Land of the Cranes by Aida Salazar

I know how to write and draw the picture poems Ms. Martinez taught us to paint our feelings. I know to never forget to scribble my name and date on the bottom.

Publisher blurb: Nine-year-old Betita knows she is a crane. Papi has told her the story, even before her family fled to Los Angeles to seek refuge from cartel wars in Mexico. The Aztecs came from a place called Aztlan, what is now the Southwest US, called the land of the cranes. They left Aztlan to establish their great city in the center of the universe-Tenochtitlan, modern-day Mexico City. It was prophesized that their people would one day return to live among the cranes in their promised land. Papi tells Betita that they are cranes that have come home. Then one day, Betita's beloved father is arrested by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deported to Mexico. Betita and her pregnant mother are left behind on their own, but soon they too are detained and must learn to survive in a family detention camp outside of Los Angeles. Even in cruel and inhumane conditions, Betita finds heart in her own poetry and in the community she and her mother find in the camp. The voices of her fellow asylum seekers fly above the hatred keeping them caged, but each day threatens to tear them down lower than they ever thought they could be. Will Betita and her family ever be whole again?

This book is a harrowing one to read but it is also such an important story that needs to be shared. I expect this book has probably been banned in some states of the US because it takes a very unapologetic and raw honest view of ICE and the dreadful conditions in detention centres.

Here are some text quotes (note this is a verse novel but I have not set the quotes out in that format):

Six raids in the last two days, Papi chews. Where? In the factories just over the tracks. People say there will be more. This administration is out to get us. But this is a sanctuary state. A what, Mami? Papi clears his throat and almost whispers, A “sanctuary” is a place where cranes can’t get caught. Caught for doing what?

On Monday Papi must be late. It’s six p.m. and aftercare closes at six fifteen. The ticks on the clock are honey-slow tocks I try not to count. I wonder if Papi’s broken a wing on the skyscrapers he helps build with hammers and steel?

From a string of weeping words I learn someone named ICE put Papi and other hammer workers. From a string of weeping words I learn someone named ICE put Papi and other hammer workers.

We line up to be served a cardboard tray holding a burrito moldy and half-frozen. Exactly how it feels to be inside this prison.

The guard’s fist smashes into her nose which sends her back like a rag doll. Then the other guard rushes her while she is down and kicks and kicks and kicks her in the stomach and in the face until she is        still crying and breathing a heavy and steady pain.

Kirus say ages 8-12 but I totally disagree. This book is one I would place in a High School library for readers aged 12+. It touches on sexual assault and has some very violent and distressing scenes.

Betita expresses her feelings through short poems and pictures:

To make a picture poem first, close your eyes. I tell them. Then let your imagination lead to where your heart is and ask, How are you feeling? Now sit with the answer and if it is sad or scary or happy or grumpy then ask yourself, What does your feeling look like? What shapes appear? What words appear? What story are you telling?

Salazar’s verse novel presents contemporary issues such as “zero tolerance” policies, internalized racism, and mass deportations through Betita’s innocent and hopeful eyes, making the complex topics easy to understand through passionate, lyrical verses. Kirkus

I read an ebook version of this book for a book discussion group. It is not available to buy here in Australia but you might find a copy in a library.

From the author: I wrote Land of the Cranes with an understanding of the long and devastating history of raids, separations, deportations, incarcerations, and deaths my community has suffered. But also, I wrote from an intimate place. I, like Betita, was an undocumented child. I was born in Mexico and brought to the United States as a baby. My childhood fear of “La Migra” (immigration enforcement) and how they could easily rip our family apart hung over me until we received our green cards, though this was not necessarily a guarantee of safety. ... I wrote Land of the Cranes with an understanding of the long and devastating history of raids, separations, deportations, incarcerations, and deaths my community has suffered. But also, I wrote from an intimate place. I, like Betita, was an undocumented child. I was born in Mexico and brought to the United States as a baby. My childhood fear of “La Migra” (immigration enforcement) and how they could easily rip our family apart hung over me until we received our green cards, though this was not necessarily a guarantee of safety.

Here are three other books by Aida Salazar:

The Ones that Disappeared by Zana Fraillon

By turns harrowing, heart-wrenching, and magical, this is an incredibly powerful - 

and incredibly important - novel. Love Reading4Kids

The power of this story is in Fraillion’s characters, the emotion in her words weaves the simplest of stories – escape and hope. Her writing is tender, fragile almost, as Esra, Isa and Miran strive to stay alive in captivity to escape and find their way home. Reading Time

"My name is Esra Merkes. I am eleven years old. The tattoo on my arm says I belong to Him, Orlando Perel. It says Snakeskins are my family for life. It says I am owned."

