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In recent years I’ve endeavored to give young readers real-life protagonists their own age. I want my readers to ask themselves, “What would I have done?” I believe that teens experience sharper pangs of injustice than adults, and a greater determination to do something about it. Some, such as Claudette Colvin, have acted with amazing courage. As Dr. King said of the civil rights movement, “The blanket of fear was lifted by Negro youth.”
The Boys Who Challenged Hitler is the story of a group of Danish middle-school students who were passionately ashamed of their government for bowing to the German forces that invaded their country on April 9, 1940. Rather than kneel to the enemy, these schoolboys vowed to “clean the mud off the Danish flag.” They formed a sabotage cell called the Churchill Club and taught themselves, on the job, how to trouble the German army. After a six-month spree during which their activities escalated from vandalism to the theft of high-powered weapons to the grenade bombing of German vehicles, they were captured. Word of their arrest raced through the country. There was great concern that the boys would be executed. Their courage shamed and inspired Danish citizenry to stand up against their occupiers.
After the arrest, the great Danish poet and playwright Kaj Munk expressed the national mood in a letter to the parents of ringleader Knud Pedersen and his brother Jens: “Of course what [the boys] have done is wrong; but it is not nearly so wrong as when the government gave the country away to the invading enemy…I pray to God to give them cheerfulness, endurance, and constancy in the good cause.”
I met Knud Pedersen in Copenhagen in 2012. He was eighty-six. In the previous seventy years there had been film nibbles and book offers to tell the story of the Churchill Club, but nothing had panned out. Knud knew that my interest probably represented his last chance to tell the story right, and he took full advantage of it. I interviewed him for a solid week, which led to hundreds of follow-up emails and, ultimately, the book you have honored here.
I think this story is especially important. The Churchill Club boys, some of whom had yet to shave, took on a hopelessly big Goliath. They had no military training and had not been desensitized to violence and killing, as are soldiers in basic training. In shrill voices the boys debated the ethics of taking lives. Was it ever right? When? Who decides?
As Anne Whaling, children’s book buyer at Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore in Berkeley, California, has commented, “The book raises lots of thought-provoking questions, as the best books always do: When do you stand up, even fight, for what is right? How would you do it? How far would you go? And, in today’s world, where is the line drawn between political activist, vandal, and terrorist?”
From the January/February 2016 issue of The Horn Book Magazine. For more on the 2015 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, click on the tag BGHB15.
We are story animals, suggests Kendall Haven (Story Proof: The Science Behind the Startling Power of Story, 2007). We have told our stories for over 100,000 years. Not every culture has developed codified laws or written language, but every culture in the history of the world has created myths, legends, fables, and folk tales.
Stories are so old, so intimately connected with language, some researchers suggest that language was created to express stories. In fact, evolutionary biologists now believe we are hardwired to think in story forms. Cognitive scientists know that stories help us understand and remember information for longer periods. Researchers have found that telling stories at an early age helps develop math abilities and language literacy. And teachers know that understanding the story process helps young readers understand the organization of language.
Isn’t it a wonder that using fictional techniques to relay the telling of facts and biography seems a natural fit? After all, life is messy and fragmented. But stories provide a form for that experience. Stories shape random events into a coherent sequence. Stories help readers focus on the essentials, sifting through the distractions. As writer May Sarton once said, “Art is order, but it is made out of the chaos of life.”
One criticism of narrative nonfiction is the use of psychological action and dialogue. Stories freely engage in psychological action to help readers empathize with the protagonist. But, in narrative nonfiction, how would the author know just how George Washington – or any historical character – really feels and thinks about an event?
Easy. Writers report on their protagonist’s thoughts and feelings by using inferences, in which a character’s state of mind is revealed by reportable observations. As Jon Franklin, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, stated, “People don’t think in words. They think in the experience of the moment.”
One of my favorite authors, and one of my favorite books, that achieve this psychological action so magnificently is Russell Freedman’s Washington at Valley Forge (Holiday House, 2008). With his first sentence, Freedman establishes the desperate conditions faced by Washington and his men: “Private Joseph Plumb Martin leaned into the icy wind, pushed one sore and aching foot ahead of the other, and kept on marching.”
Washington’s troops were beaten down and bedraggled. Martin was not only hungry; he was “perishing with thirst.” Freedman weaves primary sources into the narrative to demonstrate the psychological action.
Another favorite is Phillip Hoose, in his wondrous epic tale of The Race to Save the Lord God Bird (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2004). The book begins with Alexander Wilson and his quest for the ivory-billed woodpecker: “Alexander Wilson clucked his horse slowly along the margin of a swamp in North Carolina. Bending forward in the saddle…Wilson’s heart must have been racing as he dismounted and crept toward the bird…”
Likewise, readers hold their breath as the scene unfolds. The story sweeps across two centuries, never loosing hold of the reader’s attention as it explores the tragedy of extinction, and the triumph of the human spirit.
