Kin: Rooted In Hope by Carole Boston Weatherford

In Kin, author Carole Boston Weatherford tells the story of her family, descended from ancestors brought to America via the Atlantic Slave trade.

As a teenager, Weatherford was uninterested in her past, and more concerned with life in the present. She knew her great-great-grandfather Phillip Moaney had been enslaved but that was the extent of knowledge of her ancestry. Before Alex Haley's mini-series, "Roots" few Black people considered exploring their ancestry back to Africa. With his book and the television show that changed.

At Wye River, a plantation named Wye House includes Long Green, a village of tradespeople, sailors, sawyers and boat builders. At Long Green, enslaved people lived and loved, having both shackles and bonds that linked them. Life is hard: they sleep on bare planks with only one blanket and the food is not good.

Wye House is the jewel in the Lloyd family's crown. Its Puritan patriarch, Edward Lloyd emigrated from the British Isles to America in 1645. He eventually settled in Maryland colony, and was granted land by Lord Baltimore, Charles Calvert. Wye House states that it is an "agricultural factory" powered by hundreds of Black slaves. The house states:

"I am proof of the wealth

that America's founding families could amass

by enslaving laborers and marrying money...

I witnessed more cruelty than I care to recall

The sin of slavery haunts my every hall..."

The Lloyd's 1781 ledger contains an earliest known ancestor including the name of twenty-one-year old Isaac Copper. The ledger is a record of the Lloyd's property including cattle, farming equipment and slaves: their names, ages, occupations but also infirmities and quality. All are property, even the people.

Weatherford's great-grandpa James Henry Moaney never told her that his father (her great-great-grandfather) Phillip has been enslaved and that his father-in-law, Isaac Copper was also enslaved at Wye House but fought in the Civil War.

A litany of Lloyd's from Edward Lloyd III (who lived from 1711 to 1770) to Edward Lloyd VII (1825 to 1907) speak about life at Wye House and in the Maryland area. Edward Lloyd III is concerned about "the French corrupting enslaved people with promises of freedom" while his son Edward Lloyd IV switches sides during the Revolution. He now owns two-hundred-sixty Blacks. As the Lloyd's influence grows, Colonel Edward Lloyd V (1779 to 1834) becomes  a state senator and eventually Maryland's thirteenth governor and a U.S. Senator. A boy called Frederick listens and learns outside the schoolroom window as Lloyd's children are tutored. 

Edward Lloyd VI (1798 to 1861) owns over four hundred Blacks, worth more than twenty-eight thousand dollars. He trusts his overseers "to wield the lash and report runaways."  Unable to support so many slaves at Wye House, Lloyd moves some slaves south to Mississippi, taking them along as punishment and selling some. Edward Lloyd (1825 to 1907) sees all of his slaves freed as a result of Emancipation. In 1881, that boy called Frederick, Frederick Douglass returns to Wye House where he makes peace with the slaver Thomas who repeatedly beat him.

Frederick Douglass (1818 to 1895) was brought to Wye House by his grandmother when he was six-years-old. He lived with Captain Anthony who he learned was his father. He was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey and he was enslaved. He was "a ship caulker, abolitionist, orator, and publisher of the North Star newspaper. After the Civil War, a public servant who rose to become minister of the Republic of Haiti." Frederick Douglass writes about Isaac Copper, a Doctor of Medicine and a Doctor of Divinity, and a confirmed cripple who taught Douglass and other children how to say the Lord's prayer. It is Douglass's written account of Wye House that leads the author  to an Isaac Copper, the man she knew who leaned heavily on a cane. He was not the Isaac Copper who fought in the Civil War but likely his son. The Isaac Copper in the ledger of 1781 was likely born c.1760 or 1763. Weatherford wonders how he came to be owned by the Lloyds in a poem filled with many questions.

From this point on, the life of the children of Isaac and Nanny Copper, other slaves at Wye House are told, including some who flee as the Civil War approaches. And after freedom, it is the Coppers who work at building Black villages during the Reconstruction era, their industriousness and their determination to make a better world for their children and grandchildren.

 Discussion

Kin is author Carole Boston Weatherford's family's story, begun in Africa and told in America. It is a story mostly lost in the mists of time, with just enough hints and records to form an understanding. The setting spans the mid-1600's to the early 1900's, in Talbot County on Maryland's Eastern Shore, at Wye House, the state's largest slave plantation and in the Black Reconstruction-era villages of Unionville and Copperville. 

Before Alex Haley's famous "Roots" mini-series, many African Americans never considered tracing their own "roots" back to Africa. For many, their roots go back only a few generations, before the darkness of the past closes in. For Weatherford and her son, they could only trace their family back five generations. And so with what information she could glean from records, library records and historical societies, from databases of slave ships and records from Wye House, Weatherford has pieced together a story, giving voice to her ancestors who were enslaved but who, when freed after the Civil War, played an important part in the founding of several Black Reconstruction-era villages. 

Kin  is written in verse, featuring many different voices, including several Isaac Coppers whom Weatherford believes are her ancestors: Young Isaac Copper and his wife Nanny, some of their eight children including Marena, Prissy and Polly Copper as well as sons Henry (born 1800) Isaac Copper II (born 1798), and Isaac Copper III who fought in the Civil War and became a founding father of a Black village. 

Other poems give voice to Colonel Lloyd, Daniel Lloyd son of Colonel Lloyd whose companion was Frederick Douglass, Edward Lloyd IV's wife Elizabeth Tayloe Lloyd, house servant Daphne, Chicken Sue who cares for the poultry, the servant Katy who once worked in the Great House Kitchen but now cooks for her people because she's too old. Then there are poems in the voice of  former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Francis Scott Key composer of The Star-Spangled Banner and Harriet Tubman,

Chesapeake Bay, Wye House, the Wooden Case Clock, and the ship The Rachel also lend their voices, all having no say in their involvement in the Atlantic slave trade.  The Rachel laments being involved in the slave trade:

 "I am no vessel for sweet memories...

I bore thirty-seven Blacks into bondage

in the British colonies, having lost but one

Black captive enroute from Antigua

Yet my belly is full of regret..."

The ship mentions it is like the enslaved teenager, Rose who bore Captain Bruff two sons: "I had no more say in carrying cargo than Rose did in bearing those children." .

Each of these poems piece together a part of the story, from the beginnings of Wye House, the generations of the Lloyd family who enrich themselves through the slave trade and move up the social class ladder, the ships that brought the enslaved to America, the enslaved who lived, suffered and worked the plantation, those who ran away sometimes successful sometimes not, the enslaved who fought in the Civil War and who returned free men to rebuild their lives and communities. 

The poems portray life as a slave: the beatings for the slightest infractions, long hours of back-breaking work in the fields, little food, one set of clothing and shoes that once worn out meant going naked, the rape and forced pregnancy of young enslaved girls, and separation of families as children and parents are sold off sometimes for extra money, sometimes as punishment. In contrast, the life a slaveholder like the Lloyds was one of opulence, enriched by the free work of the enslaved. Many poems describe Wye House as one that included beautiful furniture "mahogany table draped in fine lace and set with English crystal, china, and silver", and expensive carriages, saddles and harnesses. The family ate delicious food  and sipped "fine wines shipped from across the ocean".  

Wye House was a house of many mirrors, of all types, that witnessed the goings on in the plantation. Those mirrors saw all the occupants of the house, including the enslaved. Weatherford notes this in several poems including "My Question For the Looking Glasses" and in "Missing Faces" The mirrors are "...forever neutral as generations dart past or pose to ponder reflections." The author also noticed that while the oil paintings, etchings and silhouettes remain as memorials to the Lloyds, there is nothing to remember the generations of enslaved who passed through the house.  In Missing Faces, Weatherford writes, "Absent are the visages of my ancestors" who "hanged the Lloyds' framed conceits," While the decor endures, Weatherford writes, "...But the faces of my kin have vanished. Erased."  And so through her poetry, Weatherford gives voice to some of those enslaved at Wye House, and allows us to see them through the artwork of Jeffery Boston Weatherford.

Carole Boston Weatherford has written a thought-provoking novel-in-verse about slavery in Maryland, at the state's largest slave plantation, imagining what life might have been like for her enslaved ancestors. It's evident from the extensive Bibliography at the back of the novel, that she has done considerable historical and genealogical research. This research, as is often the case, leads only to more questions which Weatherford expresses in her poetry.

What might have given more clarity to the genealogy of the author's family as she understands it to date,  is a cast of characters and perhaps a family tree that outlines her connection to the Coppers. From the novel's poems, Weatherford reveals that her great-great-grandfather Phillip Moaney was enslaved and that his son, her great-grandfather James Henry Moaney, born in 1872, seven years after the end of the Civil War (1865) was born free. His father-in-law was Isaac Copper who was enslaved at Wye House, and fought in the Civil War. For whatever reason, James Moaney never spoke about Isaac Copper being enslaved. Weatherford assumes that the practice of naming children after kin continued throughout the passing generations - a reasonable assumption given the number of Isaac Coppers in the ledgers. This is a custom common to many families.