Three young kids have been captured and are living as slaves under a house where they tend to a drug crop. Their families were promised the new country would provide education and light duties but all these were lies. 

There are four voices who tell this story. Esra, Miran and young Isa and later Esra and Isa meet Skeet. The kids do escape from captivity, but Miran is 'captured'. In fact, he is actually taken to hospital. Esra and Isa are on the run because their captor has told dreadful stories of the way the gang hunts kids down. Esra is determined to find Miran so all three can try to make their way back home. You might think Miran is safe because he is in the hospital but in several chilling scenes, we read that someone disguised as a nurse is poisoning him. Esra and Isa find a cave where they shelter, and this is where Skeet finds them. He offers to help with their quest to find Miran, but this involves moving along tunnels under the city. These scenes are so powerful I felt desperately claustrophobic as the kids crawl through the never-ending labyrinth of dangerous tunnels and then it rains and water fills the spaces. These kids are in an incredibly dangerous situation and a race against time. 

It did take me a few days to read The Ones that Disappeared because I kept having to emerge from the horrific scenes and take a break 'back in the real world'. 

Here are a couple of text quotes:

"We drank the puddles from the floor and scooped what we could into the water bottles to ration. And when that ran dry, we sucked up water from the toilet. But the toilet must be connected to the sprinklers because it won't fill back up. It's almost empty, and now Miran and I won't drink at all. Just a sip when the thirst gets this bad. ... We heard the truck arrive. Heard the footsteps in the hallway, the scratch of metal in the lock. And when the door opened at the top of the stairs ... he looked at us, his eyes turning hard and his hands shaking anger and fear ... and we saw our fate written there in his eyes."

"It's time for your medicine,' she tells him, taking four large pills from a container in her pocket. She get him a glass of water and waits while he swallows the pills. She doesn't write on his chart or feel for his pulse like the other nurse does. ... Miran is already asleep when the nurse scratches at her wrist, pushing her cardigan high enough to hint at the tattoo inked black on her arm. A tattoo which matches Miran's own, of a snake, curled around the letters OP."

I have said this in a previous post - we are SO lucky to have a writer like Zana Fraillon here in Australia.

Bookseller blurb: Around the world, millions of people - including many children - are victims of human trafficking. These modern-day slaves often go unseen even in our own cities and towns, their voices silent and their stories untold. In this incredible book, Zana Fraillon imagines the story of three such children, Esra, Miran and Isa. The result is powerful, heartbreaking and unforgettable. Esra, Miran and Isa work for the Snakeskin gang, tending to plants in the dark and airless basement of a house they are not allowed to leave. They've been told that they belong to the Snakeskins, but Esra knows that she belongs to no one - and she is determined to find freedom. 

AWARDS

• NSW Premiers Literary Awards winner
• CBCA Notable 2018
• Carnegie Medal Nominee
• Prime Minister's Literary Award shortlist
• UK CrimeFest award Shortlist

This is a book that gives a powerful voice to those who have no power in a world that should care far, far more than it does about those forced to work as slaves in our towns, our cities and in the countryside. They are all around us, unnoticed, uncared for and voiceless. Zana Fraillon has given them a voice. Now those with the power to effect change need to listen. Crime Review UK

The Ones that Disappeared chilled me to the bone because it was so real, but it opened up a world I needed to see. Although I saw between the quiet spaces where the hope offered in this story might not exist for many, I needed that light touch to see the narrative through to the end. My hope is that tens of thousands read The Ones that Disappeared and in doing so, a ground swell of action builds to fight for the millions lost to this very frightening, very real world. Kids' Book Review

The Ones That Disappeared is an unhurried but endlessly gripping tale, told with heart and affection, encompassing both light and shade. Skeet’s kindness helps Esra to regain her humanity and redirect her on a happier path, while the spectre of human trafficking, both in the novel and in the real world, is haunting throughout. Wisely, Fraillon avoids becoming too specific about the nation her story takes place in and this ambiguity gives the impression the story is meant to represent all child slaves in all corners of the world. Right Now Human Rights in Australia

The Ones that Disappeared is most certainly a Young Adult book. It should be put into the hands of readers who are ready for some extremely confronting issues such as modern slavery and also mature readers who can cope with strong descriptions of violence against children - but please do not let that stop you reading this book. The way the plot unfolds in tiny fragments makes for such a compelling read - you just keep turning the pages desperately hoping these kids will be rescued. 

