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.
101) Wake by Lisa McMann – seriously freaky. I may get nightmares from this one.
102) **Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper – This is the book I will be pushing all year. I’m so glad it’s on the Young Hoosier list for next year.
103) **A Tale Dark a Grimm by Adam Gidwitz – Don’t read this true story of Hansel and Gretel on a dark and stormy night.
104) I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916 by Lauren Tarshis – quite timely with the reports of sharks off the coast of New England this week
105) I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005 by Lauren Tarshis – It’s still hard for me to imagine the terror of those days.
106) I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941 by Lauren Tashis – a good companion to Harry Mazer’s A Boy at War
107) I Survived the San Francisco Earthquake, 1906 by Lauren Tashis – another quick read
108) **The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P Figg by Rodman Philbrick – a funny look at the adventures of a boy during the Civil War
109) Fly Girl by Sherri L. Smith – I am fascinated by anything to do with early women flyers and the WASP. This book is an excellent choice.
110) Slob by Ellen Patterson – not at all what I expected, but much, much better
111) Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed – wise and funny and brutally honest
112) **Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake – not at all what I typically expect from a ghost story–much better!
113) **Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan – A-MAZ-ING. I feel like singing for some reason…
114) **Looking for Alaska by John Green – This book has it all–big questions, quirky and flawed characters, laugh-out-loud moments
115) The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan and Pete r Sis – deceptively simple, but opens up much depth in thought
116) How to Babysit a Grandpa by Jean Reagan, illustrated by Lee Wildish – just what ever kid needs to know
117) Walter the Farting Dog: Banned from the Beach by William Kotzwinkle, Glenn Murray, Elizabeth Gundy, illustrated by Audrey Colman – funny
118) Surviving the Angel of Death: the Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz by Eva Mozes Kor and Lisa Buccieri – It is still hard for me to wrap my brain and heart around the horrors experienced during the Holocaust. This is an inspiring story of courage and forgiveness and hope.
119) A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park – stories of two children in Sudan weave together
120) **Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail by Cheryl Strayed – I’m inspired to go hiking, but with boots that fit
121) My Sister the Father by Meri Whitaker – a humorous look at mission work and a heart filled with compassion
122) **A Year by the Sea: Thoughts of an Unfinished Woman by Joan Anderson – thoughtful and reflective
123) Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley – I’m not sure what I think of this one
124) **Cate of the Lost Colony by Lisa Klein – Will we ever know what really happened? Probably not, but I like how this one ends
125) Roanoke The Lost Colony: an Unsolved Mystery from History by Jane Yolen & Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple, illustrated by Roger Roth – clearly presents the facts and explains the various theories
126) Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks – I couldn’t resist since we stayed in Salvo, which runs into Rodanthe
127) **The Coffin Quilt: The Feud Between the Hatfields and the McCoys by Ann Rinaldi – a gripping story of the Hatfield and the McCoys
I didn’t quite make my goal of a book a day for July, but with 27 books in 31 days, I came close. I’m currently in the middle of three other books, so I’m off to a good start for August as well. I starred** my favorites above. What have been your favorite reads for July?
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.
John Green is not afraid to take on the big issues–love and lust and loss–in Looking for Alaska (Speak 2005). And he tackles them with honesty and humor, creating characters that are believable, complex, and unforgettable.
Pudge, who tells the story, is fascinated with people’s last words, whether those words are funny or prophetic. Two of those quotes weave throughout the story (even though historians debate whether those are the actual last words of the speakers, or not). François Rabelais may have last uttered, “I go to seek a Great Perhaps.” Simón Bolívar did say (but maybe not last), “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!” I appreciate the fact that Green doesn’t preach a “right” answer the questions raised in those last words. Instead he shows how Pudge puts together the events of his life to search for answers for himself. After reading Pudge’s story, I’m asking the questions of my own life as well.
Pudge leaves the comfort of home to seek his “Great Perhaps” at Culver Creek Boarding School. He thinks he may have found it when he meets the endlessly fascinating Alaska Young. He and the Colonel, Takumi and Lara follow wherever Alaska leads until the night it all falls apart. Then they are left to pick up the pieces and find their own way out of the labyrinth of suffering. Each section counts down the days before–and then after–the big event. I didn’t see what was coming until just a page or two before it happened. My daughter didn’t see it coming before at all. Either way, it is shocking. I don’t want to tell you what IT is because I want you to experience the shock yourself while reading, whether you see it coming or not.
