Sophie Scholl

So, most people reading this who know me will know I’m obsessed with Sophie Scholl.  

 

She’s tied in first place for my favorite person in all of history, right along with Anne Boleyn.  For those of you who haven’t heard of her, Sophie Scholl was a part of an underground resistance movement in Munich known as The White Rose.  It was a group of students who resisted the Nazis by distributing anti-Nazi leaflets in Munich and across Germany.  None of them were Jewish.  All of them were of middle-class origin and could’ve turned a blind eye to what Adolf Hitler was doing to their country.  But staying silent was not an option for them.

                Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans were caught distributing leaflets at the University of Munich in February 1943.  They were given a farce of a trial and then executed, along with Christoph Probst, another White Rose member.  In all, 6 of the members were executed.

                Several years ago, I wrote the poem below as part of my assignments for the Eastern Virginia Writing Project.  Since then, I’ve also written a children’s book about her that I hope to get published.  Last summer, my fiancée and I went to Munich simply to walk where she walked and visit her grave.  All the pictures on this post are pictures I took while there.

Freiheit

You, the curtains of your hair hiding

your face like a game of hide-and-go seek.

But they’ve already found you and hidden

you away, awaiting your confession.

Not that they need one.

 
You, who threw the leaflets from the steps.

Determined, defiant, deliberate.

So many find their futures there,

while you found your demise.


You, fear and conviction seeping through

the pores of your young, you’re oh so young, face.

 You, not a decade gone from

childhood games and clothes but

a lifetime away from the

smiling girl you’d been.

Facsimiles of the leaflets at the University of Munich.

Fritz won’t understand.

 You, you will never be a girl again.

 You, thrown in a cell and encouraged to take it back.

You’re young, you’re so young, they say and you can’t mean it.

Just take it back.

You say it again and take a broken arm in the process


 You, writing “freedom” on the paper that

took it away from you. Hands shaky as you

etch your creed onto your condemnation.

 You, they found your brother too, and he’s older

but he’s barely a man and he’ll never get a gray hair.

Christoph in another cell, his children shall grow

and surpass the greatest age their father ever was.

You, marched to the guillotine as you try not to cry.

The final meeting with your parents in your mind.

They can muster questions of “why” but they can’t muster

disappointment because they gave you this fight.

You, you’re so young, will stay this way.

 You, you’re so right, a part of the true solution.

You, you’re so young, will pave this way.

For the rest of us.

 

“Such a fine sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action.”—Sophie Scholl’s last words.

 *So, when I started doing research about The White Rose, I found out that although there were rumors, there was never any proof that Sophie’s arm was broken during her interrogation process.*

Irena Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto

               

 

  Picture books are some of the most important books in the world.  They offer our children insights into the past, the present, the future, and what might be.  They show them that anything is possible, and offer scaffolding through picture support.  Pictures books are not just for little kids, but can be enjoyed by kids of all ages, and even adults.  I recently read Irena Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto, by Susan Goldman Rubin, and when I finished, all I could think was how important it is that this story exists in a picture book. 

                As an undergraduate, I was a double major in history and religious studies.  I took a class solely devoted to Germany after 1918, a class all about The Holocaust, and many other classes that touched upon World War II.  Never, in any of those classes, did I hear about Irena Sendler.  It was not until I read this picture book that I learned of this fascinating woman.  It took me aback, knowing that someone who was well-educated in this time had never heard of this woman, and it filled me with promise, knowing that this book now exists to share her story with our children for years to come.

                The story starts, not with the birth of our main character, as so many biographies do, but with the invasion of Poland.  Irena Sendler was a Catholic social worker who, from the beginning, resisted the Nazis.  The Warsaw ghetto was a place of horrific starvation, disease, and death.  Irena and other nurses were allowed into the ghetto to help with the spread of typhus.  When news came that the Nazis were planning on transporting the ghetto’s occupants to Treblinka, a death camp, Irena and others knew they had to act.

