Nothing Could Stop Her. The Courageous Life of Ruth Gruber by Rona Arato

Ruth Gruber was born in 1911, to David and Gussie Gruber who had immigrated from Russia. Her father owned a liquor store and their family of five children lived above the store which was located in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.  The Grubers were Jewish and in their village, people spoke Yiddish. They celebrated Jewish holidays, but on Saturdays - the Sabbath, Ruth's parents kept their store open. 

In public school, Ruth's "first grade teacher was a young Black woman who taught a class of Jewish, Irish, Polish, and Black girls." Her teacher encouraged Ruth's parents to care and support her because she was sure she was going to be a writer.

Ruth's family moved into a German neighborhood in 1921 where she and her sisters and brothers made good friends. But meanwhile, in Germany, Adolf Hitler was on the rise. 

Ruth was an exceptional student: she entered high school at the age of twelve and New York University at the age of fifteen. While majoring in German, Ruth had many interesting opportunities to explore the world outside of Brooklyn and to enter a summer program at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. In this intensive German program, Ruth did everything in German.

After completing her studies, Ruth won a fellowship with the University of Wisconsin's German department for the full tuition for the year-long master's program in German. She hitchhiked to Wisconsin and initially lived in a dorm named German House. Experiencing anti-Semitism from both the woman in charge of the dorm and the head of the German department, Ruth ended up boarding with a Norwegian family. 

After completing her masters thesis, Ruth won a one-year exchange fellowship to the University of Cologne. But her parents were not keen on her accepting, and tried to dissuade her from going. They were concerned with the rise in anti-Semitism especially since Ruth would be there in 1931. In Cologne, Ruth stayed with Frieda Herz and her family. As the situation in Germany continued to worsen, Ruth decided to stay, especially after she was invited to earn a Ph.D. by Professor Schoffler, head of the English Language and Literature Department. Her research would be original and on English author, Virginia Woolf.  In November, Ruth read Hitler's book, Mein Kampf and was horrified at his beliefs about Jews and race. She personally began to experience the anti-Semitism being pushed by the Nazis. She attended a Nazi rally led by Hitler and had to leave, she was so disgusted.

In  August 1932, Ruth returned home to America. She had earned her Ph.D., the youngest in the world to do so. Ruth began writing articles for the Herald Tribune: this was the beginning of her journalism career. In 1933, Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany. In 1935, Ruth received a writing fellowship and she decided to return to Germany to study women in different political systems: fascism in Germany and communism in Russia. At the same time she would be the Herald Tribune's special correspondent while she travelled in Europe. Although her parents were upset with her decision and felt she should marry, Ruth was excited and determined.

When Ruth returned to Germany, she found it much changed. As the situation in Europe escalated to war, Ruth travelled to Poland where she was forced to leave because of anti-Semitism there, and then onto Russia where she encountered the realities of communism. She returned to Europe near the end of the war to escort a large number of Jewish and non-Jewish refugees seek safety in America and worked tirelessly for them to stay.  This was the beginning of Ruth Gruber's life work - to advocate through her writing and action for the Jewish communities throughout the world.

Discussion

Author Rona Arato has written an engaging biography of a remarkable woman, who ignored social conventions to live life on her own terms. Told in seventeen short chapters, the author describes Ruth Gruber's early life, her education and travels to Europe in the 1930's and 1940's. The book focuses on Ruth's early life and education, demonstrating how that led her to her life's work which was to advocate on behalf of refugees and various Jewish communities throughout the world.

The author captures Ruth Gruber's sense of adventure, her determination to help others and her openness to learning about other cultures and peoples. Ruth had the courage to actively push back against the anti-Semitism that was spreading throughout Germany. She read Mein Kampf to learn about Hitler's plans for the Jewish population and she refused to accept her friend Johann's belief that the Nazi's were doing good for Germany. Ruth used her journalism skills and her camera to capture what was going on in Europe and for the Jewish refugees in the Oswego camp in Oswego, New York.

Included in the text are separate boxes which highlight specific topics such as Russia's Many Peoples, Siberia and the Soviet Arctic, The Great Depression, and President Truman. Arato's Author's Note at the back, tells the rest of Ruth's story after the war, including photographs. Also included are a Glossary, Source Notes, a Timeline of Ruth's life, a Bibliography, and an Index. The illustrations were rendered digitally by Isabel Munoz.

Rona Arato has authored more than twenty books for children, many of them focusing on human rights issues. Nothing Could Stop Her highlights the determination of Ruth Gruber to help combat anti-Semitism. She would not be stopped by Nazis, Communists, the Arctic cold, or even the indifference of people to the plight of the Jewish people.

Book Details:

Nothing Could Stop Her: The Courageous Life of Ruth Gruber by Rona Arato

Minneapolis, MN: Kar-Ben Publishing   2023
139 pp.

Hey Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

The Prologue opens with Jarrett being taught to drive by his grandfather Joe in a cemetery. When they visit Joe's parents' grave, Jarrett wonders where his mother will end up and if he'll ever meet his long absent father in this life.

Jarrett's grandparents, Shirley Ruth Olson and Joseph D. Krosoczka were married on August 28, 1948 in Worcester, Massachusetts. They met in high school. With World War II, Joe enlisted even though he was only seventeen and spent the war building highways in Guam. Shirley broke up with him during the war but after the war they reconnected and were married. 

Joe had various jobs while they started their family: first there was Joey and then Leslie was born in 1955, the year Joe opened his factory. Stephen was born next, and then Shirley miscarried, which really affected her. They then had two more girls, Lynn and then Holly.

Jarrett's mother, Leslie became pregnant. The man she believed to be the father claimed the baby wasn't his. Although her mother was upset, Leslie had the baby, named Jarrett and moved into a house her father bought for her. Life was good for Jarrett and his mother for the first few years, but soon cracks appeared.

After being pulled over by police with Jarrett in the car, Jarret's grandparents decided to seek custody of him. Leslie had been stealing for some time and they didn't want Jarrett to end up in foster care. So Jarrett went to live with Joe and Shirley and their home became his new home. Soon Jarrett was sent to preschool. Life at his grandparents home could be bad at times too. Joe and Shirley would fight when Joe came home drunk, but Shirley also drank and swore.

Jarrett began attending Gates Lane School where he had some wonderful teachers. Jarrett thought his mother would be back but she would never return. They wrote letters to one another, his mother making her own cards. His mother missed his birthdays, but the rest of the family were always there. Jarrett also learned the truth about his mother - that she was an addict and was in jail.

As it turned out, his mother began using drugs when she was thirteen-years-old but over time things got much worse. She stole to buy heroin, had younger sisters return stolen merchandise for the money to buy drugs, and even stole from her own parents. 

But for Jarrett, the lifesaver would turn out to be his artistic talent. He used his art to help him cope as a child. Art classes at Worcester Art Museum, art classes in high school at Holy Name High School, becoming a cartoonist for the school newspaper all helped him develop his gift.

