Stranger on the Home Front: A Story of Indian Immigrants and World War I (I Am American series) by Maya Chhabra

It's Autumn 1916 and the United States has still not entered the war that is raging in Europe. Margaret Singh, 11, and her parents have just arrived from their home in San Francisco to attend the annual Sikh festival Guru Nanak Gurpurab in Stockton., California. But when she overhears her father speaking with the other Sikh men about his contributions to their cause, Margaret has reason to worry. They were talking about the German backers of the Ghadar Party and a ship carrying weapons that had been caught by the British. Was her father involved in this? Since America wasn't in the war yet, it wouldn't be treason to work with Germany, but... And unfortunately, Margaret isn't the only one to hear this conversation. As soon as she noticed him, the other eavesdropper vanished.

When Margaret's father discovers she had listened in on the conversation, he explains that the members of the Ghadar Party are fighting for India's independence, that if they could get Indian soldiers to revolt against the British, India would be free. 

Margaret, whose father is Indian from the Punjab region and whose mother is white, attends the better funded white public school rather than the poorly funded segregated school most kids with dark skin are forced to go to after her mother begged the principal to accept her. Her best friend is Bettina, whose father is from Germany, and who excels in German, and Margaret's nemesis is new girl Agnes Fitzgerald, who just didn't want any dark-skinned students in white school. 

Then, in the Spring of 1917, America enters the war and everything changes. First, Margaret's father is arrested for his participation in the Ghadar Party, but quickly released. When Margaret returns to school, Bettina tells her she must call her Betty from now on. Pretty soon, Betty begins to work hard to prove her patriotism by volunteering for Junior Red Cross. It doesn't take long for their friendship to fall apart as Margaret becomes more aware of the hypocrisy of America's idealistic policies and the reality of its racist policies and immigration laws, and begins to speak her mind about her. 

Margaret also begins to question who she is and where her allegiances are. Margaret is an American citizen because she was born here, but her Indian father can never become an American citizen, and then she learns that her mother lost her American citizenship when she married her father. Knowing this and seeing how quickly Bettina was willing to deny her German roots, it's no wonder that Margaret also wonders where she really belongs and what being an American means to her now.

Although Margaret's story is fiction, it is based on real events in the United States during World War I. Narrated by Margaret in the first person, and using newspaper clippings and her diary entries, readers get a rounded picture of just what like was like for a biracial girl and her family in this country between 1916-1918. As the story moves along, readers can really see how much Margaret grows and becomes more aware of the world around her. 

Her parents are both portrayed as kind and gentle, though her father continues to want independence for India. He was never a member of the Ghadar Party, which is why he was released quickly and not deported, but readers get lots of information about these events through him. The author has included A Note on Vocabulary in the front matter to help readers unfamiliar with Indian culture and the Hindu religion, back matter includes an information Author's Note, a Timeline and photographs from the time. There are black-and-white illustrations throughout. 

Stranger on the Home Front is an great book for readers who like learning about different cultures and historical fiction.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+

This book was an eARC gratefully received from NetGalley 

Stubby: A True Story of Friendship by Michael Foreman

2018 was the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I and to commemorate it, a fair number of books for young readers were published. Stubby is one of those books and his story begins in a training camp far away from the war.

For some soldiers, basic training can be a cold lonely process of endless drills and exercises. But in one particular camp, each time the bugle calls soldier's to a meal, stray dogs from all over always seem to show up, too. One of them takes a real liking to one particular soldier [Robert Conroy] and before you know it, man and dog have bonded. The soldier names the dog Stubby.

Stubby is pretty smart, and learns to sit and to salute quickly and, of course, everyone seems to love him, But when orders come that the soldiers are shipping out, sailing across the Atlantic to a land at war [France]. Stubby is supposed to stay home, but at the last minute, he gets smuggled on to the troop ship.

In the trenches, Stubby's excellent sense of smell and hearing more than once comes in handy, catching enemy soldiers who sneak into the trenches, or warning the men of poison gas attacks in time to put on their gas masks (yes, Stubby also has a gas mask), and sometimes just keeping his master warm on cold, rainy nights.

But when Stubby is injured in battle, he is sent off in an ambulance with other wounded soldiers and his owner wonders if they will ever see each other again. But, Stubby's nursed back to health at a field hospital just like a real soldier, and after six weeks, he is returned to the tranches. When the enemy is finally driven out a one town, the local ladies get together and make Stubby his own army jacket, complete with medals and badges.

When peace is finally declared in 1918, Stubby returns home to the United States a hero and is even given a position of honor at the front of a victory parade.

This is a sweet story, not so much about Stubby heroics during the war, though these are certainly included, but about what a good, loyal companion he was to Conroy. And to keep the story focused on Stubby, Foreman never uses Conroy's name and makes the dog the main focus of the illustrations.   
The illustrations are done in Foreman's signature style, using a soft pastel palette. He doesn't shy away from the realities of war, but none of the battlefield illustrations are so graphic they would upset young readers. Even the illustration of Stubby laying unconscious in the midst of fighting isn't frightening, but kids will definitely know Stubby is injured.

Be sure to read Forman's note at the back of the book, complete with a photo of Stubby in his army jacket.

Stubby: A True Story of Friendship is a heartwarming story, made all the more poignant by the fact that it is a true story.

You can download an extensive Teaching Guide courtesy of the publisher, Anderson Press

This book is recommended for readers age 5+
This book was purchased for my personal library

The Good Son: A Story From the First World War Told in Miniature by Pierre-Jacques Ober, illustrated by Jules Ober and Felicity Coonan

The Good Son is probably the most unusual book I've reviewed on this blog. It is a World War I story about one small soldier's experience and although it's a picture book for older readers, the recommended is age 14+. And it isn't exactly illustrated in the traditional sense - each page is photographed using customized painted miniature figures, more sophisticated versions of the kind toy solders so many kids played with, and all of them are set in detailed landscapes, creating powerfully effective tableaus.

