Winged Wonders: Solving The Monarch Migration Mystery by Meeg Pincus

Winged Wonders is the story of how the mystery of monarch butterfly migration was solved through grassroots cooperation in North America.

 For centuries, people all through North America from southern Ontario in Canada, through the United States and into Mexico, have wondered about monarch butterflies. In southern Ontario people wondered, where do the butterflies go in the winter?

This picture book asks: "So who solved this age-old mystery? Who tracked these winged wonders from one end of the continent to the other? Who found their secret roosting place, a marvel of nature?"

Winged Wonders asks if it was "Fred, the Canadian scientist" and his research-partner wife Norah who spent time tagging monarch butterflies? Was it citizen scientists like science teachers, gardeners who caught, tagged and released the butterflies? Was it Ken and Catalina who travelled through Mexico for two years, tracking them? "Was it the villagers and farmers of central Mexico" who directed the couple to their oyamel tree groves? The answer of course is, YES!  All of these people, working together helped to solve the mystery of the monarch migration. 

Now that we know more about the monarch migration, the new question scientists are asking is "How will they survive?" in a world where chemical sprays, farming and pollution are having a serious impact. Like the discovery of their migration path, the solution to their survival depends on all of us working together.

Discussion

Winged Wonders: Solving the Monarch Migration Mystery is an engaging and informative look into how the mystery of monarch butterflies was solved. 

With a simple text, and the lovely, colourful illustrations by artist Yaz Imamura, the remarkable story of how monarch butterflies migrate from southern Canada and various areas of the United States to Mexico is told.

The driving force behind the discovery was a Canadian scientist, who had developed a fascination for insects and monarch butterflies as a child. Born in Toronto, Ontario Canada in 1911, Frederick Albert Urquhart went on to study biology in 1931 at the University of Toronto. He graduated, top of his class in 1935 and continued his graduate studies after being awarded the B. Arthur Bensley Fellowship. Urquhart graduated with a Ph.D in 1940. 

During this time the migration of monarch butterflies was not understood. They left in the late summer and returned the following spring. But where did they go? From where did they return? Urquhart's interest in this mystery did not wane over the years. Instead he was determined to find out.

His research into monarch migration began in 1937 and was to last almost thirty-eight years. Urquhart's investigations began by raising monarch butterflies in the home he shared with his wife Nora. They had married in 1945 and she become his partner in this research. At this time Urquhart was working both at the Royal Ontario Museum and at the University of Toronto. When both Fred and Nora were appointed faculty at University of Toronto in 1961, they were able to ramp up their research.

The Urquharts experimented with various tagging methods, most of which were not successful. Eventually they followed a friend's advice to use the sticky price tags for glassware. These tags, called "alar" meaning wing, were placed on the monarch butterfly wings and labelled, "Send to Zoology University Toronto Canada". After Nora Urquhart wrote a magazine article about the tagging and asking for volunteers, people began to sign up. 

The tagging program soon allowed the researchers to learn more about monarchs: they could fly up to one hundred thirty kilometers in a day, they never flew at night, and that not all monarchs migrate. The tagging showed that the overall migration pattern was one from northeast to southwest, across the North American continent. 

The final piece of the puzzle was put together in Mexico with the help of Ken and Catalina Brugger who spoke with local farmers and loggers and located a wintering site in a mountainous region of Mexico.

While Pincus's picture book doesn't go into such detail, it does cover all the basic facts and serves as a great resource for a unit study on monarch butterflies, the scientific method, international cooperation in research, animal migrations, and insects.

One last thing: in the Author's Note at the back, Pincus quite correctly writes that many personal contributions went into uncovering the route of the monarch migration. But she also writes, "It's also important to note that history depends on who tells the story - Mexican poet and environmentalist Homero Aridjis asks: 'Did the white scientists really 'discover' the wintering sites that people in Southern Mexico knew about for centuries?' What do you think?"  Well many Mexicans were not aware of the wintering sites and it took an American and his MEXICAN wife to sort out the information they were given by Mexican farmers. And one might also ask "Did Mexican's know where the monarch's went in the summer? Did they know the migration routes? Did they know about the super-generation monarchs?" Not likely since no one had yet pieced together the mystery of the monarch butterflies.  Just because it was a "white" male scientist (along with his scientist partner and wife, along with many people across North America, including many Mexicans, all of whom worked together to piece together the information and to map out the migration routes, and to connect them to the "wintering sites" ) does not devalue his work. Urquhart was a simply scientist attempting to solve a mystery about the natural world he lived in. Perhaps instead of viewing history through the polarizing lens of current thought, we might just all celebrate this discovery - as told in this picture book -  and learn from it, that when we work together, regardless of race or country we can achieve great things.

Read University of Toronto Magazine's article, Where Do You Go, My Lovelies? about Fred and Norah Urquhart's quest to understand the monarch butterfly.

Book Details:

Winged Wonders: Solving the Monarch Migration Mystery by Meeg Pincus
Ann Arbor, Michigan: Sleeping Bear Press    2020

On The Horizon by Lois Lowry

 In her newest book, On The Horizon, Lois Lowry, award winning author of Number The Stars and The Giver, has penned a collection of poems about lives lost or forever changed in the bombing of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor and the dropping of the atomic bombs in Japan.

These events are told through Lowry's own personal experience of having lived both in Hawaii and in Japan during the time they took place.  

Lowry was born in Honolulu in 1937. Her father was an Army dentist so this meant Lowry's family moved frequently. She lived in Hawaii until 1940 when her family moved to New York. Years later, Lowry watched an old home movie her father had taken in 1940 of her playing on the beach at Waikiki. In the distance, the silhouette of the fated USS Arizona could be seen. A little over a year later, on December 7, 1941, almost all the men on the ship would be dead. The USS Arizona would sink during the bombing of Pearl Harbor and 1.177 men would perish. Lowry moved to Tokyo, Japan in 1948 when her father was stationed in the city.

