Historical Fiction – Page 4

Salt to the Sea

Set during the end of World War II, Salt to the Sea follows the story of four refugees seeking shelter from the rampages of war. With the rapid advance of Soviet forces against Hitler’s Reich in Poland, Latvia, East Prussia, and Lithuania, thousands of refugees flood toward the port of Gotenhafen with the dim hope of escape. For these thousands, Gotenhafen is a chance to flee the inevitable onslaught and destruction created by the oncoming Soviets. Amidst this hurried procession of souls are four teenagers who witnessed the innumerable tragedy wrought by war. Each teen is from a different homeland and has a different background, yet all have equally dangerous secrets.

Joana is a nineteen-year-old Lithuanian expatriate who previously spent the entirety of the war as a conscripted nurse, tending to wounded and dying soldiers. Florian is an eighteen-year-old Prussian thief and forgery master wanted by the Nazis because of his shameful past. Alfred, also referred to as “Frick”, is a delusional seventeen-year-old Nazi Kriegsmarine soldier who is attempting to overwrite his troubled past through enlistment. Emilia is a fifteen-year-old Polish refugee running from the destruction of her homeland as both the Nazis and Soviets hunt her and her countrymen. Each character carries their own mysteries, whether shameful or perilous.

Salt to the Sea is told in first person point of view, with the main narrative being split between the four characters. Each chapter shifts from one character’s point of view to another, creating a cleverly knitted narrative that explores the ongoing tumult of their lives. Although each of our four protagonists have their own agendas, the audience can sympathize with each character as they struggle to not only survive but to also find themselves.

Salt to the Sea is a fast-paced, intense, and emotional story that will have readers gripped to the very last page. Sepetys does an incredible job weaving multiple narratives into one effortless adventure. Each chapter provides the reader with an increasingly dark understanding regarding the horrors of war and the vast challenges that refugees must overcome. As this book follows the inevitabilities of war, there are distinct violent moments and deaths which Sepetys has written to be intentionally jarring.

Although distressing and dark, Salt to the Sea tells the hopeful story of refugees fighting for a better future and their personal growth along the way. Salt to the Sea is a must-read for all those interested not only in history but also in the human condition as Sepetys colorfully illustrates the horrors of war.

Sexual Content

There are references to rape or other non-consensual sexual content. A passing elderly refugee asks Joana if she carries any poison. The woman says “I understand. But you are a pretty girl. If Russia’s army overtakes us, you’ll want some [poison] too.”
While on the boat, Joana kisses Florian. “She stood on her toes, took my face in her hands, and kissed me.”
When she was fifteen, Emilia became pregnant when she was raped.

Violence

While fleeing through a snow-laden forest, Florian kills a Russian soldier who was harassing Emilia. Florian “stood in the forest cellar, my gun fixed on the dead Russian.” The killing was not described.
Multiple references are made to Hitler’s Final Solution. “Hitler aimed to destroy all Poles. They were Slavic, branded inferior. . . Hitler set up extermination camps in German-occupied Poland, filtering the blood of innocent Jews in the Polish soil.”
While fleeing westward, Soviet planes drop bombs on top of forests which poses an immediate threat to Joana, Emilia, and Florian. “The bombs began falling. With each explosion, every bone in my body vibrated and hammered, clanging violently against the bell tower that was my flesh.”
Joana mentions the wartime atrocities committed by the Soviets. “Women were nailed to barn doors, children mutilated.” In addition to such terrors, Soviet soldiers were infamous for raping and pillaging entire villages, which involved the wholesale slaughter of male populations and the rape of a village’s women.
Eva, another refugee, references the potential violent fate of Emilia’s father. Eva says, “The senior professors in Lwów, they were all executed.”
While fleeing, Emilia saves Florian by shooting a wandering German soldier. The soldier “had a gun. He was pointing it. [Emilia] jumped up and screamed. Bang.”
Joana and a group of refugees stay at a deserted manor. Prior to this, soldiers brutally slaughtered the residents in their sleep. As Joana explores the rest of the manor, she discovers the house’s previous tenants and exclaims, “Dead in their beds. They’re all dead in their beds!” The bodies are not described in detail.
On their way to Gotenhafen, another refugee laments that the Soviets “shot his cow.”
While approaching the Frauenberg, the Soviet air forces shell the road. “A cluster of human beings behind us exploded with a bomb.”
As Joana and her group of refugees cross an icy river, one refugee falls through the ice and joins other unfortunate souls trapped beneath the frozen surface. “The ice in front of Ingrid was red, frozen with blood.”
Sepetys makes multiple mentions of refugees and their suffering, such as parents missing their children, or the children being abandoned.
Joana, a nurse, cares for the wounded on the Wilhelm Gustloff. Joana “would get these wounded men on the big ship.”
The Wilhelm Gustloff is struck by three Soviet torpedoes causing the ship to sink, killing thousands of refugees, including children. As the ship tilted deeper into the water, a passenger said, “The woman was right. We were all going to drown.” As the ship sinks, the ocean is strewn with dead bodies floating amidst the wreckage. “Thousands of dead bodies, eyes wide, floated frozen in life vests.”
A mother attempts to throw her child to a lifeboat, yet the baby tragically drowns. “The dark air was full of screams” of thousands of drowning men, women, and children.
Alfred attempts to throw Emilia off the raft, yet in doing so accidentally he kills himself. Alfred slams his head against the metal raft and falls into the freezing depths of the surrounding water. “Alfred was sent tumbling, crashing his head against the metal raft with a deafening scream”

Drugs and Alcohol

Before the start of the book, Florian is wounded with shrapnel which he sterilizes using vodka. Florian “turned the top of the soldier’s flask and raised it to my nose. Vodka. I opened my coat, then my shirt, and poured the alcohol down my side.”
Joana and Florian share cigarettes in a moment of respite from danger. Joana “pulled out a cigarette and ran it through my fingers, trying to straighten it.”

Language

None

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

by Daniel Klein

Annie John

Annie John is a young, genius schoolgirl who wants to grow up to be just like her mother. Annie finds her mother beautiful – physically and internally – and her greatest wish is to stay forever with her, in their matching dresses, repeating their familiar daily routine of preparing dinner and washing clothes. They even share the same name: Annie. However, as young Annie starts to come of age, she is hit with the realization that she and her mother are not so similar after all. When Annie points out a fabric to make a pair of dresses for them both, her mother replies, “You are getting too old for that . . . You just cannot go around the rest of your life looking like a little me.”

Annie’s world crumbles. As she advances to a new school, the differences between Annie and her mother become more apparent. Annie likes girls – especially those who don’t have to bathe and comb their hair every day like Annie is forced to. She likes to play marbles – even though her mother forbids it, since it isn’t ladylike. And Annie steals. To have what she wants, Annie is forced to steal things like trinkets, money, and marbles. She begins to resent her mother’s strict ways and desires her own, free existence.

When Annie falls ill for a long time, she is nursed back to health by her mother. After which, she leaves her family in Antigua behind to go to England to become a nurse, since she “would have chosen going off to live in a cavern and keeping house for seven unruly men rather than go on with [her] life as it stood.”

While Annie’s young teenage rebelliousness sounds familiar to many, she struggles deeply with the divide between the life she wants and the life her mother wants for her. Annie says, “In the year I turned fifteen, I felt more unhappy than I had ever imagined anyone could be. My unhappiness was something deep inside me, and when I closed my eyes, I could even see it . . . It took the shape of a small black ball, all wrapped up in cobwebs. I would look at it and look at it until I had burned the cobwebs away, and then I would see the ball was no bigger than a thimble, even though it weighed worlds.”

Annie John is not a difficult story to read in terms of language or length, but as a story it is tough to swallow since it is about growing up, which comes with the heavy realization that you must become your own being. Mostly, the story focuses on events from Annie’s life that are narrated rather than her depression and related illness. These topics are not discussed in detail, rather left open for the reader to think about.

Annie John is not told chronologically, which can be confusing at times. This story is historical fiction and showcases some of the culture of Antigua, an island in the Caribbean, whose native population has been impacted by colonization. This is most apparent in the strict gender norms emphasized by Annie’s mother and the teachings in Annie’s school. This story is wonderfully crafted. While these issues seem like major ones, they are carefully blended into Annie’s life so subtly that the reader can fully understand what it’s like to live as Annie John. The events of the story are personal to Annie’s life, however, the sadness that comes with growing older is universal. Because of that, this story is timeless and a must-read for those who seek to understand a genuine, flawed character, as she escapes from her restrictive past and sails to a new future.

Sexual Content

The schoolgirls wonder when their breasts will grow larger. Annie tells the reader, “On our minds every day were our breasts and their refusal to budge out of our chests. On hearing somewhere that if a boy rubbed your breasts they would quickly swell up, I passed along this news. Since in the world we occupied and hoped to forever occupy boys were banished, we had to make do with ourselves.”
Later, Annie thinks about spending time with her friend, Gwen, who she is in love with: “Oh, how it would have pleased us to press and rub our knees together as we sat in our pew . . . and how it would have pleased us even more to walk home together, alone in the early dusk. . . stopping where there was a full moon, to lie down in a pasture and expose our bosoms in the moonlight. We had heard that full moonlight would make our breasts grow to a size we would like.”
The Red Girl, one of Annie’s crushes, pinches her, then kisses her. “She pinched hard, picking up pieces of my flesh and twisting it around. At first, I vowed not to cry, but it went on for so long that tears I could not control streamed down my face. I cried so much that my chest began to heave, and then, as if my heaving chest caused her to have some pity on me, she stopped pinching and began to kiss me on the same spots where shortly before I had felt the pain of her pinch. Oh, the sensation was delicious – the combination of pinches and kisses. And so wonderful we found it that, almost every time we met, pinches by her, followed by tears from me, followed by kisses from her, were the order of the day.”

Violence

Annie torments a girl she likes. “I loved very much – and used to torment until she cried – a girl named Sonia . . . I would pull at the hair on her arms and legs – gently at first, and then awfully hard, holding it up taut with the tips of my fingers until she cried out.”
Annie recounts an incident with one of her friends. “In a game we were making up on the spot, I took off all my clothes and he led me to a spot under a tree, where I was to sit until he told me what to do next. It was long before I realized that the spot he had picked out was a red ants’ nest. Soon the angry ants were all over me, stinging me in my private parts, and as I cried and scratched, trying to get the ants off me, he fell down on the ground laughing, his feet kicking the air with happiness.”

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

After Annie’s mother sees her talking to boys, she calls Annie a slut. Annie narrates the event like this: “My mother said it had pained her to see me behave in the manner of a slut in the street and that just to see me had caused her to feel shame. The word ‘slut’ was repeated over and over until suddenly I felt as if I were drowning in a well but instead of the well being filled with water it was filled with the word ‘slut,’ and it was pouring in through my eyes, my ears, my nostrils, my mouth. As if to save myself, I turned to her and said, ‘Well like father like son, like mother like daughter.’”

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

The kids sometimes go to choir and church on Sunday, and carry bibles, but this is rarely described, only referenced. For example, Annie’s mother “checked my bag to make sure that I had my passport, the money she had given me, and a sheet of paper placed between some pages in my Bible on which were written the names of the relatives with whom I would live in England.” Annie does not discuss God or her beliefs.
When Annie is sick, an obeah woman from her family tries to help her by giving her herbs and using other remedies, although Annie is too sick to note them.
The obeah women of Annie’s town believe that Annie falls ill because of a “scorned woman” from her father’s past. There is no further elaboration on this topic.

by Madison Shooter

The Curse of King Tut’s Mummy

The desert hides many secrets. Day after day, Howard Carter and his crew search the sand for signs of Egypt’s ancient kings. Many tombs were looted long ago, but he was sure that one was still out there—the tomb of King Tut! But were the old stories true? Did King Tut’s mummy and the royal treasure come with a deadly curse?

Follow Howard Carter’s story, beginning when he was just a sickly child who fell in love with ancient Egypt. Through Carter’s experiences, readers will begin to see how education, perseverance, and endurance helped Carter find King Tut’s tomb. Even though Carter was thrilled to find King Tut’s treasures, he knew the importance of recording every artifact’s location and preserving the find for future generations. The end of the book contains Tut’s Mummy Timeline, photographs, and additional interesting facts.

The Curse of King Tut’s Mummy uses short chapters and easy vocabulary, which makes the book accessible to young readers. Large black and white illustrations appear every 3 to 7 pages and bring many of the ancient artifacts to life. While the book is easy enough for young fluent readers, the content will be interesting to older readers as well.

The Curse of King Tut’s Mummy explores ancient Egypt’s culture and beliefs in a way that makes archeology fun. The book is full of interesting facts. Detailed illustrations show the inside of many of the tombs. Anyone who is interested in Egypt’s ancient kings will enjoy The Curse of King Tut’s Mummy. Zoehfeld discusses some of the curses written on the tombs and some of the Egyptian superstitions, but she makes it clear that curses are not real. Younger readers who want to learn more about King Tut can jump back into time by reading Escape from Egypt by Wendy Mass.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

Carter was an archeologist who had to fight off rude tourists who came to visit a tomb. Carter “asked the rowdy visitors to leave. They demanded to be let into the tomb. The guards tried to block their way. The tourists threw chairs. They swung their walking sticks at the guards.” Two tourists were injured. The tourists also “damaged the walls and broke chairs.”
The reason King Tut died is still unknown, but “the bone just above his left knee was broken.” Some speculate that “the young king had a bad accident during a battle or a hunting trip. The accident that broke his leg might have also crushed his chest.”

Drugs and Alcohol

During ancient times, there was a funeral for the dead king where the guests’ “cups had been filled with beer and wine.”

Language

None

Supernatural

When an ancient Egyptian official and his wife were buried, their tomb had a warning: “All people who enter this tomb. Who will make evil against this tomb. And destroy it: May the crocodile be against them on water, and snakes against them on land. May the hippopotamus be against them on water. The scorpion against them on land.” Many believed that anyone who destroyed the tomb would be cursed.
When Carter went to Egypt, he took his pet canary. Carter’s Egyptian housekeeper and his three foremen thought, “the bird of gold will bring us good luck!”
Later that summer, a cobra got into the canary’s cage. “The deadly snake was gulping the poor bird down, headfirst. . . Carter’s housekeeper and foremen were horrified. They thought it was a sign of terrible things to come.”
When there was a blackout, “many believed this blackout was a bad omen.”
King Tut’s tomb had a warning: “For those who enter the sacred tomb, the wings of death will visit them quickly.” There were many stories of curses, but they “were all made up.”

Spiritual Content

Ancient Egypt’s gods and goddesses are occasionally discussed because there were many statues of them. For example, “the Egyptian goddess of good health was always shown as a woman with a lion’s head.”
In the 14th century B.C., “Akhenaten felt that Egyptian priests were getting too powerful. So he banned all the gods the Egyptian people were used to worshiping. He created a new religion with only one god.”

The Detective’s Assistant

Eleven-year-old Nell Warne couldn’t have imagined what awaits her when she arrives on her long-lost aunt’s doorstep lugging a heavy sack of sorrows.

Much to Nell’s surprise, her aunt is a detective, working for the world-famous Pinkreluctanceational Detective Agency! Nell quickly makes herself indispensable to Aunt Kate. . . and not just by helping out with household chores. As her aunt travels around the country solving mysteries, Nell must crack codes, wear disguises, and spy on nefarious criminals.

Nation-changing events simmer in the background as Abraham Lincoln heads for the White House, and Aunt Kate is working on the biggest case of her life. But Nell is quietly working a case of her own: the mystery of what happened the night her best friend left town.

Nell’s adventure paints a picture of life in the 1800s. When she is forced to live with her Aunt Kate, Nell quickly realizes that her aunt isn’t like most women—instead Aunt Kate takes on many disguises while solving mysteries. At first, Aunt Kate doesn’t trust Nell and doesn’t want to give the grieving girl a home, giving readers a small peek into the life of an orphan. The Detective’s Assistant also uses letters between Nell and her friend to delve into the topic of slave hunters. Even though the topic is explored in a kid-friendly manner, sensitive readers may be upset by the death of so many people.

Despite her aunt’s reluctance to give Nell a home, Aunt Kate makes sure Nell learns vocabulary, grammar, and math. Throughout the story, Aunt Kate is always correcting Nell’s speech. For example, Aunt Kate tells Nell, “And the proper word is isn’t, not ain’t. Mind your grammar, even in times of distress.” Nell also learns new vocabulary such as somnambulist. This highlights the importance of getting an education and adds fun to the story.

The Detective’s Assistant is sure to delight readers because of the interesting, complex characters as well as the cases that Aunt Kate and Nell help solve. Since the story is told from Nell’s point of view, the readers get an intimate look at Nell’s emotions. Nell struggles with the death of her family, how the slave trade affected people, and the possibility of being sent to an orphanage. All of these aspects make The Detective’s Assistant a fast-paced story with many surprises. In the end, Nell learns that “family meant taking the folks we’re stuck with and choosing to love them anyway.”

Sexual Content

None

Violence

A pickpocket takes Aunt Kate’s purse. Nell sees him “and with one swift stomp of my foot, I crashed the heel of my big brown boot onto his toes. The bandit let out a howl and began hopping on one leg.”
When others notice their money is missing, the crowd “pounced on the skinny pickpocket like a pack of wolves.”
In a letter, Nell’s friend tells her about slaves who were trying to go to Canada so they can live free. “And the next thing Mama knows, her friend’s neck is in a noose hanging from a tree.”
Aunt Kate investigates a “murder by poison.” A woman’s “lover has succeeded in putting his wife in a pine box.”
While babysitting a young girl, the girl treats Nell poorly. Her “shins ached from unexpected kicks, my arms were sore from vicious pinches, and my pride was wounded from insults to my general appearance and intellect.”
Aunt Kate investigates a bank robbery. “A bank teller was murdered in cold blood, and money was stolen.” The bank teller was killed with a hammer and “three blows to the head.” Later the criminal confesses.
Slave hunters stole a family and they “got sold off to the highest bidder.” The family was torn apart.
Nell’s father, Cornelius, accidentally shoots and kills his brother. Cornelius was helping slaves escape to Canada. At night, “a man came riding up toward us—we could almost feel the hoofbeats. . . [a man] called for us to stop. . . And in a rush of panic that swept over all of us, your daddy fired his gun.”
While Cornelius was helping slaves escape, slave hunters killed him. “His body washed up in the Chemung River.”

Drugs and Alcohol

Nell’s father, “saw the jailhouse for drinking and cheating at poker.” Nell’s father is often referred to as a drunk liar who gambles.
Nell names her dog Whiskey. Nell “didn’t know a thing about liquor when I named her. But I heard my daddy say whiskey was pure gold.”
While walking down the street, “a few menacing drunks pushed past, knocking both Aunt Kate and me off balance.”

Language

“Heck and tarnation” is used twice.
Darn is used twice
Nell calls a bratty girl a “little jackanapes.”
Nell thinks that some boys are “dunderheads.”
When a rebel starts talking about John Wilkes Booth, Nell thinks the rebel is an “illiterate oaf.”

Supernatural

In order to gain a suspect’s trust, Aunt Kate pretends to be a fortune-teller. The suspect believes that “her brother’s ring warned him of storms at sea.”
A man thinks the detectives use “voodoo magic to get those criminals to talk.” Others think the detectives use whiskey to get people talking.
Nell couldn’t go to a funeral because “Daddy thought it was bad luck to have a child so close to the Grim Reaper.”

Spiritual Content

Nell writes to a friend, saying her daddy “is splitting logs with the angels.”
Someone asks Nell how her father made it “to the pearly gates of heaven.” Nell replies, “Through prayer, ma’am. Mine mostly, since he wasn’t the praying kind. . .”
Aunt Kate says, “Frugality is a virtue. It says so in the Bible.”