As high school came to a close, Jarrett was able to reach out to his father, establish a relationship with him and accept his mother as she was - his mother who loved him but also a person with an addiction.

Discussion

Hey Kiddo is a poignant memoir of cartoonist, artist, Jarrett Krosoczka's growing upin his grandparents home because his mother Leslie was a heroin addict. The graphic memoir which is divided into eight chapters, begins with the story of his grandparents Joe and Shirley and follows their early family life, his mother's unplanned pregnancy and abandonment by Jarrett's father and his growing-up years until college.

Jarrett's memoir explores the disappointment and loss he experienced when his mother spiralled out of control because of her heroin addiction, resulting in her being in jail or in treatment programs. This resulted in him having to live with his grandparents and her missing birthdays, graduations and other special family times. But it also chronicles the love and care his grandparents gave him and his journey towards a relationship with his father, Richard Hennessy.

Initially Jarrett was angry and felt he never wanted to meet his father. Unlike his grandfather however, Jarrett believed in facing the ghosts of the past. One of them was his father. When he learned his father's name, his absence became a presence to him. Jarrett didn't know what to do with this information so he did nothing.

However, Jarrett's father wrote him a letter apologizing but Jarrett wasn't keen on responding. It was a transformative experience at a camp for children with cancer that made Jarrett wonder if he had siblings through his father. This was the motivation for Jarrett reaching out to his father and eventually establishing a lasting relationship with him.

The memoir also explores the positive effect art had on his life, eventually becoming his life's work. For Jarrett, art was a lifeline that allowed him to cope with what was happening in his life. It allowed him an escape and some control, something children and teens do not have. Drawing was initially as way to get attention as a child, but eventually evolved into a way to deal with life as a teen.

Despite all the challenges Jarrett encountered growing up, the memoir ends on a hopeful, positive tone with the author recognizing what he does have in his life at the time of his high school graduation.  In his Author's Note, Jarrett tells readers the important events in his life post-high school. He writes that what happens in your childhood and teen years does not have to be perpetuated into adulthood. He also mentions the toll addiction took on his mother.

There is also an interesting note on the art in the graphic memoir. Jarrett's grandfather always wore a pocket square in his breast pocket of his suit jacket. After his grandfather passed away, Jarrett's then eighteen-month-old daughter Zoe chose a burnt orange pocket square as something she would always keep. The burnt orange became part of the limited palette for the memoir and is the colour used in the title, also a reference to what Jarrett was often called by his grandparents.

Hey Kiddo offers a touching glimpse into a childhood framed by addiction, loss, but also forgiveness, acceptance and the meaning of family. The dedication says it all " For every reader who recognizes this experience, I see you."

Book Details:

Hey Kiddo. How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

New York: Scholastic, Graphix     2018

299 pp.

Cardboard City by Katarina Jovanovic

Thirteen-year-old Nikola Seich loves to play the trumpet and he's good at it.  He learned from his grandfather and then when he died last year, from his neighbor's brother, Bosco. Nikola lives with his Baba and his older sister Saida in Cardboard City, located underneath a bridge in Belgrade. 

At the summer festival, Rika who plays with his trumpet quartet, notices Nikola mesmerized by the music and making motions like he is actually playing a trumpet. When he meets Nikola, Rika tells him that his quartet will be playing at the big brass festival in the town of Guca. Nikola is very interested in attending, so Rika tells him if he can get permission he can travel with him to the festival. Rika takes Nikola to have dinner with him and his girlfriend Almira in their trailer. Nikola loves the food she prepares. Almira tells Nikola they will leave early the next day.

Nikola goes home to his grandmother, Ramina whom he calls Baba, and tells her his dream of becoming a trumpet player. He tells Baba how Bosco taught him more about playing the trumpet and how to play the piece, Carnival in Paris. To help him understand the music he was playing, Bosco also showed him pictures of the city of Paris. Baba has Nikola play for her on a neighbor's trumpet. The trumpet that his grandfather had was taken by his sister Saida when she recently ran away. Baba is so impressed with Nikola's playing that the next day she takes him to Rika. After satisfying herself that he is trustworthy, she gives her permission for Nikola to travel to Guca.

When they arrive in Guca, Rika and Almira's truck and trailer is not allowed into the town but forced to park in a field. To Nikola, the area around Guca smells fresh and different from his home in the Cardboard City. While Rika and Nikola are in Guca for the festival, Almira goes to a restaurant down the road to get clean water for making soup. There she sees a young Romani girl singing at the bar in front of a group of rowdy men. Realizing what is going to happen to this young girl, Almira intervenes and takes her back to the trailer, feeds and clothes her. She learns that the girl, named Saida, has run away from home after her Baba wanted her to get married or work as a house cleaner and that she has a younger brother named Nikola. To Almira, it is a strange co-incidence that Saida has a brother with the same name as the boy who has accompanied them to Guca.

After playing on the main stage, Nikola finds himself being asked to play when he is on the street and earning money. Then he meets a trumpet player, Drago Nadic, who won the Golden Trumpet last year. Drago is so impressed with Nikola's playing that he offers him a chance to play with his band on the main stage the next day.  They part ways but it is so late that Nikola cannot find his way home.

Rika and another  man who is Romani, return to the trailer carrying Nikolai who has become very ill.  Saida is shocked to see it is her brother and Rika and Almira realize they have taken in a brother and sister. But the festival and Saida's refusal to return to Cardboard City will offer new possibilities for the young Romani brother and sister.

Discussion

Cardboard City presents the plight of the Romani people in Eastern Europe. The novel is set in a real-life slum known as Cardboard City which existed up until 2009 when the residents were removed. It is also a story about people who are impoverished, marginalized and discriminated against.

Cardboard City (Karton siti) was located in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, beneath the Gazela and Stari zeleznicki bridges, close to the upscale, five-star hotels,  Hyatt Regency Belgrade and the Continental Hotel Belgrade. In 2007 there were just under one thousand people living in Cardboard City, all of them Roma who made their living by collecting garbage. The slum had no roads, running water, electricity or sewers. Many of the dwellings were constructed of cardboard and other non-building materials. In 2009, the residents were removed, after several unsuccessful attempts. Some were moved to containers placed across various Belgrade suburbs, while others were dispersed throughout municipalities outside of Belgrade.

With Cardboard City as the setting, Jovanovic presents her readers with a portrayal of the Roma people, how they are shunned and mistreated in a society which offers them no opportunity to escape a life of poverty.  Readers learn of the terrible living conditions which are described by the characters in the novel. Nikola talks about working all day to collect paper and boxes from schools, parking lots and other places, how his shoes wear out and he manages to find another pair in the rubbish, and how they often have little to eat, sometimes only bread with lard for lunch.  Saida describes how she steals flowers from the graveyards and sells them to people at restaurants. She talks about riding the streetcar and almost stealing the wallet of a rich lady who yells at her to get a job and that she is "Lazy Gypsies. You only steal and beg."

