Signs Of Survival: A Memoir of the Holocaust by Renee Hartman with Joshua M Greene

In Signs of Survival, Renee and Herta relate their harrowing experience of living through the Holocaust and their lives afterwards. Their story is told in alternating first person narration.

Renee was born in 1933, her sister Herta in 1935. Herta writes that there were several generations of deaf people in their family including their parents, Julius and Henrietta. To communicate, they used sign language. Their parents attended the Vienna School for the Deaf: their father was a master jeweller and their mother a dressmaker.

Renee and Herta grew up in Bratislava, a city in the Nazi-occupied Slovak Republic. Fifteen thousand Jews lived in Bratislava at this time. Jews living in Bratislava's wealthier areas were forced to move into the poorer, Old Town area. Renee and Herta's family lived in a fourth floor apartment. Because the Nazis would not allow Jewish children to attend school, Renee did not begin her formal education until after the war. 

The family soon moved to Brno where there was a large Jewish community. They eventually returned to Bratislava but soon the situation in the city began to worsen with Nazi soldiers beating Jewish citizens. Then they were forced to wear the yellow Star of David on their outer clothing.

By 1941, Renee and her family had six extra people living with them in their apartment as the Nazis the Jewish population into the Old Town. She remembers seeing the "transports" where Jews were forced from their homes into transport trucks and taken to "resettlement camps' which they later learned were actually concentration camps to murder them. Because Renee was able to hear, she would listen for the Nazi soldiers and sign to her family that they needed to hide.

In 1943, Renee and Herta were sent by their parents to live on a farm of friends who were also deaf. Their farm was located in the foothills of the Tatra Mountains and they agreed to take the girls only if they were paid a large sum every month. The girls would receive one surprise visit from their father, after that they never saw him again.

When the farm couple did not receive money for over five months they told their girls they could no longer stay and they drove them back to Bratislava and left them on the street. They realized there were almost no Jews left in the city. Alone and unable to locate their parents, the girls lived on the streets for weeks before they finally turned themselves into the police. So would begin their haunting journey into the depths of the Holocaust. 

Fortunately, Renee and Herta survived the Holocaust and came to live a long productive life in America.

Discussion

Signs of Survival is a Holocaust memoir geared towards younger readers and is perfect for introducing them to this difficult topic. It is a witness account of the experiences of two sisters, Renee and Herta Hartmann who lived in Slovakia during the Nazi occupation, their time in the infamous concentration camp, Bergen-Belsen and their life afterwards in America. In this way it offers readers  through eye-witness testimony, the real life experience of the Holocaust as well as their life in the decades afterwards. At this time, while Renee is still living in the United States, Herta passed away in 2021 at the age of eighty-seven.

Renee and Herta do not go into explicit detail about some of the evils of the Holocaust (for example the Slovakian citizens beating their Jewish neighbours, the transports, and life in the concentration camp) but provide enough details that younger readers will understand what happened. This is done in an easy reading style with both Renee and Herta offering their accounts, and done in short chapters. Their account shows two very young children caught up in a situation that forced them to fend for themselves with Renee being the ears for Herta, ensuring that the two sisters remained together even through the worst of situations, from starving on the streets of Bratislava, to suffering through typhus in Bergen-Belsen.

At the back, the author has included an Epilogue about the Holocaust and a section of photographs of the sisters and their families. A map showing the countries of Nazi Europe during World War II would be helpful for readers.  Signs of Survival, the title a play on the use of sign language used by Renee and Herta to communicate and to keep Herta especially safe, is highly recommended for middle grade readers.

Book Details:

Signs of Survival: A Memoir of the Holocaust by Renee Hartman with Joshua M. Greene
New York: Scholastic Press    2021
123 pp.

Secret Schools. True Stories of the Determination to Learn by Heather Camlot

In Secret Schools, the amazing determination to learn is highlight through the stories of schools held in secret. The book is divided into five sections. 

In Section 1 Cultural Connections: Protecting One's Identity schools for students living in Lithuania under Russian rule, children of Japanese migrant workers in Brazil and Indigenous workers in Ecuador are profiled. In these situations the purpose of the school was to preserve their cultural identity by teaching the children their language and heritage. 

In Section 2 Hope and Dignity: Escaping Slavery and Oppression, the role of schools in the emancipation of enslaved peoples is explored. African people kidnapped from their homes by the hundreds of thousands and enslaved in America, Jewish children and their families forced into the more than one thousand ghettos during World War II by the Nazis, and the thousands of political prisoners in South Africa's Robben Island maximum security prison jailed for opposing apartheid are the focus in this section.

In Section 3 Girl's Rights: Banding Together For Gender Equality stories of brave girls and women attending secret schools in defiance of being denied an education simply because they are female. In this section, the Flying University founded by Jadwiga Szczawinska-Dawidowa and others to educate girls in a Poland controlled by Russia, Prussia and Austria in the 1800's, Iran's Taraqqi Girls' School created in 1911 in a country where it was believed educating women was sinful, and the Golden Needle Sewing School in Herat, Afghanistan where girls were educated under the cover-up of a sewing shop to outwit the Taliban during their reign in the 1990's are featured.

Section 4 Spy Schools: Going Underground and Undercover presents secret schools whose purpose was to train government spies used to protect their countries from both external and internal threats. In this section, readers will learn about the spy school that trained agents for the Soviet Union's KGB spy agency, Camp X which was a secret spy school located on farmland in Whitby, Ontario Canada during World War II to train secret agents for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the top-secret Joint Services School for Linguists (JSSL) that was formed in 1951 to train young British men in Russian language and culture so they could monitor events and communications coming out of Russia during the Cold War.

Finally, Section 5 Radical Learning: Moving in A New Direction focuses on secret schools whose function was to create change. In the 1980's covert study groups or "reading groups were organized by students for students in South Korea to further the pro-democracy movement and bring and end to military rule.In 2014, billionaire CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk set up an experimental school that used a more open way to teach students. The school known as Ad Astra had a limited number of students and eventually closed. The last secret school featured is one that helps the children of suicide bombers, essentially reversing the radical ideas they have been exposed to so they do not become the next generation of suicide bombers. The school, located in Jakarta, Indonesia is in a secret location and has only a dozen students at any one time.

Discussion

In Secret Schools, Canadian author Heather Camlot explores a wide range of very different secret schools that have existed over the last few hundred years. Each school has arisen out of a unique need, sometimes to preserve a culture that is being actively destroyed, other times to help defend a country or to protect the rights of a group such as girls who are being denied the right to learn and reach their full potential. In Secret Schools, readers learn just how far people will go to get an education, risking everything, even their lives to do so. What we take for granted in North America and Europe isn't always so in some countries.

The book is divided into five sections, each with a title page done in a different colour. Each section provides a very short overview, with at least a page-long explanation on three or four schools that fit into the category being explored. Camlot provides the historical context for each school and there are plenty of comic type illustrations by Erin Taniguchi. Secret Schools is a fascinating read that covers schools that are well known and others that readers will never have heard about.

Book Details:

Secret Schools: True Stories of the Determination to Learn by Heather Camlot
Toronto: Owlkids Books Inc.     2022
47 pp.

Stitched UP by Steve Cole

Hanh lived in a village with her parents, sisters and grandma, dreaming of someday finding a good job in fashion. That day seemed to arrive when "the Man" and "the Woman" came to their village. Smartly dressed, they told Hanh's parents they worked for a fashion company opening a new shop in Hanoi. Young girls were being trained and hired as shop assistants. They claimed this was a great opportunity for Hanh. 

The woman claimed to know Hanh's father's cousin in another province, and that his neighbour's daughter, Tuyet would be joining them. She also told Hanh's parents that if she worked for a year, they would give her parents three million dong (just over one hundred US dollars). When Hanh asked how she would continue her schooling, her father suggested she could "catch-up" when she returned after a year. Desperate for money, her parents decided to sign the contract even though her father could not read.

Two days later, Hanh left on a minibus for Hanoi. At the station in Bac Kan, Hanh and her mother met Tuyet who was very excited. Twelve girls boarded the bus that day. On the journey, Hanh and Tuyet met and talked with two other girls Ping and Chau.When they arrived in Hanoi in the middle of the night, they were quickly taken into the factory.

Now three months later, Hanh finds herself not working in a fashion shop but in a sweatshop making jeans and jackets. Along with other boys and girls, Hanh works twelve hours a day, cutting, sanding, pressing and distressing denim until her fingers bleed.

Every morning Hanh and the other girls are awoken by seventeen-year-old Yen who takes them to the factory floor. They must work for two hours before they can use the bathroom and breaks are only eight minutes, twice a day. Thirteen-year-old Tuyet works the large steam presses, Chau sews on the tags and labels, fifteen-year-old Ping "runs small electric sanders over the seams and hems and pocket edges." Hanh uses a sewing machine to embroider designs on the distressed jeans. Kim-Ly sews tiny beads and buttons onto the designs Hanh embroiders.

On this early morning, Tuyet, who has been coughing a lot lately, feels she cannot continue to work because of her asthma. In an attempt to get out of the factory, she falls into Ping who is working behind her. Tuyet claims she burned her hand on the steam press and Ping tells an angry Yen that Tuyet grabbed her sander as she fell. Tuyet is taken away for the day and doesn't reappear until well after dinner that night.

