Fania's Heart

Written by Anne Renaud

Illustrated by Richard Rudnicki

Second Story Press

978-1-77260-057-5

32 pp.

Ages 7-10

March 2018

When a little girl finds an old heart-shaped book wrapped in a lace handkerchief hidden in her mother's dresser, she could not have imagined the horrors her mother would share and the joy and courage that decades old keepsake memorialized.

Words have power.

There are words that injure and words that heal.

Then there are words that can save your life. 

From Fania's Heart by Anne Renaud, illus. by Richard Rudnicki

When a young Sorale discovers that small fabric-covered booklet of heart-shaped pages that open like wings, her mother finally tells the child the truth about the number tattooed on her arm and the origins of the keepsake.  Her mother, Fania Landau Fainer, reveals that she was a prisoner at the Auschwitz concentration camp and that the heart was a birthday gift constructed by the young women who were like sisters to her.  Fania tells Sorale of the horrific life in the camp, including the near starvation, the grim living conditions, the forced labour and the mistreatment.  And she tells her what happened for her 20th birthday.

"...I told my friends I would soon be an old lady, since my twentieth birthday was fast approaching." 

"But twenty is not old," I said.

"Twenty can be a lifetime.  We were all so worn and rope-thin.  People did not live to be old in that place," said my mother.

From Fania's Heart by Anne Renaud, illus. by Richard Rudnicki

In a small cake of scraps of bread rations, Fania's friends hide the special heart-shaped booklet in which they wrote messages of encouragement and wishes for freedom outside of the camp.

"Their words saved me."

Fania's Heart is a true story.  It is Sorale's story of learning at about age 9 (in 1955) about her mother's incarceration at Auschwitz and an act of defiance and love that gave Fania the courage and determination to survive.  That solitary memento is now an exhibit at the Musée Holocauste Montréal (Montreal Holocaust Museum) which will host the book launch for Fania's Heart this weekend.  Not since Second Story Press's publication of Hana's Suitcase (named the Ultimate Silver Birch Book in 2014) will a story of a historical artifact of the Holocaust touch readers with such sadness and humanity.  Author Anne Renaud who effortlessly weaves stories based on history (including the recently reviewed Mr. Crum's Potato Predicament) reveals so much about a mother's relationship with her child and her past, as well as about her own courage and fortitude that Fania's Heart could be envisioned as an illustrated documentary, not just a piece of creative non-fiction to inform and enlighten. Like the little heart that represents so much more than the few words inscribed on pages created out of sacrifice and secrecy, Fania's Heart is a token of appreciation, realistically but emotionally illustrated by Richard Rudnicki, from a time of war atrocities and a time of familial safety.

From Fania's Heart by Anne Renaud, illus. by Richard Rudnicki

Abigail's Wish

by Gloria Ann Wesley

Illustrated by Richard Rudnicki

Nimbus Publishing

978-1-77108-439-0

32 pp.

Ages 4-9

2016

With Black History Month on the horizon, I think I will need to renew last year’s update of youngCanLit valuable for commemorating that important month to include, Abigail's Wish, a lovely picture book about a young girl of a Black Loyalist family.

From Abigail's Wish

by Gloria Ann Wesley 

illus. by Richard Rudnicki

It’s spring and young Abigail is witnessing the dawn of a new season in the world of her new homeland of Nova Scotia.  She still recalls the noise and fears endured during the American Revolution and their long journey by ship from New York in 1783 to the new colony of Birchtown. But she can see forward, looking past the hardships of little food and simple shelter, to the specialness of a day when a new baby would be welcomed.  Abigail’s Aunt Dinah is ready to give birth, and that birth

"…would mean a big celebration: people would bring what they could spare to eat, and the singing and laughter and dancing would be such fun.  Surely, a new dress was needed for such a celebration, Abigail hoped." (pg. 13)

That is Abigail’s wish, for a new dress, and she hopes her mother will use some of their payment of vegetables from cleaning Mrs. Spinney’s house for trade for some fabric at Mr. Tobin’s store.  But it is not to happen.  Returning home, the community has gathered to celebrate the birth of her new cousin, Isaac.  Still Abigail hopes, heading to the church with her mother to see if any donations had arrived from which a suitable dress might be found.  However, as it had been a cold spring and few had undertaken their spring cleaning during which donations often arose, Abigail finds nothing.  Still there is reason to celebrate and Abigail puts her efforts into sewing a quilt for her new cousin from bits and pieces of fabric.  It’s weeks after the celebration that a very special donation just for Abigail helps make her wish finally come true.

From Abigail's Wish

by Gloria Ann Wesley 

illus. by Richard Rudnicki

Gloria Ann Wesley, poet and author of Chasing Freedom (Roseway, 2011) and If This is Freedom (Roseway, 2013), brings a story of the pioneering spirit and the joys of simple successes to the forefront of this picture book of historical fiction.  The birth of a new baby, a job well-paid in produce, a gift of a piece of licorice–all are riches to be appreciated for a Black Loyalist girl who’d already seen much horror in her short life.  A dress becomes the icing on a cake already enjoyed for its flavour and rarity.  Painter Richard Rudnicki, well known for illustrating Gracie, The Public Gardens Duck (Nimbus, 2007) and Viola Desmond Won’t Be Budged (Groundwood, 2010), produces a fine mixture of realism and the divine, both which must have impregnated the experiences of Black Loyalists making their way to Canada to establish new homes.  Hardships are plenty but still there are opportunities for diversion and gaiety.  Richard Rudnicki’s art, steeped in the browns and taupes of the naturalness of the land, the everyday clothing and the wood-based interiors, still finds the means to add some mauves and blues, with some reds and yellows, to brighten the reality.  With his art, Richard Rudnicki is able to line Glora Ann Wesley’s story of toil with a quilt of simple joys and appreciation for the goodness of life, helping Abigail's Wish to bring young readers a new awareness of history.

Making Contact! Marconi Goes Wireless

by Monica Kulling

Illustrated by Richard Rudnicki

Tundra Books

978-1-77049-378-0

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

September, 2013

Biographies can be so dry.  Endless facts, occasional anecdotes, references and, if the person is long dead, few graphics.  Ah, but not if it's one of Tundra's Great Idea Series written by Monica Kulling. The author who has given us It's a Snap! George Eastman's First Photograph, All Aboard! Elijah McCoy's Steam Engine, In the Bag! Margaret Knight Wraps It Up and Going Up! Elisha Otis's Trip to the Top is well versed in transforming biographies into readable narratives.

From his birth in Bologna in 1874, Guglielmo Marconi, the baby with the big ears, was destined to "hear the still, small voices in the air" and become known as the father of wireless communication.  Those are the type of details Monica Kulling focuses on, not the details of Marconi's would-be curriculum vitae, typical of many biographies.  The reader learns of Marconi's experiences with Morse code and the telegraph machine; his brain spark of using radio waves to send wireless messages; his inventing and experimentation; a personal demonstration for Queen Victoria; and his ultimate achievement with wireless.  And Richard Rudnicki's illustrations take the readers to Marconi's time and places, providing the appropriate atmosphere for his story.

By resisting the need for excessive text, the affliction of many biographies for young people, and enhancing that limited text with illustrations, Tundra's Great Ideas Series will continue to garner awards and recognition.  With Monica Kulling at the writing helm and astutely concentrating on the anecdotes of pivotal experiences, the stories will continue to be fascinating to young readers.