German parachute silk to make their own panties, but if they were caught, the consequences were serious.

Wein makes the point that "War is gendered, and it is not feminine. No matter how valiantly a woman proves herself in battle, her experience of war will always differ from a man's experience, because she is a woman. Dressing in men's clothes and using the same equipment as men does not turn a woman into a man." The latter point seems to be but lost today.

To cope Wein states that "the women made strong statements about their womanhood."  They made themselves slippers and devised curling irons to do their hair. they put flowers in their planes, did needlework and made pillows out of their footcloths. They wrote poetry, produced newsletters and literary magazines and had talent shows. These feminine creative outlets were important to them. And in Marina Raskova they had the "model of perfection as a soldier, a woman, and a mother." The women aviators hoped someday when the war was over and they were victorious, they would marry and have children and a peaceful family life.

Unfortunately, Wein strays into the area of sexual orientation when she wonders if there were lesbian relationships between the women aviators, if the closes friendships that formed were more than just that. Viewing history through the filters of today's pervasive current climate of gender identity and sexual orientation is a disservice to those who lived through these difficult times. In life and death situations, it is likely that forming close emotional bonds was an important and healthy way to counter the fact that these women pilots faced the stress of a gruesome death at any time. The entire discussion seems moot since Wein concludes, "Regardless of their sexuality, most of them liked to remind themselves that, yes, they still identified as women."

Wein points out the significant loss the Soviet Union suffered because of the war. It is possible that the casualties were as high as forty-five million. But as Wein states, "Whatever the final numbers may be, they are just numbers. Who can measure the loss to the world of a person as complex and energetic as Zhenya Rudneva at the age of twenty-two? Or as driven and charismatic as twenty-one-year-old Lilya Litvyak?" As in any war, the loss of the young, with all their promise is the greatest tragedy.

Overall, A Thousands Sisters is a remarkable book about a remarkable group of young women who were determined to save their country. Wein captures their incredible determination, courage, resiliency and patriotism.Included is a map of Eastern Europe so readers can place the locations of various events as well as many black and white photographs of these amazing women.

Image Credits:https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/gallery/might-night-witches-stunning-colour-10827354

Book Details:  

 A Thousand Sisters. The Heroic Airwomen Of The Soviet Union In World War II by Elizabeth (Wein) Gatland
New York: Balzer & Bray     2019
388pp.

Dorothea's Eyes by Barb Rosenstock

Dorothea Lange was an American documentary photographer, famous for her Depression-era photographs of migrant and displaced farmers.Dorothea was born in May 1895 in Hoboken, New Jersey to Heinrich Nutzhorn and Johanna Lange. She had a brother, Martin. When she was seven years old, Dorothea contracted poliomyelitis which damaged her right leg, leaving it weakened and shorter. This disability was to affect her profoundly for the rest of her life. It also made Dorothea more empathetic to the suffering of others.

Dorothea's father abandoned the family when she was twelve. Later on Dorothea dropped her father's surname of Nutzhorn and adopted her mother's surname of Lange.

She graduated from Wadleigh High School For Girls. In 1913, Dorothea began attending the New York Training School For Teachers but she was more interested in becoming a photographer. So she studied photography at Columbia University and undertook apprenticeships at several New York Studios. In 1917, Dorothea was able to take a class with Charles White at Columbia.

In January 1918, Dorothea and a friend, Florence Ahlstrom decided to undertake a trip around the world. Their journey which began by train, ended quickly in San Francisco when their money was stolen. Dorothea settled in San Francisco, working in a photography studio, meeting other members of the art community in the city and eventually opening up her own portrait studio. In 1920, she married Maynard Dixon, the renowned western painter.

With the onset of the Great Depression and the soup kitchens, employments lines and migrant workers, Dorothea changed her focus from portraiture to the people suffering from the economic crisis. Her photograph of a man looking away from a crowd in a soup kitchen captured the attention of the Federal Government and she was hired by the Farm Security Administration to document the situation of migrant workers, destitute farm families and sharecroppers. It was her picture titled Migrant Mother as well as many others of this era that launched her career as a photographer.

Discussion
Dorothea's Eyes captures Dorothea's story from her point of view focusing on her remarkable ability to see what others miss. Rosenstock suggests this ability was the result of Dorothea's illness as a child which left her with a damaged leg and made her want to hide. She preferred to be invisible, offering her the opportunity to view life in a way not possible for most people. She felt she really "saw" the world as it is.

Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange

Rosenstock describes Dorothea as watchful, curious describing this ability as seeing with her eyes and her heart. As a person who was ignored in her childhood because of her disability, Dorothea felt a strong empathy for the poor of the Depression Era, people whose struggles were being ignored by society. Her photographs opened the eyes of Americans to the suffering of the poor, the misplaced farmers and the unemployed. Dorothea's photographs humanized these people. In some cases, her photographs helped bring relief in the form of food to people who were starving. Although Rosenstock doesn't mention this in her picture book story, Dorothea went on to capture the internment of Japanese Americans in special camps, a practice that was undertaken during World War II simply because of their Asian heritage. Her photographs were confiscated by the American Army and were not seen for decades, even by Dorothea herself.

Accompanying Rosenstock's text are the illustrations by award-winning illustrator, Gerard Dubois, who created them using acrylic on paper and as well as digitally. The author includes a time line of Dorothea Lange's life, some of her remarkable photographs, a short note about her, a Selected Bibliography, Sources for Quotations and suggestions For Further Reading.

You can read more about the story of the Migrant Mother here.

Book Details:

Dorothea's Eyes by Barb Rosenstock
Honesdale, Pennsylvania: Calkins Creek         2016

image credit: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/stories/articles/2014/4/14/migrant-mother-dorothea-lange/

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Brown Girl Dreaming is the story of Jacqueline Woodson's life growing up as an African American in America during the 1960s and 1970s. Woodson is an award-winning American author who has written many children's books.

In Part I "I am born", Woodson writes about her family history, on her father and mother's side. To aid her readers, Woodson provides family trees of her father Jack Woodson's family and her mother, Mary Ann Irby's family.

Woodson was born February 12, 1963 in Columbus, Ohio, into a nation in which the black civil rights movement was blossoming. The 1960s was a time of great change and agitation in the United States. The civil rights movement and the anti-war movement were just beginning to gain traction in 1963.

Her great-great-grandparents were slaves working the land. Although her parents, Jack and Mary were born free, in many ways they still did not have the freedoms that most white American's take for granted. And so, throughout America, African-Americans from all walks of life, led by Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X and Rosa Parks are standing up for their civil rights, each in their own way.

Woodson writes that her father's family can be traced back to Thomas Woodson of Chillicothe, who was the first son of Thomas Jefferson and his black slave, Sally Hemings. Her paternal great-great-grandfather, William J. Woodson, born free in Ohio, fought in the Civil War for the Union. His son, William Woodson was sent to Nelsonville, Ohio to be educated in an all-white school. In a family of doctors and lawyers, Woodson's father Jack, earned a football scholarship to Ohio State University and settled in Columbus Ohio.

After her parents married, three children followed: a boy named Hope, a girl named Odella and then Jacqueline. Every year in the fall, Woodson's mother along with her children take the bus south to Woodson's mother's parents in South Carolina, leaving behind her father in Ohio Her father is determined to never return to the south because of the way African Americans are treated there. But in May of 1964, her father travels to South Carolina to reconcile with her mother and together the family return to Ohio. However, when Woodson is a year old, her mother decides to South Carolina for good, taking the children with her and leaving Woodson's father behind.