The Legend of the Shark Goddess: A Nanea Mystery

Ever since the war started, Nanea has done her best to follow all the new rules. When she meets a boy named Mano in her grandparents’ market, Nanea is shocked to hear him admit to breaking some rules—and bragging about getting away with it.

When things start to go missing from the market, Mano is the first person Nanea suspects. Nanea is determined to protect her grandparents, but Mano, whose name means “shark” in Hawaiian, seems to be hanging around the market more and more. What can Nanea do to keep her family safe from this dangerous boy?

Nanea’s story focuses on the effects of World War II in 1941. In a kid-friendly way, The Legend of the Shark Goddess illustrates some of the discrimination that Japanese Americans faced. Even though the story takes place after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the story also revolves around Nanea’s efforts to discover who is stealing from her family. As the mystery evolves, Nanea realizes it is difficult to tell if someone is a “good shark or a bad shark.”

Nanea is obsessed with following the rules, which is one reason she focuses on her first impressions of others. For example, when Nanea meets Mano, she is convinced he is the thief because he breaks curfew. Nanea is so focused on proving that Mano is a thief that she never really considers that anyone else could have taken the items. While most of the suspects are not well developed, the story provides enough mystery to keep readers entertained.

The Legend of the Shark Goddess does an excellent job describing Hawaii during the 1940s. Readers will learn many facts about this time period as well as several life lessons. The story focuses on two main lessons: don’t spread rumors and don’t judge others. The repetition of the lessons is a little tedious, but the conclusion helps reinforce the story’s lesson in a surprising way.

Readers who love mysteries may be disappointed that Nanea doesn’t do much sleuthing and there are no clues to follow or riddles to solve. Instead, the story relies on Nanea’s impressions of others to build suspense. However, Nanea’s story is interesting and many middle school readers will relate to Nanea. At the end of the book, readers will find a glossary of Hawaiian words and facts about Nanea’s world. Even though The Legend of the Shark Goddess lacks mystery, readers will still enjoy spending time in Nanea’s world. Readers who like history with a dash of fantasy should also read The League of Secret Heroes by Kate Hannigan.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

None

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

None

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

Nanea often thinks about the shark goddess Ka’ahupahau, “who guarded the entrance of Pearl Harbor with her brother, Kahi’uka. . . She was born a human with fire-red hair. But as a shark, her body could take many forms. She could become a net, difficult to tear. And with her net body, she captured man-eating sharks that entered her harbor.”

Lovely War

In a hotel room in Manhattan in the midst of World War II, the Greek gods Aphrodite and Ares are caught in an affair by Aphrodite’s husband, Hephaestus. Hoping to understand Love’s attraction to War, Hephaestus puts Aphrodite on trial. Her defense is to tell the tale of one of her greatest successes, the intersecting love stories of Hazel Windicott and James Alderidge, and of Aubrey Edwards and Colette Fournier. Aphrodite’s witnesses are Ares (god of war), Apollo (god of music), and Hades (god of death). Each contributes their own different, but overlapping, perspectives to the proceedings.

The story begins as piano player Hazel and soldier James meet at a parish dance and fall into instant, dizzying love, only to be separated three days later when James is sent to the front. Desperate to distract herself from anxiety about her soldier’s well-being, Hazel joins the YMCA where she meets Colette, a singer who lost her whole family in an attack on her home in Belgium. There, they happen upon ragtime musician Aubrey, a Black soldier who desires to make a name for himself on stage and on the battlefield. Aubrey and Colette bond over their music and realize their affections go beyond an appreciation for each other’s talents.

While the story addresses dark and violent subject matter due to its historical period, the frame narrative allows for light moments as well. The banter among the gods, and their respective belief that their part of the story is the most memorable, allows the mood to lift as needed. The darker moments hold meaning within the larger narrative and the smallest joys are heralded as gifts from the gods.

The human characters hold their own amongst their immortal narrators. Each character is likable and humorous in his/her own way. Over the course of the war, Hazel emerges from her meek demeanor, learning to stand for what she sees is right, while not losing her innocence and goodness of heart. James is goofy and sincere, making his experience in combat all the more tragic, as he must reconcile that what he does on the battlefield does not have to mean a loss of himself. Colette is strong-willed and a fierce defender of her friends, though internally she fears that anyone she loves is destined to die. She opens up, however, to the charming dreamer Aubrey. Aubrey’s experiences with racial violence show that the enemy to their happiness is not only the German soldiers they encounter on the battlefield but also those who perpetrate violence and discrimination against black Americans within their own neighborhoods and war camps.

Teenage readers who enjoy romance, Greek mythology, and historical fiction may enjoy this book. It is recommended that readers proceed carefully, as the book does address racism and racial violence as well as the terrors and destruction of war. Despite the hate and violence which surround them, the couples find their way back to love amidst it all. Their fragility as mortals in wartime allows for precious love to shine, as even the impermeable gods come to admire. After Aphrodite reminds Hephaestus that the mortals die, he responds, “They do. But the lucky ones live first. . . The luckiest ones spend time with you.”

Sexual Content

Two characters are briefly described as having an affair. “In an instant they are in each other’s arms. Shoes are kicked off, hats tossed aside. Jacket buttons are shown no mercy.” Their kisses are “like a clash of battle and a delicious melding of flesh, rolled together and set on fire.”
Athena and Artemis are called, “Those prissy little virgins.”
Some of the gods make brief jokes about paying attention to women’s bodies.
Hazel’s attraction to James sparks “a series of little explosions” which “began firing throughout her brain and spread quickly elsewhere.”
Stéphane admires Colette’s spine and thinks that “he could run his fingers along her back.” He does not act on his thought.
Colette is attracted to Aubrey’s musical talent, saying, “It was sexy. And so was its athletic high priest at the piano bench.”
During an attack on Aubrey, a racist soldier implies that Aubrey is after white women. Aubrey retorts asking if the man has “ever been with a black girl.” When the soldier laughs, Aubrey “had no illusions about her being a willing participant.”
Joey assumes an encounter between Aubrey and Colette was sexual in nature. He asks Aubrey, “Did you . . .?” Aubrey informs him, “It’s not like that,” and then scolds him for presuming that Colette is a “hooker.”
Aubrey hides so as not to be seen by a supervisor and realizes “he was free to ogle Colette from the shoulders down just at that moment, and he took advantage of it.”
Colette tries to understand Hazel’s fear about meeting up with James. Colette assumes that Hazel’s fear might be due to the possibility of one of them “taking advantage” of the other. Hazel admits that “if anyone found out, there’d be such a scandal.” She explains, “When I’m around James, I do the most outrageous things.”
Colette recognizes that being “alone in the dark” could lead to “dozens of ways a young man could try to take advantage of this situation,” although nothing comes of it.
A couple says goodbye, and “the brief kiss she gave him at the door was filled with neither passion nor desire, but sweetness, affection, gratitude.”
Hazel removes her stockings at the beach, and it is said, “The sight of her bare feet was just about enough to give poor James a stroke there on the spot.”
Hazel is pushed into James’ arms and, “The feel of her body pressed against his went through him like an electric shock.” They hold each other for a moment, spinning in circles.

Violence

There are multiple instances of racial violence perpetrated against Aubrey and his bandmates. There are also third-party historical sources referenced. Words such as “darkie,” “coon,” “negroes,” and “colored” are frequently used by other characters to address these men. At one point a southern soldier states, “An ape’s an ape.” Other racist comments permeate the experience of the black soldiers at home and abroad.
The black soldiers face fears of waking to a “lynch mob.”
The narrator describes an instance of police brutality. “A white police officer had entered a black woman’s home without a warrant, searching for a suspect. When she protested, he beat and arrested her, dragging her from her home though she wasn’t fully dressed. When a black soldier saw this and tried to intervene to defend the woman, the white policeman pistol-whipped the black soldier, seriously injuring him.” She then briefly mentions the “shooting that followed” which killed many people.
When addressing the possibility of looking at white women, Aubrey states, “No pretty face is worth swinging from a tree.”
The “Rape of Belgium” is described in detail over five pages. The narrator notes that German soldiers “pulled men from workplaces and homes and hiding places and executed them in the streets. Women, children, and babies were executed too. As old as eighty-eight. As young as three weeks.” Later, Aphrodite goes on to reference “the stories of women raped, children crucified, nailed to doors, of old men executed. . .”
The story frequently finds itself in the midst of trench combat. There are descriptions of the training process, of learning how to kill another man with minimal remorse, and of soldiers often encountering death and the bodies of those lost in battle. The men learn about the effects of gas attacks and how “those poor buggers in the first gas attacks drowned in their own blood.” At one point the trenches are described as “slick with blood.”
James imagines his own brother ending up the way his fellow soldiers have. “He saw Bobby’s burnt and blood-soaked body lying in the mud at the bottom of a trench.”
The soldiers travel “past live horses and dead horses and trucks and motorcycles.”
Multiple racially motivated murders take place in the camps. Two men are “strangled” and the discovery of one body is described over 6 pages. Aubrey and Lieutenant Europe come to the realization that “that was blood on the snow. His head. His face. His bloated, blackened face.” They assume the killers “beat his face in with their rifles.” They note, “You almost wouldn’t know it’s him” and they “gently [close] his gaping lower lip to hide the horribly broken jaw.”
Aubrey is held at gunpoint by a racist soldier who says, “We ain’t gonna let you Negroes get a taste for white women.” Aubrey took the man’s gun and “pressed the cold muzzle of the revolver against his victim’s temple.” Then, Aubrey warns his attacker not to mess with the Black soldiers again.
The narrator cynically describes how little detail is provided in the notifications of soldiers’ deaths, explaining, “They never said, ‘hung for hours on a barbed wire fence with his bowels hanging out, pleading for rescue, but nobody dared go for fear of hostile fire.’”
James partakes in trench warfare. He is a sniper and frequently must shoot German soldiers. After he shoots a man, “a red throat pours blood down a gray uniform.” James actively tries to not think about what he is doing in order to protect his friends.
A flamethrower is used in combat. The soldiers try to distinguish the fire, and the narrator notes that “the smell of flesh on fire reminds James of food, of cooking meat.” Ares goes on to narrate that “Chad Browning has stopped his screaming. His clothing is half melted away, half fused to his skin.”
Hazel is sexually assaulted by a prisoner of war. The attack is thwarted quickly but not before, “He licked her lips and teeth with his foul tongue, then forced it inside her mouth.”
Multiple explosions occur throughout the text. For example, after one explosion “the smoke lifted, and James scrubbed the grit from his eyes, Frank Mason wasn’t there anymore. Just a fire, a helmet, a torn pair of boots, and a little charred prayer book.” It is later implied that there would not be a body to bury.
Later, another explosion occurs. “The engine and the first two cars were annihilated. The cars beyond buckled and crashed into one another. Soldiers and war workers were thrown all about the cars. Shards of glass from shattered windows flew like shrapnel. Colette emerged unscathed, for Hazel had thrown her body over her friend’s.” James must treat Hazel’s injuries. Hades goes through the necessary course of action to “apply pressure to the bleeding and summon a medic. Clear airflow, release tight clothing.”
Hazel receives a blood transfusion. She notes the “tubes of red blood dangled from jars mounted to a metal frame and ran, Hazel realized, into a needle injected into her arm.”

Drugs and Alcohol

A character jokes about how the soldiers of the 369^th “were knocked on their backs by the routine daily allotment of wine for French soldiers.”
While under treatment for shell shock, James is given sedatives.

Language

The narrator quotes real news articles about the 369^th infantry; these include racist comments and one censored use of the n-word.
Offensive terms for opposing soldiers are often used. These include “Jerry,” “Russkies,” “Fritz,” and “Boche.” They refer at one point to Kaiser Wilhelm as “Wee Willie Winkie.”
Audrey calls the racist behavior of another soldier “shit” twice.
A trainer tells soldiers that in the event of a gas attack, “‘If you’ve lost your mask, you still stay calm. If all else fails, piss on a hankie and breathe through that.’” He warns that they will “break out in damnable sores everywhere” and that they “hurt like hell.”
Joey calls Aubrey a “jackass.”
Men are called “bastards” twice.
Aubrey calls his own behavior “damnably stupid.”
There is one use of the oath “Chrisssake.”
Emile regrets not being injured sooner, saying, “But non, you stayed away, leaving me healthy and sound, so the Germans could piss on me with their shells and bullets year after year…”
Aphrodite calls her husband a “blooming ass.”

Supernatural

Spirits occasionally observe their loved ones from the afterlife. At one point, James feels Frank’s presence and begins speaking to him. James wonders if he is going mad.

Spiritual Content

The story is told from the rotating perspectives of four Greek gods. Their influence and powers are often employed as catalysts for plot developments.
Hades comes dressed as a Catholic priest, as that is how he presents himself to humans.
Many of the human characters are Christian and are described praying, visiting churches, and lighting votive candles. They also reference Christian stories and practices.
After losing everyone she loves to the war, Colette struggles with her faith. She believes herself to be a “plaything to a vindictive god.” She calls god “it” and explains that “a loving god would never allow this. And if there was no god at all, surely chance would occasionally favor me, non?”
After standing up to an authority figure, the narrator says that Hazel “wasn’t a Catholic, but at the rate she was going, she probably needed a priest to take her confession. Before she was struck by lightning and cast down to hell.”

by Jennaly Nolan

14+ 480 4.7 4 worms AR hs (World War I)

Diverse Characters, Strong Female Character

The Berlin Boxing Club

Karl Stern is Jewish in heritage only. No one in his family practices and Karl doesn’t even see himself as Jewish. However, in Nazi Germany, Karl is Jewish, whether he or his family practice the religion. Despite this fact, Karl’s concerns are less about the Nazis and more about becoming a cartoonist, flirting with his neighbor Greta Hauser, and learning how to box from his father’s friend, the great Max Schmeling. But as the restrictions tighten around Jewish people, Karl must learn what it means to be a man, to be Jewish, and to be strong.

Although The Berlin Boxing Club is set in Nazi Germany and has a Jewish protagonist, the events lead up to Kristallnacht, or night of the broken glass, instead of describing a concentration camp. Although the reader will be familiar with the Holocaust, the characters do not know what’s to come. The historical events, like the laws passed against Jewish people, did actually happen, and the reader gets to experience discrimination and hatred through Karl’s eyes. As a form of escapism, Karl draws cartoons that depict him and his sister fleeing the bullies in their lives. These cartoons appear throughout the book and help them keep up hope, even when the situation is dire.

The Berlin Boxing Club contains some characters who are real historical figures. Most prominently featured is Max Schmeling, who was a real German boxer who lost in a historic fight against African American boxer Joe Louis. Although Schmeling was beloved in Germany before this event, his loss failed to prove Hitler’s assertion that the so-called “German race” was superior. This loss helped move Schmeling out of the spotlight. Most importantly, Schmeling historically helped hide two Jewish children. Schmeling’s history is closely tied with Karl and his family, and it is a clever way of mixing fiction with historical facts. It should be noted that Karl and his family are fictional.

The main theme shows Karl’s evolving understanding of manhood. Karl desperately wants to be a boxer because he hates getting beaten up at school, and he would like to be strong to defend himself and exact revenge against his bullies. At the beginning of the book, Karl ties manhood to physical prowess, causing him to knock heads with other characters. Then, Karl meets his father’s friend, the Countess, who is a man dressed as a woman who lives with his male partner. Initially, Karl reacts very negatively towards both of them. But as the story progresses, Karl learns that the Countess fought in the Great War, and he eventually risks his own safety to help hide Karl and his sister. Through characters like the Countess, Karl unpacks his negative baggage around masculinity and learns that courage and strength come in more forms than just physical.

The Berlin Boxing Club is sometimes upsetting due to the events that took place in Nazi Germany and due to Karl’s own internalized issues that stem from damaging propaganda about Jewish people, women, and homosexuality. Karl’s personal journey shows that he can unlearn those terrible things that he thought were true, and that people are far more complicated than Karl gives them credit for. Readers who have already read other fictionalized and real accounts of life from Jewish people under Nazi rule will find that The Berlin Boxing Club is a change of pace, and they may enjoy the different perspectives that the book brings to the conversation. As Karl unpacks his own preconceived ideas, The Berlin Boxing Club is also worth unraveling to find its heart.

Sexual Content

Item number three on Karl’s list of biggest concerns in his life is, “Getting inside Greta Hauser’s pants and having her find her way into mine.” Karl mentions that he “was also obsessed with the recently bloomed chest of Greta Hauser, who lived with her family in [Karl’s] apartment building.” Karl mentions Greta’s breasts several times.
Karl talks about how he finds abstract art difficult to digest. He says that he prefers “paintings and drawings of whores, exposing themselves to men on the street and in brothels.”
In pursuit of a flyer about one of his father’s artists, Karl finds an ad lying on the floor that he describes as a “sexy message.” It reads, “Berlin is still hot ladies—You just have to look in the right cracks. The countess has just what you’ve been waiting for . . . ” An “ink smear” prevents Karl from reading the rest of the page.
The building superintendent of Karl’s apartment reads a Nazi tabloid. Karl swipes his copies “because of the pinups, not because of the Nazi propaganda.”
On his morning run, Karl passes a “weary prostitute walking home from a long night.”
Greta kisses Karl in the furnace room. Karl describes how “she wrapped her arms around me, rubbing the back of my neck. Goosebumps spread down my spine, and our kisses became more intense as she pressed her body against mine, so close that I could feel the pulse of my heart beating against hers.”
The apartment superintendent catches Karl and Greta kissing. As Greta leaves, he says to Karl, “Hope she tasted good, Stern. I’ve had my eye on that for a long time.” Karl and Greta are 14 and 15, respectively.

