"The Borrowed House," by Hilda Van Stockum

Janna is an eleven-year-old girl who lives in a small German town during WWII. She is a proud member of the Hitler Youth group, and admires Hitler above all else. All of her life she has been told that the Jewish people are dangerous criminals and that Hitler is doing the world a favor by getting rid of them. She believes that the Jews are being sent to a special place where they will be treated kindly and kept from harming other people.

One day Janna is sent to Holland to live with her parents, famous German actors who she has not seen in 2 years.

During her stay in Holland, certain events occur that slowly but surely began to shake her faith in Hitler and his soldiers, and which challenge her bigotry against Jewish people.

This thoughtful, descriptive story by one of my favorite historical-fiction authors instantly grabbed my attention. It explores the lies Hitler told to his people and unearthed the reasons so many German young people admired and believed in him. During the book, instead of feeling angry at Janna and other young people for supporting Hitler, I was deeply saddened for them. They were carefully shielded from the truth and consistently spoon-fed lies, ultimately becoming brain-washed supporters of one of the most terrible and wicked tyrants who ever lived.

As you read this book you will cheer Janna on as she searches for the truth.

Inspirations 4 Writing

Write a story from the perspective of a person who holds views you do not agree with. Reveal why this person believes the way he or she does. Does this person end up changing his or her views? If so, why?

Book Review of "The Ides of April" by Mary Ray

Hylas is a Greek slave. His master is the affluent Caius Pomponius. One day Hylas wakes to discover that his master was murdered in bed while asleep in a room in his villa. Suspicion instantly falls on the household slaves; who else in the villa could have committed the vile crime? In Rome when one slave was suspected of murder every single slave in the house was executed, whether man, woman or child. Soldiers soon arrive, arrest the slaves, and herd them to prison. Hylas, however, manages to escape arrest and flees the house. It is only a matter of time before he will be missed and the soldiers start searching for him. Hylas is frantic, and for good reasons. His own mother is one of the slaves facing torture and death in a Roman prison. Trusting his life into the hands of people he hardly knows, Hylas must somehow prove that the murderer was not one of the slaves while evading capture himself.

This exciting mystery set just after the time of Christ is so thrilling that I could not put it down. The author connected me emotionally with the characters and compelled me to pause a moment to imagine how it might have felt like to be a slave in Rome. I found myself growing exceedingly angry at the distorted form of justice displayed by the Roman Empire in such murder cases.

At the same time, I was moved by the mercy showed to Hylas by people who are virtual strangers. When an author can invoke so many different emotions while juggling a complicated cast of characters I cannot help but be greatly inspired. 

                       

 Inspirations 4 Writing

How does it feel like to be a slave? How does it feel like to be an escapee with your life on the line? Ponder these questions and try to imagine yourself in such circumstances. Then write feelingly about a character who is either a slave, an escapee running from some danger, or both.

Book Review of "Snow Treasure" by Marie McSwigan

Peter Lundstrom and his friends are ordinary Norwegian children living in 1940. They enjoy excitement of any kind and love to sled, build snowmen, and have snowball fights. Peter could never have foreseen that these innocent pastimes would become the tools for a daring mission…but that is exactly what happens when the Nazis invade Peter’s small town. Peter and his friends must now use their sleds to smuggle millions of dollars worth of gold under the very noses of the Nazis. If their country’s gold fell into enemy hands it would spell disaster for Norway.

Often in literature, unassuming heroes are the ones that endear themselves to the reader. These are exactly the sort of heroes that Peter and his friends are. They did not want to be heroes. They never planned to risk their lives for their country. But when circumstances call for immediate action they choose to do whatever it takes, even self-sacrifice. A story of courage, danger, and loyalty, this book is a must-read!

Inspirations 4 Writing

If you were faced with a life and death situation, what would you do? Write a story using an autobiographical character and place this character in just such a situation. How does this character choose to act? 

