Thrive (The Overthrow, Book 3)

(If you haven't, I encourage you to read Bloom and Hatch, Books 1 and 2 in The Overthrow series, first. You'll want to know the whole story. Really.)

 

Written by Kenneth Oppel

HarperCollins

978-1-4434-5691-3

404 pp.

Ages 10-14

May 2021

 

First there were the black grasses, strangling vines and pit plants (Bloom, 2020). Then came the eggs that developed into mosquito birds, giant water striders and horrific mega-worms (Hatch, 2020). Now, in the conclusion to Kenneth Oppel's The Overthrow trilogy, the cryptogens themselves are coming to invade. But will they succeed in overthrowing humans for the planet?

Being a teen is hard enough but, for Anaya, Petra and Seth who have dealt with strange allergies and physical ailments all their lives, things have gotten a lot stranger since learning that they have cryptogenic DNA that has given them extraordinary powers but also unconventional bodies. Anaya is a runner, with unusual body hair and claws. Petra has an affinity for swimming and has scaly skin and a tail. Seth is a flyer with razor-sharp wings and a powerful sound weapon. During the horrific experimentation on the kids and others like them at the hands of the nasty Dr. Ritter, they learned that they are able to telepathically communicate with each other and Anaya was able to connect with the cryptogen she calls Terra. 

 

This connection has lead to the arrival of a ship, at the conclusion of Hatch and the beginning of Thrive, from which a trio of rebel cryptogens have emerged. Terra, who is a runner and scientist as well as pilot, is accompanied by another scientist, a swimmer for whom Petra uses the pronouns ze and zir, and a flyer who was a military leader, hence their moniker of him as the general. Together the three cryptogens had formed an alliance, and a rebel movement of several hundred was established to overthrow the flyers who have used their sound power to keep runners and swimmers enslaved to them. 

The rebels admit that Anaya, Petra and Seth, as well as the other hybrid children, had been implanted with DNA to help produce a virus to destroy the flyers' ability to use sound as a weapon and thus to help them defeat their oppressors. Now the rebels have come to earth to retrieve that hidden DNA.

 

While Petra helps the swimmer to get materials needed to repair their ship and Anaya works with Terra to develop the virus, Seth worries for Esta, a hybrid flyer such as himself, with whom he'd bonded at Dr. Ritter's bunker facility. Learning that Esta, like most hybrid cryptogens, is being detained at an internment camp, Seth sneaks out to rescue her and ends up captured along with Esta and others by the primary ship of invaders. Now Seth has to decide whether he agrees with Esta who believes the cryptogen commander, a flyer, really has their best interests at heart, or whether a rebellion against the flyers is necessary to stop the oppression of the runners and swimmers and an invasion of earth.

Kenneth Oppel pounds out his story of an alien invasion and rebellion with little respite for the reader, just as there was none for the trio of teens who are thrown from one alarming situation to the next. Even before the initial arrival of terrifying plants and menacing creatures, Anaya, Petra and Seth have had to manage their physical stresses. Now with the menace of extraterrestrials, they have to balance being seen as both threats and saviours, and doing what they can, what they want to and what they'd rather not. There's always some new threat with which they must deal and, as they are punched with pressure after pressure, as each new creature and knowledge is revealed, Kenneth Oppel takes the reader with them. As such, Thrive is an intense read, throwing the reader along with the story's characters, from one dangerous situation to the next, manoeuvring on a flying platform, being swallowed by a wall, fighting off a wolverine squid or plunging through the atmosphere in a pod with limited oxygen. The action is relentless and it's not until the very end that Kenneth Oppel lets us know how The Overthrow, the series and the operation, actually turns out. I won't give away the ending but I will reassure that the wild ride that is Thrive leaves room for a sigh and a promise for resolution.

He was half human, half cryptogen, but for the first time in his life, he was starting to feel whole. (pg. 404)

• • • • • • •

The Overthrow (a.k.a. Bloom Trilogy) 

Bloom (2020)

Hatch (2020)

Thrive (2021)

Cherry Blossom Baseball: Book launch (Burlington, ON)

Join #youngCanLit author

Jennifer Maruno

whose books include

Kid Soldier

Dundurn

978-1-45970-677-4

208 pp.

Ages 13-15

2013

Totem

Dundurn

978-1-4597-1934-7

166 pp.

Ages 8-12

2014

and 

When Cherry Blossoms Fell & Cherry Blossom Winter

Dundurn         Dundurn

978-1-89491-783-4             978-1-45970-211-0

144 pp.     176 pp.