Neither Nikola nor Saida attend school. We learn that they did attend at one time, but that Baba pulled both out after they were "humiliated for being Romani". Nikola remembers the humiliation he felt because no one would sit with him, except one girl. "They all laughed and some pretended to gag.  What Nikola wanted most at that moment was to crawl into a deep hole in the ground or to run away from the long-necked teacher and the big white building full of chalk, and the children with clean hands and white collars, who ate white bread for lunch." 

The isolation made Nikola feel different, but not in a positive way. "One day, while Nikola was walking in the school hallway, some gadji mothers moved their children protectively away from him. He suddenly felt alone, like a strange wild plant."  Because they were not attending school, Nikola and Saida lived in fear that they would be taken to an orphanage, "...one of those big buildings with windows with bars on them from which Romani orphans could never escape." 

The situation for his sister Saida is much more dire. She runs away from her home in Cardboard City because Baba wants her to marry. Many Romani girls marry by the age of fifteen. She is at risk of being trafficked and is likely in that situation when she goes to Milos apartment. When Saida runs away from Milos' apartment, and is standing on the Gazela Bridge, Saida believes she will never find a place in Milos' world. "The water under the bridge had the colour of coal - visible through the rising smoke of burning tires, tall and surreal, were the tents and makeshift huts of the encampment spread out before her....she thought that maybe it was her destiny to live here forever. She resigned herself to a life there - the buckets, the walk to the fountain to get the water, the leaky hut, selling flowers, roaming the gloomy alleys to look for food."  

Almira finds her singing in a seedy bar, on the verge of being abused by a group of men drinking. Thankfully she saves Saida from that fate. Saida tells Almira about her life and that she survives through her dreams - something she calls "dream mending". We know that Saida dreams of a better life because she tells Baba so: "...I dream about food. I cannot think of anything else. I don't have the money to buy new clothes, or even soap. I want to live in a clean apartment, to smell of flower-scented shampoo and face creams. I want to go to school and eat lunch in a real kitchen. It doesn't seem to matter how hard I try or what I do, I have to live in this smoke den and eat your devil goulash." In this regard, Saida, a Romani, is just like her fellow Romanians. She wants to live with dignity.

It is Almira who effects change in Nikola and Saida's lives by working to obtain guardianship over the two, by taking them in and sending them to school. She comes to understand that their lives are very different but that despite this, they are like people everywhere. "Almira came to understand that their lives - with their own laws, customs and values - though laced with sorrow, were rich with dreams."

As Jovanovic mentions in the front matter to the novel, "...These events could be about marginalized and impoverished people anywhere in the world. It could take place in the suburbs of Rome, in the favelas of Sao Paolo, in Dharavi in Mumbai, in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver - or in refuge camps anywhere in the world." Like the characters in Cardboard City, many marginalized, impoverished people do not attend school and therefore cannot improve their lives, do not have enough to eat and therefore are often ill or have much shortened lives, and often work hard for very little income. They may also use alcohol or drugs to escape the trauma and difficulties of poverty. The author does include a very informative Historical Note on the Romani people at the back.

Cardboard City is a short read, well written, with an engaging storyline that highlights the issues of poverty, marginalized communities and discrimination. Cardboard City is derived from a previous novel, Kartonac, written by the author in Serbian in 2009.

Book Details:

Cardboard City by Katarina Jovanovic

Vancouver: Tradewind Books     2023
129 pp.

Lost In Taiwan by Mark Crilley

Paul is visiting his older brother, Theo who is living in Taiwan. Paul has been there for four days but has done nothing but sit on Theo's couch, withdrawn and with attitude. He was sent seven thousand miles across the ocean by his dad, who thought it might be a good idea. Theo's girlfriend arrives early and overhears their argument. Although she is friendly towards Paul, he's glad when they both leave. 

Alone, Paul decides to hunt down a Nintendo Swoop after being encouraged by a random online friend. After searching online, Paul believes he's found one at Future Now Electronics and sets out to find it. However, after travelling all over the city, Paul finds that the shop he thought had a Nintendo Swoop, finds it is a children's toy. Furious at his friend Kyle, Paul isn't paying attention while walking and drops his phone on the street. Without his phone, Paul has no way to find his way back to Theo's apartment. Completely distraught, Paul sits down lost. That is until a young Taiwanese girl named Pei-Jing comes along.

With Pei-Jing's help, Paul finds his way back to Theo, but not before becoming friends with her, eating real Taiwanese food at her aunt and uncle's shui jiao restaurant, meeting her grandparents, going to a temple and meeting her cousin, Wallace.

Experiencing life in Taiwan offers Paul a new perspective on life and gains him a real friend in Pei-Jing.

Discussion

The beautiful artwork of Mark Crilley tells the physical and inner journey of a young American boy when he becomes lost in Taiwan in five chapters over the course of one day.

Paul, who is visiting his older brother Theo, admits he has no friends and simply wants to sit on the couch for the entire two weeks he's there. When he gets lost, it is a Taiwanese girl, Pei-Jing who offers to help the distraught American. 

Pei-Jing who has to deliver star fruit to her family, takes Paul around Taiwan, introducing him to her culture: the delicious food, her elderly grandparents, her religious beliefs and her cousin Wallace, who eventually helps Paul home. 

For Paul there are two journeys he experiences: the physical journey to return to his brother Theo's apartment and the internal journey where he is forced to relate to others because he's lost in a strange city. He is also forced to learn about another culture very different from his own. 

Pei-Jing and Wallace help Paul with both journeys. Pei-Jing however has the more significant impact as she challenges the assumptions Paul, as an American, has about Taiwanese people and their culture. When he first meets Pe-Jing he is astonished she speaks English. When she takes him to her aunt and uncle's shui jiao restaurant, Pei-Jing encourages Paul to try to pronounce the Mandarin words properly. A visit to her elderly grandparents shows Paul the value and respect Pei-Jing has for them. At the Buddhist temple, Paul's view that Pei-Jing's beliefs are "exotic" upset her and she tells him, "Your culture isn't the 'normal' culture. And mine isn't the 'weird' culture." Gradually, Paul comes to appreciate Pei-Jing's culture, enjoying the food, appreciative of how complex the Chinese characters are, and experiencing the beauty of the rice fields and the mountains. 

Pei-Jing and Wallace are stunned to learn that Paul has few friends. But when he tells them that his fear of being rejected leads him to leave friends if there are any signs of conflict, Pei-Jing tells Paul that overcoming these obstacles makes a friendship stronger. At first Paul is upset but later realizes that his fear of failure has paralyzed his life. The helping isn't all one-sided though. Paul encourages Pei-Jing not to give up on her dream to own a tea shop in Taiwan where people can have real British tea.

Author-illustrator Mark Crilley has crafted a touching story of self-discovery when  young boy whose lost his way in life gets hopelessly lost in a strange country and must rely on the kindness of a stranger to find his way home. It is through a blossoming friendship and experiencing a new culture that he finds both himself and his way back home.

