Levi's Gift

Written by Kathy Stinson

Illustrated by Ellie Arscott

Nimbus Publishing

978-1-77471-498-0

32 pp.

Ages 3–7

November 2025 

 

Kathy Stinson's latest picture book, beautifully illustrated by Ellie Arscott, tells the story of Levi, a boy who loved to play his violin while his brother Ezra played the accordion. But that was before the war came, and Levi and his family are forced from their home. The yellow star on Levi's shirt tells us more of his tragedy. By the time he is sixteen, the war is over, and his family is gone, as is his home. But he dreams of getting a violin again and making music.

From Levi's Gift, written by Kathy Stinson, illustrated by Ellie Arscott

Frugality and hard work help him buy a violin again and he "poured his great sadness about all he had seen and all he had lost in the war." (pg.9) With time, he emigrates, marries and has a child for whom he plays the beloved Brahm's "Lullaby" that he'd played with his brother. For many years, Levi plays his violin, but when his hands grow stiff and it becomes difficult to play, he stores his violin away.

 

When a call goes out for donations of used musical instruments for a school, Levi hesitantly decides to take his violin out of storage and give it away. When he receives a letter from a little girl who invites him to visit her at her school, Levi learns that his violin and the music played on it have the capacity to heal in many ways.

From Levi's Gift, written by Kathy Stinson, illustrated by Ellie Arscott

Kathy Stinson, award-winning author of picture books, non-fiction, and middle-grade and YA novels, has a lovely connection with stories of the violin (e.g., The Man with the Violin, 2013; Dance with the Violin, 2017), and Levi's Gift is another wistful story of those touched by music and the playing of the violin. But, with Levi's Gift, Kathy Stinson also reminds us of the many losses that happened during the war. For Levi, that violin was more than just an instrument. It was a connection to his past, to his family, to happy times, and more. It was a joyful connection to a time before. To give up his violin, even to a worthy cause, was a challenge for Levi. Yet, that gift begat a new one, with Levi making a new connection and one that related to his past. I was tearful realizing how Levi's story had come full circle with different characters, with a different violin, and in a different place, but with quiet consequence and subtle benevolence. 

Ellie Arscott, who illustrated Night Walk (Sara O'Leary, 2020), A is for Anne (Mo Duffy Cobb, 2023), and The Warmest Blanket in the World (Tamara Levine, 2025), has a lightness to her artwork that works well with gentle stories such as Levi's Gift. Ellie Arscott uses paint and pencil to give context for Kathy Stinson's words, showing us more than just people and place. She gives the reader history and ancestry as well as story, and there's much tenderness reflected in her illustrations. Levi may be an elderly man but making connections with his past and with others is what elevates him. Ellie Arscott's  use of pastel colours, particularly blues and pinks, keeps that softness of feeling and story.

From Levi's Gift, written by Kathy Stinson, illustrated by Ellie Arscott

Through their words and art, Kathy Stinson and Ellie Arscott remind us that music and generosity contribute and communicate beyond the immediate. You never know when a simple act of giving can touch another and in unexpected ways. For Levi, it is magical, even spiritualistic. (Once you see his reaction to the girl's playing of the violin, you'll understand.) I could see Levi's Gift being based on a true story, but, even if it isn't, this story offers hope that sometimes that which is lost returns in a different way to reconnect us to the past and to complete us in the now.

Never Silent: A Hiroshima Survivor's Story

Written by Setsuko Thurlow and Kathy Lowinger

Illustrated by Michelle Theodore

Annick Press

978-1-77321-985-1

64 pp.

Ages 11+

August 2025 

 

Setsuko Thurlow née Nakamura was born in Kojijn-machi, an eastern part of Hiroshima, in 1932. Her family had been samurai, and she'd had a rich childhood of family and education before the war came. With it, everything changed.

From Never Silent: A Hiroshima Survivor's Story, written by Setsuko Thurlow and Kathy Lowinger, illustrated by Michelle Theodore

As happened worldwide, daily life had to accommodate the threat of attack and the rationing to support military efforts. Hiroshima, a bustling city, was an important transportation and industrial hub and, with its port, it became a critical military harbour. Young children were sent away, food was rationed, and the people were encouraged to make sacrifices for "the glory of the country." (p. 25) As a thirteen-year-old, Setsuko and other girls were recruited to decode messages. August 6, 1945 was her first day as a decoder. She was at army headquarters in Hiroshima when the first atomic bomb was detonated on their city.

From Never Silent: A Hiroshima Survivor's Story, written by Setsuko Thurlow and Kathy Lowinger, illustrated by Michelle Theodore

Setsuko Thurlow's recollections of being buried in the rubble of a collapsed building, helping the countless burned and blinded, being reunited with some family and watching others suffer and die are horrific. And as a child, she lived this horror. Her parents set an unimaginable example of fortitude and courage. Still when those who had survived began to experience mysterious illnesses and die, there was new grief and confusion.

From Never Silent: A Hiroshima Survivor's Story, written by Setsuko Thurlow and Kathy Lowinger, illustrated by Michelle Theodore

Setsuko Thurlow's story does not end with the bombing of Hiroshima. She speaks of the aftermath including Japan's surrender and the occupation by U.S. and British Commonwealth forces, and the call for the abolition of nuclear weapons by herself and other Hibakusha (Japanese for explosion-affected persons) and activist groups worldwide.

