Kill Her Twice by Stacey Lee

It is a Saturday in October 1932, and Gemma Chow and her older sister May are on their way out of City Market in Los Angeles to try to sell their flowers elsewhere. Only a third of their inventory has sold this morning. May (Mei Wun), Gemma ( Gam Wun), and Peony (Pan Wun) are the three Chow sisters. This morning nineteen-year-old May and Gemma are leaving Ba's flower stand to try their luck at wealthy Westlake Park. They have left school and taken over Ba's flower business as he is in a sanatorium sixty miles away in the San Bernardino desert to recuperate from tuberculosis.  Ba, who was not yet forty years old, had been coughing up blood. 

The two sisters drive to Westlake in Ba's Ford Runabout pickup and set up a stand. Gemma decides they will quadruple their prices. It's the Depression and few are buying flowers. Although they get harassed by the police about not having their permit, Gemma and May make fourteen dollars.

When they return home, Ma tells May that the Moy's who live in Pasadena on their own ranch and own a canning company by the Los Angeles River, are interested in May marrying their son, Wallace. He's now graduated from U.C.L.A. in some science program. May agrees to meet him.

The next day Gemma and May drive to their flower supplier, Angel Barajas. As they help him load up their truck, Angel tells them he will be switching to grow vegetables in the spring. At least they can eat the ones they don't sell. Meanwhile Gemma has the idea to sell chrysanthemum tea, but May isn't supportive of this idea.

Back in Chinatown, the two sisters are preparing the flowers for sale in the abandoned horse lot, when Gemma notices there are flies buzzing near the door to the stables.  Gemma is determined to investigate, but May is hesitant. To their shock, they discover the body of Lulu Wong, a famous movie star from Chinatown. May was two years behind Lulu in school but they became best friends at age twelve while in a school play. Two year later, Lulu auditioned for a part and soon became famous. Her ma and younger sister live with her in a nice home in Beverly Hills.

The murder couldn't have come at a worse time. Los Angeles wants to demolish Chinatown because it is seen as an area of the city that is dirty and sinister. The city has an order requiring the three major railroads build a union train station on land in Chinatown. However, the railroad magnates are against it and are supporting the Chinese. 

May and Gemma make their way to One Dragon Grocery to use Mr. Yam's telephone to contact the police. Detective Mallady arrives with a young officer, Officer Kidd. He decides that Lulu died in the last six to twelve hours and notes the cut on the side of her head. When Gemma wonders if she was poisoned like Dixie Doors, a beauty pageant winner from Glendale, Mallady is doubtful. His suggestion that Lulu was meeting a lover annoys Gemma who knows that "Lulu had been a dutiful and virtuous daughter.." when she had known her. Gemma notices what appears to be blood on the right sleeve of the cream pantsuit Lulu is wearing. Mallady is not convinced this is a murder, suggesting that Lulu may have wandered in drunk and hit her head. To this Gemma informs Mallady that Lulu was a Buddhist who didn't drink. Gemma tells Mallady that she hopes he won't rest until he finds the killer.

Gemma takes "the Mule" into Westlake to sell their flowers as planned. When the jalopy breaks down, she encounters Dr. Frederick Winter who helps her get her vehicle repaired and recover from her dizzy spell. They discuss Lulu's death and he tells her that the medical examiner should "do a thorough examination, including toxicology reports."  Fearing that Lulu's murder will not be solved but used as the final blow to demolish Chinatown, Gemma and May set out to uncover the truth and in the process reveal many secrets.

Discussion

In her newest novel, Kill Her Twice, Stacey Lee has crafted an engaging historical murder mystery set in Chinatown, Los Angeles in 1932. The story centers around the murder of a young Chinese American actress, Lulu Wong who has quickly risen to fame in Hollywood by playing a villain. Fearful that her murder will be ignored because she is Chinese, Lulu's old friends, May and Gemma Chow are determined to solve it.

The story is told by May and her younger sister Gemma who have taken over their ailing father's flower business. Lulu's murder is set in 1932, prior to the destruction of Old Chinatown which began in 1933. Old Chinatown and City Market were the two main areas where Chinese Americans lived. The roads were unpaved, with few street lamps and overcrowded housing in Old Chinatown. Many of the children in Old Chinatown played in the playground near the old horse stables featured in Lee's story. Chinese Americans faced serious racial discrimination and even violence. In Kill Her Twice, Lee refers several times to the Massacre of 1871 in which eighteen Chinese were lynched by a mob after a policeman and civilian were shot during a gang gunfight. It was one of the worst lynchings in American history.

In the 1930's, Chinese could not become American citizens, and they couldn't own land. They also were restricted in where they could live, if not by deeds, by discrimination. Despite this, the Chinese community flourished, running successful businesses, forming associations that helped families, and expanding. At its height, there were restaurants, temples, a Chinese opera, and even a telephone exchange. But as Chinatown expanded it was soon adjacent to where several rail lines met. The city of Los Angeles soon wanted the land Chinatown occupied for a train station that would service three train lines. Eventually most of Chinatown was razed, with the exception of the Garnier Building (also mentioned in the  novel). As the Old Chinatown was destroyed, a New Chinatown was eventually created on vacant land owned by the Santa Fe Railway. 

In Lee's novel, she imagines the conflict between the Chinese who want to save their homes and community, and the businessmen and civic leaders of Los Angeles who want their land for Union Station. It is this conflict that forms the backdrop for Lulu Wong's murder. In Kill Her Twice, Lee has Otis Fox of Fox Cosmetics and head of the Take Back L.A. Committee as the leading advocate for the building of Union Station.  He considers Chinatown a den of thieves and wants it demolished. 

Gemma and May Wong want to solve Lulu's murder, not only because Lulu was a friend but because they also believe her murder will confirm Otis Fox's view of the Chinese community and fuel the determination to demolish Chinatown. It will also further feed racial discrimination against the Chinese in Los Angeles. They worry that all of these factors may leave the police unwilling to solve her murder.

May worries that Lulu's death will simply be written off because she's Chinese. She is reluctant to return to the horse lot where Lulu's body lies because . "I didn't want to see Lulu like that again, dehumanized. A victim. It was bad enough that someone had killed her...A second death would come in the form of scandal, her twisted body held up for viewing like some circus sideshow, her fame recast as a cautionary tale. They would kill her twice."  Gemma believes that if Lulu's murder isn't quickly solved, people will believe that Chinatown murdered her. She is determined to solve Lulu's murder because "...looking out for Lulu Wong means looking out for Chinatown." 

The two sisters work diligently and relentlessly over the week following Lulu's murder to uncover the truth. They boldly attend the Pannychis as flower vendors with the intent on determining whether Otis Fox is attempting to bribe Officer Mallady. Gemma sneaks into the Hall of Justice and manages to take the carbon paper from the autopsy report which ends up providing a significant and surprising clue about Lulu. (Will young readers know what a carbon paper is?) May and Gemma also decide to take the risky chance to audition as Chinese extras only to have May offered a job as an actress to fill in Lulu's part.

Gemma and May are recruited by Clifford Joust, head of the grand jury investigating corruption in Los Angeles, to attend a soiree at Otis Fox's home to determine if he has a stolen painting. May's new status as an actress, make attending the soiree a possibility and offers the sisters a chance to investigate the Foxs more closely. If he has the painting, it is proof that he is involved in the corruption. The soiree not only confirms Fox's involvement in shady dealings but leads May directly to Lulu's killer.

Kill Her Twice has many twists and turns. Readers will find themselves suspecting different characters as the Chow sisters consider who might have wanted Lulu dead. Lee has crafted two determined, intelligent but distinct heroines in Gemma and May Chow. While May seems to be the more dutiful daughter, it turns out she has her own ideas about her life. Determined not to be forced into a marriage, she suggests to Wallace Moy that they pretend date. She also accepts the offer of Lulu's part, mainly to help support their family as they face the inevitable move from Old Chinatown. Gemma takes the lead in the investigation, showing resourcefulness and courage.. The incident involving Gemma hiding in the coroner's office to obtain the carbon paper of the coroner's report was well done and the novel could have been much improved with more situations like this. 

Although we never really meet Lulu in the novel, except in flashbacks, Lee writes in her Author's Note that the character was loosely inspired by Anna May Wong (1905-1961), considered the first Chinese American Hollywood movie star. Her career was comprised of mostly "stereotypical and frequently villainous roles". Lee also chose to feature "the razing of Los Angele's Old Chinatown in the 1930's because it was the perfect example of the power of publicity to erase a community. Voteless and unable to own land, the Chinese were at the whim of booster literature from newspapers like the Los Angeles Times and tourism brochures, which depicted them favorably or unfavorably, depending on the city's developmental agenda." The Chinese had no say in what would happen to their community when the railroad heads and the city officials battled it out for Union Station.

Fans who enjoy historical murder mysteries will find Kill Her Twice an interesting read that succeeds in portraying this small slice of Chinese American history. 

Book Details:

Kill Her Twice by Stacey Lee
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons     2024

390 pp.

The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez

The undocumented immigrant experience is told in this graphic novel memoir by Francisco Jimenez. 

