Ablaze With Color: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas by Jeanne Walker Harvey

Alma was a girl who loved "the sparkling colors of nature": the "pastel purple violets and crimson roses crowned by bright green banana leaves". She always enjoyed being outside because the colours of nature made her feel good. 

Unlike her sisters who enjoyed cooking or sewing, Alma loved creating things, like bowls and cups she made from the red clay near her home. Her mother designed colourful dresses while her aunts painted.

But Alma and her sisters were not allowed to attend the nearby school which was for white people only. They also were not allowed into the local library or the museum. Alma's parents countered this by filling their home with books and inviting teachers into their home to talk about various subjects. 

Eventually, Alma's family decided to leave Georgia for Washington, D.C. where there were more opportunities for Black Americans.

After studying art in college, Alma worked at bringing art to the young people in her neighborhood.

In her spare time, Alma began working on her own painting and soon developed a new style for her artwork. She painted in "dashes and dabs", using "circles and stripes" and with lots of colour. Her paintings reflected how nature made her feel inside. Eventually her artwork was exhibited and as her reputation grew, the Whitney, a famous New York City art museum showed her work.

One of Alma's paintings, was chosen by the first Black President of the United States to hang in the White House. Sadly,  Alma didn't live to experience this honour, 

Discussion 

Ablaze with Color tells readers about African-American painter, Alma Thomas. She was born in Columbus, Georgia on September 22, 1891. She grew up with her parents and three younger sisters in an Victorian house situated on a hill overlooking their town. As a child, Alma enjoyed the many colours of nature and dreamed of becoming an architect some day.

In 1907, her family moved to Washington, D.C. to escape the racial violence in the south. She eventually enrolled in Howard University and was the first graduate of the fine arts program in 1924, At this time she began teaching art in a junior high school, organizing student art shows and lectures for the students. She would go on to teach art for thirty-five years.

Her teaching career allowed Alma to work on her own art. Her former professor and mentor, Professor James V. Herring encouraged Alma to try abstract art. It wasn't until she retired that Alma was able to fully develop her own style and work on her art full-time.

 While teaching Alma earned her Masters in Education from Columbia University in 1934. In the 1950's she studied art at the American University in Washington, focusing on colour and abstract art. But it wasn't until she was seventy-five years old that Alma first exhibited her abstract art in and exhibition at Howard in 1966.

In Ablaze With Color, Walker Harvey focuses on Alma's interest in colour, her use of it in her art and how nature influenced her work. The informative text matches Loveis Wise's richly coloured illustrations with descriptions such as, "quivering yellow leaves", "the warm glow of sunsets", "moist red clay" and "sizzling sun" - that convey how Alma saw the world around her. As Walker Harvey describes Alma's development of her own style, the illustrations mimic the colours of her paintings with the use of dabs of  dark greens, bright pinks and yellows, and rich reds.

The Author's Note at the back, further explains Alma Thomas's use of colour, while the Illustrator's Note provides images of her work and the painting titled, Resurrection that hangs in the White House Old Family Dining Room. A detailed Timeline featuring important events in the life of Alma Thomas and in the United States can also be found at the back.

Book Details:

Ablaze With Color: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas by Jeanne Walker Harvey
New York: HarperCollins Children's Books     2022

One Wish: Fatima al-Fihri and the World's Oldest University by M.O. Yuksel

In the ninth century, Fatima al-Fihri was a little girl with a deep love of learning and a big dream. While a small child, she wanted to learn about the world around her. At this time, while boys attended school, girls such as Fatima were educated at home by tutors. So, she studied the Qur'an and worked on her math problems. Her faith taught her that knowledge was very important. As a result, Fatima had a dream to build a school for all students.

Then one day, war came to her town, and Fatima and her family had to flee to Fez, Morocco. Still Fatima continued to hold on to her dream to build a school one day, to continue her education. Life carried on, with Fatima accompanying her father to work at the souq. Eventually, Fatima grew up and got married. Her family prospered and became wealthy. But then her father and her husband both died.

With the fortune left to her by her father and her husband, Fatima began to consider how best to use this money. She decided to build a school where students from all over the world, including the poor and refugees could live and study for free. This school would teach many subjects including history, geometry and poetry and offer degrees.

Fatima drew up plans for the school and during its construction, she fasted to show her "passion, gratitude, and faith." She was involved in every aspect of the construction including the type of stone used, the mosaics on the walls and even the carvings on the ceiling. She named the school, al-Qarawiyyin, the name of her hometown in Tunisia. It was a school, a mosque and a library. 