 

The story of the bombing of Hiroshima and also Nagasaki is not an easy one. With so much suffering and devastation, any discussion would be brimming with tragedy, emotional distress, and worse. This story is even more so because it is told from the perspective of Setsuko Thurlow, herself a survivor. But Setsuko Thurlow and Kathy Lowinger go beyond the bombing itself and give the reader history of Hiroshima, of World War II, and of Setsuko Thurlow's activism and the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the International Campaign for the Abolishment of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) with which she is involved. (She delivered the Nobel lecture upon receiving the prize.) 

From Never Silent: A Hiroshima Survivor's Story, written by Setsuko Thurlow and Kathy Lowinger, illustrated by Michelle Theodore

While much of Never Silent: A Hiroshima Survivor's Story is illustrated with countless photographs and images of newspapers and other documents, Edmonton's Michelle Theodore provides artwork that elevates the book from documentation to personal. She uses ink and watercolour markers to create sombre and evocative illustrations that depict both deeply personal and deeply poignant scenes. Her focus is on the Japanese setting and people, but all converges on what they are experiencing whether it be childhood joy, distress with tragedy, or compassion.

 

The 80th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was commemorated this past August which is when this book was released. Because many of the Hibakusha are elderly, their stories are precious recollections to inform us and encourage action for peace. Setsuko Thurlow's story in Never Silent gives us a unique perspective but also a comprehensive one by embedding it in the history of Hiroshima, World War II, and the peace movements against nuclear weaponry. It is a touching and enlightening read, and it is one we would be wise from which to learn.

Endgame: The Secret Force 136

Written by Catherine Little

Illustrated by Sean Huang

Plumleaf Press

978-1-738898244

32 pp.

All ages

October 2023

This is a picture book. But Endgame: The Secret Force 136 is more than a picture book. It's a story within a story with another story. There's an intergenerational story which segues into a story from World War II that is framed by the playing of a game of Chinese chess that is depicted as an actual battle in illustrations. It may sound complicated and yet it all works.

From Endgame: The Secret Force 136, written by Catherine Little, illus. by Sean Huang

A child regularly visits his great-grandfather Tai Gong with his mother and is gifted with his elder's Chinese chess set on his tenth birthday. The boy enjoys learning the new game, called Xiangqi or elephant chess, with its two battling armies of generals, advisers, elephants, chariots, cannons, and soldiers, but he can never win over his Tai Gong.  Tai Gong advises him:

“You have to plan ahead, Alex,” Tai Gong replied. “As I have told you many times, slow down and plan your strategies. Focus on the big picture.”

From Endgame: The Secret Force 136, written by Catherine Little, illus. by Sean Huang

During one visit, Tai Gong shows Alex some faded photographs he keeps in his wallet. The photos show groups of men, some in uniforms, and Tai Gong says he needs to tell Alex about the stories of these photos. As he recalls discrimination he and other Chinese Canadians endured, many still felt the need to fight for their country during World War II. Though they were rejected initially, when the enemy occupied much of Southeast Asia, they were accepted into Secret Force 136 for special missions. And though he speaks of dangerous situations, Alex's tai gong is convinced it was all worth it because of the progress that happened upon their return. It was all about the endgame, something he hopes to impart to his great-grandson as they play Xiangqi.

From Endgame: The Secret Force 136, written by Catherine Little, illus. by Sean Huang

There is a history lesson in Endgame: The Secret Force 136, and Catherine Little provides extensive historical notes about the racial discrimination Chinese Canadians faced, about the Secret Force 136 including bios of several of the team's members, and about the impact of the Chinese Canadian war effort. While her focus may be on the history, as shared through a boy's interaction with his great-grandfather, she also embeds in the playing of the ancient game of Xiangqi which she also highlights in her appended notes. This could have been a very dry exposé of a WWII special operation but by tying the story of the strategies employed in a game of chess with the memories of an elderly Chinese Canadian, Catherine Little makes the story more personal. This is his story, and he speaks of it because he knows of it. And he learned valuable lessons for war but also for life but now he can share that strategizing so that his great-grandson may also benefit.

The realism of the child's interactions with his great-grandfather and his Tai Gong's experiences are depicted well in the lush paintings of Saskatchewan artist Sean Huang who takes readers from a contemporary setting to that of World War II and also to a time when warriors wore lamellar armour and carried spears. Because the story is one based in history, it's appropriate that Sean Huang maintains that realism so that a young reader might visualize their own interaction with a grandparent, or asking about the past, or looking to understand who is in photos. (The illustration of the Tai Gong's hands and the photographs is so lifelike that it will be immediately familiar and evocative of age and nostalgia.)

Players of chess and other games often speak of the endgame as the final stage and Alex learns about the perspective he must take to have a successful endgame. But his Tai Gong knows that there are many endgames in life, those final steps that can lead to success, to progress, and to resolution. His life has had many endgames and while they may or may not have always felt triumphant, they were surely noteworthy, if not for him then for others.

Shizue's Path

Written by Mark Sakamoto

Illustrated by Rachel Wada

HarperCollins

978-1-44346-459-8 

48 pp.

Ages 5-8

September 2023

 

You need to know your darkness to know your light.

This is a story from history of history. It's a history too many lived and one which should not have happened and should never happen again. Still, it is a story of resilience and courage that arose from discrimination.

