Posts Tagged: history

Adult / Chapter book / teens — 2 Comments
4
Jun 09

REVIEW: I Have Lived A Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson

i-have-lived-a-thousand-years-livia-bitton-jacksonAnyone who has read “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” must definitely read this memoir of a 13 year old Hungarian Jewish girl, Elli Friedmann, who survived the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz with her mother.

While “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” records the events of the Holocaust from a young adult’s perspective, she did it in hiding from an attic in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I’ve always felt a painful irony for Anne Frank because she died a little after World War 2 ended when they were free to leave the space they had confined themselves to.

Elli’s (or Livia’s) memoir begins in 1944 but the choronological list of events at the back of the book noted that her father’s business was ordered to close in 1938.

When the book begins, we read about Elli’s strained relationship with her mother, who somehow prefers her brunette and brown-eyed brother, Bubi. Elli is blonde and blue-eyed and yearns fro a more affectionate relationship with her mother.

When she complains to her mother about her getting “no hug and no words of endearment”, her mother responds:

“I don’t believe in cuddling,” Mommy explains with a smile. “Life is tough, and cuddling makes you soft. How will you face life’s difficulties if I keep cuddling you? You’re too sensitive as it is. If I would take you in my lap, you’d never want to get off…You’d become as soft as butter, unable to stand up to life’s challenges.”

Do you think this is true? My mother was never affectionate with us and she used to comment that the relationship between the mother and daughter of “Gilmore Girls” is pure fiction.

Pardon the stray thought…maybe Elli’s mother was right because she turned out to be a really plucky girl when she was:

  • forced to surrender her brand new Schwinn bicycle, a birthday present from her parents, to the German SS troops;
  • asked to strip naked in front of soldiers;
  • painfully shorn of her beautiful, golden locks;
  • starved of food and water for days;
  • tasked with caring for her mother who became partially paralyzed after an accident

    • Reading I Have Lived A Thousand Years: Growing Up In The Holocaust, I can imagine how difficult it must be for the Jews who suffered under Hitler’s administration to let this go. In the foreword and also throughout the book, Livia Bitton-Jackson doesn’t come across as bitter – reading about her experiences, I feel like I am watching a documentary.

    She also states clearly in the foreword that she wrote her book with the hope that:

    “…learning about past evils will help us to avoid them in the future. My hope is that learning what horrors can result from prejudice and intolerance, we can cultivate a commitment to fight prejudice and intolerance.

    …

    My stories are of gas chambers, shootings, electrified fences, torture, scorching sun, mental abuse and constant threat of death.

    But they are also stories of faith, hope, triumph and love. They are stories of perseverance, loyalty, courage in the face of overwhelming odds, and of never giving up.

    My story is my message: Never give up.”

    Rating: ★★★★½

    I Have Lived A Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson
    Publisher: Simon Pulse (March 1, 1999)
    Paperback: 224 pages
    ISBN-10: 0689823959
    ISBN-13: 978-0689823954

    Middle grade / pre-teen — 4 Comments
    10
    Apr 09

    REVIEW: Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

    litlle-house-in-the-big-woods-laura-ingalls-wilderKids who grew up watching Laura, Mary, baby Carrie and their Ma, Caroline and Pa, Charles of the 1980s TV series “The Little House on the Prairie” starring Melissa Gilbert will definitely enjoy reading this book, written by Laura herself.

    I bought this full-colour collector’s edition from Borders at RM32.90 – a treasure because almost every other page had beautiful illustrations by Garth Williams, praised by Laura because she “and her folks live again in those pictures”.

    Laura introduces us to her life in a little log cabin in the Big Woods of Wisconsin late 1800s and early 1900s where her Pa and Ma are preparing for the cold, hard winter ahead.

    Now, Americans (or any Westerner) who recoil in horror when they hear or see Asians (e.g. Chinese, Vietnamese eating pigs or dogs), Inuits (eating a whole seal/whale in Canada) and the indigenous peoples of Latin American (e.g. Peruvians eating guinea pigs) ought to read this book!

    Early on in the book, Laura and Mary tail their Pa as he smokes deer meat (in a fascinating smokehouse made from a tree trunk) and slaughters a wild hog, from which these various parts were turned into food or play:

    • spare ribs for dinner;
    • hams and shoulders (pickled in brine), side meat and belly salted;
    • heart, liver and tongue – no mention of what happened to them;
    • head – boiled, scraped, seasoned with salt, pepper and spices and set into a pan to harden into ‘headcheese’!
    • bladder – blown up and tied with string into a little ballon to play with :-) and
    • the pig’s tail was sprinkled with salt and roasted – Laura and Mary ate EVERY bit of it, leaving the bones for the dog, Jack.

    Now, I love the salty bits of meat near to the bone of a roasted pig and also the crunchy, roasted skin but never in my growing-up years in the Chinese community have I met anyone who loved the pig’s tail!

