LEARNING HISTORY through STORY: MG/YA HISTORICAL FICTION NOVELS
One of the most effective ways to learn about any historical event, and the nuances and effects of those events, is through novel study—the power of story. Every historical event is distinct and affects people and places uniquely—and each is surrounded by misconceptions, misunderstandings, miscommunications, and differing and shifting perspectives. We may learn about history through textbooks and lectures, but we experience history through novels. And when we live it, we learn it; we do not merely learn about it. We discern the complex issues, and we feel empathy for all affected. We bear witness to the events we read and the plights of the people affected by those events.
I continue to read, and learn from, some amazing novels which can be read as whole-class, book club, or individual texts to learn more about history in English, Language Arts, and Social Studies classes. A suggestion for Social Studies classes would be for Book Clubs to each read a novel from a time period or location studied in class so that groups can present “their” historic event to the class and the class can compare and contrast the novels, the events, and the discerned effects of these events on the characters.
One of the most effective ways to learn about any historical event, and the nuances and effects of those events, is through novel study—the power of story. Every historical event is distinct and affects people and places uniquely—and each is surrounded by misconceptions, misunderstandings, miscommunications, and differing and shifting perspectives. We may learn about history through textbooks and lectures, but we experience history through novels. And when we live it, we learn it; we do not merely learn about it. We discern the complex issues, and we feel empathy for all affected. We bear witness to the events we read and the plights of the people affected by those events.
I continue to read, and learn from, some amazing novels which can be read as whole-class, book club, or individual texts to learn more about history in English, Language Arts, and Social Studies classes. A suggestion for Social Studies classes would be for Book Clubs to each read a novel from a time period or location studied in class so that groups can present “their” historic event to the class and the class can compare and contrast the novels, the events, and the discerned effects of these events on the characters.
Audacity*; An Uninterrupted View of the Sky*; The Night Diary*; They Called Us Enemy; Linked;The Night War*; Milkweed; The Book Thief; Everything Sad Is Untrue*; Farewell Cuba, Mi Isla*; Torch*; The Watson’s Go to Birmingham-1963; Kent State*; Across So Many Seas*; Eyes Open*; Paper Hearts; How I Became a Spy;*; Allies*; White Rose*; Dust of Eden; Farewell, Manzanar; The Last Cherry Blossom*; The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet*; Your Heart-My Sky*; Enchanted Air*; The Lightning Dreamer*; Tropical Secrets*; The Surrender Tree*; Eyes on the Ice*; A Night Divided*; Words on Fire*; Rescue*; Resistance*; Lines of Courage*; Iceberg*; Uprising*; Above the Rim*; The Trial*; Kaleidoscope Eyes*; Ringside, 1925*; Gringolandia*; Flooded*; Unbound*; Operation: Happy*; Sugar; Ghost Boys*; Elijah of Buxton; Chains; Forged; Ashes; Fever, 1793; We Were the Fire-Birmingham, 1963*; The Door of No Return; Clean Getaway; The Orphan Band of Springdale*; Betty Before X; X, A Novel*, The Awakening of Malcolm X; Facing the Enemy*; Brown Girl Dreaming; One Crazy Summer; Out of the Dust; Waiting for the Rain; Kafir Boy; The Long Ride*; Becoming Muhammad Ali*; The Magic in Changing Your Stars; Witness; Day of the Pelican; Stella and Starlight; A Long Way Gone; Taking Flight; Copper Sun; Loving vs Virginia*; Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom*; March Book One; March Book Two; March Book Three; Swim Team*; Fast Pitch*; It Doesn’t Take a Genius*; American Ace; Genesis Begins Again*; The Parker Inheritance
*Asterisked titles are reviewed alphabetically
Below are reviews of 75 of my more-recently-read historical fiction including a separate section below for Novels, Memoirs, and Graphics about the Events of Nine Eleven.
A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen
I remember when the Berlin Wall came down, but I did not really understand the story of its building and how it affected those on either side until reading A Night Divided.
In 1961 Germany—Russia controlled the East; Britain, US and France controlled the West. Gerta, her brother Fritz, and their mother live in East Berlin. Papa and brother Dominic had gone on a short trip to the West. On August 13 the wall went up—overnight—and one family, as were many, was divided. Twelve-year-old Gerta longed for her family and for freedom and a future.
“It wasn’t things I longed for…. I wanted books that weren’t censored.…I wanted a home without hidden microphones, and friends and neighbors I could talk to without wondering if they would report me to the secret police. And I wanted control over my own life, the chance to succeed” (125).
One day Gerta sees Dominic and father on the other side and interprets their message to dig a tunnel under the Death Strip to the West. Bravely, she and her brother Fritz risk everything—their friendships and even their lives—to try to reach safety and reunite their family.
A Night Divided is a narrative of events in history, but it is also a story of family and the bravery of even adolescents.
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I remember when the Berlin Wall came down, but I did not really understand the story of its building and how it affected those on either side until reading A Night Divided.
In 1961 Germany—Russia controlled the East; Britain, US and France controlled the West. Gerta, her brother Fritz, and their mother live in East Berlin. Papa and brother Dominic had gone on a short trip to the West. On August 13 the wall went up—overnight—and one family, as were many, was divided. Twelve-year-old Gerta longed for her family and for freedom and a future.
“It wasn’t things I longed for…. I wanted books that weren’t censored.…I wanted a home without hidden microphones, and friends and neighbors I could talk to without wondering if they would report me to the secret police. And I wanted control over my own life, the chance to succeed” (125).
One day Gerta sees Dominic and father on the other side and interprets their message to dig a tunnel under the Death Strip to the West. Bravely, she and her brother Fritz risk everything—their friendships and even their lives—to try to reach safety and reunite their family.
A Night Divided is a narrative of events in history, but it is also a story of family and the bravery of even adolescents.
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Above the Rim: How Elgin Baylor Changed Basketball by Jen F. Bryant
“In one smooth move, like a plane taking off,
He leaped…
Higher and higher and higher--
As if pulled by some invisible wire,
And just when it seemed he’d have to come down,
No!
He’d HANG there, suspended, floating like a bird or a cloud,
Changing direction, shifting the ball to the other side,
Twisting in midair, slashing, crashing,
Gliding past the defense, up—up—above the rim.”
Above the Rim is the story of NBA player Elgin Baylor and how he changed basketball, but it is also the story of Civil Rights in the United States and how Elgin contributed to that movement.
Readers follow Elgin from age 14 when he began playing basketball “in a field down the street” to college ball at the College of Idaho to becoming the #1 draft pick for the Minneapolis Lakers (later the LA Lakers) to being named 1959 NBA Rookie of the Year. At the same time readers follow the peaceful protests of Rosa Parks, the Little Rock Nine, and the African American college students sitting at the “whites only” Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, NC.
In his first season Baylor sat out a game to protest the hotel and restaurants serving “whites only,” leading the NBA commissioner to make an anti-discrimination rule. “Elgin had already changed the way basketball was played. Now by sitting down and NOT playing, he helped change things off court.”
“Artists [such as Baylor,] change how we see things, how we perceive human limits, and how we define ourselves and our culture.” (Author’s Note)
This picture book, exquisitely illustrated by Frank Morrison, belongs in every classroom and home library for readers of all ages. Lyrically written in free verse by Jen Bryant, it would serve as a mentor text for many writing focus lessons:
Following the story, the author provides a lengthy Author’s Note about Baylor, a bibliography of Further Reading, and a 1934-2018 Timeline of Elgin’s life, black athletes, and Civil Rights highlights.
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“In one smooth move, like a plane taking off,
He leaped…
Higher and higher and higher--
As if pulled by some invisible wire,
And just when it seemed he’d have to come down,
No!
He’d HANG there, suspended, floating like a bird or a cloud,
Changing direction, shifting the ball to the other side,
Twisting in midair, slashing, crashing,
Gliding past the defense, up—up—above the rim.”
Above the Rim is the story of NBA player Elgin Baylor and how he changed basketball, but it is also the story of Civil Rights in the United States and how Elgin contributed to that movement.
Readers follow Elgin from age 14 when he began playing basketball “in a field down the street” to college ball at the College of Idaho to becoming the #1 draft pick for the Minneapolis Lakers (later the LA Lakers) to being named 1959 NBA Rookie of the Year. At the same time readers follow the peaceful protests of Rosa Parks, the Little Rock Nine, and the African American college students sitting at the “whites only” Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, NC.
In his first season Baylor sat out a game to protest the hotel and restaurants serving “whites only,” leading the NBA commissioner to make an anti-discrimination rule. “Elgin had already changed the way basketball was played. Now by sitting down and NOT playing, he helped change things off court.”
“Artists [such as Baylor,] change how we see things, how we perceive human limits, and how we define ourselves and our culture.” (Author’s Note)
This picture book, exquisitely illustrated by Frank Morrison, belongs in every classroom and home library for readers of all ages. Lyrically written in free verse by Jen Bryant, it would serve as a mentor text for many writing focus lessons:
- repetition, free verse, and rhyming lines for musicality
- technical language (jargon), i.e., hanging jumper, spin-shot, backboard
- active verbs, i.e., gliding, shifting, floating, twisted, reverse dunked
- Figurative language, i.e., floating like a bird or a cloud
- Sensory details, i.e., steamy summer day, padlocked fences, clickety-clack trains, flick of his wrist, beds that were too short, cold food
Following the story, the author provides a lengthy Author’s Note about Baylor, a bibliography of Further Reading, and a 1934-2018 Timeline of Elgin’s life, black athletes, and Civil Rights highlights.
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Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar
“I feel like I carry a lot of history on my shoulders. Not only were my ancestors driven out of Spain, but my abuela had to leave Turkey, and my parents had to leave Cuba. So many seas were crossed.”—Paloma, 2003 (ARC 201)
There are numerous parts of history that we do not learn—or at least I didn’t learn until I visited foreign lands through travel and novels. There are many reasons why people emigrate to other lands—sometimes it is political; other times the catalyst is religious persecution; and sometimes the cause is being sent away by family members—and sometimes we cross the sea to discover our ancestral homeland. The characters in Ruth Behar’s new novel who travel across so many seas do so for many of these reasons.
The family saga begins in 1492 in Toledo formerly “known as the city of three cultures [where] Jews, Muslims, and Christians lived together peacefully for centuries.” (ARC 212). However, the Spanish Inquisition first persecuted the Muslims, turning mosques into cathedrals, and then the Jews who are threatened with the choice of conversion or hanging. Benvenida, her two brothers, and her parents are forced to leave Toledo and walk for days to the coast, carrying a few possessions and the Torah scrolls, where, on the last possible day, they sail to join family in Naples; her father dies on the way. When they hear of cruelties being inflicted upon Jewish immigrants, the entire family leaves for Constantinople. “Can it be that at last we’ve arrived at a place where all kinds of people—Muslims, Christians, Jews—are allowed to live together side by side? And live peacefully?” (ARC 67)
In Part Two we meet Benvenida’s descendant Reina, who in 1923 longs for freedoms that are prohibited because she is a girl. When she attends a firework display celebrating Turkey’s independence with a male neighbor and sings to the other teens who are all boys, her father banishes her to Cuba to an aunt and an arranged marriage. “He has done what he needed to do. It has been very difficult for him.…he weeps for you as he has wept for the ancestors who fled Spain during the expulsion.” (ARC 97)
The story continues in 1963 in Fidel Castro’s Cuba with Reina’s youngest daughter Alegra who, along with her Muslim neighbor Teresita, volunteers to become a brigadista and teach people in the countryside to read and write. “I am so thankful for my freedom. And that I am able to fight for a cause I believe in.” (ARC 150) The family is politically divided, and people are leaving the country. Reina’s older children and their families leave for Israel and, after two weeks in jail, Alegra’s father brings her home and sends her to Miami, supported by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. There she lives with foster parents for three years until her parents join her.
And last, in 2003 readers meet Alegra’s daughter Paloma, Sephardic-Cuban on mother’s side and Afro-Cuban on her father’s side. On a business trip the family visits Toledo and meets some surprising people, bringing the story full circle.
This is a story of history, prejudices and persecution, emigration, religion and Jewish tradition, freedoms, language, and four 12-year-old girls who come alive through poetry and song.
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“I feel like I carry a lot of history on my shoulders. Not only were my ancestors driven out of Spain, but my abuela had to leave Turkey, and my parents had to leave Cuba. So many seas were crossed.”—Paloma, 2003 (ARC 201)
There are numerous parts of history that we do not learn—or at least I didn’t learn until I visited foreign lands through travel and novels. There are many reasons why people emigrate to other lands—sometimes it is political; other times the catalyst is religious persecution; and sometimes the cause is being sent away by family members—and sometimes we cross the sea to discover our ancestral homeland. The characters in Ruth Behar’s new novel who travel across so many seas do so for many of these reasons.
The family saga begins in 1492 in Toledo formerly “known as the city of three cultures [where] Jews, Muslims, and Christians lived together peacefully for centuries.” (ARC 212). However, the Spanish Inquisition first persecuted the Muslims, turning mosques into cathedrals, and then the Jews who are threatened with the choice of conversion or hanging. Benvenida, her two brothers, and her parents are forced to leave Toledo and walk for days to the coast, carrying a few possessions and the Torah scrolls, where, on the last possible day, they sail to join family in Naples; her father dies on the way. When they hear of cruelties being inflicted upon Jewish immigrants, the entire family leaves for Constantinople. “Can it be that at last we’ve arrived at a place where all kinds of people—Muslims, Christians, Jews—are allowed to live together side by side? And live peacefully?” (ARC 67)
In Part Two we meet Benvenida’s descendant Reina, who in 1923 longs for freedoms that are prohibited because she is a girl. When she attends a firework display celebrating Turkey’s independence with a male neighbor and sings to the other teens who are all boys, her father banishes her to Cuba to an aunt and an arranged marriage. “He has done what he needed to do. It has been very difficult for him.…he weeps for you as he has wept for the ancestors who fled Spain during the expulsion.” (ARC 97)
The story continues in 1963 in Fidel Castro’s Cuba with Reina’s youngest daughter Alegra who, along with her Muslim neighbor Teresita, volunteers to become a brigadista and teach people in the countryside to read and write. “I am so thankful for my freedom. And that I am able to fight for a cause I believe in.” (ARC 150) The family is politically divided, and people are leaving the country. Reina’s older children and their families leave for Israel and, after two weeks in jail, Alegra’s father brings her home and sends her to Miami, supported by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. There she lives with foster parents for three years until her parents join her.
And last, in 2003 readers meet Alegra’s daughter Paloma, Sephardic-Cuban on mother’s side and Afro-Cuban on her father’s side. On a business trip the family visits Toledo and meets some surprising people, bringing the story full circle.
This is a story of history, prejudices and persecution, emigration, religion and Jewish tradition, freedoms, language, and four 12-year-old girls who come alive through poetry and song.
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Allies by Alan Gratz
The Battle of Normandy, codenamed Operation Overlord, began on June 6, 1944, known as D-Day, when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control (www.History.com).
In Gratz’s new novel Allies, readers learn about the invasion on D-Day from multiple perspectives.
First, readers meet Dee Carpenter, a soldier from Philadelphia with a secret; his real name is Dietrich Zimmerman and he was born in Germany, his family having fled the Nazis. His best friend Sid is Jewish. Eleven-year-old Samira is French Algerian, and after her mother, a member of the French Resistance, is captured, she joins the Marquis (resistance codename) to find and free her mother. Unfortunately, as one of my favorite characters, she doesn’t reappear until the end of the book. James and his friend Sam, a Cree Indian, are members of the Canadian army, and Bill and Thomas are soldiers from England.
Readers last meet the black medic Henry who calms his patients by asking about their favorite movies and is faced with discrimination even as he saves lives. When he saves the white southern officer Lieutenant Hoyte, the man who had delivered discrimination with “the vilest of racial slurs,” and Hoyte says, “Thank you, corporal…You saved my life,” Henry thinks, “Maybe, just maybe, this was a beginning. Maybe serving together, fighting together, living and suffering together, would make white people see black people as equals.” (194)
Last, readers meet Dorothy, the American reporter disguised as a man so she can cover the battle, and the 13-year-old French Monique, who has an interest in first aid. Together they help save soldiers in the field, Monique soothing them with her singing.
As soldiers storm the beaches and parachute from airplanes, the fighting is described in great detail. “James had seen what happens when IF Day became WHEN Day. ‘Nobody should have to live like this, under the boot of Nazi rule, anywhere in the world,' James thought.” (132)
This novel would appeal to those who are interested in history, battles, artillery, and strategy. It would be a good choice for an author-study, historical-fiction book club, grouped with Gratz's Grenade, Refugee, Projeckt 1065, and Prisoner B-3087 in ELA or History/Social Studies classes.
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The Battle of Normandy, codenamed Operation Overlord, began on June 6, 1944, known as D-Day, when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control (www.History.com).
In Gratz’s new novel Allies, readers learn about the invasion on D-Day from multiple perspectives.
First, readers meet Dee Carpenter, a soldier from Philadelphia with a secret; his real name is Dietrich Zimmerman and he was born in Germany, his family having fled the Nazis. His best friend Sid is Jewish. Eleven-year-old Samira is French Algerian, and after her mother, a member of the French Resistance, is captured, she joins the Marquis (resistance codename) to find and free her mother. Unfortunately, as one of my favorite characters, she doesn’t reappear until the end of the book. James and his friend Sam, a Cree Indian, are members of the Canadian army, and Bill and Thomas are soldiers from England.
Readers last meet the black medic Henry who calms his patients by asking about their favorite movies and is faced with discrimination even as he saves lives. When he saves the white southern officer Lieutenant Hoyte, the man who had delivered discrimination with “the vilest of racial slurs,” and Hoyte says, “Thank you, corporal…You saved my life,” Henry thinks, “Maybe, just maybe, this was a beginning. Maybe serving together, fighting together, living and suffering together, would make white people see black people as equals.” (194)
Last, readers meet Dorothy, the American reporter disguised as a man so she can cover the battle, and the 13-year-old French Monique, who has an interest in first aid. Together they help save soldiers in the field, Monique soothing them with her singing.
As soldiers storm the beaches and parachute from airplanes, the fighting is described in great detail. “James had seen what happens when IF Day became WHEN Day. ‘Nobody should have to live like this, under the boot of Nazi rule, anywhere in the world,' James thought.” (132)
This novel would appeal to those who are interested in history, battles, artillery, and strategy. It would be a good choice for an author-study, historical-fiction book club, grouped with Gratz's Grenade, Refugee, Projeckt 1065, and Prisoner B-3087 in ELA or History/Social Studies classes.
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An Uninterrupted View of the Sky by Melanie Crowder
In a novel I read straight though, I again learned from Crowder, author of Audacity [see above]. An Uninterrupted View of the Sky takes place in Bolivia at the beginning of the 21st century and reveals how the United States’ role in the passage and enforcement of a law that violated the rights of citizens, especially the poor and indigenous peoples, led to innocent families living in prisons for years, hoping for the reform that has been slowly occurring. “Our lives are stretching out before us, unplanned and unpredictable” (p. 277).
Readers meet Francisco and his little sister Pilar and Francisco’s classmate and new friend Soledad, who become a part Bolivia’s prison children population. As they struggle to survive the violence of prison life and the streets and loss of family, they realize that education can help them make a change.
Suggestion: Pair with Deborah Ellis” I Am a Taxi, also about those who become caught in the Bolivian government’s war on drugs.
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In a novel I read straight though, I again learned from Crowder, author of Audacity [see above]. An Uninterrupted View of the Sky takes place in Bolivia at the beginning of the 21st century and reveals how the United States’ role in the passage and enforcement of a law that violated the rights of citizens, especially the poor and indigenous peoples, led to innocent families living in prisons for years, hoping for the reform that has been slowly occurring. “Our lives are stretching out before us, unplanned and unpredictable” (p. 277).
Readers meet Francisco and his little sister Pilar and Francisco’s classmate and new friend Soledad, who become a part Bolivia’s prison children population. As they struggle to survive the violence of prison life and the streets and loss of family, they realize that education can help them make a change.
Suggestion: Pair with Deborah Ellis” I Am a Taxi, also about those who become caught in the Bolivian government’s war on drugs.
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Audacity by Melanie Crowder
Audacity has become one of my all-time favorites historical novels and some of the best writing I have read. I usually choose books about more contemporary issues but am finding the same issues appearing throughout history, wearing different masks. Unfortunately oppression, intolerance, and treatment of refugees are not past, and we still need people unafraid to stand for their own rights and those of others.
Audacity relates the true story of Clara Lemlich, a Russian Jewish immigrant with dreams of an education who sacrifices everything to fight for better working conditions for women in the factories of Manhattan's Lower East Side in the early 1900's. Lyrically related in verse, the use of parallelism and the purposeful placement of the words is as effective as the words themselves.
The novel includes the history behind the story and a glossary of terms. What a wonderful "text" for a social studies class.
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Audacity has become one of my all-time favorites historical novels and some of the best writing I have read. I usually choose books about more contemporary issues but am finding the same issues appearing throughout history, wearing different masks. Unfortunately oppression, intolerance, and treatment of refugees are not past, and we still need people unafraid to stand for their own rights and those of others.
Audacity relates the true story of Clara Lemlich, a Russian Jewish immigrant with dreams of an education who sacrifices everything to fight for better working conditions for women in the factories of Manhattan's Lower East Side in the early 1900's. Lyrically related in verse, the use of parallelism and the purposeful placement of the words is as effective as the words themselves.
The novel includes the history behind the story and a glossary of terms. What a wonderful "text" for a social studies class.
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Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri
Years ago I heard Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried, tell an audience, “You don’t have to tell a true story to tell the truth.” When I facilitate memoir workshops, I advise writers that memoir is how the memoirist remembers and interprets events.
Everything Sad is Untrue is the story of Khosrou Nayeri on his way to becoming Daniel Nayeri. It is the stories of his childhood in Iran, in Dubai, in a refugee “camp” in Italy, in his relocation home in Oklahoma; it is also the stories of the Persian and Iranian people and history. It is a recounting that flits from time to time and person to person and place to place, inviting readers to participate as we form a relationship with the storyteller.
This is a collection of stories reminiscent of 1001 Arabian Nights. In fact, Daniel frequently compares himself to Scheherazade, telling readers, “Every story is the sound of a storyteller begging to stay alive.” (59) The author further explains that, in his case, “You don’t get to choose what you remember. A patchwork memory is the shame of a refugee.” (49) and later explains, “Memories are just stories we tell ourselves, after all. (349)
Everything Sad is Untrue reminds me of my favorite children’s book Haroun and the Sea of Stories in which Salman Rushdie proves “the use of stories that aren’t even true,” a novel that likewise blends Eastern and Western cultures.
But the most important feature of this wonderful novel is the author’s voice which comes through on every page. As our storyteller discloses, “The point of Nights is that if you spend time with each other—if we really listen in the parlors of our minds and look at each other as we were meant to be seen—then we would fall in love.…The stories aren’t the thing. The thing is the story of the story. The spending of the time. The falling in love.” (301) And that is why I am not recounting a summary of this story as in many of my reviews. I fell in love with the telling of the story.
A book certainly deserving its 2021 Michael L. Printz award, an award which annually honors the best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit.
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Years ago I heard Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried, tell an audience, “You don’t have to tell a true story to tell the truth.” When I facilitate memoir workshops, I advise writers that memoir is how the memoirist remembers and interprets events.
Everything Sad is Untrue is the story of Khosrou Nayeri on his way to becoming Daniel Nayeri. It is the stories of his childhood in Iran, in Dubai, in a refugee “camp” in Italy, in his relocation home in Oklahoma; it is also the stories of the Persian and Iranian people and history. It is a recounting that flits from time to time and person to person and place to place, inviting readers to participate as we form a relationship with the storyteller.
This is a collection of stories reminiscent of 1001 Arabian Nights. In fact, Daniel frequently compares himself to Scheherazade, telling readers, “Every story is the sound of a storyteller begging to stay alive.” (59) The author further explains that, in his case, “You don’t get to choose what you remember. A patchwork memory is the shame of a refugee.” (49) and later explains, “Memories are just stories we tell ourselves, after all. (349)
Everything Sad is Untrue reminds me of my favorite children’s book Haroun and the Sea of Stories in which Salman Rushdie proves “the use of stories that aren’t even true,” a novel that likewise blends Eastern and Western cultures.
But the most important feature of this wonderful novel is the author’s voice which comes through on every page. As our storyteller discloses, “The point of Nights is that if you spend time with each other—if we really listen in the parlors of our minds and look at each other as we were meant to be seen—then we would fall in love.…The stories aren’t the thing. The thing is the story of the story. The spending of the time. The falling in love.” (301) And that is why I am not recounting a summary of this story as in many of my reviews. I fell in love with the telling of the story.
A book certainly deserving its 2021 Michael L. Printz award, an award which annually honors the best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit.
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Eyes on the Ice by Anna Rosner
“Once a week my brothers and I go to Young Pioneers after school, which my father criticizes under his breath when he thinks we’re not listening. ‘Soviet propaganda,’ he mutters. “Spare me.’” (31)
“Classes are always the same: science, math, geography, Russia, and history, with talk of Communism in every lecture. We respond to questions only when we’re called on and give Miss Cerny the answers she expects. She never asks us what we think about anything.” (71)
It is 1963 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. In late February 1948, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with Soviet backing, assumed control over the government of Czechoslovakia, and the secret police watch the citizens for any disloyalty.
Ten-year-old Lukas, his older brother Denys, and his younger brother Alex live in a two-room apartment with their parents. His father is a journalist. Like other residents, they live in poverty with barely enough to eat, helped frequently by their Uncle Pavel.
When Lukas’ father is able to get some secondhand ice skates for the older boys, hockey becomes their refuge. Talented, they are invited to join their friend Andrej to train and play with the local team.
But first Andrej’s father and then Lukas’ father—who are friends and work together—are arrested and Lukas and Denys are banned from playing on the team, the other players calling them ‘traitors.’ Told to trust no one, their first test comes when a secret Soviet agent (oko or Eye) offers them a deal—they can play with the team if they throw the upcoming match against the Russians and their father will be freed.
This is a story that makes history come alive, a history with which most of our students are unfamiliar, a story with intrigue, fear, uncertainty, family bonds and friendships, and a love of sports—with a daring escape attempt. A quick read, it will engage even reluctant readers.
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“Once a week my brothers and I go to Young Pioneers after school, which my father criticizes under his breath when he thinks we’re not listening. ‘Soviet propaganda,’ he mutters. “Spare me.’” (31)
“Classes are always the same: science, math, geography, Russia, and history, with talk of Communism in every lecture. We respond to questions only when we’re called on and give Miss Cerny the answers she expects. She never asks us what we think about anything.” (71)
It is 1963 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. In late February 1948, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with Soviet backing, assumed control over the government of Czechoslovakia, and the secret police watch the citizens for any disloyalty.
Ten-year-old Lukas, his older brother Denys, and his younger brother Alex live in a two-room apartment with their parents. His father is a journalist. Like other residents, they live in poverty with barely enough to eat, helped frequently by their Uncle Pavel.
When Lukas’ father is able to get some secondhand ice skates for the older boys, hockey becomes their refuge. Talented, they are invited to join their friend Andrej to train and play with the local team.
But first Andrej’s father and then Lukas’ father—who are friends and work together—are arrested and Lukas and Denys are banned from playing on the team, the other players calling them ‘traitors.’ Told to trust no one, their first test comes when a secret Soviet agent (oko or Eye) offers them a deal—they can play with the team if they throw the upcoming match against the Russians and their father will be freed.
This is a story that makes history come alive, a history with which most of our students are unfamiliar, a story with intrigue, fear, uncertainty, family bonds and friendships, and a love of sports—with a daring escape attempt. A quick read, it will engage even reluctant readers.
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Eyes Open by Lyn Miller-Lachman
“I wish I could stop the lying.
I wish we could speak the truth
but we live in a place
where the truth can destroy.” (ARC, 195)
Lyn Miller-Lachmann’s newest novel, a verse novel, was spellbinding and eye-opening. I lived with 15-year-old Sonia Maria Fernandes Dias through the highs and many lows of her year—as she writes poetry, fighting the nuns for the right to write in free, not rhymed, verse which she writes about her boyfriend, Ze Miquel, a revolutionary. In the future she will write books, he as illustrator.
When Ze Miquel is arrested and Sonia’s family restaurant is closed down by the government for hosting fado singers (who snitched to PIDE a mystery), Sonia is blamed and her parents make her quit school and her beloved Poetry Club to work in substandard conditions in the laundry of a fancy hotel where her mother is now a maid. Shunned by the families of her former friends, she makes a new friend, Zuleika, a Black girl from Cabo Verde, who dreams of becoming a nun-teacher and earning enough money in the laundry to help her family build a brick house. When Ze Miquel escapes prison and runs away with Sonia’s ex-best friend, she turns her trust to the son of the hotel owner, hoping he will improve their dangerous conditions. He transfers Sonia to a job in the dining room, but when Zuleika is badly hurt in a laundry accident, Sonia learns that he also cannot be trusted and learns to rely on herself.
“I, Sonia Maria Fernandes Dias, am a poet
and a fighter
whose words
won’t praise
other heroes
when it’s my time
to act.” (ARC, 297)
Sonia’s—and Portugal’s—story is most powerfully written; the author has a way of putting the reader into the life and hearts of the characters; the author has a way of putting the reader into the life and hearts of the characters.
----------
“I wish I could stop the lying.
I wish we could speak the truth
but we live in a place
where the truth can destroy.” (ARC, 195)
Lyn Miller-Lachmann’s newest novel, a verse novel, was spellbinding and eye-opening. I lived with 15-year-old Sonia Maria Fernandes Dias through the highs and many lows of her year—as she writes poetry, fighting the nuns for the right to write in free, not rhymed, verse which she writes about her boyfriend, Ze Miquel, a revolutionary. In the future she will write books, he as illustrator.
When Ze Miquel is arrested and Sonia’s family restaurant is closed down by the government for hosting fado singers (who snitched to PIDE a mystery), Sonia is blamed and her parents make her quit school and her beloved Poetry Club to work in substandard conditions in the laundry of a fancy hotel where her mother is now a maid. Shunned by the families of her former friends, she makes a new friend, Zuleika, a Black girl from Cabo Verde, who dreams of becoming a nun-teacher and earning enough money in the laundry to help her family build a brick house. When Ze Miquel escapes prison and runs away with Sonia’s ex-best friend, she turns her trust to the son of the hotel owner, hoping he will improve their dangerous conditions. He transfers Sonia to a job in the dining room, but when Zuleika is badly hurt in a laundry accident, Sonia learns that he also cannot be trusted and learns to rely on herself.
“I, Sonia Maria Fernandes Dias, am a poet
and a fighter
whose words
won’t praise
other heroes
when it’s my time
to act.” (ARC, 297)
Sonia’s—and Portugal’s—story is most powerfully written; the author has a way of putting the reader into the life and hearts of the characters; the author has a way of putting the reader into the life and hearts of the characters.
----------
Facing the Enemy: How a Nazi Youth Camp in America Tested a Friendship by Barbara Krasner
Camp Wille und Macht—Will and Might—came first, in 1934, and was joined in New Jersey by Camp Nordland in Andover and Camp Bergwald in Bloomingdale. In Wisconsin, Camp Hindenberg claimed ground along the banks of the Milwaukee River, and children left their homes for Camp Siegfried in Long Island, the Deutschhorst Country Club in Pennsylvania and Sutter Camp in Los Angeles, California. Photographs and footage from the 1930s document those children pitching tents, cooking baked beans, hiking and singing songs. “It looks like any kind of Boy Scout camp or Girl Scout camp,” author Arnie Bernstein told American Experience. “But these were Nazi camps in America.” (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/nazi-town-usa-scenes-summer-camp-nazi-town-us/)
----------
“A chill courses through my body,
unlike any I’ve known before.
Because this is no newsreel at school assembly.
This is a youth army in New Jersey.” (171)
Benjy Putterman and Tommy Anspach had best friends since childhood, even though Benjy was Jewish and Tommy was of German heritage. But the summer before their freshman year (1937), Tommy, now called Thomas, is sent to Camp Nordland and told he can no longer be friends with Benjy because “the Putermans are Jewish.” (15) Desperate to win his father’s affection, seemingly reserved for the older brother who died in Germany, Thomas agrees.
“Because I’m now your only child
Because I’m all you have
Because I never want to disappoint you
Dear parents, Camp Nordland, here I come.” (16)
He quickly becomes indoctrinated.
“We begin a new day. I’m not one of them yet.
Next year, I’ll be in the parade.
I am one of the chosen.” (24)
When he thinks about how he and Benjy saw different things when looking through the kaleidoscope,
“I wondered then if we lived in two
different worlds.
Now I know we do.” (33)
During the year, Thomas keeps away from Benjy and attends a Saturday German school and special events at Camp Nordland; in the mostly Jewish high school, Benjy forms a Minutekids organization to help his father’s organization, the Minutemen, combat Bund activities. In the summer the two groups visit the camp “to get the lay of the Land,” and Benjy sees actions that “remind [him] of the Nazi soldiers.”
By Winter Break 1939 Thomas realizes,
“I am a puppet
pulled by Father’s strings,
Jumping at the chance,
the privilege to attend Nordland.
I am a puppet
without a will of my own,
bending to Father’s whims,
because I want to see him smile.
I am a puppet
prancing on a stage for spectators,
tucking my real feelings
into the grain of my wood.” (208)
and Benjy tries to make new friends but none fill Tommy’s place.
In July 1939 Thomas decides,
“I don’t want to be a part of this
I want to go back to being me.
No matter what Father says.” (236)
When he sees a boy who was drowned, he escapes the camp and goes home where he is sent back to the camp by his father and then locked in isolation for refusing to wear his uniform (which has become an illegal act) until he is rescued by the Minutemen and Minutekids. At home Tommy still has a battle to fight—but now with Benjy’s help. The camp finally loses its state charter in May 1941 and was officially closed in June.
Written in creative verse with surprising rhymes, wordplay, and different types of poetry, such as villanelles, couplets, and poems in two voices, readers learn about a little-known event taking place in America during the Holocaust. This is a must for classrooms studying the Holocaust and WWII but also as a study in prejudice and how it is cultivated.
