#hsrl4

On the back of the jacket for the edition of Theodore Taylor's The Cay there is a quote from the review in Booklist that reads, " - eloquently underscores the intrinsic brotherhood of man." Racism and race relations, examined through the prism of children's literature are often very personal and immediate rather than expansive and historical. The Cay is a story in which racism and race relations are about as immediate and personal as you can imagine. Taylor subtly weaves this theme into a story that, on the surface, about survival.

In February 1942, eleven year old American Phillip Enright is living in the city of Willemstad on the island of Curaçao in the Caribbean. His father works for Royal Dutch Shell, on loan from the American company he worked for due to his expertise in refineries and gasoline. His mother longs to return to the home they left behind in Virginia. When the Germans bomb a refinery on the island she sees this as a sign that it is time to flee. Against his father's wishes, they board a Dutch freighter and are torpedoed on April 6, 1942 as they are leaving Panama and Phillip finds awakens from a blow to the head on a raft in the middle of the ocean with a "huge, very old Negro" and the cook's cat, called Stew Cat. Phillip is reserved and polite with Timothy, his West Indian raft-mate, when he regains consciousness but, when it seems that Timothy has a mind of his own and a reason for how and why he does things, Phillip begins to for ideas about him and "his kind." He remembers his mother saying about the black people on the island, "They are not the same as you, Phillip. They are different and they live differently. That's the way it must be."

A few days pass on the raft and Timothy, not wanting to alarm Phillip, deflects his questions about where they might be and how long before they might be rescued. He also keeps Phillip from drinking their whole keg of water and eating the few bits of food they have salvaged from the wreckage of the ship. Phillip's resentment toward Timothy and belief that his different way of doing things is all wrong grows, in spite of Timothy's skill and knowledge. As they approach an island where they might find food and shelter, Phillip's head injury takes a turn for the worse and he loses his ability to see. Now completely dependent on Timothy, Phillip fights his decisions even more than before, suggesting that they stay on the raft until they find a bigger island. Not only must Phillip learn to trust a person his mother has taught him not to trust, he must put his whole life in his hands since Timothy, as well as his protector, is now also his eyes.

Phillip desperately hates being left alone on the island while Timothy hunts for food, prepares their shelter and makes both a trough to catch rain water and a signal fire to alert aircraft. Yet, when Timothy hands Phillip a pile of palm fronds and shows him how to weave a sleeping mat for them, Phillip revolts, throwing down the fronds and unleashing a string of insults at the man. When Timothy slaps him, Phillip, though stunned, begins a shift in his attitude toward the man. Soon, Timothy has given Phillip the confidence and courage to walk the island on his own. Timothy even shows him how to fish, using nails that he has spent hours fashioning into hooks, and tells him that he has made a stash of extra fishing poles. Timothy is preparing Phillip for the possibility of being alone on the island if Timothy dies, and Phillip comes to realize this. However, it is not until after a major event that Phillip realize the extent to which Timothy prepared him and how important Phillip and his survival is to him.

As I said above, while The Cay, which is often taught in schools, provides an important look at racism and perceptions, it is also a very suspenseful story that had me reading the book from straight through. Although he admits to being over seventy years old, Timothy is adept and innovative, yet, their survival on the island never seems guaranteed. They are dependent on the rains for fresh water and they are at the mercy of the weather. Despite the exciting plot, I gave this book the label, "Books Your Kids Should Read But Probably Won't Unless You Read With Them" because I think it is one that most kids will not gravitate to without a nudge from an adult. While the racist and humanist aspects of this book are not as complex or mature as those in Jacqueline Woodson's feathers or Paul Fleischman's Seedfolks, I think that it is important to read this book with your child because there are significant themes and ideas that are worth discussing. Also, the "pidgin Eenglesh" spoken by Timothy makes for a great read out loud!

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken is the first book in her brilliant twelve book series, The Wolves Chronicles. Begun in 1962, the last book in the series, The Witch of Clatteringshaws, was published in 2005, a year after Aiken's death at the age of eighty. With apologies to her readers for writing a rather short book, Aiken said, "better short than unfinished." Her words couldn't be more true. After fantasy, my favorite genre of writing is historical fiction. Amazingly, over the course of the twelve books, The Wolves Chronicles manages to be a delicious blend of the two. Although I read this entire series as an adult, and I am sure that has colored my enthusiasm for it a bit, it has stuck with me for the past 15+ years and remained, in my mind, one of the best written, most imaginatively elegant works for children I have ever read.

