The Girl Who Sang by Estelle Nadel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discussion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Book Details:

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

245 pp.

Force of Nature by Ann E. Burg

In Force of Nature, the life of author and scientist Rachel Louise Carson is portrayed in free verse. The story opens sometime around 1917 when Rachel is in fifth grade. With her Mama, Rachel observes the natural world around her with attention and delight; "a beautiful butterfly flit from leaf to leaf."

Rachel lives in Springdale with her Mama and Papa. Her father sells insurance, a disappointing and tedious job that he never planned on taking. She has an sister Marion who is ten years old and a brother Robert. Marian lives as home now after being abandoned by her husband Lee, mere months after getting married.

When Rachel wants to invite her classmate Alice to show her the woods, her Mama tells her to choose her friends wisely lest she end up like her older sister Marion. So Rachel accepts that she can't have friends come to visit. With her dog, Candy, Rachel explores the fields and forests. She loves poetry, especially poems about the sea. Marion finds a job doing bookkeeping while Robert has left to join the Army Air Service.

After a brief illness, Rachel is back in school. Everyone in her class knows someone fighting in Europe. Some have lost relatives in the Battle of Verdun. Meanwhile, Robert is busy transporting bombs on his biplane. His letter relates the story of a Canadian aviator who saved a plane by crawling onto the crushed wing to balance the plane so it could land. Rachel decides she will write a story about this aviator and submit it to the St. Nicholas Magazine. She aspires to be a writer. To encourage her, Rachel's mother leaves her a pocket-sized note book so she can write down the details she notices. Her story is published, five months after submitting it.

Eleven-year-old Rachel is kept home from school as the illness killing soldiers her brother Robert wrote about in his letters, has not spread. The influenza has resulted in limits placed on railroad travel and saloons. Eventually the war ends in the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

Rachel continues to have stories published in St. Nicks and becomes an Honor Member of the Saint Nicholas League. Robert returns home from war but seems changed, unable to focus and sleeping most of the time. Rachel's father gets another job working at the power plant but remains unhappy. And Marion is learning Continental Code from Robert and a friend. She has her picture in the paper but the accompanying story is filled with many made-up details about her which puzzles Rachel. Marion marries Burton Williams, a friend of her brother Robert.

Rachel graduates high school and enrolls at Pennsylvania College for Women, fifteen miles from Sprindale. At school, Rachel finds Miss Croff, her freshman composition teacher very supportive. Meanwhile, Marian's marriage to Burton is failing so she moves back home with her daughter Virginia and her new baby Marjorie. At the end of the semester, Robert also comes to visit with his wife Meredith and their baby, Frances. With all these people in their small home, tensions are high. Eventually Mama tells Robert he can pitch a tent in the yard which they do. Everyone can hear quarreling and crying day and night.

With Marian recovering from appendicitis, her young daughters are needy, wanting comfort. So Rachel helps her sister by taking the children outside to show them interesting things in nature. It is Marjie who seems to enjoy nature the most.

In her sophomore year, Rachel will study French, psychology, Introductory Biology and two English courses. She also decides to work on the school newspaper. Rachel has a new roommate named Helen who is younger. Miss Croff continues as Rachel's advisors, but she is impressed by Miss Skinker, her biology professor. She is glamorous and elegant. Miss Skinker is impressed with Rachel's "probing questions" and that she helps her classmates. She impresses upon Rachel that 
"It is not enough

to embrace knowledge

if we are not also willing

to use that knowledge

to benefit the world."

Rachel soon discovers that she really enjoys biology and it is become her favourite subject. She wants to change her major and seeks the guidance of Miss Croff and Miss Skinker. Miss Croff refuses to advise that she change her major. She tells Rachel there is very little opportunity or women in science and suggests instead that she add a minor in science. Miss Skinker also tells Rachel much the same. She indicates she had been turned away from jobs despite being qualified. She wants Rachel to follow her heart but also to succeed. All of this leaves Rachel discouraged with the fear that she will end up like her mother. Her fellow students are puzzled by Rachel's desire to change her major especially considering she is such a good writer. Rachel's attempt to explain to her friends how she feels is met with laughter.

Summer sees Robert, Meredith and Frances move in with Meredith's family. Rachel's papa is often sick and can only tend his garden. Rachel tells her mother that she wants to change her major but like her teachers, her mother doesn't support this change. Rachel returns to college but early in the semester she decides to move forward with the change in her major. Miss Skinker and Miss Croff tell her they will support her in this. Rachel's move to focus on science rather than her writing will eventually pay off in ways no one can anticipate. As Rachel gains experience in the world of science and returns to her writing, she offers the world the opportunity to reconsider the beauty of the natural world and to reconsider how we are trying to tame that world.

Discussion

In Force of Nature, the life of Rachel Carson is fictionalized through the use of free verse. There are no titled poems, but the poetry is interspersed with pages titled Field Note in which Rachel observes the natural world around her. As author Ann E. Burg notes in her Author's Note she "wanted to capture a unique and tenacious spirit" that was Rachel Carson.

Using verse, Burg succeeds in portraying Rachel Carson as an intelligent young woman determined to follow what she truly loved - observing and learning about the natural world we are a part of. In Force of Nature, Rachel is portrayed as not only delighting in the discovering the natural world around her but also in passing that on to those around her, especially her young nieces. Although she begins college studying writing and English, her fascination with the natural world cannot be denied. Despite warnings that studying science would offer few opportunities, Carson persisted, deciding to take an enormous risk. Carson was fortunate to obtain an internship at Woods Hole in Massachusetts and later a position in the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, at a time when jobs were rare for women in science. 

And as history now shows, she was able to convey the wonders of the natural world to millions of readers through her books. But  more importantly Rachel Carson was able to use her love and knowledge of the natural world and her science background to warn the world about the indiscriminate use of pesticides. She correctly foresaw that man's desire to conquer nature could have devastating effects for both the world and humanity. Her book, Silent Spring was the birth of the environmental movement. She accomplished what Miss Skinker had encouraged her to do, years earlier - use her knowledge to benefit mankind.

Burg also conveys the difficulties and tragedies in Rachel Carson's own life. Her mother had to give up a teaching career when she married, something that was common in the early twentieth century. Her father was dissatisfied with low-paying jobs that offered little satisfaction. Her siblings also struggled with neither Robert nor Marion completing high school. Robert returned from a war a changed man, like many of his generation. Her sister Marion had a failed marriage. The family struggled financially during the depression, resulting in Rachel postponing her doctorate studies at John Hopkins. Her father also died during this time making their financial situation worse. The niece Rachel was helping died suddenly leaving her son, Roger an orphan. Rachel had ongoing health problems including breast cancer which would claim her life in 1964.

Force of Nature has lovely illustrations created by artist Sophie Blackall using Procreate, a digital 6B pencil, gouache and brushes. At the back of the book, all the illustrations are shown with the caption, "Can you name them all?"  A map showing the important towns and cities relevant to Rachel Carson's life would have been a good addition.

Author Ann E. Burg read Rachel Carson's own works and used Linda Lear's biography, Witness for Nature to help craft Rachel's story in Force of Nature. This novel in verse is a beautiful tribute to a somewhat-forgotten pioneer and scientist in environmental sciences.

Book Details:

Force of Nature by Ann E. Burg
New York: Scholastic Press   2024

278 pp.

Heroes by Alan Gratz

Frank McCoy and his best friend Stanley Summers live on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, located ten miles west of Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. It is a little island in the middle of the harbor which is both a body of water and the name of the United States military base. While Stanley has grown up in Hawai'i, with his father and his Japanese American mother, Mitsuko, Frank has moved there from Pensacola, Florida where his father was previously stationed. Frank, along with his older sister Ginny and their parents now live next door to Stanley in a row of bungalows they call Nob Hill. Frank's father is a Navy pilot, while Stanley's father is a flight crew chief at the air station. He is in charge of fixing the planes that Frank's father flies. Frank's sister Ginny who works as a secretary at Dole Pineapple in Honolulu,  is dating Brooks Leonard, a seaman second class on the USS Utah. 

Frank and Stanley have a shared interest in creating a comic book with Frank doing the story and Stanley doing the illustrations. Making their way home from baseball practice in a small aluminum boat, the two friends discuss their ideas for a superhero they want to name, the Arsenal of Democracy. When they arrive at Ford Island, they find two boys, Arthur Edwards and Johnny Ross picking on a younger boy, Charlie Moon. When Stanley goes to intervene, he gets attacked by the boys and punched. But instead of coming to the aid of his best friend, Frank freezes up and watches as Stanley is beaten. This angers Stanley who can't understand why Frank, who is much bigger than the other boys, didn't come to his aid. What his best friend doesn't know is that Frank is terrified of almost everything.

When they arrive at their homes, Frank's sister Ginny immediately senses the tension between the two boys but she thinks it is due to an argument. 