Book Trust said: Fraillon’s style is powerful and the subject matter important, but the misery and brutality, especially in the first third of the book, makes this a harrowing read. It is best suited to older readers, unafraid to tackle difficult subjects.

Lamont books said: Zana Fraillon weaves a heart-breaking and powerful tale of the strength of the human spirit, despite all attempts to crush it. The children have unique personalities and their friendships with each other, and with the people they meet as they flee for their lives, are unforgettable. The story has a mystical element throughout, but ultimately it is a story of hope, friendship, resilience, and freedom.

There is a mysterious man in this story called The Riverman. Reviewers related this character to Skellig by David Almond.

Companion books:

Stitched Up

Flying through water

Naeli and the Secret Song by Jasbinder Bilan

Blurb from Chicken House: Naeli longs to know her English father, who abandoned her when she was little. All she has is his name – and his precious violin. Her chance comes when a ticket to England arrives mysteriously. Leaving behind her beloved India, Naeli embarks on an adventure that will take her from the streets of Victorian London to the wilds of Northumberland to discover the truth of her musical inheritance.

This book contains plot details that act like perfect coincidences:

• On the ship, Naeli meets a boy called Jack who is also travelling to England. On the long three month voyage he is able to teach her English.
• Naeli is taken to work in a bakery when she arrives and her violin is stolen. Then, very mysteriously, she is taken to the house of a wealthy member of parliament - he is her Uncle Daniel and he has the violin. He seems friendly but only at first. But then he turns nasty and demands Naeli play every possible tune on the violin - but why?
• Jack is also in London at a boarding school near Westminster and Uncle Daniel lives close by so when Naeli escapes, she is able to find the school and by chance she finds herself in a laundry room so she can disguise herself as a boy from the school and then in the huge dining hall she is able to find Jack.
• Luckily Jack has money and so they set off by train to the remote country mansion, Swallowfield Hall, in Northumberland. The two servants seem like very shifty characters and clearly they are hiding something - then Naeli and Jack hear mysterious noises in the night and Naeli sees an extra breakfast tray in the kitchen. Who are they hiding? Is her father really dead? Can a tune from her violin help to reunite them? And how lucky to find a map of the estate in the Swallowfield Hall library - because also luckily Jack recognised the clue of 5,3 as a map coordinate. 

Adults reading this book might laugh over all the 'contrived' plot details but I am sure the story will intrigue young readers aged 10+ who have less experience with mystery stories and skullduggery by greedy family members who are desperate for money. 

This story does have overtones of The Secret Garden - there is a mystery; someone is lost; there needs to be healing by a young child; the story starts in India with the death of a parent; and best off all the kids find a key and a secret door!

Here is the scene with the key (spoiler alert the clues were in the pegs of the violin):

"The door was only small, like an opening to a cupboard. ... Naeli's throat was dry. She thought about how long the key had been hidden in the violin and how Uncle Daniel had been desperate to find it. If the key did fit this tiny lock, she was sure it would reveal something important ... "

Read a book extract here. Read more plot details in this post from the Historical Novel Society.

Jasbinder Bilan has created a wonderful fast-paced tale, a mix of adventure, mystery and historical fiction, as we leave behind the traditional Indian world and enter Victorian England, where women are treated very differently of course than they are today. Our heroine Naeli is strong and determined, facing a new life and the many obstacles in her path with determination and courage as the twists and turns of her story unfold. Books for Keeps

Here are four other books by Jasbinder Bilan:

Companion books:

Withering-by-Sea (and sequels)

The Fortune Maker

The Haunting of Charity Delafield

A Case of Grave Danger

The Truth about Verity Sparks

The Ghost of Gosswater

Flying Through Water by Mamle Wolo

We all grabbed bailing vessels. Thunder cracked, and lightning streaked across the sky like a celestial tree revealing its branches for a split second. I felt as though I were caught in a different dimension where death was as present as life, and everything was elemental and terrifying.

I thought about this world and the things we humans struggled for, and all the ways in which we imprisoned ourselves, and each other. It seemed to me that greed was just as much of a prison as poverty, only worse. Here I was alone on this island in the middle of nowhere, stripped of whatever meager possessions I had ever owned. And yet in nature’s heart I felt liberated and endowed with a splendor beyond anything humans could ever purchase. 