----------
Camp Wille und Macht—Will and Might—came first, in 1934, and was joined in New Jersey by Camp Nordland in Andover and Camp Bergwald in Bloomingdale. In Wisconsin, Camp Hindenberg claimed ground along the banks of the Milwaukee River, and children left their homes for Camp Siegfried in Long Island, the Deutschhorst Country Club in Pennsylvania and Sutter Camp in Los Angeles, California. Photographs and footage from the 1930s document those children pitching tents, cooking baked beans, hiking and singing songs. “It looks like any kind of Boy Scout camp or Girl Scout camp,” author Arnie Bernstein told American Experience. “But these were Nazi camps in America.” (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/nazi-town-usa-scenes-summer-camp-nazi-town-us/)
----------
“A chill courses through my body,
unlike any I’ve known before.
Because this is no newsreel at school assembly.
This is a youth army in New Jersey.” (171)
Benjy Putterman and Tommy Anspach had best friends since childhood, even though Benjy was Jewish and Tommy was of German heritage. But the summer before their freshman year (1937), Tommy, now called Thomas, is sent to Camp Nordland and told he can no longer be friends with Benjy because “the Putermans are Jewish.” (15) Desperate to win his father’s affection, seemingly reserved for the older brother who died in Germany, Thomas agrees.
“Because I’m now your only child
Because I’m all you have
Because I never want to disappoint you
Dear parents, Camp Nordland, here I come.” (16)
He quickly becomes indoctrinated.
“We begin a new day. I’m not one of them yet.
Next year, I’ll be in the parade.
I am one of the chosen.” (24)
When he thinks about how he and Benjy saw different things when looking through the kaleidoscope,
“I wondered then if we lived in two
different worlds.
Now I know we do.” (33)
During the year, Thomas keeps away from Benjy and attends a Saturday German school and special events at Camp Nordland; in the mostly Jewish high school, Benjy forms a Minutekids organization to help his father’s organization, the Minutemen, combat Bund activities. In the summer the two groups visit the camp “to get the lay of the Land,” and Benjy sees actions that “remind [him] of the Nazi soldiers.”
By Winter Break 1939 Thomas realizes,
“I am a puppet
pulled by Father’s strings,
Jumping at the chance,
the privilege to attend Nordland.
I am a puppet
without a will of my own,
bending to Father’s whims,
because I want to see him smile.
I am a puppet
prancing on a stage for spectators,
tucking my real feelings
into the grain of my wood.” (208)
and Benjy tries to make new friends but none fill Tommy’s place.
In July 1939 Thomas decides,
“I don’t want to be a part of this
I want to go back to being me.
No matter what Father says.” (236)
When he sees a boy who was drowned, he escapes the camp and goes home where he is sent back to the camp by his father and then locked in isolation for refusing to wear his uniform (which has become an illegal act) until he is rescued by the Minutemen and Minutekids. At home Tommy still has a battle to fight—but now with Benjy’s help. The camp finally loses its state charter in May 1941 and was officially closed in June.
Written in creative verse with surprising rhymes, wordplay, and different types of poetry, such as villanelles, couplets, and poems in two voices, readers learn about a little-known event taking place in America during the Holocaust. This is a must for classrooms studying the Holocaust and WWII but also as a study in prejudice and how it is cultivated.
----------
Farewell Cuba, Mi Isla by Alexandra Diaz
“Look outside your window, children,” Mami said as they took their seats. “You may never see your country again.” (ARC, 36)
Victoria had a wonderful life in Cuba where she lived with her mother, father, and younger sister and brother. Also in the same duplex lived her cousin Jackie, her aunt, her uncle, and her baby cousin/godson. Even though they were very different and attended different schools in Havana, 12-year-old Victoria and Jackie were best friends, and they both spent time at their Papalfonso and Mamlara’s finca where Victoria rode her horse and swam with her cousin, a ranch that Victoria would inherit.
October 1960: With Fidel Castro in power and protestors arrested, news restricted, and professionals prohibited from leaving the country, Victoria’s family makes the decision to go to Miami, expecting their exile to “only last a few weeks, until the U.S. presidential election.” (14)
Alternating chapters focus on Victoria and Jackie and permit readers to learn what is happening in Cuba and about the Cuban community in Miami. Here Victoria lives in poverty (her father’s engineering degree of no use as he labors for minimum wage), and she tries to take charge of feeding her family. When Jackie arrives in Miami through the Peter Pan Project (reminiscent of the Holocaust Kindertransport), readers see how being apart from her immediate family affects her and her relationship with Victoria.
I often have read and reviewed novels (and memoirs) by Margarita Engle and noted that I learned quite a lot of Cuban history, a history missing from my education. Diaz’s novel, inspired by the experiences of her mother and family who came to the
United States from Cuba in 1960, spans October 1960 to June 1961 and teaches readers even more about Castro and his effect on Cuba and the Cuban citizens and the role the U.S. government played. This novel should be included in every American history course. This is also a story of prejudice, as experienced by Katya, Victoria’s Russian school friend, and of resilience and family. The Author’s Note further expands on the historical facts and includes a glossary of Cuban terms.
“Look outside your window, children,” Mami said as they took their seats. “You may never see your country again.” (ARC, 36)
Victoria had a wonderful life in Cuba where she lived with her mother, father, and younger sister and brother. Also in the same duplex lived her cousin Jackie, her aunt, her uncle, and her baby cousin/godson. Even though they were very different and attended different schools in Havana, 12-year-old Victoria and Jackie were best friends, and they both spent time at their Papalfonso and Mamlara’s finca where Victoria rode her horse and swam with her cousin, a ranch that Victoria would inherit.
October 1960: With Fidel Castro in power and protestors arrested, news restricted, and professionals prohibited from leaving the country, Victoria’s family makes the decision to go to Miami, expecting their exile to “only last a few weeks, until the U.S. presidential election.” (14)
Alternating chapters focus on Victoria and Jackie and permit readers to learn what is happening in Cuba and about the Cuban community in Miami. Here Victoria lives in poverty (her father’s engineering degree of no use as he labors for minimum wage), and she tries to take charge of feeding her family. When Jackie arrives in Miami through the Peter Pan Project (reminiscent of the Holocaust Kindertransport), readers see how being apart from her immediate family affects her and her relationship with Victoria.
I often have read and reviewed novels (and memoirs) by Margarita Engle and noted that I learned quite a lot of Cuban history, a history missing from my education. Diaz’s novel, inspired by the experiences of her mother and family who came to the
United States from Cuba in 1960, spans October 1960 to June 1961 and teaches readers even more about Castro and his effect on Cuba and the Cuban citizens and the role the U.S. government played. This novel should be included in every American history course. This is also a story of prejudice, as experienced by Katya, Victoria’s Russian school friend, and of resilience and family. The Author’s Note further expands on the historical facts and includes a glossary of Cuban terms.
Fast Pitch by Nic Stone
Twelve-year-old Shanice Lockwood is captain of a softball team, the Firebirds, the only all-Black softball team in the Dixie Youth Softball Association. She comes from a long line of batball players—her father, her grandfather PopPop, her great-grandfather. Her one goal is for her team to win the state championship.
But her goal shifts when she meets her Great-Great Uncle Jack, her Great-Grampy JonJon’s brother.
Shanice’s father had to quit baseball when he blew out his knee, his father had to stop playing to support his family, but why did JonJon quit when he was successfully playing for the Negro American League and was one of the first Black players recruited to the MLB? When Shanice is taken to Peachtree Hills Place to meet her sometimes-senile uncle, he tells her that JonJon “didn’t do what they said he did…He was framed.” (46) “My brother ain’t no thief. He didn’t do it…But I know who did.” (47)
And Shanice is off on a quest to research the incident that caused her great grandfather to leave baseball and to see if she, with Jack’s information and JonJon’s leather journal, can clear his name while still trying to lead her softball team to victory.
Fast Pitch is a fun new novel by Nic Stone, full of batball, adventure, a little mystery, peer and family relationships, Negro League history, prejudice, and maybe a first crush.
-----
Twelve-year-old Shanice Lockwood is captain of a softball team, the Firebirds, the only all-Black softball team in the Dixie Youth Softball Association. She comes from a long line of batball players—her father, her grandfather PopPop, her great-grandfather. Her one goal is for her team to win the state championship.
But her goal shifts when she meets her Great-Great Uncle Jack, her Great-Grampy JonJon’s brother.
Shanice’s father had to quit baseball when he blew out his knee, his father had to stop playing to support his family, but why did JonJon quit when he was successfully playing for the Negro American League and was one of the first Black players recruited to the MLB? When Shanice is taken to Peachtree Hills Place to meet her sometimes-senile uncle, he tells her that JonJon “didn’t do what they said he did…He was framed.” (46) “My brother ain’t no thief. He didn’t do it…But I know who did.” (47)
And Shanice is off on a quest to research the incident that caused her great grandfather to leave baseball and to see if she, with Jack’s information and JonJon’s leather journal, can clear his name while still trying to lead her softball team to victory.
Fast Pitch is a fun new novel by Nic Stone, full of batball, adventure, a little mystery, peer and family relationships, Negro League history, prejudice, and maybe a first crush.
-----
Flooded: Requiem for Johnstown by Ann E. Burg
On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam collapsed. Twenty million tons of water from Lake Conemaugh poured into Johnstown [Pennsylvania] and neighboring communities. More than 2,200 people died, including 99 entire families and 396 children. [Author’s Note] The flood still stands as the second or third deadliest day in U.S. history resulting from a natural calamity.
Richard Peck wrote, “The bigger the issue, the smaller you write.” And author Ann E. Burg
introduces readers to individual residents of the town.
We read the stories of fifteen-year-old Joe Dixon who wants to run his own newsstand and marry his Maggie; Gertrude Quinn who tells us about her brother, three sisters, Aunt Abbie, and her father who owns the general store. We come to know Daniel and Monica Fagan. Daniel’s friend Willy, the poet, encouraged by his teacher to write, and George with 3 brothers and 4 sisters who wants to leave school and help support them. We watch the town prepare for the Decoration Day ceremony honoring the war dead.
And after the flood, readers hear from Red Cross nurse Clara Barton, and Ann Jenkins and Nancy Little who brought law suits that found no justice, and a few of the 700 unidentified victims of the flood.
And there are the members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club—Andrew Carnegie, Charles J. Clarke, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Mellon, Cyrus Elder, and Elias Unger, the wealthy of Pittsburgh who ignored repeated warnings that the dam holding their private lake needed to be repaired so it wouldn't give way. “They don’t care a whit about the likes of us.” (57)
This is a story of class and privilege and those who work tirelessly to make ends meet. As Monica says, “People who have money, who shop at fancy stores and buy pretty things, shouldn’t think they’re better than folks who scrabble and scrounge and go to sleep tired and hungry.” (111)
In free-verse narrative monologues, readers experience the lives of a town and its hard-working, family-oriented inhabitants—people we come to know and love, reluctant to turn the pages leading towards the disaster we know they will encounter. We bear witness to the events as we read and empathy for the plights of the people affected by those events.
This is a book that could be shared across middle grade and high school ELA, social studies, and science classes.
-----
On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam collapsed. Twenty million tons of water from Lake Conemaugh poured into Johnstown [Pennsylvania] and neighboring communities. More than 2,200 people died, including 99 entire families and 396 children. [Author’s Note] The flood still stands as the second or third deadliest day in U.S. history resulting from a natural calamity.
Richard Peck wrote, “The bigger the issue, the smaller you write.” And author Ann E. Burg
introduces readers to individual residents of the town.
We read the stories of fifteen-year-old Joe Dixon who wants to run his own newsstand and marry his Maggie; Gertrude Quinn who tells us about her brother, three sisters, Aunt Abbie, and her father who owns the general store. We come to know Daniel and Monica Fagan. Daniel’s friend Willy, the poet, encouraged by his teacher to write, and George with 3 brothers and 4 sisters who wants to leave school and help support them. We watch the town prepare for the Decoration Day ceremony honoring the war dead.
And after the flood, readers hear from Red Cross nurse Clara Barton, and Ann Jenkins and Nancy Little who brought law suits that found no justice, and a few of the 700 unidentified victims of the flood.
And there are the members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club—Andrew Carnegie, Charles J. Clarke, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Mellon, Cyrus Elder, and Elias Unger, the wealthy of Pittsburgh who ignored repeated warnings that the dam holding their private lake needed to be repaired so it wouldn't give way. “They don’t care a whit about the likes of us.” (57)
This is a story of class and privilege and those who work tirelessly to make ends meet. As Monica says, “People who have money, who shop at fancy stores and buy pretty things, shouldn’t think they’re better than folks who scrabble and scrounge and go to sleep tired and hungry.” (111)
In free-verse narrative monologues, readers experience the lives of a town and its hard-working, family-oriented inhabitants—people we come to know and love, reluctant to turn the pages leading towards the disaster we know they will encounter. We bear witness to the events as we read and empathy for the plights of the people affected by those events.
This is a book that could be shared across middle grade and high school ELA, social studies, and science classes.
-----
Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams
“We’re gonna get evicted again. If we get evicted again, you said you’re gonna leave…. I’m tired of coming home and our stuff’s on the lawn waiting for crackheads to steal it. I’m tired of staying in people’s basements! Why can’t you just pay the rent! Just stop gambling and pay the rent!” (280)
Eighth-grader Genesis Anderson’s family has been evicted four times already. Her father has a gambling problem and is an alcoholic but somehow he moves them from Detroit to a house in the fashionable Farmington Hills. But again the rent is not paid, and they will probably lose this home also.
Genesis has other problem, problems with other kids at her schools calling her names based on the darkness of her skin. Her parents are from complicated families with ideas about skin color and class. Genesis hates the color of her skin and the texture of her hair, wishing she looked like her beautiful light-skinned mother. “’I can’t stand you, ‘ I say to my reflection.” (10) She thinks her father has rejected her because she is dark like he is. “What if I inherited all Dad’s ways? What if no one recognizes that I’m…one of the good ones?” (154) “Every single night I’ve prayed for God to make me beautiful—make me light. And every morning I wake up exactly the same.” (157)
Even though she is finally making friends in her new school, two friends—Todd and Sophia—who know what it’s like to be stereotyped and bullied and like Genesis for who she is, she tries to bleach her skin and relax her hair to fit in, become popular, and please her father and grandmother.
Through her chorus teacher’s discovery of her singing talent and introductions to the music of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Eta James, Genesis finds the courage to audition for the school talent show and sing. “I can’t believe it. I did it. I, Genesis Anderson, stepped out onto that stage and sang. Out loud. In Public. Alone.” (249) At the actual performance, she discovers her strength. “I let each word soar. I swoop down to hug the little girl sitting on the curb with all her furniture. I visit the girl in the basement with the wrinkled brown bag passing from hand to hand. I kiss the lonely girl who hears ugly taunts from the mirror. I experience every moment. And I’m not afraid.” (348)
-----
“We’re gonna get evicted again. If we get evicted again, you said you’re gonna leave…. I’m tired of coming home and our stuff’s on the lawn waiting for crackheads to steal it. I’m tired of staying in people’s basements! Why can’t you just pay the rent! Just stop gambling and pay the rent!” (280)
Eighth-grader Genesis Anderson’s family has been evicted four times already. Her father has a gambling problem and is an alcoholic but somehow he moves them from Detroit to a house in the fashionable Farmington Hills. But again the rent is not paid, and they will probably lose this home also.
Genesis has other problem, problems with other kids at her schools calling her names based on the darkness of her skin. Her parents are from complicated families with ideas about skin color and class. Genesis hates the color of her skin and the texture of her hair, wishing she looked like her beautiful light-skinned mother. “’I can’t stand you, ‘ I say to my reflection.” (10) She thinks her father has rejected her because she is dark like he is. “What if I inherited all Dad’s ways? What if no one recognizes that I’m…one of the good ones?” (154) “Every single night I’ve prayed for God to make me beautiful—make me light. And every morning I wake up exactly the same.” (157)
Even though she is finally making friends in her new school, two friends—Todd and Sophia—who know what it’s like to be stereotyped and bullied and like Genesis for who she is, she tries to bleach her skin and relax her hair to fit in, become popular, and please her father and grandmother.
Through her chorus teacher’s discovery of her singing talent and introductions to the music of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Eta James, Genesis finds the courage to audition for the school talent show and sing. “I can’t believe it. I did it. I, Genesis Anderson, stepped out onto that stage and sang. Out loud. In Public. Alone.” (249) At the actual performance, she discovers her strength. “I let each word soar. I swoop down to hug the little girl sitting on the curb with all her furniture. I visit the girl in the basement with the wrinkled brown bag passing from hand to hand. I kiss the lonely girl who hears ugly taunts from the mirror. I experience every moment. And I’m not afraid.” (348)
-----
Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhoads
Jerome, a black 12-year-old child who is bullied and has made his first friend was playing with a toy gun when a white policeman in a car shot him in the back and then offered no medical help. However, a 911 call misrepresented the 5’, 90-pound Jerome as a person with a gun, rather than a toy gun, and the policeman, against all evidence to the contrary, under oath swore, “I was in fear for my life.” And Jerome questions “when truth is a feeling, can it be both—true and untrue?” (132)
Jerome roams the world as a ghost, and when he and Officer Moore’s daughter Sarah become acquainted, he also meets the ghost of Emmett Till who shares his story. Jerome watches over this family and questions his new role —“Why haven’t I moved on?” (95), his relationship with Sarah, the relationships within Sarah’s family, and his relationships with the Ghost Boys, the hundreds of other black youth who have been killed. As he roams, he sees a Chicago filled with beauty and parks and flowers that was denied him as a child of color and poverty, and a recognition of injustice and tragedy is sparked. As Emmett says, “Someone decided they didn’t like us…. We were a threat, a danger. A menace.” (160) They are children.
I don’t advocate for employing many whole-class novels during the year, but this is a book that will generate important conversations about prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping, fear, and the historical span of racism in this country that need to be held. This novel also would be a valuable addition to a social studies class study of civil rights and social justice.
-----
Jerome, a black 12-year-old child who is bullied and has made his first friend was playing with a toy gun when a white policeman in a car shot him in the back and then offered no medical help. However, a 911 call misrepresented the 5’, 90-pound Jerome as a person with a gun, rather than a toy gun, and the policeman, against all evidence to the contrary, under oath swore, “I was in fear for my life.” And Jerome questions “when truth is a feeling, can it be both—true and untrue?” (132)
Jerome roams the world as a ghost, and when he and Officer Moore’s daughter Sarah become acquainted, he also meets the ghost of Emmett Till who shares his story. Jerome watches over this family and questions his new role —“Why haven’t I moved on?” (95), his relationship with Sarah, the relationships within Sarah’s family, and his relationships with the Ghost Boys, the hundreds of other black youth who have been killed. As he roams, he sees a Chicago filled with beauty and parks and flowers that was denied him as a child of color and poverty, and a recognition of injustice and tragedy is sparked. As Emmett says, “Someone decided they didn’t like us…. We were a threat, a danger. A menace.” (160) They are children.
I don’t advocate for employing many whole-class novels during the year, but this is a book that will generate important conversations about prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping, fear, and the historical span of racism in this country that need to be held. This novel also would be a valuable addition to a social studies class study of civil rights and social justice.
-----
Gringolandia by Lyn Miller-Lachmann
"The bigger the issue, the smaller you write."- Richard Price.
We read for many reasons but one essential purpose is to learn about our world, including its history, and to develop empathy for others. I found that, by teaching a social justice course through novels, my 8th graders learned about the effects of history on others, even others their age.
Lyn Miller-Lachmann's Gringolandia shares the story of high school student Daniel, a refugee from Chile's Pinochet regime, his activist "gringo" girlfriend Courtney, and Daniel's father who has just been released from years of torture in a Chilean prison and joins his family in Gringolandia.
Spanning 1980-1991 this novel would be a valuable addition to a Social Justice or History curriculum or in my personal case, a good read to learn a history generally not covered in curriculum.
-----
"The bigger the issue, the smaller you write."- Richard Price.
We read for many reasons but one essential purpose is to learn about our world, including its history, and to develop empathy for others. I found that, by teaching a social justice course through novels, my 8th graders learned about the effects of history on others, even others their age.
Lyn Miller-Lachmann's Gringolandia shares the story of high school student Daniel, a refugee from Chile's Pinochet regime, his activist "gringo" girlfriend Courtney, and Daniel's father who has just been released from years of torture in a Chilean prison and joins his family in Gringolandia.
Spanning 1980-1991 this novel would be a valuable addition to a Social Justice or History curriculum or in my personal case, a good read to learn a history generally not covered in curriculum.
-----
How I Became a Spy: A Mystery of WWII London by Deborah Hopkinson
Mystery, spies, double agents, coded messages, a heroic dog, and WWII! How I Became A Spy takes place between February 18 and March 1, 1944, a time period which affected the successful invasion held on D-Day.
Bertie is a 13-year-old who lives in a London experiencing the Little Blitz attacks. Feeling guilt over his older brother’s serious injuries from the Blitz a few years before, Bertie lives in the police barracks with his father and serves as a civil defense volunteer with Little Roo, his dog trained to rescue people from bombed buildings.
During one nighttime raid, he meets a mysterious American girl, finds a notebook, discovers a young woman who is passed out on a street (disappearing by the time he brings back help), and he becomes involved in a mystery of intrigue. As he reads through the notebook, which belongs to a female French spy being trained by the Special Operations Executive, he finds that it contains coded messages that he needs to crack to save the woman and the secrecy of the planned invasion of Occupied France. Bertie joins forces with Eleanor, the American girl who was holding the notebook for her former French tutor and friend, and his best friend and classmate David, a Jewish refugee from Germany, who is well-versed in ciphers.
With only a few days until the trap is to be set for the double agent, the three have to determine whom to trust as they work to break the ciphers and put Violette’s plan in motion.
David encourages them, “Sometimes people do the impossible…look at me, and others who came here on trains. Thousands of us are here, and alive, only because a few people did what others thought couldn’t be done.” (179-180)
With references to Sherlock Holmes and quotes from the actual Special Operations Executive training lecture and manual, as well as practice cipher messages, this novel is a fun and exciting read through history with memorable characters, some of whom actually existed.
As the boys’ history teacher says, “…because we are living through a war against tyranny, we have a special responsibility…To learn from the past, understand the present, and change the future.” (191)
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Mystery, spies, double agents, coded messages, a heroic dog, and WWII! How I Became A Spy takes place between February 18 and March 1, 1944, a time period which affected the successful invasion held on D-Day.
Bertie is a 13-year-old who lives in a London experiencing the Little Blitz attacks. Feeling guilt over his older brother’s serious injuries from the Blitz a few years before, Bertie lives in the police barracks with his father and serves as a civil defense volunteer with Little Roo, his dog trained to rescue people from bombed buildings.
During one nighttime raid, he meets a mysterious American girl, finds a notebook, discovers a young woman who is passed out on a street (disappearing by the time he brings back help), and he becomes involved in a mystery of intrigue. As he reads through the notebook, which belongs to a female French spy being trained by the Special Operations Executive, he finds that it contains coded messages that he needs to crack to save the woman and the secrecy of the planned invasion of Occupied France. Bertie joins forces with Eleanor, the American girl who was holding the notebook for her former French tutor and friend, and his best friend and classmate David, a Jewish refugee from Germany, who is well-versed in ciphers.
With only a few days until the trap is to be set for the double agent, the three have to determine whom to trust as they work to break the ciphers and put Violette’s plan in motion.
David encourages them, “Sometimes people do the impossible…look at me, and others who came here on trains. Thousands of us are here, and alive, only because a few people did what others thought couldn’t be done.” (179-180)
With references to Sherlock Holmes and quotes from the actual Special Operations Executive training lecture and manual, as well as practice cipher messages, this novel is a fun and exciting read through history with memorable characters, some of whom actually existed.
As the boys’ history teacher says, “…because we are living through a war against tyranny, we have a special responsibility…To learn from the past, understand the present, and change the future.” (191)
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I Can Make This Promise by Christine Day
“I think about Roger. He was the first person to ever say those words to me. ‘You look Native.’ And it didn’t feel presumptuous. It didn’t feel like a wild guess. It was like he recognized me. Like he saw something in me.” (24)
Twelve-year-old Edie Green knows she is half Native American and that her mother was adopted and raised by a white couple at a very young age. But that is all she knows about her heritage, and she has never thought to ask for whom she is named. She discovered that she was “different” on the first day of kindergarten, a day she remembers in great detail, a day when her teacher’s questions about “where she was from” panicked her. But this was something she and her mother never discussed.
The summer before seventh grade, Edie and her friends discover a box in her attic, a box with pictures and letter from a young woman named Edith who looks just like Edie. When she asks her mother about her name, her mother lies, and a few days later they have a fight when Edie wants to see a movie featuring a Native American character. Now Edie doesn’t know how her mother will react when she tells her she has found the box and has read Edith Graham’s letters. Even her mother’s older brother, Uncle Phil, won’t tell her the secret.
When Edie’s mother finally shares her past and the past of her birth family, “I didn’t picture this. I wasn’t ready for this horrific injustice.” (230)
I Can Make This Promise shares a time of intolerance and injustice in U.S. history, a time before the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 became a vital piece of legislation.
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“I think about Roger. He was the first person to ever say those words to me. ‘You look Native.’ And it didn’t feel presumptuous. It didn’t feel like a wild guess. It was like he recognized me. Like he saw something in me.” (24)
Twelve-year-old Edie Green knows she is half Native American and that her mother was adopted and raised by a white couple at a very young age. But that is all she knows about her heritage, and she has never thought to ask for whom she is named. She discovered that she was “different” on the first day of kindergarten, a day she remembers in great detail, a day when her teacher’s questions about “where she was from” panicked her. But this was something she and her mother never discussed.
The summer before seventh grade, Edie and her friends discover a box in her attic, a box with pictures and letter from a young woman named Edith who looks just like Edie. When she asks her mother about her name, her mother lies, and a few days later they have a fight when Edie wants to see a movie featuring a Native American character. Now Edie doesn’t know how her mother will react when she tells her she has found the box and has read Edith Graham’s letters. Even her mother’s older brother, Uncle Phil, won’t tell her the secret.
When Edie’s mother finally shares her past and the past of her birth family, “I didn’t picture this. I wasn’t ready for this horrific injustice.” (230)
I Can Make This Promise shares a time of intolerance and injustice in U.S. history, a time before the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 became a vital piece of legislation.
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Iceberg by Jenniefer A. Nielsen
“So I’d begun to work hard and to sacrifice what I wanted for what my family needed. I’d learned to be bold and to take risks when necessary. That’s what had kept my family going for the past two years. It’s how I would help them now.” (45)
Many of us know, or think we know, a lot about the Titanic, but Jennifer Nielsen lets us travel on the Titanic and learn about the tragedy through the eyes of twelve-year-old future journalist Hazel Rothbury, a stowaway third-class passenger. Hers is one story out of 2,224; one survivor out of 705.
Hazel didn’t mean to stow away. After her father’s death at sea, her mother was sending her to America to work in a factory with her aunt to support, and save, the family at home. When the money she had was not enough for a ticket, Hazel stows away, eventually with the help of Charlie Blight, a young porter also supporting his family. Hazel is also befriended by Sylvia, a girl in first class, much to the consternation of Sylvia’s governess.
Hazel had done her research on the Titanic, but when she overhears that there is a fire on the ship, she realizes how little she—and the other passengers—actually know and her questions grow. As she illicitly traverses the ship, talking with crew and passengers, she fills her notebook with questions and answers, hoping to sell a story when she arrives in New York and become a journalist rather than a factory worker. Her questions, and her doubts about the safety of the unsinkable Titanic, grow as she leans about single and double hulls, coal fires, the different types of icebergs and how they are discerned, Morse Code, and, most important, refraction.
In the midst of all this, Hazel becomes embroiled in a mystery. Is there a devious plot that will harm her new friend Sylvia? Her new, older friend Mrs. Abelman? Just who are the villains, what are they up to, and why do they wish her harm.
Readers learn much more about the Titanic, the passengers, their activities, the on-board class system—and the tragedy that sent 2/3 of the passengers and crews to their deaths and the heroes that helped 1/3 to survive. They learn such eye-opening facts that while the Titanic could have carried 64 lifeboats., it only carried 20, 18 of which were launched with passengers but with 472 empty seats. (299)
This is a novel for cross-curricular study: English-Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science, while the mystery will engage reluctant readers.
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“So I’d begun to work hard and to sacrifice what I wanted for what my family needed. I’d learned to be bold and to take risks when necessary. That’s what had kept my family going for the past two years. It’s how I would help them now.” (45)
Many of us know, or think we know, a lot about the Titanic, but Jennifer Nielsen lets us travel on the Titanic and learn about the tragedy through the eyes of twelve-year-old future journalist Hazel Rothbury, a stowaway third-class passenger. Hers is one story out of 2,224; one survivor out of 705.
Hazel didn’t mean to stow away. After her father’s death at sea, her mother was sending her to America to work in a factory with her aunt to support, and save, the family at home. When the money she had was not enough for a ticket, Hazel stows away, eventually with the help of Charlie Blight, a young porter also supporting his family. Hazel is also befriended by Sylvia, a girl in first class, much to the consternation of Sylvia’s governess.
Hazel had done her research on the Titanic, but when she overhears that there is a fire on the ship, she realizes how little she—and the other passengers—actually know and her questions grow. As she illicitly traverses the ship, talking with crew and passengers, she fills her notebook with questions and answers, hoping to sell a story when she arrives in New York and become a journalist rather than a factory worker. Her questions, and her doubts about the safety of the unsinkable Titanic, grow as she leans about single and double hulls, coal fires, the different types of icebergs and how they are discerned, Morse Code, and, most important, refraction.
In the midst of all this, Hazel becomes embroiled in a mystery. Is there a devious plot that will harm her new friend Sylvia? Her new, older friend Mrs. Abelman? Just who are the villains, what are they up to, and why do they wish her harm.
Readers learn much more about the Titanic, the passengers, their activities, the on-board class system—and the tragedy that sent 2/3 of the passengers and crews to their deaths and the heroes that helped 1/3 to survive. They learn such eye-opening facts that while the Titanic could have carried 64 lifeboats., it only carried 20, 18 of which were launched with passengers but with 472 empty seats. (299)
This is a novel for cross-curricular study: English-Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science, while the mystery will engage reluctant readers.
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It Doesn't Take a Genius by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
“I don’t even like debate, to be honest. But I’m good at it, and I learned early on that’s what matters. People love a winner. When you win, everyone sees you. And if people don’t see you, maybe you’re not really there.” (8)
Thirteen-year-old Emmett Charles is a winner, or at least at his school where his vocabulary, three debate trophies, science fair award, and Spelling Bee record have him feeling he might even be a genius.
And when his social skills and small size fail him, his older brother Luke is always there to bail him out , especially with Mac, his bully. “Luke has come out of nowhere. Like a superhero. He’s even taller than Mac, wears his shirts a little small so girls can peep his muscles, and his fade is tight and gleaming.” (6-7) “Sometimes it feels like I’m in a river, and the current’s real strong. And I have a choice between clinging to a rock and getting left behind, or letting myself get swept up in it and carried along without any control. Luke’s my rock.” (138)
But when his brother Luke gets a scholarship to a private art school in Maine for his last year of high school, summer is all Emmett, or E as he wants to be called, will have for Luke to turn him back into a winner after he passed on competing in this year’s debate championship. “We’re a team. Batman and Robin.” (29)
But when he discovers that Luke has gotten a job as a junior counselor at Camp DuBois, a historic Black summer camp in New York, and Emmett schemes to get himself a scholarship to attend as a camper. When he arrives he discovers that
“What my friends, and my family for that matter, don’t seem to understand is that I don’t swim. I guess they get the fact that I can’t. But they keep thinking that I will, one day. That I even want to. And they’re WRONG. Dad was supposed to teach me, and he’s not here.” (19) Emmett’s father died when he was 5, and Like and his mother don’t discuss his father with him which saddens him. In fact, seeing other kids with their dads sadden him.
And most important he discovers, as Natasha says, “It doesn’t take a genius to be a friend.” (291)
E’s story is filled with great characters: the socially-awkward Charles who can “do you” the best I have seen; Charles’ love interest and budding playwright Michelle, Emmett’s crush Natasha who does win at everything but is just as happy when the camp director decides there will be no final competitions; the alleged-bully Derek who is able to spend more time with Luke than Emmett does, but, as is often the case, is more complex than presumed; and the assortment of other campers, counselors, and group leaders. Readers will learn not only a lot of Black history but the importance of studying one’s cultural roots.
There will be adolescents in the classroom and community who need to read this book. I know that I learned quite a lot which led me to want to know more‑about Black culture and my culture and the cultures of others.
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“I don’t even like debate, to be honest. But I’m good at it, and I learned early on that’s what matters. People love a winner. When you win, everyone sees you. And if people don’t see you, maybe you’re not really there.” (8)
Thirteen-year-old Emmett Charles is a winner, or at least at his school where his vocabulary, three debate trophies, science fair award, and Spelling Bee record have him feeling he might even be a genius.
And when his social skills and small size fail him, his older brother Luke is always there to bail him out , especially with Mac, his bully. “Luke has come out of nowhere. Like a superhero. He’s even taller than Mac, wears his shirts a little small so girls can peep his muscles, and his fade is tight and gleaming.” (6-7) “Sometimes it feels like I’m in a river, and the current’s real strong. And I have a choice between clinging to a rock and getting left behind, or letting myself get swept up in it and carried along without any control. Luke’s my rock.” (138)
But when his brother Luke gets a scholarship to a private art school in Maine for his last year of high school, summer is all Emmett, or E as he wants to be called, will have for Luke to turn him back into a winner after he passed on competing in this year’s debate championship. “We’re a team. Batman and Robin.” (29)
But when he discovers that Luke has gotten a job as a junior counselor at Camp DuBois, a historic Black summer camp in New York, and Emmett schemes to get himself a scholarship to attend as a camper. When he arrives he discovers that
- His brother will be too busy to spend any time with him
- The camp is filled with “geniuses” and nerds—and new friends who have his back
- He will be discovering more of his culture and history through classes like “Black to the Future” and the camp focuses on community, not individual success. He finally realizes that “DuBois is preparing me for something more than bubble tests, more than I’d ever thought it would.” (190)
- Even though he is a great dancer, he is an even better choreographer
- Although he sees himself as a winner, without effort and spreading himself too thin, he can lose, more than he thought
- He will have to take swimming lessons (with the Littles) and pass a swimming test
“What my friends, and my family for that matter, don’t seem to understand is that I don’t swim. I guess they get the fact that I can’t. But they keep thinking that I will, one day. That I even want to. And they’re WRONG. Dad was supposed to teach me, and he’s not here.” (19) Emmett’s father died when he was 5, and Like and his mother don’t discuss his father with him which saddens him. In fact, seeing other kids with their dads sadden him.
