A LINE CAN GO ANYWHERE... Come along with Ruth Asawa

 Ruth Asawa is a remarkable American artist, worthy of remembering her name and eliciting examples of her work. If you are already familiar with her, I believe you will adore this account of her life and work for young readers.  If she and her work are unfamiliar to you, this book is even more important to read.

I am a wish-I-could-be-artist who admires and sings the praises of the talents of actual  artists, especially when they are celebrated in picture books. (Put the word ARTIST in the search bar on the right to find any of the many posts I've shared about other artists in the past.) Rarely have I met a child who didn't LOVE to make art, if left undirected or judged. But I have met MANY, across preschool to adult ages, who have precluded even trying to make art by self-assessing that they "aren't good". Others feel that art is only "one thing", whether that is drawing or painting or making identical copies of some image presented to them. Or that art requires a studio or specific materials. If you know anyone (including yourself) who shares those views, this book is a passport to rediscovery of your own creativity and self-expression.

To resist that destructive impulse to limit and turn away from creative impulses or efforts requires a willingness to trust our inner selves, a willingness to give voice to our inner impulses. Ruth Asawa had such a drive, and her inner impulses were wide-ranging, leading to creating work that now hangs or is otherwise displayed in museums. Many of her pieces have been sold for eye-popping amounts. Asawa's art expressions involved two-and three- dimensional images and materials not readily associated with art and she is credited with opening the art world to expand acceptance of, welcoming of, innovative materials and creative insights. 

This variation and expansion of expression began as a child, and her drive weathered injustice and deprivation. She benefited from rare opportunities to learn from masterful artists. That's quite a journey to portray in a picture book, but the lines that marked Asawa's creative life became the thread that pulls readers through this book. 

ROARING BROOK PRESS, 2025

A LINE CAN GO ANYWHERE: The Brilliant, Resilient Life of  Artist Ruth Asawa is a biography written by CAROLINE McALISTER and illustrated by JAMIE GREEN. The author launches the reader into Ruth's life at a young age as this American-born daughter of Japanese immigrants noticed her world before the Second World War. 

Readers enter Ruth's life through her perceptions and fascinations with lines and patterns, as revealed in wagon tracks, agricultural and natural  movements on the land, and geometric waves of horizons and river beds. The beauty and rhythms of what she saw in vegetables, bean strings, calligraphy class. Even the stripes on the American flag spoke to her, called to her, inspired her to mimic and elaborate on the lines and movements in her world. 

You may have guessed by now that she and her family, along with more than a hundred thousand others, would intersect tragically with the unjust incarceration and isolation of Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. I was unaware of that aspect of her background, but reading this explains as much about her eventual trajectory in the art world as anything.

It was her incarceration that limited access to materials but led to interactions with artistic mentors whose careers were halted by movement to the camps. Ruth's awareness of figurative lines were not restricted to straight segments and angles, but frequently incorporated spools and loops, waves and curves, symmetry and asymmetry.applying  traditional skills and techniques to unconventional but  available materials. Crocheting with wire and weaving metals resulted in works that instantly intrigue even though they are utterly original and unprecedented. 

Throughout her life, Asawa heard many nay-saying voices (choose between family life and artistic life) but heeded her own path. She married and raised six children while keeping her art production original and powerfully unique. (To view a brief video of her art, try this YOUTUBE clip.)

Once achieving success, she could have used the most expensive or traditional materials, but she chose to incorporate what was at hand, what suited her inner intent, what contributed to the total impact of her work. Her quote below captures that impulse:

QUOTE credit: Ruth Asawa

Illustrations allow readers to connect with Ruth throughout her ages and stages, while hinting at many of the extended voices and drives which led her to such acclaim. She called the disruptions of her family and childhood "interrupted lines", which are suggested throughout the illustrations, as are other visual details that can find echoes in her masterpieces. 

You'll do yourself a favor to read and explore this picture book biography. It includes back matter that extends information about Asawa's life and art. Both the main text and that added information combine with remarkable illustrations to submerge readers into a life worth learning about. 

UNBREAKABLE: A Loaded and Heartbreaking Account of Japanese Internment

ABRAMS BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS, 2026

 I have a strong interest in and curiosity about history, in large part because of the STORY in hiSTORY. This picture book relates one such compelling and important story, co-authored by a member of the actual family portrayed and told with only slight variation from the way the experience actually unfolded.

