Book Review: The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & The Fall of Imperial Russia, by Candace Fleming (Schwartz & Wade, 2014)

Recommended for ages 10 and up.

Candace Fleming is a master at writing narrative nonfiction that is entertaining as well as informative, and her newest book on the tragic and doomed Romanovs is a worthy successor to her last foray into nonfiction, the highly acclaimed Amelia Lost. 

Fleming expertly weaves together the intimate life of Russia's last czar and his family with the saga of the revolution brewing underneath their royal noses, beginning with workers' strikes in 1905 and leading up to Lenin's seizing power in 1917.  Interspersed with her compelling narrative are original documents from the time that tell the stories of ordinary men and women swept up in the dramatic events in Russia. 

Unlike many books for young people, which seem to romanticize the Romanovs, Fleming doesn't try to make the family into martyrs.  Indeed, it is hard to have a lot of sympathy for the Russian royal family after reading Fleming's account.  Fleming describes Nicholas as a young boy as "shy and gentle," unable to stand up to his "Russian bear of a father."  His wife, the Empress Alexandra, a German princess raised to be a proper Englishwoman under the wing of Queen Victoria, never felt comfortable with the excesses of the bejeweled, partying Russian aristocracy, and encouraged her husband to retreat to Tsarskoe Selo, a park 15 miles and a world apart from St. Petersburg.  Fleming brings us inside of their privileged--but also strangely spartan--life (for example the children were bathed with cold water in the mornings and slept on army cots in their palace!), one in which they had almost no contact with outsiders. 

Fleming manages to integrate her narrative history of the Romanov family with the larger history of the turbulent times in Russia, as the czar is forced to resign and he and his family are exiled to Siberia, fleeing in a train disguised as a "Japanese Red Cross Mission" so that the royal family would not be captured by angry peasants.  She skips back and forth from the family's saga to what is happening in the capital, with plenty of original documents such as an excerpt from journalist John Reed's first-hand account of the swarming of the Winter Palace as well as excerpts from many other diaries.

In my favorite quote in the book, Fleming discusses how Lenin nationalized the mansions and private homes throughout the country, while the owners were forced to live in the servants' quarters.  She quotes one ex-servant as saying:

"I've spent all my life in the stables while they live in their beautiful flats and lie on soft couches playing with their poodles...no more of that, I say!  It's my turn to play with poodles now."  

Whatever one's feelings about the Romanovs, one cannot help but be moved by the account of their cruel assassination in the basement of their quarters in Siberia.  Particularly ironic is the fate of the royal children, who did not die immediately because they were hiding the family jewels in their camisoles and other undergarments.  This layer of jewels unwittingly created a bullet proof vest that protected them initially, until they were finally murdered with bayonets and then with gunshots.  The bodies were immediately hidden in the woods, where the remains were not found until 1979 and then kept secret until the fall of communism in Russia.  Ironically, the Romanovs have since been canonized by the Orthodox Church in Russia.

The book is abundantly illustrated with archival photographs.  An extensive bibliography is included, as well as a discussion of primary and secondary sources.  Fleming also includes suggestions of websites on the Romanovs, as well as source notes for each chapter and an index.

Highly recommended for middle school and high school students.

Book Review Coyote Winds, by Helen Sedwick (Ten Gallon Press, 2013)

Recommended for ages 10 and up.

I live in a very urban area of Southern California, but one with a healthy population of coyotes.  It's not at all uncommon to see one loping down the street while you're out walking your dog, no matter what the time of day or evening.  And in the early evening, you can hear them calling to each other if you're in the right place at the right time.  Although coyotes are common enough throughout the United States, there aren't many children's books about them.  So I was intrigued to read Coyote Winds, which combines two of my favorite genres, animal stories and historical fiction.

Helen Sedwick's novel alternates between the stories of two boys, Andy, a suburban kid in Evanston, Illinois, and his grandfather Myles, who grew up during the Dust Bowl on the Colorado prairies.  Andy has grown up with grandpa's stories about growing up on a farm during the Depression, as well as his corny jokes; now that his grandpa has recently died, Andy wants to discover his grandpa's world.  First he does so through a box of mementos and writings from his grandfather, and later first-hand by traveling to the old homestead.

Through Myles' story, Sedwick skillfully recreates the Colorado prairies, where farmers believed that with enough hard work and modern farming methods, they could realize the American dream of prosperity for themselves and their families.  Or is the prairie the farmer's enemy, trying to take back what belongs to it?   Myles' story starts in 1930, when as a thirteen-year old, he rescues a half-blind coyote pup who's lost in a dust storm, taking the coyote home to raise.  Coyotes were the enemies of the farmers, who shot them if they caught them near their livestock.  Nonetheless, Myles is determined to raise and tame the pup, much like his father is trying to tame the wild prairie landscape.  Sedgwick occasionally switches gears to narrate the action from the point of view of the coyote, who she is careful not to treat as a human character, but instead as an animal who remains half-wild.

Sedwick's novel succeeds in capturing the imagination of the reader with appealing characters, the spirit of adventure in the West, and the adversity of life during the Dust Bowl.  We see this through the eyes of Andy, Myles' grandson, who stands in for the young reader.  It's a novel I had a hard time putting down.

Helen Sedwick's novel was inspired by her father's stories of growing up on the prairie in the 1930's.  An excerpt from the novel can be found at her website.  

from The Daily Coyote (dailycoyote.net)

For a novel offering a completely different take on a coyote's story, you might want to check out adult novelist Elmore Leonard's very funny children's novel, A Coyote in the House, in which a coyote wants to trade places with a pampered German Shepherd movie star.

Book Review: Dear America: The Diary of Minnie Bonner: A City Tossed and Broken (San Francisco, California 1906), by Judy Blundell (Scholastic, 2013)

Recommended for ages 8-12.

Dear America is a go-to for historical fiction for young people, and the series keeps expanding with more titles by award-winning authors.  One of the newest entries is by Judy Blundell, author of award-winning YA novel What I Saw and How I Lied, among others.  In this novel, she presents the diary of a 14-year old Philadelphia girl, Minnie Bonner, the daughter of a French tavern owner who has deserted his wife and child.  His wife sends her only daughter Minnie into service as a lady's maid for the young daughter of a rich family, the Sumps, who are moving to the great city of San Francisco.