Soon students began arriving and Fatima was thrilled. Her school, still open today, has taught students for over a thousand years.

Discussion

One Wish offers young readers the story of Fatima al-Fihri who fulfilled a life-long dream to create a school open to all students, including girls.

Fatima al-Fihri was born in Kairouan, Tunisia, into the family of a merchant, Mohamed al-Fihri. Her parents valued the education of girls. Fatima, her sister Miriam and father emigrated to Morocco along with many Tunisians during this century. It is possible that the violence that erupted over the un-Islamic taxes by the ruling government at the time, led to Fatima's family and many others to flee Tunisia. In Fes, Tunisia, Fatima's father became wealthy through hard work. When she came into significant wealth after the death of her father, she was able to move forward with her dream of creating a special school open to all students, from any country. 

Fes was a relatively new town, and as the population grew rapidly there were not enough schools. With their new wealth both Fatima and her sister founded mosques. Fatima's original school consisted of a mosque, library and a large number of classrooms but soon grew in size and prestige. The students were all boys but there was a means for girls to listen to teachers. The subjects offered for study included astronomy, languages and natural sciences. It was founded in 859 A.D. and eventually became the University of al-Qarawiyyin, - the first degree-granting educational institute in the world.  Fatima herself studied there and it is believed that Pope Sylvester II was also a student.

Its library is considered one of the oldest in the world with over four thousand manuscripts. It was recently renovated, the update designed by Canadian-Moroccan architect, Aziza Chaouni. You can see Fatima's original diploma - presented on a wooden board.

One Wish captures the essential facts as we know them of Fatima al-Fihir's life and her contributions. Although little historical information is available on Fatima's early life, Yuksel has presented her story with a focus on Fatima's dream of establishing a school, her love of learning and the belief that education should be available to all, including girls. Fatima and her sister Miriam could have used their newly acquired wealth in other ways, but their generosity ensured the education of many people down through the centuries. Her story is illustrated in the richly coloured panels created by artist Mariam Quraishi who used gouache and watercolor on Arches hot pressed paper. 

The author offers more biographical information about Fatima at the back of the book in the form of an Author's Note. There is also more information on The University of Al-Qarawiyyin.

Book Details:

One Wish: Fatima al-Fihri and the World's Oldest University by M.O. Yuksel
New York: HarperCollins Publishers      2022

March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell

This graphic novel is the first in a series telling the story of civil rights leader and former Democratic Congressman, John Robert Lewis, one of the "Big Six" leaders who organized the March on Washington in 1963. March opens in the present and then flashes back to Lewis' humble beginnings on his family's farm in Alabama.

John Lewis wakes up the morning of January 20, 2009 - the beginning of a very special day. Lewis shows up at the Cannon House Office Building where he meets Rosa Parks. Suddenly three people enter his office, a lady with her two sons, Jacob and Esau. She has brought them to see Congressman John Lewis' office. She wants them to "know how far we've come..."

As he points out some of the key photographs in the picture, one of the boys asks him why he has so many chickens in his office. This triggers Lewis' memory of growing up and he begins to tell them his story. He starts with when it was his responsibility to care for his family's chickens. They lived on 110 acres of land in Pike County, Alabama that his father bought in 1940 for three hundred dollars. Lewis knew all the different kinds of chickens on their farm and even named some of them. He loved them so much, he would conduct funerals for them when they died, and he would deliver a eulogy. He often protested his parents treatment of the chickens and wouldn't be at family chicken dinners. 

John's eyes were opened when he was taken on a trip north by his uncle, Otis Carter.  Otis lived in Dothan, where he was a teacher and school principal. The trip north meant no stopping at restaurants because there was no where for them to eat as black people. Uncle Otis knew which gas stations to stop at, offering colored washrooms. Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky were the states they had to be careful in. Once they got to Ohio, they felt safer. In Buffalo, New York, Lewis was thrilled; the city was busy and his uncle's home had white people living side by side with them. Lewis was able to visit a department store. He saw that life was different and after that trip he was different.

When Lewis started riding the bus to school that fall he could see once again how different life was for black Americans. Roads into "colored" communities were not paved until whites had to drive through them. The books and buses in Black schools were hand-me-downs. White schools were nice with playground equipment while the colored schools were cinder block with a dirt field to play in. Lewis also noticed the people working in the fields or on the prison gangs were usually blacks too. But sometimes, Lewis' family needed help on the farm. His father wanted him to stay home and help out but Lewis would hide. 

