Rodzina

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Bibliography

Cushman, Karen.  Rodzina.  New York: Clarion Books, 2003.  0-618-133-518

Summary

By the age of twelve, Rodzina Clara Jadwiga Anastazya Brodski had more life experience than most people three times her age.  After immigrating with her family to Chicago, she lived a happy life for a number of years being cared for by her mother, sharing laughter with her father and watching over her two younger brothers.  In her twelfth year, her happiness quickly disappeared as her entire family passed away.  Alone and penniless, she lived on the streets before being sent west on an orphan train to find a new family.  But who would want a potato-nosed, not-so-pretty girl? 

Analysis

The idea of becoming an orphan is intriguing to children.  It is a tragedy they can easily imagine, they are able to immediately understand the effect the loss of their parents would have on their life.  This relatable tragedy draws children into Rodzina’s story.  The intrigue of the historical facts keeps them engaged and interested in her world.

Rodzina is amazing similar to children today.  Her hopes, fears and desires mirror those of any child; she wants a family who cares for her, who will love her and who will take care of her no matter what.  These universal and timeless themes keep the reader connected to Rodzina when her experiences venture far from modern day expectations and standards. 

Taking place aboard the trans-continental railway, the reader is reminded of the setting not only with the descriptions of the passing landscape but also by the title of each chapter, which tells where the train has stopped.  At many of these stops, Rodzina reads the advertisements that are posted, giving the reader an idea of what was important to people of the time and creating a frame of reference for the decisions the characters make. 

Rodzina’s story, while fictional, is historically accurate and based on research.  For students who wish to know more, a list of books for further reading is at the back of the book following Cushman’s notes telling about the orphan trains and the orphan train experience.

Awards and Reviews

*Parents’ Choice Gold Award

*Booklist Editor’s Choice

*Booklinks Lasting Connections Selection

“Rodzina is prickly, stubborn, and heart-sore but she's also honest, likable and smart...Enough unpredictability to nicely unsettle expectations." –The Horn Book

“A natural for American history or social studies classes...especially interesting as a women's history title...a great story." –Booklist

“Engaging characters, a vivid setting, and a prickly but endearing heroine... first-person narrative captures... personality and spirit...poignancy, humor.” –School Library Journal

Connections

Create a map of the trans-continental railway.  Add markers showing key points in Rodzina’s journey west.

Research orphan trains.  Were the trains a good or bad idea?  Justify your opinion with facts from your research.

20 Facts about Karen Cushman

Interview with Cushman

Choose one of the other orphans from the story.  Write their story.  Include details about their life in Chicago, their thoughts about being on the orphan train and their hopes for what they will find in a new family.  Be sure to align your ideas with the character Cushman created.

The Green Glass Sea

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Bibliography

Klages, Ellen.  Read by Julie Dretzin.  The Green Glass Sea [CD].  New York: Penguin Putnam/Recorded Books.  2006.  9781428146396

Summary

In the midst of World War Two, life is difficult for all Americans.  This is particularly true for eleven-year-old Dewey Kerrigan.  After being abandoned by her mother as a toddler, Dewey has spent many years in the care of her grandmother while her father, a well-known and respected mathematician, has moved around the country teaching and working for the government.  After her grandmother suffers a stroke, Dewey is reunited with her father in Los Alamos, New Mexico where they live on a top-secret military base with scores of other mathematicians and scientists developing some type of “Gadget.”  Life on The Hill is a dream for Dewey; living with her father and being surrounded by brilliant men and women who are able to answer all her questions about math, science and machines without concerning themselves with her gender.  Her happiness on The Hill is interrupted when her father is requested to work in Washington, once again leaving her in the care of others.  This time however, it is not her grandmother but a family she hardly knows with a daughter who dislikes Dewey…and they are sharing a bedroom.

Analysis

Julie Dretzin expertly reads the seven unabridged CDs that make up this audio book.  Dretzin is a well-rehearsed and experienced performer, having acted on Broadway.  Her experience and expertise are easily heard through the multiple voices she creates, giving each character their own distinct sound.  A mental picture of Dewey is easy to create when listening to her small and uncertain voice talk about complicated mechanics and science concepts.  The confidence of a world-renowned mathematician comes through in her father’s voice, while at the same time capturing the uncertainty and stress of the project he is working so hard on.  There are no additional sound effects, beyond music to indicate the beginning and end of each CD, but the reader needs no additional noise, between Dretzin’s reading and Klages words a clear understanding and mental movie are created.

The Green Glass Sea is a perfect balance of fact and fiction.  The themes running through the book of family love, peer acceptance and following your dreams ring true in any time period while the feel of the fifties is captured through discussions of war, popular activities like “grabbing a Coke” and use of phrases such as “spiffy.”  The top secret nature of “The Project” keeps technical science talk to a minimum, however all the hints and overheard conversations are accurate.

The story itself is engaging and compelling, both to the intended young adult audience as well as to older readers.  Younger readers will easily connect with Dewey, who is confident in her ability and preferences, but lacks social graces with her peers.  Many young readers will be able to relate to her, sympathizing with her pain about being teased and understanding her interest in things her peers just don’t appreciate.  The mystery project that all the scientists and mathematicians are working on will keep kids wondering, while the code words used to describe the project will engage and entertain.  Girls, especially those interested in math and science, will find the social attitudes about women in these fields intriguing and unfair and will develop a new appreciation for how far society has come.

Older readers with a deeper understanding of World War Two will enjoy a peek into the daily lives of the civilians who worked endlessly to create the first atomic bomb.  Through the eyes of Dewey, we are able to see how life was for these brilliant minds, their motivations and hesitations about creating the most destructive force known to mankind.  The inner workings of the base and how the children of the project lived are subjects rarely touched on by historians and provide a new angle to an old subject. 