In various forms of poetry, Lowry begins her story with the sinking of the USS Arizona. Part I On The Horizon is comprised of a poetry Lowry has composed about the men on the USS Arizona. There are poems about seventeen-year-old Leo Amundson whose Scandinavian heritage is shared by Lowry. Other poems are about George and Jimmie Bromley, one of thirty-seven sets of brothers on the Arizona,  Everett Reid, a machinist who lived off the ship and survived because he was at home celebrating his birthday, the musicians - Neal Radford, Alexander Nadel, Bill McCary and Curtis Haas in the ship's band, and Captain Isaac Campbell Kidd whose "Naval Academy ring was found melted and fused to the mast."

Part 2 Another Horizon is about the dropping of the atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima in southern Japan. Lowry's poetry features the victims of the bomb, naming them and describing what they were doing at the time of the explosion. There is Koichi Seii in a town called Tabase, Takeo playing tag in a schoolyard, Shinichi Tetsutani on his red tricycle, Akira Ishida a high school student operating a tram, and Chieko Suetomo and Shinji Mikamo. 

Part 3 Beyond The Horizons several events from Lowry's life in the post-war period in Japan are described. Lowry lived in Shibuya, a part of Tokyo. Her father had bought her a green bike when she first arrived in Japan. At that time Koichi Seii along with his mother and sister, survivors of Hiroshima,  had also moved to Shibuya. In a series of poems, Lowry tells about riding her green bike through the city and how with her blue eyes and blond hair she stood out. In the poem Girl On  A Bike, Lowry recounts stopping outside a school to watch the children, and they watched her. In the poem, Gaijin, unknown to her, Koichi Seii was a student at the school and he watched the girl with the blond hair on the green bike.  In the final poem, a triolet titled Tomodachi, Lowry expresses how they could not yet be friends, as they needed to heal.

"We could not be friends. Not then. Not yet.
Until the cloud dispersed and cleared,
We needed time to mend, forget."

Discussion

On The Horizon is a touching tribute to the human spirit, the power of forgiveness and how our lives are often connected in ways that are not immediately apparent, and often remain unknown to us. Lowry who grew up during World War II and the post war period, weaves together the threads of her life to show a remarkable interconnection of people, places and events. This is done through a series of beautifully composed rhyming poems. 

Beginning with an old family home movie that captured a young Lowry playing on the beach at Waikiki with the outline of the USS Arizona on the horizon unnoticed at that time. Lowry weaves a thread that connects this beginning to many other events. A little over a year later, the USS Arizona sank during the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  In the poem, Child On A Beach, Lowry wonders about the things we don't notice, the connections we miss...

"I think back to that sunlit day
when I was young, and so were they
If I had noticed? If I'd known?
Would each of us be less alone?...

I've learned that there will always be
things we miss, that we don't see

on the horizon. Things beyond
And yet there is a lasting bond
between us, linking each to each
Boys on a ship. Child on a beach"

When Lowry's family moved to Tokyo to join her father, she was given a green bike. Lowry stopped one day to watch the Japanese children playing in the school yard. Unknown to her, young Kochi Seii was watching back, the memory of a blond haired girl with a green bike that would stay with him over the years. Unbelievably, years later in 1994, Lois Lowry and Kochi Seii now known as Allen Say, met at a library convention. They discovered their lives had intersected years before. In the poem, Girl On A Bike Lowry muses about how they had lived in each other's country, and from their own horizons had experienced war without realizing their lives would one day intersect once again.

"I'd lived in his country, then.
And now he's moved to mine, so when
we met (his name was Allen now),
we mused and pondered how

from our horizons we had viewed
a war begin, a war conclude.
We were young.We were alike.
Boy in a schoolyard. Girl on a bike."

On The Horizon also offers readers the chance to reflect on war, on the innocent lives lost, but also how with time, two countries healing from war can come together both individually and collectively. This is shown in her poem Now which tells about Japanese tourists bowing as they look down at the wreck of the Arizona, while Lowry herself at the Hiroshima memorial bows and weeps too.

Perhaps Lowry's final words in her Author's Note say it best:

"It has taken many years for me to put these things together, to try to find some meaning in the way lives intersect -- or how they fail to. I guess the important thing is also the simplest: to acknowledge our connectedness on this earth; to bow our heads when we see a scorched tricycle or a child's message to his lost grandpa; and to honor the past by making silent promises to our fellow humans that we will work for a better and more peaceful future."

Many of the poems are illustrated with the black and white artwork of SCBWI Golden Kite Award Winner, Kenard Pak.

On The Horizon is a lovely reminder of how our lives are often interconnected, often on the horizon of others, offering a unique perspective that we only realize when we discover that connection.

Book Details:

On The Horizon: World War II Reflections  by Lois Lowry
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt      2020
72 pp.

Song For A Whale by Lynne Kelly

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Discussion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DVD: Mr. Jones

Mr. Jones is a deeply flawed film that attempts to portray the efforts of a Welsh journalist to uncover the truth about events occurring in the Soviet Union in the early 1930's. At this time much of the country but especially the Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the Volga region was experiencing a severe famine. The famine in the Ukraine became known as the Holodomor; a catastrophe in which millions of Ukrainian peasants were deliberately starved to death as a result of Stalin's policies. The Western media was complicit in this crime against humanity as they knew what was happening but failed to report on it.

The film opens with scenes of squealing pigs as they feed on a farm,dissolving quickly into scenes of George Orwell beginning work on his novel, Animal Farm. In a voice over, Orwell states, "...The world is being invaded by monsters, but I suppose you don't want to hear about that. I could be writing romantic novels, novels people actually want to read...But if I tell the story of the monsters through the talking farm animals, maybe then you will listen, then you will understand. The future is at stake, so please read carefully between the lines."

From this, the film moves to Gareth Jones, foreign adviser to David Lloyd George addressing his cabinet. Jones tells them about being on a plane with Hitler and Goebbels and thinking if the plane were to crash, the course of history of Europe would be changed. Jones believes the Reichstag incident (fire?) was a diversion and that Germany intends to expand into Poland. Goebbels told Jones that the Reich will last a thousand years. Jones is certain the next Great War has already begun. This is dismissed with much laughter. Jones is taken out of the meeting when a call from Russia comes in for him, but the line goes dead.