Book Review of "Kidnapped" by Robert Louis Stevenson

This classic book by Robert Louis Stevenson begins with young David Balfour setting out to seek  his fortune. He has heard that he has rich relatives but when he arrives at the Balfour estate he finds only his miserly uncle. His uncle wants the family fortune that rightfully belongs to Davie. Unbeknownst to Davie he arranges for his nephew’s kidnapping. David soon finds himself tied hand and foot in the bottom of a ship bound for distant shores where they plan to sell David into slavery. However, when the crew allows on board a man named Alan Breck Stewart,  David’s future swiftly takes another turn. A battle, a shipwreck, and  the famous Appin murder; this is what you will find in the book’s following pages. David and Alan Breck are wrongfully accused of the murder and must “take to the heather” to escape from the hands of the King’s soldiers. Dogged by those who seek his life, will David ever gain his inheritance?

Written by the author of “Treasure Island,” this book is a must-read! Almost as soon as I started it I found it impossible to put down. Set in Scotland, this stunning piece of historical fiction weaves fact with fiction, imaginary characters with real people. For instance, while David Balfour is fictional,  Alan Breck truly lived. I think the question you must ask yourself when writing historical fiction is “What if?” What if the real Alan Breck met a boy named David Balfour? What if they were both accused of the same crime? What if….? This is how a story begins!

Inspirations 4 Writing

Settle on a favorite time-period. Research people who lived in the past and whom you admire. Now, write a story that involves these actual people and also ones that you create yourself. Write about events that really occurred and couple them with ones that exist only in your imagination. Let the fun began!        

Book Review of "Wonderstruck" by Brian Selznick

Wonderstruck is written by the author of “The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” which is now a major motion picture. Sections of both stories are told solely with the author's own illustrations, while the remainder of the book is in words, the style unique to Brian Selznick.
Wonderstruck begins with the story of Ben Wilson, a boy in 1977 grieving the death of his mother. Suddenly it goes back 50 years to a girl named Rose in the 1920’s. Rose’s story is unfolded in Brian Selznick’s beautiful black and white illustrations; the novel continues to alternate between the two character’s lives, one life told in pictures, the other described with words.
In 1977, Ben has a terrible accident that robs him of the sense of hearing. Back in 1927, you learn Rose is deaf as well. The similarities between the two children continue throughout the book. At last the parallels culminate in one surprising discovery. 

The thing about this book that I especially appreciated was how it entered into the mind of Ben. You got to experience a bit of life through the eyes of a boy who is deaf. Deeply profound, this book and its characters grabbed my heart from the very beginning. I felt in an indescribable way as if the characters were real. This is one of those rare novels that I will never forget and whose characters will always feel real to me.

Inspirations 4 Writing

What always inspires me about Brian Selznick’s writing are the characters he creates. The details of their emotions, their innermost thoughts, their habits, their likes and dislikes all work together to make them become real to the reader.

Book review of "I, Juan de Pareja" by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino

This is the intriguing historical-fictional autobiography of Juan de Pareja. He is a man who is a slave to the famous Spanish painter Diego Velazquez. As a slave he helps his master with his painting as far as mixing paints, etc. However, Juan desires far more. He wants to become a painter as well, but as a slave he is forbidden by law to learn art. Juan’s passion for art is so strong that he sets about teaching himself by observing his master’s paintings and he soon learns to use his brush to create exquisite works of art. Juan’s tender conscience pricks him constantly in regards to his secret. If it was once known that he was doing this the consequences could be dire.   

When I was about twelve I read this book for school and absolutely fell in love with it. Juan is a relatable human hero with faults, desires, and secrets. He quickly endears himself to the family he is enslaved to and they come to view him as a human being and not just as a servant. The ability to write in a deeply feeling way about human emotions is a gift that not all writers possess. Elizabeth Borton de Trevino is definitely one of those authors who has this gift. Juan’s idea of observing a master’s art and technique is quite practicable and I recently undertook to copy a famous sketch in order to teach myself to draw better. This method can also be applied to writing. If you want a book to provide you with a better sense of good writing I would recommend this one.

Story Prompters

Write a pretend biography from the viewpoint of someone in history. Put yourself in the person’s shoes and write in a relatable way from this standpoint. Underscore this person’s human emotions. Let that person become real to both yourself and the reader. As always, include authentic historical details to make the story believable to the reader.