Before I being my review, a brief history lesson for those of us not familiar with the lineage of the British Monarchy is necessary to understand the alternative history that The Wolves Chronicles. The House of Stuart was founded by Robert II of Scotland and in the late 14th century. At their height, they ruled over Scotland, England, Ireland and laid claim to the Kingdom of France. The line ended with the death of Queen Anne in 1707 who, as they say, died without issue. The monarchy then passed into the hands of the House of Hanover, a Germanic royal dynasty. The House of Hanover ended in 1901 with the death of Queen Victoria and is, thus far, the longest ruling house in England. In Aiken's world, it is approximately 1830 when The Wolves of Willoughby Chase begins and the House of Stuart is still in possession of the monarchy. The Hanoverians and Burgundians are both plotting to overthrow Good King James III and put an end to his reign. Political intrigue and missing princes are always part of the plot in this series, so a tiny bit of historical knowledge goes a long way to making sense of the characters and their actions. Because of this, it is important to point out to any young reader embarking on this series that Aiken has written a work of fiction in which the timeline of history is similar to the one we know but not real. In spite this, any lack of this knowledge does not detract in any way from enjoyment of the series and might make for a little gasp of surprise when, many years later while studying European history in high school or college, the reader realizes that Aiken made it all up! The Wolves of Willoughby Chase is set in an England in which a large number of wolves have migrated from the bitter cold of Europe and Russia into Britain via the Channel Tunnel and are terrorizing the citizens of the country, especially in the north where this book is set. With its cast of characters ranging from spinster aunts, orphans, wicked governesses, and embezzlers, all of whom have names that are perfectly suited to their characters, as well as a girls' school that is more like a work house and an enormous estate with hidden passages, this book brings to mind Charles Dickens with a touch of the Brontës thrown in for good measure. When the story opens we find Bonnie Green anxiously awaiting the arrival of her orphaned cousin, Sylvia, who is to be her companion while her parents take a trip that will hopefully restore the health of Bonnie's ailing mother. In their absence, a governess has been hired to teach the girls and oversee the estate. However, Miss Slighcarp turns out to be both cruel and devious, but none of this is noticed in the bustle of the departure of Bonnie's parents. From the moment she is in charge, it is clear that Miss Slighcarp's intentions are to line her own pockets without a thought for anyone else. As life at Willoughby Chase deteriorates, Bonnie and Sylvia find ways to manage. Although all of the upstanding servants have been dismissed so as not to tip of the law, Bonnie's nurse Pattern has remained on, hidden in the house, to do what she can to protect the girls. Another loyal servant, James, has stayed on as well, pretending to be unsavory so that Slighcarp will not suspect him of aiding the children. When Bonnie writes a letter for help that falls into the wrong hands, she and Sylvia are taken immediately, in the dead of a chilling winter night, to the city of Blastburn where Miss Slighcarp's friend, Gertrude Brisket runs a school for girls. Along the way, Miss Slighcarp informs them that the Thessaly, the ship Sir Willoughby and her wife were traveling on, has sunk in a storm.

Once there, the girls are issued brown overalls and have their hair chopped off. They are punished immediately and set to work mending and sorting bristles for broom making with little time to plot their escape. When Bonnie, as further punishment, is given the task of tending to the outside work, she encounters an old friend from Willoughby Chase. Simon, slightly older than Bonnie, is an orphan who took up residence, after obtaining Sir Willouhgby's permission, in a cave on the grounds of the Chase some five years back. He had run away from a job on a farm where he was beaten and walked across half of England to get away from him. Sir Willoughby offered to employ Simon as a garden boy, but Simon said he'd rather live off the chestnuts and the goose and gander chicks he had brought with him. In no time, he was raising geese, selling their eggs and driving his flock to London every spring to sell them at the Easter Fair, where they were in high demand. Simon, with boy's clothing, a donkey cart and a few guineas, all provided by Pattern and James, rescues the girls and they set off for London in search of a Mr Gripe, Sir Willoughby's lawyer, a journey which takes them two months. During this time, Simon learns how to read and paint, making use of Bonnie's books and paint box (among the few personal items Miss Slighcarp did not sell off) sent along in the wagon by Pattern to entertain the children on their trip. Simon's talent is so great that he sells many of his paintings and even earns room and board for the group when he repaints the sign of a village inn. Once in London the three children are about to visit Mr Gripe when they see mr Grimshaw, Miss Slighcarp's apprentice, entering his office. Unsure of what this could mean, the go to visit Aunt Jane and find her at death's door. The good Dr Field, a new resident in her building and also a painter, is summoned and begins nursing her back to health as well as earning the trust of the children. After capturing Mr Grimshaw trying to break into Aunt janes rooms at three in the morning, the Bow Street officers are called upon and the story is unravelled. The group, along with the officers, returns to Willoughby Chase by train and sets a trap for Miss Slighcarp, who has turned the house into a school for girls along with Mrs Brisket. Insisting she is acting with Sir Willoughby's permission up to the end, they are locked in the cellar of the house and a celebration is had, one that is enhanced by the return of Sir Willoughby and his wife, who survived the shipwreck and had her health restored by the oranges, grapes, sun, sardines and olive oil that made up her diet on the Canary Islands where they were stranded for three months. Sir Willoughby offers to adopt Simon and send him to school, but Simon says that Dr Field thinks he has promise as a painter and has offered to house him while he attends the best art school in London -  which is where we find him at the start of the second book in the series, Black Hearts in Battersea.