                Most of Irena’s story is something that I am familiar with—that of hiding Jewish children with nuns and other non-Jewish peoples.  I knew of hidden Jewish children, but could not ever tell you the name of any of the people who helped to save them, until I read this story.  I remember in college hearing the story of the hidden Jewish child.  Jewish parents knew that if their children stayed with them, they would most likely die.  Being selfless, parents handed their children over to stay with someone else for the duration of the war.  Irena and other brave individuals helped children to escape through sewers, under floorboards in ambulances, in fire trucks, body bags, coffins, or any other means of getting those children out of the ghetto and to safety.  Irena was even able to smuggle a baby, Elzbieta Ficowska, out in a carpenter’s wooden box.

Many children had to be hidden, moved, and hidden again and again.  There are stories of children who, after the war, could not return to their homes and families because they couldn’t even remember who they originally were.  Irena Sendler details how Irena wrote down the names of the all the children whom she helped save, and buried it to keep the identities of the children safe.  Because of her, many children could find their families again, and many more were able to escape certain death at the hands of the Nazis.

                Bottom Line: This book is important, and would be a great addition to any teacher’s unit on World War II.  I think that this book would not really be appropriate for children below 4^th grade, and I would only introduce this story to elementary school children with some context. 

Title:  Irena Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto

Author/Illustrator:  Susan Goldman Rubin/Bill Farnsworth

Publisher/Publishing Date:  Holiday House/ 2011

24 Hours of Less: 8 Books I Read in 1 sitting

A friend of mine on Facebook shared an article with me this morning, where a woman wrote about the books that she read in less than 24 hours because they were just that darn good.  I thought about all the times my butt hurt from sitting in a chair so long simply to do the exact same thing, so I thought I’d share my own list.  I started with a list of 12, but after starting to write about them I realized that nobody would read that long of a flipping article, so I’ve shortened it down to just 8.  7 are Young Adult novels and the last one is an adult book of poetry.  I should mention that most of them are those depressing, never going to feel okay again, kind of books.  I guess I really like to get my depression over in one sitting.

First up is a double-whammy (and they’re actually HAPPY books).  Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door, both by Stephanie Perkins.  I avoided these books forever because they sounded cheesy, I thought the titles were silly, and the covers did nothing for me.  Oh how wrong I was.  I started with Lola and the Boy Next Door, about Lola falling in love with her next-door neighbor Cricket Bell.  Yall, I fell hard for this book.  I lied to my then-boyfriend about when I was coming over because I had to finish the book.  When it came time for me to read Anna and the French Kiss, about Anna falling in love with Etienne, who already has a girlfriend (don’t worry, here’s actually a really decent guy), I didn’t even bother to make plans because I knew there was no way I was putting it down.  Both Anna and Lola are companion books with a third one, Isla and the Happily Ever After.  All the characters kind of show up in each other’s books in very minor ways.  If you want a romance that makes you feel mushy gushy, pick up Anna and I’ll see you tomorrow when you haven’t gotten enough sleep because you had to finish.

I just need to say that I HATE when they change cover themes midway through a series.

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson is one of those rare books that I feel is just perfect.  I really liked The Sky is Everywhere by Nelson, but I’ll Give You the Sun is in a class of its own.  It centers around twins, Jude and Noah, and is told from both of their perspectives.  Noah tells the story when he is 13, and Jude’s perspective is from 3 years later, when their families lives have essentially fallen apart.  The different perspectives from different time periods come together to make this book a whole.  You learn from Noah the things that lead to the situation 3 years later, and your heart just bleeds all over the place for everyone in the story.  I don’t want to give away much, because you really just need to experience it.

Let’s continue on the teary track with A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.  (Side note:  I desperately want to see the movie.  Felicity Jones has been one of my favorite actresses since “Like Crazy.”)  The entire premise of this novel is tear-jerking.  It was an original idea by Siobhan Dowd, but she died of cancer before she could write it.  I recently listened to a podcast with Patrick Ness, and he talked about how all of the books Siobhan Dowd published were published with her knowing she had cancer and knowing her time was limited.  He said that he wanted people to ugly cry with this book, and good lord did I ever.   In this story, Conor’s mom is dying of cancer.  A monster that has plagued him with nightmares comes to life, and ultimately helps Conor come to terms with having to lose his mother.  The illustrations are dark and add to the deep depression you feel when reading the book.  In the end, though, it’s a beautiful book about love, loss, and how to move on when we don’t know if we can.

