We’ve Got a Job

Title: We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March
Author: Cynthia Levinson
ISBN: 9781561456277
Pages: 176 pages
Publisher/Date: Peachtree Publishers, c2012
Awards: Finalist for The YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction (2013)

Though nonviolent, all of these confrontations were illegal. King reasoned that if enough protesters were arrested, they would fill the jails and overwhelm Connor’s ability to enforce segregation laws. […] Only a few hundred adults heard Bevel’s frenzied sermon that night, and just seventeen volunteered to go to jail. But kids got the message, especially when the preacher who followed Bevel proclaimed, “Some of these students say they have got to go to school, but they will get more education in five days in the City Jail than they will get in five months in a segregated school.” (48, 59)

Segregation in the 1960s was a violent time of upheaval. Most of us have heard the most familiar stories of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. But very few people may realize the effect that children and teens had in moving segregation efforts forward. During the entire month of April, 1963, the first in an effort to fill the jails and bring attention to the cause, only 123 people were arrested. But then a rallying cry and concentrated effort was made to enlist teenagers to a cause that would directly affect them. “Between Thursday, May 2, and Monday, May 6, almost 2,500 young people had been arrested.” (114) The treatment of these individuals, some as young as nine-years old, who flooded the streets brought national attention to events in the south. Ultimately, four children died in a church bombing that was the culmination of tensions between the black and white populations.

Cynthia Levinson spent four years tracking down and interviewing these participants and researching how history played out almost 50 years ago. Including a map, a timeline, an index, pictures of those interviewed and an assortment of notes, this book is an amazing glimpse into a time that changed America. Levinson does a thorough job of bringing to life the actions of the teenagers but also those of the adults involved. Readers finish the book with a solid understanding of how divided not only the community was on the issue of segregation, but also how disorganized the leadership was in achieving their goals. The government endorsed and encouraged the police’s prejudices against these protesters and it is hard to come to terms with their behavior based on today’s laws prohibiting such actions. At one point, government officials notified the Ku Klux Klan that they would be given 15 minutes to confront Freedom Riders, and the perpetrators who were caught after those violent fifteen minutes were given a minimal sentence.

Pair this book with The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine, which is set a few years earlier or The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon and One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, which are both set a few years later. Especially in this unsteady time when unrest is reigning and emotions are high with so many political issues, including gay rights, immigration, and gun control, teens might take notes about nonviolent actions that they can use to affect change in today’s society.

This post is in honor of Nonfiction Mondays. For the entire round-up of all the bloggers who participated, check out Anastasia Suen’s blog.

This book in particular was read as I participate in YALSA’s 2013 Hub Reading Challenge which challenges readers to finish 25 books by June 22nd from a list of 83 titles that were recognized and published over the last year.

Junonia

Title: Junonia
Author: Kevin Henkes
ISBN: 9780061964183
Pages: 176 pages
Publisher/Date: Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, c2011.

“Kate has a new boyfriend with a daughter. They’re all coming. Kate called the office, and she reserved Helen Blair’s cottage.”
“That Kate,” said Alice’s father. “She’s always good for a surprise.”
“The girl is named Mallory,” Alice’s mother told them. “She’s six.” She paused. “Kate sounds happy. Oh, and his name is Ted.”
Alice blinked back tears.
Colin, Chad, and Heather. Gone.
Helen Blair. Gone.
Kate. Aunt Kate. Not gone, but nearly as awful. Coming with a boyfriend and his daughter.
Kate was the closest thing Alice had to a relative. It would be different this year. Every other year, Kate had stayed with Alice’s family in their pink cottage, sleeping on the sofa in the living room. Every other year, Alice had had Kate to herself; she hadn’t had to share her with anyone except her parents.
The doughnut turned to dirt in Alice’s mouth. (29-30)

Alice is spending her tenth birthday in Florida with her parents, just like they have for the last couple years. Looking forward to some time in the cottage they always stay at and playing with their vacation friends, Alice is frustrated by the changes that have come with their arrival. The family of three kids didn’t make it, the old couple next door seem even older than she remembered, and her “Aunt” Kate has brought her boyfriend and his six-year-old daughter Mallory. Trying to make the best of it, Alice spends her time searching the beach for a perfect example of her favorite shell, a rare junonia. Buying it from the shell shop is out of the question, because that would be cheating. But is her search just setting her up for more disappointment as she struggles to deal with all the changes?