As the great Virginia Hamilton once offered, every fiction has its own basic reality…
“…through which the life of the characters and their illusions are revealed, and from which past meaning often creeps into the setting. The task for any writer is to discover the ‘reality tone’ of each work – the basis of truth upon which all variations on the whole language system is set. For reality may be the greatest of all illusions.” (Virginia Hamilton, Illusions and Reality, 1980).
Bobbi Miller
0 Comments on The Greatest of Illusions as of 2/23/2015 6:49:00 AM
“Trudy Ludwig is an award-winning author who specializes in writing children’s books that explore the colorful and sometimes confusing world of children’s social interactions. She has received rave reviews nationwide from educators, experts, organizations, and parents for her passion and compassion in addressing relational aggression—the use of relationships to manipulate and hurt others.” ~ www.trudyludwig.com
TCBR: What inspired you to write about bullying?
Trudy Ludwig: When my daughter was emotionally bullied nine years ago by some of her peers in elementary school, I tried to find age-appropriate books in libraries and on the Internet to help teach her about relational aggression (the use of relationships to manipulate and hurt others) and how to deal with it. I even contacted leading experts and organizations for their suggestions. I learned that there weren’t enough resources available, so I decided to write children’s books to help fill this resource gap.
TCBR: Katie, the bully of your first book My Secret Bully, is the protagonist of your latest book Confessions of a Former Bully. Can you speak about why you chose this perspective?
TL: In my author visits at schools around the US, I had many children ask me, “What ever happened to Katie in My Secret Bully? Did she and Monica become friends again?” They also wanted to know if Katie ever got help to change her bullying ways. Their queries got me thinking about writing a book from the unique perspective of a former bully. So when I started to conceptualize Confessions of a Former Bully, it just seemed natural for me to have Katie pick up where she left off in My Secret Bully. My intent for this story was to show readers how Katie’s behaviors—both positive and negative—had a direct impact on her and others. I also wanted Katie to share the important lessons she learned about bullying and what it means to be a decent friend.
TCBR: What made you use the format of a diary for this last book?
TL: There’s something thrilling and intriguing about being allowed access to someone else’s personal diary, don’t you think? I remember, as a child, being tempted to read my big sister’s diary—not that I did, mind you, as she made sure it was securely locked at all times. I felt that the diary format, supplemented with Katie’s drawings and doodles, would be the perfect way for the reader to get inside the head of Katie and track her character growth as she gets help from Mrs. Petrowski, the school counselor.
Here's a book that deserves every drop of hype. This is how children's nonfiction should be done! A story written at level without being dumbed down (bonus points for being about a young person), beautiful book design with with great pictures, good informational sidebars, and excellent back matter. Not only are all the sources listed with a good index, but there is an excellent author's note about how the book came to be. The only thing one could want is a specific list of further reading at the same level as the book.
Claudette Colvin cuts through many myths of the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. I grew up learning that Rosa Parks was the first person to refuse to give up her seat and go to jail for it. That she did it because she was tired after a long day of work. Later I learned that it turns out that Rosa Parks wasn't an accidental hero, but a badass deliberate one. She was very involved in the civil rights movement in Montgomery and was tired not from a long day, but tired from a life of being a second class citizen. Then I learned that Rosa Parks wasn't the first, but the other two women were unsuitable. One was a pregnant teen. The other was equally as bad.
Then I read this book. Colvin wasn't pregnant until later. The real reason is because Colvin, and later, Mary Louise Smith were poor and from an famously "bad" part of town. They were young and inexperienced. Colvin's acts led her classmates and friends to shun her. Her act was also a deliberate one, a protest against what she saw going on around her. The book also goes into great detail about how the boycott worked, Colvin's personal story, and the court cases and legal actions that finally declared bus segregation illegal. (Did you know it was a lawsuit that finally did it? Yeah, me neither. I thought the city caved to economic pressure.)
I really appreciated how the text alternates between Hoose's history and Colvin's memories, with the two working as duel narrators. Overall, an inspiring story that is told very well and beautifully pacakged. An excellent example of what children's nonfiction should look like. I cannot say enough good things about this one.
How is this for an amazing first sentence? The first time Joanne Blackmon was arrested, she was just ten years old.
The opening photograph is of a young boy being arrested for protesting the lack of voting rights for black citizens in Alabama.