Then in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the doctrine of "separate but equal" upon which segregation was based, was ruled unconstitutional. Lewis was certain things would change, that he would be going to an integrated school with a nice bus. Lewis noticed that the ministers at church never mentioned the injustices that were happening.

In 1955, he heard a young preacher out of Atlanta, Georgia on the radio. His name was Martin Luther King Jr. and he preached the social Gospel. That spring another ruling by the Supreme Court, which struck down segregation, saw segregationists insist they would defy the law. In August, the body of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till, a black boy visiting Money, Mississippi was pulled from the Tallahatchie River.  He had been forcibly taken from his relatives' home after calling a white woman, "baby". Despite the testimony of a black farmer who witnessed what really happened, the white men were acquitted. 

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to sit at the back of the bus and was arrested. Martin Luther King led a boycott of the buses in Montgomery, Alabama. Lewis was inspired by King and so five days before his sixteenth birthday, he preached his first sermon.

The woman in his office wants to know how he managed to attend college. He tells her that his mother helped him by encouraging him to apply to the American Baptist Theological Seminary, a school for Black men and women. He was accepted Lewis got a job washing dishes and serving food. But he wanted to do more for Black rights.

Lewis wanted to attend Troy State, which was closer to his parents' home, but Black students weren't accepted. He applied as a transfer student but when he never heard back he wrote to Martin Luther King Jr. He also began communicating with Rev. Ralph Abernathy and a lawyer, Fred Gray who represented Rosa Parks.

In the spring of 1958, Lewis met up with Fred Gray and Martin Luther King Jr. After questioning him, they told Lewis that if he wanted to attend Troy, he would have to sue both the State of Alabama and the Board of Education. Because he wasn't old enough, Lewis would need the permission of his parents. They also pointed out that he and his parents would most likely face serious repercussions. Ultimately, Lewis' parents decided against giving him their permission to proceed.

Lewis is interrupted in telling his story and told he must leave to meet Rosa Parks, but is also told he has a message from Jim Lawson. In 1958, Jim Lawson ran a series of workshops on non-violent action and passive resistance. After this, Lewis and others, as part of the Nashville Student Movement began protesting segregation at department store lunch counters. It was the beginning for Lewis, of real action, nonviolent protest to end segregation in Nashville and across America.

Discussion

March is the first of three comic books that tell the story of John Robert Lewis, a congressman and civil rights leader. Lewis, who was born near Troy, Alabama, was the son of sharecroppers and by his own admission grew up poor. Most of the area where he lived and grew up had few white people, yet everything was segregated. He and his siblings were denied the use of the local public library, being told it was for whites only. His trip north to Buffalo, New York opened Lewis's eyes to the extent of segregation and its impact on himself and his family. He saw that things could be profoundly different and he wanted to change America, supposedly founded on the belief that "all men are created equal" and yet not in practice.

Lewis had to counter not only white America and its segregationist practices, but the views of the older Black generation exemplified by Thurgood Marshall and local Black ministers who seemed to want to maintain the status quo. And yet, as is told in March, Lewis and the Nashville Student Movement were successful in their first nonviolent protests. 

The beginning of Lewis's civil rights work is a story of courage and determination. Lewis acted on his belief that all men are created equal and that he and other African Americans had the same rights as white Americans. To achieve the goal of dismantling segregation, Lewis and many other civil rights leaders began to implement nonviolent forms of protest, at great personal risk. He states that he felt this calling at a young age and it seemed to intensify as he grew older and saw the world as it really was.

Lewis' story is told with the assistance of  Andrew Aydin, who served as his Digital Director & Policy Advisor while Lewis was a Congressional representative. It is told as a story within a story: the book begins with Lewis getting ready to meet Rosa Parks in 2009 in preparation for attending the inauguration of Barak Obama as president of the United States. Illustrating Lewis' story is the artwork of Nate Powell, an accomplished and award-winning graphic novelist. 

The graphic novel format makes John Lewis' story accessible to readers of all ages and backgrounds. The visual character of the graphic novel conveys  the reality of what segregation entailed for millions of Black Americans in the 20th century and highlights the significant efforts these early civil rights activists had to resort to, in order to undo a deeply entrenched system of discrimination and hatred. It also visually portrays the violence, hatred and ugliness of those determined to prevent Black Americans from gaining their God-given right to be treated with respect, dignity and equality.

