The Cat I Never Named by Amra Sabic-El-Rayless

Sixteen-year-old Amra Sabic lives in the city of Bihac, in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has recently declared its independence from Yugoslavia. It is 1992 and Amra is on the train from Belgrade, Serbia back home after writing a series of tests in mathematics and logic. Amra feels that her parents don't seem to understand what is happening in their country. They believe people are general good, that education will create a better world. After passing tests in her hometown, her parents have sent her to Belgrade, in the heart of Serbia to take the next and highest levels of tests.

Now on a train home to Bihac, Amra is terrified when Serbian nationalists, known as Cetniks enter the train. There is already war between the Serbs who want land and control and Croatians who want independence. Amra believes it is only a matter of time before Serbia attacks Bosnia. And Serbs hate Bosniaks, Bosnian Muslims. Their leader, Radovan Kavadzic has threatened to eradicate Bosnian Muslims if they leave Yugoslavia. The soldiers are sneering and shouting at anyone they think might be Muslim. Amra's only protection is that they think she is a young Serbian woman. That's because Muslims in Bosnia don't wear hijabs, speak Arabic or recite the Qu'ran. They are Muslims of ethnicity after years of communism and look like other Yugoslavians. So far Amra's city of Bihac has been peaceful with Muslims, Croats and Serbs living in harmony for generations. Thankfully, Amra arrives safely in Bihac and is met by Tata.

On her birthday Amra awakens to discover that a young Muslim soldier is staying at her home. Mama and Tata take in these soldiers and send them to safety. Muhamed is from Srebrenica. He tells Amra he never wanted to be a soldier, instead hoping to work in the spa famous for its healing waters. He was sent to a tiny Croatian town to massacre the people but after letting an old woman escape he hid until it was over. Upon learning the next day they were to be sent to another Croation town, he deserted. He met up with Amra's Tetak Ale and Tetka Fatma who saved him and sent him to Amra's home. Muhamed tells Amra that the soldiers are saying the Muslims are next, once they get to Bosnia.

On her birthday Amra can't help but think this might "be the last day with any shred of real happiness. War is creeping closer every day. Hate is spreading...." Amra and Tata set out to pick up her birthday cake from her cousin, Zuhra and pick up a late-night ticket for Muhamed. Although it's a lovely day, when they come to the Blue Bridge which crosses the river Una, Amra realizes that things are not normal. People on the bridge have fear in their faces. At the Paviljon, many Bosniak refugees sit nearby, wearing extra clothing even though it is a warm day. Tata begins handing out money to them until he has none left. Soon Yugoslav National Army tanks are rolling through the streets of Bihac. The soldiers taunt and jeer at Amra but she continues walking, ignoring them. Suddenly Amra meets a pretty little calico cat whose "soft and quiet beauty" gives her something to focus on.

When Amra meets up again with Tata, he has Omer and Erza with him. As they walk home, the calico cat follows Amra. Although she doesn't want the cat, Tata suggests that maybe she too needs a family. Amra's mother welcomes Omer and Erza but refuses to have a "maci", the Bosnia word for cat, in the house. Nevertheless, Maci sticks around.

Amra's birthday party sees her friend Olivera who is Serbian and Nura and Ivona attend. After eating Zuhra's delicious cake, Olivera suddenly leaves, telling Amra she's not allowed to stay after dark, in case something happens. This puzzles Amra, and when the other girls are spooked by Maci at the window, they also leave.

The next day while waiting for Olivera, Amra learns that their capital city of Sarajevo is surrounded by Serb forces. Amra begins to wonder about Olivera, who is Serbian. That night when she attempts to call Olivera, she hangs up on her and then during a second attempt tells Amra never to call again. When Maci follows Amra and Dino on their way to school the next day, a young university student named Davor offers to watch the cat while Amra is in class. Amra immediately notices that half the class is absent- all the Serbian students. Teacher Zivko, a Serbian who is married to a Muslim, tells the class that the Muslims and Catholics who are left in the city will soon be under attack. The Serbian families were secretly told to evacuate, while the army waits outside the city. He tells them to go home.

As she's leaving school, Amra tells Davor that she needs to get her brother Dino. He agrees to help her, but when they get to the intersection, Amra realizes she's forgotten Maci. As they leave the intersection, a sniper begins shooting, wounding people. Amra and Davor get Dino and then they head towards their homes. At Amra and Dino's home, Tata and Mama are packing to go to Cousin Vesna's house to shelter in her basement.

For the first three days not much happens but then bombing begins on the fourth day. Tata believes the world will put a stop to the bombing. After the bombing, Amra and Dino escape outside to try to find Maci and discover their house is still intact. Dino escapes death from a bomb when he hears Maci in a nearby garage. The place he was standing was hit by a bomb, killing three of their friends. Maci saved Dino this time. When Amra tells Mama how Maci saved Dino, she agrees the cat can stay.

For two more weeks Amra and her family stay with Cousin Vesna. Tata goes out to check on the city and learns that the teacher in charge of records for Amra's grade has destroyed all the records of the Muslim students. He also tells Mama that her brother Ejub was killed in  bombing. With this, Mama decides they will go back to their home.

They find their house intact, but without electricity. However, Amra struggles, taking to lying in bed most of the day. But Maci and her new kittens are a sign of hope for Amra, reminding her that the world is a beautiful place. As Amra and her family struggle to stay alive as war batters Bihac, Maci is the one constant that helps the entire family deal with hunger, loss and fear.

Discussion

The Cat I Never Named presents young readers with a gritty, personal account of the Bosnian War from the perspective of a sixteen-year-old girl. The war, which began in 1992 and ended in 1995, was the result of the breakup of the communist state of Yugoslavia after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. At the end of World War II, Yugoslavia was a country comprised of six republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. The country was ruled by dictator Josef Tito until his death in 1980. Ethnic tensions began to increase between Serbs and other groups in the region especially after Slobodan Milosevic came to power in Serbia in 1987.  In 1991, Slovenia and Croatia voted to secede from the country followed in 1992 by Bosnia and Herzegovina. The secession of Croatia, resulted in increased tensions between the Serbian population and the dominant Croats. With the declaration of independence by Croatia, the Serbian population went to war. This was the beginning of the conflict that eventually spilled over into Bosnia, a region inhabited by Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), Croatians and Serbs who lived together in peace for decades. Although the secession of Bosnia/Herzegovina was recognized internationally, Bosnian Serbs were not so accommodating.

Amra Sabic was a teenager when war broke out. Her memoir vividly describes how it felt to be hated simply for belonging to a specific ethnic group. She struggles to understand how a best friend could suddenly come to hate her. "No, Olivera doesn't hate me. She's my best friend. She knows nothing about this conflict, no more than I did only two days ago. Bihac isn't Sarajevo. We are peaceful, full of brotherly love. We accept differences. No one here would hurt another person just because their ancestors came from one place or another." However, Olivera does not hold this view at all. In school she tells Amra that her father says "...all Serbs are afraid of Muslims..." When Amra confronts her friend, she has no explanation for why she might be afraid of someone like Amra.

Amra also finds herself also dealing with her own desire to hate the Serbs. When their Serbian neighbours home is being robbed by a Bosniak classmate, Amra believes they deserve to be robbed and to have nothing. But her father tells her "...Jovanka and her husband, they are just people. The Serbs, they are just people. Most of them are like us, just trying to be happy and get along. A few of them have been corrupted by hate, or greed, or...I don't know what. But inside we are all the same. Just because some of the Serbs have forgotten that, you shouldn't. Ever. One day this will be over. We'll all go back to being just people again. Make sure you haven't forgotten your humanity by then."

The war makes Amra think about human nature and our capacity to help or hurt one another. In her city under siege, Amra rethinks her opinion of her neighbour Jovanka, wondering if the woman was actually trying to help her. "What if tired old Jovanka tried to commit one herooic act in her life? Face with horror she couldn't fight, what if saving me was her attempt to make things not right but better? What if every Serb tried to do one small thing to fight the hate that has taken over our world now? What if everyone on the planet did?"

Amra also struggles to understand the abandonment of her friend Olivera. When Nura tells her that Olivera knew what was happening but simply kept quiet, Amra feels differently. "I feel betrayed by my best friend. But I also try to understand what she must have gone through, to be torn between her own beliefs and her parents' beliefs. To be told to think that Bosnians are dirty subhumans, and then see proof to the contrary in her best friend. Or did she come to believe it too?"

As the war continues on, Amra eventually makes a crucial decision after visiting the home of Damir, a boy a year ahead of her in school. Hoping to borrow his old math textbooks, she learns from his father that he has been killed by a missile. She begins to understand that maybe she can help build a better world.