From Shizue's Path, written by Mark Sakamoto, illus. by Rachel Wada

Shizue, now an elderly woman, welcomes her granddaughter to hear her story. Though her memory may be less than reliable about some things, Shizue remembers vividly her father heading out to fish and worrying about his safe return. He always reassured her.

When I am on the water, I am the water. I am clear. I am flowing. I am finding a path forward. Someday you will, too.

But then everything changes with the onset of World War II.

A war from far across the ocean washed up on our new country’s shore. 

First came the anti-Asian leagues and their protests. Then Japanese Canadians had their homes and businesses taken away and Shizue's family was relocated to the prairies. It was years before Shizue was able to return to school, and longer, not until after the war, before the family was able to return home. Still, it was not the same.

From Shizue's Path, written by Mark Sakamoto, illus. by Rachel Wada

Again, Japanese Canadians were being threatened, this time with deportation to Japan. Shizue, now a young woman attending the University of Toronto, finally saw that there were those, particularly Rabbi Abraham Feinberg, who would speak against the unfair treatment of Japanese Canadians and promote messages of peace, not hate. She took from them lessons of compassion and courage that set on her own true path.

From Shizue's Path, written by Mark Sakamoto, illus. by Rachel Wada

Mark Sakamoto, author of Forgiveness: A Gift from My Grandparents, an adult fiction book that won the CBC Canada Reads in 2014, has taken a personal story–that of his aunt–and made it one of calm triumph over adversity. Shizue learned well from her father about seeing her path, to follow "Shikata ga nai" (trans. "It cannot be helped; you must carry on.") and from others like Rabbi Feinberg to create her own ripples of courage and compassion, wisdom and goodness. The stories of Japanese Canadian internment are plentiful, each providing a different perspective and context–see Mira and Baku, Naomi's Road, Torn Apart: The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1941 and Stealing Home for just four examples–and Mark Sakamoto gives us yet another one, taking young readers along Shizue's Path from childhood to young woman and grandmother. And he gives us her story with a poetry of depth of emotion and wisdom. He makes her story beautiful, even in its darkness, just as artist Rachel Wada does.

Vancouver's Rachel Wada's first illustrated book, The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirota's Garden (written by Heather Smith), won the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award for 2020, and her success with showing the weightiness of the story with the beauty of people and place is again evident in Shizue's Path. The gravity of Shizue's family's situation because of the anti-Asian racism and the lightness that comes with reading, family, and evidence of kindness are all demonstrated in Rachel Wada's art. She uses line and colour effectively to take us on that journey of adversity and comfort, through darkness into light, triumphant with wisdom and compassion.

Just as Shizue learned from her father and others about how to be resilient and show compassion, so will young readers for whom internment may or may not be an unknown concept. Shizue's Path demonstrates that Shizue could move through hardships and take important lessons from those who had the courage to share.

Traitors Among Us

Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Scholastic

978-1-338-75429-2

288 pp.

Ages 8-13

September 2021

 

Do what you can, Maria, instead of worrying about what you can't. (pg. 21)

Everyone has their story. But is it the one they lived or just a story? Among the refugees from the Nazis, there are both kinds of stories, and sisters Krystia and Maria Fediuk from Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's earlier books, Don't Tell the Nazis and Trapped in Hitler's Web, can only be sure of what they've lived through and what they are willing to share.

It's June 1945 and the two Ukrainian sisters have made their way, separately and then together, from their town of Viteretz through Austria and now into the Karlsfeld camp in the American Zone in Germany, hopeful that this stop will help get them to their aunt and uncle in Toronto. But the Soviets, under the guise of repatriating refugees from Eastern Europe but really to punish them as traitors and silence them, take Krystia and Maria and several others into the Soviet Zone for interrogation before choosing how to deal with them.

With fellow prisoners Sophie, a former Hitler Girl, and Volksdeutsche father and son Elias and Finn, they are locked away, fearful that their roles in helping both the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and Jews escape will have them sent to Siberia or worse. Drawing strength from their memories of their father and their mother, the girls make sure that they tell only one story, regardless of threat of death or worries for the other. But will it be enough to keep them alive? And who can they trust? When anyone can be a traitor, whether lowly prisoner, local cook or NKVD officer, the girls know only that they can rely on each other. They may only be 14 and 16 years of age, but Maria and Krystia have a lifetime of strength and suffering to help them survive.

Don't Tell the Nazis (2018)

Trapped in Hitler's Web (2020)

Traitors Among Us (2021)

If you've read the first two books in Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's trilogy about the Fediuk sisters, and I encourage all readers to immerse themselves in these earlier stories, you'll know the depth of heartache and hardship that Krystia and Maria and others have endured at the hands of the Nazis and the Soviets. Their experiences are not foreign to most in western Ukraine who were wedged between two dangerous oppressors and hoped that immigration to other countries might help them survive. Old enemies or new enemies are still enemies. From the girls' terror of Soviet and Nazi occupation in Ukraine, their enslavement by the Nazis and finally their seeking refuge with the Allies before imprisonment as traitors to the Soviets, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch informs young readers about stories seldom told of World War II. War is not just for soldiers and sometimes the civilians living through it are young people and their stories are compelling and tragic. But Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, a master storyteller of historical fiction as well as of picture books, non-fiction and realistic middle-grade and YA, takes us to those war-torn countries to travel with the girls as they walk dusty roads with thousands of refugees, toil on farms, hide from dangerous people, and find and offer support, even as they endure hunger, cold, fear and uncertainty. Every atmospheric scene is one of edge-of-your-seat nerves, worry that the next ally they make may not be one, shock at executions witnessed, and solace from a sisterly bond and fleeting memories of home.