While we don't see Bonnie, Sylvia or any of the other characters from The Wolves of Willoughby Chase again (except for a surprise visit from Miss Slighcarp in the third book, Nightbirds in Nantucket) the rest of the series continues with Simon and one of the greatest girl characters ever written in children's literature - Dido Twite (rhymes with died o' fright...) Aiken has great fun with her alternate history and is such an engrossing storyteller that it doesn't matter how much the reader knows about the actual history of England and it's Kings and Queens. Best of all, there is an edition of this series with cover art by Edward Gorey that perfectly suits the stories inside.

Set 6,000 years ago when all of northwest Europe was forest, Michelle Paver's Wolf Brother, the first book in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness begins just after a bear has attacked Torak and his father. As Torak's father is dying, he makes Torak promise to find the Mountain of the World Spirit and ask it to help destroy the bear before the bear, who seems to be possessed by a demon, destroys the forest. He also insists that Torak stay away from humans and remember to always look behind him. Torak agrees and unwillingly accepts his father's knife, giving him his own, to take on the Death Journey with him. As he places the Death Marks on his father to help his three souls unite on the death Journey - the circles on the heels marking the name-soul, a circle over his heart marking the clan-soul and finally a circle on his forehead to mark the Nanuak, the World-Soul, he knows he cannot make this journey on his own. Raised alone in the Forest by his father who is of the Wolf Clan, Torak has supreme hunting skills but there is still so much his father hasn't taught him. And so many secrets he has not told him.

What follows is a suspense filled, treacherous journey as Torak makes his way to the Mountain of the World Spirit, a place no one has ever been to before. First, Torak finds the guide his father said would come to aid him. A wolf cub who's family has been drowned in their den during a flash flood seems like a suitable dinner, even though Torak is part Wolf Clan, until he discovers he can understand wolf-speak. Torak spares the cub, names him Wolf and learns that, despite the cub's tender age, he truly is a guide with an unfailing sense of direction and can be trusted implicitly. While most of the book is told in third person narrative, portions are narrated by Wolf, who refers to Torak as "Tall Tailless." The relationship between Torak and Wolf, as well as the brief narratives by Wolf, make up the backbone of the book. Paver conducted extensive research, which included traveling the forests of Finland and Lapland and, "sleeping on reindeer skins in the traditional open-fronted Finnish laavu. [Eating] elk heart, reindeer, and lingonberries, and spruce resin: the chewing gum of the Stone Age," to write this series. She also studied the belief systems of more recent hunter-gatherer clans such as Native-American and Inuit tribes in order to create doctrines of the spiritual world that the various clans of the Wolf Brother adhere to. The spiritual beliefs of the clans and their deep respect for nature and the animals that helped to sustain their lives was especially fascinating to me as I read the book. The clans peoples' belief that everything, rocks, rivers and trees are alive and have spirits and, while they can't all talk, they can hear and think affects the way they live their lives down to the way they walk, what they wear, how they hunt and where they will travel.

This understanding plays into the main drama of the book, the hunting of the bear-demon that has been created as a means of revenge on Torak's father, who was aware of this before he died. This knowledge is part the reason that he has kept Torak's existence a secret from all but one person - the Mage of the Raven Clan. As Torak, Wolf and the bear-demon make a path through the forest, the bear-demon leaving a trail of kills behind him, killing not to feed his body but to feed the demon inside of him that makes him bigger and stronger with every death, all three make their way to the Mountain of the World Spirit. Forgetting his father's warning to always look behind him, Torak and Wolf are captured by hunters from the Raven Clan and taken back to their camp. Unbeknownst to Torak, he has killed (and prepared, making use of every possible part which Paver describes in fascinating detail) the buck that the Ravens were tracking and they want him punished. The rules of the forest have changed and Torak, having lived apart from the clans, only attending one clan-meet ever with his father, is unaware of this. When Fin-Keddin, the Leader of the Raven Clan agrees to let Torak fight a clan member instead of being put to death, Torak takes on Hord, an ego-filled young hunter and one of the three, along with his younger sister, Renn, and Oslak, who captured him and brought him to the camp. Of course the fight is not a fair one, but Torak finds a way to win and in doing so unknowingly reveals himself as the Listener who "gives his heart's blood to the Mountain. And the Shadow is crushed."

