Book Review: West of the Moon, by Margi Preus

Recommended for ages 8-12

In this mash-up of fairy tale and historical fiction set in mid-19th century Norway, 14-year old Astri is sold by her aunt to a horrible (and lecherous) goat-herder to serve as his servant and more. Astri manages to not only escape but also rescue her younger sister, so that they can try to get to America,  where her father has emigrated. With the goatman in pursuit, they must travel west of the moon, and east of the sun in this masterful story in which a 19th century immigrant's story is seamlessly mixed with Norwegian folklore and mythology.  The novel features a terrific feisty, no-nonsense heroine very loosely based on the author's own ancestors.  

Book Review: Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909, by Michelle Markel (Balzer + Bray, 2013)

Recommended for ages 7 and up.

Get a jump on Women's History Month with this new picture book about Clara Lemlich, a remarkable 20th century labor leader.  Its author, Michelle Markel, will be contributing a post to 2013's Kidlit Celebrates Women's History Month, so don't forget to sign up to follow the blog so you don't miss any of the fascinating posts!

Picture books about early 20th century Jewish women labor leaders are not exactly published every day in the picture book universe, so I was especially eager to read this new work, illustrated by award-winning illustrator Melissa Sweet, about Clara Lemlich, best known for organizing the shirtwaist makers' strike of 1909.

We first meet Clara as she is arriving in the United States, part of the mass of immigrants.  But Clara is different--she's "got grit, and she's going to prove it.  Look out, New York!"

Social justice is an overriding theme of this book, and we see through Clara's eyes the injustices of life in early 20th century America for the impoverished immigrants.  "This was not the America she'd imagined."  Girls are hired to make blouses for a few dollars a month, wages desperately needed to help support their families.  Markel vividly describes the factories in just a few words--only two toilets, one sink, and three towels for 300 girls to share, and better not be a few minutes late or bleed on a piece of cloth if you've pricked your finger or you'll lose half a day's pay or even be fired.

But little Clara Lemlich is not one to sit back and take it.  She organizes strikes, and despite being arrested repeatedly, and beaten, she is not easily silenced.  But she realizes that a general strike of all the garment workers is what's needed to make the bosses stand up and take notice, and at a union meeting, she calls for women to launch the largest walk-out ever.

Clara is the leader of the Revolt of the Girls, as the newspapers call it.  And eventually the owners meet some of their demands, including a shortened work week and better wages.  Markel ends her elegie to Lemlich on a hopeful note, emphasizing how Clara's actions helped thousands of workers.  "proving that in America, wrongs can be righted, warriors can wear skirts and blouses, and the bravest hearts may beat in girls only five feet tall."

An afterword provides further details about the history of the garment industry, and the role of Jewish immigrants in the business.  Strangely enough, Clara is never identified as Jewish in the main text of the book, although she is shown shouting in Yiddish for a general strike.  Back matter also includes a selected bibliography of general and primary sources.  I would have also liked to have seen something on Clara Lemlich's later life.  For example, she continued advocating for the oppressed her entire life, even helping to organize nursing home orderlies in the retirement home where she spent the end of her life.

Clara Lemlich

Melissa Sweet's remarkable illustrations integrate the garment industry in a very literal fashion into her depiction of Clara's life.  She uses watercolor, gouache, and mixed media, and pieces of fabric and sewing machine stitching are front and center in nearly every illustration.  Some of the illustrations are particularly moving, including the one in which rows and rows of factory workers are shown from directly above, with the hundreds of girls appearing faceless and indistinct from each other like cogs in a wheel.  I also loved the "girl power" illustration of Clara calling for a general strike--Sweet depicts Clara from behind, with hundreds of people in the audience raising their fists in solidarity and with her call for a strike in an oversized text balloon, with the word "Strayk!" (or strike!) in bright red lettering!

