Rosie: Stronger than Steel written and illustrated by Lindsay Ward

Rosie: Stronger than Steel written and illustrated 

by Lindsay Ward

Two Lions, 2020, 40 pages

When a country goes to war, it mobilizes all its resources to help win that war. That was certainly true during World War II when men enlisted, children collected paper and cans, people donated whatever metal objects they could, and, women found themselves working in factories and fields, doing jobs traditionally held by men, all to help with the war effort.

The important work of women, those in the factories, collectively and iconically known as Rosie the Riveter and those working in the fields, appropriately known as the Land Girls, is highlighted in this appealing picture book through the eyes of a one-of-a-kind tractor.

The tractor is made out of donated items, then welded, riveted, painted green, given a lovely rose tattoo, and befittingly named Rosie. All the work is done by a group of women singing as they work.
As she leaves the factory, Rosie promises:

               "I plow and I dig.

                 I dig and I plow.

                   No matter the job,

                this is my vow."

Then, it's off by plane, ship, truck and train, until Rosie finally arrives at her destination - an overgrown farm in England in desperate need of tending. Between Rosie and the Land Girls, working day and night, they spent endless days in the fields, even as enemy planes fly overhead, helping to  provide desperately needed food to troops fighting in Europe to help win the war.

Together, Rosie and the Land Girls also hauled milk containers, and freshly picked produce. They even clear more land together, "Day after day. Year after year." Until finally, Victory! And the war is over.

But what happens to Rosie now that the war is over?

March is Women's History Month and I can't think of a better book for introducing young readers to some of the important contributions of women during WWII. Ward situates Rosie using newspaper headlines that encapsulate not just her story about one tractor's journey, but the historical background upon which it is based.

Rosie: Stronger than Steel is in part written in rhyming verse, and in part, lyrical language. The rhymes are repeated throughout the book, and if your young readers are anything like mine, they will have those verses memorized and in no time at all, you will be hearing "This is our Rosie, / stronger than steel. / She'll plow all the land / with the turn of her wheel."

The engaging illustrations are done using color pencils and cut paper and have a decidedly retro feel to them. I liked the way Ward used a brown palette for the factory illustrations, and a lush green palette for the farming images. True to life, the factory images age also diverse.

My young readers are 4-5-years-old and they saw this mainly as a story about a tractor that helped people during a war. Older readers will appreciate the roles of women as well as the call for action during the war, making this a great book for use both inside and outside the classroom/home school room.

Back matter includes a very informative Author's Note about the women who inspired Ward to write Rosie and a bibliography of books about the Women's Land Army, Rosie the Riveter, and Ford tractors.

All readers will love the We Can Do It spirit that permeates the story of Rosie: Stronger than Steel.

Meet the Author:
Lindsay Ward is the creator of the Dexter T. Rexter series as well as This Book is Gray, Brobarians, Rosco vs. the Baby, and The Importance of Being 3. Her book Please Bring Balloons was also made into a play. Lindsay lives with her family in Peninsula, Ohio, where she often sees tractors from the 1930s and 1940s. Learn more about her online at www.lindsaymward.com. And you can follow her on Twitter at @lindsaymward.

This book is recommended for readers age 4+
This book was gratefully received by me from Blue Slip Media.

Sunday Funnies #30: Women's History Month

I thought I would end Women's History Month 2019 with some Peanuts comic strips of Lucy paying homage to her grandmother and the work she did in WWII. As always, Charles Schultz was ahead of his time with his Peanuts comic strips.

November 8, 1976

November 9, 1976

November 11, 1976

November 12, 1976

Sunday Funnies #28: Women's History Month

Source: George Wolfe, Saturday Evening Post, June 19, 1943

Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies and Medics by Kathryn J. Atwood

Today is the last day of Women's History Month for 2015 and because the theme this year is about Weaving the Stories of Women's Lives, I thought who better to turn to for today's post than Kathryn Atwood.  A few year ago, Atwood wrote a fascinating book called Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance and Rescue.  Now she has followed it up with a book about women heroes in World War I and once again, their stories are as amazing as they are compelling.

In Women Heroes of World War I, Atwood introduces the reader to some of the women, a few still in their teens, who decided to serve their country, despite the real dangers that they were to face.  Some became nurses, caring for the wounded as close to the front lines as they could get.  Others joined the resistance or became spies, some became soldiers fighting side by side with men, and still others were journalists, reporting events from the heart of the conflict.

