Nory Ryan's Song by Partirica Reilly Giff

Bibliography

Giff, Patricia Reilly. Nory Ryan's Song. New York: Delacorte Press, 2000.
ISBN 0385321414

 

Plot Summary

          Patricia Reilly Giff’s historical fiction novel, Nory Ryan’s Song depicts a young Nory Ryan fighting the pain of hunger while dreaming of one day sailing to America to live happily with her friends and family.  Strength, hope, love, friendship, and courage are special qualities Nory possesses.  But what if all these qualities were put to the test during a tragic period in Ireland’s history?  Starvation was rampant in 1846 and English landlords were raising rents and evicting tenants from their homes.  The “Great Hunger” was upon the Irish people who were suffering from blight on their potato crops, their main source of food and money.  Will Nory maintain the strength to survive and fulfill her dream of America?

Critical Analysis

          Patricia Reilly Giff’s Nory Ryan’s Song is a moving story of a young Irish girl whose courage and resourcefulness help her family survive the Great Hunger of 1845 in coastal Ireland.  There is an authenticity to Giff’s writing.  As she explains in her note to the reader, Giff was motivated to write about the Great Hunger because of a family connection.  Although her Irish great-grandparents died before she was born, she made a wish, “Let me tell it the way it must have been” (150).  Giff fulfills her wish with accurate details of Irish life of the times.  For example, the Irish housed their animals inside their homes.  “Muc the pig in her corner pen snorted when she saw the dog” (13).  Her characters use Irish words throughout the story.  Giff even provides a small pronouncing glossary at the beginning.  The use of authentic detail and language highlights the historical aspects of the story.

          The simplicity of the plot serves to emphasize the characters.  The story line follows a poor Irish family, some of whose members had immigrated to America to have a better life.  Nory, her sister Celia, her Granda, and her baby brother Patch remain until there is enough money to purchase passage for them, too.  Most of the story involves surviving the famine.  Celia, two years older than Nory, is “loyal and true” (26).  She has the homemaking skills which she teaches to Nory.  Granda, despite his advanced age, offers moral support and advice to Nory.  One special character in Nory’s life is Anna, the village midwife and healer.  Not only does she impart her her healing skills to Nory, but she provides sustenance in the form of milk, an apple, and a coin.  However, it is Nory’s courage and hope which sustain her family and friends in the face of starvation. At the risk of her own death, she decides to hang from a cliff side with a rope to collect eggs from wild bird nests to feed her friend, his family, and hers.  “We’ll find a way” (121). 

          The theme in Nory Ryan’s Song is that of perseverance.  Even when there is no food to be had and only hot water and herbs to consume for an entire day, Nory finds the strength to keep hope alive.  The vision of going to America to be with her relatives allows her to watch as all of her family members eventually leave home while she stays behind with Anna. 

Review Excerpt(s)

Golden Kite Awards (NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD) 2000

Great Stone Face Children’s Book Award (NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD) 2002

2000 Parents' Choice Award for Fiction

“A beautiful, heart-wrenching novel that makes a devastating event understandable.” – BOOKLIST

“Today's readers will appreciate this compelling story with a wonderful female protagonist who is spirited and resourceful, and has a song in her heart.” – SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

"Giff meticulously re-creates the Great Hunger as she traces a 19th-century Irish girl's struggle to survive." – PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“Riveting.” – KIRKUS REVIEW

“The author transports readers to a time and place few will be able to forget.” – VOYA

Connections

·        Write an essay about two or three places you dream to go to someday.  Explain your reasons.

·        Read the sequel Maggie’s Door.  Before doing so, try to predict what will happen to Nory based on the first novel’s ending.

·        Read other related novels such as The Ring of Truth: An Original Irish Tale by Teresa Bateman and Twist of Gold by Michael Morpurg.

Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Velchin

 

 

Bibliography

Yelchin, Eugene. Breaking Stalin's Nose. New York: Henry Holt, 2011.

ISBN 9780805092165

 

Plot Summary

          Pure devotion for his people, his country, his Leader, and especially for his hero father shines through the eyes of 10-year-old Sacha as he prepares to take his first step to becoming a Communist and wear the “triangle of simple red cloth that every Pioneer must wear” (15).  In the space of two days, Sacha experiences upsets and setbacks to achieving his dream.  What he naively accepts as the Communist way of living and dealing with other people is called into question the moment he accidentally damages a statue of his beloved Leader.  His action creates circumstances which force him to make decisions he hadn’t ever considered.  In his first historical novel, Breaking Stalin’s Nose, Eugene Yelchin, author and illustrator, provides a simply written yet wrenching look in prose and picture at the Communist way of life through Sacha’s eyes.  Will more be broken than just a plaster nose in Sacha’s life?

 

Critical Analysis

          The first historical fiction novel by Russian born and educated Eugene Yelchin, Breaking Stalin’s Nose is an authentic portrayal of Stalinist Russia in the first-person voice of 10-year-old Sacha Zaichik.  Yelchin details two days in the life of young Sacha which change the boy’s optimism to a kind of numb acceptance of his existence.