Written one hundred years after the end of WWI, the tale opens, in slightly blurred black and white photos, long after the war is over.  It was a war that was supposed to be over by the first Christmas, but instead went on for years, while people suffered and kept going into battle.

"About one hundred years ago, the whole world went to war"

The story shifts then to color photos of Pierre, a young French solder, sitting alone, locked in a barn. Pierre is facing execution for desertion, having gone AWOL for two days to spend Christmas with his widowed mother and not wanting her to be alone. Left by himself in the barn, Pierre has time to think about why he enlisted, about loyalty, about the horrors of war, and about what had been his hopes and dreams for his life after the war.

Believing the propaganda and wanting to make his mother proud, Pierre had, like so many men, signed up to fight once war was declared in 1914. As the war drags on, and more and more men are killed, Pierre realizes that war is terrible, a point that is made over and over. But, Pierre was a good soldier, even receiving a commendation for capturing six German soldiers, albeit, soldiers who are tired of war and just want to be out of it - feelings Pierre shares with them.

Readers learn a lot about Pierre as he sits in the barn awaiting his fate. His friend Gilbert, who once saved Pierre's life, brings him in food, wine, and company. But even Pierre's good behavior and  commendation don't help him when his colonel sentences him to be shot for desertion the next morning:

As the war drags on, and morale sinks among the other soldiers, the colonel had decided to make an example of Pierre.

So, no, Pierre doesn't not survive the war but his story is sure to remain with sensitive readers long after they close this book.

The Good Son is probably one of the most effective anti-war books I've ever read. Pierre's story is told in one or two short lyrical sentences on each page, with accompanying photos that move the tale along, revealing the pointlessness and the unfairness of war. Readers will find themselves asking questions about how propaganda is used to motivate people, especially young people, about patriotism, and about how does a good son, a good soldier end up in front of a firing squad? All this makes The Good Son is a very interesting and unusual philosophical look at war.

An compelling point that this book makes is that war is fought by little solders, young men like Pierre, and that these soldiers are at the mercy not only of the military, but also the politicians who decide to go to war, a point the is driven home through the metaphorical use of little toy soldiers, making Pierre's story all the more poignant. And I think that the little toy soldiers have a much more profound impact on the reader that conventional illustrations would have had.

You may have a hard time getting your teens into this picture book, but I believe that once they begin to think and explore its pages, The Good Son will really resonate with them. After all, some of them may be the future's little soldiers.

Back matter includes A Note from the Author and photographs and an explanation on The Process by which The Good Son was created. You can also find would some photographs of how each tableau was created on the author's Instagram page.

Parents and teachers can also find factual information giving context for The Good Son HERE

The Good Son will be available in the US on May 14, 2019.

This book is recommended for readers age 14+
This book was sent to me by the publisher, Candlewick Studio

Doing Her Bit: A Story About the Woman's Land Army of America by Erin Hagar, illustrated by Jen Hill

2017 marks the 100th anniversary of America's entry into World War I. And, with most of the men now working in munitions factories, or enlisting and fighting, the country's farm crops were on the verge of being ruined without anyone to care for them.  And so it was the Women's Land Army to the rescue.

Using a typical woman as her protagonist, Erin Hager presents the story of the Women's Land Army or farmerettes as they were called. Helen Stevens is a young college student living in New York City when she sees a poster in a store window and decides to join the Women's Land Army much to the puzzlement of her family. But Helen wanted to do more than knit socks and roll bandages, so before long, she is off to the experimental Women's Agricultural Camp in Bedford, NY.

After Helen and her fellow farmerettes are issued some very oversized overalls to work in, they spend their days learning how to plow, how to whitewash a barn, how to fence in a chicken coop under the watchful eye of Ida Ogilvie, the camp director. But now matter how much the women learn about farming, no matter how hard they work, no farmers are willing to hire them.

Finally, Ida decides to take three women, including Helen, to a farmer who is in desperate need of help, but still unwilling to hire women to do what needs doing. Ida strikes a deal with him - one day of free labor to prove they are capable workers, and if he is satisfied, he will hire them for pay the next day. Totally satisfied with what the women do, the farmer, nevertheless, tries to get another free day, but the farmerettes stick to the bargain Ida made for them. Helen tells him "If you want us back tomorrow, it'll be two dollars a day for each of us." And the farmers response, OK, but bring two more girls.

I found this to be such an interesting picture book for older readers about a big part of women's work in WWI that isn't really all that well known. If you read the author's note at the back on the book, you will find that Ida Ogilvie was a professor who really was the director of the Women's Agricultural Camp in Bedford, NY, and that most, if not all, of the first volunteers were students from Barnard College in NYC, and Helen Stevens the protagonist was based on the experiences of the real Helen Stevens.

Hager tells the story of the farmerettes in clear language which is supported by Jen Hill's gouache illustrations. I thought the illustrations were also very much in keeping with the many recruiting posters for the Women's Land Army, like this one, similar to the one that drew Helen's attention:

Be sure to look at the front and back endpapers for more posters and photographs of the Barnard women at work.

Besides the Author's Note, back matter also includes a section to Learn More section and a Bibliography.

There is an interesting article from Smisthsonian.com about the Farmerettes, which readers can find HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 7+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL

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

Harlem Hellfighters by J. Patrick Lewis and Gary Kelly

February is Black History Month and this year's theme is A Century of Black Life, History, and Culture.  It is a good time to look back and reflect on the changes and contributions of African Americans to the fabric of American life in the last century.  

For example, more and more we are learning about the achievements of African American soldiers in World War II.  Books like The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin,  Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles by Tanya Lee Stone, Double Victory: How African American Women Broke the Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II by Cheryl Mullenbach, and The Double V Campaign: African Americans and World War II by Michael L. Cooper all highlight the contributions these courageous Americans made in the fight for democracy even as they were being denied their basic civil rights.

