Tag Archives: 1940s

The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin

Review: The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin

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The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin

The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
Steve Sheinkin
Roaring Brook Press
Published January 21, 2014

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About The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights

An astonishing World War II military story of civil rights from New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Honor recipient Steve Sheinkin.

A National Book Award Finalist
A YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

On July 17, 1944, a massive explosion rocked the segregated Navy base at Port Chicago, California, killing more than 300 sailors who were at the docks, critically injuring off-duty men in their bunks, and shattering windows up to a mile away. On August 9th, 244 men refused to go back to work until unsafe and unfair conditions at the docks were addressed. When the dust settled, fifty were charged with mutiny, facing decades in jail and even execution.

The Port Chicago 50 is a fascinating story of the prejudice and injustice that faced black men and women in America’s armed forces during World War II, and a nuanced look at those who gave their lives in service of a country where they lacked the most basic rights.

This thoroughly-researched and documented book can be worked into multiple aspects of the common core curriculum, including history and social studies.

“Sheinkin delivers another meticulously researched WWII story, one he discovered while working on his Newbery Honor book, Bomb…Archival photos appear throughout, and an extensive bibliography, source notes, and index conclude this gripping, even horrific account of a battle for civil rights predating Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

My Review

This is a moment in history that I didn’t have knowledge of. If we learned about it in school, it must have been a very brief mention. So the information about the explosion at Port Chicago was new to me. It’s well-explained, with some set-up information and context. Sheinkin’s goal was to tell the story from the perspective of the men involved, and he succeeds.

What’s also excellent about The Port Chicago 50 is how Sheinkin orients readers using other familiar historical events. This disaster happened two and a half years after the attack on Pearl Harbor and just over ten years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus. It happened almost three years before Jackie Robinson became the first Black major league baseball player. So, readers who are not familiar with this incident but know about other landmark moments in history can insert this information into the timeline of other familiar events pretty quickly.

I thought that was a really smart approach, and it made reading the book feel like it helped me piece together American history in a fresh way.

The author also highlights the fact that in the 1940s, people lived in two different, segregated Americas. Black Americans had trusted news sources that reported events that white newspapers were not covering. I’ve spent a lot of time in the last few years thinking about the divide between where different Americans get their news. It was eye-opening to realize that this has been true for much longer than I was aware. (Nothing like reading a book to help you confront privilege.)

Conclusion

It’s easy to see why this book was a National Book Award finalist the year it was published. It brings light to a too often overlooked moment in history. The Port Chicago disaster sparked big changes in civil rights. It also left 50 men who served their country wrongly branded as mutineers.

This excellent book about historical events worth remembering is perfectly tailored to its intended audience.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Some mild profanity in significant quotes from witnesses and key historical figures. References to the F-word, but it’s bleeped out. The author clarifies that the whole word was used in the trial.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
References to racism and racist slurs. Sheinkin notes stories of Black servicemen who were attacked and then blamed for their attack.

Some brief descriptions of the explosion at Port Chicago and the resulting injuries. Some men had PTSD symptoms afterward and were victimized by a fellow serviceman who would play startling pranks on them. For example, he would tangle his bedsheet in a box fan to create a loud rattling noise.

When some men refused an order by their commanding officer, some were told they would be shot.

Drug Content
Reference to adults visiting a bar to ask for a beer.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday

I’m sharing this post as a part of a weekly round-up of middle-grade posts called Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Check out other blogs with posts about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle with Greg Pattridge.

Review: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou
Random House
Published April 21, 2009 (Orig. 1969)

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About I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.
 
Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.
 
Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.

“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”—James Baldwin

Thoughts About Reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

As I read this book, I thought back through my English literature education. Other than at least one poem by Langston Hughes in seventh grade, I can’t remember specifically reading any Black authors. It’s possible we read poetry by Maya Angelou. I especially do not remember ever reading about life in segregated America from a Black perspective, which seems like a huge thing when I think about it.