This is a must-have for anyone interested in exposing their children to important issues and people in the social justice movement, as well as outstanding women in history, those who chose to try to make a difference in an era when women were encouraged to make their dominion at home.  To learn more about Clara Lemlich, consult Markel's bibliography or check out the entry in the Jewish Women's archive on-line.

Book Review: Greenhorn, by Anna Olswanger (New South Books, 2012)

Recommended for ages 12 - adult.

There is no shortage of stories about the Holocaust for young people, whether fiction or nonfiction.  Greenhorn, by author and children's book editor Anna Oswanger, strikes a different chord than most of these works by focusing on the aftermath of the war, through the story of one of its young survivors.

Although published as a free-standing book, Greenhorn, at 43 pages, is really more of an illustrated short story.  Set in an Orthodox yeshiva in Brooklyn in 1946, the story tells of the arrival at the yeshiva of twenty orphaned Polish boys, including young Daniel, who won't let go of a little tin box he carries with him everywhere.  Daniel rarely speaks, but Aaron, whose father is a rabbi, considers him his friend.  Aaron stutters and is made fun of by the other boys, and feels some connection with the nearly silent refugee when the yeshiva boys start teasing Daniel about his box that he carries with him and even sleeps with.  What's in the box, everyone wonders?  The horrifying reality of what Daniel is carrying around contrasts with the innocence of the children at the yeshiva, who are concerned with baseball, basketball, candy, and other normal kid pursuits.  We learn that inside the box is a greasy piece of soap, made with fat from the bodies of Jewish prisoners.  Daniel clutches to it believing it could contain a piece of his mother, of whom he has not even a photograph.

An afterword explains that this story is based on a real incident in the life of Rabbi Rafael Grossman.  A glossary provides explanations of Yiddish names, words and phrases used in the text.

Although this looks by the cover, the slight size of the story, and the abundant illustrations like a book for young children, I would not recommend this book for children younger than twelve.  Also, some background knowledge of the Holocaust is useful for understanding the implications of the story.   The story would make a good addition to a unit on the Holocaust, and could easily be read aloud in a classroom or read by individual students and used for classroom or home discussion.  The Holocaust is such a vast tragedy that sometimes it is difficult to imagine the scope; this small book brings one element of a survivor's story vividly to life for young people.

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: 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: City of Orphans, by Avi (Simon & Schuster, 2011)

Recommended for ages 10-14.

Avi, Newbery award-winning author of more than 60 novels for children and teens, turns once again to historical fiction in his newest novel, set in 1893 New York City.  His hero, thirteen-year old Maks, makes a bit of money as a newsboy to help his impoverished immigrant family on the lower East Side.  When his older sister, Emma, who works as a maid at the swank Waldorf-Astoria hotel, is falsely accused of theft and imprisoned in the city prison ominously called the Tombs, Maks teams up with a homeless girl, Willa, to try to clear his sister's name and free her from jail.  At the same time, he has to avoid landing in the clutches of the Plug Ugly gang, whose boss is trying to take control of all the newsies.  Confronted with a mystery whodunit, Maks enlists the help of a dying lawyer to find the true culprit of the theft at the hotel.

Avi knows how to spin a convincing tale, and this book is no exception.  In his afterword, he notes that the book is his attempt to "catch a small bit of how New York City kids lived at the end of the nineteenth century."  He's particularly adept at evoking the sounds, smells, and look of tenement life in New York, with its mix of poor immigrants from many nations.  This poverty contrasts with the swank brand-new Waldorf Astoria, where Maks winds up working under cover to try to clear his sister's name.   Avi uses a very colloquial voice to tell the story, with the narrator speaking directly to the reader.  While I understand the use of a strong point of view, I was irritated by the way he tries to evoke the dialect of the time, with plenty of dropped letters, i.e. "'cause' instead of "because", 'bout' instead of "about," 'em' instead of "them," etc.

Avi includes an Author's Note with historical details about the period, as well as suggestions for further reading and viewing.

City of Orphans is definitely worth reading, and will be enjoyed by young people who like a historical mystery, but it would not be one of my favorites among Avi's works.