I remember previously reading Kevin Henkes’ Protecting Marie when I was younger, but I haven’t really read a lot of his works. This kind of reminded me why, as most of the action is the internalized angst that Alice feels. She is excited about turning ten, but receives a rude awakening that she’s not the only one who is growing older or the only thing that changes with time. She faces the hard lesson that things change and most of the time you can’t stop things from changing. I don’t know how many children would enjoy the introspective nature of the novel, but it’s good to have these mixed in amongst all the action-packed fantasy and adventure novels that are so prevalent lately. I can picture this being a beach read for some young girl, slowly being savored as the tides roll in and out, creating an impetus to examine the changes approaching the reader’s own life.

Shadow

Title: Shadow
Author: Michael Morpurgo
ISBN: 9780312606596
Pages: 180 pages
Publisher/Date: Feiwel and Friends Book, an imprint of Macmillian, c2010.
Publication Date: Sept. 4, 2012 (US) (first published Jan. 1, 2010)

I saw then what they had seen, foreign soldiers, several of them, coming slowly toward us. The one in front had a detector–I’d seen them before in Bamiyan–and I knew what they were for. He was sweeping the road ahead of him for bombs. I think it was only then that I put two and two together, and realized what Shadow was doing. She had discovered a bomb. She was pointing to it. She was showing us. and I knew somehow that she was showing the soldiers too.
But they still couldn’t see her. She was hidden from them by a boulder at the side of the road. So I just ran. I never even thought about it. I just ran, toward the soldiers, toward Shadow, toward the bomb.(72-73)

When Aman was just a child living in Afghanistan, his father and grandmother were killed by the Taliban. Forced to flee the country with his mother in the hopes of meeting up with an uncle in England, Aman faced some insurmountable odds. Finally making it across the border with the aid of a unique dog he named Shadow, Aman leads a relatively comfortable life in England. After spending six years in England, Aman and his mother receive the shocking news that their asylum request has been denied and they need to return to Afghanistan. They are locked away, awaiting deportation. That’s when Aman’s friend Matt and Matt’s grandfather make a last-ditch effort to save this family from a separation that could kill them.

Allowing Aman to tell the story in a flashback format prevents the urgency and apprehension from building. We already know that he and his mother make it to England successfully because he is locked there awaiting deportation. By the time readers catch up to present day, there are few pages left to resolve the conflict, and it’s fairly obvious what’s going to happen and you’re really not surprised by the ending. While the ending is fairly serendipitous, it’s also realistic, as you generally hear about “Hail Mary passes” being caught by someone and being taken all the way by a network of people.

The characters are likeable enough, but even Aman comes across as somewhat one-dimensional, as the focus is on the journey and not the people. Readers can sympathize with his situation, but you don’t get emotionally involved like some other stories encourage. Matt and his grandfather are supplemental, even though they are the only ones relating “present” events. I think it would have increased urgency if we had seen Aman’s state first hand, like when he was detained in the deportation “camp”.

However, I can see teachers using this in lesson plans about ongoing wars overseas, immigration, refugees, and comparing detention centers of today to other times we’ve had something similar occur, such as during World War II with Hitler’s concentration camps and the Japanese internment camps here in the United States. With short chapters, many of which have a dangling if not a true cliff-hanger ending, it would make an interesting read-aloud during transition times or for several minutes each day. Being written by Michael Morpurgo helps too, especially with the recent release of the War Horse movie generating interest in his war based realistic fiction. He provides some background information about asylum-seeking families and military dogs in his acknowledgements and postscripts. I’m very interested in getting the two movies he sites, Phil Grabsky’s The Boy Who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan and In this World, directed by Michael Winterbottom, although I’m not finding either at any library locally at this time.

The Fairy Ring

Title: The Fairy Ring:  or Elsie and Frances Fool the World
Author: Mary Losure
ISBN: 9780763656706
Pages: 184 pages
Publisher/Date: Candlewick Press, c2012.