Some of the women are familiar, like British born Edith Cavell who found herself in Belgium when the war started, director of a school of nursing there.  After the Germans invaded Belgium, hospitals were forbidden to care for any Allied soldiers that might find their to one of them.  Edith, ignoring the Germans, cared for wounded Germans soldiers openly, and for wounded Allied soldiers secretly.  And when these were healthy enough, she made such they had safe passage out of Belgium to the Netherlands.  Edith and her network can be credited for heroically getting a lot of Allied soldiers to safety before the getting caught by the Germans.  Her capture and punishment, which caused an uproar around the world, subsequently changed the way Germany handled women POWs at the insistence of the Kaiser.

One of my favorite stories is Helena Gleichen and her friend Nina Hollings, two ambulance drivers in Italy who sometimes found themselves driving through intense shelling to get wounded men to hospital.  Later, after training in Paris to become radiographers, they could be found driving around the Italian front with a portable x-ray machine.  With their x-ray skill, Helena and Nina were able to help the wounded in some surprising ways, for example, locating shrapnel lodged in areas that wouldn't have been found otherwise and bringing relief to the wounded man.  For their heroic work, the women were awarded the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (the OBE).

My personal favorite is the story of Mary Roberts Rinehart.  Yes, I do mean the mystery writer.  Mary was also a journalist who wrote for the Saturday Evening Post and in 1915, she decided she wanted to go to Belgium.  After all, she had nursing experience and could report of the conditions of the hospitals there, but what she really wanted to do was experience the war as soldiers do.  Mary finally did get to see the front lines, including no man's land, and even managed to get an extensive interview with the King of Belgium.  Returning home she wrote her articles, but realized the war was going to last longer than anyone thought.

Women Heroes of World War I is a well-written, riveting book.  Atwood divides the women's experiences into four sections - Resisters and Spies, Medical Personnel, Soldiers, and Journalists.  The women profiled come from different countries, including the United States, France, Britain, Russia and each of their individual stories ends with a Learn More inset listing where to find more information them.  Atwood's extensive, intelligent research is evident in all the women's stories and she includes sidebars that give additional information about the women and the war.  Also included are an Introduction, an Epilogue and many, many photographs of war and the different women in it.  An extensive and useful Glossary and Bibliography, and well as a list of websites can also be found at the back of the book.

World War I was at first greeted with incredible enthusiasm, causing young men to unhesitatingly leave school, jobs, and families to join their countries armed services.  After all, no one thought it would last more than a few months.  Women were also eager to do their part and for some that meant being in the thick of the fighting, not working on the home front.  Women Heroes of World War I not only informs the reader about these now mostly forgotten women heroes, but pays homage to them and all the women who decided to do constructive for their warring countries.   

I can't recommend Women Heroes of World War I highly enough, and what a wonderful book with which to end this year's Women History Month.

This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL

March is Women's History Month

This is book 3 of my 2015 Any War Reading Challenge hosted by War Through the Generations

Women of Valor: Polish Resisters to the Third Reich by Joanne D. Gilbert

When we think of partisans and resisters to the Nazis, most of us don't usually think about women.  After all, it was a hard, dangerous business to fight such a cruel regime.  But, as we learned from Kathryn Atwood's informative book, Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance and Rescue, many women were willing to risk everything, including their lives, to fight for what they believed to be right.

Now, Joanne D. Gilbert has written a book that tells us about even more brave women and since March is Women's History Month and this year's theme is Weaving the Stories of Women's Lives, it seems a perfect time to showcase Women of Valor.

Between 2012 and 2014, Gilbert interviewed four women who had lived with their families in Poland, but who, through different circumstances, had found their way in the surrounding forests and either joined partisan groups or found other ways of resistance when the Nazis occupied their country.

Manya Barman Auster Feldman had lived a religious, comfortable life with her parents, 3 sisters and 2 brothers in Dombrovitsa in eastern Poland until Hitler invaded it in 1939.  Suddenly, life became harder and harder and eventually all of Dombrovitsa's Jewish families were crowded into a two block ghetto.  When it appeared likely that the ghetto was going to be liquidated, Manya's father decided her, Manya, her older sister and two brothers would try to escape into the forest, leaving behind her mother and two little sisters.  Walking all night, they found the Kovpak partisan headquarters, where they were sent to different battalions.  Manya, still just a teenager, soon learned how to fight, steal, sabotage the Germans efforts, and nurse the sick and wounded.  Her story, as are all the stories included in Woman of Valor, is harrowing and amazing at the same time, and Manya herself credits luck for her many narrow escapes from death while she fought with the partisans.