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.  

Women's History Month Book Review: Flesh and Blood So Cheap, by Albert Marrin (Knopf Books, 2011)

Recommended for ages 12 and up.


Friday, March 25 is the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Fire, one of the worst industrial disasters in American history.  Quite a few books for young people have been published on the topic, both historical fiction and non-fiction.  The most recent, just released this spring by award-winning non-fiction writer Albert Marrin, brings the tragic events of that spring afternoon to life by setting the fire in a sweeping historical narrative that encompasses not only the events that led up to the fire, but what happened afterwards.

In a moving preface, Marrin sets the stage for the disaster, describing the beautiful spring day as would have been experienced by Frances Perkins, then a 31-year old social worker (later the first female cabinet member under FDR) who witnessed the disaster first-hand, changing the course of her life forever as she became committed to ensuring that such preventable tragedies would never happen again.

As Marrin points out, the Triangle Fire is part of a much larger story--the story of the greatest mass immigration in history, when millions of impoverished immigrants, mostly Italians and Russian Jews, poured into New York City and elsewhere.  More than 3 out of 4 people lived in poverty, and work in factories and elsewhere was often dangerous--with no safety net such as we take for granted today.  In some detail, with abundant archival photographs and maps, he discusses the reasons this immigration took place, with extreme poverty and natural disasters (including a devastating tsumani in Sicily) forcing millions of Italians to leave their homeland, while poverty and religious hatred pushed the Jews from Russia's Pale of Settlement.  Marrin describes in detail the culture immigrants found once they arrived--not streets of gold, but tenements, squalor, and hard work.

Clara Lemlich, an early union leader

To establish the context for the fire, he also describes the growth of the ready-to-wear industry in New York and the improvements in garment-making technology and changing women's fashions that led to the decline in sweatshops and the rise of the factory.  With jobs moving to factories, suddenly it was easier to form unions, and the same year the Triangle Waist Company opened, so did the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.  In 1909, the "uprising of the 20,000" united garment workers in the largest strike by women ever seen until then, finally forcing the public to take notice.  The women's reform movement, led by the wealthy women of the Mink Coat Brigade, provided important support for the strikers.

Was the Asch Building, where the Triangle Factory was housed, a disaster waiting to happen?  Not at first glance--the building was modern and fire-proof, built of steel and concrete, equipped with fire alarms and fire hoses.  The New York fire department was highly trained and nearby.  But safety precautions weren't cost effective for factory owners--sprinklers cost money, fire drills were a waste of time, and workers were considered expendable.

Although the building was fireproof, the contents were not--including the highly flammable fabric, and of course the people inside.  No one knows exactly how the fire started--probably from a cigarette butt tossed into a scrap bin--but within seconds the fire was out of control.  The details are well-known; those who were able to take the stairs from the 8th floor got out alive, yet the 9th floor stairway was locked, trapping those inside.  Workers on the 10th floor, or those who reached it from below, were able to survive by getting to the roof and then over to the next building, but in the meantime those trapped leaped to their deaths, many of them ablaze.  Of 500 employees who report that day, 146 perished, mostly young girls.

Frances Perkins as a factory inspector, c. 1911

Marrin does an excellent job describing the aftermath of the fire as well; outraged citizens' impassioned protests led to the formation of The New York Factory Investigating Commission, which carried out the state's most thorough study of worker safety and health done to date.  Frances Perkins was the chief investigator, and after four years of investigations, the legislature passed 34 groundbreaking new laws, ordering fire extinguishers, automatic sprinklers, fire drills, proper sanitary conditions, and more, as well as hiring 123 full-time inspectors to make sure that these laws were enforced.

Alas, the days of sweatshops and unsafe factories and not behind us, despite these efforts.  In his final chapter, Marrin discusses the "new" sweatshops of New York, where the workers are largely Asian immigrants and Hispanics, and the abysmal conditions of garment factories in the developing world, where conditions much like those at the Triangle Factory continue to exist, leading to disasters such as the 2010 fire at the Garib and Garib Sweater Factory in Bangladesh, which killed 21 workers.