Crilley, like the character of Theo in the graphic novel, taught English in Taiwan for two years in the 1970's. The experience  in a new culture motivated Crilley to do pen-and-ink drawings while in Taiwan, several of which grace the intro to each chapter. Like the main character Paul, Crilley found the Taiwanese people kind and generous. But unlike Paul, Crilley was eager to learn Mandarin and experience the culture of Taiwan.

Lost In Taiwan is an ode to the resilient, courageous people of Taiwan, and to the possibility of friendship that can exist between peoples from different cultures. 

Book Details:

Lost In Taiwan by Mark Crilley
New York: Little, Brown and Company    2023

245 pp.

Kimiko Murakami: A Japanese-Canadian Pioneer by Haley Healey

This picture book is the story of one Japanese-Canadian's determination to persevere in the face of intolerance and difficult circumstances.

Kimiko was born in a village near Vancouver to a parents who were fishers, then farmers, selling their chickens, fruit and vegetables to hotels. They moved to Salt Spring Island when she was five-years-old. Kimiko grew up and married Katsuyori and had a total of six children. Kimiko and Katsuyori worked on the family farm until the Second World War when things changed.

Under new rules that applied only to Japanese Canadians, all people of Japanese heritage were taken by ship to Vancouver. Kimiko and her family were taken to Hastings Park where they were forced to live in barns that were meant for the animals there. 

During this difficult time, Kimiko remembered the Japanese word, "ganbaru" which means "to push on through hard times and never give up." Kimiko remembered this as her family was sent first to an internment camp in Greenwood, British Columbia and then to a sugar beet farm in Magrath, Alberta.

Life at Magrath was hard as their shack had no electricity, no running water and it was very cold. They were eventually sent to another camp in British Columbia.

When the war ended, Kimiko and her family were told they could go to Japan or live east of the Rocky Mountains. However, she and her family were determined to return to Salt Spring Island. To accomplish this goal, they saved money by opening a restaurant in Cardston, Alberta. Eventually, they were allowed to return to Salt Spring Island.

However, when they returned to Salt Spring Island, they discovered that their land had been sold and that the Japanese cemetery was filled with garbage. They were not treated well either by the residents. In spite of this, Kimiko and her family rebuilt their life, buying new land and returning to farming. Kimiko's children grew up and remembering their own hard times they helped others by donating some of their land for homes for people who were struggling.

Discussion

The focus on this biography of Kimiko Murakami is her determination to remain strong during hard times and not give despite all the obstacles racism placed in her life. 

When her family was forcibly removed from their farm and sent to various internment camps, she kept her hope alive that some day she would be able to return. After enduring terrible conditions during the war, Kimiko and her family rebuilt their lives, literally from the ground up, repurchasing land that was stolen from them. What is even more remarkable is the forgiveness and charity they gave in return for the racism and hatred they experienced! This is evident with the gift of land they gave when others were struggling later on.

Kimiko was born to Kumanosuke and Riyo Okano in 1904 in Stevenson, B.C. The Okano family moved to Salt Spring Island in 1909 but visited Japan in 1911 or 1912. According to the Salt Spring Island Archives, Kumanosuke owned considerable land and was determined to become an integral part of the local community. He encouraged the Japanese to donate to churches, give food to those in need and help fight forest fires on the island. 

Kimiko and her sister spent some years in Japan under the care of their grandmother. Being left in Japan upset Kimiko for the rest of her life. Kimiko returned to Canada in 1919. When she visited Japan in 1925, she married Katsuyori Murakami and they returned to Canada. In 1932 they purchased land on Sharp Road on Salt Spring Island. They worked hard to clear the land and develop a prosperous farm where they grew tomatoes in greenhouses. Their berries and other vegetables and fruits were sold in Vancouver and Victoria. The quality was so high that their berries were served to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth when they visited Victoria in 1939.

After enduring internment in several prison camps for Canadians of Japanese heritage during World War II, Kimiko and her husband eventually saved enough money to return to Salt Spring Island in 1954. Kimiko was not keen to return. Unfortunately, the racial prejudice that Kimiko and her family experienced during the war continued for many years after, as they sought to re-establish their farm on the island. 

The focus of Healey's biography is on Kimiko's perseverance, her determination to continue moving forward despite hardship and ongoing prejudice, even in the post-war years. It was her spirit of ganbaru that helped her through the most difficult times. In this regard, Kimiko is a role model for young readers showing them they can succeed even in the most difficult of circumstances.

Kimiko's story is illustrated with the colourful, digitally rendered artwork of Kimiko Fraser. There is a Historical Timeline of events in Kimiko's life. The inclusion of photographs of Kimiko and her family would have been a wonderful addition to this picture book. Healey's book offers younger readers the opportunity to explore the Japanese internment and the effects of racist policy. It's important to celebrate Canadians like Kimiko, who despite experiencing profound intolerance and racism, worked to make Canada a better country.

Book Details:

Kimiko Murakam: A Japanese-Canadian Pioneer by Haley Healey
Toronto: Heritage House Publishing Co.       2023

Extra Life. The Astonishing Story of How We Doubled Our Lifespan by Steven Johnson

"The average person born in the United States a century ago could expect to live a little more than forty years. Today that number is just below eighty years. And Americans are four times more likely to live into their hundreds than they were a few decades ago." 

In Extra Life, science author Steven Johnson explores the many reasons why this is so beginning with the discovery of a way to vaccinate against the speckled monster, as smallpox was sometimes called. In Chapter 1, Johnson delves into the earliest history of how mankind worked to defeat the scourge of smallpox. 

In Chapter Two, solving the mystery of cholera, a disease common in the crowded cities of the nineteenth century, which killed millions.  In this chapter, Johnson focuses on the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak. 

Chapter 3 explores the efforts of W.E.B. Du Bois, a civil rights activist and author to improve the lives of Black Americans. Du Bois mapped data in an area of Philadelphia called the Seventh Ward, that was the city's largest Black community. His research demonstrated that African Americans were "dying at a rate about 5 percent higher than their white neighbors." Du Bois showed that this shortened life expectancy was due to poor living conditions, a consequence of the way American society was organized.

The pasteurization of milk is discussed in Chapter 4. In the United States, drinking a glass of milk in the 19th century could kill you, especially if you were a child. As cities grew larger, providing safe milk became a serious problem without refrigeration. Johnson goes into detail on how many cities had large herds of cows, and the practices to produce large quantities of milk that ended up killing children. Louis Pasteur's discovery that heating liquids killed off germs was only the beginning. It would be a half century later before pasteurization was a standard practice. But it's implementation lowered the death rate in children.

In Chapter 5, Beyond-The-Placebo-Effect, the regulation and testing of new drugs is examined. Many new drugs were never tested and only pulled off shelves when there were deaths. It would be well into the 20th century before RCTs and other practices were implemented to ensure drug testing and efficacy.