And most important he discovers, as Natasha says, “It doesn’t take a genius to be a friend.” (291)
E’s story is filled with great characters: the socially-awkward Charles who can “do you” the best I have seen; Charles’ love interest and budding playwright Michelle, Emmett’s crush Natasha who does win at everything but is just as happy when the camp director decides there will be no final competitions; the alleged-bully Derek who is able to spend more time with Luke than Emmett does, but, as is often the case, is more complex than presumed; and the assortment of other campers, counselors, and group leaders. Readers will learn not only a lot of Black history but the importance of studying one’s cultural roots.
There will be adolescents in the classroom and community who need to read this book. I know that I learned quite a lot which led me to want to know more‑about Black culture and my culture and the cultures of others.
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Kaleidoscope Eyes by Jen F. Bryant
This Jen Bryant novel in verse is yet another opportunity for readers to learn history through story, discovering patterns the pieces make.
“I lie down on my bed,
Point my kaleidoscope at the ceiling light,
Watch the patterns scatter, the pieces
Slide apart and come back together
In ways I hadn’t noticed before.” (149)
The time period of the novel is 1966-1968, but eighth-grader Lyza’s life is also affected by the years before.
She is affected by the “Unwritten Rules” that govern her close friendship with Malcolm Dupree—from tricycle days until now, they have “gotten along like peas in a pod.” (11) But it is a friendship that causes Lyza to experience the prejudice of the times and her town. “We sure didn’t make the rules / about who can be friends with whom / and we don’t like the rules the way they are…/ but we are also not fools… And so—/ in the halls, at lunch, and in class / Malcolm stays with the other black kids / and I stay with the other white kids…” (12) And when they meet new people and go to new places, they are wary and watchful in a way adolescents should not need to be.
Her every action is affected by her mother’s leaving two years before when Lyza was in sixth grade and “when our family began to unravel” (5). Her college professor father works all hours, taking on extra classes and leaving Kyza and Denise to their own devices and discipline. Denise gives up college and her dreams of becoming a doctor to work in the local diner and hang out with her hippie boyfriend, Harry.
The town is affected by war in Vietnam which causes Lyza to don her black funeral dress too many times, and “Not coming back” attains a new meaning. So much so, Lyza realizes that her mother is probably never coming back either. And when Malcolm’s brother Dixon is drafted and sent to Vietnam, feelings of helplessness overwhelm her,
“When someone you love
leaves,
and there is
nothing nothing nothing
you can do about it, not one thing
you can say to
stop that person whom you love
so much
from going away, and you know that today
may just be
the very last time you will ever
see them hear them hold them,
when that day comes, there is not much
you can do,
not much you can say.” (120)
Lyza’s grandfather dies and leaves her a mystery tied to pirate Captain Kidd, maps—old and current, a key, and a drawer, file, and documents numbers for the Historical Society of Brigantine. Lyza, Malcolm, and Carolann (“…whenever I am with Carolann and Malcolm at the same time…that’s when I feel almost normal.”) (15) spend the summer working out the mystery with the help of, surprisingly, Denise, and even more unexpectedly, Harry, Denise’s “strong, long-haired boyfriend” who is smarter, more resourceful, and more trustworthy than Lyza presumed.
It is a summer of spyglasses and kaleidoscopes, letting go, realization that “…my family might be messed up but my friends [a widening circle] are as steady as they come.” (214) A summer that is important to Lyza, her family, and the town.
“I take my kaleidoscope off the shelf…
I turn and turn and turn and turn,
Letting the crystals shift into strange
And beautiful patterns, letting the pieces fall
Wherever they will.” (257)
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This Jen Bryant novel in verse is yet another opportunity for readers to learn history through story, discovering patterns the pieces make.
“I lie down on my bed,
Point my kaleidoscope at the ceiling light,
Watch the patterns scatter, the pieces
Slide apart and come back together
In ways I hadn’t noticed before.” (149)
The time period of the novel is 1966-1968, but eighth-grader Lyza’s life is also affected by the years before.
She is affected by the “Unwritten Rules” that govern her close friendship with Malcolm Dupree—from tricycle days until now, they have “gotten along like peas in a pod.” (11) But it is a friendship that causes Lyza to experience the prejudice of the times and her town. “We sure didn’t make the rules / about who can be friends with whom / and we don’t like the rules the way they are…/ but we are also not fools… And so—/ in the halls, at lunch, and in class / Malcolm stays with the other black kids / and I stay with the other white kids…” (12) And when they meet new people and go to new places, they are wary and watchful in a way adolescents should not need to be.
Her every action is affected by her mother’s leaving two years before when Lyza was in sixth grade and “when our family began to unravel” (5). Her college professor father works all hours, taking on extra classes and leaving Kyza and Denise to their own devices and discipline. Denise gives up college and her dreams of becoming a doctor to work in the local diner and hang out with her hippie boyfriend, Harry.
The town is affected by war in Vietnam which causes Lyza to don her black funeral dress too many times, and “Not coming back” attains a new meaning. So much so, Lyza realizes that her mother is probably never coming back either. And when Malcolm’s brother Dixon is drafted and sent to Vietnam, feelings of helplessness overwhelm her,
“When someone you love
leaves,
and there is
nothing nothing nothing
you can do about it, not one thing
you can say to
stop that person whom you love
so much
from going away, and you know that today
may just be
the very last time you will ever
see them hear them hold them,
when that day comes, there is not much
you can do,
not much you can say.” (120)
Lyza’s grandfather dies and leaves her a mystery tied to pirate Captain Kidd, maps—old and current, a key, and a drawer, file, and documents numbers for the Historical Society of Brigantine. Lyza, Malcolm, and Carolann (“…whenever I am with Carolann and Malcolm at the same time…that’s when I feel almost normal.”) (15) spend the summer working out the mystery with the help of, surprisingly, Denise, and even more unexpectedly, Harry, Denise’s “strong, long-haired boyfriend” who is smarter, more resourceful, and more trustworthy than Lyza presumed.
It is a summer of spyglasses and kaleidoscopes, letting go, realization that “…my family might be messed up but my friends [a widening circle] are as steady as they come.” (214) A summer that is important to Lyza, her family, and the town.
“I take my kaleidoscope off the shelf…
I turn and turn and turn and turn,
Letting the crystals shift into strange
And beautiful patterns, letting the pieces fall
Wherever they will.” (257)
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Kent State by Deborah Wiles
“With any story, with any life, with any event whether joyous or tragic, there is so much more to know than the established, inadequate norm: There will be as many versions of the truth as there are persons who lived it.” (Author’s Note, 121)
Deborah Wiles’ historical verse novel does just that. It tells the story of the Vietnam War protest held on the campus of Kent State University and the students who were wounded and killed when the Ohio National Guard opened fire, students who may or may not have been actively involved in the demonstration. The novel chronicles the four days from Friday, May 1 to Monday, May 4, 1970.
But what is unique is that this is the story told by all the voices those involved, in whatever way—those readers may agree with, and those they may not. Author Salman Rushdie has told audiences that anyone who values freedom of expression should recognize that it must apply also to expression of which they disapprove. In Kent State we hear from protestors, faculty, and students, and friends of the four who were killed—Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandy Scheuer, and Bill Schroeder. We also observe the perspectives of the National Guardsmen, the people of the community of Kent, Ohio; and the Black United Students at Kent State. The readers themselves are addressed at times.
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“With any story, with any life, with any event whether joyous or tragic, there is so much more to know than the established, inadequate norm: There will be as many versions of the truth as there are persons who lived it.” (Author’s Note, 121)
Deborah Wiles’ historical verse novel does just that. It tells the story of the Vietnam War protest held on the campus of Kent State University and the students who were wounded and killed when the Ohio National Guard opened fire, students who may or may not have been actively involved in the demonstration. The novel chronicles the four days from Friday, May 1 to Monday, May 4, 1970.
But what is unique is that this is the story told by all the voices those involved, in whatever way—those readers may agree with, and those they may not. Author Salman Rushdie has told audiences that anyone who values freedom of expression should recognize that it must apply also to expression of which they disapprove. In Kent State we hear from protestors, faculty, and students, and friends of the four who were killed—Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandy Scheuer, and Bill Schroeder. We also observe the perspectives of the National Guardsmen, the people of the community of Kent, Ohio; and the Black United Students at Kent State. The readers themselves are addressed at times.
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Lines of Courage by Jennifer A, Nielsen
“There is a fire within each of us. If you fuel that fire with anger, it will burn all your happiness. But if you fuel it with courage, then the fire will give you strength to do difficult things.” (45-46)
My father once told me the story about how, as a six-year-old, he finally was able to walk to the candy store by himself to buy some penny candy. Imagine his excitement! And imagine his disappointment to discover that the store was closing at that very moment. World War I had been declared. A war which meant nothing to a little boy living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. World War I also had little meaning for me, just more dates and names. In Nielsen’s newest novel, Lines of Courage, I learned more in the first chapter about this war than from my high school history classes, seeing the events which precipitated the war from the up close perspective of a young adolescent.
In Lines of Courage readers experience the war from all perspectives, the Allies and the Central Powers, through the stories of five adolescents: Felix, a young Jew from Austria-Hungary; Kara from Britain whose burning ambition is to earn her Red Cross pin; Juliette from France whose father has been imprisoned; a too-young soldier, Dimitri from Russia; and Elsa from Germany who raises homing pigeons. From June 1914 to November 11, 1918, their stories span the timeline of war. And, as unlikely as it seems, their paths cross as the each find courage to be saved and to save.
“…that is life. Mademoiselle, something will always be in your way. So draw your line around it and keep going. You will find your family again, but it will come at the end of a long and crooked path.” (230)
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“There is a fire within each of us. If you fuel that fire with anger, it will burn all your happiness. But if you fuel it with courage, then the fire will give you strength to do difficult things.” (45-46)
My father once told me the story about how, as a six-year-old, he finally was able to walk to the candy store by himself to buy some penny candy. Imagine his excitement! And imagine his disappointment to discover that the store was closing at that very moment. World War I had been declared. A war which meant nothing to a little boy living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. World War I also had little meaning for me, just more dates and names. In Nielsen’s newest novel, Lines of Courage, I learned more in the first chapter about this war than from my high school history classes, seeing the events which precipitated the war from the up close perspective of a young adolescent.
In Lines of Courage readers experience the war from all perspectives, the Allies and the Central Powers, through the stories of five adolescents: Felix, a young Jew from Austria-Hungary; Kara from Britain whose burning ambition is to earn her Red Cross pin; Juliette from France whose father has been imprisoned; a too-young soldier, Dimitri from Russia; and Elsa from Germany who raises homing pigeons. From June 1914 to November 11, 1918, their stories span the timeline of war. And, as unlikely as it seems, their paths cross as the each find courage to be saved and to save.
“…that is life. Mademoiselle, something will always be in your way. So draw your line around it and keep going. You will find your family again, but it will come at the end of a long and crooked path.” (230)
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Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case by Patricia Hruby Powell
Loving vs Virgina is the story behind the unanimous landmark decision of June 1967. Told in free verse through alternating narrations by Richard and Mildred, the story begins in Fall 1952 when 13-year old Mildred notices that her desk in the colored school is “ sad excuse for a desk” and her reader “reeks of grime and mildew and has been in the hands of many boys,” but she also relates the closeness of family and friends in her summer vacation essay. This closeness is also expressed in the family’s Saturday dinner where “folks drop by,” one of them being the boy who catches Mildred’s ball during the kickball game and “Because of him I don’t get home.” That boy is her neighbor, nineteen-year-old Richard Loving, and that phrase becomes truer than Mildred could have guessed.
On June 2, 1958, Richard, who is white, and Mildred marry in Washington, D.C., and on July 11, 1958 they are arrested at her parents’ house in Virginia. The couple spends the next ten years living in D.C., sneaking into Virginia, and finally contacting the American Civil Liberties Union who brings their case through the courts to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The documentary novel brings the story behind the case alive, interspersed with quotes, news headlines and news reports, maps, timelines, and information on the various court cases, and the players involved, as the case made its way to the Supreme Court.
Students can learn history from textbooks, from lectures, or more effectively and affectively, through the stories of the people involved. Novels are where readers learn empathy, vicariously living the lives of others.
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Loving vs Virgina is the story behind the unanimous landmark decision of June 1967. Told in free verse through alternating narrations by Richard and Mildred, the story begins in Fall 1952 when 13-year old Mildred notices that her desk in the colored school is “ sad excuse for a desk” and her reader “reeks of grime and mildew and has been in the hands of many boys,” but she also relates the closeness of family and friends in her summer vacation essay. This closeness is also expressed in the family’s Saturday dinner where “folks drop by,” one of them being the boy who catches Mildred’s ball during the kickball game and “Because of him I don’t get home.” That boy is her neighbor, nineteen-year-old Richard Loving, and that phrase becomes truer than Mildred could have guessed.
On June 2, 1958, Richard, who is white, and Mildred marry in Washington, D.C., and on July 11, 1958 they are arrested at her parents’ house in Virginia. The couple spends the next ten years living in D.C., sneaking into Virginia, and finally contacting the American Civil Liberties Union who brings their case through the courts to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The documentary novel brings the story behind the case alive, interspersed with quotes, news headlines and news reports, maps, timelines, and information on the various court cases, and the players involved, as the case made its way to the Supreme Court.
Students can learn history from textbooks, from lectures, or more effectively and affectively, through the stories of the people involved. Novels are where readers learn empathy, vicariously living the lives of others.
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Operation: Happy by Jenni L. Walsh
"A cascade of bombs drop into the water and create soaring geysers of water.
Hiss
Splash
Burst
Hiss
Splash
Burst
One after another, rocking the remaining ships as if they’re nothing more than toy boats in a bathtub." (79-80)
I have read many middle grade and YA Holocaust novels and some novels about WWII Japanese internment, but this is the first MG novel I have read about the attack on Pearl Harbor. OPERATION: HAPPY is a realistic and sensitively written story about the effects of these events on one military family, written from the point of view of 12-year-old Jody and her aging companion dog Happy.
“Happy claimed me and I claimed him. Now, we’re inseparable. Two peas in a pod. Compadres.” (9)
When Jody was ten, her number one Christmas present was Happy, a military dog who was losing his eyesight but still had his sniffer. His military job was done, but now he had a new one—Jody.
Jody Zuber, her 13-year-old sister Peggy, mother, and Marine father have lived in many places. In 1940 they are stationed at Pearl Harbor where she embraces the barefoot Hawaiian life. Every day she goes to school, Happy waiting patiently outside the school for her, with the other military kids; as with her other residences, she starts a "Best of…" list. But her mother has bad dreams and refers to Ford Island as THE island. But the war is in Europe and doesn’t involve the United States.
Then the sirens begin and drills to take cover become commonplace, and Jody and Peggy overhear their parents talking about the Japanese. “Are the Japanese—not the Germans—the real reason for all our drills and vaccinations and gun pits? For Mom’s nervousness and bad dreams? When I thought it was the Germans, the threat didn’t seem real, not when it’s practically impossible for them their planes to get here. But for planes that could take off from the next island over in the Pacific? It’s very possible. (66)
When the events of December 7, 1941, occur, no alarm goes off. Everyone does make it to the shelter, and then a series of events affect Jody’s family. Jody and Peggy are sent to live with another military family, and finally their mother takes them to San Francisco where Jody’s father, still in Hawaii, puts her in charge of Team Zuber.
With her mother in a deep depression, Jody and Peggy, with the help of Jody’s new friend, another evacuee from the war, have to buy and make meals, wash and iron their clothes so they are not taken away from the mother, and finally, asking for their father’s help, find a new apartment in a safer neighborhood. Meanwhile Lucky is always at Jody’s side, her reason to be happy.
This is a story of the World War II arena of which many of our readers are unaware, the faction that greatly affected America—the story of one girl’s courage and resilience and a dog’s love. OPERATON: HAPPY is based on a memoir by the real Jody, Joan Zuber Earle.
----------
"A cascade of bombs drop into the water and create soaring geysers of water.
Hiss
Splash
Burst
Hiss
Splash
Burst
One after another, rocking the remaining ships as if they’re nothing more than toy boats in a bathtub." (79-80)
I have read many middle grade and YA Holocaust novels and some novels about WWII Japanese internment, but this is the first MG novel I have read about the attack on Pearl Harbor. OPERATION: HAPPY is a realistic and sensitively written story about the effects of these events on one military family, written from the point of view of 12-year-old Jody and her aging companion dog Happy.
“Happy claimed me and I claimed him. Now, we’re inseparable. Two peas in a pod. Compadres.” (9)
When Jody was ten, her number one Christmas present was Happy, a military dog who was losing his eyesight but still had his sniffer. His military job was done, but now he had a new one—Jody.
Jody Zuber, her 13-year-old sister Peggy, mother, and Marine father have lived in many places. In 1940 they are stationed at Pearl Harbor where she embraces the barefoot Hawaiian life. Every day she goes to school, Happy waiting patiently outside the school for her, with the other military kids; as with her other residences, she starts a "Best of…" list. But her mother has bad dreams and refers to Ford Island as THE island. But the war is in Europe and doesn’t involve the United States.
Then the sirens begin and drills to take cover become commonplace, and Jody and Peggy overhear their parents talking about the Japanese. “Are the Japanese—not the Germans—the real reason for all our drills and vaccinations and gun pits? For Mom’s nervousness and bad dreams? When I thought it was the Germans, the threat didn’t seem real, not when it’s practically impossible for them their planes to get here. But for planes that could take off from the next island over in the Pacific? It’s very possible. (66)
When the events of December 7, 1941, occur, no alarm goes off. Everyone does make it to the shelter, and then a series of events affect Jody’s family. Jody and Peggy are sent to live with another military family, and finally their mother takes them to San Francisco where Jody’s father, still in Hawaii, puts her in charge of Team Zuber.
With her mother in a deep depression, Jody and Peggy, with the help of Jody’s new friend, another evacuee from the war, have to buy and make meals, wash and iron their clothes so they are not taken away from the mother, and finally, asking for their father’s help, find a new apartment in a safer neighborhood. Meanwhile Lucky is always at Jody’s side, her reason to be happy.
This is a story of the World War II arena of which many of our readers are unaware, the faction that greatly affected America—the story of one girl’s courage and resilience and a dog’s love. OPERATON: HAPPY is based on a memoir by the real Jody, Joan Zuber Earle.
----------
Parkland Speaks: Survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas Share Their Stories by Lerner, Sarah, Ed.
On the first anniversary of the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, I read the writings of the survivors of that unspeakable event. In this “yearbook,” students and teachers share their stories of grief, terror, anger, and hope, and honor those who died through narratives, letters, speeches, free verse and rhyming poetry, and art. As the editor, MSD English and journalism teacher Sarah Lerner, writes, “Watching my students find their voices after someone tried to silence them was impressive…. It was awe-inspiring. It was brave…. They turned their grief into words, into pictures, into something that helped them begin the healing process.”
“[The news] keeps coming in,
It doesn’t pause
Or give you a break. It keeps hitting you
With debilitating blows, one after the other,
As those missing responses remain empty,
And your messages remain unread.” –C. Chalita
“We entered a war zone.…I came out of that building a different person than the one who left for school that day.” –J. DeArce
“Somehow, through the darkness, we found another shade of love, too
something that outweighed the hate and swept the grays away.
A love so strong it transcended colors, something so empowering and true it couldn’t be traced to one hue.” – H. Korr
“I just don’t want to let go of all the people I love,
I want to continuously tell them “I love you” until
My voice is raw and my throat is sore” – S. Bonnin
“I invite you [Dear Mr. President] to learn, to hear the story from inside,
Cause if not now, when will be the right time to discuss?” –A. Sheehy
A look into the minds and hearts of those who experienced an event no one, especially adolescents, should ever expect to encounter as they share with readers in similar and disparate circumstances across the globe. Not technically historical (and sadly not fiction), this tragic event has become part of our history.
-----
On the first anniversary of the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, I read the writings of the survivors of that unspeakable event. In this “yearbook,” students and teachers share their stories of grief, terror, anger, and hope, and honor those who died through narratives, letters, speeches, free verse and rhyming poetry, and art. As the editor, MSD English and journalism teacher Sarah Lerner, writes, “Watching my students find their voices after someone tried to silence them was impressive…. It was awe-inspiring. It was brave…. They turned their grief into words, into pictures, into something that helped them begin the healing process.”
“[The news] keeps coming in,
It doesn’t pause
Or give you a break. It keeps hitting you
With debilitating blows, one after the other,
As those missing responses remain empty,
And your messages remain unread.” –C. Chalita
“We entered a war zone.…I came out of that building a different person than the one who left for school that day.” –J. DeArce
“Somehow, through the darkness, we found another shade of love, too
something that outweighed the hate and swept the grays away.
A love so strong it transcended colors, something so empowering and true it couldn’t be traced to one hue.” – H. Korr
“I just don’t want to let go of all the people I love,
I want to continuously tell them “I love you” until
My voice is raw and my throat is sore” – S. Bonnin
“I invite you [Dear Mr. President] to learn, to hear the story from inside,
Cause if not now, when will be the right time to discuss?” –A. Sheehy
A look into the minds and hearts of those who experienced an event no one, especially adolescents, should ever expect to encounter as they share with readers in similar and disparate circumstances across the globe. Not technically historical (and sadly not fiction), this tragic event has become part of our history.
-----
Rescue by Jennifer A, Nielsen
“Maman once told me that surviving in an occupied country meant we had to learn to live in the middle—somewhere between accepting our fate and outright resistance. With my next step, I left the middle.” 97
On May 10, 1940 Germany invaded France. On May 11, Meg’s British father left to fight the Germans, working on secret missions for the Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.). Almost two years later, 12-year-old Meg is helping the resistance in The Perche. When she is sought for questioning by the Nazis, Meg leaves France. With her are a young boy named Jakob and Arthur and Liesel, who are posing as his parents. Meg is tasked to help them escape to neutral Spain so that Arthur will give orders to free her father who was being hunted as an enemy of the Nazis. All Meg has to go on is a code from her father and a spy book from an injured resistance fighter. As Jakob and Meg work together and try to solve the code, they realize that there may be a traitor among them.
“Jakob stuffed his hands in his pockets. ‘I was taught that everyone has three choices in life. To be part of the good, part of the evil, or to try standing in the middle. But I don’t think that’s true anymore. There is no middle. Those who refuse to choose one side or the other only get in the way of those who are doing good, and in that way, end up helping those who wish to do evil.’” (111)
Espionage. Secrecy. Danger. Mystery. Betrayal. Resistance. Heroes. Enemies. Traitors. Spies. This novel has it all and will engage the most reluctant of readers and challenge the more proficient readers.
“This war seemed to me like a chain of dominoes stacked on their ends. With the first invasion, one tile had toppled another, and then another and another. And not only in the destruction of governments and border lines but destroying dreams for the future and traditions of the past. Destroying families.” (147)
Rescue is another well-written history fiction novel with engaging developed characters by Jennifer Nielsen.
-----
“Maman once told me that surviving in an occupied country meant we had to learn to live in the middle—somewhere between accepting our fate and outright resistance. With my next step, I left the middle.” 97
On May 10, 1940 Germany invaded France. On May 11, Meg’s British father left to fight the Germans, working on secret missions for the Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.). Almost two years later, 12-year-old Meg is helping the resistance in The Perche. When she is sought for questioning by the Nazis, Meg leaves France. With her are a young boy named Jakob and Arthur and Liesel, who are posing as his parents. Meg is tasked to help them escape to neutral Spain so that Arthur will give orders to free her father who was being hunted as an enemy of the Nazis. All Meg has to go on is a code from her father and a spy book from an injured resistance fighter. As Jakob and Meg work together and try to solve the code, they realize that there may be a traitor among them.
“Jakob stuffed his hands in his pockets. ‘I was taught that everyone has three choices in life. To be part of the good, part of the evil, or to try standing in the middle. But I don’t think that’s true anymore. There is no middle. Those who refuse to choose one side or the other only get in the way of those who are doing good, and in that way, end up helping those who wish to do evil.’” (111)
Espionage. Secrecy. Danger. Mystery. Betrayal. Resistance. Heroes. Enemies. Traitors. Spies. This novel has it all and will engage the most reluctant of readers and challenge the more proficient readers.
“This war seemed to me like a chain of dominoes stacked on their ends. With the first invasion, one tile had toppled another, and then another and another. And not only in the destruction of governments and border lines but destroying dreams for the future and traditions of the past. Destroying families.” (147)
Rescue is another well-written history fiction novel with engaging developed characters by Jennifer Nielsen.
-----
Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Sometimes strength is defined by how we deal with a situation; sometimes it is overcoming challenges and differences and demonstrating resilience; sometimes strength is righting a wrong or helping another.
“We need to believe in a future where love is stronger than hate. Where peace is normal. Where this—I gestured around the tank—“is just a page from the history books.” (190)
The year is 1942, Jewish Ghettos, Poland.
Jewish teen Chaya Lindner, now known as the Polish, Gentile, German-speaking Helena Nowak, made possible by her Aryan looks, works as a courier for the resistance movement Akiva. Her job is to smuggle things, like food and weapons, into ghettos and smuggle people out. “After three years of war in which I’d felt helpless against the overwhelming force of the German army, I was finally doing something. I was bringing my people a chance to survive. (5)
Her parents live in half a room in the Podgorze Ghetto; her younger sister was taken to a death camp and her younger brother is missing. Her parents appear to have given up hope.
Her resistance group does not think they will win but, as their leader says, “We are fighting our three lines of history just so that it will not be said that our youth went like sheep to the slaughter,” and Chaya is “ready to claim [her] place in history.” (59)
As she performs heroic, selfless deeds, she unwillingly mentors Esther who has a complicated history that she keeps to herself and whom Chaya is not certain she can trust. Esther wonders if hatred will ever end. Chaya tells her, “Enough of us must survive the war to tell our stories, and every story will matter. When the remember our stories, they will soon forget their hatred.” (180)
As readers follow Chaya and Esther’s harrowing missions, they will encounter those who are evil and those who are good, those who are weak and those who are strong, those who die and those who may survive. “I intended to remember Wit Golinski for as long as I lived, to remind myself that where there was evil, good men and women would also rise up to fight it.” (178)
I know that the author has done quite a lot of history but the raids and the secret passageways and plans are so detailed and descriptive that I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that she experienced some time travel to write this novel. I felt like I was running and hiding and lying and standing up to people right along with the characters, especially this teen justice and change-seeker.
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” – Anne Frank
----------
Sometimes strength is defined by how we deal with a situation; sometimes it is overcoming challenges and differences and demonstrating resilience; sometimes strength is righting a wrong or helping another.
“We need to believe in a future where love is stronger than hate. Where peace is normal. Where this—I gestured around the tank—“is just a page from the history books.” (190)
The year is 1942, Jewish Ghettos, Poland.
Jewish teen Chaya Lindner, now known as the Polish, Gentile, German-speaking Helena Nowak, made possible by her Aryan looks, works as a courier for the resistance movement Akiva. Her job is to smuggle things, like food and weapons, into ghettos and smuggle people out. “After three years of war in which I’d felt helpless against the overwhelming force of the German army, I was finally doing something. I was bringing my people a chance to survive. (5)
Her parents live in half a room in the Podgorze Ghetto; her younger sister was taken to a death camp and her younger brother is missing. Her parents appear to have given up hope.
Her resistance group does not think they will win but, as their leader says, “We are fighting our three lines of history just so that it will not be said that our youth went like sheep to the slaughter,” and Chaya is “ready to claim [her] place in history.” (59)
As she performs heroic, selfless deeds, she unwillingly mentors Esther who has a complicated history that she keeps to herself and whom Chaya is not certain she can trust. Esther wonders if hatred will ever end. Chaya tells her, “Enough of us must survive the war to tell our stories, and every story will matter. When the remember our stories, they will soon forget their hatred.” (180)
As readers follow Chaya and Esther’s harrowing missions, they will encounter those who are evil and those who are good, those who are weak and those who are strong, those who die and those who may survive. “I intended to remember Wit Golinski for as long as I lived, to remind myself that where there was evil, good men and women would also rise up to fight it.” (178)
I know that the author has done quite a lot of history but the raids and the secret passageways and plans are so detailed and descriptive that I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that she experienced some time travel to write this novel. I felt like I was running and hiding and lying and standing up to people right along with the characters, especially this teen justice and change-seeker.
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” – Anne Frank
----------
Rima’s Rebellion: Courage in the Time of Tyranny by Margarita Engle
I dream of being legitimate
My father would love me,
society could accept me,
strangers might even admire
my short, simple first name
if it were followed
by two surnames
instead of
one. (53)
Twelve-year-old Rima Marin is a natural child, the illegitimate child of a father who will not acknowledge her.
I am a living, breathing secret.
Natural children aren’t supposed to exist.
Our names don’t appear on family trees,
our framed photos never rest affectionately
beside a father’s armchair, and when priests
write about us in official documents,
they follow the single surname of a mother
with the letters SOA,
meaning sin otro apellido,
so that anyone reading
will understand clearly
that without two last names
we have no legal right to money
for school uniforms, books, papers, pencils,
shelter,
or food. (11)
Rima, her Mama, and her abuela live in poverty, squatting in a small building owned by her wealthy father. Her mother is a lacemaker and her abulela—a nurse during the wars for independence from Spain—works as a farrier and founded La Mambisa Voting Club whose members are fighting for voting rights, equality for “natural children,” and the end of the Adultery Law which permits men to kill unfaithful wives and daughters along with their lovers.
Taking place from 1923 to 1936, Rima also joins La Mambisas; becomes friends with her acknowledged, wealthy half-sister, keeping her safe when she defies their father, refusing arranged marriage and becomes pregnant by her boyfriend; falls in love; and becomes trained as a typesetter, printing revolutionary books and posters for suffrage.
Over the thirteen years she grows from a girl who cowers from bullies who call her “bastarda,” finding confidence only in riding Ala, her buttermilk mare,
to an adolescent, living in the city and fighting dictatorship with words—hers and others:
absorb[ing] the strength of female hopes,
wondering if this is how it will be
someday
when women
can finally
vote. (43)
to a young married woman and mother voting in her first election:
Voting rights are our only
Pathway to freedom from fear. (167)
In this new novel, Rima joins author Margarita Engle’s other strong women, real and fictitious, in their fight for the people of Cuba: Liana of Your Heart My Sky; Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda or Tula, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist; Rosa of The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom; and Paloma of Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba. Perfect reads for International Women’s Day.
-----
I dream of being legitimate
My father would love me,
society could accept me,
strangers might even admire
my short, simple first name
if it were followed
by two surnames
instead of
one. (53)
Twelve-year-old Rima Marin is a natural child, the illegitimate child of a father who will not acknowledge her.
I am a living, breathing secret.
Natural children aren’t supposed to exist.
Our names don’t appear on family trees,
our framed photos never rest affectionately
beside a father’s armchair, and when priests
write about us in official documents,
they follow the single surname of a mother
with the letters SOA,
meaning sin otro apellido,
so that anyone reading
will understand clearly
that without two last names
we have no legal right to money
for school uniforms, books, papers, pencils,
shelter,
or food. (11)
Rima, her Mama, and her abuela live in poverty, squatting in a small building owned by her wealthy father. Her mother is a lacemaker and her abulela—a nurse during the wars for independence from Spain—works as a farrier and founded La Mambisa Voting Club whose members are fighting for voting rights, equality for “natural children,” and the end of the Adultery Law which permits men to kill unfaithful wives and daughters along with their lovers.
Taking place from 1923 to 1936, Rima also joins La Mambisas; becomes friends with her acknowledged, wealthy half-sister, keeping her safe when she defies their father, refusing arranged marriage and becomes pregnant by her boyfriend; falls in love; and becomes trained as a typesetter, printing revolutionary books and posters for suffrage.
Over the thirteen years she grows from a girl who cowers from bullies who call her “bastarda,” finding confidence only in riding Ala, her buttermilk mare,
to an adolescent, living in the city and fighting dictatorship with words—hers and others:
absorb[ing] the strength of female hopes,
wondering if this is how it will be
someday
when women
can finally
vote. (43)
to a young married woman and mother voting in her first election:
Voting rights are our only
Pathway to freedom from fear. (167)
In this new novel, Rima joins author Margarita Engle’s other strong women, real and fictitious, in their fight for the people of Cuba: Liana of Your Heart My Sky; Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda or Tula, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist; Rosa of The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom; and Paloma of Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba. Perfect reads for International Women’s Day.
-----
Ringside, 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial by Jen F. Bryant
I have always been interested in the Scopes “Monkey” Trial; I think much of America has—whether it be about religion vs science, text book and curricula decisions, the role of law and government in education, William Jennings Bryan vs Clarence Darrow, or Spencer Tracy vs Fredric March (Inherit the Wind).
Most of us know the Who, What, Where, When, and believe we know the Why – but do we? How often do we know the true story of historic events—and the stories behind the story, and the different perspectives on the story. Jen Bryant’s historical novel grants us the chance to observe the events of the Scopes Trial close up and personally.
Through this novel, written in the voices of those who had a ringside seat to this trial, readers secure a ringside seat to the trial, the people who participated in it, and the town that hosted it.