          Yelchin’s includes a note to his readers, a simple yet complete explanation of his experience and his rationale for writing his novel.  These sincere revelations create a touchstone between author and character that breathes truth into the narrative. 

          The elements of fiction are addressed with an eye to revealing the true face of Communism to the reader.  The plot is compressed, yet it’s symbolic of how quickly life can change.  Yelchin presents Communism in terms a young person can absorb.  Communal living and an ever-present sense of surveillance, both characteristics of Communism, are evidenced in the daily life of all Yelchin’s characters.  No one has much or if he does, he’s shamed.  The carrot Sacha nibbles is a treat, and he’s “so embarrassed we [he and his dad] live in luxury” (14).  Luxury?  When his dad is arrested and the informer moves into Sacha’s portion of the communal house, all their belongings fit into a bundle made of “my dad’s bedsheet” (30), and Sacha is left homeless.  The theme is that of a young boy’s struggle with the realization of what is right and what is wrong, right with his father’s innocence and wrong with asking someone to spy.

          Setting and style complement each other in Yelchin’s narrative.  Stalin’s regime maintained its grip on the Russian people through a poverty that was considered patriotic and a pervasive sense of fear.  In two days, the reader experiences the lack Sacha endures for his Leader, “When hunger gnaws inside my belly, I tell myself that a future Pioneer has to repress cravings for such unimportant matters as food” (10).  Sacha’s teacher tells students, “Remember, class, our great Leader and Teacher is always watching us from the Kremlin” (122).  Concerning style, the phrasing and its underlying menacing tone, chills the reader to think children can’t be happy and playful; they must sing Communist songs, march, and be ready to rat on their friends or be sent to Lubyanka, the prison where Sacha’s dad has been taken. 

It is Yelchin’s characters which will interest young readers the most.  When Sacha’s father makes mysterious comments, Sacha nods agreement but is “not sure what he means” (4).  Sacha’s aunt Larisa won’t take a chance to help him after his father’s arrest, saying “If we take you in, they’ll arrest us, too” (42).  Children will identify with Borka Finkelstein, alias Four-Eyes, at school and sympathize with him as he volunteers that he broke Stalin’s nose so he could go to Lubyanka to see his parents who were also arrested. 

It is Sacha’s character which makes the reader turn the pages to see what happens next.  He’s idealistic and eager to become part of something larger than himself.  He says his “greatest dream has always been to join the Young Soviet Pioneers” (2).  Then he becomes, in effect, an enemy of the state by association with his father but will be given reprieve if he agrees to be a snitch.  What will his decision be?  Sacha’s indomitable spirit in informs his response.  He may have broken Stalin’s nose, but he’ll have to decide if Communism will break his heart.

 

Review Excerpt(s)

2012 Newbery Honor Book (ALA)

2012 Junior Library Guild Selection

2012 Distinguished Work of Historical Fiction Award (Children's Literature Council of Southern California)

2012 Women’s National Book Association’s Judy Lopez Memorial Award

2013 KS William Allen White Award 

The Best Children’s Books of 2011 by the Horn Book Magazine

The Best Children’s Books of 2011 by Washington Post

2012 Capitol Choices Book, Noteworthy Books for Children

2012 Top Ten Historical Fiction for Youth by Booklist

2012 NY Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year

2012 Finalist for California Book Awards

2012 Michigan Library Association Mitten Award

2011 Editor’s Choice by Historical Novel Society

2011 Nominated for Cybills Children’s and YA Bloggers’ Literary Awards

2011 Nominated for Best Fiction by Young Adult Library Association

 

 

“Although the story takes place over just two days, it is well paced, peeling off the layers of Sasha’s naivete to show – him – and young readers – the cynicism of the system he trusted.” – THE HORN BOOK MAGAZINE, starred review

 

"Yelchin’s graphite illustrations are an effective complement to his prose, which unfurls in Sasha’s steady, first-person voice, and together they tell an important tale." —KIRKUS REVIEWS

 

"Yelchin skillfully combines narrative with dramatic black-and-white illustrations to tell the story of life in the Soviet Union under Stalin." —SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

 

"Picture book author/illustrator Yelchin makes an impressive middle-grade debut with this compact novel about a devoted young Communist in Stalin-era Russia, illustrated with dramatically lit spot art." —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

 

Connections

·        Read similar fiction:

Animal Farm – George Orwell

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

          The Road of Bones – Anne Fine

·        Do a unit in social studies on the “isms:”

Capitalism            Socialism

Fascism                Communism

·        Write what you notice is different about life in Stalinist Russia from life in the United States.

 

 

Chickadee by Louise Erdrich

Bibliography

Erdrich, Louise, and Andrea Vandergrift. Chickadee. New York: Harper, 2012.

ISBN 9780060577902

 

Plot Summary

          Louise Erdrich continues her Birchbark House series about an Ojibwe family from the Upper Mid-West of America as they change their home from the forest to the plains in book four, Chicadee.