In Chapter 6, the discovery and impact of antibiotics is detailed while Chapter 7 delves into the development of safety features in cars, as automobiles became the predominant mode of transportation. Chapter 8, Feed the World explores the decline of famine due to our ability to produce ammonium nitrate (a compound in artificial fertilizer) and to mass-produce meat protein. In Chapter 9, Johnson reviews all of the amazing innovations that have increased human life expectancy as well as suggesting that we need to continue working and discovering new ways to improve health and quality of life.

Discussion

Extra Life offers younger readers a shorter version of Johnson's book of the same name. In this version of Extra Life, Johnson provides summaries of the same major innovations that improved quality of life, health care and safety, that he explored in his book for adult readers. In considering these innovations, Johnson delves deeper into the backstory, either identifying unsung heroes or exploring how such innovations became a matter of public policy.

One such unsung hero was Frances Oldham Kelsey who refused to approve the use of thalidomide as a sleeping pill in the United States, thus saving tens of thousands of babies from being born with malformed limbs. Another little known hero was Nathan Straus, a German immigrant to America, who was deeply concerned about child mortality and who was determined to provide a supply of safe milk to young children. He not only funded pasteurization plants but fought to have unpasteurized milk outlawed. 

An example of how Johnson delves deeper into the backstory is the story of the development of the smallpox vaccination. In Extra Life, readers will learn about Lady Mary Montagu, who contracted smallpox at the age of twenty-five and survived to travel with her husband to the Ottoman Empire in 1716. There she learned about a custom of exposing children to smallpox - a procedure now known as variolation. It was this technique, brought to England by Montagu that allowed Edward Jenner to develop his first vaccination for smallpox. As Johnson writes, "On the one hand, we have the satisfying narrative of brilliant Edward Jenner, inventing vaccination on one day in 1796/ On the other, we have a much more complicated story, where part of an idea emerges halfway around the world and migrates from culture to culture through word of mouth, until a perceptive and influential young woman takes note of it and imports it to her home country, where it slowly begins to take root, ultimately allowing a country doctor to make a key improvement on the technique after decades of using on his own patients."

One of the main points Johnson makes about the innovations that contributed to increasing our lifespan, is that these are often not just the work of one "genius" or brilliant scientist, but often a collaborative effort. A perfect example of this is the discovery of penicillin, which is attributed to Robert Fleming. However, the story is much more complicated than that and as Johnson writes, "The triumph of penicillin is actually one of the great stories of international multidisciplinary collaboration. It is a story of a network, not an eccentric genius. Fleming was a member of that network, but only one of many. He seemed to have not entirely grasped the true potential of what he had stumbled upon."

It's clear from Johnson's book, that the innovations he highlights have made significant strides in lengthening lives around the globe. And he encourages his readers to be the next generation in this constant goal, of improving lives. Extra Life is engaging, informative and filled with many interesting but little-known stories that make it a wonderful read. 

Johnson includes a section on Recommended Reading, Notes for each of the chapters, and a Bibliography. This well-written, short book is highly recommended for young readers who are interested in medical history, and public health. 

Book Details:

Extra Life. The Astonishing Story of How We Doubled Our Lifespan by Steven Johnson
New York: Viking Life      2023
121 pp.

Unbound: The Life and Art of Judith Scott by Joyce Scott with Brie Spangler

Unbound is the remarkable story of Judith Scott, who overcomes her disabilities and institutionalization to become  an internationally recognized fabric artist. 

Entwined

Judy and Joyce are twins who live with their parents and three older brothers. They are always together, under the sun and moon, playing together in the neighbourhood. But when Joyce begins kindergarten, Judy, who has Down Syndrome, cannot come. She has learning disabilities and a weak heart. Although the doctors tell them that Judy is "slow", to Joyce she is "perfect just the way she is." 

The Colors of Gone

One day Joyce learns that her father has taken Judy away to a special school to live and where she will learn to talk. Joyce overhears her father tell her mother just how hard it was to leave Judy at the school. Although Judy's magazines, dolls and toys are placed in a box by her mother, Joyce takes them out every night and sleeps with them. Eventually, Joyce is able to visit her sister. When Joyce sees Judy's school, she is not happy: there are no books, crayons, or playground. Judy and Joyce hug and look at a magazine filled with pictures of bunnies.

Unbound

Time passes and Joyce brings her friends, her husband and then their children to meet Judy. Joyce still misses her sister and arranges for Judy to move from the institution in Ohio to her home in California. The staff at the institution tell Joyce that this move will be difficult because they believe Judy is deaf, something that surprises Joyce. Finally, the two sisters are together again, when Judy arrives unaccompanied on a flight.

A New Language

Judy and Joyce are much happier now. With Joyce working as a nurse during the day, Judy is enrolled in an art program for adults with disabilities at an art studio, Creative Growth Art Center. Although Joyce has never seen Judy do anything artsy, one day Judy begins working with natural materials: yarn, twine, twigs and wood. Soon Judy is in the studio everyday creating pieces out of many different materials. These creations are colourful and unique. One day after many years, Judy creates a piece that is small and black and she also gives Joyce all her magazines. The next day, Judy dies in Joyce's arms.

Discussion

Unbound is the story about the life of Judith Scott, whose disabilities hid her remarkable talent for decades, until her twin sister brought her home and enrolled her in an art studio. There Judith discovered her gift for communicating through fabric art.

Judith Scott lived at a time when people with Down Syndrome were often institutionalized. They received little education or intellectual stimulation and were often hidden away. In some cases, families were encouraged to send their children with disabilities away, in others, the lack of support for home care and education made living with their families almost impossible. In her Author Note at the back, Joyce Scott writes, "Wherever we live, we find many people who are bit 'different' in one way or another. These individuals, because of their differences, are often thought of as being less than those of us who consider ourselves 'normal'. They are often kept at a distance, not included in the everydayness of our lives....Because they are not valued, their unseen strenghts and gifts often go unrecognized, unexplored, and undiscovered." 

This is exactly what happened with Judith Scott. Institutionalized, her potential remained hidden until her sister, Joyce was able to bring her into her home, and to give her the opportunity to explore through art. Judith eventually discovered that she could express herself through the use of natural materials and so communicate with others.

Judith's twin sister, Joyce, found her sister's institutionalization emotionally distressing. In her eyes, Judy "...is perfect just the way she is. She knows things that no one else knows and sees the world in ways that I never will." Joyce was able to see past her sister's disabilities, knowing her as a loving person who responded in a different way to the world around her.

Judith's story is told through four short chapters from Joyce's perspective. At the back, a photograph of an older Judith is included along with information on the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland. There is also some information on Down Syndrome, a Timeline of Judith's life, and and Author Note and Illustrator Note. The illustrations for this picture book were created  with watercolor, colored pencils, and mixed media. Illustrator Melissa Sweet strove to interpret Judith's process and art using natural objects like wood, yarn, and thread.

Unbound is the inspiring story of Judith Scott, renowned fiber artist who discovered her ability to express herself through the use of natural materials, and to overcome her major life challenges.

