Traitor. A novel by Amanda McCrina

Traitor is a historical fiction novel set during World War II that explores the little known events during the war in Poland and the Ukraine. It is told through two narratives, that of Tolya and Aleksey.

Tolya Korolenko is a sniper with the First Ukrainian Front of the Soviet Red Army which has now moved into the Ukraine. On Stalin's orders, the First Ukrainian Front are rounding up and disarming every Polish Resistance fighter left in the city of Lwow. The officers are to be shipped east to the labour camps; the rank and file soldiers offered amnesty if they will join the Soviets.

It is late in the day when Tolya comes across a man assaulting a woman. Tolya fires a bullet into the back of the Soviet, only to see that it is Zampolit Sergei Petrov. Toyla finishes the job with a bullet to the back of the head and offers to help the young woman whom he suspects is Polish resistance. But she is having none of it. Instead she robs the dead Petrov of his gun and ammunition turns on Tolya but leaves him unharmed with his rifle.

Tolya has no regrets about killing Petrov as he's wanted to kill him after what happened in Tarnopol. Tolya's friend and mentor, Comrade Lieutenant Spirin had managed to make it back from behind German lines despite two broken ribs and a bullet in his back. Petrov had him executed by firing squad, believing he'd survived because he was a double agent. After the girl leaves, Tolya is spotted by Russian soldiers and runs through the streets to lose them.

Back with his unit at the train station, as the night settles in, Comrade Lieutenant Maksym Rudenko, the battalion commander warns Tolya not to miss curfew again. He tells him he will inform Comrade Colonel Sokolov, commander of their division, "it was an accidental discharge."

The next day Tolya meets up with Nataliya Koval, a sniper also with the First Ukrainian Front. Koval warns Tolya that the Soviets suspect one of them killed Petrov. She tells him that the NKVD (Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del - the People's Commisariat for Internal Affairs) Soviet secret police will be certain to investigate.They will torture him to reveal "all the other anti-Soviet elements in the company." She warns him that the NKVD will know he had issues with Petrov and that other soldiers will talk. Koval tells Tolya that he could be far into the mountains in two days but he refuses to run. He lies to Koval and promises her he will leave that night for Stryy.

But at noon, the NKVD come for Tolya. Three men take him from the noon mess hall to the station and into a black car. They tell Tolya they are not NKVD, introducing themselves as Andriy, Taras, Yakiv and Aleksey known as Solovey. They are with the L'viv group of the UPA (Ukrainska Povstankska Armiia) - "the Insurgent Army, radical Ukrainian nationalists and anti-Communists." Tolya believes their claim of being part of the UPA and speaking Ukrainian is an attempt to trick him. When they show papers supposedly from the Front's senior NKVD officer Fyodor Volkov at the roadblock, Tolya is certain they are NKVD. 

They leave the city behind and eventually pull off the road.As they begin hiking into the woods, Tolya tells them to just shoot him. Solovey insists they are not NKVD and that they have "extracted" him. Tolya tries unsuccessfully to convince Solovey to let him go but when he refuses, he runs and is shot in the shoulder. When Solovey opens Tolya's shirt, he sees the rosary around his neck and knows this means he is Polish and a Roman Catholic. With Andriy, Taras and Yakiv coming, Solovey rips the rosary off and pockets it. Still Tolya believes the UPA who hate Poles and believe in cleansing the Ukraine, will kill him.

Tolya is given morphine, the bullet removed by a Red Cross nurse and he begins to recuperate in the UPA's field camp. Solovey tells him that their source in the Front arranged to get him "extracted" as he was in danger. But Tolya has no idea what's going on. The Red Cross nurses want to take Tolya to Toporiv to recover but Solovey refuses and offers Tolya another choice after he proves he can still shoot. He is asked to assassinate Fyodor Volkov, the highest ranking NKVD officer in the western Ukraine. Tolya agrees and the group begins planning. When they are told by Yakiv that Volkov is not at headquarters, Tolya goes to sleep. He awakens to find the camp under attack by NKVD forces. They have been betrayed. He and Solovey escape, running into the forest, Tolya without his boots and Solovey with a broken leg from a machine-gun slug. 

Initially they planned to stay at Solovey's grandfather's cabin however they encounter NKVD and realize that this no longer an option and head to Hruszow. Solovey wants Tolya to leave him behind as he is becoming weaker from his injuries but Tolya refuses. At this time Solovey reveals that his real name is Aleksey Yevhenovych Kobryn and he tells Tolya a bit about himself. The issue is settled when they are attacked by the NKVD and Solovey, badly wounded by gunfire, kills himself. Tolya escapes but goes back to bury Solovey and is captured by Vitalik and his UPA squad. 

He is tortured by Vitalik who believes Tolya is really NKVD and that he robbed Solovey. However, when their cabin is surrounded by NKVD who are then surrounded by the Polish Resistance, Tolya is rescued and taken to the home of Mrs. Kijek where he begins to recover from the torture. However, during his convalescence, the NKVD attack the house. As he's taking out the machine gun nests in the forest, Tolya unexpectedly meets up with Nataliya Koval whom he thought was dead. She explains what has happened over the past few months. She gives Tolya a chance to escape along with Mrs. Kijek and her daughter, Lena. The truth about the informer in the Ukrainian Front is revealed.

A second narrative by Aleksey Yevhenovych Kobryn, set three years earlier, in 1941 as the Germans are entering Lwow,  provides some of the backstory of the characters encountered in Tolya's narrative. Like Tolya, Aleksey encounters the various factions fighting in Lwow, including the Nachtigallen, Ukrainians who are the advance troops for the Germans, Vitalik of the UPA, and the Kijeks who work for the Polish Resistance.

Discussion

In Traitor, the complexities of war in Eastern Europe are explored along with the themes of loyalty and betrayal and what it means to be a traitor.

The main story is told through the narrative of Tolya, an eighteen-year-old of mixed Ukrainian and Polish ethnicity. The story is set in Galicia, a region that contains parts of both Poland and the Ukraine. In this region, with a long history of conflict, people were fighting not only occupation by the Germans (Nazis), but the Russians (Communists) as well as each other; Polish against Ukrainian and vice versa. Tolya's mixed heritage makes  him a possible traitor no matter which side he chooses and this seems to be his lot in the story. His father, a Ukrainian had died in prison while his mother was murdered simply because she was Polish. With the death of his parents, he was taken in by his Aunt Olena and his uncle who were Communist Party members but eventually when the Germans arrived in 1941, he was conscripted into the Russian army as a sniper.

Some characters in Aleksey's story are found three years later in Tolya's story: Aleksey is now Solovey of the UPA, Vitalik a brutal man who tortures Tolya and who killed Aleksey's father because he knew too much, and Mrs. Kijek, a nurse who treats both Aleksey and Tolya.

Readers will not find Traitor an easy read. There are many characters, who switch in and out of the various factions and at times it's difficult to know which side a character may be affiliated with.  While this serves to drive home the complexity of the conflict in Galicia during World War II, it can also be very confusing. And Aleksey, one of the narrators, appears as a character under a different name (Solovey) in Tolya's story. Thankfully McCrina does provide her readers with a List of Characters at the back of the book - something that should have been placed more prominently at the front.

Overall the impression after reading this novel is that it is really two books meshed together. What would have made the novel more readable and more enjoyable was to simply tell the stories chronologically, first Aleksey's story set in 1941 with the coming of the Germans as they were initiating Operation Barbarossa, then Tolya's story set in 1944 as the Germans were fleeing the area and the Russians moving in to occupy Galicia. Most adults don't know the 20th century history of this region, never mind teens. The alternating narratives added a layer of complexity that wasn't necessary.

Tolya is representative of the theme of what it means to be a traitor. First there is his heritage. When Lena Kijek mentions that at first she thought Tolya was a Polish conscript, but then realizes he's Ukrainian Tolya doesn't bother to explain. "What was there to say? He wasn't Polish, and he wasn't Ukrainian. He was a traitor to his father's people on account of his mother, and a traitor to his mother's people on account of his father, and a traitor to both on account of the Reds, and a traitor to the Reds on account of Zampolit Petrov."

But Tolya's story is also about the hunt for an informer in the Ukrainian Front - the Russian Red Army moving into the Ukraine in 1944. The Front were afraid the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) would place an informer into its ranks.In Tarnopol, they believed the informer was now within their ranks. After Colonel Spirin was executed, Zampolit Petrov was certain Tolya was the informer and wanted to act. However, Colonel Sokolov refused mainly because he did not want to lose another soldier. Instead, they allowed the UPA to take Tolya and tracked them to their camp. Koval was part of the NKVD who attacked Solovey and the UPA. The NKVD continued to follow Tolya;  he was recaptured by the UPA, then tortured and freed by the Polish resistance. Eventually the NKVD caught up with him at the Kijek's house where Tolya unexpectedly meets Koval and learns the truth about what has happened over the last few months. She admits to being the informer but she participated in the attacks so as to not blow her cover.

