Life After Publication: A Conversation with Kathleen Burkinshaw and a Great Giveaway!

Congratulations to Linda Andersen for winning Kathy Wiechman's ARC of NOT ON FIFTH STREET.

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It is my pleasure to host Kathleen Burkinshaw on her TLCB Blooming Anniversary Tour.

What has life been like for you since The Last Cherry Blossom was published?

This past year has had wonderful, surreal moments as well as frenzied, bittersweet ones.  To hold The Last Cherry Blossom (TLCB) the first time and see it in a bookstore, a library, or in schools was so rewarding. 

A surreal moment was being on stage for my first Author’s roundtable and autograph signing at the 2016 SCBWI-Carolinas conference. When I hear from readers that words I wrote about my mom’s experience growing up in Hiroshima has them thinking about the world differently, I feel humbled and most grateful.

The frenzied moments, for me, were the worry of how and where do I market TLCB? Are there awards that I should consider?  What conferences should I submit a request for proposal? Which ones can I afford to attend? I’m so thankful that SCBWI awarded the Book Launch Honor Award to me. It helped with some of the fees for conferences and allowed me to be an author sponsor of Multicultural Children’s Day this past January, which I wouldn’t have been able to do on my own.

What events and/or marketing have you done? 

I had bookmarks printed while my ARCs were being prepared.  My agent suggested that my publisher give out the bookmarks at the 2016 BEA, ALA, and BookCon in New York, since they would not be giving out copies of my ARCs. This built some buzz for the book.

I had my book launch at a local independent book store, Main Street Books, Davidson, NC.  They had offered to have my ARC reviewed by their teen book club, and suggested that one of the members do a reading with my daughter. I had book swag, such as cherry blossoms, silk fans, cherry blossom lip gloss, bookmarks, and even homemade chocolates in the shape/color of cherry blossoms. At middle school events ahead of time, I gave out bookmarks announcing the launch. 

I also joined a fantastic 2016 debut author group for MG and YA authors, The Sweet Sixteens. Members in this group helped one another by marketing each other’s books/events, and hosting various blog interviews. In addition, we encouraged each other through the highs and lows of pre-publication and afterward. 

A few months before my pub date, my friend, Joyce Moyer Hostetter asked if I’d like to be part of a group with her, Shannon Hitchcock, Shannon Weirsbitzky, and Kerry O’Malley Cerra. Our books all deal with difficult, emotional, or diverse issues that many middle graders face every day. The group is called #MGGetsReal. Kerry O’Malley Cerra painstakingly compiled a list of books by other authors that deal with tough topics which she continues to update. We did blog posts about one another, and with each other.  We also presented at the NC Reading Association discussing #MGGetsReal and our books.

I prepared a spread sheet for my publicity person at Sky Pony Press so she would know whom I had given information to, and who I hoped they could send a press release and copy of my book. I included local newspapers and TV stations, as well as Japanese book reviewers. In addition, I organized a list of awards and their deadlines, where I thought Sky Pony could submit TLCB.

My major marketing strategy is what I call my “Research, then throw it out there and see what sticks." I researched the names of various nuclear disarmament groups, Hiroshima/Nagasaki survivor groups, Japanese American societies, and Asian American publications. I signed up to receive various industry newsletters and writing blogs. I commented on blog posts and if on topic, I would mention my book. I requested a review from the Smithsonian Asian Pacific children’s book review blog, Book Dragon, and was pleasantly surprised when they agreed. 

Because I feel the school market is my best target audience, I researched school library, reading, social studies, and history associations.  I had set up a twitter account less than a year before my pub date. Interestingly, by direct messaging the NC School Library Media Association, I found out how to write a proposal and did my first conference presentation at their annual conference last year. 

I highly recommend Twitter. I’ve met some wonderful teachers, historians, and bloggers through various tweet chats. These look daunting at first, but it’s not as difficult as you might think.  It’s a wonderful way to connect with readers and authors all over the world. 

I also have enjoyed writing my blog, Creating Through the Pain. I started it at least a year before I had a publishing contract. I continue to meet some wonderful people through my blog.

Lastly, I am glad that I learned how to Skype with a class so that I could participate in World Read Aloud Day. Skyping with a class is a great way to meet students when traveling is difficult.

Which would you not repeat?

The tough thing about marketing your book is “that you don’t know what you don’t know.”  I didn’t know that there were certain lists to submit your book to be on their list--for example the Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People. If your publisher doesn’t know about it and you don’t know it exists, it doesn’t get submitted. Now working on my second book, I’m keeping notes so that I can be sure the second book doesn’t miss out on opportunities.