It is honestly a little bit alarming to me that I’m this old and just now reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings for the first time. I’ve read a pathetically small amount of classic literature by Black authors and/or authors of color in general. This is a problem I’m working to fix.

My Review

I love the way the author describes things. Some of the descriptions are pure poetry. Others vividly recount a moment or experience with such specificity that I felt like I was there witnessing the scene.

I listened to the audiobook version, read by the author, which I deeply enjoyed. She sings the hymns written in the text. She reads in a way that shows off the beauty of the poetic descriptions in the text while inviting the reader into each moment.

As I mentioned above, I think this is the first book I’ve read that shows segregated life in America from a Black perspective. (The more I think about it, the more I think that should absolutely be a requirement for high school literature. Wow.) I’m not sure I will ever forget the scene in which Maya and her brother hide her uncle in a vegetable bin and pile onions and potatoes on top of him because they’ve been warned that the Klan will be riding through their town looking for someone to harm.

The author describes the people in her life really well, too. As I read, I could sense both her admiration and her frustration with her mother and grandmother. These were both strong women with different values. They protected her and wounded her, sometimes knowingly, and sometimes without meaning to do so.

Conclusion

I’m so glad I read this book. It’s haunting and beautiful. There are some scenes that are hard to read (see content warnings below), but I really believe books like this are important. I am looking forward to reading more of Maya Angelou’s work.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A couple uses of the N-word as Maya heard it used. In one scene, she lists other derogatory terms she heard used.

Romance/Sexual Content
A man abuses Maya (a child) multiple times, the last time being the most violent. Descriptions are brief. It’s hard to read, but it does show the trauma and the complicated feelings and conclusions she drew from the experience as a child.

Maya worries about her body’s development. She reads about lesbianism and intersex conditions at the library and then speaks with her mom, who helps her understand that what’s happening to her body is normal development. There’s a little bit of biological description here.

One scene briefly relates Maya’s first (consensual) sexual experience. It’s not very specific except to relate how functional rather than romantic it was.

Spiritual Content
References to attending church and singing hymns. Maya’s grandmother, Mama, believes that if you’re good, God will love you.

Violent Content
Brief mentions of harm to children. Maya’s uncle threatens to burn her on the stove if she can’t answer his questions. She believes, looking back, that he never would have harmed her. Reference to a woman hitting a child’s legs with a switch if they didn’t wash properly or teachers striking the palms of students with rulers if they disobeyed.

Maya’s grandmother hits her as punishment for using the term “by the way,” which her grandmother considers swearing.

Drug Content
Several scenes reference adults smoking cigarettes.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Review: Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation written by Anne Frank, adapted by Ari Folman, and illustrations by David Polonsky

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Anne Frank’s Diary
Anne Frank
Adapted by Ari Folman
Illustrations by David Polonsky
Pantheon Books
Published October 2, 2018

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About Anne Frank’s Diary

A timeless story rediscovered by each new generation, The Diary of a Young Girl stands without peer. For both young readers and adults it continues to capture the remarkable spirit of Anne Frank, who for a time survived the worst horror the modern world has seen—and who remained triumphantly and heartbreakingly human throughout her ordeal.

Adapted by Ari Folman, illustrated by David Polonsky, and authorized by the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel, this is the first graphic edition of The Diary and includes extensive quotation directly from the definitive edition. It remains faithful to the original, while the stunning illustrations interpret and add layers of visual meaning and immediacy to this classic work of Holocaust literature.

My Review

I read THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL for the first time this year. I’d read a play based on the diary and seen it performed while I was in school, but I hadn’t read the original text for myself until now.

One of the reasons I did is because of this graphic adaptation. (Note: the term graphic adaptation simply means it’s told in a series of images in panels, much like a comic strip, but the content is nonfiction, so it’s not a graphic novel.)