As the reader can guess by the title, they arrive to a luxurious life in San Francisco just days before the earthquake strikes.  Without giving away too much of the story, let's just say that in the immediate chaos after the great shock, Minnie finds herself confused for the Sumps' daughter, a great heiress, and confronted by moral dilemmas she never contemplated.  As the disaster spreads into a firestorm that threatens the destroy the entire city of San Francisco, Minnie must decide who she is, who she wants to be, and what her destiny will be.

This is a real page turner for middle-grade readers.  In the addition to the obvious excitement of the earthquake and its aftermath, Blundell adds a story of con men, political graft, and good and evil, personified by corrupt politicians and courageous firemen, among others.  Although there is a female heroine, and this series is predominantly marketed to female readers, this novel, with its great sense of adventure, could easily appeal to boys as well.  Highly recommended!

Book Review: Vision of Beauty: The Story of Sarah Breedlove Walker, by Kathryn Lasky (Candlewick, 2012)

Recommended for ages 7-12.

Candlewick Press has recently reissued in paperback Kathryn Lasky's biography of Sarah Breedlove Walker, originally published in 2000.  In a brief 48 pages, Lasky chronicles the life of this remarkable woman, born into poverty to former slaves, who became a highly successful entrepreneur and philanthropist.  Orphaned at the age of seven, Sarah had a difficult childhood, and married at the age of 14 to escape living with her sister and her cruel husband.  She eventually moved to St. Louis where she worked as a laundress and diligently saved to be able to give her daughter the education she never had.

Because of poor nutrition, Sarah's hair began to fall out, and she began to work on a formula that would produce healthy hair for African-American women.  After testing her products on herself, she began selling door-to-door, and eventually expanded her products into the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, a business empire which made her the wealthiest black woman in America.

In a brief, easy to read narrative, Lasky hits on the highlights of Walker's life, emphasizing how remarkable her success was in an era when she had two strikes against her--being female and being black.  My favorite scene in the book involves Waker attending a conference of African-American business leaders, all of whom (of course!) were men.  Lasky describes how Walker tried unsuccessfully to get the attention of Booker T. Washington, so that she could speak.  She finally sprang to her feet, relating how she came from the cotton fields of the South, promoting herself into the business of manufacturing hair goods.  "'My object in life is not simply to make money for myself, but to use part of what I make in trying to help others,' continued Madam Walker...With these words, Madam Walker proved herself more than equal to any man in that room."

Sarah Breedlove Walker

An epilogue describes Walker's commitment to philanthropy and to civil rights; her dying words were "I want to live to help my race."  Back matter also includes an illustrator's note an index, and selected sources.

Abundantly illustrated with beautiful full color watercolor paintings by Nneka Bennett, Lasky's book is an inspirational tale that could be read aloud or read independently by children in elementary school.

Book Review: Hope and Tears: Ellis Island Voices, by Gwenyth Swain (Calkins Creek, 2012)

Recommended for ages 9 and up.

Author Gwenyth Swain brings stories of Ellis Island vividly to life through text and photographs in the beautifully rendered Hope and Tears:  Ellis Island Voices.  She uses poetry, monologues, and dialogues combined with a selection of archival photographs to help us imagine Ellis Island at various stages of its existence, beginning in the late 1500's with a poem by a native Lenni Lenape boy.

Prose introductions provide background on each period of Ellis Island's history, from the processing of its first immigrant in 1892 to its busiest period in the early 20th century and beyond.  In moving free verse, Swain chronicles all aspects of Ellis Island's life, from the arrivals, complete with their hopes and dreams, to the dreaded inspections, in which families could be separated and detained in hospital's on the island or even sent back if they were deemed "likely to become public charges."  She doesn't forget the various workers on the island, from the nurses and aid workers to the clerks, cooks, and Salvation Army volunteers, who are pictured handing out doughnuts to hungry immigrants.

In the 1920's, when Congress put limits on immigration, Ellis Island became a place mostly used for deportation rather than immigration, and eventually was abandoned after 1954.  But in the preparation for the nation's bicentennial, interest in Ellis Island as an important historical landmark surged, and in 1990, after many years of renovation and fundraising, the island reopened as an immigration museum. Additional poems mark this more recent period of Ellis Island's history as well, ending with a poem from a National Park Service employee, who remarks about the many visitors:

...maybe they feel what I feel./The sense that,/after all these years,/spirits live here,/along with all their hopes and tears.

This book would be perfect for a class performance as part of a unit on family history and immigration.  There are many parts for boys and girls and only simple costumes--or no costumes at all--would be required.

Back matter includes source notes, a bibliography which includes websites, films, books, articles, and interviews, an index, and suggestions for going further in exploring the themes of this book.  Swain's website will also offer an extensive teacher's guide (available soon).

Book Review: Surviving the Hindenburg, by Larry Verstraete (Sleeping Bear Press, 2012)

Recommended for ages 8-12.

With the seemingly infinite number of books about the Titanic being released this year, it was refreshing to read an account of another famous disaster of technology, the crash of the mighty luxury airship the Hindenburg in 1937. Told from the point of view of Werner Franz, a 14-year old cabin boy serving on the vessel, this handsomely illustrated picture book shows Werner's life on board the luxurious vessel as the ship prepares to land in the United States on its three day journey. But while Werner puts dishes away in the kitchen and the Hindenburg crew prepared for the landing, something goes terribly wrong, and suddenly Werner finds himself alone in the bow of the ship, with a giant fireball behind him. Can Werner escape the inferno? 

This exciting tale is well captured in this picture book for older readers. The author includes both a preface and an afterword, which gives information on other survivors, more on what happened to young Werner, and Hindenburg memorials. 

This book is written by Larry Verstraete, a former teacher whose enthusiasm for his subject is evident.  The larger-than life painted illustrations are by historical illustrator David Geister.  The oversized format of the book effectively captures the immense scale of the airship and the horror of the disaster.