And the tears continue with The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  If you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know what it’s about, it’s the story of Hazel and Gus, two teenagers with cancer who fall in love.  It’s told in the way that only John Green can tell it, with humor and sadness and a feeling of reality in this fiction book.  I’ll never forget when I read this book.  I preordered it and started it the day it came in the mail.  When I finished it at 3:00 in the morning, I walked over to my sister’s house and knocked on the door.  When she answered it, I was crying my eyes out and told her I just needed to be with people right now.

Just so you don’t think I only read depressing books about people sick and dying, let’s talk about The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World’s Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb.  This book chronicles the search for Adolf Eichmann, who was in charge of Jewish affairs under Hitler’s regime and was personally responsible for thousands, if not millions of deaths during WWII.  This book is nonfiction, but it reads just like a thriller.  The accompanying pictures add to the story.  Very rarely can I say I was so fascinated by a nonfiction book that I finished in one day, but this is definitely an exception.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart is one of my favorite books that I never hear people talking about.  E. Lockhart is more well-known for We Were Liars, and this book couldn’t be farther away from that.  Frankie is in her sophomore year at Alabaster Academy, and she soon begins to date senior Matthew.  Matthew is a member of the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, a secret society that plays pranks at the academy.  Frankie’s own father was a member, but Frankie herself is not allowed to join because she is a girl.  So, she devises her own ways to infiltrate the group.  The best thing about this is how strong Frankie is.  She’s hilarious, smart, and able to get crap done in this still male-dominated society.  I think middle and high school girls would love this!

 

I’m going to end with one more sad book, and it’s an adult book of poems, not young adult novels like all the previous books.  It is October Mourning:  A Song for Matthew Shepherd, by Leslea Newman (of Heather Has Two Mommies fame.)   The poems that Newman writes in this Stonewall Honor book craft us a story.  Going in chronological order, the poems are meant to be read from front to back, at least on the first time through.  The poems are told from different perspectives, everything from the fence that he laid upon; the girlfriends of Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson; the biker who first found Matthew; and even a deer that was in the field.  There is no real mercy for Henderson and McKinney—this is not the book that expunges them of any guilt.  Indeed, Newman says that, “the poems are not an objective reporting of Matthew Shepard’s murder and its aftermath; rather they are my own personal interpretation of them”(p.xi).  I love the lack of objectivity as poem after poem gives us how angry and hunt this woman was by what happened to this poor boy.  She gives more feeling to a fence post that she does McKinney and Henderson.  I can’t say I blame her for that.  It’s a beautiful, beautiful story, and deserves a place on everyone’s shelf.

Good Crooks: Missing Monkey

       

     I have an embarrassing teacher confession to make: I haven’t always read a book before I chose it as a read-aloud.  I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW.  You never know how your kids are going to react to a book anyway, and when you throw in the fact that you don’t know what is going to happen, you’re kinda just waiting to fail.  Anytime I don’t read a book beforehand, I’m waiting for an F bomb that I need to skate over, or some long dialogue about farting that I won’t be able to get my kids back from, or any other of the thousands of things that could be disastrous in a read-aloud (or amazing.  It can really go either way, folks).  We are currently finishing up the last book that I didn’t bother to read before reading it to my kiddos, The Chocolate Touch.  Thankfully, they have loved it, but I’ve been on the lookout for what we are going to read next.  I struck gold (and even read the book) in Good Crooks: Missing Monkey by Mary Amato.