Later in his office, Jones listens to Stalin on the radio talking about how the Soviets are making grade strides in building their industrial capabilities. Jones is skeptical. His point to the Lloyd George cabinent was that in a war with Germany, England will need an alliance with Stalin. Ms. Stevenson, Lloyd George's secretary tells Jones that he has been let go. In his meeting with Lloyd George, Jones tells him that he needs someone who will tell him the truth about what's happening. He has no answer on the Soviet question but suggests that Lloyd George could send him to Moscow to interview Stalin.

Jones is able to obtain a press visa from the Soviet embassy in London. He contacts friend Paul Kleb to let him know he's coming to Moscow. Kleb tells him to talk to Walter Duranty about possibly interviewing Stalin and that he really needs to talk to him, that he's found something big, that it's worse than they thought. The line goes dead.

Jones arrives in Moscow where he is met by Duranty who gushes about the Soviets, telling him that they have achieved more in five years than England has in ten. He encourages Jones to go visit the Soviet factories and talk to the British engineers at Metro Vickers. Jones questions Duranty as to how Stalin is paying for his factories and Duranty indicates that "Grain is Stalin's gold." As they talk in Duranty's office, Gareth explains that he has no expectations about getting an interview but that he has many questions, such has how the Kremlin can pay for the widespread industrialization when they are broke. Duranty stuns Jones by revealing that Paul Kleb was killed three days earlier in a robbery outside the Metropol. 

At the Metropol, Jones learns his reservations are only for two nights, contrary to what he was told in England. He meets up with a group of journalists that include John Cushny and L.C. Thorton from Metro Vickers and Eugene Lyons from United Press. They take Jones to Duranty's party which features drugs, booze and plenty of debauchery.  At the party Jones learns that journalists are confined to Moscow. 

After leaving the party, Jones meets Duranty's "star" reporter, Ada. She tells him that Duranty is attempting to lure the Americans to invest in the Soviet Union, in order to move forward the revolution. Jones returns to Ada's apartment the next morning and learns that Paul Kleb was working on the Ukraine and was heading there when he was murdered. After leaving the Metropol, Jones gets a room at a hotel but shows up at Ada's apartment to use her typewriter. He tells her he's going to the Ukraine and to that end meets with a Soviet official - Litvinov?? who is duped into inviting Jones to tour the Ukraine. Ada gives Jones Paul Kleb's notebook and he sets out on his journey to the Ukraine by train with Litvinov. However, Jones disembarks well before their destination of Kharkiv and he begins his journey through the countryside.

Jones finds himself pursued by Soviet soldiers, encounters starving families, dead bodies, abandoned farms and villages and children who resort to cannibalism before being arrested by soldiers and thrown in jail. He is released on the condition that he does not report what he saw but Jones does report on what he saw in the Ukraine and is criticized and ostracized for it.

Discussion

It is always interesting to watch a film that attempts to portray historical events. Are the events portrayed with some accuracy? How much dramatic license is taken with history and how much sensationalism is injected into the story to engage viewers?   Mr. Jones tells the story of Welsh journalist, Gareth Jones whose journey into Soviet Russia and Ukraine in 1933 led to his stunning expose of  widespread famine raging throughout the entire country. It is a film that could have offered viewers a lens into these events but unfortunately, the film gets only the bare bones of the real story right. Viewers are left with misinformation and many inaccuracies about the people involved and the events as they occurred. 

To provide some balance, the following is a synopsis of Gareth Jones and how he came to uncover the famine in Soviet Russia, a famine most international correspondents were loathe to report.

Gareth Jones

Gareth Richard Vaughn Jones, was born in Barry, Glamorgan, Wales, on August 13, 1905, to Major Edgar Jones who was headmaster of the local school and Anne Gwen Jones. Gareth's mother worked from 1889 to 1892 in Russia as a tutor to the children of Arthur Hughes. The stories his mother told about her time in Russia left Jones with the desire to visit the country and learn the language. In 1926, he graduated from University College of Wale,  Aberystwyth with a degree in French and then later in with degrees in French, German and Russian from the Univeristy of Strasborough and Trinity College, Cambridge in 1930.

In 1931, Jones was hired by Dr. Ivy Lee of New York as a researcher for a book on the Soviet Union. This led to a trip to Soviet Russia with Jack Heinz II in the summer of 1931. A book was published anonymously that did mention that peasants in Russia and the Ukraine were starving due to the collectivization of farms. As the world sank deeper into the depression into 1932, Jones returned to England to work for David Lloyd George. By the fall of 1932, continued reports of widespread famine in the Soviet Union made Jones determined to return to the country to uncover the truth.

 In January and February of 1933, Jones first visited Germany where he not only met Adolf Hitler, newly appointed Chancellor of Germany, but was the first foreign journalist allowed to travel with new Chancellor on a flight to Frankfurt. In March, 1933 Jones set out from Germany to Soviet Russia.

At this time, most foreign journalists were not allowed to travel freely in the countryside. They were restricted to living in Moscow, but Jones was able to obtain a train ticket to Kharkiv, capital of the Ukraine. However, Jones got off the train near Belogrod in Russia. Travelling on foot, he journeyed through Russia and into the Ukraine, recording his observations in great detail in his diaries that are in existence today. People he met on this journey spoke of widespread hunger, death and indicated that conditions were even worse to the south, further into the Ukraine. Eventually Soviet officials caught up with Jones and he was put on a train to Kharkiv.  

Gareth Jones returned to Berlin in 1933, and his articles on the Soviet famine were published widely. They created a firestorm of controversy because they contradicted a series of articles New York Times reporter Walter Duranty's wrote, articles that won him a Pulitzer Prize. His prize was never revoked. Duranty was provided with many perks by the Soviet government and in return he wrote articles that covered up the failures of the Soviet collectivization plan, including the resultant widespread famine that killed millions.

Walter Duranty's article

Mr. Jones never really offers an accurate portrayal of the events surrounding Jones's trip to Soviet Russia in 1933 nor even his stunning expose of the famine in the country. At times it included people and events that have nothing to do with his story. For example, in the film's opening scenes, George Orwell is shown working on his novel Animal Farm. Gareth Jones did not meet or know George Orwell. And Orwell's novella, Animal Farm was not written at the same time as the events in the film but was authored in 1943 and 1944. By juxtaposing scenes of Orwell working on his novel, the movie implies that it was written contemporaneously.  