Part II "The stories of South Carolina run like rivers" focuses on Woodson's life in South Carolina at the home of her maternal grandparents, Gunnar and Georgiana Irby. Her grandfather Gunnar becomes "Daddy" to the three Woodson children,. He works as a foreman at a printing press while her grandmother teaches part-time and does what is called daywork which is cleaning the homes of white folk. In South Carolina, life is full of stories. Woodson with her sister Dell and her brother Hope sit on the porch stairs in the evening, listening to the women tell stories about relatives, the people in the daywork houses and neighbours. There is also her grandfather's garden, the smell of wood burning in the pot-bellied stove in autumn and fire flies in mason jars.

Woodson's mother leaves for New York City but returns before the summer with a plan to eventually move her family there. Woodson and her siblings find themselves pulled into their grandmother's faith as a Jehovah Witness, attending meetings at the local Kingdom Hall and going out to neighbours to share their faith. Woodson's mother returns to New York City but the following year she is back in Greenville, bringing a new baby brother, Roman. They move to New York City to start a new life.

Part III "Followed the sky's mirrored constellation to Freedom" describes Woodson's move to New York city. Woodson along with her mother, brother Hope and sister Odella and the new baby Roman, move to Herzl Street where her Aunt Kay and Bernie live. They then move to a house on Madison Avenue. For Woodson, New York is much different and she missed
"the collards growing
down south, the melons, fresh picked
and dripping with a sweetness New York
can never know."
But Woodson loves her school with its warm wood trim but life in New York takes some getting used to. Tragedy strikes when her half-brother Roman eats paint off the walls and becomes sick from lead poisoning. When the family returns to Greenville for the summer, Roman has to stay behind in the hospital to recover.

Part IV "Deep in my heart, I do believe" is a collection of poems about Woodson's life in New York City. By this time, Woodson is beginning to adjust to life in the big city. She has a good friend, Maria with whom she shares her lunches. She is considered family by Maria who invites her to her brother Carlos' baptism. Her beloved Uncle Robert is sent to jail on Rikers Island. It is during this time that Woodson begins to write - small poems which she finds are easier to express herself . 

Part V "Ready to change the world" touches on the tumultuous times of the late 1960s and Woodson's experiences in school during this era. She found her calling gradually, her voice, and her place as a writer.

Discussion

Brown Girl Dreaming is about a young African American girl's journey to finding her place in a  changing America. Woodson takes young readers through her own journey by first setting the stage of the America her family came from; black Americans, one side freeborn, the other side only two generations from slavery. The Civil War victory for the Union was supposed to given African Americans their freedom but in the south things have been slow to change. It is this situation that seems to divide Woodson's parents. Her mother's love of Nicholtown in Greenville, South Carolina draws her back to the south. Her father on the other hand, is determined to leave the south,

 "You can keep your South,...
The way they treated us down there,
I got your mama out as quick as I could.
Brought her right up here to Ohio."

Woodson describes growing up in a loving family, her early years wrapped in the love of her beloved grandfather Gunnar and her grandmother.  As her mother moves her family from Greenville to various locations in New York City, Woodson is shaped by the events happening throughout the nation; the marchers in the south, Angela Davis and the Black Panther movement in California, and the Vietnam War.

Jacqueline Woodson gradually discovers that words hold a special meaning for her and that she wants to be a writer. Her storytelling begins with her own stories that she tells, which her Uncle Robert enjoys and encourages, but which her mother accuses her of lying, warning her that she will one day steal.
"I won't steal.
It's hard to understand how one leads to the other,
how stories could ever
make us criminals."

Storytelling is easier at first for Woodson as she explains in the poem, "writing #1"
"It's easier to make up stories
than it is to write them down. When I speak,
the words come pouring out of me. The story
wakes up and walks all over the room...."

In the poem "birch tree poem" Woodson captures what poetry and words mean to her, how poems open her imagination in a way that brings tears to her eyes. When she tells her family that she wants to be a writer, they acknowledge her love of writing and its benefits as a hobby, but suggest she should consider something else...a teacher, a lawyer.

When Woodson's quiet, older brother Hope shocks everyone including his family with his wonderful voice at a school concert, she wonders,
"Maybe, I am thinking, there is something hidden
like this, in all of us. A small gift from the universe
waiting to be discovered."

Woodson love of stories is shown when she memorizes the story of the Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde and recites it to her classmates, enthralling them,
"But I just shrug, not knowing what to say.
How can I explain to anyone that stories
are like air to me,
I breathe them in and let them out
over and over again."
After this she knows that "Words are my brilliance."

After this she writes a book of poems about butterflies, and another time whispers a song she thinks up on the bus to Dannemora to visit her Uncle Robert. Her sister believes it's "too good" to have been thought up by Jacqueline. But she's now beginning to find where she belongs, what her "small gift" might be.

Brown Girl Dreaming is about finding your own niche, learning to accept yourself and finding that hidden "small gift" that everyone has. It's about believing in yourself and having the courage to follow where your "small gift" might lead you! For Woodson, words are her gift, everlasting,

"...on paper, things can live forever 
On paper, a butterfly
never dies."

Well-written, Brown Girl Dreaming captures the essence of coming of age as an African-American in America during the 1960s and 70s.

Book Details:

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
New York: Puffin Books     2016
348 pp.

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind is a picture book about teen inventor, William Kamkwamba whose determination to help his starving family made a huge difference to his village in Africa.

William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi on August 5, 1987. He lived near the village of Wimbe with his parents and six sisters. William was curious about how things worked and dreamed about taking apart things and figuring out how they worked.

William worked in the fields with his family. His father was a farmer who grew maize. Then one year the rains did not come and drought spread across Malawi. People began to starve, including William's family.  His father rationed their food with the family eating only one meal per day. Without crops, Williams family began to run out of money and he was no longer able to attend school. This upset William because he enjoyed learning.

Then he remembered the library that had been started by the Americans. William began visiting the library and reading books about science. These books explained to him how engines worked. Because he could not read English, William had to use a dictionary to read the books. It was a picture of a windmill which was described as a means to produce electricity and pump water that intrigued William the most. He knew immediately that he wanted to build a windmill for his family's farm so they could have electricity to light their homes at night and pump water from the ground for his father's crops.

William set out to build a windmill, searching for the materials he needed at a local junk yard. His determination and efforts, which were successful, would change not only his family's life, but his own and that of his village forever.

Discussion

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind is a picture book that tells the basic story of William Kamkwamba's life and his astonishing feat of building a windmill for his father's farm. His story is so remarkable that readers will also want to learn more in by reading the adult version of his autobiography with the same title.

In the adult version, William writes that before he discovered science, the belief in magic dominated the world he lived in. William's parents started out their married life in Dowa, a small town southeast of Masitala. In Dowa his father Trywell worked as a traveling trader. When William was a year old, his Uncle John came to Dowa to convince his father to move to his village of Misitala to farm. He felt his brother could make more money and better support his family. Trywell agreed and the family moved to the village, first living in a one room house near Uncle John. Eventually, William's uncle gave the family a one acre plot to grow tobacco to sell and maize and vegetables to eat.

William's father and his Uncle John built up a good business farming tobacco as well as operating maize mills in nearby villages. When John tied from tuberculosis, the business was taken over by his son Jeremiah. However, poor management resulted in the business collapsing, meaning William's family was on its own.

When William was thirteen, he and his friend Geoffrey began taking apart radios to learn how they worked. At this time William's father was farming mostly maize, a food eaten at every meal in Malawi, in the form of a porridge calls nsima. William stresses that maize was the most important fod staple in Malawi. Anything that might interfere with the production of maize in the country would be catastrophic.