Tuyet returns, her hand wrapped in bloodied gauze, and reveals that she is being made to work in a cotton factory picking up scraps of cotton t-shirts. Tuyet's situation makes Hanh remember a line from a poem written by Ho Chi Minh, "When the prison doors are opened, the real dragon will fly out." This gives her an idea that, with the help of a charity, frees them from the sweatshop.

Discussion

Stitched UP is a short work of realistic fiction focusing in on the reality of fast fashion: that the cheap clothes we wear in North America come at a high cost to those living in the developing world making those clothes.

In Stitched Up, author Steve Cove uses the character of Hanh to reveal the way young girls are exploited and tricked into working in fast fashion sweatshops in countries like Vietnam. They are usually from poor families, desperately in need of money and whose parents may sign contracts they cannot read nor understand. There is often the promise of a good job and money that will be sent home. In reality, as in Hanh's experience, the factories are poorly maintained with many serious workplace safety and health issues where the workers usually underage and/or involved in forced labour. They are either poorly paid or not paid at all. To prevent these workers from leaving they are locked into their cramped living spaces at night.

Hanh, whose family is tricked into signing her into forced labour,  is portrayed as a courageous young girl, determined not to give up on her dream of regaining her freedom and following through with her plans to finish her schooling and have her own business. Although her initial plan doesn't quite work the way she intended, in the end with the help of a local charity that becomes aware of the illegal sweatshop, she and the other children are freed. But during her time working there, Hanh experiences hardship, dangerous working conditions and workplace threats and violence.

Stitched Up offers the message to young readers to rethink buying fast fashion because it exploits young people just like themselves, who have similar dreams for the future. Cove, in his "Why I wanted to tell this story" section at the back of the novel, offers some hard statistics on the number of children in forced labour and a few suggestions for how we can all make a difference.

Stitched Up is a short novel, with a larger font size and comic style illustrations by Oriol Vidal, making it an ideal high interest-low vocabulary offering for reluctant readers. It tackles, with a simple story and believable characters, a global issue we should all be concerned with.

Book Details:

Stitched UP by Steve Cole
Edinburgh: Barrington Stoke Ltd.   2022
122 pp

Finding My Dance by Ria Thundercloud

This picture book is about Wakaja haja piiwiga whose name means "Beautiful Thunder Woman". Today we know her as Ria Thundercloud. Ria is from the Ho-Chunk Nation in Wisconsin and Sandia Pueblo in New Mexico. Although these tribes have different cultures, dance is an important part of each and therefore for Ria too.

When she was four-years-old, Ria was invited to become part of the powwow circle, where Indigenous culture is honoured through song and dance. She would wear a beautiful, orange jingle dress. sewn by her mother. Ria's mother explained that the dress was a healing dress, that dancing in it would pass on blessings. When Ria was about to enter the powwow to dance she was nervous but her youngest brother encouraged her to "dance hard". Ria did just that and she was welcomed into the powwow circle.

After that Ria and her older brothers would travel to powwows all over Indian country, staying with friends and family. They travelled from state to state offering Ria the chance to see Mother Earth in all her glory. Meanwhile, Ria's love for dance was growing. When she was thirteen, Ria began dancing the fast fancy shawl, an athletic dance that mimics the butterfly. 

 

She also began taking other forms of dance including modern, ballet and contemporary. Ria began doing competitive dance, winning International Dance Challenge Champion with her solo, at Nationals in Las Vegas, Nevada. Sometimes Ria found classical dance challenging as it was much different from Indigenous dancing. But dance also gave Ria a means of coping with the every day stresses she encountered.

When she finished high school, Ria became a professional dancer and travelled the world to perform. But she always loved to return home to dance too. As an adult, Ria was given a gift of a beautiful set of eagle wings that had been plucked, dried and dressed. Ria's people believe that eagle feathers carry their prayers to their ancestors. Ria began performing an eagle dance with her new wings, making her feel beautiful and strong.

Another gift Ria received was the beautiful daughter, Yelihwaha.wihta which means "She Brings Good Energy". Unlike when she was younger and wouldn't correct people when they mispoke her name, Ria corrects those who say her daughter's name wrong. Her culture and her language still exist and are honoured. Ria's daughter is by her side as she dances her way through this life as a beautiful, thunder woman.

Discussion

It's great to see young Indigenous performers and artists being brought to life in the picture book format, making their stories accessible to young readers. In Finding My Dance, Ria Thundercloud chronicles her journey from a young girl beginning to perform as an Indigenous dancer to being a professional dancer. This picture book is unique in that her story is told in Ria's voice.   Along the way, Ria faced her own challenges.

Rita is the daughter of Roger Thundercloud and Jessica Bearskin. She has a seven-year-old daughter, Cyra Thundercloud. Ria faced her own challenges growing up, experiencing some racism in school for being Indigenous.

But her resiliency and persistence has paid off. Ria continues to perform at powwows while also focusing on contemporary, ballet and hip hop dance. Ria is a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts, a college located on the ancestral lands of the Pueblo nations in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

What would have added considerably to this picture book memoir is the inclusion of photographs of Ria growing up and of her dancing in her regalia. Picture books are used not just by young readers but often by older readers as an intro to a topic or a person of interest. Likewise a simple map showing the relative territories of the Ho-Chunk Nation and Sandia Pueblo would also have been helpful. An Author's Note sharing some information on Ria's cultural heritage would also have been appropriate.

Nevertheless, Finding My Dance is a unique book highlighting Ria Thundercloud's efforts to be a voice and a role model for a new generation of young Indigenous women as they reclaim their heritage.

For some information on Ria's heritage the links below may be helpful:

Ho-Chunk Nation

Pueblo of Sandia

Book Details:

Finding My Dance by Ria Thundercloud
New York: Penguin Workshop     2022

Maya's Song by Renee Watson

Marguerite Annie Johnson was born in St. Louis on April 4, 1928. Her family was made up of her father Bailey, he mother Vivian and her older brother Bailey Jr. who called her Maya. Maya's father spoke French and had served in the navy. As a black man living in St. Louis, he was looked down upon so he decided to move his family to California where he found work as a doorman.

When she was three-years-old, Maya's parents divorced and she and Bailey Jr. were sent to live with their grandmother, Miss Annie in Stamps, Arkansas. Miss Annie owned a general store and she also owned land that white people lived on. The store was filled with oranges, onions, boxes of soda crackers and tins of sardines. Miss Annie's store was the heart of the town, where other Negroes came to eat and where barbers set up shop in the shade and where troubadours made music.

Sunday mornings, Maya attended church with Miss Annie. On other days, Maya learned to read and write. She read the words of many great poets including Shakespeare, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes. Uncle Willie taught Maya how to do math. When the Klansmen came looking for Willie, Maya and Bailey Jr. hid him in a crate topped off with onions and potatoes.

When Maya was six-years-old she, along with Bailey, returned to living with her mother. When she was seven, Maya was assaulted by her mother's boyfriend. He had told her not to tell anyone but Maya told her brother Bailey and he told their mother. A few days later, the man who hurt Maya died and she believed this was because she spoke out. Maya thought that if she had kept quiet, he might still be alive. So she stopped speaking.

When she would not speak, Maya's mother believed that maybe sending her back to Arkansas might help. So she and Bailey returned to Momma's home. There Maya felt that she would not be forced to speak and she didn't for five years. Instead she listened and took in the words spoken around her.

It was a family friend, Ms. Flowers who unlocked Maya's words. When she wouldn't speak, Ms. Flowers read poetry to Maya. She could see however that Maya loved poetry and she explained to her "you can't really love poetry unless you say it out loud...You can't really love poetry till you speak it, till you let the words in you out." Maya took a poetry book and began reading the words aloud.

When she was sixteen-years-old, Maya gave birth to a son, Guy Bailey Johnson. To support herself and her son, Maya began singing Calypso at the Purple Onion Night Club in San Francisco. She danced and sang, travelling with a group of performers across Europe and the Middle East.

When Maya moved to Harlem she met many people involved in the civil rights movement including James Baldwin and Martin Luther King Jr.The murder of King resulted in Maya losing her voice for five days. Her Cabaret For Freedom donated all its money to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to support King's cause. The 1960's saw Maya travel to Ghana where she taught at the University of Ghana and also hosted Malcolm X. After the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., Maya began telling her own stories. Soon everyone wanted to read and hear Maya's stories. Editor Robert Loomis encouraged her to let him publish them. Her first book was titled I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. Maya's words were heard by millions at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton.

Discussion

This exquisite picture book biography offers young readers a gentle portrayal of Maya Angelou's life s0 fraught with difficulties and trauma. Renee Watson captures the determination, fortitude and perseverance of a woman who had a difficult childhood. Maya succeeded despite a broken home, sexual abuse, single motherhood and racial discrimination.  Despite all these hardships, Maya lived a rich life, was involved in the civil rights movement and had many different careers as a performer, writer, and poet. Afraid that her voice was powerful enough to kill people, she eventually discovered that her voice was a tool for empowerment.