Book Details:

Unbound: The Life and Art of Judith Scott by Joyce Scott with Brie Spangler
New York: Alfred A. Knopf      2021

Iceberg by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Twelve-year-old Hazel Rothbury had plans for her life, but a letter from her aunt in New York City changed everything. Her papa died at sea two years ago, leaving Hazel and her family struggling and in debt. Her aunt invited Hazel to come to America and work with her in a garment factory. Hazel would board for free and send the money she earned home to help. So Hazel set out for Southampton with just over two pounds in her purse. 

Now in Southhampton, Hazel discovers that this is not enough to purchase a third-class ticket on the Titanic. She has to board the ship, but how? On the dock, Hazel meets the wealthy young daughter of a millionaire, Sylvia Thorngood. Sylvia is looking for her governess, Miss Gruber. Although Sylvia is eager to befriend Hazel, Miss Gruber recognizes that Hazel is not from the same social class as her charge, and strongly disapproves.

Hazel manages to sneak aboard Titanic by hiding in a trunk. On board she is helped by a young porter named Charlie Blight who takes her to the first-class deck to watch the ship's departure. While watching from Titanic's deck, Hazel overhears a couple, the Mollison's talking about trying to get money from someone on the ship and about cheating at cards. Hazel decides she will write about her experience on Titanic and questions Charlie after hearing that there is a fire in a coal bin in Boiler Room Six. As she wanders around the ship, Hazel meets Mrs.Ruth Ableman, a widow and former governess who encourages Hazel in her determination to become a journalist.

Eventually Charlie recognizes that Hazel is a stowaway but decides against reporting her when she promises to pay for her ticket once she sells her story to a newspaper. Charlie finds Hazel a small third-class cabin, making her appear to be a legitimate passenger.

Hazel begins to learn as much as she can about Titanic, quizzing some of the ship's crew and officers. Charlie reassures her that the ship is not in danger from the fire and explains what a double hull is. He tells Hazel if the Titanic is damaged on the sides, that might be a problem, foreshadowing what is to come.

She sees the Mollisons speaking with Miss Gruber and wonders if it is Sylvia's money they are after.  When Sylvia invites Hazel to dinner in the Cafe Parisien, she meets Clyve and Letha Mollison. Also in attendance is Mr. Emerson Waddington, who is studying ship design. He fields Hazel's thoughtful questions, much to the dislike of Mrs. Mollison who knows that Hazel is not a first class passenger. 

However, Hazel remains undaunted and even manages to question Captain Smith about Titanic's speed. Embarrassed by the commotion her questions have caused, Hazel abruptly leaves the café and encounters Mrs. Ableman who encourages Hazel to continue investigating and researching, and offers to teach her about icebergs.

As Titanic continues to journey across the Atlantic, Hazel uncovers more potential problems with the ship while becoming caught up in the intrigue that involves the Mollisons, Miss Gruber, Mrs. Ableman, and Sylvia. When Sylvia and Charlie are caught below deck after the ship strikes an iceberg, Hazel must decide whether she should save herself or find her new friends and help them.

Discussion

In Iceberg, historical fiction is combined with intrigue to create an engaging survival story involving the sinking of Titanic.

Twelve-year-old Hazel Rothbury stows away on Titanic and her curiosity is immediately piqued when she overhears about a fire aboard the new ship! Her intention to uncover the secrets of Titanic so she can use it to launch her journalism career ( a weak premise)  leads her to learn that the ship is not so unsinkable as claimed. Nielsen uses Hazel to inform readers about Titanic, how its design was flawed, and how a series of decisions all combine to lead to the sinking of the ship.

Set against the backdrop of the impending disaster, is the intrigue that develops between the Mollisons, Miss Gruber and Mrs. Ableman. Eventually Hazel solves this mystery and her integrity and resourcefulness is rewarded in the end.

Aiding in the telling of the story are the numerous historical images added to the novel such as a copy of Titanic's menu for first and third class passengers, newspaper articles of the launch of Titanic and a similar marine disaster, weather reports and the wireless messages between ships. Nielsen's story also touches on the class division that existed at that time, how this was a part of life on Titanic, even to the point of making some of the third class passengers initially reluctant to flee through first class to safety.

Nielsen has crafted a set of believable characters, the resourceful, intelligent and caring Hazel, kind Charlie Blight, sweet Sylvia Thorngood, and the honorable Ruth Ableman.

At the back of the novel, Nielsen includes an interesting Author's Note Titanic Fact vs. Fiction which sorts out where the author has deviated a bit from history. 

In her Acknowledgements, Nielsen writes, "Ultimately, any story about Titanic will be a survival story. It will speak of courage, heroism, honor, and trust. Perhaps what appeals most to us about Titanic is that life itself is a survival story. At some point, we much each face our icebergs. Some are more difficult than others, but the solution is always the same: Get on the lifeboat." In Iceberg, it is friends who help one another, Hazel looking for Sylvia and determined to find Charlie, Mrs. Ableman deciding that with most of her life behind her, she could do more good helping people to safety. 

It's always a difficult task to write a story about an historical event in which we know the outcome, but Nielsen has crafted a mostly believable story that both informs and engages young readers. 

Book Details:

Iceberg by Jennifer A. Nielsen
New York: Scholastic Press    2023
339 pp.

They Are Here: How Invasive Species Are Spoiling Our Ecosystems by Roland Smith

In this short book, former zoo curator and research biologist, Roland Smith offers an informative and engaging look at invasive species and how they affect the natural world and human life on the planet.

Smith opens his book with the definition of an invasive species (one "not native to an ecosystem and causes harm") and and a non-native species (one that is not native to an ecosystem and does not cause harm"). From this definition, Smith mentions his first experience with an invasive species was as an eleven-year-old watching the film The Day of the Triffids. In this movie, Earth is invaded by plants called Triffids that arrive from outer space during a meteor shower, determined to eradicate humans. To that end, they hunt humans, who have gone blind after watching the meteor shower. Eventually the murderous Triffids are conquered but most of humanity is not blind. This movie led the author to develop a keen interest in animals. In They Are Here!, Smith presents approximately thirty invasive species, showing "the serious impact these animals and plants have on ecosystems." 

Non-native species can arrive in many ways, but there are specific criteria to becoming an invasive species. For example, a few criteria are the non-native species must grow faster than the native species, produce a lot of progeny, and disperse widely.

The species Smith focuses on include rats, several birds including the European starling and 

the European house sparrow. There is a chapter on the Burmese python which has infested Florida everglades, the Brown Tree Snake, the Black and White Tegu, the Nile Monitor, and the Green Iguana. Chapter Five, Catastrophe explores cats which are considered an invasive species to North America. 

In Chapter Six, Swarms, Smith mentions a helpful invasive species, the western honeybee which contributes significantly to the U.S. economy. However, other invasive species such as the Africanized honeybee, Murder hornets, spongy moth, fire ants, the Emerald Ash borer, Asian Citrus psyllid, Brown Marmorated Stink bugs have all created serious problems.