Unlike most young adult novels today, Traitor does incorporate some of the Catholic culture which was a part of the Galicia region into the story. Tolya is Catholic and carries a rosary which is considered by the Ukrainians as a way to identify a Polish person. He only knows some of the prayers, but he prays those bits he knows. Although he has no problem as a sniper taking out other soldiers, in his mind he's constantly recalling the counselling of his priest. Father Dmytro tells him "Hate is like hogweed...easily seeded, easily spread--but have you ever tried to root out hogweed? And you've got to root it out, because it chokes out everything else." 

Aleksey spends time in prayer when he returns to the room he shares with Mykola. "I went to the icons and made my prayers in silence -- To Christ first, with the sign of the cross, then to the Theotokos, then to the saints in turn, Saint Yevhen last of all."  Despite his prayers, Aleksey finds himself  considers stealing. "The obvious thing would be to take advantage of the fact that Altshuer's was closed. I'd stolen before, of course, when I'd needed to. It was easy to justify stealing from Poles and Reds. They were the ones who'd created the need in the first place. Repayment in kind -- God would understand and forgive."  When he kills Strilka, Aleksey's surprised at his lack of reaction. "I waited for the pangs of conscience. It was never as easy as you thought it was going to be. I knew that because I'd failed every time before. I hadn't even been able to kill that Red sentry, down at the station. I hadn't been able to kill Andriy, and I hadn't been able to watch Andriy kill that Pole... It was because I didn't have time to think about it, I decided. It would be harder later."

Traitor is a novel that manages to convey the brutality of war both for soldiers and the general population. It is a reminder that during this time people were murdered simply because they were a certain ethnicity (Jewish, Polish or Ukrainian) or because of their political beliefs or for no reason at all. In this regard, Traitor is an important book for our times.

Book Details:

Traitor: A Novel by Amanda McCrina
New York: Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers   2020
355 pp.

Bobby Orr And The Hand-Me-Down Skates by Bobby Orr and Kara Kootstra

In this delightful picture book, hockey legend Bobby Orr tells the story of the time he wished for a brand new pair of skates but ended up with his brother's hand-me-downs.

Bobby who lived "in a small town by a big lake" loved to play hockey. He played hockey before and after school, on the lake near his home. Just before his eleventh birthday, Bobby wanted a new pair of skates. The skates Bobby desperately dreamed about getting were the brand new pair with black leather and gleaming silver blades in the window of the sports shop in town. He wanted these skates so badly that he left hints for his parents and even told them how tight his old skates were becoming. 

On his eleventh birthday, Bobby was given a big box which he was certain contained the brand new skates that he wanted so much. But when he opened the box...inside were his older brother's hand-me-down skates that his father had sharpened. The hand-me-down skates were scuffed and smelly and even had a few patches of rust on the blades. Although Bobby was deeply disappointed, he thanked his parents and smiled. But he couldn't imagine scoring a game-winning goal in these skates.

At first Bobby found it difficult to adjust to his new skates but soon he was "sailing up the ice in his Hand-Me-Down skates as though they were extension of his very own feet."  For the next year, Bobby continued to practice on the ice at home and play hockey. 

It was an invitation to play in a hockey game before a Toronto Maple Leafs game in Toronto that would not only get him noticed but get Bobby what mattered most to him as an eleven-year-old - a new pair of skates!

Discussion

Bobby Orr And The Hand-Me-Down Skates tells about one episode in the life of hockey great Bobby Orr who grew up in the town of Parry Sound, Ontario.  Orr's family was not well off, so it wasn't surprising that he would end up with his brother's old skates. But even wearing skates too large for him, Bobby's determination and skill got him noticed and he eventually got those brand new skates, paid for by someone who recognized his talent.

This picture book is perfect for young hockey fans, offering readers the opportunity to learn a bit about this legendary hockey player. Orr's story about the hand-me-down skates touches on the themes of gratitude, and the importance of hard work. Orr really wanted the new skates, but he was grateful for what he was given and he showed his parents his appreciation. Then determined to improve his skills, he worked with what he had. His hard work and determination eventually paid off in a pair of new skates. Helping the story along are Jennifer Phelan's richly coloured illustrations which were rendered in oil pastel and watercolour pencil. 

A lovely story about one of Canada's great, if not greatest hockey players.

Book Details:

Bobby Orr And The Hand-Me-Down Skates by Bobby Orr and Kara Kootstra
Tundra Books of Northern New York       2020

Stay Curious! A Brief History of Stephen Hawking by Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer

Stay Curious offers young readers an introduction to the life and accomplishments of famous cosmologist, Stephen Hawking.

Hawking grew up in England, in a family who loved to read, even through dinner. The listened to opera and they even had beehives in their basement. The also enjoyed stargazing at night in their backyard. Stephen and his friends loved to create complicated board games and they enjoyed talking about how the universe came to be.

Inspired by his math teacher, Dikran Tahta, Stephen and his friends invented a computer made from recycled parts. Tahta encouraged Stephen to study physics, which he went on to study at Oxford University, the alma mater of both his parents.

As in high school, Stephen never studied or took notes, but he still did exceptionally well. At Oxford, he joined the rowing club, which helped him to make many friends. Then Stephen began to have trouble controlling his body. He had difficulty tying his shoelaces, his speech was sometimes slurred and he fell down the stairs. But it wasn't until he fell ice skating one day with his mother and was unable to get up that the mystery was solved. 

His parents took him for a series of medical tests and he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or what is called ALS. Stephen, who was just twenty-one-years-old, was given a devastating prognosis: he had two years to live.

At first he retreated from the world, Stephen remembered he was not the only one facing down a terrible illness. ALS allowed his mind, which was unaffected by the degenerative disease to focus on specific problems that interested him. He began to think deeply about the universe and how it might have formed. At this time Stephen had also fallen in love with his girlfriend, Jane Wilde, to whom he became engaged. This relationship gave him the strength to move forward with his life despite the crushing diagnosis.

Jane and Stephen would marry and have three children, Robert, Lucy and Timothy. Meanwhile, Stephen's health continued to decline, but not in the precipitous way predicted by doctors. And he would go on to become the premier cosmologist of his generation, proposing the theory of the Big Bang and discovering interesting features of black holes. His adventuresome and mischievous nature continued throughout his life. Stephen died peacefully, at home, at the age of seventy-six.

Discussion

Stay Curious! is an interesting picture-book biography of Stephen Hawking that focuses on his remarkable attitude, which allowed him to live a fulfilling life and to make major contributions to our understanding of the universe. The book's title is a play on Hawking's best-selling book, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes.

The picture book is a good blend of highlighting Stephen Hawking's achievements while also chronicling his health struggles. As his body began to fail him, his mind began to compensate and his character was often revealed. For example, Krull and Brewer write that when Stephen lost his ability to write, "his memory became a kind of superpower." 

With each physical setback, Stephen didn't give up but met the challenge. When finally having to use a wheelchair, "he became notorious for daredevil driving."  Stephen's incredible attitude towards life was matched by his sense of humour and his eccentric ways. He loved to have parties in his hotel room and his birthday usually meant some sort of themed party.

Stephen's ability to live a fulfilling life was in part due to the efforts of his wife and friends which the authors also mention. For example, when he lost the use of his voice after a procedure, "Friends fitted a small computer and a speech synthesizer to his wheelchair. Stephen now 'spoke' in a robot-like voice with an American accent." 

Boris Kulikov's colourful mixed media illustrations further enhance this inspiring account of Stephen Hawking's life. Stay Curious! offers young readers the opportunity to learn about Stephen Hawking, his work and ability to meet life's challenges with fortitude, perseverance and humour.

Book Details:

Stay Curious! A Brief History of Stephen Hawkings
New York: Crown Books for Young Readers   2020

Yara's Spring by Jamal Saeed and Sharon McKay

Yara's Spring is a heart-breaking fictional story of a young girls life in Syria during the Syria War and her journey to freedom.

Yara's story begins on March 11, 2011. Ten-year-old Yara lives in Bustan al-Qasr, in the middle of Aleppo with her mama and baba and her Nana. Baba's brothers and sisters had left Syria years ago and her mama has only one brother, Sami who lives in Damascus. On this morning, Yara gets up and runs errands for her Baba who is a baker. Their bakery sits in front of their two story family home. Yara's best friend, Shireen lives across the street. After delivering bread to their neighbours in need, Yara returns home to find her Uncle Sami visiting. Sami works as a high school teacher in Damascus, and Yara loves him dearly. 

Uncle Sami tells his mother, Nana that a revolution is coming, that they need democracy, a chance to choose their own leaders. He tells her the "Arab Spring" is coming. The Arab Spring began in Tunisia and then to Egypt and now has come to Syria. Schoolboys wrote graffiti on the walls of the school in the city of Dara'a. The words were about President al-Assad, so the principal called the police. who then arrested the boys. Sami tells Nana, that it is like what happened before. Yara doesn't know what Sami is referring to and he refuses to elaborate.

Shireen comes to get Yara for dance class. As they leave, they see her father getting into a car to go to a funeral. Shireen's mother, Roja and her twin brother, Ali watch him leave. At dance class after they watch the senior girls rehearse, Nana gives Shireen a whispered message that sends her running out of class. Nana tells Yara that Shireen's father has been arrested at the funeral. The man who died was a rebel, who belonged to the Kurdish Future Movement which Shireen's father supported. He is now a political prisoner, worse off than a criminal as there will be no lawyer or trial for him. Nana explains to Yara that Shireen's family will suffer too: Roja will not be able to continue working at the university.

