Bravo! Bravo!

Your Fate Is Not Yet Sealed.
Even In The Darkest Night, A Star Will Shine,
A Bell Will Chime, A Path Will Be Revealed.

Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan is a wonderful story within a story within a story. (phew)

The book begins with Otto and Mathilde playing hide-and-seek. It moves to three sisters, a kindhearted midwife, and a selfish witch. And then there is the harmonica and twelve-year-old Friedrich, eleven-year-old Mike Flannery, and fifth grader Ivy Lopez. The harmonica travels across years and continents and wars.

Echo is almost 600 pages of historical fiction, fantasy, fairy tale, magic! Even with its hefty size, Echo is a book you will want to read more than once.

The story contains a magical element around the power of music, and an audio version of the book is highly recommended. Hearing the musical pieces that Ms. Ryan uses in the book adds an extra emotional element to the narrative - as the characters get carried away by the music, so too can the listener.

Brahms' Lullaby, America The Beautiful, Auld Lang Syne, Some Enchanted Evening

Tonight, there was a brilliance in the hall, a communion of spirits, as if ... everyone were one, breathing in and out to the same tempo, feeling one another's strength and vision, filling with beauty and light, glowing beneath the same stars...... and connected by the same silken thread.

"Let me say it!" said Frankie. "We will stand up and clap and yell, 'Bravo! Bravo!'"

Get this book; read it once or twice, then listen to the audiobook. And every night as you lay in your bed, wondering what joy tomorrow might bring, yet knowing how precarious life can be, repeat the words:

Your Fate Is Not Yet Sealed.
Even In The Darkest Night, A Star Will Shine,
A Bell Will Chime, A Path Will Be Revealed.

win-win

"About one in twenty-eight school-aged children in the United States has a parent in prison."

All Rise For The Honorable Perry T. Cook by Leslie Connor is the story of a boy raised in a minimum security correctional facility. The story embraces "what home means". It explores second chances, forgiveness, and win-win.

"Win-Win. That's Big Ed's other motto for being a successful resident. The first "win" means you count all small good things that happen to you everyday... The second "win" means you do things that bring victories to others. I've heard Big Ed say it at least a hundred times. 'No matter where you live, you have a community of some kind. And you can be a contributor.'"

If you want young readers to contemplate commuting overly long sentences for nonviolent offenders, get them the book, All Rise For The Honorable Perry T. Cook. 

protesting its very existence

"When I want the west to scream, I squeeze on Berlin."

- Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet Union premier, 1958-1964

Have you read, A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen yet? It is a wonderful book, filled with historical references and teachable moments.

We have been reading a lot of books based on World War II. A Night Divided is an historical fiction novel that continues the timeline to what happens in Germany after the war.

This is the story of twelve-year-old Gerta and her family who are separated by the Berlin Wall. Greta's father and brother are in West Berlin when the wall goes up overnight in East Berlin, and now they can't return.

It was Sunday, August 13, 1961, a day I would remember for the rest of my life. When a prison had been built around us as we slept.

If you know readers who is interested in the Berlin Wall... on why it went up, who put it up, who guarded it, and what it all meant for the citizens of Berlin... this is the book for them. 

Young readers will love this book as it reads like a dystopian novel. We had many thoughtful conversations on walls past and present. As well as discussions on border police and secret police.

Lines of Grenzers - our nickname for the border police, the Grenztruppen - stood guard along a fence of thorny wire, in some places higher than their heads, and for as far as my eyes could see. They stood like iron statues with stern expressions and long rifles in their hands. It was obvious that anyone who tried to cross would get far worse than a rip in their clothes. Because the Grenzers didn't face the westerners on the other side of the fence. They watched us.

Read this book with the young people you know. Discuss how a wall separated East and West Berlin from 1961 to 1989* and how its demolition began June 13, 1990. With the wall being such recent history, what do you remember of its demolition and the reunification of Germany? This book will inspire so many wonderful conversations on emigration, defection, the Iron Curtain, and the Cold War.



Some of my favorite parts...