Sometimes Elsie drew gardens in faraway countries.
Once, she drew Titania, the queen of the fairies from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The fairy queen lay sleeping on a bank, her lovely dark hair spread all around her.
Elsie had copied her out of a book illustrated by Arthur Rackham. Arthur Rackham was a real artist, famous for his illustrations of fairies.
But Elsie’s own fairies–the dancing ones that everyone said were so beautiful–were torn up and buried in the beck. The painted paper gnome was long gone. Their photographs lay forgotten in a drawer. For all Elsie knew, no one would ever look at them again.
And maybe that’s what would have happened if, one winter day, Elsie’s mother hadn’t decided to go on an outing. . . . (55-57)

Nine-year-old Frances was tired of being made fun of when she claimed to see fairies in her cousin’s backyard where she was staying during the war. Her older cousin Elsie had an idea to prove that the fairies existed by painting paper fairies and taking Frances’ picture with them. Once the photos were developed, that sure put a stop to the teasing. It was only meant for their parents, but things got out of hand and eventually people were requesting more photos and using these photos as proof that fairies actually existed. Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote those great mysteries about the detective Sherlock Holmes, thought the pictures were real! What are Frances and Elsie going to do, and how far should they go to save their secret?

This book is somewhat unique in that it is a work of nonfiction but it reads like a novel. Readers are in on the joke from the very beginning as we see Frances and Elsie scheme to trick the adults. But Frances maintained until her death that she had seen real fairies in that glen and that while they had staged most of the photographs, one of them wasn’t staged and was real. Nonfiction typically doesn’t leave questions, but this book does. There’s still a mysterious quality about fairies and their existence that I think the author intentionally attempts to leave open-ended.

I think the other interesting aspect of this story is that they never meant for it to draw international attention to themselves. In fact, they were very hesitant and reluctant to talk to the press, and I get the impression they wanted to bury the story but just didn’t know how. But they also continued to tell people close to them, such as their ultimate husbands and children, so in a way they were continuing the story even as they told their children to never mention it again. Their attitude about it seemed so fluid that’s hard to really know what they were thinking, especially since the trick seemed to last about 60 years until it was conclusively determined to be a hoax. But as I mentioned before, Frances and in turn the author maintains that pestering feeling that something is missing and not quite determined. I think I’ll end with the fact that these uncertainties create a slightly unsettling story out of a very well researched and documented occurrence.

Forever

In celebration of Banned Book Week’s 30th Anniversary, I’m spending the entire week reviewing books that have been challenged for one reason or another. While yesterday’s Robopocalypse was a new release, today’s book of choice has been around for a long time but one I’d never read until now.

Title: Forever
Author: Judy Blume
ISBN: 9781416934004
Pages: 192 pages
Publisher/Date: Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, c1975 (renewed c2003)

It occurred to me in the middle of the night that Michael asked if I was a virgin to find out what I expected of him. If I hadn’t been one then he probably would have made love to me. What scares me is I’m not sure how I feel about that. (20)

Katherine and Michael’s first meeting is innocent enough, the exchange of a few words at a friend’s New Year’s Eve party. But they’re both intrigued by each other, and have their first date the very next day. It’s a great way to start off the New Year as their relationship blooms and advances from hand holding to declaring their love for each other. Their parents caution them about first loves, but Katherine and Michael are adamant that this is going to work out. With everyone saying “take it slow” and “this won’t last”, Katherine and Michael have big decisions to make as they finish their senior year, decisions that will affect their lives and relationship.

A refreshingly honest portrayal of first romance and love that still rings true after all these years (and I really didn’t realize how many years it has been). Unlike today’s books where we see instant sparks and love at first sight, Katherine and Michael’s love for each other starts off slow and builds. They attend different schools, so they only see each other mostly on the weekends and some nights. I think this adds to their evolution together, as they aren’t available for hand-holding, walking each other to classes, eating lunch together or stealing kisses in the hallway.

The story is almost timeless, with just one mention of records at the very beginning and a lack of cell phones being the only glaring difference between now and when the book was written more than 35 YEARS(!) ago. It’s older than Banned Book Week, which is celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year. I actually don’t recall reading a whole lot of Judy Blume when I was younger except the Fudge series, although I acutely remember writing a paper on her because years later I found the same book I used to write the report in my library (I recognized the cover photo) so she must have made some impact.