For a film portraying historical events, Mr. Jones offers no dates or timeline. It also incorporates many references without any context and misplaces others. For example, when Gareth Jone is riding on a train into the Ukraine he repeatedly questions the other passengers about Hughesovka, or Stalino. These references are connected to Jones but that is never made clear in the film. Hughesovka was named after Jones's grandfather who developed several industries in the area. In 1924 it was renamed Stalino. The film also misplaces a famous line attributed to Gareth Jones. He did not utter his prophetic line, " If this areoplane should crash, the whole history of Europe would be changed." to Lloyd George in a meeting but instead it was written as the lead sentence in his article about Hitler in 1933.

The film frequently states that Gareth Jones obtained an exclusive interview with Hitler and was determined to obtain the same sort of scoop with Stalin. However, Jones did not go to Russia to interview Stalin but to specifically investigate the many rumours of widespread famine that were being refuted or even ignored by the British and American press. In fact, Walter Duranty's articles which won him the coveted Pultizer Prize the year before, appeared to settle the question. But Jones was out to discover the truth for himself.

In the film Jones is aided by Ada, supposedly Duranty's "star". However, he never had a love interest in Russia. He was there to do a job. It's likely there was no Paul Kleb to give him a lead on where to go in the Ukraine. Gareth Jones knew what he needed to do in order to learn the truth.

Gareth Jones' stunning expose of the truth in Russia.

Jones's articles did not just focus on the famine in the Ukraine but instead reported on widespread famine throughout all of  Russia as well as the Ukraine. His article "Famine Rules Russia" suggested that the famine was the result of Stalin's Five Year Plan to industrialize Russia.  which destroyed "all that was best in Russia". His articles never cited carts of dead bodies or instances of cannibalism, like those portrayed in the film. But what he reported overall was in huge contrast to Walter Duranty's article only a year earlier. 

Gareth Jones was never arrested nor was he held in a Soviet jail. Instead he quietly left the country and returned to Berlin.

Director, Agnieszka Holland had the opportunity to produce a film that would inform an entire generation about Stalin, the reality of communism, the famine in Russia and the Ukraine that was caused entirely by policies of the Stalin government resulting in the death millions, as well as the coverup by Western journalists, desperate to keep on the good side of the communist regime. Instead, the film takes so much dramatic license with the real events, that the real story is mostly lost. This doesn't make the movie entirely without merit but viewers will be left wondering what is fact and what is fiction. Instead viewers should use it as a launching point for their own research, to learn more about what really happened. 

Information about Stalin's Five Year Plan can be found at the Library of Congress.

Readers can discover for themselves much more about Gareth Jones from a website his family maintains. His mother did considerable research after his diaries were discovered hidden under a stairwell in a suitcase.

The BBC website profile of Gareth Jones.

Image credits:

Gareth Jones: https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/waleshistory/2010/03/gareth_jones_investigative_journalist.html

Walter Duranty and Gareth Jones article images: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/10/red-famine-anne-applebaum-ukraine-soviet-union/542610/

Stolen Words by Melanie Florence.

Stolen Words tells the story of a Cree grandfather whose culture and language was stolen from him as a result of his attending a residential school.

A young girl comes home from school, happy, carrying a dream catcher she has made. Walking with her beloved grandpa, she asks him how to say grandfather in Cree. But her grandfather doesn't remember. He tells her, "I lost my words a long time ago." Puzzled, his seven-year-old granddaughter asks him how this happened. He tells her how he and others were taken away from home, their way of life, and their mothers, "...to a school that was cold and lonely."  When they tried to use their words at the school, "...angry white faces raised their voices and their hands..." Grandfather and others were punished if they spoke their words - their own Cree language. Remembering brings tears and great sadness to her grandfather.

The next day, the young girl returns home, this time with his words. She tells him she has found his words, handing him a paperback book of the Cree language. As he looks through the book, his words come back, and so does his past. He is filled with joy. His granddaughter asks to learn his words too, and so begins, in some small but important way, the passing on a his heritage.

Discussion

Author Melanie Florence of Cree/Scottish heritage wrote this picture book in honour of her grandfather. Unlike the little girl in the story, Florence never had the chance to speak to her grandfather about his Cree heritage.For the author,  "...this story is about the healing relationship she wishes she had been able to have with him." 

Stolen Words gently introduces young readers to the residential school issue in a way that is easy to understand, simple text that presents the essence of what happened to young Indigenous children. Florence's text is given colour and emotion through the lovely, soft, warm illustrations by Quebec artist, Gabrielle Grimard. 

September 30 is Orange Shirt day, which is a day of remembrance and education about the Indian Residential school system and the impact it had on Indigenous children who were forcibly taken from their homes and placed in schools. These schools were designed to assimilate young Indigenous children into white European culture. Indigenous children were often completely separated from their families for long periods. The result was a loss of their mother language and the forgetting of a way of life. Afterwards, belonging to neither the white culture nor their own Indigenous culture, children who attended the residential schools grew into troubled adults, suffering from a deep sense of loss and profound alienation. As we now know, the impact of the residential school program has been ongoing and inter-generational.  Books like Stolen Words, are essential. They remind us to acknowledge the harm done by Canada's racist policies towards its First Nations, to work towards healing and to helping Indigenous peoples of Canada recover their culture and identity.

Book Details:

Stolen Words by Melanie Florence
Toronto: Second Story Press    2017

Unbound by Anne E. Burg

When nine-year-old Grace learns she is being sent to work in Master Allen's "Big House", she is unhappy. It will mean leaving behind Mama, her two younger brothers Thomas and Willy, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jim and his night stories and singing. Grace has light blue eyes and pale skin, different from her mama's brown eyes and dark skin.  But Grace has no choice. Her mama makes her promise 

"to always be good,
to listen to the Missus,
never talk back,
to lower my eyes...
to not speak
less spoken to first."

Her Aunt Sara tells Grace that her time in the Master's house will not be easy. She warns her that "the Missus is hateful as a toad" and that she needs to keep the promises made to her mama.