Kin: Rooted In Hope also portrays one of the consequences of slavery: the loss of family roots that often cannot be reclaimed. Our heritage connects us to the past, to our culture, our beliefs and our identity. Knowing our past helps us to understand who we are and develop resiliency as we see how ancestors dealt with difficult life situations. For Weatherford, knowing that her ancestors were significant contributors to life for Blacks in the Reconstruction Era was likely encouraging and a source of intense pride. Despite the hardship they had endured, they built something good out of slavery and the ruins of war. They formed a sense of community and connection that continues to this day.

The beautiful artwork, done on scratch board adds considerably to the story, capturing the many emotions of various characters and embodying  the darkness of slavery. The cover art is exquisite, the purple background suggesting royalty and the title in gold, as many of the enslaved came from what was known as the Gold Coast of Africa, including many African kings. Kin: Rooted In Hope is a book that asks its readers to pause and think about those that came unwillingly before, ripped from land and home, and yet persevered, bringing a rich cultural to what would become America. 

Book Details:

Kin: Rooted In Hope by Carole Boston Weatherford
New York: Atheneum Books For Young Readers     2023

202 pp.

Chinese Menu: The History, Myths, and Legends Behind Your Favorite Foods by Grace Lin

Chinese Menu explores the stories, myths and fables behind the many foods that make up Chinese cuisine.

First up is a chapter on Chopsticks. Lin admits to using chopsticks incorrectly, that her parents from Taiwan, never really instructed as to how to hold them. She uses chopsticks to eat but holds them "wrong", as her older sister likes to remind her.  In this chapter, several stories about how chopsticks came to be invented are told.  In the introduction, Lin writes that chopsticks were probably used as cooking tools during the Shang dynasty (1600 to 1100 B.C.) or Western Zhou dynasty (1100 to 771 B.C.). They were made of bronze and were much longer so they could be used in deep pots and hot oil.

The great Chinese philosopher, Confucius encouraged the use of chopsticks over forks and knives, which he believed were reminiscent of weapons. A man of peace, he felt this was not good dining protocol. So forks and knives were replaced by polished chopsticks. Around 400 B.C., a population boom meant a need to save cooking oil. To do this, vegetables and meat were cut into smaller portions and chopsticks made eating these smaller pieces easier. Eventually chopsticks became rounded, shorter and commonplace.

Lin identifies some the superstitions around the use of chopsticks and recounts several of the stories surrounding chopsticks. For example, do not place chopsticks near the cups, uneven pairs mean possible bad luck and do not place them upright in food! There are many stories about chopsticks including how Yu the Great or possibly the beautiful but selfish Daji, companion of Emperor Zhou may have invented them. Do chopsticks detect poison?

In Chapter 2 Tea, Lin explores the central place tea has in Chinese culture and identity. Tea was first cultivated by China, where different varieties were grown. Tea ceremonies are important as they can serve to honour elders and be rituals of contemplation and respect. In this chapter the author highlights some of the stories that are often told about how Dragon Well Tea, Jasmine Tea, Oolong Tea (often served at Chinese restaurants) and White Hair Silver Needle Tea (a medicinal tea) came to be. Lin also shares one of the many legends about how the tea plant came to be cultivated, a story that is connected to the founding of Zen Buddhism in China.

Chapter 3 explores appetizers. A traditional meal in a Chinese home is usually comprised of soup, rice and three or four hot dishes. However, in Western society meals are organized differently with appetizers, side dishes and desserts. So Chinese immigrants designed their restaurant menu's in this way, but also mindful of the American palate. Instead of tofu, jellyfish and seaweed, they chose street food common in China such as meat kebabs and festival foods like dumplings and spring rolls.

In this chapter Lin tells the story of how the first dumplings came about. The name dumpling possibly originated from the word jiao er which means "tender ears".  Chinese takeout almost always offers egg rolls and spring rolls. Egg rolls are dipped in egg before frying  while spring rolls often have a rice-flour wrapper and can be eaten cold. Spring rolls have been a part of Chinese cuisine for a long time: the story of their invention goes back to the late 1500's and the Ming dynasty. Another interesting story in this chapter is how scallion pancakes became the inspiration for pizza.

Soup is a very common part of meals in China where it is "considered an essential part of a meal in Chinese cuisine." It is possible soup has been served in China for at least twenty-thousand years. It was often used to treat illness. In Chapter 4, Lin discusses soup in general, including how making soup in Chinese cuisine is an exact process, from how meats and vegetables are diced, to the temperature and amount of water used (no water is added during cooking!). The legends behind various soups are presented: from Wonton Soup, Crossing the Bridge Noodle soup originating in Yunnan Province, to Hot and Sour soup (likely adapted from a spicy soup receipe from Henan Province), Sizzling Rice soup to the famous Bird's Nest soup made from siftlet nests. 

In Chapter 5 Side Dishes, Lin explains how the meal in China has changed through the years, from being a meal eaten at "low, individual tables throughout the Qin dynasty" to "shared-dish eating with gong-kai (literally translated as 'public chopsticks') as the shared serving utensil became the norm. The structure of the meal has also changed somewhat in North America from consisting of rice (fan) first followed by cai (vegetables and/or meat) to primarily meat and vegetables with rice on the side.  This chapter focuses on several dishes including rice which is easy to store and cook is a staple of Chinese cuisine. It is respected in Chinese culture because it is difficult to grow as evidenced by the complex system of rice paddies, terraces and irrigation systems the Chinese have developed. It is also used in many religious rituals and is believed to symbolize the connection between Earth and the Heavens. 

In this chapter, legends about how people first received rice, about niangao a special rice cake often a part of Lunar New Year celebrations are highlighted. As well, the history of noodles as part of Chinese cuisine, especially in Northern China where wheat is grown rather than rice, chow mein (stir-fried noodles) and tofu are complemented with wonderful stories.

In Chapter 6 Chef's Specials, Lin finally leads her readers to the main dishes of Chinese cuisine. Because most early Chinese immigrants were from Canton (now Guandzhou), food in Chinese restaurants was mainly Cantonese-style. Lin outlines the eight great regional cuisines of China in this chapter and why many Chinese dishes have elaborate names.

In this chapter readers will learn about Kung Pao Chicken or Gongbao Chicken as it is known in China, Sweet and Sour Pork, Buddha Jump Over The Wall (a type of rich stew that includes quail eggs, duck, chicken, ham and sea cucumbers!), Mu Shu Pork from the Shandong region, the famous Peking Duck, Beef and Broccoli, Emperor Chicken,  and Mapo Tofu (a Sichuan dish that is popular in Asia and very spicy). There's an interesting discussion on Chop Suey a Chinese dish that once was made with animal entrails! and Beggars Chicken, a stuffed chicken baked in mud. 

Finally, Chapter 7 Desserts touches on a few sweet offerings in Chinese cuisine. There is no dessert course and no traditional Chinese word for dessert, as sweets are usually eaten between meals. However, Lin explains some of the sweets Chinese love including oranges which symbolize luck, gold and success, Red Bean Soup, ice cream, and of course Fortune Cookies.

Discussion

Grace Lin's Chinese Menu is a long-overdue book that explains many different aspects of Chinese cuisine, as we know it in America (and Canada). Lin takes her readers on a smorgasbord of Chinese dishes from basic rice, to the famous Bird's Nest Soup and Peking Duck, to tofu, oranges and fortune cookies.

Most North Americans probably know that the food we eat in Chinese restaurants, is not really the food that is served or cooked at home in China. Lin acknowledges this in her Author's Note at the back. "Yes, every Chinese dish served in an American restaurant has been adapted and changed. Yes, many do not have the flavors of traditional Chinese cuisine and are unlike what you would find in China. But Chinese American cuisine is the flavor of resilience, the flavor or adaptability, the flavor of persistence and triumph. Above anything, this food is the flavor of America." 

As she remarks in her Note, the Chinese immigrants who faced racism, violence and hardship, "...used their cuisine - their cuisine with its rich and wonderful histories and myths - to survive. They constantly adapted and changed their recipes to use the ingredients that were locally available..." The result was the creation of a new cuisine, that of the Chinese diaspora. 

Lin wrote this book partially to dispel the notion that American Chinese cuisine is a "cheap" food offering compared with European cuisine, such as French or Greek food. Although Chinese food was often offered at bargain prices to attract diners, there was plenty of hard work by American Chinese to not only to adapt cuisine from their homeland dishes, but to establishing their restaurant clientele. 

As she so aptly demonstrates in Chinese Menu, Chinese food has a rich history with each dish having stories, myths or legends about how they were created or how their sometimes very unique names came about. Organizing her book according to a menu one might encounter in a Chinese restaurant, allows Lin to provide an overview of each category and then focus on some of the more common offerings. And to give her Western readers some context,  Lin provides not only a map of the provinces in China, but also a historic timeline of the various dynasties and the foods she writes about in the book. 

Chinese Menu offers readers the opportunity to better appreciate not only Chinese cuisine but also the rich culture that underlies each dish they might encounter the next time they have Chinese take-out. Lin discusses the importance of dragons in Chinese culture and mythology, Chinese history and festivals.  Accompanying each chapter is Lin's beautiful artwork, rendered "in pencil on tracing paper and then scanned, retouched and colored in Adobe Photoshop." The extensive Bibliography at the back is evidence that the author has done extensive research for each chapter to back up her own rich cultural experience. 

Chinese Menu is an exquisite and informative book with a beautiful cover that invites young readers inside. Highly recommended!

Book Details:

Chinese Menu by Grace Lin

New York: Little, Brown and Company    2023

288 pp.