What advice would you give for the year(s) following publication?

For the year following publication, aside from working on your next book, visit classrooms, and connect with teachers or state school library associations, submit your book to various school library lists in different states that allow you/publisher to recommend your own book, and write guest blog posts. 😊

It is a delicate balance for every author between family, work, and anything else in life and their writing/marketing time. My difficulty is balancing all of these efforts in the middle of pain. There was a large stretch of time, I couldn’t even research or write because all my energy was spent on marketing.  I’m learning to balance my time better to hopefully cut down on pain flare ups. 

But, the most important message is ENJOY, have FUN, and CELEBRATE every exciting step. Remember, you worked hard honing your craft to get to this point. Take it all in, smile, be proud of yourself, and then get back to writing. 

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If you would like to enter Kathleen's giveaway for the items shown below, please go to: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/cd590dfc4/. Two winners will be chosen at random on August 31. (US or Canada residents only.)

Soldier Boys: A Review and a Giveaway

Congratulations to Caroline McAlister  for winning TANGLED LINES on last week's blog.

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Two soldiers, two boys. One American, one German. Prolific author Dean Hughes brings their lives, hopes, and dreams together in Soldier Boys (Simon and Schuster, 2001. Audio CD, 2016)

  

Spencer Morgan has just turned 15 in 1941. He longs to show that he is a man. He believes he'll accomplish that by joining the war effort and becoming a paratrooper--the toughest soldiers who receive the most respect. He daydreams about returning from action and impressing his crush, Lu Ann, with how brave and mature he has become. Although his father sees through his motivation, he reluctantly allows his son to drop out of high school and join. 

Spencer's superficial motivation is apparent. He wants to be a paratrooper in order to wear pants that blouse up, feel taller, do something hard, and be part of the best fighting group. He's also driven by his fear that the war would be over before he has a chance to accomplish his goals. 

On the other side of the Atlantic, Dieter Hedrick, has a similar ambition to be seen as a man. His story begins in 1939 while training with the Nazi Youth. He is ashamed of his parents who don't support Hitler; perhaps his father was a coward in the Great War. Dieter is small, delicate, and timid and like Spencer, is afraid he'll never have a chance to be a solider. Many of his decisions within the Hitler Youth are based on wanting to be known for his bravery and to be different than his father. 

The story flips back and forth between the boys as they prepare for combat. Not unexpectedly, Spencer finds that his training is much more difficult than imagined. Dieter digs anti-tank trenches with the Hitler youth to do his part in killing the "stinking Americans." He witnesses a friend deserting and being shot, but his devotion to his Fuhrer outweighs any sadness over his friend's death. 

As the story progresses towards the soldiers' inevitable meeting, the point of view switches quicker which increases the tension. The boys' beliefs in what they are doing push them forward and help them stay alive during freezing, snowy conditions. The reader views the Siege of Bastogne (part of the Battle of the Bulge) from both perspectives and sees how homesick both boys are at Christmas, how they kept warm in the trenches the same way, and how they both hear the order to fall back and retreat.

American soldiers of the 117th Infantry Regiment, Tennessee National Guard, part of the 30th Infantry Division, move past a destroyed American M5A1 "Stuart" tank on their march to recapture the town of St. Vithduring the Battle of the Bulge, January 1945. (Wikipedia) 

There are significant secondary characters in the story. Dieter's commanding officer, Schaffer, takes a father-like interest in Dieter and advises him not to get himself killed. Not until the end does Dieter realize that Schaffer was right and not the traitor he had supposed Schaffer to be. Spencer's friend Ted realizes that, "Out here you need to hate in order to kill them." Although he was similarly motivated as Spencer, he comes to believe, "We should not have wars."

The battle scene at the end is written in great detail. The ending is sad--how can a story about war not end without sadness? But Hughes redeems the ending by showing Dieter's changes: he quits the war and says he will think about it the rest of his life. 

Soldier Boys is obviously well-researched, but I didn't connect to the story emotionally. To be honest, that may have been because the narrator sounded dispassionate to me. I wasn't sure if that was on purpose--like a reporter narrating a news reel--or that was the narrator (Stephen Plunkett)'s way he interpreted the story. I was disappointed that so much time was spent in the book showing Spencer's paratrooper training, and yet a parachute never opened when they arrived in Europe. Perhaps that was what happened in "real life."