In December of 2000, the rains were late and then too heavy, causing serious flooding. This was followed by drought, resulting in very small yields of maize. William's father's farm yielded only five sacks of maize. It was during this time that a friend of his father visited their farm, riding a bicycle with a lamp powered by a dynamo. William was determined to understand how it worked. His experiments with the bike soon helped him to learn about electricity. In Malawi, only two percent of the population had electricity meaning that life and work stopped when it became dark. Eventually William would return to the idea of electricity and how it might help his family.

Famine, cholera and malaria followed the drought in 2001 in which William's family and his country starved. The descriptions of how the famine affected William and his family are distressing and heartbreaking. William also explains how the drought was enhanced by the deforestation of Malawi due to the tobacco farms. Because of the crop failure William had been unable to return to school. When the country recovered, he never returned. At first he tried to occupy his mind playing chess and bawo but this didn't work. He remembered that the Malawi Teacher Training Activity had opened a small library in Wimbe Primary School, stocked with books donated by the American government. William began taking out books from the library and borrowing the notes of his friend, Gilbert who was attending school. With the help of a teacher Mrs. Edith Sikelo from Wimbe Primary School who was also the librarian, William began to understand many basic concepts in physics such as magnetism, electromagnetic induction.

William writes in his adult version of his autobiography, "I can't tell you how exciting I though this was. Even if the words sometimes confused me, the concepts that were illustrated in the drawing were clear and real in my mind." It is important to remember that these books were written in English and that William had to use an English-Chichewa dictionary. But it was an American textbook, Using Energy that was to change William's life forever. It was pictures of windmills and the explanation of how energy can be converted from one form to another that made William realize a windmill was what his father's farm needed to generate electricity.

William's remarkable story, well told in the simple and less detailed picture book version captures all of the tenacity, ingenuity, determination and intelligence William exhibited to overcome many obstacles. The story is also well told  by the oil paint and cut paper artwork of illustrator Elizabeth Zunon, a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design. This picture book lends itself well to homeschoolers and students wishing to study about sustainable development in the developing world, the role of education in Africa and the power of libraries. Older readers who wish to learn more about the backstory to William's success are encouraged to read his autobiography by the same title.It too is well written and well worth reading.

You can learn more about William at his website, www.williamkamkwamba.com


Book Details:

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
New York: Dial Books For Young Readers         2012

Rescue and Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship by Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes

Rescue and Jessica is based on the true events. Jessica Krensky and her husband Patrick Downes had just settled in near the finish line to watch the Boston Marathon. It was a rare day off for the two medical professionals who were about to relocate across the country to San Francisco. But on April 15, 2013, their lives were changed forever when two Islamic terrorists detonated bombs at the marathon. killing three people, injuring hundreds.

At least fourteen people required amputations, with some having traumatic amputations as a result of the explosions. Jessica and her husband were two of those who suffered amputations. Patrick lost his left leg as did Jessica, who also eventually had to have her right leg amputated. They spent three years at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center undergoing treatment for their catastrophic injuries.

Jessica and Patrick's recovery was aided by a special dog, Rescue who was trained by NEADS (National Education for Assistance Dog Services). Rescue was named for a firefighter, Jon Davies who rode in a truck, Rescue 1.

Jessica and Rescue's story is portrayed in a way that focuses on their relationship rather than on the events leading up to her needing a service dog. The story first focuses on Rescue who finds that he doesn't make a good guide dog. Instead, he is trained to be a service dog which he does very well. Meanwhile Jessica is a girl who has a leg amputated. The reason for the loss of her leg is never specified. The amputation changes Jessica's life drastically. When she meets a friend who brings her own service dog, Jessica knows this is what she needs and soon she's paired with Rescue. Eventually Jessica must have her other leg amputated. This makes Rescue even more vital to her recovery. The two of them learn to work together and soon Jessica's is able to feel happier and to function much better with Rescue's help.

Discussion

Jessica and Rescue is a celebration, in picture book format, of triumph over adversity. The struggles of the young girl Jessica in the story, mirrors Kensky and Downes's efforts to regain their ability to function and recover their lives after the tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombing. As with Kensky and Downes, the service dog in the story helps the young girl Jessica to adjust to the new reality of life as an amputee. Younger readers are invited to consider how life might change as a result of losing a limb to an accident or illness.

Scott Magoon's digitally created illustrations portray these challenges in a realistic way that blends with the authors' simple, straightforward text.

The interesting backstory behind the book's creation, the themes of grit, fortitude, perseverence, and empathy as well as the relationship between a girl and her beloved service dog, make Jessica and Rescue an appealing picture book.

Book Details:

Rescue and Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship by Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes
Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press     2018

Girls On The Line by Jennie Liu

Set in Gujiao, China in 2009, Girls On The Line is a novel about life in China during the One-Child Policy and its implications for women, children, families and society in general. It is told through the voices of two young women, Cao Luli and Fu Yun.

The story begins with Luli arriving at the factory complex of Gujiano Technologies Limited, to meet her friend Yun. Luli has just turned sixteen and has aged out of The Institute, an orphanage she has been living at since the age of eight when her grandpa became too sick to care for her. 

Yun also from the same orphanage, had been left on the street as a baby. With a heart defect and four black marks on her face which were considered marks of bad luck she was never put up for adoption. Yun left the orphanage last year and has been working in a factory. Luli had been offered a position at the orphanage, but when Yun wrote offering to help her get work in a factory she decided to turn it down. Now she finds herself alone, outside the factory waiting for her friend.

Luli meets Yun who takes her back to her room in Dorm Number 6, telling her she can share her bunk until she gets her own. Accompanied by Yun's roommates, Hong and Zhenzhen, Luli and Yun go to a restaurant for noodles and pork. However, during their meal Yun gets a phone call and leaves Luli with her friends so that she can meet her boyfriend Liang Yong.

Yun met Yong through her old boyfriend Chen Ming whose father is the foreman for Yun's unit at the factory. Ming was angry when Yun left him for Yong, telling her that Yong is a bride trafficker. But Yun doesn't believe Ming, thinking he is jealous. When she questioned Yong, he told her that he works for a marriage broker, delivering brides to their prospective husbands. This satisfies Yun enough that she willingly goes with him now. They leave Luli, with Yun riding on the back of Yong motorbike. They go back to Yong's apartment where they make love.

In the morning, Zhenzhen takes Luli to see Ming about a job. Luli works on a line "...twisting the plastic-coated wires around the USB cords, then slipping them into tiny plastic bags." Three months pass, endless days with Luli working and saving her money. She doesn't see Yun much as Luli is in a different dorm and after work Yun leaves to see Yong. One day at lunch, Ming reveals to Luli that Yong is a kidnapper. "He is a kidnapper.  Or he helps one. They kidnap girls and women and sell them to men out in the countryside." Luli defends Yong telling Ming that she has been told that he helps drive brides to their new home. She believes that Yun is safe, despite Ming telling her it doesn't mean he doesn't traffick other women.

After lunch, Yun arrives for work, late once again. She's confronted by Foreman Chen who lectures her about being late and then fires her. Luli is shocked for her friend, wondering what she will do. After work, Luli encounters Yun just outside the gates and agrees to accompany her friend to the health clinic. Yun shocks Luli by revealing that she needs a pregnancy test.

At the Modern Women's Health Clinic the ultrasound reveals that Yun is definitely pregnant.The doctor tells Yun and Luli that Yun will have to pay the social compensation fee for having an unauthorized pregnancy in order to get a birth permit and be able to give birth in a hospital. She also won't be able to obtain the baby's hukou - the government registration making the baby an official person able to attend school and get a job.

