Mornings With Monet by Barb Rosenstock

Claude Monet awakes at 3:30 in the morning, dresses and hurries out of his pink stucco house. He hurries across the road, past the water lily pond to the river where a rowboat awaits. There in the boat is a man from Giverny waiting patiently for Monet. He helps him settle and they paddle along the river to Monet's boat which serves as his studio. This river, called the Seine has been a part of Monet's entire life, flowing through cities and regions he has lived in.

With the help of the man, he unloads fourteen paintings of the river that he is working on. This is Monet's second summer working on the river. This boat is his second studio boat. His first was purchased many years ago when he was part of a group of artists that included Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Sisley and Morisot. Their work was dismissed because they used bright colours and their paintings were impressions of scenes and people. Now, art dealers and collectors wait to see what new art Monet will create.

Monet sits on his boat, canvas in front of him, waiting for the light of the dawn. As the first few rays of light break through, he begins painting, using purple, bright greens, lavender. He is "painting the river's colors, and the air around the colors" But as the sun continues to rise, the colors change and he moves to the next canvas. More minutes pass, and another canvas with a different palette. Once the morning is gone, Monet packs up his paints and his canvases. They row back to the shore and Monet walks back home, around the lily pond. Breakfast awaits him!

Discussion

This exquisite picture book portrays Claude Monet as he works on one of his "series" artworks. Monet's series consisted of groups of paintings done on the same subject or scene at different times of the day, or in different weather and light conditions. In Mornings With Monet, Monet's  Mornings on the Seine series, which he began in 1896 but was not able to complete until 1897 due to poor weather, are portrayed. Monet would arise at an early hour in order to paint the landscape along the Seine River near Giverny, as the light changed throughout the morning. This was done from a boat Monet had converted into an art studio. The Mornings on the Seine series consisted of fifteen panels which were eventually exhibited in Paris to great acclaim.

In Mornings With Monet, Rosenstock has captured Claude Monet's process which began with his arising early before dawn, and then rowing to his boat with his helper. There, each canvas was laid out for him to work on and as the light changed, he would move on to the next canvas. Rosenstock informs  her young readers that Monet's work was hard, trying to capture light and colour: "Painting the river's colors, and the air around the colors. Money wipes his brow; it is not easy to paint air. " 

 

Illustrator, Mary Grandpre succeeds in capturing what these mornings might have looked like. She uses impressionistic style for some of her illustrations on the river, while other panels such as Monet at home, are more realistic. All make use of the greens, blues, yellows and purples so common to Monet's work and capture some of his style and the atmosphere of the river in the early morning light. The artwork was created using acrylic paint and ink on illustration board.

Rosenstock also mentions Monet's relationship to nature, how he was connected to the Seine, a river that played a part in different times of his life. Monet is quoted as saying that "La nature ne s'arrete pas." or Nature does not stop. This seems to be the driving force behind his series - to capture nature, as light and weather change. 

Mornings With Monet is a beautiful picture book that delightfully captures a special part of Claude Monet's life. The author has included an interesting and informative Author's Note at the back along with a list of Sources.

Book Details:

Mornings with Monet by Barb Rosenstock
New York: Alfred A. Knopf      2021

Just A Girl: A True Story of World War II by Lia Levi

Just A Girl tells of Lia Levi's war-time experiences as a Jewish girl growing up in Italy.

Six-year-old Lia lives in Turin, Italy with her parents and her two younger sisters, Gabriella and Vera. Lia is terribly shy, so shy that her voice sounds like the peep, peep, peep that a baby bird might make. On a trip to the beach, her parents send Lia to buy a newspaper, even though she is so young. They hope to force her to talk to other people.But when she gets to the stand, Lia finds her voice is simply too quiet and the man behind the counter at the newsstand doesn't hear her. So she leaves the money on the counter and runs off with a newspaper. But when she shows up without the change, her parents take her back to the newsstand. There the man makes her father pay again, claiming he never saw any money.

Lia learns that she will no longer be attending school because Mussolini doesn't want Jewish children in Italia schools. This puzzles Lia who wonders why he would care. But her father explains "...that sometimes blaming someone else is also a way of keeping people quiet." 

Then Lia's parents announce that she will be able to attend a new Jewish school close to their synagogue. Also attending is Lia's older cousin Annarosa who helps protect shy Lia from being bullied. At the Jewish school the students and their families celebrate the Passover dinner. To help her overcome her shyness, Lia is taken by Maestra Ginetta to where the rabbi is seated and made to sing the answers to the four questions recited on Passover. By singing them, Lia finds her voice and never loses it!

Eventually, Lia's papa loses his job. This is worrisome for Lia's family but her mother tells her that they have savings to help them get by. Then war comes to Italy. One day while in the public gardens in Piazza Carlo Felice with Maria, Lia and her sisters hear Mussolini on speakers declaring war. After that, Turin is bombed, a very frightening thing for Lia and her family.

Lia and her family leave Turin when their savings run out and her father finds a job in Milan  This will be another stop on what will turn out to be several more stops as her family struggles to stay safe and free during the war. Their travels will take them from Milan to Rome and then to a Catholic boarding school outside of Rome, in the countryside. Through it all, Lia keeps her sense of humour and begins to mature into a strong, intelligent young girl.

Discussion

Just A Girl: A True Story of World War II is based on the experiences of journalist and author, Lisa Levi during World War II. In 1994, Levi published a memoir for adults about her experiences as a child in Italy during the war: Just A Girl is an adaptation for younger readers.

Just A Girl is one of the few books written for very young readers, introducing them to the Holocaust in a gentle and informative manner. Along the way Lia Levi explains events and cultural practices that her younger readers might not know or understand. For example, she explains what being Jewish means and what Passover is. Levi explains concepts that young children might take literally, such as "losing" your job. The author also explains in simple terms about the war. "On one side there were the Germans (commanded by a very bad man named Hitler, who hated Jews even more than Mussolini did), and on the other side there were the French, the British, and others, who had joined the war to make the bad people lose." Later on, Levi adds an explanation to help children understand that not all people are bad. "First of all, I need to tell you something important. In the war that I'm telling you about, the Germans were the bad guys. But you must not thing that being German makes someone a 'bad guy'. Like all the people in the world, there are kind and very kind Germans and bad and very bad Germans. At the time of our story, the German soldiers were under the orders of the very evil Hitler, and they willingly carried out the bad things they were ordered to do." 

Levi's experience is a good starting point to introduce young people to the Holocaust because as she mentions the last chapter, A Letter From The Other Side Of The Ocean, she was one of the lucky ones who escaped both deportation and death. She writes that although her childhood was "difficult, and sometimes stormy" it was not an unhappy one. Although Lia had to move many times, was separated from her parents and eventually had to hide as a Catholic student in a Catholic convent, she and her sisters were relatively very well of compared to Jewish citizens in other countries.

The title of the book comes from something Lia's mother told her after the war. Lia had written a letter to the radio station in the hopes of winning a prize. Her letter opened with "Dear radio, ...I am a Jewish girl..." When her mother read Lia's letter, she tore it up. Lia's mother tells her, "You're not a Jewish girl....You're a girl. Just a girl....You're Jewish, but that's something personal. It doesn't need to be a label you wear on your forehead." Her mother tells Lia that being Jewish is just one of many facts about herself, ones that she does not have to divulge to anyone, and that she has the same rights as everyone else. In her note at the back, Lia tells her young readers that the Nazis turned religion into race.

Just A Girl is a wonderful starting point to introduce younger readers to the Holocaust. In this regard, it is a very important book, given that approximately thirty percent of young people today have no knowledge of the Holocaust. In some respects, this is not surprising since it was eighty-three years ago that World War II began - almost three generations ago. Young people have no parents (like myself) or grandparents (like my children) to talk to about the war or the Holocaust. Books like Just A Girl, museum exhibits and memorials are all we have left to remind today's young people that hate can lead people to do to terrible things. 

Book Details:

Just A Girl: A True Story of World War II by Lia Levi
New York: HarperCollins     2022
135 pp.

Hittite Warrior by Joanne Williamson

Uriah-Tarhund, son of Arnandash is a Hittite who lives in the Hittite province of Arzawa with his father and mother, and his sister Annitis. On his thirteenth birthday, Uriah learns from his father that he must give up their great horse Labarnash whom Uriah has groomed and trained. Uriah's father, a horse breeder, tells him that as a loyal vassal to the king, they must offer as tribute, the best they have and that is Labarnash. So now to prove their loyalty, they will travel to Haballa and then travel by caravan to Hattusas. This prospect is exciting for Uriah as he has never been to the great city of Hattusas.

His father also speaks about the rumours of trouble from the north. When Uriah's father was a child, a Hittite traitor named Maduwattas had formed an alliance with the Achaean warrior, Atreus. The Hittites refer to the Achaeans as the sea people. They were from Crete and had a great city called Mycenae on the mainland. Maduwattas was joined by some of the old Arzawans who hated the Hittite masters. Now the rumours tell of the sea people possibly returning.