 UNBREAKABLE: A JAPANESE AMERICAN FAMILY IN AN AMERICAN INCARCERATION CAMP is co-authored by Minoru (Min) Tonai and Jolene Gutiérrez, with illustrations by Chris Sasaki. 

It's my sincere hope that the facts surrounding one of this country's most shameful policies and practices is not unknown to any adult readers, and that most young people will have learned about it by the time they reach elementary school. Whether that's the case or not, this makes a significant contribution to the topic and could be a powerful introduction to the history and important discussions.

I've shared a few other picture book accounts of that history HERE, HERE, and HERE. Others, like ALLEN SAY, have devoted their lives to sharing aspects of this history (personal and national) throughout his long and lauded career. As with Holocaust stories, or any survival stories, each account reveals specifics unique to that individual and family, but also contributes to understanding the patterns of their combined experiences, elements that tell an even bigger story. And TRUTHS.  Each story matters, and, combined, they matter even more.

In the case of this story, the co-author MIN was a child when his father was visited at their home in California, accusing him of being a spy. Min and his siblings were born in the United States, but that offered no protection after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Neither did it matter that their neighbors and friends offered testament to the family's loyalty to their adopted country. Min's father is taken for investigation and kept from them for years, while Min and his family were forced from their home with limited belongings, no answers, and nothing but hope that they would one day see their father again. 

The literary device used in telling this account was that Min's father gave him a small rock before he was taken, a symbol and reminder to stay strong. This narrative choice emerged from Min's early fascination with rocks and his  eventual use of rocks throughout the long internment: to beautify the grounds, to establish order in their surroundings. Eventually the war wound down, the closure of the camps began, and the return of Min and his family (including his father) to their homes was as unceremonious as was their removal. 

Back matter describes more details, clarifies the facts, and provides a timeline.The lifelong mission of Min to speak in schools and groups about this part of history is well-documented. Although he died (age 94) before the book's release in 2026, his adult children continue his outreach mission . The US government acknowledged the illegality and damage of this policy and practice many decades later, and young readers today are digital witnesses to patterns that mirror this discriminatory and illegal practice with other populations, using many of the same arguments that failed to justify the actions against immigrants and native born citizens. 

Sasaki is an award-winning animator (Pixar) and picture book illustrator whose command of color, light, shadow, and contrast are powerful and well-suited to this stark story. The figures themselves are tenderly sympathetic but firmly linear and compelling. Lines throughout felt suggestive of bars and fencing, whether vertical or horizontal. Even the blinds in the windows with their filtered light foreshadow the horizontal barbed wire wrapping the camp. There is rich fodder for discussions of injustice, xenophobia, fear, and abuse of power, but the quiet strength and dignity of the family (and many others) invites empathy and support. The span of time during which people were incarcerated allowed Min to grow from a preteen to a young man, while his parents aged beyond the calendar years. 

Whether this historic era and heartbreaking incarceration is new or a sadly familiar tale, this book deserves a place on your shelves and in your hearts. I hope you'll read it. Reflect, please, how painfully harmful FEAR is, especially when it is the driver of policy. Notice that those who were implementing the investigations and incarcerations are not shown clearly, reminding me of the masked ICE agents in today's assualts on individual rights. Those who have nothing  to be ashamed of in their choices and actions are not afraid to stand and be seen. 

Who's Afraid of BUGS? Not THE SPIDER LADY, Nan Songer!

"Nonfiction" is easy to extol as needed information, but in our times of TIK-TOK, Substack, YouTube, and Reddit, posts voiced by unvetted sources, not to mention traditional media outlets, once reliable sources, are diminishingly trustworthy. They now present "truth" but materials are produced by downsized-overworked-nonspecialized  staff and AI generators, both equally doubtful. I've come to believe that the most reliable truths, ones I can trust, come not even from my own eyes, since AI plays a role in so many distortions and outright misrepresentations. What I turn to are works from well-vetted publishing groups for youth (ages 0-20), ones who willingly claim the label NONFICTION. Even adult works in those categories too often reflect agendas and intentions toward what is or is not included or emphasized. In works for nonfiction for  youth, the guards are still at the gates and  turrets. Material is scrutinized to prevent distortions, half-truths, and even an excess of flourish or creativity that could confuse young audiences. 