Anne Frank’s Diary Banned

ANNE FRANK’S DIARY was banned in at least one high school library in a county near me early in 2023. I read about the content that a parent objected to, but didn’t really have a grid for it since I’d never read the graphic adaptation being pulled or the original diary.

The content the parent objected to is on a two-page spread. There are three images showing Anne and her friend Jacque having a sleepover. Anne asks Jacque if they can show one another their breasts, and Jacque says no. Ann laments that she wanted very much to kiss her friend. The next page shows Anne walking through a garden of vaguely sketched nude statues with a caption that she feels ecstasy at the sight of a female body.

The content is brief and pretty vague, and Jacque even rebuffs Anne. These scenes come directly from Frank’s diary entries.

Anne Frank’s Diary: The Only Graphic Adaptation Authorized by the Anne Frank Foundation

Having read both these books so closely together, I think the graphic adaptation is faithful to the original text and the spirit of it. There were diary entries that I recognized in the graphic adaptation. Sometimes multiple scenes were combined to show one scene. Some of the illustrations show a scene at a dinner Anne describes. At other times, they present a more metaphorical interpretation of what happened. I found that I really enjoyed that combination and the way it illuminated some of the things Anne describes.

Still the Same Sparky, Brilliant Young Girl

The things that stood out to me so much in this book as with the diary itself were how young Anne is. At times, her temper and her emotions get the better of her, as they do with any of us. At other times, she writes with so much humor and depth that it’s hard to remember she was barely a teenager herself.

The man who adapted the book points out in a note at the back of the book that a famous historian once said, “more people are probably familiar with the Nazi era through the figure of Anne Frank than through any other figure of that period, except perhaps of Adolf Hitler himself.”

I had to let that sink in. And I had to think about the fact that we are now telling some high school students they can’t read this book. Or MAUS, the duology written by Art Spiegelman about his father’s life as a survivor of the Holocaust.

It’s very weird to me that there are places in which you can legally drive a car and get a job but not have access to these books at your school.

Conclusion

I’m so glad I read ANNE FRANK’S DIARY: THE GRAPHIC ADAPTATION and the original, DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL by Anne Frank. The story they tell is a pretty simple one. It’s about a girl who keeps a diary, pretending to write letters to a friend as her family faces prejudice, adversity, and ultimately, their own murders.

I really enjoyed the way the illustrations celebrated Anne’s humor and her wit. And I deeply appreciate that they show the vast range of feelings she describes in her diary. I loved the book, and I would like to check out the movie directed by the adapter of the book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Representation
Anne, her family, and the others hiding in the Secret Annex are Jewish.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Anne reports she once asked a female friend if she could see her breasts and wanted to kiss her. She says she feels “ecstasy” when seeing female bodies. She mentions speaking openly with Peter about the bodies of men and women. Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Anne’s family celebrates Hanukkah and St. Nicholas Day together.

Violent Content
Anne hears rumors of citizens being executed. She hears rumors about people taken to concentration camps and killed there. Anne worries about friends from school and others her family knew. She sometimes has a dream of them asking her for help.

Drug Content
Anne takes Valerian drops to combat feelings of anxiety and panic during her time in hiding.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything but help support this blog.

Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation is a beautifully illustrated adaptation of the original diary telling about Anne’s years in hiding in Nazi-occupied Holland.

Review: Wrath Becomes Her by Aden Polydoros

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Wrath Becomes Her
Aden Polydoros
Inkyard Press
Published October 10, 2023

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About Wrath Becomes Her

FRANKENSTEIN meets INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS in this stunning Jewish historical horror novel from the award-winning author of THE CITY BEAUTIFUL.

Vera was made for vengeance.

Lithuania, 1943. A father drowns in the all-consuming grief of a daughter killed by the Nazis. He can’t bring Chaya back from the dead, but he can use kishuf — an ancient and profane magic — to create a golem in her image. A Nazi killer, to avenge her death.