Now, J. Patrick Lewis and Gary Kelly, the same duo who produced the lovely book And the Soldiers Sang, about the Christmas Truce in 1914 during World War I, have written a book introducing us to the brave and talented unsung heroes of the 15thNew York National Guard, which was later federalized as the 369th Infantry Regiment, soldier that the Germans dubbed the Harlem Hellfighters. "because of their tenacity."

In beautifully lyrical prose, Lewis tells how bandleader James "Big Jim" Reese Europe was recruited to organize a new black regiment in New York.  Traveling around in an open air double-decker bus, his band played on the upper level, while the new recruits lined up below.  Willing to fight like any American, enthusiastic patriotism may have motivated these young men, but racism at home, and in the army resulted in segregation while training and doing the kind of grunt work not given to white soldiers in Europe, even as they entertained tired soldiers with [Jim] Europe's big band jazz sounds.

Each page tells small stories of the 369th: their heroics, homesickness, the bitter cold, the lynchings back home, the fighting on the French front lines.  Extending the narrative are Gary Kelly's dark pastel illustrations.  Kelly's visual representations of the men of the 369th Infantry are both haunting and beautiful.   He has used a palette of earth tones and grays, so appropriate for the battlefields and uniforms of war, but with color in the images of patriotism, such as flags and recruiting posters, and highlighting the reasons we go to war.   Some of Kelly's image may take your breath away with their stark depiction of, for example, the hanging figures, victims of a lynching, or the irony of the shadowy faces of people in a slave ship hull, shackles around their necks, on their voyage to America and slavery next to a soldier heading to Europe to fight for freedom and democracy.

Harlem Hellfighters is an exquisitely rendered labor of love, but readers may find it a little disjointed in places.  Lewis's fact are right, though, and he also includes a Bibliography for readers who might want to know more or those who just want more straightforward nonfiction books about the 369th Regiment.

As a picture book for older readers, Harlem Hellfighters would pair very nicely with Walter Dean Myer's impeccable researched and detailed book The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage written with Bill Miles.  Myer's gives a broader, more historical view of these valiant men.  These would extend and compliment each other adding to our understanding and appreciation of what life was like for African American soldiers in World War I.

Both books is recommended for readers age 10+
Harlem Hellfighters was bought for my personal library

February is Black History Month

Two Dog Heroes of WWI

 Rags: Hero Dog of WWI, a true story
written by Margot Theis Raven, illustrated by Petra Brown

This is the story of a mongrel dog who was surviving by his wits in Paris when he was found by an American soldier named James Donovan during an air raid after the Americans entered WWI.

Private Donovan felt sorry for the hungry, scruffy, scared pup, giving him the very suitable name Rags.  When the air raid was over, Donovan took Rags back to his army base, where he was ordered to pack up this gear so he could leave for the battlefield that night.  And yes, Rags went with him.

It didn't take long for Rags to become a favorite with the soldiers and to adjust to infantry life in the trenches.  He was immediately put to work, chasing mice and rats out of the trench where Donovan was fighting.  Donovan was a radio operator and soon Rags was delivering important messages all up and down the trenches.

It didn't take long for Rags to become quite the hero.  In October 1918, little more than a month before the war ended, Donovan and Rags were both seriously injured in a terrible battle, but not before Rags got a message through that helps the Allies win the battle.  At the army hospital, a kind doctor found Rags and took care of his injuries.  From then on, Rags was blind in one eye, deaf in one ear and walked with a limp.  Sadly, Donovan did not survive his injuries.

Rags: Hero Dog of WWI is really a picture book for older readers, though there are not real resources at the back of the book.  It is well written, but though the story is based on an actual dog, it is really historical fiction.  Still, it is an inspiring work and is sure to please kids who like animal stories.  By the same token, it introduces the reader to some of the horrors of war in a gentle, age appropriate way.

The soft, muted realistic illustrations by Petra Brown are sure to tug at the heartstrings.  I know they did mine.

This book is recommended for readers age 7+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL

Stubby the Dog Soldier, World War I Hero
written by Blake Hoena, illustrated by Oliver Hurst

Like Rags, Stubby (named that because of his stubby tail) was also a scruffy stray who began to follow Private J. Robert Conroy around his army base in New Haven, CT after Conroy had given him some leftover food.  Soon, Conroy made a place for Stubby to sleep under his bed and a friendship was born.  It didn't take long for Stubby to become the mascot of the 26th Infantry Division and in August 1917, he sailed to France with the soldiers.

On the battlefield, Stubby's keen sense of smell served as a warning when the enemy starting using mustard gas to attack the soldiers.  The mustard gas would have burned their skin and lungs so they couldn't breath if Stubby hadn't warned them.  Soon, the soldiers learned to follow Stubby's cues.  He sense of hearing warned them when a bomb was coming so they could take cover, and he even helped capture a German soldier crawling over no man's land to drop a grenade in the trenches.

When the war ended, Conroy went to Georgetown Law and Stubby went with him, becoming the football team's mascot.  Stubby died in 1926.

Stubby the Dog Soldier, World War I Hero is a similar story to that of Rags, but for younger readers.  It too is well written and straightforward, with back matter that includes a glossary, books for further reading and even a Critical Thinking using the Common Core section.

Oliver Hurst's oil painted and pencil folk art type illustrations are done in a palette of browns, greens and blues, giving Stubby's story a real feeling of the battlefield, where I don't imagine there were too many bright colors anywhere, since soldiers was to blend in the background.

This book is recommended for readers age 5+
This book was received from the publisher

Dogs were not officially used in World War I, but both Rags and Stubby were two of the exceptions.  In fact, each received a write-up in the New York Times when they died.