As the reader views the controversy and the trial from the point of view of nine fictitious, diverse characters (plus quotes from the real participants), each character develops as the story progresses. My favorite are the teenagers of Dayton, Tennessee; while meeting those on both sides of the issue and closely observing them, readers discover how the trial affects them, their relationships, and their futures. Peter and Jimmy Lee, best friends become divided by their beliefs; Marybeth is a young lady who finds the strength to stand up to her father’s traditional view of the role of women in society; and my favorite character, Willy Amos, meets Clarence Darrow and dares to believe what he can attempt to achieve. “’Well,’ I pointed out, ‘there ain’t no such thing as a colored lawyer.’”…”Do you plan to let that stop you?” (210)
The novel is powerfully written in multiple formats—free verse in a variety of stanza configurations and spacing decisions, a few rhyming lines here and there, and some prose. And the messages are powerful: Peter Sykes: “Why should a bigger mind need a smaller God.” (11); Marybeth Dodd: “I think some people can look at a thing a lot of different ways at once and they can all be partly right.” (131); and Constable Fraybel: “[Darrow] claims [his witnesses] are anxious to explain the difference between science and religious faith and how they made places in their heart and minds for both.” (143)
An epilogue shares the aftermath and the lasting effects of the trial. Every American History/Social Justice teacher and English-Language Arts teacher should have copies of this novel.
-----
I have always been interested in the Scopes “Monkey” Trial; I think much of America has—whether it be about religion vs science, text book and curricula decisions, the role of law and government in education, William Jennings Bryan vs Clarence Darrow, or Spencer Tracy vs Fredric March (Inherit the Wind).
Most of us know the Who, What, Where, When, and believe we know the Why – but do we? How often do we know the true story of historic events—and the stories behind the story, and the different perspectives on the story. Jen Bryant’s historical novel grants us the chance to observe the events of the Scopes Trial close up and personally.
Through this novel, written in the voices of those who had a ringside seat to this trial, readers secure a ringside seat to the trial, the people who participated in it, and the town that hosted it.
As the reader views the controversy and the trial from the point of view of nine fictitious, diverse characters (plus quotes from the real participants), each character develops as the story progresses. My favorite are the teenagers of Dayton, Tennessee; while meeting those on both sides of the issue and closely observing them, readers discover how the trial affects them, their relationships, and their futures. Peter and Jimmy Lee, best friends become divided by their beliefs; Marybeth is a young lady who finds the strength to stand up to her father’s traditional view of the role of women in society; and my favorite character, Willy Amos, meets Clarence Darrow and dares to believe what he can attempt to achieve. “’Well,’ I pointed out, ‘there ain’t no such thing as a colored lawyer.’”…”Do you plan to let that stop you?” (210)
The novel is powerfully written in multiple formats—free verse in a variety of stanza configurations and spacing decisions, a few rhyming lines here and there, and some prose. And the messages are powerful: Peter Sykes: “Why should a bigger mind need a smaller God.” (11); Marybeth Dodd: “I think some people can look at a thing a lot of different ways at once and they can all be partly right.” (131); and Constable Fraybel: “[Darrow] claims [his witnesses] are anxious to explain the difference between science and religious faith and how they made places in their heart and minds for both.” (143)
An epilogue shares the aftermath and the lasting effects of the trial. Every American History/Social Justice teacher and English-Language Arts teacher should have copies of this novel.
-----
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
This is a World War II story that focuses on race, ethnicity, nationality, culture, prejudice, and stereotyping. It is a love story and a friendship story between and among those of diverse cultures and in so, functions as a true multicultural story.
I have read many WWII stories but less about the war with Japan and those Japanese Americans sent to internment camps. In Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet readers see how loyal Americans (some second generation) were rounded up and sent to first one camp where they lived in horse stalls and then to another built in the middle of nowhere by their own labor. I have read no others novels that focus on the antipathy of the Chinese for the Japanese.
In this love story between Chinese and Japanese adolescents, readers can discover just how intolerance and stereotyping can destroy a family and how open mindedness in our newest generation can bring it back again.
Not technically considered a YA novel, this is a book for both adolescents and adults.
-----
This is a World War II story that focuses on race, ethnicity, nationality, culture, prejudice, and stereotyping. It is a love story and a friendship story between and among those of diverse cultures and in so, functions as a true multicultural story.
I have read many WWII stories but less about the war with Japan and those Japanese Americans sent to internment camps. In Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet readers see how loyal Americans (some second generation) were rounded up and sent to first one camp where they lived in horse stalls and then to another built in the middle of nowhere by their own labor. I have read no others novels that focus on the antipathy of the Chinese for the Japanese.
In this love story between Chinese and Japanese adolescents, readers can discover just how intolerance and stereotyping can destroy a family and how open mindedness in our newest generation can bring it back again.
Not technically considered a YA novel, this is a book for both adolescents and adults.
-----
Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas
“But…Black people aren’t good at swimming.” (78)
When Bree and her father move from Brooklyn to Florida, she is excited about her first day of school. She has already made a friend, another 7th grader who lives in her apartment complex. Excited about joining the Math Team, Bree finds that the only elective that is still open is Swimming. And even though she tries to think about the things that make her happy—doing homework with her Dad, cooking, reading, and math—frequently “negative thoughts take over. And I think about the things that make me nervous and scared. I second-guess and doubt myself, even when I don’t want to.” (7) And some of the things that Bree doesn’t like are sports, pools, and she worries about not having friends. She is especially worried about Swimming class because she has never learned to swim.
Bree eludes the class, and, when she can no longer avoid it, Ms Etta, her neighbor and a former professional swimmer who happens to have swum on the team at Bree’s middle school back when the team almost won the championship, teaches Bree to swim. Ms Etta also explains the reasons that Bree assumes that Black people aren’t good at swimming. “From ancient Africa to modern Africa, from Chicago to Peru, in seas, rivers, lakes and pools, Black people have always swum and always will.” (80-81) But she also explains the history of segregation and discrimination that limited Blacks’ access to pools, Telling about Eugene Williams’ murder (1919), David Isom’s breaking of the color line (1958), and John Lewis’ protest (1962).
Bree becomes quite a good swimmer, and the coach of the school swim team tricks her into trying out. She joins the team with her new best friend Clara, and, with the help of Ms. Etta, the team makes it to the championship. But when a student, Mean-Girl Keisha, transfers from the rival private school and joins the team and the girls find out that Clara has won a swimming scholarship to the same private school for the next year, the team relay threatens to fall apart.
That is when they learn what happened to Ms. Etta’s team years ago that cost them the championship. Reuniting the former Swim Sisters reunites the present team as they learn about relationships. “A team is like a family. Sometimes family shows you how to do a flip turn. Or tells funny jokes—And is a little annoying. (215)
Johnnie Christmas’ new graphic novel tells the story of middle-grade friendships, socioeconomic prejudice and racial discrimination, and swimming through those negative thoughts that hold us back. In the classroom this novel could lead to some research on Black athletes in sports through history and discrimination.
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“But…Black people aren’t good at swimming.” (78)
When Bree and her father move from Brooklyn to Florida, she is excited about her first day of school. She has already made a friend, another 7th grader who lives in her apartment complex. Excited about joining the Math Team, Bree finds that the only elective that is still open is Swimming. And even though she tries to think about the things that make her happy—doing homework with her Dad, cooking, reading, and math—frequently “negative thoughts take over. And I think about the things that make me nervous and scared. I second-guess and doubt myself, even when I don’t want to.” (7) And some of the things that Bree doesn’t like are sports, pools, and she worries about not having friends. She is especially worried about Swimming class because she has never learned to swim.
Bree eludes the class, and, when she can no longer avoid it, Ms Etta, her neighbor and a former professional swimmer who happens to have swum on the team at Bree’s middle school back when the team almost won the championship, teaches Bree to swim. Ms Etta also explains the reasons that Bree assumes that Black people aren’t good at swimming. “From ancient Africa to modern Africa, from Chicago to Peru, in seas, rivers, lakes and pools, Black people have always swum and always will.” (80-81) But she also explains the history of segregation and discrimination that limited Blacks’ access to pools, Telling about Eugene Williams’ murder (1919), David Isom’s breaking of the color line (1958), and John Lewis’ protest (1962).
Bree becomes quite a good swimmer, and the coach of the school swim team tricks her into trying out. She joins the team with her new best friend Clara, and, with the help of Ms. Etta, the team makes it to the championship. But when a student, Mean-Girl Keisha, transfers from the rival private school and joins the team and the girls find out that Clara has won a swimming scholarship to the same private school for the next year, the team relay threatens to fall apart.
That is when they learn what happened to Ms. Etta’s team years ago that cost them the championship. Reuniting the former Swim Sisters reunites the present team as they learn about relationships. “A team is like a family. Sometimes family shows you how to do a flip turn. Or tells funny jokes—And is a little annoying. (215)
Johnnie Christmas’ new graphic novel tells the story of middle-grade friendships, socioeconomic prejudice and racial discrimination, and swimming through those negative thoughts that hold us back. In the classroom this novel could lead to some research on Black athletes in sports through history and discrimination.
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The Last Cherry Blossom by Kathleen Burkinshaw
All wars have two sides, but, as Winston Churchill said, “History is written by the victors.” Through history books and archives our students learn only one point of view, but we must disrupt the narrative with tales from the other side.
When our students study World War II—the war in Europe and the war with Japan, it is crucial that we help our students to see all perspectives and bear witness to the experiences of others. They need to learn that actions and decisions of governments have effects. One of those actions by the United States in 1945 was the bombing of Hiroshima, employing the first atomic bombs.
Through author Kathleen Burkinshaw’s poignant story, based on her mother’s childhood in Japan, readers can gain empathy and understanding for those innocent victims of war. This is the first-person narrative of 12-year-old Yuriko, her family members who are inundated with family secrets and shifting relationships, her neighbors who are sending their boys off to war, and her best friend. Through this important and well-written story, readers are introduced to Japanese culture, experience the strain of family secrets, and observe the war from the Japanese perspective. Not only a story of war, The Last Cherry Blossom is the story of family, heritage, and relationships.
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All wars have two sides, but, as Winston Churchill said, “History is written by the victors.” Through history books and archives our students learn only one point of view, but we must disrupt the narrative with tales from the other side.
When our students study World War II—the war in Europe and the war with Japan, it is crucial that we help our students to see all perspectives and bear witness to the experiences of others. They need to learn that actions and decisions of governments have effects. One of those actions by the United States in 1945 was the bombing of Hiroshima, employing the first atomic bombs.
Through author Kathleen Burkinshaw’s poignant story, based on her mother’s childhood in Japan, readers can gain empathy and understanding for those innocent victims of war. This is the first-person narrative of 12-year-old Yuriko, her family members who are inundated with family secrets and shifting relationships, her neighbors who are sending their boys off to war, and her best friend. Through this important and well-written story, readers are introduced to Japanese culture, experience the strain of family secrets, and observe the war from the Japanese perspective. Not only a story of war, The Last Cherry Blossom is the story of family, heritage, and relationships.
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The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba’s Greatest Abolitionist by Margarita Engle
“I feel certain that words / can be as human / as people, / alive / with the breath / of compassion.”
The Lightning Dreamer shares the story of feminist Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, known as Tula. The story follows Tula from 1827, where she tells us that “Books are door-shaped portals…helping me feel less alone,” to 1836 where she begins the first of her books to spread her hope of racial and gender equality.
As a girl, Tula reads in secret and burns her writings because reading and writing are unladylike. At 13 she is nearing the age of forced marriage, and her grandfather and mother make plans to barter her for riches. The reader follows Tula through Engle’s beautiful verse as she writes plays and stories to give hope to orphaned children and slaves; refuses not one, but two arranged marriages; falls in love with a half-African freed slave who loves another; and at last, independent, moves to Havana to be healed by poetry and plan the writing of “a gentle tale of love,” a story about how human souls are “free of all color, class, and gender.”
The real Tula wrote that abolitionist novel and spread her hope of racial and gender equality. “Some people are born with words flowing in their veins.” -The Nuns
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“I feel certain that words / can be as human / as people, / alive / with the breath / of compassion.”
The Lightning Dreamer shares the story of feminist Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, known as Tula. The story follows Tula from 1827, where she tells us that “Books are door-shaped portals…helping me feel less alone,” to 1836 where she begins the first of her books to spread her hope of racial and gender equality.
As a girl, Tula reads in secret and burns her writings because reading and writing are unladylike. At 13 she is nearing the age of forced marriage, and her grandfather and mother make plans to barter her for riches. The reader follows Tula through Engle’s beautiful verse as she writes plays and stories to give hope to orphaned children and slaves; refuses not one, but two arranged marriages; falls in love with a half-African freed slave who loves another; and at last, independent, moves to Havana to be healed by poetry and plan the writing of “a gentle tale of love,” a story about how human souls are “free of all color, class, and gender.”
The real Tula wrote that abolitionist novel and spread her hope of racial and gender equality. “Some people are born with words flowing in their veins.” -The Nuns
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The Long Ride by Marina Budhos
“You know, it’s a lot easier to be one side or the other. It’s harder to be in the middle. People don’t like the middle. That’s the bravest thing of all.” (178)
Jamila, Josie, and Francesca are best friends of mixed race in 1971 Queens, NY. Their plans for starting seventh grade with each other and their white schoolmates at the neighborhood junior high school change when they become part of social experiment—integration. Francesca’s parents send her to a private school where she doesn’t fit, while Josie and Jamila take a long bus ride to a predominately black school in a much rougher neighborhood. They hope they may fit in better there, but Jamila is too white for the girls and Josie is no longer in the advanced classes and worries about her future. The girls don’t fit into their new school neighborhood and their new friends don’t fit into their neighborhood.
As they try to navigate seventh grade, boyfriends, teachers, classes, narrator Jamila’s anger, and Josie’s shyness, Jamilla realizes, “if anyone had told me this was what being in junior high would be like: Your best friend is silent beside you. You’re skinny and knock-kneed and you get lost easily. You aren’t at the top of the Ferris Wheel. I’d have said: You can have it. (60)
The world seemed to have changed. “…I’m starting to notice that something bigger s going on in the city. Everyone is edgier, angry. You can feel it in the way people squint through the bus windows.
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“You know, it’s a lot easier to be one side or the other. It’s harder to be in the middle. People don’t like the middle. That’s the bravest thing of all.” (178)
Jamila, Josie, and Francesca are best friends of mixed race in 1971 Queens, NY. Their plans for starting seventh grade with each other and their white schoolmates at the neighborhood junior high school change when they become part of social experiment—integration. Francesca’s parents send her to a private school where she doesn’t fit, while Josie and Jamila take a long bus ride to a predominately black school in a much rougher neighborhood. They hope they may fit in better there, but Jamila is too white for the girls and Josie is no longer in the advanced classes and worries about her future. The girls don’t fit into their new school neighborhood and their new friends don’t fit into their neighborhood.
As they try to navigate seventh grade, boyfriends, teachers, classes, narrator Jamila’s anger, and Josie’s shyness, Jamilla realizes, “if anyone had told me this was what being in junior high would be like: Your best friend is silent beside you. You’re skinny and knock-kneed and you get lost easily. You aren’t at the top of the Ferris Wheel. I’d have said: You can have it. (60)
The world seemed to have changed. “…I’m starting to notice that something bigger s going on in the city. Everyone is edgier, angry. You can feel it in the way people squint through the bus windows.
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The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
“There was one thing I did understand. I would have memories of life here in Mirpur Khas and memories of life in the new India. My childhood would always have a line drawn through it, the before and after.” (86)
When 12-year-old Nisha and her twin brother Amil were born, their mother died. They grew up in a town in what was then India where their Muslim mother and Hindu father settled after they married. But in August 1947 India gained independence from British rule and was partitioned into two republics, India and Pakistan. (Author’s Note) And violence and killing broke out between the Hindus who were crossing the border into new India and the Muslims who were fleeing to Pakistan, groups who had peacefully co-existed, at least in Nisha’s village.
On July 14 when she turns 12 Nisha begins writing letters to her mother in her diary, chronicling the family’s life. Readers learn that Nisha speaks only a little but loves to cook with Kazi, their Muslim cook. That Amil has dyslexia and doesn’t do well in school; he is an artist, fails at sports, and is bullied. Dadi, their paternal grandmother, lives with them, but no one shows them much love.
“You know what I wish, Mama, more than anything in the world? That I could spend just one day with you, so I’d know what your skin looks like up close and the sound of your voice. I’d know the scent of you…. Then I could think about that when I write these words, and when I try to fall asleep.” (33)
When they have to flee, leaving Kazi to tend to the house and presumably the new, Muslim doctor, readers learn through Nisha’s written words about the hardships and suffering of refugees—and Nisha’s anxieties. Waking miles each day, the family runs out of water and competes with other refugees for water in the pumps at the villages and space on the trains. At one point Nisha is held at knife point by a grieving man who thinks they killed his family.
“I wouldn’t dare say this out loud, but I’m so angry at all the leaders, like Jinnah and Nehru, who were supposed to know better, who were supposed to protect us, who were supposed to make sure things like this didn’t happen. I’m even angry at Gandhi for not being able to stop it.” (127)
When they find refuge with their mother’s brother, a Muslim, they need to keep hidden. But Nisha has finally found a friend she can talk to and, to keep their uncle safe, they again must leave—“Maybe if Papa finds out and [Hafa’s] parents find out, they will see that we’re just two lonely girls who want to be friends. How could a friendship be dangerous?” (217)—heading to the new India.
One of the most effective ways to learn about any historical event, and the nuances and effects of those events, is through novel study—the power of story. Through Nisha’s story readers will learn the history of India and Pakistan but also learn about the malevolent and traumatic power of prejudice which, sadly, does not only exist in history. This is a story of 1947, but it is also a story of today.
I look forward to the continuation of this family’s story through Amil’s perspective in the upcoming Amil and the After.
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“There was one thing I did understand. I would have memories of life here in Mirpur Khas and memories of life in the new India. My childhood would always have a line drawn through it, the before and after.” (86)
When 12-year-old Nisha and her twin brother Amil were born, their mother died. They grew up in a town in what was then India where their Muslim mother and Hindu father settled after they married. But in August 1947 India gained independence from British rule and was partitioned into two republics, India and Pakistan. (Author’s Note) And violence and killing broke out between the Hindus who were crossing the border into new India and the Muslims who were fleeing to Pakistan, groups who had peacefully co-existed, at least in Nisha’s village.
On July 14 when she turns 12 Nisha begins writing letters to her mother in her diary, chronicling the family’s life. Readers learn that Nisha speaks only a little but loves to cook with Kazi, their Muslim cook. That Amil has dyslexia and doesn’t do well in school; he is an artist, fails at sports, and is bullied. Dadi, their paternal grandmother, lives with them, but no one shows them much love.
“You know what I wish, Mama, more than anything in the world? That I could spend just one day with you, so I’d know what your skin looks like up close and the sound of your voice. I’d know the scent of you…. Then I could think about that when I write these words, and when I try to fall asleep.” (33)
When they have to flee, leaving Kazi to tend to the house and presumably the new, Muslim doctor, readers learn through Nisha’s written words about the hardships and suffering of refugees—and Nisha’s anxieties. Waking miles each day, the family runs out of water and competes with other refugees for water in the pumps at the villages and space on the trains. At one point Nisha is held at knife point by a grieving man who thinks they killed his family.
“I wouldn’t dare say this out loud, but I’m so angry at all the leaders, like Jinnah and Nehru, who were supposed to know better, who were supposed to protect us, who were supposed to make sure things like this didn’t happen. I’m even angry at Gandhi for not being able to stop it.” (127)
When they find refuge with their mother’s brother, a Muslim, they need to keep hidden. But Nisha has finally found a friend she can talk to and, to keep their uncle safe, they again must leave—“Maybe if Papa finds out and [Hafa’s] parents find out, they will see that we’re just two lonely girls who want to be friends. How could a friendship be dangerous?” (217)—heading to the new India.
One of the most effective ways to learn about any historical event, and the nuances and effects of those events, is through novel study—the power of story. Through Nisha’s story readers will learn the history of India and Pakistan but also learn about the malevolent and traumatic power of prejudice which, sadly, does not only exist in history. This is a story of 1947, but it is also a story of today.
I look forward to the continuation of this family’s story through Amil’s perspective in the upcoming Amil and the After.
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The Night War by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
July 1942: “I didn’t know it, but that was my last Shabbos in the Pletzl. Inside of a week, my whole world shattered. (ARC, 16)
Twelve-year-old German-born Miriam lived in the Paris Pletz in a one-room apartment with her parents, surrounded by other displaced Jews. She feels overwhelming guilt that she couldn’t help stop the arrest of her Jewish neighbor, Mr. Rosenbaum, two years before, and when her own father is forced into hiding and Miri returns to the apartment to the sound of what could be the flowerpot falling or a gunshot, not finding her mother, she runs with Sara Rosenbaum and her baby daughter Nora. When all the Jews are rounded up and herded into the velodrome, Miri escapes with the child. Sara asks that she get Nora to the Vichy side and to Zurich to a relative and freedom. “Not can you. Will you.” (ARC, 24)
A nun helps the two girls escape Paris, but, falling asleep in the long ride, upon wakening Miri finds that Nora has been taken away to live with foster parents. She vows to find her and take her away.
Miri, now living in a Catholic boarding school under the Catholic name Marie with two other students her age and some younger students who are staying over the summer, never gives up on finding Nora and escaping.
Near them is the castle of Catherine de Medici with beautiful gardens that have fallen into ruin. There she meets the owner of the castle, a mysterious woman all in black. Miri also discovers that the castle acts as a bridge between occupied and Vichy France. She does not know who she can trust, but when the nun who has been helping refugees to escape breaks her leg, Miri offers to take her place, remembering her father’s words, “We don’t choose how we feel, but we choose how we act. Choose courage.” (ARC, 16)
This exciting story of espionage, mystery, betrayal, power, unusual friendships, learning how history repeats itself in different guises, and making choices —“Sometimes there are no good choices.” (ARC, 229)—will keep readers reading, guessing, and learning about two time periods in history.
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July 1942: “I didn’t know it, but that was my last Shabbos in the Pletzl. Inside of a week, my whole world shattered. (ARC, 16)
Twelve-year-old German-born Miriam lived in the Paris Pletz in a one-room apartment with her parents, surrounded by other displaced Jews. She feels overwhelming guilt that she couldn’t help stop the arrest of her Jewish neighbor, Mr. Rosenbaum, two years before, and when her own father is forced into hiding and Miri returns to the apartment to the sound of what could be the flowerpot falling or a gunshot, not finding her mother, she runs with Sara Rosenbaum and her baby daughter Nora. When all the Jews are rounded up and herded into the velodrome, Miri escapes with the child. Sara asks that she get Nora to the Vichy side and to Zurich to a relative and freedom. “Not can you. Will you.” (ARC, 24)
A nun helps the two girls escape Paris, but, falling asleep in the long ride, upon wakening Miri finds that Nora has been taken away to live with foster parents. She vows to find her and take her away.
Miri, now living in a Catholic boarding school under the Catholic name Marie with two other students her age and some younger students who are staying over the summer, never gives up on finding Nora and escaping.
Near them is the castle of Catherine de Medici with beautiful gardens that have fallen into ruin. There she meets the owner of the castle, a mysterious woman all in black. Miri also discovers that the castle acts as a bridge between occupied and Vichy France. She does not know who she can trust, but when the nun who has been helping refugees to escape breaks her leg, Miri offers to take her place, remembering her father’s words, “We don’t choose how we feel, but we choose how we act. Choose courage.” (ARC, 16)
This exciting story of espionage, mystery, betrayal, power, unusual friendships, learning how history repeats itself in different guises, and making choices —“Sometimes there are no good choices.” (ARC, 229)—will keep readers reading, guessing, and learning about two time periods in history.
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The Orphan Band of Springdale by Anne Nesbet
This novel presents small-town life in the United States in 1941 prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor—before the U.S. was involved in the war in Europe. But through the story, we can see patriotism being emphasized, even in the schools, and the suspicions of those of German descent. In this small town in Maine, immigrants need to register and unions are coming to the mills in a direct clash with the powerful mill owners. As one classmate says, “[My Daddy] says we have to be really cautious these days, with all the countries over in Europe fighting each other and aliens everywhere.” (276)
In the midst of all this comes fifth-grader Augusta Neubronner, who, as the child of a German-born labor organizer, has had to move many times and live on ethics rather than money. As Gusta’s father flees the country and her mother tries to make ends meet, Gusta is sent to her grandmother’s orphanage in Maine, taking her beloved French horn, a family treasure which she loves with all her heart but is willing to sacrifice for her new family.
Living with her extended family and the orphans and fighting for their rights (and her father’s reputation), Gusta becomes stronger and more confident. There are many family problems and secrets, so she searches for her great-grandfather’s Wish that her mother told her about, “because her papa had taught her that whatever you can do to put things right in the world, you really must do” (295). But the more she finds out about the people around her, her more her wishes add up until she realizes she can’t name the one wish that would solve everything. And as her mother says, “Wishes are such sneaky things. You can never tell how they’re going to go, wishes.” (429)
This is a book about the importance of truth although sometimes a lie is necessary. And for a truthful person to tell a necessary lie “must take something a lot like love.” (406). It is a story of family and other relationships and acceptance and coming home. Based on the author's mother's family stories, it is a story that rings true.
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This novel presents small-town life in the United States in 1941 prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor—before the U.S. was involved in the war in Europe. But through the story, we can see patriotism being emphasized, even in the schools, and the suspicions of those of German descent. In this small town in Maine, immigrants need to register and unions are coming to the mills in a direct clash with the powerful mill owners. As one classmate says, “[My Daddy] says we have to be really cautious these days, with all the countries over in Europe fighting each other and aliens everywhere.” (276)
In the midst of all this comes fifth-grader Augusta Neubronner, who, as the child of a German-born labor organizer, has had to move many times and live on ethics rather than money. As Gusta’s father flees the country and her mother tries to make ends meet, Gusta is sent to her grandmother’s orphanage in Maine, taking her beloved French horn, a family treasure which she loves with all her heart but is willing to sacrifice for her new family.
Living with her extended family and the orphans and fighting for their rights (and her father’s reputation), Gusta becomes stronger and more confident. There are many family problems and secrets, so she searches for her great-grandfather’s Wish that her mother told her about, “because her papa had taught her that whatever you can do to put things right in the world, you really must do” (295). But the more she finds out about the people around her, her more her wishes add up until she realizes she can’t name the one wish that would solve everything. And as her mother says, “Wishes are such sneaky things. You can never tell how they’re going to go, wishes.” (429)
This is a book about the importance of truth although sometimes a lie is necessary. And for a truthful person to tell a necessary lie “must take something a lot like love.” (406). It is a story of family and other relationships and acceptance and coming home. Based on the author's mother's family stories, it is a story that rings true.
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The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle
Through Margarita Engle’s verse novels and her memoir, I am learning the history of Cuba and Cuban-American relationships more thoroughly and effectively than I ever learned about them in school.
The Surrender Tree is the story of Cuba's three wars for independence and the story of Rosa, the nurse who saved lives and spirits through all of them. This novel portrays the lives and heroic actions of real people in the face of evil, letting the reader live history along with memorable characters.
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Through Margarita Engle’s verse novels and her memoir, I am learning the history of Cuba and Cuban-American relationships more thoroughly and effectively than I ever learned about them in school.
The Surrender Tree is the story of Cuba's three wars for independence and the story of Rosa, the nurse who saved lives and spirits through all of them. This novel portrays the lives and heroic actions of real people in the face of evil, letting the reader live history along with memorable characters.
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The Trial by Jen F. Bryant
Familiar with aviator Charles Lindbergh, I was not as knowledgeable about the 1932 kidnapping of his son and the resulting trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, but the most effective way to learn about it was through the eyes, and words, of seventh-grader Katie Leigh Flynn.
Katie is a resident of Flemington, New Jersey, a town where “nothing ever happens.” (5). Katie’s father left her and her mother years ago, and both Katie and her mother are compassionate about the plight of others. The Great Depression has begun; Katie donates food and clothing for less-fortunate children and, when the hotel’s assistant chef is caught putting food in his pockets, her mother says she will “find him an apron with larger pockets.” Katie supports her best friend Mike who “is not like / the other boys I know…he’s not / stuck-up or loudmouthed or silly” (10) and lives with his father, a drunk.
Katie, nicknamed “Word Girl” by the local newspaper editor, plans to become a reporter and keeps a scrapbook of news clippings and headlines, especially about Colonel Lindbergh and the kidnapping. When the Hauptmann is arrested and the trial comes to the local courthouse, her reporter uncle needs a secretary to take notes, and she takes six weeks off school to help. Thus, readers experience the 1935 trial through Katie.
During the trial, readers meet the Lindbergs; the judge; the defendant; the alcoholic defense lawyer who hasn’t won a case in years; prosecutor Wilentz; Anna Hauptmann who swears her husband was at home with her and their baby that night; a witness (paid by the prosecution); and Walter Winchell and other celebrities who come to town for the trial.
The story reminds us that at this time Hitler is in power and discrimination and his persecution has begun in Europe. But Americans are just as prone to prejudice and discrimination. The German bakery changes its sign to “Good American-Baked Bread and Desserts.” [Katie’s] “Mother shrugs, ‘Everything German is suspicious these days.’” (96) And Hauptmann is a German immigrant.
Prejudice is not limited to Germans. People talk about Katie’s friend Mike. “They say: ‘Kids like Mike / never amount to much.’” (24) He is accused of vandalism but when Katie wants to tell who really was responsible, he tells her,
“I’m a drunkard’s son.
You’re a dancer’s daughter.
Bobby Fenwick is a surgeon’s son.
His mother is on
the School Board,
the Women’s League,
the Hospital Auxiliary,
the Town Council,
If you were Mrs, McTavish,
[who is a member of
the School Board,
the Women’s League,
the Hospital Auxiliary,
the Town Council, (110)]
Who would you believe?” (112)
Truth moves to center stage for Katie (if not for anyone else). Thinking about the conflicting testimonies and absence of evidence, she reflects, “Truth must be … like a lizard that’s too quick to catch and turns a different color to match whatever rock it sits upon.” (126) She is careful to write down every word of testimony. “I say, ‘But when a man’s on trial for his life / isn’t every word important?’” (84)
The search for truth is the heart of Jen Bryant’s novel told in free verse. After her experiences, Katie is disillusioned with the American Justice System and says that “…everything used to lay out so neatly, / everything seemed / pretty clear and straight. / Now all the streets run slantwise / and even the steeples look crooked.” (151)
As in Ringside 1925, the novel ends with an epilogue and a reflection on “reasonable doubt,” media, and “the complexities of human behavior” and will lead to important classroom conversations, not about the trial, but about justice.
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Familiar with aviator Charles Lindbergh, I was not as knowledgeable about the 1932 kidnapping of his son and the resulting trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, but the most effective way to learn about it was through the eyes, and words, of seventh-grader Katie Leigh Flynn.
Katie is a resident of Flemington, New Jersey, a town where “nothing ever happens.” (5). Katie’s father left her and her mother years ago, and both Katie and her mother are compassionate about the plight of others. The Great Depression has begun; Katie donates food and clothing for less-fortunate children and, when the hotel’s assistant chef is caught putting food in his pockets, her mother says she will “find him an apron with larger pockets.” Katie supports her best friend Mike who “is not like / the other boys I know…he’s not / stuck-up or loudmouthed or silly” (10) and lives with his father, a drunk.
Katie, nicknamed “Word Girl” by the local newspaper editor, plans to become a reporter and keeps a scrapbook of news clippings and headlines, especially about Colonel Lindbergh and the kidnapping. When the Hauptmann is arrested and the trial comes to the local courthouse, her reporter uncle needs a secretary to take notes, and she takes six weeks off school to help. Thus, readers experience the 1935 trial through Katie.
During the trial, readers meet the Lindbergs; the judge; the defendant; the alcoholic defense lawyer who hasn’t won a case in years; prosecutor Wilentz; Anna Hauptmann who swears her husband was at home with her and their baby that night; a witness (paid by the prosecution); and Walter Winchell and other celebrities who come to town for the trial.
The story reminds us that at this time Hitler is in power and discrimination and his persecution has begun in Europe. But Americans are just as prone to prejudice and discrimination. The German bakery changes its sign to “Good American-Baked Bread and Desserts.” [Katie’s] “Mother shrugs, ‘Everything German is suspicious these days.’” (96) And Hauptmann is a German immigrant.
Prejudice is not limited to Germans. People talk about Katie’s friend Mike. “They say: ‘Kids like Mike / never amount to much.’” (24) He is accused of vandalism but when Katie wants to tell who really was responsible, he tells her,
“I’m a drunkard’s son.
You’re a dancer’s daughter.
Bobby Fenwick is a surgeon’s son.
His mother is on
the School Board,
the Women’s League,
the Hospital Auxiliary,
the Town Council,
If you were Mrs, McTavish,
[who is a member of
the School Board,
the Women’s League,
the Hospital Auxiliary,
the Town Council, (110)]
Who would you believe?” (112)
Truth moves to center stage for Katie (if not for anyone else). Thinking about the conflicting testimonies and absence of evidence, she reflects, “Truth must be … like a lizard that’s too quick to catch and turns a different color to match whatever rock it sits upon.” (126) She is careful to write down every word of testimony. “I say, ‘But when a man’s on trial for his life / isn’t every word important?’” (84)
The search for truth is the heart of Jen Bryant’s novel told in free verse. After her experiences, Katie is disillusioned with the American Justice System and says that “…everything used to lay out so neatly, / everything seemed / pretty clear and straight. / Now all the streets run slantwise / and even the steeples look crooked.” (151)
As in Ringside 1925, the novel ends with an epilogue and a reflection on “reasonable doubt,” media, and “the complexities of human behavior” and will lead to important classroom conversations, not about the trial, but about justice.
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The True History of Lyndie B. Hawkins by Gail Shepherd
This story of 11-year-old Lyndie Baines covers a lot of territory, but it is primarily about truth and the effect of lies or sometimes just not knowing the truth. The novel also shares the effects of war on those who serve, their families, and their communities.
Lyndie’s father, his friends, and neighbors served in the war in Viet Nam. Some never returned, some returned with physical scars, and others, like Lyndie’s dad, returned with psychological scars, scars which affect their families and lives.
Lyndon Baines (yes, named after that Lyndon Baines), an avid student of history, knows this isn’t particular to the Viet Nam conflict; she has read many letters written by Civil War soldiers. She doesn’t realize just how damaged her father is, but she suspects that he and her mother, a former activist who now stays in her bedroom with constant headaches, are not quite okay. “I don’t think my parents know how to head us in the right direction” (24).