Author Renee Watson has found inspiration in Maya Angelou's words, her poetry and her life. As has been the case in her own life, Watson hopes that "...young readers are inspired by Maya Angelou's story, that they know the power of their own voice, that they use it to whisper, to shout, I am here. My story matters. I am here!"

The major events of Maya's life are vividly captured by artist Bryan Collier's illustrations rendered in watercolour and collage. In his Illustrator's Note, Collier mentions his use of colours to portray certain emotions; blue for sadness and bright colours when Maya is happy. His beautiful watercolours of Maya capture a rich spectrum of emotions and bring to life this most fascinating woman.

  Maya's Song is a great introduction for young readers to the amazing Maya Angelou.

Book Details:

Maya's Song by Renee Watson
New York: HarperCollins Childrens Books     2022

Winterkill by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Twelve-year-old Nyl Chorny and his father Tato have just returned from inspecting their wheat field when they see hundreds of uniformed young people, part of the Young Communist League, marching into their village of Felivka, near Kharkiv, Soviet Ukraine. Also marching are the Young Pioneers with their red ties, and adult marchers in city clothes. 

When Nyl and his father reach their house, he sees his nine-year-old brother Slavko and eleven-year-old sister Yulia along with his mother seated at their kitchen table. With them are two visitors from Canada, George White and his daughter Alice. They have come to assist with Stalin's "five-year-plan", to modernize the Soviet Union. But instead of helping people like Nyl's family, they are taking away their farms and forcing them onto one large collective farm called the kolkhoz. Now Comrade White and his daughter Alice are taking an inventory of everything in their house including "the decades-old pysanky - colorful hand-decorated eggs". Alice is disturbed at the presence of the icons on the walls and the prayer corner and advises Nyl's family to remove them or at least hide them. Comrade White, sounding like the lead shock worker, Tupolev, tries to convince Nyl's father to join the kolkhoz, the farming collective. He tells Tato they will give him tractors and modern equipment for farming, and that they will be able to grow more grain and be better off. When Tato refuses, Comrade White calls him a traitor and calls the farmers who won't join, kulaks. 

Everyone is called to the village square where they see many soldiers and a tractor being driven into the square. Tupolev tells them that the Soviet Union is the only country in the world that manufactures tractors, but Nyl is skeptical when he notices English letters on the tractor. When Tupolev's speech is interrupted by the ringing of the church bells, he incites the crowd to murder Father Ivan and his wife and tear down the church. Nyl and his family along with the villagers watch in horror at the brutal murders and their church being destroyed by a frenzied mob. Comrade Tupolev doesn't allow the villagers to have a funeral for the priest and his wife, however Nyl's mother leads them in singing Vichnay Pamyat, an ancient chant sung for funerals.

 

The violence continues with the murder of Nyl's Uncle Illya outside his own home by Comrade Chort. A shock worker enters the house telling them that Illya's wife and baby daughter, Auntie Pawlina and Tanya, must leave the house immediately. He states that Comrade Chorny was killed because he resisted arrest for being a kulak. He also  begins emptying the house of all the Chorny's belongings. The shock workers destroy the compilation of old folk songs the Chorny's were collecting. 

When Nyl returns to his own home, across the street, he finds their house too has been looted; the bowl of pysanky destroyed, their icons missing along with their altar. In its place is a Soviet flag, a framed portrait of Stalin and miniature toy tractors. Nyl's sister Yulia volunteers to bring home the atheist altar she made at school, something that shocks Nyl. Nyl's family decides to move their hidden stores of grain in the hopes they can save some for themselves. That night Comrade Chort and his wife Yelena move into Uncle Illya's home.

A few days later, Tato tells his family they need to escape but Nyl's mother believes there is more danger in leaving. Auntie Pawlina suggests they go to Polish Ukraine, to Ternopil where she has cousins.  

Then one day after school, everyone is ordered to be at the meeting hall in the village council building, both villagers and the kolkhozniks. After Tupolev reads a speech by Stalin stating that steeling property and killing people was not part of the plan, the villagers demand the return of their livestock and property. Led by the women, they raid the kolkhoz to retrieve their stolen property. Comrade Berkovich tells the villagers that the government wants to send in troops to settle down the village. To avoid this, he suggests they need to show that they are working together. He encourages people to farm their land this summer. so there will be a good harvest.

The summer of 1930, Nyl and his father plant fields of corn, millet and wheat and harvest a bumper crop. Tupolev's estimate of wheat they will be paid for leads Nyl's family to once again debate whether to stay in Felivka or leave.

As it turns out, Stalin betrays the people of the Soviet Ukraine including Nyl's family. After a harvest supper and dance celebrating the bumper crop, at the invitation of Tupolev and hosted in the kolkhoz, the landowners are tricked into meeting in the village council room. While they are locked in the building, the military arrives and steal the villager's entire harvest including their stored grain and their vegetables and potatoes. 

Faced with a winter of starvation, Nyl and Slavko decide to travel to the Kharkiv tractor factory seeking work. After working there they learn that the tractor factory won't be functioning for at least a year and return home. Their family decides that Aunt Pawlina and Tanya will travel to Ternopil with the money they have saved. Meanwhile Yulia decides to abandon her family and move to the kolkhoz, against her family's wishes.

In the spring of 1931, after the death of Tato, Nyls, Slavko and their mother decide to plan to leave for Ternopil. During the summer, they forage and save, storing  much food for their journey. However, their plans are thwarted by Comrade Chort who has their food confiscated and their mother jailed. After being released from jail, Nyl's mother is never the same again.  The following winter is spent hungry and then Nyls' mother is murdered by Chort in the spring of 1932. Nyls now realizes he and Slavko must leave Felivka if they are to have any chance of survival. Somehow they must make the journey to Ternopil to meet up with Aunt Pawlina and Tanya. But a chance meeting with Alice, changes everything for Nyls.

 

Discussion

 

Winterkill is a timely novel that explores the Holodomor,famine of 1932-33, a man-made catastrophe orchestrated by Josef Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union in the 1930's.  In Ukrainian, holodomor translates to "death by hunger". The main victims of the holodomor were Ukrainian farmers and rural villagers. Stalin, fearful of the growing Ukrainian culture in Soviet Ukraine began to systematically murder Ukrainian intellectuals, church leaders and those who supported previous Ukrainian cultural initiatives as well as the Ukrainian peasant class. As part of Stalin's Five Year Plan to collectivize agriculture, Ukrainian farmers were forced to give up their small farms, their livestock and their grain harvest. Any resistance was met with brutality, murder and forced deportation. Those who resisted were labelled kulaks and punished with deportation or simply murdered. Stalin instituted strict grain quotas that could not be met with the dissolution of the smaller farms; his collectivization of farms was a failure. When villages could not meet their quotas, the Soviet Red Army prevented people from leaving to find food and many starved to death.

 

In Winterkill, the story opens with the residents of Felivka being pressured to join the collective farms called kolkhoz, by giving up their farms and their land as well as their livestock. To effect this change, "shock workers" went from house to house inventorying everything possession, including foodstuffs and livestock. One of the workers was Alice White and her father.

 

Skrypuch incorporates many historic events known to have occurred in Soviet-occupied Ukraine, including the murder of Orthodox priests and the complete destruction of churches and family altars, the labelling of Ukrainian farmers unwilling to join the kolkhoz as "kulaks" , a demeaning term that meant "rich peasants", who were then deported or murdered, and had their property taken from them. the stealing of almost every scrap of food produced by the farmers including their own vegetable gardens, and the murder/deportation of those who resisted. Skrypuch wants her readers to know the reality of the Holodomor, which was not recognized as a genocide until 1953, based on the conditions set out by Raphael Lemkin, an international criminal law expert.

As events play out in the novel, eventually Nyls and his brother Slavko are left to fend for themselves and they realize they must flee if they are to survive. However, Slavko decides to stay at the factory while Nyls is determined to escape to what he hopes will be the chance at a better life. With the help of Alice, who has come to understand that they too were duped by Stalin, they encounter a Canadian journalist named Rhea, who advises them to escape to Russia.

Several characters in the novel are based on either real people or from the testimony of people who lived through the Holodomor. Rhea is based on Rhea Clyman, a Polish- Canadian journalist who was reporting on the Soviet reforms in the late 1920's. She soon became disillusioned with what she saw. Her travels by car in 1932 with two other women, through what she called the "Famine-Lands", from Moscow to Kharkiv revealed abandoned villages, starving people, and empty stores. Rhea was one of the first to report on the famine and she managed to publish forty-four feature articles in the Toronto Telegram from 1932 to 1933. Rhea also reported on the large number of "kulaks" who had been deported and were working as slave labour in the Soviet Union. Skrypuch has dedicated Winterkill to Rhea Clyman and her determined effort to get the truth out about what was happening in Soviet Ukraine.

The character, Alice White is based on a real person, Alice Mertzka whom Rhea and her companions met in Kharkiv. Alice explained that she was from Toronto and that she and her father who had been employed at Massey Harris in Canada, had come to work at the tractor plant in Kharkiv. However, they too found themselves starving. In Winterkill, Alice is confronted by Nyls who explains to her what is really happening and how her simple "inventory" resulted in the destruction of his own family. This leads Alice White to attempt to make amends by helping Nyls to escape the famine.