A year later, Yara's mother gives birth to a baby boy, Saad, at home due to the war that is raging in Syria. Shireen's father continues to languish in prison. Another year passes, it is now 2014. The war continues on as Yara celebrates her fourteenth birthday. Aleppo is now a divided city, with West Aleppo controlled by the government of President al-Assad and East Aleppo where Yara and her family live, under rebel control. As a result, East Aleppo is bombed frequently. Yara's mama had wanted to move, but Nana and Baba were against leaving behind the bakery they had built. 

On her birthday, Yara is playing with two year old Saad, now a happy, active little boy. On the roof, as Yara is helping hang the laundry, Nana gives her a small paper bag of candies. On the opposite rooftop, Shireen and Ali wave their happy birthday greetings to her. Ali had  wanted to join the rebels but Roja refused to allow it, scolding him about ending up in prison like his father. Suddenly, Yara sees six helicopters coming and as they fly over her home, they drop their bombs. The rooftop collapses, sending Saad flying past her, while Yara tumbles through the air and is buried in the rubble of her home. After being rescued, Yara learns her baba and mama have been killed in the bombing, but Saad is safe, having landed in Roja's laundry basket. However, he is so traumatized, he stops speaking. Nana is injured and Yara sees her being taken away in an ambulance to a hospital.

Yara and Saad are taken in by Roja. After several days, Ali goes to search the hospital but cannot locate Nana. Determined to find Nana, and believing her to be still alive, Yara insists on continuing the search. Meanwhile, Shireen shows her family's passports to Yara, but tells her that they will never leave Syria while her father is in prison. Shireen points out to Yara the difficulty in leaving the country: getting to Turkey means getting past ISIS, Iraq requires a visa and Hezbollah in Lebanon makes that route unlikely as well. But Yara suggests they could travel to Jordan where her Uncle Sami lives in Damascus.

Remembering that her parents kept their papers in a tin box under the big table in the bakery, Yara and Shireen struggle their way into the ruins of Yara's home. With the help of Ali, Yara manages to pull out the red tin that contains their passports. And waiting outside the ruins of their house is Nana, thin and limping because of her wounded leg. Back in Roja's home, the tin box is opened revealing a horde of jewelry and American money as well as photographs from Nana's past. The box also contains Yara's family's passports, their Syrian National Identity Cards and their family registry document.

The next day, Nana tells Yara's the story of her past, a story identical to the one being played out again with Yara's generation. Nana also tells her that she spent time at the home of a man, Rifa'at, who helped her after the hospital she was at was bombed. Rifa'at also helps people escape Syria. And that is what Nana is determined to do, along with Yara and Saad. She plans to hire Rifa'at to take them to Damascus, where they will journey on to Jordan. It is a dangerous journey that will require every bit of courage and determination Yara has to survive.

Discussion

For young readers wanting to understand the impact of war, Yara's Spring offers a realistic portrayal through the eyes of a young girl caught up in the Syrian conflict. Jamal Saeed, himself a political prisoner in Syria for over ten years, has experienced the tragedy of war in his home country of Syria and his first-hand experience is evident throughout this novel. 

To help orient his young readers, Saeed offers two maps at the front of the novel, one showing Syria's placement in the Middle East and a second map showing the major cities in Syria and Yara's journey from Aleppo, south to the Azraq Refugee Camp where the story begins. This is where the reader first meets Yara, an exhausted, emotionally traumatized refugee, struggling to come to terms with everything she has experienced on her flight out of Syria. She is haunted by what has happened, her conscience troubled in a way no young person should have to experience. As she sits down to rest, in a part of the refugee camp that's private, she tells her story in a flashback.

Saeed is able to capture the war and refugee experience from many different perspectives. There is Yara's Uncle Sami, who was filled with hopeful expectation at the coming Arab Spring, only to have it turn to fear. In Nana, there is the fear that what happened before is now happening again and she is determined to save what's left of her family. There are the rebels who patrol the streets in East Aleppo, seeking "men and boys of fighting age" to come out and join their cause. "...Tell them that only by fighting will their lives have meaning. Tell them that they will go to paradise if they are killed fighting for our faith." There are Shireen and Ali who desperately want to fight for a better future for the country. There is Umm Fadi, the woman who lives upstairs in the safe house in Damascus who is blindly devoted to President al-Assad and who believes he is protecting Syria and that the bombing of Aleppo is justified, "The people in those areas are not only hiding terrorists, they are allowing their children to be used a human shields! It is not the President's fault..."

Yara's Spring highlights the resiliency, courage and determination of those in Syria who decide to leave. Yara embodies all of these qualities but Saeed also portrays the toll the war has had on her. After the death of her parents, sights and smells in her ruined home trigger panic. While staying at Hafa's compound in Ar Rastan, the smell of the food and spices, suddenly triggers a flashback. "Suddenly overwhelmed, she closed her eyes and once again heard the chu-chu-chu of helicopter blades. The sound of the explosion, the sensation of flying through the air, of her limbs trying to detach themselves from her body, of a scream caught in her throat, of being buried alive. No, no, no!"

It's no surprise Yara has anxiety and likely post traumatic stress. Yara must also come to terms with the fact that she killed a man when Ali was kidnapped and she experiences deep conflict over leaving Syria. She believes she is a coward, not a warrior like Ali and Shireen who have remained in Syria to fight on for their country. However, Mr. Matthew, Matthew McGonagall, Yara's case counselor points out to her that she has protected Nana and Saad and that this required great courage. He also reminds her that the fate of Syria does not depend on her choice to emigrate to Canada.

Yara's Spring is also a portrait in compassion and charity amidst the ruins and violence of war. When Yara and Saad are left alone, Roja, herself in dire circumstances, doesn't hesitate to take the two children into her house. When Yara's group is traveling south through checkpoints, they encounter unimaginable brutality. At one checkpoint, while Yara's group has their documents checked they witness a young boy being handcuffed and forced from his father who begs for his sons life. In an act of courageous kindness, Nana intervenes, pretending to be the father's neighbour and to bribe the terrorists with American money and save the boy's life. These acts of kindness are not just restricted to Yara's group either. After almost dying in the mountains, Yara and her group are rescued by a monk who takes them to a Catholic monastery. There Father Ricardo and the nuns care for Yara, Nana and Saad. He tells her that they help all regardless of religion and offer her safety. It is a wonderful tribute to the few Christians who remain in the Middle East, often at great risk and persecution.

Jamal Saeed and his co-author Sharon E. McKay have crafted a book that feels realistic in its portrayal of the Syrian conflict, of the plight of Syrian refugees, while also ending on a hopeful note. Yara, in her heart hopes to return some day to her beloved Syria. Yara's Spring is well written and a must-read for young Canadians, to help them understand the backstory of Canada's Syrian refugees.

Book Details:

Yara's Spring by Jamal Saeed and Sharon E. McKay
Toronto: Annick Press    2020
298 pp.

Hatch by Kenneth Oppel

Hatch, the second novel in Kenneth Oppel's Overthrow trilogy, picks up exactly where the first book, Bloom left off. The spraying of Stanley Park with an experimental herbicide appears to be working.  The cryptogenic black grass and vines that have spread throughout the world, "crowding out crops, sending strangling vines into houses, waiting underground to trap and eat animals and people in the acid-filled sacs" are dying. However, Petra, Anaya and Seth's joy is cut short when it begins to rain, not just raindrops but "gleaming, translucent beads" that quickly burst, releasing some kind of new life form. Anaya, realizing what they are, acts quickly to trap some eggs into a coffee cup. 

In the lab they discover that there are several new and frightening cryptogenic life forms that quickly try to hide. These are another part of the alien ecosystem that is invading Earth. Suddenly, Colonel Pearson arrives with soldiers, informing them that the lab is now under the authority of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and that the children are to be taken to holding cells downstairs.

All three teens are interrogated by Dr. Ritter who is in charge of a special task force in the United States, along with Dr. Weber and Colonel Pearson. Dr. Ritter informs Petra, that MRI scans of their brains have revealed that they have something in their brains that transmits radio pulses. On the morning the black grass began dying, the comms team picked up powerful radio pulses coming from where the three teens were sleeping. Dr. Weber believes that the children are transmitting biological data to the cryptogens to see if they can survive on Earth. They are also able to receive transmissions, as Seth's strange dreams seem to prove. After his interrogation of Seth, Ritter determines they are a threat and has the three teens transported to a secure location in the United States.

In the new location, they are given medical exams, ordered into jumpsuits identified with W for water, L for land and A for air and taken to a gymnasium where there are many other kids like them. Paul Samson, a military intelligence officer tells Petra that they are in an underground bunker that blocks all radio communication. 

The three teens make new friends with those who are undergoing similar changes; Petra meets a boy named Darren who is shedding skin, growing a tail but who also has a unique patterning developing on his body, Anaya meets Charles who seems super smart, and Seth meets Esta a flyer like himself but who is very angry.  In the gym, everyone is being evaluated; the runners are encouraged to run treadmills and practice jumping, the flyers to use their sharp feathers to slash and to try to fly, and the swimmers are evaluated for endurance by holding their breath. While Darren is certain they are being trained as soldiers, Petra believes they are simply being studied.