I recommend this book as one that boys will enjoy and as a classroom resource when studying World War II. It would provoke great
discussion about character motivation and why some young men enlist.

GIVEAWAY: Leave me a comment for a chance to win this audio CD along with your email address if you are new to my blog. I'm giving it away in conjunction with TALKING STORY's winter issue on Tough Topics. Leave a comment there and you'll be entered twice. Giveaway ends January 23. 

The Last Cherry Blossom: Review and ARC Giveaway

In my last post you read the backstory about Kathleen Burkinshaw's middle grade book, The Last Cherry Blossom. Now, here's the review...but be warned, I'm including a spoiler alert!

Fears and Mysteries

Twelve-year-old Yuriko has become accustomed to daily air raid drills and the sounds of American B-29's flying over Hiroshima. But even though the sounds are familiar, she is always worried: Will we actually get bombed? What if the school collapses? Will a desk actually protect me? Is my papa safe? How will I find him if a bomb hits us? (p. 2)

With that foreboding introduction, the reader is propelled into Yuriko's world in 1944. 

Before Yuriko leaves school in this opening scene of The Last Cherry Blossom, she asks her teacher for her grade on her ancestral project she just completed. Yuriko is proud her lineage traces back to samurai warriors in the 1600's. Against the backdrop of her anxiety over the air raid drills, Yuriko does not receive the praise she anticipates. Instead her teacher says, "That is not right."

She leaves without telling Yuriko what's wrong with her paper.  

That question, as well as the appearance of a friendly yet sad stranger, are mysteries snaking through this novel which will appeal to both girl and boy readers. 

No Longer Normal

Yuriko's "normal" is living with her beloved Papa, her Aunt Kimiko  (who she doesn't particularly like) and her pesky, younger cousin Genji, and sharing secrets with her best friend, Machiko. As a member of the upper class she is protected, loved, educated, and the recipient of luxuries like custom-made silk kimonos for the annual cherry blossom festival. 

Her life begins to change when her widowed father decides to remarry. At the same ceremony Kimiko remarries a man named Akira-san and suddenly the house holds two families instead of one. When an acquaintance alludes to a man named Nishimoto-san who would have loved to see her, Yuriko learns who her true parents are.  Like being hit by a bomb, Yurko begins to experience excruciating repercussions in her identity, family, and home life.  

Burkinshaw's use of lines from newspapers, posters, and radio shows at the beginning of each chapter effectively sets the story within its' historical and political context. The next chapter after Yuriko hears her devastating news is sub-titled, "No matter what sort of air raid comes, the neighborhood association will be safe." Since we know what happened at Hiroshima, the neighborhood association's words foreshadow more bad news for Yuriko. 

More Worries

Right after Tokyo is bombed, Yuriko walks into a conversation between Akira-san and her papa. 

 "Do you really think they will bomb our city?" I asked, a quaver to my voice.    

 "Anything is possible in war." As Papa said this my stomach swarmed with butterflies. I ran to him and welcomed his embrace.      

"Papa, are we all going to be all right?" I squeezed tighter. I swear all one hundred million hearts from the radio slogan were beating in my chest. Will fire be raining down on us soon? Maybe we should just live in the bomb shelters? But how is that really living?      

He hugged me close and then stepped back. He looked at me and said, "I will keep you safe."      

Akira-san added, "Our family's safety is our main concern." He glanced at Papa. "But now you should get ready for bed. It is late."      

I nodded and gave him a hug as well. When I got to the door, I turned and asked, "Papa, do you think we will have school tomorrow?"      

I noticed that both he and Akira-san looked up to answer. I did not know what made me feel worse--the fear that this new firebomb could be dropped on Hiroshima next or the tugging of my heart as both men responded to "Papa." (p. 133-4)

The Last Cherry Blossom reflects the mixture of cultures present in Japan during World War II. Yuriko's father loves The Three Stooges movies and she and Machiko listen to American jazz. At the same time, the emperor is considered divine and suicide is an honorable option if one falls into enemy hands. 

Cherry Blossoms

There are many lovely references to cherry blossoms which tie the book together. After attending the annual cherry blossom festival and singing and dancing, Yuriko returns home to a family celebration. 