 

Before they leave, Uriah's father arranges to have their servants guard the house and their land, especially Uriah's mother and sister who will be left behind. Uriah believes the gods will protect all of them.

After a long journey through grassland, hills and valleys, they arrive at Hattusas with its great rock wall. There Labarnash is led away as part of their tribute. Uriah and his father are allowed to attend the celebration in honor of the thirteenth year of the reign of the king. At the feast, Uriah sees the Dardanian chief, Paris Aleksandus of Troy as well as Egyptian ambassadors. As they are leaving for home, a man runs through the temple square yelling about Midas. Uriah's father reveals that there are stories that Midas the Phrygian, a barbarian chief of the sea people is laying waste to cities and towns in the north.

On their way home, Uriah and his father leave the Babylonian caravan they are travelling with, to investigate the smoke and strange smell coming from a valley far away.  In one of the villages, they learn from a survivor that the sea people have returned to the area including Arzawa. Uriah and his father race home, only to find their village and land destroyed, their servants slain along with Uriah's mother and his sister Annitis. For the next three years Uriah and his father live in the ruins of their home, eking out a living with their bees and remnants of their orchards. A year later, Hattusas is destroyed by armies from the north and the west.

When Uriah turns sixteen, a captain of the sea people arrives at their farm, ordering them to give all their harvest to their chief in Haballa. But Uriah's father refuses and he is beaten by the captain and his soldier. Before he dies, Uriah's father makes him promise to travel south to the land of Canaan, to a town called Harosheth. There Uriah is to find a man named Sisera.

After completing the required thirteen days of mourning, Uriah leaves for Haballa. He has no money and little food, but he manages to get himself accepted into a caravan by helping save the life of one of the young children. Uriah's journey turns into an odyssey that leads him first to Tyre, and then to the Hebrews. His arrival in Harosheth leads him to the Battle of Esdraleon where he begins to question his beliefs.

Discussion

Hittite Warrior presents readers with an exciting adventure story of a young Hittite boy who flees his home after it has been conquered by the Achaeans (the Greeks). The story is based on an episode in the book of Judges about 1200 B.C., in which an army of ten thousand Israelites battled and defeated the much better equipped army of Sisera. It is told by the now elderly Hittite warrior, Uriah-Tarhund.

Sisera, was commander of the Canaanite army of King Jabin who had been persecuting the Israelite tribes living in the mountains. The Hebrew prophetess Deborah sent Barak to lead the Israelites to attack the Canaanites. He was reluctant to do so unless Deborah accompanied him, which she agrees to do. However, she prophesized that he will not obtain glory from the battle. Instead, Sisera will be defeated by a woman. 

Sisera with his nine hundred iron chariots, met Barak and the Israelites at the base of Mount Tabor, on the plain of Esdraelon. His army was soundly defeated with many being drowned in the river Kishon as they retreated. Sisera fled the battle field and sought refuge in what he thought was the safe tent of Heber the Kenite who was a friend of King Jabin. It was here that he was offered milk and curds by Heber's wife, Jael. When he fell into an exhausted sleep he was killed by Jael who drove a tent peg into his temple.

The battle of Esdraelon forms the climax of the novel and marks a significant change in Uriah's life.  Uriah's journey to find Sisera begins with a stop in Tyre where he learns about the human sacrifice of first born boys to the god, Moloch, the lord of wrath. Children are sacrificed to Moloch "...in case a time of trouble should come upon the city. A fire is kindled in the lap of the god and the child is laid in his arms to die." This custom horrifies Uriah, even though as a Hittite he worships in all gods.

When Jotham rescues the child, Jabin from such a sacrifice, Uriah helps him flee Tyre into the hills where they are taken in by the Hebrew, Hushai ben Aaron. From Jotham, a Hebrew, Uriah learns about their God, Jahvey. Eventually Uriah comes to Harosheth, as a captive and meets Sisera, the man Uriah's father had told him to seek out. However, Uriah finds that Sisera is not interested in helping Uriah and in fact threatens him with death if he doesn't reveal the plans of the Hebrews. Uriah decides to join the Canaanite army in its battle against the Hebrews but before doing so, he watches as his friend Hannibal makes a sacrifice of wax and mutton fat to the gods. This leads Uriah to suddenly not believe any of it. "Wax and mutton fat!....What kind of gods would have anything to do with that? What kind of gods would devour children and make war against each other? What kind of gods would keep men in fear from the day they were born? Shall I tell you what I believe? I don't believe there are any gods!"

After surviving the battle, Uriah eventually returns to Harosheth to find the Israelites have conquered the city. He has come to a crossroads in his life. He is searching for meaning and trying to determine which god or gods to worship. None of the gods he believed in have protected his family, nor those he fought with. When asked by Barak what gods he worships, Uriah truthfully claims he doesn't know. He wants to see the God of Israel, housed in the Ark of the Covenant. But when he goes to the tent, the priest tells him that "The Ark of the Covenant holds relics sacred to our God. Some say they are the tablets with the laws that He gave to our great leader, Moses. No one knows."  When Uriah asks if there is an image of their God, the priest tells him that no one could make such an image. This creates great disappointment in Uriah who had hoped for a sign from this God. But then Uriah has a realization that it would be impossible to make an image of the God who had created the sun and moon and the rivers and the sea. Eventually Uriah comes to believe in the one God who he believes "...is the one God and the God of all men." Uriah eventually finds peace and stability within the Hebrew nation as a scribe, a husband and a father.

Williamson had a unique gift for writing historical fiction. She was able to realistically portray culture and customs from long ago in a way that engaged her readers. In Hittite Warrior the brutality of life in a pagan culture is clearly evident from the horror of child sacrifice to Moloch to the brutal practice of blinding the strongest slaves so they could pull the grindstones that created the purple dye used by the wealthy. Her novel also captures the horror of war and the plight of refugees, who like their modern counterparts, fled destroyed homelands. We see the plight of women and children who were often captured and sold into slavery or forced against their will into marriages. 

 

Williamson also makes those important connections between the various civilizations that existed at the time of this story: those of Egypt, Greece (the Achaeans), Hittite, Mitanni and the Hebrews. These peoples did not live in isolation from one another but lived together, fought against one another and even intermarried.

A map of the region the story is set in, is included in the front of the novel. A list of characters might have also been helpful for younger readers. But overall, Hittite Warrior with its authentic setting, realistic characters, and exciting storyline is a wonderfully crafted novel.

Book Details:

 

Hittite Warrior by Joanne Williamson
Warsaw North Dakota: Bethlehem Books     1999
237 pp.

Ain't Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds

In this unique collaboration between long time friends Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin, a black teen explores a world that has become overwhelming and suffocating. 

The young teen sits at home wondering why his mother won't change the television channel, "why the news won't change the story and why the story won't change into something new." Instead, he notes how they are told "we won't change the world, or the way we treat the world or the way we treat each other."

His brother won't look up from his video game even when he puts his hand over the screen or elbows him in the ribs. Instead, his brother doesn't even look up and just continues playing. Meanwhile on television the stories of deaths just keep coming. They talk about a kid his age who can't breathe. His mother shakes her head, wondering if this could be him or his sister.

His sister talks to her homegirl on her phone about a protest and what they've heard about what's happening. The protest is about "freedom to live and freedom to laugh...and freedom to run and be out of breath... and freedom to play without worry about the rules being rearranged." To the teen, the fight for freedom looks like him. His sister and her friend are talking about masks and what to pack for the protest.

As he continues to wonder about this, he hears his father coughing from the other room. The cough sounds terrible so he takes a break from what's going on in the room to check on his father who is sick with covid. Through a crack in the door, his father smiles at him, because "the fever ain't burned all his bright up yet." His father tells him he will be "wonderful" in a few weeks and that they will do all those things they used to do like telling jokes and "squeeze-hugging" and rough housing. His father tells him not to worry, that he's a fighter but the boy knows his father is also a worrier like he is. His father returns to watching television - the same thing his mother is in the livingroom. His father smiles at him and holds up his arms, while suppressing the cough that wants to get out.

The boy feels like he is the only one in their family who recognizes, who realizes they are drowning, suffocating. And so he gets up to look for an "oxygen mask"since his mother and father keep everything. Although he looks all through the house, he cannot find what he needs. Until suddenly, this boy, realizes the the "oxygen mask" he is seeking is hiding in plain sight.

Discussion

Ain't Burned All The Bright is a creative mix of free verse  and art by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin.

In the poetry, in the form of three sentences, written over many pages, a young black teen struggles to understand the events happening around him in 2020: the murder of black men by police, the covid pandemic and the terrible way we treat one another.  With Covid-19, people were dying, unable to breathe as the virus destroyed their lungs. The boy in the story, worries about his father, as he struggles to breathe and recover from Covid.  