When Vera awakens, she can feel her violent purpose thrumming within her. But she can also feel glimpses of a human life lived, of stolen kisses amidst the tragedy, and of a grisly death. And when she meets Akiva, she recognizes the boy with soft lips that gave warm kisses. But these memories aren’t hers, and Vera doesn’t know if she gets—or deserves —to have a life beyond what she was made for.

Vera’s strength feels limitless—until she learns that there are others who would channel kishuf for means far less noble than avenging a daughter’s death. As she confronts the very basest of humanity, Vera will need more than what her creator gave Not just a reason to fight, but a reason to live. 

My Review

This is the first book by Aden Polydoros that I’ve read. I started BONE WEAVER, but got pulled away from the book before I could finish it. I knew from that that I liked the writing style, so I felt pretty confident that I would like this book– and I did!

The subject is pretty dark, and the story takes place in winter in Lithuania, so it’s freezing cold in the middle of a war in which the Jews aren’t guaranteed to be safe even from the soldiers fighting against the Germans.

Vera’s exploration of her identity and her desperation to understand humanity reminded me a lot of the book FRANKENSTEIN. She knows she’s other, but she has such deep human impulses and desires, and at first, she idolizes humans. The more she sees war and how people treat one another, the less enamored she is with people.

I thought the story might follow a well-established pattern in which the idea of personhood is explored and romance happens between a created being and a human. There are some hints of romance, especially on Vera’s side, but the story doesn’t center around romantic love.

I really liked the ending of the book. It wasn’t simple, but it felt right to me. I think readers who enjoyed THIS REBEL HEART by Katherine Locke will like this one, too.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Major characters are Jewish.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
References to celebrating Shabbos. References to Jewish folklore, history, and religious texts.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Warfare. References to torture. Graphic descriptions of injuries sustained in battles.

Drug Content
A soldier drinks Vodka from a flask and uses it to wash a wound.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of WRATH BECOMES HER in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Killing Code by Ellie Marney

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The Killing Code
Ellie Marney
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published September 20, 2022

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About The Killing Code

A historical mystery about a girl who risks everything to track down a vicious serial killer, for fans of THE ENIGMA GAME and A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER.

Virginia, 1943: World War II is raging in Europe and on the Pacific front when Kit Sutherland is recruited to help the war effort as a codebreaker at Arlington Hall, a former girls’ college now serving as the site of a secret US Signals Intelligence facility in Virginia. But Kit is soon involved in another kind of fight: Government girls are being brutally murdered in Washington DC, and when Kit stumbles onto a bloody homicide scene, she is drawn into the hunt for the killer.

To find the man responsible for the gruesome murders and bring him to justice, Kit joins forces with other female codebreakers at Arlington Hall—gossip queen Dottie Crockford, sharp-tongued intelligence maven Moya Kershaw, and cleverly resourceful Violet DuLac from the segregated codebreaking unit. But as the girls begin to work together and develop friendships—and romance—that they never expected, two things begin to come clear: the murderer they’re hunting is closing in on them…and Kit is hiding a dangerous secret.

My Review

Every time I read a great historical novel, I feel like I end up saying I need to read more historical books. I loved that THE KILLING CODE explores another part of World War II and specifically what was happening in the United States during the war. I also loved that it focuses on the relationships between women.

Moya and Kit alternate telling us the story. A few scenes kind of zoom out and give us a more omniscient view, setting up the scene before returning to that close third-person viewpoint. I really liked both Kit and Moya, so I loved getting to see both their perspectives. The transitions heightened tension and some romantic suspense, too.

THE KILLING CODE is the first book I’ve ever read by Ellie Marney, and after reading it, I definitely want to read more. The historical setting felt immersive without being distracting, and the murder mystery had me hooked from that early chapter where Kit finds the girl’s body.

I loved that the girls use their codebreaking strategies as their approach to solving the murder. That connected both their identities as codebreakers as well as the historical and murder mystery story elements.