Brooks offers to take Stanley and Frank on a tour of the Utah early on Sunday morning. For Stanley it means a break from Japanese school. Frank meanwhile is struggling to tell his friend why he didn't step in to help him during the fight. On Sunday morning the two friends take their boat down carrier row where the Utah and the light cruisers, Raleigh and Detroit are docked. They are greeted by Brooks Leonard when they climb aboard the Utah. The ship feels safe, powerful and invincible. 

Just as Frank begins to explain to Stanley why he didn't come to his aid during the fight, they see a squadron of fighters approaching from the northwest. This is quickly followed by fiery explosions on Ford Island. Confused and surprised, everyone believes this is a drill but as the planes buzz the Utah Frank sees a "meatball" on the bottom of the plane's winds. This is what  the red rising sun of the Japanese flag is called by Americans.

Quickly Frank, Stanley, and Brooks realize the Japanese are attacking Pearl Harbor. Within seconds the ships are being torpedoed. The Utah begins sinking, tilting toward the harbor. Stanley wants to get off the ship but Brooks tells them to take cover behind the large stacks of timber on the deck. Caught in the middle of an attack, with the Utah capsizing, Frank, Stanley and Brooks must abandon ship. This will mean jumping into the shark infested waters of Pearl Harbor with torpedoes and bullets exploding all around them? 

Discussion

Heroes is another historical fiction book written for middle school readers, this time with the focus on the attack on Pearl Harbor. Set against this dramatic scene, Gratz explores what defines a "hero". 

Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, thirteen-year-old Frank McCoy stands frozen to the side as his best friend Stanley is beaten by two boys. Despite being bigger than both of the boys who attack Stanley, Frank doesn't step in because he's afraid of getting hurt. This creates tension between the two boys as Stanley has no idea why Frank didn't help him.

The reality is that Frank lives in constant fear of getting hurt. He worries about sharks, eels, volcanoes and plane crashes. About getting struck by lightning, or burning himself on the barbecue, or wearing flip flops. Frank took advanced swimming lessons in case he ever had to swim to shore. Ironically, this skill does help him save a trapped sailor during the attack.

Upset by his friend's seeming cowardice and not yet knowing the cause, Stanley tells Frank what he believes defines a hero. The boys are talking about the design of their comic book superhero when Stanley tells Frank what defines a hero. "A real hero steps in when they see people getting hurt, no matter what." He explains to Frank he likes Superman because "...he uses his powers to help people who're in trouble, for no other reason than it's the right thing to do." 

Frank does eventually come clean to Stanley but it isn't until the boys are on Ford Island as it's being bombed by the Japanese. Frank now feels that he doesn't have to hide his fear and that maybe Stanley will understand. He explains that a vicious dog attack in third grade is behind his fear of getting hurt. The attack left him with ropy scars on his stomach and a lasting state of fear. Since that time, he is constantly evaluating the relative danger of everything.

However, Frank's actions during the bombing of Pearl Harbor demonstrate that he is no coward. Initially he behaves as he's been doing for the past five years - either trying to avoid danger or freezing when confronted with danger. This is seen when Stanley saves a sailor from tracer fire on the deck of the Utah while Frank remains frozen in fear. But when Frank and Stanley are in a launch that needs to go to the Raleigh to get a torch to free sailors trapped in the Utah, it is Frank who suggests they swim the rest of the way to Ford Island, allowing the launch to do the rescue. 

Then on their way to taking a wounded sailor to the hospital on Oahu in a boat, Frank and Stanley encounter a young sailor trapped in the water by a ring of burning oil. To Stanley's shock, Frank decides he will swim underwater to rescue the sailor. His decision to take this risk is a dramatic change, one that Stanley does not want to be involved in. Stanley wants them to save themselves, but Frank knows he can save this sailor from a gruesome death despite the sharks, eels, fire and risk of running out of air.

"Who was this Frank McCoy who wanted to jump into burning water to try and rescue some man he'd never met before....Was I the Frank McCoy who froze up when the going got tough? Or was I the Frank McCoy who could be brace in the face of danger? Who stood up for his friends in a fight? Who helped people when they were in trouble? I was still afraid. Of pretty much everything.....But of all the things in the world I was afraid of, I suddenly realized that my greatest fear was being too scared to do the right thing."

Gratz's portrayal of the chaos and destruction during the Pearl Harbor attack seem very realistic with the exception of the two boy's continued focus on how their superheroes would behave. It's likely that the terror, chaos, and the immediate prospect of death would quickly replace any ideas of superheroes in these young boys minds. They have seen the dead body of a young sailor Brooks Leonard whom they both know. Suddenly the reality of the attack and the possibility of their own deaths would be foremost in their minds. They would be focused on surviving and helping others to survive.

Heroes allows young readers to experience through the eyes of two young boys, the cataclysmic event that pushed the United States into the war. The story also portrays how the pre-existing discrimination towards Japanese Americans led people like Stanley's mother to bury treasured family heirlooms to save their families. The story also tackles the issue of anxiety in children, with the main character, Frank McCoy having suffered for years from unaddressed anxiety. In the case of Frank, he seems to conquer his fears quite suddenly and become a hero.

Author Alan Gratz has included the comic book that the fictional Frank and Stanley produce after the war called The Arsenal of Democracy. Readers should note that the comic panels were drawn by the real life illustrator Judit Tondora. There is a map of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 showing the position of the various boats, submarines and Frank and Stanley's homes. The Author's Note includes information on the attack on Pearl Harbor and how the consequences of the attack played out for the war, for the United States and for Japan as well as the legacy of Pearl Harbor. Gratz also discusses how he incorporated the events of Pearl Harbor into his story. 

Book Details:

Heroes by Alan Gratz
New York: Scholastic Press   2024

219 pp.

Amil and the After by Veera Hiranandani

Amil And The After is the sequel to The Night Diary, which chronicles the experiences of the fictional Hindu family during the Partition.

Twelve-year-old twins Amil and Nisha, their father, Dadi their grandmother and Kazi the family's Muslim servant, are now living in Bombay, India. It is  January 1st, 1948. Last year, India's Prime Minister Nehru had announced that at midnight on August 14th, India would become independent from British rule and be partitioned into two countries, India and Pakistan. When this happened, India was to be for Hindus, Sikhs and non-Muslims, while Pakistan would be the home for Muslims. As a result, Amil's family had to flee their home in Mirpur Khas which was now part of Pakistan as they are Sindh Hindu and travel to Jodhpur, India. The journey was treacherous with Amil almost losing his life. The Partition had resulted in people across India and Pakistan fighting and killing each other. After a short stay in Jodhpur, Amil's family moved to Bombay for Papa's new job at the hospital. He is covering for a doctor who may or may not return.  

Amil loves to draw but finds reading and school work difficult. The letters of the alphabet all look the same or flipped, making learning difficult for Amil. Nisha suggests that he draw for Mama, as a way of expressing his pent-up feelings. Amil decides to do this.

One Saturday on their way to visit Papa's cousin Ashok, they pass a refugee camp in the old military barracks. Amil recognizes the Sindh words being spoken in the camp. Six months ago, these people had been living normal lives in what was now Pakistan. Now they are living in terrible conditions and seeing the camp upsets Amil.

School continues to be a struggle for Amil, while his twin sister, Nisha, excels. Amil wishes for a friend, someone who isn't too competitive but who also has a sense of humour. He also wants a bicycle. Amil prays to his mother, asking her to make at least one of these wishes come true. Then at school, Amil encounters a boy during lunch break, as he's taking out his tiffin. Kazi has prepared Amil's lunch of rajma masala, roti, raita, and mango pickle. At first the boy refuses Amil's offer of food. He shows Amil a flip book he's made and this so intrigues Amil that he wants the boy to teach him how to make one. They strike a bargain where the boy will take half of Amil's lunch as payment for teaching him how to make a flip book. Eventually the boy reveals himself to be called Vishal and tells Amil he is from a royal family.

Amil and Nisha struggle to settle back into life, amidst continuing fallout from the Partition. Violence, an assassination and uncertainty seem to be everywhere. But when Amil and Nisha discover Vishal sleeping on the street, Amil is determined to help his new friend.

Discussion

Amil And The After is the story of one family's struggle to rebuild their lives after the Partition in 1947 India. Their traumatic and life-changing experiences leave them uncertain about the future and wondering why they survived when so many others did not. In this novel, set in 1948, their story is told from the perspective of twelve-year-old Amil. He almost died from dehydration as they crossed the desert in their journey from Mirpur Khas, Pakistan to Jodhpur, India.

The story begins on January 1, 1948, four months after the Partition, but it is not in the past. People are still fleeing over the border between Pakistan and India and communal rioting continues with attacks in Karachi and Delhi.

