Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys.

“Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth? That morning, my brother's was worth a pocket watch.”

One of the dream classes I would like to teach, if I was allowed to teach whatever I wanted, would be a war literature class. There is something incredibly powerful in the literature focused in periods of brutality and violence that really speaks to me. I also think that war literature is incredibly profound and moving-especially for high school students. Many of my students haven't faced that kind of hardship and loss (Not all, but many), so it would be a great learning experience for them.

And among the piles of books I would love to include in this class (titles like The Book Thief, The Things They Carried, Maus, All Quiet on the Western Front, 1776, Slaughterhouse-Five, Night, Birdsong, Johnny Got His Gun, The Diary of Anne Frank, and more...), I would include this new release by Ruta Sepetys.

I bought this at the bidding of our media specialist during the second week of school at our school book fair. She told me she had heard wonderful things about it and thought that I might like it. So, I bought it, brought it home, and there it sat for a number of weeks until I was feeling restless one Friday evening. Home alone and needing a new book to read, I pulled it out of the pile, snuggled in bed, and began reading.

Two hours later, I closed the back cover with a huge lump in my throat. This book...it wasn't what I expected. I was moved, immediately, by the passion and power of Lina's story. What happened to her and her family...I've never read about it before-not in high school and not in any of my college history classes. I never realized that people of her descent (Lithuanian) were sent away during WWII-to Siberia of all places-and by Stalin. We are so often consumed by the disgusting nature of Hitler and the Nazis that we forget the other dictator of the time. Lina's struggle to survive was so similar to what happened to the Jewish people during the Holocaust (both were sent to camps, shot down, starved, forced into labor, etc), and I was simply blown away.

And it wasn't that this was just another book about the horrors and atrocities of WWII. I mean, I'm sure we've all read the stories of the camp survivors. We talk about it often in history classes so that we don't forget, but it is the stories like these, those that are less heard, that truly strike a chord.

But what really makes this book powerful is the honesty and raw nature of the writing. As a young adult novel tackling some harsh and brutal themes, Sepetys does a masterful job of bringing humanity and life to a dark story. It was beautiful and moved me that night I read it.

“November 20. Andrius's birthday. I had counted the days carefully. I wished him a happy birthday when I woke and thought about him while hauling logs during the day. At night, I sat by the light of the stove, reading Dombey and Son. Krasivaya. I still hadn't found the word. Maybe I'd find it if I jumped ahead. I flipped through some of the pages. A marking caught my eye. I leafed backward. Something was written in pencil in the margin of 278.
Hello, Lina. You've gotten to page 278. That's pretty good!
I gasped, then pretened I was engrossed in the book. I looked at Andrius's handwritting. I ran my finger over this elongated letters in my name. Were there more? I knew I should read onward. I couldn't wait. I turned though the pages carefully, scanning the margins.
Page 300:
Are you really on page 300 or are you skipping ahead now?
I had to stifle my laughter.
Page 322:
Dombey and Son is boring. Admit it.
Page 364:
I'm thinking of you.
Page 412:
Are you maybe thinking of me?
I closed my eyes.
Yes, I'm thinking of you. Happy birthday, Andrius.”

Since reading this (nearly a month ago), I have been trying to persuade some students to give it a chance. Many of them refuse, saying that books about war are boring and "unimportant." Their attitudes are the reason I want to teach war literature-to show that there is beauty in war, and to honor those who have fallen.

"...says that evil will rule until good men or women choose to act. I believe him. This testimony was written to create an absolute record, to speak in a world where our voices have been extinguished. These writing may shock or horrify you, but that is not my intention. It is my greatest hope that the pages in this jar stir your deepest well of human compassion. I hope they prompt you to do something, to tell someone. Only then can we ensure that this kind of evil is never allowed to repeat itself.”

Catch-22 Update 1.

“He was going to live forever, or die in the attempt.”

I am about a third of the way through Joseph Heller's Catch-22. You might recall that I am reading this book as my juniors are working on their independent novel project (the projects are going alright...they are losing enthusiasm as we near the end of the school year). I'm really enjoying the book so far, even though I am not as far as I should be (shhh...don't tell my kids that).

