World War II: On the Home Front by Martin Gitlin

World War II: On the Home Front is described as an Interactive History Adventure.  It begins with an explanatory chapter giving a brief introduction about how and why World War II began for the United States.  Then the reader is supposed to choose a story path to follow.

There are three path choices: a woman living in New York City, with one child and a husband who is serving in the Armed Forces overseas; a 12 year old boy living in San Diego; or a wounded African American veteran from the segregated south.  At the end of each chapter, the reader can make more choices and as the story progresses can more fully experience what it might have really be like for either the woman, the boy or the soldier.

Depending on which path the reader chooses, there is a possible 7 endings for each one.  Everything depends on the choices made, yet in the end the reader comes away with a pretty good overview of what life on the American home front in World War II.

Title: Twice a Patriot!

Sound complicated?  I thought so, too, and yet when I sat down to read this book, I found it really quite interesting and novel and not hard to figure out.  I liked the interactive element of the book, found the pictures and posters were appropriate to what was being experienced in the chapter where they appear and I liked going back and exploring a new and different path for each character.  History and concepts were explained clearly and concisely, and there is also a timeline a glossary, suggestions for further reading, and a well done index, making it a well-rounded book.

I also really liked that the author makes suggestions for paths that the readers can do themselves: explore life as a German or Italian American, as a man declared 4F or the famous people who entertained the troops.  The war affected people differently and this books helps make that clear.  The interactive element is furthered by suggesting that kids create paths for these or other additional experiences.

World War II: On the Home Front is perfect book for homeschooling or classroom use when studying the war.

This book is recommended for readers age 9-12.
This book was purchased for my personal library.

Non-Fiction Monday is hosted today by Ana's NonFiction Blog

Weekend Cooking #18: 1940s Ads: Easter Ham and a Bunny Cake

HAPPY EASTER

Despite the war and rationing, people tried to celebrate the holidays as traditionally as possible.  I found this ad for Swift Premium Ham in a 1944 copy of American Home on page 344. 

I found this bunny cake ad in a March 3, 1941 issue of Life magazine, put it away and forgot about it.  It resurfaced again when I was looking for the Easter Ham ad and I thought it would be the perfect cake for the Easter holiday.  It originally appeared just 8 months before the US would enter World War II.    

If you have a desire to make this cake, here are the instructions:

  Weekend Cooking is a weekly meme hosted by BethFishReads

The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

Since tonight is the first night of Passover, I thought I would review a book that is appropriate to the season.  I chose The Devil's Arithmetic because, like the Passover story, it is also about the importance of remembering who you are and where you came from.

Hannah Stern, 12 but almost 13, is a happy girl living in New Rochelle with her parents and little brother, except that she doesn't want to go to her family's Passover Seder.  Bored and apathetic, Hannah is tired of hearing her grandfather's stories about the past, including those about the concentration camp where he spent part of his youth.  But this year's Passover holds a big surprise for Hannah.

When she goes to open the door to let Elijah in, Hannah suddenly finds herself transported back in time to a Polish shetl in 1942, where her name is Chaya Abramowitz and she is living with her Aunt Gitl and Uncle Schmuel.  Hannah learns that Chaya parents have recently died and she has been very sick.  The next day, Chaya goes with her family to another shetl where Uncle Schmuel is to be married.  But before that can happen, the entire residents of both shetls are rounded up by Nazi soldiers and sent on a days long train ride in a cattle car to a concentration/extermination camp.

Before she knows it, the men and women are separated, their clothes are taken away, their hair is shaved off and a number is tattooed on their left arms.  Chaya and Aunt Gitl are assigned to a barracks and give jobs to do.

Working in the kitchen, Chaya meets Rivka, a wise ten year old who has survived life in the camp for a year and knows how to do things to avoid being "chosen" by the camp commandant for "processing."  So far, Chaya, Rivka and their other friends have been lucky, but can their luck hold out?  And will Chaya ever become Hannah again and return to her present day family?

The Devil's Arithmetic is a wonderfully well-written middle grade novel.  The randomness of life for Jews under the Nazis is captured so well, as it the horror their methods, yet not to the point where it is so graphic it would turn kids away from the book or from learning about the Holocaust, but it does help understand at least the how of what happened.

And yes, Hannah does remember what she had learned about the Holocaust in school and home, but little by little she finds her memory fading.  Even her present day family begins to recede from her memory.  And she does try to warn everyone about what happened to Jews in the Holocaust, but they find it so outlandish that they can't comprehend what she says.  And who could blame them?

While Hannah's experiences in the concentration camp point to the importance of remembering, they also demonstrates the perils of forgetting, a good lesson for us all to think about during this holiday season. 

This book is recommended for readers age 10 and up
This book was purchased for my personal library

Be sure to visit Jane Yolen's website for more on The Devil's Arithmetic, including lesson plans, poems, and an interview with Kirsten Dunst about being in the movie version of the book.