Violence

To “prove” that Karl is Jewish and humiliate him, three of Karl’s classmates pull down his pants to show that he is circumcised. Karl describes, “Franz roughly unbuckled my belt and unbuckled my trousers . . . my penis bobbed in front of them in all of its circumcised glory.”
The boys who humiliate Karl then fight him, though Karl wants no part of any physical confrontation. One boy punched him several times, “catching me on the edge of my chin and sending my head snapping back. More laughter. Franz (the one boy) then threw several punches at my face, landing on my eye and the side of my mouth. My top lip caught on the corner of my right canine tooth, and blood gushed out of my mouth and dribbled down my chin, eliciting more howls.”
When the boys hear a teacher’s voice from down the hallway, they shove Karl down the stairs. Karl says, “I fell hard against the side of the stairwell, knocking my face against the metal handrail as I went down. I slid down a few steps until I came to a stop face-first on the landing.” One of his teeth gets knocked out.
When Karl, his father, and his sister come home one night, they find Uncle Karl “bending over the sink with his bare ass hanging in the air. A small dark bloody hole had punctured his left buttock, which my mother was probing with long tweezers.” The adults won’t tell Karl or Hildy what happened, though it is implied that it has something to do with the political climate exacerbated by Hitler.
Karl wants to know what happened to Uncle Jakob when they find that one of his butt cheeks has been punctured in an altercation. Uncle Jakob jokes that “One of [Jakob’s] girlfriends found out about one of [his] other girlfriends, and the next thing [he] knew [he] had a hole in [his] Hintern [butt].”
Karl knows some things about Uncle Jakob, including that “Uncle Jakob was a member of an underground Communist group that was trying to organize against the Nazis.” From that, Karl guesses that Uncle Jakob “was part of a secret meeting that had been broken up by the Gestapo and that he’d gotten shot while he fled the scene.”
The boys in the Hitler Youth continue to harass Karl at school. One day they “grabbed [him] by the arms and pulled [him] back, pinning [his] arms behind [him]” so he couldn’t escape.
The boys in the Hitler Youth have a new initiation for their members, that requires they “baptize a Jew.” They grab Karl and plunge his head into a toilet in the school bathroom. Karl describes, “I quickly held my breath as I felt my hair and top of my face plunge into the water.”
Karl is upset when Max hasn’t come to get him for boxing lessons. Karl imagines in his “most exaggerated fantasy . . . becoming a heavyweight contender and defeating Schmeling himself, with [Karl’s] long arms snapping off a series of rapid-fire punches.”
When their mom won’t respond, Karl and Hildy break into the bathroom. Upset about having to let the housekeeper go, their mom falls asleep in the bathtub and it seems that she has come close to drowning. Karl describes how “she choked and gasped as water went up her nose.”
Karl learns how to box from Max Schmeling, who was a real professional boxer in Germany in the 1930s. Boxing is a violent sport, and Karl gets beaten up regularly during training. Max says about boxing, “There’s an art to boxing and plenty of skills to learn, but at the end of the day, boxing is just fighting, plain and simple.”
Karl describes what it’s like landing his first punch in a spar. Karl narrates, “The punch had mass and weight, and a wonderful electric thrill ran down my hand and across my body as I sensed his muscles tighten.”
Neblig, one of Karl’s friends at the boxing gym, reveals that he is blind in one eye because some other boys tried to beat him up. He also has a stutter, which comes through his dialogue. He says, “I held th-th-them off good. But then one of them hit me in the eye, and it almost p-p-p-popped right out.”
Karl reads a profile in a magazine about the Jewish American boxer Barney Ross. The magazine says that Ross’s father “was killed during an armed robbery.”
Uncle Jakob is arrested because his “political group doesn’t agree with the Nazis . . . They took him to a concentration camp in a place called Dachau.” The family only hears “rumors of torture and murder in the camps,” but at this point Karl’s family is unsure.
After Uncle Jakob’s arrest, Karl’s parents have a loud fight about leaving Germany. Karl describes the scene. Karl’s father “kicked the suitcase so it slid into my mother’s leg with a dull thud. She grabbed her shin in pain where the suitcase had struck her. ‘Goddamn you!’ she screamed. She picked up the suitcase and hurled it toward my father. He ducked out of the way, but it struck him on the shoulder and then bounced against the wall.”
Karl and the few other Jewish students are expelled from their school because of the implementation of the Nuremburg laws (which barred Jewish people from doing a host of activities and jobs, and defined who was “a Jew”). Afterward, some of the boys at school run to beat up Karl and the others. Karl is faster than Benjamin, another Jewish student, and Karl looks back to see a student “grab [Benjamin] by the back of his jacket and swing him to the ground . . . he was completely covered by the kicking and punching bodies of the other boys.”
Bertram Heigel (the Countess) tells Karl about his experience in the First World War with Karl’s father, who had saved Heigel’s life. Heigel notes, “Your father had already made it and was returning fire to give us cover when a mustard gas cloud swept over us . . . We had lost our masks during the retreat, and I started gagging as the gas hit the back of my throat.” Karl’s father pulls them from the trenches. This description lasts for a couple of pages.
Karl’s apartment superintendent ambushes Karl and Greta’s meet up one night, and he grabs Greta with the intent of sexually assaulting her. He tells Karl to go away or he’ll throw Karl’s family out on the street. Karl discovered “Greta pressed up against a tree by Herr Koplek [the building superintendent].” Karl then “lunged forward and gave [Koplek] a quick shove, which sent him tumbling to the ground.”
Koplek gets revenge by forcing Karl’s family to move out, claiming that Karl was “making sexual advances” on Greta. Although untrue, the rumor has spread, and no one can afford to believe Karl.
Karl’s family receives word that Uncle Jakob died of “dysentery” according to the records at Dachau.
After school, the boys from the Hitler Youth hit Hildy. They throw rotten eggs and say, “Ten points to whoever can hit the first Jewess.”
In the news, Karl hears that “a Polish Jew living in France…had entered the German Embassy and shot and killed a German diplomat.”
Karl and his family experience what would become known as Kristallnacht, or the night where Nazis were “attacking Jews and Jewish businesses.” Karl is badly injured by Nazis when the rioters break into the art gallery, and Karl watches as “the man plunged the piece of glass into my father’s side.” Karl’s father is alive, but his doctor friend takes Karl’s parents away so they can hide. The scenes from Kristallnacht last for several chapters, and Karl sees scenes like Nazis “kicking an elderly Jewish man” who was lying in the street.
The Gestapo takes Karl’s father. Nothing is heard of him afterward.

Drugs and Alcohol

Karl and his sister Hildy help serve wine at their father’s art gallery openings and exhibitions. Karl’s job was “to redistribute the wine from the full bottles into the three empty bottles and then fill up the difference with water.”
Karl takes “a small taste from each one.” Hildy, who is eight, asks if she can try some, and Karl says, “When you’re thirteen.” Germany’s legal drinking age and drinking regulations for minors are much different than those in the United States, though this is not outright stated in the text.
Max has a string of rules for Karl, including “no tobacco . . . no booze.”
Karl’s father comes home one night “smelling of cigars and the peppermint-flavored liquor he preferred.”
While listening to Schmeling’s fight with Joe Louis, Karl drinks some beer with his fellow boxers. At this point in the story, Karl is almost seventeen. Karl notes that the beer makes his “brain tingle pleasantly.”
Karl gets drunk on beer during Schmeling’s fight. Karl says, “After an hour of steady drinking, I had to get up and relieve myself. I pushed myself up from the table, and my legs felt rubbery as I staggered into the men’s room.” He blacks out while in the men’s room.

Language

The Nazis and Nazi-sympathizing townsfolk use slurs and negative stereotypes towards the Jewish characters. Some of Karl’s classmates call him a “dirty pig” and say, “You should’ve been honest with us . . . We might’ve wanted to borrow money from you, Jew,” and “Jews are destroying our country.”
Profanity is fairly common throughout the book. Swear words (in both German and English) include: scheiss (shit), verdammt (damned), schwein (pig; swine), crap, ass, bastard, and retard.
Karl says of people who practice Judaism, “I disliked Jews as much as they did. I didn’t identify with them at all . . . To me, most of the Nazi propaganda about Jews had a ring of truth to it . . . And just like Adolf Hitler, I believed they were ruining everything. Only Hitler saw the Jews as ruining Germany, while I merely saw them as threatening my standing at school with my friends.”
Sometimes characters use exclamations like “God.” For instance, when Herr Boch finds Karl injured at the bottom of the steps, he says, “Du Lieber Gott! My God! What happened?”
Some of the students in Karl’s class call Karl a “Red,” referring to Russian communists. One of his classmates also comments that “All the Reds are Jews anyway, aren’t they?”
There are discussions about Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf. Much of the book is known for Hitler’s demonization of many groups of people, including Jews, LGBTQ+ folks, and many others. This book would go on to influence the Nazi party as well as much of Hitler’s regime in Germany. But The Berlin Boxing Club also discusses the parts where Hitler “specifically advocated for boxing to be part of the standard physical fitness program for all German boys.”
The apartment superintendent of Karl’s apartment was “an avowed fan of Hitler and kept a Nazi flag pinned to the outside of his door. He loyally read the Nazi tabloid, Der Stürmer, which featured the most virulent anti-Semitic articles and cartoons.”
At school one day, Karl notices that many of his classmates are wearing the regalia of the Hitler Youth. Karl notes, “I saw many boys wearing some sort of Nazi or Hitler Youth insignia, from buttons to belt buckles or kerchiefs around their necks . . . The Hitler Youth uniforms filled me with envy rather than fear. What boy wouldn’t want to wear a military uniform?”
During an assembly, a teacher wearing a “green Bavarian jacket with a small enamel swastika pin” leads the students in the Nazi salute and shouts, “Heil Hitler.” Karl participates because he “doesn’t want to draw attention to [himself] for not doing it.”
There is a lot of rhetoric against Jewish characters. For instance, the new principal at Karl’s school says that Jewish people “are the greatest threat to our fatherland.”
In biology classes at Karl’s school, the students “received long lectures on the purity of Aryan blood versus Jewish, African, [and] Gypsy blood.”
One of the boys in the Hitler Youth points at Karl and says, “Take a good look, boys. On the outside, he appears like us, but his blood and his cock are pure Jew.”
Karl’s father asks Karl to make a delivery to the Countess. Karl peeks at the package and sees “a simple illustration of two people dancing . . . both of the people were men with slicked-back hair, wearing tuxedos. The caption above the image read: The Countess presents another private winter ball for the beautiful boys of Berlin.” Karl, upon seeing this, reveals that he is homophobic. He says that his father “was somehow in league with homosexuals. It was risky enough being Jewish, but associating with homosexuals would put us at an even greater risk. Even Jews didn’t like homosexuals. It was the one thing everyone seemed to agree on.”
Karl meets the Countess, and he discovers that the Countess is a man dressed as a woman. Karl is not sure how to address him, and thinks to himself, “What were you supposed to call those people?”
Karl suspects that because his father is friends with the Countess, that his father is “a homosexual.” Then Karl wonders, “Did [he] have homosexual blood in [his] veins too?”
The girls at school call Hildy a “rotten apple” in reference to a very antisemitic book the class reads of the same name. On the cover, Karl sees the depictions of the apples. He notes, “The tree was filled with beautiful apples, except some of the apples had strange human faces with large noses and droopy eyes.” The book also praises Hitler for “cutting [Jews] out of Germany.”
Some of the boxers at the gym discuss a new and upcoming American boxer named Joe Louis. One of the boxers thinks he’ll take the heavyweight belt in no time. To this statement, another boxer says, “A Negro champion? It won’t happen.” When someone points out that Jack Johnson, an African American boxer, had already won the belt, the other boxer responds with, “A fluke . . . Negros don’t have the brainpower to be champions.” This conversation continues for about a page. The term “Negro” is used when referring to Joe Louis and other black characters.
Karl talks about how he makes deliveries for folks who live in the Berlin underworld— “homosexuals, Gypsies, Jews, Communists, anyone whose lifestyle or beliefs forced him or her to live in secret.”

Supernatural

Greta sees Karl shoveling coal in the apartment basement and says, “Well, if it isn’t Vulcan at his forge.” When Karl is confused, she clarifies, “The god of fire.” She then notes the difference between Vulcan and Hephaestus, saying, “Vulcan was a Roman god . . . Hephaestus was the Greek god of fire.”
Karl and Greta talk about mythology again in the furnace room, and this time Karl brings up the story of Pandora. Karl says, “Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create Pandora to punish mankind for stealing the secret of fire . . . Her box released all the evils of mankind—vanity, greed, envy, lust . . . ”

Spiritual Content

Karl is Jewish, but he was “raised by an atheist father and an agnostic mother, I grew up in a secular household. I had absolutely no religious background or education.”
Karl’s father fought in the First World War, and he hates religion and politics. He says, “I learned everything I needed to know about politics and religion during the war. They’re all worthless.”
Karl talks about pseudoscientists “proving Hitler’s theories of racial superiority” and who were also perpetuating “medieval myths about Jews’ kidnapping Christian children and drinking their blood in strange religious rituals.”
Greta’s family is Catholic, so her father “doesn’t want [her] talking to Lutheran boys” or Jewish boys.
Greta tells Karl that she’ll “have to say a special prayer” for him before his first real boxing match.
Greta confesses that “she was not sure that she believed in God at all.”
Jewish-American boxer Barney Ross’s father was an “Orthodox rabbi.”
Karl and Hildy’s mother sends them to attend a Jewish school since their old schools expelled them for being Jewish in the eyes of the Nuremburg laws. Karl is told on the first day that he is required to wear “a yarmulke,” or a small cap while at school even though he does not practice Judaism.
Karl has some thoughts on attending a Jewish school. He notes, “I felt no connection to the religious Jews and didn’t believe in any of their traditions. Why should God or anyone else care if I ate a pork sausage or walked around without a hat?”
The Jewish owner of the store where Karl buys his ink is suffering because of the laws against non-Jewish people doing business with Jewish people. He says a prayer over Karl before Karl leaves the store one day. The owner tells Karl, “That was the Tefilat HaDerech; it’s a prayer for a safe journey.”

by Alli Kestler

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns is set against the volatile events of Afghanistan’s last thirty years—from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding. It puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of the country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war. In war, personal lives—the struggle to survive, raise a family, and find happiness—are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

Mariam and her mother live as outcasts. With little contact with the outside world, Mariam dreams of a time when her father will accept her. When Mariam’s mother dies, Mariam has no choice but to show up at her father’s house. Her father quickly arranges for Mariam to marry Rasheed. At first, Mariam is hopeful that living in a new city with a new husband will be the beginning of something good. But after a string of miscarriages, Rasheed becomes violent and forbids Mariam from seeking friendship.

Meanwhile, Laila grew up with parents that believe everyone deserves an education, including girls. While Laila’s childhood is far from perfect, she is surrounded by loving people. Then, just when her family plans to leave their war-torn city, Laila’s parents are killed. With no family or friends left, Laila isn’t sure where to turn. When Rasheed offers marriage, Laila reluctantly agrees to become his second wife. However, she wasn’t prepared for his first wife’s hate or Rasheed’s violence.

A Thousand Splendid Suns has worked its way onto many schools’ required reading lists because the story helps readers understand Afghan history. More importantly, it is a story of family, friendship, and hope. Mariam and Laila’s friendship gives them strength to live in a brutal environment, where their husband is cruel and abusive. Through their plight, readers will begin to understand the role women play in Afghanistan and how the Taliban changed their world overnight.

Readers will be deeply moved by the story’s events. However, the brutality of war, the massacre of innocent people, and the harsh physical abuse of both Mariam and Laila is graphic and disturbing. Hosseini paints a realistic picture of living in a war-torn country, and the images of death will remain with readers for a long time after they close the cover of the book. Even though A Thousand Splendid Suns has a positive message, sensitive readers will find the descriptions of Rasheed’s abusive behavior and the constant death upsetting.

Before you read A Thousand Splendid Suns, grab a box of tissues because the story will bring you to tears. Because of Laila’s friendship, Mariam makes a decision that will forever alter both of their lives. Through Mariam’s experiences, readers will come to understand how powerless women were under the Taliban’s rule, but they will also see how friendship and kindness have the power to change one’s life.

Sexual Content

After Mariam’s mother got pregnant, the baby’s father told his wives that her mother had “forced” herself on him.
Mariam is forced to marry a much older man. Before the marriage, Mariam thinks about her mother’s words. “It was the thought of these intimacies in particular, which she [Mariam] imagined as painful acts of perversity, that filled her with dread and made her break out in a sweat.”
One night, Mariam’s husband comes into her room. “His hand was on her right breast now, squeezing it hard through the blouse. . . He rolled on top of her, wriggled and shifted, and she let out a whimper. . .The pain was sudden and astonishing. . . When it was done, he rolled off her, panting.”
Mariam finds pornography in her husband’s room. The women in the pictures, “their legs were apart, and Mariam had a full view of the dark place between.”
Mariam’s husband desires intimacy. “His appetite, on the other hand, was fierce, sometimes boarding on violent. The way he pinned her down, his hand squeezes at her breast, how furiously his hips worked.”
Laila’s feelings for her best friend, Tariq, begin to change. She wonders “what would it be like to kiss him, to feel the fuzzy hair about his lips tickling her own lips?” Later, they have sex. “Laila thought of Tariq’s hands, squeezing her breast, sliding down the small of her back, as the two of them kissed and kissed.”
Laila hears a story about three sisters who were raped and then “their throats slashed.”
After Laila’s parents die, an older man asks Laila to marry him. He implies that if she says no, she may have to work in a brothel. Laila agrees to marry him because she is pregnant.
After Laila and the man are married, he has sex with her. “Laila had a full view of his sagging breast, his protruding belly button. . . she felt his eyes crawling all over her.” They have sex several times, but the action is not described in detail.

Violence

The book often describes the violence of war. For example, someone says that the Mujahideen forces boys to fight. “And when soldiers from a rival militia capture these boys, they torture them. I heard they electrocute them. . . then they crush their balls with pliers. They make the boys lead them to their homes. Then they break in, kill their fathers, rape their sisters and mothers.”
After Mariam goes into town, she comes back and sees “the straight-backed chair, overturned. The rope dropping from a high branch. Nana dangling at the end of it.”
After Mariam has a miscarriage, her husband becomes different. It wasn’t easy tolerating him talking this way to her, to bear his scorn, his ridicule, his insults. . . [Mariam] lived in fear of his shifting moods, his volatile temperament, his insistence on steering even mundane exchanges down a confrontational path that, on occasion, he would resolve with punches, slaps, kicks. . .”
Russians took over Afghanistan and people talked about “eyes gouged and genitals electrocuted in Pol-e-Charkhi Prison. Mariam would hear of the slaughter that had taken place at the Presidential Palace.” The president was killed after he watched the “massacre of his family.”
Mariam’s husband was angry because of her cooking. “His powerful hands clasped her jaw. He shoved two fingers into her mouth and pried it open, then forced the cold, hard pebbles into it. Mariam struggled against him, mumbling, but he kept pushing the pebbles in, his upper lip curled in a sneer . . . Then he was gone, leaving Mariam to spit out pebbles, blood, and the fragments of two broken molars.”
A teacher would slap students. “Palm, then back of the hand, back and forth, like a painter working a brush.”
A boy shoots a water gun, spraying a girl with urine.
After a girl is bullied, her friend fights the bully. “Then it was all dust and fists and kicks and yelps.”
A rocket hits one of Laila’s friend’s houses. “Giti’s mother had run up and down the street where Giti was killed, collecting pieces of her daughter’s flesh in her apron, screeching hysterically. Giti’s decomposing right foot, still in in its nylon sock and purple sneaker, would be found on a rooftop two weeks later.”
A rocket hits Laila’s house. “Something hot and powerful slammed into her from behind. It knocked her out of her sandals. Lifted her up. And now she was flying, twisting and rotating in the air. . . Then Laila struck the wall. Crashed to the ground.” Laila sees her dead parents.
Laila hears a story about soldiers “raping Pashtun girls, shelling Pashtun neighborhoods, and killing indiscriminately. Every day, bodies were found tied to trees, sometimes burned beyond recognition. Often, they’d been shot in the head, had their eyes gouged out, their tongues cut out.”
Rasheed, Laila’s husband, hits both of his wives often. “One moment [Laila] was talking and the next she was on all fours, wide-eyed and red-faced, trying to draw a breath. . .” She drops the baby she was carrying. “Then she was being dragged by her hair.” Her husband locks her in a room and then goes to beat his other wife. “To Laila, the sounds she heard were those of a methodical, familiar proceeding. . . there was no cussing, no screaming, no pleading. . . only the systematic business of beating and being beaten, the thump, thump of something solid repeatedly striking flesh.”
When the Taliban take over Afghanistan, they kill the Afghanistan leader. The Taliban “had tortured him for hours, then tied his legs to a truck and dragged his lifeless body through the streets.”
After Rasheed hits Laila, she “punched him . . . The impact actually made him stagger two steps backward. . . He went on kicking, kicking Mariam now, spittle flying from his mouth. . .” At one point Rasheed put the barrel of a gun in Laila’s mouth.
Rasheed gets upset at Laila and begins “pummeling her, her head, her belly with fists, tearing at her hair, throwing her to the wall.” Mariam tries to help Laila but Rasheed hits her too.
After an old friend comes to see Laila, Rasheed gets angry. “Without saying a word, he swung the belt at Laila. . . Laila touched her fingers to her temple, looked at the blood, looked at Rasheed, with astonishment. Rasheed swung the belt again.” Rasheed begins to strangle Laila. “Laila’s face was turning blue now, and her eyes had rolled back.”
In order to save Laila, Mariam hits Rasheed with a shovel. “And so Mariam raised the shovel high, raised it as high as she could, arching it so it touched the small of her back. She turned it so the sharp edge was vertical . . . Mariam brought down the shovel. This time, she gave it everything she had.” Rasheed dies from his wounds.
When an Afghanistan leader is killed, Laila thinks about some of the violence that he caused. “She remembers too well the neighborhoods razed under his watch, the bodies dragged from the rubble, the hands and feet of children discovered on rooftops or the high branches of some tree days after their funeral. . . “

Drugs and Alcohol

Someone is given morphine after being injured.
Laila overhears a story about her husband. He was drunk when his son “went into the water unnoticed. They spotted him a while later, floating face down.” The boy died. Someone says, “This is why the Holy Koran forbids sharab. Because it always falls on the sober to pay for the sins of the drunk.”