After several more tests Yun is given the choice of a medical abortion (taking two pills) or surgical abortion which is a vacuum suction under anesthesia. Yun leaves the clinic distraught and undecided but determined to find Yong and tell him. Luli wants Yun to marry Yong and keep the baby. However, Yun remembering her time at the orphanage carrying for babies, doesn't want this. Instead, Yun tells Luli that she will borrow the money from Yong and return to the clinic for the abortion. Luli tries to persuade her friend by telling her what Ming said about Yong being a bride trafficker. Yun runs out of the restaurant, furious but also filled with doubt.

She spends the night outside Yong's apartment where she meets a detective, who is also looking for Yong. He tells her that Yong kidnaps young women and takes them the countryside where they are forced to marry men. The detective is surprised that Yun herself has not been trafficked. Terrified, Yun takes the detective's card and leaves. She has nowhere to go and not enough money for the abortion. Luli can't help her. Her only hope is to find Yong and hope he will pay for the abortion. But will he give her the money? Is he really a bride trafficker? What will she decide to do with her baby?


Discussion

Girls On The Line tackles issues surrounding China's draconian one-child policy including the many social and human rights issues surrounding this policy.

In 1979 China's Communist party under Deng Xiaoping implemented its infamous one-child policy. At this time it was felt that China's huge population, with its anticipated growth, would be a drawback to the country's economic development. The belief at the time was that China would need to reign in its population growth in order to improve the quality of life for its citizens and so a one child policy was implemented. This policy raised the age of marriage to twenty for women and twenty-two for men, it restricted families to one child, although later on this was loosened somewhat to allow a couple to have a second child if the first born was a girl in rural areas. Birth control was promoted and abortion was made easily available.

During this time, Western countries saw China as a huge economic opportunity and were willing to undertake new business ventures in the country which was slowly opening up to foreign investment. In 1979, Stephen Mosher, a Stanford University social scientist received permission to conduct anthropological research in the Guizhou Province. While in China  Mosher traveled to various villages and uncovered the horrific reality of China's one-child policy: forced abortions, harassment of mothers and their families, even torture and jail. Mosher reported Chinese family planning officials ordered forced abortions of full term babies, while unauthorized pregnancies - even first pregnancies were forcibly aborted. Babies being born without the necessary licence were given a poison injection in the head as they were being born, resulting in death up to 48 hours later. Family members of mothers who refused to abort were harassed and threatened, the fathers beaten and imprisoned. Pregnant women refusing abortion were sent to re-education classes and faced continuous pressure until they relented. If the mother went into hiding to have her baby, family members and relatives were harassed and jailed and many had their homes destroyed by zealous family planning officials. Entire villages and factories were punished if a woman pregnant outside the law went into hiding.

China's one-child policy is believed to have resulted in 335 million abortions and prevented over 400 million births. The one-child policy however has resulted in many serious problems for China. It has not produced the economic windfall the Chinese government forecast and in fact may have serious economic consequences for the country. China's working age population began shrinking in 2013 and will continue this trend for many years. Accompanying the decrease in working adults is an increase in workers reaching retirement age. By 2035, thirty-two percent of China's population will consist of retirement aged people with only 2.4 workers to support each retiree. This is not an sustainable economic model.

Decades of promoting one child families has changed how Chinese couples and Chinese society in general view children. Couples no longer wish to have a second or third child, believing that economically they can only provide for one child. They see children as a financial burden. Not only do they not want more than one child, they also prefer that only child to be a boy. This is because the male child traditionally is the one who is responsible for caring for elderly parents, while a daughter is expected to leave her family to be with her husband's family. As a result, sex selection abortion in which girl babies are aborted, has resulted in a skewed sex ration of 114 boys for every 100 girls as of 2017. This skewed sex ratio has had a profound effect socially, resulting in men not able to find wives and in bride trafficking.

In Girls On The Line Lui touches on several of these issues. Her friend, Yun falls pregnant outside of the law; she is too young to be married and doesn't have a birth permit, meaning that she is not allowed to carry the child to term and give birth. In the story though,Yun seems to slip through the cracks, not returning to the health clinic, hiding in the factory dorm, disappearing into Yong's rural village and then returning to the factory dorm where she gives birth. Luli naively believes that Yun can have her baby - an option she very much favours.

However, it's unlikely that Yun would have been so lucky in real life. Some women were able to hide their unplanned pregnancies and give birth to their babies, but in most instances, family planning officials caught up with these women and they were forcibly aborted even as they were preparing to give birth.  It's unlikely Yun would have so easily escaped the notice of family planning officials who often had quotas and kept strict track of women of child bearing age in their areas. The immense challenges Yun encountered - lack of family, lack of money, and lack of maternal health care - do demonstrate just how difficult Yun's situation would be in a society where the birth of babies is so strictly regulated and where illegal births are so brutally punished. The birth of a baby outside the law meant a heavy fine that would take years to pay in addition to money needed for the child's hukou. Reader's can't help but feel deep sympathy for Yun's situation.

Both Luli and Yun are orphans but Luli has a distant memory of living in a family and being cared for while Yun has never known family. It becomes obvious that there is something deeply wrong with Yun, that she is broken, a fact she herself recognizes. She is unable to bond with her baby, Chun and shows little interest in her. Her years of caring for babies at The Institute have made her dislike children immensely and she has no concept of caring for another person. "...The babies and little ones, dull and silent most of the time, suddenly wailing around the mealtimes. I remember Luli picking them up sometimes and cuddling them. The first time I saw her do it, I was so puzzled that I asked her what she was doing. She looked at me strangely and simply said, 'Holding her.' "

It is Luli, who understands what belonging to a family means, and who knows the grim reality of the orphanage where the children receive almost no love, who saves Chun. Luli tries to convince Yun that having a family is a good thing. But Yun feels so trapped and burdened by her circumstances, and is so emotionally stunted because of her experience in the orphanage, that she is prepared to help Yong traffick their daughter. The trafficking of babies is another outcome of China's one child policy with many families "purchasing" a girl baby who will eventually become the wife for their son.

Eventually Luli comes to realize the truth about her friend, that Yun is selfish and self-centered. While thinking about Chun who she believes has been trafficked, Luli thinks, "Yun chose to do this. For money even though I promised to help her pay off the birth fines. For convenience, even though Ma and I would've happily shared the burden of caring for Chun. Yun's world starts and end with Yun...." It is Yong's Ma who tells Yun what she needs to hear, " 'Just because you were an orphan, you think you can live only for yourself. Hurling forward! Just doing what you want all the time!....But what you don't know is that what you want is right here.' She gestures with her hand at all of us. 'People. Family."

Although Yun doesn't quite respond as Luli might want, she does see her friend making an effort to care for her daughter. There is hope for the future.

Due to the mature  content, this novel is recommended for older teens. Girls On The Line offers readers the opportunity to consider how social policies can have unintended consequences both on an individual and national level. The novel offers the chance for readers to explore further China's one-child policy, its drastic effects on family, women's physical and mental health, the effects socially and culturally as well as economically. It also encourages teens to ask questions such as Does a government ever have the right to tell a couple how many children they can have? Have other countries ever had laws regulating who could have children?  What cultural influences did Chinese authorities not take into account when they implemented their one-child policy?

Book Details:

Girls On The Line by Jennie Liu
Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Lab       2018
pp. 224

Black Panther: The Young Prince by Ronald L. Smith

Black Panther: The Young Prince introduces younger readers to the backstory of T'Challa,  prince,future ruler of Wakanda, and the future Black Panther.

