The Brass Charm

Written by Monique Polak

Illustrated by Marie Lafrance

North Winds Press (Scholastic Canada)

978-1-4431-5758-2

32 pp.

Ages 5-9

September 2022

 

Everyone has troubles in their lives sometime. Some are horrific and life-changing, some are temporal but seem overwhelming.  Most of us cannot see past our own issues when we're immersed in them. It's that bubble of now. It is probably especially the case for young children many of whom, thankfully, have not had to endure great hardships. So, when the roof of their home is destroyed in a storm, Tali is devastated.

From The Brass Charm by Monique Polak, illus. by Marie Lafrance

As the family heads to stay with Oma while repairs may be undertaken, Tali's mother reminds her that "People survive worse" and to "Think of Oma." Tali knows her grandmother survived World War II but she never talks about it. Still Tali is "too sad to think of anyone" but herself, even when she meets a little neighbour girl who obviously craves some company. That is, until her Oma shows her a tiny brass charm of a monkey man and shares a memory of her own hardship.

From The Brass Charm by Monique Polak, illus. by Marie Lafrance

Telling her story in the third person, Oma tells of a girl forced to leave home and sent to a prison called Terezin. The people kept there were worked tirelessly and fed very little and on the day of her birthday, the child was overcome with how her life had changed for the worse. A woman, hearing her cry, bestows upon her a small brass charm of a monkey man that a stranger gave her when her own life had seemed stormy. Now Oma remembers that lady whose own life had been difficult and could still find "it in her heart to be kind to a stranger."

 

In a message of paying it forward, Monique Polak has Tali sharing the story of the brass charm with Elodie, the little neighbour girl, bolstering them both through their challenges.

From The Brass Charm by Monique Polak, illus. by Marie Lafrance

In a story within a story, Montreal author Monique Polak is actually telling her mother's own history of surviving Terezin as a child and receiving the charm. Because of Terezin's history and its common role as a transit camp for those moved onto other concentration camps, as Monique Polak's Afterword details, the woman who shared that charm was never seen again. Yet the kindness she extended in such trying circumstances, just as Tali's Oma did for her grandchild, speak to a strength of character beyond the typical. It speaks to empathy and compassion and feeling beyond self. And for Tali to listen and learn and then apply that lesson to another makes that small brass charm a greater gift than any gold or diamond trinket could replace.

From The Brass Charm by Monique Polak, illus. by Marie Lafrance

There is a lesson from history here with Tali's Oma remembering Terezin and an experience from World War II. But it is in the context of connecting with others and a grandmother-granddaughter relationship. Not surprising that, even with a story that includes both historical and contemporary scenes, Marie Lafrance whose artwork was rendered with graphite on paper before digitally coloured and texturized via collage, is able to meld the two time periods by focusing on the child in each. It's Tali's experience and then her oma's when she was a child. It is from their perspective: what they see, what they feel, how they respond. So when the two come together in the present, as elderly woman and young child, they are feeling and understanding as the same. And Marie Lafrance gives the two similarities in their physical appearances, with the golden curls of their hair and delicate chins and ears, and makes it clear they are related. But she also gives a softness to a hard story, a story of destruction and hatred, loss and generosity. By keeping the dark grey tones for the camp and the storm and using soft colours of blues and rose and such for everything else, Marie Lafrance emphasizes the tenderness of being there for others, not the damage of the negative.

I can't think of a gentler way to introduce children to the Holocaust and Nazi concentration camps than a reading and discussion of The Brass Charm, though its story is far greater than those historic concepts. Read for a memorial day such as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27) but also for lessons about empathy and the goodness of paying it forward. The best acts of kindness do not require recompense or recognition. They come from making someone's life a little easier, whether during storms, times of trouble or now.

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Author Monique Polak will be launching her new book on November 20, 2022 at 2 PM at the Gelber Conference Centre, Musée de l'Holocauste Montréal / Montreal Holocaust Museum. Reserve your free tickets at Eventbrite here.