Symphony for the City of the Dead

Symphony for the City of the Dead; Dimitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad

By M.T. Anderson

This not a book everyone will love, or even should read. But it is powerful, and I am glad to have read it. If you are interested in classical music, Russian history, or World War II, you might enjoy this incredible true story....and M.T. Anderson is such a great writer! I visited St. Petersburg last summer--formerly known as Leningrad--and read this before I went. Unbelievable history.

Review from School Library Journal:

This ambitious and gripping work is narrative nonfiction at its best. Anderson expertly sets the scene of the tumultuous world into which Dmitri Shostakovich was born in 1906 and traces his development as an artist and a public figure. He also tells the story of the composer's beloved Leningrad, focusing on the creation and legacy of the symphony written in its honor at the height of World War II. In his author's note, Anderson poses an intriguing question: "How do we reconstruct the story of someone who lived in a period in which everyone had an excuse to lie, evade, accuse, or keep silent?" The compelling, well-researched narrative relates what is known of Shostakovich's story, what is speculation, what is revisionist history, and what new sources have revealed. The chilling details of the Stalin regime and the plight of the Russian people even before the Germans arrived will be eye-opening to many teen readers. The book has all the intrigue of a spy thriller, recounts the horrors of living during the three year siege, and delineates the physical oppression and daunting foes within and outside of the city. This is also the story of survival against almost impossible odds. Through it all, Anderson weaves the thread of the composer's music and the role it played in this larger-than-life drama. 

School Library Journal (September 1, 2015)

Inside Out & Back Again

Inside Out & Back Again
By Thanhha Lai

This is a beautiful story, in verse, of coming to the United States from Vietnam just at the end of the war, in 1975.
Ten-year-old Ha, along with her mom and three brothers, flees Saigon and survives a harrowing boat ride--eventually ending up in Alabama. There, she struggles to be included in school and learn English while suffering the intolerance and racism of many neighbors and schoolmates.
Stepping into Ha's shoes, we can understand how it feels to have to start over from scratch, leave one home behind and build another, and the power of kindness and compassion.

Wolf by Wolf

Wolf by Wolf
by Ryan Graudin

Wolf by Wolf was hard to put down!
Set in an alternative historical time--Hitler has won World War II and is in power--a girl named Yael has survived brutal treatment and escaped from a Nazi death camp.
Now a teenager, Yael is part of the underground Resistance force, and she has a top secret, very dangerous mission: impersonate a famous German teenager (who happens to be the winner of a prestigious annual motorcycle race) so that she can win the next race, meet Hitler in person, and kill him.
Luckily Yael has some special powers that allow her to "skinshift", the result of horrible human experimentation she underwent as a little girl in the concentration camp.
She can make herself look like anyone.
But that is the easy part...winning the fiercely competitive motorcycle race across the continents, and then figuring out a plan to assassinate Hitler--and escape alive--are two unfathomable challenges she faces.
The sequel to Wolf by Wolf is Blood for Blood...you won't want to miss it!

Fallout

Fallout
By Todd Strasser

What if the Russian government had actually launched a nuclear bomb at the United States in 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
During those scary years, some people--like author Todd Strasser's own family--actually dug out bomb shelters under their homes and stocked them with food, emergency supplies, and water. But what would it really be like to spend two weeks underground, surviving an attack? Especially if there were too many people for the shelter, and too few supplies...
Strasser explores this scenario in Fallout, a fictionalized account of survival during the worst WHAT IF? you might be able to imagine.
This is a pretty dark story, but a good one...it's a page-turner, and one that really questions the logic of building and keeping nuclear weapons in the world.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
By Ransom Riggs

This is a real page-turner...and pretty spooky, too!
Jacob, 16 years old, was always been enchanted by his grandfather's crazy stories of growing up in an orphanage on a wind-swept island off the coast of Wales--along with a number of children with strange powers and abilities. Jacob has even seen the photos. But as he got older, his grandfather's stories seemed too fantastic to be true. After a mysterious "accident", Jacob is suddenly inspired to investigate the island and track down anyone still connected with the orphanage.
Set against the backdrop of World War II, this novel is a mix of fantasy, reality, mystery and horror...it will keep you guessing!!

