Hurricane by John Rocco

 

Hurricane 

written and illustrated by John Rocco

Little,Brown BFYR, 2021, 48 pages

Hurricanes are scary weather events for lots of kids and it seems we are experiencing more and more extreme storms nowadays. Here is the story of one such storm and its aftereffects. 

Before our young unnamed narrator tells his hurricane story, this new book by John Rocco begins with the front endpapers giving brief information about how hurricanes are categorized according to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, and including an illustration of just how hurricanes begin and end.  

From there, our narrator tells us that his favorite place in the world is the old splintery neighborhood dock that no one uses except him. There, at the river, he can fish, swim, crab, or just watch what is going on around him. One day, as he walks home, he sees his neighbors and his dad boarding up and taping the windows of their homes in preparation for an impending hurricane. 

Later that night, the hurricane roars in bringing destruction everywhere and causing the river to overflow and wash away anything that can float. 

By the next day, the hurricane is gone but what a path of destruction it leaves in its wake. Our young narrator, fishing pole and tackle box in hand, almost doesn't recognize his street anymore. But the real shock come when he sees what the hurricane has done to his beloved dock.

The boy asks his dad and his neighbors for help repairing the dock, but they are all busy fixing the damage done to their homes. Instead of fixing the dock, the boy stays and helps his neighbors instead. After, returning home, he decides to try to fix the dock on his own. Day after day, he works on it, though it's a big job for a young boy. But just as he is about to give up, the whole neighborhood shows up to help him. In the end, the dock is better that ever - it is sturdier, safer, and best of all - it has become everyone's dock and it is still his favorite place in the world.

I suspect this story may be somewhat autobiographical, it just has the feeling of something actually experienced. Maybe this is because Rocco has really captured the young narrator's emotional range so well, at times, he looks so vulnerable, other times scared, stunned, and disappointed, but also hopeful and happy.  

What I really liked was how Rocco showed the change in the neighborhood before and after the storm. The fact that the dock belonged to the town but the narrator was the only one using it indicates that maybe people were not friendly with each other before the storm. Also, the narrator is always shown alone. But after the boy has helped them out and they have reciprocated by helping fix the dock shows a new, stronger feeling of community. 

The illustrations, done with pencil, watercolor and digital color, are colorful and detailed. One of the things Rocco does so well is depicting movement even in a still image. Take for example, the image of the storm I've included - you really get the sense of heavy slanted rain forced by the strong winds, and the water from the river flowing up the street. All of the illustrations are just brilliant.

So, what do you think Rocco included on the back endpapers? Why, the parts of a dock, of course.

This book is recommended for readers age 5+

This book and the images included here were a PDF gratefully received from Ana Sierra at Wunderkind PR 

Ahimsa by Supriya Kelkar

It's 1942 and while Britain and the rest of the world are engaged in WWII, in Bombay (today's Mumbai), the Quit India Movement, whose goal is to rid India of British rule and gain independence, begins with a speech by Mahatma Gandhi on August 8th. The very next day, Gandhi is arrested, but it doesn't stop many from still having faith in the Quit India Movement.

Gandhi, a practitioner of Ahimsa, or civil disobedience, had already asked that one member of every family become a freedom fighter for Indian independence. Anjali Joshi, 10, a member of the high born Brahmin caste, knows that some kids in her class have family members who are freedom fighters, but after Gandhi's speech, she is more than surprised to learn that her mother has also joined the fight. And one of the things her mother is focused on is attempting to make the lives of those considered to be untouchable better (Gandhi referred to the untouchable caste as Harjian, meaning children of God, but Anjali learns that they consider it an insult and would rather be referred to as Dalit, meaning oppressed).

At first, Anjali isn't really too happy, especially when her mother makes her burn all of her beautiful foreign-made ghagra-cholis and replaces them with plainer khadi, a handwoven homespun cotton they spin themselves. She is particularly unhappy after her mother shows kindness towards the young Dalit boy, Mohan, who cleans their outhouse, causing him to run away, and then decides that Anjali and she will clean the outhouse themselves.

Slowly and reluctantly, however, Anjali begins to support her mother's attempts at being an activist. They begin attending Freedom Movement meetings together, and after visiting the basti where the Dalits live and getting to know the people better, Anjali decides that it is unfair that the young Dalits are not able to go to school, too. They begin teaching the children in the basti, even finding help from a very surprising source. Soon, Anjali and her mother are working to make it possible for the kids to actually attend the school that Anjali goes to, getting uniforms and tiffins all ready for them.

But the weekend before their first day of school, rioting breaks out between the Hindus and Muslims and schools are closed. Later, Anjali's mother is arrested on charges of helping to instigate the riots. While in prison and still practicing Ahimsa, her mother goes on a hunger strike, and although Anjali is afraid for her, she decides to carry on their work, even as she realizes that she herself must unlearn the prejudices and superstitions that have always been so much a part of her life.

Ahimsa is a debut novel for Supriya Kelkar, and is based on the experiences of her great grandmother, who had joined Gandhi's Freedom Movement so her husband could continue working, much the same way Anjali's mother did.

I found Ahimsa to be a very interesting novel about social injustice in 1940s India that covers quite a lot of historical and political ground, some of which may not be familiar to young American readers. But, Kelkar has taken great pains to make this important period in Indian history accessible, although at times she waxes a little on the didactic side when it comes to describing the political situation.