Regardless of this prophecy, Torak intends to carry out his promise to his father. However, it is up to Fin-Keddin and the rest of the clan to decide it young Torak should be allowed to go the the Mountain and spill his own blood or if he should be killed and a stronger man be allowed to take his blood to the Mountain. This is generally more talk about blood and killing, even if it is to survive, than I am used to or interested in, however, because of the time period of the novel and Paver's magnificent writing skills, I was immersed in the story almost immediately and overcame my aversions easily, in the same way that I was able to come my revulsion at Mary and Laura playing happily with a pig's bladder balloon on butchering day in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods. Also, in addition to reading this book, I had the IMMENSE pleasure of listening to Sir Ian McKellen narrate the audio version which can be downloaded at audible.com but does not seem to be available for purchase as a CD. To read Ian McKellen's enthusiastic words about the series and the experience of recording it, click here. To watch and listen to McKellen in the recording booth reading Book 5 in the series, with an introduction by Michelle Paver, click here.

Genre wise, this is not my kind of book at all, but there is something so completely entrancing about it that I am going to clear the decks as much as possible so that I can read the second book in the series, something I rarely have time to do since I started reviewing books. Personally and professionally, I feel that this is a series that, despite the seemingly boy overtones, will appeal to both boys and girls. Renn, who becomes Torak's traveling companion and eventual friend by the end of the book is a fabulous female character, a bit like Elliott from the Tunnels series (book 2, Deeper) by Gordon and Williams. Also a book with very few female characters and even fewer positive ones, Elliott is powerful, smart and self-sufficient as well as admired for these skills by the boys and men around her.

Like Pam Munoz Ryan's excellent book, Riding Freedom, Kathleen Karr's Exiled tells the story of a little known historical figure from a fascinating period of expansion and war in American history, the 1800s, and specifically highlights historical figures and events who settled California in its infancy. When I began reading the book, which is narrated by a virtuous camel named Ali, I knew from the jacket flap that camels really were brought from Egypt in 1856 and 1857 to form the United States Camel Corp. However, it wasn't until the end of the book when I read the Author's Note that I learned just how much of this unique and fascinating book was based on real people and events.

Karr raises Exiled a notch above your typical historical novel by bestowing her animal narrator with the ability to understand human speech. This in turn makes the anthropomorphic qualities of the camels, such as the belief in Allah and the practice of His teachings, a minor thread in the plot, all the more believable and allows the story to become more complex and suspenseful. But, I am getting ahead of myself. Ali's story begins, as does each of the three parts that make up this beautifully decorated and bound book, with a quote from the Qur'an. Ali is born into the wild, on the banks of the Upper Nile, near Luxor. While he never knows his father and often regrets this, his mother tells him that his father was a prince among camels and the fastest runner in the herd. Ali spends his milk days close to his mother, peacefully grazing the ruins of the Ancient Ones at Karnak. There his mother teaches him about his honorable past by showing him the pictures and hieroglyphs carved into the vast columns standing there. Ali's mother tells him that the history of camels, unlike the donkeys also pictured on the columns, is to never submit fully to the "man-beasts," as the camels refer to humans. She tells him that camels should never nuzzle a man beast the way she nuzzles Ali, that they must always bite the hand that feeds them in order to maintain their independence, even while in bondage.

These words have a profound affect on Ali and his perspective on life, as does his belief that his is descended from a nobel line of camels. The teachings of Ali's mother serve him well when he is captured and taken to the camel market in Cairo. When he breaks free and runs like the wind, it seems his fate is sealed in the eyes of the man-beasts. He is captured again and sent off to be trained to race. However, because of his ability to understand human speech he learns that this is his fate and does everything he can to work against it. When he does not fulfil the potential the traders first saw in him he is sold off to the first buyer, a seemingly gullible American who is taking a herd of camels to Texas to train them for military use. Fortunately for him and the rest of the camels, Hadji Ali, called Hi-Jolly by the Americans, joins the group at the port of Alexandria before their departure. Hi-Jolly proves to be a "Camel Whisperer" of sorts and tends to them with love and compassion, understanding the depths of their personalities and capabilities. He also intervenes, when he can, with the sometimes brutal soldiers and others ignorant of the ways of camels.