Lyndie struggles in her school, where she doesn’t fit in; she struggles in her new home with her parents, Grandpa Tad, her proper Southern grandmother Lady, to whom keeping family secret private and keeping to schedules is primary, even when the family needs help and even if perpetually-grounded Lyddie needs a normal childhood; and she struggles with the type of person she wants to be—more like her altruistic best friend Dawn. She is a fighter, but she also cares about things deeply.
And then D.B. enters the picture, a former foster child released from a juvenile detention center to live with Dawn’s family, at least for the school year. Lyndie decides she needs to save D.B. despite her father’s words, “Take care, what you lend your heart to” (73). Through her relationship with D.B., Lyndie learns that things are not always what they seem—with him, with Pee Wee, with her family.
When things come to a crisis on her twelfth birthday, Lyndie has to take steps to expose the truth, “’No,’ I correct myself. We’re not okay. Not really.’” (267) and make things right—for her, her family, and D.B., putting all the scraps together.
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This story of 11-year-old Lyndie Baines covers a lot of territory, but it is primarily about truth and the effect of lies or sometimes just not knowing the truth. The novel also shares the effects of war on those who serve, their families, and their communities.
Lyndie’s father, his friends, and neighbors served in the war in Viet Nam. Some never returned, some returned with physical scars, and others, like Lyndie’s dad, returned with psychological scars, scars which affect their families and lives.
Lyndon Baines (yes, named after that Lyndon Baines), an avid student of history, knows this isn’t particular to the Viet Nam conflict; she has read many letters written by Civil War soldiers. She doesn’t realize just how damaged her father is, but she suspects that he and her mother, a former activist who now stays in her bedroom with constant headaches, are not quite okay. “I don’t think my parents know how to head us in the right direction” (24).
Lyndie struggles in her school, where she doesn’t fit in; she struggles in her new home with her parents, Grandpa Tad, her proper Southern grandmother Lady, to whom keeping family secret private and keeping to schedules is primary, even when the family needs help and even if perpetually-grounded Lyddie needs a normal childhood; and she struggles with the type of person she wants to be—more like her altruistic best friend Dawn. She is a fighter, but she also cares about things deeply.
And then D.B. enters the picture, a former foster child released from a juvenile detention center to live with Dawn’s family, at least for the school year. Lyndie decides she needs to save D.B. despite her father’s words, “Take care, what you lend your heart to” (73). Through her relationship with D.B., Lyndie learns that things are not always what they seem—with him, with Pee Wee, with her family.
When things come to a crisis on her twelfth birthday, Lyndie has to take steps to expose the truth, “’No,’ I correct myself. We’re not okay. Not really.’” (267) and make things right—for her, her family, and D.B., putting all the scraps together.
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Torch by Lyn Miller-Lachmann
“THEY had all the power. There was no such thing as fairness in their world.” (19)
There is so much world history of which many of us, especially our adolescent readers, are unaware. Novelists, such as Lyn Miller-Lachmann, can teach us this history while making it come alive, putting human faces on the many who dies and survived during this time.
On August 21, 1968, the Soviet Union and three other Communist regimes—Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria—invaded Czechoslovakia. The new wave of repression that followed saw the withdrawal of freedoms, mass firings, expulsions from the Party, the imprisonment of dissidents, and the closing of the borders. (Author’s Note)
Taking place from December 1968 to Summer 1969, Torch is a story of not only a time in history but resilience, freedoms, resistance, creativity, family, and, above all, friendship.
When Pavol finds his dreams of attending university in Prague have been ended by the Party, and he faces a life in the mines that killed his father, he and his friends Stepan and Tomas write a letter to be delivered to the castle in Prague. When he and Stepan are stopped and sent away, Pavol follows the example of martyr Jan Palach and sets himself on fire, a human torch.
Readers see how not only the increasing restrictive and punitive government’s actions but also Pavol’s actions affect his pregnant girlfriend Lydia; Ondrej, her father, a WWII freedom fighter; his friends Stepan and Tomas; and his mother and three younger sisters.
“Pavol’s death hadn’t changed anything. One by one, the reformers in the government had been fired and replaced, not even a figurehead remaining. Every proclamation announced ‘normalization’: the return to dictatorship. The censorship was tighter than ever.” (161)
Stepan, a former bully who had been transformed through his friendship with—and maybe a crush on—the kind Pavol, is the star player of his high school hockey team and dreams of a hockey scholarship and eventually the Olympics, but lets the poetry and life of Walt Whitman guide him. Instead of moving toward his goals, he is beaten, arrested, imprisoned, and finally sent to work for the State in the worst conditions.
Tomas, always socially awkward—“He was so much better with problem sets and the grammar of foreign languages than with people (31), Pavol was his first real friend. Tomas’ father, Comrade Kuchar, was high in the Party and sent his son to youth leadership classes and camp, calling him “antisocial” and threatening to send him to a mental hospital when he turned 18.
Lydia lived in the woods with her father who moved them frequently and in the middle of the night; she worked in the shoe factory without much hope for a future until she fell in love with Pavol giving her hopes to live in Prague and her own chance to finish her education. After his death, she found she was pregnant with his child which gives her even less opportunities. When she finds out that her father is dying, she plans an escape to Austria, hoping to encourage Stepan and even Tomas to join her.
These characters became real and got under my skin as I returned to them each day of reading, feeling their pain and frustrations and cheering any victories. One reason is that they formed unlikely bonds with each other as they began trying to cheer each other on to lives with freedoms. This novel belongs in high school World History classes to expand our knowledge of the people in our world.
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“THEY had all the power. There was no such thing as fairness in their world.” (19)
There is so much world history of which many of us, especially our adolescent readers, are unaware. Novelists, such as Lyn Miller-Lachmann, can teach us this history while making it come alive, putting human faces on the many who dies and survived during this time.
On August 21, 1968, the Soviet Union and three other Communist regimes—Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria—invaded Czechoslovakia. The new wave of repression that followed saw the withdrawal of freedoms, mass firings, expulsions from the Party, the imprisonment of dissidents, and the closing of the borders. (Author’s Note)
Taking place from December 1968 to Summer 1969, Torch is a story of not only a time in history but resilience, freedoms, resistance, creativity, family, and, above all, friendship.
When Pavol finds his dreams of attending university in Prague have been ended by the Party, and he faces a life in the mines that killed his father, he and his friends Stepan and Tomas write a letter to be delivered to the castle in Prague. When he and Stepan are stopped and sent away, Pavol follows the example of martyr Jan Palach and sets himself on fire, a human torch.
Readers see how not only the increasing restrictive and punitive government’s actions but also Pavol’s actions affect his pregnant girlfriend Lydia; Ondrej, her father, a WWII freedom fighter; his friends Stepan and Tomas; and his mother and three younger sisters.
“Pavol’s death hadn’t changed anything. One by one, the reformers in the government had been fired and replaced, not even a figurehead remaining. Every proclamation announced ‘normalization’: the return to dictatorship. The censorship was tighter than ever.” (161)
Stepan, a former bully who had been transformed through his friendship with—and maybe a crush on—the kind Pavol, is the star player of his high school hockey team and dreams of a hockey scholarship and eventually the Olympics, but lets the poetry and life of Walt Whitman guide him. Instead of moving toward his goals, he is beaten, arrested, imprisoned, and finally sent to work for the State in the worst conditions.
Tomas, always socially awkward—“He was so much better with problem sets and the grammar of foreign languages than with people (31), Pavol was his first real friend. Tomas’ father, Comrade Kuchar, was high in the Party and sent his son to youth leadership classes and camp, calling him “antisocial” and threatening to send him to a mental hospital when he turned 18.
Lydia lived in the woods with her father who moved them frequently and in the middle of the night; she worked in the shoe factory without much hope for a future until she fell in love with Pavol giving her hopes to live in Prague and her own chance to finish her education. After his death, she found she was pregnant with his child which gives her even less opportunities. When she finds out that her father is dying, she plans an escape to Austria, hoping to encourage Stepan and even Tomas to join her.
These characters became real and got under my skin as I returned to them each day of reading, feeling their pain and frustrations and cheering any victories. One reason is that they formed unlikely bonds with each other as they began trying to cheer each other on to lives with freedoms. This novel belongs in high school World History classes to expand our knowledge of the people in our world.
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Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba by Margarita Engle
I have read many diverse Holocaust novels and memoirs set in Europe but have never read about the Jews who sought refuge in Cuba (other than passengers of the St. Louis, most of whom were turned away). In her novel Tropical Secrets, Engle shares the stories of Daniel, a young boy who is a Gernan Jewish refugee, unwittingly arriving in Cuba in 1939. It is also the story of Paloma, a Catholic native who is surviving a mother who left and a father who is profiting from the refugees, and David, also a Jewish refugee but from the pogroms, both serving as Daniel’s (and the readers’) “guides” to island life.
I found the verse to grow smoother and more lyrical as David (and I) adapts to Cuban culture--
creating an entirely new
sort of music,
the sound of a future
dancing with the past.
While this book also serves as a window into another time, another culture, it also served as a mirror for me. I grew up with friends whose parents were victims of the Holocaust and I have lived in communities where they eat pigs and shellfish and felt as the “other.”
This book is even more relevant today as xenophobia grows, no longer allocated to specific places or times. It is important that our children learn
A refugee,
not a spy.
Still, there is the terror
of being questioned
by police …
it will help them
understand
that those who feel safe today
could be the ones in need of refuge
tomorrow
-----
I have read many diverse Holocaust novels and memoirs set in Europe but have never read about the Jews who sought refuge in Cuba (other than passengers of the St. Louis, most of whom were turned away). In her novel Tropical Secrets, Engle shares the stories of Daniel, a young boy who is a Gernan Jewish refugee, unwittingly arriving in Cuba in 1939. It is also the story of Paloma, a Catholic native who is surviving a mother who left and a father who is profiting from the refugees, and David, also a Jewish refugee but from the pogroms, both serving as Daniel’s (and the readers’) “guides” to island life.
I found the verse to grow smoother and more lyrical as David (and I) adapts to Cuban culture--
creating an entirely new
sort of music,
the sound of a future
dancing with the past.
While this book also serves as a window into another time, another culture, it also served as a mirror for me. I grew up with friends whose parents were victims of the Holocaust and I have lived in communities where they eat pigs and shellfish and felt as the “other.”
This book is even more relevant today as xenophobia grows, no longer allocated to specific places or times. It is important that our children learn
A refugee,
not a spy.
Still, there is the terror
of being questioned
by police …
it will help them
understand
that those who feel safe today
could be the ones in need of refuge
tomorrow
-----
Unbound: A Novel in Verse by Ann E. Burg
Considering history through novels lets the reader experience, and make sense of, history through the perspective of those most affected by historic events, getting to know them as real people—their hopes, desires, ambitions.
Ann Burg’s verse novel Unbound does just that. The story invites the reader into the hearts and thoughts of the characters, especially the main character, Grace, a young slave in the 1860’s. Grace, who has light skin and blue eyes, lives with her Mama, her two young half-brothers and their father Uncle Jim, and old Aunt Sara who helped raise her. When she is called to work in the Big House, her Mama warns her to keep her eyes down, ”to always be good, to listen to the Missus, n never talk back…n not to speak less spoken to first,” (3)
Observing the heartless Master and hateful Missus, Grace can’t help but question why they can’t do anything for themselves “Why do grown folks / need help getting dressed?” (91) She wonders why Aunt Tempie silently ignores the unfairness and abuse, “Things’ll change, Grace / maybe even sooner’n later / but till thy do—‘ (91) and why Anna and Jordon have to bear beatings and mistreatment. Reading the Missus’ words and threats is more chilling than reading about the treatment by slaveowners in textbooks.
Eventually Grace angers the Missus, “You are nothing but a slave / who needs to learn her place.” (204), and when Jordan runs away and the Master needs the money to replace him, the Missus suggests selling Grace’s family. Grace recognizes that they also need to run away: “Not sure where my place is / but I know it’s not / the Big House.” (204), and they leave in the middle of the night. Helped by OleGeorgeCooper and others, they have to decide whether to go north or go deep. And even though Grace has a chance for passing as white and “a chance / of escaping for real / of livin like the good Lord / intended folks to live. / [She] has a chance to own herself…”(212-3), the family decides to stay together.
They travel through the treacherous swamp, but as OleGeorgeCooper tells them, “There’s nothing in the swamp / what’s worse’n / the stink / of bein a slave.” (261), and as they move through, “[Grace] feels part / of another world, / a beautiful world, / A world / what whispers ‘ Freedom.” (271)
Safe (relatively) and free in a settlement in the Great Daniel Swamp, Grace explains to her new friend Brooklyn, another runaway, “Everyone’s got a way of mattering. / The only thing / what doesn’t matter / is what color / the good Lord paints us.” (336)
Well-researched and written in dialect, this is an inspiring story of the maroons, enslaved people seeking freedom in the wilderness.
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Considering history through novels lets the reader experience, and make sense of, history through the perspective of those most affected by historic events, getting to know them as real people—their hopes, desires, ambitions.
Ann Burg’s verse novel Unbound does just that. The story invites the reader into the hearts and thoughts of the characters, especially the main character, Grace, a young slave in the 1860’s. Grace, who has light skin and blue eyes, lives with her Mama, her two young half-brothers and their father Uncle Jim, and old Aunt Sara who helped raise her. When she is called to work in the Big House, her Mama warns her to keep her eyes down, ”to always be good, to listen to the Missus, n never talk back…n not to speak less spoken to first,” (3)
Observing the heartless Master and hateful Missus, Grace can’t help but question why they can’t do anything for themselves “Why do grown folks / need help getting dressed?” (91) She wonders why Aunt Tempie silently ignores the unfairness and abuse, “Things’ll change, Grace / maybe even sooner’n later / but till thy do—‘ (91) and why Anna and Jordon have to bear beatings and mistreatment. Reading the Missus’ words and threats is more chilling than reading about the treatment by slaveowners in textbooks.
Eventually Grace angers the Missus, “You are nothing but a slave / who needs to learn her place.” (204), and when Jordan runs away and the Master needs the money to replace him, the Missus suggests selling Grace’s family. Grace recognizes that they also need to run away: “Not sure where my place is / but I know it’s not / the Big House.” (204), and they leave in the middle of the night. Helped by OleGeorgeCooper and others, they have to decide whether to go north or go deep. And even though Grace has a chance for passing as white and “a chance / of escaping for real / of livin like the good Lord / intended folks to live. / [She] has a chance to own herself…”(212-3), the family decides to stay together.
They travel through the treacherous swamp, but as OleGeorgeCooper tells them, “There’s nothing in the swamp / what’s worse’n / the stink / of bein a slave.” (261), and as they move through, “[Grace] feels part / of another world, / a beautiful world, / A world / what whispers ‘ Freedom.” (271)
Safe (relatively) and free in a settlement in the Great Daniel Swamp, Grace explains to her new friend Brooklyn, another runaway, “Everyone’s got a way of mattering. / The only thing / what doesn’t matter / is what color / the good Lord paints us.” (336)
Well-researched and written in dialect, this is an inspiring story of the maroons, enslaved people seeking freedom in the wilderness.
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Uprising by Jennifer A. Nielsen
“Then we need more people on the side of good,’ I said. “Let me help. I want to join the resistance.”
“No.” Ryszard’s tone was as firm as ever.
As soon as he left my room, I opened the wood block of my window and peered down into the ghetto. The Jews inside there were planning something, I was sure of it. They knew they had upset the Nazis and that before long, the Nazis would return. They were getting ready.
I was going to help them. One way or another, I was making myself part of the resistance. (ARC 148-9)
On September 1, 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland. Lidia Durr was twelve years old when the bombing began; her father left to join the war and fight on the eastern front, Warsaw surrendered, and the schools, libraries, and museums in Poland were closed. “Piece by piece, the Nazis were dismantling everything it was to be Polish…The Nazis would accept us only in one of two ways: either as Germans, or as dead.” (57)
Lidia’s family house in Warsaw is taken and, a dedicated musician, Lidia and her family are forced to leave their home —and her beloved piano—and move to the one-bedroom apartment of their Jewish maid Doda and her mother, Bubbe, where they lived on the one can of soup per day Lidia’s mother earned. When the Warsaw Ghetto is built behind the apartment, Doda and Bubbe were imprisoned with the other Jews of the city.
With her new best friend Lidia smuggles food to the inhabitants of the ghetto and attends a hidden school, keeping it a secret from her mother. From her window she witnesses the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising which spurs her to action.
Even though her brother Ryszard works as a builder for the Nazis, Lidia suspects that he is a member of the resistance, and Lidia joins herself, advancing from messenger, smuggling messages and weapons throughout Warsaw, to a trusted fighter. Taking an active part in the Warsaw City Uprising in which 150,000 to 250,000 Polish civilians were killed (Author’s Note), she joins in with everything she has, knowing that she may be giving her life to free Poland.
“Nothing can be done about any of this, dear. Better that you learn to ignore what’s happening around us.”
“No. that would not be better at all. Easier, maybe, but I wasn’t interested in easy. I cared about what was right.” (ARC 193)
Written in first person narrative, readers follow Lidia and her fellow resistance fighters from 1939-1944 through one harrowing moment and heroic action to the next, leaning what it is to have courage, dependability, and devotion to a cause. One of the most effective ways to learn about any historical event, and the nuances and effects of those events, is through novel study—the power of story. Reading Jennifer Nielsen’s newest historical (biographical) fiction novel, readers grades 5 and up will learn history through the story of a person their age who lived it.
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“Then we need more people on the side of good,’ I said. “Let me help. I want to join the resistance.”
“No.” Ryszard’s tone was as firm as ever.
As soon as he left my room, I opened the wood block of my window and peered down into the ghetto. The Jews inside there were planning something, I was sure of it. They knew they had upset the Nazis and that before long, the Nazis would return. They were getting ready.
I was going to help them. One way or another, I was making myself part of the resistance. (ARC 148-9)
On September 1, 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland. Lidia Durr was twelve years old when the bombing began; her father left to join the war and fight on the eastern front, Warsaw surrendered, and the schools, libraries, and museums in Poland were closed. “Piece by piece, the Nazis were dismantling everything it was to be Polish…The Nazis would accept us only in one of two ways: either as Germans, or as dead.” (57)
Lidia’s family house in Warsaw is taken and, a dedicated musician, Lidia and her family are forced to leave their home —and her beloved piano—and move to the one-bedroom apartment of their Jewish maid Doda and her mother, Bubbe, where they lived on the one can of soup per day Lidia’s mother earned. When the Warsaw Ghetto is built behind the apartment, Doda and Bubbe were imprisoned with the other Jews of the city.
With her new best friend Lidia smuggles food to the inhabitants of the ghetto and attends a hidden school, keeping it a secret from her mother. From her window she witnesses the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising which spurs her to action.
Even though her brother Ryszard works as a builder for the Nazis, Lidia suspects that he is a member of the resistance, and Lidia joins herself, advancing from messenger, smuggling messages and weapons throughout Warsaw, to a trusted fighter. Taking an active part in the Warsaw City Uprising in which 150,000 to 250,000 Polish civilians were killed (Author’s Note), she joins in with everything she has, knowing that she may be giving her life to free Poland.
“Nothing can be done about any of this, dear. Better that you learn to ignore what’s happening around us.”
“No. that would not be better at all. Easier, maybe, but I wasn’t interested in easy. I cared about what was right.” (ARC 193)
Written in first person narrative, readers follow Lidia and her fellow resistance fighters from 1939-1944 through one harrowing moment and heroic action to the next, leaning what it is to have courage, dependability, and devotion to a cause. One of the most effective ways to learn about any historical event, and the nuances and effects of those events, is through novel study—the power of story. Reading Jennifer Nielsen’s newest historical (biographical) fiction novel, readers grades 5 and up will learn history through the story of a person their age who lived it.
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We Were the Fire: Birmingham 1963 by Sheila P. Moses
“On May 2, 1963, more than one thousand students skipped classes and gathered at Sixth Street Baptist Church to march to downtown Birmingham, Alabama. As they approached police lines, hundreds were arrested and carried off to jail in paddy wagons and school buses. When hundreds more young people gathered the following day for another march, white commissioner, Bull Connor, directed the local police and fire departments to use force to halt the demonstration. Images of children being blasted by high-pressure fire hoses, being clubbed by police officers, and being attacked by police dogs appeared on television and in newspapers, and triggered outrage throughout the world. Despite the violence, children continued to march and protest in an organizing action now known as the Children’s Crusade.” (National Museum of African American History & Culture)
I am just now learning the history I should have been taught in my years in school, thankful for the novels, memoirs, and authors which have become my guides. One of the most important of these is Sheila P. Moses’ upcoming novel We Were the Fire: Birmingham 1963, a Civil Rights story for upper elementary and middle-grade readers. This is the story of one fictional child crusader and his family and friends, but it is also the story of thousands of other real children on the days from May 2-4, 1963.
Twelve-year-old Rufus Jackson Jones Jr. was born and grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, the place Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called the most segregated place in the country. (1)
His Daddy having died in an accident at the mill when he was 9 year old, Rufus lives with his Mama and his younger sister Georgia in Bull Hill. The neighborhood is run by a slumlord. I knew [Mama] was tired of our house and all that came with it. hauling water from the well. Tired of sharing an outhouse with other families and having to pour bleach and scatter lavender into the toilet hole every day so it would not smell so bad. Tired of our wash freezing outside on the clothesline… (28)
When Mama remarries, they are offered a house by, and next to, the white mill owner, Miss Boone. “Somebody got to be the first or second person to move into these white neighborhoods. Integration is hard, but someone got to do it. We going to be the second to move to Ivy Town, Daddy Paul looked at us. “Do y’all know what integration means?” (22) Every day Miss Boone drives the children to their school and, despite a cross being burned on their yard, manages to keep them (and herself) protected.
Daddy Paul, Uncle Sam, and their friends begin attending meetings at night to organize a peaceful march to City Hall. “We need to change things. I want you and the other children to live in a different kind of Birmingham than the one I was raised in. A free Birmingham.” (53-54)
The children make plans to join the march in Kelly Park We wanted our rights just like the white children. We were young, but we understood that Bull Connor was wrong. We understood that having to walk through the back doors just to get ice cream was wrong. We wanted to walk and live and get educated where we wanted. We wanted to be free. (73) I wanted my little sister to have a doll that looked like her. I wanted her to go to the amusement park one day. (133)
With their teachers’ blessings, the students leave school. “When I turned around, I could see more children behind us than I could count.” (126) And, as the police load up school buses with children to take them to jail, even more arrive. “The children of Birmingham could not be stopped!” (127) Even after being jailed, clubbed, blasted with fire hoses, and bitten by police dogs, the children return to Kelly Park for a second and third days of marching and singing. When the firemen first turn on their hoses, Rufus realizes, “We were the fire!”
On May 4, safe back at home, Rufus wishes on a star, “I wished for a better world for all of us. Where we’re all treated the same.” (152)
This is a novel for all upper elementary and middle grade classrooms and could be read in ELA or Social Studies classes.
Reading this short novel reminds me of the Soweto Riots. “On 16 June 1976 between 3000 and 10 000 students mobilized by the South African Students Movement's Action Committee supported by the BCM marched peacefully to demonstrate and protest against the government’s directive. The march was meant to culminate at a rally in Orlando Stadium. On their pathway they were met by heavily armed police who fired teargas and later live ammunition on demonstrating students. This resulted in a widespread revolt that turned into an uprising against the government. While the uprising began in Soweto, it spread across the country and carried on until the following year.” (South African History Online). In this way We Were the Fire and other middle-grade Civil Rights novels, such as The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, can be paired with Sheila Gordon’s Waiting for the Rain and Beverly Naidoo‘s novel Journey to Jo’burg and Out of Bounds, her book of short stories that take readers through the decades of Apartheid.
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“On May 2, 1963, more than one thousand students skipped classes and gathered at Sixth Street Baptist Church to march to downtown Birmingham, Alabama. As they approached police lines, hundreds were arrested and carried off to jail in paddy wagons and school buses. When hundreds more young people gathered the following day for another march, white commissioner, Bull Connor, directed the local police and fire departments to use force to halt the demonstration. Images of children being blasted by high-pressure fire hoses, being clubbed by police officers, and being attacked by police dogs appeared on television and in newspapers, and triggered outrage throughout the world. Despite the violence, children continued to march and protest in an organizing action now known as the Children’s Crusade.” (National Museum of African American History & Culture)
I am just now learning the history I should have been taught in my years in school, thankful for the novels, memoirs, and authors which have become my guides. One of the most important of these is Sheila P. Moses’ upcoming novel We Were the Fire: Birmingham 1963, a Civil Rights story for upper elementary and middle-grade readers. This is the story of one fictional child crusader and his family and friends, but it is also the story of thousands of other real children on the days from May 2-4, 1963.
Twelve-year-old Rufus Jackson Jones Jr. was born and grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, the place Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called the most segregated place in the country. (1)
His Daddy having died in an accident at the mill when he was 9 year old, Rufus lives with his Mama and his younger sister Georgia in Bull Hill. The neighborhood is run by a slumlord. I knew [Mama] was tired of our house and all that came with it. hauling water from the well. Tired of sharing an outhouse with other families and having to pour bleach and scatter lavender into the toilet hole every day so it would not smell so bad. Tired of our wash freezing outside on the clothesline… (28)
When Mama remarries, they are offered a house by, and next to, the white mill owner, Miss Boone. “Somebody got to be the first or second person to move into these white neighborhoods. Integration is hard, but someone got to do it. We going to be the second to move to Ivy Town, Daddy Paul looked at us. “Do y’all know what integration means?” (22) Every day Miss Boone drives the children to their school and, despite a cross being burned on their yard, manages to keep them (and herself) protected.
Daddy Paul, Uncle Sam, and their friends begin attending meetings at night to organize a peaceful march to City Hall. “We need to change things. I want you and the other children to live in a different kind of Birmingham than the one I was raised in. A free Birmingham.” (53-54)
The children make plans to join the march in Kelly Park We wanted our rights just like the white children. We were young, but we understood that Bull Connor was wrong. We understood that having to walk through the back doors just to get ice cream was wrong. We wanted to walk and live and get educated where we wanted. We wanted to be free. (73) I wanted my little sister to have a doll that looked like her. I wanted her to go to the amusement park one day. (133)
With their teachers’ blessings, the students leave school. “When I turned around, I could see more children behind us than I could count.” (126) And, as the police load up school buses with children to take them to jail, even more arrive. “The children of Birmingham could not be stopped!” (127) Even after being jailed, clubbed, blasted with fire hoses, and bitten by police dogs, the children return to Kelly Park for a second and third days of marching and singing. When the firemen first turn on their hoses, Rufus realizes, “We were the fire!”
On May 4, safe back at home, Rufus wishes on a star, “I wished for a better world for all of us. Where we’re all treated the same.” (152)
This is a novel for all upper elementary and middle grade classrooms and could be read in ELA or Social Studies classes.
Reading this short novel reminds me of the Soweto Riots. “On 16 June 1976 between 3000 and 10 000 students mobilized by the South African Students Movement's Action Committee supported by the BCM marched peacefully to demonstrate and protest against the government’s directive. The march was meant to culminate at a rally in Orlando Stadium. On their pathway they were met by heavily armed police who fired teargas and later live ammunition on demonstrating students. This resulted in a widespread revolt that turned into an uprising against the government. While the uprising began in Soweto, it spread across the country and carried on until the following year.” (South African History Online). In this way We Were the Fire and other middle-grade Civil Rights novels, such as The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, can be paired with Sheila Gordon’s Waiting for the Rain and Beverly Naidoo‘s novel Journey to Jo’burg and Out of Bounds, her book of short stories that take readers through the decades of Apartheid.
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Words on Fire by Jennifer A. Nielsen
“How do you destroy a people? You take away their culture. And how is that done? You must take their language, their history, their very identity. How would you do that?”I pressed my lips together, then looked up at her. “You ban their books.” (78)
Jennifer A. Nielsen’s novel takes place during the Russian occupation of Lithuania (1795-1918), specifically the time period between June and November 1893. After the January Uprising of 1863-1864, there was a forty-year ban on the Lithuanian language, press, and books. Young adolescent Audra lives on a farm with her parents and is illiterate—by choice. She chooses not to go to school or learn to read or write. When her parents are arrested and their house burned, Audra, who describes herself as “the girl who watched life from afar but rarely participated” (2) escapes, having been entrusted by her parents with a package to deliver. When she finds out that they risked their lives to deliver merely a book, she is dismayed.
Through her new friends—Lukas, Ben, and Milda, who are book smugglers like her parents—Audra learns to read, to write, and the importance of books to her people and to preserve her culture, and she willingly becomes a book smuggler, even again the wishes of these new friends who fear for her safety. “I’d seen a glimpse of myself as I wished to be, a reflection of who I might become if I allowed courage to enter my heart, or ideas to enter my head…. When I imagined the girl I wanted to be, it was the girl who smuggled books.” (111-112)
Constantly in danger, Audra becomes inventive, using her father’s magic and her awakening sense of story to evade and escape the Cossacks. She has complicated decisions to make as she tries to save both her parents from prison in Siberia, but at the same time, her new friends and herself. And the books.
A novel of adventure, danger, courage, secrets, ideas and ideals, and strong adolescent characters “honoring the knygnesiai—the book carriers, who are among the true heroes of Lithuanian history” (Author Acknowledgments). Words on Fire is another story that teaches a part of history we seldom study.
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“How do you destroy a people? You take away their culture. And how is that done? You must take their language, their history, their very identity. How would you do that?”I pressed my lips together, then looked up at her. “You ban their books.” (78)
Jennifer A. Nielsen’s novel takes place during the Russian occupation of Lithuania (1795-1918), specifically the time period between June and November 1893. After the January Uprising of 1863-1864, there was a forty-year ban on the Lithuanian language, press, and books. Young adolescent Audra lives on a farm with her parents and is illiterate—by choice. She chooses not to go to school or learn to read or write. When her parents are arrested and their house burned, Audra, who describes herself as “the girl who watched life from afar but rarely participated” (2) escapes, having been entrusted by her parents with a package to deliver. When she finds out that they risked their lives to deliver merely a book, she is dismayed.
Through her new friends—Lukas, Ben, and Milda, who are book smugglers like her parents—Audra learns to read, to write, and the importance of books to her people and to preserve her culture, and she willingly becomes a book smuggler, even again the wishes of these new friends who fear for her safety. “I’d seen a glimpse of myself as I wished to be, a reflection of who I might become if I allowed courage to enter my heart, or ideas to enter my head…. When I imagined the girl I wanted to be, it was the girl who smuggled books.” (111-112)
Constantly in danger, Audra becomes inventive, using her father’s magic and her awakening sense of story to evade and escape the Cossacks. She has complicated decisions to make as she tries to save both her parents from prison in Siberia, but at the same time, her new friends and herself. And the books.
A novel of adventure, danger, courage, secrets, ideas and ideals, and strong adolescent characters “honoring the knygnesiai—the book carriers, who are among the true heroes of Lithuanian history” (Author Acknowledgments). Words on Fire is another story that teaches a part of history we seldom study.
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Your Heart—My Sky: Love in a Time of Hunger by Margarita Engle
I began learning about the history of Cuba through Cuban-American poet Margarita Engle’s memoir, Enchanted Sky. I continued my study, learning more Cuban history through the stories of Tula, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba’s Greatest Abolitionist; though the story of Rosa in The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom; with Daniel, one of the Holocaust refugees in Cuba in Tropical Secrets; and the story of Fefa (based on Engle’s grandmother) in The Wild Book. But there is still more history to learn.
Your Heart—My Sky: Love In The Time Of Hunger introduced me to a different, more contemporary era, “el period especial en tiempos de paz.” The government’s name for the 1990s is “the special period in times of peace,” but in reality is a period of extreme hunger resulting from the loss of Soviet aid, the US trade embargo, and the government prohibition of the growing, buying, and selling of agricultural products. Even though the 1991 Pan Am Games are being held in Havana, where visitors and athletes are sure to find food, the people in the towns face starvation, their food rations reduced even more.
No witnesses.
We are like an outer isle
Off the shore of another island.
Forgotten. (3)
My parents quietly call it tourist apartheid.
Everything for outsiders.
Nothing for islanders.” (Liana, 6)
Readers are introduced to the disastrous effects of these policies on the citizens through the three narrators: Liana, Amado, and the Singing Dog who serves as a matchmaker between, and a guard of, the two adolescents.
Liana and Amado are both rebels in their own ways: Liana skips la escuela al campo “a summer of forced so-called-volunteer farm labor,” possibly giving up college or a government-assigned tolerable job, spending her days looking for food. Amado has made a pact with his brother who is in jail for speaking against the government. He is worried that he won’t be able to keep his promise to avoid the mandatory military service—“men have to serve in the reserves until they’re fifty”—and promote peace, possibly joining his brother in prison.
Maybe I should let myself be trained to kill,
become a soldier, gun-wielding, violent,
a dangerous stranger, no longer
me. (Amado, 24)
In beautiful lyrical verse, lines that caused me to re-read and savor, Liana and Amado meet and fall in love,
The pulse in my mind wanders away
From hunger, toward something I can barely name.
A spark
of wishlight
on the dark horizon’s
oceanic warmth. (Liana, 35)
Liana meets Amado’s grandparents who are growing vegetables and fruits in hidden gardens, and she is given seeds to start her own gardens. She dreams of starting a kitchen restaurant.
Everything has changed inside our minds
So that we are intensely aware of our ability
To seize control of hunger,
Transforming food
Into freedom. (110)
Amado and Liana help fleeing refugees, even though
Leaving the island is forbidden by law
And it is equally illegal
To know that someone is planning to flee. (95)
When Amado receives a note from his brother releasing him from their pact, he secretly plans their rafting escape. But the indecision brought about by the precariousness of the trip cause them to reconsider.
All we have in our shared hearts
is one imaginary raft--
How shall we use it?
Climb aboard or set it loose,
Let that alternate future
drift away? (Liana and Amado, 197)
A beautiful story of a terrible time in Cuban history and two resilient families connected by love (and a singing dog).