March is a book for people because it is only in reading about and studying the past, can we make a better future for everyone.

Book Details:

The March by John Lews, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell
Marietta, Georgia: Top Shelf Production   2013
121 pp.

The Red Palace by June Hur

The Red Palace is yet another outstanding historical fiction novel by author June Hur. This time the setting is 18th century Korea.

Baek-Hyeon (Hyeon) is an eighteen-year-old nae-uinyeo or nurse who works in the Hyeminseo, "a vast walled-in compound that held the medical office and its spacious courtyards." Hyeon and her fellow nurse, Jieun are called by Royal Physician Nanshin to accompany him from the Royal Apothecary to Joseung Pavilion, the main house in the Donggungjun compound. It is the residence of the Crown Prince, Prince Jangheon. 

There in a darkened chamber, Lady Hyegyoung, wife of the Crown Prince tells them that he has been feeling ill the past two days. However, when Hyeon glances up as Physician Nanshin examines the patient, she is shocked to see that it is the old eunuch in the bed and not the Crown Prince. 

Lady Hyegyoung remarks on how much Hyeon resembles the Crown Prince's deceased older sister, Princess Hwahyup. She also requests that both nurses continue to tend to the Crown Prince and if the king questions them, they are to tell him that his son is ill. Hyeon is uneasy about this lie and wonders, "Where had the real Prince Jangheon disappeared to?"

Suddenly Eunuch Choe arrives, informing Lady Hyegyoung that he has been unable to locate the Crown Prince as she had ordered him to do. He also brings news of a terrible massacre in the capital. Hyeon and Jieun are ordered to leave, but Hyeon overhears the eunuch state that four women have been murdered at the Hyeminseo.

At the Hyeminseo, Hyeon manages to lie her way in to see the crime scene, where she finds the bodies of the four murdered women covered by straw mats. Hyeon's examination of the bodies reveals nineteen-year-old student nurse Bitna, twenty-year-old Eunchae also a student nurse and the elderly Head Nurse Heejin, their throats all slashed. She also finds Court Lady Ahnbi who served Madame Mun, one of the king's concubines. Lady Ahnbi, who was dressed as a servant, had been killed by a single stab to the throat.

Commander Song questions Nurse Jeongu who insists that she saw nothing. Song, not believing her, orders Jeongu tied up and taken to the prison block. Meanwhile, Hyeon is confronted by a man she believes is a police servant. They argue about her presence and he threatens to take her to Commander Song. Hyeon explains that she is a nurse investigating the crime. After sharing some of what she's uncovered, Hyeon is helped by the police servant over the stone wall that encloses the Hyeminseo.

The next day Hyeon returns to the police station with a letter that she hopes will help Nurse Jeongsu. But on her way she sees that someone has put up handbills claiming the Crown Prince is a murderer. At the police bureau, Hyeon meets Nurse Inyeong who tells her she was the one who reported the murders. She tells Hyeon she encountered a frightened Lady Ahnbi running away and tried to follow her. Later on when she looked into the open gate of the Hyeminseo, she saw the murdered women.

Commander Song questions Nurse Jeongsu as to her whereabouts during the night as she was seen leaving her home around midnight and not returning.Jeongsu claims to have been out for a walk but she admits to having no alibi. Commander Song doesn't believe her, insisting she had an accomplice to help her plan and carry out the murders, and he has her taken away. 

Sulbi, a damo at the police bureau, tells Hyeon she believes Nurse Jeongsu is innocent and that Commander Song holds a personal grudge against her because Jeongsu was unable to save his wife and son during labour. She also tells Hyeon that anonymous handbills claiming the Crown Prince committed the murders at the Hyeminseo were posted all over the capital. Hyeon tries to have Sulbi give her letter to Commander Song but is interrupted by the arrival of her father, Lord Shin who works for the Ministry of Justice.

Hyeon is terrified of her father and hasn't spoken to him in five years. He tells her that the Commander will only be swayed by evidence and that her letter is useless. Lord Shin tells her to not to meddle and that as a "vulgar commoner", she has nothing to offer the investigation. After this encounter, Hyeon rips up her letter but remains determined to uncover evidence that will exonerate Nurse Jeongsu. Hyeon is devoted to her because it was Nurse Jeongsu who took her in after she was abandoned at the age of eight outside Gibang House in midwinter. 