The main character and narrator, Nyls is based on Skrypuch's interviews with survivors and her research of survivor accounts of the Holodomor. Nyl's is an intelligent, thoughtful boy who witnesses the complete destruction of everything he has known: his village and his way of life, as well as the betrayal of his family by his sister and the loss of his beloved parents. Through his eyes, young readers come to experience this loss and hopefully learn more about this historic genocide.

Winterkill is well-written but does contain a some violence including brief descriptions of brutal murders and starvation. For that reason it is recommended for older readers aged 12 and up. Skrypuch  has provided an Author's Note at the back as well as a map of Soviet Ukraine and the loss of population as a result of the Holodomor genocide. Young readers are to be encouraged to explore this topic further. Another excellent offering by this well known, award-winning Canadian author, timely, in light of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Book Details:

Winterkill by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
New York: Scholastic Inc.     2022
266 pp.

Sky Wolf's Call: The gift of Indigenous Knowledge by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger

Canada shares the land with around six hundred First Nations while within the United States, there are five hundred seventy-three tribes. Their collective Indigenous knowledge shares many similar ideas including,

"Everything is connected.
The world is a gift.
The sacred is a vital part of knowing.
We are always learning."

The first chapter explores what this means by taking each idea and providing examples from Indigenous knowledge. For example, to explain the first Indigenous concept, Yellowhorn demonstrates the connection between pecan nuts and the squirrels who collect them as food. In this chapter readers learn about the Menominee Nation who manage a sawmill with forest conservation practices that ensure the forest will exist generations from now. Other Indigenous practices such as learning to use the cocao beans to make a delicious drink or repurposing the qulliq, an oil lamp once used by the Inuit to heat their homes and cook food is now part of Inuit ceremonies.

In the Mi'kmaq language, Etauapmumk means "two-eyed seeing": "One eye sees with the strengths of Indigenous ways of knowing and the other eye sees a scientific worldview. Etuapmumk means learning to use both eyes together for the benefit of all." As an example, the Inuit who live in the Arctic can observe the changes climate change has brought about in the sea ice and the animals that live there. They inform the scientists who study the effects of climate change.

 Chapter 2, Water Knowledge explores the knowledge that comes from the Indigenous belief that water is sacred and needs to be protected. The beaver is an example of the connection between  water, animals and humans. Indigenous use of water knowledge is given in a few examples: the Hohokam canals used to irrigate crops, the Mi'kmaw use of waterways to travel great distances and the Calusa in Florida who "built their watercraft from hollowed-out cypress logs."

This chapter highlights some of the issues Indigenous peoples have experienced regarding water: the effect dams like the Grand Coulee Dam have had on salmon runs on the Columbia River, lack of potable water for over fifty years in the Anishinable community of Grassy Narrows in northwestern Ontario. This chapter also profiles several Indigenous activists who have worked to protect water.

Chapter 3 considers Fire and Smoke knowledge. It's believed that smoke connects our breath to the heavens and fire is a great gift that cooks our food and can be part of the life cycle. This chapter explores smudging and sacred pipes as well as the Navajo Fire Dance. It also presents the ways Indigenous peoples used cultural burns to help keep forests healthy.

Chapter 4 explores Indigenous knowledge as it relates to food security. The Mi'kmaq term, Netukulimuk informs Indigenous ways. It means, "take only what is needed and waste nothing." In this chapter the gifts of the buffalo, the salmon and plants are explored. Some of the topics covered include the restoration of free-roaming buffalo to the Great Plains in both Canada and the U.S. by Indigenous scientists, the reclaiming of ancient aquaculture such as restoring ancient clam gardens used for centuries by the Coastal peoples in British Columbia, Alaska and Baffin Island, and the use of the "three sisters" - corn, beans and squash to feed Indigenous peoples for centuries.

Chapter 5 Healing Knowledge Ways explores how "Indigenous peoples think about health and healing." It is a system based on the belief that there must be harmony between the body, mind and spirit. Indigenous healing focuses on restoring that harmony. This includes the Medicine Wheel, the Sweat Lodge and playing games. Indigenous knowledge also focuses on restoring harmony between man and the environment. One of the examples in this chapter is the Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation who are leaders in boreal forest conservation.

Sky Knowledge, Chapter 6 focuses on  how "Indigenous astronomers studied the sun, moon, planets and stars to give us our maps, our calendar, beliefs about how to govern, and even directions for building our homes." In this chapter, Wayfinding using Polaris, marking time using the lunar cycle and Indigenous scientists who now study the sky are the focus here.

How Indigenous peoples are working to ensure their knowledge is not lost, is the focus of Chapter 7. Oral narratives were the means Indigenous peoples passed knowledge from one generation to the next. How this was done is the focus here with the importance of language in the transfer of knowledge discussed. The profiles of several Indigenous knowledge keepers is highlighted.

In Sky Wolf's Call, Chapter 8, the story of the Sky Wolf encourages us to work together as everything in our world is connected, to cherish the gifts of our world, and to give thank for these gifts.

Discussion

Sky Wolf's Call is a fascinating look into the various types of Indigenous Knowledge and how it is being applied by today's Indigenous peoples and Indigenous scientists.

Yellowhorn begins by introducing his readers to what makes up Indigenous knowledge and how it is passed on and retelling the Blackfoot story of cultural hero and trickster,Naapi and the Sky Wolves who helped Indigenous peoples survive on the new world that Naapi had created. Using this Blackfoot story of the lessons the Sky Wolves gave, Sky Wolf's Call goes on to present the various kinds of Indigenous knowledge beginning with water knowledge.

A constant theme in this informative book is the braiding together of Indigenous knowledge with Indigenous peoples stories, the teachings of the Elders and Knowledge Keepers, and Indigenous observations and inventions. The authors use Indigenous stories to showcase their beliefs and how these informed their practices, particularly in the management of natural resources. 

One special strength of Sky Wolf's Call are the Meet sections where the contributions of a specific Indigenous Knowledge Keeper is featured. There are plenty of photographs to engage younger readers and Yellowhorn includes plenty of very interesting facts.

SkyWolf's Call is both informative and engaging, offering readers a window into the beliefs and practices of Canada's Indigenous peoples. It is a unique approach to the natural world and the understanding of the interconnectedness between humans and our world and offers a call to all peoples to work to preserve the gift of our planet.

Includes a Glossary, Selected Reading, Sources and Contacts, Image credits and an Index.

Book Details:

Sky Wolf's Call by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kath Lowinger
Toronto: Annick Press Ltd.
120 pp.

Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code by Joseph Bruchac

In October, 1929, eight-year-old Betoli, a member of the Navajo nation, was forced to leave his family , his home, and his goats and sheep to attend boarding school. The school was run by missionaries who decided they would rename him Chester.

At the school, called Fort Defiance, Chester had his long hair cut and he was told not to speak Navajo. For many of the children, Fort Defiance history stirred memories of the Navajo people being held prisoner and force-marched to New Mexico. Chester would comfort those younger children who had scary dreams.

In June, 1932, Chester was able to return home where he could freely speak his own language, care for the sheep and goats he loved so much and pray using corn pollen. His loneliness retreated. But when he returned to school in September, he was once again forbidden to speak Navajo.

As he grew up, Chester worked hard to master English and to pray as the Catholic missionaries taught him, but he also kept his Navajo ways too. Chester was in grade ten when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Although the United States had treated the Navajo as enemies, Chester felt he was part of the country and wanted to defend it.

In April 1942, the U.S. Marine Corps visited the Navajo Reservation, looking for men who spoke Navajo.Their Navajo language, once considered unimportant was now needed to send coded messages. The Americans needed to create a code the Japanese could not break. So Chester along with twenty-nine other Navajo, were chosen among hundreds to form Platoon 382 to work on the code.

At Camp Elliott, Chester and the rest of Platoon 382 were told to create an unbreakable code. They were to make one word for every letter of the alphabet. After choosing an English word for each letter, for example, ant for A and bear for B, they chose Navajo words to replace the English words. Ant became wol-la-chee and bear was Shush.

Discussion

Well-known Native American author, Joseph Bruchac presents the story of Chester Nez, a Navajo Code Talker who served in the Pacific theatre during World War II in this informative picture book. 

 

Chester was born on the Navajo reservation in Chi Chil Tah, New Mexico in 1921.His mother died when he was very young, so he was raised by his father, grandmother and maternal aunt.  His family owned one thousand sheep but in the 1930's, the livestock reduction program forced the removal of seven hundred sheep. This was devastating to Chester's family. 

 

Chester began attending school when he was eight years old but his family removed him from the school and he was sent to a boarding school in Fort Defiance. Although there was likely more food at this institution, there was physical and emotional abuse. Like many Indigenous children in the early 20th century, Chester was not allowed to speak his native language; he was punished if he spoke Navajo.

Chester was recruited into the Marine Corps in 1942 and after boot camp he was along with other Navajo recruits were sent to the Navajo Communications School at Camp Elliott to devise an unbreakable code. They came through, devising a code that was easy to learn and which the Japanese were never able to break. Navajo POWs who were tortured by the Japanese, never revealed the code.