I’m presenting this book during Banned Book Week and I can understand why parents might still object to it all these years later (it was number #16 of top 100 books banned from 2000-2009). While not explicit or overly graphic, it does portray the characters having sex. Katherine is intent on waiting, and although it’s not a very long time (about three months) before they’re seriously considering sex, it’s nice to see a guy who’s respectful of that choice and doesn’t pressure her (much). While everything is told from Katherine’s perspective, we do witness a little bit of what the guy goes through, as Michael complains about pain, there’s premature ejaculation, and also a time when things just aren’t happening. (I’m afraid including these details is going to give me a lot more traffic from people not looking for book reviews, but there’s no other way to describe it. *laughing*) The othering refreshing aspect of the book is it portrays different points of view, with the novel bringing up topics of pregnancy and sex out of wedlock, sexually transmitted diseases, abortions, and questioning sexuality.

Katherine’s family is just as upfront about it as Blume is in her descriptions. Her mother and grandmother (who if you think about it would have been born sometime in the 40s at the latest!) are surprisingly frank but also hands off about their advice, giving Katherine articles about sex and referring her to Planned Parenthood. They do answer her questions when she approaches them, but they let Katherine make her own decisions about when it’s the right time to talk. Katherine’s father is understandably more straight-forward about the discussion. He sits down with her and flatly tells her that he doesn’t “want to see her tied down” and that she’s “too young to make lifetime decisions.” (74) The Planned Parenthood scene is portrayed as very clinical, sterile, and professional, presenting her options and describing the process with again very minimal details.

My physical consisted of weight and blood pressure, a routine breast exam, with the doctor explaining how I should check my breasts each month, then my first pelvic examination. I tried to act as if I was used to it, but I didn’t fool the doctor, who said “Try to relax, Katherine. This isn’t going to hurt.” And it didn’t either, but it was uncomfortable for a minute, like when he pushed with one hand from inside and with the other from the outside.
Then he slipped this cold thing into my vagina and explained, “This is a vaginal speculum. It holds the walls of the vagina open so that the inside is easily seen.” […]
“I’m almost done now, Katherine . . . just a Pap smear . . . there,” he said, passing a long Q-tip kind of thing to his assistant. “And the gonorrhea culture . . . okay . . . that does it.” He took off his rubber glove. (119-120)

Quite obviously meant for teens, I would recommend it to any girl who considered herself in a serious relationship or was thinking about having sex. Katherine and her friends show times of insight that every reader could benefit from. While the challenges are correct that it does portray sex between teenagers, masturbation, and birth control, these are all things that teens should be informed about before reaching college. Katherine shows responsibility, restraint and forward planning, all things that readers are encouraged to emulate, and something that parents should be relieved is being portrayed to their children in a positive and nonjudgmental manner.

Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition

Title: Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition
Author: Karen Blumenthal
ISBN: 9781596434493
Pages: 154 pages
Publisher/Date: Roaring Book Press, c2011.

Sometime after 10 a.m. on this shivery-cold and windy Chicago morning, seven men gathered in a nondescript garage warehouse on Clark Street.
Most of them were wearing hats and coats against the chill of the nearly empty warehouse as they waited, maybe for a big shipment of smuggled whiskey, maybe for a special meeting. These were no Boy Scouts. All had ties to a criminal gang run by George “Bugs” Moran […]. Most of them had done some jail time. […]
On the snow-dusted street outside, a black Cadillac with a police gong, siren, and gun rack—the type usually driven by police detectives—pulled up to the curb. Four or five men emerged, two dressed like police officers, and went into the warehouse. Seeing the “officers” and apparently thinking local cops were conducting a routine alcohol raid, the seven men inside lined up against the back wall and put their hands in the air.
They were still in that vulnerable position when two machine guns started firing. (1-2)

So begins Karen Blumenthal’s book about the Prohibition movement. Tracing back forty-five years to the very beginnings of the push against alcohol, Blumenthal creates a thorough account of how the 18th Amendment was added to the Constitution. After its enactment in 1919, the nation spent over a decade fighting against people who continued to traffic and sell what had become an illegal substance. With no clear way or agency willing to enforce the new law, a growing industry evolved in distributing alcohol. As public and political opinion shifted sides, the push began to repeal the law that was meant to save the nation from lawlessness.