The next day at Changdeok Palace, Physician Nanshin warns the palace nurses against indulging in the rumour about the Crown Prince. Nurse Inyeong and Hyeon volunteer to check on the king's concubine, Madame Mun and her infant daughter. It is during this visit that Hyeon learns more about Inyeong: that she was a damo for nine years so that she could continue serving in the police bureau in Gwangju to help with a murder investigation. The murder was solved and with the death of her mother, Inyeong finally passed the exams to fulfill her mother's dream of her becoming a palace nurse.

Madame Mun attempts to blackmail Hyeon into becoming a spy for her, threatening to tell the king anything she wants about her. She does tell Hyeon that a servant saw Physician Khun and Lady Ahnbi arguing.  Hyeon decides to pay a visit to Physician Khun's home but when she arrives, she finds the police servant is also there, this time disguised as a scholar. At the house, they discover a single garakji ring, implying that Physician Khun and Lady Ahnbi were in fact married. When Hyeon presses the servant, who has identifies himself as Seo Eojin, to tell the Commander of their find, he refuses telling her the Commander will only believe when they have discovered the real killer.

The police servant reveals his true identity as Police Investigator Seo Eojin, and asks Hyeon to work with him solve the mystery of the murders and uncover the truth of what happened in the Hyeminseo. As they draw closer to the truth, Hyeon and Eojin encounter political intrigue and unexpectedly... the blossoming of first love.

Discussion

The Red Palace is another well-written and engaging murder-mystery novel set during the reign of King Yeongjo (1694 to 1776) in the Joseon Dynasty.  Crown Prince Jangheon, also known as Crown Prince Sado, was the second son of King Yeongjo. He was born in 1735 to Lady Seonhui, a concubine of King Yeongjo. He lived in his own palace with his own eunuchs and staff. Prince Jangheon became heir to the throne when his older brother died prematurely. 

Prince Jangheon was married in 1744 to Lady Hyegyeong, whose accounts provide some of the information about his life. Their actual married life began when he was only fourteen-years-old. When he was ten-years-old, Prince Jangheon became seriously ill and it was around this time that his behaviour started to change. At times, the young prince seemed to be mentally unstable.

Sadly, his relationship with his father was strained. King Yeongjo was often critical of the young crown prince, scolding him publicly. It seemed the young prince could do nothing right. As time went on, the prince's erratic behaviour grew worse, further straining his relationship with his father.

His mental health deteriorated when his father's adoptive mother and wife, both of whom Jangheon was close to, died. He would beat his eunuchs, and once brought in the head of an eunuch he had murdered. He was known to kill palace staff and assault the ladies within the court. He was even physically and sexually abusive towards his own wife. 

In the summer of 1762, the situation was so dire, with threats of violence by Prince Jangheon, that King Yeongjo was persuaded to act. He ordered Prince Jangheon into a wooden rice chest which was then sealed. Eight days later it was opened and the Prince was dead. The king reinstated him as Crown Prince and he was renamed Sado.

In The Red Palace the events are set against the backdrop of palace intrigue and murder during King Yeongjo's reign. Palace nurse Baek-Hyeon is determined to save  Nurse Jeongju who has been her mentor and saved her life eight years earlier. She is relentless in her pursuit of the truth, taking great personal risks.

Hyeon, with the help of a young, police inspector, Eojin, risks everything she has worked towards, to prove her mentor's innocence. Along the way, Hyeon finds a true friend in Police Inspector Eojin Seo who treats Hyeon as his equal and with great respect and care. Hyeon is not used to this, especially since Eojin is "highborn" and therefore, her "better". As they work together to solve the murders, Hyeon finds their friendship blossoming into the beginnings of an unexpected romance.  

Hyeon's strained relationships with both her parents are an important driving force in her actions.  Hyeon dreads the disapproval of her father who has abandoned her mother and her family. To gain his approval she worked hard to become a palace nurse, often suffering nose bleeds due to a lack of rest. Hyeon believed if she could gain his approval, others would view her more favourably. However, her investigation into the murders sets her father against her. He repeatedly warns her to stop "meddling" and when Hyeon persists in her investigation, her father has her demoted and removed as a palace nurse and forces her family to leave his house. 