The novel opens with T'Challa racing against his best friend M'Baku in the forest surrounding the city. Their friendly competition is interrupted when they come across a man in a military uniform slumped against a tree. Four women with tribal markings, the Dora Mijae who are the king's private bodyguards suddenly appear. One of the guards  indicates that both T'Challa and M'Baku have been summoned to appear before the king, T'Chaka, king of Wakanda and the Black Panther. They meet the king in the Royal Palace, where T'Chaka is seated on the Panther Throne. Accompanying the king is M'Baku's father, N'Gamo who is a member of the king's war council.

The king and N'Gamo tell the two boys that there are unknown invaders on Wakanda's borders. Suspecting there might be war, T'Chaka has decided to send T'Challa away to keep him safe. The king has decided to send T'Challa to Chicago, accompanied by M'Baku. Both boys will attend South Side Middle School, posing as exchange students from Kenya. They will live at the African Embassy of Nations. M'Baku is excited at the prospect of living in America, believing they will have the freedom to do whatever they want. T'Challa however is concerned, believing he should stay in Wakanda to help his father. His conflicted feelings about leaving are deepended when his older stepbrother, Hunter berates T'Challa for leaving. Hunter accuses T'Challa of "running off to hide in America." Their strained relationship results in the two brothers fighting during the celebration prior to T'Challa leaving.

Just before he leaves for America, the king tells T'Challa that he believes the threat is from a scientist, Ulysses Klaw who has wanted to steal Wakanda's Vibranium. The next day T'Challa and M'Baku are flown by the king's private jet to Chicago. J'Aka, one of the king's top advisers accompanies the two boys to America, leaving them at the African Embassy of Nations. Left to fend for themselves, T'Challa and M'Baku find their way to their school, register and settle in to take classes.They soon make two new friends, Zeke and Sheila who will turn out to be especially good and faithful friends. T'Challa and M'Baku are harassed by Gemini Jones and his friends DeShawn and Bicep. Zeke tells the two boys that Gemini is a warlock or a witch and that most people are afraid of him. .However, M'Baku is restless but when he proves to be a natural at basketball he joins the team and becomes friends with Gemini and his friends. Soon T'Challa finds his best friend has traded his friendship, responsibilities and duties for his desire for respect. Little does M'Baku realize, he's leading T'Challa into his first test as the future Black Panther.

Discussion 

Black Panther: The Young Prince is loosely based on the Marvel Comic's superhero created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Black Panther is an African superhero from the mythical African nation of Wakanda. Long ago a meteorite comprised of the fictional vibration/energy-absorbing mineral crashed into Wakanda. When it was discovered and its unique properties realized, the Wakandans named it Vibranium. In the novel T'Challa indicates that the Wakanda warriors made weapons from the strange mineral. However, radiation from the meteor site turned several Wakandans into demon spirits. To overcome them, the warrior Bashenga entreated the Panther God, Bast to help and became the first Black Panther.

As previous Wakandan kings had done, T'Challa's father, the current Black Panther and king of Wakanda - T'Chaka has continued to conceal Wakanda from the outside world. The mineral Vibranium has transformed the country into a technologically advanced civilization and the Black Panther kings believed its discovery would result in misuse of the mineral as well as exploitation of their kingdom. 
T'Challa, heir to the Black Panther throne has been raised by his father as his mother, N'Yami had died in childbirth. This Black Panther story, written for younger readers takes up T'Challa's story as a boy coming of age.

At first it seems that T'Challa and M'Baku will have an uneventful experience as students at a middle school in Chicago until they find themselves drawn into a group with sinister designs through the use of black magic. While T'Challa stays true to himself,  it is M'Baku whose rebellion puts the future Black Panther at risk. M'Baku's jealousy over his friend's status as prince of Wakanda, and his desire to be respected like T'Challa,  leads him to disobey the king's command not to bring attention to themselves. He turns against his training and his responsibilities, falling in with the school bully Gemini who happens to be a good basketball player. M'Baku makes the basketball team and is eventually drawn further into Gemini's circle of friends and then into his family. He abandons T'Challa, moving in with Gemini's family. The ultimate betrayal comes when he steals the Vibranium ring that T'Chaka gave T'Challa.

However, T'Challa shows himself to be obedient, resourceful, intelligent, and a good judge of character. In contrast to M'Baku who is swayed by Gemini's words, T'Challa lives out his father's wisdom, "Many men will try to battle you with words, T'Challa, but words cannot sway a man from his duty" . Although he disobeys his father's command to keep his identity a secret, T'Challa does so reluctantly and only because he believes both Zeke and Sheila can be trusted. He also only uses the Vibranium suit in what he considers to be a dire emergency.

There are plenty of holes in this novelization of the Black Panther; for example it is unlikely that two young boys so vital to their country's leadership would be sent to America by themselves without a guardian. In another example, T'Challa and M'Baku arrive at their school where the school administration has no idea of their names and simply accept them without any identification. Yet another plot hole revolves around T'Challa's father giving his son a ring made of Vibranium, a metal with such amazing properties that Wakanda has hidden itself from the outside world so as to protect it's discovery. And yet a young boy is given this valuable metal as jewelry which might be easily lost or stolen.  However, overall, the story of the young boy whose future is that of a superhero is well written and exciting, with a satisfying ending that sees T'Challa and M'Baku return safely to Wakanda, more experienced in the ways of the outside world.

Parents should be aware that there is some black magic in the novel and a frightening description of T'Challa's encounter with a demon.

Book Details:

Black Panther: The Young Prince by Ronald L. Smith
Los Angeles: Marvel Press     2018
264 pp

The Golden Bull by Marjorie Cowley

The Golden Bull is a middle-school historical fiction novel set in Mesopotamia in 2600 B.C. Fourteen-year-old Jomar and his younger sister, twelve-year-old Zefa live with their parents on a farm outside the city of Ur. The recent drought has made their once fruitful land barren and dry. The farms "once produced abundant grain, melons and grapes, plums and pears, cabbage and carrots. Gazelle and other wild animals had once been plentiful, attracted to the crops and to the water in the irrigation canals that cut through the countryside."

When Jomar hears Zefa playing a song on the lyre he made for her, he questions her as to why the song is sad. Zefa reveals to him that their parents plan to send him away to the nearby city of Ur. Because of the drought there is not enough food for all of them. This news scares Jomar because he wonders how he will live in Ur. From his home he can see the large mud-brick temple dedicated to the moon god Nanna rising above Ur.

Jomar confronts his father Durabi who tells him that the farm no longer grows enough food to feed them. When he was last in Ur, Durabi arranged for Jomar to be taken on as an apprentice with Sidah, a goldsmith who works for the temple. Sidah's son has recently died. 

Jomar's father also reveals that Zefa will accompany him to Ur because she too is starving. Durabi tells Jomar that he must care for Zefa but that she will have to find her own work. Jomar is not happy about having to travel to Ur nor that Zefa must come with him.  But Durabi insists, stating that he will walk Jomar and Zefa to the road that leads into Ur.

The next morning Jomar and Zefa leave with their father for Ur. Their mother, Lilan packs them each a basket containing what food they have. Zefa insists on bringing her lyre. Their father is unable to walk far enough to take them to the road that leads to Ur so Jomar and Zefa continue on their own. However, Jomar and Zefa encounter a man named Malak who has been sent by the temple to oversee the irrigation system. Impressed by Zefa's singing, Malak decides she will remain with him and his men, but that Jomar is free to leave for his apprenticeship in Ur. Jomar protests Zefa's enslavement by Malak but decides to stay with her. They spend the day working in the ditches but at night when the men become drunk, with the help of another worker named Qat-nu, Jomar and Zefa escape.