Eagle Drums by Nasugrao Rainey Hopson

Pina lives with his mother and father in the harsh Arctic tundra, where winter lasts eight months, leaving them only four months to stock food. They are Inupiaq.

Out on a hunting trip, Pina catches twelve caribou. For each of the fallen animals, Pina honours their lives, placing a pinch of lichen on each of the animal's tongues and severing the third vertebra. He butchers the caribou, wrapping the meat in their skins and burying the bundles to keep them cool until he can return. Eventually, the caribou meat is stored in the family's siglauq, an underground chamber carved into the ice that never melted, deep within the ground.

Pina had two brothers, the elder Atau and a middle brother, Maligu. When Atau had disappeared long ago in the mountains, his beautifully carved bow, found by their parents, passed on to Maligu. He carved many images into the bow, of mountains and land animals, and where they can be found. But Maligu also disappeared in the mountains, leaving behind the bow. Neither Pina nor his parents knew what happened to either boy. Pina's father's grief was intense so he focused on being the best son.

Pina and his parents live alone, rarely encountering any other people. Their life is good, and they always seem to have enough to eat. They shun people and Pina doesn't really know how his parents met.

One night during dinner, Pina's mother indicates they need more obsidian and because his father will be fishing down the coast to bring in one last catch, Pina will have to travel to the mountains where it can be found. Pina senses his mother's worry but he is not concerned as he has made many trips to the mountains since the disappearance of his brothers without any problem.

Taking his pack and his bow, Pina heads out with the blessing of his parents. When he stops to eat and rest at the base of the mountains, Pina hears the cry of a golden eagle. Suddenly he finds himself under attack by the eagle. Barely escaping, Pina confronts the great bird, waiting to see what it does. When Pina does not attack, the eagle settles and then begins violently shaking its head, causing the feathers to peel off.  Pina sees before him a tall man, wearing a parka of golden feathers. He remembers his mother telling him that "Animals are like us, Pina...They choose to be animals, but when they need to be human, they take off their parkas. And then they are human for a while...Respect them as you would any strong spirit, and never challenge them; you will always lose..."

Pina is certain that this being must have a purpose for revealing himself. The man tells Pina that he is responsible for the deaths of his brothers, bringing out the pain of their loss in him again. He swiftly approaches Pina, telling him he may call him Savik. The eagle-man offers Pina a choice, he can come with him or die like his brothers chose to. Knowing his parents would want him to live, Pina agrees to go with Savik and so picking up his gear follows him. For the next fourteen months, Pina will live with the eagles, learning the lessons they wish to teach him and bringing home this knowledge to his people.

Discussion

Eagle Drums tells the story of how the Messenger Feast came to be in the Inupiat culture. The Inupiat live in the Arctic Circle and they were hunter-gatherers, relying on hunting and fishing as well as foraging. They hunted seals, whale, polar bears, caribou and fish, and also foraged for berries, roots and shoots. With such a life-style, every part of the animal was used. Hopson portrays this throughout her novel, through her main characters, Pina and his parents. Pina's mother was especially skilled at turning caribou skins into beautiful parkas with exquisite borders. And Pina, while living with the eagles, knows what plants and roots he needs to search for in the deep of winter, saving himself from starving.

Hopson, in her Author's Note, explains the Messenger Feast came about because long ago, their people were very isolated from one another. So men ran for miles to find other Inupiat and invite them to the feast. With the arrival of Christian missionaries, the Inupiaq songs and dances, their stories  and their festivals were banned. It was only recently that the the Messenger Feast was reclaimed, after listening to the Elders' accounts of experiencing the festival when they were children.

The origin story of the festival, related in Eagle Drums is that of a boy kidnapped by golden eagles who teach him lessons on how to make drums, compose songs, dance and how to build a qalgi, a large hall where all could come together to feast, dance and tell stories. The hero of the story, Pina is then tasked to bring together his community for the first feast when he returns home. His parents, thrilled to see their son whom they thought was lost, are happy to help plan for the feast, by storing food, making gifts for those who attend, and building a qalgi. 

Pina is taught much more than just the skills to hold a festival. From the eagles he learns that he does not have to do everything alone. When he and Savik begin to plan work on the large qalgi, Pina wishes that he had ten people to help him. To his surprise, the eagles help by bringing supplies for the building. Savik tells him that work goes much faster if you ask for help and work with others. This new idea makes Pina feel uncomfortable. "He had never owed strangers anything before. With his family there was just this understanding."

The first festival has a profound effect on Pina. He had been raised by his parents to be wary of strangers. When he was a ten-years old, he remembered his family, while on their way to their wintering grounds, encountering a family on the tundra. Pina remembered being filled with fear as he had never been so close to strangers before. The strangers believed that Pina's family were rich because of their clothing. Pina saw that they were hungry and tired. At home that night Pina questions his father who tells him that because they do not know strangers, they cannot trust them. Pina wants to help the family and attempts to take food to them in the middle of the night but is prevented from doing so by his oldest brother. Atau tells Pina that when he did this, the people did not trust him and thought he would try to steal from them. 

After the feast, Pina experiences new feelings. "He felt as if his very soul had grown and found roots in the people around him. He felt more connected than he had ever before, connected to the world, connected to the life around him, and connected to his parents. The celebrations filled him with such inspiration, such wonder, and and enduring strength. He felt his humanity blossom with new insight and a deeper sense of stability."  For Pina, the feast showed him that living more fully is to experience connections with others and the natural world. 

Eagle Drums was written and illustrated by Nasurgrao Rainey Hopson, a tribally enrolled Inupiaq author and illustrator who loves celebrating and helping to reclaim her Indigenous culture. Hopson is a gifted story-teller and her account of the origin of the Messenger Festival is both engaging and rich in details about life and survival in the high Arctic. 

Book Details: 

Eagle Drums by Nasugrao Rainey Hopson
New York: Roaring Brook Press      2023
245 pp.

Grandmothers, Our Grandmothers: Remembering the "Comfort Women" of World War II by Han Seong-won

Grandmothers, Our Grandmothers is a beautiful tribute to some of World War II's most courageous women survivors: girls and young women enslaved by the Japanese Imperial Army to be sexually abused for years.

Between 1932 and 1945, the Japanese Imperial Army set up what they called "comfort stations" in war zones. With the outbreak of war in the Pacific during World War II, young girls were lured from home or forcibly taken and placed in these "comfort stations." It was not until 1991 that the Japanese government would even begin to acknowledge the existence of such places.

In Chapter 1 Testimony, Han Seong-won offers the testimonies of these women, called Grandmothers because many of the women are now elderly and grandmothers. The first Grandmother to publicly testify about her enslavement by the Japanese Imperial Army was Kim Hak-soon, who filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government. As a result, women from many countries including the Philippines and the Netherlands testified. Eventually, August 14th was designated as "World Memorial Day for Comfort Women" to raise worldwide awareness of this tragic issue.

Grandmother Kim Bok-dong, a comfort woman, testified at the 1993 U.N. Human Rights Commission, and told her story in the U.S., Japan, and Europe. Grandmother Kang Il-chul was forced to work in a "comfort station" in Chanchun of Jilin Province, China. Grandmother Jan Ruff O'Herne, one of the few non-Asians, was a sex slave on Java Island, Indonesia, at a comfort station called Chilhaejung. She sewed the names of all the girls who arrived there on a white hankerchief. Grandmother  Jan broke her silence about this hell in 1992 and testified in 2007 at a hearing in the United States House of Representatives.

In Chapter 2 Memories, many of the Grandmother remember specific things about their home and life, such a love of singing, or a special folk songs. Some forget their names or their memories. For other Grandmothers, memories bring pain and open old wounds. And some make new memories in new cities like New York. 

In Chapter 3 Travelling Together explores how others can travel the road with the Grandmothers, working for recognition and an apology by Japan, helping to bring honour and healing to these women. 

The author while visiting Paris, was struck by the fact that the city does not destroy things that are old. Instead it values them and the memories they bring. This led him to think about how eighty years after the war, people are suggesting that what happened to the Grandmothers be forgotten because it is in the past. 

The Grandmothers and what happened to them are remembered through their testimonies, scholarships to students, and in movies like "I Can Speak." And they are being helped by Japanese women like Misseuko Nobukawa who heard rumours about women and children at the front but didn't bother much about it. It was the testimony of Grandmother Kim Hak-soon that changed everything and made her ashamed to be Japanese. She now travels the journey of the Grandmothers, in particular Grandmother Lee Yong-soo for recognition and apology.

In 2019, over twenty thousand people came together in protest and to remember on August 14 in South Korea. The author participated in this protest, held on the 7th World Memorial Day for the "comfort women" of Japan. By not forgetting, the memory of the Grandmothers is honoured.

Discussion

Grandmothers, Our Grandmothers is a moving tribute to the young girls and women, forced by the Japanese Imperial Army to be "sex slaves" for their soldiers as they rampaged through the Pacific. This crime against humanity was covered up by the Japanese government and military through the use of the euphemisms of "comfort women" and "comfort stations". In Grandmothers, Our Grandmothers, Han writes, "From the stance of the perpetrators, the term "comfort women" is a way to hide the Japanese Imperial Army's horrible deeds." He also notes that the term "humiliates the survivors and deepens their wounds." "Comfort women" is therefore enclosed in quotations as a form of resistance to this term which is used by survivors only because this is how Japanese historical records have labelled the women.

