I read a lot of dystopian literature. I have heard the complaints that these imagined futures (that serve as a warning to excesses in our own present) are too dark and violent, but they have nothing on the real life horrors from our history. Even with as much as I have read, I still have trouble comprehending the atrocities committed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
I knew that Dr. Mengele conducted experiments on twins who arrived at Auschwitz, but I am still shocked at the evil and cruelty he inflicted. Eva Mozes Kor (with Lisa Rojany Buccieri) shares her story in Surviving the Angel of Death: The True Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz. It is in reading her story that I am able to glimpse what living through that horror felt like. Even more, I am in awe of the courage and grace with which Eva was able not just to survive, but to triumph over evil beyond imagination.
Eva grew up in a loving Jewish family in the village of Portz in Transylvania, Romania. All too soon the evil of the Nazis invaded their rural village until it was too late to escape. Eva and her sister Miriam are separated from the rest of their family on the train platform when they arrive at Auschwitz. They never see the rest of their family again, and must depend upon each other for their survival.
Every day they marched from their lice-infested barracks to the medical labs where doctors drew blood and injected them with multiple shots. They didn’t know it at the time, but some of the shots infected them with deadly diseases. Others were bizarre experiments dreamed up by Mengele to try to change the children’s gender or eye color. She still doesn’t know all of the things injected into her. On top of the medical experimets, Eva and Miriam had to survive the cold, hunger, and diseases while living under the cloud from the gas chambers and crematorium that killed the rest of their family. Life was still hard once the end of the war freed them from the camp and they returned to live with an aunt in Communist Romania. Eventually, they were able to leave for Israel, and finally, the United States.
Fifty years after their liberation from Auschwitz, Eva returned in January 1995 to commemorate the event. While there she presented one of the Nazi doctors, Dr. Münch, a letter of forgiveness. In forgiving not only Dr. Münch but also Dr. Mengele, her parents, and herself, Eva realized the power that forgiving gave her. She says, “I discovered once I made the decision was that forgiveness is not so much for the perpetrator, but for the victim. I had the power to forgive. No one could give me this power, and no one could take it away. That made me feel powerful. It made me feel good to have any power over my life as a survivor” (Kor 132). I don’t know if I could do it.
After the death of her sister Miriam, who suffered many health problems from Mengele’s injections, CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute, Indiana. I want to visit the museum sometime this year to learn more.
I’m glad the Young Hoosier Book Award list brought this book to my attention. Surviving the Angel of Death is a valuable addition to Holocaust literature for young adults.
Neftali is a dreamer, who finds beauty and joy in the smallest of things–a white feather, a pine cone, a shell, a beetle. Unfortunately, his father, a railroad worker, sees such dreaming as weakness and does everything possible to toughen up Neftali. He forces Neftali to swim in the ocean every summer and burns his notebooks of poetry. Somehow through it all, Neftali clings to his dreams and grows up to become the powerful poet Pablo Neruda.
Pam Muñoz Ryan and Peter Sis bring to life a fictional account of Neruda’s childhood in The Dreamer (Scholastic 2010). They weave the story together with biographical facts, musical poetry, dreamlike illustrations, magical realism, and haunting questions. My favorite part is the questions. Each echoes the action of the story and leads in many directions. Here’s a video of the questions and some of the illustrations from the text.
Did you know Pablo Neruda wrote in green ink because he thought green was the color of hope? This book is printed in green ink.
Ever since I first flew in an airplane in the seventh grade, I knew I had to learn to fly myself. It took me until I graduated from college, but I did learn to “slip the surly bonds of earth” and earned my private pilots license. When I’m not able to fly myself, I love to read about the early women pilots–Amelia Earhart, Bessie Coleman, Jackie Cochran and many others. I admired those women who dared to defy convention to earn their wings. I am especially fascinated with the scores of women who flew through Sweetwater, Texas, as part of the Women Air Service Pilots, or WASP. Theses women risked everything to join an army that didn’t want them in order to fly.
Sherri L. Smith adds a compelling story to the WASP lore with her historical fiction novel Flygirl (Scholastic 2008). Ida Mae learned to fly in her daddy’s crop duster. After his death, flying brings her comfort, but social conditions in 1941 Louisiana keep her grounded on two strikes–she’s female and black. When the army forms the WASP to free up male pilots for the battle fronts of World War II, Ida Mae is determined to join, no matter the cost, even if she must use her light skin to pass for white.