I’d heard rave reviews of this book from multiple journals, and the sub-title gives the impression of a story of corruption that would rival the Sopranos or the Godfather. While Blumenthal does an admirable job presenting the history of the amendment and stays relatively neutral (there are some slips), it’s not the gang bang, violence filled account that you expect by the title. Besides the opening account of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (which is mentioned again later on) and some actions by Al Capone that are added almost as asides, less than 25% of the book covers the era the amendment was in affect, much less the deadly aspects of that decade.

Mostly detailing the campaigns to first invoke and then revoke the amendment, it also brings to light the audacity of the public to flaunt the system, as Blumenthal writes:

In grocery and department stores, packages of dehydrated grapes were sold with labels that read something like this: “WARNING! If the contents of this package are added to 5 gallons of water, 5 lbs. of sugar, and 1 cake of yeast, the result will be an intoxicating beverage which is illegal in the United States.” A brick of grape concentrate, customers were told, shouldn’t be put in a jug, corked, and set in a dark place for three weeks or shaken once a day because—hint, hint—it would turn into wine. (82)

It’s those little “winks” that make me question or objectivity towards the subject, but as I said she presented quite a bit more background information than most books on the subject contain.

Abundant black and white pictures give readers a window into life during the late 1800s and early 1900s. An extremely thorough bibliography and source notes also follow the text, however most of the books appear quite old based on their copyright dates, and I wonder how easily accessible they are to readers looking for more information. Since the book is being recommended for teenage audiences, I also would have appreciated some sort of indication as to which sources were appropriate for that age group. The inclusion of a timeline in the accompanying material would have also been nice.

Overall it appears to be a well researched book about Prohibition, good for projects but probably not so appealing to the merely curious.

An Elephant in the Garden

Title: An Elephant in the Garden
Author: Michael Morpurgo
ISBN: 9780312593698
Pages: 199 pages
Publisher/Date: Feiwel and Friends Book, c2010.

“There was an elephant in the garden, you see. No, honestly there was. And she like potatoes, lots of potatoes.” I think my wry smile must have betrayed me. “You still do not believe me, do you? Well, I cannot say that I blame you. I expect you and all the other nurses think I am just a dotty old bat, a bit loopy, off my rocker, as you say. It is quite true that my bits and pieces do not work so well anymore–which, I suppose, is why I am in here, isn’t it? My legs will not do what I tell them sometimes, and even my heart does not beat like it should. It skips and flutters. It makes up its own rhythm as it goes along, which makes me feel dizzy, and this is not at all convenient for me. But I can tell you for certain and for sure, that my mind is as sound as a bell, sharp as a razor. So when I say there was an elephant in the garden, there really was. There is nothing wrong with my memory, nothing at all.” (14-15)

And with that, the elderly woman named Lizzie begins her story of how, when she was a young girl during World War II, an elephant came to live in her garden. Her mother, an employee of the Dresden Zoo, brought home to care for a baby elephant named Marlene rather than have her killed out of the fear she’d get loose and cause havoc if the city was bombed. Marlene is living in Lizzie’s backyard when Dresden does get bombed, and the family is forced to flee across miles of German landscape with the elephant in tow. But how are they going to find a safe place for themselves, much less a safe place for a very conspicuous and unusual pet?

Michael Morpurgo, probably most well-known for his book War Horse that was recently made into a movie, brings to life this tale that is hailed on the cover as being inspired by a true story. Morpurgo separates fact from fiction very nicely in the author’s note at the very end, clarifying that the story originated from the Belfast Zoo, and you can find articles online about the zoo trying to identify the zookeeper in charge of that initiative. As Morpurgo further clarifies, he took some creative license in setting the story in Dresden, which also “had a zoo there too, and [...] exactly the same order had gone out in that zoo, to shoot all the large animals if the bombers came” (198) That seems to have been a common solution, as this website details the same outcome for the animals in Japanese zoos, although some of them were less humanely starved to death as opposed to being shot.

The story is somewhat unique in that the narration is framed by Lizzie, as an old woman, telling the story to a young boy named Karl in the present day. It then flashes back in time, and is told in the present tense but set in the past, with occasional interruptions coming from Karl and his mother. I can’t think of many children’s stories that present an adult’s perspective, much less are narrated from it.