This graphic memoir is not an easy read because the subject matter is horrifying even though Han does not go into any of the details of what the Grandmothers experienced as young women. The exact number of young girls and women involved is not truly known, but it is believed that anywhere between fifty thousand and two hundred thousand women were "sex slaves". Many of the women were minors and many women were lured by promises of work. Women were taken from Korea, Philippines, China, Vietnam. Burma, Thailand, Malay,  and other countries including women from Australia and the Netherlands. They were repeatedly raped day and night, suffering horrific injuries and illness and many died of abuse or suicide. 

Han humanizes the young girls and women forcibly taken and abused so long ago. His portraits give faces to the "comfort women"; they are not simply a faceless, nameless group of survivors. They are real girls and women whose youth was lost in enslavement and abuse and whose trauma lives on with them. In fact, Han Seong-won's portrait of Grandmother Kim Bok-dong as a young girl and then as an elderly woman, especially highlights this reality. 

Grandmothers, Our Grandmothers is a book of remembering, of resilience, of determination, of care and of hope. The hope is that as more and more people are informed about what happened, that the Japanese government will do the right thing and apologize to the Grandmothers with sincerity, ask for forgiveness and make restitution.

Book Details:

Grandmothers, Our Grandmothers: Remembering the "Comfort Women" of World War II by Han Seong-won
Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing      2023
174 pp. 

A Horse Named Sky by Rosanne Parry

A horse named Sky  is born into a family of horses that includes Mother, Auntie Gale and Auntie Rain, their stallion Thunder, and Rain's filly, Storm. Sky looks up to Storm who can run like the wind and he spends the seasons trying to catch her. Sky also learns that he must run from the "howlers", and that speed is strength. He also learns many other things from his family: Auntie Gale tells Sky to "watch for the claw beast", while Auntie Rain tells him not to eat the purple flowers.

Storm, as a filly, will stay with the mares, but Sky who is a stallion must soon either fight Thunder or move on.

One summer day, after several more seasons have passed, Sky and Storm wonder at the humans arriving with their "draggers", pulling various heavy loads. They have seen humans before: in the past "buckskin-dun humans with black manes" (Indians) have come to take the cones off the pinon trees for their seeds, and harvest sage. But the two mustangs note that the new humans are not interested in the seeds. Sky thinks they have come for the trees. Thunder tells them to avoid the humans.

The summer heat continues into the fall and the horses struggle to find food and water. Jack, the old burro stallion rounds up his jennies and leaves, telling Sky he is taking them to a place where there is a single mountain and a swift river. Auntie Gale leads the mares and their foals, and the colts to a spring which bubbles out of the ground on a rock. Although Sky is the last to drink, he is thankful. However, as the drought continues, Sky is frequently chased away by Thunder, who wants what little water there is for his mares.

As the spring begins to dry up, Sky knows the time for him to leave has come. Storm doesn't want him to leave though. Sky tries to follow the rain clouds, walking across the steppe. He remembers that water goes into ravines, so that's where he walks and he soon finds water...and meets up with Storm. Sky is surprised to see Storm, telling her "mares don't leave", but she tells him they can choose. However, Sky and Storm's freedom and time together is short-lived.

While tasting salt-licks, suddenly a group of humans riding large horses charge out of the brush and give chase to Sky, Storm and three brother stallions. The horses race across the steppe and into a narrow canyon where they hope to hide. However, they quickly find themselves trapped and Sky and several of the stallions are taken captive. Soon Sky finds himself pressed into running for the Pony Express. But no matter how well he's treated, with delicious food, rubs and shelter, the urge to be free and to reunite with his family and find Storm make him determined to escape.

Discussion

A Horse Named Sky is another well-told animal story by Rosanne Parry. This time she imagines an engaging story about a mustang stallion living with his family band in the Virginia range east of Reno, Nevada. In Sky's family band, Thunder is the adult stallion and some of his mares include Sky's mother, and his Aunties Gale and Rain. The story is told from the perspective of the young stallion, Sky. Since Sky is narrating, he uses language that describes what he sees and experiences in the way a horse might: human arms are "front legs", hands are "grabbers", oxen are "draggers", a cougar is a "claw beast", human adults are "stallions" and a human child is a "colt". 

In the first chapters, Parry describes Sky's life as a young wild horse growing quickly in the Virginia Range. This area is home to the single-leaf pinon pine, from which the Indigenous peoples of the area, the Paiute, Washoe and Shoshone, collected nuts for food. Sky refers to them as "buckskin-dun humans with black manes". Life is good, with the mustangs able to outrun the "claw beast" to find food and water. Sky quickly grows into a young stallion. His best friend is a young mare, Storm who can run very fast. This almost idyllic life will be in contrast to the experiences Sky will soon have and the changes to his homeland that will come about with the arrival of more humans. 

Drought hits their homeland and the mustangs must move to find water. Although Sky strikes out on his own, everything changes when he is captured and  sold into the Pony Express. Storm and their family band, he later discovers, ends up working in a silver mine. 

From the beginning of his capture, Sky struggles with the loss of his family band. "Every day, for days on end, I've missed my family with a dull ache like the cold. But now I miss them sharp, like a broken bone." Despite being well treated, fed good food, cleaned and given water, Sky misses freedom. "I feel the tug of the homeward horizon, and no amount of water or crunchy bits will make me feel better."  Sky is determined to escape and find his way back to Storm whom he believes is free. The loss of freedom, being forced to carry humans, and travel treacherous mountain routes make him even more determined. To that end Sky's determination and intelligence leads him to learn the signs that will help him get home and to try to earn the trust of the humans in the hope they will eventually stop tying him up at night. It is when Sky learns to undo the wooden bar that locks him in, that his chance for freedom comes.

Parry incorporates a number of historical events within the story: the Pony Express which ran from Missouri to California from 1860 into the fall of 1861 , the presence of dromedaries purchased by the U.S. Army and which Sky encounters on the mountain trail, the arrival of silver mining in the Virginia Range in 1859 which decimates the delicate ecosystem of Sky's homeland through clear cutting all the trees and poisoning the waterways, and the indenture of Indigenous peoples as a result of the California Indian Act of 1850. 

Of all the humans Sky encounters, it is a young Paiute boy  whom he describes as "a buckskin human with a black mane" who "looks like one of the pinon gatherers"  who has the most impact. Like Sky, the Paiute boy is enslaved, creating a bond between them. Sky refers to the boy as a colt: he "is too big for a yearling, but he is definitely not of fighting age. A cold, then." This Paiute boy  takes good care of Sky. When he rests his head on Sky's shoulder, Sky thinks, "I've missed this so much -- a friend to lean on at the end of the day."  However, Sky also witnesses him being maltreated, noticing that he is not fed in the morning, and beaten by the older man at the Pony Express station, It is an action the young stallion cannot comprehend.  "When colt comes outside, there's a fight mark on his face. He's shaking from head to foot. I don't understand. A stallion only fights another grown stallion....The salty-faced colt is no stallion to be sparred with. He's far too tender for such rough treatment."  Eventually, Sky witnesses the young Paiute boy being freed by his father and he decides it's time for freedom too!

One of the most poignant scenes in the novel is when Sky arrives at his home, only to see how it has been devastated. There are no birds in the air, no animals on the ground and the trees are gone. Instead, Sky sees knee-high stumps with sage and  grasses left.

Sky not only undergoes a journey home, but also a personal journey from an insecure young stallion to one who not only rescues his entire enslaved family band but leads them to safety. He is a courageous leader, willing to risk his life for family and friends.

A Horse Named Sky is another wonderful animal story by American author, Rosanne Parry. The novel is filled with beautiful pencil sketches done by Kirbi Fagan, and which add so much to the story-telling. Parry has included a Map of Sky's journey (which would be better situated at the front of the novel), detailed notes titled, Wild Horses in North America, Horse Families, About Mustangs, The Habitats, Water Before Everything, The Pony Express, Silver Mining in Nevada, and the California Indian Act of 1850. There is also a short Author's Note and Artist's Note, and a list of Selected Sources for further reading, and a List of parks, museums and wildlife refuges in the Great Basin.

Book Details:

A Horse Named Sky by Rosanne Parry
New York: Greenwillow Books     2023
260 pp.

Saving Sunshine by Saadia Faruqi and Shazleen Khan

Twins Zara and Zeeshan Aziz live in New York with their parents, Dr. Bilal Aziz and Dr. Rasheeda Aziz. The entire family are traveling to a pediatrics conference in Florida.  There, Rasheeda will receive the pediatrician of the year award, the first Muslim woman to be given this recognition.

Zara and Zeesh do not get along and their constant bickering is overwhelming their parents. When they arrive at their hotel in Key West, Zeesh steps on Zara's suitcase, causing her to fall. Fed up with the two of them, their father takes away their phones. He tells them they "need to figure out how to be friends." Both are upset: Zara because as an animal activist she won't be able to post pictures on social media, and Zeesh because he won't be able to watch the NASA space videos he loves.

At the Tortuga Hills Resort in Florida, the two siblings unsuccessfully attempt to find where their parents have hidden their phones, even trying to crack the code for the safe in their room. It seems they will have to put up with one another. 