            Billy and Jillian are twins being raised by their crook mother and father.  They spend fun afternoons together as a family doing things like learning how to pick locks or pickpocket at the local mall.  Growing up, Billy and Jillian thought this was normal, but Billy can’t help but feel the urge to do something good.  When he sees an advertisement for a cleanup day at the local zoo, Billy decides to go.  Dressed up in one of his crook disguises, he goes to the zoo.  There, he runs into his sister, who has always been a better crook than him.  It turns out, she has been wanting to do good, too.  Before they can plan anything, however, their parents show up, dressed as two male construction workers of course.  In the minutes that follow, Billy and Jillian’s parents steal a monkey from the zoo, and the book continues with the twins trying to set right their parents’ wrongs.

            This book is hilarious.  I found myself sitting on my couch, laughing to myself over a book written for people half my age.  I was worried about the whole aspect of the parents being criminals.  Would it glamorize law-breaking?  Would it be too preachy about not stealing?  What about my kiddos who might be raised in homes where stealing isn’t perceived as negative?  I shouldn’t have worried, though, because Mary Amato did a masterful job.  Even though Billy and Jillian love their parents, they come to realize that what they are doing is not right.  The parents aren’t mean, but are instead these kind of loveable buffoons, like when the mom sports a full mustache or when they dress the monkey up as a baby to teach it pickpocketing at the mall.  The pictures really added to the silly nature.  Billy spends about half the book dressed up as an old grandma, and I think my kids are going to go bananas (get it) over that aspect.  There’s also some pretty hilarious scenes at the zoo, including monster elephant “pies.”  The parents don’t stop being crooks at the end, but there are more books in the series, so maybe their children will bring them about in the end.

 

            Bottom Line:  I LOVED IT!  This is a perfect read-aloud for 1^st and 2^nd graders, and could be enjoyed independently by 3^rd and 4^th graders.  It is written on a level P (late 3^rd grade), and the illustrations add hilarity and some scaffolding.  Nothing inappropriate, surprisingly, just good ole bad guy humor.  Highly recommend as a younger middle-grade novel.

Title:  Good Crooks: Missing Monkey

Author: Mary Amato

Illustrator:  Ward Jenkins

Publisher/Publishing Date:  Scholastic 2014

The Daring Nellie Bly

           

Were this not a children’s book, I think a more appropriate title for The Daring Nellie Bly:  America’s Star Reporter by Bonnie Christensen might be The Kick A** Nellie Bly.  I knew vaguely of Nellie Bly, but this picture book has turned me into a Nellie Bly admirer.

            This book does one of my favorite things a book can do—teach me without preaching to me.  There was no overt message of “You can do it” or “Just persevere.”  No one likes to be preached to, well, unless they are at church.  In the opening pages, Christensen states that, “During the miserable years of her mother’s second marriage, Nellie began realizing that she never wanted to depend on anyone but herself.  So when it came time for her to consider marriage, Nellie decided upon a career instead.”  Talk about a role model, right?  The entire book is seriously a testament to how kick a** women can be.

            Let’s start with how Nellie Bly got herself admitted into an Insane Asylum just to do an undercover story about the conditions there.  That was honestly the only thing I had ever heard about her, and was initially disappointed that it only covered a couple pages.  Turns out, she did even cooler stuff.  Like insisting that she could make it around the world in less than 80 days.

            We need to think this through, guys.  This was 1889, when women were accompanied by chaperones and rarely led independent lives.  There was no internet or cell phone service.  This 26 year old woman wanted to go across the world, on her own, to prove it could be done.  I don’t even like to cross the street alone.  Nellie Bly’s trip helped increase her newspaper’s circulation by 24,000 readers!  Christensen did an amazing job retelling this amazing woman’s life.  Every girl needs to read this story, and get to experience her adventure through the masterful writing of Bonnie Christensen.

Bottom Line:  I think kids will love this book.  I can imagine this book being a read-aloud in any classroom, third grade and up.  I originally thought second grade, but I think the phrase that, “in China… they kill baby girls or sell them as slaves, because they can make no good use of them,” might be a little mature for that age group.  I feel that older girls will be able to better understand her difficulties trying to become successful in a male-dominated society and career.  That being said, however, I think even younger children will admire all of the things she was able to accomplish.