This book would be particularly appealing to fans of steampunk, who might enjoy learning more about an actual airship.  

Recommended for upper elementary school students.

Book Review: The Wild Book, by Margarita Engle (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012)

Recommended for ages 8-12.

In her newest book, award-winning author Margarita Engle turns to her own family history for inspiration.  Set in 1912, this novel in verse brings to life the story of Engle's grandmother, Fefa, who grew up in Cuba afflicted by "word-blindness," the term used at that time for dyslexia.  She struggles every time she is handed a book to read:

I know that the words
want to trick me.
The letters will jumble
and spill off the page,
leaping and hopping,
jumping far away,
like slimy
bullfrogs.

Her mother refuses to accept "the hissing doctor's verdict," and gives her daughter a book--a blank diary, or is it "an ordinary/schoolbook/filled with frog-slippery/tricky letters/that know how to leap/and escape?"

She tries to patiently write in her blank book each night, her "wild diary," and wonders how reading can look so easy, yet be so impossible?  Will her wild book "ever seem tame?"  She struggles on with her reading, reading slowly to sound out the words.  What good can come of this word blindness?  In a surprising twist, Fefa's careful powers of observation with the written word will end up helping to save her family from danger.

Engle's spare verse captures so eloquently 11 year old Fefa's frustration and yet fascination with words, reading, and writing, as well as the Cuba of yesteryear, a time when bandits roam the land, kidnapping children and holding them for ransom.  The pages of the book are nearly as blank as the pages in Fefa's wild book, with the narrative told with few words but memorable poetic images.  Fefa lives in the countryside on a farm, where her many sisters and brothers tease her and on her Sunday outings to town she strolls around the plaza with her cousin, while "girls just daydream/and smile."  With a mama who loves poetry, words are a part of their every day family life, with her mother reading poetry out loud, and fairy tales filling Fefa's head.  The poems are full of tiny details of the family's life in Cuba, such as making jewelry out of reeds from the river, and roasting a whole pig in a pit for a feast.

While this story deals with a serious learning disability, there is hope in the end for Fefa.  This would be an excellent choice to read out loud with a child, which would allow the reader to hear the beauty of the verses and to discuss the story as well.

Sydney Taylor Blog Tour: The Blood Lie: A Novel, by Shirley Vernick

Shirley Vernick

I am delighted to welcome today to the Fourth Musketeer writer Shirley Vernick, whose first novel, The Blood Lie, published by Cinco Puntos Press, was selected as a Sydney Taylor Honor Book for teens.  Shirley has kindly agreed to participate in an interview today about her novel as part of the Sydney Taylor Award Blog Tour.

Q:  The Blood Lie is based on a little known real-life event from the history of your home town, Massena, New York.  An innocent Jewish boy was accused of ritual murder when a Christian girl disappeared, bringing to America the infamous "blood lie," in which Jews are accused of murdering Christian children in order to use their blood to make ritual bread.   Could you tell us a little bit about how you discovered this story and why you decided to use it as a basis for your first novel for young people?

A:  I was already in college when I first learned about it. I came home for fall break my sophomore year with an assignment for a sociology class. Students had to identify a local community conflict – past or present – and write a paper about it. I remember thinking, What am I going to do? No juicy controversies ever happen in my dinky little town of Massena, New York. So I asked my dad, who also grew up in Massena, if he had any ideas. That’s when he told me, for the first time, about the blood libel that happened in Massena when he was a high school senior. It was just before Yom Kippur, and a little Christian girl disappeared while playing in the woods near her house. The next thing you know, the local Jews – including my dad’s family – were being accused of kidnapping and murdering that little girl and baking her blood in their “holiday foods.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. In America? In the 20^th century?  It sounded more like a page out of Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages.

I knew I wanted to write something more than a term paper the minute I learned about the Massena blood libel. I always wanted to be a writer, and this was something that not only spoke to me, but grabbed me by the throat and screamed at me. I felt compelled to illuminate this episode of Jewish-American history, as well as to inspire readers to contemplate the consequences of, and possible responses to, intolerance. 

Q:  Jack, your hero, wants nothing more than to leave Massena to study music, even before the blood lie incident.  From your own research, what do you think some of the pros and cons of Jewish life in a small town were like in that era (the 1920's)?

A:  Personally, I think the biggest pro was the kind of community solidarity you get when you're a small newcomers group sharing a deeply felt common heritage. However, along with that came the everyone-knows-your-business-and-has-some-advice-to-give lack of privacy.

The pressure to assimilate was a hardship for many small-town Jews. For instance, imagine trying to be a merchant in a one-corporation village like Massena, where everyone gets paid on Friday and does their shopping on Saturday. How can you survive if you don't stay open on Saturdays? At the same time, assimilation was a pro for many of the younger ones, who deemed it synonymous with freedom and opportunity.

Q:  What kind of reception has your book had in Massena?  Were there people in the town who resented your bringing to light an ugly incident that they might well have preferred remain hidden?

A:  I'm pleased – and relieved – to report that Massena has given the book a warm, open-minded reception. The current residents include fourth generation natives, relative newcomers, and everything in between. The people I've talked to say they didn't know about the Massena blood libel, but they did know about past and present currents of bigotry. I gave a talk at Massena's public library in December, and the audience demonstrated keen interest in the history of the story. The local high school's book club plans to read the book, as well. 

A couple of Massena residents did write on my Facebook page that they wished I'd made the book nonfiction. I explained that, since there is little or no clear documentation of the details of this blood libel, I had to go beyond the basic facts. So I did my best to adhere to the essence of the real event, and then I added details, including personalities and subplots.

Q:  You have done quite a bit of professional writing, with articles published in different women's magazines, national newspapers, and college publications.  How did you find the process of writing and researching a novel for young people different than other writing you have done?  

A:  As obvious as this sounds, I get to write more words with a book-length story. This makes a huge difference because it allows me to delve more fully into the story, the backstory and the side stories, which is much more satisfying for me as an author. Since the novel is based on true events, I still had to do a lot of primary and secondary research, so that wasn't all that different. Writing for young adults instead of, well, older adults, felt very natural. Apparently, my creative side has a young-adult voice. 