Marrin writes:  "School textbooks usually focus on "famous" names--kings, presidents, politicians, generals--as the shapers of history.  Yet these are only part of the picture.  The names of others, often equally important, seldom get the recognition they deserve...It is as if they had never existed."  In this volume, Marrin takes an important step toward rectifying their invisibility.

Indeed, this book represents the best in narrative non-fiction for young people (or for adults who would like a succinct introduction to the history of the event and the issues raised).  I have already seen some pre-Newbery buzz for this title, and I feel sure that the Sibert Award Committee will be taking a close look at it as well.  It's a must-have for school and public libraries, and an excellent book for adults looking for an introduction to this topic as well as young people.

For other online reviews, see:
Publisher's Weekly, Kiss the Book, Richie's Picks, Book Faerie, Planet Esme.

Many on-line resources as well as books for young people are available on the topic of the Triangle Fire.  Please see my post from earlier this year on Esther Friesner's outstanding new historical fiction title, Threads and Flames, for more details.

Also please surf over to Kidlit Celebrates Women's History Month on March 25 as well, when we will be publishing a moving essay by novelist Esther Friesner about the Triangle Fire and much more.  It gave me goosebumps, and I'm sure you will be touched as well by her reflections.

Among the slew of on-line stories appearing relating to the anniversary, the New York Times City Blog is publishing an excellent series of articles which will appear all this week.  Here are some of the links to date:

Remembering the Triangle Fire, 100 Years Later (this link includes information about events and exhibits going on in New York City)
In a Tragedy, a Mission to Remember
Triangle Fire:  A Half-Hour of Horror
Ask About Labor Laws and Unions in the Fire's Wake
Unnamed Triangle Waist Company Victims Identified
The Liberating Shirtwaist

Poster from the HBO documentary

Several new documentaries on the topic are airing this spring:  HBO has Triangle:  Remembering the Fire, and PBS' American Experience recently aired Triangle Fire, which can be watched on-line at their website.

Disclosure:  Review copy provided by publisher.

Book Review: Threads and Flames, by Esther Friesner (Viking Juvenile, 2010) ISBN 978-0670012459

Recommended for ages 12 and up


Release date:  November 24, 2010


2011 marks the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, one of the most important events in American labor history.  This anniversary makes the release of Threads and Flames by Esther Friesner particularly timely.

Friesner's novel opens in 1910, with thirteen-year old Raisa, recently recuperated from typhus, leaving her Polish shtetl to meet up with her sister Henda in America.  After a long and difficult journey by cart, train, and ship, Raisa finally arrives in New York, only to learn that her sister has disappeared.  With no job, no family, nowhere to live and unable to speak English, she seeks refuge in a synagogue, where she meets a kind young rabbinical student, Gavrel, whose mother just happens to have room for boarders.  Soon Gavrel helps Raisa get a job where he works, at the very modern Triangle Shirtwaist factory in the Asch building.  In addition to working long hours at the factory, Raisa goes to evening English classes where she dreams of becoming a teacher.  She still hopes to find her sister, but how to do so in such a huge city?  In telling Raisa's story, Friesner paints a rich picture of Jewish immigrant life at the turn of the century; we can almost smell the food at the markets and see the celebrations for the different Jewish holidays.

But Raisa's life changes forever on a March afternoon, when fire breaks out on the 8th floor of the Triangle factory.  Hundreds of desperate workers tried to get out, but the doors on the stairway that could have provided a safe exit were locked--locked because the owners were afraid the young girls who worked at the factory would steal.  Some, like Raisa, escape on the elevator, running outside only to see the horrific sight of bodies plunging through the air, with their clothes and hair on fire.  The fire department was quickly on the scene, but the ladders wouldn't reach the top floors, and the nets and blankets that firemen spread to catch the young women couldn't withstand the force of their falls.  The horror of the fire's aftermath is vividly captured by Friesner, as survivors try to discover who has lived and who has died in the fire, going to huge make-shift morgues to try to identify the bodies, some of which were burned beyond recognition and never identified.  In all 146 workers died, mostly Jewish and Italian young women who were recent immigrants like Raisa, some as young as fourteen years old.