Faye Brysk Schulman was also living a comfortable, religious life with her family in Lenin, Poland.  Her  older brother had learned photography and had enlisted Faye to help him.  It was her knowledge of photography that saved Faye's life when the ghetto they had been forced to live in was about to be liquidated, it was her job to take the photos that the Nazis demanded she take.  In September 1942, Soviet partisans stormed through Lenin, and warmed the remaining Jews to run.  Faye, still a teenager,  found the partisans, joined the Molotavia Brigade, where she spent the war years fighting, nursing and photographing events whenever she could steal, make or find what she needed.

Even though the rest of her family was Polish,  Lola Leser Lieber Schar Schwartz was born in Hungary/Czechoslovakia.  In 1938, when the Germans occupied Czechoslovakia, the Polish passports of her immediate family were no longer acceptable there.  The Lesers, including Lola, quickly fled to Poland and their extended family.  Little did Lola dream that after being continuously on the run from the Germans, hiding in all kinds of weather and places, including under a tree in the forest, it would be her Hungarian/Czechoslovakian birth that would save not just her life, but many others when she received official documents exempting her from the same treatment as the Polish Jews.  Needless to say, these documents sparked a flurry of forging more "official" documents for other Jews in peril.  Later, when her husband Mechel Lieber was arrested, Lola was even brave enough to go the Adolf Eichmann's office to try to convince him that it was a mistake.  Lola was indeed a woman of great courage.

Miriam Miasnik Brysk is the youngest of the women interviewed.  Only 4 years old when the war started, Miriam's family left Warsaw, Poland for Lida, her father's home then under Russian rule.  But when the Germans arrived in Lida in 1941, it didn't take long for persecutions to begin.  The Miasniks were fortunate because Miriam's father was a surgeon and the Nazis needed him.  In 1942, Miriam and her parents escaped the Lida ghetto with the help of a partisan group that decided they needed a doctor more than the Nazis did.  Miriam spent the rest of the war going from place to place with the partisans.  Her hair was cut off and she was dressed like a boy, had not formal education until after the war, but did possess her own gun for a while.  And she helped out wherever she could, even taking apart machine guns, cleaning them and putting them back together.

As each woman tells her story, it feels as though she is speaking to you personally, making this a very readable book and I highly recommend it.  As they wove their stories, each remembered in great detail what their lives were like before and under the Nazi reign of terror and each acted with remarkable courage.  Sadly, they all lost almost all the members of their families, often witnessing their murders.  Glibert doesn't let them stop at the end of the war, but we also learn about their lives after and up to the present.  Interestingly, they all found ways to express their Holocaust experiences though art later in life.

These are only four stories about acts of resistance, however, and, as Gilbert reminds us in Epilogue, most of the women who chose to resist the Nazis perished, taking the details of their courageous deeds with them, reminding us that what we do know about women resisters is really just the tip of the iceberg.  But let all these brave women, known and unknown, be an inspiration to us all in the face of oppression.

This book is recommended for readers age 13+
This book was sent to me by the publisher, Gihon River Press

This is book 2 of my 2015 Any War Reading Challenge hosted by War Through the Generations

Swing Sisters: The Story of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm by Karen Deans, illustrated by Joe Cepeda

It's Women's History Month and this year's theme is Weaving the Stories of Women's Lives, so I thought I would begin the month with a new picture book for older readers that introduces them to the remarkable International Sweethearts of Rhythm.

Shortly after I began this blog, I reviewed a wonderful middle grade book by Marilyn Nelson called  Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story of the Greatest All-Girl Swing Band in the World.   But where Nelson's book covers the kind of music and the places where the Sweethearts played, Swing Sisters begins at the beginning.

In 1909, near Jackson, Mississippi a school/orphanage called Piney Woods Country Life School was started by Dr. Laurence Clifton Jones for African American girls.

The girls were educated, housed, clothed and fed and in return they all did chores to help keep things running smoothly and well.  In 1939, Dr. Jones started a band that he called the Sweethearts with some musically talented girls to help raise money for the school.  The music they played was called swing or big band music, by either name it was Jazz and people couldn't get enough of it.