Awards and Reviews

*Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction- 2007

*Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children’s Literature – 2007

*One Book, One Nebraska for Kids – 2009

“Klages makes an impressive debut with an ambitious, meticulously researched novel set during WWII. Writing from the points of view of two displaced children, she successfully recreates life at Los Alamos Camp, where scientists and mathematicians converge with their families to construct and test the first nuclear bomb. Eleven-year-old Dewey, the daughter of a math professor, is shunned by the other girls at the camp due to her passionate interest in mechanics and her fascination with the dump, which holds all sorts of mechanisms and tools she can use for her projects. Her classmate Suze is also often snubbed and has been nicknamed "Truck" by her classmates ("'cause she's kind of big and likes to push people around," explains one boy). The two outcasts reluctantly come together when Dewey's father is called away to Washington, D.C., and Dewey temporarily moves in with Suze's family. Although the girls do not get along at first (Suze draws a chalk line in her room to separate their personal spaces), they gradually learn to rely on each other for comfort, support and companionship. Details about the era-popular music, pastimes and products-add authenticity to the story as do brief appearances of some historic figures including Robert Oppenheimer....the author provides much insight into the controversies surrounding the making of the bomb and brings to life the tensions of war experienced by adults and children alike.” –Publisher’s Weekly

“Dewey is an especially engaging character, plunging on with her mechanical projects and ignoring any questions about gender roles. Occasional shifts into first person highlight the protagonist's most emotional moments, including her journey to the site.... After the atomic bomb test succeeds, ethical concerns of both youngsters and adults intensify as the characters learn how it is ultimately used. Many readers will know as little about the true nature of the project as the girls do, so the gradual revelation of facts is especially effective, while those who already know about Los Alamos's historical significance will experience the story in a different, but equally powerful, way.” –School Library Journal

 Connections

Ellen Klages biography

The Penguin Educator’s Guide for The Green Glass Sea

Have students read WhiteSands, Red Menace, Klages continuation of the story.

Research the Manhattan Project, then look for historical facts included in the The Green Glass Sea.

Read another story of World War Two, such as Number the Stars or The Diary of Anne Frank.  Compare the lives of the girls, who were alive at the same point in history.  

Have students write a letter from Dewey to a child in Hiroshima after the bombing.  Have students reflect on how Dewey would feel about the dropping of the bomb and what she would want to convey to its' victims.

Breaking Stalin's Nose

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Bibliography

Yelchin, Eugene.  Breaking Stalin’s Nose.  New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2011.  9780805092165

Summary

Sasha Zaichik is a loyal communist, dedicated to Joseph Stalin.  Sasha longs to be just like his father, an honored and awarded member of the USSR’s State Security.  Sasha has an unwavering belief in communist ideals and sees that everything around him aligns with the perfect world Stalin is working so hard to create.  He lives with forty-eight people in a communal apartment with one small kitchen and one toilet, which helps develop community and assists them in taking care of each other.  When his father comes home, the neighbors fall quiet, not due to the fear their faces show but because of respect for him as a good communist. 

In the middle of the night, State Security officers come, tear apart the room Sasha shares with his father and take his father away.  As the neighbors move into the now unoccupied room, Sasha is left reeling.  Certain that a mistake has been made, he goes through the night and the next day with as much normalcy as possible, however every passing event turns his world more upside-down.

Analysis

From the title and standard American perspective, Breaking Stalin’s Nose would appear to be a typical book opposed to the ideals of communism and the beliefs of the USSR during the early twentieth century.  These assumptions and background make the first chapter an amazing hook.  The book begins with a letter to Stalin, praising him and the state he has created.  Without a hint of sarcasm or mischief, the letter speaks of the unfortunate American children and how blessed the writer is to have been born under such a strong, wise leader.  This conflict against traditional American ideals continues throughout the book, driving the reader forward, wondering if Sasha will continue in his firm belief or if his faith in Stalin will be broken.

In his first novel, Zaichik has created an intriguing story that is supplemented by his black and white, cartoonish illustrations.  For younger readers, the illustrations will serve to assist in picturing the world described, however the story stands strong on its own.  

Awards and Reviews

*2012 Newbery

"Mr.  Yelchin has compressed into two days of events an entire epoch, giving young readers a glimpse of the precariousness of life in a capricious yet ever-watchful totalitarian state."  -Wall Street Journal

"Through Sasha's fresh and optimistic voice, Yelchin powerfully renders an atmosphere of fear that forces false confessions, even among schoolchildren, and encourage neighbors and family members to betray one another without evidence.  Readers will quickly pick up on the dichotomy between Sasha's ardent beliefs and the reality of life under Stalinism, and be glad for his ultimate disillusion, even as they worry for his future."  -Publisher's Weekly

"Yelchin's debut novel does a superb job of depicting the tyranny of the group, whether residents of a communal apartment, kids on the playground, students in the classroom or government officials.  It's the readiness of the group to create outsiders--bad ones, "unreliables,""wreckers"--by instilling fear in everyone that chills.  Not many books for such a young audience address the Stalinist era, when, between 1923 and 1953, leaving a legacy of fear for future generations."  --Kirkus Reviews

Connections

To begin reading, watch the first chapter read by “Sasha” himself.

Explore the Breaking Stalin’s Nose website. 

Research Stalin and Communism to gain a deeper understanding of Sasha's experiences.

Sasha starts the book by writing a letter to Stalin.  After having read the book, students can write another letter from Sasha to Stalin taking into account all the events from the book.  What does Sasha have to say to Stalin now?

What would a world be like living in tight quarters with people you didn't know if you could trust?  Imagine you live in a shared apartment.  Write a letter to a friend explaining the ups and downs of this living situation while trying to persuade him to live in a room of your shared apartment.

Macmillan discussion guide