What greater wealth was there in this world than freedom?

This story is told in three parts. Sena describes his life in Ghana and his special relationship with is grandfather who tells him stories of his village life before the artificial creation of Volta Lake and the Akosombo Dam. Sena lives with his mother, sister and baby brother. They are very poor but he has been able to go to school. His education is not perfect and the teachers are often absent and they do beat the students but if he can sit the final exam there is the promise of further education and hopefully a better life for his family. But there is a young man who visits their village with promises to the young boys of work and money and perhaps even adventures. Sena is suspicious of this flashy man who they call 'Jack of Diamonds' and he has heard stories of boys sent to work with cattle - boys who are given little or no food and forced to work in dreadful conditions. Sena is determined not to follow this path but then his grandfather dies, his mother is gravely ill with malaria and his best friend declares he is heading away to work because he is sure the promises from 'Jack of Diamonds' are true. 

Sena loves his family and he really wants to help them so after his final exam he leaves a letter under his sister's pillow and he heads off - what he does not know is that this will be a journey into hell. So begins part two. Sena is taken to work as a slave for a cruel master catching fish and diving deep into treatrous waters to untangle the fishing nets. He is given virtually no food, he is beaten and the group of about ten boys are forbidden to talk to each other except about their tasks. Yes this is illegal human trafficking. Can Sena escape? Where will he go? What will happen if he is caught? He does befriend one of the boys and then that boy is killed - possibly murdered by their master - so now Sena must leave. He arrived at this place terrified of water and unable to swim. After several months of this cruel work he can now swim but he is still terrified of the dark water and the waves and he has not learned how to float. Part 3 is all about survival because he does find his way to a small deserted island with only monkeys for company but of course he must also find a way to get back to his family. He also carries huge guilt about the boys he left behind and he has made a new wonderful discovery of a special and rare underwater animal - the lake Manatee. The book ends with a sense of hope for the future for Sena himself but also for other trafficked boys and hopefully also for this very special wild creature who is also trapped in the waters of this lake.

Here are a few text quotes from this book:

Treatment by teachers: The humiliation hurt almost more than the lashes, but I hardened myself to it even though it upset me that the teachers beat us when they knew how hard our lives were. They knew we weren’t late out of laziness or what they called I-don’t-care-ism. But I got used to that too—the callousness of powerful people and the way they didn’t care what was fair.

Kekeli - a description: She had a round face, and when she smiled it was as if the distance between her lips and chin had been measured with a protractor and traced with a compass, their curves were so perfectly parallel. Her laughter was like that of a baby discovering funniness for the first time and too little to contain it. She could spark off the whole class.

Grandfather the storyteller: He said stories took us where our legs couldn’t go and showed us what our eyes couldn’t see, and that the best thing about books was that they were still there when storytellers were gone. I could see what he meant when I thought that one day, he wouldn’t be here to tell us stories anymore—a prospect I quickly banished. I loved his stories more than any I’d read in books.

Jack of Diamonds: Everyone was excited and following his every move, but something in me held back. I wondered if I was the only one to whom his mannerisms seemed somehow familiar, as if he’d studied them on someone else, like Shatta Wale or Burna Boy. Perhaps I was just being silly, but it made me uneasy that we couldn’t see his eyes, because he never took off his sunglasses. And it was amazing how he kept that black jacket on in this heat.

Publisher blurb: Sena treasures his life in rural Ghana-playing soccer, working the family farm, striving to do his best at school-but he is increasingly aware of his family's precarious security in the face of poverty. When an alluring gentleman comes to town to befriend local teenagers, offering promises of a better future, it only takes one more unsettling turn of events to send Sena into the clutches of human traffickers. Sena's ordeal, escape, and remarkable survival makes for a page-turning adventure of self-discovery and empowerment.

Searing and eye-opening, readers will devour Sena’s story in a day. School Library Journal

Wolo skillfully sheds light on the horrific practice of the trafficking of children, and the grim situations many are forced to live and work in—but she also tells a story of hope and perseverance. The vividly described settings include imagery that paints the scenes for readers as the story unfolds. A powerful look at human suffering and the will to survive. Kirkus Star review

Jack of Diamonds turns out to be a pied piper for a human trafficking network and thus, Sena finds that he has been sold into indentured labour to a fisherman who employs a motley crew of children, some as young as three, in a bid to compete with foreign trawlers working the Volta Lake. Cold and brutish, Sena’s master is a formidable antagonist, the like of which populates Dickensian novels, but the real villain here is the systemic poverty that has left intergenerational scars and threatens the possibility of a future for its under aged victims, who are malnourished, overworked, and constantly exposed to the risk of drowning. The Lagos Review

Fans of Hatchet and A Long Walk to Water will find Flying Through water an engrossing book. Sadly I have no idea how I discovered this book - I must have seen it recommended somewhere.