This book is part of a trilogy; Hollow City and Library of Souls are the next two books. And Tales of the Peculiar is a collection of short stories that relates to the trilogy. Check them out!

Wildwood

Wildwood
By Colin Meloy
Illustrated by Carson Ellis

Since I used to live in Portland, Oregon, I particularly loved the setting of Wildwood. And since I love the music of the band The Decemberists, I had a hunch I would enjoy the writing by that band's lead singer and lyricist, Colin Meloy. And I did!
Wildwood is the first book in a trilogy of fantasy stories involving two 12-year-old kids, Prue and Curtis, who accidentally wander into an enchanted wood that borders the city of Portland. In these woods, talking forest animals and humans, some with (dark) magical abilities are preparing for a war--and Prue and Curtis find themselves more involved in the civil unrest than they could have imagined!
Full of adventure and wit, Wildwood will keep you reading and wondering how it will all work out...

The illustrations throughout the book by Carson Ellis are wonderful, too!

Harlem Hellfighters

Harlem Hellfighters 
by J. Patrick Lewis and Gary Kelley

This gorgeous and intense picture book tells the true story--in free-verse poetry--of the 369th Infantry Regiment during World War I.
In 1917 a brave group of 2,000 black Americans enlisted and  became known as the Harlem Hellfighters; some of these young men played instruments in a famous band that brought the music of Harlem, New York, straight into the war raging in France.
Faced with racism in the United States, the Harlem Hellfighters returned victorious when the war was over, helping to make progress towards equal rights for all African Americans--that were still a long time coming.



Below, Lt. James Reese Europe, famous jazz
band leader, back with the 369th Regiment.
More photos and information about the Harlem Hellfighers at: www.archives.gov/education/lessons/369th-infantry

Shooting Kabul

Shooting Kabul 

By N.H. Senzai

Taking place around the time of the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001, middle school student Fadi faces harassment and bullying for being Muslim in his new community of Fremont, California. Along with his family, Fadi recently fled his home country of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, but his 6-year-old sister was accidentally left behind. Fadi is determined to find her by any means and cooks up some wild plans to get to Pakistan, where he thinks his little sister might be.
I loved this story, and especially the surprising and clever end..!

Vango

Vango: Between Sky and Earth
 By Timothée de Fombelle

This is a cliff hanger, no doubt...good thing the second book is now out (Vango: A Prince Without a Kingdom)!
An action-packed adventure that includes some WWII history--and even a photograph of the giant "airship" blimp, the Graf Zeppelin--this is the story of one very interesting boy, Vango. Mysteriously orphaned as a toddler, he travels the globe seeking refuge from enemies while trying to uncover his past. Along the way he meets and befriends some colorful characters: a pirate/priest on a secret island, an orphaned girl who lives in a castle in Scotland, the captain of the Graf Zeppelin in Germany, and many others. Always running (or scaling buildings or trains or the Eiffel Tower or other tall structures), Vango somehow manages to survive one crazy adventure after another!

Bomb

Bomb: The race to build--and steal--the world's most dangerous weapon
By Steve Sheinkin

Steve Sheinkin tells the gripping true tale of the construction of the first atomic bomb, dropped on Japan and ultimately ending WWII.
A story chock full of the world's "greatest scientists,  the most expert spies, hardened military commandos, and some of the most ruthless dictators who ever lived. The prize: military dominance over the entire world."
Read and find out what it took to build such a weapon, and why it is so important for countries to avoid using them now.

Caminar

Caminar
By Skila Brown

April is National Poetry Month, a perfect time to read a book written entirely in free-verse poetry!

Caminar is an intense, moving story of a Guatemalan boy, Carlos, who flees into the jungle when his remote village is attacked by the Guatemalan military. From his hiding place, Carlos hears his neighbors and family being massacred.

He survives alone until he meets a small band of guerrillas--a rebel group, striving to overcome the military soldiers--heading toward a mountain camp. Not understanding the reasons for the war happening in his country, Carlos grapples with who he should trust, and what responsibilities he must now have.

In beautiful language, the author focuses on the results of the violence on small, rural villages during the horrible Civil War in Guatemala in the 1980's. Although this story is fictionalized, it is in many ways an accurate account of what really happened during that time, and the recovery afterward--that continues in Guatemala to this day.