A kayaking trip sees Zara find a sick leatherback turtle on the beach. His eyes appear to be infected and the turtle seems lethargic, making Zara believe he is sick. She decides to name him Sunshine. When they return to the resort, Zara asks the concierge if there is an animal hospital nearby, telling him she has found a sick turtle on the beach. He offers to call a local vet to come to the beach.

While Rasheeda and Bilal attend the conference and award ceremony, Zara and Zeesh struggle to get along. Making the situation even more challenging, is the misunderstanding and racism they experience from people at the hotel. Can they learn to understand one another and work together while also supporting each other when others around them do not?

Discussion

Saving Sunshine is a story about sibling rivalry set within the experience of being Muslim in America. Twins, Although Zara and Zeesh are American-born, they experience bias, misunderstanding and racism. Their parents, Bilal and Rasheeda who were born in Pakistan, are searched at the airport, something Zeesh notes happens almost all the time and makes him angry. At the reservation station, the ticket agent struggles to pronounce their names while at the hotel, the concierge asks where they are from based on how they look, He also assumes the Middle East is a desert, demonstrating his ignorance. When this angers Zeesh, his father tells him he has learned to discern people's intentions rather than assuming the worst.

Zara also experiences ignorance and misunderstanding over her headscarf. When the concierge compliments her on her headscarft, this triggers a memory of a year ago when she when she wore the hijab to school for the first time in sixth grade. Zeesh wasn't supportive, not defending her when his non-Muslim friends make fun of her. Like Bilal, Rasheeda encourages Zara not to get angry at every person who taunts her, explaining that the hijab is about sacrifice. But once again when Zeesh makes some new friends at the resort and they comment on her hijab, he does nothing. 

While dealing with prejudice and ignorance, Zara and Zeesh gradually come to understand each other and work to save Sunshine with the help of a local vet. Dr. Anthony Sergio guess that they are from India angers Zeesh . But Dr. Sergio tells him that everyone is from somewhere and that people are just curious and generally mean no harm. 

As they spend more time together, the two teens begin to understand one another and become more supportive. On a walk at the beach in the evening, Zara begins to see the beauty of the stars and is eager to visit the Wendell Family Observatory (strangely on top of what looks like a lighthouse). Zara understands that Zeesh is missing his NASA videos so she hopes this will fill that void and Zeesh is thrilled. Later, as they are eating burgers, Zeesh's new friends arrive. When they insult Zara for wearing her hijab, this time he defends her, much to Zara's shock. When Zeesh gets himself into trouble, after running away in anger from their parents, Zara comes to his rescue. Zeesh returns the favour by working with Zara to help her rescue Sunshine during a violent storm. 

Saving Sunshine offers plenty of positive messages such as not making assumptions about people, and about working together to help each other . Zara and Zeesh's parents both tell them that they try to understand what people's intentions are instead of assuming the worst and responding angrily. It turns out that this is what both Zara and Zeesh must, in order to better understand each other.  When their parents remove the distraction of their cell phones, they are forced to focus on their relationship as brother and sister,  This leads each to understand what is important to the other, and to act with kindness. The colourful graphic art, done with Procreate and inked and coloured on Paint  Tool SAI, reinforce this message.

Saving Sunshine also offers non-Muslims the chance to explore how insensitive words, meant with the best of intentions, can be hurtful and divisive. 

Book Details:

Saving Sunshine by Saadia Faruqi
New York: First Second      2023

221 pp.

Run For Your Life by Jane Mitchell

Azari's life has been split in two. The first part of her life was in her village in her home country with her mother and father, her older sister Sharnaz, her younger brothers Kashif and Musa, and her friends Iman and Ruba. The second part of her life is in Ireland where they arrived after hiding among the containers on a ship. 

After being brought to land, Azari and her mother go to the International Protection Office where they are interviewed by a man. In Azari's culture, women do not speak to strange men. Her mother who cannot read or write, refuses to be interviewed by him, leaving fifteen-year-old Azari to answer his questions. Although it is irregular, they allow Azari to tell her story, one that brings up powerful memories, ones she is scared to remember, scared to forget.

After filing an application for asylum, Azari and her mother leave the Centre where they have been staying and go into an old, dark house that is part of the Direct Provision. Azari's mother spends most of her days in bed sleeping, leaving Azari to figure out things on her own. She arranges to meet Sheila from legal aid, who reviews her story. Sheila is not happy that she has to interview Azari rather than her mother.

Weeks pass, Azari begins to learn English and begins to consider resuming running. She purchases leggings, running shorts, and running shoes, after traveling by herself to a nearby department store. But her mother is frantic because respectable women don't go out alone and they don't run. Soon Azari and her mother are moved to another Direct Provision Centre in a small town. They are placed in a room on the first floor that has one large bed and a broken wardrobe. Azari begins running as a way to cope with these changes, giving her a feeling of control. Although this upsets her mother, a black woman named Princess who also lives in the building, encourages Azari.

She starts school in January, in a class with girls two years younger. Azari finds reading English difficult and has never studied geography, history, science or advanced maths. She also attends what the Irish girls call "Black School", a mix of students from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East to help them catch up. In gym class, Miss Cullen encourages Azari to join the runners club but she has no means to travel there and there are other issues as well. Azari begins to gradually make friends: an Irish girl named Emer invites her to join the school's lunchtime book club, and Robert, a boy who is part of Miss Cullen's running club, asks her to join him for runs around the village. Running with Robert brings Azari great joy but at the same time she knows this will not meet with her mother's approval. 

As their application for asylum moves forward towards the interview, Azari and her mother must also deal with increasing racism from the villagers, that eventually puts all the refugees in danger. Nevertheless, Azari's taste of freedom, helps her to stay focused on moving forward in every part of her new life in Ireland.

Discussion

Run For Your Life explores the plight of new immigrants to Ireland, the Direct Provision Office which handles immigrants to the country, and the practice of honor killings in some countries. The main character, Azira narrates events as they settle in Ireland, but in flashbacks, also reveals why they had to flee their country, leaving behind family and culture.

Mitchell tackles a large number of issues in this novel including honor killings, forced marriage, domestic abuse, the education of girls, garment factory workers rights, and even acid attacks on women. These issues are significant for the girls and women in Azari's home village. For example, Sharnaz is to be married off, against her will, to an old villager to pay off the family debt. When she runs away and is recaptured, she is to be stoned to death to restore the family and village honor. Sharnaz and Azari, like many girls in the developing world, are taken out of school and sent to work long hours in poor working conditions in a garment factory. Their father frequently beats their mother, who has little say in anything that happens to herself or her children.

Once she arrives in Ireland, Azari is exposed to views that are quite different from those in her village. For example, she has been told by her mother that she must never be alone with a boy or a man, that they will hurt her and bring shame to her. "Boy's aren't safe.", her mother warns. As a result, Azari, doesn't know if she is safe to run with Robert, or even to spend time with him just talking. To do so in her culture back home is shameful. "Then of course, there's the boy in the library. He had a friendly face. I liked talking to him. I liked his smile. But Mother, Sharnaz, Father, the village women, the Farooqs, in fact, probably every person I have ever known, would tell me no respectable woman should be alone with a boy. Men take a woman's honour." However, Princess challenges Azari, telling her, "Sure, some men are not safe...but not all men and boys are not safe and not all the time."

Azari also encounters a much different perspective about her body and menstruation. Azari has been told by her mother that during menstruation she is "impure and unclean" and she is given a set of rules to follow: she cannot attend school, cannot cook food, and must keep her period a secret. Significantly, she is sent to forage in the village rubbish heap. The pamphlets Azari finds in the library change everything. "They tell me things I never knew about my own body. How it works. How I'm not unclean or impure, although that's still how I think of it.  I open the packets and wrappers. Look at the products. Think about how this changes everything I thought I knew. And how I might change what I do from now on."

Mitchell emphasizes the difficulty refugees have in settling in Ireland. Not only are they faced with differences in culture and beliefs as mentioned above, but they also enter a system, called Direct Provision in Ireland, that sees them languishing for years as their application for asylum is processed. In the meantime, they experience poor, crowded living conditions, have limited access to higher education and are often isolated, affecting their mental health and making integration more difficult. 

In Run For Your Life, Azari faces racial discrimination at school and outright hostility in the small community where they are re-located. Eventually, their Direct Provision house is attacked and set fire to, forcing them to be moved again. Despite all the challenges Azari has encountered, she is courageous, and determined to live a life of her own choosing. Run For Your Life ends on a hopeful note, with Azari excited for the future and the possibilities it holds.

Run For Your Life offers a unique perspective on the refugee situation in Ireland. The colourful cover design blends together images from Azari's home country (possibly India??), colourful and sunny, and her new home in Ireland, rainy and green.

Book Details:

Run For Your Life by Jane Mitchell
Dublin, Ireland:    2022
251 pp.

My Powerful Hair by Carole Lindstrom

A young girl cannot wait for her hair to grow. Her mother and grandmother (Nokomis) weren't allowed to have long hair. It was cut at the school they attended. But for a young girl letting her hair grow is important.

The stories and memories of the day Nimishoomis taught her to fish for the first time, were woven into her hair which reached her ears. The birth of her baby brother happened when her hair touched her shoulders. Welcoming him was woven into her hair. Learning how to make moccasins from her cousins is woven into her hair that now fell past her shoulders. 