Hyeon also comes to realize that her belief that her mother doesn't love or care for her is not true. Hyeon has always felt anger towards her mother who seemed to favour her younger brother,  because he was a boy. Hyeon is certain her mother wanted a boy, but when Hyeon was born she was disappointed, so she gave her a boy's name. As an infant she was left to play in the dirt and be raised by a servant whereas her brother was carried in her mother's arms and provided tutors and treats.  

When Hyeon arrives home wounded, her mother tells her she must continue to investigate the murders, that she must be brave and continue to work to save Nurse Jeongsu. This is not how Hyeon expected her mother to act. Hyeon was certain her mother would be indifferent to her. Puzzled, Hyeon confronts her mother over the past and her abandonment outside Gibang House. Hyeon's mother tells her, "I wanted to raise you to be strong, to be prepared for the hardship that awaited you as woman of your status. Yet I almost crushed you instead, would have if Nurse Jeongsu had not intervened. I am forever grateful to her.She is more of a mother to you that I will ever be." Her mother encourages Hyeon to rejoin Inspector Seo, telling her that she is strong enough to continue. She informs Hyeon that she named her "...Baek, meaning eldest. And Hyeon, meaning 'virtuous, worthy, and able.'"

In the end, Hyeon more than lives up to her mother's expectations, while proving her father's belief that she is merely a "vulgar commoner" to be quite wrong. She courageously saves her own life and that of Eojin's, while helping to convince the murderer to confess. As a result she also exonerates the Crown Prince, earning the gratitude of the king. Her father however, is punished by the king for withholding the evidence as the Crown Prince's alibi. Despite how he has treated her, Hyeon asks the king to reinstate her father, rather than regaining her position as a palace nurse. She extends to her father the kindness and mercy he never offered her, but within her own boundaries. Hyeon no longer needs her father's approval. 

The Red Palace is another engaging novel that offers readers a window into court and political life in 18th century Korea. Hur's portrayal life during this period of  the Joseon Dynasty feels realistic, while providing readers with mystery, suspense and a touch of romance. Hur's novels are filled with a wealth of interesting characters: the main character is usually a strong, young woman who is intelligent and resourceful. Hur incorporates many cultural practices into her novels which helps develop the setting and atmosphere of her stories. Generally, Hur's novels have a wealthy of characters, and The Red Palace is no exception. What might be helpful to her readers is a list of characters at the front of the novel and a map of the palace buildings and compounds might also have been useful. 

The Red Palace is another wonderful novel, offering readers a unique cultural setting to explore. Overall, another stellar offering from this Korean-Canadian author. Readers will be awaiting Hur's next offering with great anticipation!!

Book Details:

The Red Palace by June Hur
New York: Feiwell and Friends     2022
321 pp.

Alias Anna by Susan Hood with Greg Dawson

Zhanna Dimitrinov Arshanskya was born April 1, 1927 in Ukraine, a part of the Soviet Union. Zhanna's mother Sara, an avid reader, chose the Russian name closest to Joan of Arc, beloved heroine of France.

Zhanna and her parents lived in the resort town of Berdyansk. Her father made fruit-flavoured candies and fine caramels which he sold on the street outside their home. Zhanna's father was a self-taught violinist who played at family weddings and in the cinema for the American silent movies. From the money he earned, Zhanna's papa bought a small, upright Bechstein piano from Germany. It was the heart of their home, a spiritual refuge from Communism.

Their home had no hot water, electricity, indoor plumbing or even a refrigerator, but it was a happy one with two grandparents, her mother and father, Zhanna and her baby sister, Frina.

As a three-year-old, Zhanna often wandered around Berdyansk. In the evenings, Zhanna would wait for her papa's good friend, Nicoli who came to their home to play piano. Zhanna delighted in the violin and piano, as they played Rossini, Bizet and Tchaikovsky. She often fell asleep in the living room to their music.

Zhanna refused to attend kindergarten. To stop her wandering, her papa had her study piano with a family friend and pianist, Svetlana. At first Zhanna did not co-operate but gradually as she watched Svetlana play, she grew to love her. Soon Zhanna was playing Chopin, Brahms and Beethoven. Her father began to have small concerts at home with family and friends. He often closed the shutters, darkening the room so Zhanna could display her mastery of the music and keyboard.