The events around the Partition have left Amil with many questions including why Muslims and Hindus are fighting one another. In Mirpur Khas, Amil's family, who are Sindh Hindus, went to the Sikh temple while some Hindus went to Sufi (Muslim) shrines. His papa tells him, "Our community had Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, Jains all going about their business."  People were able to live peacefully, despite their differences. The Partition changes all of that.

Amil realizes that his experiences have changed him. Instead of focusing on how to have fun or get a treat, he has many complicated questions. He wonders why they survived, why they have a home and food and others do not. When he sees a young boy playing in the dirt in the refugee camp in Bombay, Amil recognizes that he could be that boy "If a few things had gone another way..." Was it luck that he hadn't died in the desert, that they have a safe place to live and food?

Eventually Amil discovers that his new friend, Vishal is living on the street. In Vishal, Amil sees "...a boy exactly like he was, just unlucky instead of lucky." When Amil offers to help him, Vishal seems indifferent because he believes he is worthless and that no one cares. While Amil believes the difference between him and Vishal is simply a matter of luck, Nisha believes they shouldn't waste that "luck" and should act to help Vishal. As a result they end up taking Vishal home, feeding him and helping him to clean up and get into clean clothes. This restores Vishal's belief in his own dignity. 

When Vishal doesn't return to school, Amil is not content to simply let things go. He and Kazi discover he is seriously ill in the refugee camp and learn that his real name is Vasim Qureshi, meaning he is likely a Muslim boy. Amil is now determined to help his friend, eventually getting him treated at the hospital where his father works. He doesn't care that Vasim is Muslim, only that he is his friend. But Amil also wants to ensure that Vasim remains safe and that he doesn't end up back in the refugee camp. His determination pushes his father to find a safe place for Vasim and ultimately leads to his family helping him. The message is that we don't have to do big things, sometimes it is just helping one person that makes a big difference.

Amil And The After encourages young readers to look beyond differences and see the humanity in those who are different. Sometimes all that separates us from being homeless or a refugee is luck and circumstances. This message is an important one for people in all countries. As the Partition continues to have repercussions in India even today, this message is needed more than ever. 

As mentioned in Hranandani's first book, The Night Diaries, the experiences of the characters in this novel are based on her own family's experiences. She reiterates this in The Author's Note at the back. Also included is a Glossary of terms used in the novel. 

Book Details

Amil And The After by Veera Hiranandani
New York: Kokila       2024
342 pp.

The Tree of Life by Elisa Boxer

It was winter in the ghetto called Terezin. There were many children in the ghetto, scared and lonely. One woman, Irma Lauscher, was secretly teaching the children to read and write, and also to celebrate Jewish holidays. She asked one of the prisoners who left the ghetto each day on work detail to smuggle in a tree sapling. He agreed even though this meant risking his life if he were caught.

When the sapling arrived, it was a comfort to the children who planted it in a pot. Eventually, the children planted the sapling in the ground within the ghetto. To keep the sapling alive, the children each shared a few drops of their precious water each day. The tree grew taller and was known as Etz Chaim, the Tree of Life.

Meanwhile, many of the children were removed from the ghetto and sent by train somewhere even worse. But those children who remained continued to water the tree. After the war and the prisoners were released, the tree was now five feet tall. Before the children left the ghetto they gave the tree one more drink and placed a sign by it that read, "As the branches of this tree, so the branches of our people." 

Over the years the tree continued to grow, a mature, silent witness to what had happened in the ghetto. Irma survived the war and send seeds from the tree all over the world. In 2007, after a flood, the tree finally succumbed. But six hundred saplings were now living throughout the world!

In 2021, a fifteen foot descendent of the tree of life was planted in New York City. There children will come to care for it and learn more about the past, the ghetto, and the teacher and the children who had hope for a better future.

Discussion

The Tree of Life is the touching story of Jewish children creating a memorial of hope in the darkest of times, when most of them would have no future.

In January, 1943, Irma Lauscher and a group of Jewish children gathered in Theresienstadt concentration camp to plant a tree. This was to celebrate the Jewish holiday called Tu B'Shvat which is called "The New Year of The Trees".

Theresienstadt, also known as Terezin, was a Nazi concentration camp and ghetto located thirty miles north of Prague in the Czech Republic. Theresienstadt was originally a fortress created in the late 18th century by Emperor Joseph II of Austria. Terezin was located within the fortress. However, during World War II, with the occupation of Czechoslovakia, the Nazis converted Terezin into a Jewish ghetto and concentration camp. The ghetto held over fifteen thousand Jewish children, of which only one hundred fifty would survive. Most of these children and the Jewish adults as well, were sent to their deaths at the extermination camps of Treblinka and Auschwitz.

Unlike many other camps, Terezin prisoners were scholars, philosophers, scientists, musicians and artists. The camp was used as a propaganda tool to prove to the world that the Nazis were treated the Jewish people well. In 1943, the camp was beautified in response to a request by King Christian X of Denmark to inspect it. Named Operation Embellishment by the Nazis, the camp was cleaned, fakes shops and cafes were created and thousands deported to Auschwitz to alleviate overcrowding. When the inspection was done in June of 1944 by Danish officials they saw freshly painted rooms holding no more than three Danish Jews per room. The officials did not ask to see areas of the camp that were not part of the official tour and any questions they asked of residents were not answered. Rafael Schachter, a Czech composer, along with other Jews, was forced by the Nazis to give a repeat performance of Verdi's Requiem. He was deported to Auschwitz in October 1944  and gassed the next day. In September 1944, the Nazi's made a propaganda film titled Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet  or, Terezin: A Documentary Film of the Jewish Resettlement. 

Despite this, the children of Terezin were educated, even though it was apparent most of them would not survive. This was a ploy by the Nazis to hide the camp's true purpose. Irma Lauscher was one of the teachers. She was born in Hermanuv Mestec in 1904 and went on to earn a teaching degree from Chales University in Prague. In 1932 she married Jiri Lauscher. They had a daughter, Michaela in 1936.  Irma continued teaching even after they were deported to Terezin in 1942, helping the Jewish children learn about Jewish history and traditions.

The seeds for the tree were smuggled in by an unknown prisoner who worked outside the camp. In the spring of 1943 the tree was planted in one of the Terezin yards. Another version has Irma bribing a Czech guard who smuggled in a sapling of a silver maple. The tree survived the war by being watered by the children of Terezin, most of whom did not survive. Irma and her family also survived. 

After the war, Irma often visited the tree at Terezin, who grew into a stout sixty foot silver maple. Unfortunately, the tree was destroyed by a flood in 2003. But by that time many saplings of the original tree grew in the United States and Israel.

Elisa Boxer tells the story of the Tree of Life in this lovely picture book with digitally created artwork by Alianna Rozentsveig. It is a gentle retelling that focuses on the sacrifice of the Jewish children, to create a symbol of hope and peace, for a future they would never have. This symbol was spread throughout the world, in the form of saplings planted in different cities. Each tree is  a reminder to children of all peoples and faiths, of the lives lost and offers a reminder to fight hatred in all its forms.

The artwork portraying life in Terezin is dark and conveys a sense of foreboding with shades of beige, brown and black while the children are shown in brighter colours. The train taking the Jewish children to their deaths in Auschwitz, belches black smoke against an ominous dark sky. In the postwar images, the background is light, conveying a sense of hope.

There is an Author's Note at the back as well as a Selected Sources section which offers readers the opportunity to explore more in-depth the story told in the book.

Book Details:

The Tree of Life. How a Holocaust Sapling Inspired the World by Elisa Boxer

New York: Rocky Pond Books    2024

Charles Darwin's On The Origin of Species by Dr. Michael Leach and Dr. Meriel Lland

This oversize nonfiction picture book explores Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and his ideas about the natural world that were published in his book, On The Origin of Species.

In this book, evolution is defined as "the way that living things here on Earth have changed and continue to change." It "explains why there are so many different kinds of plants and animals." This explanation comes from Charles Darwin who described his ideas in his book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, published in 1859. 

This nonfiction picture book sets out to describe how naturalist Charles Darwin came to develop the idea of evolution and natural selection and explain his "big idea".

After identifying some of the great scientific thinkers in the late 1700's and early 1800's, the authors describe the early life of Charles Robert Darwin who was born in 1809. His love of studying the natural world led him to leave the study of medicine and enroll in courses to become an Anglican minister. He obtained the position of a naturalist on the HMS Beagle and journeyed to the Galapagos Islands, off the coast of South America.

 

In 1835, Darwin studied the wildlife on the various islands of the Galapagos, making records and collecting samples. When he returned home to England, Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in January, 1839. They had ten children. Over the next sixteen years, Darwin came to develop a theory as to how species change, by passing on small variations that made them better adapted to their environment. These traits eventually became common to all members of that species. This process was named "natural selection" by Darwin. Another British man, Alfred Russel Wallace also came to have a similar theory and sent his idea to Darwin.