Under The Wire

Francisco Jimenez lived in a small village, El Rancho Blanco, located several miles north of Guadalajara, Mexico. His father often spoke about crossing "La Frontera" - the border between Mexico and the state of California. Life is difficult in their village. Francisco and his older brother, Roberto had to do chores at four in the morning, sleep on dirt floors and use candles. Finally one day Francisco and his family take the bus to Guadalujara and then a train to Mexicali. They crossed "under the wire" into the United States during the night and were picked up by a woman in a truck. She took them to Guadalupe, a small town on the coast of California where they could work picking strawberries. However, there was no work for Francisco's family for two weeks.

Soledad

In Bakersfield, Francisco is left in the family's old jalopy to care for his six month old brother, Trampita while Papa, Mama and Roberto work to pick cotton. Francisco is lonely and tries to learn how to pick cotton, risking his family's job and leaving Trampita crying.

Inside Out

In this chapter, Francisco and his older brother Roberto attend school while the family is living in Santa Maria. It is late January and the family has just finished picking cotton in Corcoran.  Francisco is enrolled in Miss Scalapino's Grade 1 class. He cannot understand English but Francisco loves doing art every afternoon. One of his drawings wins first prize.

Miracle in Tent City

Francisco's family moved to a tent city in rural Santa Maria that was owned by Sheehey Strawberry Farms. This was a farm-worker labour camp comprised mostly of single men who like the Jimenez family had crossed illegally into America. In the camp, Francisco's mother had a baby, Juan Manuel whom they named Torito because he was ten pounds! When Torito was two months old he became very ill with a high fever. The family prayed to the Virgen de Guadalupe. No remedies seems to work, not even a healer they brought it. Eventually Torito had to be taken to the hospital. He eventually recovered as the family continued to pray.

El Angel de Oro

Corcoran in the cotton season is always rainy but one year it was very rainy. Francisco met Miguelito who was two years older and living in the same camp. The walked to school together and Francisco looked forward to seeing him again. However, he never saw Miguel after that day. Instead, Francisco spend the days saving the fish from the overflowing creek next to the camp, who were suffocating in the mud.

Christmas Gift

It is December and Francisco's parents are preparing to leave Corcoran. He overhears his parents telling a couple with a baby that they cannot purchase the beautiful handkerchief the wife has embroidered.  His family, now consisting of Papa, Mama, Roberto, Trampito, Torito and baby Ruben, move to Visalia where they are offered a tent and work in the cotton fields. At Christmas, the children get bags of candy while Mama is given the beautiful embroidered handkerchief they purchased from the poor couple.

Death Forgiven

In this short story, Francisco's beloved red, green, and yellow parrot named El Perico suffers an untimely demise. El Perico was attached to a cat, Catalina, who belonged to another migrant couple. When they came to visit without Cataline, El Perico began squawking and Francisco's father hit the bird and killed it. Although Francisco was devastated he prayed for his father.

Cotton Sack

Francisco's family left Mr. Jacobson's vineyards in Fresno to move to the cotton fields of Corcoran. The family now has a daughter, Rorra. As his parents prepared cotton sacks for work, Francisco also wants to help pick but doesn't have a sack. As the family continues to look for more work picking cotton, Francisco is determined to prove to Papa that he deserves his own sack. But when he does pick cotton with its prickly leaves, his hand are injured and he realizes he's not ready yet.

The Circuit

After strawberry season is over in Santa Maria, they move again finding work in the vineyard of Mr. Sullivan. After grape season is over, Francisco can attend school so he enters Mr. Lema's sixth grade class. Mr. Lema becomes Francisco's best friend, helping his with his English during lunch hour. One day he offers to teach Francisco how to play trumpet but Francisco's joy is shortlived. When he arrives home, he sees the packed boxes and knows the family is readying to move once again.

Learning the Game

In this story, school ends for the summer for Francisco, but he also knows he won't be returning until November, after strawberry season in Santa Maria, grapes in Fresno and cotton picking in Corcoran. When Francisco accompanies a new worker, Gabriel to help a sharecropper who is ill, the contratista, Mr. Diaz treats the new worker badly. Gabriel refuses to be treated like an animal and stands up to him. Later on , Francisco stands up to Carlos who won't allow Manuelito to play "kick the can" with them. While Francisco succeeds, Gabriel is fired and sent back to Mexico.

To Have and To Hold
Francisco had a penny collection that included an 1865 Indian head penny and a 1910 Lincoln head penny. He was very proud of this collection especially since the 1910 penny was given to him by Papa. It was made the year his Papa was born and also the year of the revolution in Mexico. The 1865 penny had come from a friend, Carl, whom Francisco befriended in fifth grade in Corcorcan. Francisco also had a treasured notebook that he had found in the city dump in Santa Maria. He used the notebook to write down new words and their definitions, as well as math and grammar rules to be memorized. One day after picking grapes for Mr. Patrini in Orosi, Francisco arrived home to discover his penny collection gone. His four year old sister Rorra had used them for the gum machine in the store. Although he was angry, his mother's story about the value of people before money helped calm him. In the end, Francisco and his family lost everything due to a fire in their house. Later Francisco was able to put the losses in perspective.

Moving Still

In this final story, Roberto is the only one working, as Francisco's papa is laid up because of a bad back. Torito, Trampito, Rorra, Ruben and Francisco are in school. But the la migra, or Immigration Law Enforcement Agents sweep through the camps and work fields. Francisco's father shows la migra his green card. They decide to return to the Bonetti Ranch in Santa Maria, moving into the rundown barracks. Roberto entered grade ten at Santa Maria High, while Francisco was in the eighth grade at El Camino Junior High. Francisco excels in school and he and Roberto work hard to help their family. But eventually la migra catch up with them too.

Discussion

The Circuit is the first graphic novel adaptation of Francisco Jimenez's autobiographical series of books. He published four books: The Circuit, Breaking Through, Reaching Out and Taking Hold. Each document a specific part of his life.

Francisco Jimenez was born in Tlaquepague, Mexico in 1943. He lived in the small town of El Rancho Blanco in the state of Jalisco, Mexico until he was four years old. At this time his family entered the United States illegally and worked as migrant farm workers. Because they moved frequently, Francisco attended school sporadically until he and his family were deported back to Mexico when he was in grade eight. They returned to the United States legally a few months later, settling as farm workers at Bonetti Ranch. 

With his family now settled in one place, Francisco was able to complete his high school education. He attended Santa Clara University earning a B.A. in Spanish Studies in 1966. He attended Columbia University on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship earning both an Masters and Ph.D in Latin American Literature. Francisco became and American citizen in his junior year at Santa Clara and he also met his future wife, Laura Facchini there. Francisco taught first at Columbia University and then moved to Santa Clara University where he taught in the Department of Modern Languages and Literature until 2015.

His four books document the experience of migrant workers in America. In the graphic novel adaptation of The Circuit, Francisco Jimenez portrays the difficult life his family experienced as they worked as migrant farm labourers in California. They had left behind a life of poverty in Mexico with the belief that life in America would be economically much better. But because they were in the country illegally, poor living conditions, low wages and temporary work, and the threat of deportation were ever present.

The Circuit portrays many of the difficulties Francisco and his family faced as illegal migrant workers from the perspective of a child. In his Author's Note, Francisco writes, "It is based on my childhood experiences of growing up in a family of migrant farm workers. My intent in relating these experiences from the child's point of view is to have readers hear the child's voice, see through his eyes, and feel through his heart." This graphic novel accomplishes all of that and more in the form of thirteen short vignettes. 

 As a child of migrant farmers, Francisco struggled with the language barrier and inconsistent attendance at school. When Francisco attended school in grade one he couldn't understand his teacher because she was speaking in English. He received no help and resorted to daydreaming in order to quell his anxiety. Francisco writes "It was easier when Miss Scalapino read to the class from a book with illustrations. I would make up my own stories in Spanish, based on the pictures. Still, I wished I could understand what she was reading." It is not surprising therefore that he ended up repeating the grade. When he found a Spanish speaking friend at school, they were admonished for not speaking in English. Moves were frequent and could be sudden. For example, when Francisco's family were living in Corcoran, he began grade four but then left after three weeks when they moved to Visalia to find work. When he was older, Francisco was settling into grade six, eager to learn how to play the trumpet, only to find he must move yet again.

The graphic novel illustrates the poor living conditions endured by the migrant workers and their families: tents sometimes located near creeks that overflowed during the rainy season or near smelly dumps, abandoned or derelict wooden houses, and dilapidated garages. Francisco and his family often had to do repairs on the buildings they were given, to make them livable. While living in a tent city near Santa Maria, Francisco and his older brother, Roberto scavenged lumber from the dump to make a floor and fashion a cradle for the new baby. They would look for food in the trash behind the grocery stores so that Mama could make soup.

Despite all the hardships, Francisco and his family are a portrait of faith, perseverance, and ingenuity. When times were especially bad, Francisco and his family turned to prayer to sustain them. Francisco's mother is lovingly portrayed as the one person who was the foundation of their family, preparing delicious meals, and teaching forgiveness, love and generosity of spirit to Francisco and his siblings. They were hard-working, honest, and willing to help others, despite their extreme poverty. Like millions of Americans and Mexicans, they had dreams of a better life and willingly endured tremendous hardships in the attempt to achieve it. In his Author's Note, Francisco Jimenez writes, "I wrote The Circuit to record part of my family's history but also, and more important, to give readers an insight into the lives of migrant farmworker families from the past and the present whose hard and noble work of picking fruits and vegetables puts food on our tables. What sustains these families, toiling day after day, are their courage, faith, and hopes and dreams for a better life for their children and their children's children. Their story is an integral part of the American story." As Francisco states, he hopes The Circuit will help people understand immigrants and create empathy and respect for them.