Going into reading the book, I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew the book was set in a war, so I was expecting more of that. I didn't really expect the sarcasm, satirical wit, and outright craziness of the novel.

It opens with a group of soldiers in a hospital. Yossarrian, the main character, discusses the men around him and his desire to avoid actual fighting in the war. He uses his own issues to avoid being sent back into action, and avoids telling the doctors the truth to stay in bed longer.

The whole opening through me for a loop. I wouldn't say that the narrative is linear. It seems to start with one person, then travels to another topic, then another....and while the topics are connected by thin strands, you end a chapter with a completely different perspective from where you started. It's...interesting, to say the least.

But I like the circular narrative and the way things have to be fit together as you go. It keeps me turning the pages and waiting to see what points Heller is trying to make. I particularly loved the following passage, and read it a few times over just to enjoy the reasoning a bit more:

"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.

"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.""

And that's just a taste of the flavor of Catch-22. :)

My students have enjoyed hearing about the book, and one of them has decided to read it over the summer. He said it seems like a book he would enjoy, so "if" I am back in that school next year, I will have to hunt him down to ask him if he read it.

How many of you have read this? It seems as if people either love or hate this one!

Book 18: Tragedy.

There are scenes that you can come across in reading that really just chill your bones. I read such a scene in Germinal back in December. It so shocked me that I had to set the book aside and mentally get over the images before I could go back to reading that novel. I also had a huge urge to talk about it with someone, so Matt was the lucky recipient of my ranting about the disturbing images that plagued my mind.

Sometimes, the chill and feel of a book can offset you. I feel that way with The Dollmaker. From the beginning, the reader knows that pain and heartache are coming. When the first tragedy happens, you think, "Oh, things must be getting better after this." Then the next thing happens and you think, "The author can't do anymore to this family."

But she does.

And it seems like she is overdoing the tragedy that this family feels, but you have to step back and look at it all in a broader scope. The whole era the novel is set in (World War II) is a tragedy. Mothers and sisters and wives received letters that their husbands and sons and brothers were dead or missing constantly. Arnow relives that fear in the novel and the characters. They are living within a tragedy and are merely victims of circumstance.

So when the great tragedy strikes in the middle of this novel, you feel so deeply for the characters. I got to this scene late at night when Matt was sleeping and the cats were curled up on my chest.

I teared up.

I rarely get moved to tears by anything that is not directly related to my own life. Even then, it takes a lot to drive me to tears. So I am not one of those girls who cries during sappy movies, or who gets emotional reading most books.

So when I say I teared up reading about the pain of the Nevels family, it was a powerful amount of pain. And it was well-written.

And while I am only halfway through the novel, I know that Arnow is going to throw more into the lives of the Nevels family and the people living near them in the projects of Detroit. And where some writers through all this angst and torment into their novels to try and make them more appealing (I am currently thinking of those sappy Sweet Valley High novels I used to read), Arnow is not using tragedy as a way to rev up the reader. Instead, she is using it as a reflection of the time period.

I love the era of World War II in America. In college, I took a couple of classes on the era to fulfill requirements for my history degree. For one class, we had to interview an individual who lived during the time period. I was matched up with an older lady who lived in Lansing in an assisted living center. She lived in Detroit during the war as a little girl. Her father fought overseas in Europe and her mother and three older brothers all worked for the factories in Detroit. Her stories were very similar to the experiences Arnow shares (Arnow also lived in the projects during the war) and this woman also painted a very tragic picture of life on the home front during the war.

When I was interviewing this woman, I remember feeling the tragedy of the era. Everyone left back thought the world was coming to an end. Boys were being drafted into the military and being shot. There were food and gas shortages. To those left behind, some questioned whether it would be better to be "over there" fighting as opposed to staying home and waiting.

I can feel this pain and tragedy in Arnow's novel. She has captured the heart of the times.

It is simply beautiful.

Book List Meme: February 2, 2010.

Okay, it is time for a weekly book Meme hosted by Rebecca at Lost in Books. Each week a topic is posted that must be answered by the titles and pictures of 3 books.

This week's topic?