In 1858, their idea of the theory of natural selection was presented at a scientific meeting in London. Wallace admitted that this idea was first Darwin's. This radical idea was very controversial leading to many public debates. Darwin published his theory in a book titled, On the Origin of Species in 1859. In 1871 he further developed his ideas and published a book on the evolution of humans called The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. Because Darwin considered humans as part of the animal kingdom, he believed humans shared a common ancestor with apes.

Darwin continued his thinking and research all his life, writing fourteen books and corresponding with many people regarding his ideas. He died in 1882 and is buried in Westminster Abbey, London.

From this point on, examples of natural selection in action are featured. Other concepts such as "common descent", "survival of the fittest", "the struggle for life", and sexual selection are presented. How island life forms unique organisms, Darwin's tree of life and the interdependence of species are also discussed. The authors also incorporate pages about convergent evolution, the fossil record, the rise of birds, plate tectonics and how this has affected life on Earth, and some of Darwin's ideas that ultimately proved to be wrong.

Discussion

Charles Darwin's On The Origin of Species offers young readers a short biography of Charles Darwin, the British naturalist who posed the theory of evolution and natural selection. Darwin's ideas on how natural selection works to help species adapt better to their environment and his theory of evolution - how life on Earth may have developed over hundreds of millions of years are also discussed.

This book begins by offering some key definitions about evolution, stating that "People and species of plants and animals also change bit by bit over many generations. These processes are gradual and are the basis of evolution - or how living things change over time."  This definition is somewhat vague and doesn't explain what Charles Darwin's theory of evolution has come to embody today. The Merriam-Webster definition is probably more accurate: "the scientific theory explaining the appearance of new species and varieties through the action of various biological mechanisms (as natural selection or genetic mutation)"

It's important for children's science books to strive to be accurate. Darwin brilliantly recognized that living organisms adapt to small changes in their environment so they can better survive. He was able to  describe this with his detailed observations of various animals on the Galapagos. Drs Leach and Lland do an excellent job of presenting this evidence by describing Darwin's finches from the Galapagos and the rainforest frogs in Thailand. 

But Darwin also had another part of his theory which the authors describe as  "Evolution also helps us to understand how groups of animals and plants become extinct, and how new groups emerged - including humans."  In other words, Darwin believed that evolution could explain how new species come about, a process he believed happened gradually, through small changes over a vast period of time. To prove this many, transitional forms must be found to show the development from one species to a completely new one. As Leach and Lland do mention, transitional fossils are not common, making such proof difficult. They present the evolution of whales from a land ancestor  called Indohyus as one example and also the belief today, that birds are the descendants of dinosaurs based on the discovery of dinosaur fossils with feathers, and what is considered an intermediary, Archaeopteryx. 

Leach and Lland also present some of the problems Darwin considered but was unable to solve during his lifetime. One was how plants and animals passed on their characteristics to their offspring. We now know since the discovery of DNA in 1953, that traits are passed on through segments of DNA called genes which are inherited from the parents of an organism. Genes describe protein chains, amino acid by amino acid.  During reproduction DNA is copied but often the duplication is not perfect. These flaws lead to mutations. Most major mutations are fatal, as the work of the German geneticists Christiane Nusslein-Volhard and Eric Wieschaus demonstrated. When Darwin posed evolution, he knew nothing about DNA, amino acids, proteins and inheritance. Had he known, would he have believed that random mutations that occurred early enough in development to affect the body plan of the organism - could drive macro-evolution? Today, many microbiologists and geneticists understand that minor mutations do not create significant evolutionary change as Darwin proposed. And major mutations are usually fatal to an organism. Leach and Lland describe DNA and confidently state that these mutations which they describe as "faults" are what "...create the variants that drive evolution." They do not explore the question that microbiology presents regarding evolution: since genes contain information that is coded in various combinations of the twenty amino acids, where did that biochemical information initially originate? Did the information come from random mutations? Or from some other source? 

The second problem Darwin couldn't solve was "how a species could appear in different places around the Earth." We now know that the Earth is a dynamic system in which the crust is made up of  tectonic plates that are constantly moving. The continents as we currently know them were arranged very differently in the past, into one supercontinent called Gondwana.

One interesting spread in the book is titled The Slow March of Evolution in which Earth's history is presented in the form of a twenty-four hour clock instead of using the geologic time scale such as Cambrian, Ordovician etc . The appearance of different forms of life are assigned a time ( for example, 04.20 First Single Cell Life appears). One issue with Darwin's evolution is how to explain things like the incredible emergence of life at the beginning of the Cambrian Period - known as the "Cambrian explosion." Using the clock instead of the geologic time scale means this "explosion of new life forms" is not as readily apparent.

Charles Darwin's On The Origin of Species offers an overview on the topic of evolution that may encourage young readers to further explore the ideas featured here.  This book could have been made much more engaging with the use of photographs of some of the major characters such as Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley, and Samuel Wilberforce, photographs of the Galapagos Islands and of the unique animals such as the long nosed horn frog mentioned in the book, as well as the use of maps and the geologic time scale. There is a small glossary at the back which could have been expanded. In addition, there is no information offered on the authors or their credentials. 

Book Details:

Charles Darwin's On The Origin of Species by Dr. Michael Leach and Dr. Meriel Lland

London: Arcturus Publishing Ltd.     2024

64 pp.

Four Years Trapped In My Mind Palace by Johan Twiss

Fourteen-year-old Aaron Greenburg has been locked in his mind for the last two years. He and his two friends, Mike and Leon had gone swimming in the "murky waters of Dingleberry Creek in Bradley, California during a scorching July afternoon. It was his last day in Bradley before he and his parents, Robert and Linda moved to a city in the Bay area, Concord. Aaron and his friends spent "the day flying from the rope swing into the old swimming hole at Dingleberry Creek." Three days later, Aaron was in a new city, without his friends and so ill he couldn't move at all. At San Francisco General, Dr. MacPhearson diagnosed Aaron with a rare form of cryptococcal meningitis. Although his parents weren't aware of where Aaron and his friends had been, Aaron knew that he had contracted this bacterial illness from Dingleberry Creek where eucalyptus trees had been planted around the swimming hole.

Dr. MacPhearson told Aaron's parents that he was "as good as dead. He is completely unresponsive and in a vegetative state. We highly doubt he can hear or even recognize you and that the meningitis has caused severe and irreparable brain damage."  This is shocking to Aaron who can hear everything being said about him but is unable to respond in any way. His parents attempted to care for him at home but with both of them being in their sixties, after three months it simply too much. His mother was forty-six when she had Aaron, a surprise baby! Now he lives in Restwood Suites Senior Care Center in Walnut Creek. 

At Restwood, Aaron is fed through a tube in his stomach. His only form of entertainment at first looking at a painting of a bowl of fruit on a table. Aaron pulls this painting into a magical world he creates, called his mind palace, a sort of castle - where he and the fruit have adventures.  Eventually Nurse Penny donated a black and white television with a VHS recorder and two tapes of Sesame Street from 1976. Except it's now 1987!

But Aaron's life changes drastically once again, when an elderly man, Solomon Felsher is placed in his room. Solomon is a former jazz musician, who is Jewish and who has dementia and needs constant supervision. His daughter Talia helps him get settled in and promises to bring Betty, his saxophone the next time she visits in a few weeks.

Once they are alone, Aaron makes the astonishing discovery that Solomon can hear his thoughts in his head. This means for the first time in two years, Aaron can communicate with another person. Over the next few weeks, Aaron shares conversations with Solomon and discovers he can only hear Aarons thoughts, observations and questions that Aaron directs towards him as if in conversation. If Aaron is just thinking thoughts he can keep them private. This is a relief to both Aaron and Solomon.

However, Aaron also discovers that when Solomon is having a dementia episode, he gets pulled into Solomon's memories and becomes a part of them, actually living out those memories in his mind. This extra mental stimulation has a profound healing effect on Aaron as he begins to make a miraculous recovery.

Discussion

Four Years Trapped In My Mind Palace is a unique novel that combines realistic fiction with historical fantasy novel by award-winning author Johan Twiss. 

Author Johan Twiss writes in his Author's Note at the back that the genesis of the novel was a news story about a man who contracted a rare form of meningitis when he was child. This illness resulted in full paralysis, and being trapped in his mind, fully aware, for fourteen years. No one recognized this but fortunately the man eventually achieved enough recovery to marry and have a life. This situation reminded the author of men he knew who were also trapped in their minds, but by dementia and Alzheimers. "Merging these two experiences together Aaron and Solomon's  story developed -- a coming-of-age story entwined with and end-of-age story written with a hint of nostalgia, a hint of whimsical unknown, and a heartwarming hope for the beauty of life."