Q:  Could you tell us about your future writing projects?  Do you have other historical novels in the works?  

A:  I have been incurably bitten by the novel-writing bug. Currently in the works are a young-adult historical novel set in Israel, a young-adult paranormal story with strong historical elements, and a middle-grade adventure book.

Shirley, mazel tov for receiving the Sydney Taylor Honor award for your very first novel!   And don't forget to check out the other Sydney Taylor blog tour stop today at Frume Sarah's World.  

Book Review: Breaking Stalin's Nose, by Eugene Yelchin (Henry Holt, 2011)

Recommended for ages 8-12.

Illustrator Eugene Yelchin's first novel, Breaking Stalin's Nose, is a brilliantly conceived expose of the horrors of life in Stalin's Russia, seen through the eyes of a very naive young boy.  And since the book was recently recognized with a Newbery Honor, it is likely to make it onto the shelves of school and public libraries around the country.

Ten-year old Sasha has been dreaming of being a Soviet Young Pioneer ever since he can remember, and he can recite all the Young Pioneer laws by heart. He loves Comrade Stalin like a revered grandfather, but when the long-anticipated ceremony to be inducted into the Young Pioneers is finally to take place, everything seems to go wrong.  When his father is taken away by the police, arrested as an enemy of the people, Sasha slowly begins to wonder if everything he has learned about Stalin and the Soviet state is a lie.

With its naive, optimistic narrator, this book reminded me very much of Morris Gleitzman's Once, John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and Jerry Spinelli's Milkweed. Like the heroes in those novels, Sasha's naivete manages to be somehow funny and heartbreaking at the same time. Through his eyes, we see the incongruity of the Soviet propaganda and the realities of life in a society where even children were encouraged to inform on their parents.

Although there are many novels for children about World War II, there are few about Stalin's Russia, and this book definitely fills a gap in the literature.   Despite the sophisticated subject matter, the simplicity of the language in the book is suitable for children in elementary school, and would work well as discussion for a book club as well. Yelchin provided the dramatic graphite black and white illustrations for the book as well as the text.


An author's note provides some background on Stalin's reign of terror, and, paradoxically, how few people of Yelchin's generation (he grew up in the Soviet Union in the 1960's) were aware of the scale of Stalin's crimes, which were carried out in secrecy.  There is also an excellent website for the book, which allows users to click on various images to learn more about Stalin, Sasha's dad, the Young Pioneers, Sasha's school, Lubyanka Prison, and other topics dealt with in this slim but powerful book.

Book Review: Bambino and Mr. Twain, by P.I. Maltbie (Charlesbridge, 2012)

Recommended for ages 5-12

Release date:  February 1, 2012


Author P.I. Maltbie returns to the theme of famous individuals and their pets--a subject she visited in her 2008 book Picasso and Minou--in her newest picture book.  In this story, we meet Samuel Clemens, otherwise known as Mark Twain, a sad old man who has lost his beloved wife, Livy, and is living like a recluse in his house on 5th Avenue in New York City.  His daughter's cat, Bambino, keeps him company as he spends more and more time in bed, refusing to accept invitations from people he's convinced will be expecting to meet the witty author Mark Twain, rather than a grumpy old man.

But when Bambino jumps out the window into the busy city, in pursuit of a squirrel, the celebrated author offers a reward for his return.  Soon people from all over the city appear with cats and kittens of every description for Mr. Twain, even offering to lend him their own pets.  Reporters came too, to write about Twain's missing pet.  Will the "prodigal cat" return?

This is a delightful picture book for elementary school students.  Since children generally love animals, they will easily identify with how the cat Bambino enriches Twain's life, and how when he goes missing it mobilizes the author's fans.  An author's note at the end of the book provides further details on Twain and his household, including Bambino.  The author also provides a brief bibliography of books about Mark Twain.  Suggestions of further reading for young people would have been valuable as well (the titles offered seem to all be for adults).

Illustrator Daniel Miyares, in his second illustrated book for young people, uses mixed media and digital techniques to create striking illustrations for this tale.  The images are stylized in a manner which makes them appear like collage or papercutting, and the muted colors with the glowing lighting provide a nostalgic quality to the pictures.

This book would be nicely paired with another picture book on Mark Twain published last year, The Extraordinary Mark Twain, According to Suzy, by Barbara Kerley (Scholastic, 2010).




Disclosure:  Review copy provided by publisher.

Book Review: The Cats in the Doll Shop, by Yona Zeldis McDonough (Viking, 2011)

Recommended for ages 7-10 (could be read aloud to even younger children)

I have a soft spot for both animal stories and doll stories, so I was eager to read Yona Zeldis McDonough's newest book, The Cats in the Doll Shop.  While this book is a sequel to her earlier novel, The Doll Shop Downstairs, it can easily be read without having read the first book.

Set in 1915, a few years after the first story, this book returns to the cozy world of the Breittlemann family, who live upstairs from their small doll factory which supplies to New York's legendary toy store FAO Schwarz.  The three sisters, eleven-year old Anna, her more sophisticated now teenaged sister Sophie, and nine-year old Trudie, are about to experience big changes in their lives when their cousin Tania comes to live with them from Russia.  Anna is particularly excited because Tania is just her age; she even makes Tania a special doll just for her as a welcoming gift. But when Tania arrives, she is withdrawn and shy, even hoarding food in her bed.  As Anna and her sisters struggle to understand their new cousin's behavior,  Anna also tries to help a stray cat and her kitten who live around her building, but her father has a firm "no pets" policy.  Soon Anna discovers that Tania has a special relationship with the cats--and the cats might just help her adjust successfully to her new home.

Set in a world of Jewish immigrant families highly reminiscent of the classic Sydney Taylor All of a Kind Family series, this is a charming and heartwarming story that is perfect for ages 7-10 and could be enjoyed by younger children as a read-aloud.  The story is complemented by black and white drawings by Heather Maione which capture the nostalgia of the period.  The book includes a glossary of Yiddish terms and a timeline.

