All the Light We Cannot See

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Bibliographic data:

Doerr, Anthony (2014).  All the Light We Cannot See.  Read by Zach Appleman.  New York: Simon & Schuster Audio.

Summary: 

Marie-Laure lives in Paris with her father.  When Marie-Laure goes blind at age 6, her father and his colleagues at Museum of Natural-History work together to ensure she is able to navigate her way though the world.  When the Nazi’s occupy Paris during World War II, Marie-Laure’s father is given an important task, which takes them away from the city to her uncle’s home on the coast.  Here, Marie-Laure’s life forever changes.

Werner is a German boy living in an orphanage with his younger sister.  He is mechanically minded, brilliant and ambitious.  After finding a broken radio, he teaches himself how to repair it.  Soon, he is repairing every radio in his small town.  These skills eventually take him to a Hitler youth academy where he builds his technical and emotional knowledge before joining the war. 

Without knowing of each other, Marie-Laure and Werner’s lives are deeply intertwined.  Do a radio, a diamond and a war have the power to bring them together?

Analysis: 

Written for older young adult readers, All the Light We Cannot See is a complicated read.  To begin, there are multiple story lines that cover multiple countries and years.  These stories are not told solely from the perspectives of Marie-Laure and Werner, but also half a dozen other characters.  In addition to these complicated aspects, the story is not presented chronologically.  The opening chapter has Marie-Laure in her uncle’s house as Saint-Malo is being bombed near the end of the war.  After this, we are with a young Werner in Germany, then Marie-Laure before she looses her vision.  These elements are engaging, however they require an advanced reader with solid comprehension skills.

While historically accurate, Marie-Laure and Werner are easily relatable.  Their concerns and thoughts mirror those of youth today, in spite of the darkness of their time period.  The powerlessness they feel, unable to fully control their lives, as well as their restlessness to want to be somewhere else are fairly universal themes for young people. 

It is interesting to have a story about World War II that tells the perspective of German citizens.  While there are many stories that speak to the tribulations those under the Nazi’s experienced, it is rare to hear the perspective of common Germans or Nazi soldiers.   This perspective would make an interesting discussion point to speak about group mindset, selfishness versus selflessness or to use as a writing prompt against a book such as Night by Elie Wiesel.

Activity:

Marie-Laure and Werner’s lives are interconnected due to radios.  Years before she was born, Marie-Laure’s grandfather and great-uncle produced a scientific radio program.  Marie-Laure’s uncle continues to broadcast the program using a transmitter in his attic.  As children, Werner and his sister find the program and love listening to the calm voice explain difficult scientific concepts. 

Readers will create their own children’s radio program.  The readers will decide on a topic on which they are experts.  They should create an outline of the key concepts that are important to the subject, and then write a script breaking these concepts down so that young children would be able to learn from their expertise.  When they are finished, they will record and publish their script to a site such as youtube.com.

Related Resources:

Every year for Marie-Laure’s birthday, she receives two gifts from her father: a Braille book and a homemade puzzle box with chocolates inside.  Despite her blindness, Marie-Laure is always able to quickly discover the secrets of his puzzle boxes, even though they often have more than a dozen steps to solve.

Puzzle Boxes: Fun and Intriguing Band Saw Projects would bring these puzzle boxes to life for a skilled reader.  The book provides instructions on how to create wooden puzzle boxes, just like the ones Marie-Laure received for her birthday.

Vollmer, Jeff. (2012).  Puzzle Boxes: Fun and Intriguing Band Saw Projects. Cincinnati: F+W Media.

Marie-Laure’s father works at the Paris Museum of Natural History.  Until the occupation of Paris, Marie-Laure accompanies him when he goes to work.  Here, the museum’s scientists and director teach Marie-Laure about the artifacts in the museum and encourage her curiosity about the scientific world.

Using the automatic translation feature of Google Chrome, English speaking readers can experience the modern day Paris museum through its website.  Of particular interest based on the book would be the Jewels of the Museum page, where gems and precious stones can be viewed or the Evolution of Living which features biological sciences.

Museum National D’Histoire Naturelle.  Retrieved from https://www.mnhn.fr/fr (accessed July 8, 2016)

Published Review:

“A novel to live in, learn from, and feel bereft over when the last page is turned, Doerr’s magnificently drawn story seems at once spacious and tightly composed. It rests, historically, during the occupation of France during WWII, but brief chapters told in alternating voices give the overall—and long—­narrative a swift movement through time and events. We have two main characters, each one on opposite sides in the conflagration that is destroying Europe. Marie-Louise is a sightless girl who lived with her father in Paris before the occupation; he was a master locksmith for the Museum of Natural History. When German forces necessitate abandonment of the city, Marie-Louise’s father, taking with him the museum’s greatest treasure, removes himself and his daughter and eventually arrives at his uncle’s house in the coastal city of Saint-Malo. Young German soldier Werner is sent to Saint-Malo to track Resistance activity there, and eventually, and inevitably, Marie-Louise’s and Werner’s paths cross. It is through their individual and intertwined tales that Doerr masterfully and knowledgeably re-creates the deprived civilian conditions of war-torn France and the strictly controlled lives of the military occupiers.High-Demand Backstory: A multipronged marketing campaign will make the author’s many fans aware of his newest book, and extensive review coverage is bound to enlist many new fans.”