Language

Profanity is rarely used. Profanity includes ass, piss, shit, and damn.
As a child, Mariam’s mother reminds her that she is a bastard because she was born out of wedlock.
Mariam yells at her half-brother, saying “he had a mouth shaped like a lizard’s ass.”
Mariam pleads with her father, asking him not to make her marry a stranger. He yells, “Goddamn it, Mariam, don’t do this to me.”
A child yells at a bully, saying, “Your mother eats cock!” The child does not know what the words mean.
Someone calls Laila a whore. Later, Laila’s husband also calls her a whore.

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

The story focuses on characters who are Muslim. They often pray.
Mariam’s mom said she had a difficult labor. She said, “I didn’t eat or sleep, all I did was push and pray that you would come out.”
Mullah Faizullah teaches Mariam about the Koran’s words. He tells her, “You can summon them [God’s words] in your time of need, and they won’t fail you. God’s words will never betray you, my girl.” During difficult times, Mariam thinks about verses from the Koran.
Mariam asks Mullah Faizullah to convince Mariam’s mother to let her go to school. He replies, “God, in His wisdom has given us each weaknesses, and foremost among my many is that I am powerless to refuse you, Mariam.”
Mariam’s mother tells her, “Of all the daughters I could have had, why did God give me an ungrateful one like you?” Later that day, her mother commits suicide.
After Mariam’s mother commits suicide, Mullah Faizullah says, “The Koran speaks the truth, my girl. Behind every trial and every sorrow that He makes us shoulder, God has a reason.” Later, he tells Mariam that Allah “will forgive her, for He is all-forgiving, but Allah is saddened by what she did.”
After Mariam’s father forces her to marry, her father says he will come to visit her. She tells him, “I used to pray that you’d live to be a hundred years old. . . I didn’t know that you were ashamed of me.”
When Mariam learns that she will have a baby, she thinks about a verse from the Koran. “And Allah is the East and the West, therefore wherever you turn there is Allah’s purpose.”
When Mariam has a miscarriage, she gets angry, but thinks, “Allah was not spiteful. He was not a petty God. . . Blessed is He in Whose hand is the kingdom, and He Who has power over all things, Who created death and life that He may try out.”
When the Taliban took over Afghanistan, flyers were passed out with new rules including “all citizens must pray five times a day. . . If you are not Muslim, do not worship where you can be seen by Muslims. If you do, you will be beaten and imprisoned. If you are caught trying to convert a Muslim to your faith, you will be executed.”
A man tells Mariam, “God has made us differently, you women and us men. Our brains are different. You are not able to think like we can.”

Isabel Feeney, Star Reporter

Isabel Feeney is one of the few newsgirls working in 1920s Chicago during the era of guns and gangsters. Every day, while she sells copies of the Tribune, she dreams of being a journalist like her hero, the famous crime reporter Maud Collier. So when Isabel stumbles upon a murder scene on her own street corner, she’s determined to solve the case.

Who murdered mobster Charles “The Bull” Bessemer? Was it his beautiful fiancée, Miss Giddings, whose fingerprints were found on the gun? A jealous husband? Or Bessemer’s associate, Al Capone? As Isabel tracks down clues, she finds herself working alongside Maude, who is covering the case.

But as Isabel gets closer to discovering who killed a gangster, someone becomes determined to silence her, too.

Readers will quickly fall in love with Isabel, who is intelligent, observant, and determined to solve the murder mystery. As Isabel follows the clues, she meets several possible suspects and her snooping often gets her into trouble. Along the way, Isabel meets two new friends, Flora and Robert. These friendships add interest because Flora’s family are gangsters, and Robert has a physical disability due to polio.

Even though the fast-paced story takes readers into the violent world of Chicago, none of the crimes are described in gory detail. Instead, Isabel’s journey focuses on finding the true killer by meeting the people in the prime suspect’s life. Isabelle’s new friends include the dead man’s daughter, a famous female reporter, and a police detective. As Isabel searches the city, readers will get a look at Murderess’s Row—a wing of the Cook County Jail.

Isabel Feeney, Star Reporter will appeal to both mystery and history fans. Despite Isabel’s good intentions, she often speaks without thinking and gets herself into potentially dangerous situations. As Isabel follows the clues, she writes them in a notebook, which helps the reader keep track of all the clues. Even though the story is written from Isabel’s point of view, all of the characters are uniquely interesting and well-developed. The conclusion wraps up all of the story threads and will leave the reader smiling. Readers who love a mystery that revolves around a plucky heroine should add The Friday Barnes Series by R.A. Spratt to their reading list.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

After a man is murdered, Isabel is the first person on the scene. The man is “stretched out on the snow, bleeding.” Isabel sees “a puddle of blood near his ear.”
Isabel tells a detective, “I’ve had way worse fights with the kid next door—pounded him—but it doesn’t mean I’d kill him.”
Isabel thinks about her dad’s death and wonders, “if my father had suffered, like from poison gas the Germans had used, or if he’d gone quickly, like from a bullet. Or if it had been really horrible, from a bayonet.”
A reporter tells Isabel, “I’ve trudged through the ash-covered remains of big fires. And waded into the river to get a better look when a corpse was being dredged out. And of course, I’ve stepped over bodies, sometimes several at once, because this is a violent city.”
A gangster is called the Nose because his nose got shot off.
Isabel mentions how “Mrs. Harq had bumped off her dentist husband . . .”
The newspaper has an article about how “Marty Durkin, who’d killed a federal agent in Chicago, had finally been caught after leading police on a wild-goose chase over America.”
While walking down an alley, someone hits Isabel over the head. She “stumbled on something—right before everything went black.”

Drugs and Alcohol

Al Capone is mentioned several times. “As everybody in Chicago—even kids—knew, Al Capone was a very dangerous man who’d made millions of dollars selling alcohol, which was illegal because of Prohibition.”
Isabel passes a speakeasy. “Secret places where men and women went to listen to jazz music and drink bootleg alcohol, away from the police—until the parties got raided.”

Language

Heck, darn, and jeez are used occasionally.
Isabel thinks that her friend is a witch.
A man calls Isabel a “brat” and a “lying little monster.”

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

They Called Us Enemy

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans are forced into internment camps. While George knows there is a war against the Japanese, he does not understand why he and his family are being forced to leave their home. Unable to grasp the injustices that George, his family, and other Japanese Americans are being forced to endure, George describes his joyful, yet troubled boyhood in two of America’s ten internment camps.

As George and his family adjust to life in the internment camp, George cannot help but notice the anguish and anxiety his parents and families around them are experiencing. When will the war end? How long will Japanese Americans suffer under this legalized racism? Will George, his family, and the other 120,000 Japanese Americans in internment camps ever be able to return home?

As he grows older, George angrily questions how his parents and so many other Japanese Americans could have let this happen. George’s later successes as an actor, activist, and author force him to reflect not only on his time in the camps but also on his understanding of his parents and their situation.

This heartfelt story highlights the themes of family, sacrifice, and empathy. As readers learn George’s story and watch his growth physically and emotionally, they will view all stages of George’s life—from blissful childhood ignorance to teenage anger and thoughtful adulthood. In addition, George includes his thoughts on his incarceration. Through simple, captivating images and storytelling, readers are given the chance to grow alongside George as the story progresses.

They Called Us Enemy utilizes compelling visuals and accessible language to engage and educate readers on the difficult and often overlooked subject of Japanese internment. The animated illustrations and comic style make this difficult subject more palatable for young readers while still depicting the tough reality of the characters’ situations.

From the eyes of a young George Takei, readers are able to join George in his journey to understanding and coming to terms with his and his family’s imprisonment. The combination of George’s conversation and a short, accompanied narrative tells not only George’s autobiography but the evolution of Japanese sentiment during and following World War II. Overall, this 2020 American Award Winner lives up to the praise. With its engaging historical background and cultural depictions, They Called Us Enemy is a must-read for readers of all backgrounds.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

When residents become seemingly more radical, George notes the unrest that exists throughout his second camp, Tule Lake. This results in “hostile words quickly erupt[ing] into violence throughout Tule Lake.”
As George and his family prepare for Christmas, they hear on the radio that Pearl Harbor has been attacked by the Japanese which would “naturally mean that the President would ask Congress for a declaration of war.”
Thousands of volunteers from Hawaii and across internment camps form the 442^ndregimental combat team of all American-born-Japanese Americans. George narrates that, “the 442^nd suffered over eight hundred causalities.”

Drugs and Alcohol

After leaving the internment camp, George and his family live on Skid Row in Los Angeles where they lived among “derelicts and drunkards.”

Language

Older boys teach George and his brother the phrase “sakana beach” in order to prank the young boys and upset the guards. The words do not hold a negative meaning in Japanese but are meant to imitate the phrase “son of a bitch.”
Before yelling “sakana beach,” an older boy warns George to “run like hell” in order to avoid being caught by the angry guards.
While being arrested by a guard, a man yells, “Damn Ketoh,” which George’s father later explains is an offensive term used against white people. Ketoh translates to “hairy breed.”
During a fight between the guards and the internment camp residents, a man yells, “Go to hell ketoh!”
The term “Jap” is used in a derogatory manner by non-Japanese individuals throughout the story.

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

by Katie Ng Ross

I Survived the Great Chicago Fire, 1891

Oscar Starling never wanted to come to Chicago. But then Oscar finds himself not just in the heart of the big city, but in the middle of a terrible fire! No one knows how it began, but one thing is clear: Chicago is a giant powder keg about to explode.

An army of firemen is trying to help, but this fire is a ferocious beast that wants to devour everything in its path – including Oscar! Will Oscar survive one of the most famous and devastating fires in history?

While the story’s focus is the Great Chicago Fire, Oscar is also dealing with his father’s death and his mother’s new marriage. Even though Oscar’s father has died, Oscar thinks about his father often, which helps him be brave during the fire. Oscar’s father gives the story added depth and interest. Because of his father’s stories, Oscar is able to help two parentless kids and stand up to a street gang leader.

The Great Chicago Fire, 1891 jumps straight into the action, which continues throughout the story. The compelling story focuses on the fire, but also includes information about homeless street children. The two subplots are expertly woven together to create an interesting, suspenseful story that readers will devour. Full of surprising twists and unexpected danger, The Great Chicago Fire, 1891 brings history to life.

The story is told from Oscar’s point of view, which allows the reader to understand the danger and confusion associated with being surrounded by the fire. One of the best aspects of the story is Oscar’s changing opinion of a street kid named Jennie. When Jennie helps a gang of boys steal from Oscar, he thinks she is a terrible criminal. But his opinion of Jennie changes when he learns about her circumstances. In the end, the two kids work together to survive the fire.

The story is accessible to all readers because Tarshis uses short paragraphs and simple sentences. Realistic black and white illustrations are scattered throughout the story and will help readers visualize the events. While the story weaves interesting facts throughout, the book ends with more facts about the Chicago fire. The historical information about the cause of the fire would be an excellent opportunity for parents to discuss journalists reporting “fake news” and how gossip can “harden into established fact.”

Readers who enjoy history and fast action stories will enjoy The Great Chicago Fire, 1891. If you’re looking for more historical fiction, Survival Tails by Katrina Charman takes a look at historical events from an animal’s point of view. Both series use engaging stories to teach about history.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

Oscar thinks back to when his papa was a sheriff. “Papa heard that Earless Kildair was a killer. And sure enough, by morning the town’s bank had been robbed, and one of Papa’s friends was sprawled out dead in the street.”
Oscar’s father followed Earless to Chicago. “He finally found him in a stinking tavern near the river. Papa pulled out his gun, ready to arrest him. But Earless was too quick. He jumped behind the bar and started shooting. . . A bullet whizzed just past Papa’s head. . . The bullet hit Papa in the chest.” His father survives, but later dies.
Oscar gets trapped in Chicago during the fire. Burning embers “were all around him, attacking like a swarm of fiery bees. They seared his scalp, burned through the wool of his clothes, scorched his lips. Pain lashed him, and the sickening smell of his burning hair made him gag.” Oscar is injured, but otherwise okay.
Oscar goes into a burning house to help two kids escape. “Oscar felt as though he were being attacked by a wild animal. It grabbed him, clawed at him, and spun him around.” Oscar thinks he will not be able to escape, but “then he felt a hand on his arm, pulling him up.”
Otis, a gang member, tells Oscar’s friend that she can’t quit the gang. “And before he realized what he was doing, he sprang forward and gave Otis a hard push in the chest.” Otis smacks Oscar and “Oscar fell to the ground, the flash of pain in his head burning brighter than the blazing sky.”
As people are fleeing, they cross a bridge. The bridge catches fire and “next came splashes, and Oscar refused to think about what—or who—was falling off the bridge and into the river.”

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

None

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

A child tells Oscar, “My mama got sick. She is in heaven.” Oscar tells the boy, “my papa’s in heaven too.”

Mare’s War

Mare’s War is a Coretta Scott King Award honoree and a tale of family, history, and resistance. Told in alternating “then” and “now” perspectives, the book follows Mare’s time in the Women’s Army Corps during World War II and as well as a road trip she takes back home to Bay Slough, Louisiana with her grandchildren in the present day.

The “now” sections are told from the perspective of Octavia, who is 15 and struggling to learn how to drive and fit in as a teenager. She tells about her conflicts with her older sister, Talitha. Both sisters’ perspectives are given through postcards they write home to their mom and friends. Octavia does come to appreciate Talitha, at one point saying, “I’m actually kind of proud of my evil sister.” Talitha is nearing her 18th birthday, and (through Octavia’s eyes) the readers see her struggles with boys, friendships, and growing up. Both sisters are reluctant to go on this road trip with their grandmother, thinking it will be boring, but the trip eventually brings the three women together, all with a greater appreciation for each other and their stories.

The “then” sections are told from Mare’s perspective. The story follows her from basic training all the way to Birmingham, England, and Paris, France. After an incident with Toby, a man her mother is involved with, Mare lies about her age to join the Women’s Army Corps. While she worries about her younger sister Josephine, Mare finds freedom and agency through her time in the army. She is relegated to some unsavory jobs as a member of a Black women’s unit. In addition, Mare compares the discrimination she faces in the Southern U.S. to what she experiences in the military. When she returns home to Bay Slough, she sees how much has changed.

Mare’s War includes themes of family, growing up, and the importance of history. These themes teach readers to understand Talitha, Octavia, and Mare as they learn from each other. The reader sees the various forms of discrimination Black women experience at all ages, from the 1940s to the present day.

Mare’s War is an engaging story and one of the few books that address Black women’s role in World War II. However, the difficult scenes with Mare and Toby may upset younger readers even though these scenes are sexually charged, but not explicit. Mare’s sections use a form of African American Vernacular English, which could be confusing to readers who are unfamiliar with the dialect. At times, the easy-to-follow plot is slow. However, the characters make the story interesting and worth reading.

Sexual Content

When introducing Mare, Talitha and Octavia talk about finding her “panties” in the bathroom that have a “fake butt” attached. They describe them as “fanny pants”
There are two scenes where Toby, a character from Mare’s arc, makes unwanted sexual advances on Mare and other young women. “Toby been bumping me, touching me, cutting his eyes at Mama when he thinks she don’t see. He’s been talkin’ filth to Josephine…”

Violence

Mare’s younger sister Josephine (“Feen”) hides under the bed while Mare and Toby interact. Mare knows she must keep Josephine safe, so she defends herself with a hatchet. “[Toby] smacks me in the mouth before I can get my hand up. Feen hasn’t stopped screaming, but I have. I tighten my hands on the hatchet.” Mama eventually saves Mare and Josephine by shooting Toby, but he survives.

Drugs and Alcohol

Present-day Mare is a smoker, so there are many scenes that involve her and cigarettes.
Toby drinks and smokes in ways that impact his personality, character, and actions. Mare describes Toby. “I can smell that nasty pipe Toby always be smoking… his voice is slurred.”
While out at dinner, seventeen-year-old Octavia drinks an alcoholic beverage with Kahlua in it.
While out in London, Mare and her friends go to a cafe and a club where Mare drinks for the first time. She is 18, so it is legal, but the scenes do depict her enjoying drinking. When she first drinks, Mare says “when I take a sip, it’s not too bad at all.”

Language

Dad says Mare drives “like a bat out of hell”
When Mare goes out in London, she is racially targeted. Someone says “forgot who you are, n——found out you can get a white girl here. Been seeing you and them other c—ns of yours stepping out with them English whores.” Some of these words appear more than once in this section.

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

When Toby attacks Mare and Josephine, Josephine prays to Jesus asking him save her.
While Mare is in service, she communicates with Sister Dials, a religious figure.

by Talia Marshall

The Sound of Danger

Mac heads to England on a special mission for the Queen of England. Someone has been stealing the famous Stradivarius violins. In order to discover the culprit, Mac will have to go into a deserted museum in the middle of the night where he meets a mummy. With the Queen’s corgi, Freddie, Mac also travels to Italy where he scales the walls of the Tower of Cremona. A guard imprisons Mac so the President of Italy can question him.

After escaping Italy, Mac travels to Russia where he faces a dangerous showdown with the Russian Red Army Choir. In the end, Mac is able to return the violins to their rightful owners. However, the KGB man tries to get even with the Queen of England by playing the Tetris song. Unbeknownst to him, Mac had changed the boom box’s tape and the KGB man blasts a New Kids on the Block song instead. (Once you read the book, you will understand the ending’s humor.)

Whether you have read all of the books in the Mac B Kid Spy Series or are a first-time reader, The Sound of Danger is sure to tickle your silly bone. When Mac goes on another mission for the Queen of England, the interplay between Mac and the Queen is laugh-out-loud funny. While the villain—the KGB man—is the same in all of the books, readers will still have fun guessing when the KGB man will show up and try to thwart Max.

The Sound of Danger is humorous, and it is also packed full of history. For example, the Queen of England says, “The Cold War is called a cold war because it was not fought with bullets. . . It is about which side has better spies. Which side has better stories. Which side has better ideas.” The story also teaches readers about the different parts of an orchestra, the Stradivarius, the Tetris game, and the ’80s. Some of the facts seem far-fetched, which Mac acknowledges when he writes, “It’s true. You can look it up.” Readers can trust Mac’s facts because they are true — but it’s still fun to look them up.

The Sound of Danger uses short chapters, easy vocabulary, and interesting characters to appeal to even the most reluctant readers. Every page has large illustrations that have pops of turquoise and yellow. Many of the illustrations are funny, especially the ones with the Queen of England and her “not amused” facial expressions. The illustrations also show different musical instruments, geographical locations, and historical people.