The illustrations in the graphic memoir capture these facets of Francisco's story and make his story engaging and easy to follow. Illustrator Celia Jacobs used pen and ink on watercolor paper with digital colour. Additional artwork was painted with acrylic on paper.

Book Details:

The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez
New York: Clarion Books     2024
233 pp.

The Girl Who Fought Back: Vladka Meed and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Joshua M. Greene

Feige Peltel, known by her code name of Vladka, was headed towards Warsaw's wealthier district, hoping to sell ribbons, spools of thread and other sewing goods. Vladka's light brown hair and grey-green eyes, and the fact that she spoke fluent Polish suggested that she was not a Jew. 

It was November 1939, two months since the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and Jews now faced unending restrictions. Jews comprised almost thirty percent of Warsaw's one million residents. But now Vladka's family, like other Jews have surrendered their bicycles and radios, and can only shop during specific hours. Vladka, like other Jewish children, no longer attended school and she found her Christian friends suddenly anti-Semitic and willing to report any Jews attempting to hide their identity.

After selling some sewing supplies in Saski Park, Vladka returned to her family's apartment in the suburb of Praga where she lived with her parents, Shlomo and Hanna,  her sister Henia and her thirteen-year-old brother, Chaim. Her father, who had served in the First World War believed the Germans were good people who would not treat the Jews the way Hitler was telling them to. That was not to be.

In the summer of 1940, Jewish workers were forced by German officials to build a ten foot high brick wall around an area that is roughly one square mile. This became the Jewish ghetto. When the wall was completed in November, the Jews of Warsaw were all forced to move from their homes into the ghetto. The ghetto was soon filled with hundreds of thousands of Jews crammed into crumbling buildings. Germans guarded the entrance to the ghetto. As Vladka walked through the ghetto, "...she saw people young and old, emaciated and dying of starvation." 

Vladka found work as a cashier in a barber shop, while Henia worked in a public soup kitchen.Chaim was too young to work so he helped their mother at home. Vladka's father had tried to sell cloth from his business but he was beaten and robbed by the German police. He became depressed and then ill, contracting pneumonia. His illness and hunger eventually took its toll and he slowly died. Vladka and her family struggled to survive in the ghetto. There were reports of Jews being sent to concentration camps by train, where they were murdered.

In July 1942, the Germans announced that all Jews in the ghetto would be deported. The exception was those employed in the German workshops and in various Jewish organizations. While Henia and Vladka had work permits, her brother and mother did not. So Vladka hid them in the cellar of the soup kitchen where Henia worked. After the deportations, her mother and brother returned to their apartment. At this time Vladka lived in a separate apartment from her family in the same building. But the next morning, a second deportation began. Vladka along with the remaining Jews in her building were forced out into the street. Those with acceptable work permits were sent to the right, while those in the line on the left were to be deported. Afterwards, Vladka found her mother's apartment empty. She wept because she knew she would never see her mother or brother again.

In her grief, Vladka wondered what she should do next. She decided to join the underground with other young people who had survived the selections. There were smaller groups under the direction of a larger group called the Jewish Fighting Organization, in Polish, the Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, or ZOB. These groups helped other Jews. At first Vladka helped other Jews learn to find food and clothing or find information about missing family members. But her duties became more dangerous with time.

Vladka had a work permit for the Toebbens factory to keep her safe from deportation. Henia's job however, did not offer that protection so Vladka pleaded with her to come to her apartment overnight. However, Henia refused to abandon the children at the soup kitchen. The next day the kitchen was raided by the Germans and Vladka never saw Henia again.

As Vladka struggled with her grief, she became more involved in the underground. More and more Jews - over sixty thousand during the week of September 6 to 12, 1942, were deported from the Warsaw ghetto. In the fall of 1942, over "...265,00 Jews had been sent by train to the Treblinka death camp."  An old friend, Elie Lindner, had escaped Treblinka and returned to the ghetto. He told Vladka and her roommates about the horrors happening at Treblinka. But when her friend Kubu was deported, Vladka was inspired by Kuba's word "It's not over yet." and decided to fight back. That fight involved working to bring about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, the only significant resistance of the Jewish people during World War II.

Discussion

The Girl Who Fought Back tells the story of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising from the perspective of Vladka Meed, a real member of the Jewish resistance who survived the uprising and Holocaust.

Vladka Meed, whose given name was Feigele Peltel, was born in 1921 in Warsaw to Shlomo and Hanna Peltel. She would be the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust. Because  she had what was considered an "Aryan" appearance, and she was fluent in Polish, Vladka was given assignments that were outside the Warsaw ghetto. She was able to pass as a Christian woman for the main purpose of securing weapons for the ZOB. But she also was involved in rescuing Jewish children and placing them with Christian families and in aiding Jews in hiding within the city of Warsaw. 

Greene's account is factual, focusing on the events happening to Vladka, her family and her fellow Jews. However, The Girl Who Fought Back also manages to convey some of the intense emotions Vladka was experiencing as her family suffered through the Holocaust. The fear of being deported to camps was constant as Vladka and her family knew the trains were taking Jews to their deaths. Even the best of plans couldn't save loved ones. The relief of saving her mother and brother from one deportation, only to have them placed on a second surprise deportation was quickly replaced by intense grief. When Vladka races back to her mother's apartment only to find it empty, she weeps because she knows she will never see them again. The inability to convince her sister Henia to hide at her apartment, only to learn later that she too is taken, makes Vladka feel angry at herself for being unable to convince Henia to save herself. Other times, such as witnessing the cold blooded murder of an elderly woman walking, by an German soldier, Vladka simply doesn't react because there is nothing she can do. When she saw the cruelty of the Germans, she struggled to make sense of what she was witnessing. It was as incomprehensible then as it is now.

Vladka's continued survival, despite ongoing deportations, created a deep sense of loss, but also conflict. She wonders, "Why had she not also been deported? Why was she still alive and not them?" She like many of the survivors experienced "...a loss of hope over their fate at the hands of the Nazis."  Her increasing involvement in the resistance gave Vladka a purpose despite her knowing that the odds of dying were very high. 

When Vladka finds herself in relative safety outside the ghetto as the battle begins, she is "furious at herself" but also feels pride and frustration. She could only watch and wait.  "Vladka was one of a small group of Jews who had done everything in their power to fight the Nazis. It was a battle they knew could not be won, and now, watching atrocity after atrocity, she felt isolated, useless, and lonely. Her friends and family had been murdered, the world she once knew was gone forever, and nothing she could do would every bring it back."  Despite this, the words of ZOB Commander Mordecai Anielewicz inspired Vladka to go on, and to someday "tell the story of those who hadn't survived."

Vladka published her memoir in 1948, describing not just the horrors of the Holocaust and her experiences in the Warsaw Ghetto but also the rich life of the Jewish people prior to the war. She felt it was difficult for historians and scholars to understand what the Holocaust survivors had endured. Likewise she felt her own efforts to resist were also misunderstood. "We didn't think of ourselves as heroes. We didn't have a choice. We were doing what needed to be done, responding to what the Germans were doing to us." She felt that being seen as a hero was "...seeing with today's eyes."

The Girl Who Fought Back is a succinct retelling of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising that succeeds in portraying the desperation, determination, courage, and resourcefulness of  Vladka Meed. The last three chapters focus on the post-war period and how Vladka continued her work to tell the world about the uprising but also to teach future generations about the Jewish people and to prevent the hatred and indifference that led to the Holocaust.

Book Details:

The Girl Who Fought Back: Vladka Meed and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Joshua M. Greene

New York: Scholastic Focus    2024

142 pp.

The Bard and The Book by Ann Bausum

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. He came to be known as the Bard of Avon, or the poet from Avon. But his fame was made in London. While he worked in London, first as an actor and later as a playwright, his wife Anne and their children remained in Avon. He was also a business partner in a new theater called the Globe which competed with others like the Rose, the Curtain, and the Swan.

Shakespeare was one of many London playwrights that included Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson and John Fletcher. From 1585 to 1613, Shakespeare wrote three dozen plays including comedies, tragedies, and histories. The latter were about the English nobility and kept Shakespeare and his company of actors in favour with the English Crown. They became known as the King's Men.

To write his plays, Shakespeare used paper ink and quill pens. Although none of his original manuscripts called foul papers have survived, he plays did. It was due to theatrical scribes like Ralph Crane who transcribed the foul copies into legible copies of the playwright's original text. Each players lines were written down glued together and rolled up into a bundle for each part. These rolls came to be known as the acting role referred to today.

Many of the famous roles in Shakespeare's plays were first acted by Richard Burbage. Shakespeare wrote his characters with this actor in mind. He first portrayed Hamlet, King Lear, and the hunchbacked King Richard III. Burbage was one of the King's Men and Shakespeare trusted him to bring his characters to life. All the actors in Shakespeare's time were men; female roles were played by teenage boys or young men. 