At the Pow Wow, the girl's hair, down to the middle of her back, was braided by her Auntie Delia. Her aunt's teaching and prayers from that day are woven into her hair. When Nimishoomis passed away, the girl cut her hair so that he would have her "energies".

Discussion

In the exquisite picture book, My Powerful Hair, the significance of hair to Indigenous peoples is explained.  Author Carole Lindstrom, who "...is Anishinaabe/Metis and an enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe," explains what hair means to her people. 

Lindstrom was not allowed to grow her hair long when she was growing up. Her mother also did not have long hair, even though she had beautiful, thick black hair. Lindstrom learned that this extended back another generation to her grandmother and great-aunts who also had "...shorn black hair above their ears." This was a product of their forced attendance at Indian boarding schools in the early 1900's. At the boarding school, Lindstrom's grandmother was taught that long hair was "...a sign of 'wildness' and 'savageness'." It's a peculiar view, since at this time most European women had long hair, which was often pinned up. 

To avoid being viewed in this way, Lindstrom's grandmother, mother and herself all wore their hair short. When she learned of this, Lindstrom decided to grow her hair long, as a way of reclaiming her identity and culture. In her Author's Note at the back, Lindstrom explains the generational impact the Indian boarding school had on her own family.

In My Powerful Hair, Indigenous artist Steph Littlebird's  vivid illustrations capture the essence of what hair means to Indigenous peoples. Hair is believed to be a source of strength and holds memories. It is grown long to be close to Mother Earth. Hair is considered a celebration of life, carrying power. Having hair braided by a loved one reinforces the relationship. For Indigenous peoples, stories, memories, culture and connections to one another are woven through hair. The richly coloured illustrations done in Procreate, reinforce this beautiful message of the importance of hair in Indigenous culture.

Book Details:

My Powerful Hair by Carole Lindstrom
New York:  Abrams Books for Young Readers   2023

Sunshine by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

At the time Jarrett begins to volunteer at Camp Sunshine, he is sixteen-years-old and in high school,  living with his grandparents, his own parents mostly out of his life in any meaningful way. His grandmother has lots of questions and wonders how such a camp could be a positive experience. She can't comprehend how it would not be depressing being around kids diagnosed with cancer. But Jarrett is undeterred and so his grandfather drives him to Holy Rosary School to meet the van taking the high school students to camp.

His high school has a tradition of seniors volunteering for a week at Camp Sunshine. Jarrett was one of the lucky ones whose name was chosen at random along with five other students. Those students are Chad O'Halleran, Andrea Kim, Erin Price, Christine Lowery, Jonathan Garnier and two chaperones, the no-nonsense Sister Frances, and chain-smoking Mrs. (MaryBeth) Gormley. They arrive at Camp Sunshine after a three hour drive in the school van. As they drive to their trailer on Brown Road, Sister Frances hands out everyone's assignments.

Jarrett is assigned to a camper named Diego with special needs. Diego has advanced brain cancer, uses a wheelchair and has tubes under his arm and in his chest.

Mrs. Gormley reminds Jarrett and the other students how important this week will be to the campers and their families - it might be the happiest week they have had in a long time. She hints that their perspective will change throughout the week.

Jarrett is overwhelmed as he reads through the camp manual about the medical needs of the campers - something he's not responsible for. The other guys in Jarrett's trailer are nervous since none of them have met someone with cancer.

At orientation that evening, they meet Papa Frank, a kindly retiree who runs the camp program,  and their team leaders, Joy and Gary. 

While waiting in the dining room for Diego and his family, Jarrett meets Shelly Orfaos and her children, Jason, Mary and Eric, who has cancer.

On the first day of camp, Jarrett meets Diego and his parents, Carlos and Carmen who tell Jarrett that Deigo has suffered some cognitive decline and that he doesn't want to be at the camp. But as the week goes on, Diego begins to open up and enjoy himself, and Jarrett finds himself forming a deep bond with little Eric and the other campers who will impact his life in ways he can't imagine.

Discussion

Sunshine is the follow-up to Krosoczka's poignant memoir about growing up in his grandparents home, while dealing with an absent father and a mother with an addiction. 

Sunshine opens with Jarrett on his way to Sunshine Camp to volunteer for a week at the camp for children with terminal cancer. The graphic novel chronicles his journey through the week beginning with the start of camp, to life after camp and into college. In his Author's Note at the back, Jarrett indicates that "While the story in this book centers on that first week that I entered into this important work, some of the incidents and stories that I included are taken from subsequent years of working at Camp Sunshine and The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp." 

Initially Jarrett wonders what he can offer his camper, thirteen-year-old Diego, who has such intense needs and is only a few years younger. Jarrett is also disappointed with his assignment because he wanted to work with younger children. However, as the week goes on, Jarrett's perspective begins to change as he comes to understand how the camp helps the children. Life for them is very different: a world filled with doctors and nurses, while their healthy brothers and sisters are "...lost in the shadows of their siblings' illness." At camp, Jarrett comes to realize that the kids with cancer are "the mainstream kids" for once. Jarrett begins to see the campers in a different way too: he begins "...to look past the wheelchairs, bald heads, and oxygen tanks to see these kids as just...well, kids."  He also realizes these families experience pain, fear, and loneliness and that camp gives them a respite from this. 

As the end of camp approaches, both the campers and the teen volunteers struggle with the intense emotions they are experiencing. The volunteers have grown attached to their campers emotionally, and there is the realization that some of the campers will not survive their illness. For the campers, it means a return to the reality of their lives, hospitals, procedures, doctors and nurses. On the last day, Diego tells Jarrett that going home will mean people looking at him with pity, seeing him as "Diego with cancer." For Jarrett, coming home means a significant change in his perspective on life. Despite Jarrett having some significant issues in his own life regarding his parents, he finds these don't define him anymore and that his pervious worries seem unimportant.

Perhaps the most moving part of Krosoczka's graphic novel is what came a few years after his initial experience at Camp Sunshine. By this time Jarrett was in college and had continued to keep in touch with Eric's family. They had spent summers and even Christmas together. But Jarrett began having a dream that would turn out to be a haunting premonition of what was to come. 

In reflecting on his time at Camp Sunshine, in his Author's Note, Jarrett writes about what he learned from his experience and writes, "Perhaps I connected so quickly with them because I understood what it was like to yearn for childhood during childhood. Trauma has a way of forcing you to grow up while you are still in a small body."  Jarrett was uniquely placed to help campers like Eric and his family, and the young teen, Diego, because he too had experienced fear, loneliness and isolation as a child. When Jarrett and the other teen volunteers were on their way to the camp, the were cautioned by Mrs. Gormley that "this experience is bigger than any of you.", that they would quickly learn from the experience what was important in life,  and that no matter how much work they put into helping the children, they would get back much more than they gave. For Jarrett and his fellow volunteers, that was definitely what happened.

Sunshine is about so much more than volunteering at a camp for kids with cancer. Sharing ourselves with those whose life circumstances are hard, offers the chance to put our own lives in perspective, to bring just a little bit of joy to others while easing their fears, pain, and isolation. For Jarrett Krosoczka, Camp Sunshine gave back more than he anticipated, just as Mrs. Gormley predicted it would! The lovely, joyful picture of Jarrett at the end of the book is proof this is so.

Book Details:

Sunshine by Jarrett J. Kroscoczka
New York: Graphix,      2023
240 pp.

Blood of Troy by Claire M. Andrews

Daphne has returned to Sparta after her successful mission to return to the gods, the Muses, caretakers of the Garden of the Hesperides. They had been stolen by the gods, Ares, Hermes and Nyx, and Daphne returned them to Olympus. This restored power to the gods.

After a poor performance training against Lykou, Daphne finds herself called back by the goddess of the hunt, Artemis, to her palace. Many of the gods are present including Demeter, Aphrodite, Poseidon, Athena, Hades, Hephaestus, Hera, and Apollo. Zeus tells Daphne that there will be a competition in Sparta to be a part of Queen Helen's personal guard and they want her to win it. Zeus wants her to protect his daughter, Queen Helen, who he believes is in danger. King Menelaus has called all the Achaean kings to Sparta for a conclave and when all the rulers of Greece are present, the gods believe that Nyx will seek her revenge.

Daphne returns to the home of her adopted parents, Revna and Ephor Apidanos Diodorus. They inform her that there is to be agon tomorrow. For her brother Pyrrhus, the agon is a chance to redeem himself from being the Deserter of Carneia. Daphne is overjoyed until she realizes that it is she who must win the agon.

As expected, Daphne wins the agon, but just barely, defeating Pyrrhus, who is furious. However, before she moves to the palace, Daphne is visited by the Moirai, "the keepers of destiny and children of Nyx" Each Fate shows Daphne a part of the future. 

The first Fate shows her a bloody battlefield strewn with corpses from Sparta, Tenedos, Athenia and Mycena. The second Fate, Lakhesis tells Daphne "There is a great war on the horizon, like none Greece has ever known. All the kingdoms from every corner of this world will take part and stake their claim. Should you fail in the task assigned to you by the gods, that which you love most will meet its end right here on this battlefield. The Sparta you know will be gone forever more on the bloody fields of Troy."  The third Fate, Atropos tells her they will welcome their destruction and that she will be the ruin of Olympus.  Klotho, the oldest Fate asks her to protect Troy when she fails to protect her queen. Daphne is devastated by what the Fates have revealed to her. And her horror is only compounded by a dream in which Nyx appears and she sees the kings of Greece all murdered on the palace floor.