This branch of the publishing industry, on the creative, production, and marketing sides, have gone so far as to identify works as "informational fiction" or ":creative nonfiction", offering readers a full understanding that the factual content can and will be identified even if told in imaginative ways. These works (including direct nonfiction) go so far as to incorporate back matter to expand and validate the facts shared, to offer suitable  resources for curious investigators, and to clarify aspects that may have been used for storytelling purposes only. I challenge all purveyors of "information" from any of the outlets noted above to step up with comparable assurances of the TRUTHS they offer to readers.  (Bottom line following this rant? READ MORE NONFICTION for kids!)

 

CALKINS CREEK, 2025

In both text and illustration, some nonfiction picture books take original twists on familiar people or topics, but others capture attention by introducing new individuals, discoveries, burgeoning fields of study, and so much more, all of which can capture attention just as well as digital media while providing validity and references to learn even more. THE SPIDER : Nan Songer and Her Arachnid Army is written by Penny Parker Klostermann and illustrated by Anne Lambelet. This unsung hero story would be remarkable even if it didn't involve a major aspect of winning World War II. 

But it does.

It begins as an intriguing and colorful account of Nan Songer's unique childhood as the eager mentee of an expert female neighbor-entomologist then moves through Nan's emerging sense of nature and its appreciation. Rather than focus on displaying or dissecting amazing bugs, she was fascinated by their behavior. Studying that meant keeping them alive. The hearts of many wannabe scientists will resonate at the spreads showing how Nan transformed her bedroom into a living insect zoo.  (Parents may cringe, but it's worth sticking with this unfolding story.)

As WWII loomed, Nan encountered a need from the armed forces-  for precision spiderweb threads to use as crosshairs in many kinds of munitions.I learned so much about Nan but also about spiders in this bio-profile-career story. (That's despite my academic respect for spiders with no willingness to become roommates with them!) Among the most amazing new information is that aiming crosshairs needed to be from spider web threads because they're not susceptible to heat or cold or moisture, making the marksman's aim reliably accurate. Who knew? I certainly didn't. And I certainly didn't know how spider thread could be collected without taking it from the web! Silk thread, yes: soaking silkworm cocoons allows easy unthreading and re-spooling. But spider web threads? You won't believe it!

But you should. And you will, because it is so well told and visualized. And documented.

Nan Songer's long "hobby" meant she worked with live spiders regularly, overcame any worries about Black Widow spiders producing the most ideal threads, and so much much more. That background made her the ideal innovator for acquiring and providing threads of exacting specifications in quantities, reliably, without injuring the spiders who served our country so well. I wondered (and learned) if those same threads would  have any signifcant purposes after the war ended. The story is woven as effectively and with as much complexity as actual spider webs. Both the story and the webs have strength, purpose, and jaw-dropping intricacies. Don't miss the back matter for added details and insights. 

And could we all try holding reportedly "true" stories and images to the same high standard as we achieve in nonfiction for children. At a minimum, indicating when and how much AI is involved in images and reports? Deepest thanks to all who write, illustrate, proofread, crosscheck, and validate the contents so that young readers can actually trust such work.

A Glorious Story: MOTORCYCLE QUEEN: The Life of Bessie Stringfield

 I've been eyeball deep among stacks of nonfiction for elementary and middle grade readers to help choose finalists for those categories for this year's CYBILS AWARDS. The crop of nominees is outstanding. I've been  reading, reflecting, and sharing. In the case of this picture book, the facts are phenomenal, and back matter clarifies even more about this remarkable girl/woman who stayed true to who she knew she was and how she could make her life meaningful. I'm happy to pause from "judging"  to share this.

When it comes to nonfiction picture books, especially biography, conveying a sense of the spirit and drive of the central character is the engine of the story, right? No matter what their accomplishments, at the heart of any biography (but especially ones for young readers) is the importance of connection. In this case, readers of any age will connect with and be inspired by the life of Bessie Stringfield.