When Chester and the other Navajo talkers arrived in Guadalcanal in 1942, the U.S. Marines had already fought months of bitter battles with the Japanese. The Navajo code talkers quickly proved their code worked and came to earn the respect of their commanding officers. There was little doubt that the Navajo Code Talkers helped win the war in the Pacific.

For Chester, war was a terrible experience, the sight of dead bodies, experiencing "banzai" attacks and seeing and enduring much cruelty. Chester was part of several other brutal battles: the Battle of Bourgainville, the Battle of Guam in which he was wounded, and the Battle of Peleliu. When he returned home, he needed to heal and so an Enemy Way healing treatment was developed. 

In Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code, Bruchac writes about the development of the Navajo code and Chester's role in creating the code as well as his faithful service to the country that had treated he and his people so poorly. The mistreatment of the Navajo by the U.S. government is only briefly explored but offers readers a chance to explore and learn more about this aspect of U.S. history. Despite the abusive treatment Chester and other Navajo experienced, their willingness to defend the U.S. is a testament to their integrity, faithfulness and determination. Bruchac also highlights the toll war took on Chester and how he struggled to heal himself from his experiences at boarding school and from his war service.

Chester's story is also told in the rich artwork of illustrator Liz Amini-Holmes. Bruchac includes a short Author's Note about Chester's life after World War II as well as some of the Navajo code used by Chester and the Navajo Code Talkers. 

Further Research:

You can explore more about Chester Nez from the Library of Congress's Chester Nez collection at the Veterans History Project.

 

Navajo Code Talkers in World War II

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian's online exhibit

Navajo Code Talkers Foundation

Information about Canada's Cree Talkers used in World War II

Book Details

Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code: A Navajo Code Talker's Story by Joseph Bruchac
Chicago: Albert Whitman & Co.     2018

Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson

Twelve-year-old Homer, his sister Ada and their Mama (Rose) have runaway from Southerland Plantation. Their plan was to go north to freedom but Mama has gone back to get Anna, a slave Homer had promised to help run. Now Homer and Ada are being tracked by Stokes, the overseer and his dogs, and his two brother-in-laws, Ron and Rick. Homer manages to escape one of the dogs which has bitten him, and he and Ada head towards the river.

At the bank of the roaring river, Homer grabs Ada's hand and they jump, surfacing far downstream. They make their way to the bank, but not before Homer hits his head on the riverbed. On the bank of the river, Homer and Ada sleep before considering what to do next. They remember what Two Shoes, so named because he wore Mr. Crumb's castoff shoes did. His son Desmond, had been sold off, leaving his wife, Sally, devastated. In hope of getting Desmond back, Two Shoes had revealed where another slave, Wilson, had run away to. But Mr. Crumb did not buy back Desmond as he promised, and Wilson was found and whipped.

Hearing Stokes dogs, Homer pulls Ada deeper into the swamp. However, Homer soon finds himself sinking deep into the mud in a sinkhole. With Ada's help he gets free, only to find a huge snake wrapped around his leg. As the snake is about to strike, an arrow kills it. A strange man with hickory brown skin and hair in long ropes descends from the trees to claim his arrow and also to stop Ada's questions. They hear Stokes nearby with his dogs, striking fear into Ada. Before she can run off, the man tears a strip off of Ada's dress wrapping it around an arrow with something sticky. From the treetops he sends a flaming arrow into the dry leaves below, igniting a fire in the swamp.

Homer and Ada follow the man, whose name is Suleman deeper into the swamp. After a complicated journey that involves trudging through the swamp for a day, travelling in a boat carved from a tree, passing through a secret door hidden in the brush, spending the night in a secret tree hideout they continue on. During their journey to Freewater, Suleman tells Homer and Ada that he ran away three times from the plantation, each time losing a finger as punishment. Suleman's work is to know about the various plantations and to steal what they need from them. He leads Homer and Ada to a spot where they meet people disguised as brush, covered in leaves and mud. They are David, Ibra and Daria. The group then climbs into the trees to walk across a rope bridge in the canopy and into Freewater, a village of escaped slaves.

Meanwhile at Southerland Plantation, eleven-year-old Nora has discovered that Homer's mother, Rose has been caught and brutally whipped by Stoke's brother-in-laws. Nora is the youngest daughter of Master Crumb, owner of Southerland. When Nora was born, her father believed her to be unwell. She was born with a large red strawberry birthmark on the left side of her face. Her father once showed Nora a picture of an octopus, telling her the birthmark was like the octopus, "...with the oval shaped octopus head marked her temple, and from it sprang eight curving marks. Two that stretched to her left eyebrow, another three that unwound along her cheekbone, and another three that traveled down her jawline." Because her parents thought she was sickly, Homer's mother Rose was forced to wean him and become Nora's wet nurse. Soon Nora spent much of her time with Rose who was given a room off the kitchen. Nora was taught by a tutor and spent her days in the kitchen with Rose, reading. Being abandoned in this way, Nora refused to speak.

With only a month before Nora's older sister, Violet's wedding, the whipping of Rose is a disaster. For Anna, a slave in the house, the disappearance of Homer and Ada, and the whipping of Rose causes much trouble. Anna was considered a peculiar girl. She had been sold many times, often not lasting more than a year in a house. Anna's mother had cut her on the arm, making a sort of arm scar that seemed to Anna to be a hint to run North. Anna was determined to escape and find her mother, and Homer and Ada's escape, and the suffering of Rose, moves her to begin planning both her escape and her revenge.

Nora too begins planning. Overhearing her sister Violet complaining about her being at her wedding, Nora runs to find Rose, only to discover she is seriously injured from the whipping. It is a sight that makes her ill. 

Meanwhile, in Freewater, Homer and Ada meet some of the inhabitants of the emancipated community. There is Sanzi who lives with her mother Mrs. Light, who escaped years ago and her older sister Juna. Sanzi was born in Freeland, has never known slavery and wants to be like Suleman. She carries around a bow and a quiver of arrows and is often in trouble. Her father David patrols the borders of Freewater. Billy who ran away with his father Ibra, is fourteen-years-old. Billy stutters and is afraid of many things. He is certain the slave catcher who hunted him and his father is still out there waiting. He loves to work with wood and has crafted a wooden bracelet for Juna, whom he has a crush on. There is Ferdinand, Sanzi's rival who escaped from a ditch digging gang. He managed to steal the overseer's knife and it is his prized possession.

Homer and Ada spend the next three weeks adjusting to life in Freewater. But Homer is determined to help his mother and Anna escape Southerland. He is forced to act when he uncovers the betrayal of Two Shoes. His plan to return to Southerland is discovered by his new friends, Sanzi, Ferdinand, Billy, and Juna and they insist on coming with him, as does Ada. They set out, hoping to arrive during the busyness of Violet's wedding. 

Meanwhile, Anna and Nora both begin to develop their own plans to leave Southerland. But Violet's wedding becomes a special day for Homer, Ada, Rose, Anna and Nora and a day that Violet and Southerland won't easily forget.

Discussion

Amina Luqman-Dawson has crafted an enjoyable and interesting story with her debut novel, Freewater. In Freewater, Luqman-Dawson creates a story inspired by the maroon communities living in the Great Dismal Swamp which was located in southeastern Virginia and the northeastern part of  North Carolina prior to the Civil War. It had been inhabited by Indigenous peoples for centuries before the coming of the maroons, who were enslaved people who had freed themselves by escaping the plantations they worked on.

Conditions in the Great Dismal Swamp were difficult, with hot, humid weather, dense bush and vines, bears, poisonous snakes and insects. These conditions made it almost impossible to track and recapture runaway slaves. Despite the obvious hardships, life was preferable in the swamp to living the life of a slave on a plantation. The maroons built homes on higher ground in the swamp. Since they had few tools and even clothing, they often raided nearby plantations for tools, food and other goods.

In Freewater, Homer and Ada along with their mother Rose, flee Southerland plantation to a community hidden deep within the nearby swamp. However, their freedom is marred in Homer's mind because they have broken their promise to take another slave, Anna with them. This leads Rose to return to try to bring Anna, but she is recaptured and whipped. For Homer, there is no freedom until he brings his mother to Freewater.

Luqman-Dawson has crafted a diverse cast of characters, from the brave Sanzi struggling to find her place in Freewater, to Billy who stutters and is overwhelmed with the fear of being recaptured, to Homer who tries to adapt to life in the swamp while his mother is still enslaved. Then there is  Mr. and Mrs Crumb and Violet Crumb who see their slaves as mere possessions, Anna a young slave girl who has been sold so many times and who has no memory of her mother, Two Shoes who repeatedly betrays others in an attempt to bring back his beloved son Desmond, and Old Joe and Miss Petunia, who are elderly, faithful slaves. Nora Crumb, the abandoned daughter of the Crumbs, realizes the truth about the slaves at Southerland.