The Cat I Never Named is a story about maintaining our humanity in the worst of times.  Amra and her family survived the war but it changed all of them forever. Amra has crafted a readable account, using the events and people she encountered during the war that effectively portray the horrors of war, the suffering of innocent civilians and the destruction of society and culture. It is also a story about a young girl determined to survive and make the world a better place by letting the world know the power of hatred to destroy everything good.  In her author's note, Amra states that she "wrote this book to illustrate how deeply damaging hatred is. Hatred is the most powerful emotion, more powerful than love. Love compels us to do selfless things....But hate can make people commit horrific violence, such as Serbs raping my relative in a rape camp. Only hate is that powerful..." 

Amra writes in her Acknowledgements, that she "...wanted to ensure my story transcended the moment and would remain a powerful lesson for generations to come. I wanted it to sensitize young adults to those who are other-ed and discriminated against. I wanted to bring the world together by changing youths' mind-sets."  Amra also explained the cover of the book and what it tries to achieve. "The blown-up mosque was inspired by a one destroyed in the village of Ahmici during a massacre against Bosniaks, Bosnian Muslims, on April 16, 1993. The goal was to counter a prevalent narrative that nearly two billion Muslims are a monolithic group of people. Instead, the book's jacket present my authentic self, a liberal Muslim teen , yet a Muslim who was still so profoundly hated. The jacket illustration serves as a reminder that the hate is a product of its perpetrators rather than a reflection of its victims. To those who spent years trying to kill me, it never mattered who I was. What mattered was how they saw me. There is nothing that victims can do to ameliorate that hate except to educate by telling our stories in hope of evoking collective empathy among those open to hearing our stories. The jacket also demonstrates a dichotomy between the love Maci and I felt for each other and destruction around us that the hatred produced."

The author also includes a map at the front to orient young readers, A Note From The Author, Resources for Further Reading and Movies About the Bosnian War.  The Cat I Never Named is an uplifting reminder that people have the choice to stand up against hate and instead to change the world for the better, one loving act at a time.

Book Details:

The Cat I Never Named by Amra Sabic-El-Rayless
New York: Bloomsbury Publishing   2020
368 pp.

When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohammed

Omar and his younger brother, Hassan live in Dabaab, a refugee camp in Kenya. They were born in Somalia, but fled their home due to the war. They have been in Dabaab for seven years. While many in the camp hope to go to America, Omar wants to return to his family's farm in Somalia.

Dabaab is a huge camp, consisting of three separate camps. Omar and Hassan live in Ifo camp. There is not much food and no electricity. They are cared for by Fatuma, a woman who lives across from their tent.

Omar doesn't attend school: instead he cares for Hassan who doesn't speak anything except to say "Hooyo". Hassan loves to greet everyone he meets and help them.

After school, the boys from block As where Omar and Hassan live, like to play soccer. One of those boys, Omar's friend Jeri, hopes to go to America. 

One day Omar meets Salan, a community leader in the camp. He tells Salan that he doesn't attend school because he cares for Hassan. However, Salan talks with Fatuma, and together they explain to Omar why he should go to school. Salan points out that Fatuma can care for Hassan while he attends school. He also tells Omar that the war in Somalia is worsening so his plan to return home is likely not possible. Being accepted to America is also unlikely and Salan tells him that an education will help him prepare for the future and find a job. Omar's final objection is that he doesn't want to be "in a class with babies" and agrees only if he can start in Grade 5.

After many days, Salan returns with the necessary permission to start school in Grade 5. Omar is not happy but Fatum advises him to "look deep inside yourself and see what God is telling you to do. If this is God's will, then He will make everything ok..." When Omar leaves the next morning for school, Hassan is very upset. School for Omar is challenging, noisy and crowded, but he loves it. He notices that the girls in his school, including his friends Nimo and Maryam are doing chores before school, watching younger siblings after school. Because Omar doesn't have sisters to do chores, he must do them. This makes Omar tired and he sympathizes with the girls who must be exhausted.

After a few weeks, Omar tells Salan he's ready to give up school. Salan offers to give Omar extra English classes in exchange for him bringing water to his private school.Although this makes life more difficult for Omar by school break, Omar's english is greatly improved and he is ranked thirty-third in the class.

During the school break, Omar discovers that Maryam and Nimo continue to study even though they are one-two in the class. They tell Omar that they intend to win scholarships to study in Canada and dream of careers as doctors or singers. This leads Omar to reconsider what he might like to do and he thinks he would like to be a social worker.  Omar also begins to realise that his friend Jeri might be right about Hassan. Jeri points out to Omar that his brother can do more than he realizes and that he "babies" Hassan.

With the arrival of new refugees from Somalia, Omar learns that there is nothing left of his village, Mareery, as the war continues unabated. This news deeply upsets Omar and he comes to realize that his plan to return to Somalia isn't realistic. So he decides the best hope for his future is to pass the exams so he can attend middle school. To achieve this, Omar, Jeri and many of the boys from A2 study late into the night in Omar's tent with Jeri's lantern.But a week before the exams, Hassan who has been kept in Fatuma's tent, escapes

The day before the exams, Maryam visits Omar and tells him not to throw away the opportunity to get an education. She explains that she has no choice, that her dreams and hopes are over because she is being forced to marry. But his are not. Maryam tells Omar he is using Hassan as an excuse, that people will watch over Hassan. She explains that he is smart and cares about others, that with an education he can help other refugees some day. 

That night, unable to sleep, Omar talks with Fatuma. She tells him that Hassan has a gift of making people like him. She advises Omar to pray to God to thank Him and to ask Him for guidance.The next morning, Maryam arrives informing Omar that she is caring for Hassan while he goes to write his exams. She tells him she is giving him the chance she doesn't have, and Omar takes it. It's up to him to determine his future, one that is full of surprises, disappointments and success too!

Discussion

When Stars Are Scattered is a refugee's story of perseverance, faith, and fortitude in the face of daunting obstacles. It is the story of Omar Mohamed's life as a Somalian refugee in Kenya. As explained in his Author's Note at the back, Omar was born in Somalia but fled his homeland  along with his brother Hassan when he was four years old. Somalia was engulfed in civil war which began in 1991, and which still rages on today. He spent fifteen years in the Dabaab Refugee Camp in Kenya, completing primary and secondary school there.In the Afterword, readers learn what happened to Omar and Hassan after they left Kenya for the United States in 2009. Omar studied International Development at the University of Arizona, while Hassan received medication to help control his seizures and attended classes at an adult care center in Tucson. Both became U.S citizens in 2014, the year Omar also graduated university. Life got even better for Omar; he married a friend, Sarura whose family cared for Hassan when he ran away to another camp and who had also been resettled along with her family in the United States, and he was able to reunite with his mother in 2017. Omar's mother, Hawa Ali still lives in Dabaab but he is working on her resettlement to the United States. And Omar stayed true to his dreams, working today to help empower and support refugees through his own initiative, Refugee Strong.

As the Syrian refugee situation unfolded, Victoria Jamieson was interested in portraying the predicament of refugees using the graphic novel format. After meeting Omar at Church World Service, the two worked on using this format to capture the events and issues Omar and Hassan experienced as refugees. When Stars Are Scattered does a truly admirable job of doing just that.Young readers will learn about the many difficulties and obstacles they faced growing up in a refugee camp that was never meant to be a permanent home. Such difficulties, such as the lack of good food, electricity, medical services for children like Hassan, and crowded, noisy schools are all highlighted in the novel. 

Through characters created on the basis of Omar's recollections, some of the other serious issues refugees face were also well portrayed by Jamieson. For example, Omar's best friend Jeri has a father who has no job prospects and has essentially given up hope of leaving the camp and has taken to chewing khat leaves which offer him an escape from the boredom of camp life. The plight of young girls in the camp is also featured; Maryam and Nimo along with the other girls must do all the chores for their families, while also attempting to keep up their studies. Many young girls do not attend school, an education being deemed useless. Maryam also sees her dreams of being a doctor destroyed when she is forced to marry.

Omar himself faces many obstacles and is deeply conflicted about attending school when he feels he should be caring for his brother Hassan.  The plight of refugees waiting and waiting is expressed again and again in the novel and even Omar feels its effects. When Fatuma tells him to persevere with his education "so he can be ready when God reveals his plan to you", Omar notes that the camp is like a "giant waiting room, filled with hundreds of thousands of people waiting and waiting and waiting. Everyone here just wants a place to call home. A place where they can work, or go to school. A place where there families feel safe."

When Stars Are Scattered is a reference to a poem one of Omar's friends in the novel gives him. Maryam Farah, who wasnt' able to continue her education likens each Somali to a star. To the untrained eye the night sky looks like a mass of stars but those stars form patterns which we call constellations. They are all interconnected. Each has a story to tell, just like each refugee. Despite his first years being lost, Omar too has a story that shines out.

Finally, unlike many graphic novels, the artwork by Iman Geddy is superb, drawing readers into Omar and Hassan's story. When Stars Are Scattered is a readable, beautifully crafted graphic novel that gives a thoughtful treatment to refugees and the many issues they face today.