3 Books I Read When I Need a Good Cry

I found this to be a real difficult topic because I am not a big crier! But, I looked and decided on these three! Enjoy!

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: I have a lot of love for this book. I purchased it on a whim and ended up reading it during one shift at the park (I was sitting in the permit booth all day). By the end of the day and the end of my shift, I was teary eyed and stuck in Zusak's world. It is about a girl living in Germany in World War II and the lives of the people around her. What makes this book so outstanding is that it is narrated by Death.




2. The Giver by Lois Lowry: I read this in school in the fifth grade and I fell in love. For me, this is the ultimate dystopian novel and no other can stand up to this. Jonas lives in a world with no color, no music, and no memories beyond his own life. At his 12 year ceremony, Jonas is told he will be the next Receiver of Memories. He then learns about the past through the reception of memories and is forever changed.




3. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman: This had to be included on my list. I love Whitman and his use of language. It is always inspiring and sad. This volume of poems got me through both of my grandparents' deaths and it is something I always turn to in times of need. I am not always such a huge fan of poetry, but Whitman's words really touch my heart.

Book 18: The Dollmaker.

I wouldn't be surprised if you told me you had never heard of The Dollmaker by Harriette Arnow. Or if you questioned why this novel was on my list of classics right beside books by Twain, Dickens, Steinbeck, Woolf, and Conrad. However, when I was trying to figure out my list of books to add on my classics list, I turned to the AP literature list my twelfth grade teacher gave me that first day of school.

The Dollmaker was published in 1954 and was on the AP English test only once (in 1991). The wikipedia entry for the novel isn't even about the novel, but is focused on the made for TV movie starring Jane Fonda. And, when I looked elsewhere, I could find out little about this novel.

I decided to keep it on the list. I'm not really sure why I made that decision way back in August, but I wanted to read this novel. I found the descriptions on book websites and I just knew that this was a book that needed to be read.

I'm not sure yet if that was a good decision or not. I mean, this is a book I know hardly anything about and it might not even be considered a classic because no one seems to have heard of it!

When I decided to start this project, I first pulled all of my classics from my piles of books. I marked down what I had and pursued some more to have a variety to choose from. This was a book that could not be found. I went to one of the big book chains (Borders) to search their aisles and found nothing by Arnow. Since Borders is always my second choice anyway, I went to the Barnes and Noble down the road to see what they had. Again, nothing. Figuring it was time I ask, I hunted down one of my favorite employees and asked her if they had it.

Now, this woman and I have become friendly since I frequent the store way more than I should. She has excellent tastes in books and I often recommend things to her. She searched their computer system and they hadn't had a copy in the store in months. I left that day just deciding to forget about it. It would be among the long list of books I hadn't hunted down yet and would at some later date.

It was only a week or so later that I was back. It had dawned on me that I should simply hunt the used shelves at that Barnes and Noble to see what I could find there (my local store has an amazing used section). I don't have anything against used books and they are friendlier towards my wallet, so I hunted the shelves.

And there is was, in all its beaten up glory: The Dollmaker.

I made sure after I grabbed it to go find that employee to tell her I found a copy. She flipped through it and said it seemed like an excellent book.

Which brings us to now and this post. I have this somewhat elusive book with what seems to be an extremely gripping story. I am anticipating greatness, something to back up my decision to keep this book here.

So what is it about? Here is the synopsis from Barnes and Noble:

"Strong-willed, self-reliant Gertie Nevel's peaceful life in the Kentucky hills was devastated by the brutal winds of change. Uprooted form their backwoods home, she and her family were thrust into the confusion and chaos of wartime Detroit. And in a pitiless world of unendurable poverty, Gertie would battle fiercely and relentlessly to protect those things she held most precious—her children, her heritage...and her triumphant ability to create beauty in the suffocating shadow of ugliness and despair."

Now I remember the draw of this novel. Detroit is a city near and dear to my heart, seeing as I live about 35 minutes north of the city. It is a city with a long, and sometimes violent history. It was the birthplace of the automobile and the Arsenal of Democracy during WWII. And that last line? It sucked me in.

So that is why I am reading this next, to understand Gertie's fear and despair, but also to understand her ability to hope.