Shakespeare returned to Avon in 1610 likely to spend time with his family. His exact date of death and the cause, is not known for certain but it is known that he was buried on April 25, 1616. 

In Shakespeare's time, "The lines of a play lived in the memories of the people who performed and watched them." The plays were written to be performed not published. And publishers did not need the playwright's permission to publish as theaters owned the scripts. However, eighteen of Shakespeare's plays were published during his lifetime as thin books called quartos. The quarto was a sheet of folded twice to make eight pages. Some of these were accurately transcribed editions, others were not and came to be known as the bad quartos.

With Shakespeare's death in 1616 and Richard Burbage's death in 1619, it would be expected that Shakespeare's plays would vanish, forgotten over time. That they did not was due to the big idea that one person Ben Johnson had: he published a book of his own poems and plays. While critics took him to task for this, other publishers had the idea to publish the entire plays of Shakespeare. And they would do it by publishing a much bigger book, the folio.

Discussion

The Bard And The Book explains how William Shakespeare's plays were saved from oblivion and passed down through the centuries to be read, studied and performed and enjoyed.

After a brief introduction to Shakespeare and his company, Bausum dives right into how early books were published in 17th century England, explaining quartos, octavos, and folios. A folio-sized sheet of paper was eighteen inches wide and fourteen inches tall. Folded in half it produced four pages in a book. When multiple sheets were folded in this way, they could be nested inside one another and sewn along the fold to create a book. In this way, the publishers created a folio of Shakespeare's works. 

As Bausum explains, using the fourteen good quartos, prompt books, the rolls, the foul papers, and possibly Ralph Crane who had copied so many of Shakespeare's plays, it was possible to assemble the plays and print them. Bausum goes on to explain whether pages were numbered using a process called signatures, how publishers assembled the books without using pagination, and how books were typeset in the 1600's using compositors. The first printing of Shakespeare's plays in 1623 has come to be known as the First Folios.

Once the First Folios were printed, who purchased them? The author explores the history of the original edition of Shakespeare's plays, including who purchased the very first copy and the unique names and characteristics of each copy. The First Folio is considered the most authentic edition because it was printed by people who knew Shakespeare. The Second Folio was published in 1632, the Third Folio in 1663 and the coveted Fourth Folio in 1685.

One interesting feature of The Bard And The Book is the hunt undertaken by literary scholars for the individual copies of the First Folio. The quest to locate any surviving copies of the First Folio really began in 1902 by British scholar, Sidney Lee. This treasure hunt, over the last century, by various researchers, has revealed two hundred thirty-five copies of the book! Many have very distinctive characteristics.

The Bard And The Book is a fascinating read that provides many interesting facts as to how books began to be published and how we now have copies of all of Shakespeare's works. Bausum's writing is informative and easy to understand with clear explanations and touch of wit. The author was inspired to research and learn more about the First Folios after being introduced to the story by the playwright Lauren Gunderson. There is also an interesting section titled, The Making of This Book which will show just how differently books are made today compared to the 1600s! There is a list of Citations From The Plays of William Shakespeare, Source Notes, Bibliography and Additional Resources for further research.

Bausum has incorporated several photographs of the Folios within her text. It's interesting to note that when she was able to actually inspect a real Folio, she wasn't required to wear protective gloves as they were considered to be more damaging than bare hands. There are red, blue and white digital illustrations by Marta Sevilla. The illustrator employed gouache and coloured pencils for the cover. The author has divided her book into five Acts, with quotes from Shakespeare's plays featured prominently. Also included is a list of Contents of The First Folio with the author noting which plays had not been previously published and therefore would have been lost to history if not included. 

The Bard And The Book adds wonderful background information to the life and works of William Shakespeare, explaining how we owe a debt to just a few forward thinking men who preserved his works for future generations of readers and actors alike.

Book Details:

The Bard And The Book by Ann Bausum
Atlanta, Georgia: Peachtree Publishing Company Inc.    2024
103 pp.

The Monarch Effect: Surviving Poison, Predators, and People by Dana L. Church

The Monarch Effect presents the remarkable story of the monarch butterfly and how we came to learn so much about this fascinating insect.

The story begins in Chapter One Baby Monarchs and Barfing Blue Jays with the life cycle of the monarch butterfly, starting with the tiny caterpillar which hatches out of a very small egg on the underside of a milkweed plant. The complex relationship between the monarch caterpillar which requires the milkweed plant to survive and the milkweed plant which needs to protect its leaves is described. Key to this relationship are the many survival strategies the monarch caterpillar has developed. These include how to circumvent the tiny spiky hairs on the milkweed leaf and the toxic white oozing liquid of the plant which also acts as a glue. There are several types of milkweed plants and the monarch caterpillars have developed strategies to survive on each. 

Each stage of the monarch caterpillar's life from its five molts to the preparations it makes to pupate, where it forms a chrysalis and undergoes metamorphosis to a butterfly are described with many interesting details.

The research of Dr. Fred Urquhart and his wife Norah are the focus of Chapter Two. Where Do They Go? Urquhart's interest in monarchs began as a boy and carried on through the rest of his life. Dr. Fred Urquhart had plenty of questions about monarch butterflies: Where do monarchs go for the winter? Do they have somewhere safe and warm to rest or do they die off? One article Fred read suggested that monarchs overwinter in Canada and the Northern United States. But he could find no evidence of this. Dr. C.B. Williams, a scientist in England, suggested "...that monarchs fly down to the Gulf Coast in Florida to overwinter and return in the spring."  In 1935, Dr. Urquhart began to investigate this theory by tagging monarch butterflies.

Eventually the Urquharts were able to develop a successful way to tag monarchs and enlist the help of volunteers across North America. They formed the Insect Migration Association and created an annual newsletter. The tagging program showed that the monarchs' flight paths began in northeast Canada and ended along the US Gulf Coast and in Texas. 

In Chapter Three More To The Story, the hard work and determination of Kenneth Brugger and a Mexican woman, Catalina Trail would provide the answer as to where the monarchs overwinter. Their work to determine the overwintering location was crucial to Fred and Norah's research. The Urquharts did not know where the monarchs travelled after they left Texas and the Gulf area. Trail and Brugger would discover two overwintering sites: Cerro Pelon and Sierra Chincua.

What followed was controversy and rivalry after Fred Urquhart published a fourteen-page article in the August 1976 issue of National Geographic magazine. The article paid only a passing mention of the work of Brugger and Trail and failed to honor the promise to keep the overwintering sites completely secret. The reality was that the Urquharts didn't "discover" the overwintering sites as it's likely the Indigenous and local people of Cerro Pelon already knew of them. After all, they cared for the forests and lived on the land.

Urquhart's article did create intense public interest from both scientists and citizens. One person deeply interested was Dr. Lincoln Brower.  In Chapter Four Squabbling Scientists, the relationship between Brower and the Urquharts is explored. What started on friendly terms quickly became a bitter rivalry as the Urquharts refused to share the location of the overwintering sites. Brower had developed a unique method of fingerprinting monarch butterflies using the cardenolide they ingested from the milkweed plants. Milkweed contains a poison in its roots, leaves, milk, seeds and nectar called cardenolides. This fingerprint  allowed scientists to determine where the monarchs had originated based on the  type of milkweed they had ingested. 

Even after the publication of the National Geographic article, the Urquharts would not reveal the location, so Brower took matters into his own hands. He used clues from the article to help: "The overwintering colony...was located on the slope of a volcanic mountain situated in the northern part of the State of Michoacan, Mexico, at a height of slightly over 3000 m." With the help of a fellow scientist, Dr. William Culvert, and topographic maps, Brower located the Sierra Chincua site. Incredibly, Brower and Culvert encountered the Urquharts at the site and an unfortunate accident that resulted in the deaths of millions of monarchs did not improve the situation. Perhaps one of Brower's most significant contributions to monarch butterfly science was the system of cardenolide "fingerprinting" he developed, which allowing researchers to determine a monarch butterfly's location of origin.

Dr. Brower and his team's research is explored in detail in Chapter Five Secrets of the Forest. Brower's research considerably expanded our knowledge "...about monarch butterflies, their predators, and the special climate of the Mexican overwintering sites." They demonstrated that importance of the oyamel forests in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt to monarch butterfly survival. His research uncovered how the monarch migration northward to Canada works. They revealed that  ",,,successive generations of monarchs lay eggs farther and farther north until they reach southern Canada." 

Chapter Six Tracking Migration, explores scientists efforts to better understand monarch migration focusing on the pace of migration and the factors that might be affecting migration. This chapter also explores research into two models, the milkweed limitation hypothesis and the migration mortality hypothesis as reasons for the decline in monarch population.

As research into monarchs expanded, scientists realized they needed to be studying more than just monarch migration, In Chapter Seven, Tracking More Than Migration, the work of several scientists including Dr. Kelsey Fisher and Dr. Karen Oberhauser is featured. Oberhauser initiated studies on monarch egg counts while Fisher, who studied movement ecology, wanted to understand how monarchs find milkweed plants, how they locate the Mexican overwintering sites for the first time and how monarchs know it's spring and time to head north again.