Book Review of “Nory Ryan’s Song” by Patricia Reilly Giff

This poignant tale is told through the eyes of Nory, a young Irish girl in 1845 who has a love for music. Nory and her family cannot foresee that their life in a cottage on land owned by the English Lord Cunningham is about to change. Lord Cunningham sees the tenants on his property as obstacles, not people. He raises taxes on their land and hopes to someday rid the land of them, raze their cottages to the ground, and use their farmland as pastureland for sheep. As if the taxes were not bad enough a blight strikes the potatoes, ruining the Irish people’s main source of food. Nory, along with the whole of Ireland, is plunged into an unimaginable crisis. Will Nory be able to pull herself and her family through the hard times ahead?  

One of the reasons so many people starved to death during the Irish potato famine is that the English lords who owned the land that most Irish people lived on took away any other source of food they had like pigs and chickens. Without potatoes or livestock, they had nothing to support themselves with. I cannot help but wonder if things would have gone differently if the land lords would have acted in a different manner towards their tenants.

Story Prompters

What other tragic events in history could have ended up differently if different choices had been made? Write a piece of historical fiction illuminating the mistakes that were made which caused the tragedy to happen. 

Book Review of “The Bronze Bow” by Elizabeth George Speare.

This book for young adults was awarded the Newbery medal in 1962 and is a long-time favorite of mine.

Daniel is a Galilean orphan in the time of the Roman occupation of Israel. The only family he’s known for five years is the group of bandits he has come to live with. They share his hatred of Roman rule. His father was brutally killed by the Romans and his mother died soon after. Daniel lives and breathes to revenge the death of his parents. He desires to free his country of Roman rule and daily nurses his deep hatred of the Romans. His sister Leah, though young and beautiful, is believed to be possessed by demons. When she was five, she witnessed the crucifixion of her father and was never the same. She grew up with a profound fear of people and from that day on she would not set foot outside of the house. Everyone believed her to be possessed by demons and left her well-enough alone. Daniel holds the Roman’s responsible for his sister’s wrecked life.

At this time a carpenter named Jesus is astonishing people with his wisdom. Carpenters are not supposed to know the law as thoroughly as this man does. But not only does he know the law, he explains things about God in a way that makes the common people understand him. When Daniel looks at Jesus, he sees a man who is popular with a large following. A man who would make the perfect leader in a war against the Romans. 

But Jesus has no hatred of the Romans. Instead, love characterizes everything he says and does. It will be a long road for Daniel before he begins to understand self-sacrificing love, and the command to even love one’s enemies.

This is an excellently written story that takes hold of the reader’s attention and opens up the heart and mind of its young protagonist Daniel. I liked how it stressed how one must not only have love for one’s family member’s, but also one’s enemies, a truth we might sometimes tend to forget. But an undertone remained in the book that sounded almost as if the author might be saying that because we ought to love our enemies, war is not a good thing. I don’t entirely agree with this. I don’t like war for the wrong reasons. War between nations is grim, but is unfortunately at times a necessity; a belief I mentioned in my previous review on “The Shining Company.”  In WWII for instance, the world could not stand back and let Hitler, whose mind was certainly intent on war for the wrong reasons, slaughter innocent Jews. We had to do something about it. But how does fostering hatred for the enemy help anything? It only robs you of joy and fills you with grief and bitterness, as it does Daniel. But the miracle of forgiveness for your enemies can be yours, through Jesus Christ. God does indeed care deeply for each and every one of us. War is a part of this fallen world we live in but I believe that God will someday restore this world to what it was meant to be.

 I could write much more on this discussion about the Bronze Bow, but I will force myself to finish now by saying that it is a great read and is entertaining as well as educational. Please read it for yourself and form your own opinions on its contents.

Story Starter Ideas: Reconciliation between enemies is a great theme for a story. Write a story about two nations or two individuals who are at enmity with each other. What is the disagreement between them? How does this conflict resolve itself? Will their be a bringing together of former enemies? How is this reconciliation accomplished?