The Tower of Life: Meet Yaffa Eliach

Scholastic Press, 2022

This new picture book, (already graced with three stars and Junior Library Guild status at the time of this writing, but likely to garner more accolades in coming months), achieves everything a picture book should. It entertains, it engages emotions, it informs, it sparks curiosity and empathy, and it is unforgettable. It also stimulates future actions and investigation. Author Chana Stiefel and illustrator Susan Gal managed to convey all of the above and more, capturing a true story with the magic of a fairy tale in THE TOWER OF LIFE: How Yaffa Eliach Rebuilt Her Town In Stories and Photographs.

Even the fist lines ring with storytelling appeal: 

"There once was a girl named Yaffa."

The small Jewish town, a shtetl, had a magical-sounding name: Eishyshok (Ay-shi-shok). It was, though, very real, and so was Yaffa. So were the other residents, rooted in generations beyond generations of families, nine hundred years of them, who had lived there with love, laughter, tears, and troubles, always comforted by the community's the surroundings, and the history within which they lived. 

The first pages reveal a community from the not-so-far past filled with storytelling, snowball throwing, summer lake swimming, market days, and family photo events. These pages resonate with contemporary children and their lives:  weddings, graduations, birthdays, new babies, holidays. In fact, Yaffa's Grandma Alte was one of the village's favorite photographers. Those photos were kept in family albums, but also mailed around the world to family members who had found new lives elsewhere. 

When German tanks and troops invaded in 1941, Eishyshok was part of Poland and the results were devastating to anyone who was Jewish. Yaffa and her father escaped through a window, but not before Yaffa managed to tuck a few precious photos into her shoe. In two days, 3,500 resident Jews were killed by gunfire and explosions, erasing and uprooting nine hundred years of history. 

This tragic episode and the following years of hiding and struggle form the middle pages of this picture book, suggesting struggle and suffering in ways that are not too severe for the youngest audiences but will resonate with depth and meaning for older ones. 

Then the tone of the following pages shifts to reveal the powerful, positive path of Yaffa's life, a life  that deserves the attention of us all. She survived, married, moved to the US, and became a professor of history. She shared the story of her original village with her children and others, sharing those few precious photos she had rescued during her escape.

When the US Holocaust Museum was planned, she was invited by President Jimmy Carter to help design a memorial within the museum. Her own photos inspired her to seek images of LIFE in Eishyshok, not of the horrific disaster. She spent years reaching out and traveling among the diaspora from her village, those who might have escaped, but also tracking down those who had received photos from happier times. With patience and permissions, she reconstructed her village, image by image and story by story.

 

Photographer, Max Reid

Within the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., you can personally view the TOWER OF FACES from Eishyshok. 

Eishyshok was a relatively small village, one of many that suffered similar erasure and deaths in massive numbers. In this memorial, though, we encounter the reality behind the horror, the lives behind those incomparable numbers. You can read about some of the stories behind those faces by clicking the aTOWER OF FACES above.  

The back matter includes a timeline of the village and of Yaffa's life, as well as an excellent bibliography to document sources. Several excellent related picture book titles are also provided to pursue further reading with young people. The author note indicates this is more than a testament to an amazing woman and what she accomplished. It is also intended to inspire everyone of every age to recognize that they are connected to a wider world, a global community that needs everyone to speak up, stand up, and take actions when needed. 

You can learn more about how Chana Stiefel came to write about this remarkable woman and what she accomplished in an interview on the blog Picture Book Builders (highly recommend!). All are valuable pursuits, but above all else I recommend seeking out and reading this book. Once you do, decide for yourself if you agree it is a story that should be, MUST be, shared widely with readers of many ages. For anyone within your circle who even hints at being a Holocaust doubter or denier, this might be a worthy gift, even if arrives in their hands anonymously. Each and every loss during the Holocaust was an individual person, but each life was also tethered to dozens, hundreds, perhaps thousands of others, by blood, acquaintance, and heritage. This picture book does a better job of revealing and reminding us of that than any other I've read.

SKY WOLF'S CALL: A Photo/Illustration Masterpiece by Annick Press

The range of target ages for "picture books" can be debated, and this particular title and its related  books from recent years are certainly aimed at upper age elementary or middle grades. Even so, this is a picture book of outstanding value and appeal. With support, it can be a valuable resource with younger ages as well.

 

Annick Press, 2022

SKY WOLF'S CALL: The Gift of Indigenous Knowledge is written by the award-winning team Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger. (The other titles in this masterful series are WHAT THE EAGLE SEES and TURTLE ISLAND.) 

This latest addition to the titles about Indigenous People of North America (especially in the political area now known as Canada) reveals traditional knowledge and values related to WATER, FIRE and SMOKE, FOOD SECURITY, HEALING, SKY, and KEEPING KNOWLEDGE with the PEOPLE. The four foundations for all of these are stated on opening pages:

"Everything is connected.

The world is a gift.

The sacred is a vital part of knowing.

We are always learning."

The format for this title (and the series) incorporates traditional book elements (table of contents, index, picture captions, sidebars, chapter titles and subheadings, with back matter that includes glossary, bibliography, and added reading sources). The text itself is a readable and appealing blend of explanatory text, storytelling, and profiles of Indigenous knowledge leaders among past and contemporary communities. By spanning many centuries through legendary tales, historical practices, modern applications, archival photos and modern images with photos, illustrations, and diagrams, these brief but potent chapters are very user-friendly and also invite questions and participation from readers. I was especially pleased and impressed that the full presentation allows readers to see Natives as contemporary people in society, not as stereotypes or icons of some imagined/westernized past

 The author points out early that traditional tales are under the ownership and rights of the particular Native nations and may not be told/shared without permission. In this case he chooses to share stories from his own Pikani heritage.