Hooper, Brad. (2014).  All the Light We Cannot See. n.p.: Booklist, 2014. Book Index with Reviews, EBSCOhost (accessed July 8, 2016).

The Book Thief

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Bibliography

Zusak, Markus.  The Book Thief.  New York: Knopf, 2005.  978-0-375-84220-7

Summary

Liesel was not born a thief, it is a habit she has decided to cultivate and develop.  Stealing books gives her something she can control in an otherwise uncontrollable world.  Given up by her mother, watching her brother die, and living in a nation being torn apart of the atrocities of Hitler and World War Two, there is little else in her life she has power over.  While stealing away her books, Liesel learns to hope from those around her, discovers a new family and learns compassion in ways she never could imagine.

Analysis

While stories of the Holocaust and Hitler are popular these days, The Book Thief stands out.  To begin, it does not tell the story of concentration camps or Jews, but rather the life of a young, average, German girl.  Rather than focusing on the atrocities experienced by the persecuted, Zusak illustrates the everyday struggles of the poor and under-educated; a population easily over looked by history due to their lack of involvement or direct suffering during the war.  To add to this unique perspective, The Book Thief is voiced by a narrator who, while a major player in World War Two is rarely heard directly from; that of Death himself.

It seems only appropriate that Death would narrate a novel that is set in Germany in the midst of World War Two.  The voice that Zusak has created for him is somehow equally unexpected and absolutely perfect.  Death is cool and causal about the events of the human world around him, painting a picture of the world Liesel lives in without becoming overly connected to the humans he passes and carries.  At the same time, he is able to express all the anguish, fear and hope those who live with Liesel on Himmel Street experience, giving insights that allow the reader to connect with every major character in the book.

Of all the characters, Liesel and her Papa, Hans, are the most likeable.  Every action they take shows the depth of their compassion and the quality of their characters.  While the rest of Germany appears to have aligned their beliefs with Hitler, Hans does what is right and not popular, despite the repercussions he faces.  Liesel, in her own, more selfish way, also does what is right; rather than live illiterate and uneducated, she searches for opportunities to steal knowledge and learning.  Together, they work to make the best of the bad situation they have been given, eternally optimists.

Awards and Reviews

*SLJ Best Book of the Year

*Michael L. Printz Honor Book

*National Jewish Book Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature

*Daniel Elliott Peace Award

“The Book Thie’ is perched on the cusp between grown-up and young-adult fiction, and it is loaded with librarian appeal. It deplores human misery. It celebrates the power of language. It may encourage adolescents to read. It has an element of the fanciful. And it's a book that bestows a self-congratulatory glow upon anyone willing to grapple with it….

To be sure, The Book Thief attempts and achieves great final moments of tear-jerking sentiment. And Liesel is a fine heroine, a memorably strong and dauntless girl. But for every startlingly rebellious episode — Rudy's Führer-baiting impersonation of the black American athlete Jesse Owens, the building of an indoor snowman for a Jew in hiding, the creation of books and drawings that frame Liesel and Max's experiences as life-affirming fairy tales — there are moments that are slack.

The Book Thief will be appreciated for Mr. Zusak's audacity, also on display in his earlier I Am the Messenger. It will be widely read and admired because it tells a story in which books become treasures. And because there's no arguing with a sentiment like that.”  -New York Times

“When Death tells a story, you pay attention. Liesel Meminger is a young girl growing up outside of Munich in Nazi Germany, and Death tells her story as “an attempt—a flying jump of an attempt—to prove to me that you, and your human existence, are worth it.” When her foster father helps her learn to read and she discovers the power of words, Liesel begins stealing books from Nazi book burnings and the mayor’s wife’s library. As she becomes a better reader, she becomes a writer, writing a book about her life in such a miserable time. Liesel’s experiences move Death to say, “I am haunted by humans.” How could the human race be “so ugly and so glorious” at the same time? This big, expansive novel is a leisurely working out of fate, of seemingly chance encounters and events that ultimately touch, like dominoes as they collide. The writing is elegant, philosophical and moving. Even at its length, it’s a work to read slowly and savor. Beautiful and important.” –Kirkus

Connections

Read Night by ElieWiesel or Maus by Art Spiegelman.  Using what you learned about Max from the The Book Thief and the image of life in the concentration camps created by the other book, create a journal or narrative of Max’s life after the Germans captured him. 

Liesel is around the same age as Dewey from The Green Glass Sea and alive during the same time period, however their life experiences are very different.  Write a script of a conversation between the two girls about their experiences during World War Two.

Watch the movie version of The Book Thief.  Compare and contrast the two stories. Which version do you like more?  Why?

Markus Zusak writes about his book being made into a movie.

The movie trailer

An interview with Zusak

Zusak’s Twitter

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