In the 1930's, Josef Vissarionvich Dzhugashvili - known as Josef Stalin, wanted to modernize the Soviet Union. To do that, he took over Ukraine's farms, shipped thousands of farming families to Siberia, and sold the grain to other countries in order to buy heavy industrial equipment. With their crops confiscated, the people began to starve. Zhanna saw beggars on the streets as people starved. Her father, who had never joined the Communist party, was repeatedly arrested and questioned. 

Eventually Zhanna's family had to leave Berdyansk. They left behind their grandparents, taking only their violin and small piano. It was now 1935 and Zhanna's family settled in Kharkov, a vibrant center of Jewish culture. Their home was a one room apartment on Katsarskaya Street. Dimitri earned money playing violin and giving piano lessons. 

Dimitri decided to take eight-year-old Zhanna and six-year-old Frina to audition at the renowned Kharkov Conservatory. The judges were so impressed that the girls were each awarded two hundred ruble monthly scholarships. They would study under renowned teacher, Abram Lvovsik Luntz. Under his tutelage, Zhanna learned Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu, with which she became obsessed. The school also paired the sisters together on two pianos. Their concert debut was enormously successful, resulting in many new opportunities.

In 1939, Zhanna was twelve and Frina was ten years old. Life seemed to get better with Zhanna's grandparents moving to Kharkov and opening a sweets shop. Zhanna and Frina continued to compete and after a competition at the Moscow State Conservatory, had a private audition with as classmate of Rachmaninoff, Alexander Borisovich Goldenweiser. He offered to take them on as pupils but their family could not afford to live on the meager scholarship he offered.

Meanwhile war raged across Europe, until finally in June of 1941 it came to Ukraine.Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. Kharkov was a German bombing target and so Zhanna's school became a refugee center. As Stalin's army retreated east, they destroyed everything burning crops and buildings. Over a million people fled Kharkov, and went east to the Ural Mountains and Siberia. Among those were Zhanna's aunt and uncle and her two cousins, Tamara and Celia. They begged Zhanna's mother to flee as well but her health was not good. So Zhanna's family stayed behind. They did not know about Hitler because Stalin had hidden news of Hitler's crimes from the people. They didn't know about the murders, or the mobile killing squads that murdered Communists, Romas and Jews.

On September 29, 1941, Babi Yar, the destruction of almost THIRTY-FOUR THOUSAND Jewish men, women and children occurred outside of Kyiv. This mass murder was done by the Einsatzgruppen. In late October, they came to Kharkov. First the Nazi soldiers terrorized Zhanna's family, demanding gold, then they returned to pillage their apartment, taking Dimitri's violin. Others were not so lucky. The bodies of more than one hundred people hung from the trees in Kharkov.

On December 14, 1941, all Jews in Kharkov were to report to the center of town. Zhanna said good-bye to her best friend Svetlana Gaponovitch, not knowing if she would ever see her again. On December 15, they were told they were being sent away to work.Just before leaving, Zhanna raced home and retrieved the music to Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu. Then, Zhanna, Frina, her parents and grandparents began the long march to an abandoned tractor factory along with sixteen thousand other Jews.They spent the next two weeks in the abandoned factory barracks, in freezing conditions, with no bathrooms and no food. Twice Zhanna left the barracks and walked back to Kharkov to bring food scraps back to her family. She was helped by a family who took her in and allowed her to stay overnight and fed her.

The Nazis told them that they were being taken to Poltava, which happened to be Zhanna's papa's hometown. Her father suspected that they were being taken to their deaths, as the trucks left in the opposite direction to Poltava. Shortly after Christmas, it was Zhanna's family's turn to leave. They were to be marched four miles south to a ravine which would become known as Drobitsky Yar. Zhanna's father was determined to save Zhanna, so he bribed the Ukrainian soldier walking alongside them to look the other way while Zhanna left the march. He was successful.

Now on the run, Zhanna fled back to Kharkov, stopping once again at the home of the family who had sheltered and fed her on her trips back and forth to the barracks. In Kharkov, Zhanna was turned away by her friend, Svetlana Gaponovitch's family but taken in by another classmate's family whose mother was rumoured to be an anti-Semite. Thus began her long journey that would lead ultimately to freedom.