At bedtime, Dr. Ritter takes Anaya out of the bunker and mildly sedates her so that she can transmit with the cryptogens, allowing them to locate the source of the radio pulses. While sedated, Anaya begins to communicate with a cryptogen, named Terra, hearing the word, "help". Back in the dormitory that night, Anaya tells Petra what she experienced and tells her the presence felt motherly.

The next day Seth reveals that he and Esta have discovered that they can communicate telepathically. Petra and Anaya also have this ability. Petra wants to tell Dr. Ritter but the others are against this. After a nuclear attack on the cryptogenic ship fails, Ritter has Anaya attempt to contact the cryptogens again. When the transmission ends abruptly, Ritter accuses Anaya of stopping it. However, Anaya finds that the cryptogen has implanted in her mind a box that shows her what happened to the cryptogen's world. A war between the three major species resulted in the enslavement of the runners and swimmers by the flyers who could destroy the other two using a kind of sound weapon. The runners and swimmers were made to forge spacecrafts and were eventually loaded onto these ships as slave soldiers. These ships docked together to become the ship now orbiting Earth. 

Petra decides to tell Paul Samson about Anaya's vision. However, unknown to her, Ritter has heard everything and has many questions about what Anaya's experienced. The next day, during an unexpected birthday party, Ritter informs the teens that they will be implementing a protocol to remove the changes they are experiencing with the goal of returning all of them to their human selves. Petra, Anaya, Seth, Darren, Charles and Esta argue about what this means. Petra also reveals that she's told Ritter about Anaya's vision and that he knows about their telepathic abilities through monitoring the radio activity. 

Seth now believes they need to escape, but Petra and Charles are against the idea. Their views change when Seth is taken away after he and Darren fight, and Esta who likes Seth, uses telepathic sound to hurt Darren. After goading Seth to hurt him, Dr. Ritter tells him he plans to remove Seth's transmitting organ in his brain. Meanwhile, Petra approaches Paul to tell him that it was Esta who hurt Darren, not Seth. Paul tells Petra that they are no longer safe at the bunker and that he's contacted Dr. Weber to help them escape.

During their escape, Seth and Esta become separated from Anaya and Petra who are safely taken back to Deadman's Island. There, Anaya continues receives more messages from the cryptogen Terra who claims to be a runner who is awake in the ship. She promises to help Anaya and arranges a meeting. But the rendezvous appears to be a trap as it seems the final battle for their planet is just beginning.

Discussion

Hatch is an exciting second novel in the Overthrow trilogy by Canadian author Kenneth Oppel. In this novel, readers learn about the cryptogen's world and how they came to Earth, although their reason for doing so is not yet clear. But the main focus is on the continuing terraforming of Earth to suit the cryptogens as well as the developing abilities of Seth, Anaya and Petra and the other teens like them and the role they may play in all of this.

As the two girls, Anaya and Petra watch their bodies changing to be come more and more alien, both struggle with their identity, with the changes and who and what they are becoming. Anaya who has never considered herself pretty and who was not athletic before the changes began, finds she has incredible stamina on the treadmill. When she is complimented by Charles, Anaya thinks, "...she was pleased by his compliment. I like myself better like this. The moment she had the thought she realized how crazy it sounded. But it was true. She liked this new, healthier, stronger version of herself."

For Petra, the changes make her worried she won't be loved. When Seth, whom she is attracted to, leaves their group for Esta, Petra believes she's no longer pretty. Anaya remembers "...how Petra had confided her worst fear to her: she was terrified that if her body changed, she'd become monstrous and no one could ever love her." Petra asks Anaya, "I'm still me, right?" Although Anaya answers in the affirmative, she wonders. "...lately she'd caught herself wondering if it was true. Everything that had happened to her body -- her speed, her strength, her brain that could talk to an alien species -- it had started to change how she thought. And wasn't that an inside change?..."

In contrast to the girls, Seth and Darren both like the changes that are happening to their bodies. Darren sees himself as a soldier, while Seth, who's been dreaming of flying for years, sees the changes he's experiencing as good. Unlike Petra who volunteers to have surgery to remove her cryptogenic features, Seth is determined to keep his.

However, as the changes continue, the three teens begin to feel less and less human and notice they are becoming more like the cryptogens. For example, they begin to notice that they crave cryptogen plants and animals. When Darren orders a Big Mac and fries, he finds this favourite food suddenly doesn't taste very good.  Seth, who along with Esta and Sienna eats the flesh of an insect he has killed, and finds it delicious. "As he chewed, he felt like the meat was satisfying a hunger he'd never known he had. It tasted right. He couldn't believe he'd gone so long without it." Anaya finds a black vine growing up from the pavement on Deadman's Island and eats not only the red berries but the entire vine itself too. And Petra gobbles the eggs she is supposed to capture in the bay, finding them "deliciously salty."

Petra tells Anaya she feels like a monster for eating an egg and finally admits, "We're changing. We have no control over ourselves. What're we going to do next?" Anaya admits that since they are part cryptogen, they are behaving as they do, eating what they eat. Petra questions what they are becoming. "Remember when you said, I'm still me? What if it's not like that? What if we're not going to stay the same inside? What if we're going to change on the outside and the inside? What if we start thinking like them?"

Later on Anaya, after the death of Petra's mother wonders if she might be right about the changes."They had changed. They weren't the same people, even on the inside. Petra craved cryptogenic insects, she loved being underwater, and she had a venomous tail that seemed to act on its own. And she, Anaya, felt the same kind of hunger for cryptogenic plants. But the biggest change for her was the powerful mental connection to Terra, which seemed to guide her own thoughts. Was she being brainwashed?"

Overall, Hatch is a good second novel that sets the stage for the arrival of the cryptogens and the final showdown. There's plenty of gross monsters and heart-pounding battles between the teens and these alien life forms to keep readers engaged and wanting more. At the same time, Terra, the cryptogen who has been communicating with Anaya offers enough mystery as to whether she's really on the side of the humans and is part of a "resistance" as she claims, or simply misleading the young girl. And readers are left to wonder which side will the three teens choose, as they become more and more like the invading aliens.

The final installment, Thrive, will be published in May, 2021.

Book Details:

Hatch by Kenneth Oppel
Toronto: HarperCollins Publishing Ltd.   2020
397 pp

Where Are You, Agnes? by Tessa McWatt

 Agnes and her elderly grandfather see a rainbow one day. When her grandfather asks her what her what she thinks, she tells him the rainbow is beautiful. He then covers her eyes and asks her, if it is still beautiful, to which Agnes replies that it is! She wonders if everyone thinks like this, and her grandfather tells her that he's not sure.

Agnes draws every day, whatever she sees, the birds, the sun, the "shapes she saw in the whet, in the tractor tires and the diamond-shaped lines on the backs of snakes." Agnes was so intent on her drawing that she often did not hear her mother when she called her. 

One day Agnes' grandfather moved their family from the farm to the city. She missed the birds, the snakes, the rows of wheat. Instead she saw bugs, and the patterns they made in the dirt. So Agnes began drawing insects. To her brothers and sister these seemed ugly but when she drew them, she felt the beauty of the rainbow returning. Again, Agnes was so intent on her drawing that she did not hear her mother when she called her.

One day she asked her grandfather who was much older now, why things must disappear. But he did not have an answer. Agnes missed the feeling the rainbow. She asked her grandfather how she could paint a real tree and he told her that although the tree will not last forever, she will see it in other places and it's beauty will be in her heart.

With the death of her grandfather, Agnes was deeply sad. She remembered what her grandfather had told her and discovered she could see beauty in many places, but most of all that beauty was in her mind, through the memories of what she'd seen.

Discussion

In Where Are You, Agnes?, Tessa McWatt attempts to portray the motivation behind Agnes Martin's artwork. Agnes was a 20th century abstract expressionist who was born and grew up in Canada but who spent most of her adult life in the United States.

Born in 1912, in rural Saskatchewan to Scottish Presbyterian parents, Agnes grew up in a home that was stern, her mother often using silence as a punishment. After spending time teaching in remote schools in the Pacific Northwest, Agnes moved to New York City in 1941. There she studied fine art at Teacher's College, Columbia University.

The next fifteen years were spent developing her painting skills by attending schools in New York and New Mexico. Eventually Agnes settled into a art community in lower Manhattan.  During this period, Agnes struggled with mental health issues. She eventually left New York in 1967 after winning a grant, and ended up in New Mexico.She lived a very minimalist lifestyle that likely would be attractive to some today, building her own home and studio on a mesa in Cuba, New Mexico. She stayed in the desert, painting her unusual art, that often led people to vandalize her paintings. Agnes eventually left her home and moved to a retirement home in Taos, New Mexico. She passed away in 2004.