In Four Years Trapped In My Mind Palace, the main story of the novel is the relationship between a teenage boy, Aaron Greenburg who is in a "vegetative" state, (a loathsome term that is used quite frequently and should be replaced by something more accurate like non-responsive state) and an elderly man Solomon Flesher, who is suffering from dementia. Inexplicably, the two, who are roommates in a senior's home, can communicate via their thoughts. This allows Aaron to experience some of the defining events Solomon lived through during a sixty year span from the 1920's to the 1980's.

Initially Aaron has created his own world which he calls his mind palace, a palace with many rooms. Aaron describes it as  " a giant castle surrounded by green rolling fields, bordered by a dense, dark forest..."   Aaron and the fruit from a painting in his room that he brings into the mind palace have grand adventures. However, while "...  most of the castle stayed the same, with a throne room, banquet hall, kitchen, and armory, other parts were also changing, like the north clock tower. No matter what we tried, we could never find a passageway that led to the tallest tower of the palace." For some reason, Aaron is unable to reach the north clock tower which seems to suggest that him reaching the north clock tower offers an escape from his locked-in syndrome.

When Solomon arrives, he is able to hear Aaron's conversations in his mind and is soon pulling Aaron  into his own memories when he has a dementia attack. Before Aaron arrives in those memories though, he first enters his own mind palace, but often in a new room. At first these rooms seem to be related to something Aaron cannot have in his own life. For example, the room he enters before being in Solomon's first memory of the Jack Dempsey fight, is a large dining hall with a table laden with fine china, silverware, crystal glasses and food. Aaron stuffs himself with the delicious food before passing through a door that leads to Solomon's memory.  Aaron is unable to eat in a normal manner and must be fed through a stomach tube and can only dream about eating real food. Before being drawn into Solomon's memory a second time, Aaron finds himself in an auditorium-like room, on a stage with his trombone which he misses playing. 

Before each of Solomon's memories, Aaron encounters a new room in his mind palace, moving from the weapons training area before the World War II foxhole memory, to the castle dungeon before the World War II concentration camp memory, to the south tower of the castle - the second tallest behind the massive north clock tower before meeting Walt Disney. This journey through his mind palace mirrors the gradual healing that is occurring in Aaron's mind. For example, Aaron shed's tears at his father's pain over his impending divorce, just before entering the weapons training area, then he blushes and is able to groan before entering the castle dungeon. As Aaron's recovery continues, as he begins to learn to speak again, he enters the south tower of the castle, behind the north clock tower.  Finally, as he begins to become more physically responsive, Aaron is able to enter the north clock tower where he sees his future and is thanked by a dying Solomon for his friendship. The north clock tower represents Aaron finally being freed from his mind palace. 

It is only when Nurse Penny sees Aaron visibly blushing in response to Solomon's granddaughter Sarah that she decides to get the doctors involved in re-evaluating Aaron. Up to this point she has refused to believe Solomon's view that Aaron is awake. This leads his physician, Dr. MacPhearson to realize that Aaron is aware and healing and to begin working with him. Aaron's progress is slow but ongoing. By the end of the novel he is able to communicate verbally and is upright in a wheelchair.

Since the novel is set in the 1980's,  from 1985 when Aaron contracted meningitis, to 1989 when he begins to wake up, little was understood about patients who appeared to be non-responsive but were still alive. It was assumed these patients were completely unaware and had no or little brain function. Over the years, with better medical support, some patients have recovered and revealed that though they were unable to respond, they were completely aware of everything happening around them. In some cases, patients could hear and understand family and medical professionals discuss removing life support. Readers might be interested in the research being done at Western University in London, Ontario Canada by Dr. Adrian Owen. His Owen Lab (https://www.owenlab.uwo.ca/ ) has much information on his work to determine whether a patient in a "vegetative state" is actually conscious and aware. His work has surprised the medical community and given hope to many families with members who are comatose or locked-in.

At the end of the novel Aaron has a chance to reflect on the friendship he had with Solomon and the role of sickness and suffering in life. He decides that although he wishes he had never been sick, he would not give up the friendships he formed with Solomon and his granddaughter, Sarah,  and the experiences his illness gave him. Aaron is now sixteen years old and even though he's been

Four Years Trapped In My Mind Palace is a thoughtful, engaging novel with a unique and fresh storyline that should appeal to teens and adults alike. Twiss invites his readers to consider what makes life meaningful, especially in situations like those of Aaron or Solomon.

Book Details:

Four Years Trapped In My Mind Palace by Johan Twiss
Fresno, California: Milk + Cookies     2023
320 pp.

Brother's Keeper by Julie Lee

It is June 1950 and Sora Pak and her younger brother Youngsoo are at the river: he is fishing and she is there to watch him and do the laundry. After fishing, Youngsoo races off to attend the Sonyondan Club meeting at the school led by his teacher, Comrade Cho. But twelve-year-old Sora no longer attends school, instead minding her two-year-old brother, Jisoo. Sora's mother is determined that she learn how to cook so they can marry her off in a few years but she wants to continue her schooling. 

Then as she's doing laundry, Sora sees an elderly woman rush to the river. Suddenly all the women at the river begin leaving for home and Sora races home as well. At home Youngsoo announces to their parents, Sangman and Yuri, that school has been cancelled because North Korea is now at war with South Korea. 

Korea was divided into two countries after World War II and the defeat of Japan, with North Korea a Communist dictatorship and South Korea a democracy. If North Korea wins, all of Korea will be Communist. Before the Communists, Japan occupied Korea. Sora's family, like other Koreans, were forced to adopt Japanese names and their Hangul language was banned. Youngsoo is thrilled that there is no more school, but Sora is worried.

Later that evening  Mr. and Mrs. Kim, their son Myung-gi and daughter Yoomee visit for dinner. Sora finds fourteen-year-old Myung-gi attractive. Like her, Myung-gi loves books and always carries around a bag of books. But today he shows Sora that his bag is filled with books about communism telling her he is "tired of reading the same mind-numbing rubbish. Marxist dialectics. Revolutionary principles. Everything for the collective."

During a dinner of rice, bean-sprout soup, kimchi and pancakes, the Kims tell the Paks they are planning to escape North Korea and travel to the South. Sora realizes if they escaped to the South they would have their freedom and not live in fear of their neighbours and maybe Sora could return school? Mr. Kim tells them they plan to settle in Busan on Korea's southern coast. Sora's father seems open to this idea and offers his wife's brother's house in Busan. But her mother is furious and tells the Kims they cannot possibly go with them, that it's too dangerous, and she admonishes Mr. Kim for telling them of their plans as it endangers her family.

Sora is devastated at her parents' refusal but she overhears her father give Mr. Kim directions to Uncle Hong-Chul's home. She knows that her mother's refusal is due to the fear over what happened to her own family: the execution of her mother's uncles, aunts and cousins because a relative was accused of being a traitor by the Communist regime. Sora's family was spared because it was not their family and her mother told the North Korean police her relative had broken into their house.

After this Sora's (mother) Omahni refuses to permit them from seeing or talking about the Kim's. When North Korea announces it has captured Seoul, Omahni insists that if they simply keep their heads down and follow the rules they will be fine. But Sora's father, Abahji isn't so convinced as he points out that under Communist rule they will not have free elections, there will be no contact with the outside world or freedom of speech. Abahji believes the Kim's will soon leave and that they will make it to Busan where it is safe.

Days later the Kim family is gone and rumours abound as to their fate. Because there is the belief that the Kim's are in a labour camp or worse, Omahni tells them that they are being shunned by association and she keeps Sora and her brothers inside.

By August 1950, Sora's village is emptying. Omahni insists that people are being taken by the police. When North Korea imposes a draft, Sora's family did a large pit at the edge of the millet field to hide Abahji in it for days at a time.

In September 1950, they learn  that General MacArthur, head of the American forces and their allies have recaptured Seoul and Inchon. Then in October, with the Americans continuing to push north, Sora's village is bombed. Eventually Pyongyang is taken and soon American troops arrive in their village. 

Then in November, China joins the war on the side of North Korea and the tide turns against the Americans. Abahhi is insistent that they leave that night, ahead of the American retreat. He tells an angry Omahni that once the Americans are gone they will be trapped in North Korea forever. When Sora sides with her father, Omahni gives in and they pack and leave for the South. Although the Pak family will gain their freedom, it will come at a price they could not have imagined. For Sora and Youngsoo it will be a journey that will forever change them.

Discussion

Brother's Keeper is Julie Lee's debut novel. Set in a Korea, divided by war, Lee chronicles the experiences of the Pak family's struggle to survive under the Communist dictatorship in North Korea,  their difficult decision to finally flee their home, and the journey of the oldest two children when they become separated from their family. Although Brother's Keeper is historical fiction, it is based on real-life events that occurred during the Korean war. City bombings, refugees crossing frozen rivers in canoes and on ice floes only to perish and taking refuge in abandoned homes were just some of the situations refugees from the North, like Sora and Youngsoo encountered, in their rush to freedom. It is also based on the experiences of her mother, who was fifteen-years-old and living in North Korea when the war began, and who also made the harrowing journey south as a refugee.