Daphne quickly discovers that Menelaus, the husband of Queen Helen is a cruel man, determined to control who Helen sees and where she goes. Helen, who is half-sister to Artemis and Apollo, and has a daughter, Hermione, considers the palace her prison. King Menelaus is not friendly towards Daphne. 

Soon the kings from across Greece begin arriving: first  to arrive is Odysseus, Anax of Ithaca, followed by Achilles of Phthia and his Myrmidons, then Alcimedes of Locris, Ajax of Salamis, King Nestor and his sons, and Ariadne Princess of Crete along with the gods Dionysus disguised as Dion of Phrygia and Apollo as Appollodoris. They are followed by the Trojans, dark-haired Hector and golden-haired Paris, two sons of Priam King of Troy. The last person to arrive is Theseus of Athens, who supposedly Daphne killed.

The purpose of the conclave is to arrange potential trades in exchange for the Trojans dropping the Hellesport tax. To the surprise of the Achaeans, the Trojans accept their offer and agree to lift the tax. However, Daphne makes two discoveries that night. Theseus whom she killed is actually Ares, the god of war, and King Menelaus and his hateful brother Agamemnon are plotting a war with Troy. With the Trojans agreeing to lift the tax, initiating a war is now much more difficult. King Menelaus, Agamemnon and Ares decide the only way to bring about war is to capture the Trojan princes who are staying with Daphne's father and family. King Menelaus gives the order to kill the ephor -and his family. 

Horrified, Daphne goes to tell Helen and sends Apollo to warn her father. Helen and Daphne arrive at her father's home, only to find that the Achaeans are only doors away. Daphne learns that her adoptive father is actually Peneios, the river god. Peneios tells the group that the only way to flee Sparta for Troy is by the river Eurotas. The group is pursued to the banks of the river by Ares, Melenaus and the soldiers. At the river Penois won't reveal the name of Daphne's father, but Ligeia tells her that when the Midas Curse is removed, her questions will be answered.

At the river bank, Daphne, Helen, Paris, Hector and Lykou flee in a boat while Penois, Revna, her maid Ligeia and Lykou's family  flee into the forest around Gythium. They are pursued by Ares and the Achaean soldiers. Daphne, Helen, Paris and Hector all manage to flee Sparta. Helen is distraught over leaving her young daughter Hermione. 

Daphne is taken to the wooded throne room in the pantheon. Hera the Queen of Olympus, Dionysus, Athena, Hephaestus, Poseidon, Zeus, Hades and other gods including Apollo, are present. Daphne begs the gods to stop the war but they refuse, telling her there are darker powers at work. Zeus tells Daphne she has failed to protect Helen, instead drawing her into the war. The gods are divided, some side with Zeus, other with Apollo and Daphne. Zeus, furious at Apollo siding with Daphne, binds his son's power. 

When Daphne returns to Earth she finds herself in the beautiful city of Troy. King Priam allows Helen to choose to stay or leave, and Helen decides to stay. Soon after Penthesila, Queen of the Amazons, her sister Hippolyta, along with the Amazons arrive in Troy. Hippolyta reveals that they have heard rumours of Helen being seduced and kidnapped by a Trojan prince. Soon Troy's other allies begin arriving.

As Troy heads towards war, Daphne must not only protect Helen but also deal with the schemes of the gods as they take sides in the war.  Daphne knows the walls of Troy were given a special power by Apollo to protect the city, which can only fall if the invader is invited inside. However, Daphne begins to understand that Troy's walls are protecting something being kept inside from being removed. Too late, Daphne uncovers what that secret is, and its unleashing leads to the destruction of Troy and much that she holds dear.

Discussion

Blood of Troy is the middle novel in the Daughter of Sparta series by Claire M. Andrews. It continues the saga of Daphne Diodorus, who is now tasked to protect Queen Helen of Sparta, but finds herself drawn into the Trojan War.

To understand the relationship between the many characters in this novel, it is helpful to understand some of Greek mythology. It's possible to read the novel without having this background but it makes the novel more enjoyable if the reader already has some knowledge of the gods and goddesses and their relationships to one another. Andrews does incorporate explanations within her novel of the Olympians and the Titans and events like the Titanomachy but a Foreword would also have been helpful in this regard.

The Titans were the twelve children of Uranus and Gaia. There were six sons: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus and Cronus and six daughters: Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys. Uranus and Gaia also birthed the Hecatonchires and Cyclopes. The first generation of Olympians, Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Hestia (Dionysus), Demeter and Hera were the result of the union of Cronus with his older sister Rhea. 

After the birth of these children, they decided not to have anymore children. When Uranus imprisoned six of their children in the Earth along with several of the Hecatonchires and Cyclopes, Gaia asked her other Titan children to help free them but only Cronus agreed to help because he wanted to rule the cosmos. Gaia wanted him to castrate Uranus, which Cronus agreed to do and accomplished with a special adamantine sickle! Cronus then became ruler of the Titans. Uranus cursed Cronus, that his own children would rebel against him.

Cronus, fearful of the curse, swallowed each of his children as they were born. But his wife, Rhea was able to save her youngest child, Zeus who grew to manhood. Zeus tricked his father into vomiting up Zeus's siblings. They, along with the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes, rebelled against Cronus and the Titans. After ten years of war, called the Titanomachy,  Zeus and the Olympians were victorious. The major Titans were imprisoned in Tartarus (a type of dungeon of torture) with the Hecantonchires as their guards.

In her Author's Note, Andrews asks, "What is the true story of Helen of Troy?...In actuality, we do not know much about the Trojan War, other than that the archeological evidence points to a war between the Achaeans (known then as Ahhiyawa) and Troy (known then as the city of IIius/Wilusa)..." From her considerable research, Andrews "sought to create a story that was both authentic and original, that does not diminish the myth that has persevered for many millennia, and that would still be a new experience for readers." 

In Blood of Troy, the story of the Trojan War is told from the perspective of a female warrior, Daphne Diodorus. who is an acclaimed Spartan warrior. It also includes other female characters, including Helen Queen of Sparta, Hippolyta and Penthesila of the Amazons, as well as the goddess of the night, Nyx. The retelling is fresh and engaging. Helen does not flee Sparta with her lover Paris, but flees while helping save two of the Trojan princes, Paris and Hector, as well as Daphne and her family who have been hosting the princes. In the novel, as in the Iliad, the gods take sides in the war, some helping Sparta and others like Apollo, Artemis, and Demeter on the side of Troy. The wooden horse, given as a departing gift to Troy by the Spartans, never enters the city unopened. In Blood of Troy, Daphne warns against bringing the wooden horse into the city and instead the Trojans set fire to it outside the gates, exposing the hidden Achaeans within, who are then taken prisoner. While the Spartans do massacre the Trojans, the city is destroyed when Pandora's jar containing Nyx's family is inadvertently uncovered by Daphne.

In Greek mythology, the gods are often busy interfering in the lives of humans, sometimes helping them, other times creating chaos. And in the novel,  the Trojan War is one such event where they interfere in a big way. When Daphne asks the gods of Olympus to help stave off a war between Sparta and Troy they refuse, telling her there are darker forces at work. Lykou  notes the absence of funeral games, their brilliant leader Paidonomos Leonides and the unusual Spartan battle formations, suggesting something evil is in the Achaean camps. When Nyx appears on the battlefield, Daphne begins to suspect that she is working for the downfall of Troy, but to what end she doesn't know. 

Between the deadly skirmishes, Daphne must deal with various gods who are either trying to help or hinder her. Some of the gods help her: Apollo gives Daphne a bangle to wear around her bicep with golden stones that glow different colours. This bangle, he tells her, will protect her when she cannot, and does save her life. Hermes takes her to the island of Lemnos where the god Hephaestus makes her armor and weapons to fight the gods. He also trains Daphne further, so she will be able to fight Ares who has already challenged her.  Other gods are more interested in killing her, including Hera, Ares and Nyx.

Since the Trojan War takes up much of the novel, the story features Daphne in battles against both Spartans and various gods with plenty of blood, gore and death.  Daphne, who is an accomplished Spartan warrior, has struggled all her life to be accepted in her adopted home of Sparta. She doesn't know the identity of her father, which adds to her internal conflict. In addition to this, she must deal with the gods who continue to ask for her help, while never fully divulging their reasons. Her devotion and loyalty to her family comes into conflict because of the tasks the Olympians set for her. By the time Troy falls, she feels she has betrayed by everyone she loves. 

Andrews offers her readers a map of the Greek world and of the city of Troy. Historical fiction should seek to portray the setting as accurately as possible and Andrews definitely accomplishes this. At a whopping 461 pages, Blood of Troy is not a quick read, but it is exciting, filled with action, and a touch of romance. Blood of Troy is suitable for older teens and those adults who love Greek mythology.

Book Details:

Blood of Troy by Claire M. Andrews
New York: Little, Brown and Company     2022
461 pp.