In the spring of 2020, on May 25 a forty-six-year-old black man, George Perry Floyd Jr. was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer after he pinned George Floyd to the ground by kneeling on his neck. On the television he sees the coverage of this story and of others, that are similar. And he wonders why we can't change the story, change what is happening.

These events suck the oxygen out, making it difficult to live, to breathe. He asks how does one survive? Ultimately, the "oxygen mask:", what helps us survive,  is our family, our parents, our brothers and sisters, our grandparents, the familiar things in our homes. But when his mother has the hint of a laugh at the corners of her mouth, he realizes "I'd been looking for breath in boxes and that maybe the oxygen mask was hidden on the hinges of my mother's mouth or in my brother's PEW PEW sound effects, or in my sister's loopy handwriting or in my father's relentless shoulders...or in the fridge stuffed in the leftover meatloaf or the cold greens....or in the smell of new sneakers or the feel of broken-in-denim or a T-shirt freshly washed..."  Instead, breath and oxygen to help him get through these difficult times might be hiding "...in our arms touching our skin chatting our laughing and bickering and bothering and chewing and making an jamming and stepping and hearing and hollering..."  He is wonders, "...yes maybe there's an oxygen mask here something keeping us alive something keeping us..." 

To illustrate his words, Jason Reynolds turned to his friend, illustrator Jason Griffin. In the back note, "is anyone still here?" Griffin mentions the direction Reynolds gave him, "you said you were going to send me the first section, and told me i could do anything i wanted with the text in terms of how i chose to break it up, so if i wanted to have one word on one page, then a full line on the next, then three blank pages, you were with it." And that's exactly what Griffin did, creating illustrations rendered in paint markers, sharpies, spray paint, ball-point pen, pencil, gaffer tape, scotch tape, label stickers felt-tip pen, packing tape, masking tape, and acrylic paint in moleskine notebooks. 

Ain't Burned All The Bright is a quick read that will evoke plenty of emotions. Readers are encouraged to re-read it several times, to think about the words, to ponder the artwork and to consider how they too have experienced 2020.

Book Details:

Ain't Burned All The Bright by Jason Reynolds
New York: Atheneum     2022

Never Caught: The Story of Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar & Kathleen Van Cleve

"On Saturday, May 21, 1796, Ona Judge, a twenty-two-year-old slave of President George Washington and his wife, Martha, escaped the president's Philadelphia mansion and never looked back."  Never Caught is her story.

Ona Judge's story begins sometime around 1773, in Virginia. The United States was not yet in existence, but the white people in those thirteen colonies decided they no longer wanted to be ruled by the British. So they began to rebel in various ways. At this time slavery was very much accepted throughout the colonies.

Ona's mother Betty was born in 1738 into slavery in Virginia. She was originally owned by Daniel Parke Custis, who became Martha Washington's first husband. Daniel died seven years into the marriage and some of his property (including Betty) passed onto Martha. When she remarried, to George Washington, she brought a large number of slaves to his estate. Betty was what was known as a dower slave.

Betty was an important slave to Martha Washington, a seamstress in charge of keeping the family and its slaves dressed.

1773 turned out to be a momentous year for several reasons; there was an unusual snowfall in Virginia that June and another of Martha Washington's children, her daughter Patsy died from a seizure.

Sometime 1773, Betty gave birth to a baby girl fathered by Andrew Judge, a white indentured servant from England who was one of Washington's preferred tailors. She named the baby Ona Maria Judge. She was legally owned, as property by Martha Washington. Ona would grow up in Mount Vernon, George Washington's massive estate in eastern Virginia. 

As a slave Ona lived in the two-story building called the Quarters, sleeping on the floor. There was little privacy but it was well made and had a fireplace to heat it. Ona did not attend school and 

 In 1775 George Washington became commander of the Continental Army. The relationship between the British and the American colonists had been deteriorating for some time and it soon developed into all out war. Fighting began in 1775, with Washington leading the Continental army. In 1776, the Declaration of Independence was issued while battles continued in New York, New Jersey and all along the northeast coast of the thirteen colonies. Eventually, the British surrendered and war officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

George Washington returned to Mount Vernon after eight and half years, hoping to enjoy his estate but it was short lived. He was invited to participate in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 which saw him return to Philadelphia as part of Virginia's delegation. In 1789 he was chosen to serve as the first president of the new United States of America and he left Mount Vernon for New York. Following him was Martha and a group of carefully chosen slaves including Ona Judge who would serve along with another slave named Moll as housemaids and personal attendants to Martha. These slaves were chosen for their devotion to the family and their fidelity. But as Ona travelled north through the city of Philadelphia and then on to New York, her experiences in these two cities would enlarge her perspective and ultimately change her life forever. What she saw and what she learned might be possible for her, would inform the most critical decision of her life: the decision to be free.

Discussion

Never Caught is the story of the remarkable Ona Maria Judge, black slave maid to Martha Washington, who had the courage and determination to escape bondage against formidable odds. Ona's life is set against the backdrop of the Revolutionary War and the beginnings of a new country that would come to be known as the United States of America. Her escape, from the most prominent American citizen,  President George Washington, happens as the abolition movement is beginning to blossom throughout the north.

Ona's story is framed by both the prominent families she was a part of and by the historical events of the time. Ona's mother Betty, was a slave in the Parke Custis family whom Margaret married into. Betty gave birth to Ona while a slave with the Washington's. Both the Parke Custis and Washington families owned a large number of slaves and slavery was deeply entrenched in their way of life. Neither family were interested in freeing slaves and considered themselves benevolent slave owners. George Washington's wealth and lifestyle was built on slavery. To help readers understand what life might  have been like for the slaves who were part of George Washington's Mount Vernon, the authors describe how slaves were treated, the attitudes of slave owners, the work they were expected to do and the living conditions they experienced. 

Never Caught also presents the major political events in the colonies just before Ona's birth and during her growing up years. It's important to understand these events, because they would directly impact Ona as she grew up and even more so in her adult life. Never Caught attempts to look at life and the political and social events of the time through Ona Judge's eyes. But it also attempts to show readers how the Washington's viewed their slaves - as property they needed to protect for their own financial interests.

Dunbar and Van Cleve believe that Ona Judge's experiences in Philadelphia and New York likely changed her profoundly. In 1789 when Ona first visited the city of Philadelphia it was the largest urban center in the newly founded United States. Even more important, its citizens were leaders in the abolition of slavery. Prominent citizens of Pennsylvania were at the forefront of the abolition movement, and broadsides (large posters plastered on walls) showed people what the slave trade really was: crammed ships filled with dead, dying and terribly suffering people. It's very likely Ona Judge saw these broadsides as they were everywhere and she often accompanied Martha Washington wherever she went during those five days in the city.

In Philadelphia, Ona was exposed to many more white and black people. At Mount Vernon most of the people where black slaves. In Philadelphia, out of a population of just forty thousand, just two hundred and seventy-three were slaves with around eighteen hundred free black men and women. In Philadelphia, Ona would have seen FREE black men and women and this alone would have had a significant impact on how she viewed the world, and her own life. Where she might have once had pride in working as a slave for the president and his wife, Ona began to realize that she should be angry.. "So much was new. So much was strange. And now she was confronted with the fact that some black people in this northern state did not think the way her family did - that it was possible to live only in the way she and her family had always lived at Mount Vernon: in bondage from birth until death....In this spirit she entered Philadelphia with a locked sense of how the world was and left Philadelphia with a sense of how it could be, even for her."

In New York, things were a bit different; Ona encountered white slaves and a wider variety of people, rich and poor. She would have noticed that the white "servants" did not need to ask permission for anything. They went about much more freely than their black counterparts. There were escaped black slaves and "Many free black men and women lived proudly and publicly, even forming their own clubs and organizations that fought for the reputation and credibility of the blacks who lived in New York City." But the Washington's had also learned a few things in New York: "....not that owning humans was inhumane...but that they needed to be even more careful about which slaves would accompany them to their new home."

When the capital of the United States was moved to Philadelphia, requiring the president and his wife and slaves to move too, the Washington's also learned about something else that would affect them: Pennsylvania's Gradual Abolition Act. Under this act, a slave brought into the state and having lived there for six months would automatically become free. The Washington's had no intention of allowing this to happen to their slaves including Ona. Financially they could not afford to, and morally, their paternalistic attitude and belief that they were "benevolent" slave owners justified their keeping slaves. Ona herself learned that she would be given as a "wedding gift" to the Washington's granddaughter. It was this event, and what Ona herself had learned, seen and come to realize that motivated her to seek her freedom. 

Ona's decision to run away was a courageous one. She was not only a valued slave in the home of the most important man in America, but many of the resources that existed years later to help slaves seeking freedom were not yet in place. Recapture would have also meant some form of significant punishment, as she had seen the Washington's punish other slaves for much lesser things. Her escape placed Washington in a difficult situation, at risk of disobeying the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which he himself had signed. Yet Ona's desire to be free was paramount. She kept her cool when confronted with those seeking to recapture her.  Ona's life was difficult for many years after but she did marry and have a family. Most importantly, although she remained a fugitive, her life was her own, to make her own choices and decisions. She passed away in 1848.