Dean describes how the girls stayed together after leaving Piney Woods, hoping to make a living as musicians.  They would live, sleep, eat and play music, traveling around from gig to gig in a bus they called Big Bertha.  Band members came and went, and before long the band was no longer made up of only African American women, but included many races and nationalities.  As a result, they decided to call themselves the International Sweethearts of Rhythm.

But while the band hit the big time, they still didn't get paid as much as their male counterparts nor were they taken as seriously, no matter how good they were.  Not only that, Dean points out, but in the Jim Crow south, because they were interracial now, traveling and performing became risky and she includes some of those scary, dangerous incidents they faced.

In 1945, as World War II was winding down, the Sweethearts found themselves on a USO tour thanks to a letter writing campaign by African American soldiers.  But sadly, the Sweethearts disbanded after the war and the members went their separate ways.

Dean does an excellent job of introducing the Sweethearts to her young readers and the difficulties an all-women's interracial band faced back in the 1940s balancing it with positive events and the strong bonds of friendship among all the members.

Cepeda's colorful acrylic and oil painted illustrations match the energy of the music the Sweethearts played with a bright rainbow palette of greens, pinks, purples, yellows, blues and orange.

So many wonderful books are coming out now introducing young readers to some of the greatest artists and musicians of the 20th century and this book is such a welcome addition.

A helpful Educatior's Guide with Common Core State Standards can be found HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 7+
This book was bought for my personal library

You can see for yourself just how good the Sweethearts were in their heyday:

Rosie the Riveter by Christine Petersen

I am pleased to be hosting the Nonfiction Monday Round-up this week! If you would like to participate, please leave a comment below including the title of the book you are reviewing, the name of your blog and a link to the post, and I will add links throughout the day.

In December, I wrote about the death of Geraldine Hoff Doyle, whose photograph served as the prototype for Rosie the Riveter. Rosie immediately became a well-known figure for the country’s campaign to recruit women into the labor force during World War II. But women did so much more than riveting and Christine Petersen’s book Rosie the Riveter does much in explaining to young readers just what their great grandmother’s might have done outside the home to help the war effort.
The book begins with a brief history of women’s participation in past wars, including Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World War I, as well as the prevailing attitudes that women’s place is in the home.

It then goes on to give a short account of Hitler’s rise to power and the actions he took that eventually led to another World War. This is followed by a description of how the United States entered the Second World War.

With so many men being drafted or enlisting, a labor shortage was created. Yet, employers were as reluctant to hire women as women were to seek jobs outside the home.

As factories were converted for defense, machinery was rebuilt to accommodate women and assembly line production methods instituted. Then the government launched an all-out propaganda campaign to tempt women to fill these new, sometimes dangerous jobs in ordnance work making military supplies, such as bombs and ammunition. And so the image of Rosie was created:

J. Howard Miller's original Rosie
in 1942

Women, as Ms. Petersen points out, did more than factory work. Some of the other jobs women held were as lumberjacks, miners, and fire fighters, while others worked on farms in the land army. And they also did volunteer work, like Civil Air Patrol, working nights, watching for enemy aircraft

Sadly, as needed as home front workers were, many minorities, for example, African-Americans, were usually overlooked for these positions. In 1941, under threat of a huge protest, restrictions were somewhat lifted and some people of color were hired for defense jobs.



Geraldine Hoff Doyle in 1997

 Ms Petersen also covers hardships faced on the home front, including the difficulties of rationing and handling a home and a job at the same time. And she points out women’s contribution in the armed services and the kind of progress they made there.

Included at the back of the book is a glossary of unfamiliar terms, followed by a timeline of women’s war time contributions, and recommendations for further information.

Rosie as interpreted by
Norman Rockwell in 1943

Rosie the Riveter is wonderful book for introducing Women’s History Month and the work women did during World War II to younger readers. The book is written very clearly, with words in bold print that be found in the glossary. In addition, there are lots of pictures showing women in the different jobs covered, along with pertinent sidebars. For a small book, it is packed with useful, relevant information and I would highly recommend it for pleasure or classroom reading.

Until I read this book, I didn’t know there was a Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Park in Richmond, California. More information about this may be found at http://www.rosietheriveter.org/

Christine Petersen is not only a writer of books for young readers; she is an environmental educator and naturalist. More information can be found about her and the work she does at her website Christine Petersen

Rosie even has her own song, hear it here:

This book is recommended for ages 9-12.