I could perhaps quibble about the ending of this engrossing novel, in which all the loose threads of the story are neatly tied together, but despite the perhaps unlikely ending, I felt this was a well-realized novel with characters that will greatly appeal to the intended teenage audience.  Because the reader grows to care deeply about Raisa and her friends, the tragic events of the story come vividly to life.

While the Triangle fire led to many changes in safety requirements for workers in the U.S., disasters of this sort are sadly not a thing of the past.  Safety standards are woefully inadequate in many other countries, where sweatshops continue, many with locked doors during working hours just like at the Triangle factory.  For ninety years, the Triangle fire was considered the worst in labor history; unfortunately, in 1993, the death toll from a terrible fire at the Kader toy factory in Thailand in which 188 workers were killed, nearly all of them very young women, surpassed Triangle in the record books.  And such disasters continue, particularly in the garment industry, where piles of fabric and clothes are easily flammable and safeguards are often ignored in order to manufacture cheap clothes for the Western market.  In December 2010, in Bangladesh, workers jumped to their deaths from a garment factory fire at a facility which makes clothing for the Gap and other U.S. companies.  At least 27 workers died and over 100 were injured in this latest disaster, which followed a February fire at a sweater factory that killed 21 people and injured many more.

Novelist Esther Friesner is perhaps best known as a fantasy writer, but has previously published several works of historical fiction for young people about ancient Egypt, including the 2010 release Sphinx's Queen.   In her afterword she explains her motivation for writing Threads and Flames, noting that although the Triangle Factory no longer exists, sweatshops still flourish all over the world; "While such things exist," she writes, "the core of the Triangle fire--human life demeaned, exploited, and lost--is still with us."

A variety of events around the country are being held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire.  For details, see Remember the Triangle Coalition's website.  In addition, a conference, Out of the Smoke and the Flame:  The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and its Legacy, which will look not only at the historical events of 1911 but also at global sweatshop issues today, will be held at City University of New York on March 24, 2011.

Other novels for young people depicting the Triangle Shirtwaist fire include:

Lost, by Jacqueline Davies (Marshall Cavendish, 2009)

Uprising, by Margaret Peterson Haddix (Simon & Schuster, 2007)

Hear My Sorrow (Dear America Series) by Deborah Hopkinson (Scholastic, 2004)

Ashes of Roses by Mary Jane Auch (Laurel Leaf, 2004)

A variety of non-fiction accounts of the disaster are also available, both for young people and adults.  The newest of these comes out in February 2011:  Flesh and Blood So Cheap:  The Triangle Fire and its Legacy by Al Marrin (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2011).  

Book Review: 90 Miles to Havana, by Enrique Flores-Galbis (Roaring Brook Press, 2010)

Recommended for ages 8-12.

Author and artist  Enrique Flores-Galbis has written an exciting coming of age story based on his own experiences as one of the 14,000 Cuban children sent from Cuba to the U.S. without their parents in 1961 in Operation Pedro Pan, the largest exodus ever in the Western hemisphere of unaccompanied children.

The book opens with Julian, his two older brothers, their father and their family cook, Bebo, on their annual New Year's Eve fishing trip.  Julian's main concern is his embarrassment over losing the enormous fish he had hooked, since he desperately wants to impress his older brothers with his heroism.  But more serious problems will soon be facing Julian and his family.  Revolution has come to the streets of Havana, and their affluent neighborhood begins to turn into a ghost town, as families leave the country.  Soon Julian and his brothers board a plane to Miami, with the hope that their parents will soon be joining them.