Within the group of camels who are transported to America are Fatinah, a young female who is full of decorum, Seid, an orphaned camel who never got to experience his milk days with his mother, and Omar, the leader of agroup of camels that were trained to wrestle for the entertainment of their masters. This training has left Omar with a sometimes violent and domineering nature that makes trouble for the men and camels. Completely uneducated in the ways of camels, the soldiers in Texas-America, as the camels refer to it, fail to make the best use of them and it is decided that they will caravan to another encampment for more training under the direction of a new Infidel master, (both the camels and Hi-Jolly refer to all Americans as Infidels throughout the book) Edward Beale. Edward Beale was a real person who had a rich and varied life, serving many government posts with appointments by several different presidents. Beale's work with camels was legendary. He learned Arabic so that he could communicate with his camels and had the body of his beloved Seid exhumed so that his bones could be sent to the Smithsonian for study and they are still on display to this day. As the Surveyor General of California, appointed by Abraham Lincoln, Beale settled Tejon Ranch in 1843. Tejon Ranch is now a thriving community some sixty miles north of Los Angeles.

Beale works with the camels but ultimately realizes that he may not be able to employ the camels in military endeavors. He sends part of the herd, including Ali, Fatinah, Seid and Omar off in a caravan that will cross the desert and ultimately end at Tejon Ranch. During his trek through the desert, Ali memorizes the position of the stars, vowing to obtain his freedom and return there one day. This caravan worked to survey the land. Beale's goal was to prove to the government that he could find a better route to the West than that which settlers were already using and he did just that. Part of the trail he surveyed became what is now Route 66 and served as a route for the Transcontinental Railroad as well. At Tejon Ranch the camels find themselves idle and ultimately unhappy, for it is in their nature to work. Mating season comes and goes, calves are born. Having loved Fatinah from the moment he saw her, Ali bides his time, waiting for her to be ready to choose a mate, showing her care and consideration whenever he can. The fight for her love between Ali, Seid and Omar results in a tragedy that reveals the true natures of the camels and the depths of their personalities. The camels also find themselves at the mercy of the laborers and soldiers left at the ranch and are in danger of being abused or sold to work in the mines during Beale's long absences. Hi-Jolly, at loose ends without the structure of his military work finds himself first enslaved to drink and then to gold. Beale, who also was the first to bring samples of gold mined in California to the attention of Easterners in 1848, mentions this event with a tinge of regret in Exiled. Ali and Fatinah and their young son manage to escape Tejon Ranch and find their way back to the Mojave Desert where their paths cross one more time with Hi-Jolly.

While Angel on the Square ends the story of Ekaterina Ivanova, or Katya, on a note of love and hope, the sad fate of Katya's best friend, the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolavena, or Stana, and the rest of the Romanov family is like a ghost in the room throughout this entire, well crafted, richly detailed work of historical fiction from the master of that genre for young adults, Gloria Whelan. In 2000 Whelan won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature for Homeless Bird, set in present day India. While the story of Koly and her struggle to make a life for herself after she becomes a teenage widow and thus outcast is fascinating, I found the historical aspects of Angel on the Square to be more compelling.

As a child in the 1980s, I remember being fascinated by a documentary on television about Anna Anderson, the woman who claimed she was Anastasia, Tsar Nicholas' youngest daughter and told a detailed story of how she survived the mass execution of the royal family and a handful of their servants by the Bolsheviks on July 16, 1918. Other than that and the animated movie that came out in the 1990s, I learned nothing more about the family or the events that lead to their deaths until I read Angel on the Square and was compelled to seek out more information (albeit only through Wikipedia... I don't have time to read whole books on history for pleasure anymore. Why do you think I started reading kid's books in the first place? I can finish them in a few days and feel a minor sense of accomplishment on a weekly basis when I do!) Read at the right time and the right age, I have no doubt that Angel on the Square will inspire your child to make inquiries, with your help, into this troubled period in Russia's past.