The Sound of Danger uses a humorous story and interesting characters to teach about history. Both the text and the illustrations work together to create humor and explain the historical facts. Even though The Sound of Danger is a really quick read, all of the mystery’s threads are explained. Readers looking for more humorous mystery books will also enjoy the Two Dogs in a Trench Coat Series by Julie Falatko.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

The Queen of England tells Mac about Marie Antoinette. “But in 1789 things in France began to go wild. There was a revolution! And in 1793 they cut off the queen’s head.”
A Russian soldier tries to capture Mac. “He swung a balalaika at my head—at my head!—but I ducked. The instrument made an awful song as it shattered against a stone pillar. Freddie (the Queen’s corgi) hopped out of the front of my shirt. He tugged at the man’s pant cuff with his teeth, which gave me the chance to escape.”
Mac gets thrown into a USSR prison.

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

The Queen of England says poppycock, balderdash, and rubbish.

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

Tales from Shakespeare

Tales from Shakespeare takes a trip through 10 of Shakespeare’s plays covering the gamut of plots. From lighter stories such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream to stormier plots like Macbeth, Packer does a thorough job portraying the range that Shakespeare had with his pen.

Shakespeare is often cautioned when given to readers as it can be hard to get through, but this book helps to break down that barrier. Packer tells Shakespeare’s stories in her own words while seamlessly weaving excerpts into the process. This method of storytelling removes the intimidation factor that Shakespeare can sometimes have with new readers without forfeiting the ingenious wordsmithing that the Bard is known for.

Perhaps as enticing as the beautiful stories are the incredible artwork that sits between the pages. Packer recruits a different illustrator for each of the plays, and each has vastly different styles. The variety of artwork is all too fitting for stories with vastly different plots. The illustrations serve as milestones when flipping through the book urging one to continue reading to reach the next scene. With highly detailed illustrations in high resolution, one finds themselves looking at the portrayed landscapes and characters and feeling a sense of escape. Illustrations appear every 10-15 pages, often at the beginning of a new story. Having such detailed imagery only seems fitting for literature that was intended to have a visual aspect as well. Originally, one would be listening to these stories while watching it unfold in the spotlight. This book simulates that feeling with the interplay of visual art and literature. Tales from Shakespeare feeds one’s fictitious hunger and lets one’s imagination roam.

It is a known fact that some of the topics covered in Shakespeare’s plays could be harsh for a younger audience. The original stories have sexual innuendos, violence, and strong language, and Tales of Shakespeare does not remove those topics. Packer does not alter the stories, but she does not dwell on graphic details that are portrayed in a matter-of-fact way. If someone dies, she mentions it, but she does not use the moment to leverage a reaction from the reader. The focus of this book is to welcome as many readers into the “Shakespearean fold” as possible by introducing his command of the human experience. The theme that ties these stories together is the timelessness of these plays, and how they have the power to cause one’s eyes to well up hundreds of years later.

Tales of Shakespeare is the perfect introduction to Elizabethan England, 17th-century English dialect, and Shakespeare’s stories. Shakespeare’s stories are timeless, and they have spoken to people throughout the ages. This book would serve as an excellent resource as an introduction to how plays are read and how they are formatted. The book includes the plays A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, The Tempest, Othello, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, and King Lear. Tales of Shakespeare covers some of Shakespeare’s greatest works and the prowess of the Bard is made accessible through this book.

Sexual Content

Don Pedro and Claudio see, “A woman leaning out of Hero’s window kissing another man.” They believe Hero is cheating.
Romeo and Juliet are “laying in each other’s arms” and he is “sealing her lips with a kiss.”
Othello thought his wife looked so beautiful sleeping. “He could not resist giving her one last kiss . . . and then another . . . and then another.”

Violence

Hermia’s father threatens her with death if she doesn’t marry the Duke.
After Hamlet has slain Polonius, “the bloody corpse of old Polonius slumped forward.”
After being weighed down by her dress, Ophelia drowns in the river.
Hamlet and Laertes duel and at the end “both men now bleed.”
Hero fakes his death in order to test the love of Claudio.
Beatrice orders Claudio’s death and that Benedick should duel him. They do not duel and Claudio is unharmed.
Macbeth goes into Duncan’s chambers when he is sleeping and “plunged both daggers into the king’s chest” and fled “still clutching the gory blades.”
After Macbeth kills Duncan, Lady Macbeth is unsuccessfully trying to wash the stain of a bloody spot. “Here’s the smell of blood still.”
Macduff and Macbeth duel and Macbeth is slain. Macbeth realizes he was the king to fall and dies in regret after “blade met flesh.”
In an ambush, “Roderigo leaped from the shadows and jabbed a knife in the back of Cassio’s chest.”
Othello “pressed a cushion over his wife’s face, smothering her.”
Oliver offers a blood-soaked rag to Rosalind. Rosalind faints at the sight of it.
Mercutio “stumbles backward” and is slain by Tybalt. Tybalt is then slain by Romeo in revenge. “He wildly fought and the sword found its mark.”
Romeo drinks poison given to him by the friar. He believes Juliet to be dead and kills himself. Juliet wakes up to see her lover dead and says, “Oh happy dagger! This is thy sheath. There rust and let me die.” She proceeds to stab herself in the heart and falls next to her husband, Romeo.
Cornwall plucks out Gloucester’s eye saying “out, vile jelly” and then proceeds to pluck the other one out. Regan then “leaned over Gloucester’s bloody, unseeing face.”
Gloucester tries to take his own life by jumping off a cliff, but is unsuccessful. He swears to never do it again. He later dies from grief and from having his eyes taken out.
Goneril’s steward is “struck down” by Edgar after turning on him.
Regan dies from being poisoned by Goneril, and Goneril, who is overcome with grief, stabs herself.
Edmund orders both King Lear and Cordelia to die. Although it is not described, he is successful in killing Cordelia. When Lear sees his daughter dead, he is overcome with grief and dies as well.

Drugs and Alcohol

Claudius promised to serve Hamlet a “goblet of poisoned wine for good measure.”
Queen Gertrude, the king, and Laertes are poisoned by wine.
Stephano, the king’s butler, “washed ashore with a case of wine and had spent the last hour swigging from a bottle.” He meets Caliban and he gets drunk as well.
Cassio gets drunk and gets into a fight with Roderigo.
Toby makes a drunken effort to draw his sword, but Maria crafts a plan to distract him.

Language

Polonius says to Ophelia, “You speak like an immature girl.”
“Get thee to a nunnery!” Hamlet says to Ophelia
Lady Macbeth yells “out damned spot” when trying to clean the blood from her hands.
Macduff shouts, “Turn hellhound, turn!”
Caliban says to Stephano, “What a thrice-double ass was I to take this drunkard for a god.”
Iago says to Roderigo “after all, it’s only natural that she tire of that ugly moor.”
In a rage against Desdemona, Othello says to kill her. “No, damn her, lewd minx.”
“Oh dishonorable, vile submission!… Wretched boy.” Tybalt exclaimed to Mercutio.
King Lear calls Goneril and Regan “unnatural hags.”

Supernatural

Puck gives Bottom a Donkey head.
Demetrius has a love potion cast upon him that makes him love Hermia.
Hamlet sees his father’s ghost and says that his father was murdered. His ghostly father makes him swear to avenge his murder and kill his uncle.
The three witches in Macbeth predict the future and the eventual demise of Macbeth. They create a potion and finish each other’s sentences.
Macbeth sees the ghost of Duncan at the dinner table, and others believe Macbeth is mad.
Caliban is an enslaved, scaled creature and the son of the witch Sycorax.
Prospero has strong magical powers, a book of charms, and creates the Tempest.
“’My daughter, O my daughter,’ Brabantio wailed. ‘Stolen from me and corrupted by spells.’” Brabantio goes on to accuse Othello of witchcraft.

Spiritual Content

Beatrice says, “God give you joy.”
As Hamlet dies, Horatio says, “Flights of angels sing to thy rest.”
“Oh let me not be mad, sweet heaven,” said King Lear who feared for his sanity.
After seeing Cordelia dead, the distraught King Lear says, “The Heaven’s vault should crack.”

by Paul Gordon

I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944

When Nazi soldiers occupy Poland, Max and his family are taken to a ghetto. Soon, Max’s father is taken away in a cattle car. Left on their own, Max and his sister Zena must rely on each other in order to survive. With barely enough food to eat, the siblings make a daring escape from Nazi soldiers and hide in the nearby forest.

By luck, Max and Zena meet a group of Jewish resistance fighters, who take care of them. After the resistance fighters blow up a train, the Nazis begin bombing the forest. Can Max and Zena survive the fallout of the Nazi Invasion? Will they ever see their father again?

I Survived the Nazi Invasion focuses on how the resistance fighters helped defeat the Nazis. Tarshis uses kid-friendly descriptions to show the Nazis’ brutality. Even though the descriptions are not graphic, the story shows several people dying, which may upset younger readers. In order to survive, Max remembers the Biblical story of David and Goliath, which gives him bravery and hope.

When the Nazis arrive in Max’s town, Max is surprised that some of the townspeople begin to treat the Jews badly. Max’s father tries to explain the townspeople’s behavior by saying, “They have small minds… Jews are different. And some people are suspicious of what they don’t understand.” However, the story doesn’t only show the ugly side of humanity. Instead, it also shows people’s kindness.

Even though Max and his family are able to go to America after the war, Max realizes that “The Nazis had wounded him in other places, too, places he couldn’t see. In his heart. In his mind. He had scars there, too. And he would carry those scars with him for his whole life.” Even though the Holocaust was a time of suffering, Max’s story also shows that some people risked their lives to help Jews as well as the bravery of the partisans. Most of all, Max’s message is to never lose hope.

The story is accessible to all readers because Tarshis uses short paragraphs and simple sentences. Realistic black and white illustrations are scattered throughout the story and will help readers visualize the events. The story also shows people working together to defeat the Nazis. While the story weaves interesting facts throughout, the book also ends with more facts about the Holocaust. The I Survived series gives readers a glimpse into deadly situations without including scary details. Each book is told from a young person’s point of view, which will help readers connect with the narrator.

The conclusion shows Max’s family reuniting during the war, which is unrealistic. While some of the events are too convenient to be believable, the suspense will keep readers turning the pages. Readers who want to learn more about World War II should read Survival Tails: World War II by Katrina Charman. Older readers who are ready for a more in-depth World War II story should read Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

While Max and Zena were hiding in the forest, “German planes road through the sky, dropping 1,000-pound bombs that fell with shattering explosions. Kaboom! Enormous trees became flaming torches. Sparks showered down like burning snowflakes…” Another explosion sent Max “flying through the air. His body twisted and turned.” Max lands in a ditch.
When Max leaves the ghetto to find food, a soldier drags Max away from the camp. Max’s sister secretly follows them. When the soldier sees Zena, he points a gun at her. “Max’s body seemed to move on its own fueled by a mix of terror and fury. With all his might, Max threw himself against the man. The soldier teetered for a second, and then fell.” The soldier accidently shoots himself in the leg, and Max and Zena run into the forest.
A group of Jews blows up a train filled with Nazi supplies. “A bomb exploded in a massive ball of fire. In a flash, the bridge crumbled, its wooden supports snapping like toothpicks. The train’s locomotive seemed to hang helplessly in the air for a moment. And then it started its plunge into the rocky valley hundreds of feet below.”
When Max sees a Nazi soldier holding a gun at two people, Max yells at the soldier. “That boiling rage Max had felt earlier came back to him, powering his muscles. He gripped the rock, and with all of his might, he hurled it at the sneering soldier’s head… Thwack. It hit the soldier squarely on the forehead. The man stood in shock, and then stumbled backwards.” One of the Jews shoots the soldier.
Max sees a Nazi soldier. “He was small and skinny, and he looked very young… He looked as terrified and confused as Max was.” Before Max can intervene, a Jew shoots the boy, and “the bullet hit the soldier in the chest. And as he fell dead to the ground, his arm jerked. His pistol fired. A split second later, the bullet tore into Max’s side with a searing, blinding pain. Max stared down in shock as blood gushed from a gaping wound.” Max recovers.

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

A soldier says, “We will find those filthy Jews who destroyed our train.”

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

The Biblical story of David and Goliath is retold. When David fights Goliath, “David lunged forward and grabbed Goliath’s sword and—whack—he chopped off Goliath’s head.” David’s story gave Max hope.
When Max is trapped under a tree, as he finally frees himself, he prayed, “he’d see Zena and Aunt Hannah and Martin and Lev waiting for him.”
When Max is shot, several people pray that Max would survive.

The Race to Space Countdown to Liftoff

Step back in time, beginning in 1232 when a Chinese alchemist accidentally discovered gunpowder, after which the Chinese created rockets for the battlefield. Since then, many have worked to advance rocket science. While some men dreamed of using rockets to travel into space, other men used rockets to win wars.

Then flashforward to the 1920s, when Wernher von Braun began creating a liquid-fueled rocket ship but was soon creating bombs for the Nazis. After the war, von Braun worked for the US Government. “Although von Braun wanted to achieve the means for space exploration, he once again found himself building weapons.” During this time, the Russians and Americans raced to create weapons as well as to send a man into space.

Finally, it’s 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the world’s first satellite into orbit, America had barely crossed the starting line of the great Space Race. Later that year, the United States’ first attempt at a similar feat was such a failure that the media nicknamed it “Kaputnik.” Yet American scientists and engineers refused to give up. With each failure, they gleaned valuable information about where they went wrong and how to avoid those mistakes in the future. Neil Armstrong may have made it look easy when he set foot on the lunar surface, but America’s journey to the moon was anything but simple.

The Race to Space Countdown to Liftoff is packed full of interesting historical information and explains how the Cold War spurred the United States into developing the first spacecraft. Instead of overlooking the many failures that occurred, the book explains how those failures were used to gain knowledge. For example, “The Apollo 13 mission is considered by NASA to be a ‘successful failure,’ meaning that the crew had failed to land on the moon. But NASA had learned so much during the operation, including techniques that would go on to aid in the development of new mission protocols and better technological advancements for future missions.”

Readers will learn new vocabulary and mythological references. Some readers will struggle with the advanced vocabulary words, such as diametrically, infiltrating, propaganda and détente. Even though some vocabulary is defined, a glossary would have been helpful. Despite the difficult vocabulary, The Race to Space Countdown to Liftoff breaks the text into manageable parts and uses subtitles, which make transitions to different topics easy. Both historical pictures and cartoonish, black and white illustrations appear on many pages. These illustrations show various acts of space travel and add humor.

The Race to Space Countdown to Liftoff uses a conversational tone that makes learning about history fun. The best part of the book is that it highlights events that could have been seen as “epic fails.” However, each failure was a learning opportunity that advanced space travel. The Race to Space Countdown to Liftoff shows how hard work, dedication, and perseverance can help everyone reach for the stars.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

In 1969, three men died when a spark created a fire. The spark became a “fire that spewed thick black smoke through the cockpit. The crew, still strapped into their seats, were unable to eject through the hatches before they succumbed to the smoke and fire.”

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

None

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912

George Calder must be the luckiest kid alive. He and his little sister, Phoebe, are sailing with their aunt on the Titanic, the greatest ship ever built. George can’t resist exploring every inch of the incredible boat, even if it keeps getting him into trouble.

Then the impossible happens: the Titanic hits an iceberg and water rushes in. George is stranded, alone and afraid, on the sinking skip. He’s always gotten out of trouble before…but how can he survive this?

Readers will relate to George, whose curiosity gets him into trouble. Because George loves to explore, the reader is able to see different areas of the Titanic. In the end, George’s curiosity helps him save his sister and aunt. Even though the story focuses on the Titanic, George is also dealing with the death of his mother, which has caused friction between George and his father. However, George’s relationship with his sister is sweet and adds some humor to the story. Because George has many facets to his personality, the conclusion has several surprises that give depth to the story.

I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912 answers the broad questions about the day’s events without giving readers a graphic image of the passengers’ deaths. When the ship begins to sink, George’s curiosity and perseverance help keep him and others safe. Even though the story is historical fiction, the ending doesn’t focus on those who died. Instead, the story leaves the reader with a sense of loss and with a sense of hope. In the end, George and his father begin to repair their relationship.

I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912 uses a relatable character and suspense to answer readers’ questions about the sinking of the Titanic. The story is accessible to all readers because Tarshis uses short paragraphs and simple sentences. Realistic black and white illustrations are scattered throughout the story and break up the text. While the story weaves interesting facts through, the book also ends with more facts about the Titanic. I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912 uses kid-friendly descriptions to educate readers about the Titanic and can be used as a springboard for learning more about the sinking of the ship. Proficient readers who would like to learn more about the Titanic should add Survival Tails: The Titanic by Katrina Charman to their must-read list.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

George snuck into the baggage room, trying to find a mummy that was rumored to be on the ship. While there, “something leaped out of the shadows and pushed him to the ground.” George sees a man “with glittering blue eyes and a scar running down the side of his face.” Before the man could hurt George, “there was a tremendous rumbling noise… A trunk tumbled off a shelf and hit the scar-faced man on the head.”
When the Titanic begins to sink, a steward locks a gate so the third class passengers cannot go up deck. As the passengers begin to get rowdy, the steward “took a pistol from his pocket. His hand shook as he waved it toward the crowd.”
George’s aunt and sister are able to get on a lifeboat, but George is left on the ship’s deck. As the Titanic was sinking, “Lounge chairs sailed past them and crashed over the side. People clung to the rails. A few slipped and were swept overboard.” A man helps George jump into the water and swim away from the sinking ship.
When the ship goes down, George hears “people calling for help. More and more people, screaming and yelling, hundreds of voices swirling together like a howling wind.”

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

None

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

The Lions of Little Rock

Twelve-year-old Marlee, who is shy and quiet, feels like her whole world is falling apart. And she’s sure that starting middle school is only going to make things worse until she meets Liz, the new girl. It may look as if they have nothing in common—Liz always knows the right thing to say, and Marlee can barely stand to speak up in class—but they become fast friends. Then, Liz is caught “passing” for white and leaves school without even a goodbye. Marlee decides she wants her friend back. But to stay friends, Marlee and Liz must be willing to take on segregation—and the dangers their friendship could bring to both families.

The Lions of Little Rock is historical fiction at its best. Not only is the story engaging, but it also sheds light on the struggle to desegregate schools in Little Rock Arkansas during the 1950s. The story focuses on Marlee and Liz, who refuse to give up their friendship just because they are of different races. Both girls help each other face their fears, and they encourage each other during difficult times. Through their interaction, Marlee comes to realize that, “A friend is someone who helps you change for the better. And whether you see them once a day or once a year, if it’s a true friend, it doesn’t matter.”

When someone finds out that Liz is passing as white, Marlee tries to understand her friend’s actions. Marlee’s family maid explains why passing as white is so dangerous. “If you’re really lucky, you lose your job or you’re kicked out of school. If you’re a little less lucky, you get beat up, but after a few weeks your injuries heal and you’re left alone. If you’re not lucky, a lynch mob comes and firebombs your house killing you and everyone you love.” Through Marlee and Liz as well as historical examples, the reader will come to understand racism.

Marlee changes from a timid girl who barely talks into a confident person who is willing to fight for what is right. Much of Marlee’s inspiration comes from the Little Rock Nine because they “believed they had a responsibility to make things better. Believed they could make things better, even though they were still just kids.” Marlee isn’t content to just watch the adults try to make a difference. Instead, despite her mother’s objections, Marlee joins the Woman’s Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools. As part of the organization, she helps fold pamphlets, talks to voters, and performs other small jobs that make a huge impact. In the end, Marlee learns the importance of standing up for herself and others.