Ages 10-13

2009     2012

for the launch of her newest middle-grade historical fiction 

and

third book in her Cherry Blossom series

Cherry Blossom Baseball

by Jennifer Maruno

Dundurn

978-1459731660

256 pp.

Ages 10-13

December 2015

on

Sunday, January 10, 2016 

at

1:30 p.m.

at the

 Burlington Central Library

2331 New St.

Burlington, ON

L7R 1J4

The book blurb from Dundurn reads as:

Michiko Minigawa’s life is nothing but a bad game of baseball. The Canadian government swung the bat once, knocking her family away from a Vancouver home base to an old farmhouse in the Kootenay Mountains. But when they move into town, the government swings the bat again, announcing that all Japanese must now move east of the Rockies or else go to Japan. 

Now in Ontario, Michiko once again has to adjust to a whole new kind of life. She is the only Japanese student in her school, and making friends is harder than it was before. When Michiko surprises an older student with her baseball skills and he encourages her to try out for the local team, she gives it a shot. But everyone thinks this new baseball star is a boy. Michiko has to make a decision: quit playing ball (and being harassed), or pitch like she’s never pitched before.

(Retrieved from https://www.dundurn.com/books/Cherry-Blossom-Baseball on January 3, 2016.) 

Books will be available for purchase from A Different Drummer Books.  It's a great way to complete or start your Cherry Blossom collection!

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch: Author interview for Dance of the Banished

Dance of the Banished

by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Pajama Press

978-1- 927485-65-1

288 pp.

Ages 12+

August 22, 2014

With the official release of

Dance of the Banished 

yesterday 

award-winning youngCanLit author

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

graciously agreed to answer a few questions
for CanLit for LittleCanadians about her new book.

I'm pleased to share that interview with you here. 

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  

HK: Your notes at the conclusion of Dance of the Banished explain how you heard of the story and your research. Why did you choose to pursue the story?

MFS: I couldn't not write this book.  It touched on so many things that I had already written about, but from an entirely different angle. As well, the First World War internment barely registers with most Canadians, and those few who do know about the internment have only ever heard about it from a Ukrainian point of view. Here was a story originating in my own home town about a mysterious group of internees that no one seemed to know much about. I like to think of myself as a librarian-detective and this one took all of my skills to piece together.

The other part of this story that intrigued me is that within Canada, Ukrainians were the minority and were persecuted in WWI, but in the internment camps, they were the majority. As a person of Ukrainian heritage myself, that flipping of the dynamic intrigued me and I wanted to explore it.



HK: The culture of the Alevi Kurds is so distinct. Have you had any opportunities to witness the semah and experience their traditions first-hand?

MFS: I have not witnessed a semah first hand yet. I've seen videos only, and descriptions in documents. There are very few Alevi Kurds in Canada and it took me a long time to gain the trust of people in that community.  I began my research for this book in 2009 but it wasn't until last year that I was finally able to connect with Suleyman Guven, who is an Alevi Kurd and also the editor of a Kurdish-Alevi-Turkish newspaper here in Canada. He was incredibly patient and very generous with his time. He corrected my scenes to ensure accuracy and gave me great insight into Ali's character. Without Suleyman's assistance, I would have been up a creek.



HK: The plight of the Alevi Kurds reminds me that throughout history and around the world, even now with the Yazidis in Iraq, a group of people has been persecuted by the majority, and there were those who showed compassion and tried to right the wrong as the consul does in your story. Do you consider them and him heroes?

MFS: The Yazidis and Alevis have very much in common. Both are very old religions that over time have taken on some aspects of the religions they come into contact with. Both groups have suffered genocide for their beliefs, and both groups have helped others who have also been persecuted.

Leslie Davis was the American Consul in Harput during WWI and the Armenian Genocide. He was most definitely heroic and I have been so fascinated by this man that he has walked into two of my novels, Dance of the Banished, and also Daughter of War. Leslie Davis had a very modern view that all people are equal and he went to extraordinary lengths to save as many people as he could.

I especially admire the Alevi Kurds of the Dersim who saved 40,000 Armenians from the genocide, openly defying the Young Turk government, and risking their own lives in the process. I also admire the director of the Red Crescent hospital in Harput who saved nearly a thousand Armenians, and the vali (governor) who turned a blind eye as the Dersim Kurds rescued the Armenians. I also admire the Muslim women who passed out bread to emaciated Armenians in the caravans, and others who rescued children.