Listen to an audio sample here. This book only in hardcover so far is too expensive here in Australia (AUS$32.50) but I read a copy on a Kindle.

I recommend this moving and atmospheric story for readers aged 12+ especially those with an interest in social justice. Your senior students could also investigate the work of our Australian organisation that assists victims of modern slavery - The Freedom Hub.

I recently read this book which also explores the topic of human trafficking:

Stitched up

Stitched Up by Steve Cole

Hanh is sold by her parents to two strangers who offer her a good job as a shop assistant in distant Hanoi. She and other girls from her village are taken to the city but that's when all the promises are broken. They are locked inside a factory, fed only rice, they are only allowed to use the bathroom twice a day, and all of them are forced to work in very dangerous factory conditions manufacturing jeans for the fast fashion industry. Perfectly good denim is distressed by sandblasting. Fabrics are dropped into vats of dangerous chemicals. Machines are used to press creases into the legs of the pants. And embellishments are added by machine and by hand. The young overseer girl wields a stick and she beats any child who does not perform their tasks quickly. Quotas, money and greed drive this industry. Reading this book will most certainly make you reconsider that next purchase of fast fashion.

The story does have a resolution but clearly Hanh will be damaged for the rest of her life and her parents suffer from the most dreadful guilt. They never did receive the promised money. In this book you can read about modern slavery and organisations who are working to rescue children like Hanh and her friends. There is also an afterword about ways to avoid fast fashion. I had no idea 8,000 litres of water are used to make one pair of jeans 

This book is from the Barrington Stoke (Dyslexia friendly) book series. They produce books for all ages and this one is most certainly a Young Adult title for mature readers aged 12+.

You're going to read about the processes which go into the manufacture of garments such as the jeans. They're complex and require a great deal of skill. Hanh and the other girls get just two poor meals a day and are allowed only two toilet breaks. Violence is commonplace - and vicious. No account is taken of any illnesses or injuries: the girls are, after all, expendable. It's a dreadful situation but Steve Coles tells the story with sensitivity and compassion but still manages not to shy away from the brutal truth about why fast-fashion clothes are so cheap. BookBag

Children who are passionate about social justice are sure to devour this book. Scope for Imagination

In the context of a High School this book could be used in many different ways. If your school runs a social justice program this book explores modern slavery. This book is also about textile manufacturing and in particular 'trendy' jeans with distressed fabrics, rips and tears and embellishments and so it could be used in Design and Tech. If you have a group of students exploring the UN Rights of the child this book could be added to a wide reading list.

Here are all the titles in this series by Steve Cole:

I would pair Stitched up with these books:

Amal Unbound

Street Child by Berlie Doherty

When we meet Jim, he is living in extreme poverty with his mother who is clearly extremely unwell and his two sisters. Jim spends their last coins on a hot pie (with plenty of gravy). It really is the last coin and so it is not long until they find themselves evicted. Mrs. Jarvis takes the children to a house where she once worked. She is able to leave the two girls there but not Jim. They walk off into the night and then she collapses in the street. Jim lives in fear of the workhouse but that is exactly where he is taken now that his mother has died. 

Jim adapts to the brutal life in the workhouse, but he dreams of escape. One day the opportunity to do just this arises but Jim has no idea that he is about to lose his freedom again.

"Nick thrust a shovel at Jim. The basket hovered just above the hold and Nick eased it down and steadied it and started shoveling coal into it ... Jim stabbed at the coals with his shovel. He had to lift it nearly as high as himself before he could tip it into the basket, and the few coals he managed to lift slid off and bumped against him."

The hours of this are long and dangerous. Jim is hardly given any food and Nick controls Jim by using his ferocious dog. It feels as though Jim will never escape.

Street Child was first published in 1993. I have listed this book for senior primary ages 10+. It looks like a junior book with only 170 pages but the violence and cruelty inflicted on young Jim Jarvis are sure to upset very sensitive readers. There were times I had to stop and take a breath as I read the way Grimy Nick treated Jim.

On her web page Berlie Doherty has links to a wealth of materials associated with this book.