Set against the backdrop of the Korean war, Lee also explores the themes of filial duty to tradition and the place of women in Korean society through the character of  twelve-year-old Sora Pak. The Korean people have spent decades under Japanese occupation , during which the Japanese attempted to eradicate Korean culture. Their native language was suppressed and Koreans were forced to adopt Japanese names. There is also an indirect reference to the possible use of comfort women when Sora states that "Japanese soldiers even kidnapped several girls from the high school." 

When the Japanese were defeated, Koreans were allowed to resume their Korean names and language. As the country came under the control of the Communists, Koreans would be eager to continue their cultural traditions despite the restrictions imposed on them. One of these was for girls to marry young, often at the age of sixteen. It was not uncommon for young girls to be pulled from school at a certain age to be trained in domestic duties like cooking and caring for children, in preparation for marriage. Sons were more valued than daughters and to have a son was considered a great blessing.

In Brother's Keeper, as the title suggests, Sora, who loves school and is a good student, has been pulled to care for her younger brother Jisoo who is two years old. It is her duty to do so. Sara feels "a twinge of loss....For all the learning I was missing. Math. Geography. Science...." Whenever she can, Sora hides behind the willow tree near the school window to listen in on the class. Helping her in this regard is her friend, Myung-gi Kim who leaves books for her beneath the willow tree. But Sora still dreams, even imagining herself one day graduating from high school. 

Instead of school, Sora finds herself forced to do child care and cooking and her lack of interest means Sora has difficulty mastering this task, which makes Omahni critical and abusive towards her. She wonders when Sora will learn to cook and how she will ever marry her off.  Omahni even comments on the colour of Sora's skin, "How is it that my daughter got the tan skin while my sons inherited my fair complexion?" 

Omahni is even critical of Sora in front of the entire Kim family, telling them, "No, our daughter is terrible in the kitchen, ... She's a clumsy girl who hates housework. I'm sure we'll never be able to get her married off when she's older."  Sora feels betrayed even though it is the custom for "humble parents always criticized their own children in front of others. It was the polite thing to do..."

When the Kim's reveal their plan to escape from North Korea, Sora is hopeful because she knows that there is more freedom in South Korea. Even though she realizes her being pulled from school has nothing to do with communism, she wonders, "What if one kind of freedom led to another?" Sora siding with her father who desires to accompany the Kim family, invokes Omahni's wrath. "Do you think South Korea is some magical place to cure all your ills? she hissed, her eyes wild with fear. 'It's mad of the same dirt and rock as here. Nothing will change for you. You'll still be a daughter. You'll still be a noona. You must still follow our traditions. You can't get out of those responsibilities, if that's what you're thinking."

However, things become so bad that the Pak family finally decide to leave North Korea. On the way, Sora and Youngsoo become separated from their parents and Jinsoo. It is now up to Sora, a twelve-year-old girl to not only find their way to Busan but also care for her younger brother who becomes seriously ill. As they endure starvation, cold, and even attempts by Koreans to kidnap them, Sora and Youngsoo struggle through the horrors of war.

When they arrive at their uncle's home in Busan, the reunion in bittersweet. Omahni is overwhelmed at seeing her precious son but doesn't give much thought to Sora. It's obvious that Youngsoo is ill so Omahni, thinking only of her eldest son's welfare, asks Sora to attend the third grade class nearby. She doesn't care for Sora's education but wants her to attend so that she can help Youngsoo catch up. Sora is struck by just how much more valued Youngsoo as a son is, compared to herself, a daughter. She watches her mother making rice porridge for him, a dish that requires constant care. "Had she ever made rice porridge for me? A quick radish soup, maybe, when I was nine and had drenched my nightclothes in fever.But never the loving, labored devotion of rice porridge." When the conversation turns to consulting the matchmaker in a few years, it is more than Sora can bear. She flees after seeing her mother chop the head off a fish. This is a metaphor for how Sora sees her future. The loss of school and the expectation of forced marriage make Sora like the fish - her life is over.

As the reality of Youngsoo's illness becomes apparent, Sora is overcome with guilt as she questions whether his illness and death was due to her lack of care for him. She also believes that if she had sided with Omahni rather than Abahji, they would never have made the journey and Youngsoo would be alive. Sora experiences intense survivor's guilt believing "It should have been me instead of Youngsoo...Her precious son."  Later on, Sora overhears Auntie talking to a woman in the market about the loss of Youngsoo and that at least they still have one son. The woman then sympathizes, "Can you imagine if she'd lost her only son and was left with nothing." implying that Sora has no worth because she's a daughter. Sora wonders what she has risked everything for as it seems Omahni won't relent. "I'd risked everything -- including my brother's life -- to get here, thinking one kind of freedom would automatically lead to another, that I could go to school, that I could write, that we would be happy. But I was wrong."   At this point Sora realizes she is going to have to fight for what she wants.

In a scene that is absolutely heartrending, Sora finally confronts Omahni during a cooking lesson, over Youngsoo's death and her desire to return to school. After telling her that she did her best to care for Youngsoo, Sora also states that she is forcing her to be someone that she is not and that she just wants to do something different. But Sora's mother sees this as a negative reflection on her own worth, that Sora is ashamed of her because she is uneducated. Because Sora is always doing the opposite of what she asks, Omahni inadvertently reveals that this is why Sora is her least favourite, a revelation that deeply hurts Sora as it seems to confirm what she believes. Sora tells her mother she is worth something. 

From their heated exchange it is evident that Omahni is acting out of fear for her daughter and her own insecurities. Her experience of being judged and found wanting by her mother-in-law and therefore  unworthy, leads her to want to save Sora from this fate. So she overcompensates by attempting to teach Sora to be a perfect cook, something Sora has no interest in. Omahni sees her actions as preparing Sora to survive in a world that is harsh towards women. Sora tells her mother she will survive because she's taught her to be strong and work hard.

Brother's Keeper is a well written novel that explores the Korean War from the point of view of children, portraying the devastating effects of war on families, women and children. Lee has provided her readers with a realistic portrayal of the war and the plight of Korean refugees as they struggled to escape the brutal Communist regime. All of the novel's characters are believable and unique. Sora, as the protagonist, is compelling as she fights for what she truly wants in her own life, going against the conventions of this era.

Seventy years later Korea remains divided, with families now separated over several generations. Life in North Korea under the communist dictatorship is harsh with no contact with the outside world and few freedoms. Considering what little is known about life in North Korea, it is understandable why so many wanted to flee, leaving homes and family behind.

To help her young readers orient themselves, Lee has provided a map of the Korean peninsula showing Sora and Youngsoo's journey to freedom. Also included are a Glossary of Korean Words and a Timeline of the Korean War. The informative Author's Note, with black and white photographs of the author's mother, helps provide the necessary historical background for the novel. 

Brother's Keeper is historical fiction at its very best.

Book Details:

Brother's Keeper by Julie Lee
New York: Holiday House    2020
314 pp.

The Mona Lisa Vanishes by Nicholas Day

The Mona Lisa Vanishes tells the story of the most remarkable art heist in the early twentieth century.

The story begins first, long ago in Florence in 1503 with the portrait of a young wife and mother, Lisa Gherardini by Leonardo da Vinci, who named the painting Mona Lisa. 

Five hundred years later, in Paris, France on Monday August 21, 1911 a man who has hidden all night in the Louvre. He had come to the vast museum on Sunday like any other visitor but when the museum was closing he didn't leave. Instead, he hid himself in closet among the easels and paint boxes. 

He knew it was possible to hide in the Louvre because a few months earlier, a French journalist who believed the Louvre's security was lacking hid himself overnight in the sarcophagus of an Egyptian king. He published his experience.

The storage closet the thief had hidden in overnight was near the Salon Carre where the most valuable artwork like Titian, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci was displayed.  The man emerged from the closet wearing a white smock like that of the Louvre maintenance workers. The paintings in the Louvre were not locked down as it was assumed no one would dare steal them. However, they were hung in a specific way that required some knowledge as to how to remove them. The thief had this knowledge and quickly removed the painting from the Salon Carre and slipped into the stairwell. There he removed the Mona Lisa from its antique frame and glass covering. Unlike most paintings, the Mona Lisa was painted on three slabs of wood joined together and it was heavy. To hide it, the thief placed the Mona Lisa under his white smock. After struggling to get out of the stairwell's locked door, he escaped into the Paris morning, taking the Mona Lisa and the doorknob.

