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September 18, 2009
Build your own niche in life
New books for young readers will help foster a sense of identity.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
Most of us want to believe that good eventually triumphs over evil, and the books for younger readers reviewed by the Independent this Rosh Hashanah celebrate this possibility. Though they underscore that it's not an easy task to defeat destructive forces – both external and internal ones – they offer hope that a strong sense of identity and purpose can have a positive impact on the world and on ourselves.
Two fictional battles
The Curse of the Evening Eye (Key Porter Books, 2009) is the second instalment of the Ghosthunters series, written by Winnipeggers Carol Matas and Perry Nodelman. In the first story, the young Barnett siblings, Molly and Adam, seemed to have saved their father, Tim, from a ghost who, because of a perceived wrong in an earlier generation, is out to kill each subsequent generation of Barnett men when they turn 35. We find out in this second story that their father's life is still at risk, because there was an "error" on his birth certificate – he didn't really turn 35 that August.
The Curse of the Evening Eye opens with Tim, Molly and Adam on a flight to Palm Springs, Calif., for a film festival at which their father is screening his new documentary about the nonexistence of ghosts – an hypothesis he will have proven wrong. The humor starts right away, with the ghost temporarily possessing the body of a flight attendant, and the opening pages will give readers not only a laugh, but a possible otherworldly explanation for poor in-flight service and turbulence.
The Ghosthunters series is more of a fun read than a challenging mystery to solve. Being only the second book of the trilogy, the story doesn't end with The Curse of the Evening Eye, but it does give readers the first chapter of the final book, in which the Barnett family heads to the old family home outside of Oxford, England, to put the story – and maybe the ghosts – to rest, so to speak.
For Matas fans, the Freak trilogy has recently been published in one paperback edition. The Freak, Visions and Far follow the adventures that start after 15-year-old Jade wakes up from a life-threatening illness with psychic powers. In each book, she attempts to come to terms with her new abilities, but the nightmares and visions are not so easy to accept, even though they enable Jade to help save lives – including her own.
Another teen coping with life's vagaries is 16-year-old Alice. The protagonist in Shadow Boxing (Coteau Books, 2009) by Toronto-based author Sherie Posesorski, Alice's mother has died; her relationship with her father is in trouble; and her only friend, her cousin Chloe, has serious problems of her own. Not all is grim though. Alice gets support from her boss at the bookstore where she works (she also has a job at a women's clinic), and both the girls begin to see the world differently when they start working with and learning from Caleb, an artist who introduces them to shadow boxes:
"These wooden shadow boxes resembled miniaturized stage sets with a pane of glass in front, museum display case style.... It was as if each shadow box was a home and a stage setting for a bunch of objects that wouldn't normally be placed together. The different objects played off each other, much like in a dream, where the comings and goings of people, images and events from the past and present made the dream world seem new, and yet familiar, all at once."
While all the various threads of the story are tied up a little too neatly, Shadow Boxing is well written and it deals with several important issues, such as the loss of a parent, teen pregnancy, personal development and responsibility.
Real heroes, villains
Guardian Angel House (Second Story Press, 2009) by Kanata, Ont., writer Kathy Clark is as interesting for its storyline as its author, who, though born and raised Jewish, converted to Catholicism.
According to her website, Clark was motivated to write Guardian Angel House after having watched a documentary by the same name. "The title was taken from the nickname given to a convent operated by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul," she writes. "The film described the heroic sacrifice of the nuns who sheltered over 120 Jewish children in their convent [in Budapest] during the German invasion of Hungary from March 1944-January 1945. My mother and aunt had been among the girls hidden by the nuns and were among the women interviewed in the documentary.
"After I finished watching the film, I was impressed not only by the heroism of the Sisters of Charity, but also by their respect for the religion of the girls in their charge. I found it curious that none of the women interviewed in the film had converted to the Catholic faith as a result of their stay in the convent. Also, I was intrigued by the idea of what it must have been like for a Jewish girl to be suddenly immersed in the intimate daily lives of Catholic nuns. Immediately, I sensed that this would make a great story, told through the eyes of one of the Jewish girls."
Guardian Angel House focuses on Clark's Aunt Susan because she was older than her mother, Vera, and, therefore, remembered more of the details of how the nuns, at great risk to their own lives, shielded the children from the Nazis. Clark succeeds in communicating the fear and confusion of the girls, as they try to adapt to their new surroundings and new customs, not knowing what has happened to their parents, baby brother and other family. Her book provides a different perspective on the Holocaust and is worth reading.
Another book dealing with the Holocaust has its foundation in the talmudic saying, "He who saves one human life is as if he saves the entire world."
Toby Belfer Learns about Heroes and Martyrs (Pelican Publishing Co., 2009) by Gloria Pushker and Mel Tarman and illustrated by Emile Henriquez, begins with the fictional Toby Belfer, 11, and her friend on a trip to Israel, where they visit Yad Vashem and learn about the Righteous Among the Nations, men and women who helped Jews during the Holocaust. The central part of the book – and the most important part – comprises profiles of 26 of these heroes, including Miep Gies, the woman who hid Anne Frank and her family for years; Heinz Drossel, a German army officer who defied orders and thereby saved many Jews; and Swedish diplomat Per Anger and Raoul Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews. The final section is another fictional journey with Toby, as she returns home to Louisiana and discovers – then visits – the Paper Clip Project, which was started by a group of schoolchildren in Whitwell, Tenn.
The Whitwell project taught children about the potentially devastating consequences of intolerance. One outcome of it is a memorial railcar filled with 11 million paperclips, representing six million Jews and five million other victims of the Holocaust. The symbol of a paper clip was used because, during the Holocaust, Norwegians wore a paper clip on their lapels in a show of opposition to the Nazi occupation.
There are several other Belfer books by Pushker, including Toby Belfer's Seder: A Passover Story Retold (1994) and A Belfer Bar Mitzvah (1995), both illustrated by Judith Hierstein. It is not surprising that such an educational series would want to publish a book on the Holocaust, but the fictional stories that bookend the historical portraits of the Righteous Among the Nations don't fit with the heart of the book, in style or importance. This criticism notwithstanding, the 26 individual stories of bravery are fascinating and the illustrations give faces to the names, helping to ensure that the people – and their deeds – won't be soon forgotten.
Not just entertainers
Bravery and the courage to live according to one's convictions are also at the forefront of Dynamic Women Dancers (Second Story Press, 2009) by Anne Dublin, a teacher-librarian in Toronto.
Dublin has written many biographies for young people, including June Callwood: A Life of Action and Bobbie Rosenfeld: The Olympian Who Could Do Everything. Her most recent biography features 10 women who excelled at their art/profession: dancing and choreography. Many of the women profiled also worked for positive social or political change; for example, Vancouver-based Judith Marcuse (born Judith Rose Margolick in 1947) has held workshops with hundreds of youth, which has led her to choreograph dances exploring such issues as teen suicide, and Cuban-born Alicia Alonso (born in 1921) not only had to overcome serious health challenges that eventually led to blindness, but used ballet to help underprivileged kids get an education.
The other women in Dynamic Women Dancers are no less accomplished or influential and reading about them in such brief chapters should motivate readers to not only find out more about these incredible women, but to also consider how they, too, can change the world for the better.
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