I've taught about World War II in many different ways through the years.  In fact, back in grad school, I wrote my first curricular unit ever on teaching the Holocaust to middle schoolers. But I readily admit that my knowledge of the aftermath of the war in Europe is limited.  I know plenty about the formation of the United Nations, the establishment of the State of Israel, immigration and refugee problems in post-war America.  But until I read L.M. Elliott's A Troubled Peace, the sequel to Under A War-Torn Sky, I had very little understanding of the devastation left behind by the Germans in post-war France.  And this neglected (at least in America) piece of history, as told through the eyes of Elliott's hero Henry Forrester, is absolutely fascinating.

    It is March, 1945, and 19 year-old pilot Henry Forrester is back in Virginia, back from the war in Europe from which he narrowly escaped. But even as the war winds down in its final months, Henry's inner battle has just begun.  He is haunted by visions of grueling air battles and the torture he suffered at the hands of the Gestapo.  Henry finds that the war will not end for him until he knows the fate of those in France who helped him to freedom, especially a little boy named Pierre.

    To exorcise his demons, Henry returns to France determined to locate Pierre and the other Resistance fighters who helped him escape.  But what he finds first is a country that has been devastated in countless ways by the German occupation. This is where A Troubled Peace becomes really, really interesting.  True, the "troubled peace" of the title refers to Henry's inner turmoil.  But it also refers to the dreadful state of Europe after the war.  The people of France are starving.  Homeless children hoping to find their parents wait at train stations as the "absents," freed work camp survivors, return.  Villages have been razed, the surviving inhabitants forced to face the rubble and carnage each day.

    Elliot is at her best when she puts Henry into the role of observer. He's shocked and dismayed as he finds again and again that the war is not truly over for the French people.  In a scene that I loved, Henry sits down to breakfast at a Paris hotel with writer George Orwell, who explains the complexities of Europe's troubled peace: "'Peace? Peace is not that easy, that finite, my boy.  War ends; then it takes a long time to negotiate a real truce.  Many times that peace is troubled and contains the embers for the next war, smoldering, just in need of a spark.'" (171)

    I won't give away the ending here, whether Henry does find Pierre alive or not. I found that while I'd been completely absorbed by this young American's quest, it wasn't really Henry whom I missed after I finished the book.  Elliott peppers the narrative with colorful, believable, and captivating characters, each with a story of his or her own to tell.  Though theirs are cameo roles in the book, these characters bring post-war France to life: the former high-society dame now shriveled and dying of tuberculosis, the clever boy who helps thieves c

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    Oh, let's just laugh a little this Friday, shall we?  Here's a silly children's poem by Kenn Nesbitt that actually made me do a spit take when I read it.  I really love children's poetry, much more than "real/adult" poetry.  I often find that "real" poetry so pretentious and unreadable.  I mean, come on, I can't be the only one who absolutely didn't get The Waste Land, can I?  I took a modern poetry class in college that was taught by a wonderful, accomplished poet named Frank Bidart.  Loved Professor Bidart.  Never laughed once all semester. But My Chicken's On the Internet?  How can you not love this?! Enjoy!

My Chicken's On the Internet by Kenn Nesbitt

My chicken's on the Internet.
She surfs the web all day.
I've tried to stop her browsing
but, so far, there's just no way.

She jumps up on the mouse
and then she flaps around like mad
to click on every hyperlink
and every pop-up ad.

She plays all sorts of chicken games.
She messages her folks.
She watches chicken videos
and forwards chicken jokes.

She writes a blog for chickens
and she uploads chicken pics.
She visits chicken chat rooms
where she clucks about her chicks.

I wouldn't mind so much
except my keyboard's now a wreck.
She hasn't learned to type yet;
she can only hunt and peck.

Image from: http://mylearningbooks.bligoo.com/tag/concurso

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    In the late 1960's, Dick Holler wrote a song that was recorded by Dion.  That song, Abraham, Martin, and John, honors fallen leaders in the fight for civil rights in our country.  The lyrics are simple and poignant:

Has anybody here seen my old friend Abraham?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people,
But it seems the good they die young.
You know, I just looked around and he's gone.

Anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people,
But it seems the good they die young.
I just looked 'round and he's gone.

Didn't you love the things that they stood for?
Didn't they try to find some good for you and me?
And we'll be free
Some day soon, and it's a-gonna be one day ...

Let those lyrics sink in for a minute before you continue reading...

    I'm taking a short break from hardcore YA fiction to review a novel for middle grade readers.  Two reasons: 1.This book, My Life with the Lincolns, was written by a woman whose last name is that of my alma mater (Gayle Brandeis/Brandeis University-a happy coincidence). 2. I think I'm going to be reading a lot more middle grade books in the near future.  More about that another time.  For now, let me tell you about the lovely, funny, and utterly charming Mina Edelman, 12 year-old narrator of Ms. Brandeis' novel.

    Mina is convinced that her family is the Lincoln family reincarnated. She is sure that her father, whose initials are A.B.E., is the 16th President. And she is absolutely positive that she herself is the doomed William Lincoln.  So she is spending the summer of 1966 trying to save her father from assassination and herself from certain death as well.  When she's not writing a Lincoln-themed newsletter for her father's furniture store, Honest ABE's, she's playing with her younger sister, Tabby, and looking up illnesses she thinks she's developing in a medical manual.  Meanwhile, the father of one of the boys on her street is off fighting in Vietnam, her older sister is getting ready to go off to nursing school, and her parents' marriage is falling apart.  Mina's father has become deeply involved in the Chicago Freedom Movement, and without her mother's knowledge, he has started to bring Mina along to marches, meetings, and protests.  

    My Life With the Lincolns is a complex novel.  It touches on a wide range of issues including social justice, interracial love, white guilt, families pulled apart by war and politics, and the growing intensity of the Civil Rights Movement as emotions heat up and boil over.  But, we see all of this through the eyes of clever, observant, and naive Mina, whose voice is unique and genuine.  Mina is swept up in her father's world of all night vigils and inspiring speeches, but she's still just a 12 year-old girl, watching all of this with wide-ey

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