Non-Fiction Living Books for World War II: We Die Alone by David Howarth

About seven years ago I happened upon an audio version of this book in the library when I was looking for something to listen to as an incentive to get a mega load of ironing done. I enjoyed the story enough to buy the book and it was a great addition to our collection of non-fiction books for World War II.

This is an amazingly true story of bravery, faithfulness, courage and survival against literally all odds that took place during the Nazi occupation of Norway in World War II.

In March, 1943, twelve men, expatriate Nowegian commandos, set sail from the Shetland Islands to the north coast of Norway with two objectives: to train the locals in the skills of sabotage and later to attack and destroy a large German military airfield.

By an unlucky chance their plans are ruined; they are betrayed and forced to abandon their boat when they are met by a German warship as they approach land. One of the group is killed in the attempt to reach the shore, ten are captured and later executed, and one man, twenty-six year old Jan Baalsrud, escapes. This book is his story.

'If Jan had stopped to think, everything would have seemed hopeless. He was alone, in uniform, on a small bare island, hunted by about fifty Germans. He left a deep track, as he waded through the snow, which anyone could follow. He was wet through and had one bare foot, which was wounded, and it was freezing hard. The island was separated from the mainland by two sounds, each several miles wide, which were patrolled by the enemy, and all his money and papers had been blown up in the boat.'

Jan escapes from the island by swimming across the sound. Exhausted and finally unconscious, he is swept ashore where he is found by some children and is taken into their home and cared for. From there he is later rowed to the mainland with the intent of making an attempt to reach Sweden on skis, a distance of sixty miles, but is caught in an avalanche.......concussed, wandering four days and nights in the mountains, snow blinded, frost bitten and gangrene infected, delirious and almost dead, Jan gives up hope, but a group of isolated arctic villagers are determined to save him.

The author first heard the skeleton of this story during the war but it wasn't until ten years later that he had the opportunity to visit the far north of Norway to find out what had really happened and to piece all the individual recollections and events together to form a true account. He has seen nearly all the places mentioned, met almost all the people and has given a detailed, absorbing account.

All through the story there are shining acts of charity shown to Jans by his fellow Norwegians, incredible coincidences and feats of bravery.

At one stage Jan completely loses hope and would have committed suicide but he was physically incapable of the act:

It was absurd really. He felt he had made a fool of himself. He had struggles so long to preserve his own life that now he had not enough strength in his fingers to kill himself. If he had not felt ashamed, he would have laughed.

An outstanding story and a great choice for a boy! My children read the book when they were about 13 years of age and as I was writing this, I had two of my boys remark that they thought this book was great. Courage, resilience, Arctic conditions, wolves - all the right ingredients & all the better because it actually happened.

I originally posted this about two years ago but updated it with some more detail.

Living Science Books for the 20th Century: Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks

Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks

Oliver Sacks is a neurologist and an award winning author who has written a number of books based on the case studies of some of his patients. Uncle Tungsten takes a different tack in that it is a memoir of Sacks's boyhood in England: his eccentric, scientific family and Jewish upbringing, experiences of World War II, and his boyhood infatuation with chemistry.

The book is not only a memoir of a life but it interweaves the history of chemistry and pertinent anecdotes in such a seamless narrative that even those with a limited knowledge of chemistry (like me) can follow. Some of the content went above my head in places but I still managed to enjoy and appreciate his writing. In fact about a month ago we had a trip to Questacon, our National Science and Technology Centre in Canberra, and I spent most of the time in the chemistry section. It all had a context for me after reading Uncle Tungsten.

 
Some of the best features of this book:

* The author filled his story with a boyish enthusiasm. He obviously possessed a mania for chemistry for a period of time when he was younger, but I got the impression it never really left him even though his life took a different direction later on.

*  The number of books the author quoted or mentioned he'd read when he was growing up is fascinating, as is the abundance of footnotes scattered throughout. Literature, science fantasy, biography and history books are referred to. I love it when authors do this. It gives me more of a glimpse into the author's personality and supplies me with ideas for my own reading.
One book he read as a ten year old was Eve Curie's biography of her mother, Madame Curie. I was reading this at the same time as I was reading Uncle Tungsten and thoroughly enjoyed all the connections.