Never Caught is well written, rich in history and details, informative, and engaging.The authors have  included a copy and transcript of the interview Ona Judge gave to the Granite Freeman in 1845 as well as an extensive list of sources in a Selected Bibliography. 

Readers may find these websites of interest:

George Washington's Mount Vernon: Ona Judge

The White House Historical Association: The Remarkable Story of Ona Judge

Book Details:

Never Caught: The Story of Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong & Kathleen Van Cleve
New York: Aladdin    2017
252 pp.

A Place To Hang The Moon by Kate Albus

Twelve-year-old William Pearce, his eleven-year-old brother Edmund, and nine-year-old sister Anna are struggling to navigate the guests at their grandmother's funeral. They didn't particularly like their grandmother which makes things more difficult. While William walks around talking to people, Edmond settles into a chair to eat the treats he's stuffed in his pockets while Anna hides behind the settee to finish her book, Mary Poppins.

It is June 1940 and England is at war with Germany so their guests must leave before it gets dark.Miss Collins, their elderly housekeeper reminds them that their grandmother's solicitor, Mr. Engersoll will be coming to discuss their futures in the morning. All three children are sad about this and want Miss Collins to stay but she's too elderly now to care for them. The children's parents had died when William was five, so they have few memories of their parents.

The next day Mr. Harold Engersoll indicates that although they have a sizable inheritance, they need a guardian. He suggests the best way for the three of them to stay together is to become part of the children's evacuation now taking place out of London. English children are being evacuated from London to the countryside to keep them safe should Germany begin bombing the cities. His suggestion is that the children not reveal their real circumstances in the hopes that the family who takes them in might considering keeping them.

Mr. Engersoll arranges for William, Edmund and Anna to join the St. Michael's evacuation. They work on packing their suitcases with the specific items listed. Miss Collins helps them finish up packing and then they are driven to the school where they are met by Miss Judith Carr. She attempts to split up the children, but Edmund refuses telling her they are staying together. Fortunately, Mr. Engersoll intervenes and Miss Carr agrees to allowing the children to travel together.

A group of almost eighty children, suitcases in hand, are led by their teachers to Kings Cross station where they board a train. William, Edmund and Anna are placed in their own compartment. The long train ride is mostly uneventful except for Edmund who becomes motion sick.

At their destination, the children walk to the village hall and after cookies and milk are lined up in front of the villagers. Mrs. Norton, president of the Women's Voluntary Service thanks the families for opening their homes to the evacuees. She explains that to lessen the "burden" of the children, they will have morning lessons at the village school as well as lunch. This attitude as it turns out, will set the tone of the children's experience as evacuees.

While Anna garners great interest by a number of families, most aren't eager to take in three children. Eventually, they are chosen by Nellie Forrester and her husband Peter, who is a butcher. But as William, Edmund and Anna soon discover, not everyone is happy to have "filthy vackies" in their homes or communities. Will they ever find their special family, their place to hang the moon?

Discussion

A Place To Hang The Moon is set in 1940-41 during the Blitz and the evacuation of over eight hundred thousand children urban areas being targeted by the German Luftwaffe. Parents were initially encouraged to send their children into the relative safety of the countryside to be billeted with families in villages and farms. While many of these children had very good experiences, others were poorly treated. 

Kate Albus was inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia series and the experiences of the Penvensie children, Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter who, in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe are evacuated from London during the World War II. Her character, Edmund Pearce is based somewhat on Edmund Penvensie. Unless readers have read the C.S. Lewis books, they likely won't catch the similarities between the two characters.

The three Pearce children, William, Edmund, and Anna are orphans, after their last remaining relative, an elderly, uncaring grandmother has passed away. Although they have a sizable inheritance, they have no one to care for them. Their lawyer believes the best way for them to find a family is through the evacuation and so they are sent into the countryside with the hope that they can find "a place to hang the moon."  This places a heavy burden on the oldest, William, who isn't helped much by the frequent trouble Edmund seems to keep getting into. William is responsible for keeping the trio safe and their situation a secret. So the children travel to an unnamed village, some twenty-five miles from Coventry.

But things do not go well for the Pearce siblings. After suffering through two families where they are not well treated, they end up alone, cold and hungry on Christmas Eve. Understanding their predicament and having gotten to know them from their frequent visits to the library, the village librarian, Mrs. Muller kindly takes them in. Mrs. Muller  herself is somewhat of an outcast because she is married to a German man. He has returned to Germany and although her husband's whereabouts are not really known, she has determined that he is gone for good. Both the children and Mrs. Muller have experienced discrimination and exclusion and they are both feeling the effects of being judged. Mrs. Muller was considered "unsuitable" for a billet and the children are unwanted "vackies".

Despite the sad situations that the children have experienced, Albus  provides a heartwarming ending to what was a very difficult time for the children. They have found a forever home, and they have devised a plan to bring Mrs. Muller into the community by involving her in a wartime project of growing much needed vegetables.

A Place To Hang The Moon is a very engaging story, populated by believable characters, and a look at what life might have been like for both villages taking in evacuated children, and the children who were billeted with families. An Author's Note at the back providing more information to young readers about the evacuation of children during the Blitz would have been helpful to provide more information and context to the story.

You can learn more about the evacuation from History of Government. Child Evacuees in the Second World War: Operation Pied Piper at 80.

Book Details:

A Place To Hang The Moon by Kate Albus
New York: Margaret Ferguson Books       2021
309 pp.

God King by Joanne Williamson

God King is set in 701 B.C. when Egypt was ruled by Kushite princes.

Lord Taharka, a young boy, only twelve years old stands in the black mud of the River Nile. He is one of the many sons of Shabaka, king of Kush who rules as a god in the Kushite city of Napata. It is Taharka's first crocodile hunt, and the crocodiles seem slow and lazy.

His uncle Embutah, now a high captain in the army, warns Taharka not to be deceived, that the crocodile can move swiftly and silently. Suddenly, the crocodile is by the boat, striking it with his thick tail. The blow knocks Net the boatman, into the river. Taharka watches as the crocodile begins to close its jaws on Net's arm and instantly Taharka reacts. He strikes the crocodile on its head with a spear but this makes it turn on Taharka, trying to snatch him with its jaws. Instead, Taharka finds himself knocked flat and sees Embutah holding the animal's jaws shut with his bare hands.

Taharka spears the animal at the base of its head, killing it. They drag Net into the boat. He is in shock, blood spurting from the wound in his arm. To stop the bleeding, Taharka tears a strip of cloth the sacred cloth that has been shielding him from the hot sun, and binds the boatman's wound. But the men in the other boats are shocked at Taharka's breaking of the tabu by using the sacred cloth and in touching a slave. According to the law, Taharka is a god, his flesh is not mortal flesh. No one is allowed to even look at him. Taharka tells Embutah he had to help the man and he wonders what will happen to him now.


Taharka's mother was a slave girl brought up from the far off Zambesi River. She had died years earlier and all Taharka had left of her was her brother, his uncle, Embutah. Taharka is one of many of his father's children and so not very important. In the god's great chamber, Taharka sees his cousin, Shepnuset who is destined to follow Taharka's great aunt, and become the high priestess of Amon in Thebes. Taharka finds her attractive but she will not be for him. Instead, she is destined for his half-brother Shabataka who will be the next god. 

When they arrive at quay, the injured man is taken away and Taharka is told he must attend at once in the great hall of the god. His father, the god Shabaka, is dying. Sixteen-year-old Shabataka has been preparing for this day, being allowed to slip into the god's presence unannounced, "learning and listening while the Lord of Kush gave audience." But when the dying god asks for Taharka to be bought to him along with Shabataka and others, the priest of Sebek the crocodile states that he has broken tabu by touching the flesh of a slave. When he is summoned and questioned by the dying god, Taharka tells his father that he did it to save the man's life. Taharka tells him" The man belonged to the God...I must preserve what belongs to you, Great God Shabaka."

Giving Shabaka the "wand of god, the magic wand of succession", the dying god selects Taharka as his choice to succeed him. Stunned and not understanding what is happening, Taharka is told, "Take possession of the land, Taharka, soul of the hawk, beautiful child of Ra, son of the sun, bringer of the Nile, Lord of Kush, Great God of Napata and Meroe, and Pharaoh of Egypt." Taharka is now "king of a land that stretched from the mouth of the Nile on the Northern Sea" (the Mediterranean Sea) " to the southern border of Kush."