 

There have always been traitors among them, but Krystia and Maria are able to find the hope and strength to achieve an ending to their story that satisfies, courtesy of Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, and young readers will appreciate that ending, acknowledge the stories that took them there and learn the history that started them on those journeys.

 

• • • • • • •

 

Author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch will launch her new book virtually through the Brantford Public Library on December 1st. Register at calendar.brantfordlibrary.ca for an opportunity to hear this acclaimed author speak and read from Traitors Among Us.

 

Trapped in Hitler's Web

Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Scholastic

978-1-338-67258-9

240 pp.

Ages 8-12

October 2020

 

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch first addressed the impact of World War II on Ukraine and its people by the Soviets and then the Nazis in her series which included Stolen Child, Making Bombs for Hitler and Underground Soldier. With Don't Tell the Enemy (alternate title Don't Tell the Nazis), she began a different story, one of protecting Jewish friends in the Ukrainian village of Viteretz after the Nazis began to show their true colours. In Trapped in Hitler's Web, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch takes us beyond Viteretz, following Maria and Nathan after they've run away in the effort to keep Nathan's Jewish identity hidden and survive.

When the occupying Nazis started killing Jews in their village, eleven-year-old Maria Fediuk leaves her mother and older sister Krystia, whose story is told in Don't Tell the Enemy, to save her friend Nathan Segal from imminent death. Using the identity papers of a boy killed by the Soviets, Nathan becomes Bohdan Sawchuk, and the two sign up for work in the Reich, believing the promises of pay, food and shelter. Heading to Austria with others who'd been captured as slave labourers, their hope for safety is shattered when the two are separated in Salzburg, Nathan taken for bridge building while Maria is sent to the Huber farm near Innsbruck. 

The Huber farm is currently run by Frau Huber and her parents, Frau and Herr Lang. Frau Huber's husband and son are both fighting for the Reich and her fourteen-year-old daughter Sophie is a staunch Hitler Girl. Soon enough Maria learns that she and Bianka, a Polish girl captured two years earlier, are little more than slave labourers, sleeping in the barn and allotted minimal food, though not as badly off as the Ukrainians labelled as Ostarbeiters who return to a slave camp nightly. Though Frau Huber and her parents show kindness when they can, they are very cautious as their harvest is monitored, their actions are regularly scrutinized by Blockleiter Doris Schutt and they fear that the inexorable Sophie might betray them.

Realizing that her plan to help Nathan escape and to send money home to her mother and sister has failed, Maria does what she must to survive, knowing that she may be better off than some, but that she must find a way to make things right for Nathan and her family. Coming to realize that there are many trapped in Hitler's organization of cruelty and propaganda, from the Jewish people, to slave labourers, farmers, and even soldiers, Marie watches and listens and learns what she must to persevere and help those she cares about do the same.

As historical fiction, Trapped in Hitler's Web, like its companion novel Don't Tell the Enemy, is tragically honest and heartbreaking. The story is even more anguished as it is inspired by real events and people. But it is a telling story, from the perspective of a brave child who endured excruciating physical and emotional hardship, driven by hope to help those dear to her. It's also revelatory about the many victims of the Reich, borne in a manufactured hierarchy of discrimination. Hearing Maria and others referred to as "subhumans" and starved and abused is crushing. Still Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch writes to reveal another story of WWII, specifically about Ukrainians, and she does so with much heart and compassion, reminding us that there are sometimes more than two sides to a story and to war itself.

 

• • • • • • • 

Don't forget the virtual book launch coming up for Trapped in Hitler's Web.  Teachers and their classes are encouraged to attend for an opportunity to listen to Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch speak about her newest book of historical fiction. Register for this free event at the Brantford Public Library.

Seasons Before the War

Written by Bernice Morgan

Illustrated by Brita Granström

Running the Goat, Books & Broadsides, Inc.

978-1-927917183

44 pp.

Ages 7+

October 2018

Though the war mentioned in the title refers to World War II, it seems only appropriate to review Seasons Before the War in the same month as the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, when peace was declared and life would no longer revolve around war. Newfoundlander Bernice Morgan's first children's book, Seasons Before the War, speaks of that different time, a time between wars, when children of St. John's, Newfoundland lived lives full of play, family and community. It was a distant time and disparate from today but also distinct because of its Newfoundland setting. This is Bernice Morgan's story from that time.

From Seasons Before the War by Bernice Morgan, illus. by Brita Granström

Seasons Before the War reads like a bundle of warm but forthright reminiscences. Starting with Spring, Bernice Morgan speaks of the freedom to play in the many open spaces shared with children from various neighbourhoods. There were games, pretend tea parties, skipping and the freedom to venture out, though family made sure that children overheard stories about those who'd gone farther than permitted and "were never seen again." (pg. 9) Mealtimes were times to reinforce those cautionary tales but also to teach manners and the need for frugality.