Code Talker

Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two
By Joseph Bruchac

This story is beautifully written, and explains a lot about what was going on in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II. Narrated by Ned Begay, a Navajo Indian from New Mexico, this novel tells the story of how he joined the U.S. Marines at age 16--and was given the top secret mission of code talker. Because he could speak fluent Navajo (despite the U.S. attempt to wipe out that entire language and culture through Indian boarding schools) and it is a complicated language known by relatively few people, Ned was called to help develop a secret code for transmitting important military messages during battle. Code Talker describes Ned's experience in some of the most horrendous island battles against the Japanese, and the crucial role these brave Navajo code talkers played. The novel is historical fiction, based on real events.
I was amazed to learn that the Navajo code talkers were not officially recognized until 1969, almost 25 years after the end of the war--partly because the Navajo code was so secret and "unbreakable," the military wanted to keep it for future wars.

The Arrival

The Arrival is told purely through pictures--no words at all. The illustrations, as usual, are captivating, whimsical, and full of wild details. This is the story of one man who leaves his wife and little daughter to seek out a better life in a new place...the settings are fantastical, with creepy beasts and other threats, and bizarre contraptions for traveling, and everyday use. The man must make his way through this strange new "city", and luckily he meets some other immigrants who help him out. They tell their own stories of arrival. Finally, the man has enough money to send to his family in a "letter," and he waits for their arrival...This graphic novel really blew me away, I have to say. It is beautiful.

The Arrival By Shaun Tan
I just love Shaun Tan's books. And this one is really brilliant.

Strudel Stories

I found this little book in the library when I was putting One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street back on the shelf (see previous post), and it was a real treat to read another of Joanne Rocklin's books.

Strudel Stories
By Joanne Rocklin

If you love stories and you love to bake (like me!) you will probably enjoy this sweet collection of tales of a Jewish family, short stories that are baked into the layers of generations of homemade apple strudel and passed down orally from one relative to another.
Some of the stories are humorous, some sad...they cover ghosts, the brutalities of war and persecution, and the hardships of immigrating to a new country. But all of the stories, however bittersweet, are testaments to the strong and enduring human spirit.

Fred Korematsu

Fred Korematsu: All American Hero
By Anupam Chander and Madhavi Sunder
Illustrated by Angelia Loi


This informative graphic novel tells the story of Fred Korematsu, who spoke up and fought for justice for his Japanese American community despite great challenges. During WWII, Fred and his family and 120,000 other Japanese Americans living on the West coast were forced to live in internment camps for no reason but that they were of Japanese ancestry. Fred Korematsu took his case to the Supreme Court--twice--before the U.S. officially apologized to him, and to the entire Japanese American community. He continued to fight for justice for all people in the United States until his death at age 86, in 2005.
The story also mentions similar unfair treatment of Muslims after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001.

  

California now commemorates this impressive civil rights activist each January 30th (this began in 2011) with Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberaties and the Constitution.

The Wednesday Wars

The Wednesday Wars
By Gary D. Schmidt

 This book is really hilarious--even the main character's name made me laugh on the first page:  Holling Hoodhood.  His year in 7th grade in 1967 is filled with a combination of funny and serious incidents, like having to stay in with his teacher and read Shakespeare, find enough money to buy cream puffs for the class bully, wear embarassing yellow tights in a community play, and chase down escaped rats in his school.
There are also more serious parts of the story, like how Holling's father is only concerned with making money, his teacher's husband has been shot down in a helicopter in Vietnam during the war, and one of his classmates experiences racism by a teacher at school.
Holling manages to survive it all, and come out a wiser, stronger person.

Ender's Game

Ender's Game
By Orson Scott Card

Ender Wiggins is six years old when they take him away from his family on Earth and put him in space-based Battle School.  There, he meets other gifted children like himself, all being trained to fight the "buggers"--the supposed alien enemy.  Ender quickly rises to the top, becoming the best chance Earth has in the space war against the buggers.  Meanwhile, his brother and sister on Earth, also gifted, are planing to take over the world and start an Earth-based war.
This is an intense, action-packed, but pretty serious sci fi novel about adults using children as soldiers, the threat of invasion from other worlds, and the purpose of war.  I couldn't put it down!
There are more books in the Ender series, too, but I haven't read them yet.