Chapter Eight, Monarch "Smarts" explores in greater detail the science behind monarch migration. Scientists wanted to discover how an insect with a such a tiny brain knows to fly three thousand miles south to an area approximately seventy-three miles wide. In order to understand this, researchers needed to understand monarch biology: researchers studied how their antennae functioned, the chemoreceptors and mechanoreceptors that monarchs relied on, how their eyes work and much more.

Chapter Nine Monarchs Around The World, asks the question "Where did monarch butterflies come from?" To answer this question, the fossil record is considered and genomics, the study of genes has been used to try to answer this question. This chapter also explores where other populations of monarchs are found in the world. 

The significant decline of the western monarch population which is located west of the Rocky Mountains is explored in Chapter Ten Monarch Emergencies. This population spends spring and summer in Nevada, Idaho and Oregon and overwinters along the coast of California. The chapter also considers the decline in the eastern monarch migration. 

In Chapter Eleven Living Near The Monarchy, the efforts to protect the habitat of overwintering monarchs is discussed. The work of Dr. Columba Gonzalez-Duarte has focused on evaluating the Monarch Biosphere conservation model and found it wanting. This model has led to the unintended loss of the traditional way of life for local Mexicans living on the lands and have also led to the proliferation of organized crime. This chapter outlines the many problems of the model both for the butterfly and forest conservation and for the people living in the ecosystem. Instead, Gonzalez-Duarte proposes focusing on the entire habitat instead of just one species might be more successful to saving both monarchs and Indigenous culture and way of life. 

Discussion

The Monarch Effect offers readers a deep dive into the world of the monarch butterfly and the research being done to understand this remarkable and beautiful insect. 

Dana Church provides her readers with fascinating information on almost every aspect of the monarch butterfly. The Monarch Effect opens with a detailed introduction of the life cycle of the butterfly that includes many interesting facts readers will likely not know. For example, many readers will know that the milkweed plant contains a poison, called cardenolide which is found in every part of the plant. But did you know it is also toxic to monarch larvae? Church writes, "Less than half of all monarch caterpillars survive the milkweed's latex...If the amount of latex a caterpillar ends up accidentally eating doesn't kill the, they can recover in five to ten minutes. Otherwise, they end up in a nonresponsive, coma-like state and die." The author describes the various survival strategies monarch caterpillars employ to survive on different species of milkweed and then goes on to describe the rest of the life cycle.

From this point on, the focus of The Monarch Effect is to present the incredible amount of research that has been done in the last eighty years on monarchs beginning with the initial monarch research in the early 20th century by Canadians, Fred and Nora Urquhart into where exactly monarchs overwintered. Like many other scientific endeavours, such research was not without controversy and to that end Church presents a balanced account of the rivalry between the Urquharts and Dr. Lincoln Brower, an American researcher who contributed significantly to our understanding of monarch butterflies. She also highlights the bias of this early research in believing it "discovered" the monarchs overwintering sites, which were already known to the Indigenous peoples of Mexico.

Throughout the book, Church highlights the many questions that arose as scientists learned more about monarchs. "...How do monarchs know when to start migrating? As they migrate, do they fly at a steady speed along the entire journey, or do they speed up or slow down at certain points?" How does weather impact monarch migration? Does the angle of the sun affect the migration? Other researchers wanted to know which US states monarchs arrived at first in the spring. When does the spring migration begin? Why does the timing and duration vary each spring? When the monarchs arrive in Mexico how do they choose where to roost? Do the same butterflies always roost together? How do monarchs locate milkweed plants? How do they decide on which plant to lay their eggs? As Church demonstrates, each piece of information led to more and more questions and required researchers to devise unique ways to find the answers. 

Several chapters are devoted to answering questions about the decline of monarchs and how we can best help the species recover. As with many environmental issues, the problems are complex and multi-faceted. Scientists are now advocating for a combined approach that utilizes both Indigenous and Western traditional science knowledge. It is an approach that considers not just monarchs, but the entire ecosystem and habitat, one that better integrates humans with the natural world they are a part of. This will require removing bias and require international cooperation to succeed.

The Monarch Effect is engaging and informative, written in an easy style, with understandable explanations about the complex problems facing monarch butterflies and the communities they are a part of.  The eastern monarch spans three countries, vastly different ecosystems, and different cultures. The author encourages her readers to become involved in the monarch butterfly recovery efforts by sending monarch sightings to Journey North, helping with tagging monarchs at monarchwatch.org and even counting monarch eggs and larvae through Monarch Joint Venture. The book offers websites that citizen scientists can access to become a part of this important work.

The Monarch Effect is perfect for the budding entomologist and those interested in the natural world. Church includes a detailed Glossary and an extensive References list at the back to help with further research and reading. 

Book Details:

The Monarch Effect: Surviving Poison, Predators, and People by Dana L. Church
New York: Focus Scholastics     2024
309 pp.

Olivetti by Allie Millington

In this uniquely crafted story, a typewriter, a boy and his best friend join up to find his missing mother. The story is told in the alternating voices of Olivetti, a typewriter and twelve-year-old Ernest Brindle, whose mother has suddenly gone missing.

The story begins with the introduction of Olivetti, a typewriter who has lived with the Brindle family for years. Twelve-year-old Ernest Brindle lives with his mother, Beatrice, his father Felix, his older brother Ezra, older sister Adalyn and his younger brother, Arlo. Ezra loves working out, Arlo has his frogs Chives and Pickles, and Ernest carries around a dictionary. They live in the ground floor apartment in a building called Valley View in San Francisco. 

Olivetti came to the Brindles years ago in a cardboard box and sat on Beatrice's desk until her husband,  Felix purchased a laptop for her. Three of the Brindle children had learned to spell using Olivetti rather than pen and paper. Olivetti knew three of the Brindles by their fingers and their touch. But he didn't know Ernest because he spent his time on  the roof with his red dictionary. With the arrival of the laptop, they often fought over it rather than the typewriter. 

One evening, while the Brindles were all out doing their own thing, Olivetti sees Beatrice answer her phone and rush out of the apartment. The next day she wakes early, crying. As she paces the apartment, Beatrice notices Olivetti and packs him into his carrying case. She packs her typewritten stories, memories and thoughts which she has named Tapestries into a garbage bag and throws them out. At the Heartland Pawn Shop, a visibly upset Beatrice sells Olivetti for one hundred twenty-six dollars.  

Later in the morning, the rest of the Brindle family start their day with Ernest retreating, as usual to the roof with his dictionary. When it's time to leave for school, Arlo gets Ernest from the rooftop. Inside  they hear their father, Adalyn and Ezra arguing about who will take Ernest to a new doctor, Dr. Branson, after school. Ernest hasn't spoken to his mother in seven days, after his last appointment with a different therapist. His father notes that someone has to take Ernest because Beatrice has left unusually early and has also forgotten her phone. That day while Ernest is in the middle of his presentation in Mrs. Fawn's class on the history of the dictionary, he is interrupted by Mr. Robles, the school principal. At the office, Ernest learns from his father that his mother has gone missing.

At home, Ernest and his family are in shock as they struggle to deal the Beatrice's disappearance. They spend a day putting up missing person posters. When Ernest puts up a poster outside the Heartland Pawn Shop, a girl from the shop tells him Beatrice was in the previous morning and sold them a typewriter. She tells Ernest the woman seemed very upset and sold the typewriter for a specific price. The Brindles meet with Mr. Corrie, the pawn shop owner and his daughter Quinn. It soon becomes apparent to the police that Beatrice left of her own accord.

The Brindles are upset and angry that their mother would simply leave after the "Everything That Happened".  Ernest's father tells them they must simply wait to hear from her and must carry on with their lives. But Ernest is wracked with guilt, believing that their mother may have left because of him and his refusal to deal with the "Everything That Happened" event. This leads him back to the pawn shop and his mother's typewriter. But Olivetti is no ordinary typewriter. With the help of Olivetti and his new friend, Quinn, Ernest works to solve the mystery of his mother's disappearance and in doing so finds acceptance, forgiveness and healing.

Discussion

Olivetti is a quirky, touching story about a boy struggling to cope with his mother's illness - referred to as the "Everything That Happened". Readers will not initially know why Ernest won't talk to his mother, what the "Everything That Happened" is, nor why his mother left. But as Ernest, Olivetti and Quinn work together, the backstory is revealed.

Most important to this is Olivetti, a typewriter that can communicate. Young readers who likely have never used a typewriter, will not know that Olivetti was a brand of typewriters first made in Turin, Italy in 1911. Olivetti typewriters were produced until 1994 when personal computers began to take over the market. The author uses the literary device of personification, assigning to the typewriter emotions and thoughts. It's a quaint and interesting plot device that makes this novel stand out. 

As the opening narrator, Olivetti states that Beatrice Brindle used him to record all her memories, poems and thoughts through the years on pages she called her Tapestries. He reveals that typewriters keep every word given to them and are "...a protector of memories inside... Decades' worth of words."  Olivetti also reveals that typewriters speak, using their keys to spell words into the air. This language can only be understood by other typewriters. In the pawn shop, Olivetti meets Remi, a 1947 Remington Deluxe Model 5, who is old and no longer works well. They strike up a friendship and Olivetti learns that Remi hasn't been used in years and is decline.

