#WeNeedDiverseBooks--Hunt for the Bamboo Rat

Salisbury, Graham. Hunt for the Bamboo Rat.
September 9th 2014 by Wendy Lamb Books

Kenji is supporting his widowed mother and siblings by working in a warehouse in Hawaii, but when Japan starts to assert power before WWII, Kenji is approached by the US Army to serve as an interpreter, since he is perfectly fluent in both Japanese and English. He is sent to the Philippines to live in a hotel frequented by Japanese nationals, and spies under the code name "Bamboo Rat" and tries to get information. When Japan invades the Philippines, Kenji is evacuated to Corregidor with others, and when the Japanese demand surrender or they will bomb the tunnels where people are holed up, Kenji goes with the commander to translate. He is later imprisoned and used as a servant and translator for a Japanese commander. He is brutally tortured but holds fast to his "civilian" status, manages to keep spying, and is eventually released and finds his way to the US armed forces-- where is is suspected of being Japanese and receives more abuse!

A perfect nonfiction title to go with this is Marie Cronk Farrell's Pure Grit:How WWII Nurses in the Pacific Survived Combat and Prison Camp.

Strengths: Salisbury does the very best novels about the Japanese experience during WWII. Under the Blood-Red Sun and Eyes of the Emperor are two favorites at my school. This book was full of excellent details about the war experience in the Philippines (a little covered topic), but also had suspense, intrigue, and enough fighting to keep war mongering boys interested. I thought that Kenji's fight for his own identity as a Japanese AMERICAN was very interesting, and the way that he was able to understand both the Japanese and American views of honor and duty was fascinating.
Weaknesses: On the gruesome side, certainly, with Kenji being hit in the face, burned with cigarettes, etc. The Japanese certainly don't come off very well in this book, but certainly were the perpetrators of lots of violence during this time period. 

Code Name Verity

Wein, Elizabeth. Code Name Verity.

15 May 2012, Egmont USA

From the Publisher: "A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun. When "Verity" is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn't stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she's living a spy's worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution. As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane."

I am always looking for books on various aspects of WWII and Nazi Germany for our 8th grade students, and this was certainly an edge-of-the-seat read. I loved that Maddie is a pilot, and that the idea of women flying and being mechanics during the war is addressed. For middle grades, though, I found this to be a little confusing and long (452 pages). A definite purchase for a high school, however.

Phantoms in the Snow

Duble, Kathleen Benner. Phantoms in the Snow.
When fifteen-year-old Noah's pacifist parents die of the smallpox in Texas, he is sent to Camp Hale, Colorado to stay with his uncle James Shelley whom he has never met. James is part of a rough-and-tumble mountain skiing unit, and the commanding officer is less than pleased that Noah is there, so he and his uncle agree that he will train with the unit. Noah has never skied, and believes that war and fighting are bad, but he bonds with his uncle and the other men, and learns about what is going on in Germany under Hitler. Training is rough, and it comes out that Noah is not quite old enough to train, but when he turns 16, he enlists with his uncle's permission. When the unit (the Tenth Mountain unit, or the Phantoms) ships out to Italy, Noah gets a taste of fighting and war, but realizes that helping people who have been suffering under the German occupation is worth it, even when he loses several friends.
Strengths: Excellent story of a different facet of WWII. Noah's family story is intriguing as well, and the character development of him not wanting to fight but seeing the need to is interesting. He never loses his humanity, though, and decides to take up medical training.
Plenty of action, though, which is what the boys want.
Weaknesses: Very few. Perhaps a tad altruistic, but an excellent book! I'm definitely buying a copy and recommending that my public library does as well.

Carlton, Susan. Love and Haight.

This book is definitely YA, but a couple of years ago I had a student who really wanted to read about hippies in the 60s and 70s, and I still pick up books thinking about her! From a social history perspective, this was very interesting-- Chloe is pregnant, and abortion is legal in San Francisco in 1971 as long as certain procedures are followed. Chloe and her friend MJ go to spend Christmas break with Chloe's aunt while Chloe is going to all the appointments and getting all the paperwork in order for her abortion. Of course, they also investigate the hippie and drug culture during that time.

Strengths: Considering how big an issue abortion is in the presidential campaigns, it is interesting to get an idea of what it was like when abortion was not legal everywhere. The whole issue is handled very well-- Chloe doesn't treat this lightly, but knows that she doesn't have much of an option otherwise.

Weaknesses: This is always a controversial topic, so some people will disagree with how it is handled, and again, this is not a middle grade novel.