Once we were all seated, Papa raises his glass and said, "Cherry blossoms are like life itself--so beautiful, yet so fragile that they bloom only a short time. A toast to my family and to enjoying our time together. Kanpai!" (p. 146)

 Sadly, a few months later, the atomic bomb destroys Yuriko's world. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3186815/The-nightmare-aftermath-Hiroshima-Parents-carry-burned-children-past-corpses-rubble-rare-photographs-taken-days-atomic-bomb-killed-140-000-people.html

After the bomb is dropped and Hiroshima is devastated, Yuriko faces one loss after another. Overwhelmed by sadness, she is close to giving up her own life. The sight of cherry blossoms falling off a tree help Yuriko choose a path out of despair and into a new life with a new family. As Kathleen Burkinshaw notes in the afterword, "Originally, scientists said nothing would grow again in Hiroshima soil for many years after the bomb was dropped. Yet the cherry blossoms bloomed the following spring." (p. 219)

https://www.parkingpanda.com/blog/post/sf-cherry-blossom-festival

To win my ARC, please leave me a comment by July 28. If you are new to my blog, make sure you leave your email address. AND if you decide to start following the blog, let me know and I'll enter your name twice. You can enter again even if you entered last week. Don't worry- I'm keeping track of the growing list of entries!

If random.org doesn't choose your name, you'll have another chance to win The Last Cherry Blossom in September. Joyce Hostetter and I will be giving away a copy through our next issue of Talking Story on "Radiation: Friend or Foe". And if all else fails, of course you can buy one here!

We Bought a WWII Bomber: A Review and A Giveaway

Congratulations to Dorothy Price who won an autographed copy of Kiss of Broken Glass.

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Here are three observations about WE BOUGHT A WWII BOMBER by North Carolina author, Sandra Warren:

1. Sandra did a great deal of research. The amount of details in this book for adults and teens is reflected in the extensive bibliography. 

2. Today's teenagers are different than the patriotic, self-sacrificing teenagers who lived seventy years ago. Those students learned how to live with shortages of food, how to collect materials that could be re-purposed for the war effort, and willingly participated in scrap metal drives and rationing. Would we see that type of commitment and patriotism today?

3. I knew that Kate and Lillie, the protagonists in my book, Half-Truths, would have been in elementary school during World War II. Reading this book made the time period come alive for me and helped me think more deeply about how those shortages affected them.

WE BOUGHT A WWII BOMBER is the story of a dedicated group of junior and senior high students who raised more than $375,000 by selling War Bonds and War Stamps to purchase a B-17 bomber. The story begun in 1942 by a quiet student, Arthur Blackport, when he suggested that his fellow students at South High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan work together to purchase a Flying Fortress. 

Arthur Blackport

Not only did the students raise enough money to purchase the bomber, 

Queen La Vonne Kronberg, Col. A.C. Faulk
Mr. Henry Mulder, Mr. Harry Brown


but they also successfully raised money to buy an advanced trainer plane,

Queen LaVonne Kronberg, Jean Endless, Velma Kling, Lucille Hice
Barbara Northway, Margaret McCarthy AT-6A Advanced Trainer

as well as two disaster vehicles (which were a combination canteen, ambulance, and hospital car), and sixty-three fully equipped landing barges. 

U.S. Army Signal Corps photograph
Gift in Memory of Maurice T. White
Collection of the National WWII Museum

After the bomber was officially christened and flown off, the students wondered what happened to it. "How many battles had it won? How many German or Japanese planes had it destroyed?" (p. 49)

For seventy years no one knew what happened to the plane. The students heard rumors, but no facts. But in 2012, at her Class of 1962 fiftieth South High reunion, a remark which Sandra Warren made about "Searching for the Spirit" prompted a fellow classmate, Joe Rogers, to start digging for the truth. 

Joe uncovered the fate of "The Spirit of South High" which enabled Sandra to write this story. 

WWII USAAF aviation plug socket FOUND by
John Reynolds, May 3, 2015 at the crash site,
Meadows of Dan, Virginia

Click here for a FOX news interview with Sandra Warren about the book. 



Sandra's attention to detail made this period come alive for me and I hope the book will inspire you. I am happy to give away my autographed copy of WE BOUGHT A WWII BOMBER. Please leave me a comment by 6 PM on Thursday, January 21 and your email address if you are new to this blog. PLUS--if you are in or near Central Florida, Sandra is speaking at the World War II study club on January 29 at the Colony Recreation Center in The Villages from 1-3 PM. Come on by and meet the author!

Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky by Sandra Dallas: A Review and Giveaway

Congratulations to Sheri Levy who won an autographed copy of "Mr. Puffball: Stunt Cat to the Stars."

The year is 1942 and for 12-year-old Tomi Itano, a second-generation Japanese-American, life is about to change. Tomi loves everything about her home: the strawberries her father grows on their farm, her Girl Scout troop, her Japanese doll, which her grandparents sent her, and the American flag, which her father proudly salutes every day.