You can read the obituary for Rags HERE and Stubby's HERE (oddly located at the bottom of the page about the Metropolitian Museum of Art)

Christmas Truce by Aaron Shepard, illustrated by Wendy Edelson

There have been lots of stories and books written about the Christmas truce of 1914 that spontaneously occurred between the Allied troops and German troops.  Now, Aaron Shepard has written another version of this astounding event.

In a fictional letter to his sister Janet back home in London, Tom, a soldier at the Western Front, tells her the extraordinary story of how the truce came about.  Soldiers on both sides of No Man's Land, a space of only 50 yards, were relatively quiet on Christmas Eve day, waiting for replacements after heavy fighting and many deaths.  It was cold and had snowed, so everything, including the soldiers, was frozen.

Suddenly as night fell and even the sporadic gunfire stopped, the British heard the Germans singing "Stille nacht, heilige nacht…" and saw that they had placed Christmas trees, complete with burning candles, all along their trenches.

Soon, the soldiers on both sides began to trade favorite Christmas carols back and forth across No Man's Land.  Finally, the Germans invited the Allied soldiers to come out of their trenches and meet in the middle: "You no shoot, we no shoot" they said.

As Christmas Eve wore on, soldiers on both sides discovered they had lots in common.  After exchanging gifts - badges and uniform buttons, cigars and cigarettes, coffee and tea, and even newspapers - the soldiers parted and went back to their trenches.

As Tom ends his letter to his sister, he writes: "All nations say they want peace.  Yet on this Christmas morning, I wonder if we want it quite enough."

The Christmas truce of 1914 was quite remarkable in the annals of military history and some people even believed it never happened.  But as Shepard points out in his afterward, the truce was reported in the British newspapers, photos included (and I found reports about it in the New York Times dated December 31, 1914).  In this fictional letter from Tom, Shepard tries to clear up some false beliefs and misconceptions, all explained in the afterward.

Christmas Truce is beautifully and realistically illustrated in watercolor by Wendy Edelson, who has really captured the idea of the Christmas truce.  The cold browns of the trenches gives way to color, first in the line of brightly lit Christmas trees across No Man's Land, with warmer and brighter colors added as the men get closer and closer to each other.  Christmas Truce may be a picture book, but it is definitely meant for older readers.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI and this Christmas will be the 100th anniversary of that history-making truce.  It is nice to know that for at least a short time, it really was all quiet on the Western Front.

My two favorite illustrations from Christmas Truce

Christmas Truce would certainly be a welcomed addition to any library - home, school, classroom.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+

This book was an E-ARC from NetGalley

GOOD NEWS:  If Christmas Truce is a book you think you might like to read, and you have an ereader, you can download this book for free at

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

iTunes (this is not a direct link)

Eyewitness World War I by Simon Adams, photography by Andy Crawford

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I.  I have to be honest and say this I don't really know much about this war except what I learned in school, or from a few books I have read.  And I have always felt that when your knowledge is lacking on a particular topic, begin learning about it by looking at a good overview, then you can look more closely at particular areas that might be interesting to you.

So, when I realized this anniversary was coming up, I decided to begin with one of DK's Eyewitness books.  Eyewitness World War I begins with an introduction to Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, explains who the major powers were and well as the major conflicts that created alliances that would prove to be important in 1914 and the beginning of World War I.

The war was a result of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne.  He was shot in Sarajevo, Bosnia.  Bosnia was claimed by Serbia, so naturally Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for the assignation and declared war on them on July 28, 1014.  Immediately, countries began to chose side - Germany supported Austria-Hungary, Russia supported Serbia, France supported Russia, then Britain declared war on Germany for invading Belgium.  The US didn't enter the war until April 6, 1917.

Each important aspect of the war is cover, usually in two page spreads, with lots of photographs supporting the text.  Readers will learn about how people signed up to fight, the most important battles, the role of women, the use of air power for the first time in a war:

Source: DK Eyewitness 

Other topics included are Life in the Trenches, the War at Sea, and the use of one the worst weapons of this war - the Gas Attack.  I have always been interested in spying and code breaking, so I was happy to see pages devoted to Espionage:

Source: DK Eyewitness

World War I made good use of carrier pigeons, using up to 500,000 of them according to this page of the book, for espionage and often for sending messages from behind enemy lines.

Back matter to Eyewitness World War I includes more facts, a Q&A, a list of important people and places, where to go to find out more, places and websites to visit, a Glossary and in Index.

If you have a young reader developing an interest in war books, Eyewitness World War I would be a good introduction for them.  And if you are a classroom or home schooling teacher, this is one you will definitely want as a resource for students.  I use my Eyewitness World War II book all the time, and kids really like all the photographs of what people and things looked like.  I'll be placing Eyewitness World War I with it for their use, since WWI is on the agenda for the next next year.

This book is recommended for readers age 8+
This book was purchased for my personal library

It's Nonfiction Monday, be sure to visit today's Round Up of other nonfiction books for kids and teens

Stay Where You Are & Then Leave by John Boyne

For Alfie Summerfield, the first five years of his life had been grand.  He was a happy little boy, and his dad and mum were happy with each other and with him.  His father, Georgie Summerfield, delivered milk and drove a milk float every morning pulled by a horse name Mr. Asquith.  It was Alfie's dream to some day be big enough to ride along side his dad and help.  Alfie's Granny Summerfield, who lived right across the street, always liked to come around for a bit of a gossip.  And Alfie had a best friend, Kalena Janáček, whose father came from Prague and ran the sweet shop.

But all this changed on Alfie's fifth birthday, because on July 29, 1914, World War I officially began and a few days later England joined in.   And even though he promised he wouldn't, Alfie's father immediately enlisted anyway.  Then, Mr. Janáček's store windows were broken and someone wrote on the shop door "No Spies Here!"  Soon enough, the government came and took father and daughter away to an internment camp on the Isle of Man.