HK: Your book provides readers with an opportunity to learn about little known historical events and those poorly understood.  While I loved learning more about this story, are you ever concerned about those who might condemn your efforts as partisan, biased or propaganda, happier to not have the story told?

MFS: When I began writing this novel I had no idea what the story would ultimately be and I guess that makes me a bad propagandist, but I write about genocide and war from the victim's point of view. Since the Republic of Turkey still does not acknowledge that the Armenian Genocide happened, yes, some people will be angry with this book.



HK: The love story in Dance of the Banished provides one foundation upon which Ali and Zeynep's determination and courage are based, yet for most of the book, they are at opposite ends of the world. What sort of challenges did this give you, as the writer?

MFS: I didn't come upon the format of writing the novel like two intertwined journals until I had already written and scrapped an entire novel length draft. In that initial version I had tried to use the same narrative technique that I used for Daughter of War, which was third person intimate, mostly from two key characters' points of view. It did not work. Ali and Zeynep were both speaking to me in first person, and they were not interacting with each other because they were apart. The challenge here was how to intertwine the two stories, how to keep the love story intimate, when Ali and Zeynep are an ocean apart.

My editor Ann Featherstone posed the idea of two journals. Once I got my head around it, I realized how well it would work -- especially because both Ali and Zeynep were bursting out of my brain in first person anyway. After spending three years on that first tortured draft, I hit delete and started anew. This one blasted out of me in about five fevered months -- the first draft of it, that is! Subsequent drafts were slower.

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  

My sincere thanks to Marsha Skrypuch for her honest and insightful comments into the writing of Dance of the Banished and to her publicist, Kim Therriault, for arranging this Q & A.  Many thanks.

Dance of the Banished

by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Pajama Press

978-1- 927485-65-1

288 pp.

Ages 12+

August 22, 2014

Dance of the Banished is an old tale.  It's the familiar love story in which two young people are separated, here by family, distance and war.  But, sadly, it's also the story of prejudice, fear, and injustice, and the subsequent torment that intensifies that separation.  Dance of the Banished may be an old story in its foundations, but its context is wholly unique, expertly researched and penned by award-winning author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch.

Our story begins in 1913 Anatolia (now essentially the republic of Turkey), a nation of Christians, Muslims and Alevis, an ancient group with a unique Islamist belief system.  When Ali, a young Alevi Kurd, unexpectedly immigrates to Canada with his married brother Yousef, he leaves behind his betrothed, Zeynep, another Alevi Kurd, giving her a notebook in which to write him until they are together again.  Having planned to go together once they'd saved enough money, Zeynep knows Ali's mother has orchestrated this separation, and refuses to wait for him, though she gifts him with her blue evil eye necklace to keep him safe.

Though both Ali and Zeynep record their experiences in their matching notebooks, providing the basis for this book, neither is communicating directly with the other.  In fact, hearing nothing from Ali and no longer feeling a part of her community, Zeynep follows visiting Protestant missionaries to the city of Harput, hopeful of improving her lot in life, including getting an education.  Though the lifestyles of the Christian North Americans and Armenians in their Western clothing and the Turkish Muslims differ significantly from her own, Zeynep appreciates this diversity, learning and helping the Reverend John Emmonds and his wife Lenore at the hospital and at their simple home.

With much strife in Europe at the beginning of 1914, the Ottoman army is becoming more oppressive to the Alevis and the Armenians, raiding villages, taking whatever they choose, and finally, when Austria-Hungary and Germany declare war on Russia, threatening death to those who attempt to escape the draft or those who help them.  Within a few months, the Alevis are starving, and the Armenians are being murdered en masse.  Zeynep watches and listens, documenting all she witnesses in her notebook; in fact, she begins recording everything for the American Consul, Leslie Davis, who plays a significant role in saving the lives of many.

Meanwhile, with the declaration of war in 1914, Ali and Yousef, like all foreigners, are let go from their jobs in Brantford Ontario. Rounded up as Turkish "enemy aliens", Ali and Yousef, along with many others, are shipped to the wilderness of Kapuskasing.  Still in a minority, the Alevis are forced to cut majestic trees, contrary to Alevism, and endure the never-ending discrimination, even within the camp.

On different sides of the world, Zeynep and Ali continue to honour their beliefs and heritage, though choosing to think beyond themselves, all the while wondering about the other, their safety and potential for reunion.