But the refugee camp where they are sent is nothing like the summer camp that they expect; the overcrowded facility is ruled by a nasty bully, Caballo.  Because there are not enough adults to properly supervise the facility, the adults rely on Caballo to keep order.  But when Caballo takes Julian's prized drawing-pad, which is one of his only precious objects from home, Julian has had enough.  Dolores, the kind camp cook, suggests that Julian use the democratic way to organize a resistance movement to get back at Caballo--their own revolution against the bully dictator.  When Julian plays his last trick on Caballo, he knows he has to leave the camp--or else. 

Luckily for Julian, he is taken in by Tomas, who's fixing up a boat that he intends to use to illegally transport people from Cuba.  Julian desperately wants his parents to be included, so his family can finally be reunited.  When he sails to Cuba with Tomas to pick up the refugees, he's in for the adventure of his life.  Will Julian finally become a hero?

Flores-Galbis does an excellent job in this novel of showing us the Cuban revolution from a young child's point of view.  While Julian doesn't understand everything that's going on, he has to deal in his own way with the trauma of being separated from his parents and everything he has ever known.  Julian has to grow up in ways he never expected and fight against bullies, loneliness, and loss.  This is a book that is likely to appeal equally to boys and girls, who will identify with the very sympathetically portrayed main character.

This mass exodus of children from Cuba immediately called to mind for me the Kindertransport of Jewish children to England during World War II.  However, unlike the Jewish children who were sent away to escape death at the hands of the Nazis, these children were sent away by parents who feared that their children would be taken from them by the new revolutionary governments and sent away to be "re-educated," or indoctrinated with Communist beliefs.  Many also believed that their teenage sons would be forced to become soldiers in the military, and sent them to the U.S. to escape that fate. While about half of the minors were immediately reunited with relatives or friends at the airport, the rest were placed in temporary shelters in Miami, and eventually relocated to orphanages and foster families in 30 states.

Children arriving through Pedro Pan

For more on the history of Operation Pedro Pan, see the website for alumni of the program.

This is the second novel for young readers to be published on this previously little-known topic this year, the other being the critically acclaimed novel The Red Umbrella by debut novelist Christina Gonzalez.  

An excerpt from 90 Miles to Havana can be read here.

Book Review: Alligator Bayou, by Donna Jo Napoli (Wendy Lamb Books, 2009)

Recommended for ages 12 and up.

One of the reasons I enjoy historical fiction is that it offers the opportunity to learn about little known episodes in our country's history, wrapped in the context of a compelling story. In writing Alligator Bayou, Donna Jo Napoli was inspired by a newspaper account about five Sicilian grocers in a small town in Louisiana who served a black customer who had entered the store first before a white one--and ended up lynched by a town mob. Many of the characters in the novel are based on the actual historical figures, but Napoli added a sixth grocer, a teenaged boy, Calogero. He and his relatives from Sicily don't understand the Jim Crow laws of the South, and when they shake hands with black boys their age, the other boys are speechless with surprise. Calogero takes a liking to Patricia, a very attractive black girl in the community, and she's attracted to him as well--but they have to keep their relationship secret. The Sicilians are not accepted by the white people in the town, who call them names and think they are all violent criminals and Mafia members. The black residents are kinder, even inviting Calogero and his cousins to a graduation party, where they are the only white guests, and inviting them to share a Fourth of July get-together.

Trouble is brewing in the small town, though, and it's not only because Calogero gets in trouble for going on a night-time alligator hunt in the swamps or because he wants to go to the neighborhood black school. The grocers' goats, who are left free to wander around at night, keep congregating on the porch of the town's doctor, Dr. Hodge. When they hear shots in the night, they discover that Hodge has made good on his threat to shoot the goats if they keep coming onto his property. Soon there is altercation between the doctor and the Sicilian grocers, and Calogero must run for safety. Will he escape the wrath of the local mob?