An interview with the author, editor, and illustrator recently appeared in the blog The Whole Megillah.  You can read an excerpt from the novel on the author's website.  The first book in this series, The Doll Shop Downstairs, was honored with a Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book of 2009 and was also nominated as one of the New York Public Library's 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, 2009.

Book Review: Promise the Night, by Michaela Maccoll (Chronicle Books, 2011)

Recommended for ages 8-12.


Release date:  January 4, 2012

This new historical fiction title is inspired by the life of aviatrix Beryl Markham, the first woman pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic from East to West (considered more challenging than flying East because of prevailing winds).  Novelist Michaela Maccoll intersperses the story of Beryl's historic 1936 voyage with Beryl's life as a ten-year old growing up in what is now Kenya, where she lived with her English father on a horse ranch, her mother having abandoned them years before.  Her life as a child is filled with endless adventures--attacks by leopards, forbidden treks into the forest with a boy from the local tribe, Kibbi, who becomes her friend and teaches her to wrestle and track and hunt animals.  Indeed, she is virtually adopted by the native tribe who take her in as one of their own, allowing her to train to be a "warrior" despite her sex and accepting her as an honorary member of the Nandi tribe.

The novel jumps back and forth between the youthful Beryl's adventures both at home and later in boarding school and a variety of diary entries, fictitious press articles and interviews about her cross-Atlantic flight.  I found the parts in Africa much more engaging and vivid than the snippets about her flight; the two themes don't really seem to be tied together, since we don't learn about the beginnings of her interests in flight in the sections in which Beryl is a child.  However, Maccoll paints an appealing picture of an adventurous spirit who can't resist a dare, a girl who is more comfortable in boys' clothing and who longs to be a hunter of lions rather than a proper young English lady.  It's a good choice for those looking for a colorful adventure story that could appeal to girls as well as boys.

Those interested in learning more about the real Beryl can check out her memoir, West With the Night (North Point Press, 1982), which was praised by none other than Ernest Hemingway, who remarked about Markham's writing, "she can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers,"
or the young adult biography Beryl Markham:  Never Turn Back, by Catherine Gourley (Red Wheel, 1997).

In addition, Maccoll includes an author's note providing further details on the real Beryl's life as well as additional suggestions for further reading.

Beryl Markham

Disclosure:  Review copy provided by publisher.

Book Review: My Brother's Shadow, by Monika Schroder (Frances Foster Books, 2011)

Recommended for ages 12 and up.

Set in Berlin in 1918, in the final days of World War I, this new novel tells the story of sixteen-year old Moritz, whose family's existence, like that of everyone else in Germany, has been ravaged by the effects of the seemingly endless war.  His father was killed on the battlefield, his older brother, Hans, is serving in the trenches on the Western front, his little sister has died of illness, and his mother spends all her time either working at an ammunition factory or attending socialist party meetings.  There's little to eat, with food rationed, and everything tasting of turnips, and people butchering horses who fall dead in the streets.  Moritz, who works as an apprentice printer, tries his best to make sense of it all, wondering who is right--his brother, who says it's an honor to serve the Kaiser, or his mother, who bemoans the fact that her husband "died for our foolish Kaiser, who loves his uniforms and his yachts."  Soon Moritz is given a chance to work as a journalist for one of Berlin's daily papers, covering the very socialist rallies where his mother and others are speaking out against the Kaiser and capitalist injustice. 

When Moritz's brother Hans returns from the front with horrible injuries, missing half his arm and blind in one eye, Hans is plagued by nightmares about the war, and sees the Jews as scapegoats for all of Germany's problems.  Morris, on the other hand, is having his first romance--with a Jewish girl.   The book's ominous conclusion foreshadows the increasing persecution of the Jews that will happen in Germany during the 1930's.

Author Monika Schroeder, who grew up in Berlin, provides an author's note discussing how the fall of 1918 was a pivotal time in German history, with the end of the "Great War," the Kaiser's abdication, and the establishment of a democratic government in the beginning of 1919.  With the Germans' humiliating defeat, conservatives and military leaders began blaming the Jews, the socialists, and the communists for all of Germany's woes, laying the groundwork for Hitler's rise to power.

My Brother's Shadow is a very thought-provoking and well-written book about a period ignored in most young adult fiction, which more typically focuses either on World War I or World War II and the few years immediately preceding that conflict.  We can easily identify with Moritz, whose story is told in the first person, and his divided family loyalties.  While the book covers some weighty issues, Moritz is also a typical teenage boy, interested in his first kiss with a girl.  We can sympathize with Moritz's mother as well, a strong character who is very involved in politics, and even his brother Hans, whose bitter experiences and injuries at the front have transformed his personality.  This novel would be a good choice to read along with Russell Freedman's outstanding nonfiction book on World War I published last year, The War to End All Wars:  World War I. 

Below is the book trailer for My Brother's Shadow:





On Friday, November 11, The Fourth Musketeer is pleased to have a guest post from author Monika Schroeder and a special giveaway of this excellent novel (U.S. and Canadian addresses only). Please see Friday's post to enter.

Book Review: The watch that ends the night: voices from the Titanic, by Allan Wolf (Candlewick, 2011)

Release date:  October 11, 2011

Recommended for ages 10 and up.

What else could be left to say about the Titanic, we could wonder.  A quick WorldCat search for juvenile historical fiction about the Titanic turned up dozens of titles, including quite a few coming out in 2011.  I must be one of the few people around, at least over the age of 30, who never saw the wildly popular 1997 movie, but I was curious to read this new teen novel by poet Allan Wolf about the 1912 disaster at sea.  I am a huge fan of his 2004 novel, New Found Land:  Lewis and Clark’s Voyage of Discovery, which tells the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition in free verse from the point of view of fourteen participants, including Lewis’ dog, Seaman.  

Wolf’s new novel is in much the same format, alternating between the points of view of various crew and passengers of different social classes, including the ship’s captain, baker, wireless man, and the ship lookout; millionaire John Jacob Astor, who’s sailing with his teenage bride; the famous “unsinkable” Molly Brown; a beautiful young Lebanese immigrant sailing with her brother; a cardshark; a violinist from the ship’s orchestra; and even a rat and the iceberg itself.  In his research, Wolf sifted through the 2,000 passengers and crew to identify 24 different compelling and diverse stories for his narrative.  Each character writes in his or her own style, including the poems of the rat, which are written in concrete verse, and the poems are clearly labeled with the name of the character as a heading so threre’s no confusion for the readers.  The groups of poems are separated into different chapters, with the story told largely chronologically.