 

Title:  The Daring Nellie Bly: America’s Star Reporter

Author/Illustrator:  Bonnie Christensen

Publisher/Publishing Date:  Alfred A. Knopf, 2003

Lost Boy: The Story of the Man Who Created Peter Pan

Lost boy:  The Story of the Man Who Created Peter Pan, by Jane Yolen, is a story I wish I had read as a child.  As an adult, it pulls at some nostalgic heartstrings.  I can’t help but wonder, though, would I have felt the same way as a child?  I mean, it is a picture book aimed towards children, so I wanted to read this book with the questioning mindset of who exactly would enjoy it?  I admit I’ve never read Peter Pan, but remember loving the movie as a child.  I also enjoyed the movie “Finding Neverland” with Johnny Depp, and some of the story is familiar to me because of that movie.

                This story takes the trajectory of a typical biography.  Birth, early childhood, early childhood trauma, growing up, struggles, success, legacy.  I found the events of his life leading up to the creation of Peter Pan relatively boring.  I kept wanting to see how it came about. JUST TELL ME HOW THE MAN INVENTED NEVERLAND ALREADY!!! Throughout the story, Jane Yolen used J.M. Barrie’s own words from his books and plays.  I have to say it was my favorite aspect.  I like reading about how J.M Barrie was only 5 foot tall as an adult, just to be met with the words from The Little Minister, “’It’s a pity I’m so little, Mother.’” He said with a sigh.”  Each quote fits perfectly with whatever was happening on the page.  It made me feel like I was seeing Barrie write himself into his work like I had never understood before.

                The genesis of Peter Pan doesn’t start until over halfway through the book.  It tells of how Jamie came to be friends with the Llewelyn Davis family, as well as a sort of playmate and mentor to the 5 boys, and based the story off his friendship with them.  This section gives my favorite line from the entire book, a quote by Jamie Barrie himself:  “’I always knew that I made Peter by rubbing the five of you violently together, as savages with two sticks produce a flame.’”  The “five of you” of course refers to the 5 young Llewelyn Davis boys.  There are also some facts I had never known, like how the agent insisted the role of Peter be played by an actress, and that the play was kept such a secret that many of the actors only knew the scenes in which they had lines.    

                One thing that really surprised me about the story is the lack of end notes or author notes at the end.  One of my favorite things about nonfiction books is when the author gives me all the information that didn’t make it into the book, and more importantly, why they chose to write this book.  I can’t help but wonder what made Jane Yolen, of Owl Moon and The Devil’s Arithmetic fame, choose to write this book?  I’m sure I could scour the internet and find it, but I always love to get to the end of the book and find out about some chance encounter or lifelong passion that made a writer choose their topic.  And additional information about the person is always appreciated.  Sometimes, it’s actually the best part of the whole story.  I really missed that in this book.

                Bottom Line:   Did I like it?  Yes, I’d give it 4 out of 5 stars.  Do I think children will like it?  Yes, but there’s a specific audience for this book.  To start, it is definitely a story aimed towards older children.  I don’t think I would read this to a child before 3^rd grade unless that child had an obsession of some sort with Peter Pan.  I do think that children who have seen the movie or read the book will find it fascinating to know where it began.  If a teacher read Peter Pan to her students, this would be a fantastic end-of-unit story to show how writers get their ideas.    Come to think of it, I think it’s appropriate, actually, that I like this story so much as an adult.  I mean, Peter Pan is all about never really growing up, after all.

 The Basics:

Title:  Lost Boy:  The Story of the Man Who Created Peter Pan

Author:  Jane Yolen

Illustrator:  Steve Adams

Publisher/Publishing Date: Dutton Children's Books, 2010

 

                Full disclosure:  I have blogged about books before, mainly for a children’s literature course.  In the midst of teaching, tutoring, volunteering, and all the other hoopla associated with adulthood, I fell out of it.  Over the past several months, I’ve made writing my priority again.  I recently finished writing a picture book that is a biography aimed towards older students (4^th grade and above).  I wanted to read more books like what I had written, and to think critically about them, so that I could think critically about my own work.