Olivetti also reveals that there is a typewriter code, "...to never let what has been typed into us back out. Communication with humans is strictly forbidden." Olivetti knows that breaking this code is unheard of  but when he learns that Beatrice has vanished,  he is determined to help the Brindles find her. To do that means breaking the typewriter code and "talking" to twelve-year-old Ernest Brindle. 

Ernest struggled with his mother's cancer diagnosis years ago. In his attempt to understand what was happening he turned to reading the Oxford Dictionary and eventually, on his ninth birthday requested the Physician's Desk Reference. He withdrew, often retreating to the rooftop of their apartment building to be alone. He's been to numerous therapists to help him with "Everything That Happened" without much success. The "Everything That Happened" was what Ernest was trying to forget. He also is not keen to make friends or meet new people because "Once you meet people, you might get close to them. And once you get close to them, you might lose them for good."  In this way, Ernest can avoid being hurt. He also just wants to forget, to pretend that none of it has happened.

However, it is Ernest who is determined not to sit back and wait for his mother to contact them, as his father has suggested. He feels intense guilt over her leaving, wondering if he's responsible. "What if that reason was me? The question lodged in m throat. The longer it stayed there, blocking my air, the more it seemed like the only thing that made sense. Mom spent the last few months worried about me. Taking me to therapists. Making me try new things. But maybe she got tired of trying. Maybe she got tired of me." It is Ernest who sets in motion the events that lead to his family finding Beatrice. In retrieving Olivetti, he uncovers the unusual typewriter's ability to communicate and finds a new friend in the pawn shop owner's daughter, Quinn.

The quest to find Ernest's mother draws him and Quinn into a friendship. Like Ernest, Quinn also believes she is responsible, in this case, for her parent's divorce. Over time, she has come to realize it wasn't her fault. "I know what it feels like to lose someone and not know now to get them back." With Quinn's help, Ernest begins to piece together what has happened to his mother in the days leading up to her leaving. When Ernest learns that his mother left not because of him but because her cancer has returned, he is devastated and angry. If he was to blame, it could be fixed, but with cancer, the outcome is not so certain. In his pain, he strikes out at Quinn. He doesn't want a friend, even though he realizes that Quinn is a true friend when he reads her notes in the pages of his mother's Tapestries. Her diligence tells him that she really cares about finding his mother.

Olivetti is a metaphor for Beatrice's experience in cancer treatment when he is dismantled by the artist Callum Kino. He is taken to Callum's studio warehouse and is placed "...on a long, narrow table surrounded on all sides by sharp, shining tools..." that will be used to take him apart. As this is happening, Olivetti wonders, "...Was this how Beatrice felt, when she had to lie on an operating table?" As Olivetti is examined by Callum, he wonders "Was this how Beatrice felt, during one of her many scans? An object under a microscope?" Even Ernest sees Olivetti's experience as a metaphor for his mother's cancer experience. When he sees Olivetti in Callum's studio as "...a heap of ruins" he realizes how alone and afraid the typewriter must have been, like his mother when she learned of the return of her cancer.

When Ernest loses Olivetti and rushes to the studio to retrieve him, he realizes how much he loves the typewriter and his mother. The loss of Olivetti reminds him of how much he misses and loves her and makes Ernest realize "Everything I was trying not to feel, everything I wanted to ignore..."  Olivetti has forced Ernest to confront both the reality of his mother's illness and his feelings. He has also forced the entire Brindle family to do the same. Beatrice felt she had to face the return of her cancer alone, while Ernest couldn't talk about cancer because that would make it real. Felix busied himself with work to try to forget. The entire Brindle family come to realize they have each other to draw strength from. They are not alone. And that's the main message of this novel: in our struggles and suffering we are not alone. There are always people who want to help.

In the end, Millington provides a satisfying and heartwarming conclusion to her story. Cancer is often a terrifying diagnosis, especially when it involves a parent of young children who do not have the maturity to understand the illness and process their feelings. Life suddenly changes in ways that cannot be predicted. In some ways, Olivetti is a very timely novel, given the cancer diagnosis of the Princess of Wales, who has very young children and her very public acknowledgement. Millington has taken a sensitive topic and treated with with sensitivity while infusing a touch of magical realism.

Book Details:

Olivetti by Allie Millington
New York: Feiwel and Friends     2024
249 pp.

Uprising by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Lidia Janina Durr wants to join her papa and her older brother Ryszard at the lake on this sunny first day of September. They are at her Grandfather Albin's house in the countryside near Warsaw. Her mother refused to allow her to go, saying the men are busy fishing and won't want her there. After banging out Chopin's "Minute Waltz" in rebellion against her mother, Lidia races out of the house with an egg basket. In the field she hears and then sees a plane with the Nazi cross on its wings and watches as the plane drops a bomb that destroys their barn.

After the attack, they learn from the radio that the German invasion of Poland has begun. Lidia's papa refuses to stay with Grandfather and sells their automobile to grandfather's Jewish neighbor, Mr. Adelstein. He explains that this will be a safer way to travel back to Warsaw as the Nazis will think they are important people if they use the automobile. Before they leave, Grandfather warns Lidia that when the Nazis arrive in Warsaw, she must do whatever she needs to survive. 

They return to Warsaw, where they had moved a year ago so Lidia could study music at the same university as Chopin. They find their home has survived the initial bombing, but after several days hiding in the cellar, one corner has collapsed. Lidia, Ryszard and Mama search the home for clothing and supplies. Papa decides to join the Polish army to fight the Nazis, against the wishes of his family. After Papa leaves, their family maid, Ruth Gollstein whom they call Doda , along with her mother Bubbe arrived seeking shelter. Lidia insists that they accept them, although her mother is reluctant.

On September 17 they learn that Russia has invaded from the east. Then the Nazis announce that they will release poison gas into Warsaw if the city does not surrender. Warsaw falls and the Soviets and Germans sign a treaty dividing Poland in half. With Poland now occupied by the Soviets in the East and Germany in the West, life for Lidia, Ryszard and Mama becomes much more difficult. Their school building is destroyed and then all schools are closed by the Nazis. Jewish shops are targeted, Jews are forced to wear the yellow Star of David, libraries, museums and universities are closed, and Jewish men are put into forced labor.

Lidia and her family learn from Henryk Katz who was her papa's driver, that he is in a prison camp in Russia. Lidia's mother is despondent after hearing this as well as having discovered that the Nazis have stolen all their savings. This means that Mama must now work. Then a young Polish boy whose family had been helped by Lidia's parents, comes to warn them that the Nazis are planning to confiscate their home. Although Doda plans a way to save Lidia's beloved piano, they leave it behind and move into Bubbe's old apartment in the Wola district. It has no bathroom and one bedroom and a small kitchen. It is located on the south end of the Vistula River and near Lidia's piano teacher, Madame Kazowska.

In fall of 1940, thirteen-year-old Lidia and her family watch as the Nazis build a wall around the Jewish quarter using forced labour by Jews. One day after visiting the market, Lidia returns home to find Doda and Bubbe have been forcibly taken into the Jewish ghetto behind their apartment. The ghetto is now completely enclosed by a wall and guarded by Nazi soldiers. Lidia attempt to bring them food is cut short when she witnessed a Polish man shot dead for trying to do the same.

In 1941, Lidia learns from her friend, Maryna, that there are underground schools in Warsaw. Determined to attend, Lidia raises the tuition by selling the beautiful porcelain dolls her grandfather gifted her. They also receive a letter from Papa at this time telling that he is in a prison camp on a Russian island. Near the end of 1941, they learn from the underground newspaper, that Ryszard smuggles home, of the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. From a story about mass executions at Chelmno, Lidia learns that the Jews are being sent to camps to be killed. Later when Lidia looks into the ghetto she sees that it is extremely crowded and that many people are desperately thin and are starving. This motivates Lidia to begin helping those in the Jewish ghetto by slipping them food.

Throughout the spring of 1942, with her friend Maryna, Lidia continues passing food into the ghetto by various means. However, when a sign warning that those helping the Jews will be immediately executed, Lidia and Maryna are terrified. They decide they must stop helping with the food. However, the two girls discover the reality of the ghetto as they witness the Polish Jews being loaded into boxcars of a train supposedly to resettlement camps. Hearing what she believes is Bubbe's voice, Lidia attempts to get near the area but she is warned and then slapped by a German soldier who threatens to place them on the train. 

In January of 1943, they awaken to fighting in the ghetto. As Lidia watches a group of young Jewish fighters take on the German soldiers, she is impressed by their courage. She confronts Ryszard, telling him she knows he is part of the resistance and insists that she too is intent on joining. Despite his threat to tell their mother, Lidia begins to reach out to those she knows are involved and soon finds herself undertaking dangerous work as a messenger. 

Discussion

Uprising is based on the real life of Lidia Janina Durr who was a member of the Polish resistance in Warsaw, during World War II. The novel is divided into five parts: Part 1 Invasion, Part 2 Occupation, Part 3 Resistance, Part 4 Uprising and Part 5 The Escape. 