Her mama tells Uncle Jim, it's the pale skin that has led to Grace being called to the Big House. This  leads Grace to run into the swamp to visit OleGeorgeCooper, a runaway slave who is hiding "in the swamp with gators, snakes, n soul-stealing witches." OleGeorgeCooper has whip scars running across his face. Graces smears mud all over her face, arms and legs to make her skin brown, but when her mother sees her like this she chides Grace for not accepting the skin colour God gave her.

At the Big House, Grace is put to work in the kitchen with Aunt Tempie. There are three other slaves in the house: Uncle Moses, who helps Master Allen dress, drives his wagon and tends the horses, Jordan who waits on the Allens during dinner, and Anna who help Missus Allen dress and washes the clothes. Aunt Tempie warns Grace to avoid the Missus because she is "mean as a hornet...". Grace learns how to grind corn into flour, how to split a chicken and remove the bones. She learns that Jordan has runaway before and that he has a wife and a baby girl. 

As time passes, Grace longs to see her mother. She also sees how badly Anna, who does everything for the Missus, is treated. And she herself soon becomes the target of the Missus when she lets slip a few words, breaking her promise to her mother. But when Jordan runs just before the tobacco harvest, the Missus makes the suggestion that they sell Grace's family to make enough money to hire a new slave. 

Faced with being separated forever, Grace and her family decide to become runaways and flee into the Swamp. The dangers of the swamp are worth the risk of fleeing and being free.

Discussion

Unbound tells the story of a young girl and her family who work as slaves on a tobacco plantation in the southern United States. The story, told in free verse, provides young readers with what seems like a realistic portrayal of what the life of a nine-year-old child slave living on a plantation in Virginia/North Carolina would have been like. Burg does refer to some of the horrors slaves encountered, such as whippings, cruel treatment by their owners and the auctioning of slaves which often broke apart families forever. There is OleGeorgeCooper with the "ripples" across his face, Anna who gets whipped for "lingering", and Jordan who never smiles because he is not able to live with his wife and daughter. However, for the most part, the novel doesn't go into graphic detail.

Grace, who has blue eyes and light skin, is likely the daughter of Master Allen, who also has blue eyes and who views Grace as property, referring to her as "an investment". Grace isn't aware of this, as she believes she doesn't have a daddy, but her parentage is likely one of the reasons the Missus treats Grace cruelly and to break her spirit, suggests they sell Grace's family at an auction. 

Grace is a brave, strong young girl who finds she can't keep silent in the face of such oppression. When she learns about the duties the other slaves in the house have, such as serving dinner, helping Master Allen and Missus dress, Grace can't understand why the white folks are so helpless. When she learns that Master Allen intends to sell her mother and half-brothers in order to be able to afford to replace runaway slave Jordon, Grace makes the decision to run away, taking her family with her. 

Grace feels intense guilt because she broke her mother's promise to not talk back. She feels responsible for Master Allen's decision to sell her family. The Missus Allen made the suggestion as a way to "finally teach Grace who she is and where she belongs." Throughout her journey to the swamp, Grace must confront her inner turmoil. Eventually she confesses to her mother that they had to flee because she didn't keep her promises, keep her eyes down, keep her mouth shut. But her mother tells Grace that "Some folks done need a reason to hate...Hatin's a choice what's got nothin to do with you." Grace is not responsible for the evil others do. Her mother's love and forgiveness help heal Grace of her shame. 

Grace also learns that Aunt Tempie, whom she believed simply did whatever the Allens wanted,  has been intimately involved in helping runaway slaves for years. With shame, Grace realizes that she has judged Aunt Tempie the same way Missus Allen judged her.

Burg set her story in the early 1860's and Grace's fictional story is based on the real experiences of  slaves who fled to the Great Dismal Swamp to be free. The Great Dismal Swamp covered parts of southeast Virginia and northeast North Carolina and was surrounded by plantations worked by slaves. Slaves like Grace and her family, who freed themselves came to be known as maroons. Life in the swamp was dangerous and hard, but the maroons were willing to endure it because they were free. The fact that slaves were willing to live in such difficult conditions, often moving deep within the swamp to avoid recapture, is a testament to the human desire to be free. In the Great Dismal Swamp, Grace finds the freedom her heart longs for.

Freedom's not jus a place
you find on a map.
Freedom's livin
with folks who love you
n havin the space
to love yourself.

Freedom's not bein afraid
To say your own thoughts
n follow your own heart,
just like the good Lord intended.

Unbound offers young readers the opportunity to learn more about slavery in America and to explore what the life of a slave was like in the early 1860's. The story told simply in free verse, sticks to the important elements of the storyline, making this a good book for middle grade readers.

Book Details:

Unbound by Anne E. Burg
New York: Scholastic Press   2016
344 pp.

DVD: A Hidden Life

A Hidden Life is a biopic about Austrian conscientious objector and Catholic saint, Franz Jagerstatter. Written and directed by Terrence Malick, A Hidden Life is a jewel that simply must be seen by anyone who is interested in studying the past, learning from history and discovering those hidden acts that only now are coming to light.

The film opens with the voice of Franz Jagerstatter stating "I thought that we could build our nest high up in the trees, Fly away like birds to the mountains."  This is followed by black and white archival footage of Hitler being welcomed by the masses, speaking at huge rallies with cheering crowds. Austria has become part of Hitler's Third Reich. Events will unfold that will change Franz's life forever.

Franz and his wife Fani are working in the fields of the farm high in the mountains near the village of St. Radegund, Austria, in 1939. Husband and wife are a team, working together scything, planting potatoes and raising their three beautiful daughters.

Fani reminisces about how she and Franz met, how her sister now lives with them, how life in their village is filled with hard work, good neighbours and is happy. But overhead the sound of an approaching airplane hints at the troubles to come.

In 1940 Franz finds himself at the Enns Military Base doing training. There he meets a fellow recruit, Waldland who is always happy. In a letter to her husband, Fani reveals that France has surrendered and that she's heard they are allowing the farmers to return home. 

At the military base, Franz and the others watch propaganda movies about Germany's conquests of France and Russia. But while the other soldiers clap enthusiastically, Franz is deeply disturbed. He sees the destruction and the human cost and writes to his wife, "Oh my wife. What's happened to our country? To the land we love?"