The novel begins ominously enough with the first poem coming from John Snow, an undertaker from Halifax who journeyed to recover bodies strewn in the Titanic wreckage.  We then skip to the prelude, where we meet the various colorful characters who will participate in the drama, beginning with the ship’s rat.  Even the iceberg in this book takes on a vivid personality through Wolf’s skillful writing.  Although we know the outcome from the outset, Wolf manages to create an atmosphere of suspense throughout, particularly as we see the many messages sent through the wireless from other ships warning of the massive icebergs in the vicinity.  Wolf takes the time to establish the atmosphere of “frivolous amuseument” on the giant ship, as the passengers promenade on the decks, partake of gourmet cuisine, and descend the grand staircases.  Even those in third class enjoy food better than they have ever eaten before.  

When the ship collides with the iceberg, the shipbuilder and captain quickly realize that the situation is hopeless and the ship will go down within two hours at the most.  The captain muses poignantly:

My God.

I was giving out orders left and right.  But I really had no plan...
Our only hope was an orderly evacuation and a passing ship,
a ship very close to give us time to shuttle the passengers...
Of course I knew the precise number of people on board.
I had signed the paperwork myself.  My responsibility.
Two thousand two hundred and eight souls.
Twenty boats.
The mathematical disparity stung my brain.
Regardless of how the rest of the story turned out,
I knew it must begin with filling the lifeboats with as many souls as possible.

We witness the evacuation of women and children, first class, then second class, and when the captain called for third class, there were no more boats.  As the ship collapses, passengers fall into the frigid Arctic water, and the poems evoke the horror of the sounds of those who die quickly of hypothermia as well as those who tried to climb onto the lifeboats.  Extensive back matter provides biographical details about each of the passengers included in the book, as well as an excellent bibliography.

Our fascination with this tragedy shows no signs of abating; in some ways it’s the ultimate man against nature story, as well as a tragedy of Greek epic proportions.  2012 is the centennial of the disaster, and not only should we expect numerous books, TV documentaries, and more, you can even take a cruise recreating the voyage. (one of the two cruises being offered is already sold out!)  The cruise includes a special memorial service at the exact spot of the sinking, the opportunity to wear period costumes and experience a selection of food and drinks served on the Titanic, themed entertainment, and a stop in Halifax to visit the cemeteries where victims are buried.  Apparently recreation of the collision with the iceberg is not included.  

What is your favorite book about the Titanic?  Please leave a comment with your response.  

Nonfiction Monday Book Review: Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition, by Karen Blumenthal (Roaring Brook Press, 2011)

Recommended for ages 10 and up.

This fascinating new narrative nonfiction book delves into the story of Prohibition, a unique and colorful decade in our country's history.  Author Karen Blumenthal , a long-time journalist with the Wall Street Journal, puts her considerable writing skills to good use in explaining how the great social revolution known as Prohibition, which was supposed to forever end drunkenness, reduce crime, and improve the lives of America's families, led instead to a culture of lawlessness, bribery, gangsters, and even murder.

Blumenthal goes back to the earliest days of the Pilgrims to trace the history of liquor in America, noting that rum was almost a form of currency in the earliest days of the country.  In the 19th century, taverns multiplied, as did concerns about excessive drinking, leading to the formation of the temperance movement, who at first worked toward drinking in moderation.  Soon, however, the movement changed its platform to total abstinence.  The author profiles some of the most important personalities from the temperance movement, such as Morris Sheppard, the "boy orator of Texas" who was the first to introduce a constitutional amendment against "an evil that will prove to be the source of the nation's death," and Carrie Nation, the infamous "bar smasher" who believed she was on a mission from God to destroy saloons.  The temperance movement was the first to put women in leadership positions, and forever changed women's influence in politics.

The political machinations of the "dries" to get the 18th amendment passed could spur many interesting discussions about parallel political movements today, and the whole saga of the rise and fall of the temperance movement is made all-too-contemporary in Blumenthal's lively narrative, which is full of personal anecdotes as well as sweeping analysis of the failures and limited successes of the prohibition movement. 

The book includes a glossary of some of the colorful prohibition and temperance vocabulary (i.e. "real McCoy, hooch, moonshine, flapper, etc.) as well as a detailed bibliography (both books and websites) source notes, and an index.  The book is handsomely illustrated with many period photographs as well as cartoons and newspaper clippings.

To read an excerpt of the first few chapters from this book, click here. 

Several new YA series have come out about this era recently:  Bright Young Things, by Anna Godbersen, and the Flappers series by Jillian Larkin.  Bootleg would be a perfect read-along for both these series.

Book Review: Titanic, Book One: Unsinkable,by Gordon Korman (Scholastic, 2011)

Recommended for ages 8-12.

2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and a slew of new books on the subject, both fiction and non-fiction, are due to be released in the coming months.  The senseless tragedy that was the Titanic is a source of endless fascination across generations, and the anniversary is likely to spur a flood of new interest among young people.

The well-loved and versatile author Gordon Korman, who has published many popular action-adventure trilogies for young readers (i.e. Everest, Island, Dive, and Kidnapped) is a natural to capture this story for a new generation of readers.  According to his blog, Korman has always been a Titanic buff, and in this series, he follows the adventures of four young passengers on the magnificent and supposedly unsinkable luxury ship's maiden (and only!) voyage.

Paddy is a petty thief and a stowaway, running away from gangsters who would like nothing more than to murder him for stealing money from them.  Sophie is the daughter of an American suffraggist, and is embarrassed when her mother is arrested and delivered to the Titanic by police for her illegal activities.  She meets a new friend on the ship, also traveling first class--Juliana, whose wealthy father seems to spend all his time gambling.  The fourth character of this quartet is young Alfie, who gets himself hired on as a steward, although he's underage, because his father is working as a stoker on the ship.  There's non-stop action in the story, as well as mystery, as the boys find a scrapbook filled with clippings about Jack the Ripper.  Could the real "Jack the Ripper" be hiding on the ship among the passengers?

