writes about war from a young person's view #bannedbyrussia
August 23 is Black Ribbon Day — to commemorate the August 23, 1939 pact between Hitler and Stalin to divide up Eastern Europe. Their collaboration continued for the first two years of WWII. These two tyrants caused the deaths of 14 million Eastern European civilians (Poles, Ukrainians, Jews, the people of the Baltics). Armed forces casualties added many more millions to the death toll.
It is a surreal experience, reading an academic’s take on a novel one has written. This popped up in my google alert today:
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/9829/1/aulanowicz.pdf
Scroll to page 58. It’s a fascinating dissection. My favourite line? The Hunger is not necessarily a good novel but it’s an important one.
And here’s what they say about Last Airlift:
As Saigon was falling to the North Vietnamese in April 1975, those who were caring for babies and children orphaned by the war worried about the fate of their charges. A series of evacuation flights called “Operation Babylift” carried several thousand young children to other countries around the world. Skrypuch tells the story of the last Canadian airlift through the memories of one child, Son Thi Anh Tuyet. Nearly 8 years old, the sad-eyed girl on the cover had lived nearly all her life in a Catholic orphanage. With no warning, she and a number of the institution babies were taken away, placed on an airplane and flown to a new world. Tuyet’s memories provide poignant, specific details. The nuns expected her to be useful; she helped with the babies. Naturally, she assumed that John and Dorothy Morris had chosen her to help with their three children; instead, she had acquired a family. Tuyet’s experience is the author’s focus. It personalizes the babylift without sensationalizing it. Immediate and compelling, this moving refugee story deserves a wide audience. (Nonfiction. 10-15)
This is an interesting academic article on my three Armenian Genocide novels, The Hunger, Nobody’s Child, and Daughter of War.
Across the Universe by Beth Revis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Distopian? SF? YA? Yes and no to all. This fabulous novel transcends all genres. An original and compelling first novel, that’s for sure. Must now read the second one.
I love the premise — Amy leaving typical teen life behind to be frozen and launched on a ship for 301 years of travel to an earth-like planet in a different galaxy. A second narrator — Elder — a young man destined to be the leader on this aircraft transporting Amy, her parents, and the other scientists and settlers for the destination planet.
But much as this sounds like it would be all about transponder rings and metal hats, it isn’t. Against a backdrop of a believable future, we get nuanced characters, a murder mystery, lots of suspense, and a hint of romance.
Well done.
Cape Townby Brenda Hammond
A beautifully written novel about a teen from a conservative Afrikaans family in pre-Mandela South Africa.
Renee convinces her parents into letting her leave their isolated rural community in order to study ballet in the big city — Cape Town.
When she arrives as a student at the University of Cape Town, Renee is initially confident in the Afrikaans’ God-given right to govern, and that giving votes to Blacks would be a disaster. Her existence up to this point has been so isolated that she’s never shared an activity with Black or Coloured (ie mixed race) individuals, unless they were servants.
On campus, the first person who befriends her is Dion, a Coloured dancer who is openly gay, and she quickly falls in love with Andy, who is not only English (considered the devil by her Afrikaans father) but is a human rights activist.
Add to the mix Renee’s brother Etienne, who is an undercover agent for the Afrikaans controlled police-state.
Hammond does a great job in showing the incremental change in Renee’s attitude to the people and politics around her, and as Renee changes, the stakes get higher, with riots and violence all around.
In her personal life, she’s playing a double game, keeping her relationship with Andy a secret from her parents and from her guardian aunt.
It all comes to a head in a page turning way.
Brenda Hammond’s writing is visual and sensual, which is oh so appropriate for a novel about ballet and about an exotic locale.
A great read.
Tuyet has found a loving family at last. Life in a strange new country presents many challenges for the young refugee, but she is determined to overcome them all, including the surgeries that will one day allow her to walk on her own in shoes that match.
Continue reading “One Step At A Time”
The Manitoba Young Readers Choice Award (M.Y.R.C.A.) aims to promote reading and Canadian literature by giving young people the opportunity to vote for their favorite Canadian book from an annual preselected list. The books are nominated based on their quality and reader appeal.
Congratulations to the MYRCA 2012 winner, Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom by Susin Nielsen!
We would also like to congratulate the authors of the MYRCA 2012 Honor Books: Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel, and Stolen Child by Marsha F. Skrypuch.