Author Georgia Hunter did not know about her family history, not even that she was one quarter Jewish and that her extended family members, including her beloved grandfather, were survivors of the Holocaust. But at a long-delayed family reunion, Ms. Hunter learned the truth and heard some of the stories, stories that her grandfather before his death had never shared. She later began a decade long research project in which the traveled all over the world to ask questions and learn as much as she could about her family’s history and survival in World War II Poland.

All of that history and those many stories became the nucleus of this fascinating novel, We Were the Lucky Ones. The title comes from an observation made by Georgia’s mother’s cousin, Felicia: “Our family, we shouldn’t have survived. Not so many of us, at least. It’s a miracle in many ways. We were the lucky ones.”

Of course, not everyone in the book does survive, but the stories that this book tells are something of a miracle. Not many Polish Jews did survive. Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, and even the tiny little Radom where the story of the Kurc family begins, were all destroyed by the war, and their Jewish populations were not just decimated, but rather practically annihilated.The story of how some of those Polish Jews survived is amazing, and yes, miraculous.

It makes me wonder why, a question I realize can never be answered. Still, why this family and not so many others? Were they more resourceful and quick-witted than others, or were they just lucky? Did God preserve them for a reason? I have no idea. But I certainly believe that God was there in the Holocaust, in the living and in the dying and in the suffering and the deliverance, that in His mercy He allowed some to die and some to live to tell the story.

I highly recommend this book for adult readers. What does reading about such evil and suffering do for a person? It should make us more compassionate and more prepared to recognize and fight against the evil that is still present in our own world.

Originally published at Breakpoint.org, April 3, 2012

Sara Zarr’s 2010 young adult novel, Once Was Lost, features Samara, a PK (preacher’s kid) who thinks she has faith all figured out until her dysfunctional family falls apart and her quiet hometown experiences a tragedy. Then, Samara must learn to love and accept imperfect parents and an imperfect and questioning self. I loved the way the novel dealt with faith questions without over-simplifying or stereotyping the Christian characters.

I wondered if Zarr might continue with the explicitly Christian characters in her latest YA novel, How To Save a Life, but she doesn’t. Two girls, Mandy and Jill, tell the story in alternating chapters, and that first-person/two-narrators technique works well for a story that’s essentially about two people from very different backgrounds coming to trust, love, and understand each other.

Jill is an upper-middle-class, pierced-to-the-hilt child of privilege whose mother is a liberal career woman do-gooder with a heart for giving to others. As the book opens, Jill and her mother, Robin, are grieving the fairly recent death of Jill’s father, Mac, and Robin has made a momentous decision: to participate in an open adoption and give a home to a child in need. Mandy, the unmarried teen mother, will be coming to live at Jill’s house to complete the last few weeks of her pregnancy. Jill thinks her mom is insane, and she really misses her dad’s level-headed, curmudgeonly ways right about now.

When Mandy arrives on the scene, the story continues in Mandy’s voice for a while, and we learn that while Mandy may not fit Jill’s preconceived stereotypes, she certainly has some growing up of her own to do. Jill’s abrasiveness is a function of heredity (taking after her dad) and grief (for her dad), while Mandy has learned the art of passive resistance from interacting with her verbally abusive mother.

The two girls’ personalities mix like oil and water, and there’s also the new baby to think about. Does Jill have the ability to overcome her misgivings about the adoption and become a loving older sister? Does Mandy really want to give up the only thing that has ever been completely hers, her own baby?

The issues the story raises about adoption, trust, differences in socioeconomic backgrounds, parenting, and grieving are all well-integrated into the narrative and thought-provoking. I especially liked the depictions of the differences in Mandy’s and Jill’s economic expectations. Jill tells Mandy at one point in the book, “Money’s never been a problem in this family.” But for Mandy, money has been and is a big problem. It’s a cultural gap that is only partially bridged by the end of the novel, but it was good to see teens working through something that is rarely explored in YA novels.

On the other hand, I hated the fact that Jill and her boyfriend just had to fall into bed together as an expected and natural part of their reconciliation, about a third of the way through the novel. I’m not saying it’s not realistic for them to do so in today’s culture, and the sex scene isn’t explicit nor is it a big part of the story. But I hate giving young adult readers the unspoken message that “everybody does it” and it’s no big deal.

Since I read in a blog interview with Zarr that she is a Christian and that most of what [she writes] does not directly incorporate faith, but all of it is written from [her] Christian worldview, I expected to see that worldview in How To Save a Life. And I did. Although the dual narrators, Jill and Mandy, are explicitly non-religious, each of them comes to a place of change in her life that seems almost impossible apart from the hand of God. It’s as if, similar to the Book of Esther, God is at work in the background even though none of the characters in the book acknowledges Him or overtly calls on Him. Or maybe I’m just reading that sense of divine intervention into the narrative, since I was looking for it all along.

Either way, mature readers, both Christian and non-Christian, should see themselves in both Mandy and Jill as they struggle to change and trust each other across an economic and cultural gap that threatens to overwhelm their tentative and flawed attempts at understanding.

Texas Sunrise is two books in one, Massacre at Goliad and After the Bugles, set at the time of the 1836 Texas Revolution against Santa Anna and the Mexican government. Both books together tell the story of one Texas pioneer, Joshua Buckalew, a young man from Tennessee who comes to Texas to make his fortune and build a life. Joshua and his brother, Thomas, get a land grant from the Mexican government and set to work to build a cabin and plow the land and brand a few mavericks to start building a herd.

The Buckalews have several neighbors, and the book is as much about the relationships of those of Mexican descent and the new “norteamericanos” who practically invade the land, although they are there at the invitation of the Mexican government. Joshua becomes friends with his Hispanic neighbors, even falls in love with a Latina girl, but Thomas has nothing but distaste, even hatred, for the Mexicans. When war comes, the Buckalews and their neighbors, the Hernandez family, must choose sides, whether they want to or not. And those who decide to oppose Santa Anna and his dictatorial rule must put aside their own differences and fight together.