CREATIVE EDITIONS: 2024

Bessie's achievements  (even her NAME!) were new to me, but I'm so happy to have met her in MOTORCYCLE QUEEN: The Life of Bessie Stringfield, written by Janie Havemeyer and illustrated by Jean Claverie. Bessie's spirit and drive are captured in the first line of text:

"IF BESSIE DIDN'T RIDE, 

SHE DIDN'T WANT TO LIVE."

In this case, the earliest years of Bessie's life are skipped, in part because the author indicates that Bessie's accounts of those years varied, and  sources to verify were sketchy at best. 

That opening line, though, launches sixteen-year-old Bessie Stringfield onto her first and ever-faithful motorcycle, Scout. But Bessie rode as if she was born to, and she set out in search of dreams. Her adventure began in the south, in the early years of the twentieth century, when it wasn't safe for a girl on her own to be crossing the country, sleeping deep in the woods, scavenging for berries and such. That wasn't ladylike in the least. Girls were certainly not suited to this habit or passion, especially Black girls. But her choices suited Bessie just fine, and she sang the words to favorite  hymns to bolster her faith and confidence.

Very quickly this single-minded young woman developed stunts and tricks, she survived intentional accidents with larger vehicles, and earned her way through the world traveling with performing troupes. When Bessie rode she was FIERCE and FREE.

But she also needed to do something with value. When the Second World War broke out, she volunteered to serve as a motorcycle messenger between battle camps. Can you guess the response she got? "NO!" A girl can't do this kind of work. 

Just as Bessie had proven herself to a highway officer who tried to ticket her, she demonstrated her mastery of the motorbike to her military trainers and was issued a uniform and a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Examples of her daring and essential deliveries during the war are breathtaking. After the war she retired to Florida and never stopped riding, right up until her death at 81 year old. 

Throughout every spread, illustrations capture that irrepressible spirit and energy at each challenge and stage of life, as seen on the cover.

It's clear that local folks knew of Bessie, and those who were entertained by her stunts and escapades loved her daring and skill. She is honored in the American Motorcycle Hall of Fame. Even so, Bessie Stringfield is relatively unknown but deserves a wider audience and admiration. This exuberant account of her determined, remarkable life is a wonderful way to celebrate someone who entertained, served, and never lost her love of life on the fly!

HIDING FROM THE NAZIS IN PLAIN SIGHT: A Powerful Graphic Novel

Capstone Press, 2024

I recently read a new graphic biography of two remarkably talented Jewish sisters who survived WWII and the concentration camps through a rare combination of talent and kindness. HIDING FROM THE NAZIS IN PLAIN SIGHT: A Graphic Novel Biography of Hanna and Trina Arshanskaya was written by Lydia Lukidis and illustrated by Aleksandar Sotirovski. At only 32 pages, this slim but comprehensive approach makes their story accessible and allows younger readers (elementary and middle grade) a view of one human journey within the massive historic events of the Holocaust, a tragedy  that often seem incomprehensible. 

In brief, these sisters were raised from birth in a Polish family that celebrated and surrounded themselves with classical music. Both sisters developed remarkable skill at the piano, playing individually and at the same keyboard.Their early talent and hard work made them locally famous and earned scholarships, impressing teachers and audiences.

When German troops invaded Poland in 1939 the family was rounded up to be taken to camps. First one, then later the other sister managed to escape the early transport marches. Initially, they were taken in and hidden by the family of a classmate. In their city they could have been easily recognized. With new names and false identities as non-Jews, they were helped to move to a remote orphanage. Their talent became obvious and they eventually were performing on stage under their new identities, often for audiences filled with uniformed Nazi soldiers. Entertaining them was infuriating, but also put them inconstant danger of being recognized. The later years of the war led to happy endings for their lives, despite the painful loss of their family and loved ones. Back matter reveals many helpful details and allow further questioning and researching. 

I don't often include graphic formats in these posts, but this complex and unusual content, the story of these remarkable sisters, fits this format better than picture book format does. Like picture books, though, it presents content that pairs text and visual narrative to strengthen both,  making their story complete, compact, and compelling.  I urge families, librarians, and teachers to check out this terrific account and use it to launch further discussions and studies. Readers will see their age-peers in situations that allow them to connect more fully with the historic facts of the Holocaust. 

Sharing JULIA CHILD'S Story- So Much Kid-Appeal!