 I first encountered these earlier titles through CYBILS AWARDS nominations and I welcome this latest addition. It is an ideal match for its intended yound audiences but is a worthy read for adults, too.

 

Let the NONFICTION Celebrations Begin!

 

A FEW of the nominated NONFICTION titles for CYBILS AWARDS

This is brief post prior to the upcoming MANY review posts for nonfiction picture books that have been nominated for Cybils Awards this year. I've begun the process and MUST shout out to my local public library and its affiliated circulation partners in surrounding communities. As nominations have poured in, nearly 95% of the titles have been accessible to me through the system and it makes this process SO very successful. 

I will not review every nominee here, but many of the ones I find outstanding will appear in coming days and weeks. Don't assume that a review locks it onto my shortlist, because I don't dare put them all there-- it makes the final winnowing too difficult!  But please consider checking out the titles I'll feature here, or on my GOODREADS account, for picture books or middle grade or high school readers. 

The photo above represents only the current batch of books I'm reading and considering thoughtfully. I need to rotate them out or that sturdy hearth will collapse under the load! Here are just a few of the picture books you'll find here in the weeks ahead. 

Since I am excited to read the middle grade and high school titles, too, (have read several so far- and they have been  outstanding!) you may want to check out my Goodreads pages to learn more about the ones I record/review there. Here's a link: Sandy Brehl Goodreads.

These are only a few of the titles under current scrutiny:

So, BA-BYE for now, I'm heading to the stacks to get back to work!

A Fast Fanfare of Fiction Titles

 I've returned from a lengthy stretch away. It's one that involved loss and struggle, as well as some illness. I only mention that to indicate that this marks a full return. I'll resume a more normal schedule now, and I thank you for your patience and for staying with me during some abbreviated posts and less frequent reviews.

That stack of very special picture books I mentioned in a recent post, HERE, has now gained my full attention. Any one of them deserves a full post. In my time away, I was honored and excited to learn that I will again be serving as a ROUND ONE CYBILS panelist for 2022 titles in the nonfiction category. Since our listings this year will span elementary, middle grade, and high school titles, I'm already beginning the process of reading and preparing reviews for those. As a result, I offered brief thoughts about these fantastic fiction books in my GOODREADS pages. I'll include them here with cover images and a line or two from my reviews. I hope you'll trust my opinion enough to get your hands on them and check them out for yourself while I return to a growing stack of nonfiction titles at the other side of my desk!

CLARION BOOKS, 2022

LITTLE GOOD WOLF is written  and illustrated by the talented pair of sisters, Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel. 

Some lines from my Goodreads notes:

It is a topsy-turvy twist on the trope of a BIG BAD WOLF in those many folk tales, with a young wolf who is a major disappointment to his "Big Bad" parent wolves. Despite their most earnest efforts, he is deeply, naturally GOOD, but also wants to please his parents and be accepted by them.

 

CAPSTONE EDITIONS, 2022

YOU ARE LIFE is written by Bao Phi and illustrated by Hannah Li. Moving from fantasy/allegory to contemporary philosophy and identity, this is a book for everyone, with special emphasis on the ways in which we are alike... in a society that too often stresses and threatens differences.

I had this to say:

Lyrical, lovely text and images that offer a diverse cast but with particular affirmation of Asian/Pacific Island children whose physical identity may have resulted in situati0ns of taunting/bullying or led to witnessing this toward people in their family or communities, especially during the polarized Covid battles. The author note in back is worth reading with young audiences. 

CAROLRHODA BOOKS, 2022

FROM THE TOPS OF TREES is written by Kao Kalia Yang and illustrated by Rachel Wada. 

This is must-read for any age.

The art on the colorful pages of this poignant book will connect with kids from any background, while introducing them to the daily life of a child's family and community life in a refugee camp. Despite the comforting love of family and glorious pets, despite occasional spreads of grey and somewhat worrisome expressions. This child's hope is for life in a place that is different, better, holds promise, but she has no experience on which to frame such dreams. 

Her father's uplifting solution opens the whole world to her future. 

LITTLE, BROWN & COMPANY, 2022

BERRY SONG is written and illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Michaela Goade. 

Don't miss this one at any time of the year, but especially at this harvest time of year.

Dripping with delicious language and emhanced by glorious art in natural tones and sweeps of outdoor scenes, this brief, simple text celebrates "berrying" through the voices of an Alaskan indigenous pair, young and older. 

ut in the forest, they seek... BERRIES, like "little jewels".

From those early pages, the voices of elder and young, forest and heritage echo to each other with the values and cultural richness they share. Interspersed with berry chants naming specifics that were new to me, little audiences will quickly learn to chime in as they recur:

"thimbleberry, swampberry, dogberry, chalk berry,

lingonberry, raspberry, bunchberry, cranberry."

and more...

As I reread and wrote these various notes I realized that these are titles that are well-suited to share a post, since each deals with personal identity and finding/embracing our places in the wide world and within our own families.

I'll let those be the last words on this bouquet of terrific fiction titles. Let the fiction reading begin for you, and nonfiction for me!  Back with those notes soon.