* The historical context. At the outbreak of WWII, when Oliver was six years old, he was evacuated from his home in London to a boarding schooling in the Midlands where he remained for four years. He wrote that it was dehumanising, with beatings, starving and torment and that he was psychologically scarred. He returned to London in 1943 when his parents realised he was 'close to the edge.' How many children during those times suffered in similar ways?

* Uncle Tungsten was the nickname of Sack's Uncle Dave on his mother's side (his factory produced light bulbs using tungsten filament). His whole extended family had scientific inclinations but Uncle Dave was a great encouragement to his nephew in all things regarding metals and provided him with practical opportunities for satisfying his curiosity. My husband had a similar experience with his own uncle who loves gadgets and is always coming up with nifty little inventions. It was his enthusiasm for electronics that inspired my husband to go into electrical engineering.

I'm adding this book to our 20th Century plans for Ambleside Online Year 11. Just so you are a aware, there are a couple of places in the book that contain fairly overt references to adolescent awareness of physical change and maturation (Chapter 22, for instance). Also his family members were interesting and sometimes bordered on the bizarre:

My mother's practice had moved, sometime in the 1930's from general surgery to gynaecology and obstetrics...she would occasionally being back malformed foetuses to the house...
...Some of these had been stillborn, others she and the matron had quietly drowned at birth ("like a kitten," she once said), feeling that if they lived, no conscious or mental life would ever be possible for them. Eager that I should learn about anatomy and medicine, she dissected several of these for me, and then insisted, though I was only eleven, that I dissect them myself. She never perceived, I think, how distressed I became...

Personally, I'd save the book for an older student unless I was reading it aloud. It is a wonderful narrative and fits in well with the time period of AO Year 11 and I'm happy to include it there and discuss these areas as they come up.

The Avion My Uncle Flew by Cyrus Fisher - Newberry Honor Book 1946...how this book has been inspiring in the acquisition of the French language

The war in Europe had just ended and Johnny Littlehorn's father was in France recovering from injuries he received when a German shell exploded near him. Johnny's mother was French and had met her husband in America. After their marriage they had settled on a ranch in Wyoming and now Johnny's mother, with the help of their old foreman, did what she could in her husband's absence to keep the ranch going.

One day, Johnny's father unexpectedly returned and announced they were all going to France. Johnny's mother had a younger brother who still lived in France and he had introduced Mr Littlehorn to some important people in the French army. As a consequence Mr. Littlehorn was asked to remain in France after the war and carry out liason work.

Once the family were in France, it was arranged that Johnny would stay with his 'Oncle' Paul while his parents went to England for a couple of months. Thus began an adventure which took Johnny through the countryside of France and into the centre of a plot hatched by a Nazi spy.

On its own this story is a good little mystery with a mix of spying, adventure and humour. The author has painted a realistic picture of a young boy who had to overcome substantial inner and outer obstacles. His portrayal of the boy's behaviour and thought processes is believable, but in addition the book has a unique and clever feature which sets it apart from other books with a similar theme.

During the course of the book, Johnny, who had no knowledge of French at the beginning, learns to speak and understand the language by the time the book is finished.

Knowing how to say "it's" was helpful. With that "c'est" I could make sentences. I could say, "C'est mon pere;" "C'est min once;" or I could say, "Le jour est beau;" and, "Le Parc est Bleu;" or I could ask. Us elf silly questions like, "est mon once Le Parc?" And answer myself, "Non, Le Parc est Le Parc." Maybe it seems foolish, but I found it was fun.

I ended my letter to my mother with French words I knew, such as: "C'est bon here in your village de St. Chamant...Mon once est giving me lecons in French...Le jour est beau although it rains a lot...Ou are you now, in London?...Jean va to bed..." and things like that.

I gave this book to my 10 year old after I'd read it. She has been learning French mostly by immersion, and mostly through song. This year she started a French notebook and has been doing copy work for French also. She enjoyed the story but I didn't think it was much help in the French department until she showed me the story she was writing.