CALKINS CREEK, January, 2022

Plenty of adults know and love JULIA CHILD, but what could a kid possibly find to like about a big, old, loud woman with a cooking show on PBS? Here's a picture book that answers the question with full-throated joy.

BORN HUNGRY: Julia Child Becomes “the French Chef” is written by Alex Prud’homme and illustrated by Sarah Green. If you weren’t already of fan of Julia Child, this book will make you one, at any age. The character and personality traits that won over fans for her recipes, cookbooks, television appearances, and overall public persona shines through in this colorful and creative picture book. The opening lines capture her kid-appeal in a few, perfect words. 

“Julia McWIlliams wore size twelve sneakers, stood six feet, two inches tall, played basketball, laughed loudly, and was curious about everything. All this activity made her crave food- lots of food.”

The opening spread on which these words appear features GLORIOUSLY large, colorful, rich foods while the facing page presents Julia in her confident and take-it-or-leave-it young-girl glory, her clothes mirroring the vibrant food colors and her self-assured stance foreshadowing the familiar postures she assumed on her programs, whether in conversation or behind a pot or pan or bowl. Julia was a substantially non-typical girl who was absolutely fine with who she was and what she chose to do in life. And she adored food!  What's not to love?

 

Born into a wealthy family, she was always hungry but never considered cooking. Her family employed a very competent cook- why would Julia even consider cooking for herself? Her quest for a life of action and adventure led her far from home to work for an American “spy” service. To her surprise, she was assigned are a desk with a rather boring job. She was lonely and not very eager to continue.

 

Until a new co-worker moved into the next office. He was everything she was not- older, very quiet, but also a world traveler with far wider experiences in foods and culture. And he was as intrigued with Julia as she was with him, Paul. They spent many hours together, enjoying new things like food, books, and travel. He encouraged Julia, the girl who grew up inhaling food, to slow down and taste each bite, to fully experience food and the atmosphere in which it was served, the culture it represented. After the war ended (WWII), Julia and Paul married and  moved to France. Julie decided that a married woman should learn to cook. What better place to do that than in France at a leading culinary academy?

 

This book offers young readers a celebration of a spirited young girl who loved food, then applied that sense of adventure and curiosity to preparing amazingly delicious meals and desserts.  Was she always successful? Far from it. In fact, it was her attitude about mistakes and failures that entertained adults and will capture the love of young readers, too. The illustrations using bright colors and style to open this profile with vitality continue to turn Julia’s adult life into a kid-friendly world on the page. 

 

Back matter provides photos and details about her impressive career as a writer, entertainer, teacher, chef, food ambassador, and inspiration for all ages. The final spread shares her very FRENCH recipe for scrambled eggs, and seems as delicious as it is simple. It includes a caution that children should have adult assistance to make them because a hot pan is involved. I found myself eager to try it, since my approach does NOT produce the kind of eggs her recipe will.

Author Prud'homme is the grandson of Paul's twin brother, knew her well, and worked with Julia until her death on her adult memoir about the post-war years in France. The text is effectively sprinkled with quotations from Julia Child’s notebooks, programs, interviews, and cookbooks, with the last one appearing to capture her life story perfectly: 

“Find something you’re passionate about and stay tremendously interested in it!”

 

 I'm passionate about this new picture book, and I am certain kids of many ages will be, too.

Happy Book Birthday to CODE BREAKER, SPY HUNTER: How Elizebeth Friedman Changed the Course of Two Wars

Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
March 2, 2021

If you read my recent interview with author Laurie Wallmark, you've been as anxious as I have to read her latest nonfiction title. And today's the day we wish a happy book birthday to CODE BREAKER, SPY HUNTER: How Elizebeth Friedman Changed the Course of  Two World Wars. (Illustrated by 

It was a joy to read this recent addition to Laurie Wallmark's series of picture book biographies about WOMEN IN STEM. I read a pdf file and was ready to rave about it. As a picture book fanatic, I found that holding the physical book in my hands impressed me even further. The illustrations and art design are perfectly arranged to enhance the author's complex text. Pages include embedded quotations to reveal Friedman's thoughts, reactions, and insights. We learn that it was her early love of English literature, particularly the works of Shakespeare, that fostered Friedman's appreciation of structures, patterns, and internal relationships, skills that later served her well as a code-breaker. Puzzles and mysteries engaged her attention, while creating and deciphering codes provided theist possible entertainment. 