Bookseller blurb: When his mother dies, Jim Jarvis is left all alone in London. He is sent to the workhouse but quickly escapes, choosing a hard life on the streets of the city over the confines of the workhouse walls. Struggling to survive, Jim finally finds some friends… only to be snatched away and made to work for the remorselessly cruel Grimy Nick, constantly guarded by his vicious dog, Snipe. Will Jim ever manage to be free? (This is) the unforgettable tale of an orphan in Victorian London, based on the boy whose plight inspired Dr Barnardo to found his famous children’s homes.

I have shared four cover designs because I think this can be a good discussion starter with a class - talking about which cover the students like and why and aspects of cover design such as placement of the title, font, colour choices, and the way a cover might help you predict the plot of a story. 

Here is the Kirkus review. Book Bag review.

I do need to give a word of warning about Barnardos homes. Wikipedia says: "Barnardo's was also implicated in (the) inquiry for sending British children to Australia in the mid-20th century, where some were tortured, ... and enslaved. Barnardo's acknowledges its role in this "well intentioned" but "deeply misguided" policy supported by the government of the time."  I would not use Street Child as an impetus to research Dr Bernado and his charity, but you could use parts of this book to explore life in Victoria England and also with an older group as a way to talk about the United Nations Rights of the Child. As an adult reader if you are curious about Bernardos take a look at this article. 

Companion books:

The Fortune Maker

The Truth about Verity Sparks

A Very Unusual Pursuit

My Friend the Octopus

Other books by Berlie Doherty:

Carnegie Medal winner

Carnegie Medal winner

The Children of Nuala by Malachy Doyle

Blurb: A long time ago, before you were born, or your grandmother was born, or your grandmother's mother before her, in a land far away, lived Olan. Olan's evil father is a magician and Olan has been born with a heart of ice. When he marries a beautiful woman called Nuala, Olan casts a terrible spell upon her children. But as his icy heart starts to melt, he realizes what he has done and he sets out to bring his family back together.

Olan marries Nuala who has lost her young husband - he has drowned and she is left with her four children - Connor, Cormac, Liam and Fionnuala. His jealousy of the love their mother shows the children allows his magician father to send a dreadful curse from far away:

"Three years you must spend under the cruel spell of my father. One year as swans, a second as blackbirds and third as ducks. Only then will you regain your human form."

Olan decides he and Nuala cannot stay on the island of Inchageela but with every move to a new place the birds - either swans, blackbirds or ducks, follow them. Each move is motivated by jealousy until finally Nuala is able to explain she can love Olan and at the same time also love her children - who now are able to return to her in human form and joy of joys there is a new baby in the family too.

I have been helping a friend in her two school libraries with stocktake (inventory) and also weeding (culling) her collections especially the fiction, picture books and lately the short chapter books. That is where I found this strange book. It is an old book published in 1998 but it is in really good condition mainly because Faber and Faber used really good paper. This is a slim book with only 47 illustrated pages but I think it would better suit an older audience of readers aged 10+. 

This story is based on an Irish folk tale and it also has strong links to one of my most favourite fairy tales - The Wild swans.

With a group of older students, you could seek out the original Irish tale - The Children of Lir and also it would be interesting to compare this story with Paradise Sands which won an award from our Children's Book Council of Australia in 2023.

Paradise Sands

Here are the details of this edition

Luna by Holly Webb illustrated by Jo Anne Davies

Hannah and her family visit a Christmas market in Dresden. Hannah sees a small bear puppet toy and the seller shows her how the bear can dance. Hannah finds this quite upsetting, but she convinces her father to buy her the little bear. In the middle of that night Hannah finds herself in a different place and time - a barn with two bears - one huge and one cub. She meets a young boy who is trying to rescue the cub. He has witnessed the hunters capturing the wild creature to use in their dreadful dancing act. Hannah is a stranger, but she is able to help Matthias. Even though the mother bear has been killed the new friends find another bear in the forest who immediately bonds with the little cub - giving readers the promise of that all-important happy ending.

This book was a generous gift from my friend at Kinderbookswitheverything and it reminded me of an Australian picture book from many years ago. 

Here is the Kirkus review

Luna has a junior looking cover and only 176 pages with illustrations but the topic of cruelty to animals which is explored in this book and the timeslip format mean this book is better suited to readers aged 10+.

Holly Webb needs more than one shelf in a library - she says: "Quite often people ask how many books I’ve written. At the moment, it’s 156!"

Leeva at Last by Sara Pennypacker illustrated by Matthew Cordell

What are people for?