Korman's trilogies are perfect for reluctant readers; volume 1 is a manageable 170 pages, and volume two, Collison Course, was just released August 1.  The finale, S.O.S., releases September 1, so fans don't have to wait long for the conclusion of the series.  There's lots of foreshadowing of the coming tragic events in this first book (i.e. Paddy hides out in a lifeboat, wondering why there aren't more of them).  Even if they know what happens to the ship itself, readers will be on pins and needles to see how our appealing young heroes and heroines fare when the iceberg strikes.  Are they among the lucky few that make it onto the lifeboats or will they go down with the ship?  We won't know until September.

In coming months I will be reviewing other Titanic novels, including Allan Wolf's upcoming YA novel, The Watch that Ends the Night, which will be released in October.

Tween Tuesday Book Review: Small Acts of Amazing Courage, by Gloria Whelan (Paula Wiseman Book, 2011)

Recommended for ages 10 and up.

In her newest novel, National Book Award winner Gloria Whelan returns to India, also the setting for her award-winning novel, Homeless Bird.   She tells the story of kind-hearted but independent-minded Rosalind, an English girl living in 1919 colonial India.

She is constantly doing things not fit for a proper young English girl.  For example, she finds the club, populated with proper young girls her age, boring, and prefers going to the colorful local bazaar and spending time with Isha, her Indian friend.

Her father returns from military service in the war horrified to discover that Rosalind is picking up a Hindi accent from spending too much time with servants and not enough time at the club.  But when Rosalind takes an interest in Gandhi and his attempt to free India from British rule, and gets involved with rescuing an orphan Indian baby, her father insists that she be sent to her maiden aunts in England, far from trouble.

Aunt Ethyl and Aunt Louise, Rosalind's mother tells her, are "like chalk and cheese," Ethyl "stiff-necked" and cold and Louise and the other warm but frightened to death of her older sister.  England seems a cold, foreign land to the unhappy Rosalind until she meets up with the handsome Lieutenant Max Nelson, a friend from India.  Rosalind will soon shake up their household in unexpected ways, and the surprising ending leaves room for a possible sequel.

This story is told in the first person by Rosalind, who is a likable and sympathetic protagonist.  I found this to be an enjoyable coming-of-age story with a colorful setting, suitable for tween or even teen readers.  There's a smidgen of potential romance developing between Rosalind and the dapper and progressive Max.  I was disappointed with the characters of the two maiden aunts, who with their opposite personalities I found to be lacking in the depth seen in Rosalind and some of the other characters.

An author's note provides some background on the situation in India in 1919, particularly on Gandhi and the Indian National Congress.  Whelan writes that she was inspired to write this novel by her own experience participating in the U.S. civil rights movement, which was heavily influenced by Gandhi's ideas, as well as by a book, Children of the Raj, which tells the story of the children of British civil servants stationed in Indian.   The book also includes a glossary of Indian expressions used throughout the text.


Disclosure:  Review copy provided by publisher.

Book Review: Forgiven by Janet Fox (Speak, 2011)

Recommended for ages 12 and up.

In her second novel, Janet Fox returns to one of the secondary characters from her debut novel, Faithful, to craft an equally absorbing saga about a strong young girl at the turn of the 20th century.  Kula Baker has been raised by her outlaw father in the rough American West around Yellowstone, but now that she's seventeen and "of age," he sends her off to live in more civilized Bozeman.  Kula takes a position as a servant to Mrs. Gale, a photographer and a woman of independent means.  Just as she's getting used to her new life, her pa shows up, frantically telling Kula she must travel to San Francisco to retrieve a mysterious box from the unknown Ty Wong.  Before she knows it, her pa's been arrested, and will surely hang unless she can clear his name. 

Soon she's in San Francisco, where the streets were a "bedlam of willy-nilly confusion," filled with horseless carriages, fashionable women, boys running wild, lots of horses, and most amazing of all, trolleys!  Through the good graces of Mrs. Gale's sister-in-law, Kula finds herself in a world of luxury, glamour, and artists.  In her quest to recover her pa's box, she also finds herself  not knowing who she should trust--the kind David Wong, who seems to always be in the right place to rescue Kula from trouble, or the handsome and dapper Will Henderson, whose family is part of the San Francisco elite and who seems like the perfect catch. Will either one of them be the man of Kula's dreams?

But things are not as they seem in glamorous San Francisco--Kula discovers an area of Chinatown where men traffic in little girls, who are cruelly kept as sex slaves. Kula is determined to save any of these girls she can from their miserable life.  Little does she know that San Francisco is about to collapse--in a huge earthquake, followed by fires throughout the city.  Will all of San Francisco burn, and can Kula still save her father, her friends--and herself?

In Kula, Fox has created another strong and memorable character who will draw teenage girls into her story, a page-turner of a tale filled with mystery, romance, and danger.  The character evolves throughout the novel, beginning as a girl with a chip on her shoulder, and ending by opening her heart to love, rebirth and hope.  Fox also recreates the San Francisco of before and after the earthquake in a compelling way, encompassing both the glamorous and the sordid sides of the West Coast's biggest city.  Girls who are looking for romantic historical fiction will surely enjoy this new release. 

Please note:  Sadly, trafficking and exploitation of children is still an international scandal.  

In conjunction with her book's release, Janet Fox will donate a portion of the proceeds from FORGIVEN to The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. To learn more about what you can do to help agencies that actively fight the exploitation and trafficking of children, visit the following websites:

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

Unicef

Stop Child Trafficking

Guest Post by Janet Fox, author of Forgiven (Speak, 2011)

I am delighted to participate in the blog tour for Janet Fox's new novel, Forgiven, a companion novel to Fox's 2010 release, Faithful, although the two novels can be read independently. Janet has kindly taken the time to write the following guest post for my blog on her use of setting in her novels.