Because of the specific historical events and real people who populate this book, Angel on the Square has a less personal feel than Whelan's other books, such as Listening for Lions, which follows the fate of Rachel Sheridan, the daughter of a doctor and nurse in Africa who minister to the Masai and Kikuyu tribes and perish in 1919 during the great influenza epidemic and the winner of the 2000 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, Homeless Bird, which tells the story of Koly, a thirteen year old Indian girl who is married off so that there will be more food on the table for her family, and her struggle to survive after her sick husband, also a child, dies and she is left alone on the streets, her dowry gone. Ultimately, I think that being the daughter of a Lady in Waiting to the Empress and playmate of Anastasia's gives Katya the distance from the royal family and their sad fates needed to keep Angel on the Square from being completely depressing. As it is, Katya and her mother's experiences from 1913 when Katya is twelve through to 1918, are troubling enough. Whelan manages the feat of portraying the perspectives of the peasants, the aristocratic land owners and the royalty in a masterful and subdued way that incorporates many perspectives and eventually empathy among those who find themselves in the decimated country, both environment and population, that Russia is by the time the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is signed in March of 1918, ending Russia's involvement in the war.

Angel on the Square begins in the winter of 1913 with a twelve year old Katya standing on the balcony of her mother's familial mansion, looking across St Petersburg's main avenue, the Nevsky Prospekt, to the Kazan Cathedral where her mother is already ensconced, waiting to celebrate the tercentenary of the rule of the Romanov family. At her side is Misha, or Mikhail Sergeyevich Gnedich, the son of Katya's mother's best friend who has perished, along with the fathers of both of the children, years earlier. Misha, four years older than Katya, has revolutionary ideas, spends time with the workers and never misses a chance to point out to her how spoiled and unaware of the suffering of others she is. When Katya's mother is invited to be a Lady in Waiting to Empress Alexandra and Katya the special friend of Duchess Anastasia, one year younger than her, Misha warns that she will become nothing more than a glorified sluzhanka, a female servant, to her. What Katya finds over the next five years of living with the royals, being tutored in French and drawing along with the Tsar's daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Marie and Anastasia (who, I learned, sometimes referred to themselves using the acronym for their names, OTMA) is a family who love and care for each other deeply. The Tsar is a kindly father who enjoys teaching his children geography based on his own travels and delights in photography, taking thousands of pictures in his lifetime and the Empress is a mother who, while gentle hearted and interested in bringing up her children in a simple household with few luxuries, is consumed with anguish over the condition of her son Alexei, a hemophiliac who suffers painfully. She also finds two people so consumed with their family life that they seem to willfully ignore the plight of their people who so overtaxed that they cannot afford to farm the land they rent or allow their children to attend school instead of work in a rag shop. Then there is Rasputin. Although no one will share their true feelings about him to the Empress, who so fervently believes in his power to heal that she allows him to tell her how to direct the Duma, the Russian parliament, when her husband is at the warfront. In addition to her German heritage, her reliance on Rasputin for decision making only furthers the population's suspicion of and hatred for her.

The story follows Katya and the fates of the Romanovs as they vacation at their palace on the Crimea, go yachting on the Black Sea and attend many ballets up until the abdication of the Tsar and the family's exile from Siberia, where Katya and her mother remained faithful, even helping the Empress sew the family's jewels into the corsets and hems of her daughters' dresses before their final destination of Ekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains, unbeknownst to Katya, they would be executed. While this is playing out, we watch Katya grow and mature, gradually, with the help of Misha, opening her eyes to the hardships of the people of Russia. In her own small ways she tries to right the wrongs that she sees, but, she also realizes that she is helpless to make any changes or help anyone in distress beyond the work that she and the Duchesses and the Empress do at the beginning of the war when they go to work in the Catherine Palace, now a military hospital. Katya and her story are important and absorbing and this is what will draw in young readers who know little or nothing about this time in history. Whelan, who must spend months researching her books, evokes the time and place with incomparable skill and, as always, there is a glossary at the back of the book defining the words from the foreign language that she has incorporated into her book. I had the pleasure of listening to as well as reading Angel on the Square and found the narrator's pronunciation of the Russian words especially enlightening.

Like Whelan's other books, Angel on the Square ends almost where it begins, with the angel on the square, in front of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. Who is this angel? She is a bronze sculpture perched high atop a square granite pillar that sits in the middle of the square in front of the Winter Palace. She was put there to celebrate Russia's victory over Napoleon. As Lidya, Katya's governess tells her when she is a little girl, "Difficult times and even wars may come to the city, but as long as the angel watches over St Petersburg, the city will survive."

Readers who like this book might also like: A Countess Below Stairs, by Eva Ibbotson. This story is about a girl who is also part of the Russian aristocracy and her life after she flees to London and works as a maid to survive. It also has a romantic story line and is therefore better for readers 12+.