McWatt adapts an anecdote from Agnes's life to portray the driving motivation behind Agnes Martin's  art. From her Author's Note in the back, McWatt writes, "Agnes once watched a young girl staring at a rose. She asked the girl if she thought the rose was beautiful, to which the girl said yes. Then Agnes took the rose and hid it behind her back. 'Is  it still beautiful?' she asked the girl.The girl agreed that it was, and Agnes told her that was because beauty exists in the mind."   McWatt believes this concept about beauty might have come from Agnes' grandfather with whom she spent a great deal of time while growing up. It is this abstract idea McWatt attempts to portray her picture book with Agnes questioning her grandfather as to how she can capture the beauty of an object like a rainbow or a tree if it isn't permanent. The answer as McWatt notes in her Author's Note, is that beauty doesn't lie within objects such as a rose, but that "Beauty is an awareness in the mind."  McWatt attempts to explain this concept to young readers with the unusual sentence,  "She ran home and painted this...and that...and everything, until she painted what was on the inside walls of her mind." Without the Author's Note at the back, I'm not sure most adults would understand what McWatt was attempting to convey in her story, but perhaps abstract expressionism is a difficult art form to comprehend.

Award-winning children's book illustrator, Zuzanna Celej has created soft, subdued illustrations for the story, using a palette of greys and sepia. The illustrations hint at the character of Agnes Martin's art, incorporating a similar palette, and grid lines while blending in prairie and urban scenes. Celej's illustrations were rendered in watercolour, collage and coloured pencils on paper. You can view some of Agnes Martin's work at Architectural Digest.

Book Details:

Where Are You, Agnes? by Tessa McWatt
Toronto: Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press    2020

The Engima Game by Elizabeth Wein

The Enigma Game is another wonderful story by young adult author Elizabeth Wein whose superb writing captures life in northern Scotland during World War II.

The story's narrative weaves between the following three characters. Nineteen-year-old  Flight Lieutenant James G. Beaufort-Stuart leads 648 Squadron B-Flight which includes the Madeira and Pimms sections. The 648 squadron fly Bristol Blenheims on low-level bombing raids targeting German ships in the North Sea. Before his next mission, Stuart confronts his Wing Commander, Talbot Cromwell, who was recently moved to Shetland as the Battle of Britain ended. Cromwell is use to commanding a squadron of new Spitfire fighters, fast and agile. He wants the 648 Squadron to fly at twenty thousand feet which means hitting any target at that height is almost impossible. When Stuart argues with Cromwell about his battle tactics, he is accused of lacking "moral fiber", a euphemism for cowardice. Cromwell doesn't want them flying low because they are targeted by the German's anti-aircraft guns.

In fact Stuart's squadron suffers more losses that night as he leads them on a mission over the North Sea. In his plane, is his navigator  twenty-one-year-old David Silvermont and their gunner and wireless operator, Colin Oldham. When their plane is attacked by a German Messerschmitt 110 over the North Sea, Stuart manages to dive down to sea level. But Colin is killed when the gunner's turret is hit. Back at base, Stuart is angry and determined, even if that means cheating to beat the Germans.

Fifteen-year-old Louisa Adair finds herself alone in London. Her parents had moved to England from Jamaica when she was twelve-years-old. They'd left Kingston, Jamaica because her mother "was afraid of the workers' strikes and Caribbean riots".

Louisa's parents were killed in the same week the previous month. Her mother Caroline, a white Englishwoman was killed when the front of the bus she was in fell into a crater when the Balham tube station was bombed. Her father Lenford, a Black Jamaican and a merchant seaman, was killed three days after her mother died, when his ship was torpedoed. 

Now alone in their flat at 88 Gibraltar Road, Louisa knows she has to find work otherwise she will end up living in an air-raid shelter. Going back to Jamaica isn't an option because it would mean a life of hardship. After no success applying for various jobs, Louisa discovers Nancy Campbell's notice in the newspaper, seeking someone to look after her elderly Aunt Jane. Nancy's Aunt Jane is currently living in Rushen Camp, an alien detainment camp, on the Isle of Man. She is German and is a former opera singer who married a Scotsman many years ago. Now alone at eighty-two and recovering from a broken hip, Jane whose real name is Johanna von Arnim is coming to stay at Nancy's home, a pub, the Limehouse located next to the Royal Air Force base at Windyedge.

So Louisa accepts the position and travels to Liverpool and then by ferry to the Isle of Man. There she meets Johanna von Arnim, a feisty old lady who turns out to be a rule breaker like her mother. Wearing Frau von Arnim's furs, they travel back to Liverpool and using Frau's English name of Jane Warner get the train to Stonehaven where they wait for their ride to the Limehouse.

That someone is volunteer Ellen McEwen, a driver for the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) assigned to the RAF aerodrome in Windyedge. No one except Jamie Stuart knows that Ellen is a "Traveller" - a gypsy. Ellen billets at the Limehouse. Driving the Hillman Minx van, Ellen meets Louisa and Aunt Jane at the bus shelter on the Aberdeen road. She is surprised to see that Louisa is a black girl. As they approach the Limehouse, they see a plane approaching. Louisa is convinced the plane is German and it turns out she's correct.

After dropping off Louisa and Nancy at the Limehouse, Ellen races over to the RAF aerodrome. There Sergeant Norbert Ferguson, standing outside the guard's hut at the aerodrome tells her that a German has just landed on the airfield. Ellen sees that the aircraft is a Messerschmitt 109 fighter with its Luftwaffe markings covered up. In the operations building, standing just inside the radio room is the German pilot brandishing a black pistol. He quickly takes Ellen hostage while the radio operator explains that the pilot has a recognized code name of Odysseus and was expected by British Intelligence. The German pilot was to meet with Robert Ethan of the War Office. However that hasn't happened so he's to wait until the morning and if Ethan doesn't arrive, he's to leave.  Ellen drives the pilot to the Limehouse, where Louisa, Aunt Jane and Nancy Campbell are shocked to see her walk in with a German pilot.

Meanwhile Jamie and the Pimms Section of the 648 Squadron return to their base after intercepting transmissions between two Messerschmitt 109 fighters and then encountering one who leaves. Back at the base, Jamie learns  that they encountered a German plane that Intelligence was expecting. But Jamie believes that the Luftwaffe plane they'd run into was hunting for the traitor Intelligence was expecting. He also learns that the 648 Squadron will be sent back to the RAF aerodrome at Windyedge.

At the Limehouse, tension is high with the presence of the German pilot whose name they learn, is Felix Baer. He plays Mendelssohn's The Hebrides Overture which Louisa recognizes. When Louisa stands next to him, he knocks open the wooden box which he'd placed on the piano and she sees it contains a strange typewriter-like device labelled ENIGMA. Aunt Jane who speaks German, explains how Louisa's parents have been killed in the war. Eventually German pilot asks to take Jane's gramophone upstairs to this room, playing her records well into the night.

The next morning the German pilot leaves, having missed his British contact who arrives late. But before doing so, he places a coin into a crack in the black oak beam that formed part of the fireplace and are part of the wishing tree. After searching the Limehouse, Ethan leaves disappointed. However, later that morning Louisa makes an amazing discovery. First the coin that Felix Baer placed in the wishing tree is no coin but a small enamel disk that Louisa knows is from the typewriter- like instrument in Baer's wooden box. Then while in Room Four where Baer spent the night, Louisa discovers that the gas fireplace has been tampered with. When she removes the fireplace panels, she discovers that Baer has left the wooden box with a cipher machine named Enigma. This machine, as Aunt Jane explains, is able to create and translate code. Louisa is also able to find leaflets Baer hid, that provide instructions and dial settings for the next three months. Not knowing who to tell, they first hide the cipher machine and then eventually pass the information on to Jaime Beaufort-Stuart.

The Enigma offers the British pilots a fighting chance against the Germans but it also places the RAF Windyedge and the Limehouse at great risk when the Germans suspect they have one of their cipher machines. This sets up up a game of cat and mouse that might have deadly consequences.

Discussion

The Enigma Game is an exciting and well-written novel. Elizabeth Wein is a master storyteller, who captures her readers' attention almost immediately with a heart-pounding air battle over the North Sea between the RAF and the Luftwaffe. Wein employs three characters to narrate her story, beginning with Flight Lieutenant James G. Beaufort-Stuart who is the son of a Scottish laird. Picking up the story is fifteen-year-old Louisa Adair who is British-Jamaican, and Ellen McEwen who is a "traveller" the name given to Scottish Romani or gypsies. 

The strength of this novel is its engaging story line and the realistic and believable characters created by Wein. Set in 1940-early 1941 Scotland as the Battle of Britain is waning, The Enigma Game centers on the cipher machine, known as Enigma which has been stolen by a member of the German resistance and brought to Scotland. Its discovery by a young English girl results in the Enigma being used to help the bomber squadron assigned to the local RAF aerodrome get the upper hand on the Germans.

The role of the Enigma machine in helping the Allies during World War II has long been recognized. Developed by Arthur Scherbius, a German engineer at the end of World War I, the Enigma was used by Nazi Germany to send coded messages during World War II. However, in the 1930's, Polish mathematicians and code breakers were able to solve the mystery of Enigma and learn how to decode messages. In 1933, the Polish were able to build a replica Enigma machine based on intelligence the French secured. In 1939, lacking the resources to continue their work on modified Engima machines, the Polish began working with the British Intelligence. With war on the horizon, the Polish scientists were secreted out of Poland along with their Engima machines in 1939. The Germans continued to believe Enigma was secure and used it to send many messages.