Book Details:

When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohammed
New York: Dial Books For Young Readers    2020
258 pp.

Noa and the Little Elephant: A tale of friendship and survival by Michael Foreman

This beautifully illustrated picture book tells the fictional story of a young boy who loves to watch the animals around the great river where he lives.

Noa liked to watch the wading birds, zebras and the tall giraffes.But he especially loved to watch the elephants as they came to the river to cool off by playing in the water. Noa watched as a mother elephant played with her baby. The elephants grew accustomed to seeing Noa in his boat.

One day the elephants did not come to the river. Finally, Noa decided to follow the elephant path into the dark jungle. Noa discovers the terrible reason for the elephants absence from the library: the mother elephant is dead and has had her ivory tusks removed by poachers.

Noa comforts the baby elephant and leads him back to his home at the edge of his village. While his mom and little sister Eva helped make the baby elephant comfortable, Noa's dad told him to add water to the goat's milk so it wouldn't make the baby elephant sick.

As weeks go by the baby elephant becomes a part of the village.He even follows Noa to school some days, playing with him. But when the rainy season arrives, the baby elephant returns the favour by saving Noa's life, as the nearby river floods.

Discussion

This beautiful picture book for children, highlights in a gentle way, the effects of poaching animals. The story is told in a gentle way, with beautiful, soft watercolour illustrations by author/illustrator Michael Foreman. Young readers learn that when an adult elephant is killed for its white tusks, the baby elephant is in danger of dying. Like many young animals, it relies on its mother to survive. In Noa and the Little Elephant, the message is one of hope: Noa's family takes in the elephant and Noa is determined to work to save the elephants when he grows up.

Foreman has included an interesting Foreword by Julius Obwona, a ranger at the Uganda Wildlife Authority.Obwona, who grew up near Murchinson Falls National Park saw elephants, antelopes, birds and insects on his walks to collect water. But as he grew up, the elephant population crashed due to poaching. Eventually Obwona began working as a ranger, protecting wildlife around Murchinson Falls.

Noa and the Little Elephant is a delightful way to introduce children to caring for the creatures we share our planet with.

Book Details:

Noa and the Little Elephant by Michael Foreman
London, UK: HarperCollins Children's Books   2021

Pirate Queen: A Story of Zheng Yi Sao by Helaine Becker

Sitting combing her hair, a young woman doesn't realize that pirates are maurading through the city, smashing windows, looting and killing. Their captain, Zheng Yi has sent his men to seize young women for the pirates to marry. The women were carried back to the ships, their pleas for help ignored.

While the other girls cried and were terror-stricken, this young woman saw an opportunity.  She refused to marry Zheng Yi unless he gave her an equal share in his business. He agreed. Within six years Zheng Yi Sao's husband was dead and she quickly took command of Zheng Yi's pirate fleet. No one challenged her, not even her late husband's lieutenant, Zhang Bao.

Zheng Yi Sao was now in command of more than eighteen hundred ships and seventy-thousand men! To cement her authority over the pirates, Zheng formed a council out of her squadron leaders and soon they ruled the entire South China Sea.

So feared were the pirates that towns gave their money to Zheng Yi's pirates and her power grew. She was able to pay workers in every town to supply her ships.

Eventually she became even more powerful than the emperor, so he sent his armada to destroy her. But Zheng Yi's Red Flag Fleet destroyed sixty-three of his ships. Attempting to starve out the pirates also did not work.

The emperor then enlisted the help of the British, Dutch and Portuguese also without success. But Zheng Yi grew tired of a pirate's life and the knowledge that there was a price on her head.

So she sailed into Canton's port on a gunboat, along with the wives and children of her crew and offered to surrender most of her ships in exchange for their freedom. At first the governor-general refused but then changed his mind. And so Zheng Yi Sao retired from her pirate ways, a wealthy and free woman.

Discussion

Zheng Yi Sao was a real pirate who ruled the South China Sea. Some details of her story remain vague and unverified but the general story of her life is well known. In 1801, Zheng Wenxian was a powerful Chinese pirate, commander of the Red Flag Fleet that had been operating throughout the South China Sea. It is believed he had heard about Shi Xianggu, a prostitute in a floating brothel who had a reputation for being an astute businesswoman. She used the secrets she learned from her clients to further her own interests. Such a woman interested Zheng and set out to secure her, although it's not known for sure if she was kidnapped or if he met her and simply proposed to her. She married him on the condition that he share control of the pirate fleet with her. He agreed. Upon his untimely death however, Zheng's adopted son, Cheung Po Tsai was slated to take over the fleet. So Zheng Yi Sao married Cheung Po and gained control of the fleet.

After marauding the South China Sea for three years, Zheng Yi Sao finally decided to surrender and accept the Qing dynasty's offer of amnesty in 1810. It was likely a combination of constant harassment by the Chinese government to bring down the pirates as well as their own internal strife that influenced her decision.

Helaine Becker tells Zheng Yi Sao's story in a short,straightforward way, alongside Liz Wong's colourful illustrations, reminiscent of the Chinese traditional painting. The story is unique, and while Becker has left out some of the more spicy aspects of the pirate queen's life, the main message is that of a capable, savvy and intelligent woman holding her own in a very male dominated era. The author has included an Author's Note about the pirate queen and also notes on her sources and and offering of further resources to read.

Book Details:

Pirate Queen: A Story of Zheng Yi Sao by Helaine Becker
Toronto: Groundwood Books    2020

The Silence Of Bones by June Hur

Sixteen-year-old Seol is working as a damo, an indentured servant, for the police bureau in Hanyang, the capital of Joseon. She has been indentured for her entire lifetime, until she is forty-one years of age. Seol's father was said to have died of starvation while her mother died jumping off a cliff near the sea. At the age of seven, Seol was the family servant of the Nams. Seol was the nobi servant of Lord Paek who sold her to a nearby police bureau in Inchon. Four days after her indenture at the police bureau, Seol tried to escape and was caught and branded on the left cheek with Hanja character, bi which means female servant. She had made a promise to Older Sister to stay in Hanyang and find their brother's grave. Her older brother Inho had promise to write her but the letters stopped and he is now presumed dead.

The novel opens with Seol aiding in the investigation of the body of a woman, found face down, next to the wall that encloses Hanyang. She is ordered by Inspector Han to look at the corpse. Men are forbidden by Confucious's law from touching women not directly related to them. This is why the Capital Police bureau have female servants like Seol.

The woman's silk clothing with richly embroidered hem and sleeves indicates she is a noble. Seol notes she has been stabbed in the neck, but Inspector Han observes that the woman's norigae, a tassel-like ornament and a jewel pin still in her hair, remain. This means the motive for the murder was not robbery.  In her examination, Seol finds that the knife belonging to the silver paedo knotted to the norigae is missing and is found beneath the victim's left shoulder. It is the murder weapon. The woman's identification tag, required by law of everyone in the Joseon kingdom, indicates she was Lady O, daughter of Cabinet Minister O and only nineteen-years-old.

Seol accompanies Inspector Han to the Northern District, home to high ranking officials in Hanyang. Lord O is not home and Matron Kim is ill but the gate keeper reluctantly lets them in. Inspector Han has Seol interview Lady O's personal maid, Soyi. In the inner mansion Seol questions Soyi who tells her that she saw a man in her mistress's room. Soyi, who was taught to read by Lady O, tells Seol about a letter that arrived yesterday morning before her death. The letter told Lady O to meet at the Hour of the Rat. The writer instructed Lady O to burn the letter. 

In the Capital Police Bureau, Seol is instructed by Officer Kyon to lift the body of Lady O onto the table. Kyon tells Seol that all the corpses in the past week were moved to another region by Commander Yi to avoid autopsy, and their killers acquitted or lightly punished. This is because they were all Catholics, followers of the forbidden Western teaching which could result in execution. Seol wonders, "What was it about this teaching called Catholicism that terrorized the culprits enough to kill their own servants, their own children?" 

Eavesdropping outside the examination room Seol listens as Damo Hyeyeon conducts the autopsy. Lady O's death occured around midnight. Despite the watchman patrolling, the killer took the time to cut off her nose. Commander Yi believes the murder was one of vengeance.

Seol accompanies Officer Kyon and Inspectory Han to Mount Inwang where Maid Soyi has fled. Inspector Han located Soyi but they encounter a tiger. When Officer Kyon freezes, Seol grabs his weapon and shoots the tiger in the side. This causes her pony, Terror to bolt with the tiger in pursuit, throwing Seol down an embankment and knocking her senseless. When she awakes, Seol encounters a mysterious lady dressed as a man.The lady tells Seol that they passed the officers earlier who mentioned they were missing a damo. She indicates that if Seol wishes to flee she may do so, as she does not believe in indentured servitude, since this is a form of oppression. But Seol tells her she will return to the police bureau. The woman mystifies Seol who notices that she carries a beaded necklace with a misshapen wooden cross.