As Ida chases her dreams across the country and the sky, she learns that it’s no so easy to deny who you are. In addition to the pressures of military training of the WASP, she must be careful not to let anyone discover her secret. She can’t share her love for her family or her worry about her older brother, missing in action somewhere in the Pacific islands. Family and friends back home don’t understand how she can turn her back on them. Her new friends, Patsy and Lily, don’t know who she really is. She is drawn to Instructor Jenkins, and he seems drawn to her, too, but what would he do if he found out the truth? Somehow, Ida must find a way to reconcile the two truths of her life. She is Ida Mae, the black girl from her family’s strawberry farm. She is also Jonesy, a courageous pilot in the WASP. Must she give up one entirely to have the other?
In the author’s note at the end, Smith shares that there is now evidence that the WASP ever accepted a black woman pilot, knowingly or unknowingly. The WASP did reject pilot Janet Harmon Bragg solely on the basis of race, but did accept two Asian pilots. We may never know all the barriers the women of the WASP broke, but I’m thankful for the doors they cracked open. Flygirl explores that courage with the additional complexity added by racial barriers as well as gender barriers.
Rodman Philbrick has done it again, this time with a rip-snorting adventure through the Civil War. I don’t normally think of the Civil War as being ripe for humor, but I found myself laughing at Homer P. Figg’s account of his misadventures in tracking down his beloved older brother Harold. No matter how hard he tries, Homer can’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. As fast as he escapes from one scrape, he lands smack dab in the middle of another–and usually more dire–fix. Hang on to your hat as you chuckle through The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg (Scholastic 2009).
Uncle Squint hoodwinked Harold (who is too young to legally join) into joining the Union Army as a replacement for a rich man’s son. Uncle Squint is making a good profit off the bargain, but Homer is desperate to rescue his brother before he sees his first battle. His journey leads him to encounters with murderous slave catchers, clever crooks, a brave conductor on the Underground Railroad, a peaceable Quaker, theatrical medicine shows, and a hot air balloon pilot. His journey finally leads him straight into the Battle of Gettysburg where he must try to kill Harold in order to save his life. Homer really doesn’t need to make up stories. His real adventures are jaw-dropping enough.
Homer’s narration makes this book a rollicking funny read, but interwoven through the laughs is a lot of information about the seedier side of the Civil War. Homer’s good heart gives it a glow, too. I like how Mrs. Bean, the Quaker’s cook, expresses it best, ” ‘Never thought a boy could be good and a liar, too. But you are’ ” (Philbrick 77).
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I’ve not yet read half of the Young Hoosier nominees for the coming school year, but I have found my winner. I want everyone to read Out of My Mind (Atheneum Books for Young Readers 2010) by Sharon Draper. I’ve been a fangirl of Sharon Draper ever since my most reluctant readers convinced me that Forged by Fire was the best book ever, but Draper has outdone herself with this book. Out of My Mind goes to the top of my list for “Required Reading for Life.”
Melody begins her story with a love song to words–all words–until the first chapter ends with these devastating sentences: “I have never spoken one single word. I am almost eleven years old.” Even though I knew from reading the back cover that cerebral palsy trapped Melody’s brilliant mind within the limitations of a body that just didn’t work like the rest of the world, the power of those words punched me in the gut. I often felt like I had been punched while reading, but in the best possible way. I also laughed and cried and shouted as I read.
I cannot begin to imagine the frustration Melody must feel with all those words and thoughts piled up inside her head with no way to share them. I can understand how she feels like going out of her mind with having to sit through the same low-level alphabet lessons year after year because most of her teachers and her doctors don’t believe she is capable of learning at all. Even though her body is severely limited, she is an astute observer of human nature. She is quite aware of how “normal” students view her and her classmates. But in fifth grade something happens that will rock Melody’s world. She is given a device (similar to that used by Stephen Hawking) that finally allows her to speak to the world. She finally has a chance to share all the facts she has soaked up when she makes the school’s Quiz Bowl team. The only question that remains is whether or not her fifth grade world is ready to change their preconceptions of her.