Some details of Lidia's life differ slightly from what is portrayed in Nielsen's book. For example, Lidia was born in 1924 in Warsaw, Poland and was fifteen-years-old, not twelve, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. She joined the resistance two years later when she was seventeen and worked as a messenger. While being active in the Resistance, Lidia managed to complete her high school education at an underground school. She also illegally studied medicine in the underground University of Warsaw and music at the Conservatory of Music, where Chopin once studied Lidia participated in the Warsaw Uprising (August 1 to October 2, 1944) as a messenger. The Warsaw Uprising was led by the Polish resistance as the Germans were retreating from Poland ahead of the Soviets. The Polish Resistance hoped for assistance from the Soviets but instead, Stalin order Soviet troops to halt, allowing the Germans to attack and destroy the Polish Home Army and the city of Warsaw. Almost sixteen thousand resistance fighters were killed and close to two hundred thousand Polish citizens in Warsaw were executed by the Germans. As mentioned in Nielsen's novel, no outside support from the Allies was offered, dooming the resistance to fail.

In her Author's Note, Nielsen writes that she made Lidia a few years younger in her novel. The events portrayed in the novel are taken from Lidia's own journals, writings and stories told to friends. The difficult relationship portrayed in the novel between Lidia and her mother, Janina, was real and only resolved many years later near the end of Janina's life. It's likely the premature death of Janina's first daughter, Krystyna was a factor.

In Uprising, Lidia is often arrogant, stubborn and unwilling to follow advice or direction from the leaders in the Polish Resistance. She is not a likeable protagonist until she grows older and more mature. Whether this is an accurate portrayal of the real Lidia Durr or dramatic license is uncertain. At any rate, it is obvious that under the constant threat of death, amidst the horrors of war, Lidia showed remarkable courage, ingenuity and determination as a member of the resistance. 

Nielsen has included an informative Author's Note the provides more background information on the Warsaw Uprising and the people that Lidia worked with, some of whom are also in the novel, as well as Lidia's life after the war. There are many black and white photographs of Lidia and her family to help readers relate better to the real Lidia Durr. A map detailing the location of Poland, Russia and Germany would have been helpful as well as one of Warsaw to show the location of the Warsaw Ghetto in the city and some of the other landmarks. As Nielsen mentions in her Author's Note, the city was leveled by the Germans as punishment for the uprising.

Uprising is another well-written and engaging historical fiction novel by Jennifer A. Nielsen that focuses on the Polish uprising during World War II.

Book Details:

Uprising by Jennifer A. Nielsen
New York: Scholastic Press   2024
356 pp.

The Enigma Girls by Candace Fleming

In The Enigma Girls, the secretive behind-the-scenes story of the contributions made by teenage girls at Bletchley Park during World War II are featured.

Their story begins with the start of World War II which began with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany. This came as a shock to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who had brokered what he believed was a permanent peace with Hitler. Germany was not to invade any other European countries after annexing Czechoslovakia in 1938. But when Germany invaded Poland, breaking the treaty with Britain, Chamberlain was forced to declare war on Germany.

With the declaration of war, many government agencies were moved to the countryside to protect them. One such agency was the Government Code and Cipher School (GC&CS), part of the Secret Intelligence Service. Their new location was a country estate fifty miles from London, called Bletchley Park. It was given the code name, Station X. It's purpose was to break German codes and ciphers so as to learn the German military plans. Thousands of lives were at stake.

It all began at the coastal village of Withernsea with the arrival of a dozen young women at St. Leonard's Hotel. One of those women was eighteen-year-old Patricia Owtram who was stationed there as a wireless radio operator to listen to German naval traffic in the Baltic and North Seas.

In 1940, eighteen-year-old Jane Hughes, the eighteen-year-old daughter of Lord and Lady Hughes was to be a debutante. But Jane did not want the parties, dances, or dinners. What she wanted to was to be a part of the war effort. It was a letter from a former classmate inviting her to join them at Bletchley that changed everything. After being sworn to secrecy, Jane was assigned to Hut 6 where she worked to break Enigma codes sent by the Luftwaffe and the Wehrmacht.

Eighteen-year-old Mavis Lever quit school to help in the war effort. Fluent in German, she was assigned to Cottage 3 at Bletchley, breaking Enigma ciphers from the Italian Navy Alfred "Dilly" Knox figured if she could speak German, she could learn Italian. He was a Greek scholar and pioneering cryptographer.

Sarah Norton, the eighteen-year-old daughter of the 6th Lord Grantley received a mysterious letter requesting her to Station X at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire in four days from an unknown Commander Travis. Sarah had been sent abroad two years earlier to learn German in Munich and was familiar with Hitler and his Nazi party. Now at Bletchley Park, and sworn to the utmost secrecy, Sarah was assigned to Hut 4, part of the German Naval Section, working as an Indexer in the Index Room. She scrutinized decrypts from the Kriegsmarine and wrote key information on index cards.

By 1942, the war office now required all able-bodied British women to do war work. Seventeen-year-old Diana Payne was sent to the Wren (Women's Royal Navy Service) training camp in New College, Hampstead and then on to Bletchley Park. There she was assigned to Hut 11A which held the Bombes - machines designed by Alan Turing to break each day's new Enigma setting. The Bombes required two tall girls to attend to them, using a menu which described how the machine was to plugged up and the order of the wheels. It was tiring and difficult work.

Gwen Davis, an eighteen-year-old from Bournemouth, joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) in 1942. She was sent to Hut 10, Block A to work on deciphering Luftwaffe's communications not encrypted by Enigma. Instead these messages were encrypted using a cipher book.

By June of 1943, twenty-year-old Ann Williamson had completed her degree in mathematics. She was required to do war work and eventually ended up at Bletchley Park in the Machine Room converting cribs (or guesses at the Enigma's settings for the day) and cipher text into a diagram. These diagrams, called Menus, required the ability to solve puzzles. The Menu was then sent on to a Bombe outstation.

Near the end of June, 1944, eighteen-year-old Joanna Chorley along with nineteen other WRENS arrived at Bletchley Park. She was assigned to work in Block F with Colossus I, the world's first electronic computer. It was used to determine the first half of a FISH setting. FISH were the most important top level Nazi communications enciphered by the more complex Lorenz SZ40/42 machine.

Marion Graham was sent to work in Japanese Section I in Block F, typing up Japanese messages that were decrypted and translated into English. These were sent to American cryptographers in Washington, D.C. Private Charlotte Vine-Stevens was also sent to Block . A member of the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service), she was to paraphrase translated Japanese messages which were then passed on to commanders in the field.

 By 1944, almost seven thousand people worked at Bletchley Park, deciphering 2500 army and air force messages every day including some 2000 naval messages. The contributions of the young women, who constituted about three quarters of the workforce cannot be overstated. They were vital to the success of D-Day and the winning of the war.

Discussion

The Enigma Girls is an informative book about the contributions of ten British teenage girls at Bletchley Park during World War II. Since The Enigma Girls covers the war period from 1939 to 1945, Fleming profiles ten young women working at Bletchley Park,  against the backdrop of war. Major events of the war are described including the invasion of several European countries and the Blitz in 1940, the sinking of the German boat Bismarck, the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the invasion of Sicily and the Italian campaign in 1943, and D-Day in 1944. Oddly, the events of Dunkirk in 1941 are not mentioned.

Fleming opens with the back story of World War II and the declaration of war by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1939. Chamberlain had hoped to avoid war by signing an agreement with Adolf Hitler after he annexed Czechoslovakia in 1938. Life in Britain suddenly and drastically changed as Fleming goes on to describe. One such change was the moving of GC&CS to Bletchley Park, code-named Station X.

Much has been made of the significant contributions of Alan Turing, Dillwyn Knox and others in breaking the Enigma code and their work at Bletchley Park. However, there were over seven thousand people working at Station X, many of them young women who made significant and mostly unrecognized contributions. Beginning with Patricia Owtram, who entered the war effort in 1930 as a wireless operator, Fleming highlights ten young women who were part of thousands would keep Station X functioning through the war. Some were the daughters of aristocracy while others were university students or recent high school graduates looking for something different. The young women are profiled in chronological order, as the war continued. Fleming describes their responsibilities,  how their work was, unknown to them, interconnected to one another and what life was like for them during the war. 

It is evident that many sacrifices were made for the war effort by these young women. The work was exhausting and often depressing. For example, resetting the Bombes was exhausting. They were noisy and smelly because of the oil used to lubricate the Bombe's spindles. Diana Payne soon had calloused hands and fingers covered with small cuts. Her work made her feel exhausted and lonely. "Many others experienced sleeplessness, hand tremors, loss of appetite, and nervousness. Some had breakdowns. Most worked on the edge of mental exhaustion. The long hours, the noise of the rotating wheels, and the intensity of the work put an enormous strain on the Wrens." 

Not only could the work be difficult, but even life outside of Bletchley Park could be challenging. The young women who arrived at Bletchley Park were assigned billets or temporary housing. The quality of these billets varied; they could be comfortable and the family welcoming, or noisy, unfriendly and lacking in even the most basic amenities. 

The young women working at Bletchley Park weren't able to see the entire picture and how their work helped others. The path of an enemy message from when it was sent by the enemy, to being intercepted and sent to Bletchley Park where cryptographers worked to decipher them is outlined by Fleming, midway through the book. With each profile, Fleming explains the tasks crucial to their work at Bletchley Park. Readers will learn about wireless, Morse code, the German Enigma machine, codes and ciphers, the British cipher machine called a Typex, how to break a cipher, indexing at Bletchley, decipher a message, the Bombes and how they worked and were reset each day, cribs, creating a Menu, enciphering a cipher, the German Lorenz SZ40/42, and the Colossus I - the first electronic machine. The work was complex, vast and crucial to the war effort. Fleming includes a wealth of black and white photographs of significant events in the war but also the few existing ones of Bletchley Park, and the machines used in the war effort. 