Back at the police bureau, Inspector Han gives Seol a norigae and promises that when the investigation is over, he will giver her what she most wants, to return home. The next morning, Seol is informed that Inspector Han is now interrogating Soyi after Commander Yi had her beaten for running away. During questioning Soyi tells Inspector Han that she saw a man on horseback wearing a blue robe just before dawn. After Soyi is taken back to the prison block, Seol is questioned by Master Ch'oi Jinyeop, the son of Third State Councillor Ch'oi. He was betrothed to Lady O when they were children.The young master was at the House of Bright Flowers and has an alibi.

Seol visits Maid Soyi in her prison cell to help clean her wounds. Soyi tells Seol that Lady O promised to give her her nobi deed, freeing her because she was a rogue Catholic who didn't believe in the indentured system. She believes Lady O's lover murdered her. As she leaves the police bureau, Seol is summoned to meet Lady Kang at her mansion in the Northern District by her servant, Woorim. Lady Kang is concerned that Seol may have told the inspector about the books in her cart when they met in the forest. These books are copies of one book. Kang tells Seol that she in convinced the Heavenly Father loves her. Seol knows Lady Kang to be a Catholic and when she questions her about the recent deaths of many Catholics, Lady Kang tells her that they were people who refused to apostatize this foreign learning" but that after the five month formal mourning period before the king's burial, there will be a persecution. Every five households will be grouped together and if a Catholic is found in any one, all will be found guilty of treason. It will not only wipe out the Catholics but also the queen regent's opposition as well. She tells Seol that the "Southern scholar-officials were among the first to spread Catholicism when it was smuggled in." While it was spread as a way to reform society, the regent believes it to be a way to regain power in the government. Lady Kang advises Seol to be careful, that she should not jump to conclusions, to examine the evidence, and that she has a responsibility to care for lives. Lady Kang tells Seol she can read people and warns her that when she needs help, to seek her out.

Back at the police bureau, Inspector Han  meets with Commander Yi who asks him about Councillor Ch'oi's visit.  Councillor Ch'oi fears the regent's intent to purge the Southerners. He wants protection and is willing to obtain it by capturing the only priest of Joeseon, Zhou Wenmo. However, Inspector Han has no intention of letting Ch'oi help in the priest's capture.

That night, Officer Kyon brutally attacks Seol, punishing her for shaming him in the forest, by shooting the tiger. He also reveals that he has testimony from an eyewitness that "Inspector Han was the blue-robed man who crossed paths with Maid Soyi." This revelation stuns Seol who has developed a deep loyalty to the inspector. Filled with disbelief, Seol seeks to prove Inspector Han's innocence, but this only leads to more questions and intrigue.

As things become more complicated with another murder, Seol soon has a host of potential suspects and a startling discovery about Inspector Han to consider. But can she uncover the truth before another murder happens?

Discussion

The Secret Of Bones is a complex and engaging murder mystery set in the Joseon era of Korea. The novel weaves together a collection of stories, linked by the murder of a young Catholic woman in the city of Hanyang. There is the story of Lady O, the daughter of Madam Kim and Councillor O who has been murdered and who is a Catholic but who had a secret lover and bore an illegitimate child. There is the story of Seol, whose parents are both dead, and who is now an indentured servant in the police bureau in Hanyang, but who is also determined to find her older brother Inchon who left almost twelve years earlier. There is the story of Inspector Han, who seems to be implicated in the murder he's investigating and who also seems to be possibly connected to Seol. And there is the story of a young man, the illegitimate son of a Councillor, who seeks to repudiate his shame by hunting down a Catholic priest and therefore restoring some honour to his name.

This novel would have done well to have offered readers a bit of backstory to the Joseon kingdom in the form of a prologue, as it's unlikely most teens or adults will be familiar with this era. However, Hur does incorporate  the main points of Catholic history into her story, through her characters.

The Joseon Dynasty was founded near the end of the fourteenth century when General Yi SEong-gye overthrew the Goryeo dynasty and founded a new one. The Joseon dynasty was based out of the city of Hanyang which today is called Seoul. It was chosen as the capital by King Taejo who was responsible for building Gyeongbokgung Palace and the Jongmyo Shrine. He also adopted the use of identification tags called hopae.

As Hur indicates in her Author's Note at the back, the story is set just prior to the Shinyu Bakhae of 1801, the first major persecution of Catholics in Korea. During the Joseon Dynasty, Korean society was based on Confucianism which stressed certain virtues such as loyalty, and duty as well as ancestor worship. Society in Korea was comprised of the nobility and scholars, with most Koreans being commoners or slaves.

Catholicism was brought to Korea, not by priests, but by the laity, sometime during the 17th century. Despite being a very isolated kingdom, Korean scholars were exposed to Catholicism through literature they obtained from China. European missionaries brought Catholic books which were translated to China. Because Catholicism presented a different social structure with a de-emphasis on class and no adherance to ancestral worship, it was seen as a threat to Korean society and was outlawed in the Kingdom of Joseon in 1758 by King Yeongjo. By 1776, western books were banned.

Despite this, Catholicism grew. In 1784, Peter Yi Seung-hun became the first Korean to be baptized into the Catholic faith, travelling to Peking, China to receive the sacrament.  He returned to Korea and began evangelizing his countrymen, and despite having no priest to minister to them, the community grew. In 1791, the first Catholics were executed and martyred for their faith, because they refused to perform the ancestral rites. 

When a priest finally did arrive in the Kingdom of Joseon, there were over four thousands Catholics. The first Catholic missionary, Father Chou Wen-Mu (Father Zhou Wenmo) arrived in Seoul, in 1795. Within six months, Father Wenmo was actively being pursued by the authorities and so Lady Kang Wansuk helped to hide him. By the turn of the century, there were over ten thousand Catholics in Korea.

The novel is set after 1791 and just prior to the coming persecution known as the Sinyu Persecution. Several of the characters The Secret of Bones were real, historical figures; Queen Jeongsun, Lady Kang and Father Zhou Wenmo. Queen Jeongsun had married King Yeongjo when she was very young, only fifteen years old. When he died she became Queen Dowager Yesun. When King Yeongjo's son, Yi San died at the age of forty-nine, his son, Yi Gong was to be come king but he was only ten years old. Queen Jeongsun became Grand Queen Dowager, acting as regent for the young king. It was Queen Jeongsun who began the Sinyu Persecution in 1801. The persecution may have been partially instigated by a letter sent and intercepted, asking for Western military intervention in Joseon. In the novel, Lady Kang's daughter Sunhui refers to this letter as the "Silk Letter". 

The main character, Seol is a well crafted heroine: determined, courageous and loyal. It is her relentless pursuit of the truth that drives the investigation forward, ultimately placing her in mortal danger. Unknowingly, her pursuit of the truth also leads her through a voyage of self discovery, forcing her to face her family's past and how what happened may now be playing a part in the events of the present.  It is a story of retribution, revenge and forgiveness. Because there are four or five storylines woven together, this gives the author plenty of opportunity to incorporate unexpected twists into the plot, which keeps her readers fully engaged. 

Overall, The Secret of Bones is a well written novel, complex with many layers to the plot. A map of the city of Hanyang and the outlying areas might help readers and a more attractive cover might be worth reconsidering, to draw readers into this gem of a novel. Look for more in the future from this accomplished Korean-Canadian author.

Book Details:

The Secret of Bones by June Hur
New York: Feiwel and Friends   2020
320 pp.

What The Kite Saw by Anne Laurel Carter

What The Kite Saw is a short picture book that tells the story of how a little boy copes when war comes to his town.

When the tanks rolled into his town, the soldiers took the little boy's father and brother. A curfew was put in place and people were warned they would be shot if they were out on the streets.

That night the little boy cannot stop staring at the empty places where his father and brother would have been sitting. His little sister couldn't stop crying. Both the little boy and his sister slept in their mother's bed.

The next day, when the curfew was lifted, the little boy and his sister played in the park while their mother shopped. Nights passed while the little boy hoped to see his father and brother come home. He drew pictures and told stories. When he saw spotlights on the buildings and heard gunshots and shouts, he imagined people grew wings to escape to safety.

The next during curfew, the little boy had an idea which he shared with his friends. That idea was to make and fly kites. He imagined what those kites might see as they flew over his city.

Discussion

Anne Laurel Carter, in her short Author's Note indicates that this story was inspired by Palestinian children but that it could apply to any child who has experienced war. The beauty and strength of this picture book is not so much the simple story, but the exquisite illustrations that accompany the story. Illustrator Akin Duzakin, who is from Turkey but living now in Oslo, Norway,  has captured a wide range of emotions children might experience in a war zone. Duzakin's illustrations, rendered in soft pastel, with detailing done in crayons and watercolour, offer a haunting portrayal of the terror of war. There is fear, anguish, and worry on the face of the mother, and sadness of faces of the children. Duzakin's earthy, dark palette is accented with reds, yellows and orange, representing the violence of war.