While there is a bombing that takes place and serves as the main instigator of the trek across country, most of the tension and suspense is internalized. It’s the absurdity of caring for an elephant as refugees, when you don’t have enough food for your human family, that really boggles readers minds, and encourages the thoughts of “Are they crazy?” This trepidation and cluelessness continues as they encounter more and more refugees on their journey that really has no ready itinerary.

I think this would also make a great movie, and the descriptions make it easy to visualize Lizzie’s brother feeding the elephant and Lizzie’s initial resentment towards the creature that is stealing so much of her mother’s attention. Bringing to life the multitude of reactions is something else Morpurgo does with realism, as not everyone is happy about the elephant moving in next door. Give this to animal fans, suckers for “based on a true story,” like me, or anyone who likes stories of insurmountable odds.

Hound Dog True

Title: Hound Dog True
Author: Linda Urban
ISBN: 9780547558691
Pages: 152 pages
Publisher/Date: Harcourt Children’s Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, c2011.

It is Principal Bonnet who finally helps him. Answers his cell phone call and comes to the rescue. Helps him to his feet and out of the administrative office.
Principal Bonnet who comes back for Mattie, too, knocking gently on her own office door before she opens it.
“I’m sorry,” Mattie says.
“He’ll be okay,” Principal Bonnet. [...]
A doctor. Uncle Potluck needs to go to a doctor. Mattie had been picturing him in Authorized Personnel wrapping his traitorous knee with electrical tape. But Uncle Potluck can’t fix what Mattie has done to him. He needs a doctor. (88-89)

Mattie’s mother always says that “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” So that’s what Mattie and her mother are doing. They get going to visit Mattie’s uncle, moving back into the house Mattie’s mother grew up in. Uncle Potluck serves as the janitor at Mattie’s new school, her fourth one in four years. Instead of once again trying to introduce herself and make new friends, Mattie has a different plan in mind. If she proves that she’s useful to Uncle Potluck during this week before school gets out, maybe he’ll let her be a Janitorial Assistant, and she can avoid the lunch room and recess rush. But things don’t go as planned for shy Mattie.

I was really looking forward to this book, having enjoyed A Crooked Kind of Perfect so much. But this book was a painfully slow read. For a book that only takes place over the span of a week, I thought there would be a little more action. I realize janitor’s days aren’t all that glamorous, especially since they’re working in a mostly closed school that hasn’t officially opened yet. That being said, I still thought there would be more.

Mattie is painfully shy, not speaking up to her mother, not to prospective friend and neighbor Quincy Sweet, and not to former teachers and classmates as we see in a tiny flashback sequence. Even when she realizes that someone has been reading her notebook without her permission, she doesn’t flip out, doesn’t yell, doesn’t really react in any way. She’s very introverted, and maybe it’s because I’m such an extroverted person myself, but I had a hard time relating to her. Besides, what middle schooler is going to want to be the janitor anyways? When I was in school, janitors/custodians were looked down upon and were in the same level as garbagemen, lunch monitors/cafeteria ladies, and the “do you want fries with that” guy at McDonalds.

Overall, this just didn’t live up to my expectations.

Breaking Stalin’s Nose

Title: Breaking Stalin’s Nose
Author/Illustrator: Eugene Yelchin
ISBN: 9780805092165
Pages: 154 pages
Publisher/Date: Henry Holt and Company, c2011.
Awards: Newbery Honor, 2012

“Why does Vovka call you Amerikanets?”
I shouldn’t tell him. “My mom was American. Don’t tell anyone.”
He squints at me. “And she was arrested and shot?”
“What do you mean? Of course not. She came from America to help us build Communism.”
He nods. “They think all foreigners are spies.”
“She wasn’t a spy! She was a real Communist.”
“My mom and dad are real Communists, too,” Four-Eyes says. “They are in Lubyanka prison now–enemies of the people.” [...]
“My aunt took me there last week,” says Four-Eyes. We stood in line for two days, but when we got to the door, they wouldn’t let us see them. No visitation rights, they said. My aunt tells me they always say this when the prisoners have been shot already, but I know she’s lying. They’re alive and I’m going to see them.” (63-64)

Sasha Zaichik has dreamed about becoming a Soviet Young Pioneer for as long as he can remember. His father works for the secret police force, unmasking enemies of Stalin’s Communist regime, and is scheduled to attend the ceremony taking place tomorrow as a guest of honor. In the middle of the night, Sasha’s father is taken by the same police force and Sasha is forced out of his home by opportunistic neighbors. He hopes that this is all a big misunderstanding and that his father will be waiting for him at school. With enemies at every turn, both imagined and real, Sasha must be careful that no one finds out about the “mistake” that has occurred. But compounding events and accusations during the school day lead Sasha to see the world in a whole new light. What if it wasn’t a mistake that his father was taken?