I began learning about the history of Cuba through Cuban-American poet Margarita Engle’s memoir, Enchanted Sky. I continued my study, learning more Cuban history through the stories of Tula, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba’s Greatest Abolitionist; though the story of Rosa in The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom; with Daniel, one of the Holocaust refugees in Cuba in Tropical Secrets; and the story of Fefa (based on Engle’s grandmother) in The Wild Book. But there is still more history to learn.
Your Heart—My Sky: Love In The Time Of Hunger introduced me to a different, more contemporary era, “el period especial en tiempos de paz.” The government’s name for the 1990s is “the special period in times of peace,” but in reality is a period of extreme hunger resulting from the loss of Soviet aid, the US trade embargo, and the government prohibition of the growing, buying, and selling of agricultural products. Even though the 1991 Pan Am Games are being held in Havana, where visitors and athletes are sure to find food, the people in the towns face starvation, their food rations reduced even more.
No witnesses.
We are like an outer isle
Off the shore of another island.
Forgotten. (3)
My parents quietly call it tourist apartheid.
Everything for outsiders.
Nothing for islanders.” (Liana, 6)
Readers are introduced to the disastrous effects of these policies on the citizens through the three narrators: Liana, Amado, and the Singing Dog who serves as a matchmaker between, and a guard of, the two adolescents.
Liana and Amado are both rebels in their own ways: Liana skips la escuela al campo “a summer of forced so-called-volunteer farm labor,” possibly giving up college or a government-assigned tolerable job, spending her days looking for food. Amado has made a pact with his brother who is in jail for speaking against the government. He is worried that he won’t be able to keep his promise to avoid the mandatory military service—“men have to serve in the reserves until they’re fifty”—and promote peace, possibly joining his brother in prison.
Maybe I should let myself be trained to kill,
become a soldier, gun-wielding, violent,
a dangerous stranger, no longer
me. (Amado, 24)
In beautiful lyrical verse, lines that caused me to re-read and savor, Liana and Amado meet and fall in love,
The pulse in my mind wanders away
From hunger, toward something I can barely name.
A spark
of wishlight
on the dark horizon’s
oceanic warmth. (Liana, 35)
Liana meets Amado’s grandparents who are growing vegetables and fruits in hidden gardens, and she is given seeds to start her own gardens. She dreams of starting a kitchen restaurant.
Everything has changed inside our minds
So that we are intensely aware of our ability
To seize control of hunger,
Transforming food
Into freedom. (110)
Amado and Liana help fleeing refugees, even though
Leaving the island is forbidden by law
And it is equally illegal
To know that someone is planning to flee. (95)
When Amado receives a note from his brother releasing him from their pact, he secretly plans their rafting escape. But the indecision brought about by the precariousness of the trip cause them to reconsider.
All we have in our shared hearts
is one imaginary raft--
How shall we use it?
Climb aboard or set it loose,
Let that alternate future
drift away? (Liana and Amado, 197)
A beautiful story of a terrible time in Cuban history and two resilient families connected by love (and a singing dog).
Learning about the Events of September 11, 2001, through Story
No historical event may be as unique and complicated to discuss and teach as the events of September 11, 2001, the day terrorists crashed planes into, and destroyed, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. At the time of this event no child in our present K-12 educational system was yet born, but, in most cases, their parents and educators would have been old enough to have some knowledge of, and even personal experience with, these events, making this a very difficult historic event for many to teach. However, with the devastation and impact of these events on our past, present, and future and as ingrained a part of history these events are, they need to be discussed and understood as much as possible.
Again, an effective way to learn about these events are through story. There are powerful novels that have been written about this tragedy, for all age levels and, fascinatingly, each presents a different perspective of the events. Some take place during September 11, some following the events, some a few years later or many years later, and a few include two timelines. Many take place from the perspectives of multiple characters.
On September 11, 2021 YA Wednesday posted my guest-blog “Novels, Memoirs, Graphics, and Picture Books to Commemorate September 11th," my 4th blog on novels covering these events. In this blog I interviewed authors and reviewed (or re-reviewed) and recommended 24 texts and six picture books.
I have taught a unit on NINE ELEVEN through book clubs in multiple schools from grades 5 through 9 in both ELA and Social Studies classes. Children and adolescents have felt comfortable these sensitive and challenging concepts and examining these troubling events, and some of the ensuing difficulties, prejudices, and bullying, through the eyes of characters who are around their ages, some readers sharing personal stories in their small collaborative groups. I am thankful for the authors who have allowed our children to experience these events in a safe and compassionate way. I have presented these novels and strategies and lessons for reading through book clubs at local workshops and national conferences. I included my 9/11 Book Club unit as a chapter in TALKING TEXTS: A Teacher’s Guide To Book Clubs Across The Curriculum.
See my interviews with eight of these authors on my blog for YA Wednesday "Novels, Memoirs, Graphics, and Picture Books to Commemorate September 11th."
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Again, an effective way to learn about these events are through story. There are powerful novels that have been written about this tragedy, for all age levels and, fascinatingly, each presents a different perspective of the events. Some take place during September 11, some following the events, some a few years later or many years later, and a few include two timelines. Many take place from the perspectives of multiple characters.
On September 11, 2021 YA Wednesday posted my guest-blog “Novels, Memoirs, Graphics, and Picture Books to Commemorate September 11th," my 4th blog on novels covering these events. In this blog I interviewed authors and reviewed (or re-reviewed) and recommended 24 texts and six picture books.
I have taught a unit on NINE ELEVEN through book clubs in multiple schools from grades 5 through 9 in both ELA and Social Studies classes. Children and adolescents have felt comfortable these sensitive and challenging concepts and examining these troubling events, and some of the ensuing difficulties, prejudices, and bullying, through the eyes of characters who are around their ages, some readers sharing personal stories in their small collaborative groups. I am thankful for the authors who have allowed our children to experience these events in a safe and compassionate way. I have presented these novels and strategies and lessons for reading through book clubs at local workshops and national conferences. I included my 9/11 Book Club unit as a chapter in TALKING TEXTS: A Teacher’s Guide To Book Clubs Across The Curriculum.
See my interviews with eight of these authors on my blog for YA Wednesday "Novels, Memoirs, Graphics, and Picture Books to Commemorate September 11th."
-----
9-11: The World’s Finest Comic Book Writers and Artists Tell Stories to Remember. DC Comics
The creative talent of DC Comics donated their time and work for this volume which tells the stories and shares the images of September 11, 2001, through 39 graphic stories that reveal diverse perspectives. This volume is dedicated to the victims of the September 11th attacks, their families, and the heroes who supported and supplied aid. All profits are to be contributed to 9-11 charitable funds. The book is a celebration of heroes and a memorial to victims.
Story contributors include writers and artists who will be well-known to comic fans and graphic readers, such as Will Eisner, one of the pioneers of American comic books and graphic novels; Stan Lee, primary creative leader of Marvel Comics; and Neil Gaiman, New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books.
Divided into five sections: “Nightmares,” “Heroes,” “Recollections,” “Unity,” and “Dreams,” the diversity of stories and artwork will appeal to a variety of YA readers. There are integration of the DC heroes throughout. Readers can select the stories and artwork that speak to them. As with most anthologies, the quality and appeal of the stories and the work vary. Many are well executed and moving, others are weaker; some portray complicated emotions, and others lack depth; some may be triggering, others may not connect the reader to the events. Some are may come across as more political than others.
One of the first graphics, “Wake Up,” relates the story of a young boy who dreams of his mother, a NYC police officer who lost her life. He wakes up, “doing what Mom said, standing tall because I want the bad guys to know…I’m not broken. My heart is unbreakable.” (23)
In the Unity section, in the story “For Art’s Sake” a comic book artist struggles with the value of his profession after witnessing the fall of the Trade Center. He tells his father, also an illustrator, “Don’t you feel a little guilty? Because we’re sitting here telling meaningless stories about imaginary heroes while out there, hundreds of real heroes are dead.…All comic books, all art for that matter! Painting, movies, tv…it all seems so frivolous, you know?”” (121-2) His father counsels him, “Listen, I’m not saying artists are near as brave as the men or women who ran into those buildings. We’re not. But we do have a role to play. We answered a calling just like they did.…We help our country cope with tragedies like this one. We make people think, we help them laugh again, or maybe we just give ‘em a place to escape for a little while.” (124)
I would recommend this book to readers who are engaged by graphics, are open to a range of interpretations of events, and already have some knowledge of the events of 9/11.
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The creative talent of DC Comics donated their time and work for this volume which tells the stories and shares the images of September 11, 2001, through 39 graphic stories that reveal diverse perspectives. This volume is dedicated to the victims of the September 11th attacks, their families, and the heroes who supported and supplied aid. All profits are to be contributed to 9-11 charitable funds. The book is a celebration of heroes and a memorial to victims.
Story contributors include writers and artists who will be well-known to comic fans and graphic readers, such as Will Eisner, one of the pioneers of American comic books and graphic novels; Stan Lee, primary creative leader of Marvel Comics; and Neil Gaiman, New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books.
Divided into five sections: “Nightmares,” “Heroes,” “Recollections,” “Unity,” and “Dreams,” the diversity of stories and artwork will appeal to a variety of YA readers. There are integration of the DC heroes throughout. Readers can select the stories and artwork that speak to them. As with most anthologies, the quality and appeal of the stories and the work vary. Many are well executed and moving, others are weaker; some portray complicated emotions, and others lack depth; some may be triggering, others may not connect the reader to the events. Some are may come across as more political than others.
One of the first graphics, “Wake Up,” relates the story of a young boy who dreams of his mother, a NYC police officer who lost her life. He wakes up, “doing what Mom said, standing tall because I want the bad guys to know…I’m not broken. My heart is unbreakable.” (23)
In the Unity section, in the story “For Art’s Sake” a comic book artist struggles with the value of his profession after witnessing the fall of the Trade Center. He tells his father, also an illustrator, “Don’t you feel a little guilty? Because we’re sitting here telling meaningless stories about imaginary heroes while out there, hundreds of real heroes are dead.…All comic books, all art for that matter! Painting, movies, tv…it all seems so frivolous, you know?”” (121-2) His father counsels him, “Listen, I’m not saying artists are near as brave as the men or women who ran into those buildings. We’re not. But we do have a role to play. We answered a calling just like they did.…We help our country cope with tragedies like this one. We make people think, we help them laugh again, or maybe we just give ‘em a place to escape for a little while.” (124)
I would recommend this book to readers who are engaged by graphics, are open to a range of interpretations of events, and already have some knowledge of the events of 9/11.
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All We Have Left by Wendy Mills
September 11. A day that changed all our lives in some way. As we see in Nine, Ten: A September 21 Story, there clearly was a Before and After. But there also was a Then or That Day and an After.
All We Have Left was so compelling that I read from dawn to dusk and did not put the book down until I finished. The novel intertwines two stories, that of 18-year-old Travis and sixteen-year-old Alia who were in the Towers as they fell and the story of Travis’ sister, Jesse, who, fifteen years later, is part of a dysfunctional family whose lives are still overwhelmingly affected by That Day and Travis’ death.
Seventeen year old Jesse is not sure who she is, who she should be, who she should hate, and who she can love. Her life is overshadowed by 9/11, her mother’s mourning, and her father’s hate.
But both Alia in 2001, and Jesse in 2016, learn that “Faith and strength aren’t something that you wear like some sort of costume; they come from inside you” (p.329) as does love. And Jesse realizes that she has to work on “treasuring right here, right now, because that’s important.” As one character says but all the characters learn, “You can fill that void inside you with anger, or you can fill it with the love for the ones who remain beside you, with hope for the future.”
What I appreciated about this novel is that is shows yet another side of how 9/11 affected people, especially adolescents, those adolescents who populate American schools everywhere. I strongly feel that students should not only be learning about the events and effects of 9/11, but that, through novels, readers learn more about how events affect people and especially children their ages.
-----
September 11. A day that changed all our lives in some way. As we see in Nine, Ten: A September 21 Story, there clearly was a Before and After. But there also was a Then or That Day and an After.
All We Have Left was so compelling that I read from dawn to dusk and did not put the book down until I finished. The novel intertwines two stories, that of 18-year-old Travis and sixteen-year-old Alia who were in the Towers as they fell and the story of Travis’ sister, Jesse, who, fifteen years later, is part of a dysfunctional family whose lives are still overwhelmingly affected by That Day and Travis’ death.
Seventeen year old Jesse is not sure who she is, who she should be, who she should hate, and who she can love. Her life is overshadowed by 9/11, her mother’s mourning, and her father’s hate.
But both Alia in 2001, and Jesse in 2016, learn that “Faith and strength aren’t something that you wear like some sort of costume; they come from inside you” (p.329) as does love. And Jesse realizes that she has to work on “treasuring right here, right now, because that’s important.” As one character says but all the characters learn, “You can fill that void inside you with anger, or you can fill it with the love for the ones who remain beside you, with hope for the future.”
What I appreciated about this novel is that is shows yet another side of how 9/11 affected people, especially adolescents, those adolescents who populate American schools everywhere. I strongly feel that students should not only be learning about the events and effects of 9/11, but that, through novels, readers learn more about how events affect people and especially children their ages.
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Big Apple Diaries by Alyssa Bermudez
A graphic memoir of an NYC adolescent who experienced 9/11 as part of her middle grade years, Big Apple Diaries is based on the author’s actual journals which she has illustrated as a graphic diary memoir encompassing the time from September 2000 to June 2002.
Alyssa Bermudez was the child of divorced parents, dividing her time between her Puerto Rican father who lived in Manhattan and her Italian-British mother who lived in Queens. This diary begins in 7th grade where “It seems that suddenly every grade you get and everything you do matters…. Now our friends are obsessed with who has a crush on who. And who is the coolest. There is all of this pressure to be popular and smart or face a dim future being a weirdo with no job.” (10)
Alyssa is not particularly popular, but not particularly unpopular either, has a much older half-brother and two best friends, Lucy and Carmen, and is an artist who wants to become a shoe designer. In this 7th grade year, she experiences her first crush—Alejandro from Columbia. Her diary takes us through the typical middle school year familiar to most of our adolescent readers. “Yesterday I did something very stupid. I knew it was stupid at the time and I still did it anyway. It’s like the drive to be popular makes me see things through stupid lenses.” (83) Typical preteen, she does many “stupid things”: shave her eyebrows, accidently dye her hair orange, cut school.
Two months before her thirteenth birthday, the attacks of September 11th occur. Alyssa’s mother worked in a building that faced the Twin Towers. She escaped and caught the last train to Queens. Her father did work in the World Trade Center but was meeting a client in Jersey City that morning (and bought skates to skate the 19.5 miles back to his Manhattan home). Overcome with emotion, Alyssa writes no entries for that day and the following few.
After that time Alyssa recognizes, “I sort of feel like I have no control over anything. I want to come back to the normal life I knew and the Twin Towers that I visited with Dad all the time.”(195) She finds herself changing, maturing: “When things can change in an instant, it’s hard to accept it. I want to make the right decisions and prove my worth. I want to be brave.” (211)
On her thirteenth birthday she begins to wonder “Who am I?” and begins thinking about her character and how she may want to change. Her diary takes the reader through graduation to a future where “Some things I’ll take with me and other things I will leave behind.” (274)
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A graphic memoir of an NYC adolescent who experienced 9/11 as part of her middle grade years, Big Apple Diaries is based on the author’s actual journals which she has illustrated as a graphic diary memoir encompassing the time from September 2000 to June 2002.
Alyssa Bermudez was the child of divorced parents, dividing her time between her Puerto Rican father who lived in Manhattan and her Italian-British mother who lived in Queens. This diary begins in 7th grade where “It seems that suddenly every grade you get and everything you do matters…. Now our friends are obsessed with who has a crush on who. And who is the coolest. There is all of this pressure to be popular and smart or face a dim future being a weirdo with no job.” (10)
Alyssa is not particularly popular, but not particularly unpopular either, has a much older half-brother and two best friends, Lucy and Carmen, and is an artist who wants to become a shoe designer. In this 7th grade year, she experiences her first crush—Alejandro from Columbia. Her diary takes us through the typical middle school year familiar to most of our adolescent readers. “Yesterday I did something very stupid. I knew it was stupid at the time and I still did it anyway. It’s like the drive to be popular makes me see things through stupid lenses.” (83) Typical preteen, she does many “stupid things”: shave her eyebrows, accidently dye her hair orange, cut school.
Two months before her thirteenth birthday, the attacks of September 11th occur. Alyssa’s mother worked in a building that faced the Twin Towers. She escaped and caught the last train to Queens. Her father did work in the World Trade Center but was meeting a client in Jersey City that morning (and bought skates to skate the 19.5 miles back to his Manhattan home). Overcome with emotion, Alyssa writes no entries for that day and the following few.
After that time Alyssa recognizes, “I sort of feel like I have no control over anything. I want to come back to the normal life I knew and the Twin Towers that I visited with Dad all the time.”(195) She finds herself changing, maturing: “When things can change in an instant, it’s hard to accept it. I want to make the right decisions and prove my worth. I want to be brave.” (211)
On her thirteenth birthday she begins to wonder “Who am I?” and begins thinking about her character and how she may want to change. Her diary takes the reader through graduation to a future where “Some things I’ll take with me and other things I will leave behind.” (274)
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Eleven by Tom Rogers
“After today, everything’s changed.”
“Sometimes when a terrible thing happens, it can make a beautiful thing seem even more precious.”
Eleven is the story of Alex who is turning 11 on September 11, 2001. I was concerned that the character would be too young for this topic. I also thought that, the character age’s implied that the novel wouldn’t contain the complexity the topic deserves. but, boy, was I wrong! I was hooked with the complexity of the first 2-page chapter. I wasn’t sure what was happening in this introductory chapter, but it was not a feeling of confusion as much as “It could be this; no, it could be this…” and inference and interpretation, even visualization.
I also forgot that New York City kids grow up faster, taking public transportation throughout the city, but more importantly, I forgot that when you need or expect a young adolescent to rise to the occasion, he will.
Alex loves airplanes and dogs—and he doesn’t realize it, but he loves his little sister Nunu who is relegated to her side of the bedroom they share by a black and yellow “flight line” down the middle of the room. And he loves his father, even though Alex told him, “I hate you,” the night before 9/11. When the Towers fall, Alex rises to the occasion, taking care of his little sister and an abandoned dog, making the sacrifice to return the dog he has always wanted to his owners when the vet finds a chip, facing bullies, making “deals” in the hopes these deals and good works will offset what he said to his father and ascertain his return from the Towers, and comforting Mac, a lonely man who is awaiting his only son’s return from the Towers.
In Eleven author Tom Rogers builds a character who is authentic, a kid who events serve to turn into a young man. Alex’s mother had said to him, “I need you to be grown up today” and, even though he was focusing on his misdeeds of the day, he did. “I’m proud of you, young man…. Young Man. Alex liked how that sounded.”
This book is not graphic but does not skirt the events. Readers hear the news announcement about the four airplanes and, more chilling, a description of an empty hospital—“There were no gurneys rolling through to the ER, no sick and wounded in pain. There wasn’t a patient in sight. And he knew then that none would be coming.” A powerful examination of the events of 9/11 and how they affected ordinary people—and one boy’s birthday.
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“After today, everything’s changed.”
“Sometimes when a terrible thing happens, it can make a beautiful thing seem even more precious.”
Eleven is the story of Alex who is turning 11 on September 11, 2001. I was concerned that the character would be too young for this topic. I also thought that, the character age’s implied that the novel wouldn’t contain the complexity the topic deserves. but, boy, was I wrong! I was hooked with the complexity of the first 2-page chapter. I wasn’t sure what was happening in this introductory chapter, but it was not a feeling of confusion as much as “It could be this; no, it could be this…” and inference and interpretation, even visualization.
I also forgot that New York City kids grow up faster, taking public transportation throughout the city, but more importantly, I forgot that when you need or expect a young adolescent to rise to the occasion, he will.
Alex loves airplanes and dogs—and he doesn’t realize it, but he loves his little sister Nunu who is relegated to her side of the bedroom they share by a black and yellow “flight line” down the middle of the room. And he loves his father, even though Alex told him, “I hate you,” the night before 9/11. When the Towers fall, Alex rises to the occasion, taking care of his little sister and an abandoned dog, making the sacrifice to return the dog he has always wanted to his owners when the vet finds a chip, facing bullies, making “deals” in the hopes these deals and good works will offset what he said to his father and ascertain his return from the Towers, and comforting Mac, a lonely man who is awaiting his only son’s return from the Towers.
In Eleven author Tom Rogers builds a character who is authentic, a kid who events serve to turn into a young man. Alex’s mother had said to him, “I need you to be grown up today” and, even though he was focusing on his misdeeds of the day, he did. “I’m proud of you, young man…. Young Man. Alex liked how that sounded.”
This book is not graphic but does not skirt the events. Readers hear the news announcement about the four airplanes and, more chilling, a description of an empty hospital—“There were no gurneys rolling through to the ER, no sick and wounded in pain. There wasn’t a patient in sight. And he knew then that none would be coming.” A powerful examination of the events of 9/11 and how they affected ordinary people—and one boy’s birthday.
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Ground Zero by Alan Gratz
Two children 18 years apart, both at the mercy of terrorists, both in death-defying situations, both fighting for their lives, and both showing courage and compassion for others as they live with grief. At one point they are both at their own Ground Zero.
Nine-year-old Brandon goes to work with his father at the Windows on the World restaurant on the 107th floor of the North Tower. The date is September 11, 2001. He leaves his father to go down to the Mall to buy something for a friend, and while he is descending in an elevator, the first plane hits the Tower. As Brandon tries to make his way up to his dad and then, when that is impossible, back down to fulfill his father’s wishes, “Brandon, hang up [the phone] and get out of the building as fast as you can.” (158) and “You’re strong. You can survive without me.” (234), he meets Richard who takes him under his wing. “It didn’t feel weird at all to Brandon to be clinging to a stranger right now. It was reassuring to connect with someone else who was sharing the struggle to survive.” (104) Together, on the way down, Brandon witnesses every horror—elevators filled with people crashing, workers falling and jumping out of the building to their deaths, people catching on fire—but the people he and Richard meet collaborate to help each other until finally Brandon makes it to safety and is able to save Richard when the Tower collapses.
Meanwhile on September 11, 2019, Reshmina, an 11-year-old Afghani, lives with her family in a small village in the middle of constant fighting between the Americans and the Afghan National Army and the Taliban. Her sister had been accidentally killed by American soldiers on Hila’s wedding day “We’re fighting a war again the Taliban. Sometimes innocent people get hurt.” (246). When an American soldier is hurt, with conflicting emotions, Reshmina hides him in her house, she puts her family and her village in grave danger. Her resentful twin Pasoon leaves home to join the Taliban and to tell them about the soldier. In danger Reshmina and her family leave to hide in a cave. “She had chosen what was right over what was easy. She had dared to be someone new, someone better, to carve a path for herself. And look where it had gotten her; buried with her family in a grave of her own making.” (245) After Reshmina’s ingenuity helps her family and the villagers to successfully escape the collapsed cave, the American soldiers sweep in to rescue Taz and order a strike against the Taliban. Again accidently, the houses in the village are all wiped out. “When they were all safe, they all turned and watched as the village slid down into nothing, swallowed by the great brown cloud of dust that came roaring at them like a lion.” (282) “‘That was not supposed to happen.’ ‘And yet it did,’ Reshmina said.” (283)
When Brandon’s and Reshmina’s stories converge, readers learn just how complicated is the present American military involvement in Afghanistan and the ongoing impact of revenge.
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Two children 18 years apart, both at the mercy of terrorists, both in death-defying situations, both fighting for their lives, and both showing courage and compassion for others as they live with grief. At one point they are both at their own Ground Zero.
Nine-year-old Brandon goes to work with his father at the Windows on the World restaurant on the 107th floor of the North Tower. The date is September 11, 2001. He leaves his father to go down to the Mall to buy something for a friend, and while he is descending in an elevator, the first plane hits the Tower. As Brandon tries to make his way up to his dad and then, when that is impossible, back down to fulfill his father’s wishes, “Brandon, hang up [the phone] and get out of the building as fast as you can.” (158) and “You’re strong. You can survive without me.” (234), he meets Richard who takes him under his wing. “It didn’t feel weird at all to Brandon to be clinging to a stranger right now. It was reassuring to connect with someone else who was sharing the struggle to survive.” (104) Together, on the way down, Brandon witnesses every horror—elevators filled with people crashing, workers falling and jumping out of the building to their deaths, people catching on fire—but the people he and Richard meet collaborate to help each other until finally Brandon makes it to safety and is able to save Richard when the Tower collapses.
Meanwhile on September 11, 2019, Reshmina, an 11-year-old Afghani, lives with her family in a small village in the middle of constant fighting between the Americans and the Afghan National Army and the Taliban. Her sister had been accidentally killed by American soldiers on Hila’s wedding day “We’re fighting a war again the Taliban. Sometimes innocent people get hurt.” (246). When an American soldier is hurt, with conflicting emotions, Reshmina hides him in her house, she puts her family and her village in grave danger. Her resentful twin Pasoon leaves home to join the Taliban and to tell them about the soldier. In danger Reshmina and her family leave to hide in a cave. “She had chosen what was right over what was easy. She had dared to be someone new, someone better, to carve a path for herself. And look where it had gotten her; buried with her family in a grave of her own making.” (245) After Reshmina’s ingenuity helps her family and the villagers to successfully escape the collapsed cave, the American soldiers sweep in to rescue Taz and order a strike against the Taliban. Again accidently, the houses in the village are all wiped out. “When they were all safe, they all turned and watched as the village slid down into nothing, swallowed by the great brown cloud of dust that came roaring at them like a lion.” (282) “‘That was not supposed to happen.’ ‘And yet it did,’ Reshmina said.” (283)
When Brandon’s and Reshmina’s stories converge, readers learn just how complicated is the present American military involvement in Afghanistan and the ongoing impact of revenge.
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Hope and Other Punchlines by Julie Buxbaum
For many people the world is divided into Before and After, the dividing line being September 11, 2001. Such is the case for Abbi Hope Goldstein and Noah Stern.
On her first birthday Abbi was saved by a worker in her World Trade Center complex daycare center. As she is carried out, wearing a crown and holding a red balloon, the South Tower collapsing behind, a photographer takes the picture that has branded her Baby Hope, the symbol of resilience. Abbi spends her childhood and adolescence in relative fame; strangers hug and cry, share their stories with her, frame and hang the photograph in their homes, and news outlets hold “Where is Baby Hope Now” stories.
Noah was a baby in the hospital, fighting for his life, on 9/11 when his father went back to his office in the World Trade Center for his lucky hat, never to return home. He and his mother now live with her new husband and Noah is obsessed with comedy.
At age 15, Abbi is experiencing a suspicious cough, keeping it a secret from her parents and grandmother. Connie, the daycare worker, has recently died from cancer, or most likely 9/11 syndrome, and Abbi takes a job as a camp counselor in a nearby town, looking for some anonymity and a chance at a “happily ever after” to the story that began with “Once un a time” (9/11). Unfortunately, Noah is a fellow counselor, recognizes her, and blackmails her into helping him interview the four people also in the iconic Baby Hope picture, convinced that the man in background wearing a Michigan cap is his father and also convinced, since his mother won’t talk about him, that his father chose not to come home after escaping from the Tower.
This is primarily a novel about relationships—shifting relationships with family, friends, ex-friends, strangers, and romantic partners. I absolutely adored these characters—Noah and Abbi especially (and their evolving relationship) and Noah’s BFF Jack, Abbi’s divorced-but-best-friends-and-maybe-more parents, her grandmother who is experiencing the onset of dementia, and even Noah’s stepfather who learns to make jokes.
But this also is a novel about the events and repercussions of 9/11, one that presents yet more facets than the other 9/11 novels that I read and reviewed previously, such as 9/11 syndrome, heroism and sacrifice, survivor guilt, and “[What] happens when the story you tell yourself turns out not to be your story at all.” (280)
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For many people the world is divided into Before and After, the dividing line being September 11, 2001. Such is the case for Abbi Hope Goldstein and Noah Stern.
On her first birthday Abbi was saved by a worker in her World Trade Center complex daycare center. As she is carried out, wearing a crown and holding a red balloon, the South Tower collapsing behind, a photographer takes the picture that has branded her Baby Hope, the symbol of resilience. Abbi spends her childhood and adolescence in relative fame; strangers hug and cry, share their stories with her, frame and hang the photograph in their homes, and news outlets hold “Where is Baby Hope Now” stories.
Noah was a baby in the hospital, fighting for his life, on 9/11 when his father went back to his office in the World Trade Center for his lucky hat, never to return home. He and his mother now live with her new husband and Noah is obsessed with comedy.
At age 15, Abbi is experiencing a suspicious cough, keeping it a secret from her parents and grandmother. Connie, the daycare worker, has recently died from cancer, or most likely 9/11 syndrome, and Abbi takes a job as a camp counselor in a nearby town, looking for some anonymity and a chance at a “happily ever after” to the story that began with “Once un a time” (9/11). Unfortunately, Noah is a fellow counselor, recognizes her, and blackmails her into helping him interview the four people also in the iconic Baby Hope picture, convinced that the man in background wearing a Michigan cap is his father and also convinced, since his mother won’t talk about him, that his father chose not to come home after escaping from the Tower.
This is primarily a novel about relationships—shifting relationships with family, friends, ex-friends, strangers, and romantic partners. I absolutely adored these characters—Noah and Abbi especially (and their evolving relationship) and Noah’s BFF Jack, Abbi’s divorced-but-best-friends-and-maybe-more parents, her grandmother who is experiencing the onset of dementia, and even Noah’s stepfather who learns to make jokes.
But this also is a novel about the events and repercussions of 9/11, one that presents yet more facets than the other 9/11 novels that I read and reviewed previously, such as 9/11 syndrome, heroism and sacrifice, survivor guilt, and “[What] happens when the story you tell yourself turns out not to be your story at all.” (280)
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I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001 by Lauren Tarshis
“A bright blue sky stretched over New York City.” That is what many of us who were alive on September 21, 2001, remember—the cloudless blue sky of northeastern United States—the contrast between the perfect day and the day which has changed our world.
As the son of a firefighter, Lucas was aware of the effects of danger and disasters. His father had been severely injured in a warehouse fire and was still not himself (“It turned him quiet.”). It had been a while since they had worked together on the firetruck model in the basement. But it was another tragedy that brought them back together as a family.
Lucas had sneaked into NYC that September 11 morning to ask his uncle to intercede on his behalf. After three concussions in two years of football, his parents and doctor were taking him off the team, and Lucas loved being on a team, a team of two with his father, his dad and uncle’s Ladder 177 firehouse, and especially his football team. Lucas was near Ground Zero when the planes hit the Towers, and when his father went looking for him, they were able to make it safely back to the fire station, helping others along the way.
Readers view the attacks of 9/11 up close and personal through Lucas’ eyes; they experience his loss, the heroism of the firefighters, and the resilience of his father. We feel the dust of the falling Towers, see the sky fogged with dust and ashes. “It wasn’t like regular dust. Some of the grains were jagged—bits of ground glass.… The dust, Lucas realized. That was the tower. It was practically all that was left.”
The story ends on a realistic but positive note with Lucas, not a player, but still a valued member of the football team. “Nothing would ever be the same again.” But his father told him, as time passed, it would get, not easy, but easier.
This was the first book in Tarshis’ I Survived series that I have read, and I was impressed with the writing, development of the main character, and the complexity of ideas presented in such a short text. This novel could be employed for MG or YA readers who are less proficient or more reluctant readers; English Language Learners who may not be ready for a longer or more complicated text; students who are short on time through absences, trips, or other obligations or who joined the class during the unit; or as a quick whole-class read for background before students break into book clubs to read one of the other 9/11 novels.
Note: I Survived The Attacks of September 11, 2001 is now available as a graphic novel re-adaptation of Lauren Tarshis' 2012 novel, written by Tarshis and illustrated by Corey Egbert.
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“A bright blue sky stretched over New York City.” That is what many of us who were alive on September 21, 2001, remember—the cloudless blue sky of northeastern United States—the contrast between the perfect day and the day which has changed our world.
As the son of a firefighter, Lucas was aware of the effects of danger and disasters. His father had been severely injured in a warehouse fire and was still not himself (“It turned him quiet.”). It had been a while since they had worked together on the firetruck model in the basement. But it was another tragedy that brought them back together as a family.
Lucas had sneaked into NYC that September 11 morning to ask his uncle to intercede on his behalf. After three concussions in two years of football, his parents and doctor were taking him off the team, and Lucas loved being on a team, a team of two with his father, his dad and uncle’s Ladder 177 firehouse, and especially his football team. Lucas was near Ground Zero when the planes hit the Towers, and when his father went looking for him, they were able to make it safely back to the fire station, helping others along the way.
Readers view the attacks of 9/11 up close and personal through Lucas’ eyes; they experience his loss, the heroism of the firefighters, and the resilience of his father. We feel the dust of the falling Towers, see the sky fogged with dust and ashes. “It wasn’t like regular dust. Some of the grains were jagged—bits of ground glass.… The dust, Lucas realized. That was the tower. It was practically all that was left.”
The story ends on a realistic but positive note with Lucas, not a player, but still a valued member of the football team. “Nothing would ever be the same again.” But his father told him, as time passed, it would get, not easy, but easier.
This was the first book in Tarshis’ I Survived series that I have read, and I was impressed with the writing, development of the main character, and the complexity of ideas presented in such a short text. This novel could be employed for MG or YA readers who are less proficient or more reluctant readers; English Language Learners who may not be ready for a longer or more complicated text; students who are short on time through absences, trips, or other obligations or who joined the class during the unit; or as a quick whole-class read for background before students break into book clubs to read one of the other 9/11 novels.
Note: I Survived The Attacks of September 11, 2001 is now available as a graphic novel re-adaptation of Lauren Tarshis' 2012 novel, written by Tarshis and illustrated by Corey Egbert.
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In the Shadows of the Fallen Towers by Don Brown
Don Brown’s graphic novel recounts events following the 9/11 Attacks on the Towers and the Pentagon from the moment of the “jetliner slamming into the North Tower of the World Trade Center” to the one-year anniversary ceremonies at the Pentagon; in Shanksville, Pennsylvania; and at Ground Zero. It also covers the fighting of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and the capture and interrogation of prisoners from an al-Qaeda hideout in Pakistan.