Spotlighting little known historical injustices has become a trademark for Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, her desire to enlighten and disclose indicative of her own integrity and search for equity.  From the Armenian genocide (The Hunger, 2001; Nobody's Child, 2003; Daughter of War, 2008), to the Ukrainian Holodomyr (Enough, 2004), the treatment of Ukrainians during World War II (Stolen Child, 2010; Making Bombs for Hitler, 2012; Underground Soldier, 2014) and the Vietnamese War orphans (Last Airlift, 2012; One Step at a Time, 2013), Marsha Skrypuch ensures that transgressions, even atrocities, from our histories are not forgotten.

By creating legitimate characters in her fiction who bring varied and personal perspectives to the situations experienced and who speak through their questions and confusions and convictions, Marsha Skrypuch can tell the whole story, not just the public one.  In Dance of the Banished, we listen to Alevi Kurds and Armenians in both Canada and Anatolia, to those with family and those without, to the Turks shamed by the actions of their government and those complicit in the horrors, to Canadians who stood guard at internment camps and those who recognized the discrimination for what it was. Consequently, her readers submit to understanding the big picture, not necessarily the pretty, sanitized one.  And we are grateful for that opportunity and bold honesty.

Dance of the Banished reveals truths from Canada and Asia Minor that some may prefer to leave forgotten or hidden, but Marsha Skrypuch's words and heart tell us that we can trust her to tell it right and well, as she does so eloquently here and always.

<><><><><><><><><><><>
Today, across Canada, one hundred commemorative plaques are being unveiled to recognize the internment of "enemy aliens" such as Ali in camps across Canada.  Check the map of all sites at the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation here to attend one close to your location at 11 a.m. local time.

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Check back tomorrow for a guest post by author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch who answers questions about Dance of the Banished for readers of CanLit for LittleCanadians.

Sabotage

by Karen Autio
Sono Nis Press
978-1-55039-208-1
293 pp.
Ages 10+
2013

In 1915 Port Arthur Ontario, Saara Mäki and her younger brother John, from Karen Autio's Second Watch (Sono Nis Press, 2005) and Saara's Passage (Sono Nis Press, 2009), may seem to be typical Finnish children in their community but, with the Great War on in Europe, nothing is typical anymore. John's Ukrainian friend Fred has had his father herded away to an internment camp. Then a man at the grocery store calls the Mäki family "enemy aliens". Even Saara has worries that she may not progress from Junior Fourth to Senior Fourth because she's been away for months helping her aunt who has TB. And the news is rife with the case of Carl Schmidt, a German who participated in dynamiting an armory, a plant and the Nipigon River railway bridge, almost. Suspicions abound.

Alternating chapters in the voices of Saara and John, Sabotage begins at the onset of summer holidays. While Saara, now 14, must work away at delivering her mother’s sewing work and completing assignments that would allow her to pass into the next form, John (9) delivers newspapers with Fred, and keeps his ears open to all the gossip and any news the reporters might share. Though Saara is pestered by John’s pranks and outrageous ideas, she is forced to watch him and even work with him whenever directed by their mother. When a new boy, Peter Schmidt, joins them in playing war, Saara meets his sister, Birgitta, and they become fast friends.

While John’s suspicious but observant nature helps him to find evidence of sabotage and get him rewarded with the moniker of “Scoop”, he and many others see sabotage and saboteurs everywhere, whether it be a fire in a grain elevator (a fairly common occurrence) or a person speaking German. But when their own actions are misinterpreted as suspicious, and their father is accused of attempting to blow up the grain elevator, John and Saara must work together and ask for help of those who disapprove of them if they are to help their father and prove that all landed immigrants are not dangerous enemy aliens.

Although the premise behind Sabotage is, well, sabotage, Karen Autio paints a picture of a Canadian community on the edge: men away at war, never coming back; women need to find work to help support their families and help with household duties previously shared with their spouses; families of internees are left without support, financial and emotional; flagrant prejudice is leveled against those who speak other languages regardless of their loyalties, community connections, and valuable contributions; censorship of letters shows up between children; attempts to unionize workers and institute labour reforms are seen as suspicious; and paranoia about everyone and everything abounds. The little pleasures of an ice cream with a beau are few and far between (though sweet), as is play for children. Youth like Saara and John, as well as Fred, Birgitta, Peter and others are slammed hard with the realization that the world and the adults running it are not always hospitable and generous, or even rational. It was a hard lesson to learn, I’m sure. Credit to those adults who could demonstrate sound judgement during a time of war, and impressed that model upon children, because in a world where there really were saboteurs aiming to do harm, there was enough to worry about.