Discussion

Alias Anna tells the story of Zhanna Dimitrinov Arshanskya, the mother of co-author, Greg Dawson and her escape from certain death at the hands of the Nazis in Ukraine during the Holocaust. Alias Anna is a true story, told in verse. It's important because it was written for children. As Greg Dawson writes, "Alias Anna brings the story of the Shoah in Ukraine to a vast new audience, arguably the most important of all, the next generation to inherit the world and become keeps of the flame. 'Never again.' "

Zhanna's story is divided into six parts, Overture, Prelude, Fugue, Invention, Variations and Bridge - each named for a musical term. Her story is told using poems in free verse. In a section titled Poetry Notes at the back, Hood writes about the many poetic forms used in the novel. These forms include a tercet which is a poem with stanzas of three lines, a reverso poem which "reads one way going down and presents another idea or point of view when the same lines are read going up.", an elegy which is used to "praise or mourn the dead," and a haiku, "a traditional Japanese form of unrhymed poetry, originally written as one vertical line and measured in morae, or breaths. There are many more forms used in the telling of Zhanna's story as noted at the back.

The novel opens with a real life event involving Zhanna's granddaughter, Aimee, who is Greg Dawson's daughter, writing a letter to her grandmother about a history project that requires her "to find out as much as possible about our grandparents and what was going on when they were 13 years old..." Zhanna had only spoken to her son Greg, once about the Shoah. The events were so traumatic they were sealed inside her heart never to be spoken about again. Until Aimee's request. According to Greg Dawson, as related in the section titled, Finding Zhanna's Story, his mother wrote back a lengthy letter and found the determination and courage to share her story.

In Alias Anna, Hood portrays Zhanna's early life living in the small village of  Berdyansk so readers understand what life was like before both Stalin and the Holodomor and before the Shoah. Although they did not have any of the modern amenities we take for granted today, their life was a happy one. That is until Stalin began to plunder the farms and resources of Ukraine, leaving the people starving. But the arrival of the Nazis heralded a new form of terror: the beginning of the mass murder Ukrainian Jews. This was the beginning of the Hitler's final solution, a terror that would spread to other European countries and for which the Nazis would devise more efficient ways of achieving via gas chambers.

In addition to being a brilliant pianist, Zhanna was also a resourceful, courageous and intelligent girl. Despite the trauma of losing her parents, she focused only on what her father's last words were, "I don't care what you do. Just live."  So when Zhanna escaped the massacre of her parents and other Jews in what came to be known as Drobitsky Yar, she and Frina (who also escaped) had to forge new identities and learn to survive. Those new identities were Anna  and Marina Morozova, forming the basis of the novel's title, Alias Anna. Eventually, the two talented girls found themselves giving nightly performances to German soldiers - those same soldiers who murdered Jews by day but by night were the epitome of respectability and culture. This must have been both painful and disgusting for Zhanna and Frina. But they did this to survive, to honour the sacrifice her parents made.

"How could she do it?
Play for the enemy
who had killed her family?
'I don't care what you do. Just stay alive.'
This was what it took to stay alive.
So Zhanna closed her eyes and played
for the memory of her family."

Alias Anna is such an important novel because it's intended for middle grade readers who often do not know about the Holocaust. It's timely in light of the current conflict in Ukraine, an area of Europe that has experienced ongoing conflict for decades. Zhanna questioned how it was possible to bring such a story to children. In his With Gratitude section, Dawson writes, "This is how: with rhythmic, accessible verse in service of a faithful abridging of the story for youthful sensibilities." Alias Anna does just that. It doesn't overwhelm young readers with horrific details but gives them just enough to understand what happened. Zhanna's story is told in an interesting way, with easy to read poems, the style of which vary, engaging readers as they move through the book. 

The authors open the novel with a map of the region, indicating Zhanna and Frina's journey throughout World War II. At the back of the novel are extensive notes for readers including sections on Photographs, The Letters which explores the significant of Zhanna's letter to Aimee, Finding Zhanna's Story which details Greg's discovery of his mother's incredible story, a list of The Pieces Zhanna and Frina Played, Hitler Stalin and Music, Field Trips and Places of Note, Poetry Notes on the types of poems in the novel, Sources, Quote Sources, Websites, News Reports, Films, and a Bibliography. Hood and Dawson have offered many resources for readers, educators and parents to explore.

Teachers, librarians and parents are all encouraged to make use of Alias Anna as a way to educate young children about the Shoah, the Holodomor and as to what can happen when bullying, bigotry and racism are allowed to grow. We owe it to the Zhannas and Frinas of the past to pass on these lessons learned as such a terrible cost.

Book Details:

Alias Anna by Susan Hood with Greg Dawson
New York: HarperCollins Children's Books   2022
339 pp.

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.