She and her like-minded husband were soon recognized as master cryptographers (code-breakers) when such skills were needed most- during the First World War. Each page turn reveals further steps in Friedman's lifelong journey through the secret mazes of spies, codes, and secret efforts for enemies to overthrow the United states.

Interior image: CODE BREAKER, SPY HUNTER
Wallmark/Baker
Harry N. Abrams, inc. March 2, 2021

Once again, Wallmark manages to devote most of this biography to her subject's adult life, but incorporates enough childhood spotlights to establish Friedman's character, intelligence, and risk-taking nature. She describes the exuberance she felt when taking risks, which explains a great deal about how she could move so effortlessly and successfully between her pastoral family life and her rapid responses to calls from criminal prosecutors, Coastguard officers, and government officials plain need of her help to establish the OSS (later, the CIA) as the Second World War presented massive threats to her/our country. And yet she relished her time at home to garden, host "coded" dinner parties, read, write, and teach.
Back matter expanded my appreciation of Friedman with an accessible timeline of her life, a code-breaking challenge page, sources and bibliogaphy, and a fast-forward description of digital cryptography. 
Elizebeth Friedman is a standout in the world of cryptanalysis and spy hunting. You didn't know her name? Neither did I. It astonishes me that no one has made a movie of her life-- yet-- and I am crossing my fingers that this book could lead someone with the necessary skills and connections to pursue that project. It would be an edge of the chair, breath-holding video success.

Memorial Day Flashback

I've been considering what to include in the Memorial Day weekend post. 

My thoughts automatically turn to my dad, who lived through World War II despite his participation in the Battle of the Bulge, among other European theaters of combat. Recently I compared notes with some friends who also had WWII veteran dads. In all cases we agreed that our dads had shared very little about their experiences  as we were growing up. But when the fiftieth anniversary of the end of WWII brought it into the spotlight in 1995, it was as if a door clicked open. In bits and pieces and sometimes artifacts, letters, and  other memorabilia, their stories began to trickle out, often building to a stream of stories and details we had never heard.

Before  I started to address these reflections, I went back to my prior posts about this particular weekend. After rereading it,  the post I prepared during the first year of this blog (May, 2012) struck me as worthy of re-airing. In fact, It outshines any thoughts I was assembling at present.

That's because Memorial Day, in my opinion, should remind us not only of the individuals who served us so well over so many different conflicts. It should remind us of the need for all of us, as a HUMAN race, to realize that wars don't just "happen", that the choices, actions, opinions, and emotional tone we adopt on a daily basis all contribute to an atmosphere that is MORE or LESS conducive to war, to violence, to hatred.

The legacy we inherit, the responsibility we can accept or deny, what we OWE to all those who served and sacrificed, is to make ourselves aware during every moment of our lives that each person matters. That WE matter. That we can choose how we interact with others while so many others are no longer around to make those choices.

To find some recommended titles that might help us understand our place in this Memorial Day, I hope you'll consider reading it here.

The True Value of Gifts

With the holiday celebrations comes gift-giving. In the last post I urged giving books, and I still do.

Now I'm feeling compelled to discuss the gifting process itself. In this affluent country (and many others), there exists a wide range of  economic levels. Many in the "have not" category rely entirely on the kindness of strangers to have a decent meal or a meager gift under the tree. That reality offers a learning opportunity for kids, especially those who take their holiday gifts as a given, literally and figuratively.

Beyond our own marginalized neighbors, though, there are children in refugee camps and war zones who face a daily struggle for survival with barely subsistence resources. Holidays in such settings are marked, if at all, in spirit rather than in practice.