The British did not obtain an Enigma machine until 1941 so the events in The Enigma Game are a bit out of the real timeline. Nevertheless, centering the story around Engima, offered Wein the opportunity to build a truly engaging main plot through the narratives of the three main characters. Perhaps the most poignant and heart-rending is that of Jamie Beaufort-Stuart and his 648 bomber squadron. Wein very much captures the danger, the sacrifice and the courage of the pilots as they fly missions against  the better equipped German airforce. These qualities are demonstrated by each of the pilots in Jamie's Pimms section when they are sent to bomb Stavanger, a Norwegian aerodrome being built by the Germans. The resulting catastrophe vividly portrays the very real risks these brave, young men encountered. As Wein shows, many airmen did not survive very long under such terrible battle conditions. 

The novel also highlights the effects of war, not just on those engaged in battle but on the civilian population as well, through the character of Louisa who is orphaned when both her parents are killed within days of each other, and through the food shortages that are experienced by those living in Scotland.

One character central to the main plot, Felix Baer, a German pilot who is a member of the German resistance, is based on the real-life defection of a three-man crew flying a German bomber, a Junkers 88 from Denmark to Aberdeen, Scotland in 1943. The crew did not bring an Enigma machine with them, but Wein used this as the basis for Baer's actions in the novel.  

The diverse cast of characters allows Wein to highlight some of the racial and ethnic issues that existed at this time in Britain and in America. Louisa is of mixed Jamaican and British heritage and she encounters racial prejudice throughout the novel because of her darker skin colour. When she arrives at the Limehouse, Nancy Campbell is shocked to see that she is black and stares at her. Louisa offers to leave but Jane Warner refuses to allow this. The guard on the base is more concerned with Louisa than he is with the German soldier, and Intelligence officer, Robert Ethan makes a racially discriminatory remark to Louisa telling her, "Well, perhaps the hoo-doo will help you to feel at home, Louisa." in reference to the coins in the wishing tree above the pub. When Louisa and Jane Warner take the bus into Stonehaven to visit the library, Louisa experiences more discrimination. While on the bus, a young boy believes Louisa is a German and therefore the enemy simply because of her dark skin. Filled with anger, Louisa thinks, "I thought about the little boy on the bus, who'd taken one look at me and decided I must be the enemy, just because he'd never seen anyone who looked like me before."

Ellen McEwen is a "traveller" or a gypsy. Her family are known to Jamie Beaufort-Stuart whom she considers an "old friend" because her mother and father camped on his grandfather's land. Ellen is careful to keep her heritage hidden as she knows this will be a source of trouble. She is careful not to use "traveller" words or do things that are considered common to gypsies and thus reveal who she really is. Ellen is careful around Nan and everyone she meets. "I lived in fear Nan would twig what I was and we'd have a bitter fight over whether I should leaver her house. I didn't think she'd prefer me to raise a tent in her garden, but I wasn't ready to find out."  

Although Ellen is able to hide what makes her different, Louisa is not. When Chip Wingate, a Texan, refers to Louisa as a "little darkie", Ellen at first hears this as "filthy tinker", and understand exactly how this makes Louisa feel. However, she doesn't nothing to defend her new friend, leaving that to Jamie and his friend Silver. When a brawl is instigated in the Limehouse after some racial slurs, Ellen stands up an reveals that she is a traveller. Later Ellen explains to Louisa that being called a tinker is the equivalent of Louisa being called a darkie. These experiences, along with many others strengthen the bond of friendship between the two girls.

The Enigma Game is such a well written novel, with an engaging cover that certainly encourages readers to crack the spine. But readers would have benefited from a map of England, Scotland and Norway as well a Cast of Characters located at the front of the novel. A glossary at the back containing some of the unusual words and slang used throughout the story might also be helpful for younger readers. Wein does include a detailed note about her writing of the novel at the back in a section titled, Author's Declaration of Accountability and offers an excellent section on Further Readings.

The Enigma Game is yet another excellent addition to Elizabeth Wein's group of World War II novels, this time taking a minor character, Jamie Beaufort-Stuart from Code Name Verity and telling his story. Highly recommended!

Book Details:

The Enigma Game by Elizabeth Wein
New York: Hyperion     2020
437 pp.

Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Sa, Native American Author, Musician and Activist by Gina Capaldi & Q.L. Pearce

Red Bird is a unique picture book about the life of Zitkala-Sa, a member of the Yankton Sioux nation. Zitkala-Sa was also known as Gertrude Simmons. Red Bird picks up her story in 1883 with Zitkala-Sa living with her family near the Missouri River. She would often sit with four or five friends exchanging necklaces, beaded belts and sometimes even their moccasins. 

In February of 1884 when Zitkala-Sa was eight years old, she begged her parents to be allowed to go with the missionaries to the Land of the Red Apples in the East. Zitkala-Sa's older brother, Dawee had returned from three years of school. Finally her mother agreed. Zitkala-Sa travelled east on a train with three young braves, two tall girls and two other small girls like herself, Judewin and Thowin. They travelled 700 miles to White's Manual Labor Institute in Wabash, Indiana.

At the school, Zitkala-Sa began to cry and was homesick. At school she soon followed the daily routine of waking at six-thirty in the morning, washing, dressing and racing downstairs to roll call. Morning prayers and breakfast were followed by their daily training. Girls were taught how to sew and do housework, while the boys were taught how to care for livestock and farm. After training, they learned how to read and write and how to speak well in public. Zitkala-Sa's heart soared on Saturdays when she had piano and violin lessons.

The White's Institute was run by Quakers who also taught Zitkala-Sa and the other children about equal rights for women and about slavery and instilled in them to be tolerant of others and to work for equality. 

In February of 1887, Zitkala-Sa returned home but found things much changed. Her mother lived in a log home now instead of a tipi. Her brother Dawee like many of the other young men, wore whiteman's trousers and spoke English. Zitkala-Sa felt caught between two worlds, that of her people and the Anglos'. In February 1891, at the age of fifteen, Zitkala-Sa decided to return to the Anglo world, to the White's Institute run by the Quakers. There as a good student, she earned her first diploma in 1895. Zitkala-Sa was such an accomplished musician on violin and piano that she had taken over the music teacher's position when she resigned.

After graduating, Zitkala-Sa did not return home as her mother wished but instead remained in Indiana where she gave music lessons to the Anglo children in the summer. In September 1895, she began her studies at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, financed by the Quakers. It was a time of loneliness and worry for Zitkala-Sa.

She won an oratorical contest at Earlham and went on to win one of two prizes offered at the State contest with her speech about the mistreatment of the Indian people. Sadly, Zitkala-Sa never earned her degree from Earlham as she became very ill and had to leave school. 

But Zitkala-Sa remained undaunted. She taught at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. In 1900 her stories about her people and her culture began appearing in the Atlantic Monthly to great interest. In 1900, Zitkala-Sa's journey back home revealed the shocking truth of the broken promises of the Anglo's who had now taken over the land given to her people.

At first Zitkala-Sa believed the way to help her people was to continue to grow her talents as a musician and so she began studying music and voice at the New England Conservatory of Music. But she returned home to help her family and her elderly mother. Instead she spent many years informing the Anglo's about her people's culture through her writing, music and an opera she wrote. She also began to advocate for the right of Native Americans to vote and become American citizens.

Discussion

Authors Gina Capaldi and Q.L. Pearce adapted three serialized stories Zitkala-Sa wrote at the turn of the twentieth century to tell her story to younger readers. They also indicate in their Author's Note at the front of the book, that they "...have woven additional primary and secondary sources into the text..." reworking the language she used to make it more understandable for today's reader. 

Zitkala-Sa 1898

Zitkala-Sa was a remarkable woman, able to channel her anger and frustration over the treatment of her own people and Native Americans into activism that made a difference. Zitkala-Sa had experienced the misguided attempts of the Quakers to eradicate her own identity and practice of her culture and replace it with the Anglo-European culture. She strove to maintain her Native American identity while using her considerable talents to advocate for indigenous Americans. Zitkala-Sa not only worked to obtain better health care, education, and job opportunities for her people, but also to confront the reneging on land claims and to obtain voting and citizen rights for Native Americans. But Zitkala-Sa not only worked on behalf of her people but for all Americans, by educating them about her culture through her writings and her music. Zitkala-Sa performed before a U.S. President and wrote the opera, Sun Dance, the first opera written by a Native American.

Capaldi and Pearce have written an engaging picture book that is sensitive to the plight of indigenous North Americans while also showcasing Zitkala-Sa's remarkable talents and as well as her determination, resiliency and courage. One example of Zitkala-Sa's determination and courage is her speech at the State oratorical contest, given while a derogatory sign was held up in the audience. Undaunted, she gave the speech and won a prize. Zitkala-Sa's story is enhanced by the expressive illustrations of author, Capaldi. Red Bird is a picture book that can serve as an introduction to this remarkable Native American activist, as well as to the issues that involve the indigenous peoples of North America.

Red Bird contains extra material for those interested in learning more about Zitkala-Sa. There is detailed Afterword, a Selected Bibliography, a Partial List of Zitkala-Sa's Writings as well as a list of books in the Further Reading section.