The story just goes from there, telling the story of the voting rights struggle, particularly the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, through the eyes of the children. You really get the sense that this was a children's movement. The children didn't fear losing their jobs. No one was depending on them to put food on the table. They could fill the jails day after d
1 Comments on Nonfiction Monday: Civil Rights, last added: 12/3/2009
Great write up about Claudette Colvin. I heard about it a couple of weeks ago when Hoose won the National Book Award, and after reading your review it's on my "to buy" list. The other books sound like great supplemental reads too. Thanks!
This week the 2009 National Book Award Finalist for Children's Literature was announced. The title is Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice. The book was written by Phillip Hoose and published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
From the publisher:
This book reveals the true story of Ms. Colvin, who, as a fifteen-year old in 1955 Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus to a white woman, nine months before Rosa Parks took a similar stand. Ms. Colvin then went on to challenge segregation a second time, as a key plaintiff in the landmark case ofBrowder v. Gayle, which struck down the bus segregation laws in Montgomery.
Here is an except from the book:
Rebellion was on my mind that day. All during February we’d been talking about people who had taken stands. We had been studying the Constitution in Miss Nesbitt’s class. I knew I had rights. I had paid my fare the same as white passengers. I knew the rule—that you didn’t have to get up for a white person if there were no were no empty seats left on the bus—and there weren’t. But it wasn’t about that. I was thinking, Why should I have to get up just because a driver tells me to, or just because I’m black? Right then, I decided I wasn’t gonna take it anymore. I hadn’t planned it out, but my decision was built on a lifetime of nasty experiences.
National Books Award Finalists Named (and I'm back from vacation)...
After a six days of vacation in New York, I was not excited about the prospect of weeding through my email inbox. (It was bursting.) After a few hours of wading through, I was rewarded with today's Publishers Lunch featuring the National Book Award finalists. In case you haven't seen the list, here are the 2009 National Books Awards Finalists for the Young People's Literature caegory:
Special shout out to Laini Taylor, who is a 2010 CWIM contributor along with her husband Jim Di Bartolo, illustrator of Lips Touch. (Check out his amazing cover art below along with the other NBA finalist books.)
I've never noticed that National Library Week, and the beginning of the baseball season often overlap. I would never have associated the two. But this year, partly inspired by a poem by Elaine Pike about Baseball and partly because I wanted to celebrate National Library Week by branching out and reading something to my kids that I wouldn't normally read, I think I've hit a home run. (OK, that was bad. I will leave the baseball imagery to the poet)
The first official National Library Week was launched in 1957 fueled by concern about recent research showing that people were reading less and spending more time listening to the radio, watching TV, or playing musical instruments.
It's just a hunch, but I think there may be a correlation between the results of the research and the fact that in 1956 Elvis Presley appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, had several hits on the charts including Hound Dog, Don't Be Cruel, Love Me Tender, and Blue Suede Shoes. Wizard of Oz was shown on television for the first time and that was also the year that Don Larson pitched the only perfect game in a World Series.
Phillip Hoose was in fourth grade in 1956 and trying to fit in. He was a huge baseball fan and tried hard to become a good player himself. One of the highlights of his childhood was meeting his cousin, Don Larson who gave him a big hug and introduced him to the Yankees. Hoose did not grow up to play baseball like the cousin he admired so much, but he did grow up to write about it. His book, Perfect Once Removed: When Baseball was all the World to Me, has received rave reviews and is exactly the kind of book I was searching for this week! Oh, and April is National Poetry Month, so with the Hoose's book, Pike's poem and a great opening day, I've got all bases covered. baseball season Elaine Pike
crack of the bat you're outta here with its full count and its base stealing disaster narrowly averted suicide squeeze collisions at home plate in a cloud of dust and its pitch by pitch story fans perched on the edges of their seats like falcons.
the outfield diving drama is beginning to unfold like a caterpillar slowly emerging from a cocoon creeping upon the collective american psyche as spring season games and the world baseball classic are wiggling their way across our plasma screens announcing the appearance silently, without anyone taking notice, of baseball.
baseball, the great american past time is sprouting wings to reveal itself in the beer slurping peanut popping salty mustard ketchup and relish hot dog gorging fans of the boys of summer conjures visions of fourth of july fireworks sites set on hot summer nights and take me out to the ballgame days.
grab your neatsfoot oil and drag that cracked old mitt out of the dark it's time to pay homage make the pilgrimage to the ballpark revere in the church of baseball the perfect green fields of the hallowed stadium raise your eyes in divine hope to the scoreboard the halos of angels ensconced in the moth drawing lights and give praise to the arrival of baseball.
0 Comments on National Library Week and Opening Day as of 1/1/1900
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Great write up about Claudette Colvin. I heard about it a couple of weeks ago when Hoose won the National Book Award, and after reading your review it's on my "to buy" list. The other books sound like great supplemental reads too. Thanks!