The Land Grab: The Legend of Big Heart by Alfreda Beartrack-Algeo

The Land Grab is the first in a trilogy about Alfred Swallow and his Lakota family's life as Lakota people attempting to save what's left of their traditional way of life and their beliefs. In this short story, Alfred and his grandfather struggle to prevent corrupt government agents from stealing their land.

It is 1929 and eleven-year-old Alfred Swallow lives with his grandparents, Thomas and Lucille Plenty Buffalo, his nine--year brother Elmer, and his mother. They live on the Kul Wicasa Lakota Reservation in Iron Nation, South Dakota. Prior to this, Alfred and his family lived in a house two miles west of his grandparents. Alfred's father had moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming to find work and send money home. But months later they had to move in with Alfred's grandparents. Despite this Alfred and his family are living according to their traditional values.

For the first day of spring, Alfred along with his brother Elmer and their grandfather, walk to the Missouri River for a water ceremony. Grandfather tells Alfred that soon it will be time to dream his spirit name, the name that will protect him. Alfred has already had such dreams but he doesn't tell Grandfather. Alfred's face is painted with sacred red-earth clay, his scalp lock bearing a golden eagle feather and he's wearing a pair of hard-soled quilled deerskin moccasins. Playing an elk-skin drum, Alfred sings the four directions song while his grandfather prays to the Great Spirit, Creator.

On Easter Sunday, after attending services at the Messiah Episcopal Church, Alfred decides to go to Medicine Creek to catch some fish for dinner. Accompanying him is his yellow Labrador, Chepa. He also brings his canvas tote bag containing water, dried deer pemmican and his sketch book and charcoal sticks. As he begins to draw an old gray cedar tree, Alfred hears Chepa bark. The black stone he picked up at the Missouri River seems to grow warm and vibrate.

Alfred notices a gray wolf next to the cedar tree, bearing her teeth and growling. He can hear her wolf pups likely near the cedar tree. Then with Chepa charging the wolves, the alpha wolf attacks Alfred, biting him in the thigh. He manages to strike the alpha wolf with a piece of driftwood, making him retreat. A large golden eagle comes to Alfred's rescue, dropping tree limbs in front of him. He is able to make a dogwood travois and walks home with a badly wounded Chepa on the travois before collapsing. Alfred awakens a week later, weak but recovering, to find his grandmother has stitched his wounds.

Alfred's best friend, Orson High Elk comes to visit and helps him repair the chicken coop after it had been raided by a fox. As they finish, the two boys watch as a black Model T pulls into the driveway. It is Mr. Jim O'Neil, superintendent for the Lower Brule Agency. Superintendent O'Neil offers Grandfather "fifty-six cents an acre for your six hundred and forty acres along the river bottom." Grandfather adamantly refuses O'Neil's offer, telling him that six hundred and twenty of those acres belong to Alfred and Elmer as allotted acres. He also tells O'Neil that what he is doing is illegal, that the price is unfair and too low, and that tilling the soil during a drought and planting non-Indigenous crops like Russian olives is not wise. He orders O'Neil off his property. Furious, O'Neil warns Grandfather that he will use the power he has to forcibly take his land.

Alfred races into the house after O'Neil leaves, questioning Grandfather if they will lose their land. Grandfather is upset but tells Alfred he needs time to consider what has happened. As O'Neil continues to threaten Grandfather, Alfred becomes determined to help save their land. But doing so places both Alfred and his grandfather in grave danger.

Discussion

The Land Grab is based on the life of Alfreda Beartrack's father, Alfred Zeigler's experiences growing up with her great-grandfather, Thomas Plenty Buffalo during the late 1920's. 

The Lakota, like many other Indian nations, did not have the same view of land as the Europeans who came to settle in North America. They saw the land as having no formal boundaries and was something to be used and shared by all. However, when U.S. government agents arrived in the area in 1804, they began to force the various Indigenous nations and tribes into treaties and agreements, the purpose of which was to set boundaries where they could live and in many cases to simply remove them from the land altogether. Further land grabs were designed to disband the nations and tribes and force them into assimilation with the white European culture. One way of doing this was the Indian General Allotment Act of 1887 in which individual heads of households were allotted land in increments of one hundred sixty acres. Smaller allotments were given to other members of a family. The land not allotted to Indian people was sold off by the government to non-Indians. 

In The Land Grab, the corrupt superintendent for the Lower Brule Agency, attempts to cheat Alfred's family out of their land. Thomas Plenty Buffalo learns that land documents are being tampered with, that several people are involved including some in the Office of Indian Affairs, in order to force Tribal members off their land allotments. Thomas Plenty Buffalo sees his land set on fire and is assaulted and kidnapped! With the help of a relative, Alfred's great-aunt, Pearl, and their fierce determination not to be scared off their land, Alfred and his family are able to save their land.

Alfreda Beartrack Algeo has written an engaging story that highlights the connection of the Lakota to their land, features some of their traditional beliefs and practices, and the strong inter-generational bond that existed within Lakota families. For example, upon hearing that the superintendent intends to plant non-native plants during a period of drought, Alfred's grandfather, states that this is not wise and that he will be maintaining the native grasses. When Alfred mentions to his grandfather that he plans to not only shoot the large old turkey but also take another one, his grandfather explains, "One turkey is enough. Remember, we should only take what we need and no more. When we need another turkey it will be there for us."  In fighting to protect his allotment, Thomas Plenty Buffalo is teaching Alfred the importance of integrity and justice. He does this within the law, rather than acting rashly.

Despite Alfred's father seemingly having abandoned his family, Alfred continues to think the best of his father, believing that he will someday return. He has a close bond with his grandparents and other family members. After helping his grandfather save their land and farm from a fire set by O'Neil and Miller, Alfred tells him, "Grandfather, you are my protector and my teacher. I love you deeply and honor you greatly. I will work hard and help you all I can. I hope you have a good night." Alfred shows his deep respect and love of his grandfather, a theme repeatedly demonstrated by the young boy whenever he interacts with the adults in his life. 

Alfred's character is revealed through his actions. He shows courage and compassion when he saves the life of Junior White Hail, the boy who has been mercilessly bullying him at school.  In doing so, he earns Junior's loyalty and friendship and comes to understand why Junior has been bullying him. He shows ingenuity and quick-thinking when he goes to see his Great-Aunt Pearl about the land documents he finds, knowing she can best help his family.

The Land Grab is an easy, quick, high-interest read that will appeal to reluctant readers, especially boys. Beartrack-Algeo's story is action driven, with believable characters who highlight many important virtues such as industriousness, honesty, filial respect, and kindness. Unfortunately, with the exception of Deputy Sheriff John Riggs who accepts the evidence Thomas Plenty Buffalo provides, all the white characters are portrayed as corrupt.

Alfreda Beartrack-Algeo is a member of the Lower Brule Lakota Nation, Kul Wicasa Oyate, Lower Brule, South Dakota. She is a storyteller and artist who currently resides in Colorado.

Book Details:

The Land Grab: The Legend of Big Heart by Alfreda Beartrack-Algeo
Summertown, TN: 7th Generation Book Publishing Company     2022
119 pp.

As Long As the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh

Eighteen year old Salama Kassab is struggling to survive in Old Homs with her sister-in-law Layla.  A year ago, the Arab Spring ignited Syrians' demands for freedom from the dictatorship ruling their country for decades. But the dictatorship ruling Syria brutally fought back. Salama's Baba and her brother Hamza went to the first protest but were taken away and imprisoned. Prior to leaving for the protest, Hamza had made Salama promise to care for their mother and his wife, Layla. Then a week later, Mama was killed when their house was destroyed by a bomb. Salama was also injured, receiving a head wound and wounds from shrapnel in her hands. 

After she recovered, Salama began working at Zaytouna Hospital. Prior to the revolution, life was very different for Salama and her family. Salama had dreams of attending university, becoming a pharmacist at Zaytouna Hospital and traveling the world. But as the protests continued, the government began killing the doctors, leading to a shortage of those who could treat the wounded. With only one year of pharmacy school, Salama found herself  pressed into working as a doctor at the hospital.

When Salama returns home from a shift at the hospital, Layla who is seven months pregnant, asks if she's spoken to Am at the hospital about paying for a boat to take them across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy. But Salama has been stalling. Alone in her room, Salama is visited by Khawf. He is, as Salama describes, "My terror has mutated in my mind, bestowed with a life and a voice that never fails to show up at night." Khwaf insists that Salama ask Am about the boat. He warns her that he will "tear her world apart" unless she does this. Salama has a vision of her promise to her brother Hamza to keep Layla and Mama safe. She has a flashback to the day their mother died when their building was bombed.

At the hospital the next day, Dr. Zaid  who has connections to the Free Syrian Army, orders Salama to help the children who are casualties of a bomb hitting Al-Ghouta. Salama eventually speaks with Am, who tells her that he will drive her to Tartus, where they take a boat to Italy and then a bus to Germany. Am's price is four thousand dollars! This information is devastating to Salama because they do not have the money. Layla's solution is for them to sell some of their gold.

At the hospital, Salama is heartbroken as she watches a little boy named Ahmad slowly die from a head wound. Then she sees a boy who had brought in his sister with a shrapnel wound the previous day, arrive frantic. Salama follows him to his home where she finds his nine-year-old sister in pain from a piece of shrapnel still embedded in her stomach. Salama removes the metal and gives them medicine. Salama is certain she's met this boy, named Kenan before and she learns that his name is Kenan Aljendi. Salama and he were supposed to meet at a marriage proposal set up by their mothers, but the revolution prevented the meeting.