One of my favorite parts of the books is the pranks. My college roommate and I used to prank our friends, but ours were nowhere near as elaborate as what goes on at Culver Creek. It starts with a prank that could have gone terrible wrong. After all, it is hard to swim out of a lake when your arms and legs are duct taped together. Things escalate from there until the last unbelievable prank at Speaker Day.
This is not a book for every reader (most books aren’t for everyone), but for readers who are unafraid to look at some of the tough stuff life throws our way, Looking for Alaska asks the big questions.
John Green signs my copy of Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Last Friday I went to the most amazing book signing at the most amazing bookstore. Over 300 people crammed into the Indy Reads Books (okay, we had to take turns in order to keep the fire marshal happy) to hear and meet the amazing John Green. We had lots of time to explore the bookstore since our numbers to have books signed were in the 300’s. It was time well spent as we browsed books and celebrated with other nerdfighters. I even succeeded in turning my daughter into a John Green fan, and she is now devouring every book of his she can get her hands on. I was worried for a while that we might miss our chance since the signing went over the publicized time, but John Green kept on signing and was funny and gracious to all of us. I even have a picture to prove it! I know there is hope for the future when that many people of all ages get this excited about books and authors!
I picked up two of Green’s books I hadn’t read yet. The first one I read was Will Grayson, Will Grayson (Dutton 2010) that Green cowrote with David Levithan. It blew me away. I did find the alternating points of view (told by two different Will Graysons) jarring at first, but once I turned the last page, I wanted to burst into song. If you’ve read it, too, you know exactly what I mean. Even though Green and Levithan deal with some hard stuff between the covers, I was affirmed and uplifted at the end. Here are just some of the things I loved about this book.
At its heart, Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a story about friendship and the courage it takes to be honest in relationships. It doesn’t matter whether the friendship is platonic or romantic, gay or straight, friends can make the world bearable if you are brave enough to open up and let them in. Both Will Graysons must make that choice in a variety of relationships. Will they be honest or remain in hiding?
The first Will Grayson lives by two rules: 1) Don’t care too much, and 2) Shut up. He breaks both rules when he writes and signs a letter in support of his best friend Tiny Cooper, who is an openly gay player on the football team. In fact, hanging around the larger-than-life Tiny threatens those rules on an almost daily basis, as does his growing relationship with the delightfully intriguing Jane.
The other Will Grayson is trapped behind the wall of his depression. His best relationship is with someone he has never met in real life–Isaac, who always knows just what to say (or rather, IM). He decidedly does NOT want to talk about any of this with the morose and nosy Maura. Circumstances force him out of his shell until he must face the truth about himself.
A chance encounter in the most unlikely of stores in Chicago (where neither Will Grayson really wants to be) brings the two Wills together. Once their paths collide, their lives continue to bump together as they both orbit around Tiny Cooper.
I love Tiny Cooper. He is larger-than-life both literally and figuratively. He lives life with abandon and exuberance. He falls in and out of love on a daily basis. He’s even writing a musical based on his life and is determined to bring it to life on the high school stage. If he succeeds, he will go down in history. Tiny, know that I appreciate you.
This book made me laugh–not a polite little giggle, either, but laughs that snorted out my nose. It would not be wise to read this while eating or drinking, or you might learn (as did the first Will Grayson) that the saying, “you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose” just isn’t always true.
What is it with Schrodinger’s cat? This is the second book this summer (the first was Libba Bray’s Going Bovine) that weaved this physicist’s thought experiment into the story. Is the universe trying to tell me something? Maybe I should pay attention.
Just like a good musical (Glee, anyone?), Will Grayson, Will Grayson will inspire you to live larger and better–or at the very least start finding the sound track for your life.
I listened to Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake with a free download from Sync YA. I thoroughly enjoyed this romantic ghost story. The nearer I got to the end, the more I found myself looking for mindless chores to do so I could keep listening! The only downside to listening is I didn’t have an easy way to mark the words and sentences that sang in my ear. This is one audio that I will want to go back and read just to savor the language.
Cas is not your typical teenager. Ever since his father was killed, he has taken on the family mission of sending on murderous ghosts with a slice of his athame. His story opens with his “kill” of a murderous hitchhiker along a country road in my home state of North Carolina. The real story, though, doesn’t begin until Cas and his kitchen-witch mother move to Canada to track down a ghost known as Anna Dressed in Blood. Anna Korlov is stronger and angrier than any other ghost Cas has encountered. He also finds himself strangely drawn to Anna, wanting to defend her rather than kill her. Woven through his current quest is the mystery of what killed his father. Cas is determined to learn all he can before traveling back to Baton Rouge to avenge his father’s death at the hands of some evil spirit if it doesn’t get him first. For the first time, Cas is not able to take down a ghost on his own. He must draw on all his past resources as well as reach out to new friends, who make a very unlikely alliance.