One of the things I did like is that Kelkar has included a lot of interesting, personal details in her narrative descriptions, including what daily life was like, the kinds of clothing people wore, the food they ate, games kids played and holidays celebrated as well as accounts of living conditions of someone in the Brahmin class, the basti where the Dalits lived, and even a bit about how the members of the British Raj (rulers) lived. These are the kinds of details that really work to bring a story to life.

The other thing I liked is that Kelkar has written flawed characters who learn from their mistakes. Anjali's mother is an enthusiastic freedom fighter, so enthusiastic that she can't see better alternatives to some of her actions, and sometimes not listening to the very people she is trying to help. Even Anjali is flawed, at first not really understanding what her country is going through, but slowly becoming more enlightened, though no less feisty and headstrong, which can and does get her into trouble. Even Gandhi and some of his ideas are presented as somewhat flawed, as Anjali discovers the more involved she becomes in the Freedom Movement.

Ahimsa is a very readable novel and a nice introduction to the Freedom Movement in India. It is also a novel about trying to make a difference, about social injustice, and about resistance, and although these themes are put into the context of Indian history, they will certainly resonate with today's young readers.

Be sure to read the Author's Note for a detailed overview of this period in Indian history and the leaders involved in it. Kelkar has also included a list of books for Further Reading and a very helpful glossary.

Although it's for slightly older readers, think about pairing Ahimsa with Padma Venkatraman's Climbing the Stairs for another view of India's fight for independence.

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was purchased for my personal library

I've read a number of books that are set in Indian or have Indian characters and often the kids in them play a game called Gilli Danda. If you've wondered, as I have, what the game is and how it is played, you may find a helpful article HERE 

Bronze and Sunflower by Cao Wenxuan, translated by Helen Wang

Bronze and Sunflower is set in communist China during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The goal of the cultural Revolution was to eliminate traditional Chinese life and thought, to replace it with communist ideology and get rid of any opponents. Artists and other intellectual were sent to remote Cadre Schools, where they did heavy manual labor during the day, and attended political re-education meetings at night. 

Sunflower, 7, and her father have been living in the country, in a Cadre School for a while. Her father is an artist, a sculptor, well-known for his beautiful sunflowers cast in bronze. Sunflower is the only child at the school and very lonely. Since she doesn't go to school, she often watches the children across the river playing and laughing. When her father dies unexpectedly, women from the Cadre School take Sunflower across the river, to the small village of Damadai, to see if anyone would take her in.

Only Bronze's family, the poorest in the village, is willing to accept Sunflower and make her their own. Bronze, a few years older than Sunflower and just as lonely, hasn't spoken since he was 5 and witnessed what was to him a traumatic event.

Bronze and Sunflower are soon inseparable, seeming to understand each other without the need to speak. Over time, the now-siblings and their loving, but poor family, endure and survive many hardships such as famine, locusts, bitter cold winters, and a fire that destroys their home. The children share not just friendship, but many adventures and good times, as well, like punting little boats on the river, riding to school together on Bronze's water buffalo, even though only Sunflower is a student,  or Bronze letting Sunflower sit on his shoulders so that she is high enough to see the circus over everyone else's head, and even working together as a family making reed shoes to sell in the January market to pay for Sunflower's schooling or grandmother Nainai's medical needs.

Bronze and Sunflower is a beautifully written story about the many sacrifices that were made by Bronze's family when they decided to take in Sunflower, how they lived poor but with great dignity and love, and how they continued to do that even when forced to make the greatest sacrifice of all.

Chinese life during the cultural revolution is not a usual subject for a children's book, but Cao has managed to present a picture of rural life that neither sugarcoats nor romanticizes it. In fact, he has produced such a heartwarming story that it has a feeling of timelessness about it despite the time it is actually sent in, mainly because Mao's China takes a backseat to the traditional values of family that the book really demonstrates.

Cao grew up during the 1960s and 1970s and experienced China at that time first hand, which give his novel a real feeling of authenticity. His descriptions, though beautifully rendered, are often heartbreaking at the same time.

Bronze and Sunflower is a large book, 400 pages long. It is a story of day to day survival, so there is not really a big central conflict. I have to wonder if it will appeal to young readers as much as it appeals to adults. My 12 year old self would have loved getting immersed in the lives of Bronze and Sunflower, but I didn't grow up with as many distractions as kids have today (video games, screens, instant gratification, etc. I'm not putting these things down, just pointing out how life has become faster). Though I highly recommend it for its thematic portrayals of community, family, loyalty, and poverty.

On a personal note: my Kiddo has been home visiting and when I asked her if her husband's parents, who both grew up in the midst of the cultural revolution, ever talk about it, she said not, never. They refuse to say anything, but her husband's grandparents did tell her about how hard life was in those days. I'm guessing they would have really appreciated Bronze and Sunflower.

Bronze and Sunflower won the 2016 Hans Christian Anderson award and was translated from Mandarin by Helen Wang, who won the 2017 Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation for it.

Original Chinese Cover 

You can find out more about Cao Wenzuan in a New York Times interview HERE

And Zoe at Playing by the Book has a wonderfully informative interview with Helen Wang HERE

If an interest in translated children's Chinese books has been kindled, you
might be interested in Helen Wang's blog Chinese Books for Young Readers

Classroom and Home School teachers can find a useful PDF discussion guide
HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was an EARC received from NetGalley