Summer turns to winter and then to spring, and Franz finally returns home. Fani and the children are ecstatically happy. During the wheat harvest in the fall, one of the farmers tells Franz he has been called up. He thought there would be peace but the war simply goes on. To Franz's question,  "Do you believe in what we are fighting for?" the farmer answers, "Not really." As Franz and the village miller Trakl watch their neighbours embrace Nazism, Trakl questions Franz, " Don't they know evil when they see it?..." Knowing Franz does not support the Nazis, he warns him to be careful.

In a conversation with his parish priest, Father Furthauer, a troubled Franz reveals that if he is called up he cannot serve. "We're killing innocent people, raiding other countries, preying on the weak. Now the priests call them heroes, even saints. The soldiers that do this. It might be that the other ones are the heroes. The ones who defend their homes against the invaders."  Father asks Franz if he's considered the consequences of his actions, for his family. He tells Franz he would most likely be shot and his sacrifice would benefit no one. He does agree to speak to the bishop about Franz's situation.

Franz's internal conflict deepens and Fani notices a change in her once carefree husband. He is thoughtful and worried. When brown shirts show up to collect for the war effort, Franz refuses, telling them he has nothing to give. This leads to a visit from Kraus, the mayor of Radegund as to why he's not supporting his people and the war effort. Franz however,  remains unmoved by the mayor's pleas.

Franz and Fani go to see Bishop Joseph Calasanz Fliesser. But the bishop is of no help to Franz. On the way home Franz tells Fani, "I think he was afraid I was a spy. They don't dare commit themselves or it could be their turn next." Eckinger, a neighbour explains to Franz that the bishop is going along, trying to appease the Nazis, in the hopes the regime will be more tolerant towards the church. Priests are being sent to concentration camps and church possessions are being banned.

The villagers begin to ostracize Franz and Fani. Franz's mother is upset with Fani, blaming her for changing her son. The mayor violently confronts Franz, telling him they must defend their country and that he is traitor to his people and his country.  Despite this Fani supports Franz. She tells him their prayers will be answered, if they are faithful to God, he will be faithful to them. 

Eventually their worst fears are confirmed: Franz is called up. The couple are devastated for they both know that if Franz follows his conscience, he will never return home. In March of 1943,  Franz reports to Enns for military service. He refuses to take a pledge to Hitler and is promptly arrested and put in prison. So begins his short journey of hidden resistance and ultimately to martyrdom.

Discussion

Written and directed by Terrence Malick, A Hidden Life portrays the events leading to Franz Jagerstatter refusal to support the Nazi regime and war, which he considered a great evil. As a result, Franz was arrested, imprisoned and guillotined at 4pm on August 9, 1943 in prison.

A Hidden Life is a deeply moving film that asks viewers to consider the role of conscience in our everyday lives, to explore the concepts of just war, the lost virtue of moral courage, and the possibility of sacrificing everything for our most deeply held convictions. It does so by setting this moving human drama against the majestic backdrop of mountains, waterfalls, blooming meadows and fast-flowing rivers.

Franz and Franziska on their wedding day

Franz Jagerstatter (played by actor August Diehl), whose Catholic faith blossomed after his marriage to Franziska Schwaninger (Valerie Pachner), a devout Catholic,  came to believe that Nazism and Catholicism were completely irreconcilable. When he saw the goals of the Nazi war, to enslave other nations, to plunder their resources, wealth and culture, and their determination to murder an entire race of human beings, he knew he could not participate in any way. To do so was to cooperate with a great evil.

When he was called up for a third time in 1943, Franz reported to the military base at Enns, Austria but refused to complete his military service. According to the Reich Court Martial  “that, due to his religious views, he refused to perform military service with a weapon, that he would be acting against his religious conscience were he to fight for the Nazi State…that he could not be both a Nazi and a Catholic… that there were some things in which o­ne must obey God more than men; due to the commandment ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself’, he said he could not fight with a weapon. However, he was willing to serve as a military paramedic.” Interestingly in Malik's film, his offering to serve as a paramedic is somewhat glossed over. In fact, in real life, his request to serve as a medic was denied.

In A Hidden Life, Franz is repeatedly told that his conscientious objection would serve no purpose and therefore was meaningless. He is called a traitor, that his actions are sinful. His lone resistance would be hidden - no one would ever know of it, it would not alter the course of the war, nor stop it. Time and again he was told he had an obligation to his country, his people and to his family. 

Opposition surrounds him on all sides. His Catholic parish priest and even his Catholic bishop were of no help. Hoping for some guidance from his bishop, Franz is told that he "has a duty to the Fatherland, the church tells you so." and that he must obey those in authority over him. Franz asks the bishop, "If our leaders are not good...if they're evil. What does one do?" His bishop has no answer for him.

Before reporting for military service in 1943, Father Furthauer (played by Tobais Moretti) challenges Franz, "Does a man have the right to let himself be put to death for truth? Could it possibly please God?" He tells Franz that God wants us to be happy and not bring suffering on ourselves. In response to Father Furthauer's rationalizing, Franz astutely counters that we must stand up to evil. 

Franz talking with Judge Lueben

In prison, Franz's lawyer tries desperately and repeatedly to get his client to sign a paper. He doesn't understand Franz's defiance asking him, "How do you know what is good or bad?" At his military tribunal in July 1943, Judge Lueben meets with Franz privately. The Reich judge is deeply puzzled about Franz's objections and berates him, "Do you imagine that anything you do will change the course of this war? That anyone outside this court will ever hear of you? No one will be changed. The world will go on as before."  And yet at the end of his time with Franz, one senses that maybe Lueben does understand, that he is condemning a good man.

Franz's intense spiritual conflict is set against the backdrop of the spectacular beauty of the Alps. Malik filmed these scenes in the Italian Alps while the scenes in the farmhouse were shot in the Jagerstatter home in Radegund. The cinematography is one of the most outstanding features of this film. Scenes of Franz and Fani working together, scything wheat, running their mill, milking cows, sowing crops, cutting wood, baking bread, playing with their young children, and spending time alone, portray a simple life of honest but hard work. Set against a backdrop of breathtakingly beautiful scenes of mountains, misty forest, rushing streams, and golden wheat fields, Malik captures the beauty of nature  High in the Austrian Alps, in the tiny village of Radegund, one can feel the presence of God. These scenes of joyful family life and a loving marriage show and Fani's unwavering support sustain Franz.