The Lions of Little Rock won the New York Historical Society Children’s Book Prize. The entertaining story teaches important life lessons about friendship, facing fears, and finding your voice. The story is historically accurate; the author’s note at the end of the book explains which parts of the story were fictional and which events were factual. The book also includes three pages of discussion questions. Everyone should read The Lions of Little Rock because it will help readers understand racial tensions in the late 1950s as well as show the importance of making a difference in your world.

Sexual Content

Marlee has a crush on JT. When Marlee drops her pencils and begins gathering them, “JT handed me one of the pencils and our fingers touched and I could almost hear the wedding bells. . . By lunchtime I’d planned our honeymoon in Italy and was trying to decide if we should name our first son Orbit or Cosine. . .”

Violence

Marlee’s father invited a “colored minister” to speak at church. “The next day there was a note tucked in with our paper. It said, ‘You let your youngest walk to school tomorrow, she won’t make it.’ And it was signed, KKK.”
On Halloween, JT and his brother egg a house. JT’s brother tries to force Marlee to throw an egg at the house. Later a “colored boy” is arrested for the crime.
Marlee’s father tells her about Emmett Till. “He was a young Negro boy who went down to visit some relatives in Mississippi. One day someone saw him talking, some say flirting, with a white woman. . .He was murdered. . . He was only fourteen years old.”
The story implies that JT’s mother, Mrs. Dalton, is abused by her husband. Marlee “remembered her because she had a scar over her left eyebrow. . . JT had said once she’d got the scar when she tripped on the stairs.”
The story implies that JT’s father hits him. JT shows up at school with a black eye.
Someone tells Marlee about John Carter, “a colored man.” He was “taken by a mob of people. No one did anything. . . They hung him and shot him and dragged his body down the street and then burned him.”
Marlee was at the “colored pastor’s” house when she saw JT’s brother drive by several times. Everyone goes outside and then, “we suddenly heard a car pull up in front of the house. . . There was a crash and the sound of breaking glass. A screech of wheels, driving off. And then, an explosion.” No one is injured.
When the schools are integrated, protestors show up. In order to break up the protestors, “the firemen turned the hoses on. In an instant, the segregationists were soaked.” Several people are arrested, but no one is injured.

Drugs and Alcohol

Marlee compares people to drinks. When she meets Liz, she wonders if Liz is “like a shot of whiskey given to you by your older cousin.”
At a football game, Marlee sits by JT and one of his friends. The friend, “smelled funny, like a warm beer.”
Marlee and her sister used to go to a pond to have picnic lunches. “At night, sometimes teenagers would park there on dates or sneak off to drink beer.”
Marlee sees JT’s brother and his friend at the zoo. On the bench they are sitting at are “some beers.”

Language

Marlee thinks that someone is a jerk. Later, she tells her friend that, “JT is a jerk.”
Nigger(s) is used 4 times. Someone discovers that Liz was passing as white. JT’s brother tells Marlee, “We’ll find your little friend and show her whole family what we think of niggers who try to pass.”
Someone calls Marlee an idiot.
Several people call Marlee a “square” because she likes math.
Someone calls Marlee a coward.
Darn is used several times.
“Oh Lord” is used as an exclamation once.
After someone throws an explosive into a house, the person’s father asks, “What the hell were you thinking?”

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

Marlee has a hard time talking to her family’s maid, Betty Jean. Marlee “just stood there, helpless, praying Betty Jean would understand.”
At church, Marlee hears the Bible verse, “But even if you do suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed.” Often, when Marlee has to make a decision, she reminds herself of this verse.
Marlee goes to meet Liz at the colored movie theatre. When a woman questions Liz, Marlee “prayed for the lights to go down and the newsreel to start.”
When a “colored boy” is arrested for throwing eggs at a house, Marlee’s father bails the boy out of jail. When the boy’s mother sees him, she says, “Oh, thank God.”
Marlee’s church makes a float for the Christmas parade. The theme was from Matthew 19:14. “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
Marlee’s family goes on a plane. Her mother and sister are nervous. Marlee “thanked God that neither one of them had actually thrown up.”
Marlee’s mom is a substitute at Marlee’s school. Marlee “prayed no one would see us together.”
JT and his brother see Marlee in the woods. Marlee tries to distract them so they do not see Liz. She “started walking, praying they would follow me.”

My Plain Jane

There has been a murder at Lowood school, and aspiring writer Charlotte Brontë is on a mission to uncover the culprit. When an agent from the Society for the Relocation of Wayward Spirits shows up to interrogate the ghost of Mr. Brocklehurst, Charlotte is convinced that she can be of assistance. However, the mysterious Mr. Blackwood seems more interested in talking to her friend Jane Eyre than solving the case. Rumors of romance quickly spread through the school, but Charlotte can’t help but hope this problem might be supernatural in nature. After all, that would make a much better story.

As the star agent at the Society, Alexander Blackwood uses his rare ability to see ghosts to help him capture and relocate particularly pesky spirits. However, his real goal is to find whoever is responsible for his father’s murder and enact his revenge. With royal funding being cut and seers dying in the line of duty, it’s up to Alexander and his woefully incompetent assistant Branwell to keep the Society afloat. The last thing he expected was to discover an unusually powerful seer while out on a routine relocation. Now in order to save the Society, Alexander needs to convince Jane Eyre to join as an agent…a task that is much easier said than done.

Jane Eyre might have the ability to see ghosts, but she has absolutely no interest in becoming a Society seer. Some of her best friends are ghosts, and she would never dream of forcefully relocating them. Instead, she’s taken a job as a governess at Thornfield Hall under the employment of the enigmatic Mr. Rochester. While Jane finds herself falling for the brooding master of the house, Charlotte and Alexander accidentally uncover some disturbing supernatural secrets that have the potential to put both Jane and the entirety of England in danger.

In this twist on Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre, co-authors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows take readers on a wild, slightly spooky, romp through pre-Victorian England. You don’t have to have read Jane Eyre to thoroughly enjoy all the haunted hijinks, but good-humored fans of the classic will likely take pleasure in the ways that My Plain Jane pokes fun at its source material.

The always-curious Charlotte and charmingly grumpy Alexander make a compelling pair as they attempt to get to the bottom of an increasingly complex mystery, but it’s Jane herself that I believe readers will find themselves rooting for as she discovers that even very small and plain people can be very powerful when they let themselves be.

Sexual Content

Charlotte and Jane are both fascinated by the idea of boys and, despite not having the best of prospects, “they could still imagine themselves being swept off their feet by handsome strangers who would look past their poverty and plainness and see something worthy of love.”
Jane thinks that she wouldn’t call Alexander handsome because his jaw is too square and his hair too long. The narrators explain that “In the pre-Victorian age, [a] truly handsome man should be pale—because being out in the sun was for peasants—with a long, oval-shaped face, a narrow jaw, a small mouth, and a pointy chin.”
Jane considers herself to be quite plain-looking, but “to ghosts, however she was the epitome of beauty. This left Jane to believe that something was seriously askew in the afterlife.”
Just like all the other ghosts, Helen thinks that Jane is beautiful, but Jane thinks, “it was Helen, with her porcelain complex, blue eyes, and long golden hair, who would have turned heads if she were still alive.”
Helen tells Jane that she’s too beautiful to be a governess because “you’re so lovely that the master of the house wouldn’t be able to help falling in love with you.”
When Alexander arrives at Lowood, the girls are excited because they don’t usually see boys. They immediately decide that he is there to court one of the teachers. “This is like a real live romance novel,” one girl said. “I can’t stand the tension. Who will he choose?”
Charlotte doesn’t believe the rumor that Alexander proposed to Jane. “Charlotte believed in love at first sight, of course—she dreamed that one day, at some unexpected moment, such a thing might even happen to her—but she firmly disapproved of marriage at first sight.”
An argument between Jane and Charlotte starts a new rumor at Lowood “that Charlotte Brontë was also madly in love with Mr. Blackwood, and she and Jane Eyre would now be forced to compete for the man’s affections.”
Jane describes Mr. Rochester as having “the most handsome face she’d ever seen. Pale and oval in shape, sideburns all the way down to his pointed chin (which would technically make it a beard) and framing the most perfectly tiny lips she’d ever beheld.”
The narrators defend Jane falling for Rochester by explaining that her perception of men was “gleaned mostly from books and art that tended to glorify tall, dark, and brooding ones. The broodier the better. And Mr. Rochester was among the broodiest.”
Jane admits her feelings for Mr. Rochester to Charlotte and tells her, “he made me love him without even looking at me.”
Charlotte is a little disappointed that Mr. Rochester might be a murderer because it would “make him entirely inappropriate as a knight in shining armor for Jane.”
During an argument, Alexander tells Charlotte, “You should stop poking your cute button nose where it does not belong.”
Charlotte bursts into Alexander’s apartment unannounced and catches him in a compromising situation. “He was wearing trousers, thank the heavens. But she’d obviously interrupted him in the middle of shaving—there were still traces of shaving cream on his face. His hair was wet and gleaming, dripping onto his bare shoulders. His bare shoulders. Because he was not wearing a shirt. Which meant, by pre-Victorian standards, anyway, he was more or less completely naked.”
Charlotte gets bored while reading the weddings and obituaries page of the newspaper and imagines more dramatic stories behind them, referencing several classic novels. She muses for example, “Mr. Edgar Linton of Thrushcross Grange, would like to announce his engagement to the lovely Miss Catherine Earnshaw, the wedding to take place on the twenty-first of September, even though the lady would much rather marry a ruffian named Heathcliffe. But she shall forego her passion in order to secure social ambition.”
Alexander and Charlotte disrupt the wedding of Mr. Rochester and a possessed Jane, claiming that Rochester is already married. They read a letter from Mr. Mason that says, “Edward Fairfax Rochester was married to my sister Bertha Antoinetta Mason, daughter of Jonas Mason, merchant, and Antoinetta, his wife, at St. Mary’s Church, Spanish Town, Jamaica.” Mr. Mason claims that his sister is still alive and that he saw her himself three weeks prior.
Rochester tells Jane that she is the love of his life, but that they don’t need to be married. He suggests they move to the south of France to live as brother and sister. “Jane, we would have separate living compartments, and we would only spare a kiss on the cheek for birthdays.”
Branwell offers to marry Jane despite not loving her, telling her it could be an arrangement between friends. She declines his offer, telling him, “Well, that’s just the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me! At least since the last idiot who followed it up with trying to kill me.”
Charlotte is overwhelmed by her emotions after being told that Alexander is dead, but she doesn’t understand why because “What she’d felt for Mr. Blackwood hadn’t been romance, as Charlotte had previously defined romance. There had been no stolen glances—not that she would have been able to see them. No flirtations. No tortured yearning of her soul, the way Jane felt for Mr. Rochester.”
Charlotte and Branwell decide to go search for Alexander’s ghost. On the way, Charlotte practices the following speech in her mind: “Mr. Blackwood. Alexander. I would like to inform you that you are (you were, I suppose, so sorry) the keenest, most attractive, most intelligent and thoroughly engaging boy that I have ever met, and I am filled with sorrow on account of your untimely demise.”
Wellington incorrectly assumes that Jane and Alexander are in love. Jane corrects him, saying, “I have a thing for Rochester. It’s not healthy.”
When Charlotte dies briefly after having been shot, Alexander finally admits his feelings for her. “‘I care about you Miss Brontë,’ he rasped. ‘And now I’m too late in saying it.’”
Charlotte realizes that after her brush with death, she has gained the ability to see ghosts. Alexander gives her his Society mask, and she is so excited that she kisses him. “Before he could finish speaking her name, she pushed herself up a little and pressed her lips against his. His eyes widened in surprise, and immediately she backed away from him, giving an embarrassed cry.”
Charlotte tries to apologize for being too forward, and Alexander cuts her off with a second kiss. “It was the same as her kiss to him—just a touch of his lips to hers. A question. A hope. A promise.”
Charlotte reads Jane an excerpt from her book, the “reader, I married him” passage from Jane Eyre, and Jane tells her, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a story that’s so perfectly romantic.”
Charlotte is a little embarrassed at the thought of Alexander reading her story because “so much of what she’d written about Jane Eyre’s feelings for Mr. Rochester had been inspired by what she herself felt for a certain Mr. Blackwood.”
Jane and Charlotte meet Mr. Edward Rochester the Second, the Rochesters’ age-appropriate son, who Jane is immediately attracted to. “There was something so entirely familiar about his dark, intelligent eyes. A certain brooding intensity. She was overcome by the sudden notion that this boy possessed the ability not only to see her, standing there awkwardly in the blue dress and her paint-smeared smock gazing up at him, but into her as well. Like he could see into her very soul.”

Violence

Brocklehurst, the very cruel man who runs Lowood school, has been murdered during his most recent inspection. “He’d settled down by the fire in the parlor, devoured the heaping plate of cookies that Miss Temple had so kindly offered him, and promptly keeled over in the middle of afternoon tea. Poisoned. The tea, evidently, not the cookies. Although if he’d been poisoned by the cookies the girls at Lowood school felt it would’ve served him right.”
While Mr. Brocklehurst was in charge of the school, many girls died from the Graveyard Disease. “There are many terms for this popular illness over the course of history: the Affliction, consumption, tuberculosis, etc., but during this period the malady was most often referred to as ‘the Graveyard Disease,’ because if you were unlucky enough to catch it, that’s where you were headed.”
Charlotte suspects that Jane might have been the one who murdered Mr. Brocklehurst. Jane is known for disliking the man, and when she comments on how much better life at Lowood is without him, Charlotte observes, “There was something so satisfied about the tone in Jane’s voice when she said it. It seemed practically a confession.”
Jane watches two agents from the Society for the Relocation of Wayward Spirits confront a ghost known as The Shrieking Lady, who is causing significant destruction in a pub. “The agent in charge leapt nimbly through the air and landed beside the ghost. ‘Get the watch! It’s—’ But he couldn’t finish the order because the redhead clumsily lunged forward and dove right through her and landed in a pile next to Jane’s hiding place behind the bar.” The full altercation is described over about seven pages.
Jane recalls the night that her friend Helen Burns died. “Jane clasped her friend’s hand tightly, trying to ignore how cold Helen’s fingers were. They fell asleep like that, and when she woke in the morning, Helen’s body was pale and still. And standing above it was Helen’s ghost.”
Alexander has been trying to solve his father’s murder for the past fourteen years, “but he didn’t have much to go on at the moment, only the fuzzy memories of a frightened young boy. Which made revenge quite difficult.”
Helen says that on the day she met Jane, she got in trouble with a teacher who “struck [Helen’s] neck with a bundle of sticks.”
Jane says that before she befriended Helen, she had formulated a plan to “escape Lowood and beat [her] Aunt Reed with a very large stick.”
The Duke of Wellington instructs Alexander to recruit Jane into the Society because two of their four seers have been “killed in the line of duty.”
Jane discovers in the middle of the night that Mr. Rochester’s bed is set on fire. “…the flames had grown onto the canopy, and one burning piece of fabric had dropped on the bed, igniting the blanket.”
Helen gets so angry that people are calling Jane plain that it causes a destructive physical reaction. “A vase flew across the room, whizzing past Rochester’s head before it shattered against a wall.”
Alexander remembers the day his father died. “He’d heard the argument between the killer and his father. He’d felt his father’s anger as the killer left the house in a fury. And he remembered the impacts of his footfalls as he, a young boy, went racing after the killer. Then. The explosion.”
Alexander is convinced that Mr. Rochester is his father’s murderer and tells Charlotte, “I should simply kill him. It’s what he deserves. Everything in my life has been leading up to this point.”
Mason, one of Mr. Rochester’s guests, gets stabbed during the night and Jane is left to take care of him. “Mr. Mason lay on the sofa there, looking pale and drenched in sweat. A ball of bloody rags lay beside him, the freshest still bright red.”
Branwell accidentally touches the teacup holding the spirit of Mr. Brocklehurst and becomes possessed. Mr. Brocklehurst attacks Alexander with the teacup. “Alexander tackled Brocklehurst and grabbed for the teacup, but the china bashed against his temple and made him blink back stars. It was a shockingly sturdy teacup.”
Rochester attempts to propose to Jane, telling her, “I believe there is a string below your rib, and it stretches across class and age to me, and it is attached beneath my rib. And if you find another suitable position, and leave me, you will pull it out and I will bleed.”
Mason claims that his sister Bertha, Mr. Rochester’s wife, is still alive. “She’s mad perhaps, but who wouldn’t be mad after what he’s done to her. He’s had her locked in the attic for fifteen years.”
A possessed Jane attempts to strangle Charlotte after she tries to convince her not to marry Mr. Rochester. “Jane squeezed harder. Dark spots swam before Charlotte’s eyes. The world was fading. She gave one last desperate push at her attacker…and her fingers caught the pearl necklace around Jane’s slender neck. She pulled and the necklace broke free.”
Jane observes Bertha Rochester, who has been locked in an attic for fifteen years. “She was thin to the point of being malnourished. There were scratches and cuts up and down her arms, and her head hung low as if she were asleep.”
When Jane rejects Mr. Rochester, he tries to attack her and Charlotte. Alexander fights Mr. Rochester so that the girls have time to escape. “[Alexander] attacked using a new move called the Three Ladies’ Luck, thinking his opponent might not know how to counter it, but Rochester was clearly a man who’d continued his sword studies throughout his life, because two sharp clacks of the blades and Alexander was blocked.” The fight is described over six pages.
Wellington comes to the Brontë residence and tells Charlotte, Branwell, and Jane that Alexander is dead. Despite Wellington being the one who attempted to kill Alexander, he answers yes when Jane asks, “So Mr. Rochester killed him?”
Charlotte and Branwell hear a variety or rumors about what happened to Mr. Rochester when his house burned down, including, “Mr. Rochester was most certainly alive. He’d nobly tried to save his wife from the fire, but she’d leapt to her death from the roof of the house.”
During the confrontation with Wellington in the throne room, Alexander threatens him with a gun. Wellington points his own gun at the King and says he’ll murder him. “I’ve done it before. George III was such a bother, and David here won’t mind—he’ll just inhabit the next in line for the throne. I already have that arranged.”
Charlotte and Branwell struggle to get the ring talisman off of the king’s finger. Charlotte becomes impatient and grabs a pair of shears. “Without another moment’s hesitation she knelt beside the king, positioned the shears, and snipped the finger off. The ring (and the accompanying finger) skittered across the carpet. The king’s eyes rolled up, and he went limp. Charlotte used his coat and string from a nearby velvet curtain to bind his hand. She’d read something about amputation in a book once. She felt a bit woozy on account of all the blood, but she soldiered on.”
Wellington needs Jane to cooperate with him because of her Beacon powers, so he can’t kill her; however, he can threaten her friends. “I will start with Mr. Blackwood, who was like a son to me. And then I will kill Mr. Rochester, who was like a brother to me. And I will not stop there. You see, Miss Eyre, I have come to discover you have quite a few people in your life who mean something to you.”
A fight breaks out at the Society headquarters. Grace Poole attempts to strangle Mrs. Rochester. Shots are fired, and Charlotte is caught in the crossfire. “The group turned toward the sound just in time to see Charlotte there, clutching her chest. Then she collapsed.” Wellington tries to grab a gun, but Mr. Rochester shoots him. The description of the fight lasts five pages.
Jane admits to Charlotte that the murder of Mr. Brocklehurst was a group effort. “Miss Temple gave him the tea. Miss Smith made the tea. Miss Scatcherd procured the poison.”

Drugs and Alcohol

When Jane enters a pub looking for a ghost, the bartender gives her a glass of brandy on the house. “For a moment Jane looked utterly scandalized that he should offer her such a thing. Then she snatched up the glass and took a sip. The liquid fire seared down her esophagus.”
When the Society agents discover Jane hiding behind the bar, she lies and tells them, “I was drunk. From the drinking of…the brandy.”