This novel delves into many prejudices prevalent in post-Civil War Louisiana; we see not only the expected racial divisions between blacks and whites, but also the hatred for the Italian immigrants, who poured into Louisiana through the port of New Orleans during the latter part of the 19th century, largely to work on sugar plantations. The terrible conclusion of this story is a lesson in the importance of tolerance, the evil of bigotry, and the need to get along with our neighbors from all countries, a lesson that is, unfortunately, still necessary in our multicultural society.

Alligator Bayou has received numerous awards, including the American Library Association Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults, Parents' Choice Gold Award for Historical Fiction, and International Reading Association's (IRA) Notable Books for a Global Society.

For those interested in learning more about this tragic story, a detailed account of the event in an article entitled Guns, Goats, and Italians: The Tallulah Lynching of 1899, is available on-line.

Book Review: Is It Night or Day? by Fern Schumer Chapman (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2010)

Recommended for ages 10 and up.

With the benefit of hindsight, we know that 12-year old German Jew Edith Westerfeld, whose parents put her on a ship to America in 1938, was one of the lucky ones. But as she watched her beloved family get smaller and smaller on shore as the ship pulled away, she didn't feel lucky at all.

Like so many families in Germany, the Westerfelds of Stockstadt thought of themselves much more as German than Jewish. After all, they had lived in their community for over 200 years and Edith's father, a war veteran, was a respected civic leader. Not until Edith's 12th birthday party in 1937, when none of the invited guests dared to show up at a Jew's house, did Edith realize how everything had changed. Her older sister, Betty, had already been sent to America the year before; however, her grandmother refused to leave her home in Germany and Edith's father wouldn't leave Oma Sarah behind. But as the situation in Germany deteriorates for the Jews, her family sends her off to live with an aunt and uncle in Chicago, telling her that she must do what she can to raise money for their passage, arrange for work for them, and find someone to sponsor them--a daunting task for a young girl who couldn't even speak English.

When Edith arrives in Chicago, her uncle tries to be kind to her, but it is clear that her aunt and teenaged cousin see her as a burden, and (almost in Cinderella-mode), as someone to wax the floor and carry the groceries from the store. School's not easy either; Edith is put in first grade, where she can't even fit into the tiny desks. The kids at school mockingly call her "Goldilocks."

As she improves her English by reading the newspaper, Edith becomes a fan of the comics and the sports section, and soon shares her uncle's love of baseball, particularly admiring Jewish baseball superstar Hank Greenberg. She and her uncle begin a German Immigration Fund jar, adding her small earnings from delivering water. But when she and her uncle see the newsreels of Kristallnacht, her uncle sponsors a raffle to raise money to get her family out of Germany. Finally, a letter arrives from her mother, addressed to her uncle--her father has been sent to a labor camp. Her mother has desperately written to relatives all over the world--"but so far, nothing." When the U.S. enters the war, Edith has to register as an enemy alien, but what will happen to her beloved Mutti and Vati (mother and father) and to the servicemen stationed overseas, whose families mark their absence with flags with blue and gold stars?

This novel is based on the true story of Chapman's own mother, Edith Westerfeld. Although the book will resonate particularly with Jewish readers, the story of immigration and what it is like to be a refugee in a strange land is a universal one for Americans, and one that will appeal to readers in middle school on up.

Click here to read a short excerpt from the book.

Is It Night Or Day? has been recognized by the American Library Association on its Best Fiction for Young Adults (BFYA) list and was also named on Booklist's Top 10 Historical Fiction list.

Edith was one of 1,200 children sponsored by an American rescue organization composed of Lutherans, Quakers, and Jews that took place from 1934 to 1945. Approximately a dozen children from one to sixteen years were brought in monthly through this program, a pitiful figure compared with what the United States could have done during that period.