Nora, the youngest daughter of Master Crumb, begins to comprehend the reality of slavery when she discovers Rose has been brutally whipped. Watching Rick and Ron pour salt onto Rose's wounds, makes Nora ill. Later, overhearing her father planning to recapture Homer and Ada causes her to wonder about the type of person her father is. "Nora held her breath. She'd heard talk about catching runaways all her life, and she hadn't thought too much of it. Rose, Homer, and Ada, they were different, weren't they? But something in Nora's father's words made her blood run cold. It didn't match the father who tucked her in at night." When Anna returns a book Nora left for Rose, telling Nora that her father will give Rose the lash again if he finds the book, Nora thinks, "To hear her father connected to the idea of hurting Rose turned something in Nora. Yes, Stokes was mean. He was cruel and feared. But her father? Anna's words were like a first small crack setting into a sheet of lake ice." 

Nora, unlike anyone else at Southerland, has a special relationship with Rose. Born with an octopus-shaped birthmark that extends down the left side of her face, Nora is an outcast in her family. Her mother insists that Nora wear her hair down to cover the strawberry mark. Mrs. Crumb seems unconcerned about how her daughter feels about her actions and words. This leads to Nora feeling unloved and unwanted. But Rose, who nursed her as a baby, has always accepted Nora. When Rose recovers from her wounds, Nora can see that Rose is heartbroken, because she doesn't know the fate of her children, Homer and Ada. At a dress fitting, Nora is forced to sit on Rose's back by her mother who prattles on about how Nora's hair can cover her birthmark and who has no concern for Rose's evident pain. Nora can feel the scars of the whipping and seeing Rose's tears, she jumps up and runs off. Later on, Rose tells Nora how Violet also used to come to the kitchen when she was small  and talk to her, but that eventually she stopped coming. Nora realizes that her sister "used to visit Rose, but she never spoke to Rose now. Never. To her, Rose didn't exist, except to cook. Nora was nothing like Viola. Was she?"  Nora realizes that when her sister was younger, she saw Rose as a person and spent time with her, but as she grew up, Rose became a possession, to be used. Nora is afraid she will become like Violet and she doesn't want that to happen.

This event completely changes Nora and her view of her life. Filled with shame over what has happened to her beloved Rose, Nora starts to investigate life around Southerland. "After a lifetime of hearing the soulful songs coming from the fields, Nora ventured out to see their origin. She hid among the rows of tobacco and listened to the crack of Stokes whip and saw that the eyes of the field hands looked much like Rose's. The pain she saw frightened her and sent her running back to the house, and back to being within her mother's reach. Suddenly, the tobacco fields she'd seen in the distance every day didn't look beautiful. Nora knew they were pain-filled. Her home wasn't what she'd thought. Maybe this was why Rose had run off in the first place." 

Nora clearly recognizes the way her family is treating their slaves and especially Rose, who has raised her, is not right and she sets out to try to right that wrong, first by trying to free Rose with a fake note of manumission. When that fails she decides to try to help Anna. In the end she is able to help both Rose and Anna.

Nora's transformation is symbolized by her washing away the white powder on her face that her mother forced her to wear to cover her strawberry birthmark. Nora's reality is that she has a birthmark on her face just as the reality is that slavery is evil and hurts those who are enslaved like Rose and Anna. Her transformation continues when Nora speaks for the first time, ordering Stokes to leave Anna alone. Up until this time, Nora has never spoken but now she finds her voice and uses it for good.

Freewater is not only a story about slavery but also one about personal journeys: among them, Homer's journey to free his mother Rose, Sanzi's journey to find her place in Freewater, Billy's journey to overcome his fears and have the courage to tell Juna how he feels, and Nora's journey to assert herself in Southerland and understand the evil of slavery. This is a well written, interesting novel, with realistic characters, a good story in a setting that many young readers will likely not know much about.

Book Details:

Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
New York: Little, Brown and Company      2022
402 pp.

Muinji'j Asks Why by Muinji'j and Shanika MacEachern

One day Muinji'j comes home from school upset. She tells her grandparents that they have been talking about the residential schools and what happened to the children in these schools. However, when she tried to tell her teacher what her grandparents had told her she refused to listen. So her Nana tells her that she will tell her the story of the Mi'kmaw people and what happened to them regarding the residential schools.

In what is now called Nova Scotia, a people called the Mi'kmaq lived in wigwams and travelled using canoes made from the trees. They called their land Mi'kma'ki.  From the animals they hunted, they got their food and their clothing. They wasted nothing, giving thanks for the Earth's gifts by leaving dried tobacco on the land. The Mi'kmaq especially cherished their children because they were the knowledge keepers who learned from the stories the Elders told. 

The Elders taught them to respect the land and water, that they were connected to the people of the past and the future and that their long braids "held the teachings of their people and that they would give them strength."

When new people came to their land, the Mi'kmaq welcomed them, traded with them, explored their land with them. The two peoples made promises to share the land. However, with the passage of time, the new people forgot what they had learned from the Mi'kmaq about the land. They called the land Nova Scotia and they decided the land belonged to them.

Eventually the Mi'kmaq were displaced from their lands, pushed onto smaller pieces. Mi'kma'ki was now Nova Scotia, part of a new country called Canada.

Since the Mi'kmaq thought, talked and dressed differently, the new people decided to force the Mi'kmaq to change. They were forced to move to new lands called reservations. Despite this, the Mi'kmaq refused to abandon their traditions and culture. They were then told that they could not leave their communities, practice their traditions nor have large gatherings, otherwise they would be sent to jail. To counter this resistance, the new people decided they would build schools and force the Mi'kmaq children to attend them. This would allow them to learn the "Canadian way of life".

In Nova Scotia, Mi'kmaq children attended Shubenacadie Residential School, which overlooked the Shubenacadie River. The school was a Catholic residential school that accepted children from all over Eastern Canada. It was run by Catholic priests and nuns. At the schools, the children had their braids cut, their clothes thrown away and they were forbidden to speak in their own language.

Muinji'j notes that only her great-grandmother can speak a language she does not understand. Her grandfather tells her Kiju speaks Mi'kmaq which is the name of their language. Muinji'j's grandparents explain to her what happened at the schools and how their beliefs, culture and traditions were forgotten by the children who attended the schools.

Discussion

Muinji'j Asks Why tells the story of the Mi'kmaq and the Shubenacadie Residential School. The Shubenacadie Residential School was one of many residential schools used to remove Indigenous children from the influence of their families and communities, destroying their culture and traditions and the ability to speak their own languages. The Shubenacadie Residential school, located in the Sipekni’katik district of Mi’kma’ki, was open from 1930 to 1967 and was the only residential school in the Maritimes. It was funded by the government of Canada, managed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Halifax and later the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and staffed by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. The school was demolished in 1986. 

The purpose of the school, like other residential schools was to suppress Indigenous culture and have the children conform to European culture. Children from the Mi'kmaq and Wolastoqiyik were forced to attend despite objections from parents and Indigenous leaders. They endured harsh conditions, punishment, physical and sexual abuse and forced labour. Due to incomplete records, it is not entirely possible to determine all those who attended the school.

Shanika MacEachern, a Mi'kmaw woman and Native Student Advisor with Annapolis Valley Centre for Education in collaboration with Breighlynn (Muinji'j) MacEachern, a grade 3 student and young Mi'kmaq have crafted a well-written account of the Mi'kmaq experience with Canada's residential school system. 

Muinji'j's grandparents explain to her what happened to their people with the coming of the white Europeans to Atlantic Canada, how their traditions were made illegal and they were confined to reservations their experiences with the residential school system which broke apart families and destroyed traditional beliefs and practices, and how the Mi'kmaq now live by Etuapmumk, or "'two-eyed seeing': one eye for the Mi'kmaw ways and one for the Canadian ways. We as L'nu understand the Canadian ways and accept them as part of our lives, but we also hold strong to our traditions and culture." The authors have written in a honest, forthright manner, with these events portrayed by the richly coloured digital art of Zeta Paul.

Muinji'j AsksWhy is highly recommended as a resource for young readers to learn about the Mi'kmaq, and the residential school experience. 

For more information on the Shubenacadie Residential School.

Indigenous Perspectives

Book Details:

Muinji'j Asks Why by Muinji'j and Shanika MacEachern
Halifax, N.S.: Nimbus Publishing Ltd.       2022

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

I Must Betray You is a chilling portrayal of life in communist Romania under the brutal regime of Nicolae Ceausescu just as the Soviet and Eastern Bloc are collapsing.

One gray October day in 1989, seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu is called to the school office by Comrade Director of MF3 High School. Terrified, Cristian finds himself being blackmailed by an agent of the Securitate, Romania's feared secret police, into becoming a spy. The Secu tells Cristian he knows about his "impressive vintage stamp collection" and that he has sold a vintage Romanian stamp, accepted foreign currency from a foreigner and is therefore guilty of illegal trafficking. Cristian suspects that his best friend, Luca is the one who has informed on him.

Cristian's mother, Mioara, works as a maid to a U.S. diplomat, Nicholas Van Dorn. While waiting for his mother to finish work, Cristian met and became friendly with the diplomat's sixteen-year-old son, Dan: they talked and traded stamps which is illegal in Romania. The Secu, whom he calls "Paddle Hands", threatens Cristian with this knowledge and coerces him into spying for the Secu. Cristian is ordered to "continue to meet with the son of the American diplomat" and "will report details of the diplomat's home and family." He will become an informer, code named "OSCAR". In return, Cristian's grandfather, Bunu will receive medicine to treat his leukemia.