The drawings allow readers to bear witness to the heroism of the first responders, firefighters, and police as they move from rescue to recovery over the ten months following the attacks and learn the stories of some of the survivors they saved. It is the story of the nameless “strangers [who] help[ed] one another, carrying the injured, offering water to the thirsty, and comforting the weeping.” (23)
We learn and view details that we may have not known, such as “Bullets start to fly when the flames and heat set off ammunition from fallen police officers’ firearms,” (11) the “Pentagon workers [who] plunge[d] into the smoke-filled building to restore water pressure made feeble by pipes broken in the attack,” (36) and former military who donned their old uniforms and “bluff[ed their way] past the roadblocks” to “sneak onto the Pile” to help. (50, 52)
For more mature readers this book adds to the story of 9/11 in a more “graphic” way.
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Don Brown’s graphic novel recounts events following the 9/11 Attacks on the Towers and the Pentagon from the moment of the “jetliner slamming into the North Tower of the World Trade Center” to the one-year anniversary ceremonies at the Pentagon; in Shanksville, Pennsylvania; and at Ground Zero. It also covers the fighting of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and the capture and interrogation of prisoners from an al-Qaeda hideout in Pakistan.
The drawings allow readers to bear witness to the heroism of the first responders, firefighters, and police as they move from rescue to recovery over the ten months following the attacks and learn the stories of some of the survivors they saved. It is the story of the nameless “strangers [who] help[ed] one another, carrying the injured, offering water to the thirsty, and comforting the weeping.” (23)
We learn and view details that we may have not known, such as “Bullets start to fly when the flames and heat set off ammunition from fallen police officers’ firearms,” (11) the “Pentagon workers [who] plunge[d] into the smoke-filled building to restore water pressure made feeble by pipes broken in the attack,” (36) and former military who donned their old uniforms and “bluff[ed their way] past the roadblocks” to “sneak onto the Pile” to help. (50, 52)
For more mature readers this book adds to the story of 9/11 in a more “graphic” way.
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Just a Drop of Water by Kerry O’Malley Cerra
Relationships are built over time, but how much can they withstand? Jake Green and Sameed Madina have always been friends. They have grown up together; they run track together; they play war games together; they have each other backs; they plan to always remain friends “but only till Martians invade the earth.”
But then the events of September 11, 2001, occurred, and Martians did invade the earth, only they looked like Sam and his family—Muslim. Because one of the terrorists had lived in their neighborhood and was a client at the bank where Mr. Madina worked, Sam’s father comes under FBI surveillance, and the neighborhood divides in their support. Not Jake, though. He believes in his friend and his friend’s family, physically fighting the school bully who refers to Sam as a “towelhead” and arguing with his own mother whose own grief keeps her from supporting their neighbors.
When his father is taken into custody, Sam refuses to attend school, abandons his cross-country team, and distances himself from Jake, taking a new interest in the Islam religion. But Jake does not give up, and the boys reconnect to peacefully stop their racist classmates, Bobby and Rigo, from attacking the local mosque. Afterwards, Jake realizes that they both have been affected by 9/11; he has learned that you can be both scared and brave at the same time, but he has also has learned that adversity can be defeated peacefully. And Jake realizes that Sam is now different. “For the first time I see Sam, a Muslim. An American Muslim. But he is still just Sam, no matter what.”
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Relationships are built over time, but how much can they withstand? Jake Green and Sameed Madina have always been friends. They have grown up together; they run track together; they play war games together; they have each other backs; they plan to always remain friends “but only till Martians invade the earth.”
But then the events of September 11, 2001, occurred, and Martians did invade the earth, only they looked like Sam and his family—Muslim. Because one of the terrorists had lived in their neighborhood and was a client at the bank where Mr. Madina worked, Sam’s father comes under FBI surveillance, and the neighborhood divides in their support. Not Jake, though. He believes in his friend and his friend’s family, physically fighting the school bully who refers to Sam as a “towelhead” and arguing with his own mother whose own grief keeps her from supporting their neighbors.
When his father is taken into custody, Sam refuses to attend school, abandons his cross-country team, and distances himself from Jake, taking a new interest in the Islam religion. But Jake does not give up, and the boys reconnect to peacefully stop their racist classmates, Bobby and Rigo, from attacking the local mosque. Afterwards, Jake realizes that they both have been affected by 9/11; he has learned that you can be both scared and brave at the same time, but he has also has learned that adversity can be defeated peacefully. And Jake realizes that Sam is now different. “For the first time I see Sam, a Muslim. An American Muslim. But he is still just Sam, no matter what.”
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Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan
“…even if I felt something was wrong, I would never have pictured this. This isn’t even something I’ve feared, because I never knew it was a possibility/” (5) “’We are not supposed to comprehend something like this,’ my mother says to me…. I don’t want to comprehend. Instead, I will try to remember what matters.” (16)
The attacks of September 11, 2001, affected our country as a whole, but it is even harder to imagine the effect on those who lived in NYC. Claire, Peter, and Jasper are three teenagers living in NYC on that date. Claire leaves her high school to pick up her brother from his elementary school; Peter has already left school and is at the record store, thinking about his impending date with Jasper; and Jasper is at home alone, his parents visiting their native Korea, before he leaves for college. None of the three are directly affected—none of their parents worked in the World Trade Center, none of their friends or relatives were killed; they were not physically hurt—but the events of this day color the year following. “I want to know why this is so much a part of me. I want to know why this thing that happened to other people has happened so much to me.” (104)
Readers view the day through their alternating perspectives. We view the constructive acts of strangers as Claire observes, “There are skyscrapers collapsing behind us, and nobody is pushing, nobody is yelling. When people see we’re a school group, they’re careful not to separate us. Stores are not only giving away sneakers, but some are handing out water to people who need it. You’d think they’d take advantage and raise the prices. But no. That’s not what happens.” (14) and Peter reflects, “And the people I care about, suddenly I care about them a little more, in this existential way.” (82)
Even though Peter and Jason’s date does not go well, another ramification of the day, the three become friends, especially Claire and Peter who attend high school together, Jason returning to college. And the year continues, each is a little changed. As Peter observes, “ If you start the day reading the obituaries, you live your day a little differently.” (123)
By December Jasper observes that he has finally gone an entire day without thinking of 9/11 but then wonders what that means. Claire feels the weight of the day lighten a little, but “It is still strange to see the skyline. I have never seen an absence that it so physical.” (126)
On the anniversary of 9/11 Claire retraces the steps she took on that day, and Peter and Jason finally have a second date. On March 19, 2003, the day of the United States invasion of Iraq, the three reunite, and Claire observes, “And we are so different from who we were on September 10th. And also different from who we were on the 11th. And the 12th. And yesterday.” (163) Together they have found the “antidote” to the fear and uncertainty; they have each other as they individually navigate the world and remember what matters.
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“…even if I felt something was wrong, I would never have pictured this. This isn’t even something I’ve feared, because I never knew it was a possibility/” (5) “’We are not supposed to comprehend something like this,’ my mother says to me…. I don’t want to comprehend. Instead, I will try to remember what matters.” (16)
The attacks of September 11, 2001, affected our country as a whole, but it is even harder to imagine the effect on those who lived in NYC. Claire, Peter, and Jasper are three teenagers living in NYC on that date. Claire leaves her high school to pick up her brother from his elementary school; Peter has already left school and is at the record store, thinking about his impending date with Jasper; and Jasper is at home alone, his parents visiting their native Korea, before he leaves for college. None of the three are directly affected—none of their parents worked in the World Trade Center, none of their friends or relatives were killed; they were not physically hurt—but the events of this day color the year following. “I want to know why this is so much a part of me. I want to know why this thing that happened to other people has happened so much to me.” (104)
Readers view the day through their alternating perspectives. We view the constructive acts of strangers as Claire observes, “There are skyscrapers collapsing behind us, and nobody is pushing, nobody is yelling. When people see we’re a school group, they’re careful not to separate us. Stores are not only giving away sneakers, but some are handing out water to people who need it. You’d think they’d take advantage and raise the prices. But no. That’s not what happens.” (14) and Peter reflects, “And the people I care about, suddenly I care about them a little more, in this existential way.” (82)
Even though Peter and Jason’s date does not go well, another ramification of the day, the three become friends, especially Claire and Peter who attend high school together, Jason returning to college. And the year continues, each is a little changed. As Peter observes, “ If you start the day reading the obituaries, you live your day a little differently.” (123)
By December Jasper observes that he has finally gone an entire day without thinking of 9/11 but then wonders what that means. Claire feels the weight of the day lighten a little, but “It is still strange to see the skyline. I have never seen an absence that it so physical.” (126)
On the anniversary of 9/11 Claire retraces the steps she took on that day, and Peter and Jason finally have a second date. On March 19, 2003, the day of the United States invasion of Iraq, the three reunite, and Claire observes, “And we are so different from who we were on September 10th. And also different from who we were on the 11th. And the 12th. And yesterday.” (163) Together they have found the “antidote” to the fear and uncertainty; they have each other as they individually navigate the world and remember what matters.
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Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story by Nora Raleigh Baskin
The events of 9/11 are challenging to describe and discuss, especially with children who were not yet born, which at this point is most of our student population. I think that is so because, as adults, we each have our memories of that day and Life Before. I was a middle school teacher on the day the Towers fell. I remember standing in my classroom as our team teachers watched the morning news. Thankfully, our students were in their Specials and were not witness to the shock and tears on our faces. I don’t remember much of that day, but we were located in Philadelphia and did not immediately feel the effects. But the events o that day have affected our country and all our citizens as well as our contemporary world. The importance of studying and discussing 9/11 as part of American history is highlighted in Jewell Parker Rhoads novel Towers Falling, set in September, 2016.
Nine Ten: A September 11 Story is another novel effective in introducing young adolescent students to the many events of September 11, 2001. Nora Raleigh Baskin’s novel is set during the days leading up to 9/11—in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Columbus, and Shanksvlle, Pennsylvania, where readers follow four diverse middle-grade students affected by the events of 9/11. Sergio, Naheed, Aimee, and Will first cross paths in the O’Hare Airport on September 9. The four young adolescents are Black, White, Jewish, and Muslim and are collectively surviving loss, guilt, poverty, parental absence, neglectful fathers, bullying, the navigation of peer relationships, as well as the angst of middle school, “…everything felt different, as if you suddenly realized you had been coming to school in your pajamas and you had to figure out a way to hide this fact before anyone else noticed.” (p. 48). In their own ways they are each affected by 9/11, and on September 11, 2002, these four and their families again converge at Ground Zero, each there for different reasons, but this time their paths back together have meaning.
There are a multitude of important conversations to be generated by this little novel, a story of Before and After. I was especially grateful that the events and heroes of Shanksville were memorialized. In fact there are many aspects of heroism brought forth in the novel to discuss. But Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story is the story of people and three days in their lives, “Because in the end it was just about people…Because the world changed that day, slowly and then all at once.” (p. 176).
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The events of 9/11 are challenging to describe and discuss, especially with children who were not yet born, which at this point is most of our student population. I think that is so because, as adults, we each have our memories of that day and Life Before. I was a middle school teacher on the day the Towers fell. I remember standing in my classroom as our team teachers watched the morning news. Thankfully, our students were in their Specials and were not witness to the shock and tears on our faces. I don’t remember much of that day, but we were located in Philadelphia and did not immediately feel the effects. But the events o that day have affected our country and all our citizens as well as our contemporary world. The importance of studying and discussing 9/11 as part of American history is highlighted in Jewell Parker Rhoads novel Towers Falling, set in September, 2016.
Nine Ten: A September 11 Story is another novel effective in introducing young adolescent students to the many events of September 11, 2001. Nora Raleigh Baskin’s novel is set during the days leading up to 9/11—in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Columbus, and Shanksvlle, Pennsylvania, where readers follow four diverse middle-grade students affected by the events of 9/11. Sergio, Naheed, Aimee, and Will first cross paths in the O’Hare Airport on September 9. The four young adolescents are Black, White, Jewish, and Muslim and are collectively surviving loss, guilt, poverty, parental absence, neglectful fathers, bullying, the navigation of peer relationships, as well as the angst of middle school, “…everything felt different, as if you suddenly realized you had been coming to school in your pajamas and you had to figure out a way to hide this fact before anyone else noticed.” (p. 48). In their own ways they are each affected by 9/11, and on September 11, 2002, these four and their families again converge at Ground Zero, each there for different reasons, but this time their paths back together have meaning.
There are a multitude of important conversations to be generated by this little novel, a story of Before and After. I was especially grateful that the events and heroes of Shanksville were memorialized. In fact there are many aspects of heroism brought forth in the novel to discuss. But Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story is the story of people and three days in their lives, “Because in the end it was just about people…Because the world changed that day, slowly and then all at once.” (p. 176).
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Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian
Another novel as a complement to a 9/11 Novel Study would be Maria Padian’s novel about the ways life in an idyllic small Maine town quickly gets turned upside down after the events of 9/11.
“Things get a little more complicated when you know somebody’s story.…It’s hard to fear someone, or be cruel to them, when you know their story.”
The majority of the 21.3 million refugees worldwide in 2016 were from Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia. The United States resettled 84,994 refugees. Together with immigrants, refugee children make up one in five children in the U.S. More than half the Syrian refugees who were resettled in the U.S. between October 2010 and November 2015 are under the age of 20.
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In Out of Nowhere narrator Tom Bouchard is a high school senior. He is a soccer player, top of his class academically, and well-liked. He lives in Maine in a town that has become a secondary migration location for Somali refugees. These Somali students are trying to navigate high school without many benefits, including the English language. They face hostility from many of their fellow classmates and the townspeople, including the mayor; one teacher, at the request of students, permits only English to be spoken in her classroom.
When four Somali boys join the soccer team, turning it into a winning team, and when he is forced to complete volunteer hours at the K Street Center where he tutors a young Somali boy and works with a female Somali classmate, Tom learns at least a part of their stories. Tom fights bigotry, especially that of his girlfriend—now ex-girlfriend, but he still doesn’t comprehend the complexity of the beliefs, customs, and traditions of his new friends, and his actions have negative consequences for all involved. While trying to defend the truth, Tom learns a valuable lesson, “Truth is a difficult word. One person’s truth is another person’s falsehood. People believe what appears to be true and what they feel is true.”
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Another novel as a complement to a 9/11 Novel Study would be Maria Padian’s novel about the ways life in an idyllic small Maine town quickly gets turned upside down after the events of 9/11.
“Things get a little more complicated when you know somebody’s story.…It’s hard to fear someone, or be cruel to them, when you know their story.”
The majority of the 21.3 million refugees worldwide in 2016 were from Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia. The United States resettled 84,994 refugees. Together with immigrants, refugee children make up one in five children in the U.S. More than half the Syrian refugees who were resettled in the U.S. between October 2010 and November 2015 are under the age of 20.
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In Out of Nowhere narrator Tom Bouchard is a high school senior. He is a soccer player, top of his class academically, and well-liked. He lives in Maine in a town that has become a secondary migration location for Somali refugees. These Somali students are trying to navigate high school without many benefits, including the English language. They face hostility from many of their fellow classmates and the townspeople, including the mayor; one teacher, at the request of students, permits only English to be spoken in her classroom.
When four Somali boys join the soccer team, turning it into a winning team, and when he is forced to complete volunteer hours at the K Street Center where he tutors a young Somali boy and works with a female Somali classmate, Tom learns at least a part of their stories. Tom fights bigotry, especially that of his girlfriend—now ex-girlfriend, but he still doesn’t comprehend the complexity of the beliefs, customs, and traditions of his new friends, and his actions have negative consequences for all involved. While trying to defend the truth, Tom learns a valuable lesson, “Truth is a difficult word. One person’s truth is another person’s falsehood. People believe what appears to be true and what they feel is true.”
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Refugees by Catherine Stine
Refugees adds yet another dimension to the 9/11 novels.
Dawn is a foster teen who runs away to New York City and becomes affected by the events of 9/11. As she plays her flute on the streets near Ground Zero to earn money for food, she is approached by families of victims who ask her to play for them and the memories of their loved ones. As Dawn comes to believe this is her mission, she teaches herself music she feels appropriate for those of many cultures and stages of life. In doing so, she opens up to strangers and new friends, something she couldn't do with her foster mother.
Johar is an Afghani teenager, weaver, and poet. His father is killed by the Taliban, his mother is killed by a land mine, his older brother joins the Taliban, and his aunt is missing, leaving Johar to care for his three-year-old cousin. He and his cousin flee to a refugee camp in Pakistan where he works for the Red Cross doctor, Dawn's foster mother, another person who must learn to show love.
Dawn and Johar connect through phone calls and emails, and as they all work toward forming a family—one that spans the globe—the reader learns how war, the U.S. involvement, and the events of 9/11 affected those in many countries. This would be a book I would recommend for proficient readers with an interest in war or history.
P.S. After I read this book and posted my original Goodreads review, I was listening to a discussion about the days following 9/11 in the Middle East on NPR and found that I could actually follow it; therefore, I realize that I learned more than I thought from this novel.
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Refugees adds yet another dimension to the 9/11 novels.
Dawn is a foster teen who runs away to New York City and becomes affected by the events of 9/11. As she plays her flute on the streets near Ground Zero to earn money for food, she is approached by families of victims who ask her to play for them and the memories of their loved ones. As Dawn comes to believe this is her mission, she teaches herself music she feels appropriate for those of many cultures and stages of life. In doing so, she opens up to strangers and new friends, something she couldn't do with her foster mother.
Johar is an Afghani teenager, weaver, and poet. His father is killed by the Taliban, his mother is killed by a land mine, his older brother joins the Taliban, and his aunt is missing, leaving Johar to care for his three-year-old cousin. He and his cousin flee to a refugee camp in Pakistan where he works for the Red Cross doctor, Dawn's foster mother, another person who must learn to show love.
Dawn and Johar connect through phone calls and emails, and as they all work toward forming a family—one that spans the globe—the reader learns how war, the U.S. involvement, and the events of 9/11 affected those in many countries. This would be a book I would recommend for proficient readers with an interest in war or history.
P.S. After I read this book and posted my original Goodreads review, I was listening to a discussion about the days following 9/11 in the Middle East on NPR and found that I could actually follow it; therefore, I realize that I learned more than I thought from this novel.
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Shine, Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger.
“After September eleventh, I never felt more un-American in my whole life, yet at the same time, I felt the most American I’ve ever felt too. I never knew it, but this has been a recurring theme throughout my life and it seemed to get shoved into my face after the attacks on the World Trade Center.” (150-151)
Samar Ahluwahlia is an Indian-American teen living in Linton, NJ, with her mother who turned her back on her family and religion. When the events of September 11th occurred, shaking Sam as well as her classmates and community, she didn’t realize that those events would affect her personally. Until her Uncle Sandeep appeared on their doorstep.
“Before Uncle Sandeep walked back into my life, I’d never cared that I was a Sikh. It really didn’t have much impact on my life,…. But that was before 9/11. The Saturday morning that Uncle Sandeep rang our doorbell had one of those endless, frozen blue skies hanging above it; the same kind of frozen blue sky that, just four days earlier, had born silent witness to a burning Pentagon and two crumbling mighty towers in New York City. And the cause of all those lost lives was linked to another bearded, turbaned man halfway around the world. And my regular, sort of popular, happily assimilated Indian-American butt got rammed real hard into the cold seat of reality.” (10)
After becoming re-acquainted with her personable, loveable and loving, optimistic uncle, visiting his gurdwara (temple), and watching the harassment and hate aimed against him even though he is Indian, American, and Sikh, rather than the Middle Eastern and Muslim, Sammy decides she wants to learn more about Sikhism and meet her family, hoping to have what her best friend Molly has with her large Irish family. “This discovering more about myself stuff is addictive. It’s like starting a book that you just can’t out down, only it’s better because the whole book is about you.” (110)
After being termed a “coconut” by an Indian girl at school and learning about the WWII Japanese internment camps, Sam begins researching intolerance, joins a Sikh teen chat group, and convinces her mother to take her to visit her grandparents where she is exposed to the traditional “values” that caused her mother to rebel.
However, when Molly includes their childhood enemy Bobbi Lewis in their friendship and Sam finally acknowledges that the supportive Bobbi has changed or maybe isn’t whom she thought, Sam realizes, “If we give them a chance, people could surprise us. Maybe if we didn’t make up our minds right away, based on a few familiar clues, we’d leave room for people to show us a bunch of little, important layers that we never would have expected to see.” (149)
Through the repercussions of 9/1l, her newly-expanded family and group of friends, her research into history and the Sikh religion, and experiencing the narrow-mindedness of her boyfriend, some of the kids at school, and even her grandparents, Sam realizes the dichotomy of being a coconut. “I thought of Balvir’s definition of a coconut: brown on the outside, white on the inside, mixed-up, confused. And then Uncle Sandeep’s: The coconut is also a symbol of resilience, Samar. Even in conditions where there’s very little nourishment and even less nurturance, it flourishes, growing taller than most of the plants around it.” (247)
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“After September eleventh, I never felt more un-American in my whole life, yet at the same time, I felt the most American I’ve ever felt too. I never knew it, but this has been a recurring theme throughout my life and it seemed to get shoved into my face after the attacks on the World Trade Center.” (150-151)
Samar Ahluwahlia is an Indian-American teen living in Linton, NJ, with her mother who turned her back on her family and religion. When the events of September 11th occurred, shaking Sam as well as her classmates and community, she didn’t realize that those events would affect her personally. Until her Uncle Sandeep appeared on their doorstep.
“Before Uncle Sandeep walked back into my life, I’d never cared that I was a Sikh. It really didn’t have much impact on my life,…. But that was before 9/11. The Saturday morning that Uncle Sandeep rang our doorbell had one of those endless, frozen blue skies hanging above it; the same kind of frozen blue sky that, just four days earlier, had born silent witness to a burning Pentagon and two crumbling mighty towers in New York City. And the cause of all those lost lives was linked to another bearded, turbaned man halfway around the world. And my regular, sort of popular, happily assimilated Indian-American butt got rammed real hard into the cold seat of reality.” (10)
After becoming re-acquainted with her personable, loveable and loving, optimistic uncle, visiting his gurdwara (temple), and watching the harassment and hate aimed against him even though he is Indian, American, and Sikh, rather than the Middle Eastern and Muslim, Sammy decides she wants to learn more about Sikhism and meet her family, hoping to have what her best friend Molly has with her large Irish family. “This discovering more about myself stuff is addictive. It’s like starting a book that you just can’t out down, only it’s better because the whole book is about you.” (110)
After being termed a “coconut” by an Indian girl at school and learning about the WWII Japanese internment camps, Sam begins researching intolerance, joins a Sikh teen chat group, and convinces her mother to take her to visit her grandparents where she is exposed to the traditional “values” that caused her mother to rebel.
However, when Molly includes their childhood enemy Bobbi Lewis in their friendship and Sam finally acknowledges that the supportive Bobbi has changed or maybe isn’t whom she thought, Sam realizes, “If we give them a chance, people could surprise us. Maybe if we didn’t make up our minds right away, based on a few familiar clues, we’d leave room for people to show us a bunch of little, important layers that we never would have expected to see.” (149)
Through the repercussions of 9/1l, her newly-expanded family and group of friends, her research into history and the Sikh religion, and experiencing the narrow-mindedness of her boyfriend, some of the kids at school, and even her grandparents, Sam realizes the dichotomy of being a coconut. “I thought of Balvir’s definition of a coconut: brown on the outside, white on the inside, mixed-up, confused. And then Uncle Sandeep’s: The coconut is also a symbol of resilience, Samar. Even in conditions where there’s very little nourishment and even less nurturance, it flourishes, growing taller than most of the plants around it.” (247)
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Shooting Kabul by N. H. Senzai.
“The driver hit the gas and the tires squealed as the truck made a sharp turn and then accelerated right though a bombed-out warehouse onto a parallel alley. Fadi looked from the edge of the truck’s railing in disbelief. His six-year-old sister had been lost because of him.” (25)
Fadi’s father, a native Afghan, received his doctorate in the United States and returned to Afghanistan with his family five years before to help the Taliban rid the country of drugs and help the farmers grow crops. But as the Taliban became more and more restrictive and power-hungry and things changed, Habib, his wife Zafoona, Noor, Fadi, and little Mariam (born in the U.S.) need to flee the country. During their nighttime escape, chased by soldiers, Fadi loses his grip on Mariam as they are pulled into the truck, and she is lost.
Eventually making it to America, the family joins relatives in Fremont, California. “Fremont has the largest population of Afghans in the United States” (56), and Habib takes measures to try to find and rescue Mariam. Starting sixth grade in his new school, Fadi is continuously plagued with guilt over Mariam’s loss and is tormented and beaten up by the two sixth-grade bullies.
However, though Anh, a new friend, he joins the photography club and becomes obsessed with a contest that could win him a ticket to India for a photo shoot but also take him in proximity to Pakistan where he can look for Mariam himself.
Then the events of September 11, 2001, occur and “By the end of the day, Fadi knew that the world as he knew it would never be the same again.” (137). Harassment escalates both at school and in the community. “[Mr. Singh] was attacked because the men thought he was a Muslim since he wore a turban and beard. They blamed him for what happened on September eleventh.” (165)
When the Afghan students have had enough with the school bullies, they band together and confront the two boys, but having them cornered, decide, “We can’t beat them up. That would make us as bad as they are…. Beating them up won’t solve anything.” (232)
Meanwhile, while looking for a photograph that will capture “all the key elements” of a winning photograph and additionally portray his community, Fadi shoots the picture which, in an unusual way, leads to finding Mariam.
In Shooting Kabul, readers meet one family of refugees living in a community of Afghans of different ethnic groups as well as immigrants from other countries. The story also takes readers through some of the background of the Taliban in Afghanistan, relevant at this time.
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“The driver hit the gas and the tires squealed as the truck made a sharp turn and then accelerated right though a bombed-out warehouse onto a parallel alley. Fadi looked from the edge of the truck’s railing in disbelief. His six-year-old sister had been lost because of him.” (25)
Fadi’s father, a native Afghan, received his doctorate in the United States and returned to Afghanistan with his family five years before to help the Taliban rid the country of drugs and help the farmers grow crops. But as the Taliban became more and more restrictive and power-hungry and things changed, Habib, his wife Zafoona, Noor, Fadi, and little Mariam (born in the U.S.) need to flee the country. During their nighttime escape, chased by soldiers, Fadi loses his grip on Mariam as they are pulled into the truck, and she is lost.
Eventually making it to America, the family joins relatives in Fremont, California. “Fremont has the largest population of Afghans in the United States” (56), and Habib takes measures to try to find and rescue Mariam. Starting sixth grade in his new school, Fadi is continuously plagued with guilt over Mariam’s loss and is tormented and beaten up by the two sixth-grade bullies.
However, though Anh, a new friend, he joins the photography club and becomes obsessed with a contest that could win him a ticket to India for a photo shoot but also take him in proximity to Pakistan where he can look for Mariam himself.
Then the events of September 11, 2001, occur and “By the end of the day, Fadi knew that the world as he knew it would never be the same again.” (137). Harassment escalates both at school and in the community. “[Mr. Singh] was attacked because the men thought he was a Muslim since he wore a turban and beard. They blamed him for what happened on September eleventh.” (165)
When the Afghan students have had enough with the school bullies, they band together and confront the two boys, but having them cornered, decide, “We can’t beat them up. That would make us as bad as they are…. Beating them up won’t solve anything.” (232)
Meanwhile, while looking for a photograph that will capture “all the key elements” of a winning photograph and additionally portray his community, Fadi shoots the picture which, in an unusual way, leads to finding Mariam.
In Shooting Kabul, readers meet one family of refugees living in a community of Afghans of different ethnic groups as well as immigrants from other countries. The story also takes readers through some of the background of the Taliban in Afghanistan, relevant at this time.
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Smoke at the Pentagon: Poems to Remember by Jacqueline Jules (and Eszter Anna Rácz, Illustrator
Through poetry written in the voices of young people from the Arlington, Virginia, and the Pentagon area over the course of a year, beginning on September 11, 2001, from Kelvin, age 5, to Allison, age 21, readers learn the impact that 9/11 had on children and teens like them.
When one of the neighbors never returns from the Pentagon on that fateful day, 10-year-old Reuben attends a neighbor potluck for his widow,
“Then we sit down with a paper plate
And eat food from all over the world.
Everyone sad but together.”
During this year 8-year-old Michael’s brother exchanges his college plans to serve in Afghanistan. Karima, age 13, stays home from school, worried about the attacks on Muslims by those who think they are “not American enough,” while her classmate Jennifer hears about a window of a shop with an Arabic sign being broken and hopes Karima returns to school, wanting “the chance to say our world doesn‘t need any more broken glass.”
Author Jacqueline Jules was a school librarian in Arlington on 9/11, and in a beautifully lyrical telling, illustrated by Eszter Anna Racz, helps our students understand the effects of these events.
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Through poetry written in the voices of young people from the Arlington, Virginia, and the Pentagon area over the course of a year, beginning on September 11, 2001, from Kelvin, age 5, to Allison, age 21, readers learn the impact that 9/11 had on children and teens like them.
When one of the neighbors never returns from the Pentagon on that fateful day, 10-year-old Reuben attends a neighbor potluck for his widow,
“Then we sit down with a paper plate
And eat food from all over the world.
Everyone sad but together.”
During this year 8-year-old Michael’s brother exchanges his college plans to serve in Afghanistan. Karima, age 13, stays home from school, worried about the attacks on Muslims by those who think they are “not American enough,” while her classmate Jennifer hears about a window of a shop with an Arabic sign being broken and hopes Karima returns to school, wanting “the chance to say our world doesn‘t need any more broken glass.”
Author Jacqueline Jules was a school librarian in Arlington on 9/11, and in a beautifully lyrical telling, illustrated by Eszter Anna Racz, helps our students understand the effects of these events.
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Somewhere Among by Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu
Ema is binational, bicultural, bilingual, and biracial. Some people consider her “half,” and others consider her “double.” Her American mother says she contains “multitudes,” but Ema sometimes feels alone living in Japan somewhere among multitudes of people.
When fifth-grader Ema and her mother go to live with Ema’s very traditional Japanese grandparents during a difficult pregnancy, author Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu’s verse novel takes the reader through six months (June 21, 2001-January 2, 2002) of customs, rituals, and holidays, both Japanese and American. There are challenges, such a choosing a name for the new baby that brings good luck in Japan and that both sets of grandparents can pronounce. Ema celebrates American Independence Day and Japanese Sea Day, and she now views some days, such as August 15 Victory Over Japan Day from diverse perspectives.
On September 11, 2001 Ema experiences both two typhoons in her town and the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in America—on television. As the reader traverses the intricacies of two fusing two distinct cultures with Emi and her family, our knowledge of others is doubled.
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Ema is binational, bicultural, bilingual, and biracial. Some people consider her “half,” and others consider her “double.” Her American mother says she contains “multitudes,” but Ema sometimes feels alone living in Japan somewhere among multitudes of people.
When fifth-grader Ema and her mother go to live with Ema’s very traditional Japanese grandparents during a difficult pregnancy, author Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu’s verse novel takes the reader through six months (June 21, 2001-January 2, 2002) of customs, rituals, and holidays, both Japanese and American. There are challenges, such a choosing a name for the new baby that brings good luck in Japan and that both sets of grandparents can pronounce. Ema celebrates American Independence Day and Japanese Sea Day, and she now views some days, such as August 15 Victory Over Japan Day from diverse perspectives.
On September 11, 2001 Ema experiences both two typhoons in her town and the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in America—on television. As the reader traverses the intricacies of two fusing two distinct cultures with Emi and her family, our knowledge of others is doubled.
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The Man with the Red Bag by Eve Bunting
“We don’t trust anymore, and that’s the saddest thing of all.’” (116)
Eve Bunting’s chapter book is not about the events of September 11, 2001, but it is about the effects and repercussions that we are still experiencing from 9/11.
Kevin Saunders and his grandmother go on a bus trip out West and immediately notice a fellow traveler, Charles Stavros, a man who says he is Greek but raised in America. A man who Kevin thinks looks like “…he might be Saudi Arabian or even Iraqian, if there is such a word. He was dark skinned, with bushy black eyebrows and a bushier mustache.” (2) And a man who constantly carries a red bag which he refuses to put down, even on a rafting trip.
Some of the other passengers worry that he is a terrorist and that his face looks familiar. As Kevin’s Grandma says, “It’s sad. People are quick to jump to conclusions now. If someone looks like that—” (10)
Kevin, a voracious reader of Joan Lowery Nixon mystery novels and his “much-read how-to-write-a-mystery book and is convinced that Stavros is a terrorist, is anxious to solve the mystery of the red bag which he is sure is holding a bomb. His elicits the help of the other young passenger, Geneva, who also wants to be a hero and appear on the Oprah show. Geneva’s eyes opened wide. ‘He does look exactly like a terrorist. I’ve never seen a real one, but I’ve seen pictures on TV.’” (39)
As they follow Stavros, even keeping watch on his various hotel rooms all night, they become more and more convinced that he is going to bomb an American monument, possibly Mount Rushmore, and that they can save the day. And then Kevin can write the mystery. “I didn’t want him to be Greek. I didn’t want him to be innocent. I didn’t want to lose my big mystery adventure. But just think how scary it would be if he wasn’t Greek. If he was something else! Having a mystery also meant having a terrorist aboard. And a bomb. Criminy! What did I want?” (60)
What they find ties Stavros to 9/11, but not in the way they think.
This is yet another perspective of the events and effects of September 11, 2001, appropriate for grade 4-8 readers.
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“We don’t trust anymore, and that’s the saddest thing of all.’” (116)
Eve Bunting’s chapter book is not about the events of September 11, 2001, but it is about the effects and repercussions that we are still experiencing from 9/11.
Kevin Saunders and his grandmother go on a bus trip out West and immediately notice a fellow traveler, Charles Stavros, a man who says he is Greek but raised in America. A man who Kevin thinks looks like “…he might be Saudi Arabian or even Iraqian, if there is such a word. He was dark skinned, with bushy black eyebrows and a bushier mustache.” (2) And a man who constantly carries a red bag which he refuses to put down, even on a rafting trip.