Okay, before I tell you about Leeva at Last, I want you to locate your own book wish list or library shopping list and add this book NOW! Readers aged 9+ will LOVE meeting Leeva and her friends and teachers are also sure to thoroughly enjoy reading this book as a class serial story - not with work sheets - just for the joy of a terrific story with that all important very happy ending. There are 54 short chapters in this book which has 300 pages set in a good size font with a sprinkling of illustrations by Matthew Cordell. Fans of Matilda will love meeting brave Leeva as will readers who enjoyed Flora and Ulysses -The illuminated adventures by Kate DiCamillo.

Leeva Thornblossom has the most despicable parents you will ever meet in a story unless you have met Matilda's parents from the famous book by Roald Dahl and also the parents from The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry but to me these parents seem even worse than all of those. Mayor Thornblossom and her husband Dolton only care about fame (that's the Mayor) and money (that's her dad). Now that Leeva is old enough she has become their slave. She cooks, cleans, mows the lawn and completes money problems for her father who is the town treasurer. These parents are so completely dreadful I can hardly begin to describe them. Here is an example showing how Leeva got her name:

Nurse Blackberry needs Mayor Thornblossom to fill in the birth certificate forms for her new baby. The Mayor has been so demanding.

"She was fed up, ready to snap. And now here she was, holding the birth certificate, asking what the new baby' name was and hearing in reply, 'Don't you know who I am? You do it, nurse!'. Well, Nurse Blackberry snapped. 'Look! The last name is filled in already: Thornblossom! All that's left is ... "first name. Middle name ... leave a space."

"Each time her parents related the story, they cackled in glee. But Leeva knew it wasn't funny. In fact, it was a pitiful thing to have been named so carelessly."

And here is how Leeva makes her own shoes from the packets which contain her father's daily food called Cheezaroni:

"Cheezaroni bore a glancing resemblance to macaroni and cheese, except that the macaroni and the cheese were indistinguishable from each other and they were both indistinguishable from the box, so even when you followed the instructions perfectly, what you ended up with was a flavourless cardboardy mash that smelt powerfully of feet."

"They were her sandals - a fairly new pair. She was proud of these shoes, which she fashioned by molding tinfoil Cheezaroini trays around her feet, then strapping them on with masking tape. In winter, she molded a second Cheezaroni tray over the top of each foot to keep the heat in. The shoes were never comfortable, and the tape left itchy bands around her ankles, but the silvery flash they made when they caught the light was lovely."

More about those parents:

"Now, Reader, Leeva had known her mother and father were liars, of course. According to the stories they told each other at night, lying was pretty much all they did in their jobs ... But it had never occurred to her that they would lie to her, their own daughter."

Her father is greedy and obsessed with making and saving money and her mother is vain, greedy and obsessed with becoming famous.

Luckily, yes there is always a luckily, next door to her house Leeva discovers a library. Harry, nephew of the librarian Mrs Pauline Flowers (yes she is just like Miss Honey) gives Leeva a precious library card and the courage to step away from her parents and all their tortuous rules. Mrs Flowers also gives Leeva perfect books, delicious cookies every day, yummy lunches and later a flask of extra cold milk. Leeva also discovers toast for the first time thanks to the kind librarian.

Things that brighten Leeva's day:

• The daily newspaper - the Nutsmore Weekly and their word of the day. 
• The television soap opera - The Winds of our Tides - this is where Leeva has learnt about 'real life'.
• The program Vim and Vigor at any Age - a television exercise program
• Cookies made by Mrs Flower - chocolate chunk with toasted hazelnuts; Champurradas from Guatemala; and many more from every country in the world
• Wonderful library books such as Charlotte's Web; New Kid; Where the mountain meets the Moon; Bud, not Buddy; Other words for Home; One Crazy Summer; and Because of Winn Dixie.  By the end of her first week she has read 70 books!
• Her new "pet" Bob the badger
• Special friends - Osmund, Fern, Harry and his aunt.

There is a lot of slap-stick humour in this book BUT there are also some precious and tender moments. Leeva has never had a hug. She has never eaten hot toast with butter. She has no idea about gingersnaps. And she can only braid her her into two plaits. No mother or father have ever touched her or her hair, but she longs for a braid like her new friend Fern - a single perfect braid, with every hair in place. 

When her parents finally ban her from leaving the house ever again, Osmund arrives to find out what has happened. One lovely day some weeks ago he gave Leeva a comb - one of the first presents she had ever received.