On his way home after meeting with the Secu agent, Cristian encounters Liliana Pavel, the girl he's been trying for days to "co-incidentally" meet after school. She lives in the same building as Cristian's best friend, Luca who has a reputation for being sweet. Liliana is smart, quiet and often goes off to read. As they walk home together, they meet "Starfish" a boy a few years older than Cristian who is involved in the black market. Starfish lost an eye and the thick stitches on his closed eye socket resembled a crooked star. Starfish invites them to his video night on Saturday. To Cristian's surprise, Liliana wants him to come with her.

Cristian, his twenty-year-old sister Cicilia (Cici) who works at a textile factory, his parents, Mioara and Gabriel and his grandfather, Bunu live in a cramped, fourth floor apartment in Bucharest, Romania. Cristian sleeps in the closet by the front door. He keeps a journal hidden under the blankets on the floor. Cristian got the idea for a journal after seeing the notebook that Dan Van Dorn keeps for his college admissions essay. Because people believe that listening devices are hidden everywhere, at home everyone speaks in whispers except for his grandfather, Bunu. They hide Kents - Western cigarettes which are used for bribery, trade or the black market.  On the balconies of the apartments, the "Reporters", women who spy on their neighbours, are ever watchful.

Cristian begins spying on the U.S. Diplomat's son, Dan Van Dorn. Cristian believes he can outwit the agent at his own game so he starts by noting things he believes the Secu agent might be interested in, such as the location of rooms and furniture, information that he believes is harmless. Cristian meets up with Dan Van Dorn again and makes mental notes about the apartment while Dan looks for stamps to trade with Cristian. Dan brings out a sheet block of four U.S. stamps of dinosaurs where one has been mislabelled. Dan tells Cristian that even the U.S. Postal service makes mistakes and points to the light fixture indicating that he knows it is bugged. At this point, Cristian realizes that Dan knows he is under surveillance. He also meets Dan's parents.

At a second meeting with the agent, Cristian tells him about the Van Dorn's apartment and is tasked with noting what's on the father's desk and also to accompany Dan to the American Library.  The next day Cristian and his family, like every other family in Bucharest, must stand in line for anything they want at the Alimentara, the grocery store. It is bitterly cold, and Cristian reflects on how each member of his family takes their turn in the lines.

But when Cristian visits Dan in his home again, he cannot help but notice the stark contrast to his own living conditions. It is warm like summer, there is a large colour TV, and a video player with head phones. The contrast is even more extreme when Cristian watches a home made video of Dan's friends and is stunned to see the inside of a large refrigerator stuffed with food from top to bottom. "All kinds of food. In bottles, cans, cartons, dividers, and drawers. So many colors and quantities. Of food...Fresh. Ripe. Just waiting to be eaten." Cristian realizes that the movie he's watched is of "...real people, in a real house in the West, with real food." When Cristian confronts his mother about what he's seen at the Van Dorn's, she becomes defensive and angry, telling him it's no use dreaming about things they can never have.

At school, after a classmate confesses to being an informer, Cristian realizes that everyone is informing on everyone. "The teacher must be an informer. He informed on the students. The school director was an informer. He informed on the teachers. The secretary was an informer. She informed on the school director. The school director was an informer. He informed on the teachers. The secretary was an informer. She informed on the school director. Luca was an informer. He informed on me. I was an informer. I informed on Americans." This realization makes Cristian wonder if Liliana is an informer. He believes that Liliana leaving school the day they first met up, might be a sign she was also meeting with a Secu. 

Meanwhile at home, Bunu works to repair their broken radio. As he and Cristian discuss communism and the Secu, Bunu reveals that he was paid a visit by someone and given "medicine" to help him and that this was because someone in their home is an informer. He also doesn't know what he was given, if it will help him or kill him. At this point, Cristian believes his grandfather knows he's an informer.

When Liliana and Cristian meet up in the darkened stairwell of his apartment building they discuss what happened in Cristian's class. They hear someone on the stairs and it turns out to be Cristian's mother. When they return to the stairwell, Liliana she wonders if the world knows what is going on in Romania and if they would help them.  Thinking about how they can listen to broadcasts from Radio Free Europe, Cristian considers sneaking his secret notebook to Mr. Van Dorn with a request to send it to Washington. He believes that Ceausescu has fooled the Americans into believing Romania is a successful country. 

At his next meeting with Dan, Mr. Van Dorn writes the word TIME on paper and tells Cristian to look for the most recent edition at the American Library. This leads Cristian to believe that he can share the truth about Romania with him. When Cristian reads TIME Magazine at the American Library, he is stunned to learn that their neighbour, Hungary is free and no longer communist. He knows he has to tell Bunu. As it turns out, Bunu already knows because he's repaired their radio. Listening to Radio Free Europe, Bunu believes East Germany will be next. 

The brutal murder of Bunu leads Cristian to secretly leave Van Dorn his notebook so he can let the world know what is happening in Romania. Cristian's mother tells him that Bunu's murder is a warning to the young people of Romania not to follow in the steps of the other communist countries. Soon freedom spreads throughout the Eastern Bloc, with the fall of communist regimes in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria.  When protests begin in Romania, at Maria Square in Timisoara, Western Romania, Cristian knows he has to act. He, along with Liliana, Luca and thousands of university students and residents of Budapest, begin protesting. Cristian is quickly drawn into the bloody uprising in Romania. But freedom will come with painful revelations and the loss of a beloved sister.

Discussion

Ruta Sepetys has crafted a brilliant historical fiction novel that effectively portrays the repressive regime of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu through the eyes of a teen character, seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu. Interspersed in his narrative are the Informer Reports, detailing the activities of Cristian and those around him.

In 1945, the Communists came to power in Romania due to the occupation and intervention of the Soviet Union. Prior to this, there had been a struggle as to whether Romania would adopt Western style democracy or Soviet communism.Fro m 1945 until 1965, Soviet-style communism with its antagonistic approach to the West controlled Romania. In 1965, with the death of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Rej, Nicolae Ceausescu came to power as leader of Romania's Communist Party. He worked to move Romania away from the Soviet sphere of influence, ending its participation in the Warsaw Pact military alliance and condemning the Soviet Union's invasions of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and Afghanistan in 1979. Unlike the Soviet Union and its Bloc countries, Ceausescu was not interested in shutting Romania off from the West: he was friendly towards the United States and signed trade agreements with the European Economic Community.

However this openness did not last. In 1974, Ceausescu became president of Romania but he also became increasingly authoritarian.  Romania had a much-feared secret police, called the Securitate and they began to develop a large network of informers. This caused much fear and division, as people never knew who to trust. It also made any form of resistance almost impossible. The Securitate was responsible for the torture and death of thousands of Romanians. 

Prior to the 1980's, Bucharest had been known as "the Little Paris of the East" for its cobbled streets, tree-lined boulevards, cafes, historic churches and monasteries, and many grand buildings. After the 1977 earthquake, Ceausescu was determined to remake the center of Bucharest into something more modern like what he had seen in North Korea. He demolished many parts of the city center including the Uranus district and levelled the Vacaresti Hill, the location of an ancient monastery. In place of these beautiful and historic buildings, Ceausescu built rows of concrete apartment blocks. He also built a huge, opulent palace while his own people did without the many necessities of life.

In the 1980's life in Romania became almost impossible. In debt to foreign banks, Ceausescu began exporting the country's agricultural and industrial products. As a result, people experienced shortages of food, fuel, medicine, clothing and other necessities. As glasnost and perestroika spread throughout the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, the Communist regimes began to fall throughout the Eastern Bloc. A demonstration in Timisoara, in which the Romania army fired on its own people, became the flashpoint for the revolution and fall of the Communist Romanian government and the trial and execution of the Ceausescus.

In I Must Betray You, Ruta Sepetys uses her characters to describe life under Romania's dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu. Cristian and Liliana Pavel discuss how their beautiful city of Bucharest has been destroyed as they walk home together. Liliana remarks, "My father said that Bucharest used to be called 'Little Paris'. There were trees everywhere, lots of birds, and even Belle Epoque architecture." Cristian recalls that his Bunu once told him that "...Bucharest was once a luxury stop on the Orient Express."

Cristian then describes the reality of what life has become under the repressive regime: "Families, like our family of five, were herded into one-bedroom, ashtray-sized flats. I looked at the cement apartment blocks we passed. Some weren't even finished. They had no doors, no elevators, no stair railings. Similar concrete hulks loomed around the city, gray staircases to nowhere. Concrete walls gave birth to concrete faces."

Even worse than the destruction of beauty is the fear and paranoia of life in Romania during the Ceausescu dictatorship. Like everyone else, Cristian tries to pass unnoticed.  "I pretended to follow the rules. I kept things to myself, like my interest in poetry and philosophy. I pretended other things too...I pretended that studying English was a commitment to my country... Many things were illegal in Romania - including my thoughts and my notebook." However, he soon discovers that no one goes "unnoticed" by the Secu.