Language

Jane says, “Where was the blooming—pardon her French—Society?”
The Shrieking Lady calls her husband Frank a “hornswoggler.”
Jane tells Mr. Rochester that he is a manipulative liar, “so no, I don’t think I will live with you in the South of France as sodding brother and sister!”
Rochester calls Wellington a traitor and a “two-faced, serpent-tongued blaggart.”
Wellington tries to get Jane and Charlotte on his side, and they both tell him to “go to hell.”

Supernatural

After an embarrassing incident with a ghost in 1778, King George III founded the Royal Society for the Relocation of Wayward Spirits, “a team made up of every kind of person he thought could help him be rid of these irksome ghosts: priests who specialized in exorcisms, doctors with some knowledge of the occult, philosophers, scientists, fortune-tellers, and anybody, in general, who dabbled in the supernatural.”
Charlotte asks Jane if she believes in ghosts and then tells her, “I believe in ghosts. I think I may have seen one myself once, back in the cemetery at Haworth a few years ago. At least I thought I did.”
Charlotte thinks that the Society ought to visit Lowood school because so many girls have died there over the years (including her two older sisters) that “The school must be bustling with ghosts.”
Jane has been able to see ghosts ever since she was a child. Her aunt locked her in the Red Room, and Jane was so afraid that her heart stopped. “She literally died of fright, if only for a moment. And when she opened her eyes again her late uncle was kneeling next to her.”
Jane goes to the pub where the Society is supposed to be relocating a spirit, and she runs into a ghost known as The Shrieking Lady. “The woman’s hair was raven black, floating all around her head like she was caught in an underwater current. Her skin was almost entirely translucent, but her eyes glowed like coals.”
Alexander “bops” The Shrieking Lady on the head with a pocket watch and “A frigid blast of air blew Jane’s hair from her face. The silver pocket watch glowed, and then, to Jane’s horror, sucked the ghost in.”
Jane spends most of her time with Helen Burns, who she describes as “Her best friend and favorite ghost in all the world.”
When Alexander arrives at Lowood, he finds himself surrounded by an unusual number of ghosts, “twenty-six of whom were young girls, and one of whom wanted his murder solved.”
One of the ghosts tells Alexander that Mr. Brocklehurst killed her. “He locked me in a closet for five hours. By the time anyone came to find me I was dead.”
A ghost can be contained inside a talisman, an object of significance to them, in order to be relocated. Society agents always wear gloves because “touching a talisman could lead to a possession by the ghost trapped within.”
Helen is afraid of running into a Gyrtrash, “a northern ghost that appeared as a horse or a very large dog.”
Helen is startled by Mr. Rochester’s horse and momentarily becomes visible, startling the horse and prompting Rochester to ask Jane, “what are you, witches?”
Alexander’s assistant, Bromwell, accidentally invites a ghost into their carriage. It causes some ruckus. “The ghost opened his mouth and a stream of flies buzzed out. Alexander had to confess he’d never seen that before. Then the ghost sprang through the roof of the carriage and into the driver’s seat. He let out a bone chilling cackle. The horses reared and bolted, taking the carriage with them.”
Alexander’s boss, the Duke of Wellington, tells him that he believes Jane is a special kind of seer called a Beacon. “A Beacon, my boy, is a seer with, shall we say, extra abilities. Our previous Beacon could command ghosts with a word. From what I understand, ghosts often comment on the Beacon’s attractiveness, as though there’s some sort of supernatural glow about them visible only to ghosts.”
Bromwell explains to Charlotte that Seers gain their abilities after they die temporarily. “Seers are rare—not everyone who dies comes back with such an ability. Which is why the Society seeks us out.”
After his father’s death, Alexander spent much time looking for his father’s ghost. He was unsuccessful because “Not everyone became a ghost, of course. And it was better wasn’t it, that a spirit moved on to find peace?”
When Jane does not immediately accept Mr. Rochester’s proposal, he forces a pearl necklace talisman around her neck. “The pearls were a talisman that held a spirit. And that spirit now inhabited Jane’s body. Which meant Jane’s spirit was squeezed to the side in the most uncomfortable and frustrating (for Jane) manner.”
Alexander is sent to collect the ghost of Mr. Mitten, a man who worked for the Society before he died. The ghost is strangely cooperative. “Cautiously [Alexander] approached the ghost, half expecting some sort of fight. But Mr. Mitten held perfectly still while Alexander tapped the signet ring on his head. Immediately, the ghost was sucked in. The gold trembled and glowed, and that was that. David Mitten was trapped in the ring, ready to deliver to Wellington.”
While Mr. Rochester attempts to explain why he had Jane possessed, Helen gets so angry that her head “burst into flames.”
During their swordfight, Alexander spots a mysterious key hanging around Rochester’s neck. “Alexander sashed the sword to the left, cutting through the chain. The key went skittering across the floor, and abruptly, the ghost of a younger man ripped from Rochester’s body.” This is the ghost of Rochester’s older brother, who had been possessing him for the past fifteen years.
Alexander confronts Wellington after discovering he was behind his father’s murder and the possession of Mr. Rochester. The two come to blows, resulting in Alexander being tossed into the river Thames. “Wellington bashed Alexander over the head with the lockbox. Stars popped in his vision, and blood poured from a gash. And though Alexander scrambled to fight, he went down quickly.” The description of the fight is about a page long.
Alexander nearly drowns in the Thames, but is rescued by Bertha Rochester and some ghosts. “A tall, radiant woman had approached the water, her hair gleaming, her skin glowing. She’d drawn the attention of every single ghost in the Thames, which meant when she asked about a young man, they were able to lead the way.”
The Rochesters explain how Wellington had the former king possessed before he died. Alexander recalls how he put the ghost of David Mitten in the current king’s signet ring and realizes, “He’s going to have Mr. Mitten possess the King of England.”
Branwell learns the truth about what happened to Mr. Rochester and Alexander from the ghost of Mr. Rochester’s father. “He’s been haunting this pub for years, apparently, ever since Mr. Rochester, the brother, died and took possession of Mr. Rochester—the one we know.”
Jane is able to give the king the ability to see ghosts by reading out of The Book of the Dead. “When she had finished, the king glanced around the room, noticing nothing out of the ordinary until he looked behind him. There was the tree ghost, glancing around the room as well.”
Rochester claims that Wellington keeps The Book of the Dead “locked in a room guarded by a three-headed dog, which drops into a pit of strangling vines, followed by a life-or-death life-size game of chess, which opens into a room with a locked door and a hundred keys on wings.” This is a reference to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Jane and Mrs. Rochester read an incantation from The Book of the Dead to allow everyone at court to see ghosts as a distraction so they can save the king from his possession. Charlotte observes several interesting ghosts, including a red-haired girl. “She was dressed in a gorgeous embroidered, jewel-encrusted gown and an Elizabethan headdress. In her hand she held a book. She smiled sweetly at Jane, and reached for the man beside her, who, to Charlotte’s total astonishment, suddenly turned into a horse.” These are Jane and Gifford from My Lady Jane, the companion novel to this book.
Jane and Mrs. Rochester use their combined Beacon powers to control the talismans Wellington has collected and use them as weapons. “They scrambled toward each other, and [they] clasped hands. And that was when the entire room began to convulse with rattling talismans.”
While she is briefly dead, Charlotte’s ghost watches as Alexander cries over her body. Jane scolds her and tells her to get back into her body. “Alexander sat up just in time to see Miss Brontë’s ghost sniffle. ‘Shh, Jane, I’m trying to listen.’ But she disappeared back into her body.”
After a heartfelt conversation with Jane, Helen decides to move on. “‘I better not see you for eighty years.’ Tears sparkled on Miss Burn’s cheeks as she looked up and up, and suddenly a wide smile formed—and she was gone.”

Spiritual Content

The King of England says that ghosts should move on because “We must believe that the god who put us here, with families and companions and food and beauty… he has a place for us when we are no longer living. We must have this faith. The faith that will again be with those we’ve lost.”
Alexander reads passages out of Charlotte’s story that are actual quotes from the original Jane Eyre novel, including, “Do you think I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! I have as much soul as you and full of as much heart. And if God gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal—as we are.”

by Evalyn Harper

The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had

Dit is looking forward to the new postmaster’s arrival. Dit was told that the new postmaster would have a son his age. But when the postmaster and his family arrive, everyone is surprised that he’s black. Dit is also upset that the postmaster has a daughter, not a son. Dit has no desire to be friends with Emma, a well-educated girl.

Dit’s mother has a rule. “We didn’t have to like anyone, but we had to be nice to everyone.” Dit’s mother orders him to show Emma around. At first, Dit doesn’t like Emma. She doesn’t play baseball, fish, or climb. She’s smart and talks properly. But Emma is also the first person to ever listen to Dit, and in a house with ten children, that’s important.

Emma forces Dit to think about the difference between the colored kids and the white kids. Then when the town barber, Doc Hadley, is accused of murder and sentenced to be hanged, Dit is faced with an ugly truth. A white man’s word will always be believed, even if it is not true. Dit and Emma know Doc Hadley doesn’t deserve to be punished, so they come up with a daring plan to save Doc from the unthinkable. But if they are caught, the consequences could be disastrous.

Set in 1917 in Moundville, Alabama, and inspired by the author’s family history, The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had takes a look at race relations. The story is told through Dit’s perspective, which allows the reader to see Dit’s personal growth as he comes to understand the inequalities between blacks and whites. Because of Dit’s growing friendship with Emma, he is targeted by bullying. Soon, Dit is faced with a terrible decision—doing what is right or closing his eyes to injustice.

While the story is full of interesting characters, Dit is the only character who is well-developed. Even though the friendship between Dit and Emma is wonderful, a hint of romance at the end is far-fetched. Much like To Kill A Mockingbird, a man is unjustly sentenced to hang. However, this subplot was not fully explored, limiting the emotional impact of the story. Even though Dit is a compelling narrator, the story has several scenes that do nothing to advance the plot but instead make the story drag.

The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had explores the time period between the end of slavery and the beginning of the civil rights movement. The main lesson that readers will take away is, “Some things are worth fighting for. . . You want to do something for this town? Next time you see an injustice, take a stand. It’s worth the risk.”

This coming-of-age journey allows readers to learn positive lessons about social justice, making mistakes, and friendship. While many of the events in the story are predictable, teens will enjoy the surprising conclusion. Unlike Levine’s book The Lions of Little Rock, The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had doesn’t have much of an emotional impact. The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had imparts important life lessons, but the slow pacing will make it hard for some readers to stay engaged. Readers who want to explore racial relations during the 1900s should read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I’m Not Dying with You Tonight by Kimberly Jones & Gilly Segal also explores racial inequality, and how it still exists today.

Sexual Content

Several times, Dit’s friends tease him about kissing Emma. For example, when they see him talking to her, “Chip snickered and made kissing sounds.”
Dit tells his friends that he hasn’t seen Emma. Chip replies, “Course you ain’t. ‘Cause you got your eyes closed when you’re kissing her.”
A black boy’s grandfather was white. The boy explains, “My grandpa was a white man, a big plantation owner. Took my grandma out in the woods and nine months later she had my pa.”
Dit and Emma hear noises in the barn. “It sounded like two people, whispering and laughing. . . there, sitting on a bale of hay, was my oldest sister, Della. And she was kissing Mr. Fulton’s oldest boy.”
Emma tells Dit, “You’re the best friend I’ve ever had.” Then she kisses him on the cheek. Later, Dit kisses her on the cheek. They kiss on the cheek three times in total.
Emma and her parents are moving. As Emma and Dit say goodbye, he asks her, “Can I kiss you goodbye?” After getting permission, Dit kissed her “right on the lips and everything. I probably should say it was gross or something. But it was actually kind of nice.”
The town has a different cemetery for “fallen women.”
Dit asks his dad, “Are you ever gonna give me the talk?” His father replies, “The part about girls, it’s just too embarrassing. Ask Raymond.”

Violence

Dit uses a flip-it to kill a bird. “The bird was stretching out its neck for another ant. When the rock hit it, the yellowhammer fell to the ground.” Dit feeds the bird to a caged eagle.
Dit shoots a buzzard out of the sky. “The bird jumped up and let out a terrible scream.”
When someone calls Dit a “nigger lover,” Dit “slugged him. Hit him right in the nose. He staggered but didn’t fall over, so I punched him in the stomach.” Several kids break up the fight.
In the past, the sheriff killed a man “in a bar fight. Claimed it was an accident, but everyone knew it wasn’t.”
A woman paid Dit to throw a bag of kittens into the river. Dit “closed my eyes and with a deep breath hurled the sack up over my head and into the water. Took off running before I even heard the splash.” Later, Dit and Emma go to the river and find the sack with the kittens still alive.
Someone tells Dit about a man who died and that “He lay perfectly still with his eyes wide open.”
Emma’s mother tells her, “Your great-grandmother used to get up before sunrise and work in the fields all day without a rest. If she didn’t work fast enough, she was whipped until the blood ran down her back.”
Two of Dit’s friends lock him in a prison cell. They want him to “admit you love that nigger girl.” When they let Dit out of the cell, his “fist hit Chip square in the jaw. He fell to the ground.”
Someone makes a reference to “the poor Negro who was lynched in Jefferson County last month.”
When Emma was practicing for the school play, Big Foot comes into the schoolhouse to kick her out. He tells her to leave. When she doesn’t he “picked up Emma and threw her over his shoulder like I’d seen my pa do with a sack of potatoes. . .” A black man named Doc tells Big Foot to put Emma down. “Big Foot dropped her then. Just let go of Emma’s feet and she slid right down his back. Her head made a loud thwack as it hit the floor. . . Blood was pouring out of a gash on her forehead.” Emma’s wound needs stitches.
When Doc stands up to Big Foot, “Big Foot punched him in the jaw. Doc staggered but remained upright. Big Foot slugged him again. Doc fell to the ground this time. Blood flowed from his lip to his chin. . . Big Foot charged Doc Hadley then, ran at him like a crazed bull. . . We could hear punches being thrown and then there was a crack of something like a broken bone.” Doc Hadley is knocked unconscious and has several wounds. The scene is described over three pages.
Later, Doc Hadley’s wounds are described. “Doc Hadley was hurt bad. His left arm was broken; he had two black eyes, a split lip, a twisted ankle, a couple of bruised ribs and a lump on his head the size of an old twine baseball.”
Big Foot goes into Doc Hadley’s barbershop.” Big Foot “punched him in the stomach. Doc doubled over in pain and Big Foot hit him again, knocking him to the ground.” Both men pull a gun. Big Foot yells, “Get up off the floor so I can shoot you like a man!”
Big Foot shoots his gun. “Big Foot approached the barber chair, his boots crunching on broken glass. He was too close to miss now, and his finger was on the trigger. Doc aimed for Big Foot’s leg, but the sheriff spun the chair around, hitting Doc’s arm. Both pistols went off at once. The sheriff gasped and fell to the ground, twitching wildly.” Big Foot dies. The scene is described over three pages.
Big Foot’s mother talks about the past. “But he was always a violent boy. Got in fights at school, tortured stray dogs around town. . . He only got worse as he got older, drinking and brawling in bars. Then there was that man in Selma. I knew it wasn’t no accident.”
Dit and Emma come up with a plan to free Doc Hadley from jail. In order to get blood for their plan, Dit catches a rabbit. “It quivered in fear, its dark eyes huge in the candlelight. . . .With a snap, I broke the rabbit’s neck. It twitched for a moment, then hung limp as an old hat, warm in my hands.” Dit feels guilty about killing the rabbit.

Drugs and Alcohol

After Big Foot beats up Doc Hadley, “Big Foot didn’t leave his front porch for that whole week, just sat there and drank beer.”
An old man walks around town. He thinks he is sleepwalking. He tells Dit, “My daughter warned me about drinking a whole bottle of whiskey in one sitting.”

Language

When a new postmaster and his family move to town, they are referred to as “niggers” ten times. For example, someone says, “Only one school around here for a nigger. And if you ask me, that’s one too many.”
Someone tells Dit, “I think it’s terrible that a nice boy like you runs around with a nigger.”
Several times, someone calls Dit a “nigger lover.”
When a plane lands in a field, someone exclaims, “Jesus, Joseph and General Lee.”
When assigning parts for the school play, the teacher asks a boy to be the ringmaster. The boy refuses because “I don’t want to be no Chinaman with slitty eyes!”
A boy calls Emma an egghead.
Attempting to stop a fight, Emma throws hot grease on Big Foot. He yells, “Goddamn it!”
When the mayor discovers that someone killed himself, he says, “Oh my God!”

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

Dit and Emma find an old pottery bowl with a drawing on it. Someone tells them, “This bowl was used by the Indians. When someone died, they filled it with water and placed it in the fire so their loved ones would not go thirsty on their journey to the underworld. The hand and the eye stand for the God who made everything and the God who sees everything.”
When a man tells Dit about his dead wife, Dit’s “lips moved briefly in a silent prayer.” Later the man tells Dit that he was, “angry at God for taking her away.”
After Dit throws a sack of kittens into a river, he feels guilty and goes to church. Dit “folded my hands in prayer and tried not to think about the kittens.” During the service, the reverend says, “Our sermon today is entitled ‘How Long Will Hell Last.’ Those who have been unjust and have inflicted suffering on those smaller and weaker than themselves will burn in hell. . . Those who harm innocent creatures will suffer in hell as surely as those who’ve broken all Ten Commandments.”
When Dit and Emma find the kittens alive, Dit thinks, “God had worked a miracle in exchange for my dime.”
Dit goes to church on Christmas Eve. He listens to a sermon about “the Star of Bethlehem and how amazed the shepherds had been when they had seen it.” Dit tries to pay attention because he “didn’t want to accidentally end up going to hell.”
While driving, a car spins out of control. Dit, “started praying, but the only prayer that came to mind was Jesus, Joseph and General Lee.”
Doc Hadley’s son wants to see his father’s body. Someone tells him, “Your daddy’s moved on to a better place.” Someone else asks, “He was a suicide. Don’t they go to hell?”

I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001

The only thing Lucas loves more than football is his dad’s friend Benny, a firefighter and former football star. He taught Lucas the game and helped him practice. So, when Lucas’s parents decide football is too dangerous and he needs to quit, Lucas has to talk to his biggest fan.

On a whim, Lucas takes the train to the city instead of the bus to school. It’s a bright, beautiful day in New York. Just as Lucas arrives at the fire house, everything changes…and nothing will ever be the same again.

Lucas’s story will capture readers’ attention because it begins by focusing on Lucas’s love of football. At first, Lucas is devastated that his parents want him to quit football, as he has had three concussions in two years. Like many preteens, Lucas is impulsive and doesn’t think through his plan to skip school and go into New York to talk to Benny. However, as Lucas witnesses the attacks of September 11, he realizes that football is not the most important thing in life. At first, Lucas was worried that he would lose the friendship of his football friends. However, he realizes that his football friends still have his back, even if he isn’t on the field.

The blending of football and the attacks on the Twin Towers is a little awkward at first. However, the mix of the two topics allows Tarshis to highlight the importance of family, friends, and supporting each other through many situations. Even though the story gives details about the attacks of September 11, the events are described in a kid-friendly manner. The story does not go into vivid details, but it allows younger readers to get a glimpse into the tragedy of September 11. The end of the book has a timeline of the events of September 11 as well as questions and answers about the tragic day.