From Seasons Before the War by Bernice Morgan, illus. by Brita Granström

In Summer, little Bernice–clearly identifiable from her glasses–and her big brother Charlie and other playmates would venture out on the streets filled with water pumps, horses, and farmers selling their produce and local merchants like the grocer, drug store, meat market and bulls-eye shop (candy shop). There was a blacksmith and  dressmaker or two and workshops, including her own father's carpentry shop, where the children could watch men at work. But it was the dump, source of the occasional great find, that entertained them most.

It was not as scavengers we went to the dump but as spectators, as people might go to a movie or concert. The place was not fenced, but surrounded by a kind of berm where we could sit for hours watching horse and box carts being backed up to the edge, appraising how each ashman would slowly manoeuver his animal into place, drop the back gate, and tip his load into the inferno of glowing ash. (pg. 23)

And when there was a fire at the dump, a weekly occurrence, and the firemen came with their firetruck, the entertainment surged.

In Fall, it was time for school and, for Bernice beginning kindergarten, the excitement of new shoes and a school uniform, her first book bag, exercise book and pencils. But school becomes a disappointment for Bernice who is shocked to find "that I was not the smartest or the prettiest child in the world" (pg. 26) and that her glasses and inability to tell left from right set her apart from her classmates. Fortunately, a gift of an extraordinary pencil box from her Aunt Sophie helped ease some of that discomfort.

And then Winter came, and venturing outside of the home was no longer the norm.

Inside the house we children did a lot of watching: watching our father mend footwear, fix furniture, or melt molten lead to solder a pot; watching the women bake, make jam, paper walls, knit, or pin patterns onto beautiful cloth to make dresses, pajamas, and even coats. Unlike scrubbing floors or washing clothes, there were interesting jobs that a youngster could help with. Holding skeins of wool, stirring batter, licking spoons clean, passing tacks, holding down flimsy patterns, carefully cutting the edge off wallpaper, even picking up scraps of leather or cloth, made a child feel important. (pg. 31)

But Christmas brought new excitement and fears, as Toylands in the local stores were opened (toys were not regularly displayed) and children worried whether they'd been good enough through the year. But it was a glorious evening when the whole family traipsed down to view the displays in the windows and point and smile and enjoy a treat of chips.

From Seasons Before the War by Bernice Morgan, illus. by Brita Granström

Oh, it was a different time. It was a time when it was unusual for a woman like Aunt Sophie to have her own money. When those who moved from Cape Breton to Newfoundland were considered immigrants. When play could be arranging glass marbles in the holes of the sewing machine's foot pedal. When words like bulls eye (for candy) and sooking (being a crybaby) were part of the vernacular.

Bernice Morgan's story unfolds like the seasons: inevitable, expected and full of promise. It's refreshing and invigorating to see the rosy-cheeked children playing and living without reliance on electronic devices. Bernice Morgan's words breathe life into these memories, true or modified as memories may be, with affection and with a lyricism found only in great storytellers. With Swedish-born artist Brita Granström's paintings, detailed in people and landscape, award-winning novelist Bernice Morgan's nostalgic anecdotes are given second breath and transport readers, young and old alike, to a time and place that has disappeared and remains forgotten until shared as in Seasons Before the War.

For good and for ill much of that long ago world was about to vanish: the children's chants, the horses, the small workshops and unpaved streets, the seamen with their songs, the open fields, our guileless assumption of safety–all of that would soon disappear from our world. (pg. 40)

Family of Spies: Blog Tour

Today I'm reviewing Jodi Carmichael's newest middle grade novel Family of Spies as part of the book's blog tour.  Please check out the others stops on the tour as listed at Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours and Promotions and enter to win a free copy of Family of Spies here.

Written by Jodi Carmichael

Yellow Dog (an imprint of Great Plains Publications)

978-1-927855-94-2

288 pp.

Ages 8-13

April 24, 2018

Most people who delve into their family histories are hoping for the unusual like connections to royalty, a hint of scandal or extraordinary accomplishment.  But for most, the exercise of discovering family history details is more likely to be a slog and end in disappointment, since  most people in the past lived lives of work and family with few opportunities for the exotic or the mysterious.  Not so for the great-grandfather of thirteen-year-old cousins Ford MacKenzie and Ellie Whitaker and Ford’s older brother Gavin.  Great-Granddad’s story would be the stuff of legends, if it didn’t have to be sealed.

The MacKenzie and Whitaker families, from Canada and the US respectively, are meeting in Paris for a European vacation. Soon after their arrival, Ford begins to experience moments of déjà vu that seem to time-slip him into Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II.  These episodes are especially emphatic when he touches any of the personal effects–letters, photos, postcards, bookmarks, etc.– in his great-grandfather’s briefcase. A visit to a psychic confirms Ford to be a clairvoyant who is able to connect to the past. 

Using a letter his mother received denying them access to Edward Crawford’s service records,  Ford connects to that military office and sees his great-grandfather’s file identifying him as part of  Special Operations Executive, a top-secret spy agency in operation during the war. But the three teens’ search at the military library alerts other forces to their interest in E. H. Crawford and soon Ford’s “visions” are not the only worries they have.

Assessing the various materials in his great-grandfather’s briefcase, Ford determines that he can connect with Great-Granddad and would be able to envision what he was doing during the war by (re)visiting a café/restaurant, the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and several more stops.  With each visit, Ford reveals more about his great-grandfather’s covert activities, as well as his fears and guilt for a mission gone awry.