This book was borrowed from the NYPL’s Children’s Center at 42nd Street, NYC.

For more book reviews on Women’s History Month, why not visit Kidlit Celebrates Women's History 

Nonfiction Monday Roundup
Wild About Nature has a review of Insect Detective by Steve Voake

Lisa over at shelf-employed has a review on a great new baseball book called the Unforgetable Season: the Story of Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and the Record-Setting Sumer of '41.

Lisa also reminds us that Kidlit Celebrates Women's History Month has a guest post today by The Happy Nappy Bookseller on favorite books featuring women of color.

Shirley at Simply Science has a review on a book called Elephant Talk by Anne Downer.

You can find a review by Amanda at A Patchwork of Books on a book called What to Expect When You're Expecting Larvae: A Guide for Insect Parents.

Over at Books, Dogs, and Frogs you can find some books about going to school around the world.

Anastasia at Picture Book of the Day has a post on a book called Gold! Gold from the American River!: January 24, 1848: The Day the Gold Rush Began by Don Brown.

Jeff at NC Teacher Stuff has a review on Dragons by Charlotte Guillain, which he says is a good early reader.

Mary Ann over at Great Kids Books has a review on a book full of good projects called This Book Made Me Do It.

Lori at Lori Calabrese Writes has a post on a book that tells how to preserve our history called How the Sphinx Got To The Museum.

A review of a backlist tile called Face to Face with Dolphins may be found over at MotherReader.

Carrie at Carrie's Comfy Cozy Reading Nook has a book called Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian by Jan Greenburg and Sandra Jordan along with a video preview.

Racing car legend Louise Smith is featured in a picture book called Fearless, reviewed by Jeanne at True Tales and a Cherry on Top for Women's History Month.

And Margo at The Fourth Musketeer has a review of a picture book about Amelia Earhart called Night Flight: Amelia Earhart Crosses the Atlantic.

Maclibrary at Check It Out reviews Ten Birds by Cybele Young.

Catherine has a review called Spring has Spring, a review of five Spring books for young readers at The Cath in the Hat.

At Biblio File, Jennie has a post on Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri.
And Jennifer at Jean Little Library takes a look at Snow Leapards by Erika Shores today.
 
Meanwhile, Tammy at Apples with Many Seeds reviews One Well: the story of water on Earth by Rochelle Strauss in honor of World Water Day tomorrow.

Rasco from RIF features a review on a book about my favorite city called ABC NYC: A book about SEEING New York City by Joanne Dugan.

Roberta at Wrapped in Foil offers a review on another Women's History Month book called Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicyle to Freedom by Sue Macy.

Pink Me takes a look at Celebritrees: Historic and Famous Trees of the World by Margi Preus.

Over at Bookends you can find a review on Sports Illustrated Kids All Access, a book that gives a behind the scenes look at sports.

Janet at All About the Book with Janet Squires also has reviewed a book about sports called Athletes with Disabilities by Deborah Kent.

Brenda at Proseandkahn has written a post on a book called Arctic Lights: Arctic Nights by Debbie S. Miller in honor of the vernal equinox.

And Heidi at Geo Librarian has reviewed a book about Jane Goodall called Me...Jane by Partick McDonnell.

At L. L. Owens Lisa is introducing Space Neighbors, her picture book series of 10 books covering our solar system.

Essie: The True Story of a Teenage Fighter in the Bielski Partisans by Essie Shor and Andrea Zakin

My admiration for the people who survived the Holocaust knows no bounds. What brave people they were. Essie Shor is one of those who not only survived, but fought for the lives of other Jews and against the Germans.

Essie was only 16 when the Germans invaded Novogrudek, Poland (now Belarus) where she lived with her mother, father, two younger sisters, one younger brother and one older brother. At first, the Nazis simply ordered all Jews to bring anything of value to the town square, withholding was punishable by death. Next, a few days after Hanukah, all Jews were ordered to remain at home until further notice. Further notice came in the form of an order for all Jews to report to the town courthouse. The next day, families were sent out to the courthouse and into the courtyard. Essie’s father had been the only bookbinder in town and she recognized a Nazi officer as one of his previous customers. She went up to the officer and reminded him of her father and his job. The officer called her father up and the two of them, father and daughter, were taken back into the building and down to the basement with about 700 other Jews. Essie learned later that everyone in the courtyard was killed that day, about 4,000 people.