As it turns out, all who told Franz that his sacrifice would be meaningless and forgotten in the mists of time were wrong. Today he is a saint, his life the subject of a sublime film that has touched millions. On his beatification, Diocesan Bishop Dr. Ludwig Schwarz and Bishop Dr. Manfred Scheuer (Postulator of the beatification procedure) made this statement:

“Franz Jägerstätter is a prophet with a global view and a penetrating insight which very few of his contemporaries had at that time; he is a shining example in his fidelity to the claims of his conscience, an advocate of non-violence and peace, a voice of warning against ideologies, a deep-believing person for whom God really was the core and centre of life. His prophetic witness to Christian truth is based o­n a clear, radical and far-sighted analysis of the barbarism of the inhuman and godless system of Nazism, its racial delusions, its ideology of war and deification of the state, as well as its declared program of annihilating Christianity and the Church. His educated, mature conscience led him to say a resolute ‘No’ to Nazism and he was executed due to his consistent refusal to take up arms as a soldier in Hitler’s war.”
 
Those who wish to read more about Franz Jagerstatter's life are referred to the Diocese of Linz website.

The movie takes its title from a George Eliot quote from her book, Middlemarch:

"The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life..." Franz's life and his act of passive resistance were most definitely hidden and unhistoric. His life, lived faithfully and his refusal to participate in a evil war, have done good that none of us will fully know in this life.

A Hidden Life is a beautifully crafted film, with a cast who give outstanding performances. Malik challenges his audience to consider the life of a man who simply could not cooperate with evil. Ultimately his hidden resistance cost him his life. While the personal price was high, Franz Jagerstatter demonstrated that there was still some good in a very evil time.

Image credits:

Franz and Franzsika wedding photo: https://johnpwalshblog.com/2017/10/26/blessed-franz-jagerstatter-1907-1943-farmer-husband-and-father-conscientious-objector-and-martyr/ 

Franz with Judge Lueben: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2020/17-january/books-arts/film/film-review-a-hidden-life-cert-12a

War Stories by Gordon Korman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discussion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Highly recommended.

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

Book Details:

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

A Book For Escargot by Dashka Slater

Dashka Slater's delightfully sweet picture book, A Book For Escargot readers are treated to the second story about Escargot, that dashing, suave French snail. C'est un regale that breaks the cuteness meter and is sure to delight readers young and old.

In this adventure, dashing Escargot is on his way to the library to find a book, but not just any book. He's tired of eating salads. He dreams of something much more scrumptious and so he wants "a French cookbook, filled with delicious French recipes."

Along the way to the cooking section, Escargot is amazed at all the wonderful books in the library. But he does find it upsetting that there are no "books about a daring snail hero who saves the day."

But Escargot laments the lack of books "about a daring snail hero who saves the day" and suggests that the reader might want to write a story about a "very beautiful French snail hero" based on him. And so he imagines beginning to write such a book as he slimes towards the cookbook section.

Eventually, Escargot makes it to the cookbook section where he finds what seems like the perfect book, The Art of French Cooking. This book will help him find something to make besides a boring salad. But Escargot makes a startling discovery about French cooking and comes up with a satisfying solution to a book that views escargot in a way he never imagined!

Discussion

In this  picture book, Escargot is cheeky and he knows it. From the very beginning he has no doubts about himself, telling readers, " It can be very distracting to have a very beautiful French snail staring at you while you read."  He very innocently suggests some classic children's books, with a decidedly gastropod theme. He even suggests that the author of a book about a snail hero might be modeled after his "most beautiful parts, like my shiny brown shell or my translucent tentacle of my chic outfit." By his own definition, he is "handsome, suave, and smart." And when he shockingly discovers the real reason French cooking involves escargot, he retreats to his shell, where he is "not hiding but more like having a private moment."

Bringing this humorous tale to life are the colourful illustrations by Sydney Hanson. She usually works with pencil crayon and also watercolours. Hanson, a certified naturalist, is well known for her lovely animal illustrations and she perfectly captures the cheekiness of Escargot as he innocently seeks out a French cookbook. A Book For Escargot demands to be read with a French accent. Nothing less than that will do!

Book Details:

A Book For Escargot by Dashka Slater
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux      2020

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discussion

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

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

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

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

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

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

Book Details:

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

Escargot by Dashka Slater

Escargot is the name of a dashing, suave French snail. And he's on a mission to be the reader's favourite animal and to get to the delicious salad at the end of the book! Along the way, Escargot fills readers in on his most magnifique traits. He even suggests that his shimmery trails of...."Not slime..." but "shimmery stuff" are beautiful.

Having convinced the young reader that snails do indeed make excellent favourite animals, Escargot arrives at the salad. But this salad is not quite to his liking. However, Escargot keeps an open mind which leads to a change in his liking and thinking!

Discussion

Escargot is a delightful picture book, whose main character, a French snail, will charm his way into your heart! Escargot is witty, cheeky and very amusing. In this story, Escargot encourages his reader to try something new, in this case, carrots. In doing so, he discovers a new favourite.

Helping the story along are the lovely illustrations by Sydney Hanson, who has worked for Disney Animation Studios and Dream Works Studios. Hanson is able to capture the qualities of Escargot's personality and bring them to life on paper. This makes Escargot much more than an ordinary snail, the text and illustrations of this sweet picture book working together to create a beloved character.


Book Details:

Escargot by Dashka Slater
New York: Farrar Straus Giroux

Baggage by Wendy Phillips

Baggage explores the issue of illegal refugees and human trafficking in this novel set in Vancouver, British Columbia. The story is told in verse, through voices of five people, Ms. Nelson a teacher, Brittany one of Ms. Nelson's students, Leah who is Brittany's sister, Thabo an illegal refugee and Kevin who is a friend of Brittany and Leah.

After returning from a trip to Japan with her students, Ms. Nelson notices the boy leaning against the baggage carousel in the International Arrivals area of the Vancouver International Airport. All of her students have been picked up except Brittany whose mother, an ER nurse, is late. That boy is Thabo who has been waiting for three hours after the old woman who accompanied him on the plane left to get food. She took his passport and papers and he has no idea where she is. Thabo doesn't speak English.