But for Taharka, becoming a god is like becoming a prisoner. He can only eat the meat of a calf or goose and only flat bread. He is only allowed outside the walls of the Great house at specific hours of the day or at festivals. When out, his feet mustn't touch the ground and he must wear the double crown. In order for the sun to rise every day, Taharka must be carried around  the walls of the Great House before the sunrise.Anyone who wanted to speak to him had to kneel with their faces to the ground, otherwise they would be blinded.

However Shabataka, comes frequently to visit Taharka, disobeying all the rules, and offering advice to him. Unlike Taharka, Shabataka is envious of his half brother. Taharka begins his weapons training with Shabataka's encouragement and with Embutah's guidance. Embutah explains to Taharka how his family became lords over Egypt.

Shepnuset's aunt who was high priestess in Thebes dies unexpectedly and so she becomes the next high priestess. Then one day a confrontation between Embutah and Shabataka leads Taharka to suspect Shabataka's loyalty to him. 

 

Four years later, Taharka journey's down the Nile to Egypt where he will marry the high priestess, Shepnuset. Before he leaves, and despite reservations, Taharka makes Shabataka his Companion, able to wear the white crown of Kush. 

But Taharka's time in Thebes is soon filled with troubles.  Back in Napata, his uncle, Embutah is murdered. Amos, ambassador from Hezekiah, king of Judah visits the young Pharaoh and warns him about the Assyrians who will now attack Jerusalem because Hezekiah has refused to continue paying tribute. His royal taster dies after being poisoned by food meant for Taharka. And then Taharka learns of a plot to capture him. With the help of Shepnuset and Amos, Taharka flees through the desert towards Jerusalem. He is determined to return to Thebes as king and god of Egypt.

Discussion

The God King is an exceptional historical fiction novel for ages 10 and up. Acclaimed historical fiction author, Joanne Williamson, tackles the period of Egyptian history when the country was ruled by the Kushite dynasty. The the kingdom of Kush was located in south Nubia, an ancient region that now forms part of southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Nubia was rich in gold and ivory, resources that surrounding nations would want. God King is set in the 8th century B.C.  At this time Egypt had been conquered by king Piankhi and then ruled by King Shabaka (in the novel, Taharka's father). Their rule is considered part of Egypt's 25th dynasty. 

As the "About the Author" note at the back of the novel indicates, Williamson "...has the remarkable knack for using her fictional characters and plot to make connections between real historical persons and events." It goes on to state that these connections are valuable because they help younger readers. In God King, Williamson brings together events in ancient Egypt under the reign of Taharka (known as Taharqa) as well as those outside of Egypt: the relationship between Israel and its then king, Hezekiah and the conquering Assyrians. 

As Williamson notes in her "Author's Note" records are contradictory about this time period and the events that occurred. She has followed the Biblical account which states that "Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia" was on the throne when the siege of Jerusalem occurred and that he was the first king of Egypt to fight the Assyrians as they rampaged through the region. The Assyrians were unsuccessful in taking Jerusalem. In Williamson's account, the Assyrians begin dying of some mysterious ailment and abandon the siege. King Hezekiah's generosity and foresight has saved both Taharka and his people.

God King is told in the voice of Taharka, whom Williamson imagines as a young boy who doesn't want the responsibility of god on his shoulders. Taharka is compassionate, sparing a man from having his hand cut off as a punishment. When he retakes the white crown from his half-brother Shabataka, Taharka does not follow the prescribed punishment but instead spares his life.

Readers are drawn into the story almost immediately with the crocodile attack that sees Taharka putting aside the tabu to save his boatman's life. From this point on, the novel is well paced, with new events and characters keeping the plot interesting.

God King is a reprint of Williamson's novel which was originally published in 1960. It was part of a series of historical fiction published by small publisher, Bethlehem Books to bring back some quality historical fiction geared to younger readers. Most historical fiction has understandably focused on World War I and II events so it's refreshing to read a story about a much different and little known era of history. Well written and highly recommended.

Book Details:

God King. A Story in the Days of King Hezekiah by Joanne Williamson
Bathgate, North Dakota: Bethlehem Press     1999
206 pp.

As Glenn As Can Be by Sarah Ellis

Glenn likes boats, and raring round the lake in his boat, singing. He doesn't like fishing. Glenn also likes doing pranks, funny hats, singing to cows in a field and elephants in a zoo. He does not like bullying and refuses to participate. Glenn likes trees even in winter but he doesn't like the cold so he wears a hat and coat to keep warm. Glenn likes animals, especially his dog Nicky but also his other assortment of animals including a skunk. He prefers animals to people. Glenn also likes reading and is able to do many things at once even while memorizing music!

Glenn likes rules but not the rule his parents have made that he can only practice piano four hours a day! He loves to play piano more than anything else. Because when he's playing piano, "Glenn gets to be totally and completely Glenn."

 

Everyone loves to listen to Glenn play because his music instills strong feelings. He plays at concerts all over the world: in New York, Moscow, Toronto, Tel Aviv, Leningrad and Los Angeles. Audiences are thrilled but Glenn soon finds he doesn't like giving concerts. There are many reasons: the concert hall is cold, he doesn't like the piano, the audience is noisy. He doesn't even enjoy the applause. He would like people to simply sit quietly and listen and be quiet at the end of a performance. So he stops giving concerts.

Eventually Glenn finds a way to make music for an audience that makes him feel comfortable. He records his playing, listening to the recording and perfecting it. He has to be himself but in doing so, he's sharing his gift of making music with others.

Discussion

As Glenn As Can Be presents the life of the amazing, brilliant and unique Glenn Herbert Gould.Glenn was born in 1932 to parents Russell Herbert and Emma Florence in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. When he was three years old, Glenn began taking piano lessons, from his mother. It quickly became apparent that he had the gift of perfect pitch. Interestingly, Glenn's maternal grandfather was a cousin to the famous Norwegian composer Edward Grieg.

Glenn not only enjoying playing piano but liked to compose his own pieces too. His piano composition, A Merry Thought is his earliest surviving piece. In the fall of 1943, Glenn began studying piano with Alberto Guerrero and in June of 1945 passes his associate piano examination with the highest honours. While a Grade 9 student at Malvern Collegiate in Toronto, Glenn made his professional debut at the Eaton Auditorium. This was the beginning, at a young age, of a short, but brilliant musical career that saw him make his professional concerto debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Massey Hall in 1947, and make his CBC Radio debut at the age of eighteen in 1950,. In 1955, Glenn made his American debut recital at the Phillips Gallery in Washington, D.C. In January of 1956, Glenn released his recording of Bach: Goldberg Variations to critical acclaim. In the late summer and through the fall of 1958, Glenn toured Europe giving concerts in Salzburg, Brussels, West Berlin and Sweden. Glenn also composed many works including a String Quartet, and a Prelude, Cantilena and Gigue for clarinet and bassoon! Glenn gave many readings, interviews and of course made many recordings of piano works. He passed away in 1982 from a stroke.

Glenn Gould grew up to be what has often been described as very eccentric. Many of these eccentricities are mentioned in Ellis's picture book. He didn't like the cold and wore warm clothing even when it was quite warm outside. He didn't like to be touched and eventually did most of his communicating by letters and phone. Glenn had specific requirements about the piano he used, and even the chair he sat on. Ellis's account is of a gifted musician who performed and lived life on his own terms, even though they may have seemed odd to others.

 

His story is beautifully illustrated by the artwork of Nancy Vo which were done in pen, watercolour and acetone transfer on Rising Stonehenge and Arches Aquarelle.

You can learn more about the amazing Glenn Gould at the official site: glenngould.com

Book Details:

As Glenn As Can Be by Sarah Ellis
Toronto: Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press     2022

Maryam's Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani by Megan Reid

This colourful picture book tells the story of an extraordinary woman mathematician, Maryam Mirzakhani. 

Maryam loved to tell stories to her younger sister every night. Maryam and her friend Roya loved to roam through a favourite part of their city and imagine themselves in their stories. At home Maryam loved to draw and write the stories she created in her mind. Reading and art were her favourite subjects and she hoped to be a famous writer some day. Maryam was fortunate to be able to attend school, now that her country of Iran was at peace.

One subject Maryam disliked was math. She did not like numbers. But when Maryam was twelve-years-old, she began studying geometry in math. Suddenly Maryam found herself liking math because "Every number held a story. It made those numbers into shapes -- and those shapes into pictures."

Maryam and Roya entered a competition for young mathematicians called the International Mathematical Olympiad. This was the first time girls had made the Iranian team and they did not disappoint. They both won medals. The two friends continued to practice for the competition the following year which was held in Toronto, Canada. At that competition, Maryam won the grand prize with a perfect score. After college, Maryam attended graduate school at Harvard where she spent time with her professors discussing mathematical formulas and theories. As she did when she was younger, Maryam would spread sheets of paper on the floor of  her home to work on mathematical problems. Her daughter, Anahita would tell friends that her mother was a painter! Maryam continued to work on problems that dealt with infinity and she also wrote papers and presented her new ideas.