At first, letters from Alfie's father arrive regularly, but then they begin to dwindle down and down and after two years, no more letters arrive.  Alfie's mum tells her son it is because his dad is on a secret mission for the government.  But times get hard and Mrs. Summerfield, who already takes in laundry, becomes a Queen's Nurse, which means most of the time Alfie is on his own.  And so, he decides it is time to do his bit.  He steals Mr. Janáček's prized shoe shine box, walks over to King's Cross Station and begins shining shoes three days a week (Alfie still attends school two days a week).

Then one day, almost four years after the war began, something amazing happens.  While shining the shoes of a doctor, the papers he is reading get blown out of his hands.   As he and Alfie scurry around King's Cross to retrieval the papers, Alfie discovers on one of them that his dad is alive and is in a hospital, the same one the doctor works at.  From that point on, Alfie decides that he is going to go get his dad and bring him home.  He is convinced that all that his dad really needs is to come home to recuperate and soon things will be happy again, just like they were before the war.  But on his first trip to the hospital, Alfie is not prepared for what he discovers.

Alfie is one of those quirky characters that Boyne seemed to write so well.  He reminded me a little bit of Barnaby Brocket (The Terrible Thing that Happened to Barnaby Brocket) and he was certainly a more realistic 9 year old than was Bruno in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.  It felt as though Boyne's third boy protagonist has more depth and is a more well developed character than the other two.

Georgie Summerfield is not a well developed as Alfie, but he in interesting nevertheless.   Georgie has the same blind enthusiasm for the war that so many young men had when it first began. The war, the government told them, would be over by Christmas, but by jingo, they didn't say which Christmas and four years later, the reader sees how Georgie's enthusiasm has spiraled down as he lives the realities of the trenches and then suffers the consequences of the enthusiasm.

I did think that the first three quarters of the novel did a really good job of presenting life during World War I on the home front, rather than the trenches, although there is some of that in Georgie's letters home.  The last quarter became a little preposterous, and the end a little predictable, but I thought other things made up for that.

Boyne addresses two issues in Stay Where You Are & Then Leave.  The first is that of conscientious objectors.  As enthusiastic as Georgie was to get into the war, his best friend Joe Patience feels just as strongly about not wanting to fight.  Joe is a compassionate person, who strongly believed that he was not put on earth to kill anyone cost him dearly - loss of lifetime friends, jail time, and beatings.  Boyne delicately presents it all at the same time as making the reader understand Joe's position.

The other issue is that of shell shock or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as it is called nowadays.  In the novel, the reader sees how skeptical people were about shell shock, believing it to be more cowardice than illness, until it hit home personally for them.  On Alfie's two visits to the hospital his dad is in, as he goes through the wards looking for him, Boyne gives us a very clear picture of what shell shock can do the a person's mind.  I think this part of the story will resonate with many of today's children whose loved one returned from Iraq or Afghanistan suffering from PTSD.

Though somewhat flawed, this is a nice book for anyone who is interested in historical fiction, and especially the impact of WWI on the people left at home.  And yes, you will discover the meaning of the title if you read the book.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was an eARC received from Net Galley

Stay Where You Are & Then Leave will be available on March 25, 2014

A person who drives a milk float delivers milk to customers and in 1914 would be delivering it is something that looks like this:

This is my World War I book for my 2014 War Challenge with a Twist hosted by War Through the Generations.

This is book 6 of my 2014 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Historical Tapestry

Knit Your Bit: A World War I Story by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Steven Guarnaccia

When I was 10 years old, I was diligently knitting away at a mitten when I realized I had made a mistake.  Imagine my surprise when my dad sat down beside me, took my knitting and fixed my mistake.  Turns out, my dad knew how to knit rather well.*

So, I knew I wanted to read Knit Your Bit the moment I first heard about it.  The United States had entered World War I in April 1917, and lots of men rushed to enlist, leaving their families behind.  This is true for young Mikey, whose Pop is also a soldier and who has just shipped off to fight overseas in Europe.  Mikey is very frustrated that he has to stay home and can't do something big and important to help the war effort, too.  Nevertheless, he turns up his nose when his mother asks if he would like to learn to knit for the soldiers along with his sister.  Mikey turns the offer down, because, well, boys don't knit!

But when his teacher announces that there will be a three-day Knitting Bee in Central Park to make hats, socks and scarves for US servicemen overseas, Mikey is challenged by a girl to learn to knit and participate - boys against the girls.  And so it is settled - the Boys' Knitting Brigade vs. the Purl Girls.

The only problem is - knitting isn't quite as easy as the boys thought it would be.  Yet, they soon master knit, and then it is on to purl.  Mikey works on socks, friend Nick on a muffler and Dan works mostly on tangling and untangling his yarn.

The first day of the Knitting Bee finally arrives and there are lots of people participating - men, women, girls and, yes, even other boys.  And there's also lots of food, a band and before they all know it, it is time to cast on.

As Mikey does his best trying to knit a pair socks, he learns a mighty important lesson from a disabled soldier about what it really means to do something big and important to help the war effort and the brave soldiers overseas.  But who wins the challenge? The Boys' Knitting Brigade or the Purl Girls?

Knit Your Bit  is based on a three-day knitting bee held in Central Park in August 1918 and sponsored by the Navy League Comforts Committee.  It is a heartwarming story that might even bring a tear or two to your eyes.  Hopkinson has seamlessly woven in Mikey's story with this event to produce a wonderful story that shows that sometimes what counts it isn't how well you do something, rather what counts is doing something out of your comfort zone, doing your best and doing it in the right spirit.  Wonderfully humorous pen, ink and watercolor illustrations by Steven Guarnaccia add much to the enjoyment of Knit Your Bit.  The lines are clean and simple, yet delightfully expressive, and I really liked how they reflect the clothing of the period.