Staying overnight at Kenan's home due to the snipers, Salama learns that he has no plans to leave Syria because his videos on YouTube are showing the world what is happening. Salama challenges Kenan to record what is happening within the hospital and he agrees and Dr. Ziad gives his permission. 

Then Am arrives with his daughter Samar, who has a bullet wound in her neck. Salama threatens to let his daughter bleed to death if he doesn't get her and Layla on a boat. Desperate, Am agrees and Salama saves Samar. Over the next few days Salama bargains with Am and secures passage for her and Layla. In the meantime, her relationship with Kenan continues to blossom; they get engaged and marry. At the same time the war comes to Homs when the military breaks through the Free Syrian Army. Salama, Kenan and his siblings barely escape with their lives. It becomes apparent to both Salama and Kenan that staying in their beloved Syria is no longer an option. But will they survive the treacherous journey to freedom? "If we stay we die.....If we leave we might die."

Discussion

As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow is a story about hope and resiliency amidst the horrors of Syrian revolution.

Katouh has crafted a very realistic character in Salama Kassab; she is intelligent, courageous and resilient.  Like any young woman,  eighteen-year-old Salama had hopes and dreams: she was a pharmacy student with a bright future. She now works as a doctor in the hospital in Old Homs trying to save the victims of the Syrian government's attacks. Salama has lost all of her family and is suffering from the effects of PTSD. The trauma she has experienced as a result of her own injuries and from treating the wounded and dying manifests as hallucinations. 

One hallucination is a man dressed in a suit with drops of blood on the lapels whom Salama has named Khawf which is Arabic for fear.  Salama knows that Khawf is a creation of her mind, helping her to process her trauma and survive. "He's a defense mechanism my brain has provided, trying to ensure my survival by any means necessary..."  Every time Khawf "appears", he torments Salama, telling her she needs to leave Syria, to escape via a boat across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy and then to Germany. Salama recognizes what he is and what he's trying to do. "Maybe the reason he's willing to break me in order to get me on a boat can be explained in a scientific manner: He's a defense mechanism my brain has provided, trying to ensure my survival by any means necessary." 

This leaves Salama deeply conflicted: she loves her country yet wants to help her fellow Syrians achieve freedom. Fleeing Syria feels like abandoning her country and seems wrong. Staying means breaking her promise to Hawza to protect their Mama and Layla to keep them safe and to risk death. To cope, Salama's mind has created a figure who will take responsibility for her actions.

Khawf also serves to show Salama the reality of what her life has become. As Salama continues to question whether or not to leave, Khawf reminds her through flashbacks of her life that once was, telling her,  "...of what true happiness was. This doesn't exist anymore. This isn't something you'll find here."

Salama's trauma is so profound that she has also been experiencing detachment from reality by way of a second hallucination. This hallucination is foreshadowed in a description of a sniper attack near her home that she describes to Kenan and is revealed later on in the novel. Kenan helps her to deal with this hallucination and it vanishes.

In contrast to Salama, is the quiet perseverance and determination of Kenan who offers her hope, unconditional love and the ability to see colour again in life, amidst all the blood and death. Dr. Ziad is representative of the Syrian "martyrs" who have remained in Syria, resisting the military.

As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow effectively portrays the plight of Syrian refugees, highlighting their deep love for their country, and the desperation that motivates them to leave. Katouh portrays the brutality, destruction and loss individual Syrians experienced during the conflict: the cold blooded murder of children, the bombing of hospitals, sniper attacks that target women and children and the gassing of civilians. In her Author's Note, Katouh writes, "This novel delves into the human emotion behind the conflict, because we are not numbers. For years Syrians have been tortured, murdered, and banished from their country at the hands of a tyrannical regime, and we owe it to them to know their stories."

The lemon trees, referenced in the title and throughout the novel,  are a symbol of hope, that someday Syria will be free. The author has indicated that the title is a reference to a line in one of the poems of Syrian poet, lawyer and diplomat Nizar Qabbani, "every lemon shall bring forth a child and lemons will never die out." - a reference to a hopeful future, that Syria will survive. 

Despite the heavy issues explored in the novel - and there are many, the story ends on a hopeful tone. As they are readying to leave Syria, Salama tells Kenan, "And we will come back," I say, my voice wavering. "Insh'Allah, we will come back home. We will plant new lemon trees. We'll rebuild our cities, and we will be free."

Although listed as a young adult novel, As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow is suited for older teens and adults.  Zoulfa Katouh plans a sequel to As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow which will explore life as a refugee and explore the themes of recovering identity, racism and trauma. 

Book Details:

As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh

New York: Little, Brown and Company    2022
417 pp.

Daughter of Sparta by Claire M. Andrews

Seventeen-year-old Daphne is a Mothakes, an outsider, someone not born in Sparta. She and her brothers, Alkaios and Lykou were adopted by an ephor after the death of their parents. It is Carneia, the annual festival honoring Apollo. The festival includes duels, drinking, feasting and the agon. Daphne is being challenged by her brother Lykou as King Melenaus and Queen Helen watch.  Paidonomos Leonides gives them both a dory, a spear used by Spartan soldiers. A glancing blow is enough to end the duel and declare a winner. 

After a short battle, Daphne's dory grazes Lykou's side, tearing part of his black chiton. She wins the duel, her win acknowledged by the king. As she leaves, Daphne is reminded by Paidonomos Leonides to pay her respects to the king and she kneels briefly before him. Lykou praises Daphne for her victory, telling her she has shown that the Spartan army needs women warriors like her.

The time arrives for the agon, the climax of the Carneia. In this event, "...five unmarried men are chosen by Sparta's five ephors to chase a deer. If it is caught, the year will be a superb one for the harvests and army. And if not...disaster awaits." It is especially important they succeed as Menelaus and Helen are to meet with the mad king of Crete. Daphne's brother, Pyrrhus has been chosen as one of the five men to run the agon. He believes he will easily win the race and brags about it to Daphne during the party. 

However, when the racers are summoned with the call of a horn, Daphne is shocked to see Pyrrhus hasn't shown up. So amid gasps of dismay, she steps forward to take his place. A deer is brought out, with a garland of laurel branches and flowers around its neck. King Melenaus tells the runners they must retrieve the garland before dawn to prevent the failure of Sparta's crops, the Eurotas from drying up, and disaster befalling the Spartan army. The race is to ask for Apollo's divine favour and his strength. The winner will receive many gifts, including a beautiful dory.

Daphne along with Castor and Lykou and two other runners make for the Taygetus Forest. But once inside the forest, in a moonlit glen, Daphne comes upon the deer as well as the goddess of hunt, Artemis who reveals that her powers and that of her family, the gods of Olympus are dying. Just then Pyrrhus emerges into the glen, his face bloodied and bruised begging Artemis to forgive him. She turns him into a stag and turns on Daphne, slicing her with a golden arrow that was a gift from her Uncle Hephaestus. 

Artemis reveals to Daphne that something very dear to her father, Zeus has been stolen and without it, the powers of Olympus will fail. This will mean disaster for humans, and the armies of Greece will be overrun. Only one person knows who stole them and where they are hidden. To be certain Daphne won't betray her, Artemis drives the golden arrow into her abdomen causing a solid gold line to begin to form. This, the Midas Curse, blossoms and slithers across Daphne's torso, binding her to Artemis, but threatening to kill her too. If she cannot find where the Olympian powers have been hidden away, she will die as will her brother Pyrrhus. She gives Daphne the laurel to claim the prize of the Carneia, telling Daphne she has until the harvest moon to meet her obligation to Artemis.

As winner of the agon, Daphne receives the dory from Queen Helen who along with King Menelaus return to the palace while the Carneia continues. Daphne sets out on her journey, asking Ligeia, her handmaid, to make an explanation for her sudden disappearance. Her promised escort turns out to be Artemis's twin, Apollo, who tells her they are travelling to Mount Kazbek where "an old friend...has the answers...". Apollo is accompanying her in an attempt earn his father's favour and forgiveness.

Soon Apollo discovers Daphne's friend, Lykon has been following them. To prevent his interference, Apollo turns Lykon into a wolf but allows him to accompany them. They arrive at the foothills of Mount Kazbek after seven days. While Lykon stays with the horses, Daphne and Apollo climb the rocky, treeless mountain. At the top, Daphne finds Prometheus chained between two stone columns. But when she questions him about what was stolen from Olympus and where Apollo can find it, he refuses unless Apollo leaves. 

Prometheus reveals that nine things were stolen from Olympus and must be returned because these "pieces" are the power of the gods. Whoever has them can harness this power, making it dangerous. He tells her a traitor took them. After showing her a vision of the circumstances of her birth and the death of her mother, Prometheus gives her several clues. In the vision, Daphne learns that "three have been traded to the anax of Crete as playthings for his unruly son... three more have been given to the plague of Thebes as a sacrifice so that the power may never return..." and that "Their only salvation lies behind doors opened through a test of wit and words."  Finally, the god tells her, " A sacrifice will reveal two at the limits of Okeanos, mean to sow dissent, their fates bound to the river of the dead. And the last, the most celebrated, joins Tantalus, demanding body and soul." 

With these clues, Daphne, Apollo and Lykon set out for Crete knowing they must enter the palace of King Minos whose "unruly son" is known as the Minotaur.  There they will learn more about the missing "pieces", who is responsible and who is working to thwart them. Their battle with the Minotaur will be the first of  many brutal battles as they work to restore the powers of the gods!