The story is very loosely based on Jodi Carmichael’s own grandfather whose military records remain sealed.  By weaving family history with Ford’s supernatural ability to divine the past, Jodi Carmichael has created a multi-layered mystery that honours her family and entertains readers with intrigue, adventure, a bit of the fantastic and a history lesson like no other. Family of Spies also reveals much about family dynamics and reminds us that, like Great-Granddad’s records of spy activity, nothing is ever final, even in relationships modified by guilt or jealousy because forgiveness can unravel much.

For young readers who enjoy an action-adventure story with a bit of history and the supernatural, Family of Spies will completely captivate and satisfy, and leave them anticipating Ford, Gavin and Ellie’s next adventures (fingers crossed) as the family continues their travels to London and Cairo.

🌆🌆🌆🌆🌆🌆

Jodi Carmichael’s dreams of becoming an author began to come true when she attended her first SCBWI conference in Los Angeles in 2007 and was nominated for the Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award. A champion for the underdog and kids who think differently, she wrote Spaghetti is NOT a Finger Food (and Other Life Lessons) (2013) which won numerous awards including a Gold Mom’s Choice and a Silver Moonbeam in 2013. In 2016 her novel about relationship abuse, Forever Julia (2016), won the Manitoba Book Award, the McNally Robinson Books for Young People Award - Older Category and received a Bronze Moonbeam Award for Young Adult Fiction - Mature Issues.

When not channeling characters from her books, she can be found strolling Manitoba beaches with her husband, two daughters, and exceedingly scruffy Border Terrier named Zoe. 

My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts

Story and art by Torill Kove

National Film Board of Canada Collection

Firefly Books

978-1-77085-967-8

32 pp.

Ages 7-10

September, 2017

The National Film Board of Canada has been a part of Canada since 1939, impressing audiences, critics and award juries around the world for its entirety.  Films from documentaries to animations have delighted and now Firefly Books is partnering with the NFB to bring some of its stories to publication.  Starting next month, Firefly Books is launching the National Film Board of Canada Collection with the publication of two picture books including this one, My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts, based on the 1999 Oscar®-nominated NFB animated film of the same name.

Torill Kove recounts a story she'd heard from her grandmother, Aslang Bech of Norway, of her activities just before, during and prior to World War II in Oslo.  Though I have no doubts that Torill Kove’s grandmother, whose photo prefaces the story, truly ironed the King’s shirts, there is an air of a tall tale to her story of civil disobedience against the Nazis that may or may not be true.  I choose to believe it as it would be so satisfying if it were. Regardless of its veracity, the story is charming.

The book begins with a history lesson about Norway and the country’s decision to have a king lead them when it became an independent country.  Prince Carl of Denmark was selected and became King Haakon VII of Norway with Queen Maud and young Prince Olav in tow.  Though the family became proud Norwegians, embracing the people and culture readily, their wrinkled appearance had Norwegians shaking their heads.  So a clothing shop called Hoff agree to iron the royal family’s clothing, and years later this is the shop to which Torill Kove’s grandmother came to work.  A little investigative work led her to learn that she truly was ironing the King’s shirts.

From My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts 

by Torill Kove

All that changed when Norway was drawn into war against the Germans in 1940.  Proudly, the King refused to surrender and urged Norwegians to resist.  Now relegated to ironing the shirts of the German army, Torill Kove's grandmother began to sabotage their uniforms and encouraged the other Hoff pressers to do the same. “Word of their activities spread and soon all the shirt pressers in Norway were involved in a nationwide shirt sabotage.”

From My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts 

by  Torill Kove

Though history books may attribute the departure of the Germans in 1945 to Europe-wide capitulation, Torill Kove suggests they left because they had no undamaged clothes and fled in near-nakedness.  For this act of civil disobedience, her grandmother and others were decorated as resistance fighters.

From My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts 

by Torill Kove

Tall tale? Maybe.  Enthralling?  Absolutely!  Between the story details and Torill Kove’s illustrations, which are playful yet factual as seen by the accuracy of Torill Kove’s depiction of the King, My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts is a splendid side story that illuminates how a country outside of the the key players could withstand and triumph during World World II.  By keeping her tale absorbing while boisterous in colour and cartoon-like illustrations, Torill Kove tells history in a way that goes beyond both truth and tragedy, something few stories of WWII can achieve.

NFB  NFB  NFB  NFB  NFB  NFB

Do check out the animated short upon which this picture book is based at the NFB's channel on YouTube. The link is https://youtu.be/5LfJrv1_sZI

Taking a Chance on Love

Written by Mary Razzell
Ronsdale Press
978-1-55380-455-0
156 pp.
Ages 14+
February 2016

Taking a Chance on Love was still to become a jazz standard, having only been released a few years earlier in 1940, but it perfectly exemplies the summer of 1944 for seventeen-year-old Meg when boys and affairs of the heart seem to abound for her and everyone.

Though Meg is still quite innocent and naïve about her feelings towards boys, her best friend, Amy Miller, is anything but.  Amy is well aware of them, easily flirting with the wealthy Robert Pryce whose extramarital activities involve several married women, including Amy’s own mother, and setting her sights on any man who could give her a good life.  Meg notices a lot and sometimes knows enough to be wary but can’t always put the big picture together, unfortunately accused by Amy of being jealous  when she attempts to share those feelings.  With her own mother deeply entrenched in the staunch ideas of what being a woman entails i.e., not continuing one’s education but marrying instead, and her father and older brother Sam away at war, Meg has to navigate these treacherous waters as best she can.