Eventually they arrive at the gate leading into Ur. The gatekeeper is willing to allow Jomar into the city, but it is only when Zefa sings and plays her lyre, that she too is allowed in. While searching for Sidah's home, Jomar and Zefa witness a crowd watching a man undergoing a trial to prove his innocence after being accused of murder. Zefa is horrified and Jomar steers her away from watching. They arrive at Sidah's home only to discover that Zefa is not welcome, especially by his wife Nari. Sidah tells Nari that Zefa will leave in the morning. That night Zefa is allowed to sleep in the workshop, but she angers Nari when she plays the temple lyre that Sidah has been commissioned to embellish. Sidah's son, Abbah was to have worked with him on the lyre. Sidah believes Zefa's unexpected appearance at his house is a sign for him to work on the lyre. He decides she will stay and play on the lyre to inspire his work, but Nari, unhappy at this decision states that Zefa will also work for her.

Jomar's first task is to work on a necklace for the high priestess Bittatti. However, as he's making the necklace, Jomar discovers that one of the lapis beads is missing. This leads both Jomar and Sidah to believe that Zefa who slept in the workshop, has stolen the bead. Jomar is then ordered to take the gold drinking straw to the high priestess at the temple. On his way there, Jomar finds himself accosted by Malak who guards the back entrance to the temple. Malak threatens Jomar, telling him he will come for his sister, who he insists is his slave. The penalty for a slave escaping is severe. Jomar must find a way to protect his sister from Malak while at the same time protecting his apprenticeship with Sidah.

Discussion

The Golden Bull is set in the city of Ur, located in Sumer, in southern Mesopotamia in 2600 B.C. Ur was a major trade center as it was situated where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers emptied into the Persian Gulf. It was a city of great wealth. The Great Ziggurat of Ur or temple of Ur mentioned in the novel was dedicated to the moon god Nanna.

Cowley works many historical details into the story, through the character of Sidah who answers Jomar's questions about the city of Ur and who provides detailed descriptions of  the goldsmith craft as he creates the golden bull for the temple lyre.

Although the storyline in The Golden Bull is driven by Jomar and Zefa's need to survive in Ur where they have been sent because their parents can no longer support them, it is the relationship between Jomar and his sister that forms the central theme. At the beginning of the novel, Jomar views his sister as a burden when he learns she will accompany him to Ur. Zefa also struggles as she finds Jomar has gone from ignoring her to ordering her around. However, as they set out on their journey, Jomar listens for the first time to the songs Zefa sings and begins to understand that she has a special gift.  "For years he'd heard the songs that Zefa made up, heard them without really listening. They had been about such childish things as a lost doll, the death of a pig, and the sun's magic that shriveled a grape into a sweet raisin. But now Jomar was struck by the words of this song. How could a girl of twelve make up such a solemn prayer?" When Zefa is made a slave by Malak, Jomar refuses to abandon her to her fate, remembering his duty to protect her. Instead he stays with her  and together they escape and continue on their journey to Ur. Jomar comes to realize that Zefa's ability to play the lyre and compose songs may be very helpful to them. Her playing earns them some food from a family with a baby who won't sleep and helps her get into Ur.

When a lapis bead goes missing from Sidah's workshop and Zefa is suspected, Jomar confronts her. Zefa is outraged by Jomar's lack of trust in her.  Jomar feels guilt over his doubts about his sister. "Instead of protecting Zefa, he had become her enemy, her accuser." He is also troubled because he doesn't know how to protect his sister both from the accusations that she is a thief and from Malak who has promised to find Zefa and take her back.

Zefa flees from Sidah's house and ends up living with children in the bazaar who play for food. She leaves because she knows she is not trusted at Sidah's house and that she is in danger from Malak. When Jomar finds her, he sees that she has changed from the vulnerable young girl to someone with quiet assurance and confidence. Although Jomar expects Zefa to refuse, she demonstrates compassion and forgiveness when she agrees to play on the temple lyre and perform a praise song for Abban at his funeral in order to comfort Nari in spite of her betrayal. And Zefa also comes to understand why Nari has found it so difficult to accept Jomar and herself into their home: her grief for her son Abban is too recent. Zefa is a compassionate, honest young girl, who cares for both those who are poor like herself and those who are unkind to her like Nari.

To protect his sister, Jomar decides to take the river test, claiming he took the lapis bead. He knows Zefa is innocent and that his sister cannot be thrown into the river as she cannot swim and will drown. To spare her from this fate, Jomar takes her place even though he too cannot swim. In doing so Jomar also demonstrates his courage and his sacrificial love. Fortunately, the river "judges" Jomar as innocent (that is he doesn't drown!).

Both Jomar and Zefa's honesty, willingness to work hard and their kindness do much to heal Sidah and Nari as they grieve the loss of their only son. This is especially true for Nari whose bitterness has caused her to do so much harm to both children.

The Golden Bull is suitable for younger readers interested in historical fiction. Cowley provides a detailed Author's Note at the back of the novel which provides many interesting facts about life in Ur and this region of Mesopotamia at the time of the novel. A map of the region and illustrations would add considerably to the novel's overall appeal.

Book Details:

The Golden Bull by Marjorie Cowley
Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge    2008
200 pp.

Mammoth by Jill Baguchinsky

Natalie Page, paleontology nerd and vintage, plus-size fashion blogger is on her way to spend the summer at the Central Texas Mammoth Site as one of two interns. Natalie lives in Orlando, Florida with her parents and her brothers, Ryan and Dylan. She's spent the past three summers working at her Aunt Judy's indie clothing company, Savage Swallow. Natalie who is a heavy-set girl, learned to sew and tailor clothing and create her own fashion style. Out of this came her blog Fossilista, which posts "plus-size fashion inspiration and vintage thrifting tips..." Because Natalie was bullied in middle school for her weight she always tries to look her best, with makeup and her own vintage style.

Natalie's idol is Dr. Thomas F. Carver whom she nicknames, "Thomas Fucking Carver". Carver is a renowned paleontologist who has made dinosaur discoveries including a Centesaurus which he discovered in Utah. Natalie hoped Carver would talk about the legal trouble the Central Texas Mammoth Site has encountered in his latest podcast on Carved in Bone. However no mention is made of the dispute between the  "family of the property's former owner" and the site over the first fossils  recovered on the land that is now the Central Texas Mammoth site. Instead the podcast is about Carver and his team working to protect a newly discovered Apatosaurus skeleton from a flash flood and waiting out the storm in nearby trees.

At the airport in Austin, Texas, Natalie is met by Eli Washington, a senior intern. She also meets two other student interns, a blond girl named Quinn who later reveals that she is Dr. Carver's daughter, and a handsome, tall boy named Chase. Natalie and Quinn are rooming with another senior intern, Mellie McCormick who happens to share Natalie's interests in crafting and thrifting. At the welcome meeting, Natalie and the other interns meet Dr. Helen Lauren, assistant director at the Central Texas Mammoth Site, who oversees the intern program. She takes them on a campus tour and dinner at the cafeteria. The next day they meet the site's director, Dr. Vincent Gallagher, an expert in paleontological taphonomy. During their introduction to the site, Natalie realizes that Quinn has an advantage over her because as Dr. Carver's daughter, she is already known to the site staff. So she competes with Quinn, attempting to impress Dr. Gallagher and be acknowledged.