Other species Smith focuses on include feral pigs  and carp, both of which are becoming a serious problem in the United States and Canada. Plants can also be an invasive species including kudzu, Purple Loosestrife, and Giant Hogweed which is extremely toxic to humans.

Chapter Ten explores the infestation of Zebra mussels in the Great Lakes and the invasive species, African Giant Land snails.

Finally Smith considers whether human beings are an invasive species. While invasive species reduce biodiversity in an ecosystem, Smith encourages his young readers to develop their curiosity about the natural world around them and be willing to lend a hand.

Discussion

They Are Here is a fascinating and informative read about the different species that have invaded North America, wrecking havoc on native ecosystems. Some of us remember the demise of the Elm trees in North America in the 1960's as a result of the invasive sac fungi that was inadvertently introduced into the continent from Asia. The towering elm trees which graced many farms and towns, is mostly gone now.

Smith writes about each species, adding a touch of wry humour that makes the subject of invasive species both interesting and engaging. Each of the thirty or so species are described, and their effects on an ecosystem are explained so readers understand why each species is harmful. Efforts to try to eliminate or at least control the invasive species are discussed, with the author exploring the effectiveness of the various methods used. 

This is a book that certainly could have used either pencil drawings or photographs of some of the animals and plants investigated. Smith has included a Glossary of terms used in the text, a Suggested Reading List for those readers curious about animals and invasive species, and a list of scientific papers and articles for those who wish to go much deeper into the subject.  They Are Here is well-written and informative. Readers are very much encouraged to read The Day of the Triffids!

Book Details:

They Are Here: How Invasive Species Are Spoiling Our Ecosystems by Roland Smith
New York: Henry Hold and Company    2023
138 pp.

Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin

Twelve-year-old Ebo is in a Seahawk Inflatable Rubber dinghy that should only how six people but has fourteen passengers. He is traveling with his brother Kwame and two friends, Nuru and Razak, hoping to reach the shores of Italy and a better life. In the boat they are arguing- they've been at sea for three hours and it is cold and dark. Razak is struggling to navigate the boat. Ebo remembers how they came to be in this situation...

Nineteen months earlier, Ebo's brother Kwame left suddenly, without telling him, to try for Europe. After checking throughout the village and running to the bus depot, Ebo realizes Kwame has left. After putting his Uncle Patrick who has been "caring" for him to bed, Ebo sets out after Kwame, boarding the bus to Agadez, Niger. In Agadez, a woman remembers Kwame after she sees Ebo's photograph, but she has no other information. 

Every day Ebo tries to find work but is turned away. Ebo befriends an older man named Penn after he finds a package of anti-septic wipes. He used the wipes to trade for food. A lucky break happens when Ebo is asked to sing at a wedding and he finds Kwame.

It takes Ebo and Kwame twenty-one weeks to save for passage across the desert on a truck that is filled with many others. Their water bottles are taken from them and they are allowed one mouthful of water when the truck stops. The traffickers show no mercy, not even stopping when a man falls off the truck.

Ebo, Kwame, Nuru, Razak and the others are abandoned in the desert when Libyan men stop their truck, fill it with contraband cigarettes and take off. The group spend days walking, suffering from thirst and the burning sun. They find a jeep with dead men, but it has sealed water bottles and eventually they do cross the desert. Ebo and his brother work to pay for rides from town to town until they reach Tripoli, on the Mediterranean Sea. On the ride into Tripoli, Ebo and the others are smuggled past a check point. By this time Ebo is very ill and Kwame must get illegal medication to save him. While Ebo recovers, Kwame works so they can pay for passage to Europe.

Razak and Nuru visit every day with news about the boats. They argue about what to do and whether they can trust the men with the boats. After the storm drain they are living in is checked by soldiers, Ebo, Kwame and Razak make the fateful decision to book a boat to Europe. The trip to Italy will bring both heartbreak and happiness.

Discussion

Illegal is a graphic novel that effectively portrays the plight of the thousands of men, women and children fleeing war, persecution, and economic hardship in Africa and the Middle East. With few resources available to them, many must work hard and place their trust in people who traffick in human beings. The result is often death or the loss of those they love.

In Illegal, Ebo and Kwame's journey begins in their village in Niger, to Agadez. the fifth largest city in Niger, situated in the middle of the Sahara Desert. To get to the Mediterranean Sea, Ebo and Kwame have to travel through the Sahara, a dangerous journey due to the extreme heat and cold, but also made more so because they must rely on human traffickers to make the journey. Their destination is Tripoli, the capital of Libya and from there they will cross the Mediterranean Sea to land in Italy.

Colfer tells Ebo's story in two parts. The story opens with Ebo, Kwame, and their friends in a rubber dinghy in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. The situation is dire as it is evident the boat is overcrowded, the motor is failing, and they are lost. This causes Ebo to remember how he came to be in this situation. From this point on the story alternates between the events that occurred in Northern Africa as they journeyed from Agadez to Tripoli and the current terrifying situation in the boat on the Mediterranean.

Unlike many refugees, Ebo and Kwame and their friends are not fleeing persecution or war, but are economic migrants. Their parents are both dead and there is no one to look after them except an elderly uncle who spends the money they earn on drink. Although Ebo attended school, there are very few options for a young person in his situation. 

Illegal perhaps best captures the desperation Ebo and Kwame experience, willing to risk traversing the Sahara Desert with traffickers who cram refugees onto trucks and who don't care about the safety of their passengers and even extort them for water. They are again at the mercy of traffickers who take their money but provide boats that are overcrowded and not seaworthy. 

The novel also captures the trauma that refugees like Ebo experience, after seeing people die in the desert and drown in the sea. Ebo also experiences the trauma of almost dying himself during the crossing and of witnessing his own beloved brother drown. 

Illegal does end on a hopeful note with Ebo reuniting with his long-lost sister. The novel's back matter offers a map of Ebo's Journey, a Creator's Note written by the authors and illustrator, and another refugee's experience, titled Journey: Helen's Story. 

Illegal offers young readers the opportunity to experience the humanity of refugees, their hopes and struggles. Written in 2017, Illegal was inspired by the 2015 crisis which saw mass immigration from Africa and the Middle East into Western Europe. As the creators of the graphic novel note, all these migrants and refugees are human beings.

Book Details:

Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin
Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky     2018
122 pp.

The Fossil Whisperer: How Wendy Sloboda Discovered a Dinosaur by Helaine Becker

Wendy loved hunting through hills and gullies for unusual things like rocks, birds, burrs and bird feathers. She also loved to take pictures of her finds with her camera.

During a class field trip to the badlands near her home in Alberta, twelve-year-old Wendy discovered a piece of fossilized coral.  Her teacher explained that "Millions of years ago, this land was the Western Interior Seaway - an underwater world teeming with marine life." 

Wendy was intrigued by the information a fossil could provide about the past and so she began hunting for fossils in earnst. Her favourite place to hunt for fossils was Devil's Coulee, part of the badlands. Soon she was finding many fossils. 