It didn't take long for the government to realize that they couldn't guard the fence so heavily forever. Even with the fence and armed soldiers, people were still finding ways out. If things were bad in our city before, they would only get worse now. We all knew that.

Mama once said the most wonderful thing about being young is our ability to make things normal. That whatever life does to us, no matter how strange, it isn't long before insanity seems ordinary, as if upside down is the way things should be.

My eyes drifted to the Berlin Wall, the side of it we had never seen before in the east. It was covered in graffiti and signs protesting its very existence. The sight of it startled me, that people would dare to express themselves so boldly, so publicly.

*Did you know that German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, was a young physicist in East Berlin on November 9, 1989 during the fall of the Berlin Wall? 

Books join us together as a global reading community

We the survivors are not the true witnesses.

The true witnesses, those in possession of the unspeakable truth,

are the drowned, the dead, the disappeared.

- Primo Levi

This weekend I read Salt To The Sea by Ruta Sepetys. It's an extraordinary work of historical fiction for young adults. Ruta Sepety takes an extremely tragic and overlooked moment in history and created a beautiful story around it. 

From the jacket cover:

Winter, 1945. Four teenagers. Four secrets.

Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies…and war.

As thousands of desperate refugees flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom.

Yet not all promises can be kept.

Inspired by the single greatest tragedy in maritime history, bestselling and award-winning author Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray) lifts the veil on a shockingly little-known casualty of World War II. An illuminating and life-affirming tale of heart and hope.

Salt To The Sea is a book that allows readers a glimpse into how ordinary people can get caught in war. And, how each can react with cruelty or kindness, hatred or apathy, selfishness or altruism.

Get this book for the young adult readers you know. Get this book for the history lovers you know. Get this book... because books join us together.



Two of my favorite quotes from Salt To The Sea:

What had human beings become? Did war make us evil or just activate an evil already lurking within us?

His smugness was annoying. This was the type of man who looked at a picture on the wall and instead of admiring the photo, looked at his own reflection in the glass.

And, having visited the Catherine Palace (the summer palace) in Saint Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) last summer, I loved this bit about the Amber Room:

Originally created in Prussia and gifted to Peter the Great, the Amber Room was a glittering chamber of amber, jewels, gold, and mirrors. In 1941, the Nazi's stole it from the Catherine Palace in Pushkin, near Leningrad. Packed into twenty-seven crates, the Amber Room was the culmination of Hitler's artistic dreams. He carefully strategized its safekeeping and after much deliberation the twenty-seven crates were secretly shipped to the castle museum in Königsberg.

When I toured the Catherine Palace, I saw the recreated Amber Room. The whereabouts of the twenty-seven crates remains a mystery. Beginning its recreation in 1979 and installed in 2003, the current Amber Room in the Catherine Palace is a collaboration between Russia and Germany.


The Wilhelm Gustloff was a KdF ship. KdF - Kraft durch Freude "Strength Through Joy"

KdF was a national German organization that was supposed to make leisure activities available to the masses, regardless of social class. Hitler said KdF brought opportunity for everyone, all were equal. But how could all be equal if some were favored?

Ships Capacity: 1,463. Passengers on board: 10,573. Lifeboats: 22. But then I remembered. Ten of the lifeboats were missing.

The sinking of the Gustloff is the largest maritime disaster, yet the world still knows nothing of it. I often wonder, will that ever change or will it remain just another secret swallowed by war?

Be sure to read the entire Author's Note. Here's just a bit...

"There are many important stories of World War II. Much has been documented about combat, politics, guilt, and responsibility. Suffering emerged the victor, touching all sides, sparing no nation involved. As I wrote this novel, I was haunted by thoughts of the helpless children and teenagers - innocent victims of boarder shifts, ethnic cleansing, and vengeful regimes. Hundreds of thousands of children were orphaned during World War II. Abandoned or separated from their families, they were forced to battle the beast of war on their own, left with an inheritance of heartache and responsibility for events they had no role in causing. Many experienced unspeakable atrocities, some miraculous acts of kindness by complete strangers.