What The Kite Saw is a helpful picture book to introduce the concept of war and how it can affect children, their families and their communities.

Book Details:

What The Kite Saw by Anne Laurel Carter
Toronto: Groundwood Books     2021

The Boy Who Invented The Popsicle by Anne Renaud

Young Frank William Epperson wanted to be an inventor. He enjoyed practicing his cornet, having adventures with his younger brother Cray and learning magic tricks. He was also curious about the world around him. But what he loved most, was inventing. 

In his "laboratory", the back porch of his family's home, he tinkered and experimented. By the age of ten he had created a two-handled hand car that was faster than a one-handled handcar.

Frank loved to experiment with soda waters. He wanted to invent the most delicious soda water drink ever, so he would buy flavoured soda water powders from the nearby corner store. His little brother Cray would help by tasting Frank's concoctions. 

One day Frank was part of a miniature amusement park he and his friends set up. Frank was in charge of the soda water stand. However, something very unusual happened at this time: the temperature dropped below freezing. This was unusual because Frank lived in San Francisco, California, a part of the United States not known for becoming very cold. This led Frank to wonder what his soda drink might taste like if it were frozen. So he experimented by leaving his drink outside during that cold night. 

The next morning Frank awoke to find his drink frozen. He couldn't drink it, but he could lick it! He had invented a new treat. Frank grew up, married his sweetheart Mary Frances and had a large family. He never forgot about that treat he made as a kid. As frozen treats became more popular, Frank returned to his experiments and discovered a way to make frozen drinks on a stick. He had to solve several problems before his treats could be sold. And once he worked out solutions to those problems he then had to figure out a way to market his treats which he called the Ep-sicle. His children loved his treats too, calling them pop's sicle and eventually he changed the name to Popsicle!

Discussion

Now that it's summer, popsicles are on everyone's shopping list. But did you know they were accidentally discovered by an eleven-year-old boy in 1905 when he left his soda water mixture out on the porch? Frank Epperson, who made that accidental discovery, went on to patent his invention but later sold the rights when he needed the money.

Epperson's remarkable story is told in a fun and engaging way, accompanied by the colourful illustrations of Milan Pavlovic. The artwork was rendered in mixed media including pencil, colour inks and digitally. To help young readers understand the science behind the making of popsicles, Renaud has included easy experiments that can be done at home. These experiments explain the concepts involving liquids, mixtures and the effect of salt on the freezing point of water.

Renaud was able to source information for her book directly from Frank Epperson's family, his three surviving children and his granddaughters and grandsons. The author was able to access Epperson's written memoirs, business papers and photographs.Some of the photographs are shared in the detailed Author's Note at the back of the book. 

The Boy Who Invented The Popsicle is treat for those curious about how the popsicle came to be.

Book Details:

The Boy Who Invented The Popsicle by Anne Renaud
Toronto: Kids Can Press Ltd.       2019

Thrive by Kenneth Oppel

Thrive is the final installment in the Bloom trilogy opening where the second book left off. A cryptogen ship has just been shot down by the Canadian military. From the vessel three cryptogens emerge; a flyer with dazzling golden wings, a swimmer and a runner. All the cryptogens are wearing special masks to help them breathe, as Earth's environment is still somewhat toxic to them. After Anaya convinces both sides to stand down, the cryptogens are brought inside. 

Seth has also returned to Deadman's Island. He fills Petra and Anaya in on what happened to him and Esta when they were left behind: Sienna was captured by police,  how Darren stung Seth with his tail causing Esta to force him to jump from the boat after blasting him with sound and how the marine police captured Esta from the boat.

The three rebel cryptogens have been placed into the Vancouver Aquarium's biodome, now "a cryptogenic landscape of high black grass, berry-laden  vines snaking  from buried pit plants, and seed-spitting water lilies floating serenely on a pond so acidic no human would dare swim in it..." The cryptogen ship has also been moved into the biodome. 

Colonel Pearson has Anaya, Petra and Seth communicate with the cryptogens so they can learn what they are planning. Terra, the rebel cryptogen, explains to Anaya that there are not many rebels aboard their vessel of over seven hundred thousand aliens which is now orbiting Earth. She also reveals that there were ten rebel landings on the planet but refuses to reveal the locations of the other landings. Terra tells Anaya that they need to extract the code from the hybrid's blood to make a chemical weapon and that the final invasion is planned in a little over a month so they need to move fast. Once the weapon is made, it can be taken back to the alien ship and released there. This will allow the rebels to gain control of the ship, overwhelm the flyers who are in command and leave, preventing the invasion.

In Petra's communications with her cryptogen, she can't sense the alien's gender and decides to use the pronouns ze and zir (in a nod to the current gender ideology fad). She learns that the swimmer is a scientist who took part in creating the human hybrids and that there are thousands of hybrids on Earth. The swimmer tells Petra that they created the hybrids because they needed them as a safe place to keep the "substance" and also as translators.

As Seth communicates with the flyer, whom he calls the general, he is shown the battle on the cryptogen's planet in which the runner and swimmers are destroyed by the sonic blasts from the flyers. The general was wounded but tended to by runners who saved his life. This experience changed how he viewed the swimmers and runners. When those who treated him were all killed he was disgusted by what had happened and became a spy for the rebel cryptogens. The general was responsible for starting the rains on Earth that led to the changes in the ecosystem and to the human hybrids. He tells Seth that the rebels have come to form an alliance with the humans and fight against the invasion. He also tells Seth that they hid a code inside of the hybrids and they now need it. The code is to make a virus which will permanently destroy the flyers ability to use sound as a weapon. Seth also learns that he will never achieve his dream of flying as his body is too heavy.

Later that day, over dinner, Anaya reveals that Terra told her they can repair their damaged ship's hull but the levitation system is damaged. There is however a ship that crashed sixteen years ago when they first came to Earth, and if they can locate it, they might be able to salvage the part.  

Seth continues to be focused on helping Esta, who Dr. Weber reveals is being held in a detention center in the U.S. She is accused of murdering Dr. Ritter. When Seth protests that she's innocent and that he killed Ritter, Dr. Weber tells him he's considered an accessory to the murder. When Seth expresses his determination to find Esta, Dr. Weber promises to ask Colonel Pearson where she's being held.

Pearson arrives and reveals to the group that intelligence has discovered that at least two ships, one over North Korea and another over the Suez Canal have been shot down. Pearson refuses to tell the Americans anything, for fear of jeopardizing their ability to make the weapon. 

The next day Terra takes Anaya inside their ship to extract what they need from her body to make their weapon. While they are working on making the virus into a weapon, Terra works on locating the crashed cryptogen ship in the hopes they can use its levitation device for their own ship. The crash site turns out to be located in northeastern British Columbia, in a swamp, with the ship underwater. To recover the levitation device, Petra and the swimmer are flown out to the site in a helicopter. But the retrieval proves to be daunting as Petra and the swimmer must fight off giant squids while the helicopter is almost taken down by giant parasitic creatures.

Meanwhile Seth has learned that Esta is being detained at Point Roberts. This leads him to sneak away from the aquarium to rescue her, but he only succeeds in getting himself captured and back into the hands of the cruel Dr. Ritter who it turns out has survived. Back at the base, Terra, with the help of Anaya and Dr. Weber is successful in creating a virus that affects the flyers' ability to use their sound weapon. But are they too late?

The early arrival of the cryptogen invasion force throws all their plans into chaos. As the cryptogens attack new plans are needed if they are to use their weapon on the flyers and give the rebel cryptogens and Earth a chance.

Discussion

Thrive is a fitting conclusion to Kenneth Oppel's Bloom trilogy about human's overcoming an alien invasion. In this series,  the story focuses on a group of human-alien hybrids, bred by a rebel alien faction, determined to thwart their planet's colonization of Earth. The novel is filled with character-driven action scenes including an epic battle between humans, hybrids, rebel cryptogens and the invading cryptogens. The ending is predictable and upbeat, with a final battle between the cryptogens, rebels, hybrids and humans.

Thrive is arguably the weakest of the three novels, with the events almost anti-climatic. Readers know the humans will prevail in the end. And after so many gruesome creatures in the first two books, any new ones the humans encounter seem almost expected. But in Thrive, the three main characters, Anaya, Petra and Seth, finally come into their own, each facing their own fears and challenges. This is especially true of Petra and Seth. 

In Thrive, Petra steps up to do her part to help out. Initially she has been reluctant, still struggling to accept the physiological changes she's experiencing and wanting her old life and her human body back. But with the help of the swimmer and as the situation becomes more dire, Petra rises to the challenge, helping in the recovery of the levitation device, saving the swimmer's life, devising a way to spread the viral weapon when the rebel's plan falls apart, and attempting to rescue the trapped hybrids on the cryptogen ship over Point Roberts.