Discussion

Daughter of Sparta is a remix of Greek mythology that includes most of the Greek gods and goddesses and their stories. In Greek mythology, Daphne was a naiad, a nymph who becomes a victim of Apollo's infatuation as a result of a curse made by Cupid on the god.  She was pursued relentlessly by Apollo. When he finally caught her, Daphne prayed to her father, the river god Peneus, who changed her into a laurel tree. In Daughter of Sparta, the myth of Daphne is re-imagined, transforming her from a victim of the gods to a fierce warrior.

Andrews writes in her Author's Note that her " goal was to bring to light the often-underappreciated women of Greek myth and history..." Instead of "...the jealous wives and damsels - here are strong, nuanced women who tell their own stories. Women in ancient Greece were allowed very few, if any liberties: places like Sparta, where they were allowed many more privileges and rights, were the exception, and make for some exciting storytelling, both in historic and contemporary writing." As a result, Andrews does mess with timelines and stories a bit: Daphne kills the Minotaur instead of the Athenian hero, Theseus, who in turn is later killed by King Minos instead of Lycomedes, King of Scyros

Daphne's quest is truly Olympian in nature and breadth. She initially doesn't know what the "pieces" are that have been stolen from Olympus, nor who has stolen them and betrayed the gods. Her escort, Apollo insists that this task is now his responsibility but he doesn't divulge why. It is in the palace of King Minos that Daphne learns the truth about her task: it isn't objects that have been stolen but the nine Muses from Olympus. The Muses, who "are the sacred caretakers of the Hesperides, the source of all the power of Olympus", are under the protection of Apollo who somehow lost them. Daphne realizes that Apollo knew all along what was stolen.

Although Daphne has fulfilled her duty to Artemis - to obtain clues from Prometheus, she decides to help Apollo despite his deception. She angrily tells Apollo, "You and Artemis never intended for me to save all the Muses. You just wanted to use me to get Prometheus to speak."  As they travel to Thebes, Daphne learns through a vision that Ares stole the Muses, that their efforts have been betrayed by Hermes, and she eventually learns how Apollo lost the Muses from the Garden of the Hesperides. 

During her quest, Daphne engages in many battles: she fights the Minotaur (whom she slays), she also battles the Kentauroi of Foloi who are led by Eurytion and allied with Nyx, goddess of the night, she fights the Sphinx in the Cithaeron mountains, out-witting and slaying her, she kills King Minos and the two demons who attempt to avenge the Minotaur's death, and she takes on Ares, stabbing him. In fact there are so many bloody battles that by the time the novel gets to the climax, which involves Daphne confronting Nyx to free the last Muse, the events are almost anti-climactic and the reader somewhat battle-weary.

At times Daughter of Sparta reads like a romance novel, as Daphne's feelings for Apollo grow throughout their journey. Eventually the two kiss. "Warm and sweet, our lips fold together in a warm embrace. A fire erupts inside me, turning my fears and doubts to ashes. And from the ashes rises a wanting so intense my entire body aches....." In the end however, Daphne, furious at his betrayal, repudiates the god, telling him he has to earn her trust again.

Although this novel isn't true to the stories in Greek mythology, it should appeal to those who enjoy this genre and who grew up on the Rick Riordan Percy Jackson novels and who have read the D'Aulaire's Greek Mythology. For those who have a more limited knowledge of Greek mythology, a Glossary of the Greek gods and goddess as well as a cast of characters would have been very helpful. Andrews does include a map of ancient Greece and a Greek Glossary of some of the words used throughout the novel.

Daughter of Sparta is the first novel in a trilogy. The conclusion sees Zeus asking Daphne to become the Storm of Olympus. He promises to give her the means to become the greatest warrior in Sparta, but Daphne only will agree if they will protect her family. Because Nyx is only wounded, Zeus tells Daphne that she will continue to be hunted by the goddess of the night. He tells he they will empower her to take on Nyx but only if she becomes their "emissary to the realm of men." Persephone and Hades give Daphne tokens of the debt they owe her, telling her she can claim them when needed. Athena offers her the answer to a much needed question in the future, while Aphrodite and Hera refuse to offer even their thanks. Dionysus offers Daphne a drink of wine, Hephaestus promises weapons and armour designed just for her, while Artemis offers nothing. Hypnos, son of Nyx also offers Daphne help in the future, betraying his own mother. Andrews has fashioned a fitting ending, open to Daphne's new adventures in the next book in the series.

Book Details:

Daughter of Sparta by Claire M. Andrews
New York: Jimmy Patterson Books, Little, Brown and Company   2021
375 pp.

A Brush Full of Color: The World of Ted Harrison by Margriet Ruurs & Katherine Gibson

A Brush Full of Color is the picture-book biography of artist, teacher and author, Ted Harrison. Edward (Ted) Hardy Harrison was born in 1926 in Wingate, County Durham, England. Ted was a twin, sharing his birthday with sister Mary Algar (Olga). Ted's father was a coal miner, a dangerous job that did not pay well and which he did not like. Despite the black, drab countryside, the Harrison home was a happy one, that was clean and warm. Ted's mother cooked good meals and they were kept well dressed.

Ted's father enjoyed sketching and he encouraged Ted to draw as did his Latin and English teacher, when he was older. Because Ted's father had quit school when he was twelve to work in the mines, he was determined his children would receive more of an education than he had. Ted and his twin sister Olga loved the encyclopedia set their father gifted them and Ted loved to read.

During World War II, Ted first saw a crate of apples that had been sent to County Durham from British Columbia, Canada in his uncle's store. During the war, Olga became a nurse while Ted enrolled in the Hartlepool College of Art. After the war, in 1946, Ted sailed to Bombay, India as part of British military intelligence. There he spent time drawing the rich culture of India. He also travelled to Egypt, Kenya in East Africa before returning home to England. These travels showed him both the happy and sad side of life.

Ted next took a position as an art teacher in Malaysia where he found the rich colours of flowers, waterfalls and tea plantations. In Malaysia, Ted met his wife Nicky who was from Scotland and was the administrator at the school where he taught. When Ted's mother died in 1965, he and Nicky, and their adopted son Charles moved back to England. But teaching at Wingate wasn't rewarding, so Ted and his family moved to Wabasca, Alberta where he was a teacher.

In Alberta, Ted enjoyed teaching his Cree students who often brought him unique gifts like a bird's egg. Ted would draw pictures for them and tell them funny stories. He found the Dick and Jane readers used to teach students to read were not relatable to the young Cree students so he made his own book filled with his drawings.

Ted and Nicky moved to Carcross, Yukon where he taught mathematics, science and reading to elementary students and Nicky became a kindergarten teacher. In the Yukon, Ted's style of painting changed from the strict rules he had been taught in England. Instead he decided, "I'm going to paint my Yukon!" Using the styles and techniques he had encountered in his many travels to Africa, Asia and New Zealand, Ted began to paint in the way that he felt captured Canada's North. In 1981, Ted retired from teaching to become a full-time painter. Ted was asked to illustrate the Robert Service poem, "The Cremation of Sam McGee", he designed the Yukon Pavillion for Expo '86 in Vancouver and had his art exhibited in galleries and in many private collections.

Discussion

A Brush Full of Color is a colourful, engaging book about British-Canadian artist and author, Ted Harrison. Ruurs and Gibson provide readers with Harrison's life story, showing how his love of learning saved him from work in the mins, and portrays how his life experiences ultimately influenced his art.

Although his experiences living in Africa and Asia would come to influence how he would paint the Canadian North, it was Harrison's experience living and teaching in northern Canada that had the most profound effect. His life experience in the North compelled him to change his style in order to capture the landscape and life in the Yukon. The impetus for this change seems to have been triggered by his recognition that the old style readers written for children who lived a very different life  simply did not reflect life in northern Alberta and the Yukon. These readers did not reflect life in the North and the style of painting Harrison was taught in England did not allow him to capture the beauty of life in northern Canada. 

A Brush Full of Color portrays Harrison's artistic transition by offering readers plenty of images of Harrison's art prior to coming to Canada, his work when he first came to Canada and then many images of his paintings after living and working in the Canadian north for a time. His paintings are filled with unique colours for houses, sky, clouds, the sea and the sun. Ordinary, everyday items like houses have unusual shapes. His flowing freestyle of painting captures the wind, the movement of the sea, the sun and the people. Harrison's paintings offer a vibrant perspective to northern life that many who live in Canada's south may never have realized.

The strength of this picture book is the portrayal of Ted Harrison's artistic journey, and the numerous pictures of  the artist's artwork, allowing readers to become very familiar with his unique style. Author Katherine Gibson spent four years interviewing Harrison for her biography, Ted Harrison: Painting Paradise. It's obvious she knows her subject well and this is conveyed to readers, young and old.

Book Details:

A Brush Full of Color: The World of Ted Harrison by Margriet Ruurs
Toronto: Pajama Press     2014

40 pp.

Muhammad Najem, War Reporter by Muhammad Najem and Nora Neus

January 2011 in Eastern Ghouta, Syria. Eight-year-old Muhammad loved being in his father's carpentry shop where he always felt safe. He was his parents' "miracle child", born after his older sister Hiba and two brothers, Firas and Fada, when his parents thought there would be no more children. Then President Bashar al-Assad's men came one day to their city to search for military-aged men to serve in his army. Because the men hide, Assad's soldiers searched homes including Muhammad's father's shop.

At home, Muhammad's father (Baba) explains that the mukhabarat or secret police are everywhere and that even the candy-seller on their street might be working for them. Therefore, they are not to go near him. 

In March 2011, after other uprisings in Egypt and Libya, known as the Arab Spring, protestors began demonstrating against Assad in Syria. When Assad's men came to their city, Muhammad's family would flee to a small apartment outside the city, returning when his Baba determined it was safe.  When they returned to their home, they, along with Muhammad's Uncle Nazar and Aunt Nasrin, would often find their shop had been broken into and damaged by Assad's soldiers. 