The Jews in the basement were soon taken to live in a ghetto, where they lived 10 people to a room, 40 people to a house.

In the ghetto, the Nazis put everyone to work. At first, Essie retrieved bricks from bombed out buildings. Later, she worked in the home of a Polish couple who were very kind to her. Although they provided Essie with a good midday meal, she could not take any back to her father, so they were forced to illegally barter to obtain food for him. Conditions in the ghetto were dreadful and the lives of the Jewish residents always hung in the balance: “aktions” could happen at any time.

One day, after Essie was no longer working for the couple, the wife came to the ghetto and offered to help Essie escape and join a partisan group. Despite misgivings about leaving her father, Essie decided to go, but four days later she returned to the ghetto and her father. Nevertheless, she continued to think about joining the partisans. Finally, one December day, Essie snuck out of the ghetto with 3 other people and walked 15 miles to find the Bielski Partisans hiding in a forest.

The Bielski Partisans were led by Essie’s cousins Tuvia, Asael and Zus Bielski. Life in the forest was hard and cold, but at least Essie felt free. After a month, she wrote her father and asked him to join her. This time he relented and even eventually adjusted to the difficult way of life in the forest. The number of Bielski Partisans began to increase as more and more Jews found their way there, preferring to die fighting for their lives. Essie was given a makeshift rifle, which she learned to care for and use and she became a guerrilla fighter at the age of 16.

But the life of a partisan was also uncertain and they had to be prepared to pick up and leave their camp in the forest and move to another area any time the Nazis got too close. Eventually, the partisan group grew to 12000 Jews and they decided to go deeper in the woods, so that they could build camouflaged bunkers or Ziemlankas. Here the partisans had only the most basic comforts and yet the new camp contained everything they needed. Members of the partisans often got food, blankets and even cows, taking them from the farmers in the area – but a cow was never taken unless the farmer had more than one. Shops were set up which included places to have sewing, tanning, gun and shoe repairs done. There was even a hospital and a quarantine area for contagious diseases. At one point, Essie’s father performed a wedding in the camp.

There were also Russian Partisans in the area, who were rivals with the Jewish Partisans. The Russians felt their purpose was to sabotage or ambush the Germans any and every way they could, but believed the Jewish Partisans only wanted to save Jews. One time, when they needed to know the whereabouts of the German Army, Essie volunteered to go with a group to the Russian Partisans to obtain this information. The Russians refused to tell them until Essie, the only female in the group, proved what kind of a fighter she was. They took her along on one of their missions, but Essie never had to fight. Instead, one night the Russian Partisans became the greatest danger for her and she had to hide from them. The next day, she realized she had to travel back with the Russians so she could return to the Jewish partisan camp. But the Russian leader had another plan and left her stranded, lost and far from camp. Using her wits, Essie finally did make it back to camp on her own.

Sometime later, Essie went on her last mission – a plan to ambush the German army. Even though the Germans were in retreat, the Jewish Partisans were no match for them. Somehow, they were caught in the crossfire between the Russians and the Germans and lost several partisans that day.

But that day was also the last day of the war. Essie, her father and all the other Jewish Partisans were free, but now they had to figure out how to pick up their lives.

This is a story told in a simple straightforward way, making it a perfect YA book. It had grown out of an art project Essie Shor had done for a course she was taking at Lehman College in the Bronx, taught by her co-author Andrea Zakin. It is a wonderful example of survival and resilience in the face of overwhelming odds.

I have given just a bare bones outline of Essie’s story and the book should be read to understand her thoughts and feelings about what was happening to her and her family. There are also a few offshoot stories laced throughout the book that need to be read to be appreciated.

This book is recommended for readers 12 and up.
This book was borrowed from the Webster Branch of the NYPL

More information about Essie and the Bielski Partisans may be found at
http://essieshor.com/

Florida Holocaust Museum offers an education guide at
 Courage and Compassion: the legacy of the Bielski Brothers

Hear Essie tell part of her story herself, courtesy of the Florida Holocaust Museum on YouTube

You might remember and even have seen a movie called Defiance with Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber that came out in 2008.  It is based on the story of the Bielski Brothers Partisans.  Essie was one of the original 25 members of this group.  Unfortunately, it is rated R for violence and language. 