    If Laura and her family are alive today, they’d probably be regarded with respect by the traditional Chinese community LOL

    I think I enjoyed the book just for the types of food alone eaten throughout the four seasons:

    • salt-rising bread, rye’n'Injun bread, Swedish crackers, vinegar pies, dried-apple pies and molasses candy for Christmas;
    • homemade butter and cheese;
    • pumpkin pies, dried-berry pies, cookies, cakes, cold boiled pork, pickles, soft and hard maple candy and pancakes with maple syrup at a dance at Grandpa’s…

    YUM!!! I told Hubby that if he could ever take us for a trip to the US, I’m going there just to EAT :-)

    I also love reading about the simple life those days when

    • Christmas presents were made,
    • fresh produce or skins etc were traded for supplies a family needs;
    • the conservationist practice of only killing what one needed to feed one’s family;
    • the “waste not, want not” approach of using every part of a plant or animal e.g. Laura’s Ma braided straw hats out of the dried stalks of oats;
    • firm yet gentle approach to disciplining children e.g. Laura was a brown haired 5 year old who appeared less attractive than her golden-haired elder sister, Mary. Although her Pa loved her a lot, he didn’t hesitate to whip her with a belt when Laura slapped Mary because she was jealous of her golden curls.

    Although the book cover targets little girls, little boys will also enjoy reading about the children, their cousins and their friends’ lives in the wild about

    • hunting for deer with encounters with bears and a panther,
    • an attack by a swarm of bees;
    • Pa’s making his own bullets for his rifle;
    • the process of making maple syrup and
    • the harvest season

    I almost felt sad when the book ended especially as I only have “On the Banks of Plum Creek (Little House)“. I hope that I can find the other books at the library or hint to my family that I’d LOVE the The Little House Collection Box Set (Full Color) for Christmas :-)

    Here are books by or about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family:

    Chapter book / teens / young adult — 4 Comments
    16
    Jul 08

    REVIEW: China’s Son: Growing Up in the Cultural Revolution

    chinasson200x300.jpg
    “Da Chen was born in China in 1962. The grandson of a landlord, he found that he and his family were outcasts in Communist China. Da was an excellent student until a teacher told him that because of his family’s ‘crimes’, he could never be more than a poor farmer…

    China’s Cultural Revolution took place from 1966 to 1976 and I recall watching it in action through Leslie Cheung’s “Farewell to my Concubine” where books were burned and art and music were considered crimes. I also recall a glimpse of this terrible tragedy in the erotic film “The Red Violin“.

    Da Chen’s autobiography (at least of his childhood and adolescence) brings us right down to the grassroots level of how the Chinese folks were living out Mao’s reformist policies. As the Das are from the feudal class, his family life turned topsy-turvy overnight when the labour class took on leadership roles.

    His father, a learned acupuncturist, was sent to a concentration camp for hard labour while his mother, two sisters and elder brother (another bright scholar) were summoned to till lands that were once their inheritance.

    If you come from a well-to-do family with maids to wait on you and are accustomed to a life of luxury, wouldn’t it be a horrible nightmare if your maid suddenly becomes the head of the village?

    What’s worse, Da is actually an intelligent lad but because of his family background, he is given a tough time at school. Just to keep his place in the class, he has to work extra hard, tutor the weaker students and also do everything in his power to NOT attract attention to himself. That’s pretty hard when your scores keep coming up top ahead of everyone else!

    Before you dismiss “China’s Son” as a story about a geek, you’ll be fascinated to learn that Da soon becomes a little gangster. I mean…after getting picked on by teachers and jeered by (even spat on) your classmates and schoolmates, there’s just so much a teenage boy can take.

    He befriends a group of young gamblers who run a healthy “business” cheating and tricking less capable gamblers of their money. When Da’s quick thinking helps the leader of the pack, he is accepted into their company and soon, books become less attractive to him compared to winning money and friends.

    Da and his friends’ exploits will give you a lot to laugh about and also tug at your heartstrings when you read how genuine and unconditional their friendship is.

    Of course, Da’s father and mother worry about this change in him but the turning point comes when Chairman Mao dies. The Communist Party posts a decree announcing that the national level university entry examinations are now open to EVERY eligible candidate, regardless of class.

    This is a golden opportunity for Da and also his older brother. Da’s father advises both brothers to work hard – Da feels ashamed of having wasted his time away and vows to help his farmer brother catch up on his schoolwork.

    After a year of idling away, Da finds his lessons, especially English, unsurprisingly difficult. Yet, he puts his nose to the grind and plods on. As he banks on his Chinese and Math to see him through, he realize that he may fail to catch up in the short time available.

    Fortunately, he finds a “secret weapon” when his father, the acupuncturist, finds favour in one of the guards and is allowed to practise his trade secretly. His father heals one of the key characters in their village who will help Da achieve his amazing success in the examinations.

    I should stop here before I give the rest of the story away. Suffice to say, this is one interesting young adult nove to read! I really couldn’t put it down until I finished reading how Da and his brother prepare for these gruelling exams, find out the results and the consequent outcomes.

    I think I got goosebumps when Da checks his exam results together with his family. I am so happy also to read the author’s brief biography at the end of the book.

    While reading it, I felt like I was reading a Chinese version of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”…

    I was really lucky to fish this book out of the budget bin. I really enjoyed reading this book from cover-to-cover and even my Mum (who hardly reads novels) enjoyed it just as much! I hope that Da would write another novel or better, someone would pick up this book and turn it into a movie…

    CHINA’S SON: GROWING UP IN THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
    BY DA CHEN
    Publisher: Random House
    (ISBN: 0-385-73050-0)

    Buy the book:

     

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