By February 2012, despite the fighting and tanks coming closer, life had some happy moments. Muhammad's family had a parrot now and his mother had a baby boy named Karam in June. They often had to flee the city at a moment's notice.

In 2015, when Muhammad was twelve-years-old, the fighting in Syria continued on, drawing in other countries and factions: ISIS, Kurdish fighters, the United States and Russia.

Muhammad's brother, Firas has been selling photographs of the planes, the airstrikes and the aftermath of the bombing to support their family which now included a new baby girl, Batul.

Once again Muhammad's family was forced to flee - this time to an abandoned apartment. They had to leave behind their beloved parrot. Later on when Uncle Nazar arrives, he tells them their home and workshop has been completely destroyed.

They moved into another apartment. They continued to have to flee to the basement during bombings. Hiba's university had closed so she was unable to finish the two remaining classes for her medical degree. She began working at a clinic a short bus ride away, while Baby volunteered at a soup kitchen. He would always bring home some food for the family. One night, Muhammad's father told him about Emad, a painter from Damascus who lost his entire family in an airstrike.  He reminded Muhammad that everyone has a story and it is important to listen to people because it makes them feel seen. 

That night, while praying in the mosque with Uncle Nazar, Muhammad's father is killed by a missile. Muhammad and his family are stunned at such a loss. Devastated, Muhammed is certain Baba would want them to help the people in their neighborhood and to listen to their stories. For Hiba it meant working at the medical center and Firas it meant telling the world what was happening by selling his videos. But Muhammad wondered what it would mean for him.

In December, 2017 while talking to Firas about his videos, Muhammad asked why he doesn't video kids, asking them how they revolution has affected them. When Muhammad suggested that he do it, Firas encouraged him, telling him he could publish his own videos on social media. These videos would show the world how the war is impacting Syria's children. But Firas cautioned Muhammed because once posted, he would not be able to take the videos back.

So as the bombing continued in Eastern Ghouta, Muhammad attended school run by Hiba and a man named Mourad, and posted videos of the bombings, the devastation and how his friends were affected. As he posted more and more videos, Muhammad began to attract the attention of the western media. In February 2018, Muhammad was contacted by Nora Neus who worked for CNN news. Nora would give Muhammad a wider platform to tell the world the reality of the Syrian conflict, as his best friend Selem lost his little sister Raghad, as his Uncle Nazar was killed in a bombing and as he and his family were forced to flee their home north to Idlib. There Muhammad continued to report and soon found himself attracting even more attention. When Assad targeted northern Syria, Muhammad and his family decided it was finally time to leave for the safety of Turkey.

Discussion

Muhammad Najem, War Reporter tells the story of a young Syrian boy determined to tell the world what is happening in his country during the civil war. Muhammad wanted the world to know the impact of the war on children like himself and his friends.

The use of the graphic format for this purpose was ideal as the illustrations by Julie Robine are very well done and capture the many aspects of life during war. The artwork is clean, colourful and fresh, with the different members of Muhammad's life easily recognizable, making the story easy to follow. Muhammad is able to portray to his young readers life during the Syrian civil war: living underground for days at a time, the lack of food, fresh air and exercise, the loss of family and close friends -fathers and uncles, sisters and cousins, and the struggle to continue attending makeshift schools. The artwork also effectively captures the fear and isolation Muhammad experienced, the terror of the bombings and being trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings, but also the wonderful family moments too. This makes the loss of his beloved father and then later his Uncle Nazar who took the place of his father even more profound. 

Muhammad Najem, War Reporter also captures the immense resiliency, determination and courage of the Syrian people as they resist Assad. This is shown by Muhammad's father who, after losing his carpentry shop to the bombing, decided to help those around him, working at a soup kitchen and when necessary, just listening to those who have suffered the loss of family, friends and all they own. This sense of service to others passed to his children, Firas, Muhammad and Hiba after his death. They all work in their own way, to help their fellow Syrians. 

For Muhammad,  the way to help was to give a voice to the people of Syria being targeted by their own government. His method was to post videos of the aftermath of Assad's bombings on social media, a risk he was willing to take. But his decision was not without doubts and inner conflict, especially early when his videos did not have many views. Instead of remaining anonymous, Muhammad identified himself, posting videos of bombings, what it was like to live in Syria at war and even filming his family as they were trapped after a bombing. Now living in Turkey, Muhammad continues to report on behalf of Syria, still at war and suffering the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. 

This graphic novel is yet another medium for Muhammad to inform the world about what is really happening in Syria and more importantly to reach a younger audience who might relate to him. Muhammad Najem, War Reporter is well crafted, informative and offers readers colour photographs of  Muhammad and his family and friends at the back.

Book Details:

Muhammad Najem, War Reporter by Muhammad Najem and Nora Neus

New York: Little, Brown and Company      2022
314 pp.

Cleopatra Queen of the Nile by Dominic Sandbrook

Eleven-year-old Cleopatra has dreamed of  visiting the tomb of Alexander ever since she can remember. This night, she is successful, avoiding the tomb guards and is now able to gaze on the face of Alexander, "...a warrior, hero, King of Kings and Son of Zeus."

Alexander the Great became King of Macedonia and then conquered Persia and then Egypt, becoming "Lord of the Two Lands (Upper and Lower Egypt), Heir of Horus and Beloved of Amun" as well as learning from the Oracle of Siwa that he was the son of the god Zeus Ammon. Alexander then continued east, where he met and married Roxana after he conquered the Amazons. He also travelled into Afghanistan and India. But Alexander died suddenly when he was only thirty-two years old. 

One of his captains, his boyhood friend, Ptolemy, returned to Egypt, bringing with him, Alexander's body. Ptolemy installed himself as King and Pharaoh, and heir of Alexander. Ptolemy was Cleopatra's great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather. He moved the capital of Egypt from Memphis to Alexandria, the city that Alexander the Great had planned himself. Under his rule, Egypt had expanded its borders toward Syria, into Libya and into the southern deserts of Nubia. The island of Cyprus also became part of Egypt.

Cleopatra's family, the Ptolemies have the strange custom of marrying their sisters, something the native Egyptians believe is wrong. This is done to keep the royalty and power within their family but it has made for "bitter rivalries" and a dangerous place for someone like Cleopatra to grow up in.

Cleopatra's father is the twelfth King Ptolemy meaning the Ptolemies have reigned for over three hundred years. Cleopatra was born in 69 B.C., one of five children that included Berenike, Arsinoe, Ptolemy Sr. and Ptolemy Jr.  Her father decides to take Cleopatra with him on a trip down the River Nile. The royal barge along with a fleet of boats travels through Krokodilopolis or Crocodile City, past the ancient pyramids to Memphis. There Cleopatra and her father visit the great white temple and the Egyptian priests. 

In Memphis, Ptolemy reveals to Cleopatra that he plans for her to learn how Egypt works. It is a rich country, able to make money, drachmae minted in silver in Alexandria, from what the country grows. It is his intention that she one day wear the Double Crown of the Two Lands. But Ptolemy explains to Cleopatra she will need "...to win the hearts and minds of the ordinary Egyptians." Outside the temple Cleopatra encounters a strange woman near a large stone slab carved with hieroglyphics. The woman translates the stone which writes about Isis, who had ruled Egypt with her brother-husband, Osiris.

The story then shifts to Rome, which would be a major factor in Cleopatra's life. A thousand miles to the north, Rome rules the Mediterranean, except for Egypt, something they have done since Cleopatra's birth in 69 B.C. With each new conquest, Rome finds it's culture, traditions and deities challenged.

During Cleopatra's childhood, Rome was ruled by Pompey the Great, a cruel conqueror. But in 60 B.C., he made a deal with two rivals, Marcus Licinius Crassus, a general and businessman, and a younger man named Julius Caesar who claimed to be descended from the goddess Venus. This alliance was known as the Triumvirate.

Rome and Egypt had been partners for centuries. Egypt was the oldest and richest country during this time but its influence was fading. Rome's power and influence grew as Egypt became divided because of the Ptolemy family feuds. Cleopatra's father, Ptolemy XII had a difficult balancing act - to keep his own people happy and to stand up to Rome while not antagonizing this new power. To accomplish this, Ptolemy bribed the most powerful Romans, including Julius Caesar.

The seizure of Cyprus, an island once belonging to Egypt, the heavy taxes levied to pay Roman bribes resulted in riots, looting and the burning of Alexandria, and almost the destruction of the beautiful library there, led to rioting in Alexandria. Ptolemy fled to Rome and nineteen-year-old Berenike became Queen of Egypt. In Rome, Ptolemy used more Roman money to raise support while Berenike remained on the throne in Egypt. Eventually Ptolemy regained his throne with the help of the Roman governor of Syria, Aulus Gabinius. With him was a young cavalry officer named Marc Antony who would play a significant part in Cleopatra's life later on. To pay for his victory, Ptolemy taxed Egyptians to their very limits.

In 51 B.C., Ptolemy XII died and the crown passed to eighteen-year-old Cleopatra and her ten-year-old brother Ptolemy Senior. They were to rule and husband and wife, with Rome as their guardians. However, from the beginning, there was division and tension between the two. It was to be a foreshadowing of the many difficulties Cleopatra would face both within Egypt and with Rome as she struggled to save her country.

Discussion

Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile is the fifth book in Dominic Sandbrook's Adventures In Time series about famous historical figures and events.