"He pointed at the comb in Leeva's hand. 'Give it to me.' Leeva hesitated. It would hurt her to return the first thing she'd every owned all to herself. But as last she held it out. Osmund took the comb. He stood up. 'Turn around.' Although Leeva suspected Osmund would run away now, she turned around. She held her breath, waiting to hear his boots clomp out of the park. ... And then she felt him tug the rubber bands from her braids. She felt him unweave her braids and comb out her hair. She felt him divide it into three sections and lay the sections, right-over-centre, left-over-center, .... into a single braid down the middle of her back."

Read these reviews:

Splendid fun. Kirkus

Nobody’s parents are perfect, but Leeva’s are the worst. Even worse than those you might have met in Roald Dahl’s story of that long-suffering girl, Matilda.  Books for Keeps

I marvel at the variety of books written by Sara Pennypacker from the serious survival book Pax, the fun of Clementine and the powerful environmental message of Sparrow Girl.

Pax and Pax: Journey Home

Clementine

Waylon

Sparrow Girl

Little Sure Shot by Matt Ralphs

Annie lives in Ohio. Her real name is Phoebe Anne Mosey. She lives with her Pa, Ma, four older sisters, a baby sister and a young brother. They are poor but surviving and this is a loving family. Annie is a little different from her siblings because she loves to go out with Pa hunting and he can see she has skill so he is teaching her, even though she is only six, to load his gun and how to shoot wild animals to give the family food. 

Pa sets out one day with grain for the Mill but on his return journey the weather takes a terrible turn and Pa arrives home frozen and desperately unwell. The family all try to keep him alive in the hope that he might recover but sadly, after a few months Pa dies. Things now become desperate and so Ma is forced to give her baby to a childless couple and then she decides Annie will need to go to the Infirmary. Luckily the people there are kind and Annie can eat well and have some freedom but all of this is cut short when a farmer requests a girl to come and help his wife with her new baby. Annie does not want to go but there is a promise of $2 to be sent to her Ma each week. 

Mr and Mrs Grace are despicable people. They starve Annie and beat her but she stays and tries to survive in this horrible place because she knows the money will be helping her family. Little does she know (spoiler alert) no money is actually being sent. Eventually the violence becomes so bad that Annie runs away back to the Infirmary. Now her luck and fortunes change. Annie is very skilled with a gun and this comes to the attention of a local butcher. He enters her in shooting competitions and she begins to win some money - enough money to help her family. Then Annie comes to the attention of a hotel owner and he takes her to see a sharp shooter called Frank Butler. From there she goes on to meet Chief Sitting Bull (yes this really did happen to Annie Oakley) and later Buffalo Bill or Wild Bill Cody. She joins his show with her new husband Frank Butler and she then travels all over the US, Canada and even Europe.  

Publisher blurb: Annie’s family work hard to survive on their Ohio farm. Annie’s happiest when hunting game with her pa, and she doesn’t care one bit that it’s not the kind of thing girls are meant to do. When tragedy strikes, the family is thrown into deepest poverty. Until one day, Annie dares to pick up Pa’s old rifle, and find a way to feed her starving family. As the family’s fortunes worsen, Annie is sent away to work, and life becomes an ever greater struggle. Yet Annie has the courage and pluck to survive – and her brilliance with a rifle starts to gain her more than just turkeys for the pot. Can Annie’s amazing skills take her all the way to fame and fortune?

Little Sure Shot is the story of Annie Oakley but readers will not know this until the final pages and the Afterword. I really enjoyed this story of courage and survival. As a young reader I loved books set in the pioneering days of the US such as the Little House books and Children of the Oregon Trail. Readers who enjoy stories about real people are sure to enjoy meeting Annie. I was totally caught up in her story. I sat down to read a few chapters of Little Sure Shot just after breakfast today and I then I kept reading right to the end (287 pages).

I do need to give a warning - the book is filled with guns and shooting and also the domestic violence in the scenes with Mr and Mrs Grace are very distressing. I would recommend this book for mature readers aged 11+.

Shot-through with courage and adventure, Ralphs’ rendering of Oakley’s incredible rags-to-riches story is an inspiration. Love Reading4Kids

Read more about Annie Oakley:

National Women's History Museum

History.com

Companion read:

May B: A novel

Matt Ralphs is the author of Fire Girl and Fire Witch - two books which totally engrossed me. Little Sure Shot is very different in setting and style but it is just as engrossing.