The “Other” Character: Setting

True confession: I love setting. I love writing scene descriptions. Left to my own devices I would happily pen an entire novel in the third person, with the narrator describing a setting, one tiny leaf, branch or brick at a time…which would result in a story no one would read, but, heck. I’d have a great time at work.

I’m a visual person, which perhaps accounts for my “setting-love.” When I write I see things in my head as if I’m watching a movie. Because I know I have to people my novels and add action sequences and tension and all that other stuff that makes a story enjoyable, I like to think of setting as another character. I try to bring setting to life using the same techniques I use to bring characters to life: research, backstory, conflict. I think of my settings as living, breathing organisms.

In the case of my new novel FORGIVEN, the setting was 1906 San Francisco. There are good and bad things about writing about historical settings. On the plus side, I can make some stuff up because there’s no one around who lived at the time. On the negative side, I have to pore over pictures, videos, written descriptions, weather charts, moon phases, maps of the period, etc., because the one little detail I do get wrong that is known today will be roundly criticized. The main event in San Francisco in 1906 was a devastating earthquake in April of that year that leveled much of the city; fires that resulted from broken gas mains took care of much of the rest. Thus all my descriptions of the city before the earthquake/fires had to be gleaned from photographic or written records. My descriptions post-devastation were based on extensive accounts that my geologist husband happened to have on hand.

But I found writing the story of the earthquake and fires itself most interesting. I combined my research with personal experience – not of an event so catastrophic, but of the feelings that such events generate. This is what I mean by “conflict” in setting. I imagined what I would feel like during and after the earthquake and what I would feel like witnessing the fires as they roared through the city with destructive force. I played a kind of video in my head, with the heat and smoke and falling ash and horror and desperation around me. I stared for hours at “before” pictures and then closed my eyes and imagined those scenes in the throes of intense quaking followed by raging fires. I walked the streets with the shocked populace, tripping over the loosened cobbles. I tried to be there.

Each novel brings its own setting challenges. Imaginary settings (Middle Earth) must be fully imagined; settings in far off places (Mars, perhaps?) must be fully researched, with blanks believably filled. For that’s the true beauty of a great setting – that the reader is right there, believing every word, seeing every leaf, branch, or brick without those details getting in the way of the story.

Don't forget to check out the rest of Janet Fox's blog tour for Forgiven. Here is the schedule:

6/1/2011 Rebecca's Book Blog http://rebeccasbookblog.blogspot.com/
6/2/2011 YA Bliss http://www.yabliss.com/
6/4/2011 Mundie Moms http://mundiemoms.blogspot.com/
6/6/2011 The Book Butterfly http://thebookbutterfly.com/
6/7/2011 Poisoned Rationality http://www.prationality.com/
6/8/2011 A Good Addiction http://agoodaddiction.blogspot.com/
6/9/2011 Confessions of a Bookaholic http://www.totalbookaholic.com/
6/10/2011 My Friend Amy http://www.myfriendamysblog.com/
6/13/2011 Lauren's Crammed Bookshelf http://laurenscrammedbookshelf.blogspot.com/
6/14/2011 Books Complete Me http://www.bookscompleteme.com/
6/15/2011 Lost for Words http://lostforwords-corrine.blogspot.com/
6/16/2011 The Compulsive Reader http://www.thecompulsivereader.com/
6/17/2011 YA Addict http://yaaddict.blogspot.com/

Book Review: The Friendship Doll, by Kirby Larson (Delacorte, 2011)

Recommended for ages 8-12.

Release date:  May 10, 2011

Award-winning author Kirby Larson's newest historical fiction novel for children tells the story of four girls whose lives are intertwined with a remarkable nearly life-size Japanese doll.  Larson was inspired by a photograph she found while researching her earlier book, Hattie Big Sky.  This photo showed a 1920's Montana farm girl dressed in overalls standing next to an exquisitely detailed Japanese doll, dressed in traditional kimono.  Larson's research unearthed the true story of 58 dolls sent to the United States from Japan in 1927 as Ambassadors of Friendship, a gift from Japanese schoolchildren.  The dolls were three feet tall, with real human hair and handpainted faces, dressed in a silk kimono and accompanied by sets of miniature accessories, including chests, tea sets, parasols, and even tiny passports.  Sadly, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the rise in anti-Japanese sentiment, most of the dolls were removed from public display, and while some have been recovered, others were lost forever.

Larson's tale follows the adventures of Miss Kanagawa, "a doll like none other," from the 1920's to the present day. Miss Kanagawa narrates parts of her own story, and her proud and courageous personality, imbued with true samurai spirit, shines through the narrative.  She is honored to be an ambassador, with an important role to play; "I simply happen to be a doll," she writes.

Miss Kanagawa's musings are interspersed with the stories of four girls whose lives she influences, girls from very different backgrounds:  Bunny, a rich upper-class girl from New York City, who is part of the contingent to welcome Miss Kanagawa to New York City; Lois, whose grandmother takes her to the Chicago World Fair in the height of the Depression, where Miss Kanagawa is on display; Willie Mae, a small-town Kentucky girl, who finds herself with a job reading to an elderly woman who now owns Miss Kanagawa; and Lucy, an Okie who with her out-of-work father travels to the West Coast in search of work.  There Lucy, an aspiring writer, visits a small museum where she, too, encounters Miss Kanagawa.

Each of these stories could easily have become overly sentimental, but I found them charming and moving, as each girl learns what friendship is all about, and Miss Kanagawa herself learns to feel love bit by bit.  The stories include rich historical settings, including the Chicago World's Fair, a packhorse librarian who delivers books to Willie Mae, and the plight of the Okies.  It's a perfect book for doll-lovers, young and old, although you don't have to be a doll person to appreciate the book's message.  For me, it made me remember some of the doll stories I loved as a little girl, particularly Dare Wright's Lonely Doll stories about Edith the doll, and Raggedy Ann and Andy's many adventures. This novel would be terrific fun for mother-daughter book groups to enjoy together.

While the book does not include any pictures of the real dolls, there is an author's note with additional information about the history of these unique ambassadors, as well as historical notes about each girl's story.  The author also provides some information on contemporary Americans who are working to keep the spirit of the Friendship Dolls alive (see in particular Bill Gordon's website).