Some of the other passengers worry that he is a terrorist and that his face looks familiar. As Kevin’s Grandma says, “It’s sad. People are quick to jump to conclusions now. If someone looks like that—” (10)
Kevin, a voracious reader of Joan Lowery Nixon mystery novels and his “much-read how-to-write-a-mystery book and is convinced that Stavros is a terrorist, is anxious to solve the mystery of the red bag which he is sure is holding a bomb. His elicits the help of the other young passenger, Geneva, who also wants to be a hero and appear on the Oprah show. Geneva’s eyes opened wide. ‘He does look exactly like a terrorist. I’ve never seen a real one, but I’ve seen pictures on TV.’” (39)
As they follow Stavros, even keeping watch on his various hotel rooms all night, they become more and more convinced that he is going to bomb an American monument, possibly Mount Rushmore, and that they can save the day. And then Kevin can write the mystery. “I didn’t want him to be Greek. I didn’t want him to be innocent. I didn’t want to lose my big mystery adventure. But just think how scary it would be if he wasn’t Greek. If he was something else! Having a mystery also meant having a terrorist aboard. And a bomb. Criminy! What did I want?” (60)
What they find ties Stavros to 9/11, but not in the way they think.
This is yet another perspective of the events and effects of September 11, 2001, appropriate for grade 4-8 readers.
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The Memory of Things by Gae Polisner
The Memory of Things is lovely story about the effects of the events of 9/11. Another reason we read is to understand events we have not experienced and the effect of those events on others who may be like ourselves. After witnessing the fall of the first Twin Towers on 9-11 and evacuating his school, teenager Kyle Donahue, a student at Stuyvesant High School, discovers a girl who is covered in ash on the Brooklyn Bridge; she has no memory of who she is. The son of a detective, he takes her home to help her rediscover who she is, why she was where she was, what she was doing there, and her connection to the events.
Author Gae Polisner wrote The Memory of Things in alternating narratives—Kyle's in prose, the girl writes in free verse—the two characters sharing their stories and perspectives, introducing adolescent readers, many of whom had were not alive during 9/11, to the effects of this tragedy in their own ways.
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The Memory of Things is lovely story about the effects of the events of 9/11. Another reason we read is to understand events we have not experienced and the effect of those events on others who may be like ourselves. After witnessing the fall of the first Twin Towers on 9-11 and evacuating his school, teenager Kyle Donahue, a student at Stuyvesant High School, discovers a girl who is covered in ash on the Brooklyn Bridge; she has no memory of who she is. The son of a detective, he takes her home to help her rediscover who she is, why she was where she was, what she was doing there, and her connection to the events.
Author Gae Polisner wrote The Memory of Things in alternating narratives—Kyle's in prose, the girl writes in free verse—the two characters sharing their stories and perspectives, introducing adolescent readers, many of whom had were not alive during 9/11, to the effects of this tragedy in their own ways.
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The Places We Sleep by Caroline Brooks DuBois
2001:
“the year we moved to Tennessee,
the year of the terrorist attacks,
the year my period arrived,
the year Aunt Rose died,
and the year Dad left for Afghanistan.” (166)
Twelve year old Abbey is, as the boys in her new school call her, an Army brat. She has moved eight times, but this time she is not living on base with others like her. This time she attends a school where there is only one other new girl, Jiman, a Muslim-American of Kurdish heritage, born and raised in New Jersey.
Abbey is shy, uncertain, voiceless,
“I worry about people speaking to me
And worry just the same
When they don’t.” (27)
“Here’s what I’m used to being:
the last to be picked,
that girl over there,
the one hiding behind her hair
counted absent when present,
the one who eats alone,
sits alone,
the quiet type,
a sit-on-the-sidelines type,
the girl who draws,
and lately
‘Army brat.’” (107-8)
Luckily over the summer before school began, she made a new best friend, Camille, who is athletic and confident and has no trouble standing up to bullying.
As Abbey deals with her new school and the taunts of the other 7th graders and the boys on the school bus, the Twin Towers are hit and Abbey’s Aunt Rose is missing from her office on the 86th floor of the World Trade Center.
“Was she aware,
Unaware,
Have time to prepare…
Have time to think, to blink,
Time to wish, to wonder,
Did someone help her,
Was she alone,
Did she whisper a prayer,…” (24)
During this year Abbey contends with her periods, her missing aunt, her mother’s temporary absence to New York to take care of Aunt Rose’s husband and children, the “Trio” of Henley Middle ( the popular Mean girls), the eventual deployment of her father, and, on a positive note, the attentions of Jacob—Camille’s other best friend. Abbey also notices how people are treating Jiman who remains confident, appears comfortable alone, and stands up when her little brother is harassed, but has no one championing her. At times Abbey feels she should speak up on behalf of Jiman, but she continues to keep quiet, losing herself in her art.
“What I don’t do
is tell them to shut up,
to leave people alone for once
because mostly I’m relieved
that they’ve forgotten
about me. “(120)
Through art, Abbey finally gets to know Jiman and gains strength from her, strength to become an upstander rather than a bystander. With Camille, Jacob, and Jiman as friends, Abbey realizes,
“Sometimes it takes an eternity to figure things out,
Especially when you’re in middle school.” (245)
Caroline Brooks DuBois’ debut novel written in free verse and formatted creatively on the pages is a coming-of-age novel, a novel of fitting in, gaining confidence, showing tolerance and kindness towards others and standing up—for oneself and others.
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2001:
“the year we moved to Tennessee,
the year of the terrorist attacks,
the year my period arrived,
the year Aunt Rose died,
and the year Dad left for Afghanistan.” (166)
Twelve year old Abbey is, as the boys in her new school call her, an Army brat. She has moved eight times, but this time she is not living on base with others like her. This time she attends a school where there is only one other new girl, Jiman, a Muslim-American of Kurdish heritage, born and raised in New Jersey.
Abbey is shy, uncertain, voiceless,
“I worry about people speaking to me
And worry just the same
When they don’t.” (27)
“Here’s what I’m used to being:
the last to be picked,
that girl over there,
the one hiding behind her hair
counted absent when present,
the one who eats alone,
sits alone,
the quiet type,
a sit-on-the-sidelines type,
the girl who draws,
and lately
‘Army brat.’” (107-8)
Luckily over the summer before school began, she made a new best friend, Camille, who is athletic and confident and has no trouble standing up to bullying.
As Abbey deals with her new school and the taunts of the other 7th graders and the boys on the school bus, the Twin Towers are hit and Abbey’s Aunt Rose is missing from her office on the 86th floor of the World Trade Center.
“Was she aware,
Unaware,
Have time to prepare…
Have time to think, to blink,
Time to wish, to wonder,
Did someone help her,
Was she alone,
Did she whisper a prayer,…” (24)
During this year Abbey contends with her periods, her missing aunt, her mother’s temporary absence to New York to take care of Aunt Rose’s husband and children, the “Trio” of Henley Middle ( the popular Mean girls), the eventual deployment of her father, and, on a positive note, the attentions of Jacob—Camille’s other best friend. Abbey also notices how people are treating Jiman who remains confident, appears comfortable alone, and stands up when her little brother is harassed, but has no one championing her. At times Abbey feels she should speak up on behalf of Jiman, but she continues to keep quiet, losing herself in her art.
“What I don’t do
is tell them to shut up,
to leave people alone for once
because mostly I’m relieved
that they’ve forgotten
about me. “(120)
Through art, Abbey finally gets to know Jiman and gains strength from her, strength to become an upstander rather than a bystander. With Camille, Jacob, and Jiman as friends, Abbey realizes,
“Sometimes it takes an eternity to figure things out,
Especially when you’re in middle school.” (245)
Caroline Brooks DuBois’ debut novel written in free verse and formatted creatively on the pages is a coming-of-age novel, a novel of fitting in, gaining confidence, showing tolerance and kindness towards others and standing up—for oneself and others.
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The Usual Rules by Joyce Maynard
The Usual Rules is an emotional and insightful novel about the effects of the events of September 11th on the families and friends of the victims—those left behind.
The reader learns about the close relationship between 13-year-old Wendy and her mother through flashbacks: her mother's divorce, the sporadic visits of her father, her mother's marriage to her "other dad," and the birth of her half-brother. And then her mother goes to work at her job at the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001—and does not return. Wendy’s world changes. “Then September happened and the planet she lived on had seemed more like a meteor, spinning and falling” (p. 175).
The reader experiences not only Wendy's (and Josh's and Louie's) loss but the suffering and uncertainty of those left behind. Could her mother be walking around, not remembering who she is? As the family hangs signs, we learn how different this loss was for many people who held out hope for a long time without a sense of closure. And this loss was different because it was experienced by many—an entire country in a way. “Instead of just dealing with your own heart getting ripped into pieces, wherever you looked you knew there were other people dealing with the same thing. You couldn’t even be alone with it” (p. 95).
We see the loss through the eyes and hearts of a daughter, a very young son, and a desperately-in-love husband. Wendy leaves Brooklyn and goes to her biological father’s in California. Among strangers, she re-invents her life. As those she meets help fill the hole in her life, she fills the hole in theirs. Books also help her to heal.
Even though there are quite a few characters in this novel, but they all are well-developed, and I found myself becoming involved in all their lives, not only Wendy, Josh, and Louie and even his father Garrett, but Wendy’s new friends—Carolyn, Alan, Todd, Violet… On some level they all have experienced trauma and loss, and within these relationships, Wendy is able to heal and return to rebuild her family.
Although I did not want this novel to end and to leave these characters, this well-written novel taught me more about the effects of September 11, loss, and the importance of relationships and added a new perspective to my collection of 9/11 novels.
-----
The Usual Rules is an emotional and insightful novel about the effects of the events of September 11th on the families and friends of the victims—those left behind.
The reader learns about the close relationship between 13-year-old Wendy and her mother through flashbacks: her mother's divorce, the sporadic visits of her father, her mother's marriage to her "other dad," and the birth of her half-brother. And then her mother goes to work at her job at the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001—and does not return. Wendy’s world changes. “Then September happened and the planet she lived on had seemed more like a meteor, spinning and falling” (p. 175).
The reader experiences not only Wendy's (and Josh's and Louie's) loss but the suffering and uncertainty of those left behind. Could her mother be walking around, not remembering who she is? As the family hangs signs, we learn how different this loss was for many people who held out hope for a long time without a sense of closure. And this loss was different because it was experienced by many—an entire country in a way. “Instead of just dealing with your own heart getting ripped into pieces, wherever you looked you knew there were other people dealing with the same thing. You couldn’t even be alone with it” (p. 95).
We see the loss through the eyes and hearts of a daughter, a very young son, and a desperately-in-love husband. Wendy leaves Brooklyn and goes to her biological father’s in California. Among strangers, she re-invents her life. As those she meets help fill the hole in her life, she fills the hole in theirs. Books also help her to heal.
Even though there are quite a few characters in this novel, but they all are well-developed, and I found myself becoming involved in all their lives, not only Wendy, Josh, and Louie and even his father Garrett, but Wendy’s new friends—Carolyn, Alan, Todd, Violet… On some level they all have experienced trauma and loss, and within these relationships, Wendy is able to heal and return to rebuild her family.
Although I did not want this novel to end and to leave these characters, this well-written novel taught me more about the effects of September 11, loss, and the importance of relationships and added a new perspective to my collection of 9/11 novels.
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Towers Falling by Jewell Parker. Rhodes
I was a middle-school teacher in 2001. It was challenging to know how to discuss the events of 9/11 as we lived through them. How is a teacher to meaningfully discuss this momentous event with students who were not even born in 2001? Falling Towers is a thoughtful, provocative, well-written, albeit emotional, novel about this topic written sensitively and appropriately for readers as young as Grade 4, an ideal novel for middle grades Social Studies classes as it focuses on not only the history of 9/11 and its place in American history but the ever-widening circles of relationships among, and connections between, Americans beginning with families, friends, schools, communities, cities, states, countries.
The 5th grade characters explore “What does it mean to be an American?” as well as why history is relevant, alive, and, especially, personal as three students—one Black, one White, one Muslim—explore the effects of the events of 9/11 on each of their families. Déja’s “journey of discovery” about the falling of the Towers helps her father work through his connection to the event and his resulting PTSD.
-----
I was a middle-school teacher in 2001. It was challenging to know how to discuss the events of 9/11 as we lived through them. How is a teacher to meaningfully discuss this momentous event with students who were not even born in 2001? Falling Towers is a thoughtful, provocative, well-written, albeit emotional, novel about this topic written sensitively and appropriately for readers as young as Grade 4, an ideal novel for middle grades Social Studies classes as it focuses on not only the history of 9/11 and its place in American history but the ever-widening circles of relationships among, and connections between, Americans beginning with families, friends, schools, communities, cities, states, countries.
The 5th grade characters explore “What does it mean to be an American?” as well as why history is relevant, alive, and, especially, personal as three students—one Black, one White, one Muslim—explore the effects of the events of 9/11 on each of their families. Déja’s “journey of discovery” about the falling of the Towers helps her father work through his connection to the event and his resulting PTSD.
-----
Up from the Sea by Lowitz, Leza
“The bigger the issue, the smaller you write.”--Richard Price
Instead of focusing on the overwhelming statistics generated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan—nearly 16,000 deaths and 3,000 people missing—the event becomes even more intense and compelling as author Leza Lowitz relates the story of one town and one boy and the resilience of many.
The story begins on March 11 when Kai, a half Japanese, half American 17-year-old and his teachers and classmates experience the “jolting of the earth,” and as trained, they evacuate, running for their lives, looking for the highest place, as their town is destroyed. Written powerfully in free verse, the reader feels the fury of nature as the water “churns,” “thrashes,” “surges,” “sweeps,” “charges.” Kai ends up in a shelter having lost his mother, his grandparents, and one of his best friends. His father left years before to return to America.
Faced with overwhelming loss and trauma, Kai walks into the ocean but is saved by one of his classmates and convinced to accept the opportunity to go to New York City on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 where he will spend some time with young adults who lost their parents as teens in the 9/11 attacks. At Ground Zero, Fia tells him, “Bravery means being scared and going forward anyway.”
Kai hopes to find his father in NYC but returns to his village to help the young adolescents who lost their families and to rebuild his town. “I want to be/ like that tree/ deep roots/ making it strong/ keeping it/ standing tall.” And it is to his roots Kai returns and stays—“The quake moved the earth/ ten inches/ on its axis./ I guess/I shifted,” too.”
Lyrically-written as a verse novel (a format that engages many reluctant readers), Up from the Sea would serve as an effective continuation to a 9/11 study. Readers should already be aware of the events of 9/11 to understand the connection between Kai and Tom but will comprehend the trauma and loss experienced, and resilience that is required, by anyone who faces adversity.
-----
“The bigger the issue, the smaller you write.”--Richard Price
Instead of focusing on the overwhelming statistics generated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan—nearly 16,000 deaths and 3,000 people missing—the event becomes even more intense and compelling as author Leza Lowitz relates the story of one town and one boy and the resilience of many.
The story begins on March 11 when Kai, a half Japanese, half American 17-year-old and his teachers and classmates experience the “jolting of the earth,” and as trained, they evacuate, running for their lives, looking for the highest place, as their town is destroyed. Written powerfully in free verse, the reader feels the fury of nature as the water “churns,” “thrashes,” “surges,” “sweeps,” “charges.” Kai ends up in a shelter having lost his mother, his grandparents, and one of his best friends. His father left years before to return to America.
Faced with overwhelming loss and trauma, Kai walks into the ocean but is saved by one of his classmates and convinced to accept the opportunity to go to New York City on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 where he will spend some time with young adults who lost their parents as teens in the 9/11 attacks. At Ground Zero, Fia tells him, “Bravery means being scared and going forward anyway.”
Kai hopes to find his father in NYC but returns to his village to help the young adolescents who lost their families and to rebuild his town. “I want to be/ like that tree/ deep roots/ making it strong/ keeping it/ standing tall.” And it is to his roots Kai returns and stays—“The quake moved the earth/ ten inches/ on its axis./ I guess/I shifted,” too.”
Lyrically-written as a verse novel (a format that engages many reluctant readers), Up from the Sea would serve as an effective continuation to a 9/11 study. Readers should already be aware of the events of 9/11 to understand the connection between Kai and Tom but will comprehend the trauma and loss experienced, and resilience that is required, by anyone who faces adversity.
-----
We All Fall Down by Eric Walters
“The sky was so blue, without the trace of a single cloud, that it looked like a postcard. It felt more like a summer day than a September day. It was a nice day not to be in school. Then again, being in my father’s office wouldn’t be that much different or better. (36)
The day was September 11, 2001, a teacher meeting day during which students at Will’s high school were to shadow their parents at their workplaces. Ninth-grader William’s father John worked in international trade in the World Trade Center.
Upon arrival, father and son went to the 107th floor Observation Deck for a quick tour and history of the Center and view of the city. “Maybe my father was right and the World Trade Center and all the money that passed through here each day really did represent the United States.” (42)
At 8:46, shortly after arriving at John’s office on the 85th floor of the South Tower, they felt the force of an explosion. And as he looked out the window Will saw a gaping hole in the North Tower, billowing smoke, thousands of pieces of paper—some on fire—and, before he could look away, he was horrified to notice a man and woman jumping from windows of the building.
Will’s father, as acting head of his office and fire warden for the floor, demanded that his staff and other businesses on the floor close and evacuate for the day. But at 9:03, just before John and Will were able to leave, the second plane hit the South Tower.
Readers follow the father and son as they make the harrowing journey down 85 floors through heat and smoke, formulating split-second decisions and stopping to rescue and carry an injured woman, only to experience the collapse of the building as they reach the lobby.
A quick but dramatic read, Eric Walters’ novel lets readers experience a close-up account of the day and the panic and fear and heroism of ordinary people—John and Will, the men carrying a man in a wheelchair, the firemen and police—as Will discovers another side of his father and John realizes how much time he has devoted to his job rather than to his family.
The title derives from the children’s rhyme “Ring Around the Rosie,” a song that is actually about the Black Death during the Dark Ages. Will learns this in history class on the previous school day, a foreshadowing of events to occur.
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United We Stand by Eric Walters
The sequel to We All Fall Down begins on September 12, 2001 when Will’s best friend’s father, a firefighter at Ground Zero, last seen as he climbed the steps of the North Tower, is missing.
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“The sky was so blue, without the trace of a single cloud, that it looked like a postcard. It felt more like a summer day than a September day. It was a nice day not to be in school. Then again, being in my father’s office wouldn’t be that much different or better. (36)
The day was September 11, 2001, a teacher meeting day during which students at Will’s high school were to shadow their parents at their workplaces. Ninth-grader William’s father John worked in international trade in the World Trade Center.
Upon arrival, father and son went to the 107th floor Observation Deck for a quick tour and history of the Center and view of the city. “Maybe my father was right and the World Trade Center and all the money that passed through here each day really did represent the United States.” (42)
At 8:46, shortly after arriving at John’s office on the 85th floor of the South Tower, they felt the force of an explosion. And as he looked out the window Will saw a gaping hole in the North Tower, billowing smoke, thousands of pieces of paper—some on fire—and, before he could look away, he was horrified to notice a man and woman jumping from windows of the building.
Will’s father, as acting head of his office and fire warden for the floor, demanded that his staff and other businesses on the floor close and evacuate for the day. But at 9:03, just before John and Will were able to leave, the second plane hit the South Tower.
Readers follow the father and son as they make the harrowing journey down 85 floors through heat and smoke, formulating split-second decisions and stopping to rescue and carry an injured woman, only to experience the collapse of the building as they reach the lobby.
A quick but dramatic read, Eric Walters’ novel lets readers experience a close-up account of the day and the panic and fear and heroism of ordinary people—John and Will, the men carrying a man in a wheelchair, the firemen and police—as Will discovers another side of his father and John realizes how much time he has devoted to his job rather than to his family.
The title derives from the children’s rhyme “Ring Around the Rosie,” a song that is actually about the Black Death during the Dark Ages. Will learns this in history class on the previous school day, a foreshadowing of events to occur.
-----
United We Stand by Eric Walters
The sequel to We All Fall Down begins on September 12, 2001 when Will’s best friend’s father, a firefighter at Ground Zero, last seen as he climbed the steps of the North Tower, is missing.
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With Their Eyes: September 11th: The View from a High School at Ground Zero by Annie Thoms, ed.
“Journalism itself is, as we know, history’s first draft.” (xiii)
With Their Eyes was written from not only a unique perspective—those who watched the attack on the World Trade Center and the fall of the towers from their vantage point at Stuyvesant High School, a mere four blocks from Ground Zero, but in a unique format. Inspired by the work of Anna Deavere Smith whose work combines interviews of subjects with performance to interpret their words, English teacher Annie Thoms led one student director, two student producers, and ten student cast members in the creation—the writing and performance—of this play.
The students interviewed members of the Stuyvesant High study body, faculty, administration, and staff and turned their stories of the historic day and the days that followed into poem-monologues. They transcribed and edited these interviews, keeping close to the interviewees’ words and speech patterns because “each individual has a particular story to tell and the story is more than words: the story is its rhythms and its breaths.” (xiv) They next rehearsed the monologues, each actor playing a variety of roles. Although cast members were chosen from all four grades and to represent the school’s diversity, actors did not necessarily match the culture of their interviewees.
They next planned the order of the stories to speak to each other, “paint a picture of anger and panic, of hope and strength, of humor and resilience” (7), rehearsed, and presented two performances in February 2002.
With Their Eyes presents the stories of those affected by the events of 9/11 in diverse ways. It shares the stories of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, special education students, an English teacher, a Social Studies teacher, the School Safety Agent, the Building Coordinator, a dining hall worker, a custodian, an assistant principal, and more, some male, some female, some named, others remain anonymous. Written as a play, readers are given a description of each character. Read and performed as a play, readers will experience the effect of Nine Eleven on others, actual people who lived that day and persisted in those days that followed, sharing their big moments and little thoughts.
“the air felt on the outside like something that you might smell at a,
or feel at a barbecue,
but it didn’t, it…it hurt you.
It hurt your windpipe.
I could feel like, things collecting on my esophagus or on my lungs,
and I don’t think that is something that I will ever forget.” (44)
--------
“and you know
what an odd thing this is
a peculiar little odd thing
just a little quirk, just
an odd thing, but, ah, the day before
on Monday evening I had taken the time to shine my shoes.
‘cause it’s kind of weird I took the time to shine my shoes
and I did a good job, right,
and then Tuesday morning
it was a beautiful sunny day
you know
and as I was dusting myself off
from the debris of the north tower
I—I shook my clothes off and then I looked down
at my shoes and my shoes were a whole ‘nother color
they were completely covered
and I thought to myself
‘I just shined them yesterday’…” (102)
--------
And the pregnant English teacher who said,
“…during that time of feeling afraid I felt like I was
crazy to be in New York…
and I had lots of conversations with my friends about
whether or not we would…
we would consider, you know, just completely changing our
lives and leaving New York
So far I don’t know anyone who has done that.
But do I plan to raise my child in New York? Yes.” (90)
You know, I really believe in healing
And I believe that, the city will
um… be
healed.
I think you have to believe that.” (93)
With Their Eyes was written with the thoughts and pens of a school community.
-----
“Journalism itself is, as we know, history’s first draft.” (xiii)
With Their Eyes was written from not only a unique perspective—those who watched the attack on the World Trade Center and the fall of the towers from their vantage point at Stuyvesant High School, a mere four blocks from Ground Zero, but in a unique format. Inspired by the work of Anna Deavere Smith whose work combines interviews of subjects with performance to interpret their words, English teacher Annie Thoms led one student director, two student producers, and ten student cast members in the creation—the writing and performance—of this play.
The students interviewed members of the Stuyvesant High study body, faculty, administration, and staff and turned their stories of the historic day and the days that followed into poem-monologues. They transcribed and edited these interviews, keeping close to the interviewees’ words and speech patterns because “each individual has a particular story to tell and the story is more than words: the story is its rhythms and its breaths.” (xiv) They next rehearsed the monologues, each actor playing a variety of roles. Although cast members were chosen from all four grades and to represent the school’s diversity, actors did not necessarily match the culture of their interviewees.
They next planned the order of the stories to speak to each other, “paint a picture of anger and panic, of hope and strength, of humor and resilience” (7), rehearsed, and presented two performances in February 2002.
With Their Eyes presents the stories of those affected by the events of 9/11 in diverse ways. It shares the stories of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, special education students, an English teacher, a Social Studies teacher, the School Safety Agent, the Building Coordinator, a dining hall worker, a custodian, an assistant principal, and more, some male, some female, some named, others remain anonymous. Written as a play, readers are given a description of each character. Read and performed as a play, readers will experience the effect of Nine Eleven on others, actual people who lived that day and persisted in those days that followed, sharing their big moments and little thoughts.
“the air felt on the outside like something that you might smell at a,
or feel at a barbecue,
but it didn’t, it…it hurt you.
It hurt your windpipe.
I could feel like, things collecting on my esophagus or on my lungs,
and I don’t think that is something that I will ever forget.” (44)
--------
“and you know
what an odd thing this is
a peculiar little odd thing
just a little quirk, just
an odd thing, but, ah, the day before
on Monday evening I had taken the time to shine my shoes.
‘cause it’s kind of weird I took the time to shine my shoes
and I did a good job, right,
and then Tuesday morning
it was a beautiful sunny day
you know
and as I was dusting myself off
from the debris of the north tower
I—I shook my clothes off and then I looked down
at my shoes and my shoes were a whole ‘nother color
they were completely covered
and I thought to myself
‘I just shined them yesterday’…” (102)
--------
And the pregnant English teacher who said,
“…during that time of feeling afraid I felt like I was
crazy to be in New York…
and I had lots of conversations with my friends about
whether or not we would…
we would consider, you know, just completely changing our
lives and leaving New York
So far I don’t know anyone who has done that.
But do I plan to raise my child in New York? Yes.” (90)
You know, I really believe in healing
And I believe that, the city will
um… be
healed.
I think you have to believe that.” (93)
With Their Eyes was written with the thoughts and pens of a school community.
-----
Yusuf Azeem is Not a Hero by Saadia Faruqi
“Suspicion of those unlike us is common human behavior. We don’t trust who we don’t know. But yes, 9/11 was terrible, and it really fueled the fire of hatred in this country.” (184-5)
Sixth grader Yusuf Azeem was born in Texas and is an American; his mother was also born in America and his father was a Pakistani immigrant who runs the popular A to Z Dollar Store in town (and a somewhat a local hero after capturing an intruder threatening his store and customers). The family is Muslim, but, understandably, Yusuf is shocked when sixth grade begins with threatening notes in his locker. When one says, “Go home,” he hurt and confused. Frey is his home. Surely the notes are meant for someone else.
September 11, 2021 is approaching, and when his mother’s younger brother Uncle Rahman comes for a visit, he notes, “The twentieth anniversary of the attacks is coming up soon.” Abba drank some water. “Does it matter? It’s been twenty years.” Uncle Rahman looked stern. “You don’t mean that. You know it still affects us every single day. At work. On the street. At the airport.” (21) Before leaving, Uncle Rahman gives Ausuf the journal he started keeping after the events. “I was your age when 9/11 happened. It was an emotional time for everyone, and it was hard for me to process…. I ended up writing about some of my experiences, trying to figure things out…. My place in the world. How it all changed in an instant, how I became a stranger in my own country.” (23-24)
As the town’s 20th anniversary celebration approaches, Ethan, the sixth grade bully, harasses Yusuf and some of the other Muslim students while his father, leader of the Patriot Sons, makes life difficult for the adult Muslim community, spraying graffiti on the A to Z Dollar Store and trying to halt the construction of the mosque.
Yusuf stands up for other students whom Ethan bullies, and, when Cameron tells him that he shouldn’t “make waves,” that challenging things could be dangerous, Yusuf protests, “I wasn’t being a hero. I had to do that. It was my duty as a Muslim.” (182)
As poorly as his middle school year is going, Yusuf is excited to be captain of the Robotics Club which is preparing for the TRC competition that he has been looking forward to his whole life. Working with his best friend Danial and Cameron, a former friend who Yusuf thought had changed, both members of the Muslim community; his new friend Jared who happens to be Ethan’s cousin; and Madison, the one girl on their team, he forms a circle of allies. As his father tells him, “Life is full of all kinds of people, son. We just have to learn to avoid the bullies and stick with our friends.” (322)
This is a novel that may benefit from some background on the events of September 11, 2001 since the action takes places in 2021 but, read individually, Ausuf’s uncle’s journal will help fill in information. The importance of this particular novel is that is demonstrates that, for some of our citizens and students, “Twenty years. So much time. But things haven’t really changed at all.” (48) One of the major events in the story—when a little computer in his backpack beeped and, instead of questioning him and investigating, Ausuf is thrown in jail for twelve hours—is based on a real event from 2015 where Ahmed Mohamed, a Muslim 14-year-old, was arrested at his high school because of a disassembled digital clock he brought to school to show his teachers [https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/16/us/texas-student-ahmed-muslim-clock-bomb].
It is vital that our children learn about 9/11 because, as Yusuf’s mamoo says, “History informs our present and affects our future.” (81)
“Suspicion of those unlike us is common human behavior. We don’t trust who we don’t know. But yes, 9/11 was terrible, and it really fueled the fire of hatred in this country.” (184-5)
Sixth grader Yusuf Azeem was born in Texas and is an American; his mother was also born in America and his father was a Pakistani immigrant who runs the popular A to Z Dollar Store in town (and a somewhat a local hero after capturing an intruder threatening his store and customers). The family is Muslim, but, understandably, Yusuf is shocked when sixth grade begins with threatening notes in his locker. When one says, “Go home,” he hurt and confused. Frey is his home. Surely the notes are meant for someone else.
September 11, 2021 is approaching, and when his mother’s younger brother Uncle Rahman comes for a visit, he notes, “The twentieth anniversary of the attacks is coming up soon.” Abba drank some water. “Does it matter? It’s been twenty years.” Uncle Rahman looked stern. “You don’t mean that. You know it still affects us every single day. At work. On the street. At the airport.” (21) Before leaving, Uncle Rahman gives Ausuf the journal he started keeping after the events. “I was your age when 9/11 happened. It was an emotional time for everyone, and it was hard for me to process…. I ended up writing about some of my experiences, trying to figure things out…. My place in the world. How it all changed in an instant, how I became a stranger in my own country.” (23-24)
As the town’s 20th anniversary celebration approaches, Ethan, the sixth grade bully, harasses Yusuf and some of the other Muslim students while his father, leader of the Patriot Sons, makes life difficult for the adult Muslim community, spraying graffiti on the A to Z Dollar Store and trying to halt the construction of the mosque.
Yusuf stands up for other students whom Ethan bullies, and, when Cameron tells him that he shouldn’t “make waves,” that challenging things could be dangerous, Yusuf protests, “I wasn’t being a hero. I had to do that. It was my duty as a Muslim.” (182)
As poorly as his middle school year is going, Yusuf is excited to be captain of the Robotics Club which is preparing for the TRC competition that he has been looking forward to his whole life. Working with his best friend Danial and Cameron, a former friend who Yusuf thought had changed, both members of the Muslim community; his new friend Jared who happens to be Ethan’s cousin; and Madison, the one girl on their team, he forms a circle of allies. As his father tells him, “Life is full of all kinds of people, son. We just have to learn to avoid the bullies and stick with our friends.” (322)
This is a novel that may benefit from some background on the events of September 11, 2001 since the action takes places in 2021 but, read individually, Ausuf’s uncle’s journal will help fill in information. The importance of this particular novel is that is demonstrates that, for some of our citizens and students, “Twenty years. So much time. But things haven’t really changed at all.” (48) One of the major events in the story—when a little computer in his backpack beeped and, instead of questioning him and investigating, Ausuf is thrown in jail for twelve hours—is based on a real event from 2015 where Ahmed Mohamed, a Muslim 14-year-old, was arrested at his high school because of a disassembled digital clock he brought to school to show his teachers [https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/16/us/texas-student-ahmed-muslim-clock-bomb].
It is vital that our children learn about 9/11 because, as Yusuf’s mamoo says, “History informs our present and affects our future.” (81)
Reading Historical Fiction in Social Studies/History Classes
When asked, students in social studies classes object to the fact that they only read textbooks; they explain that they desire information that helps them make sense of what they are reading and learning. When reading historical novels, they say that they truly understand the impact of such events on ordinary people living in extraordinary times and the places. (Roessing, Talking Texts) Obvious from the list in this blog, there are countless novels written on a variety of topics covered by the curricula and standards of social studies or history classes.
Reading Historical Fiction in Book Clubs
Reading historical fiction novels in books clubs allows the class to hear from books written from divergent perspectives, such as the twelve 9/11 novels shown. Students in each book club could read a different novel on one topic being studied in the curriculum. As an alternative, each book club could read a novel that focused on a different event or time period that was studied or to be studied in the curriculum during the year. And then book clubs can compare stories and events in inter-club meetings or through after-reading presentations.
For additional details and explanation about the above and information on setting up, facilitating, and assessing book clubs across the curriculum and for sample daily lesson plans for Nine Eleven Book Clubs in both English-Language Arts and Social Studies/History classrooms, see Talking Texts: A Teachers’ Guide to Book Clubs across the Curriculum.
Some authors particularly suited for AUTHOR-STUDY/HISTORICAL FICTION Book Clubs would be Jennifer A. Nielsen, Margarita Engle, and Alan Gratz.
For additional details and explanation about the above and information on setting up, facilitating, and assessing book clubs across the curriculum and for sample daily lesson plans for Nine Eleven Book Clubs in both English-Language Arts and Social Studies/History classrooms, see Talking Texts: A Teachers’ Guide to Book Clubs across the Curriculum.
Some authors particularly suited for AUTHOR-STUDY/HISTORICAL FICTION Book Clubs would be Jennifer A. Nielsen, Margarita Engle, and Alan Gratz.
The BOOK REVIEWS drop-down menu includes recommendations and reviews of novels on other topics, in other genres, and written in other formats, such as Graphic Novels and Verse Novels and Short Readings: Story, Essay and Memoir Anthologies.