Although young Edith was admitted through this program, the United States' record on admitting Jewish refugees during this period is shameful. While 1,200 children may sound like a lot to some of the novel's readers, this represents a tiny number compared to the number of refugees desperately seeking asylum in the United States and elsewhere. Although not mentioned in the author's Afterword, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt lobbied diligently for the Child Refugee Bill, which would have allowed 10,000 Jewish children a year for two years to enter the United States above the usual German quota, but Congress refused to pass the bill, despite the fact that families had already been found to take in the children. I would have liked to see the author mention in her afterword how little was actually done by the U.S. regarding the refugees, including perhaps a brief discussion of the Evian Conference in 1938 (the year Edith leaves Germany). During that nine-day meeting, convened by the United States to discuss the Jewish refugee question, delegates offered sympathy for the Jews, but only one country, the Dominican Republic, offered to grant large numbers of Jews sanctuary. In fact, the conference was ultimately a victory for Nazi propaganda; "Nobody wants them," claimed the German newspaper Völkischer Beobachter after the Evian Conference.

Book review: Cursing Columbus by Eve Tal (Cinco Puntos, 2009)

There are many books out there that focus on immigrant stories, both historic and contemporary. Eve Tal's newest book, a sequel to her acclaimed novel Double Crossing, is a worthy addition to that genre. Her story focuses on two characters, a brother and a sister, who alternate as narrators in this young adult novel.

Three years have passed since Raizel and her Orthodox father fled the pogroms against the Jews in Czarist Russia for the possibilities of a new life on New York's Lower East Side. Papa has finally saved enough money to send for the rest of the family--Mama, baby Hannah, and Raizel's two brothers, Lemmel and Shloyme. In America, Raizel is thriving at school, learning English and trying to fit in. But adjusting to America is not so easy for her brother Lemmel, who hates school just as much in America as he did in their village. "Reading English was worse than Hebrew. There were letters with straight lines and letter with circles. I couldn't tell them apart and they jumped around on the page," he tells the reader. His younger brother quickly surpasses him in reading English, adding to Lemmel's discomfort with school.

Papa's not forgotten about Lemmel's upcoming bar mitzvah just because they've come to New York, but "no matter how hard I worked," Lemmel despairs, "I wouldn't be able to read a passage from the Torah. Because I couldn't read." It is clear to the contemporary reader that Lemmel is not lazy, like his teachers think, but probably dyslexic, a disability that no one understood in the early 20th century. Raizel, on the other hand, loves learning and school, even participating in a city contest for the best essay in honor of Columbus Day. She dreams of going to university one day and becoming a teacher, and of the possibility of romance with a young man, Reuben, whom she first met on the boat ride to America.

The day of Lemmel's bar mitzvah finally arrives, and he is so desperate to avoid the humiliation that he is certain awaits him that he runs away from home, falling into a life of petty crime on the streets of New York. His family is heartbroken, and to top things off Papa has lost his job. When Lemmel is arrested for breaking into a house, he is put on trial. Will the judge be able to see through to Lemmel's good heart? Will Rose have to quit school at age 14 to help support her family or will she be able to pursue her dreams of success in America? Fortunately the novel concludes happily with a new job for Papa, the redemption of Lemmel, and even a new baby for the family.

This is a novel that would be greatly enjoyed by anyone who was interested in exploring the immigrant experience in America, and would be an excellent choice for a multicultural unit at school on immigration. One aspect of the book that I especially appreciated was the way Tal portrays the many difficulties encountered in America by the immigrants. Despite the stories that circulated in "the Old Country" about the riches and plenty in America, many immigrants worked long hours in sweatshops, lived in cramped apartments, and even went hungry. The author does not shirk from portraying these harsh realities.

I was so touched by Tal's poignant and sensitively done story that I purchased her first young adult novel, Double Crossing, which I will review later in a separate post. However, Cursing Columbus can be read with no problem without having read the prior book.

Kudos to Tal for the excellent critical reception this book has received thus far; according to her website, Cursing Columbus has been chosen as chosen as a Sydney Taylor 2010 Notable Book for Teen Readers by the Association of Jewish Libraries and has also been selected as a finalist for the National Jewish Book Awards in the Childen's and Young Adult Literature category.