One of those new ideas was called " 'the magic wand theorem' because it worked like magic to solve many problems that scientists had been puzzling over for more than a hundred years." In 2014, Maryam won the Fields Medal for this theorem, marking her as the first woman and first Iranian to win the coveted prize. Sadly, at this time Maryam was also diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. She died in 2017. Her lifelong friend, Professor Roya Beheshti, herself a mathematician, spoke about how Maryam was a girl eager to learn, with a kind heart. She was both a mathematician and a storyteller.

Discussion

In the picture book, Maryam's Magic young readers are introduced to a woman mathematician who  made significant contributions in the field of mathematics and who is virtually unknown outside that specialty. Few young girls are drawn to the discipline of mathematics, often developing a strong dislike for it, early on. This was the case with Maryam.

Maryam was born in Tehran, Iran in 1977. Maryam loved to read and wasn't initially attracted to mathematics. In fact, she wanted to become a writer. Maryam was inspired by the many biographies she watched on television of famous women. The Iran-Iraq War was ending as Maryam completed elementary school. She was able to secure a place at the Tehran Farzanegan School which was run by the National Organization for the Development of Exceptional Talent. There she made a friend in Roya Behesti and the two girls scoured bookstores, buying the cheap books to take home and read. 

Initially Maryam did poorly in mathematics but in her second year at the school she had a different teacher who encouraged her. When she and Roya began attending the high school, they were able to solve some of the questions from that year's national mathematics competition. The two girls went to their school principal and asked for classes in solving math problems like those offered at the boys school. Even though Iran's National Mathematics Olympiad had never had female entrants, their principal was undeterred. 

Maryam entered that Olympiad and she won the gold medal for mathematics at the Iranian National Olympiad in 1994. Maryam went on to win gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Hong Kong in 1994 and again at the International Mathematical Olympiad held the following year in Toronto. 

Maryam completed her B.Sc. in Mathematics from Sharif University of Technology in 1999. She then moved to the United States where she earned her Ph.D at Harvard, under the tutelage of Chris McMullen who had also won a Fields Medal. As she attended McMullen's classes, she asked many questions in English, she took her notes in Farsi. Her 2004 dissertation has been described as a masterpiece and "truly spectacular" and parts were published as separate papers in the top three mathematical journals.

She became an assistant professor at Princeton and a research fellow at the Clay Mathematics Institute. Maryam then joined the faculty at Stanford. It was Maryam's intellectual curiosity and her determination to consider problems that couldn't be solved that set her apart. Maryam married Jan Vondrak, a Czech applied mathematician and they had a daughter named Anahita.

Maryam's Magic captures the enthusiasm Maryam Mirzakhani had for mathematics, and especially for tackling difficult problems. While the text provides all the necessary details of Maryam's life and even explains in a very simple way some of her work, it is the illustrations by artist, Aaliya Jaleel that capture her joy at doing math and her unique method of working on problems. Maryam's imagination which she developed at a young age from her reading, was put to good use as a mathematician studying abstract surfaces. This too is captured in Jaleel's exquisite artwork.

Maryam initially didn't like math, but with an encouraging teacher, her attitude changed. With support, she grew more confident and did not feel intimidated by mathematics. Perhaps this is the key to success in math for girls. It also helped that Maryam had another friend who shared her interest. Maryam's fearless approach to mathematics, her courage to lead the way  and her humility in the face of her outstanding accomplishments are important lessons for girls everywhere. 

Reid's presentation of Maryam Mirzakhani's life and accomplishments offers encouragement for those girls interested in science and mathematics to persist and to be courageous. There is a place for them in the STEM world and they have much to offer! In addition to the Author's Note, Reid has included an Important Dates section and a few suggestions for readers to learn more about Maryam Mirzakhani.

Book Details:

Maryam's Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani by Megan Reid
New York: Balzer & Bray       2021

Bluebird by Sharon Cameron

Bluebird is a historical fiction novel based on a secret program code named Project Bluebird. The author has imagined a story that might have happened at the end of World War II as the Soviets and Americans raced to obtain secrets from the collapsed Nazi regime in Germany. In the novel there are two alternating narratives, that of Inge von Emmerich which begins in February, 1945 and of Eva Gerst which begins in August 1946. 

It is February, 1945. After taking her father's car for a joyride with her friend Annemarie Toberentz, sixteen-year-old Inge von Emmerich sneaks the car back home. Kurt, her family's chauffeur offers to clean the mud off it in exchange for two honey cakes. While Herr Gundersen gives seven-year-old Adolf and ten-year-old Erich their violin lessons, Inge enters her father's study. On his desk she sees a file with her name on it, something that puzzles her. When Mama finds her in the study listening to Papa's radio, she slaps her and sends her to her room.

Inge's papa works in a camp "rehabilitating the enemies of Germany. Teaching them to obey. To be better. To be useful and productive." The next day, Inge's mama pulls her from her League of German Girls meeting, and they drive quickly home. At home, her mama tells Inge, Erich and Adolf to each pack a bag with three changes of clothes and a coat. Inge's mother tells them nothing about what is happening or where they are going. Kurt drives them and Helga is also brought along. They don't go to Berlin  near papa's camp, as Inge expected, but instead drive to their summer lodge. And when they arrive, the car is unloaded of boxes and baskets of food, much more than three days worth.

At the summer house everyone is sent to their rooms. In her Mama's room next door, Inge hears the radio but cannot make out what is being broadcast. Kurt leaves during the night but leaves a car key and money for Inge under the door. After a week at the lodge, Inge questions her mama as to whether papa is coming. Her mama tells her that he is busy winning the war, creating a new world for them. Her abusive manner towards Inge leads her to leave the lodge and run to the Kleimann's house next door. Inge rips off some of the boards and spends time playing the piano until the house is hit by a bomb. Terrified she races home to find her mother has murdered Helga, Erich and Adolf and shot herself in the head. On the radio, Inge hears that Hitler is dead and the enemy is in Berlin.

Inge manages to start the car and drives to their home in Berlin, hoping to find her papa. As she enters the road near the house, she passes a truck of Soviet soldiers and doesn't stop for her friend, Annemarie who is in the field running towards her. Their home is in ruins and her papa is not there. While Inge searches for the file with her name in her papa's study, she hears soldiers voices downstairs. She hears Annemarie's voice and when she begins screaming, a terrified Inge hides underneath the large desk in the study. After the soldiers leave, Inge rescues the unconscious Annemarie and drives to her papa's camp. The car breaks down just a kilometer away, so leaves Annemarie in the car unconscious and walks to the camp. There Inge sees the most horrific sight imaginable: piles of human bodies.

At first Inge believes this is the work of the Soviet Communists. She meets a man in faded striped clothing from the camp, whom she believes is a prisoner of the Communists. She asks him about her father but he thinks her father is one of the prisoners. As the former prisoner starts to take Inge to the man in charge, she notices that the soldiers are Russian. She begins to realize that the people in the camp were prisoners of the Nazis. When she asks about a man named von Emmerich, the former prisoner tells her about the doctor and how "He wanted to know what he could make you say make you do. How much you could endure. He made sure you were crazy, before you died." He tells her the prisoners were "lab rats", "unworthy of life" and that everyone running the camp has been arrested....except the doctor. Inge flees the camp, realizing that everything she's been told is a lie.

August, 1946, sees Eva Gerst and her companion, Brigit Heidelmann watching as their ship pulls into New York harbour. Brigit doesn't speak and is easily upset so Eva leads her back to their cabin to get their suitcases. Both girls have papers sewn into the lining of their skirts. Miss Schaffer, in charge of their group leads the thirty-eight refugees off the ship and into customs. 

Eventually Eva and Brigit are met by Elizabeth Whittlesby, who goes by the name of Bets. She is from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and will help to resettle Eva and Brigit. She takes them to her car where they find a young man named Jacob (Jake) Katz in the back seat. Eva notices that he has "the most extraordinary beautiful hazel-green eyes". Brigit is wary of Jake, but when he begins to play the harmonica, she is distracted and smiles. Eva has noticed they are being watched at the airport and then followed by a man with shiny shoes in a car.

They arrive at Powell House and Eva and Brigit are assigned to the blue room. But when Eva goes to find a phone, she runs into the man with the shiny shoes who's been following them. He warns Eva not to talk about her father to anyone and to hold her end of the bargain, to bring the US government her father. He hands her his card with the name of Mr. Cruickshanks on it. Eva knows this is not his real name. And she also knows her father won't be using his real name either. The United States government wants not only her father but also Anna Ptaszynska who is a killer.

The key to finding her father might just be Dr. Schneider, a doctor at Columbia hospital who had been corresponding with her father over research. Eva believes she must find her father before Cruickshanks and the U.S. government do, or there will be no justice. And justice for herself and for twenty-seven people, whose names she has memorized is what matters most.