Unlike Rosemary Well's Lincoln and His Boys which takes documented historical events and imagines them through the eyes of Abraham Lincoln's young sons, My Brother Abe: Sally Lincoln's Story by Harry Mazer takes the few known facts about the childhood of Sally and Abe Lincoln and creates a rich and compelling story from them. Little is known of Sarah, or Sally as she was called, beyond her birth date, marriage date and the date two years later when she died at age twenty-one in childbirth. There is a quote in Candace Fleming's The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary Lincoln that mentions how Sally begged her Pa to let Abe, two years her junior, but just as smart and always as tall or taller, come to school with her and how she cried until he ceded. And, while this doesn't happen exactly the same way in Mazer's book, Sally's love of Abe and desire to share with him is evident from the first sentence of the book when she talks of being five and teaching three year old Abe his letters in the dirt.

In Sally, Mazer has written a strong willed, emotionally conflicted narrator. The life of the Lincolns' is never easy. They are forced to leave Knob Creek, Kentucky when the government informs them and many of their neighbors that they are not the proper owners of their land. Tom Linclon, a carpenter by trade, heads off to what will become the state of Indiana with only his horse to scout out new land. Soon the family is packing their meagre belongings on their backs and heading to their new home in the densely forested territory of Pigeon Creek. Of course I was reminded of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her story as I read. The hardships and subsistence living is similar. However, Mazer endows his characters with more emotional depth and complexity than I remember from Wilder's books. Sally is forever being accused of having a loose tongue and is often standing up for Abe, who is the lightening rod of his father's anger. However, she always has her mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, to look up to. Much like Ma Ingalls, Nancy is gracious, selfless and subservient. As the house in Pigeon Creek is built by Lincoln and for one day his neighbors, wonderfully described in the chapter, "Dreaming About Our Cabin," Sally notices how her mother's requests go ignored. Finally, she decides that she and Sally will build a temporary chimney so they can make use of the stone fireplace for cooking without being smoked out of their home. Tom arrives home from a day's work outdoors and has nothing but criticism for their work until Sally points out that there is no more smoke in the cabin. One lingering sadness for Sally is the fact that, while she and her mother have picked out a large, flat stone to serve as their doorstep, her mother never lives to see it put in place by Tom.

The story follows the Lincoln's as they settle in, send the children to school and have relatives from Kentucky join them. Abe's love of learning and his desire to please his father remain a part of the story, but the focus is always Sally's struggle to be more like her mother and less aware of the unfairness of her situation, especially after her mother dies and she assumes all of the household responsibilities at the age of eleven. However, this is a difficult task for her and she remains stubborn throughout the book. A year after her mother's death, Tom Lincoln decides to resume a friendship with Sarah Bush Johhnston, Nancy Hanks Lincoln's childhood friend in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. She is now a widow with three children and considerable debt. After an exchange of letters, Tom decides to go to her, propose and return with a wife. He tells Sally and Abe he should be gone no more than nine days and leaves them a pig carcass. Although it is winter and snowing, neither father nor children seem too concerned at parting. This is no surprise as the children were remarkably self-sufficient before their mother's death and even more so after. And, while Lincoln is gone for almost three weeks and the pig carcass is stolen by a bear shortly after he departs, the children survive. They still are attending school and all the neighbors seem to know of their situation and send food for them. Mazer even introduces the Aaron Grigsby, the man Sarah Lincoln married when she was nineteen, six years after this book ends. Grigsby, a bit older and more independent, shares the excess of his hunting with them and they make it on their own, a lot dirtier and a little thinner than when their father left.

The last quarter of the book, the arrival of Sarah Bush Johnston and her children, Elizabeth, Matilda and John, finds Sally struggling to accept the changes in her life and the woman her father insists she call Mama. When Sarah gives Abe books, he takes to her immediately. It is known that, while he did not attend his father's funeral, he cared for his step-mother in her old age and considered her as much a mother to him as Nancy Hanks had been. Sally takes longer to warm to Sarah and is quick to notice the things her father does for her and her children that he never did for her mother. The book ends with Sally refusing to join her father and siblings on a wagon ride celebrating the birthdays of Elizabeth and Matilda, noting, "We hadn't never had a festive time for me and Abe, nor for Mama, neither." She stays behind with Sarah, who is cooking a big meal for the family. Being a perceptive and loving woman, despite Sally's pushing her away constantly, she takes her in her arms and asks her to talk of her mother and holds her while she cries for her.