Non-Fiction Monday is hosted by Chapter Book of the Day



Weekend Cooking #6: Home Front Heroes: Women and Rationing

So often in the novels I read for this blog, the role of the home front women in World War II is just mentioned, but never really focused on. While the main character goes off on his/her adventures, mom stays home out of sight (and out of mind), fixing the next meal before she goes off to work in the munitions factory. And this is pretty much what happened in real life, too.

But March is Women’s History Month and the theme this year is “Our History Is Our Strength.” This got me thinking about all those home front women who not only had to take care of their families even while they were working in jobs outside the home, but who also had to deal with the challenges that rationing must have presented to them. Now, they had to feed and clothe their families on limited supplies of so many things. These women are really unsung heroes, who never received a medal for what they did and very often lost the job they had come to enjoy when the war was over. But the lives of women on the home front, the women who kept the proverbial home fires burning while juggling so many new and different tasks, are indeed the embodiment not just of the theme of “Our History Is Our Strength” but also “Our Strength Is Our History.”

Kudos to those strong women.

Of course, to help out the home front woman, new cookbooks books were printed and newspapers everywhere began to include recipes and menu suggestions designed to accommodate rationing, like this from the September 25, 1943 edition of The New York Times:

And since the Sunday dinner a New England Boiled Dinner, and as a nod to St Patrick’s Day on Thursday, I am including the very poignantly amusing bit from the October 18, 1942 Times:

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. As always Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Weekend Cooking #5: We’ll Eat Again: A Collection of Recipes from the War Years by Marguerite Patten – Dropped Scones

Talk about celebrity chefs - Marguerite Patten was a celebrity chef as early as World War II. During the war, Marguerite worked for the British Ministry of Food, where her job was to teach housewives how to making good meals despite rationing. In 1944, she began working on a radio program for the BBC called Kitchen Front. To date, Marguerite has written over 170 cookbooks, has been honored by the Queen and, at 95 years of age, she is still (relatively) going strong.

Next to Welsh Cakes, scones were my favorite tea food, much better than the bread and butter tea we usually had. My dad worked in the Museum of Natural History and he came home around 4 every afternoon. As kids, we were required to be home than for tea, unless we has something related to school to do. It was my favorite time of day, and a ritual I never gave up. So today I have drop scone recipes. These come from Marguerite’s book We’ll East Again, published in association with the Imperial War Museum and can be found on page 84 of that book.

Drop Scones aka Scottish Pancakes (as it was written)

Sift 4 oz. plain flour with 2 level teaspoons of baking powder and a pinch of salt. Add 1 tbsp dried egg powder then beat in 1 pint milk and 2 tbsp water.

Grease and heat a heavy frying pan, electric solid hotplate or griddle. To test if the right heat, drop on a teaspoon of batter, this should turn a golden brown on the bottom in 1 minute. Put the mixture in tablespoons on to the plate and leave until the top surface is covered with bubbles then turn and cook on the second side. The scones are cooked when quite firm.

Potato Drop Scones (this one sounds like something my dad may with leftover mashed potatoes on Mondays)

Rub 2 oz mashed potato into 4 oz flour and ¼ teaspoon salt. Make into a stiff batter with half a beaten egg and ¼ pint milk. Allow to stand for a time. Sift in the small teaspoon of cream of tartar and a small level teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and ½ oz sugar just before cooking. Cook in spoonfuls – as for Drop Scones – on a greased griddle or in a heavy frying pan. Serve with a little hot jam.

Coffee Potato Scones (this one sounds intriguing)

Sift 6 oz plain flour, 2 level teaspoon baking powder and ½ tsp salt into a basin. Mix thoroughly with 4 oz mashed potato. Rub in 2 oz fat with the tips of the fingers. Blend to a soft dough with ½ teacup strong, milky, sweetened coffee. Roll out to ½ inch thickness on a floured board and cut into rounds. Glaze the tips with a little milk. Bake on greased baking sheets in a hot over for 15 minutes.

I still make drop scones for tea, but I have to confess, I use Bisquick for them. Apparently the Queen likes them too. I found this bit in a 1965 book review from the New York Times. The review was for a book by Dwight D. Eisenhower called Waging Peace: 1956-1961.

For more on Marguerite Patten see
MailOnline
The Sunday Times
Celebrity Chefs

In 2007, Marguerite received a Lifetime Achievement Award and you can was it here:



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