When she was seventeen, Wendy made an rare find - a fossilized dinosaur eggshell. This discovery brought paleontologists to Devil's Coulee to explore for more fossils and they found them: more fossilized dinosaur eggs from Hypacrosaurus. Even more  important was the discovery of dinosaur embryos in the fossilized eggs!

These discoveries led to Wendy working at the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology and traveling the world to find fossils in other countries, including Greenland and Mongolia.

Wendy continued to hunt for fossils in Alberta, uncovering the fossil of a unique horned dinosaur. Because the rest of the fossilized remains of the dinosaur were buried deep, it took four years to excavate and extract the bones. Paleontologists were able to determine that this was the remains of a new horned dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous. The dinosaur was named after Wendy, Wendiceratops pinhorensis. Meanwhile, Wendy continues to find fossils.

Discussion

Wendy Sloboda is a Canadian fossil hunter who has made many significant fossil discoveries over the past few decades that have led to a great understanding of dinosaurs. Born in Warner, Alberta, Sloboda found her first significant fossil in 1987 as a teenager. This discovery was of fossil eggshells, as described in Becker's picture book that led scientists to discover several nests of duck-billed dinosaurs called hadrosaurs. Other notable finds include a fossilized turtle containing eggs, the footprint of a new ichnospecies of dinosaur, as well as her discovery of a new species of horned dinosaur which was named in her honour.

Becker's detailed account of Slobada's contributions to paleontology includes some information on the types of animals that populated the Western Interior Seaway, and explanations as to why the discovery of the  Hypacrosaurus embryos was so significant. Becker's research for the book included interviewing Wendy Sloboda.

Telling Wendy Sloboda's story in picture book format does make her contributions accessible to younger readers but photographs of locations and of Wendy would have been nice additions to the book. A map showing Wendy's hometown, the location of the Alberta badlands (including some photographs of this unusual landform) her discoveries would also be helpful. Sandra Dumais' colourful digital illustrations round out the story.

Included in the back matter are several pages with information about the real Wendy, How to Be a Fossil Hunter, Alberta's Amazing Bone Beds (a picture of the Alberta badlands would have done nicely here), How Are Fossils Formed?, About Wendiceratops, a Glossary and where to find more information.

The Fossil Whisperer will help inspire a new generation of girls to consider geology and paleontology as potential career options. Wendy Sloboda's life demonstrates that a childhood interest can develop into a life-long career.

Book Details:

The Fossil Whisperer: How Wendy Sloboda Discovered a Dinosaur by Helaine Becker
Toronto: Kids Can Press      2022

Alone: the journeys of three young refugees by Paul Tom

In Alone, readers will explore the real-life stories of three young refugees as they journey alone to the safety of another country. 

Ashfin is thirteen-years-old and lives in Iran. In the summer he and his family often slept on the roof of their house because it was so hot. While his country has been at war, it is only now that it has come to his city. Now instead of spending nights on the roof, they hide in basement with the lights off. Afshin can't wait to become a soldier as he feels he is a superhero. War seems exciting to him. But his parents have other ideas: they decide to send him away to Canada. 

Thirteen-year-old Alain lives in Bujumbura, Burundi with his two older brothers, Igor and Camille and his mother who is a businesswoman. His father is often away as he is in the army.  One day Alain learns that his father has been arrested and is being questioned by the authorities. His brothers and his mother are deeply frightened. They begin to get threatening phone calls and letters, and their house is watched at night by men on motorcycles. So Alain's family decides to flee.

Sixteen-year-old Patricia lived with her mother in a shipping container after her father abandoned them. Patricia wasn't able to attend school because she had to work with her mother so they could make enough money to be able to eat. Eventually, she was sent to live with her father's sister but when her parents reconciled she returned to live with them.

When she turned sixteen Patricia signed up to play softball and found herself attracted to another girl on the team. Eventually her secret comes out, horrifying her parents. If other people find out, Patricia could go to jail and her family will be persecuted. So as the news spreads, her parents make arrangements for Patricia to travel to New York to stay with her uncle for a supposed "softball tournament". However, this is a one-way trip.

For all three young people, their journeys will be complicated and dangerous. They will suffer loneliness, separation and poverty but like many refugees, they will also work hard, and persevere. 

Discussion

Alone is poignant account of three young refugees who flee their homelands because of war or persecution. Their stories are told in five short chapters, Chapter 1 Leaving Everything Behind, Chapter 2 Saying Goodbye, Chapter 3 It Isn't Over Yet, Chapter 4 Mama, Where Are You, and Chapter 5 Hope For Tomorrow. Author Paul Tom was born to Cambodian refugees in camp in Thailand. Now a Montreal-based director, author, video editor and curator of museum video exhibitions, Alone is Paul Tom's first book. 

Although their circumstances are different, all three refugees, Afshin, Alain and Patricia face uncertainty over their future as they travel to a strange country. All three endure the loneliness of separation from their parents, in particular their mothers. This is highlighted in "Chapter 4 Mama, Where Are You?"  Afshin must watch his Iranian classmates at lunch eat the food their mothers make for them.  Alain whose mother has died in a hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, the loss is especially keen. He wakes up crying one morning. "But I'm tired of being strong all the time. I'm broken. Mama is gone forever. And I miss her so much." In Canada, talking on the phone to her mother reminds Patricia of the long distance between them and how much she misses her mother. "I was prepared for many things when I came here. But not for a life without her." Patricia states that "I don't realize that this is the last time I will feel the enveloping weight of her love." 

All three experience setbacks once they arrive in the United States or Canada. They feel the loneliness and separation from those they left behind keenly: When Afshin is invited to a classmate's home for dinner, the smell of ghormeh sabzi is overwhelming. "The smell brings back happy memories. I see familiar faces and I hear laughter, the sounds of children playing and adults talking loudly, carefree. I take a bite. The world stops. I'm caught under a wave of emotions. My throat tightens. I start to tremble. It's so intense that I burst into tears. At that moment, I can feel every kilometer separating me from my childhood and the people I love."  For Alain, the accomplishment of graduating high school is painful. "At the high school graduation ceremony, the other students are surrounded by their parents and loved ones. I pretend to look for my parents in the room. I know they're not here." The cover of Alone effectively portrays this sense of loss and of separation.

Alone highlights the experiences of three real-life young refugees who fled their countries, leaving behind family, friends and their culture, in the hopes of being able to live in peace, safety and dignity. Tom concludes Alone by letting his readers know what has become of all three refugees after being accepted into Canada. The short text and digitally created illustrations help those of us who live in countries receiving refugees, to empathize and understand, to be more accepting and to put ourselves in their situations. Few want to be a refugee, and most refugees would love to return home to their families and their countries. Alone helps us to understand and to empathize. This biography is an adaptation of the documentary film, Seuls.

Book Details:

Alone by Paul Tom
Toronto: Groundwood Books  2022
143 pp.