Ms. Nelson decides to intervene and takes Thabo to the airport police but no one can understand him. Eventually he is left with Immigration who will place him  in foster care while they determine his country of origin and his age.

At home, Brittany tells Leah and her mom that the boy was abandoned like "unclaimed baggage". She believes 

"He might be  a refugee a child soldier
maybe
a terrorist's kid
maybe
a victim of child trafficking."

While Brittany is focusing on Thabo and his situation, her friend Kevin, who does all the research for her social justice initiatives, begins to feel left out and used. At the same time, Brittany's sister Leah, who is a catcher on the local baseball team, begins to notice Kevin.

Brittany confronts Ms. Nelson after class one day, telling her that Kevin's research has shown that Thabo could end up in jail because he has no passport and no proof of age. She asks Ms. Nelson to find out what is going on with Thabo and tells her that her parents are willing to have him stay with her family. That night Ms. Nelson learns that Thabo has been placed in detention because of his lack of documentation and because he's considered a flight risk. The x-rays seem to indicate that he is likely older than eighteen years of age.

This news results in Brittany ramping up a massive social media campaign about Thabo's situation. She forces her family to take in Thabo and calls Kevin late that night to have him get his church minister involved. But when Border Services decides he's to be deported, Thabo seeks asylum in the Reverend's church. What they don't know is that the people who brought Thabo to Canada are actively looking for him and will stop at nothing to get him back.

Discussion

Baggage, a story about an illegal immigrant, tackles a host of social issues through a story told in verse. When Thabo is supposedly abandoned at Vancouver International Airport, he becomes the latest project of Brittany, a teenager who is described as a "passionate crusader". Soon Brittany has her family, her school and the community involved in her social media campaign to rescue Thabo. But it turns out that Brittany is so focused on publicity and activism that she doesn't ask the hard questions about Thabo's situation.

The novel attempts to focus on the social issue of illegal immigrants and human trafficking but there are also other issues explored such as the use of social media in dealing with social issues. A subplot is the blossoming romance between Kevin, who is largely ignored by Brittany, and her sister, Leah. Phillips tells Thabo's story using free verse, a format that provides only the basics of the story while highlighting the characters. Through Phillips effective free verse, readers will get a good sense of the main characters, what motivates them and how they are different.

It is the character of Brittany however, who steals the focus of the reader from illegal immigrant and potential trafficking victim, Thabo. Brittany, a master at generating publicity for causes, succeeds in her attempt to generate media attention for Thabo's plight, but at the same time reveals herself as someone so completely focused on her online image and on using social media, that she forgets about the human element, the real people involved and how they are being affected.

This is seen in her relationship, or lack of it, with her friend Kevin who has a crush on Brittany. Kevin begins to feel used as Brittany ramps up her media campaign for Thabo. He notes she "loves projects loves to talk to crowds" and "Her favourite part is getting people passionate about issues..." but he wishes he was "an issue and she would get passionate about me." Brittany writes slogans, considers "a poster series made into memes" and "A few sound bites from Kevin's research". Kevin is a means to an end, her researcher and not much more. Her use of Kevin, who is Chinese, in a multicultural poster with herself and Thabo is hurtful. She tells him, he is included because they are all good looking. Kevin knows it's "not a compliment, just a strategy".

For Brittany, Thabo is a "project". Brittany's focus is almost entirely on using Thabo to enhance her own image and social media campaign. In her effort to create a media storm around Thabo and his situation, Brittany forgets that she is dealing with a real person who may have experienced significant trauma. She doesn't take the time to think about how events are affecting Thabo. For example, when she brings him to stay in her family's home, Brittany is annoyed that he doesn't act grateful and she's irritated by the fact that he yells in his sleep.

Gradually Thabo becomes lost in Brittany's social media campaign, becoming a mere prop. When she brings him to school, it's more to show him off, and to generate her image of a social justice warrior.
"I'm bringing him
to school next week
to get him started on his missed education
to show him to everyone."

Brittany is excited to organize the Global Leadership club meeting, noting, "The club executive will be impressed. They'll all listen to me. It'll be cool." As the situation develops and Thabo takes refuge in the church, Brittany undertakes and organizes an amazing list of publicity stunts that include concerts, bake sales, and TV interviews.

In contrast to Brittany, Leah is more aware of how these events are affecting Thabo. She sees his humanity and treats him like a person who may be frightened and uncertain. Leah immediately tries to communicate with Thabo, discovering that immigration officials determined his language is Sotho, from southern Africa. This leads her to work on learning a few words of Sotho, practicing them over and over. When they take Thabo to school, it is Leah's quiet, "Ho lokile, It's okay." that brings a smile to his face. While Brittany is concerned about people donating to the Thabo Defense Fund, Leah worries that "Thabo is freaked out" and that other students might gang up on him. She checks in on him during the day.

It is Leah's quiet and calming approach to Thabo and her ability to empathize with others that draws Kevin to her. Leah recognizes that Kevin likes Brittany but she knows her sister isn't serious about any relationship, that she "dabbles in boyfriends". But Kevin begins to feel an attraction to Leah, who has a calming effect on him.

Ironically it is Kevin and Leah who are thrown together in an attempt to save Thabo. And incredibly Brittany continues to make the story about herself.
I post photos of the fire
do a few more selfies
pick the one
that shows to advantage
my cheekbones
and eyelashes
smoldering ruins in the background.

I Snapchat my friends
Tweet my networks
Instagram my circle, ...
update the Facebook page...

I change my profile picture
#GirlOnFire

To her dismay, Brittany finds herself on the outside of the trending story looking in!

Phillips has crafted a story that is both engaging and that offers many themes to explore. It's timely considering the ongoing refugee crisis in the world today. But the novel also offers young readers the chance to explore the issues surround social media and how it is used today. The novel's title, Baggage is an obvious reference to Thabo who is abandoned at the airport like a piece of baggage. But it might also be a reference to the "baggage" or emotional and psychological issues each of the characters have. There's plenty to explore in this intriguing novel.

Book Details:

Baggage by Wendy Phillips
Regina, Sask.:   Coteau Books    2019
295 pp.