I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001 answers the broad questions about the day’s events without giving readers a graphic image of the death and destruction. Readers who are curious about the attacks will see the events through Lucas’s eyes and understand his fear and worry. Not only will readers learn facts about the attack, but they will also learn the dangers of concussions and the importance of friendships.

The story is accessible to all readers because Tarshis uses short paragraphs and simple sentences. Realistic black and white illustrations are scattered throughout the story and help bring the story alive. I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001 uses suspense and a simple plot that will answer readers’ questions about the attacks on the Twin Towers. Although the story doesn’t go into detail, the story is a good starting point for curious readers.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

Lucas is near the Twin Towers when the first plane hits the Twin Towers. “There was a thundering explosion. People all around Lucas screamed. And then the bright blue sky filled with black smoke and fire.”
When the plane hit the tower, “black, fiery smoke gushed out of a huge gash in the building’s side, billowing into the sky. Lucas turned away. He couldn’t look anymore.”
A news reporter says, “We have just witnessed the horrific sight of a second plane hitting the other tower—the South Tower… There was a massive explosion.”
Lucas and his father were fleeing to safety when one of the towers collapsed. “There was the sound of shattering glass and a powerful blast of hot wind. Minutes passed. Lucas squeezed his eyes shut and covered his ears. His mouth and nose filled with gritty dust. It was hard to breathe.”

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

Lucas watches the news on TV. The man on TV says, “Oh, my God! What was that? Another explosion!”

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

When the firefighters began returning to the station, Lucas kept praying that Uncle Benny would be alright.

The Forgotten Girl

On a cold winter night, Iris and her best friend Daniel sneak into the woods to play in the freshly fallen snow. There, Iris makes a perfect snow angel—only to find the crumbling gravestone of a young girl named Avery Moorse right beneath her.

Soon strange things start to happen to Iris. She begins having vivid nightmares. She thinks she sees the shadow of a girl lurking in the night, and she feels the pull of the abandoned grave calling her back to the woods…

Obsessed with figuring out what’s going on, Iris and Daniel start to research their town. They discover that Avery’s grave is actually part of an abandoned black cemetery, dating back to a time when white and black people were kept separate in life—and in death. They become determined to restore Avery’s grave and have proper respect finally paid to Avery and the others buried there.

Unfortunately, they have summoned a jealous and demanding ghost, one who’s not satisfied with their plans. She is tired of being overlooked and wants Iris to be her best friend forever—no matter the cost.

The Forgotten Girl is a heart-stopping ghost story intertwined with the historical significance of racism. As Iris and Daniel research their town’s history, they learn about when their junior high was desegregated and the history of segregated cemeteries. The story delves into history, but the examples of racism are completely integrated into the story and never feel like a lecture. Through the characters’ eyes, readers will be able to understand how racism isn’t always overt, but it is always painful.

The story also shines a light on how grief can change people’s lives. When Daniel’s father dies, Daniel becomes fearful and cautious. He spends more time at home and no longer spends time with his friends. However, Daniel is not the only person affected by a death. When Daniel’s grandmother, Suga, was a teenager, her best friend died during a snowstorm. The loss of her friend caused Suga to become fearful and superstitious. Through their experiences, the reader learns the importance of not allowing fear to control your life.

Iris and Daniel’s friendship will draw the reader into the story, but readers will keep reading because of the creepy events that happen. The Forgotten Girl uses an engaging story to present historical information that is both interesting and relevant. At the end of the book, the author’s note gives historical information about abandoned graveyards and her inspiration for the story. However, sensitive readers should be wary of reading The Forgotten Girl because the ghostly events are frightening; readers will be able to imagine the events happening to them. Despite this, The Forgotten Girl should be on everyone’s reading list because of the historical information and positive lessons.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

While doing research, Iris and Daniel learn about when Nelson’s Pond Middle School was desegregated. “There were protests…Avery and the others were spit on, their hair was pulled, and things were thrown at them, when all they wanted to do is go to school. To learn.”
A ghost tries to drown Iris so they can be “forever friends.” Daniel sees Iris. “Iris’s head broke the surface of the pond, her mouth open to take a loud gasp of breath, before she was pulled back underwater…she’s pushed Iris into the pond and held her under. Iris tries to fight her, but couldn’t, her arms going right through her instead.” Iris survives the attack. The scene is described over six pages.

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

None

Supernatural

Suga has many superstitions. Suga believes that “Babies can talk to angels, you know.”
Suga believes that the snow spirits snatch children. She tells Iris the tale. “When you hear the winter wind, that’s the sound of their screaming. That’s when you’ll know spirits of the snow are ready for their feeding. Wandering children are their prey, lonely in the night. They take the children in the snow, feeding on their fright.”
When someone drops their fork, that means they will get an unexpected visitor soon.
Suga tells Iris, “If you looked over your left shoulder and saw a ghost, it was probably the devil. If you looked over your right, it was likely an angel.”
Suga tells Daniel, “Well, if a ghost is attached to a person, they’ve lost their way to where they were trying to go in the first place… They need to be led to where they need to go, so they can rest. A ghost obsessed with a person is a lost spirit.”
When Iris and Daniel are lost in the woods, Daniel “silently prayed, thought about his father… Daniel saw a light. He let himself become relieved. He was starting to see houses!” Iris is afraid that the light is a trap, but Daniel “didn’t think so. He didn’t feel afraid. The light felt like basketball and comic books and trying ties and haircuts…” When Daniel touches the ball of light, “a familiar, warm comfort washed over him. He felt the excitement he used to feel from holding a basketball. He felt his dad telling him that it would be all right, that he was proud of him. That he was at peace.”

Spiritual Content

While sneaking out of the house, Iris “tiptoed down the stairs praying that they wouldn’t creak.”
When Iris hears a tap-tap-tap, she “prayed that the spirits of the snow wouldn’t come for her tonight in her dreams.”
Iris falls asleep. When a noise wakes her up, “she stared straight at the ceiling, realizing she’d fallen asleep praying.”
Iris and her family go to church. “The pastor talked about the importance of helping those in need, talking about some of the community service drives they were holding…” During the church service, “they prayed their benediction.”
When Daniel’s family go to visit his father’s grave, “Suga closed her eyes in prayer.”
Before the meal, Iris’s sister “said a singsongy prayer.”
When Iris sneaks out of the house, the neighbor turned on the porch light and yelled to see if anyone was near. Iris “ran past the neighbors’ house, praying that they were already back in bed, not looking for anyone anymore.”

I Survived the Japanese Tsunami, 2011

Ben’s father had always wanted to take his family to his hometown in Japan. After he dies, Ben thinks his mom will cancel the trip, but Ben’s mom is determined to visit Shogahama. While in the small coastal village, Ben tries to avoid his uncle. Ben doesn’t want to see the pine forest his father explored, and he doesn’t want to see the cherry tree his father thought was magic. Consumed with grief, Ben refuses to think about his father.

A massive earthquake rocks the village, nearly toppling his uncle’s house. Then, the ocean waters rise and Ben and his family are swept away—and pulled apart—by a terrible tsunami. Ben is alone, stranded in a strange country millions of miles from home. Can he fight hard enough to survive one of the most epic disasters of all time?

When Ben is being swept out to sea, he doesn’t know if he has enough strength to survive. While he is floating in the sea, he thinks back to his dad’s words: “the fear is always there, but you can’t let it take over.” When Ben is trapped in a car, he thinks about his father’s water survival drills. Ben uses this knowledge to break out of the window and escape. Before the tsunami, Ben doesn’t want to think about his father. After the tsunami though, Ben realizes, “It was Dad who got Ben through his moments of panic in the quake, who helped him escape from that drowning car. It was Dad’s wisdom that echoed through Ben’s mind in those dark moments when he was alone in the ruins.”

Full of suspense, I Survived the Japanese Tsunami, 2011 uses kid-friendly descriptions to show the devastation of the tsunami. Even though Ben is scared, he shows bravery when he protects his brother during an earthquake. While the story focuses on the disaster, the story also gives readers a glimpse of Ben’s father’s experiences, which adds depth to the story. Even though the story is about survival, it also highlights the importance of relying on others in difficult times.

I Survived the Japanese Tsunami, 2011 is told from Ben’s point of view, which allows the reader to see the events without graphic details that might scare them. Throughout the story, Ben learns to deal with his grief over his father’s death. Even though the story deals with a natural disaster, it has some unexpected humor that breaks up the tension. In addition, Star Wars fans will enjoy the references to Darth Vader.

The story is accessible to all readers because Tarshis uses short paragraphs and simple sentences. Realistic black and white illustrations are scattered throughout the story and will help readers visualize the events. The story also shows people coming together to help each other during a difficult time. While the story weaves interesting facts throughout, the book also ends with more facts about the earthquake and tsunami of 2011. The I Survived Series gives readers a glimpse into deadly situations without including scary details. Each book is told from a young person’s point of view, which will help readers connect with the narrator.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

After surviving an earthquake, a tsunami appears. “The wave carried parts of houses, a smashed car, an entire pine tree, slabs of wood and metal. It was devouring everything in its path. Two men were running on the sidewalk. Ben gasped as the wave swallowed them whole.”
Ben’s family jumps into a car and attempts to race away, but the water catches up to them. Ben’s mother, brother, and uncle are swept out of the car, but Ben is stuck inside of it. “But the water was higher now, thrashing the car back and forth. The door slammed shut. Waves crashed over the roof of the car. Freezing water gushed in, surrounding Ben. In seconds, it was up to his chest.”
Ben escapes from the car and still almost drowns because “the water seemed to be alive, with powerful arms that thrashed Ben, tore at him. Each time he fought his way to the surface to take a breath, the water grabbed him and pulled him down again.”
After Ben gets to dry land, he walks through the wreckage. “Ben hoped that one day he’d forget the terrible things he’d seen as he walked: the arm sticking out from under a pile of wreckage, the old man carrying a lifeless-looking woman on his back.”

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

None

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

The Paper Cowboy

More than anything, Tommy wants to be a cowboy just like the great Gary Cooper or the Lone Ranger, but really he’s more of a bully. He picks on other kids at school, gets into fights, and acts more like one of the bad guys than the cowboy he wants to be. But there’s a reason Tommy misbehaves: things at home are bad. After his sister is badly burned doing a chore that it was Tommy’s turn to do, his mother’s usual moodiness and scoldings turn into beatings. Tommy is racked with guilt. And without his sister, who is hospitalized, he’s left alone to face his mother’s anger.

As the beatings get worse, Tommy’s bullying spirals out of control. He’s even caught stealing from the neighborhood store. Instead of taking his punishment as a true cowboy would, Tommy seeks revenge on the store’s owner, Mr. McKenzie, by framing him as a communist. The results are disastrous.

But in his heart, Tommy knows a cowboy would make things right, so he sets out to find the real communist. But when the real communist is uncovered, it may make Tommy question what it really means to be one of the good guys.

The Paper Cowboy is a compelling story told from Tommy’s point of view. As Tommy navigates through life, he takes inspiration from the cowboys he has seen in movies. Tommy “longed to be a cowboy. Not a bully. But a cowboy who stands up to others. Who fights for the people he loves, for the town they live in.” After Tommy frames Mr. McKenzie for revenge, Tommy is racked with guilt and he becomes convinced that finding the real Commie is the only solution. As Tommy talks about his dilemma, one character says, “It only takes a little poison to ruin a well on a farm, or to spoil a reputation in a big city.” Later, someone tells him, “It doesn’t matter what you intended. The damage has been done. It’s easy to start a rumor. Much harder to stop it.”

The Paper Cowboy portrays the fear of the McCarthy Era by focusing on the townspeople Tommy comes into contact with. It is through these interactions that Tommy stops judging people based on their appearances and instead judges them based on their character. When Tommy is determined to prove that his neighbor, Mrs. Glazov, is a communist, he begins spending time with her hoping that he can find evidence. He thinks she is a communist, but as he learns more about Mrs. Glazov, he begins to like her and wonders, “What was wrong with me?” In the end, Tommy comes to the conclusion that Mrs. Glazov doesn’t belong in jail, even if she is a communist.

Readers will quickly get caught up in Tommy’s world. While Tommy isn’t always likable, readers will empathize with him as he struggles to become a better person, to right his wrongs, and to understand others. The Paper Cowboy takes readers back into time and allows them to understand how the politics of the McCarthy era affected one small town. In the end, Tommy grows into a cowboy, is able to emulate Gary Cooper’s good qualities, and makes his father proud. Tommy’s dad says, “It wasn’t the shoot-out that made Gary Cooper a great man. It was that he cared for others. He faced his problems. He didn’t walk away. He solved them. A good cowboy is a leader who looks after his heard and his posse. No one goes missing.” Tommy’s well-developed voice jumps off the page and his experiences will show readers the importance of finding your own voice and doing what is right.

Sexual Content

Tommy’s sister Mary Lou wanted to wear lipstick, but her mom “wouldn’t let her. She said it was only for loose women. I wondered what that meant. . .”

Violence

Tommy’s mom is abusive. She frequently yells and slaps him. After Tommy steals two yo-yos, his mother makes him take his pants down. “This was standard procedure for a whipping. I didn’t mind so much with my dad, but it was humiliating to pull down my pants and underwear in front of my mom. I put my hands on the kitchen counter. . . The belt whipped through the air. Eight, nine. It made a whistle and then a slap as it hit me. Ten, eleven. She didn’t stop. Mom kept hitting me, again and again, until finally the belt snapped back and hit her on the chin. . . In the quiet, I could feel each individual welt on my buttocks. There were tears on my face, but I wiped them away.” Tommy thinks he deserved the punishment.
Tommy mentions Mr. and Mrs. Rosenberg who were “convicted of spying for the Soviets.” They were executed. During recess, Tommy and his friends like to play “electric-chair tag.”
One of Tommy’s classmates has a burn scar on his face. The boy’s father explains, “It happened during the war. There was an air raid and we’d made it to the shelter. We thought we were safe. . . But a bomb caused a water heater to explode and it scarred his face.”
When a boy tells the store owner that Tommy stole the yo-yos, Tommy punched the boy in the stomach and the boy “bent over double.” Later, Tommy shoves the boy, who “lost his balance and fell into the dirt.”
Tommy’s mom gets upset at him and commands him to take his pants down. “When Mom started whipping me, I tried to make myself concentrate on normal things. . . But Mom just didn’t stop. I could feel the welts forming on welts on my butt. And when a lash went wild and hit my back, I couldn’t help crying out. . . Mom kept hitting me. It felt like a thousand bees, stinging me at once. . . Mom kept on. And Dad never came in to see if I was okay.”
Tommy’s neighbor tells him why she came to America. “The Nazis not just throw me in camp. They kill my boys and my husband.”
Tommy’s mom is upset that Tommy gave Mary Lou a pain pill. “Mom yelled at me to stop [crying], and I tried to, I really did. I wanted to be tough and stoic, but the tears kept coming. . .” Mary Lou told their mom to stop. “I knew Mary Lou was trying to help, but it was mortifying to have my older sister see me, my pants around my ankles, crying like a baby. . .Mom just ignored Mary Lou and kept hitting me. . .Mom paused, the belt dangling from her hand. . .Mom was breathing hard, sweat on her forehead, even though it was cold in the room.” Tommy’s dad intervenes.
Tommy and his friend, Eddie, play a mean joke on Little Skinny. At school, Little Skinny confronts them and “punched Eddie in the stomach. . . Little Skinny had his full weight on top of Eddie and was pounding away. One hit after another, I could see the blood pour out of Eddie’s nose.”
When Tommy is late, his mother slaps him. Tommy tells her, “’Go ahead. Slap the other side.’ She did.” One of the school nuns intervenes.
Tommy’s dog is hit by a car. “There was a huge red gash from one end of his belly to the other. . . I was pretty sure I could see his guts hanging out.” Tommy takes the dog to an adult friend, who is able to sew the dog’s wound. The dog lives.
When Tommy misses the bus, his mom “didn’t wait for me to pull down my pants this time, just slammed my hands down on the counter and started hitting me. . . I was too terrified to cry. Her blows were wild now, as likely to hit my back or my legs as my buttocks.” Tommy’s sister Pinky tries to stop her mom. “The belt flew through the air again. Pinky gasped. A big welt rose up on her skinny little arm.” Tommy yells and runs out of the house. The scene is described over three pages.
Tommy doesn’t keep his best friend, Eddie’s, secret. So at school, Eddie, “slugged me in the stomach. I wasn’t expecting the blow and I fell to the ground. My belly ached, twisted in knots, and for a moment, I thought I was going to throw up.” Tommy thinks about his mom’s beatings and doesn’t hit back.
Tommy, Eddie, and their dads go fishing. Eddie’s dad, Mr. Sullivan, gets drunk and the men start arguing. Mr. Sullivan “slapped Eddie on the cheek” for being disrespectful. Then Mr. Sullivan began shaking Eddie. Tommy thinks, “I bet it hurt being shaken like that. It had hurt when Mom had hit me.”
As the men’s arguing escalates, Mr. Sullivan “pulled out a handgun and pointed it at my dad’s face. . . Dad picked up the knife we used to gut fish.” Tommy and Eddie work together to diffuse the situation. Mr. Sullivan, “still had the gun pointed at my dad, but it was a bit lower now. . . Eddie and I both jumped onto his father, knocking him to the ground. The gun went off, but the bullet went wild, into the marshy grass.”

Drugs and Alcohol

While Mary Lou is in the hospital, the doctors give her morphine for the pain. Her mother worries that “she’ll become an addict!”
When Mary Lou is allowed to go home for a visit, her mom “started rationing Mary Lou’s pain pills.” Her mom is worried that Mary Lou would become a drug addict.
When the sheriff goes to talk to the store owner, the owner gives the sheriff a beer.
On Halloween, a doctor gives Tommy’s mom “a pill” to help her sleep. After that, Tommy’s mom continues to take the pills and sleeps a lot.
After Tommy’s father goes to see Mary Lou, he comes home smelling like whiskey.
On Thanksgiving, Tommy’s father leaves and when he comes back, he “smelled like alcohol again.”
While in a courtroom, Tommy “listened to the next case: a man who had had too much to drink had backed his car into his neighbor’s bed of prize-winning roses.”
A man is fired because he was drinking at work.
While eating lunch with a friend, Tommy’s dad has a beer.

Language

The kids in the book occasionally call each other names such as stupid, jerk, and idiot.
Crap is used once.
A boy tells the store owner that Tommy stole the yo-yos, and Tommy calls the boy an idiot and a rat. Tommy’s friend calls the boy a tattletale.
Tommy calls a fat classmate, “Little Skinny.” Tommy often calls Little Skinny names such as idiot and fatty.
Tommy’s mom has to go in front of a judge for a speeding ticket. She curses to the judge in Polish, saying “pieprzony dupku!”
Tommy calls a girl, “Lizard-Face.” One of his friends joins in and calls someone else, “Monkey-Head.”

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

Tommy’s family is Catholic and he goes to a Catholic school. When Tommy’s sister is burned, his mom says “prayers to the Virgin Mary.” Tommy says, “so many Hail Marys, it seemed like those were the only words left in the world.”
At school, the students have mass “every morning. That meant thirty-five minutes of peace and quiet—well, except for the standing up and kneeling, and chanting in Latin, but I could do all that in my sleep.”
After Tommy’s sister is injured, several people tell him, “We’re praying for your sister.”
When Tommy sees his sister for the first time after the accident, he begins to cry. He thinks, “I know I should be happy and thanking God, but I couldn’t stop crying.”
Tommy thinks the “Commies didn’t believe in freedom of religion either. Heck, they didn’t believe in religion at all.”
One man doesn’t want to include Sam when planning an event because his dad was rumored to be a communist. However, someone reminds the group of, “Ezekiel 18:20. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father.’”