Seth also commits himself. Abandoned by his mother, Seth has struggled to belong, and is now forced to choose who he will fight for; humans or cryptogens. The commander of the cryptogens tells him the human hybrids were mean to inherit the new earth and that they will thrive in it. He is also told he will fly, something he has dreamed of all his life. But this doesn't fit with what Terra has told them back in the biodome. Unlike Esta, Seth notes the difference in the way the commander and Terra have presented what is happening and he's not sure who he can trust. He also has, in the back of his mind, "the general's sonic message...wanting to be opened." From this message, Seth learns the truth about the cryptogen commander and her intentions for the hybrids. He also learns that he must finally make a choice, a painful one because he learns the truth about the one person he has come to identify with but who is a traitor.

For Esta, there is only one choice, solidarity with the cryptogens. On the cryptogen ship, Seth, Esta, Darren and Siena are given accounts of what happened on the cryptogen's planet that are much different from what Terra has told Anaya . While Esta accepts what she is being told, Charles counters, "Even if we don't know whose story is true...we know one thing for sure. These guys are here to take over our planet. That does not make them the good guys. Are you okay with everyone dying but us?" After the general and the swimmer rebels are captured and killed by the cryptogen flyer commander, Esta tells her fellow hybrids they have to make a choice. She tells them the choice is obvious because the cryptogens are going to win, meaning the hybrids will be safe. And so she acts on what she believes.

Thrive is an exciting read, with lots of battles, gruesome creatures, evil cryptogens and human traitors. Young readers will enjoy the satisfying ending, in what is one of Oppel's best offerings to date.

Book Details:

Thrive by Kenneth Oppel
Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers Inc.  2021
405 pp.

Call Across The Sea by Kathy Kacer

Sixteen-year-old Henny Sinding lives in Copenhagen, Denmark with Mor (her mother) and Far (her father).  Henny has grown up on the waters of the channel, learning how to sail before she could walk.Their boat, the Gerda III is "Henny's home away from home."

Far, a naval officer in Copenhagen, is head of the Danish Lighthouse and Buoy Service. It is his job to supply the Drogden Lighthouse, situated at the south end of the channel. Helping on the Gerda are two crewmembers, Otto and Gerhardt who have worked as engineers as long as their father has.

On a warm, sunny day, with Henny steering the boat, Far's attention is drawn to a small boat flying the Nazi flag. The Nazis have occupied Denmark, for the last three years, since 1940 when King Christian X surrendered to Adolf Hitler. He was hoping to spare his country the horrors others had experienced at the hands of the Nazis. Now in 1943, the situation appears to be changing; more Nazi troops marching on the streets and now boats in the channel.

Far doesn't want to catch the attention of the Nazi boat so he orders Henny to cut the engines. This time they are lucky, the Nazi boat does not pursue them and they return to shore safely. On their way home, Henny notices her father is unusually quiet. At dinner Far reveals that the lighthouse staff told him Nazi boats have stopped at the lighthouse and the men have been interrogated by the Nazi police.  They wanted to know who stops at the lighthouse and were considering using it as a base. Mor wonders if the Nazis are planning to take control in Denmark, as they've done in other countries. Mor and Far, like their fellow Danes, are appalled at Hitler's treatment of the Jewish people. Fortunately Danish Jews are respected and their rights are the same as everyone else. 

After dinner Henny is paid a visit by her ten-year-old neighbour, Suzanne Rubin along with Suzanne's two-year-old brother Aron. The Rubins are Jewish. Henny promises to take Suzanne sailing in two days. At school the next day, Henny meets up with her friends, sixteen-year-old Lukas, and Emma and Sophia, twin sisters. Henny is not a good student, preferring sailing to studying. When the bell rings to announce the school day, Henny notices papers that fall out of Lukas' bag, with the Nazi swastika crossed out. But when she asks Lukas what the papers are, he tells they are nothing.

The next day Henny takes Suzanne sailing after having done a run to the lighthouse with Far. She meets Mr. Rubin at the Gerda's berth and assures him that she will walk Suzanne home after their boat ride. Out on the water all goes  well until Henny spots a boat flying the Nazi flag moving towards them. Otto and Gerhardt take down the sails and after starting up the motor they head back to shore.

The next day Henny corners Lukas in the schoolyard and learns that he's part of the Danish resistance, passing out pamphlets outlining the evils of the Nazis. When Henny reminds Lukas of the extreme danger, he asks her if she's heard what is happening to Jews in other countries. Lukas challenges Henny to speak out against the Nazis, reminding her that she is friends with a Jewish family who is at risk and as the Nazis appear to be preparing to do in Denmark, what they've done in other countries. He also asks her to keep his secret. On her way home, Henny witnesses an elderly Jewish man being arrested by Nazi soldiers. When a young man attempts to intervene, he too is arrested. At home, Henny tells Far and Mor what she saw and they confirm what Lukas told her. The Nazis are attempting to tighten their control over Denmark. 

This leads Henny to consider that maybe it's time she started to get involved. The next day Henny approaches Lukas to tell him she wants to join his resistance group. A few days later, Lukas tells her to meet him later that night outside the train station. Little does Henny know, the important role she will come to play in helping save hundreds of Danish Jews.

Discussion

Call Across The Sea is the fourth and final installment in the Heroes Quartet that focuses on ordinary people who acted courageously to save Jewish citizens from the Nazis. In Call Across The Sea, the focus is on Denmark and the efforts of Henny Sinding, who is credited with saving many Danish Jews. As Kacer acknowledges in her note entitled Who Was Henny Sinding?, Henny was actually twenty-two years old when the events described in the novel occurred. 

In real life, in 1943, Henny was approached by four crew members of the boat, Gerda III. They were Captain Einer Tonnesen, and crew members John Hansen, Otto Andersen and Gerhardt Steffensen. The Nazi's had occupied Denmark since 1940 and seemed uninterested in Danish Jews. But they suddenly decided to round up all of Denmark's Jews and deport them to concentration camps in one night. This operation was leaked to a prominent Dane who then set about helping his country's Jewish citizens. The Gerda crew had a plan to get these people to safety in Sweden, an unoccupied country, by sea. But to do so would require Henny's help by obtaining permission from her father, who as a Danish naval officer, was in charge of the Lighthouse and Buoy Service. This was not a problem. They also needed Henny's help in bringing those Jewish families in hiding to the boats to be rescued.

With connections to a university-based resistance group, Henny was given a list of people, where to meet them. She set about retrieving these people, who were eventually rescued by boat to Sweden. At least three hundred Jews were secreted to safety on the Gerda III during the month of October by Henny and the crew. You can read more about Henny Sinding  at the Museum of Jewish History: https://mjhnyc.org/blog/the-22-year-old-woman-behind-the-rescue-of-over-300-danish-jews/

Call Across The Sea portrays the basic elements of Henny's amazing story in a format that is appealing to younger readers. A map showing the location of Copenhagen, Denmark relative to Sweden would have been very helpful for readers, allowing them to appreciate better the risks Henny undertook to help her fellow countrymen.

Kacer captures the essence of the situation in Denmark in a realistic manner. The Danish people considered their Jewish neighbours to be no different from themselves, and this is reflected in the characters of Far and Mor, Henny, Otto and Gerhardt as well as Lukas. A hint of their courageous resistance is portrayed by Henny, Lukas and other resisters but Kacer also shows that there were some Danes, represented by Henny's classmate, Erik who were not so honourable. Call Across The Sea is a fitting conclusion to the Heroes Quartet, which featured some lesser known heroes of World War II, who risked everything to help those in their most desperate hour.

Book Details:

Call Across The Sea by Kathy Kacer
Toronto: Annick Press   2021
207 pp.

Voices of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer by Carole Boston Weatherford

Fannie Lou Hamer was born in Sunflower County, Mississippi on October 6, 1917. Her parents, James and Lou Ella Townsend were sharecroppers who were paid fifty dollars for producing another field hand. There were twenty-two people in her family.

Fannie Lou began working when she was only six years old. Like the rest of her family, she worked in one hundred-degree heat from dawn until dusk. Her family would pack fifteen tons of cotton in a season, but could not get ahead financially. This was because the scales used to weigh the cotton were fixed so that they never made enough money to pay their debts. The sharecroppers had to pay the owner for seeds, food, clothing and supplies from their wages made in the field."Sharecropping was just slavery by a gentler name. The same folks still had us, had us in chains."

Fannie's mother always wore rags so that her children would have proper clothes. Fannie noticed that white people had clothing and food, "while blacks worked and worked and went hungry." When Fannie wished she was white her mother told her "to respect yourself as a Black child, and as you get older, you respect yourself as a Black woman. If you respect yourself enough, other people will have to respect you."

Fannie was only able to attend school for four months of the year, from December to March when she didn't have to pick cotton. They didn't have much food and rarely ate meat. Their home had no electricity, heat or plumbing and there was no money for a doctor either. When her father was able to buy a wagon, mules to pull it and two cows, the livestock was poisoned by a white neighbour.