JapaneseAmericansChildrenPledgingAllegiance1942-2 by Photo attributed to Dorothea Lange(w). Via US Library of CongressFarm Security Administration and Office of War Information Collection
(Library of Congress). CALL NUMBER: LOT 1801

But amidst the paranoia of World War II, when Japanese newspapers and letters from home, are “proof” of being an enemy spy, the Itano’s become victims of fear, prejudice, and false accusations. Tomi’s father is arrested and taken to prison.  After President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 ordering thousands of Japanese to be relocated, Mrs. Itano and her three children are taken to a series of interment camps. They finally are taken to Tall Grass, Colorado (a fictionalized camp based on Hamache) where they are forced to make a 16 x 20 square foot room their apartment.

Posted Japanese American Exclusion Order" by Department of the Interior. War Relocation Authority
This media is available in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration, cataloged under the ARC Identifier (National Archives Identifier) 536017.

Despite always worrying how Mr. Itano will find them, the family adjusts to camp life.  Although they don’t want to be there, the children gain friends and Mrs. Itano blossoms in her new role as a quilting teacher. Interactions with the local townspeople add more spice to the story. When Dennis, a boy Tomi meets, confronts her on being “un-American” because of how she looks, she retaliates in anger. Discovering he is the son of a German immigrant, she questions if everyone should be rounded up and shipped to a camp just because they all don’t look alike. His changed attitude towards the Japanese would be a great teaching point for teachers using this book in an upper elementary/middle school classroom.

Original caption: Hayward, California. Members of the Mochida family awaiting evacuation bus. Identification tags are used to aid in keeping the family unit intact during all phases of evacuation. Mochida operated a nursery and five greenhouses on a two-acre site in Eden Township. He raised snapdragons and sweet peas. 

When Mr. Itano is finally reunited with the family, he is a different man. Being unfairly imprisoned has left him bitter.  His love for the country he chose is replaced with anger and apathy. On top of that, his family has changed. His wife is no longer silent and submissive, his family doesn’t eat together, and his son wants to join the army. Unfortunately, his bitterness infects Tomi and her outlook changes also.  Not until Tomi writes a prize-winning essay on “Why I am an American” based on her father’s immigrant hopes and dreams, do her and her father’s attitudes change.

I was most captivated by Tomi’s mother. Faced with the challenges of being a mail-order bride, raising a family in a foreign country, being shuttled from one interment camp to another, and then a bumpy reunion with her husband who is unhappy with her Americanization—she showed the most endurance and strength.  Her authentic response to difficulties was the glue that kept her family together.

The book is recommended for reader ages 8 and up. I think that an 8-year-old would be too young to appreciate and learn from this story; I believe it is more suitable for boys and girls who are at least 10-year-old. Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky is Sandra Dallas' second book about a terrible period in our nation’s history, and can be a valuable classroom supplement.  Jennifer Ikeda, the narrator of the audio book, did a good job creating the Japanese and American voices.

I took this picture on a recent trip to Bainbridge Island near Seattle Seattle. Then I found this on the same Wikipedia site where I found all of the black and white images.

Bainbridge Island (Wash.) evacuation -- Group of young evacuees wave from
special train as it leaves Seattle with Island evacuees, March 30, 1942

By the way, the 442nd Infantry Regiment which Tomi's brother joined, was composed of almost entirely of Japanese Americans whose families were in interment camps. It was the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of American warfare. 

Thanks to the generosity of Recorded Books, I am able to offer this audiobook to a blog reader. Please leave me a comment by May 14 and I’ll enter your name in the giveaway. It will be a great addition to a school or homeschool library.  

Rose Under Fire: A Review and a Giveaway!

I wish this book didn't exist.

What I mean is that I wish Rose Under Fire, a brutally honest book about a young American pilot imprisoned in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, didn't demand to be written.

But unfortunately, it did.

Rose Moyer Justice is an 18-year-old American Air Transport Auxiliary pilot ferrying planes for the British government. Although World War II is drawing to a close, during a semi-secret flight she is captured by the Germans. For six long and painful months, Rose is incarcerated with thousands of other female political prisoners and seventy-four Polish victims of Nazi human experimentation who are nicknamed "The Rabbits."