Every nation has hidden history, countless stories preserved only by those who experience them. Stories of war are often read and discussed worldwide by readers whose nations stood on opposite sides during battle. History divided us, but through reading we can be united in story, study, and remembrance. Books join us together as a global reading community, but more important, a global human community striving to learn from the past."

Boy, what do we need a car for?

If you are looking for a great picture book, Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña is wonderful and poetic.

On January 11th, Matt de la Peña became the first Hispanic author to win the Newbery for Last Stop on Market Street  -   beautifully illustrated by Christian Robinson. It's the story of a young boy riding the city bus with his grandmother, and wondering why their family doesn't have a car.

"Nana, how come we don't got a car?"

"How come we gotta wait for the bus in all this wet?" 

"How come it's always so dirty over here?" 

and what was left behind was a smile

Beautiful and Devastating...

“He really could have been any other eighth-grade kid at Eastham Middle School. Except he had a daughter.”

I read Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D Schmidt this weekend. It is a book about friendship and sadness and 'having someone's back' and love and heartbreak... all written in a way that young people can understand and embrace. 

12 year old Jack lives a quiet life on his family's farm in Maine, when his parents take in a 14 year old foster kid named Joseph.

I really cared about these two boys. And, as is always the sign of a good book, they broke my heart wide open.


My favorite quotes:

Christmas is the season for miracles, you know. Sometimes they come big and loud, I guess - but I've never seen one of those. I think probably most miracles are a lot smaller, and sort of still, and so quiet, you could miss them. I didn't miss this one. When my father put his hand on Joseph's back, Joseph didn't even flinch.

"Would you have left a guy being beat up to go find a teacher?" I asked. My father wiped his hand across his face, and what was left behind was a smile. Really, a smile."Not in a million years," he said.

It stayed cold that Monday, and even though it was pretty bright out, there were snowflakes in the air that afternoon again, drifting like they didn't care if they landed. 

You can tell all you need to know about someone from the way cows are around him. 

And the conversation about angels between Reverend Ballou and Joseph...

Reverend Ballou: Maybe angels aren't always meant to stop bad things.
Joseph: So what good are they?
Reverend Ballou: To be with us when bad things happen.
Joseph: Then where the hell were they?

If you know a young adult reader who enjoys good narration, who seeks out bravery, who pays attention to trust, and who sees people for who they are as well as who they could be... then get this book for them. 

It was everywhere and all mixed up in everything

I recently read All American Boys by co-authors Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely. It's an amazing young adult novel about police brutality told from the perspectives of two high school students. One boy is Rashad, a young black student who is savagely beaten by a police officer. The other boy is Quinn, a young white student who sees the beating but initially acts like he didn't.

The story was so spot on to what we hear constantly in the news. The book beautifully and authentically portrays real-life encounters between young black men and police that end badly.

How did this story come about?

Co-authors Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely had separately published young-adult books for Simon and Schuster and were on a book tour together for the publisher. They ended up sharing hotel rooms on the tour. And while on the road, news came that George Zimmerman was acquitted of the murder of Trayvon Martin. The two men became friends over their conversations about race. Later, after the book tour, Michael Brown was killed by police in Ferguson. That became the urgency the authors needed to write a book about race and police brutality together.


My favorite parts:

"RASHAD IS ABSENT AGAIN TODAY"

"I don't think most people think they're racist. But every time something like this happens, you could, like you said, 'Not my problem.' You could say, 'It's a one-time thing.' Every time it happened."

"But here are the words that kept ricocheting around me all day: Nobody says the words anymore, but somehow the violence still remains. If I didn't want the violence to remain, I had to do a hell of a lot more than just say the right things and not say the wrong things."

"Because racism was alive and real as shit. It was everywhere and all mixed up in everything, and the only people who said it wasn't, and the only people who said, "Don't talk about it" were white."

I wish there were more teachers like Mrs. Tracey.

"Mrs. Tracey stood at the window, looking down over the front steps and the entrance to the school. Even when everyone had taken their seats, she remained by the window, and the rest of the class kept talking, waiting for her to go to her desk. But she didn't. In her hand, she held a copy of the novel The Invisible Man."

  

Read this book with the young people you know. Begin a much needed conversation. Kids are ready to talk.