          Chicadee, named for the tiny bird that serves as his life guide, and his twin brother Makoons are now inseparable eight-year-olds.  When Makoons’ action to revenge Chicadee’s embarrassment at the hands of mean old Zhigaag causes a reciprocal act of revenge, the two boys are torn apart by a vicious act of violence on the part of Zhigaag’s sons.  In a chain reaction, some of the boys’ family members begin pursuit to rescue Chicadee and the rest pack the family’s belongings to follow and meet them in the plains village of Pembina.  The reader follows Chicadee as he encounters people who try to help him and life-threatening situations which test his self-reliance and survival skills.

          Erdrich has created a blend of Native American history, family dynamics, and spirituality with exciting adventures.  The reader is drawn into the experience of the Ojibwe way of life as the story of Chicadee’s capture and escape develops, leaving the reader in suspense about whether the twins will ever be reunited this side of the spirit world of the Ojibwe.

Critical Analysis

In melding the historical details of Native American customs, daily life, spirituality and language into an exciting and suspenseful adventure story about twin Ojibwe boys, Louise Erdrich accomplishes a fourth book in her Birchbark  House series, entitled Chicadee.

          Of Native American descent herself, Erdrich incorporates authentic detail in the exposition phase of the plot.  She explains family life as the Ojibwe live it in the mid-nineteenth century Minnesota woods and subsequently the Great Plains.  The story begins with a typical family discussion but is interspersed with what is happening to the father, Animikiins, as he struggles to survive a fall into a half-frozen river.  The use of juxtaposition continues throughout the narrative, giving the reader many suspenseful moments in the plot to experience along with historical details to appreciate. 

          All the elements of fiction are well-represented.  The plot has all of the characteristics of an exciting adventure tale: conflict, revenge, loss, and survival.  The setting is an integral part of the story.  From the “great stand of sugar maples” (22) in the forest to Chicadee’s first sight of the Plains, full of “emptiness” under a “vast sky” (54), the reader is treated to the majesty of unspoiled nature.  The theme is universal: a young boy struggles to survive and return home.

          Two literary qualities shine most in Erdrich’s Chicadee: character and style.  The reader feels the love and safety provided by the parents and grandparents.  “Show us how you kept the blankets warm with rocks . . . so we wouldn’t die” (6), Chicadee’s twin asked of his mother.  The closeness between Chickadee and Makoons, his twin, is evident as Makoon wastes away with a fever at being separated, perhaps forever, from his brother.  Finally, the horrible Zhigaag brothers, Baptiste and Babiche, are so very memorable their terrible treatment of Chickadee and their revolting bouyah stew.  The reader eventually becomes absorbed in the story, experiencing the action and observing the culture involving the characters. 

          Erdrich’s style is what attracts and holds the reader.  She uses authentic Obijbwemowin language throughout text, increasing the reader’s acquaintance with Native American spoken as it was.  Erdrich even supplies a glossary and pronunciation guide at the back of the book.  She includes an author’s note explaining her choice of dialect and spelling and referring the reader to source material for further information.  In addition, her point of view is as a child of eight’s would be, simple and straightforward.  Chicadee assesses his situation of being forced to ride in a dark sack on a horse as “No sense worrying about things now.  If I wiggle hard, I’ll just fall off” (49).

          Incorporating softly drawn and shaded pencil illustrations is an added feature.  The figures are authentically dressed and portrayed in Native American scenarios, such as riding bareback with a hand entwined in the horse’s mane or dancing a jig to a fiddler.  There is also an ever-present tiny chickadee on each chapter page.  

          Reading the Birchbark House series in conjunction with The Little House on the Prairie would give a young reader complementary insight into early American history from two distinct perspectives and two award-winning authors.

 

Review Excerpt(s)

Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction (2013)

2014 Boston-Globe Horn Book Award

2014-2015 Virginia Reader’s Award

 

“Based on Erdrich’s own family history, the mischievous celebration will move readers, and so will the anger and sadness. What is left unspoken is as powerful as the story told.” – BOOKLIST, starred review

“[A] lyrical narrative. Readers will want to follow this family for many seasons to come.” - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review

“A beautifully evolving story of an indigenous American family.” - KIRKUS REVIEWS, starred review

“Erdrich’s charming pencil drawings interspersed throughout and her glossary of Ojibwe terms round out a beautiful offering.” - SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL starred review

“Erdrich’s gifts are many, and she has given readers another tale full of rich details of 1850’s Ojibwe life, complicated supporting characters, and all the joys and challenges of a girl becoming a woman.” - HORN BOOK, starred review

“Why has no one written this story before?” - ALA BOOKLIST, boxed review

“The Birchbark House establishes its own ground, in the vicinity of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books.” - NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

 

Connections

·        Imagine Chicadee’s story if he had been named for different bird or animal, such as an eagle or a wolf.  How would the story change or stay the same?

·        Write about the first time you saw something or heard something unfamiliar.

·        Choose a partner and write a short skit as if you two were enjoying an experience together as Ojibwe children.  Speak 2 or 3 words in their language to each other during your skit.  Use the glossary and pronunciation guide from the back of our book.