Women working in Ravensbruck.
Photo courtesy YadVashem

Wein holds nothing back from showing Rose's physical, emotional, and mental struggles in the concentration camp. Her descriptions are full of such convincing detail that I felt guilty eating a granola bar while listening to it; the characters' starvation and deprivation had become so real to me. Similarly, when I listened to Rose's beautiful poetry sprinkled throughout the story I had to remind myself that Elizabeth Wein had penned these words. In the same way in which her fellow prisoners clung to her poetry, desperate for beauty in the midst of a world of despair, I felt as if the poems were gifts from Rose herself.

Six million Jews dying in concentration camps is a number difficult to comprehend  But like seeing thousands of shoes at the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., I'll remember individual stories because Wein used amazing characterization and deep point of view to show each one.  

In the concentration camp Rose becomes a part of a "family;" a small group of prisoners bonded together by their desperate hope to survive. Lisette Romilly is nicknamed the "lagermutter" and acts as the mother to the group. A French musician, professor, and novelist, her character is based on Irène Némirovsky who was killed in Auschwitz. Lisette is arrested after her Jewish Polish husband is killed and she attempts to return to France. Rose realizes that Lisette deals with the loss of her sons and husband by mothering her small prison flock. Lisette moderates sibling-like squabbles in her family and fiercely protects and provides for them--by getting small scraps of bread, obtaining contraband medicine, and finding places for the rabbits to hide. 

Róża Czajkowska is fourteen when Lisette meets her. A fierce Polish member of the Gray Banks, an underground paramilitary association. she was arrested delivering explosives to the underground. Lisette begins mothering her when they are imprisoned together in the Lublin castle. When they reach Ravensbrück, Róża is one of the first to be operated on. This is from the mock interview with Lisette: 

"The theory was that the camp doctors would simulate battle wounds on their legs to find cures for German soldiers injured on the Eastern front. My companions had muscle, nerve and bone cut from their legs, or had gangrene cultured in purpose-made wounds in their healthy flesh. Several of our transport died after the first round of experiments in the autumn of 1942." 

Lisette's mission is to get Róża out of Germany so the world will see the atrocities performed there. Rose and Róża are joined by their shared name, Rose's poetry, and the challenge to "tell the world."

 

Scars on a woman's leg after medical experimentation.
Photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

Anna Engel, is one of the harsh women's S.S. guards assigned to Rose's unit. (Spoiler alert: She plays an important secondary role in Code Name Verity, a companion volume to this book). When she discovers that Rose is American, a unique relationship develops between the two women. Anna attended college in the United States and misses American food. In exchange for recipes and cigarettes, Rose procures calcium supplements for Róża. While listening to the book I kept wondering about Anna's (and the other guards) motivations to treat their prisoners with such unfeeling brutality. Wein does a good job of answering that question through glimpses into Anna's backstory.  Wein's portrayal of this sympathetic antagonist is very believable. In fact, Wein told me that she thought Anna was the best character she has ever created. 

I was worried that Rose Under Fire would end too soon; that I wouldn't know what happened to Rose or Róża. But their bravery against overwhelming odds built on a friendship in which they challenge each other to overcome their fears, provides a perfect ending to a powerful book. 

The audiobook was narrated by Sasha Pick who does an outstanding job of portraying a variety of foreign accents. Without question, her excellent narration drew me further into the story. 

I rarely give a five star rating to any book on Goodreads. But this winner of the 2014 Schenider Family Book Award is at least a six in my book. Wein's commitment to historical accuracy combined with a well-plotted story using beautiful language makes this a book I will remember for a long time. In my first email to Elizabeth I confessed I had a hard time saying I enjoyed her book because it was painfully wonderful. She wrote back, "Funny you should say 'enjoying' might not be the best word - when it first came out I'd say to people, "I hope you enjoy it - well, you won't enjoy it, but I hope you appreciate it!" THANK YOU for appreciating it. When I was writing Rose, my Jewish aunt and uncle (my father was Jewish) pointed out to me that if our grandparents hadn't left Europe in the early 20th century, we'd all be dead including my children. It's unbelievable how far-reaching that shadow is. We are the lucky ones."

Roza and her fellow prisoners urge Rose to "Tell the world!" In Rose Under Fire Wein has accomplished exactly that. 

Scroll through Elizabeth Wein's website and you'll find many materials which will facilitate classroom discussion. If you want to picture what life was like for Rose, view this You Tube video by chronoshistory:



To win an autographed hard copy of the Canadian edition of this book, please leave me your name (and email address if you are new to this blog) by Thursday, February 20th. Share this on your favorite social media or follow my blog, and I'll put your name in twice; just let me know what you did. 

This is a book you don't want to miss.