She'd been listening to G.A. Henty's tale, In the Reign of Terror, for about the fourth time. The main character in the story is a young lad who goes to live with a family in France, learns to speak French and is instrumental in saving members of the family when they are caught up in excesses of the French Revolution. I could see that it was from that book that she got the initial inspiration for her characters and storyline.
After she'd read The Avion My Uncle Flew, I noticed the dialogue in her story was imitating the style used in that book. She also started using our French/English dictionary to help with her vocabulary and began writing words out in a notebook, just like Johnny (Jean) had done.

Here is a section of Chapter Two of her story:

 

The last page of The Avion My Uncle Flew is written completely in French and is the letter Jean/Johnny writes to his mother. The book slowly adds French words throughout and these last pages come together quite naturally. Very cleverly done, I think.

World War II Children's Classic: The Chestry Oak by Kate Seredy (1896-1975)

The Chestry Oak, originally published in 1948, is a book I first heard about nearly twenty years ago. It had been out of print for a good number of years even then, but every now and again I'd do an internet search only to find one or two old copies exorbitantly priced.

Well-written World War II books for children are irresistible in my opinion, and considering that this one was written so close to the end of WWII, by a Hungarian author (Kate Seredy emigrated to the USA in 1922), I was really hoping that one day it would be reprinted. And recently Purple House Press did so.

The story opens in Hungary where five year old Michael, Prince of Chestry and his beloved nurse, Nana, awaken to the drone of overhead planes as Allied aircraft fill the skies. The outside world has changed and those changes are beginning to be felt even within Chestry Castle.

Mr John, his English tutor, leaves suddenly (we later find that he is killed in a concentration camp) and in his place comes the Professor:

Now he had only the Professor to teach him everything one learned out of books, and even the books were different, new and full of what the Professor called "facts."

Professor never sang or laughed, and when he smiled it was as if it hurt him someplace.

As the story progresses, an ominous presence in the castle is revealed, growing stronger with each passing day. Intruders come and go. Dangerous intruders, ill with greed and a dreadful conceit.

Hungary has been invaded by the Nazis and Michael's father is forced into seeming collusion with the enemy to protect his people from the same fate as Poland. Nana knows this, and even at a young age, Michael begins to understand also that his father is 'pretending' to be co-operating with the enemy. Although others such as the old butler think otherwise:

(Nana) heard Antal almost sob the words, "They have our Prince in their power now...and day by day, hour by hour, the teachings of the Professor are poisoning the very soul of his child, the last Chestry, Michael."

Before long the castle is turned into Headquarters for the German High Command and Michael's father sends Nana back to her people for her own safety.

Michael visits Nana and each time he has something to tell her...a sentence or a line of poetry his father asked him to say...it made no sense to him:

"Slowly, her full round face bent over the nest. It was full of snakes."

One day the Nazis decide that Michael is to be sent to Vienna. His father tells him that there will be a raid on Chestry Valley that very night. Michael is to escape on horseback and go to Nana. She will look after him and tell him what is to be done. At the last minute, Michael is unable to part with his beloved horse, Midnight, and takes him instead of the reliable mount his father instructs him to ride - a decision which is to have far reaching consequences.

The book moves slowly at first but half way through it picks up pace and the story becomes quite engrossing.

Kate Seredy has an unusual style, very lyrical, and with some little gems of thought that I didn't always pick up at first. It was only as the story unfolded more that these little pieces came together and filled in the gaps. At first the author seems to write as if to a young child but then expresses a depth that goes beyond a younger child's grasp (although it is still suitable for a younger age).

For this reason, as well as the fact that there are some beautiful ideals of courage, faith and integrity woven into the story, I think the book lends itself well to being read aloud to a wide range of ages. It is suggested as a free read in Year 6 of Ambleside Online but as it has been out of print for so long it's possibly a book that hasn't been used by many AO families.

He had no name for the sick trembling that shook him, for he had never been shamed before. He only knew what it was not - not fear, not anger, not pain, yet all of them, fused into a torment he didn't know how to cope with, a foreign, freezing lump inside him, so hateful to feel that his muscles contorted painfully in long, wrenching shivers.

...The earth had risen, split open before him, and out of the dark chasm the voice of the valley had cried words of contempt. The trees and the multitudes of grasses had turned into fingers pointing in accusation at him, at his father, at Chestry Castle, "You are the enemy."