Because Egypt's history was tied so closely to that of Rome's during the time of Cleopatra, Sandbrook offers readers much historical information about both nations, allowing young readers to place Cleopatra's life and the choices she made within the proper historical context. It also means that Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile is rich in historical detail Sandbrook seamlessly incorporates into the narrative. For example, when Cleopatra visits the tomb of Alexander - a fictional event described at the beginning of the novel, Sandbrook uses this to explain how Cleopatra's ancestor, Alexander's boyhood friend Ptolemy came to rule Egypt and begin the reign of the Ptolemies. This information also sets the stage for the events that happen later on in Cleopatra's life as her brothers and sisters turn against one another, in their ongoing struggle for power. 

In the chapter, The Sons of the Wolf, Sandbrook gives similar treatment to the history of Rome, describing how it grew to become a great power, able to challenge Egypt's dominance. This too provides readers with the context for the events surrounding Julius Caesar and later on Marc Antony as well as Octavian who eventually defeats Cleopatra and Marc Antony, subjugating Egypt.

As Sandbrook mentions in his Author's Note, almost all our knowledge about Cleopara comes from Roman sources. And these sources tend to portray the Egyptian queen as a villain, not surprising since Egypt was at odds with Rome, as it was the only territory it had not yet conquered. Little is known about her early life growing up in Egypt so the author has imagined the events of her childhood. Cleopatra is portrayed as an intelligent woman, capable and determined to save her country and preserve its power. No story of Cleopatra is complete without exploring her relationships with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony which Sandbrook does in an engaging and balanced manner.

Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile is an engaging biography that informs, but also brings alive this very interesting period of history. There is a map of the Cleopatra's Empire in 34 B.C. but it would have been interesting to have had a map of Alexandria during Cleopatra's time to help readers understand the location of some of the events described in the city.

Overall, this is a refreshing historical novel in a series that seems to be very promising. It's definitely geared to older readers or those interested in history, especially given the detail as well as the subject matter of Cleopatra's relationships with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony.

Book Details:

Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile by Dominic Sandbrook
Canada: Particular Books    2022
316 pp.

Tokyo Rose: Zero Hour by Andre Frattino

Tokyo Rose - Zero Hour is the story of Iva Toguri, a Japanese-American woman who found herself trapped in Japan during World War II and forced to broadcast propaganda for the Japanese. This graphic novel tells of her prosecution by the U.S. government and eventual her redemption decades after World War II.

In the book's Preface, the author sets the stage for the events described in the graphic novel. Iva Toguri, aka Tokyo Rose was born to Jun and Fumi Toguri on July 4th, 1916 in Los Angeles. A first generation Japanese-American or what was termed Nisei, Iva did what many American children did growing up: she went to high school, was involved in sports and Girl Scouts. Iva enrolled in Compton Junior College and then transferred to UCLA where she majored in zoology. Iva spent many holidays on desert field trips in Southern California and in Arizona.

In June 1941, Iva's mother Fumi learned that her sister Shizu in Japan, was seriously ill. Iva's parents decided to send her to Japan in their place as neither could travel. Iva was reluctant to go but obeyed her parents wishes, thinking she would soon return home. But it didn't work out that way at all. It is from this point the graphic memoir begins.

Initially the story fast forwards eight years into the future to the Federal District Court in San Francisco where everyone is waiting for "Public Enemy Number 1" to arrive. In the courtroom is Harry Brundidge an Army reporter, some U.S. soldiers and Iva's family. Iva hurriedly gets dressed in her cell as her two army guards, one of whom is very hostile, barge in to take her to the court.

In Chapter 1, after travelling by boat to Japan in July, 1941, twenty-five-year-old Iva is met by her Uncle Hottori to take her to his home some distance away. At the home of her uncle and aunt, Iva receives an unfriendly welcome from her sickly Aunt Shizu. Iva meets her cousins, Aika and Itsuki and learns that their brother Akihiro is training with the Japanese army. Iva finds herself doing chores, attending vocational school and doing the grocery shopping. She is bored and feels even more a stranger in Japan because "...being an American instantly puts people off." She is labelled a "Nisei". 

On December 3, 1941, Iva receives a letter from her father indicating that she is to return home by booking passage on the Tatsuta - the following day! To her shock, Iva realizes the letter was mailed a month ago. Initially, she isn't alarmed, believing she just has to pack her suitcase and show up to book a ticket on the boat. However, when Iva attempts to book passage on the ship she discovers she needs three letters for the ticket. Iva manages to get two of the letters, but the third, a letter of finance won't be ready for four days. Still undaunted, Iva plans to book passage home then.

But on December 11, 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor and the U.S. declares war on the country, leaving Iva trapped in Japan. At her uncle's home, Iva is visited by Mr. Fugiwara, a member of the "Thought Police". He tells her "...in order to continue your life comfortably you have only to become Japanese. To continue as an American is to risk...discomfort."  That night Iva's uncle suggests it might be best for her to remain at home, stating that as a Nisei she risks bringing herself dishonor. But Iva believes they are more concerned about her bringing dishonor to them. Furious, she packs her bags and leaves, renting a room in a building filled with others trapped in Japan.

Iva soon finds that the people of Japan consider her an enemy and that many Nisei are giving up their American citizenship, after being threatened with jail. Meanwhile back in America, Iva's family are being "relocated" under Executive Order 9066 as a matter of public security.

At Nippon Hoso Kyokai (Japanese Broadcasting Corp.) in the Military Department of Communication, Major Tsuneishi is told his efforts to ruin American troop morale are not working but he insists his new idea called Zero Hour will work. Yuchi Hirakawa, Head of Radio Tokyo and leader of the Department of American Intelligence at NHK, tells him he has hired Nisei from the West who have pledged allegiance to Japan and who are professional broadcasters. 

Iva is now working at Radio Tokyo where she meets two POWs, Major Charles Cousens and Major Reyes. They have been POW's for almost a year. She sneaks Japanese beer into the writers room where they work and lets them know that if they need anything she can help. Cousens, who is from Australia, is forced to co-operate with Major Tsuneishi's plans for Zero Hour by writing the scripts that the Western Nisei women broadcasters will read. Tsuneishi's intent is to destroy the morale of American soldiers. But Cousens believes if they can get someone to do the broadcasts who is sympathetic to the Allies, the broadcasts will not be taken seriously and may have the opposite effect. He decides to enlist Iva as the broadcaster, believing that her delivery of his script is the key to thwarting Tsuneishi's plans. He eventually gets Iva to agree to his plan and has her call herself "Orphan Ann". 

Iva does the broadcasts and at first Tusneishi seems pleased. In Australia, the Allied command believe that Orphan Ann wants them to take the propaganda out of context. They refer to her "Tokyo Rose" although it is explained that this name refers to a group of Japanese women propagandists and not one person. They are hopeful this "Tokyo Rose" is on their side. But then Major Cousens collapses. Iva finds herself replaced by Tsuneishi's Western Nisei broadcasters and he reveals that he has seen through Cousen's attempts. By this time it is 1945, Japan is losing the war and when the Allies invade Japan, Felipe D'Aquino whom Iva has been living with proposes. She accepts. 

With the surrender of Japan, Iva and Felipe, now married and expecting a baby, are looking for a way to travel to the United States. Iva learns that Harry Brundidge, a journalist from Cosmopolitan is offering two thousand dollars for an interview with "Tokyo Rose". Although Iva never used this moniker, desperate for money, she decides to do the interview, claiming to be Tokyo Rose, against Felipe's advice. Little does she know it will be the beginning of years of persecution and have serious repercussions for both her and Felipe.

Discussion

Tokyo Rose: Zero Hour is a graphic novel that tells the real story of Iva Toguri, a Japanese-American who did radio broadcasts for Radio Tokyo during World War II. These broadcasts were directed at Allied troops in the South Pacific. Toguri who called herself "Orphan Ann" on the broadcasts, mistakenly became identified as "Tokyo Rose". 

In the post-war period, two reporters, Harry T. Brundidge and Clark Lee were determined to learn the identity of the mythical Tokyo Rose, the name given by Allied soldiers in the Pacific to the women who did radio broadcasts intended to demoralize troops. There was no one person identified as Tokyo Rose. However, Iva Toguri D'Aquino, now married to Felipe D'Aquino and desperate to get home to California learned of a two thousand dollar payment for an interview with the woman who was Tokyo Rose. Lacking the funds to travel back to the U.S., Iva passed herself off as Tokyo Rose and agreed to do the interview with Brundidge. However, when Brundidge's story was rejected by Cosmopolitan after they learned she lost her baby during her arrest, he refused to pay Iva. Instead, he went to Walter Winchell, a radio host who often posted sensationalist stories. Iva had been arrested in Japan and cleared of any charges of treason, but Winchell's story reopened this claim. Iva was convicted of treason and spent eight years in jail. She was pardoned in 1977 by President Gerald Ford. Her story is partly one of ongoing racism towards Japanese-Americans in the post-war period as well as the failure of the American justice system. It was later determined that the two star witnesses for the prosecution, George Mitsushio and Kenkichi Oki perjured themselves at the direction of the FBI.

But Iva Toguri's story is also one of honor, loyalty, determination in the face of adversity and belief in her own worth as a human being. Frattino states that "...it was immensely important to us that we be respectful and sensitive in chronicling Iva's experience, not only for her own legacy but for the entire Asian-American community as a whole." To that end, Frattino and Kasenow "...assembled a volunteer committee of Asian-American readers...to review our content" for accuracy. They worked to be historically accurate basing their story on "recorded testimonies, personal interviews and documented statements."