By the time Fannie Lou was twenty-two her father was dead and most of her brothers and sisters had moved to the north to escape Jim Crow.Fannie stayed behind to care for their ailing mother, now in her eighties. She married Pap Hamer and moved with him to the Marlow plantation where he drove a tractor. Life was hard here too. They never went hungry but they were very poor. Fannie not only picked cotton, she was also the timekeeper. Once again the owner rigged the scales to cheat the black sharecroppers. Fannie would try to use her own scales but this wasn't always possible.

In 1961 Fannie was tricked into having an operation that removed the parts of her body that allowed her to have children. The law in Mississippi could prevent poor people from having children.In 1962, Fannie Lou accompanied her friend Mary Tucker to a meeting about voter registration at William Chapel Church. Fannie signed up along with seventeen others to travel by bus to Indianola to register to vote. Indianola was the home of a violent white group called White Citizen's Council. They were met by barking dogs and armed men. Fannie didn't pass the test which required her to "...read, copy, and explain parts of the Mississippi constitution."

Attempting to register as a voter had serious implications for Fannie: the plantation boss fired her, her life was threatened, and she had to move away from her family and friends. But she retook the test and passed! But freedom to vote came at a price; Pap lost his job and they were once again threatened after Fannie's name was published in the newspaper. Undaunted, Fannie became involved in the civil rights movement, speaking at rallies. She was badly beaten on her way home from a citizenship school in South Carolina in 1963.

The beatings and threats only made her more determined. Fannie became involved in the political process. She ran for Congress, took part in educating black youth so they could participate in civil rights campaigns, struggled to make her voice heard at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic city as vice chairman of the new Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party and again at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Although she lost her bid for state senate in 1971, Fannie was proud that fifty-five blacks were elected in Mississippi. Fannie's dream of having her voice heard had been realized in the gains Blacks were making all over America.

Discussion

Voices of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer offers a succinct overview of Fannie's amazing accomplishments in the struggle for civil rights for African Americans. Weatherford includes an Author's Note at the back that offers a few more details about Fannie's life. Fannie's life was terribly hard; she grew up very poor, suffered under Mississippi's eugenic program which found any excuse to sterilize poor black women, and was so badly beaten after sitting in the whites-only section of a bus station that her eyesight, kidneys and leg were permanently damaged. In spite of these hardships, she became a respected and fearless leader in the civil rights movement, cofounding the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Hamer worked for integrated state delegations in the Democratic National Party, something that was finally achieved by 1968. 

Voices of Freedom is told from the perspective of Fannie, each page accompanied by Ekua Holmes earthy collages. Fannie's story is one of fortitude and determination  in the face of blatant discrimination and injustice. It is also a story of courage in the face of daunting odds, of a woman who knew African Americans deserved the same rights their white counterparts, and who persevered to see those rights championed.

Book Details:

Voices of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer by Carole Boston Weatherford
Somerville, Massachusetts:  Candlewick Press          2015
45 pp.

Angel of Greenwood by Randi Pink

Angel of Greenwood tells the story of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre through the eyes of two young people. The story begins on Thursday, May 19, twelve days before the riot. Angel Hill lives on Greenwood Avenue with her mother and her father who is terminally ill. Angel loves to help people as she's certain God has put her on the earth to help others. Angel helps her mother care for her father, and she helps her neighbours including Mrs. Nichelle who has a fussy baby.

After Angel dances at Sunday school, she attracts the attention of Isaiah Wilson, a boy who has taunted her along with his friend Muggy Jr. Angel recognizes Muggy as the real mean one, whereas Isaiah "was kinder...He simply didn't stand for anything. Isaiah went along to get along..." and that leads Angel not to respect him.

From his bedroom window, seventeen-year-old Isaiah Wilson watches a group of sixteen white boys on the other side of the tracks. Angel Hill who is walking towards them, is accosted by the group. Although she initially stands up to them, she flees. Isaiah wants to stand and yell at them, but instead he hides behind the curtains. Angel leaves behind some kind of walking contraption that one of the boys destroys in anger.

On the following Sunday, Isaiah is hauled to Mount Zion Baptist Sunday school by his mother. But far from being bored as usual, Isaiah is entranced by the worship dancing of Angel Hill.

The next day, while walking to school with his best friend Muggy Little Jr., Isaiah is distracted. Muggy's father owns a successful butcher shop in Greenwood and his family, along with many others in the district, have helped Isaiah's family since his father's death in the Great War. Muggy's father doesn't have a good reputation in the community: he is considered a "notorious double dealer with both his butcher business and his family". He flaunts women and his behaviour has Muggy beginning to have doubts about his father. 

Isaiah knows his friend is not a good person but can't seem to break free of him. He joins Muggy in his pranks, even when he knows those pranks are hurtful and embarrassing to others. During the day, Isaiah follows Muggy out to the back bleacher instead of going to Mrs. Greene's class to write his Latin test. When Isaiah daydreams about Angel, Muggy burns him on his forearm with a matchstick and threatens to tell Angel that Isaiah likes her. 

After English Literature class, Miss Ferris pulls Isaiah and Angel together and reveals that she's starting a sort of mobile library. She has a three-wheel bike and she needs someone to ride it and someone to hand out the books. Miss Ferris offers them the job with a pay of five dollars a week. Isaiah immediately accepts but Angel is reluctant because it means working with Isaiah whom she knows is not a nice boy. 

However, that changes when Donna Mae Bullock, at the urging of Muggy, steals Isaiah's journal one evening. Donna Mae shows up in Isaiah's bedroom to kiss him, but her real purpose is to steal his journal. However, when Isaiah manages to get Donna Mae to talk about herself she realizes what she's done and gets Muggy to return the journal, but not before Muggy reads to Angel the poem Isaiah wrote about her.

Eventually Angel accepts Miss Ferris's job offer and both Angel and Isaiah get to work on fixing up the decrepit three wheel bike. As love blossoms between the two, storm clouds are brewing over Greenwood, and neither Angel nor Isaiah know just how much life is about to change.

Discussion

Angel of Greenwood chronicles the days leading up to the Tulsa massacre of June 1 1921, through the eyes of two teenagers, Angel Hill and Isaiah Wilson as they fall in love. Author Randi Pink initially wrote a story of two Black teens who fall in love in a neighbourhood where it was safe to do so in peace. According to the Author's Note at the back of the novel, her original story was Pink's "My Wakanda" book. However, in a conversation with a friend, Pink learned  that the place she had dreamed of someday existing and had written about, really did once exist in the form of Greenwood, a district of Tulsa, Oklahoma. But Greenwood, a thriving, close-knit Black community that had become known as Black Wall street, was looted and burned to the ground by white rioters. The riot was triggered by events the preceding day in which a black man was arrested for an incident that occurred in an elevator with a white woman. At the end of the looting and burning, thirty-five blocks that comprised Greenwood lay in charred ruins and over one hundred people were dead. Pink decided to set her story against the backdrop of the Tulsa massacre and it's fortunate for young readers that she did so, because Angel of Greenwood is a remarkable novel.

Most of the novel portrays life in Greenwood prior to the riot. Pink does this through the two main characters and the people they meet in their day-to-day lives. The people of Greenwood are hard-working, God-fearing, neighbourly and not unlike people everywhere else and Pink offers a host of diverse characters to flesh out the community. There is Angel Hill, a gifted dancer, whose father is slowly dying from an unknown ailment. Angel is a hard-working girl, who spends time helping others such as her neighbour, Mrs. Nichelle. She helps Mrs. Nichelle to care for her little baby boy, Michael. Isaiah Wilson, whose father died in the Great War, is a good student with aspirations of attending college, who writes beautiful poetry. Isaiah seems unable to break away from his friend Muggy Little Jr. whose pranks humiliate and hurt others. Muggy Little Jr., whose father owns the butcher shop, is a bully and struggling to cope with his father's reputation as a liar and a cheat. There is Miss Ferris, the English Literature teacher who channels Isaiah's abilities into poetry and who starts the mobile book library. Mrs. Tate, whose husband owns the Greenwood pharmacy, has a son Timothy attending medical school. She has prize-winning junipers but is not known as a pleasant woman. There is Mr. Morris a kind and patient man whose son George now runs their wood-carving shop and Mrs. Turner with her tiny flower shop. Pink's depiction of a vibrant Greenwood District and its residents, a community where Black Americans are free to live their lives as they want,  makes reading about the burning of Greenwood all the more painful.

Besides being a novel about a largely forgotten event of racial hatred, Angel of Greenwood also explores the coming of age of Isaiah and Angel and to a lesser extent, Muggy. For Isaiah and Muggy it is a journey to redemption. 

Isaiah experiences a transformation from a neighbourhood troublemaker to the person he aspires to be. Isaiah is under the influence of Muggle Little Jr., boy with mean streak who delights in playing humiliating pranks on others. Isaiah knows he shouldn't follow Muggy's lead but he can't seem to stop. Isaiah wants to be different but feels his family is indebted to Muggy's family. "What was he to dare do? Challenge Muggy? Never. If he did, there would be hell to pay."