Family Style by Thien Pham

Thien Pham's very first memory was of when he was five years old and his parents, Ha and Quang and his younger brother were in a boat on the sea, fleeing Vietnam. His mother told him not to drink the sea water as it would only make him more thirsty. There was no more food or water and their boat was falling apart. They encountered a large boat that offered them food and water if they paid for it. Thien remembers the delicious watermelon he was given on the big boat. But he and his family were put back on their rickety boat because of threats from pirates.

A pirate boat attacked their small boat. During the attack, Thien's mother held him and told him to keep his eyes closed. Afterwards, Thien remembered the delicious rice ball his mother had saved from the larger ship: "the saltiness of the fish, the sweetness of the rice." Eventually they made it to shore and were bused to Songkhla refugee camp, home to over six thousand, five hundred refugees. Thien's family was able to get housing by paying for it.

At Songkhla, Thien meets Tuan whose family has been at the camp for a long time. Tuan shows Thien around the camp and helps him settle in. Meanwhile his parents get some clothing and food. To earn some money, Thien's father buys a banh cuon stall from Tuyet, a refugee woman leaving the next day for Australia. Tuyet teachers Thien's mother how to make banh cuon. For three months the Phams operate the stall until they are eventually chosen to go to America. 

They arrive in San Jose, California where they are met by the man who sponsored them. Russ takes them to his apartment and cooks them a steak dinner. They stay with Russ for two weeks. Then while unsuccessfully trying to hail a taxi after visiting the Social Security office, Ha and Quang met Nhan, a Vietnamese man who has been in the United States for three years. He explains that many Viet refugees live in a low-income apartment complex, take classes in the day and work at night.

When Russ's landlord tells him the Vietnamese must leave or he will be evicted, the Phams move into an apartment in Nhan's building. There Thien meets his old friend Tuan from the refugee camp. He introduces Thien to potato chips.

Discussion

In Family Style, Thien Pham's graphic memoir tackles the refugee experience from a different perspective, that of foods he experienced along his journey. Each stage of Pham's journey from fleeing Vietnam in a rickety boat, to life in a refugee camp, beginning again in America, growing up as a teenager and even working as a teacher, is defined by a memorable meal or food.

On the refugee boat, the tasty rice ball comes to represent survival, while in Songkhla refugee camp the delicious banh cuon comes to represent hope in the future. When they arrive in San Jose, Russ's steak dinner serves as a welcome to a new land, while the potato chips that Tuan introduces Thien to come to represent some of the good things Thien and his family are experiencing in America. The delicious strawberries that Thien and his family taste after working so hard during the night to pick them, signify the hard work his family must do to stay afloat in America. The Salisbury steak that Thien samples at school and does like signifies the adjustments he and his family will have to make to fit in. Sharing com tam dac biet with his special friend Linda, remind Pham of his heritage and this reminder comes years later when Thien becomes an American citizen and celebrates with his parents and a dinner of his favourite foods, ca kho and rau muong. 

Amidst all these memories of food, Thien Pham and his family struggle to attain the "American dream", opening a croissant restaurant that morphs into a video store.  Meanwhile Thien is shown to experience all the struggles of fitting in with peers that most teens do, working a job, attending high school, and dealing with a first crush.

Despite all the challenges Thien Pham and his family faced, Family Style captures a spirit of joy, hope and sense of family that many Viet refugees brought to America and Canada. Pham's memoir highlights how Viet families helped one another, from those who swam out from shore at the refugee camp every time a new boat appeared, to the children who helped new arrivals settle into camp or at school in America, to how families helped one another to survive and achieve success in a new country by finding housing and work.

This engaging and heartwarming graphic novel is for fans of When Stars Are Scattered, American Born Chinese and other stories of the refugee experience. 

Book Details:

Family Style. Memories of an American from Vietnam by Thien Pham
New York:  First Second     2023
235 pp.

One Last Shot by Kip Wilson

Gerda Pohorylle lives in Stuttgart, Germany with her parents, Heinrich and Gisela and her two younger brothers, Oskar and Karl, her Tante Terra and her husband, Onkel Moritz. Gerda's father runs a delivery business.

In 1921, eleven-year-old Gerda is aware that the Jews are being blamed for anything that goes wrong, including Germany losing the First World War. Her Tante Terra tells her to be her true self at home but to blend in outside the home in "German spaces". Gerda is the only Jewish girl in her class at the Konigin-Charlotte-Realschule. There, she fits in fine during the weekdays, but on Saturdays when attending school in the morning, her Shabbat duties mark her as different.

In 1925, Onkel Moritz hires Gerda's papa as a permanent employee in his delivery business. Gerda also becomes friends with Meta Schwarz, whose flat she visits everyday after school. In her teen years, Gerda begins to realize that she also wants to please herself and not just her parents.

In September of 1927, Gerda along with Meta, attends finishing school in Switzerland. Her tuition to the Villa Florrisant in Chamblandes-Pully is paid for by Tante Terra. At Villa Florrisant  the two girls discover "the sanctuary of their dreams".  Gerda dreams of making a future for herself and sees the school as helping her to do that. She excels in languages, becoming fluent in French and English, while also learning a bit of Spanish.

After returning home to Stuttgart, Gerda is noticed by a tall, young man named Hans Bote, while playing tennis with Meta. Hans, who is called Pieter, is not Jewish and works as a salesman for an American company. Despite the fact that neither her parents nor Tante Terra like him, Gerda agrees to many Pieter. However, when her father moves the family to Leipzig to expand the family business, their relationship becomes a long-distance one.

In Leipzig in 1929, Gerda falls in with intellectuals and fellow Jews, becoming politically involved and learning about the dangers of nationalism and the Nazis. She becomes involved in Leipzig's left-wing youth movement where she meets one of it's leaders, Georg Kuritzkes. After visiting Stuttgart, Gerda breaks off her engagement to Pieter.

After the stock market collapse of 1929 and into 1930, Gerda finds herself attending political rallies for equality and workers' rights, to abolish Nazism, fascism and nationalism. But the results of the Reichstag elections of 1930 see a weakening center and the Nazis gaining strength. By 1933, Hitler is appointed Chancellor and Gerda and others now focus on resistance, posting anti-Nazi posters and distributing flyers. Gerda's brothers are soon involved.

In March 1933, the Gestapo come for Oskar but take Gerda in his place when he's not home. She is held for three weeks at Gestapo headquarters before being released at the intercession of a Polish diplomat. Gerda learns that the Nazis have ordered a one day boycott of Jewish businesses. Her papa begins liquidating his business so the Nazis can't take it away. Gerda's parents now want her to leave Germany. Karl and Oskar tell her that they will help their parents survive.

In September 1933, Gerda heads to Paris, France leaving behind her family and friends. She shares an apartment with her friend Ruth Cerf, finds a job as a secretary, and spends time meeting people at the Paris cafes.

 In August 1934, Hitler is now President of the Reich as well as Chancellor. In September, Ruth insists that Gerda accompany her to a small park in Montparnasse, where a photographer, Andre Friedmann wants to photographer her. Gerda and Andre experience an immediate attraction to one another and begin to develop a friendship. At this time, Gerda is involved somewhat with Willi Chardack, a friend from Leipzig, with Pieter who visits her in Paris, and with Georg whom she visits in Italy. However, their common Jewish ancestry, and their desire "to do something big in this world" leads them to fall in love and into a partnership. With Andre, Gerda becomes a photojournalist, determined to capture the reality of war and fascism, no matter the personal cost.

Discussion

Gerda Taro's story is told by Kip Wilson in free verse, in seven parts titled Beginnings, Growing Up, Change, Independence, Partners, Success, and Extremes. Wilson, an amateur black-and-white photographer knew of Robert Capa but had never heard of Gerda Taro (Gerta Pohorylle).

To pen One Last Shot, Wilson had to rely on Gerda's biographers, Irme Schaker and Jane Rogoyska who wrote about many of the events portrayed in this novel. As a result, One Last Shot is not a biography but more a fictionalized account of Gerda's life. Primary sources for the life of Gerda Taro were quite limited as none of her family survived the Holocaust, and she left no diaries or correspondence.

In One Last Shot, Wilson portrays Gerda as a free-spirited young woman, full of adventure and determination. Wilson's poetry captures Gerda's zest for life, shown by the many friends she had. What is surprising was her involvement with many men at a time when society was still very conservative regarding women. She loved the cultures of the countries she visited and hated what fascism was doing to the people of Europe. Because of this, Gerda was determined to fight fascism any way she could. This resistance began with protests and joining groups but eventually Gerda became aware of the power of the photograph to show the realities of fascism, nationalism and war. 

Wilson captures Gerda's increasing disregard for the dangers present on the battlefield - the one last shot always being her goal. Unfortunately, this disregard for her own safety would result in her horrific and untimely death. But Robert and Gerda's style of photo-journalism would soon become the norm during most of the conflicts in the 20th century. It would allow the world to witness the reality of war, which continued to be glamorized.

Wilson's Authors Note, which details the inspiration behind the novel, also discusses fact vs. fiction in the novel and provides information on the Spanish Civil War and how Gerda's life came to light. Wilson also offers a list of the major characters in the story in Dramatis Personae, a Selected Sources listing, and a Glossary of German, French and Spanish terms used.

One Last Shot is highly recommended for readers who are interested in learning about amazing women trailblazers in the last one hundred years.

Book Details:

One Last Shot by Kip Wilson
New York: Versify      2023

405 pp.