In the Preface, Janice Chiang who lettered this graphic novel highlights what made Iva Toguri so special as well as some of the issues she faced. She had to "straddle two worlds  and two cultures" both in America and in Japan during the war. As Chiang points out, these two world views could be a point of strength.

Tokyo Rose offers young readers much to consider. Iva was a young woman who believed in her own self worth, so much so that she left her uncle's home - a risky choice during the war, determined to be true to herself and her beliefs. Her own family believed her presence brought them dishonor. This belief reflected "the deep prejudice and condescension towards those who have immigrated to other parts of the world".

Iva proved herself not only a loyal American but loyal to the ideals of freedom and democratic rights as well. She refused to renounce her American citizenship, insisting she was American and she risked jail or worse helping American POWs in Japan. She also agreed to work with Cousens in the hope of thwarting the Japanese attempt to demoralize American troops during the brutal Pacific campaign. For her loyalty she was labeled a traitor, largely due to the efforts of Harry Brundidge, Walter Winchell and the FBI. The result was her incarceration in an American prison. But Iva persisted and eventually her name was cleared and she was pardoned.

This well-written and richly illustrated graphic novel brings to light the truth about the Tokyo Rose saga, exposing the difficulties many first-generation Americans experience, as they find themselves straddling two cultures. It also highlights the effects of war in perpetuating fear and racism towards those who are different. Tokyo Rose portrays the courage and resiliency of Iva Toguri, mislabeled Public Enemy Number 1, but in reality,  a loyal American citizen.

Book Details:

Tokyo Rose - Zero Hour by Andre Frattino and Kate Kasenow
Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing   2022

A Train In The Night: The Tragedy of Lac-Megantic by Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny and Christian Quesnel

A Train In The Night is a graphic novel account of the terrible train accident at Lac-Megantic in Quebec in the summer of 2013. 

The story opens with six of the Lac-Megantic victims talking about the derailment : a young girl asks an older woman if she knows the men responsible for the disaster. The older woman tells her that she doesn't because "They laid their plans hundreds of thousands of kilometers from our town..."

One morning in 2012 the mayor of Nantes had two men from the railway company visit his office. They inform him that from now on there will be only one man on the oil trains passing through - the train will be a "one-man crew". The mayor is stunned that only one man will be on a train with "hundreds of tank cars full of explosive".  They tell him that the minister has already approved such a crew. The mayor asks what will happen if the brakes fail? Their response is that there is an automatic device called a "dead man's switch" which will stop the train. Nantes's mayor doubts the train will stop on the rotten rails. In disbelief, the mayor calls the Minister of Transport's office to confirm what he's heard. They tell him that the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway is a "first-rate company" which they support and that the one man train is completely safe and has been approved.

 

The story moves far from Nantes to the "great, glorious prairie of North Dakota, home to many Indigenous peoples. They were forced from their land by the U.S. government who broke the treaties. Beneath the vast, fertile plains and the wide, open sky, was "black gold" - oil in the Bakken shale. An estimated thirty to forty billion barrels is in the shale. Instead of buffalo, "17,000 monsters of iron and steel", oil rigs fill the land. The oil is extracted by fracking, in which many toxins are injected into the shale to force out the oil and gas. The fresh air has been contaminated with benzene, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and hydrogen sulfide, while the water is contaminated with selenium and lead.

It is on June 30, 2013, in North Dakota that the Lac-Megantic story begins. Canadian Pacific Railway controls the shipping in of drilling equipment and the transport out of crude oil to refineries and ports in North Dakota. In 2013, 140,000 tank cars transported oil out of state. On June 30, 2013, 250 DOT-407 tanker trucks travel to New Town, to fill 75 DOT-111 tank cars, part of CP Train No. 606-282. The DOT-111 tank cars are too fragile to transport the oil which has been classified as 1267 Class 3, PGI - the most dangerous and most explosive. They are used though because they are cheap to rent. Instead, the cargo's rating is deliberately altered to PG III, as safe oil, non-explosive. Train No. 606-282 leaves on June 30th for the Irving Refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick, a journey of over three thousand kilometers.

On July 1, CP invoices Irving Oil for Train 606-282. On July 5th, the train arrives in Cote-Saint-Luc, Montreal where Montreal, Maine and Atlantic takes over. It is renamed MMA-002. MMA has been flagged by various transportation agencies in both the U.S. and Canada as having a poor safety record. In the MMA office in Farnham, Quebec, Engine 5017 is put on as the lead on the train despite having serious problems. The train is inspected by Transport Canada and given permission to continue on. Tom Harding is the lone driver on MMA-002 to Lac-Megantic. From there, an American driver will take the train to New Brunswick.

Despite contacting MMA about the ongoing engine problems, Harding is told to continue on. The train arrives at the West Siding Switch at 11:04 PM on July 5th. Engine 5017 is left running unattended with seven brakes applied by Tom Harding. When his taxi arrives, the driver notes to Tom that the 5017 engine is "spitting oil". At 11:38 PM, 911 is called to report a train fire. The Quebec Provincial Police call the MMA Control Centre at 11:50PM and are told that the train contains tanker cars of oil. The firefighters arrive and put out the fire but also shut down Engine 5017. In doing this, the air supply to  to the engine's pneumatic brakes is cut and eventually the remaining air escapes. The other four engines on the train had been shut off and meaning they also have no operational brakes. The stage is now set for the disaster that will claim forty-seven lives, and devastate the town and the lives of the people of Lac-Megantic.

Discussion

A Train In The Night is an informative graphic nonfiction account of the Lac-Megantic railway disaster. Saint-Cerny employs a victim of the disaster as narrator, an older woman who explains to a young child-victim the events leading up to the tragedy and identifying those really responsible. 

The events begin thousands of miles away, in the oil-rich shales of North Dakota. Saint-Cerny, who arrived in Lac-Megantic five days after what she calls "Night Zero", was determined to seek out the truth, after discrepancies began to appear in reports about the accident. As she writes in her piece, Megantic, the sad telling of a capitalist story" at the back of the book, 
"From the start the only official explanation was a simplistic one: The disaster was blamed on the error of just one man, alone in the mountains, who was alleged to have applied an insufficient number of brakes when parking his train. And from the start I decided that this time I would uncover the truth: Who had made it possible for one man, by himself, a single employee on the bottom rung of the hierarchy, to be allowed to leave the keys on the seat of a locomotive hauling seventy-two bombs along defective track and to leave it running all night?"

What Saint-Cerny uncovered is a trail of greed and corruption in the railway and oil industry, pushed by investors and shareholders and enabled by officials and ministers within the U.S. and Canadian governments. From the fracking industry that has poisoned the soil and water in North Dakota, to the deliberate actions of CP and MMA and many other rail companies to prioritize profits over worker safety and environmental protections, Lac-Megantic was an accident waiting to happen.

A Train In the Night sets out the story in two parts: The First Heartbreak and The Second Heartbreak.  The First Heartbreak describes the situation in Nantes with the mayor doing his due diligence in checking to see if MMA and CP were sanctioned to use the one man crew on an oil train travelling on rotted rails. The decisions that will result in the deaths of forty-seven people in Lac-Megantic, were made thousands of miles away and began decades and even centuries before. These decisions have their foundation in greed, without care for the people who lived on the land to the people who work in the various companies involved in resource extraction and shipping. From stripping Indigenous peoples of the rights to their land to access the mineral rights below that land, to modern-day fracking in North Dakota, to the hostile takeover of CP Rail where sky-high dividends and profits were possible as a result of cuts to the workforce and safety measures, each play their part. Readers then follow CP Train 606-282 with its hazardous cargo of oil to Lac-Megantic, Quebec. At each step of the journey, Saint-Cerny informs her readers on the safety rules breached, and how any employee who questioned those breaches was simply told to move along.

In The Second Heartbreak, Saint-Cerny describes the events after the derailment: it is an expose of further corruption, greed and complicity, of lies. and broken laws. It is about the false narrative of the derailment, the miscarriage of justice in blaming one individual who had no recourse to do otherwise, and the successful efforts of the Canadian government to thwart any kind of inquiry or investigation into the tragedy. Saint-Cerny doesn't shrink from naming names, from the unrepentant MMA CEO Edward Burkhardt, to the Canadian Ministers of Transport Denis Lebel (2011-2013) and John Baird (2008-2013), to Hunter Harrison CEO of CP Rail (2012 - 2017) Canadian astronaut and Minister of Transport, Marc Garneau (2015-2021) who blocked both federal and public inquiries into the disaster. 

The author also shows how Milton Freedman's "Shock Strategy" was implemented in the town of Lac-Megantic, by "consultants" portrayed as birds in the novel, whose goal is to remake the town without any real changes to prevent the recurrence of another derailment. This is done while highlighting the voices of the people who simply want what's left of their town back.

Quesnel's illustrations are visceral: for example, the shock of the explosion is done in red, with the images of four of the victims killed by the explosion shown first against a peaceful blue background and in subsequent pages blacked out first on a white page, then against a deep red background with the Sacred Heart of Jesus statue at the bottom. Marc Garneau and John Baird, Canadian government ministers who enabled the removal or reduction of significant safety and environmental protections are portrayed behind a bleeding Maple Leaf. And, in another comic panel, Lady Justice is shown decapitated with a black crow on top, signifying the thwarting of justice in the court trial in which a victim is tried rather than the true perpetrators of the disaster.

The names and ages of the forty-seven victims are also listed on a separate page for readers to know their identities. There is also a section at the back titled Documentary Fragments which explores the inspiration for some of artist Christian Quesnel's artwork.