On a tour led by Cody, a high school senior, Natalie and the other interns see the in-situ bone bed, the remains of a single nursery herd that likely died around forty-thousand years ago as a result of a sudden flood. Natalie interrupts the tour to correct a father and son's misconceptions about the site. This makes Cody angry and he tells her never to do that again. When they reconnect with Dr. Lauren, Natalie realizes that her choice of clothing and footwear is not reasonable for walking on the forest trails. But she does have an eye for finding things, spotting a bone in the river bed, that turns out to be from a pork chop.

Natalie's crush on Chase continues to blossom when they spend time together that night talking about their lives and their mutual interest in fossils. The next day Natalie and the interns visit the Dr. Warren Roland lab, a warehouse-sized building that houses labs and fossils. Dr. Roland was in charge of the original dig at the Mammoth Site and he founded the paleo program at Austin State. Dr. Ted Glass is in charge of the bone prep lab, explaining that although there still are bones to dig up, the warehouse is full of fossils, many of which they don't know about and many needing preparation. Dr. Glass and Amy Seeker, a grad student train the interns on screen picking. Watching Quinn flirt with Chase, during the training session, makes Natalie jealous.

The interns begin to settle in learning various jobs; Natalie and Brendan work with Cody to learn the tour while Chase and Quinn train in the sandbox. Natalie quickly becomes adept at leading the tour, adding in her own paleo facts and is soon allowed to lead tours with Cody observing. One afternoon during break Cody overhears a conversation in Dr. Lauren's office. When the first bones were discovered, Dr. Roland and the landowner supposedly signed a contract which allowed the university to lease the land and keep any fossils found. However, now the family is claiming the contract never existed, that the fossils belong to them and they want financial compensation as well.

Natalie is thrilled to learn that her idol, Dr. Carver will be visiting the site to film segments, including the interns for his new show. During Carver's visit, Natalie is filmed while working in the sandbox and is even coached by Dr. Carver. A photograph of Natalie and Dr. Carver appears on his website but while it is wonderful for Natalie, his daughter Quinn is less than impressed. Quinn shows Natalie a text from her father critical of her work at the site, and shares that she has a strained relationship with her famous father.

After a week at the site, Natalie is recognized for her exemplary work leading tours and she, Brendan and Chase are cleared to work in the bone bed. That night, the interns are given time off and all including Natalie decide to meet at the amphitheater and drink beer Brendan has stolen from a fridge in the lab. While Cody limits himself to one beer, the rest drink until they are very drunk. Cody refuses to go along with Quinn's plan to walk to the site to dig. Eventually only Chase and Natalie attempt to walk to the site even though both are very intoxicated. They begin kissing passionately but Natalie becomes annoyed when Chase tries to take things further. At this point the two are discovered on the road by the senior interns, Eli and Mellie who drive them back to the residences. The next day Dr Lauren places both Chase and Natalie on probation. Natalie worries about the repercussions for Cody but fortunately he just gets a reprimand. At this time, Cody notices that Natalie looks different, because she hasn't done her makeup due to her hangover. He tells her she looks nice.

However Natalie is totally absorbed with Chase, holding hands with him and telling her best friend Charli back home that she thinks they might be a thing. But Natalie soon discovers that Chase is anything but sincere about their relationship. When she discovers Chase and Quinn making out, Natalie is devastated and runs to the bone storage room. Quinn finds her and tries to apologize, explaining that she acted the way she did because of her fractured relationship with her father and her inability to please him. While Natalie is listening, she suddenly notices that there is a labelled specimen from the Mammoth site on the storage shelf. Since all the specimens from the site are supposed to have been processed this is a shocking find. Natalie's discovery has huge implications for the site and its legal issues.

As Natalie deals with Chase's betrayal, and with the realization that her hero Dr. Carver is not the great guy she thought he was, she begins to shed some of the armour she's built up to protect herself. In an attempt to redeem herself, Natalie takes a risk that put her internship in question, and almost costs the life of the boy who turns out to be a true friend.

Discussion

Mammoth tackles the tricky subjects of body image and body shaming as well as self-esteem against the backdrop of the research at the Central Texas Mammoth site.

Natalie Page is a plus-size teenager who has experienced bullying over her weight. In middle school she was known as "Fat Nat", a nickname given to her by a classmate. However, in high school, Natalie's Aunt Judy helped her forge her physical and emotional armor against body shaming. She taught Natalie to "be awesome", to be Awesome Natalie instead of Fat Nat. "It's the persona I put on each day, the tight shapers that bind me, the cute dresses, the flawless makeup. It's everything." Every minute of Natalie's day is focused on being awesome. She chooses her outfits for the day, spends time putting on makeup and restraining her naturally curly hair. But sometimes all of this isn't enough. As when she sits in her seat on the plane and notices her upper arm is partially in the middle seat. "All the armor in the world can't protect me from moments like this. Be awesome, I tell myself. I can't slip now. Not now."

Not only is Natalie focused on her own body but also on the bodies of those around her. Whenever she sees another woman, she automatically guesses that woman's weight, without even realizing she's doing this. "The number flashes in my head, illuminated like a digital display. Like the numbers on a scale. it's a game I play with myself; I can't meet a woman without guessing her weight. It always makes me feel a little guilty, but working for Aunt Judy and writing about fashion have made me almost too good at estimating things like weight and clothing size. The reaction is so automatic and objective that I can't seem to stop. Beside, when you're as aware of size as I've learned to be, when you're reminded of it everytime those great jeans don't fit or some anonymous idiot leaves a rude comment on your blog, you notice aspects of it everywhere."

To cope with her stress, Natalie snaps the hair elastic on her wrist. She constantly compares parts of her body, especially her thighs with those of others despite her Aunt Judy telling her she has "sturdy thighs" that will carry her far. Baguchinsky realistically portrays Natalie's constant war with food. "In the cafeteria, I settle on a soy cheeseburger on a whole wheat bun and a bag of crackers. At the end of the line, near the cashier, a pile of prepackaged desserts sings like a siren on treacherous rocks. I try not to look, but I'm hungry. And they have snickerdoodles -- my favorite. I take two and stare at them on my tray, anxiety blooming in my throat like bile."

Baguchinsky has crafted a very realistic heroine in Natalie Page. Natalie, a paleontology geek, shows her passion for the fossil site, makes the typical poor decisions one expects of teenagers, such as getting drunk, doing things she's not supposed to: working with a fossil when she's not trained on bone prep, and going out to prospect without permission. She's ambitious to the point of recklessness, endangering Cody's life. But she's also forgiving, salvaging her friendship with Quinn who betrayed her and recognizing the pain Quinn is suffering from the strained relationship with her famous father.

The main theme of the novel is that of a young woman who has created this persona to fit in with societal expectations of beauty and health. In the process, she's lost who she is. As a young girl, Natalie experienced body shaming from classmates such as Fred Parkmore. Baguchinsky shows her readers how this has affected Natalie; she has low self esteem and in order to protect herself has devised her "armor" literally with a shaper that she puts on each day to mold her body into the approved shape, even though she can't take a full breath while wearing it. She figuratively "armors" herself with the mantra of "be awesome". 

However, as her internship progresses, Natalie begins to slowly shed that armor. First it's her dresses styled to her plus-sized figure, then it's her shoes which are inappropriate for working in the bone bed and walking on the trails. Then after the night drinking, a hung-over Natalie dispenses with the makeup, the foundation and eyeliner and lipstick and even her shaper. Cody notices immediately that she looks different, telling Natalie, "You look nice. Softer. That's all." But Natalie's not ready yet to drop her armor and she changes "softer into vulnerable. Unprotected. Fat." Natalie can't accept Cody's compliment and does her makeup.