Dragonfly Books, paperback, 1988
Alfred A. Knopf, 1986

An ideal book to share such an experience is A NEW COAT FOR ANNA, written by Harriet Ziefert and illustrated by Anita Lobel. I've loved this book, based on a true story of post-WWII survivors, since it was first published. As Christmas approaches I've thought about it often because it reminds me of the circumstances facing characters in my forthcoming middle grade historical fiction release set in Norway during the German occupation. Bartering and making-do were necessary for survival, but reserving assets for even harder times to come also played a role.
In this picture book Anna and her mother have survived the war years intact physically, but with few worldly goods or resources. Anita Lobel's opening spreads reveal Anna in her little blue coat, then one page turn shows her several years later, wearing the same now-too-small and badly tattered coat amid the refugees and relics of her city. The story reveals, in words and images, that Anna and her mother arrived at the end of war considerably more intact than many others, yet unable to get needed supplies, including food. It's her mother's goal to return a degree of normalcy to Anna's life in the form of a new red coat that fits.

Anna's mother is a clever woman. Now that war is over she decides to use her few reserved valuables to get Anna that coat. Her bargains and promises extend throughout a full year and the entire community: a watch traded for wool (with months of waiting for the wool to grow and be sheared), a lamp traded for spinning (to be done in warmer weather), the yarn dyed with berries (harvested later in summer), a necklace traded for weaving wool cloth, then a teapot traded to the tailor.

This community outreach effort spans a year and provides an excuse to invite all involved to a Christmas gathering that features generous servings of  gratitude and Christmas cake. All agree it is the best Christmas in memory. Anna even visits the sheep to thank them for their contributions. The story is permeated with patience, participation, and appreciation of craft and contributions without even a whiff of sentimentality. 

Other review quotes include:

"Thought-provoking and informative" (Booklist, starred review)

"...will be understood and cherished by all ages" (School Library Journal)

"…hardship gives life to hope" (The Los Angeles Times)

"Lobel's illustrations-- rich, warm, and bright as the new coat itself-- bring the story to life." (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

Puffin Paperbacks, 2008

Another holiday story featuring war survivors is Patricia Polacco's CHRISTMAS TAPESTRY. In this case the story is a continent away from Europe and a generation or more later, but it, too, deals with the ravages and losses of war, the meager items salvaged by refugees, and the nature of giving and gratitude. 

Whatever stories are shared at this time of year, in picture books or from personal experience, my hope is that they will convey a sense of recognition of those who make the items, those who bring them to us, and the spirit in which gifts are given and appreciated. 

May 8 Remembrance: VE Day

A quick mid-week post here in honor of the 68th anniversary of VE DAY- the official end to open combat in Europe in the waning days of World War II, May 8, 1945. My dad was serving in Germany and years later told how devastating it was to see the German people (old men, women, and children) nearly starving after years of Hitler depleting their homeland to underwrite the war. He said when Allied troops hauled in truckloads of potatoes to feed them,  the locals would first  cut out the healthy eyes as seed crop for the coming year before cooking and eating what remained, even if it was rotten.

That sounds harsh, and yes, it was tragic. 

On the other hand, it was in these same days that Allied troops were liberating the desperate survivors of concentration camps, discovering their horrid truth and their even more devastating reality of furnaces, crematoriums, and mass graves.

Orchard Books, 1996

Today or any day is an ideal time to share LET THE CELEBRATIONS BEGIN, written by Margaret Wild and illustrated by Julie Vivas. Now out of print, it is worth a search to track down this sensitive treatment based on Holocaust survivor reports. 

Reflecting actual events in WWII concentration camps as liberation neared, this is the story of a group of women prisoners who patched toys together (literally) from the meager scraps of their lives to assure that the few children who survived with them would have a celebration once the Allies reached them and finally released them from a living Hell. The author's note confirms the actual events and artifacts from which this story was developed Some escaped the horror of the concentration camps, but not without the help and bravery of others. This was the case for PASSAGE TO FREEDOM: The Sugihara Story by Ken Mochizukihttp://kenmochizuki.com, illustrated by Dom Lee.   Perfection Learning, 2003 Several international leaders during the Holocaust have been honored as "Righteous Among Nations," their stories told in books and movies (Schindler's List comes to mind). The story of Sugihara, Japanese ambassador to Lithuania in 1940, has been told here through the eyes of his young son, with an afterword in the son's own words. He is justifiably proud of the role his father played in saving thousands of lives, and the fact that he was the only Asian recognized for such service to humanity. When you're having a bad day, pause to honor the struggles and suffering of the Allies who ended this devastation, and those who lived through countless days whose horrors defy description.  And then share their stories so kids today can keep their own bad days in perspective.