Book Details:

Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Sa, Native American Author, Musician and Activist by Gina Capaldi & Q.L. Pearce
Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books     2011

The Library Bus by Bahram Rahman

Pari will be accompanying her mama as she drives the library bus. This bus is filled with shelves of books and today is Pari's first time helping. They leave Kabul before sunrise, arriving at a small village in a valley hidden by mountains just as dawn comes. Once the bus parks, Pari opens the back door and welcomes a group of girls into the bus. After they have returned their library books and chosen new ones, Pari's mama helps them learn the English alphabet.

Soon they are off to another destination, this time a refugee camp beyond the mountains. On the way Mama tells Pari that her Grandpa taught her to read. Girls were not allowed to attend school when she was a young girl, so they had to learn to read and write in secret. But Pari will be able to attend school next year.

They arrive at the dusty refugee camp at noon. Pari's mama hands out pencils and notebooks to those who need new ones. Once again she leads the girls in learning the English alphabet. At home that night, Pari wonders why the girls in the village or camp don't attend school. Her mother explains that the library bus is the only schooling they have. She reminds Pari that her situation will be different next year as she will be attending school.

Discussion

Bahram Rahman was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and grew up during the civil war and the Taliban regime. After earning a medical degree and a graduate degree in public policy, Rahman was able to emigrate to Canada in 2012. He had been active in Afghanistan, working to try to improve the rights of girls and women in the country. Girls like his own sister were not able to attend school.

The Library Bus was inspired by the real first library bus to operate in Kabul, Afghanistan run by Charmaghz, a Kabul-based non-profit. Founded by Freshta Karim, a young Afghani woman, Charmaghz works to encourage critical thinking in children so they can grow up to be "positive and open-minded individuals". As a result of the repressive policies of the Taliban, Afghanistan has a very low literacy rate. It is estimated that over three million girls in Afghanistan have never been to school.

Like the bus in this picture book, the Charmaghz Mobile Library bus which is rented from the Ministry of Transport, leaves early in the morning and travels to two or three locations each day. Care is taken to park the bus in an area that will be safe from bombs or terrorist attacks. The mobile library stays at each location for about two hours. In that time children are free to look for books in the mobile library and for those who cannot read, there is a storytime at the back of the bus on the carpeted floor. This is a much needed service for the many children who have no access to books.

The Library Bus tells about the mobile library bus using Rahman's simple text accompanied by the delightful, expressive illustrations done by artist Gabrielle Grimard. The illustrations rendered in watercolour and digital media, capture the delight and wonder of the children as they greet the bus and search for books. 

To learn more about Charmaghaz, check out their website.

Book Details:

The Library Bus by Bahram Rahman
Toronto: Pajama Press  2020

The First Dinosaur by Ian Lendler

The First Dinosaur tells the remarkable story of how scholars and scientists came to unravel the mystery of ancient life on Earth and to discover the dinosaur. The First Dinosaur traces the journey, step by step by telling the story of how the first four bones of the first dinosaur, Megalosaurus were found and ended up as part of a collection of fifteen bones in total. But within that story are multiple other stories of men and one woman who worked tirelessly to unravel the story of the Earth's past.

The Megalosaurus story begins with the discovery of a bone, two feet long and weighing twenty pounds by workers in a quarry in Oxfordshire, England in 1676. Dr. Plot, a chemistry professor at Oxford University, did not know that he was looking at the bone from an extinct animal that was in fact the first dinosaur, Megalosaurus. At this time, no one knew that reptiles of enormous size once roamed the Earth. The remains of animals, dug up out of quarries weren't really understood. They were called "formed stones" and people did not know where they came from, what they were or how they were formed.

To try to understand what he was given, Plot compared his bone with that of an elephant and saw that it was much larger. He believed it may have come from a race of giant humans. What he did do was record his observations for future scientists, measuring, describing and drawing the unusual bone in his book, The Natural History of Oxfordshire. 

In 1666, an enormous white shark was caught by fisherman in the Mediterranean Sea. Florence had become a learning center of science, so the Grand Duke of the city ordered it to be brought to his city. The Grand Duke Ferdinand de' Medici had created the Accademia del Cimento or "school of experiments" in 1657. It was the beginning of the Scientific Revolution and Florence was the center of new scientific endeavours. It embodied new way of thinking about the world. Previously "many European scholars believed that all human knowledge was contained in a few books, such as the Holy Bible." The students and professors of the Accademia  were the first to use Galileo's scientific method of observing and questioning.

Nicolaus Steno, a master dissectionist who dissected human cadavers to learn the secrets of the human body, was invited by Grand Duke Ferdinand to the Accademia. Steno, in his dissection of the shark head, noted that the teeth in the shark were similar to the "tongue stones" found by the thousands in Malta. In his book about the shark dissection, Steno wrote that the tongue stones were shark teeth, connecting the living animal with the remains of once living animals in the ground. He was the first to determine WHAT fossils are - the remains of animals and plants. And in fact, we now know that "tongue stones" are teeth from megalodons, giant prehistoric sharks that lived millions of years ago.

Robert Hooke, a scientist who improved many instruments such as the microscope, read Steno's book and was fascinated. Hooke was the first person to apply the scientific method by working in a laboratory and running experiments.  Hooke published a book, Micrographia, of his drawings of the natural world as seen through the microscope. His observations led him to theorize that fossils or "formed stones" might be the result of a process he called "Petrifaction".

In seventeenth century Europe and England, the idea of extinction, that entire species of animals and plants could die out was not considered possible. This was because the Bible was taken literally and it was thought that all the animals currently alive on the Earth had been there from the beginning of a world that was believed to be 6000 years old. However, Hooke, through his studies of fossils, began to consider the possibility that the past might look very different from the present and that fossils were the clue to helping understand the past. 

Collecting fossils was a pastime of the aristocrats that had begun several hundred years earlier. These fossils became a type of entertainment kept in a "cabinet of curiosities". Eventually a large museum, the Ashmolean Museum, housing a huge collection of fossils and "curiosities" opened at Oxford University and was overseen by Dr. Plot. The fascination with fossils created a booming industry in which fossils were dug up and sold by quarry workers in Oxford.

In 1699, Dr. Edward Llwyd saw a large tooth for sale in the window of a quarry worker's house in Stonesfield, a small town outside of Oxford. The quarries in this area were rich with fossils and this fossil tooth was different - it was the type of tooth used to rip flesh. It was in fact, the second Megalosaurus fossil and it came to be stored at the Ashmolean Museum. 

At this time many scientists were struggling to understand what was called "the Seashell Problem". Many fossilized fish skeletons and sea shells were found in rocks well above sea level, in mountains and even deserts. How could this be? To solve the seashell problem scientists needed to understand "Where do fossils come from?" and "Why are they found where they are?" Nicolas Steno in searching for answers to these questions went to Malta where the tongue stones were found and through observation developed what came to be known as Steno's First Law of Super-Position: "...rocks form in flat layers on top of one another." This meant that the oldest rocks formed the bottom layers. So how to account for younger rocks that contained seashells?

To answer these questions meant that scientists had to reconsider the time frame of the Earth. In the early 1700's calculations by James Ussher, an archbishop of the Church of Ireland determined that the Earth was formed on Sunday, October 23, 4004 B.C. But more and more, the evidence in the rocks did not support the biblical view of life on Earth. Scholars had turned to the Bible for answers and believed that Noah's Flood was the explanation.  However, some scholars began to think differently and offered strange and unusual theories to explain the seashell problem. 

By this time, the third fossil unknowingly belonging to the Megalosaurus was purchased by Sir Christopher Pegge. It was a large jawbone with some intact teeth and it too ended up in the Ashmolean Museum.

The next major development came with the birth of the Industrial Revolution and the use of coal to run factories. With the construction of canals to transport coal to factories in the cities, William Smith, an engineer was able to map the layers of rock that were exposed with each excavation. Smith came to recognize the same layers or strata as he called them, that he had noticed during his work in the Mearns Pit coal mine. Smith began mapping the strata all over England using the fossils he found in each layer and eventually created a geological map of England. This process took him 14 years. The importance of Smith's work is that he "understood that the strata and their fossils were telling a story" of the past in England.

Each new discovery simply generated more questions: "Why did each strata start and stop?...What causes these eras to come to an end?...What happened to the animals who were alive when the end came?..." From this point on, Lendler follows the story into France where revolution let to drastic social change and new ideas about the natural world. One key idea was proposed by renowned scientist Georges Culvier: life on Earth experienced extinctions on a catastrophic scale.

As more fossils were discovered, scientists began to realize the world was much older than they had ever thought, and that there was a world before humans and before that a world even before mammals. William Buckland, Mary Anning, Gideon Mantell, Richard Owen and Charles Lyell would all work in their own way to change forever how we think about the past.

It would be Culvier, with his brilliant ability to identify a collection of fifteen bones at the Ashmolean Museum, as a new type of land reptile that had never been seen before. This was the Megalosaurus. The discovery would be William Buckland's to announce to the scientific community. The age of dinosaurs had begun again....