A Train In The Night is informative and timely considering the recent event in East Palestine, Ohio. As Saint-Cerny points out in her short piece at the back of this graphic nonfiction, "Digging up the truth is one of the few weapons..." that can be used to prevent future tragedies. 

Book Details:

A Train In The Night: The Tragedy of Lac-Megantic by Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny and Christian Quesnel
Toronto: Between The Lines    2022
87 pp.

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna and the Race to Understand Our Genetic Code by Walter Isaacson with Sarah Durand

Jennifer Doudna was born on February 19, 1964 in Washington, D.C., the oldest of three girls. Her father dreamed of becoming a professor of American literature. To achieve this dream, he earned a Ph.D. and eventually was offered a job at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo. Doudna's family moved to the islands in 1971 when she was seven-years-old.

Doudna, who was often called a "haole", a derogatory term for non-Native Hawaiians, felt lonely and uncomfortable in her new home. But things changed for the better when her family moved out of Hilo and into a new development on the slopes of the Mauna Loa volcano. In the smaller school, Doudna felt less like an outsider and began to thrive. She skipped grade 5 and made a new friend in Lisa Hinkley whose boldness to be herself, encouraged Doudna.

As Doudna and Hinkley explored the sugar cane fields, the meadows, and lava-flow caves, she became intrigued by the many wonders of nature she discovered: a spider with no eyes, a thorny vine called hilahila or "sleeping grass". Two important people fostered Doudna's curiosity: a family friend and biology professor named Don Hemmes, and her father. Hemmes showed Doudna the different fungi he was studying, while her father, an avid reader gave Doudna a copy of The Double Helix by James D. Watson. This book, which explained how Watson and Frances Crick discovered the double helix structure of DNA, was inspiring to Doudna. Their story made Doudna realize that science could be fun and be used to uncover the secrets of the natural world. But the treatment of Rosalind Franklin, a  woman structural biologist whose significant contribution to Watson and Crick's work went unrecognized, made her aware that although women could become great scientists, they might not see their contributions acknowledged in the same way as male scientists.

In 1981, Doudna attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, studying chemistry and went on to do graduate work at Harvard in 1985. As part of her lab rotation, Doudna studied with Roberto Kolter, head of the graduate studies program, and with Jack Szostak, a molecular biologist studying yeast DNA.  As a Ph.D. student, Doudna worked on the structure of  RNA. In 1991, Doudna and her husband Tom Griffin moved to Boulder, Colorado where she did her postdoctoral work with structural biologist Thomas Cech. It was Cech who shared the Nobel Prize for discovering ribozymes. Griffin and Doudna eventually divorced. 

At this time, Doudna was determined to uncover the three-dimensional structure of RNA, hoping to uncover how "...its twists and folds bring atoms together and cause reactions that allow the RNA to replicate." In 1993, Doudna accepted a job at Yale as a professor where she continued her research on determining the structure of RNA. Accompanying her to Yale, was Jamie Cate, with whom she would eventually marry in 2000 and have a son Andrew in 2002. In the fall of 1995, while visiting her terminally ill father, Doudna received a map that revealed the structure of of a specific RNA molecule's three-dimensional shape. "The structure Doudna and her team had discovered explained how RNA could be an enzyme and be able to slice, connect, and copy itself." Doudna and Cate published their discovery: this was Doudna's first major scientific success.

It would be a chance discovery by a Spanish graduate student, Francisco Mojica at the University of Alicante that would change everything. In an organism called archaea that are similar to bacteria, Mojica discovered fourteen identical DNA sequences that were repeated at regular intervals. Other researchers also made similar discoveries in other bacteria. Mojica coined the term CRISPR - "clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats" for this sequence. He soon discovered "...that CRISPR was a type of immune system" that bacteria had evolved in their battle against bacteriophages or viruses that attack them. They could also pass this immunity onto their offspring by incorporating some of the virus's genetic material. Soon researchers discovered specific CRISPR associated enzymes - called Cas which were able to insert bits of the virus's DNA into the bacteria's DNA. 

Doudna became involved in this research because she was an expert in RNA interference - at this time the mechanism believed to be at work here. Doudna wanted to find out what CRISPR was made of and try to understand how it worked. It was this path that would uncover the most amazing discoveries and lead to a future not only with the potential to heal but also the potential for abuse. But for Doudna personally, it would snag her science's most coveted prize - the Nobel Prize!

Discussion

The Code Breaker is a biography of Nobel-prizing winning structural biologist, Jennifer Doudna. Her journey from an insecure young girl who saw herself as an outsider to a world expert on the structure of RNA molecules and the gene-editing tool CRISPR and ultimately a Nobel Prize winner is inspiring. Isaacson focuses on the people and events in Doudna's early life that helped her transition from loner to team player, from a child curious about the natural world to accomplished scientist. Like so many women scientists before her, it was the influence of her father that set Doudna on the path to becoming a scientist.

But The Code Breaker is also the story of scientists in a race to decode RNA molecular structure and in the process discovering a powerful tool that may allow us to change our genetic makeup in ways we cannot yet comprehend.

The Code Breaker is divided into seven parts with the first four parts focused on Doudna's education as well as explaining the detailed science of the molecular research Doudna and other scientists were involved in during the 1990's and 2000's, including the discovery of CRISPR. Parts Five and Six deal with CRISPR babies and the events surrounding Chinese biologist He Jiankui who created three CRISPR babies in defiance of international protocols against editing genes in human embryos. Part Six explores the moral questions a new technology like gene-editing pose, especially since there is the potential for these tools to be used in very questionable ways. Part Seven explores the efforts Doudna and other scientists made during the Covid-19 pandemic in using CRISPR to create fast, efficient testing.

It is Isaacson's discussion of the ethical questions that gene-editing poses that is probably the most interesting aspect of this biography. Almost immediately after Doudna-Charpentier published their groundbreaking paper on the structure and working of CRISPR-Cas9 in June of 2012,  Doudna began to have serious reservations about its potential for misuse. As it turned out, she was right to be worried. In 2018, a young, ambitious Chinese scientist, He Jiankui, used CRISPR-Cas9 to edit the CCR5 gene in three viable human embryos, which were then brought to term. This was done in defiance of agreed but unenforceable international protocols against germline editing of human embryos. The moral and ethical dilemmas were now real.

Isaacson spends considerable effort discussing Jiankui's research, the moral and bioethical questions gene-editing raises, as well as Doudna's efforts to determine where and when CRISPR ought to be used. However, Isaacson, at times uses euphemistic terms that frequently bog down modern bioethical discussions, preventing a discussion of the real issues. 

At times the ethical issues are framed from a perspective that tends to ignore the ongoing serious, moral and ethical questions that continue to be unresolved for technologies that have been used for decades. For example, Isaacson relates that Doudna's teenage son seemed unconcerned about the moral issues regarding gene-editing. Isaacson writes that Doudna, wondered "if history will treat germline editing like IVF, which was very controversial when it first happened." However, there are many, many ongoing bioethical and moral issues, decades on, regarding the use of  IVF, despite the large number of people using the procedure. For example, there are over one million frozen IVF embryos in the United States alone and there is no consensus as to what to do with them. The IVF industry is largely unregulated and there are countless stories about the mix-ups in labs of embryos, of questionable parentage and botched creation of embryos. IVF is also not without serious risks to women, to the children born using this procedure and has a success rate of  only thirty percent. There is also considerable evidence that an immoral IVF-surrogacy industry in poorer nations, exploiting poor women, has developed. There are also increasing issues with donor semen being used in IVF procedures, creating large numbers of half-siblings and the risk of possible inter-marriage. To compare future gene-editing to the way IVF has developed, is to realize that there will likely be many unforeseen problems and abuses. In fact, IVF proceeded without the resolution of many of these issues, and it's likely gene-editing will too.

In another example, Isaacson uses the phrase "fertilized eggs", an inaccurate term since these are not "eggs" but now human blastocysts or zygotes. They are not simply biological cells but nascent human beings.  In his discussion of preimplantation genetic diagnosis Isaacson writes, "A couple who knows they carry the gene (for Huntington's) could decide to have a baby through IVF in order to screen their embryos for the disease. If the parents can produce enough fertilized eggs, the ones with Huntington's can be eliminated." The term "eliminated" is a euphemism for allowing a very young human embryo to die simply because it has a disease. PGD is a process of creating large numbers of human embryos (a problem previously mentioned) in order to find the ones that are perfect (i.e. do not have Huntington's disease.) This "solution" is a form of eugenics, in which weaker/sicker humans are murdered to "improve" the human race.  Accurate terminology is essential when having these serious ethical discussions, so there is clarity and honesty about what is being proposed and what the issues truly are. 

Isaacson goes on to state that "In making a gene edit to eliminate Huntington's, nothing is changed except the bad mutation. You won't change the gene for eye color, for example." He goes on to question where a gene edit like this should be allowed because it is so targeted. Yet in an earlier chapter  about the events surrounding He Jiankui's attempt to edit the CCR5 protein responsible in HIV in twin embryos, Isaacson mentions that Jiankui's paper revealed that in the twin named Lulu, "only one of the two relevant chromosomes had been properly modified" and that "....there was evidence that some unwanted edits had been made in the embryos." It would seem that in undertaking gene-editing, much is unknown, and that CRISPR-Cas9 may cause unwanted edits or additions that are unknown. There is also the ethics of doing what is largely experimentation on human beings who are not able to give their consent. To this date, not much is known about the twins Lulu and Nana, their health or what exactly those edits are.

In the chapter, Regulating Gene Editing, the author works through a number of interesting scenarios, posing questions and leaving the reader to consider these situations, as well as suggesting when gene-editing might be permissible. The following chapter also explores Doudna's own personal journey as she struggles to determine under what conditions gene-editing should be allowed. 