Anna is one spooky girl. She is dressed in a simple white dress that drips with her own blood. For the past fifty years, she has killed anyone who crossed the threshold into her house. She just doesn’t kill them. She rips them limb from limb. Despite her violence, she spares Cas and struggles against the rage that gives her strength. Thomas, a witch-in-training who is a social outcast at school, appears to be weak, but surprises himself with his courage and loyalty. Carmel may be the prom queen with the student body in her back pocket, but she finds herself drawn in and drawn to the mystery of Anna, even when her friends are ripped apart.
Not only are there blood and guts aplenty in this ghost story, there are also quirky characters and snarky humor.
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).
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.
With the popular success of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, dystopian literature is on the top of many TBR piles. But dystopian literature is not new. Writers have been imagining terrible futures for a long time. I remember reading George Orwell’s1984 in high school back in the dark ages of the 1980’s. Even then I wondered whether the real 1984 would be as bleak as Orwell’s predictions even while I squirmed at the similarities my teenage brain could already pick out. Doublespeak and revisionist history anyone?
I had the same sensation when I first read Ray Bradbury’sFahrenheit 451. Even though firefighter’s don’t burn books (oh wait, some people do burn books they don’t like), have you noticed people distracting themselves from the world of ideas and nature with large screens filled with mindless entertainment? John Green gives his take on Fahrenheit 451 in the video below. If you’re intrigued, I dare you to read Fahrenheit 451 for yourself and join in the conversation.
Then for a real treat, head up to the new Indy Reads bookstore (911 Massachusetts Avenue) Friday evening to meet John at a book reading and signing from 5 – 7 pm. Not only is Indy Reads a bookstore, but it also community service to promote literacy for all. How cool! I planning on heading up there and picking up the last two Green books I haven’t read yet–Looking for Alaska and Will Grayson, Will Grayson. Maybe I’ll see you there!
Lauren Tarshis has created an exciting survival series grounded in historical disasters with the I Survived books. Fictional characters provide an emotional connection with each story. The historical events that provide the setting offer danger and lots of fast-paced action. I enjoyed the author’s note in the back of each that separate fact from fiction and offer additional information. I can see readers who want a quick, short read with lots of adventure grabbing these off my shelves. Here are the four titles I picked up from the Scholastic Book Fair last spring.
I Survived The San Francisco Earthquake, 1906 (Scholastic 2012):
Leo is unafraid to make his own way in the up and coming city of San Francisco. He has an exciting job as a newsboy and his grandfather’s lucky gold nugget in his pocket. His luck changes when two neighborhood bullies steal his gold nugget. Then the ground begins to shake a twist, knocking buildings to the ground around him. As he struggles to survive the earthquake and the devastating fires that follow, he finds his relationships with the local boys shifting, too.
I Survived The Shark Attacks of 1916 (Scholastic 2010):
Chet is trying to fit in with the local boys now that he has finally settled down in Elm Hills, New Jersey, to live with his uncle Jerry. He’s trying to get the hang of pranking with the guys when one goes a little too far. All that is forgotten when news of shark attacks along the nearby Jersey shore makes its way to town. Even more frightening is when he comes face to face with the bloodthirsty jaws of a shark that has somehow made its way up the creek. This one seems especially appropriate with all the news of shark sightings off the coast of New England this summer. Unlike the people of 1916, those of us who grew up post Jaws, don’t doubt that sharks can and will attack humans.
I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941 (Scholastic, 2011)
Danny’s mom moved the two of them to Hawaii from the streets of New York City to help Danny get a fresh start away from crime and gangs. Danny would do anything–including stowing away on a ship–to get back. His plans are changed when Japanese planes stream over Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack on the USA. As he struggles to find his mother and help his new-found friends, he learns just what kind of boy he is. I think my favorite character is the young scamp Aki who befriends Danny with his antics.
I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005 (Scholastic 2011):
Not all disasters are in the distant past. Barry’s family tried to evacuate New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina hit, but a traffic jam is no place to be when his little sister gets violently sick. So they turn back to wait out the storm in their house in the Lower Ninth Ward. They survive the first wave of the storm, but when the levees break, the water starts rising fast. The family makes it to the roof of their house where Barry is swept off into the raging water. How will he survive when so many others did not? Will he ever find his family again?
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