Fleming definitely highlights not only the contributions of these ten young women in particular but of all the women who joined the war effort in Great Britain, as well as their personal sacrifices. The Enigma Girls is a thoroughly researched book that will engage not only those interested in World War II history, but also the many contributions made by women in the war, as well as codes and ciphers. Fleming has included an Author's Note, an extensive Bibliography, Source Notes for each of the chapters, Photograph and Illustration credits, and a detailed Index.

Book Details:

The Enigma Girls by Candace Fleming

New York: Scholastic Focus     2024
371 pp.

The Girl Who Sang by Estelle Nadel

The Girl Who Sang is the Holocaust graphic memoir of the experiences of Estelle (Enia Feld) Nadel.

Enia Feld lived in Borek, Poland with her parents, Chaya and Reuven, her older brothers Moishe, Shia and Minashe, and her older sister Sonjia. In 1939, life for four-year-old Enia was carefree. Her family lived next door to her mother's brother and his wife (the Lambics) and her Aunt Hinda and Uncle Jozef Reiss and her cousin Mala Reiss. Enia's days were filled with learning to cook from her mother, who was a wonderful cook. Enia would attempt to learn how to make matzah before Passover. 

In 1939, Enia listens as her family discusses Hitler and his spreading of hatred for Jews in Germany over dinner. But Shia believes this hatred has spread even to Poland as he has been called a "dirty Jew" and has had rocks thrown at him at school. Jozef points out that Hitler has already invaded Czechoslovakia and that Poland might be next. Rueven however, is not as concerned: he believes God will protect them.

Enia loved Passover with the house full of people and the wonderful smells. Her father was a farmer and although her mother helped out by cooking for the villagers weddings, they were poor. Pudlina, a Gentile, often helped Enia's mother if she had a lot of cooking to do. 

Sabbath preparations were a special time. Because they didn't have a shower at home, Enia and her mother would visit the public showers bathe in preparation for the Shabbat (Jewish Sabbath). On Saturday, Enia's father and brothers would attend synagogue while Enia waited outside. To pass the time she would sing. Afterwards, their cousins would come over to eat lunch. Seventeen-year-old Sonjia and Dovid were sweethearts and everyone thought they would get married some day. 

But this happiness did not last forever. On September 1, 1939, the Germans invaded Poland. It wasn't long before the Germans arrived in Borek. Soon Russia invaded Poland from the east, dividing the country into two parts with the west occupied by the Germans. With these events, Shia questions his  father if they should cross to the Russian side to be safe, as many Jewish men were doing. But Rueven continues to believe God will protect them and that this trouble will pass.  By November 1939, Enia's mother began sewing the Jewish star on their clothing and told Enia she must always were the star when outside. Enia didn't know to be scared at this point. In December 1939, eleven-year-old Minashe and twelve-year-old Shai could no longer attend school because they were Jewish. Enia turned five and was taught how to read some Yiddish at home by her mother.

Gradually things worsened over the next two years. Reuven and Sonjia were assigned to work at the refinery in Jedlicze as was Jozef Reiss. Minashe, Shia and Sonjia were forced to work where the Germans assigned them. Sonjia tried to be on friendly terms with the German soldiers in the hopes it would keep their family safe. In July 1942, at a meeting held at the Feld's home, they discussed Hitler's struggles in Russia and the ghettos where hundreds of Jews were crowded together and not able to leave. They wondered if the purpose of the ghettos was a prison or something much worse. 

Then one night Enia is awakened by German soldiers coming to their house, searching for valuables. Afterwards, Chaya tells her family they are stealing from the Jews because they can. Two weeks later, in August, 1942, Sonjia arrives at her parents home, frantically warning them to leave immediately and hide in the fields. She tells them that the refinery has been surrounded by the Gestapo. Instead of hiding with her family, Sonjia tells her mother she is returning there as Father and her uncle as well as their cousins are still there. Sonjia is convinced she will be safe because the Germans like her. Chaya orders Shia to run and tell Tante Hinda and the Lambics to hide in the fields. 

As night falls, Chaya asks Minashe to check to see if it is safe to return to their home. When Minashe returns, he tells his mother that everything has been ransacked. Chaya decides to run leaving Reuven, Sonjia, Moishe and their cousins behind, in the hopes they can find safety. They would never see them again. They meet up with Aunt Hinda and Mala and  Chaya tells them to go to Maria Kurwoska's home as she has offered to help if needed.  Eventually, Chaya and Enia, Minashe and Shia are hidden in the attic of Pudlina's home. Because Pudlina is very poor, Chaya must go out every day to find food for her family. 

She learns that Hinda and Mala are hidden in Maria Kurwoska's barn and that Uncle Reiss and their cousins are in the ghetto at Krosno. A few days later, Shia goes to the ghetto to find Uncle Reiss and when he returns to Enia and their family he tells them the awful truth: Father and Sonjia have been killed. Moishe has also been killed. Enia would learn years later about what really happened to them. As the month's go by, Enia must learn to survive, through many difficult circumstances both during the war and afterwards in America.

Discussion

The Girl Who Sang is one Holocaust survivor's story of resiliency and courage. The novel itself is divided into five parts: Part 1 Innocence 1939 - 1942 in which Enia's carefree early childhood is portrayed. The arrival of the Nazis in Poland quickly changes everything. Part 2 Hidden 1942 -1944 describes the loss of her family and Enia and her brothers Minashe and Shia efforts to hide from the Nazis with the help of Pudlina and the Kurwoski family. Part 3 Liberation 1944 - 1947 beings with the liberation of Borek by the Soviets, the reuniting of Enia and Shia with Minashe, their return to their family home in Borek, and their travels across Europe to Austria and eventually to America. Part 4 A New Beginning 1947 - 1951 focuses on Estelle (Enia) and Steve's (Shia) journey to America, and Estelle and her brothers' early lives there including her adoption by the Nadels. Part 5 The Girl Who Sang is short and sweet but portrays Estelle's life that she built in California.

Enia whose name changed to Estelle when she arrived in America had to face many challenging situations. She did so with a maturity far beyond her years and with much courage. When Enia and Shia arrived in New York City, they were met by Minashe who had a job at a factory and could not live with them, something that upset Estelle.  She was often left alone for long periods of time as her brothers had to work so to pass the time Estelle went to the movie theatre. This was how she learned to speak English. Estelle began attending school for the first time when she was thirteen-years-old, a challenge because she struggled to read. Eventually, Estelle was placed first in a foster home and then adopted by Minnie and Nienman Nadel.  The adoption meant that Estelle's dream of living with her brothers as a family would never be realized.  She was further separated from her only family, her brothers when Estelle and Minnie moved to California. 

Despite this, Estelle made a life for herself in California, demonstrating her resiliency in overcoming adversity and adapting to the difficult changes life sometimes presents. During the war, Estelle had shown a great deal of courage in escaping the jail, hiding from the Nazis and travelling across Europe to safety. That same courage, resiliency and adaptability helped her face the new challenges living in America presented.

All of this is captured beautifully in Nadel's poignant retelling of her experiences. It is a story told with dignity and graciousness. Estelle touches on the many times she felt deep hurt and abandonment when her brother Shia didn't live up to her expectations or made difficult decisions that led to separation and loneliness for Estelle. Over the years, Estelle came to forgive her brothers, especially Shia, recognizing that he had to made hard decisions while still a child himself.

Illustrator Sammy Savos effectively portrays the intense emotions Enia experiences: the desolation and grief that young Enia experiences over the death of her beloved mother, the terror when their village is bombed by the Russians, and the deep sense of loss when she reunites with Dovid,  the young man her sister Sonjia intended on marrying and who is now married to someone else, the deep grief and sense of abandonment she felt when she was placed for adoption to the Nadels - forever ending her hope of being together with her brothers.  Panels portraying her experiences during the war are dark and ominous, while those of life in America have a brighter, hopeful palette.

The title of the memoir comes from Estelle's love of singing. It was her singing that brought her to the attention of someone at the Displaced Persons camp in Austria, and led to her and her brothers emigrating to America. On the boat over to America, Estelle sang her heart out and became known as "the girl who sang".  Estelle would continue to sing all her life, at many Jewish temples throughout America. 

Nadel has included a list of members of the Feld and Reiss families, and their rescuers at the front of the novel for easy reference. In the Afterword, Nadel tells her readers what happened to others in the story: Emilia Wilusz and her parents Jan and Maria Kurowski, Pudlina, Mala and Wujek Reiss, Mel (Minashe), Steve (Shia), and Estelle. There is an interesting Behind The Scenes which describes how Sammy Savoy crafted the graphic panels as well as some photographs of Estelle and her family. 

The Girl Who Sang is a beautifully crafted and poignant memoir of a family who survived the Holocaust and who went on to live their best lives.

Book Details:

The Girl Who Sang by Estelle Nadel
New York: Roaring Book Press  2024 

245 pp.