Hopeinson has provided lots of back matter including a Red Cross knitting poster from WWI, an Author's Note which you should be sure to read all about the real Knitting Bee and sources for more information.

Though this is a story that all will enjoy, sending gifts to loved ones fighting in a war is long held tradition and for that reason, I think Mikey's story will particularly  resonate for readers in today's world, especially those who have or know someone who has a relative deployed overseas.

This book is recommended for readers age 7+
This book was sent to me by the publisher as part of a Knit Your Bit Blog Tour.
For other stops on the blog tour, be sure to visit Deborah Hopkinson's blog.

And guess what?  You can still Knit Your Bit.
All you have to do is visit The National WWII Museum to download patterns and learn how to participate.  Your knitted scarves will be sent to veterans all over the country.

Want to know more?  HistoryLink.org has a wonderfully detailed essay on Knitting for Victory - World War I, complete with photographs, posters and even an ad.

I always like to look up these kinds of historical events in the New York Times and sure enough, here is the article announcing the results after three days of knitting:

*Oh, and my dad the knitter - poor guy was in his fifties when I was born, so yes, he knitted as a young boy for WWI.

Truce: the Day the Soldiers Stopped Fighting by Jim Murphy

Truce is a wonderful book that not only tells the story of the unofficial Christmas Truce of 1914 during World War I, but also gives a coherent, thorough history of the events leading up to the hostilities and just what those terrible first months of war was like in the trenches.

The fact is that most of us don't really remember World War I from our high school history days.  And I know I never learned that World War I could have and almost was prevented.  So I can honestly say that I (re)learned a lot reading Truce.  Jim Murphy has a real gift for explaining history in his well-researched, totally accessible book about how the enemy soldiers stopped fighting in the middle of a war and celebrated Christmas together.  And as he points out, the truce wasn't quite as spontaneous as we have been led to believe.

Murphy explains that there are two sides to trench warfare - the fighting side and the boring side.  The fighting side was basically barbaric, with soldiers charging across a No Man's Land towards the enemy and the enemy mowing them down with all kinds of artillery, including machine guns.  The boring side was waiting in the trenches for the next charge or counter charge.  But, although carnage was taking place on the battlefield, newspapers were publishing stories about victory, causing enlistment offices to be packed with men want to enlist.

The fighting was horrible as were the conditions in the trenches.  The soldiers were plagued not only by bullets and grenades, but also by  "nonmiliitary dangers," like swarms of hungry rats, lice and fleas in their clothing, bedding and food.  And sometimes these can be just a bad.

But sometimes, Murphy writes, when it was quite the soldiers of one side could hear the soldiers on the other side talking, singing, playing music.  Then they began to contact each other from across No Man's Land, exchanging greetings, remarks, even food.

And so, when Christmas came and the men received cards and parcels from home, on both sides of No Man's Land, they were feeling mellow and friendly.  The rest is history...

While the main focus of Truce is on the events leading up to war and the truce of Christmas 1914, Murphy also includes a brief history of the rest of the war and the subsequent conditions Germany was subjected to when they surrendered.  Murphy has written a nicely detailed, well-rounded history, just graphic enough for the intended middle grade reader.  It will hold their interest without turning them off.  Truce is very well documented, and includes maps, photographs, a timeline, notes and sources - in other words, all those things that make an informational text really creditable and user-friendly.    I particularly liked the list of books, poetry, movies and websites where the reader can go to learn more about World War I.

One of the things I have always wondered about was why the unofficial Christmas Truce of 1914 during World War I has become the subject for lots of fiction.  Well, I found my answer in this well-researched, well-written book.  The Western Front was a lot longer than I had ever imagined - two parallel trenches ran 475 miles from the North Sea to the Swiss border, separated by a No Man's Land tangled up with barbed wire.  On the eastern side of the front was the German trench, on the western side were the Allied troops from Britain, France and Belgium.  475 miles means that not everyone could have experienced the truce in the same way, leaving it wide open to the imagination.

What a great book!

This book is recommended for readers age 8+
This book was purchased for my personal library

This is book 4 of my World War I Reading Challenge hosted by War Through the Generations.

The Poppy Lady: Moina Belle Michael and her Tribute to Veterans by Barbara Elizabeth Walsh

Once again, it will soon be Veteran's Day in the US and Remembrance Day in many other countries around the world.  This is a day we set aside to honor, remember, and reflect on those persons who are serving and have served their country during armed conflicts and is often referred to as Poppy Day, thanks to the efforts of Moina Belle Michael A/K/A The Poppy Lady.

Now Barbara Elizabeth Walsh has written a book detailing how Moina earned her nickname.  Walsh begins with a brief introductory prologue describing Moina's life up to World War I.  Moina was a well-educated girl from Good Hope, Georgia who began teaching the children of neighbors in 1885 in an old slave cabin at the age of 15.  By the time World War I broke out, she was a university professor at the University of Georgia.

The rest of The Poppy Lady is a narrowly focused narrative about Moina's attempt to do something meaningful for the soldiers who fought in the Great War.  It begins Moina's story with the start of the war, while she was traveling through Europe.  Still disturbed by what she had seen of the fighting after she returned home, Moina was determined to do something for the soldiers after the US entered the war in 1917.  Like many women on the home front, Moina knitted warm items, rolling bandages, collected books and magazines and even invited soldiers home for a meal, but she continued to feel she could do more.

So off she went to New York and set up a welcoming place in Hamilton Hall, Columbia University, where soldiers could come and relax, talk and get information.  But even though it was a hugh success, but Moina wanted to do still more.

One day she read the poem "We Shall Not Sleep" by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian doctor, which honors the soldiers fallen on the battlefields of Flanders, Belgium.  Moved and inspired, Moina began wearing and giving out poppies as a tribute to those soldiers.  Other began to follow her example and eventually the poppy was adopted around the world as a symbol of honor and remembrance for the fallen members of the armed services.