The Devil's Arithmetic has received the following honors:
The National Jewish Book Award
The Sydney Taylor Award
The Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award
Nebula Honor Book
1992 Kentucky Bluegrass Master List
1991-92 Florida Children's Book Award nomination
Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award

The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia by Esther Hautzig

One beautiful June morning in 1941, Esther Rudomin, 10, finds her happy, care free life in Vilna, Poland changed forever.  Early in the morning, her family - father, mother, grandmother and Esther, are arrested by the Soviet Army.  They are charged with being capitalists and sent on a six week long train ride in cattle car ride Siberia.  

Arriving at a gypsum mine in Siberia, they are assigned their jobs - father to drive a horse and cart, mother to work at dynamiting the mine, Esther and her grandmother to work in the fields.  The work is back-breaking, the food almost non-existent (mostly watery soup) and the summer heat unbearable in a place as endlessly flat as the Siberian Steppes.

Luckily, by the beginning of fall, the Soviet Union, the exiled Polish government and Britain were allies against the Nazis and amnesty was granted to the Polish deportees.  No longer prisoners, they were allowed to leave the mine and live in the small nearby village. 

But life in the village isn’t easy either.  The family moves into the hut of people without much more than they have, and must share a small space with not room to move around it.  But it is better than the mine and Esther is able to attend the village school.  After a series of moves from hut to hut, the Rudomins are eventually able to get their own hut.

But life is still a struggle of obtaining food, having a means of heating the hut during the long, bitter cold winter and the gradual wearing out of the clothing they had brought with them and not money to buy more.  And since so many people are bound together by the cold, the desolateness of the steppe and the struggle to survive, they are often helped by others, just as they help others when they can.   When Esther’s father is forced to serve at the Russian front, the Rudomin women are devastated, but by now quite capable, they managed to find ways of surviving.  And most importantly, they continue to have each other to lean on.  

This is a wonderful, very appealing autobiography of Esther’s life from age 10 to 15.  Hautzig has captured her childhood voice beautifully as she recalls her life - the reader meets a very indulged child and watches her become an accomplished, clever survivor.  Yet, Hautzig has also shown herself not always in the best light - there is the bratty Esther, the whinny Esther and the willful Esther - giving a sense that she was indeed a real person, not an unrealistic paragon of courage.

My only problem with The Endless Steppe is that there is no explanation about why the Rudomin’s were arrested by the Soviets for being capitalists, but not the rest of the family, and why they weren’t rounded up by the Nazis because they were Jews. 


Short History Lesson:

The answer is simple but maybe not well known.  In 1939, the Nazis and Soviets signed a 10 year non-aggression pact called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.  The pact has a clause that divided Poland - the western part to Germany and the eastern part to the Soviets.  In the summer of 1940, the Soviets began to secure eastern Poland.  But, Hitler being Hitler, he decided to pull a fast one on the Soviets and disregard to pact and invade Russia.  The Rudomins were arrested in that short space of time when eastern Poland was under Soviet control, for being capitalists because they owned a jewelry business.  


This book is recommended for readers age 12 and up
This book was purchased for my personal library


The Endless Steppe has been in print continuously since it was published in 1968.  It has received the following honors:
1969 National Book Award finalist
1969 American Library Association Notable Book
1970 Jane Addams Book Award
1971 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award


A lesson plan for The Endless Steppe is available from The UN Refugee Agency

Esther Hautzig led a very interesting life and the School Library Journal ran a fitting obituary when she passed away in 2009 that is well worth reading.

The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia
Esther Hautzig
Harper Collins
1968, 1995
256 Pages

Bloggiesta Wrap Up - A Day Late and A Dollar Short

So Bloggiesta 2012 ended yesterday and when I go over my list of goals to see how I have done - well, not too bad, I think.

1- I made a favicon, and it show up once and disappeared again and who knows if it will ever show up again.

2- I did fix my grab button, which had one line of HTML too many.

3- I revisited my About My Blog page and did some work on that, but not my About Me information.

4- Cleaned up Google Reader, but did nothing with my RSS feed.

5- I did learn all about Pinterest, thanks to Joy at Joy’s Book Blog.

6- I really cleaned up my labels, thanks to the mini challenge hosted by Candace at BethFishReads

7- Thanks for the mini-challenge hosted by The Bluestocking Society, I did create a rating system, using the Kilroy was here picture instead of stars, which seemed appropriate given my blog’s focus.  But I am still waffling about using it.  Using a five-Kilroy scale, this is how a three star rating might appear: 

Maybe stars would be better.

8- Charlotte at Charlotte’s Library hosted a mini-challenge to create some pages, which I did, but I am still working on them.

9- I did nothing at all with my Facebook page, but thank you for hosting it Sockets and Lightbulbs.

And yes, I did make new friends and kept the old.

And again, thank you Suey at It’s All About Books and Danielle at There’s A Book for hosting this event and keep an eye out for the next installment of Bloggiesta on September 28, 29 and 30.