Melody is not perfect. She can be sassy and stubborn. She longs to be part of the group and even to have a friend, but doubts if she can really trust her classmates. Two of the girls in particular are downright cruel. She loves her younger sister Penny, but is still jealous of how easily Penny learns to walk and dance and speak. Sometimes the frustration of it all becomes too much, and she erupts into a frenzy. Neither could Melody do it alone. Her parents and next door neighbor Mrs. V and assistant Catherine are there to encourage and cheer her on when the going gets tough. Through the tough times, Melody remains an inspiration.
I can’t wait to share this book with my students this coming year. If you haven’t read it yet, get to a library and bookstore. What are you waiting for?
Adam Gidwitz reveals the true story of Hansel and Gretel in A Tale Dark and Grimm (Scholastic 2010). He discovered the true story through much arduous research and dangerous travels through the land of Grimm. Trust me, this story is not like the tame versions you may have heard for bedtime stories. The true tale is much darker and much bloodier. I think you will like it. I know I did.
After surviving the story of “Faithful Johannes” (one of the Grimm tales I had not read before), Hansel and Gretel run away to find better parents. Along their journey they encounter a house made of cake inhabited by a child-eating mother, free seven swallows from the Crystal Mountain by sacrificing a finger, survive another child-devouring warlock, and escape from the devil himself through the gates of hell. Sometimes they are together and sometimes they are torn apart (and sometimes literally torn). In the end, they discover that there are no perfect parents and just maybe they can go home again–if they can raise an army to defeat the dragon terrorizing the kingdom.
One of things I enjoyed the most in this story is the narrator. He frequently interrupts the story with warnings (Shoo small children out of the room before reading!) and commentary (That was a dumb thing to do or I told you it was going to be bloody.) and even reassurance (Don’t worry. Ivy and Betty will be fine.) The narrator’s sometimes hilarious asides reminded me of Lemony Snickett’s narrator in The Series of Unfortunate Events. Don’t worry, Gidwitz’s narrator has his own unique voice, but the two would probably get along famously.
Enough from me. I’m just looking forward to sharing this title as one of the Young Hoosier nominees this year. I bet many students will enjoy it. Meanwhile, enjoy the trailer and get a flavor for these dark and hilarious fairy tales.
Disclosure: I participate in the Amazon Associates Program. If you decide to make a purchase by clicking on the affiliate links, Amazon will pay me a commission. This commission doesn’t cost you any extra. All opinions are my own.
This action-packed mystery has a little bit of everything: a very cold murder case, four very smart teens, one very cute puppy, and some DNA-altering viruses. What could possible go wrong for Tory Brennan and her friends? To start with, someone is trying to kill them.
Tory has just moved to tiny Morris Island to live with the father she never knew after her mother’s death. She is content to hang out and explore the islands with the other science geeks–all children of the scientists who work at the research station. They band together to rescue a wolfdog puppy from a secret research lab when they become infected with a rare strain of canine parvovirus that worms its way into their DNA. Now they are not just friends, but they are united as a pack. They call themselves the VIRALS and struggle to control their new super-senses and reflexes. Can they outsmart the killer of a teen forty years ago before he turns his sights on them?
I found this story to be a real page-turner. It opens with the four teens dodging bullets as they flee through the brush and doesn’t let up until the last page. I saw some of the pieces come together, but I was still surprised by a few twists at the end. At times I found the first person narration a little abrupt, but it fits the voice of Tory Brennan well. This girl is all about action. Even though she is the newcomer to the island, she is quick to take the lead, especially in plotting the less than legal activities.
After reading this one, I’m definitely off to the library to read some more Temperance Brennan (she is Tory’s aunt, after all) novels or off to the couch to watch some episodes of Bones. Fans of both will enjoy Virals by Kathy Reichs. And yes, there is already a sequel, Seizure, involving pirates and sunken treasure.
I read a lot of dystopian literature. I have heard the complaints that these imagined futures (that serve as a warning to excesses in our own present) are too dark and violent, but they have nothing on the real life horrors from our history. Even with as much as I have read, I still have trouble comprehending the atrocities committed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
Rodman Philbrick