What a wonderful introductory biographical account of Moina Belle Michael's work during and after World War I Barbara Elizabeth Walsh has written about this not well known lady who did so much.
Layne Johnson's lavishly detailed oil on canvas painting do much to capture Moina's spirit.  Just look at the exuberant expression on her face on the cover of The Poppy Lady or in the image below:

A picture books illustrations do so much in furthering the telling of a story and that is certainly true here.  Together with Walsh easily accessible text, Moina's determination simply shines through, making The Poppy Lady a truly inspirational book for young readers that shows how one person can make a big difference.

This book is recommended for readers age 7-10.
This book was sent by the publisher.

To learn more about the poppy and Moina Belle Michael be sure to visit The Great War 1914-1918
You can find out more about author Barbara Elizabeth Walsh here.
Be sure to visit artist Layne Johnson to see more of his work from The Poppy Lady

This week's Non-Fiction Monday round-up is hosted by Booktalking

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

It is the middle of World War I and on the battlefield, Private Thomas ‘Tommo’ Peaceful, 17. is sitting watch, keeping track of the time on an important newly acquired watch, afraid of falling asleep and missing precious moments of this particular night.  As he sits there, Tommo recalls his life, beginning with his family in the village of Iddesleigh and, later, in the trenches of France.

The Peaceful family live in a house on the estate grounds of the Colonel, a mean local squire  Life wasn’t too bad for the Peaceful family until Mr. Peaceful, an estate forester, is killed by a falling tree, which the young Tommo believes is his fault.  After that, Mrs. Peaceful must go to work in the Colonel’s house in order to be allowed to remain in the cottage they are living in.  Great Aunt Wolf moves in to look after the children - older brothers Charlie and Big Joe, who is disabled, and Tommo.  She is a mean spirited woman runs the house with an iron hand and takes every opportunity to belittle the boys.

Things aren’t much better in school.  Mr. Munnings, one of two teachers, has it out for Charlie, and starts in on Tommo his first day of school.  Big Joe doesn’t go to school but wanders singing Oranges and Lemons, a children’s nursery song, everywhere he goes.  At school, Tommo meets Molly and it is love at first sight for him.

Soon Charlie, Tommo and Molly are inseparable friends, doing everything together, including poaching fish and game from the estate grounds.  Throughout everything, having fun or getting into trouble, Charlie has been there for Tommo, so when he realizes that Charlie and Molly are secretly meeting without him, he feels betrayed, but keeps it to himself.  

Charlie and Molly’s relationship leads to pregnancy and when Molly is sent packing by her parents, she and Charlie are married.  When the war in France intensifies, the Colonel decides if the Peacefuls are to remain in their cottage, Charlie must enlist.  After Tommo, who is too young to enlist, is called a coward by an old woman caught up in the war’s jingoism, he also decides to enlist and the brothers manage to pass themselves off as twins for the recruiter.  

During basic training, they serve under the cruel, sadistic Sergeant “Horrible” Hanley who has it out for both the Peaceful boys from the beginning.  And it is because of Hanley’s viciousness that Tommo is keeping this particular watch.

Generally, when I read books that are a person’s recollections of their life, I feel at though I am being told their story and the storyteller is conscious that they are addressing someone.  With Private Peaceful, I felt as though I (as a reader) were simply privy to Tommo’s private memories.  He wanted to be alone for the night and consciousness that I was there as a listener would have defeated his need to be alone.    

Private Peaceful is a well written novel, but there are some graphic descriptions of trench warfare.  It is written in the plain, straightforward language of a young country boy at that time, such there is a real eloquence to it.  

There are two important issues at the center of Private Peaceful.  The first issue Morpurgo brings to light is that sometimes the enemy is not the fellow facing you across the battlefield in waiting in his trench, but is right there, side by side with you.

The other issue in Private Peaceful is a moral issue that inspired Morpurgo in the first place.  When the Peaceful brothers are finally sent to the front, they find themselves at Ypres, Belgium.  For anyone who has ever seen the gravestone in Flanders Field, you what a particularly horrendous field of carnage it was.  But among the thousands who were shot on the battlefield, are almost 300 graves of soldiers who were shot for cowardice.  These men were give a fast trial, without representation and the without regard to the effects of war on their minds as well as their bodies.  Some of them were still just kids, like Charlie and Tommo.  And, Morpurgo writes in his Postscript, that although most countries have give pardons to there soldiers, Britain has not.    

Private Peaceful is a must read for anyone interested in war literature or in humanity in general.

The Telegraph has an excellent article from 2003 about Morpurgo and Private Peaceful that you can read here.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/4793519/Anthem-for-doomed-youth.html

This book is recommended for readers age 12 and up.

This book was borrowed from the Fordham branch of the NYPL

Private Peaceful is book 2 of my World War I Reading Challenge
Private Peaceful is book 2 of my Historical Fiction Reading Challenge


Private Peaceful
Michael Morpurgo
Scholastic
2004 (2003)
208 Pages

My Brother’s Shadow by Monika Schröder

My Brother’s Shadow is a realistic look at life on the home front in Berlin just as World War I is coming to a close and Germany is about to surrender, a time and place not usually explored in young adult fiction. 

Moritz Schmidt, 16, lives in a small apartment with his mother Anna Schmidt, sister Hedwig and grandmother.  His older brother Hans is off fighting in the trenches at the Western Front, where his father has already been killed.  And a little sister has also died relatively recently. Moritz works in the newspaper printing room of the Berliner Daily and has made friends with a journalist who takes him to an illegal meeting of Social Democrats.  These are revolutionaries advocating the abdication of the Kaiser and demanding that Germany become a democratic country once the war has ended.  It is at this meeting that Moritz discovers his mother is a much respected speaker and member of the Social Democrats. 