From Doug Thompson, a soldier pen pal, to seventeen-year-old Glen Pryce, wealthy half-brother of Robert Pryce, and 22-year-old Bruce Hanson, the emotionally- and physically-scarred Navy son of her employer at Hanson’s Guest House, Meg has no shortage of young men who can help her learn how to handle how she feels.  Sadly, as with coming-of-age for all of us, Meg endures many sweet and bitter moments as she tries to uncover this.

It made me curious, excited, with strong, unexpected yearnings.  But I also felt uneasy, not really ready to know any more about this new world. (pg. 94)

Taking a Chance on Love may be rich in the landscape of 1940s British Columbia, with the war, TB, medical practices, the expectations for women, and the music and clothes, but it could be any teen girl’s story as she delves into first relationships with boys and tries to find herself while opening herself up to the possibilities of finding someone to love.  With some marriages falling apart and others forged because of war, Taking a Chance on Love takes place in a tenous and strengthening time.  It’s a time that is both sweet and enlightening, temporarilty transporting readers to an era when love wasn’t dependent on social media and digital technology but more on self-discovery and resolve.

A Year of Borrowed Men

by Michelle Barker

Illustrated by Renné Benoit

Pajama Press

978-1-927485-83-5

40 pp.

Ages 6-9

November 2015

Of course young readers will always hear of the brutality of war.  It's in the news, in video games, in the movies.  But picture books can illustrate the kindnesses shown during war, the ones that keep people from truly becoming barbarians.  A Year of Borrowed Men is one such enlightening and enlightened read that will touch young readers and the adults fortunate to find this book and share it with them, whether it be in classrooms or home.

Based on Michelle Barker’s mother’s childhood memories of Germany in the final year of World War II, A Year of Borrowed Men recounts the time when three French prisoners of war–Gabriel, Fermaine and Albert–come to live and help on the family farm.  Seven-year-old Gerda sees them as “borrowed men”, on loan just until the ones the German government borrowed from their community to aid in the war effort, including her Papi, are returned.

The family which includes Gerda, her mother, one brother and three sisters knows that they are supposed to treat the men like prisoners, forcing them to sleep in the area off the animals’ barn.  But Gerda comes to see the men as “our French family: gentle Gabriel, prickly Fermaine, and cheerful Albert, who loved games” (pg. 9).  Though trouble arises when the local police are notified by a neighbour of a simple kindness the family shows the men, Gerda and her mother continue to  interact with them in a familial way, seeking ways  to make their lives a little more pleasant, a kindness which they extend back to the Schottke family.

The story in A Year of Borrowed Men ends with the liberation of the “borrowed men” and their departure for home but the message that generosity of spirit goes on forever is a meaningful one at this time of year.  Released on Remembrance Day, A Year of Borrowed Men will be a valuable and touching read for years to come in classrooms commemorating those whose lives were touched by war.  But on the cusp of Christmas–also a memorable event in the story–A Year of Borrowed Men will speak to inherent kind-heartedness and be a reminder to demonstrate our humanity even in the most challenging of circumstances.   The potential, unspoken, that the Schottke family’s adherence to the golden rule of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” might extend to their own family members away at war, is undeniable.  But their charity to strangers in a time of war, when others only demonstrate anger and suspicion, is a worthwhile lesson in empathy.  Michelle Barker gets the tone right for this message, telling her mother’s story simply and forthrightly, as a child might see the circumstances.  The fear and confusion is there but it is superseded by a fundamental goodness to do what is right.  Look at Renné Benoit’s unassuming illustrations of this child, this farm, the men and relive a simple though still harsh time, when war was horrific but there was a gentleness that could still be found. Thank goodness.

September 17: Interview with author Amanda West Lewis

*citation below

With the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the S. S. City of Benares coming this September 17,  I reviewed yesterday September 17,  Ottawa author Amanda West Lewis' fictionalized account of its sinking.   Her book tells the story of three British children who find themselves on the requisitioned ship which was transporting ninety child evacuees to the safety of Canada.  Sadly, after secretly embarking from the shores of war-ravaged England, the S. S. City of Benares was torpedoed by a German U-boat on the night of September 17, 1940. Only thirteen children survived.

Amanda West Lewis began to research the incident after encountering a photograph at “The Children’s War” exhibit in London’s Imperial War Museum. Becoming inspired by the stories of the photographed children, she realized that this was a piece of history which had to be told.

Amanda West Lewis has graciously agreed to answer a number of questions for CanLit for LittleCanadians to share a bit more about her book and to help remember the tragedy of the S. S. City of Benares.

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

HK: The disaster that occurred on September 17 was all the more poignant because the victims included child evacuees who were being sent to Canada to keep them safe during war.  What did you learn in your research about families who chose to evacuate  their children?

AWL:  It was a heartbreaking time for families. All parents want their children to be safe and healthy. But with little food, and bombs falling nightly, parents feared for their children’s survival. Many women who could afford to leave the cities went with their children to stay with relatives in the countryside. But people with low incomes had fewer choices. People in safe parts of the country offered to take in children. Over one million kids went to stay in farms in Wales. Then people overseas offered to take children in, and the government created the CORB plan. It was a risk, but people knew that the future lay in the survival of the children.