Isaiah hides the things that matter the most to him from Muggy: his love of poetry and books and reading. He hides the fact that he is in the top tenth percentile and that he has a secret plan to leave Greenwood. And for years he's gone along with bullying Angel Hill and many others. But when Isaiah sees Angel dance at church, his eyes are opened and he begins to change. From this point on, his attraction to Angel is the impetus for change.

It is only when Muggy steals Isaiah's journal of poetry and his college letters of intent to Morehouse and Howard, and in effect Isaiah's plan for success, that Isaiah is stirred to confront Muggy at his house.  Feeling freed from Muggy and his bad influence, Isaiah wants to be a better person for Angel but the prospect of him having to be responsible for his own behaviour is daunting. "Behave in ways she longed for a man to behave. With Muggy, he was mean. With Angel, he assumed, he would be better, kinder, and more empathetic. But without either, Isaiah was floating along with no leader to lead him. Secretly terrified to lead his own self." 

But Isaiah discovers he is able to lead himself, when Muggy hurts Mrs. Tate by revealing something about her son Timothy. He punches Muggy in the face, knocking the bully to the ground and gaining the respect of the community. This event leads Isaiah to make a serious decision about his life, deciding not to be selfish, lazy or unworthy. Isaiah comes to realize that Greenwood is a "... beacon of hope for his people..." and that he would use this gift to help his own people. From this point on, Isaiah begins to redeem himself, and ironically leads Muggy into doing the same.

For Angel, the journey is also about finding herself. Angel believes she has been put on Earth to help others. But as the days pass, she finds herself increasingly wanting something more for herself. These thoughts are stirred by the offer from Miss Ferris of working on the book mobile. Besides helping her parents, there "...was a selfish longing to get away from it all....When she was very small, Angel dreamed only of taking care of others. For the first time, she wanted a few hours per day to do only the thing she wanted to do."

As Black teenagers coming of age in the early 20th century, Angel and Isaiah want to live their lives like white teenagers in America do, having the same rights as their white counterparts. Their belief as to how to achieve these rights differ.  Isaiah favours the ideas of  W.E.B. Dubois, while Angel believes in Booker T. Washington's ideas. The two men, born in the middle of the nineteenth century became influential leaders in the civil rights movement in the early 20th century. However, they were at odds as to how to achieve equal rights for Black Americans. Washington felt that economic independence was key to Black rights while Dubois championed education and civil rights activism. Dubois' book, The Souls of Black Folks was critical of Washington's approach. Dubois eventually was involved in the formation of the NAACP  in 1909 while Washington's influence waned. He died in 1915. 

Both Isaiah and Angel struggle with their separate beliefs as to how Black Americans can achieve full civil rights. They debate the ideas of W.E.B Dubois and Booker T. Washington. While discussing why a man would return to bondage and slavery at Miss Ferris' over dinner, their teacher explains what the Black community of Greenwood understand compared to Blacks living in the rest of America and what it means to white America.
"We all get one life to live. One chance to make something beautiful of ourselves or to not, that's what we know to be true here in Greenwood. That's the difference between us and them, nothing else. We are no better on the inside. We simply know a Black life can be transformed from that of servitude to that of unmatched intelligence, resourcefulness, creativity, triumph...It's the immaterial knowledge that we, Black people, can be even better that whites if we want to be. And furthermore, much to their dismay, we don't need them to survive. Everyone should possess this knowledge, but the men who stayed in bondage didn't."

Angel of Greenwood is a remarkable novel, well-written, and offering plenty of themes and ideas to further delve into. The tragedy of the Tulsa massacre forms the climax of the novel. With the centenary of the massacre having just passed, Angel of Greenwood is a timely novel offers readers that opportunity. Pink supplies her readers with a wealth of sources used in the writing of her novel, as a starting point. The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 should be remembered not only for the crime it was, but because as Pink writes, "Inside of every Greenwood home burned that day in 1921, there was a story. Few who experienced it are alive today. Many of those stories will never be told..."  Angel of Greenwood does just that.

Book Details:

Angel of Greenwood by Randi Pink
New York: Feiwel and Friends     2021
295 pp.

The Journey That Saved Curious George by Louise Borden

The Journey That Saved Curious George is a children's biography about the little-known wartime escape of Margret and H.A. Rey from France, to Brazil and then America.

Their story begins in Germany where both were born. Hans Augusto Reyersbach was born in 1906 and grew up in Hamburg which is a port city on the North Sea. This led Hans to develop a love for the sea and boats.

Hans also loved animals, which he enjoyed seeing on his many visits to the Hagenbeck Zoo. He also loved drawing and painting and was proficient in many languages.

Margarete Wilson was born in 1914 and she also grew up in Hamburg. She had two brothers and two sisters and her family was also Jewish. Margarete loved books and wanted to become an artist. She would eventually study

During World War I, Hans fought for Germany as a soldier in Kaiser Wilhelm's army. After the war, he attended university and then moved to Brazil. Hans lived in Rio de Janeiro, be he also travelled up and down the Amazon River, selling bath tubs and kitchen sinks in small towns. He enjoyed watching and  drawing the monkeys climbing in the trees.

In 1933, nine years after Hans moved to Brazil, Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany. For Jewish citizen, life became increasingly difficult. Margarete Waldstein decided to leave Hamburg and work as a photographer in London, England. In 1935, she decided to move to Rio de Janiero. Hans Reyersbach was an old family friend from her life in Hamburg. The two artists began collaborating and eventually they married.

Both Margarete and Hans decided to shorten their names: she to Margret and he to H.A. Rey. Several months later, now Brazilian citizens, Margret and Hans travelled to Europe on their honeymoon. They ended up staying at the Terrass Hotel in Montmartre, a suburb of Paris for the next four years!

In the neighbourhood of Montmartre, the Reys spent their time sketching and photographing life in the old village, meeting with friends and writing and illustrating their childrens' books. In 1939, the Reys were working on a children's book about a monkey named Fifi when war broke out in Europe with the German invasion of Poland. At first Parisians panicked and many left the city for the south of France, including the Reys. They stayed for four months at Chateau Feuga. It was at this time they began working on another book about a penguin named Whiteblack.

With the involvement of France in the war, the Reys with their German accent aroused the suspicion of the local French who summoned the police. However once they saw the Reys' work they were satisfied as to why they were living in the village.

The Reys returned to Paris in January of 1940 where they continued to work on their new book. Margret's brother Hans visited them and Hans Rey made the final touches on his book Fifi. They then decided to travel to the Normandy coast, to a town named Avranches. However, the war became more real as Germany invaded Holland and Belgium and then the Nazi army massed on the northern French border. With war now coming to France, the Reys needed to make a decision. As German-born Jews, they were in great danger. They had returned to Paris but now needed to leave the country quickly. Their biggest adventure was yet to begin.

Discussion

The Journey That Save Curious George is a fascinating account of the daring escape of Margret and H.A. Rey from wartime Paris, at the beginning of World War II. Borden undertook extensive research to satisfy her longtime interest in the Rey's wartime journey. This research involved reading through the Reys' letters and notebooks, traveling to the towns and villages the Reys' visited or worked in, as well as reading newspaper accounts. Borden was able to piece together their remarkable journey from Paris, on the cusp of occupation to safety in Brazil and then America. 

Borden sets the stage by providing a brief description of Hans and Margret's lives growing up in Hamburg. The focus moves to their collaboration in Brazil and their early work while living in France. Like many living in the country at that time, war was far off and hope was high that things would not escalate. That was not to be the case and many French attempted to flee south, from the advancing Nazis. But the Reys were in particular danger as they were Jews. 

The story then focuses on their efforts to leave France by any means possible. It was a journey that was to start on bicycles! H.A.Rey was able to build two bicycles from spare parts for himself and Margret which they then used to flee Paris. They took with them some food, a few clothes and the drawings that would ultimately become part of the Curious George childrens books. Unlike many French Jews, they were fortuitous to hold Brazilian citizenship and Brazilian passports. This allowed them to obtain the required visas to leave France for Spain and Portugal, sailing to Brazil and safety.

Accompanying Borden's engaging storytelling is the artwork of Allan Drummond whose watercolour illustrations are reminiscent of the Reys' artwork in Curious George. Borden has also included many photographs of Hans and Margret, pages of Hans' journal, telegrams, correspondence and maps. There is also a Partial Bibliography of Books by Margret and H.A. Rey. 

The Journey That Saved Curious George offers fans of Curious George the interesting backstory about authors Hans and Margret Rey in the appealing format of a picture book with just the right amount of detail and lots of visuals to maintain interest.

Margret and H.A. Rey photograph credit: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-unexpected-profundity-of-curious-george

Book Details:

The Journey That Save Curious George by Louise Borden
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company         2005
72 pp.