Also, each chapter of THE KILLING CODE begins with a quote about solving puzzles or codebreaking. Some of the quotes are from real codebreakers like Elizebeth Friedman. I thought the author cleverly used those quotes both in connecting the story to history and giving some teasing hints about the upcoming chapter.

All in all, I enjoyed this book a lot. I definitely got caught up in the mystery and the high stakes race to find the serial killer before he strikes again.

Content Notes

Content warning for mentions of rape and attempted assault. Characters smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Point-of-view characters are white. Both are women who’ve had romantic relationships with women.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Mentions of rape. When Kit sees the body of a murdered girl, she realizes the girl has also been raped. No details. Some scenes show kissing between two girls. In one scene, a murdered threatens women, clearly intending to rape and kill them.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A man attacks women, using a knife to threaten and harm them. A serial killer has been murdering women in the DC area. One murder scene is described.

Drug Content
Moya smokes cigarettes. The girls drink alcohol together in Moya’s room and at a club and hotel party.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of THE KILLING CODE in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Great or Nothing by Joy McCullough, Caroline Tung Richmond, Tess Sharpe, and Jessica Spotswood

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Great or Nothing
Joy McCullough, Caroline Tung Richmond, Tess Sharpe, and Jessica Spotswood
Delacorte Press
Published March 8, 2022

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About Great or Nothing

In the spring of 1942, the United States is reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor. While the US starts sending troops to the front, the March family of Concord, Massachusetts grieves their own enormous loss: the death of their daughter, Beth.

Under the strain of their grief, Beth’s remaining sisters fracture, each going their own way with Jo nursing her wounds and building planes in Boston, Meg holding down the home front with Marmee, and Amy living a secret life as a Red Cross volunteer in London–the same city where one Mr. Theodore Laurence is stationed as an army pilot.

Each March sister’s point of view is written by a separate author, three in prose and Beth’s in verse, still holding the family together from beyond the grave. Woven together, these threads tell a story of finding one’s way in a world undergoing catastrophic change.

A reimagining of Little Women set in the spring of 1942, when the United States is suddenly embroiled in the second World War, this story, told from each March sister’s point of view, is one of grief, love, and self-discovery.

My Review

I think the idea of this book is really cool. It seemed (I have zero experience to back this up) pretty thoroughly researched– there were lots of descriptions of clothes, food, and common words or phrases that either fit with other things I knew about the 1940s or felt pretty on point for what I expected from a story set in that era. There were also lots of references to historical facts and events, from the attack at Pearl Harbor to women working in factories and flying planes (not in combat).

So all that made the story feel really immersed in the time period, and I liked that. What I struggled with, though, is that sometimes I felt like the atmosphere or the setting dominated the story. This happened to me especially with Amy’s character, I think, but not exclusively. Her way of thinking and speaking was so steeped in lingo from the period that sometimes I just felt like I didn’t connect with her.

I thought the decision to tell the story beginning after Beth’s death but still include her as an observer was really interesting. Her chapters are written in verse, and often they add something to what’s happening with her sisters. Sometimes they reveal more things about who she was and her own hopes and dreams. I liked those moments a lot.

One of my favorite things about the book is that in this story, Jo finds another writer, a woman who’s goal is to be a war correspondent. They bond over challenges in their relationships with their sisters, writing, and being dissatisfied with what they’re told are the conventional roles of women. I think seeing the connection between those two as writers and women finding where they belong in the world made for a powerful story to read.

On the whole, I’m not sorry I read the book as there are several things I really enjoyed. It wasn’t what I expected, though.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Jo and Charlie are lesbians. One minor character is Japanese American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Kissing between two girls.

Spiritual Content
Joe, Meg, Amy, and Beth’s father is an Army Chaplain.

Violent Content
Some racist comments toward a Japanese American girl and about Japanese Americans. Some racist comments about Black soldiers. Two men get into a fight in a hotel ballroom.

Drug Content
Characters often drink champagne. Amy is underage at sixteen.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of GREAT OR NOTHING in exchange for my honest review.