What a terrible dilemma it must have been: choose to keep your children with you in a war zone, or send them away to be raised by strangers in safety. The parents who chose to send their children away did so because they thought it was best. It was terribly painful, but they thought it was the only way to save their children’s lives. The colonies – Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa – were far away from the conflict and were seen as perhaps the only opportunity for a good life for the children.

I think about parents in Syria today, and in other war torn countries. If someone said, “We can take your children to safety”, I’m sure they would jump at the chance, even if it meant being separated. Parents want their children to survive, no matter the cost.



HK:  While being evacuated was a traumatic experience for some of your characters, say little John Snoad, others seemed to see it as an adventure, Terry even stating, “Who knew that war was going to be such fun?” (pg. 71)  What do you think affected how children perceived the process?

AWL:  I think a lot of it depended on the age of the child. Adolescents are ready for separation from their parents. We now know that the teenage brain is hard wired for risk taking and adventure, and this was the biggest adventure of their lives. I don’t think it is unusual for teenagers to have seen this as an opportunity. The teens were catapulted into young adulthood, with all of the fun and few of the responsibilities.

For younger children, it was different of course. Some children, like John Snoad, didn’t want any kind of separation from their families. John was clearly a boy who didn’t want to be away for even a night. Others, like Joyce Keeley, were homesick but able to be distracted by caring adults. She and the other 5 year olds weren’t aware of the time scale. A little child doesn’t understand the concept of going away for years. She had no inkling of the monumental change that was happening in her life. It was only later that the younger children began to realize that they weren’t going home.

I think it might have been hardest for the kids who were in the middle, the seven to eleven year olds. As adults, these evacuee children have talked about their sense of responsibility. They believed that they had to be strong for their parents. They felt guilty if they were sad. It was an enormous burden on that generation.

HK:  The children in your story encounter a number of crew and others significant to their experiences: Signalman Mayhew, Commodore Mackinnon, Cadets Haffner and Critchley, Rev. King, Miss Annie Ryan the stewardess.  Which of these were real people and which were based on real people?

AWL:  All of those characters were real people. They all had their part to play in the story. As much as possible, I tried to bring to life elements of their personality that I could glean from my research. Obviously I couldn’t track all of their movements, so what I have done is to construct a fiction based on what we know of their lives.



HK:  If anything speaks to the power of story-telling, it is Auntie Mary’s ability to keep the children’s attention by telling them a story in installments as they wait for their lifeboat to be rescued.  Did this actually happen and was it the story you tell in September 17?

AWL:  Yes it really happened. Everyone remembers Mary Cornish telling the boys Bulldog Drummond stories. I don’t know which ones she might have used as a base, but I read several of them in order to do the research and they all have pretty much the same formula. I imagined that Auntie Mary wouldn’t have known any of the stories very well. After all, she was a single woman, a music teacher, and probably not well versed in books for boys. But everyone knew of the Bulldog Drummond stories, so I allowed myself to weave bits and pieces together, fused with some of my own story telling. I tried to imagine Mary struggling to come up with exciting story lines. I think that as she became increasingly disoriented, her story telling probably became quite surreal.



HK:  Much wiritng has been done about disasters and those who’ve survived them and those who did not.  Why do you think these stories are so compelling for young readers?

AWL:  That’s a really good question. Obviously as I was writing the book I was thinking about how young readers are fascinated by Titanic stories. I think it has to do with an innate desire for risk and adventure. People have a physical response when they read. It’s not dissimilar to actually living through the events, and it turns out that we all like to have our adrenaline stimulated! It makes us feel alive.

I think that young people can read the book and put themselves into the story. They can be excited and scared in the safety of an armchair. And I hope they can be moved by how each character deals with survival and loss.

HK:  If there is an image you keep from the diaster as told in September 17 (not a photograph that you saw), what is it?

AWL:  There are three images that stay in my mind all of the time. They’re based in fact, but I have augmented reality to give a moment of recognition to a couple of the children who didn’t survive.

One image is of Connie Grimmond on the deck with her brothers and sisters. Everyone who survived talked about Connie and how wonderful she was with her siblings. They were a working class family and very, very poor, but Connie was a wonderful “little mother” and made sure that her sisters and brothers were clean and well mannered. I’ve invented a moment for her on the deck holding them, with her arms around them in all of the chaos. I’d like to think she was able to do that in her last moments before getting on the lifeboat. She went down with Lifeboat #8.

Another image is of Joyce Keeley. It is hard not to love Joyce. I have given her a moment with Bess when the torpedo first hits. Later Sonya sees a small child on the deck, holding a large teddy bear. That’s Joyce. I imagined her alone, and bewildered, but with her teddy.

But the lasting image is entirely true and not fictionalized. It’s the image of Ken Sparks waving his shirt so that the pilot could see Lifeboat 12. When I read Ken’s story, I knew that I wanted people to know about him. I think he must have been one of those remarkable thirteen-year-old boys who have an amazing zest for living. I would have loved to have met him.

Sincere gratitude to author Amanda West Lewis for answering my questions 

and to publicist Winston Stilwell for arranging this interview and 

providing a review copy of September 17.

Thank you

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* Images retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2112768/Torpedoed-clutched-teddies-The-harrowing-story-Nazis-sunk-ship-carrying-90-children-Blitz-America.html and http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/15/benares-sunk-war-81-children-dead  on September 7, 2015.