At first no one realized the Mona Lisa had been stolen. It was considered inconceivable that anyone would attempt this. The workmen who had walked through the Salon Carre only an hour earlier that Monday morning, now saw a blank space on the wall. But they believed the Mona Lisa couldn't be stolen so they did nothing. Even on Tuesday morning when Brigadier Maximilien Alphonse Paupardin, the guard in charge of the Salon Carre, noticed the Mona Lisa missing, he assumed not that it had been stolen, but that the Louvre photographers had it. At this time, the Louvre was photographing its collection and the photographers often removed and returned paintings without telling anyone.

Louis Beroud, a painter who enjoyed painting the copyists as they worked in the Louvre, would be the man who discovered the Mona Lisa was missing. Beroud arrived at the Louvre with the intention of painting a girl working at the Mona Lisa. He was told by Brigadier Paupardin that the painting was being photographed. However, when the painting didn't show up, Beroud became impatient and asked Paupardin to find out when the Mona Lisa would return to the Salon Carre. But when Paupardin spoke to the photographers in the Louvre studio, they were puzzled and did not know what he was talking about.

With Theophile Homolle, the director of the Louvre in Mexico, a panicked Paupardin informed the curator of Egyptian antiquities, Georges Benedite. However, Benedite believed the Mona Lisa was simply somewhere in the Louvre. A search did not find the painting and Georges Benedite was forced to call in the Paris police. Soon all of Paris knew the Mona Lisa was  gone. What was the heist of the century would capture the attention of Parisians, French citizens and the world for months and remain unsolved for two years.

Discussion

The Mona Lisa Vanishes is "...a story about how a strange, small portrait became the most famous painting in history...about a shocking theft and a bizarre recovery." But as Nicholas Day aptly demonstrates, "...it is also the story of another way of looking at the world --clearly, plainly, without assumptions or expectations."  - the way the painting's creator, Leonardo da Vinci did. This is in contrast to the way the French police viewed their world, and therefore how they investigated the theft of the Mona Lisa.

After introducing the theft of the Mona Lisa, Day takes his readers back into the past, to the story of how the Mona Lisa came to be painted. It is a story that begins with Leonardo da Vinci, born at the height of the Renaissance in 1452, in Vinci. Leonardo is sent to apprentice with Andrea del Verrocchio, a Florentine painter and sculptor whom he soon surpasses in ability. His angel in the painting, The Baptism of Christ was so sublime that Verrocchio quit painting. Leonardo develops a new technique called sfumato in which the artist blends objects and people rather than outlining them in paintings. Unfortunately, Leonardo is often unable to finish works he is commissioned. He eventually would receive the commission to paint Lisa Gherardini, the wife of  Francesco Del Giocondo, a successful silk merchant and trader. His problem is that Leonardo is not just a painter but an observer of the world.

From entries in his notebooks, it is evident that he is obsessed with the world around him. His mind is on fire with questions and the quest to find answers through observation and study. This information is not necessary for his art, but this mindset means it is almost impossible to finish the commissions he receives, including the Mona Lisa. However, "...it means he sees the world without being blinded by what he thinks it is already going to be. He doesn't have assumptions about what something is or what it means. He doesn't leap to conclusions. His highest values are observations and experience..." As Day aptly demonstrates, this is in marked contrast to the way the Paris police proceed in their attempt to recover the Mona Lisa.

Interwoven with the story of Leonardo, his life and his painting, is the story of the Paris police's inability to solve the theft and recover  the Mona Lisa. Solving crimes is new to police work in the early twentieth century. Louis Lepine, head of the Paris police had begun standardizing police procedures. Helping him was Alphonse Bertillon, a pioneer in the new field of forensics. Bertillon, a temperamental man had developed a method of identifying someone using body measurements - known as anthropometry. His system, used throughout the world, was difficult to implement consistently. A newer technique of fingerprinting to identify a person was just coming into practice. Bertillon had two important leads in the Mona Lisa heist: a fingerprint lifted from the glass pane of the painting, and the knowledge that the thief likely worked in the Louvre.

However, unlike Leonardo da Vinci, Lepine and Bertillon did not have an open mind, instead working on assumptions. "It was the opposite of observation, the opposite of how Leonardo would have wanted the Mona Lisa theft investigated. Unlike Leonardo, Bertillon and Lepine didn't start with the world. They started with what they assumed the world to be." Lepine assumed that because the crime was not a bloody, violent one, it meant that the heist was the work of a "superior class of thief." Lepine was looking for either a professional gang or a consummate professional thief like Adam Worth. One theory held that a rich American had paid a professional thief to steal the Mona Lisa. In 1911, many Americans who had made their wealth during the Guilded Age were eager to showcase that new wealth and to do so they purchased the art of famous painters from Europe.  It was because they worked from assumptions and theories like this, rather than observations, that Lepine and Bertillon were unable to solve the heist.

The Mona Lisa Vanishes is not just a story about the theft of the Mona Lisa, but a biography of the the great Renaissance master, Leonardo da Vinci. Day also explores the world of the high Renaissance, while contrasting it with society and the art world in the early twentieth century. Readers will also learn how the Mona Lisa heist changed the public's perception of art and artists .Day's account is informative and definitely engaging, as he weaves his narrative back and forth between Leonardo's life leading to the painting of the Mona Lisa and the desperate attempts to solve the heist in the twentieth century. 

There are black and white oil on paper illustrations that will appeal to younger readers. However, inclusion of photographs, for example the Mona Lisa and the Louvre, of Pablo Picasso, Alphonse Bertillon and Vincenzo Peruggia would have added significantly to Day's telling. Other times, an image of a painting being discussed would have been very helpful. For example, Day writes about Pablo Picasso's painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and how this painting changed art, beginning a new movement in modern art. Without an image to consider, readers are left to imagine what Day is explaining. A map of Italy and France, showing the location of Florence and the Louvre 

Day does include an extensive list of sources at the back, confirming what readers will most definitely already know, that The Mona Lisa Vanishes is a well-researched book about a heist that is largely forgotten outside the art world. Highly recommended for readers of all ages.

Book Details:

The Mona Lisa Vanishes by Nicholas Day
New York: Random House Studio      2023
278 pp.

Dragonfly Eyes by Cao Wenxuan

Dragonfly Eyes is a story about a Chinese-French family and their life in Shanghai during the middle of the 20th century. At the heart of the story is the intergenerational relationship between the family's French grandmother Nainai and her granddaughter Ah Mei.

Nainai's husband and Ah Mei's grandfather was Du Meixi, who was the son of a wealthy Chinese silk merchant. The family's silk business was extensive extending into Europe. Du Meixi's father travelled throughout Europe establishing the European part of their sick business in Lyons, where he eventually settled. 

At twenty-five, Du Meixi, recently widowed, refused to join his father in Lyons to take charge of the silk business. Instead, he became a sailor, signing on to a French steamer that sailed between Shanghai and Marseilles. Meanwhile Du Meixi's family in Shanghai continued to care for his son and daughter.

In 1925, during a stopover in Marseilles, Du Meixi met a lovely Frenchwoman named Oceane in a café. Seventeen days after meeting, they travelled to Lyons to meet his father.  When Du Meixi's father first met Oceane, he was astonished at the power she held over his son. He felt Oceane was his son's port. That night Du Meixi's father gave him two exquisite oval glass balls, called dragonfly eyes. He told Du Meixi to have them set in a necklace to give to her on their wedding day. Du Meixi handed in his notice to the steamer company and he and Oceane were married. This allowed Du Meixi's father to return to Shanghai to run the silk business while his son managed the European end from Lyons.

Du Meixi was called Yeye and he called Oceane, Nainai. Yeye and Nainai had four children: a son born in 1927, a second son in 1929, Ah Mei's father in 1931, and a girl in 1933. The children spoke French and Shanghainese. The family and the silk business prospered. Yeye and Nainai took their children often to visit family in Shanghai.

In 1937, the Japanese occupied Shanghai. As the world slipped closer to war, the Du family silk business in Europe collapsed. In China, the family silk business was also struggling to survive and Yeye's father was struggling physically and financially. Yeye decided he needed to return home, but at the insistence of Nainai, the entire family packed up and travelled to Shanghai. This decision would seal the family's fate in the coming years, as the Communists came to power in China and life changed in ways they could never have predicted.

Discussion

Dragonfly Eyes is a novel about the fictional Du family set first in France and then in China and covers the period from the 1920's to the 1960's. The novel focuses primarily on "the family life of Du Meixi, a Chinese man from Shanghai, and Oceane, a Frenchwoman from Marseilles, their four children and ten grandchildren, against the background of war and political upheaval, particularly in China." The novel immediately engages readers with the delightful and romanticized description of Du Meixi (Yeye) and Oceane (Nainai) meeting and subsequent marriage. It then moves swiftly from their tranquil and prosperous life in France before World War II to their move to Shanghai, China and their difficult life under communism.