Discussion

Bluebird is an intriguing historical fiction novel based on Project Bluebird, a top secret program run by the CIA from 1949 to 1950. Not much is known about Project Bluebird except that it was a mind control program devised to determine if special techniques such as hypnosis and certain drugs could be used in interrogation and conditioning. It also sought to understand if it could be used to obtain accurate information from willing and unwilling subjects, and if it were possible to control the physical and mental actions of willing and unwilling subjects. There were many other goals as well, such as how long post-hypnotic suggestion could be retained, can a person's personality be altered and if so, how long will it hold. Cameron offers more detail in her detailed Author's Note at the back of the novel.

Cameron draws her readers in immediately with the alternating narratives of Inge von Emmerich, daughter of a German doctor who works at a camp, set in the final days of World War II as the Soviet army moves into eastern Germany, and that of Eva Gerst set eighteen months later in August, 1946 as she and a fellow German, Brigit Heidelmann are arriving to start a new life in America. Eventually, these two narratives converge, with readers likely coming to understand the connection between Inge and Eva beforehand.

However, the guessing doesn't stop there: readers begin to wonder who Eva and Brigit really are.  Eva/Inge is on a mission to find her papa, known as "the doctor" at  Sachsenhausen Concentration camp located in Oranienburg, north of Berlin. In the novel when Eva discovers the truth of her papa's work, she is horrified and determined to mete out "justice". As it happens,  the Allies discover her identity as the missing doctor's daughter, and she is offered passage to North America to help locate him. Eva's determined to find him not for the Allies, but so that she can kill him. 

 

As the search goes on for her father, Eva begins to learn more about her father's research and why the U.S. and even the Soviets want him. Cruikshanks sums it up for Eva: "Imagine, Fraulein, if the mind was a moldable object. If memories could be plucked out...and replaced. Imagine if we could say a word, and have a captured soldier walk back across the lines and disable his own country's weapons. If an agent never blew their cover, because they were unaware that they were an agent at all? Imagine if a man like Hitler could have been removed years ago with one of his own officials...."

 

But Eva sees the dangers in such a program. "You could make them 'better', Eva thinks. And who gets to decide who is better and who isn't?" Cruikshanks also believes that Anna Ptaszynska was her father's first and most successful experiment. Who Anna is becomes a source of conflict and personal terror for Eva. At first she believes that Brigit/Annemarie is Anna but then she begins to suspect she might be based on her shadowy memories of events that occurred when she was very young. The files she has stolen from her father's study, seem to confirm this. All of this feeds on the profound conflict Eva is experiencing over her own identity.

 

Eventually, Eva learns the truth from her father about Anna. He tells her that Cruikshanks would love to have an Anna but that he doesn't need her. "He only thinks he does. The process of splitting the personality, of placing a hypnotic suggestion, bending a mind to a certain will, it's all so....messy. Overcomplicated, inefficient, and the outcomes are impossible to predict. When all you really need to make another person do what you wish is the application of the right leverage...."

Eva discovers that her papa has manipulated people to save himself, but  this backfires when he is taken by the Soviets and not the Americans as he had hoped. Eventually, through the efforts of Jake,  Eva learns her true identity and discovers that maybe this justice was for herself and her lost family. 

 

As the story progresses, Eva changes from an uninformed teenager living in a Nazi regime to understanding just what that regime was doing to people it deemed were "less". Her life immediately after the war is consumed by revenge and obtaining what she believes is justice. But in America, events play out in a way that sees justice determined differently than what Eva intended. She also begins to fall in love with Jake. When he leaves for a time, Eva feels fear for the future. In the end, Jake's return suggests a happier, better future. Their love offers readers hope, that in spite of the most horrible of events, there can be a life worth living.

Bluebird is another excellent novel by Sharon Cameron: there's a storyline filled with twists, shady characters, mystery and a touch of romance. There have been so many novels written about World War II, but Cameron has found a new aspect to write about which should peak the interest of those readers looking for something a bit different.

 

For information on Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp: https://www.sachsenhausen-sbg.de/en/history/1936-1945-sachsenhausen-concentration-camp/

Book Details:

Bluebird by Sharon Cameron
New York: Scholastic Press    2021
438 pp.

Aggie & Mudgy: The Journey of Two Kaska Dena Children by Wendy Proverbs

Eight-year-old Maddy lives with her mother (Cherrie) and her grandmother whom she calls Nan. Maddy's parents are separated and her father is not around. The three of them, along with their dog, Buskers, live on Rupert Lane, named after Mr. Rupert who built the homes. Mr. Rupert, who seems rather crusty, is Scottish and Metis.

One day Maddy asks Nan to tell her about the two girls in a sepia-coloured photograph tucked away in Nan's desk. In the photograph there is a taller girl who has her dark hair tied back, and a younger girl with braids. Nan begins her story about the two girls:

They lived in a community called Daylu, in the far north on the British Columbia-Yukon border and were of the Kaska Dena people. The older girl was Mac-kinnay and her younger sister was Beep. When a black robed man came to their community, he told the Kaska Dena people they must be baptized into the Catholic church and in doing so, must take a new name. The priests and nuns wanted to turn the Kaska people away from their beliefs and have them take on the Catholic Christian beliefs. So when Mac-kinnay and Beep's family were baptized at Holy Family Mission, the two girls took on the names of Agnes and Martha. However they didn't like the names very much, so they changed them to Aggie and Mudgy. Their parents, Long and Yanima still called them by their old names.

When Long died in a hunting accident, Yanima had to raise the girls on her own. She did have help from her son, Sylvestor and also from their community. Soon another priest, by the name of Father Allard, came to the village. As there was no school in their community, he told Yanima that the girls must go away to school to learn to read and write and worship God. Instead of sending the girls to a closer school in Whitehorse, they were to travel with Father Allard to the new school in Fraser Lake, British Columbia.

When the day came for the girls to leave, Yanima couldn't bear to see her daughters off. Instead, Sylvester and their grandmother Gyuss, as well as many of the community, came. Aggie and Mudgy left with Father Allard and the two Dick brothers whom he hired to take them across Dease Lake. The two Kaska Dena girls did not know it, but they were about to embark on a journey that would take them far, far from their homes and their families.

Discussion

Aggie & Mudgy is the story of the author, Wendy Proverbs' birth mother Mudgy and her Aunt Aggie's journey to Lejac Residential School. The story is based on Aggie's memoir about their journey from Daylu to Fraser Lake. Wendy was one of Mudgy's twelve children, eight of whom were placed into the care of social services at birth. Wendy was adopted at birth into a non-Indigenous family who loved and cared for her. She has been able to meet two brothers and four sisters and is grateful for the loving family she was raised in. While Mudgy was able to return home once during her time at Lejac and see their mother, Yanima, neither girls ever returned to live at Daylu. their ties with their community and their culture, broken. Mudgy died in 1976 while Aggie passed away in 2001. Father Elphege Allard died in a canoe accident in 1935. The Lejac Residential School finally closed in 1976.

LeJac Residential School

Unlike many books on the experiences of Canada's residential school survivors, Aggie & Mudgy is about their journey to the school. It was a journey of almost "...1,600 kilometers by riverboat, truck, paddlewheeler, steamships and train" undertaken by two very young girls in the company of a total stranger from a very different culture. The sisters had no understanding of where they were going. It also demonstrates the degree that the government and churches were willing to go, to gather in as many Indigenous children as possible.

The author employs the story within a story method to tell her young readers about her birth mother and aunt's journey. Their story is told by "Nan", grandmother to eight-year-old Maddy. The telling is rich in Indigenous bush craft and cultural practices. For example, when Nan tells Maddy about eating fish,  she also explains that "They were used to a diet of fish, as well as moose, caribou, and mountain sheep. Gathering seasonal bounty such as plants, roots, and wild berries was a nutritional and tasty addition to their diet."  

In another example Nan explains to her granddaughter about Aggie and Mudgy's grandmother Gyuss's beading and how the girls were just learning to master this skill. "Their grandmother beaded many items. She used seed bead that are made of very small pieces of European-made glass. her patterns were cut from birch bark and often incorporated floral designs. Her moccasins, gloves, and pouches were well made, and when she could, she traded these items at the Hudson's Bay Company trading store. Gyuss was just beginning to teach Aggie the more difficult moccasin designs when the priest took the girls away." 

Nan also explains how the Europeans came to change many things, not just their names. "They changed the names of communities and mountains and rivers too. The Kaska Dena always knew Daylu as a gathering place where Aggie and Mudgy's ancestors and family lived. It only became known as Lower Post in the late 1800's, after Europeans established a trading post there."

Through Nan, young readers also learn a bit of history of some of the places Aggie and Mudgy travel to on their way to the residential school. For example, Nan tells Maddy about Wrangell, Alaska. "A long time ago, in the late 1890's, Wrangell was a very busy port of call. The reason for this was because of gold. Gold fever gripped North America as gold was discovered in the Yukon. due to gold fever, Wrangell thrived as thousands of men travelled up to the Yukon, seeking their fortune."  