As you might have noticed, books written in the fantasy genre are my favorites, however, as I continue to choose books that I have loved and think are important for review, I am surprised by the number of works of historical fiction that are popping up. Among them, The Midwife's Apprentice is one of my favorites. Karen Cushman is remarkably skilled at evoking the colorful, dirty, smelly aspects of life in a medieval village and equally adept at creating strong female characters who face adversity and, through true trial and error, grow to meet their challenges.

The main character of The Midwife's Apprentice is a nameless, ageless and homeless girl, found sleeping in a dung pile for warmth when the story begins. Apprenticed by Jane Sharp, the self-interested, greedy village midwife, who renames her Beetle, after a dung beetle, she learns that midwifery is as much about hard work as it is tonics and spells. Used to being an outsider, Beetle watches the movements of those around her and is caught spying on the midwife's secret tryst with the married baker, which clues her in to the source of all the bread the midwife had been bringing home, but also lets her in for curses and punishment. When the midwife injures her leg, Beetle is sent to the St. Swithin's Day Fair to buy supplies. There, a merchant gives her a wooden comb to make her curls (curls she never knew she had) shine, the first thing she ever owned. Later that day, she acquires a proper name as well when she is mistaken for a girl named Alyce and decides that she is a person with individual qualities who should have the name of a person, not a bug.

Although it is a short book, much happens over the course of the story. Alyce makes a friend, helps a cow birth twin calves and helps the bailiff's wife with a breech birth when the midwife abandons her to help the lady of the manor, who pays in silver, through her labor. Alyce watches and learns from the midwife but also learns methods, such as yelling and slapping, that she does not want to adopt. When the bailiff's sister asks specifically for Alyce to deliver her child, Alyce she faces a challenge that she cannot meet and runs away in shame and sadness. She finds a job at a nearby inn and is taught to read and write by the local Magister. One day, Alyce overhears the midwife, who is visiting the inn, say that she didn't need an apprentice who gives up, she needs one who can try and risk and fail and try again and not give up. Babies don't stop being born and a midwife can quit trying to help them into this world. A well written turn of events leads Alyce back to the midwife's door, only to be turned away. But, remembering the words of the midwife, Alyce knocks on the door again and vows to do so until she is let in.

I am still amazed by how much content Cushman packs into this short novel. The character development of the nameless girl who becomes Alyce is amazing and, in the subtle way that I admire most, a wonderful example life's lessons is learned through her experiences. The affair between the baker and Jane Sharp takes up a few lines in the beginning of the book, and while it might concern some parents, I think it is written in a way that will go over most reader's heads. The scenes that involve childbirth are not graphic either, although Cushman does not hesitate to describe the moans and howls that (naturally) laboring women make. Understandably, this book isn't for every reader. However, it is so uniquely special and Alyce is such a strong, persevering character that she should not be missed.

Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a groundbreaking children's book for so many reasons. It is the fist chapterbook to ever win the Caldecott Medal which recognizes children's picture books for achievements in illustration. Selznick, who also won a Caldecott Honor Award for illustrating the non-fiction picture book, The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins, won this award because this is, in a sense, truly a picture book at heart. Over half the pages are full-page, double spread illustrations, some of which go on for eight or more pages at a time. The nature of the illustrations suit the subject of the book perfectly, which ultimately is the lifework of the French filmaker, Georges Melies, who made the first ever science fiction film, A Trip to the Moon, which you can watch on Brian Selznick's website. As you follow the illustrations, chunks of which are interspersed with the text, your eye follows the pictures like a camera panning across a movie set and the story unfolds, both visually and texturally.

How the story that begins with Hugo, orphan, theif and clock keeper living behind the walls of a Paris train station, and ends up with the resurrection of the career of Melies is part of the magic of Selznick's story telling. Hugo, abused and overworked by the irresponsible uncle who looks after him, spends all of his spare time trying to mend an automaton, a kind of clock-work mechanical moving doll, that his father, an horologist, died while trying to restore. Through a series of coincidences and accidents, Hugo finds people who can help him and learns more about the mystery of the automaton while also making friends, learning to trust people again and ultimately finding a new home, a new family and a new passion.

There is quite a bit of esoteric historical information about George Melies and the work that he did woven into the story, which makes is even more interesting knowing, as with Selznick's,The Houdini Boxthat the story is a fictionalized account of the lives of real figures from history. The last two lines of the book are my favorites, maybe in all of children's literature, "In that moment, the machinery of the world lined up. Somewhere a clock struck midnight, and Hugo's future seemed to fall perfectly in place." This sentence can also be used to describe the seemingly disparate ideas, characters and plots that fall into place to make up the wonderous, wonderful book that is The Invention of Hugo Cabret.