Wenxuan's narrative is a gentle telling of a fictional family's experiences during the first decades of the Communist revolution in China but it lacks the rich historical context needed to give it depth and   perspective. In the very brief Historical Note at the back, author Cao Wenxuan writes that "...the historical events are mentioned only lightly", meaning that there is only indirect mention of what is actually happening within Chinese society and therefore very little context to what the Du family is experiencing. Whenever events are mentioned, the description is brief with little explanation offered. Most authors of historical fiction, even for children's novels, strive to identify and inform readers about the political and social events occurring so readers can better relate to what is happening to the characters.

For Cao Wenxuan's Dragonfly Eyes, this connection is not easily made because young readers are not given the background information to do so. This lack of context is especially egregious because most Western readers have little knowledge of events like the Great Chinese Famine, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution or the Gang of Four. It's as if the author doesn't want to connect the devastating impact on the Du family to the failed policies of China's Communist government. These policies were used to entrench communism in China, quell any remaining resistance, and destroy China's rich cultural history and identity. The policies of Mao Zedong directly resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese citizens. 

In 1949, after the Communist takeover of China, the land of wealthy farmers and citizens was given to poorer farmers. To control the rural population who worked smaller farms and were continuing to practice their traditions, Mao began forcing them into collectives between 1949 and 1958. These collectives gradually increased in size, becoming very large. Private ownership was abolished in 1958 and everyone was forced into state-operated businesses. All religious institutions and ceremonies were banned, and replaced with political and propaganda meetings. In 1956, the hukou was re-introduced. This internal passport system restricted people from living in certain areas.

The Great Leap Forward was another policy developed by Mao Zedong to industrialize the country. This ran from 1958 to 1962 and saw the introduction of mandatory agricultural collectivization. The result was disastrous and led to the Great Chinese Famine which lasted from 1959 to 1961. The policies of the Great Leap Forward that were most responsible for the famine included the use of poor agricultural practices such as deep plowing and close planting, the poor distribution of food and the Four Pests Program. Food was appropriated by the state and stored to achieve quotas and for stockpiling. The result was not enough food left for the citizens and they starved. The Four Pests program saw the extermination of the Eurasian tree sparrow leading to an ecological imbalance that allowed insects such as locusts to thrive and devour the crops. It is estimated than between fifteen and fifty-five million people died in the famine, which was considered the worst man-made disaster.

The Cultural Revolution, launched in 1966 by Mao Zedong, had the intended goal of purging the country of any remaining capitalistic practices and of traditional Chinese culture. Mao believed that some were attempting to reinstate capitalism in the country, so he asked young people - the first crop of new communists - to rebel. They responded by forming the Red Guards, paramilitary groups made up of high school and university students. They were intent upon ridding the country of what were labelled the Four Olds": old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits. To accomplish this, many cultural sites and historical artifacts were destroyed. The remnants of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, built during the Qing Dynasty and partially destroyed during the Second Opium war were badly vandalized. The Confucian Temple in Qufu, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was ransacked, with many of its historical artifacts lost or destroyed. The destruction of religious sites and cultural art and antiquities resulted in a loss of religious and cultural identity for many Chinese. Schools and universities were closed and National College Entrance Examinations were cancelled. Seventeen million young people were sent to rural villages to learn from farmers.  Many ended up permanently exiled, losing their chance to continue their education. Intellectuals, scientists and scholars were killed or forced to commit suicide. The Cultural Revolution resulted in mass chaos and violence with between half a million to over two million deaths. 

Much of what happens in China does affect the Du family. Du Meixi gives up his family's silk business to the government because he is made to do so. Instead of running his business, he becomes an employee. As the family becomes impoverished, they begin selling off their possessions. The reasons are only vaguely explained and in some cases are somewhat misleading. For example in the chapter, The Piano, Wenxuan writes about the famine in China: "Shanghai had been so vibrant, but there was famine across the entire region now. The situation was serious.

In the sky above China, the sun, like a huge ball of fire, blazed furiously all day: trees were dying, crops were wilting, rivers were running dry...The sparrows that used to be everywhere disappeared, perhaps starved to death, or left with no choice but to fly off to the villages to look for food:..."  

Based on this description, the young reader might believe that the famine China was experiencing was the result of drought and that the sparrows simply couldn't find food. Although there were floods and a drought, these were considered insignificant in relation to previous droughts and floods.  As for the sparrows, they were eradicated, allowing insect pests to proliferate, destroying what crops remained.  As a result, the context of the story that is described in Dragonfly Eyes, where one of Ah Mei's classmates, Qui Qui faints due to lack of food, is lost. She is starving, but not because of drought. Ah Mei's family and her classmates, including Qui Qui  are suffering not from some random event, but from a man-made catastrophe.

This is just one of many events that occur throughout the story where the social situation is described but there is no context given, leaving the younger reader to wonder. The rise of the paramilitary Red Guards is another example. Wenxuan merely describes how suddenly young people have become loud, chanting and yelling, fighting one another in the streets. 

If the author felt that providing more historical information within the novel for his readers would add unnecessary detail, a more extensive Historical Note or Author's Note would have helped young readers understand the events described in the story. Although Wenxuan mentions the Cultural Revolution in his Historical Note, it is only to state that this changed how Oceane was perceived.  It is therefore recommended that readers who wish to understand some of the historical background to the events portrayed in Dragonfly Eyes, do some research on China's history. Also helpful would have been a map of China showing the relative placement of Beijing, Shanghai, and Yibin, and a map showing the relative placement of France and China.

 Although the novel concludes in 1968, when Ah Mei is fifteen-years-old,  we know that draconian communist policies did not end with the Cultural Revolution but grew even worse with the implementation of the One Child Policy in 1980, that saw an estimated three hundred forty million babies murdered or aborted. The policy has created a gender imbalance in China's population as well as fewer younger workers to support an aging population.  Ah Mei would have lived through this vicious policy had Wenxuan continued his saga.

Although the historical detail is lacking, Wenxuan does show the heart-breaking impact these social and cultural changes have on members of the Du family. Ah Mei's cousin, Ah Lang looks like his French grandmother, with his brown hair and Western nose. Once a popular student who was considered handsome by many of his classmates, Ah Lang is tormented by his fellow students as the Red Guards create chaos in Chinese society. He becomes so ostracized that he takes to wearing a mask to hide his face and is eventually driven from school, To fit in, he voluntarily takes part in the "Down to the Countryside Movement" in which students were exiled to remote rural areas to learn from farmers. His letters seem to suggest that he is happy but Nainai believes this is not really the case.  

Especially heartbreaking are the attacks on Nainai and Yeye at the Blue House. As suspicion grows towards anyone the different or seen as representing the old bourgeois class, Nainai is singled out as a spy by the Red Guards. They attack the Blue House, vandalizing it and imprisoning both Nainai and Yeye. Nainai is sent to a brick yard to carry bricks and Yeye to a pig farm. Although Wenxuan isn't specific about their ages, except to say they are getting older, it is likely Nainai is at least sixty-years-old and Yeye much older than that. Their harassment by the Red Guards continues with another break-in that leads to act of heartbreaking destruction, robbery and an injury that ultimately costs Yeye his life. Wenxuan's description of the attack on Nainai's beloved apricot tree exposes the senseless violence the Red Guards used to intimidate those whom they felt were subverting the communist ideals they believed in. Even after Nainai returns to Shanghai after fleeing to the countryside for her own safety she is once again taken, this time to be paraded through the streets. Fortunately, that does not happen.

Wenxuan captures the love and devotion that exists between members of the Du family, especially towards their grandparents, Nainai and Yeye. When any difficulty befalls them, their children rush to help in any way they can. Because they treated everyone with fairness and respect, whether it was friends or employees, Nainai and Yeye are often repaid for their kindness when they are in dire need.

Dragonfly Eyes is a well-written but lengthy novel for readers aged nine and up. Although it lacks historical context, Cao Wenxuan's writing is lyrical and emotive, capturing both the intense emotions of this tragic period in China's history and the beauty of the countryside. The description of the area that Mrs. Song lives in, an island in the middle of a river with tall reeds is breathtaking."When the wind blew, the reeds rushed forward, a dark tide of green waves. At their feet, the water rushed too, a white tide of glistening crystals. In the distance there were boats moving on the water, their lamps twinkling in the dark, flickering as they passed behind the reeds..."

Overall, Dragonfly Eyes is a novel to be read mainly because it's one of the few pieces of historical fiction for younger readers that covers the early Communist regime in China and the devastating impact of Communist policies on it's people. Teachers and parents are recommended to supply historical information that will help in understanding what the fictional Du family experienced.

Book Details:

Dragonfly Eyes by Cao Wenxuan
Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press 2021
375 pp.