Linking this post to Booknificent Thursdays

2015 Classic Children’s Literature Event: The Winged Watchman by Hilda van Stockum

In the month of January I'm linking up at Simpler Pastimes for Amanda's Classic Children's Literature event. I only have two books selected, as I think that's all I'll have time for:

The Winged Watchman by Hilda van Stockum and Bambi by Felix Salten

The Winged Watchman by Hilda van Stockum (1908-2006)

It's not easy to find a story that presents a realistic picture of World War II and is at the same time appealing and suitable for younger children but The Winged Watchman by Hilda van Stockum satisfies this criteria.
Written in 1962 and set in the years 1944 & 1945 during the Nazi occupation of Holland, The Winged Watchman is a work of fiction which accurately portrays occupied Holland at that time, as readers who lived through those days have attested. But, of course, many other books have been accurate in their portrayal of this time period. What the author did in this book to make it appropriate for young children was:

* To include enough realism to make it believable, while at the same time
* To temper the story with an underlying optimism that good will eventually conquer evil
* To view the war through the lens of a young boy in an warm & happy family

The war years are seen through the eyes of Joris Verhagen, a ten year old boy, who lived with his father and mother; his brother Dirk Jan aged fourteen, and their little 'sister' Trixie, in the Rynsater polder. Their father, a millwright, was responsible for keeping the polder (a piece of reclaimed land) dry, and he operated the old wind-powered mill, 'The Watchman.'

Joris was six years old when the Nazis overran Holland and was incredulous when Dirk Jan talked about life before the war. Joris had only known rationing, the drone of English bombers and the sense of an always present danger.
In Joris's eyes, everything was black and white.
When the Germans posted a notice ordering all dog-owners to present their dogs for inspection so that useful animals could be drafted into the army, Joris was devastated that his beloved, energetic dog, Freya, would be taken.

Why doesn't God stop the Germans?
Why does He let them continue to do awful things?
He could just kill them all!

When his mother told lies to protect a life, Joris was shocked and said so. His mother's reply told him what he had vaguely felt was right, but his black and white thinking wouldn't allow him to accept:

"It is bad when you hide the truth from someone who has a right to it, and in a normal world, where people try to obey God, everyone has a right to the truth.
But when you know that the other person is going to use the truth to maim and kill, do you think he still has a right to it?
The Germans...broke their treaty with us, invaded our country, bombed our cities, chased away our lawful government, killed or deported our men, women and children...
Do you think they have a right to the truth?
You are right to hate lies, my dear. But remember that truth itself becomes a lie in the twisted minds of our conquerors."

The Verhagens lived in the country and were better off than the city-dwellers who faced severe food shortages, but they had their own share of troubles and danger.
Their neighbour's son was a traitor who spied on them continually and the author used the tension involved in this situation and other areas to explore the theme of moral responsibility.
Moral responses aren't always black and white, as Joris learns, and the right choice often comes at a cost. It cost the Verhagen family a great deal but at the end of the war, when peace finally came, they were counting their blessings - thankful, despite their losses.

I read this book aloud some years ago and this month I read it for the first time with my youngest. It remains one of my favourite, not to be missed, books for children.
It is a simple, faith-filled story and is an ideal vehicle for presenting and discussing such things as truth, courage, wisdom and moral responsibility.
Children around the age of about 7 years and up (or younger, depending on the child) would love this book but if you have an older child who hasn't read it, I think they would enjoy it also.
As with another World War II book, The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom (which I highly recommend for older children & adults) civil disobedience is an important concept that could be discussed alongside moral responsibility.

Hilda van Stockum dedicated her book to her brother, a Royal Dutch Air Force pilot who was killed during a bombing raid over France in 1944. He wrote the following words, which capture the sentiment expressed in the book, before his death:

"I could stand idly by and see every painting by Rembrandt, Leonard da Vinci and Michelangelo thrown into a bonfire and feel no more than a deep regret, but throw one small, insignificant Polish urchin on the same bonfire, and by God, I'll pull him out or else. I fight quite simply for that...It is as simple as St. George and the Dragon."

The Winged Watchman is published by Bethlehem Books.
191pg.

Also linking up at Booknificent Thursday