My Family for the War

Voorhoeve Anne C. My Family for the War.
February 16th 2012 by Dial Books for Young Readers

Ziska is only ten when her family starts to realize they are not going to make it out of Berlin before Hitler manages to bring trouble to the Jews, so Ziska is sent on a kindertransport to England. There, she is lucky to run into Gary and his father, who are looking for a child to foster for the duration. The family is more observant of Jewish traditions than Ziska is, but she manages to settle in. Now called Frances, she experiences some trouble at school, tries to find sponsors for her parents, and comes to care for her English family. When London is in danger of being bombed, Frances is briefly evacuated, but comes back after a brief time. Gary goes off to fight in the war, and things become more difficult in London. Frances’ father dies, Gary is missing in action, and Frances feels guilty that she has come to care so much for her foster family. When the war winds down, she manages to find relatives who locate her mother, and she reconnects with her, but the war has changed everyone.
Strengths: This is a different facet of the Jewish experience during the war, and the London experience is one I don’t have much on.
Weaknesses: Our eighth grade unit tends to concentrate on the experience of people in the concentration camps, but this might be a good addition to our Holocaust collection.

Nonfiction Monday

Seiple, Samantha. Ghosts in the Fog: The Untold Story of Alaska's WWII Invasion.
One of the things that the US government didn't want anyone to know was that Alaska had been attacked. The Japanese were trying to distract US intelligence from realizing that Midway was going to be attacked, and so took control of areas of the Aleutian islands. This book covers a huge number of aspects of this occurrence, ranging from the cryptographers who were following what the Japanese were doing, to residents of the village of Attu who were made prisoners of war and shipped to Japan, where many of them died, to members of a military weather unit stationed in Alaska who were also captured. In addition, there was a lengthy battle at Attu that was the most deadly hand-to-hand combat in the entire war; 549 US troops were killed (out of 15,000), and only 29 of the 2680 Japanese survived because the generals ordered a mass suicide, and the Japanese detonated hand grenades while holding them against their chests. All documents about these events were classified for many years, although there were some reparations made in the 1980s for the citizens of Attu.

Strengths: Wow. The middle school boys will LOVE this one. Already had my number one WWII reader request this from the public library.It reads like a fact-filled novel, and there are enough gruesome details as well as espionage and survival stories that this will never be on the shelf.
Weaknesses: The prose seemed a bit wooden to me, and I don't usually notice that.

Bodden, Valerie. Fighter Jets.

ARC from Baker and Taylor; published by Creative Education.

This is one of the Built for Battle series on military equipment that also includes aircraft carriers, armored vehicles, helicopters, and several others. This was very short (24 pages) and contained rudimentary information about how jets operate and are used. There is a glossary in the back, and ample pictures. While these would get checked out in my middle school, they are more suited to the youngest war mongers, probably from first to third grade. I was rather amused by the ARC-- it consisted of the sewn together pages from the inside of the book, and the dust jacket!

There's a new Nonfiction Monday page by Ms. Suen, and today's roundup is hosted at Great Kid Books.

Middle Grade Monday can be found at Shannon Whitney Messenger's blog
.

Animal Books

Blom, Jen K. Possum Summer.
Nominated for the Cybils by Astrid P Mochtarram ; copy received from the author.
P. (short for Princess, which she hates), saves a small possum when her father's dog, Blackie, kills its' mother. With the help of her friend Mart, she manages to keep it alive, feeding it, massaging it so it can eliminate waste, and carrying it to school with her inside her sports bra! There are other problems that P. is having, however. School is a constant struggle for her. Her father has been injured in Iraq, and she has promised to keep their Oklahoma farm in good shape until he comes back. Several tragedies occur with the animals, and she tries to make the best decisions she can. She also knows that she can't keep the possum forever, even though she would desperately like a pet. Preparing for her father to come home, P. tries to get everything pulled together.
Strengths: There has been a resurgence in interest in books about animals. Like Nuts, this is a realistic portrayal of the difficulties in caring for a wild animal.
Weaknesses: Holiday House did not do the author justice with the formatting of the book. The cover looks like something from 1987, and the type is far too small for the target demographic.

Barrow, Randi. Saving Zasha.
Nominated for the Cybils by Margo Tanenbaum.
Russia at the end of WWII was a perilous place to be, especially for German types of dogs. When Mikhail finds a dying man and his German shepherd near his house, he gets help. The man dies, and Mikhail begs to be allowed to keep the dog, Zasha, safe, because he knows that soldiers will shoot the dog otherwise. He manages to keep this secret even with the prying of the daughter of the local newspaper man prying into his business. When he finds out that Dmitri, a former soldier, has a refuge for dogs and is trying to breed a "Russian" dog to help replace the thousands of dogs that were killed in the war, he is reluctant to turn the pregnant Zasha over until it becomes too dangerous to take care of her himself.
Strengths: Always looking for books on different facets of WWII. I had no idea that so many dogs were used by the military, or that so many were killed. The historical note at the end is helpful.
Weaknesses: Students looking for books about war usually wan

Publish Post

t a bit more excitement. While the problems at the end are suspenseful, this could have used more action at the beginning.