Nan also provides information on the different First Nations tribes that occupied the areas they were traveling through.  For example, in Prince Rupert, Nan explains that "...Prince Rupert is a huge, deep ocean port community situated on an island - Kaien Island - that is connected to the mainland by a bridge. Many Tsimshian First Nation tribes have lived in that rugged area for millennia, and totem monuments stand tall like sentinels in their territory. The Tsimshian actively traded with other First Nations and Europeans." When Maddy asks what they traded, Nan tells her, "Before the Europeans arrived, northwestern interior and coastal First Nations traded food items such as eulachon, which is a small fish that is prized for its oil, known as eulachon grease....They also traded carved horns spoons, obsidian rock, and thin little white dentalium shells. When the Europeans arrived, beaver pelts were highly sought after, as well as sea otter, mink, fox, marten, and muskrat. This became known as the fur trade, and it turned into a huge industry throughout Canada."

While at times Nan's narrative can seem almost encyclopedic, with the many bits of information she provides Maddy, it makes this short novel a wealth of information and serves to help young readers understand how things were before European contact and some of the changes that occurred afterwards. For example, by detailing the trading that the Tsimshian First Nation participated in, we see a vibrant, thriving culture that interacted with other peoples in North American and even Russia.

The profound effect the residential school had on Aggie and Mudgy is implied by Nan's inability to continue her story once the girls arrived at Lejac. She tells her daughter Cherrie that she is a coward for not being able to tell her granddaughter what happened to Auggie and Mudgy at Lejac. But Nan does reveal that she is Mudgy's daughter and the reader does learn some of what the two sisters experienced at Lejac. Author Wendy Proverbs ends the telling in a positive uplifting way, a tribute to herself, and her ancestors who are survivors because of their resiliency, courage and determination. She honours these qualities in her mother and aunt in her retelling, while acknowledging the intergeneration effects of the residential schools.

There is a Bibliography and a Suggested Reading List at the back of this short novel. The author has also included an excellent map that shows just how far Aggie and Mudgy travelled from their home in Daylu to Lejac. This novel offers an excellent opportunity to learn about the residential school system for younger readers.

image credit: https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/local-news/sacred-healing-ceremony-to-take-place-at-site-of-lejac-residential-school-3859738

Book Details:

Aggie & Mudgy: The Journey of Two Kaska Dena Children by Wendy Proverbs
Wandering Fox Books     2021
134 pp.

Fallout: Spies, Superbombs and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown by Steve Sheinkin

World War II has ended with the United States and Russia emerging as the two dominant world powers. For the United States, that domination is partly due to the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But now the race is on to dominate in the age of nuclear weapons.

In June, 1953, paper boy Jimmy Bozart was collecting for his paper route. He often was tipped an extra nickel or dime. From the two retired teachers on the top floor of the apartment building, Jimmy was given a quarter and five nickels. But on his way down the stairs, he slipped and the change spilled. Jimmy found the quarter and four of the nickels. The fifth nickel was in two parts: the back and a hollowed out front containing what looked like a tiny piece of film.

Jimmy raced home, wondering if the strange nickel was somehow connected to Soviet spies. The Cold War was intensifying and any bit of information might help. By 1953, the Soviets and United States were locked in a deadly race to build atomic and nuclear weapons of mass destruction.

Eventually the nickel came to a classmate's father who was a detective in the New York police and he passed it on to the FBI. They questioned the two teachers and did further investigation into the origins of the nickel but were unable to determine anything. The film was sent to code breakers in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, the man who actually crafted the nickel was living in Brooklyn, not far from Jimmy Bozart's family. That man was Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy who had entered the country via Canada.

It wasn't until August, 1949 that the Soviets successfully tested their first atomic bomb, a weapon they were only able to make after stealing the technology from the United States. In early 1950, President Harry Truman announced the United States was working on a new, more powerful bomb, a hydrogen bomb or H-bomb. Abel was working to steal that technology in the hopes of giving the Soviets an advantage.

But the H-bomb would become a reality very quickly. Edward Teller, a Jewish physicist who fled Germany during the war, came to work at a secret lab called Los Alamos in New Mexico. After working on creating the atomic bomb, Teller along with other scientists wondered if it were possible to make a big bomb by fusing atoms together. It was Teller and Stanislaw Ulam who solved this problem. In November 1952, the United States successfully tested a H-bomb. By 1956, the U.S. would have 3,700 bombs. By 1959, the U.S. had over 12,000 bombs.

In the months after Josef Stalin's death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev managed to seize control of power in Soviet Russia. He was determined to see the spread of communism throughout the world. In 1955, the Soviets successfully tested their own hydrogen bomb. The nuclear arms race was now on. Like the U.S., the Soviets began stockpiling bombs and building planes and rockets to deliver those bombs.

As both the United States and the Soviet Union continued to develop, test and stockpile nuclear weapons, a series of events over 1960 and 1961 would draw the superpowers into the ultimate nuclear showdown. 

Discussion

With Fallout, Steve Sheinkin continues the story of the arms race and the development of weapons of mass destruction that began during World War II and was told in his book Bomb. In this book, he follows the events that led up to the showdown between the Soviet Union which was placing nuclear missiles in Cuba and the United States, the intended target of those missiles.

The series of events were many and all connected. The first was the capture of U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers who was on a final reconnaissance flight over the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960. These flights, in the era before satellites, had provided the United States with valuable military intelligence about the Soviet build-up of weapons.

The second was the growing alliance between Khrushchev and the new leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro. President Eisenhower considered Castro a growing threat not only to the U.S. but also to other countries in South America. The third was the election of John F. Kennedy as President of the United States in November, 1960. He was the youngest president ever elected to the office and he was relatively inexperienced. Khrushchev saw him as weak and immature but it was Kennedy's reluctance to escalate the conflict that helped avert a war.

The fourth event was the invasion of Cuba by the United States with the intent to remove Fidel Castro. There was evidence the Soviets were sending military supplies to Cuba. After much planning and denial by the U.S., the invasion occurred at Bahia de Cochinos, the Bay of Pigs and was a massive failure. 

This was followed by the successful launch by the Soviets of a cosmonaut, Yuri Gagurin, into space - the fifth event. It meant the Soviets now had the potential capability to send a nuclear warhead over the ocean to America. 

Finally, the building of the Berlin wall served to increase tension dramatically in Europe. This was the one place where communism and the free world directly faced off. After World War II, Germany was a country divided: West Germany was democratic while East Germany was a communist dictatorship. Similarly, the capital of Germany, Berlin was also split in two. East Berlin was part of communist East Germany while West Berlin was part of democratic free West Germany. Life in East Germany and East Berlin was difficult as both were oppressive, police states. As a result, people fled from east to west and by 1962, over a thousand a day were leaving. This infuriated Khrushchev who wanted to take over the entire city of Berlin. To stop the drain of people, Walter Ulbricht suggested building a wall between East and West Berlin.

These events were all important catalysts. But it was the fact that the Americans had bases all over Europe including a new operational one in Turkey and that the Soviets were still behind in the nuclear arms race that led Khrushchev to undertake what he later admitted to his son, was "a bluff". "The missiles in Cuba had always been a bluff....The goal was to give the Americans a taste of their own medicine, to make them live with a bit more fear. That would even out the global balance of power. The Soviets could refocus on driving the Americans out of Berlin, and the march to Cold War victory would continue from there."  

It was unbelievable that it was this irresponsible "bluff" which brought the world to the brink of  nuclear war. It seems President Kennedy and Soviet naval Captain Vasili Arkhipov who was the chief of staff for the four Soviet subs near the naval blockage and who had seen the horrors of radiation poisoning from the K-19 nuclear submarine disaster, were the two men who likely prevented nuclear war. Kennedy couldn't imagine starting a nuclear war, despite intense pressure from his military staff and Arkhipov refused to allow the launch of a nuclear missile from one of the subs.

Fallout is well researched, and a fascinating read. The events are told in three parts bookended with a Prologue and an Epilogue. Each part presents black and white photographs of the major players in the events described. Sheinkin does an excellent job of portraying all the moving parts of these events including Russian spies, world leaders, and ordinary citizens including a young paper boy. Despite being well written, this is a book for much older readers and adults. The events are complex and all interconnected.

Sheinkin undertook the research and writing of this book before being interrupted by the pandemic. Nevertheless, he was able to continue his research and talk to Francis Gary Powers Jr. as well as Dr. Sergei Khrushchev, son of Nikita Khrushchev. Dr. Khrushchev was able to provide valuable insights into the events from the Soviet perspective.

Fallout is a must-read for those who want to understand Europe as it exists today and the current events unfolding between Russia and Ukraine.

Book Details:

Fallout: Spies, Superbombs and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown by Steve Sheinkin
New York: Roaring Book Press     2021
341 pp.