Life in Ceausescu's Romania is one where anyone might be an informer. People are blackmailed into becoming an informer on family and friends, hence the title of the novel. When Cristian is sent to meet the Securitate agent he nicknames "Paddle Hands", he is terrified and doesn't know what he might have done to be in this situation. "What had I done? The truth was, most Romanians broke the rules some way or another. There were so many to break. And so many to report that you had broken them."  He learns that somehow the agent knows about his vintage stamp trade with Dan Van Dorn and the dollar he has come to possess. This situation creates a sense of betrayal and paranoia in Cristian, who wonders, "The agent had a file. Who informed on me? I threw a quick glance over my shoulder into the shadows. Was I being followed?"

Cristian being forced into becoming an informer, leaves him deeply conflicted, filled with disgust at not being able to refuse. He doesn't want to be an informer, but does it in the hopes of getting medicine for his beloved Bunu. He must betray Dan, his new American friend. He tries to assuage his conscience by hoping that he can beat the Secu at his own game, but soon learns this is not the case. 

However, the Secu's forcing of Cristian into meeting with Dan has an unintended consequence: it offers him a window into what life is like in a free country like America. Watching a home-made video, Cristian is stunned by the amount of food in a family's refrigerator in America, how people interact freely with one another. He even notices how Mr. and Mrs. Van Dorn show natural affection for one another by their touches and looks, something he's never seen his parents do. He realizes that everything he's been told about America is a lie. 

Sepetys uses the character, Bunu, Cristian's grandfather, to explain how the Ceausescu regime has been able to control the Romanian people. Bunu tells his grandson, "...Ceausescu may be near illiterate, but even I can admit that he's a statesman and a mastermind...And think about it, Cristi, he starts with toddlers. The little ones are just four years old when they're indoctrinated....Four years old. it's cunning."

Bunu is the voice of  truth and courage, telling Cristian, "They steal our power by making us believe we don't have any...But words and creative phrases - they have power, Cristian. Explore that power in your mind." But he also reminds Cristian that the Securitate cannot control what he thinks. Bunu explains to Cristian how he can survive in such a repressive environment. "...You see, communism is a state of mind...The State controls the amount of food we eat, our electricity, our transportation, the information we receive. But with philosophy, we control our minds. What if the internal landscape was ours to build and paint?" 

Later on Bunu tells his son Gabriel, Cristian's father, "Mistrust is a form of terror. The regime pits us against one another. We can't join together in solidarity because we never know whom we can trust or who might be an informer....You see, even out here in the street, you're paranoid to be speaking with your own father! You've become a man without a voice. Mistrust. It's insidious. It causes multiple personality syndrome and rots relationships." 

The reader learns in the Epilogue that Bunu was informed on by his daughter-in-law, Cristian's mother, who hoped to save her two children. His voice of dissent had to be silenced and so he was poisoned by radioactive coffee and then beaten to death as the threat to the regime deepened. Bunu's brutal murder demonstrates how the Ceausescu regime tolerated no resistance, even that of an elderly, dying man. He was murdered because he was able to recognize and counter the lies of the state. 

I Must Betray You is a stunning novel, and a timely one. Romania's experience with Communism mirrored that of most other Eastern Bloc countries and the Soviet Union: food and fuel shortages, rampant poverty, state police who tortured and murdered their own citizens, constant surveillance with almost no personal freedom. It is a reminder of the brutality and inhumanity of Communism at a time when some see it as an plausible alternative to the struggles Western democracies are currently experiencing. As Cristian writes in his notebook that is eventually published, "If communism is such a Paradise, why do we need barriers, walls, and laws to keep people from escaping?" Historical fiction can remind us of the lessons of the past, ones that must not be repeated.

The novel includes many historical, black and white photographs at the back, along with a detailed Author's Note and a Research and Sources section that explains the incredibly detailed research Sepetys undertook to write I Must Betray You. A map of Europe in 1989 opens the novel along with a dedication photograph of Romanian students in 1989. Sepetys's extensive research is evident in the believable characters she has crafted and her realistic portrayal of life in Romania in 1989. I Must Betray You is an absolute must-read!! As author Ruta Sepetys ends her Author's Note: "Together we can give history a voice." 

Book Details:

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
New York: Philomel Books        2022
319 pp.

Thirst by Varsha Bajaj

Minni lives in Mumbai, in a part of the city that is very poor, where there is often not enough water. Her family doesn't have running water in their home: instead they rely on an outside tap that they share with their neighbours. Minni's Ma must wake up early to fill their buckets with water because the taps only supply water for two hours in the morning and one hour in the evening. 

Minni's fifteen-year-old brother, Sanjay dreams of becoming a chef one day. Currently he is working doing food prep in a restaurant. Minni's Baba, runs a tea shop named Jai Ho where the neighbourhood loves to hang out and hear the local gossip. Minni's best friend is Faiza, who is Muslim.

One night, Sanjay's friend Amit tells them that his uncle Ram, who is a chauffeur, has a new car tonight. Amit offers to take Sanjay for a ride. Both Minni and Faiza beg to be included. Ram Uncle agrees to take the four of them for a ride and they drive through Mumbai in delicious air conditioning. During the ride, Uncle stops at a building near the Western railway tracks. Behind the tracks they see a large water truck . Instead of obeying Uncle, Amit and Sanjay leave the Mercedes, promising only to go as far as the fence by the tracks. However, they climb over the fence and Minni, worried about her brother, steps out of the car. 

In the dark, Minni sees that a hose attached to the tanker truck is draining water from the pipeline nearby. When Sanjay sneezes, revealing their presence, a man begins searching the area where Sanjay and Amit are hiding. In the light of the flashlight, Minni notices that the man has a pale scar on his cheek. He grabs Sanjay but Amit kicks him in the leg and both boys manage to flee, crossing the tracks before an oncoming train. Ram Uncle returns to the car and they speed away to safety. 

When they tell Ram Uncle what happened, he is furious, admonishing them not to be curious about what "tankers are doing in the night." Amit tells him that Ravi who is from their neighbourhood, recognized them but told them to run. They believe he will not say anything. 

The next day, any hopes that this will blow over are dispelled when Minni returns home after to school to find Ram Uncle and Amit at their house. Minni's parents are furious and terrified, especially when they see the newspaper headline, "Mumbai Ruled By Water Mafia". Uncle tells Minni's family that the water mafia are dangerous people and that they need to send Sanjay and Amit away. He tells them that Ravi has been talking about them, believing them to be part of a rival gang. Uncle explains that they steal water and sell it for huge profits.  When Minni suggests going to the police, her father tells her that they wouldn't be believed because they are uneducated slum dwellers and that the police are often bribed.

Amit and Sanjay are sent away to Delhi where they will be taken to Uncle's relative's farm so they can work for him. Sanjay doesn't want to leave, but after quickly packing he and Amit leave with Uncle. The next morning Minni explains to Faiza what has happened and both girls are scared.

A week after Sanjay leaves home, Minni and Faiza receive their packages to help them study for the final exam which is less than a month away. However, Minni's mother seems to be ill: she is tired all the time and doesn't eat much. Minni takes her to the clinic where the doctor tells her to rest and takes blood for tests. Minni's mother decides that she will go to stay with her mother and youngest sister in their village. There, she can rest and be cared for. However, this means big changes for Minni. She will take on her mother's job as housekeeper at Anita Ma'am's home after school.

Minni faces a daunting next few weeks: she must do all her mother's chores, study for her final exam and work at Anita Ma'am's house after school. With the help of her neighbours and friends, Minni manages to do all of this. But then she uncovers the identity of the man responsible for stealing water. How can she tip off police while keeping herself and her family safe?

Discussion

Thirst presents young readers a window into the lives of the very poor, the slum dwellers of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India. Most young people in North America, take for granted having water, hot and cold, at the twist of a tap. But for residents of the slums of Mumbai, it's not so simple. 

According to an article in The Indian Express there are over ten thousand wells in Mumbai, but more than two thousand tanker trucks steal water from these wells and sell it to residents at high prices. Instead of dealing with the so called "water mafia" to prevent water theft, the local government is pursuing the development of a desalination plant.

Bajaj provides some information on the water mafia in her story. Mumbai is built on seven islands and its water supply comes from these islands. However, many residents in the lower income neighbourhoods where Minni and her family live, must line up in the morning and evening to fill containers with water. Many buildings do not have water during the day. Bajaj demonstrates the risks poorer residents of Mumbai face as a result of a lack of clean water: Minni's mother is found to be suffering from Hepatitis A, a water borne illness that is easily preventable with clean water and also through vaccination. There is also the risk Sanjay, Amit and Ravi encountered, of stumbling onto water theft and losing their lives for this knowledge.

In Thirst, Bajaj has crafted a clever, kind heroine in Minni, who like many young girls around the world, aspires to an education and often achieves it while overcoming enormous obstacles. The author also portrays the close-knit community that helps Minni achieve her dreams in whatever way they can, whether it is through meals, carrying water or sharing work. Bajaj shows them to be resilient, and hard-working.

Thirst offers a satisfying, happy ending, with resolutions to the many crises in the novel. Readers wanting to learn more about Mumbai's water issues can check out the website The Water Story (https://thewaterstory.com.au/). 

Book Details:

Thirst by Varsha Bajaj
New York: Nancy Paulsen Books    2022
179 pp.