After 4 years of war, life is very hard for most of the people of Germany.  They must stand in long lines to get what little food is available; there is little fuel to heat their homes.  But once Moritz is initiated into his brother’s old gang, he learns that their activities consist mainly in breaking in and stealing the ample food supplies of the rich, an undertaking not much to his liking.    

When the family receives news that Hans has been seriously injured at the front, Moritz takes the train to the field hospital in Metz, Alsace-Lorraine.  On the train, he meets a friendly young Jewish girl, named Rebecca, who gives him a book she has been reading.  Later, he meets her again at another illegal Social Democrat meeting and discovers she too supports the revolutionary ideas of both his mother and sister.

When Hans comes home, missing an eye and an arm, he is enraged at his mother’s activities, his brother’s budding romance with Rebecca and Moritz’s attitude towards his old gang.  It causes a schism in the household, with Hans taking the side of the Kaiser’s Germany, and feeling that people like his mother have betrayed the soldiers fighting for Germany and advocating a revolution in Germany.  Moritz stands in the middle – caught in the kind of patriotic feelings the sent so many to war in the first place, yet seeing that change needs to happen.  The Schmidt family, then, becomes a microcosm of exactly what is happening throughout Germany at the end of the war.

Schröder has done an excellent job in researching and representing the time and events she is writing about.  One of the things that Hitler blamed the loss of the war on was the supposed lack of support by the home front and the readers sees this attitude reflected in Hans’s reactions to things after he come home.  Hans also feels the same kind of virulent anti-Semitism that propelled Hitler’s later policies.  These feelings are portrayed with such intensity that I knew it would only a matter of a few years before Hans would have been a member of the fledging Nazi party, as did so many of his real life counterparts. 

I thought that Schröder also captured the passion and fearlessness of the revolutionaries just as strongly. Important names like Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, radical left wing members of the revolution and Friedrich Ebert, a conservative Social Democrat, appear in the story, and I really liked that she has even included the important Sailor’s Revolt in Kiel. Given this background information, the reader most clearly can see the contrast between Hans and his mother, making this very thought provoking aspect to the story.  Mixed into all this is Moritz, an naïve young man with a strong sense of right and wrong, but at least in the beginning no political commitment. 

I found my thought returning to this novel long after I had finished it, which to my mind make My Brother’s Shadow is an example of historical fiction at its finest – a seamless blending of fact and fiction to create a story the in entertaining and informative, and one I can highly recommend to both YA and adult readers.

This book is recommended for readers age 12 and up

This book was borrowed from the Webster Branch of the NYPL

My Brother's Shadow is book 1 of my World War I Reading Challenge

My Brother's Shadow is book 1 of my European Reading Challenge

My Brother's Shadow is book 1 of my Historical Tapestry Reading Challenge

My Brother’s Shadow

Monika Schröder

Farrar Straus Giroux

2011

224 Pages

I digress...War Horse on Broadway

Tuesday night I went to see the NY production of War Horse, based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo, at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center. I wanted to see this because the London production in the West End was so well received and because it is one of the books featured in the new exhibit at the Imperial War Museum called Once Upon a Wartime: Classic War Stories for Children. (Although I would love to see this exhibit, I am afraid the closest I will come to it is through Zoe’s wonderful review on her blog Playing by the Book.)

War Horse is a very moving World War I story about a young boy and the horse that he has cared for since it was a foal. Albert’s father Billy Narracott buys the thoroughbred horse at an auction using the mortgage money to spite his brother. Albert is allowed to care for the horse, which he names Joey, until it is fully grown, when the plan is to sell him. But his father, who has a problem with alcohol, makes bet with his brother that Joey can be turned into a plow horse in one week, otherwise the brother wins him. If the brother loses, Billy wins back the amount he paid for Joey.

Albert succeeds in teaching Joey to plow and his mother insists that from now on Joey belongs to Albert and his father must have nothing more to do with the horse. But when war is declared, the army is offering £100 for each horse. Unable to resist this amount of money, Billy sells Joey behind his son’s back.

Joey becomes a calvary horse, ridden by Lieutenant Nicholls, who is soon killed in action. Nicholls’ sketch book, with pictures he drew of Albert and Joey, is sent to Albert. Lying about his age, Albert runs away and enlists in order to go to France to find his horse.

War Horse is an emotional story that not only brings to light the intimate relationship that existed between Albert and Joey, but also the carnage of war to both man and animal.

The horses in the play are played by life sized puppets. These are not your typical Muppet puppet. They are sophisticated, adult puppets created by a South African company called Handspring Puppet Company The horses are made out of cane, aluminum, leather and mesh and have three people working it. Two people are in the body, working the legs, and one stands by the side of the horse’s head, controlling the head.

In an interview for Broadway Buzz, Basil Jones, a co-founder of Handspring, said that a puppet is an engineer of the emotions and that movement is thought. These horses become so life-like that I found myself reacting as though they were real. Little horse type movements and expressions are there, as well as the sounds horses make. It is amazing how capable of expression these puppets are, thanks to the wonderful work of the puppeteers controlling them, right down to the appearance of breathing.

The night I went to see War Horse, Joey was brought to life by Jeslyn Kelly and Jonathan David Martin in the body or as Jones put it, the horse's heart and hind. Joey’s head was controlled by Prentice Onayemi. I was so close, I could watch as Mr. Onayemi concentrated on all of Joey’s big and little movements. He was as captivating to watch as the play itself.

Topthorn (left) with Peter Hermann who plays Hauptman
Friedrich Müller and Joey (right) with puppeteer Prentice Onayemi

The head puppeteer is visible the whole time, but it does not interfer from the play one bit.

I don’t know if this play will end up traveling around the country, but if you are going to be in New York, say for the BEA and Blogger Convention in May, you might want to think about getting tickets for this wonderful production. But, unless you want to really feel like part of the action, don’t sit in seat B501. That’s where I was and I know of what I speak.