Velchin writes in a succinct and appropriate manner, placing events strictly from the viewpoint of Sasha. Sasha, for all the information he thinks he knows, is naive about what the government is doing and how people feel about it. Readers see this in his letter that he writes to Stalin in the opening pages, filling it with the propaganda that he’s been fed his whole life. Part of that is due to his father shielding him from his environment. We never really find out what happened to his mother, or what role anyone had in her death, which Sasha can’t even confirm for us since he never saw a body or funeral.

Readers witness the fear and greed that arise from the Communist life style through Sasha’s eyes, even though Sasha himself doesn’t recognize it. He mentions how his room that he shares with his father is bigger then the one the family of six down the hall have, and is “embarrassed that we live in luxury”. (14) His father gave that same family their ring on the large iron stove that the twelve families share when they added a stove to their room. But Sasha tells readers that “My dad and I oppose personal property on principle. Personal property will disappear when Communism comes.” (32) American readers will be exposed to a lifestyle and government system that they have no knowledge or experience with, and witness the horror.

Stalin’s rule reminds me of Hitler, the way innocent people who believed in something different were secretly whisked away. In an author’s note, Velchin talks about his own experience with the secret police and provides important background information. During Stalin’s 30 years in power, over twenty million people were executed, imprisoned, or exiled. To put it in perspective, that’s more than the commonly accepted number of people who perished in the Holocaust. I personally think it might be the residual bad feelings regarding the Cold War and the USSR/Rusia that might be preventing students from getting information about these events. There is so little literature about Communism available for students that this book is a necessary addition just for the subject matter alone. The fact that it won a Newbery Honor only stresses the book’s importance.

Darth Paper Strikes Back

Title: Darth Paper Strikes Back
Series: Sequel to The Strange Case of Origami Yoda
Author: Tom Angleberger
ISBN: 9781419700279
Pages: 159 pages
Publisher/Date: Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS, c2011.

It has all gone wrong since that first day. Now it’s October and Darth Paper has pretty much destroyed all the good Origami Yoda did last year. Now the girls don’t like us. The teachers don’t like us. Some of us don’t even like each other. [...]
But it’s been even worse for Dwight. He’s been suspended from school, and the school board is going to decide if he should get sent to CREF–the Correctional and Remedial Education Facility–the school where they send the really, really bad kids, which Dwight isn’t. Amy’s older brother said the toughest, meanest, nastiest guy in his class was sent there… and got beat up! It’s kind of like Jabba’s palace, except without the alien rock band.
This would be the ultimate defeat for Origami Yoda! And we think that Darth Paper is behind it. I just find it hard to believe that even Darth Paper/Harvey could be so evil! (7-8)

Dwight, Tommy, and all their classmates are back in the sequel to The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. Unfortunately, so are the teachers and the principal, who has had about enough of Dwight and his weird finger puppet. So when Yoda issues a ominious prediction to a classmate, Dwight gets suspended and may be expelled! Tommy knows that Dwight doesn’t deserve to get suspended and sets out to build another collection of stories about the good that will prove Dwight’s innocence. All the while, Harvey and his new Darth Paper puppet are vying for position as the new oracle and loving every minute, attempting to corrupt the students over to the Dark Side. Who will win this showdown?

I liked the first book well enough (although I can’t remember a whole lot of it right now), and I liked the second one just as much. These books are proof that humorous books don’t need to include butt jokes or potty humor to make them funny or appealing to kids. We get a little more information about each character, and I appreciate the realism that Angleberger brings to life with multiple characters as opposed to making it appear that there’s only half a dozen students in the room. The students suffer from a wide range of minor issues, most of which are very relatable and commonplace. This book is great brain candy for guys and it shows that even “weirdos” like Dwight have their place in life.