Discussion

The First Dinosaur is detailed and fascinating account of how scientists came to discover dinosaurs. To do so required a monumental shift in how scientists viewed our world and our place in the world and how we viewed the past. 

Ian Lendler takes readers on a 200 year journey from the first known discovery of what would eventually be identified as a dinosaur bone to the coining of the word "dinosaur" by Richard Owen and and exhibition of the first dinosaurs at the Crystal Palace in London. Along this journey, young readers will meet many of the major players, who not only worked long arduous hours searching for fossils, but who often struggled for years to have their efforts recognized. In some cases, such as Mary Anning, their contributions would take centuries to be recognized. 

His portrayal of the main players offers interesting perspectives on characters such as William Buckland, Gideon Mantell, Richard Owen and Mary Anning. Young readers will find each person comes alive on the pages of The First Dinosaur. There is William Buckland whose over-the-top personality  included eating every kind of animal he could find. Gideon Mantell whose obsession with fossils saw him lose both money and family while making fantastic contributions to science. Richard Owen whose hatred of Mantell led him to actively work against this good man even after Mantell's death. And Mary Anning who discovered three of the dinosaurs on exhibit at the Crystal Palace but whose enormous contributions to paleontology went unrecognized for 200 years. Lendler also touches on the relationships many of these men had with one another and how the class structure in England influenced scientific endeavours.

One of the more interesting aspects Lendler features is the move away from a biblical perspective that early geologists and paleontologists had to make. In the seventeenth century man's place in the cosmos was based heavily on what was taught in the Bible. But the Bible is not a scientific work but rather an account of man's relationship with God. This was not the view of the Bible in the seventeenth century because it was considered a history of the world with the most important events recorded. Galileo was the first to challenge the way man would think about himself in the universe. For many scientists such as Richard Owen, there was no reconciling the biblical version with these new ideas. For others like William Buckland, who spent his life trying to prove Noah's flood, the new ideas prevailed.

Lendler touches on the effects revolutions played in the discovery of dinosaurs, including the Scientific Revolution, the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. He shows how these revolutions changed society and brought about different ways of thinking.

While there is a much detail in this book that might bog down younger readers, Lendler entices his readers with plenty of interesting photographs, illustrations done in pen, ink and digital medium and sidebars of information. There is a Bibliography, an Index, and Lendler includes an Epilogue which tells what happened to the major players in the quest for the first dinosaur. The First Dinosaur is a must read for those who are interested in dinosaurs and the past. 

Book Details:

The First Dinosaur by Ian Lendler
Toronto: Margaret K. McElderry Books     2019
220 pp.

A Thousand Questions by Saadia Faruqi

Eleven-year-old Maryam (Mimi) Scotts has just arrived in Karachi, Pakistan for her summer holidays. (Her mother had lost her teaching job at the Houston Art Institute last year.) Mimi's father left them when she was five-years-old. Mimi's dad is a journalist who travels internationally working on stories. She has followed him online and knows that recently he was working in China. On the flight to Karachi, Mimi decided she was going to "write" to her father about her trip by addressing entries in her journal to her father whom she misses terribly. 

After haggling over the fare, Mimi and her mother take a taxi to her grandparents' home which turns out to "a sprawling white house with a balcony on the second floor and huge windows covered with metal bars." She politely greets her grandparents in Urdu; while her Nana (grandfather) seems friendly and warm, Mimi is intimidated by her Nani (grandmother).

Sakina Ejaz lives with her amma, abba and younger brother Jamshed in a poor neighbourhood in Karachi. She rides every morning with her abba on the back of his motorbike to work at Begum Sahiba's house where she helps her father with his cooking duties. This day the house is expecting guests who happen to be Begum Sahiba's daughter and granddaughter - Mimi and her mother.

After greeting her Nana (grandfather) and Nani (grandmother) Mimi and her mother are taken upstairs by Sakina who is shocked when Mimi talks to her. People don't usually talk to her in Begum Sahiba's home and Sakina doesn't speak English very well. Her poor English is the reason she failed the admissions test to New Haven School. Fortunately, because of her high science and mathematics marks, she has been given another chance at the exam on July 27th. Sakina loves to read and has a small secret reading space in a half room behind their toilet in her family's small house. She's serious about going to school even though she has never attended and she knows her parents need the extra income she earns for their family to survive. But while she practices her other subjects, Sakina struggles to master English. She needs a teacher and Mimi might just be the person to help her.

The next day when Mimi complains about Pakistani fruit being boring, Sakina has her try mango and offers her a deal. Mimi agrees that mango is the most delicious fruit ever. She questions Sakina as to why she has never been to school. Sakina tells Mimi that she learned math, science and some English along with the children who were tutored in the home her abba previously worked at. Sakina makes a deal with Mimi to have her teach her English. 

Gradually the two girls begin to trust one another and become friends. Mimi helps Sakina improve her English while Sakina helps Mimi learn more about Karachi and Pakistani culture. Then Mimi overhears her mother and grandparents talking and learns her father may be working in Karachi. Deeply hurt at her mother's secrecy, Mimi's determination and desire to meet her father only intensify. Meanwhile Sakina's family faces a crisis when her father's diabetes becomes unmanageable and they are unable to afford his medication. This means even if Sakina passes the exam, their poverty may mean she will never attend. Can the two girls help each other achieve their most heartfelt desires?

Discussion

Set in the bustling city of Karachi, Pakistan, the hometown of author Saadia Faruqi, A Thousand Questions is a story about two girls whose misconceptions about each other's lives and cultures are challenged. Through friendship they learn about each other's culture, find what binds them together and work to help one another.

Mimi Scotts, a young American girl visiting her grandparents' home in Karachi appears to have a charmed life with her stylish American clothing and the opportunity to attend school. But Mimi is a girl who has been mourning the loss of her father ever since he abruptly left when she was five years old. We learn later in the novel that he left after being offered "...this really exciting assignment in Iraq, right in the middle of an insurgency. It would have killed my career not to go."  What followed was one assignment after another that Mimi's father felt he couldn't refuse. He abandoned Mimi and her mother. This absence becomes a huge hole in Mimi's life and is deepened when Mimi discovers that her mother has been keeping a secret from her while in Pakistan: that her father is living in Karachi. It's hard to accept Mimi's mother's excuse as to why she kept this secret from Mimi. While it's understandable that she would be angry with his abandonment, nevertheless Mimi has the right and the need to have a relationship with her father, no matter what she may think of her ex-husband. It's this lack of empathy and understanding that makes her the least likeable character in the novel.

Eventually Mimi confronts her mother about what she has done over the last few years. Mimi challenges her mother."You're just....hiding. That's it. You're hiding from everything painful in your life, not even caring that you don't have the right to keep information from other people." She tells her mother to stop pretending and to acknowledge her pain, that she has "...a hole in my heart where he used to be, and I can't just forget that." 

In contrast to Mimi is Sakina Ejaz who is a servant in Mimi's grandparents' home. Sakina has a mother and a father but her life is hard. Her family has no money for school and she works alongside her father who is cook for Mimi's grandparents. She wants to become a teacher and help others but struggles with deep internal conflict: her desire for an education amidst her responsibility to earn money for her family.  This conflict is especially heartbreaking as it is a very real one for many girls in the developing world, who are either married off young to pay off debt or who must work to support their families. 

At first Mimi sees Sakina as the servant girl in her grandparents' home. But her view of Sakina changes as she gets to know her better. She admires Sakina's maturity and responsibility.  "Her life is so different from mine, I suddenly think. She actually works for a living, contributes to her family, has an opinion about grown-up things." This is in contrast to Mimi's life where everything is provided for her. Mimi's view of Sakina's life changes again when she goes to visit her. She tells Sakina, "I used to think I was better off than you because I had more stuff, but it's not really true." While Sakina has less "stuff" she has an intact family, including a father who is involved in her life. Sakina too has her own misconceptions about Americans. She tells Mimi she's lucky to be rich and living in America but Mimi tells her "Rich? We have no money in Houston. It's only here that we seem rich."

Despite their differences in culture and opportunities, the two girls form a friendship and begin to work together to help each other: Mimi helps Sakina improve her English so she can pass an entrance exam into school and Sakina takes Mimi's journal to her father's office which leads to him reconnecting with Mimi. The story weaves itself between these two narratives: Mimi's desire to find her father once she learns he might actually be in Karachi and Sakina's desire to attend school despite her father's illness and their poverty. Both girls' situations evoke sympathy and this story serves to demonstrate that people everywhere, no matter culture or race experience troubles in life. The message is that we all need to work together to help one another. Faruqi offers a balanced story, having her characters point out that both America or Pakistan are countries with similar problems such as poverty and government corruption, although both are likely worse in Pakistan.

A Thousand Questions  offers young readers a contrast in cultures and shows that with empathy we can bridge the differences that exist between people. The novel ends on a hopeful note, with Mimi and Sakina both experiencing positive changes in their lives and looking forward to continuing their friendship. This heartfelt novel will be enjoyed by middle-grade readers. The author provides a glossary of Pakistani words as well as some information about the city of Karachi in her Author's Note at the back.

 Book Details:

A Thousand Questions by Saadia Faruqi
New York: Quill Tree Books       2020
310 pp.