But it is only after Cody almost loses his life while they are attempting to protect a newly discovered fossil during a severe storm that Natalie finally decides to shed her armor. She recognizes that her armor makes her look invulnerable, which is not really true. When she goes to meet the people who will decide her fate after so many mistakes and poor choices, she doesn't wear her shaper, does her makeup only lightly and pulls her frizzy hair back in a ponytail. Natalie decides to stands up for herself, telling the panel about her love for paleontology and expressing regret over her poor decisions. She also stands up to Dr. Carver, whom she no longer idolizes.

After she is expelled from the internship program, in the bathroom Natalie remembers why she began using makeup. "...I liked what I saw in the mirror - but I felt like I was looking at someone else. It was a mask to help me hide from people like Fred. It was part of what would become my armor. I don't think I want to hide anymore." She decides that she will wear makeup, the dresses, the shapewear and even the shoes if she wants to, if she feels like it. "If not...well, the world can deal. I'm doing this for me, not for anyone else. There's no more Fat Nat, no more Awesome Natalie, no more fake-it-till-you-make-it. There's just me." Natalie is helped further by Cody's acceptance of who she is. He gives her the confidence to be herself and we see this at the end of the novel when she chooses a casual outfit - one that isn't her armor.

After her expulsion, Natalie meets with Dr. Glass who tells her she is very much like Thomas Carver. She has the same reckless ambition as Carver, whose ambition cost Dr. Glass his right calf and foot many years ago. But Natalie is also like Carver in another aspect in that she too has created a public persona that is very different from the real person. Dr. Gallagher explained to Natalie earlier that Carver has "...cultivated a persona for himself - that of the dashing adventurer - and he does whatever it takes to keep that up. That includes taking advantage of situations like this to keep his name out there..." Dr. Glass recognizes Natalie's potential and hopes to mentor her, guiding her ambition and channeling it in a productive way.

The interior of the building covering the Waco Mammoth site.

Baguchinsky spent time at the Waco Mammoth National Monument Site where the fossils of twenty-four Columbian mammoths, from the Pleistocene Epoch died. The first fossil was discovered in 1978 by two teenagers looking for arrowheads along the Bosque River. The fossil of a mammoth tusk was taken to Baylor University where it was identified as belong to a mammoth. Excavations by staff from Baylor's Strecker Museum eventually uncovered the fossil remains of sixteen Columbian mammoths who were believed to have perished together in a natural disaster. Subsequent fossil finds and continuing research suggests that there were at least two separate natural events resulting in the deaths of an original ammoth nursery herd (females and juveniles) and later on a mammoth bull, female and juvenile mammoths.

Mammoth is well-written novel that combines the themes of body shaming, self-acceptance, forgiveness and redemption against the unique setting of a Pleistocene paleo-dig in Texas. It's a strange but interesting combination that really works. Readers should be forewarned there are plenty of f-bombs and a few sexual innuendos in the novel.

image credit:  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/waco-mammoth-national-monument-180957432/  

Book Details:

Mammoth by Jill Baguchinsky
Nashville, Tennessee: Turner Publishing Company      2018
333 pp.

The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck

The Big Wave is a novella written by the late American  Pulitzer Prize winning author, Pearl S. Buck about a young Japanese boy who survives a tsunami and learns much about life.

The story is set in a small fishing village in Japan, located on a beach by the ocean. Kino lives on his family's farm, set high up on the mountain overlooking the fishing village. His ancestors have farmed the mountain for generations, terracing the land. Kino's best friend is Jiya the son of a fisherman. Jiya lives in the village on the beach with his parents and his brother. Like all the other homes in the village, Jiya's home has no window facing the sea.

While Jiya fears the ocean, telling his friend "The sea is our enemy",  Kino believes it is beautiful. On hot summer days after work, Kino swims in the clear water of the sea. He and Jiya often swim out to an island owned by an old man, whom everyone calls the Old Gentleman.

Whenever they are on the island, Jiya always watches the sea carefully. This puzzles Kino who questions him about why the sea gets angry. Jiya doesn't have an answer for this. However, Kino gets a sense of the sea's danger when he dives deep and feels its "cold grasp." When Kino asks his father why Jiya and his father fear the ocean his father explains that there is much they do not understand about the sea. His father also reminds him that there is the volcano to be concerned about too on land.

Then one day the volcano which is far from Kino's home, begins to spew out smoke and steam. Kino's father stays awake all night just as do the other fathers in the fishing village on the beach. At noon the next day a red flag is seen at the Old Gentleman's castle on a knoll halfway down the mountain. Kino's father tells him this is a sign for the people to be ready. Soon a bell begins to toll, encouraging the people to shelter within the castle. But few come. Only the children begin to stream out of the fishing village and up the path towards the castle. At Kino's suggestion, he and his father wave a white handkerchief to draw the attention of his friend Jiya. Shortly after Jiya arrives at Kino's home, they look out towards the sea and watch a huge wave race towards the shore. Terrified, Jiya wants to rush down to the village to tell his father but Kino's father holds him fast. The wave, crashes ashore, destroying everything in its path. Jiya and Kino's lives are forever changed.

Discussion

The Big Wave is a story for children about a tsunami that devastates a village and changes forever the life of two boys. Although the story is one of tragedy and loss, of a horrific natural disaster, it is told in a gentle, direct manner. Written in a simple style, the novella's overarching theme is about overcoming tragedy in life.

At the beginning of the story, Kino attempts to understand the world around him. His friend Jiya fears the sea as he is aware of its great power. Kino who is the son of a farmer, is puzzled by his friend's fear because the sea looks so beautiful. But he comes to understand his friend's fear during a deep dive in the ocean. When he tells his father that he feels safe on land, his father reminds him that even the land holds danger that they must be watchful for, in this case the distant volcano. Kino questions his father, "Must we always be afraid of something?" and he is told the he must "learn to live with danger." Kino's father tells him he must accept that danger exists and learn to live with it, knowing that death comes to everyone. However, this is something  that Kino as a young boy, does not want to consider.

A tsunami wipes out the fishing village, orphaning many of the children who were saved by seeking refuge in the Old Gentleman's castle. Jiya who joins Kino's family on their farm, witnesses the destruction of the village and collapses in utter distress. Yet Kino's father is both patient and kind, telling Kino that they must wait for Jiya to grieve. Jiya's body heals first from the shock and gradually his mind and soul do too, as a result of the careful kindness of Kino's family. He chooses to stay with Kino's family rather than live in the wealthy Old Gentleman's home.

The tragedy of the wave changes Jiya forever. Although his life is divided into two separate periods by the tsunami, he "learns to live with his parents and his brother dead..."and to find happiness in life in spite of tragedy. He learns to love everything this is good and to avoid cruelty. Ultimately, Jiya learns the lesson that Kino's father was trying to explain to his own son Kino, years before, that one must accept the dangers in life and learn how to live with them. This is exemplified by his conversation with the Old Gentleman who scolds the grown survivors of the tsunami for rebuilding homes on the beach. Jiya tells the old man that life is filled with dangers, which they must learn to live with especially since their island of Japan has volcanoes and the sea. Even the Old Gentleman's castle is not safe if the earth shakes hard enough.  Jiya builds himself a home on the same beach where his parents died, this time with a window that faces the sea. He tells Kino's father, "If ever the big wave comes back, I shall be ready. I face it. I am not afraid."

The Big Wave is a thoughtful, beautifully written short story that should appeal to many young readers. Pearl S. Buck won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for her novel, The Good Earth and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1938

Book Details:

The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck
New York:  HarperTrophy 
57 pp.