In the Epilogue, the authors include black and white photographs of some of the important scientists in this story, and a visual of how CRISPR works. There is a detailed Glossary of terms as well as a large Notes section for sources from each chapter.

The Code Breaker is definitely a book for older readers, mainly because of the complex science described in the book and the ethical questions that need to be considered and answered before scientists move forward with CRISPR. It is adapted from the nonfiction book of the same title, written for adult readers. In The Code Breaker, Isaacson and Durand have crafted an engaging account of cutting-edge molecular biology research that has the potential to impact the future of humanity. It is told from a very personal perspective - that of Jennifer Doudna, a remarkable and brilliant woman scientist. It also demonstrates that a career in science not only possible for women, but personally fulfilling with the possibility now of actually having one's accomplishments recognized.

Book Details:

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna and the Race to Understand Our Genetic Code by Walter Isaacson with Sarah Durand
New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers      2021

320 pp.

Agent Most Wanted: the Never-Before-Told Story of the Most Dangerous Spy of World War II by Sonia Purnell

Virginia Hall was born in 1906 to Barbara and Edwin Lee (Ned) Hall, a Baltimore banker who also owned a movie theater. Virginia, known as "Dindy" to her family, was a free spirit who went against the conventions of the 1920s, wearing pants in place of skirts. She loved hunting and riding horses bareback. Virginia was viewed as a natural leader by her classmates.

While her mother wanted Virginia to marry into Baltimore society, her father allowed her the freedom she craved. Despite this, Virginia did become engaged at the age of nineteen but she eventually broke off the engagement and enrolled at Radcliffe College in 1924. Finding this school boring, she switched to Barnard College in Manhattan. 

Virginia was determined to have a career as a diplomat so she convinced her parents to send her oversees to the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques. Paris was exciting for Virginia with its actresses, intellectuals and politicians. 

It was while studying languages, economics and journalism in Vienna, that Virginia met and fell in love with Emil, a young Polish army officer. Because her family objected to this relationship, Virginia broke up with him.

Living in Europe resulted in Virginia learning a number of foreign languages, and becoming informed on European culture and politics. She developed a deep love for France, her "second country" and became concerned over the rise of fascism in Europe. In 1929, she returned to the United States, to study French and economics at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She attempted to become a diplomat but her application was rejected. 

After the death of her father in 1931, Virginia obtained a position at the US embassy in Poland, processing mail, diplomatic visas, and coding and decoding telegrams. In 1933, Virginia transferred to Smyrna, Turkey and it was there that she suffered a life-changing injury, shooting herself accidently in her left foot. When gangrene set in, surgeons were forced to amputate her left leg below the knee to save her life. Virginia returned home in June, 1934, endured several more operations, and was given a new wooden prosthetic leg she named "Cuthbert". This period of her life at her family's home, Box Horn Farm was difficult as Virginia had to relearn how to walk. 

She was able to obtain a new post at the US consulate in Venice, Italy, where she continued to impress her superiors with her abilities. At age thirty, Virginia's second attempt to obtain a diplomat position was rejected on the grounds of her being an amputee. Virginia's supporters lobbied President Roosevelt who was told by Secretary of State Cordell Hull that her disability made her unsuitable for a diplomatic position.  Instead, she was orders to leave Venice and given a posting in Tallinn, Estonia where she arrived after getting the needed repairs to her prosthetic leg in Paris. She arrived in Tallin in June 1938 and spent time hunting pheasant and grouse in the forests of Estonia.

In March, 1939,with war on the horizon, she resigned and left for London in September. When Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, Virginia left for London. After being rejected as a volunteer for the Auxiliary Territorial Service because she was a foreigner, Virginia went to Paris and signed up as an ambulance driver for the French Ninth Artillery Regiment in March, 1940. When France was invaded by the Nazis in May 1940, Virginia was determined to help. She helped transport wounded French soldiers to Paris. As an American, Virginia was given more freedom than the French. On June 22, 1940, France surrendered with Philippe Petain, the new French leader signing a treaty that saw the north and west of France occupied by the Germans. The south was free and was governed by Petain from the town of Vichy and became known as Vichy France. Virginia believed the French would eventually fight back to reclaim their country and she wanted to help them. To do that, she knew she needed to get back to London.

In August 1940, in a border town in Spain, Virginia encountered George Bellows, a British secret agent. She told him about her experiences in France and impressed him with her courage and "...her desire to help the French." He gave her the phone number of a contact in London, that of Nicolas Bodington. He was "...a senior officer in the French (F) Section of a brand-new British intelligence service, the Special Operations Executive (SOE)." 

However, Virginia did not contact Bodington, but instead asked for a temporary job at the U.S. embassy in London, while she waited to travel back to the United States. She was given a job as secretary to the embassy's military expert. Virginia soon found herself trapped in London during the nightly bombings by the Germans. It was at this time during the Blitz that she contacted Nicolas Bodington and was invited to dinner.

She met Nicolas and his wife Elizabeth, an American, in January 1941. Nicolas was frustrated by the fact that the British were unsuccessful in placing a single agent into France. Virginia didn't know who Nicolas was nor of his frustration. After the dinner, Nicolas was determined to use Virginia for a mission. America was not yet involved in the war, so Virginia could openly enter France, working as an American journalist.

There were obstacles to Virginia working in the British military: she was an American citizen, women were forbidden from frontline military service as they were not protected by international laws if taken prisoner during a war, and in the SOE there was strong opposition to women serving in the military. Eventually Virginia was taken on by the SOE on April 1, 1941, becoming Agent 3844 and the first liaison officer (Class A). She was not granted a military rank, likely because she would fail the medical exam based on her prosthetic. 

She was sent into Vichy France, her mission described as "Liaison and Intelligence in Vichy France." The SOE wanted to know the state of affairs in France: "could the French people be organized into effective paramilitary networks to resist fascism ..."  After training in coding, guerilla warfare, spreading propaganda, using code names, making invisible inks, and picking locks, Virginia was sent to Vichy. It was September 3, 1941 when she arrived at Petain's headquarters as a correspondent for the New York Post. Virginia's articles about life in Vichy France provided a wealth of information for the SOE who wanted to send more agents. This information allowed new agents to blend into everyday life. While Virginia was tasked with reporting on the situation in France and helping other agents as they arrived, she would accomplish so much more than that - setting up safe houses, recruiting sympathetic helpers, organizing resistance groups, and even rescuing prisoners. 

Discussion

Agent Most Wanted is the story of Virginia Hall, a woman who overcame the barriers of gender and disability to become the first Allied woman secret agent in France, significantly helping the French Resistance during World War II. Author Sonia Purnell undertook extensive research, interviewing Virginia Hall's niece, Lorna Catling and traveling to France, to speak with the people of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and many others including the son of  Georges Duboudin who was known as agent "Alain".

Virginia Hall was a most extraordinary woman, a heroine of the war and one of the most effective Allied agents. Purnell explores Virginia's early life, her personality and the factors that formed her into the courageous leader she became.  Nicknamed "Dindy" by her family, Virginia strongly resisted what was considered an "acceptable" life for a young woman in the 1930's. She broke an engagement, got herself well educated and was determined to have a career as a diplomat. Her father allowing her the freedom to be herself led to Virginia forging her own path. Eventually, as an Allied secret agent, she would make significant contributions during the war.

She recruited people to support the resistance to the Nazis in France, recruiting people to help fight the Nazis and defend their country. She recruited people who provided safe houses for agents hiding from the Nazis, obtaining weapons, medicine and supplies for the French Resistance. She also educated incoming British agents helping them to blend into the French culture so they wouldn't be caught by the Gestapo. 

Virginia infiltrated the Surete, the Vichy government's counter-espionage force and she orchestrated prison escapes of SOE agents, most notably the spectacular escape of twelve SOE agents called Clan Cameron from the Mauzac prison camp. 

Despite her remarkable abilities and her outstanding record, Virginia struggled at first to be taken seriously by the SOE in London. Many times male agents were taken at their word, over her more experienced opinions. The SOE refused to put Virginia in charge, even though she was the most competent agent in France. Without military rank, her competence could be questioned and her advice ignored. Purnell relates all of this plus explores the personal cost to Virginia, both the physical suffering she had to endure at times to get to safety and the loneliness she experienced. She also suffered from the betrayal of her network in Lyon by Robert Alesch, a Roman Catholic priest and Nazi collaborator and agent for the Abwehr. It was she who had taken Alesch into her confidence, mistakenly trusting him, something that cost her deep regret in the post-war years.

Virginia Hall proved that women could be excellent agents and she paved the way for many other female agents, many of whom lost their lives. Virginia was determined to prove "...that her survival against the odds had been for a purpose." Years earlier in March of 1939, her bland career made her want more. She wondered "How could she break through the constrictions of her life to do something really worthwhile?" There's no doubt that Virginia Hall was able to do something really worthwhile: she played a significant part in helping the French resist the Nazi occupation and she contributed to the Allies victory in Europe.

Purnell tells Virginia's story in short chapters, with black and white photographs of many significant people involved in Virginia's work in France and important people in her life in the post-war period. The author also provides Notes giving sources for the information in each chapter, a Bibliography and an Index. 

Agent Most Wanted is an engaging story about one of the most significant but probably under-acknowledged heroes of the Second World War. It is well-written, well-researched and highly recommended!

Book Details:

Agent Most Wanted: The Never Before Told Story of the Most Dangerous Spy of World War II by Sonia Purnell
New York: Viking    2022
200 pp.