This book would be an excellent read for high school students who are studying or interested in Texas history (some violence and mild profanity are present in all of Kelton’s books). The portrayal of the Texians and the Mexicans who sided with Santa Anna and the Mexicans who fought with the newcomers from the United States is even-handed and fair: there are “good guys” and “bad guys” among all the groups. Only the Native Americans, mostly raiding Comanche, get short shrift, mostly because this book isn’t about them. It’s about those who settled the land in Texas to build farms and ranches, and they generally had only negative encounters with the Comanche and other Native Americans.

I like Elmer Kelton’s westerns better than any other western author I’ve tried. Maybe it’s because Kelton is from San Angelo like me, or maybe it’s because his characters are more rounded and believable than those of Louis L’Amour or Zane Grey or Larry McMurtry. At any rate, if you’re fan of westerns or of Texas history, I recommend Elmer Kelton’s books to your examination. Even if you’re not a western novel fan, The Time It Never Rained and The Day the Cowboys Quit are worth a try anyway. I think you’ll find something satisfying and engaging in Mr. Kelton’s work.

I am re-reading this spiritual autobiography of the well known Christian author, artist, and advocate for the disabled, Joni Eareckson Tada. Here’s what I wrote the first time I read the book:

The book is basically a re-telling of Joni’s life with more emphasis on her childhood and her life after the publication of her first, very successful, attempt at spiritual autobiography, Joni, written about 30 years ago. For those who haven’t been running in evangelical circles for as long as that, Joni Tada is a beautiful Christian author and artist; she is also a quadriplegic, injured in a diving accident when she was still a teenager. Joni writes about growing up as the youngest of four daughters in a home where her father was “bigger than life.” She also remembers horseback riding and playing the piano, travel and discovering family secrets, teenage rebellion and, of course, The Accident. She gives hope to those dealing with depression by telling about her own bouts with depression and anxiety.

Part 1 of The God I Love ends with Joni’s disillusionment with God at the age of eleven when she prayed that God would help her win a big race that she ran—-and He didn’t. Joni writes, “Yet what hurt most was, quite simply, my humiliating and resounding defeat. It made me very disappointed in God. . . . My request was so small, not very demanding. Why couldn’t he have lifted his little finger to push me across that finish line ahead of the others? . . . I ran home, leaving the church behind. As well as something of my childhood.”

I may chuckle a bit at an eleven year old expecting God to favor her in a race, but I’m not sure my expectations are much more in line with God’s purposes than hers. Nor are my questions that much different from Joni’s. Why doesn’t God heal that friend or family member that we prayed for so intently? Even more puzzling, why does He heal this one and not that one? If God can remove a cancerous tumor, why doesn’t He ever replace or regrow an amputated limb? Is either miracle too hard for Almighty God? Are we never supposed to pray for the favors we think we want, or is it O.K. to pray for good grades and test scores, winning games, career advancement, and physical healing, as long as we tack on an “if it is Your will” at the end of the prayer? Can we pray for physical healing but not for mental and spiritual healing (because: free will)? God can override the body gone wrong, but not the soul gone astray? Are we only supposed to pray about daily food, forgiveness, and God’s will be done, as in the Model Prayer, or is God bigger and interested in hearing from us about everything that concerns us? When I pray and talk to God over and over about the worries and heartaches that repeat themselves over and over in my heart and mind, am I just worrying and disguising my worry as prayer? Or does God want me to ask over and over again like the woman in the parable of the importunate widow (Luke 18:1-8). “We ought always to pray and not give up.”

I’m barely more wise or mature in the ways of prayer and the Holy Spirit and understanding God’s ways of speaking and answering than eleven year old Joni was when God disappointed her. I have prayers that God has not yet answered affirmatively or negatively, requests that I believe are much more important and more in line with His will than winning a footrace. I have requests that He has not yet granted despite my repeated and persistent begging. Nevertheless, I will not give up or quit asking, seeking, knocking. For yet, like Joni, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day.” I commit even my most cherished and desperate prayer requests to Him, trusting Him to do what is right and good and loving in all things.

Originally published at Breakpoint.org, August 29, 2011

In order to review Sarah Dessen’s latest Young Adult romantic adventure, I had to get hold of the copy that my young adult daughters were passing around among themselves. It was going to take a while to get to my turn, so while waiting, I decided to do some background research. I had read one book by Dessen (Along for the Ride) quite a while ago, and thought I’d read a couple more. At the library, I picked up Lock and Key and This Lullaby.

As I read my preliminary research books, and then again when I finally got my hands on What Happened to Goodbye, I felt a strong sense of deja  vu. Dessen changes the names, but her female protagonists have a lot in common. All of those I read about were older teen girls — sixteen or seventeen — in their last years of high school, considering going off to college, and dealing with difficult or dysfunctional mothers and sometimes absent fathers. Each of our heroines is to some extent emotionally closed and guarded, and afraid to love and be loved. Enter the cute, vulnerable, and longsuffering guy who breaks through her shell of self-protection and helps her to risk engaging in a meaningful relationship.

Mclean, the main character in What Happened to Goodbye, is angry with her mother because of the messy divorce that Mclean blames on her mother’s decision to go off with another man. The divorce and subsequent frequent moves with her father, who has a job that involves lots of travel, have given Mclean an identity crisis. Unsure of who she is, or what was real and what was fake about her pre-divorce family of origin, Mclean has been reinventing herself in every town where she and her father move.

But when they come to Lakeview, the fictional setting for all of the books that I read by Dessen, Mclean meets a boy, Dave, who will become an anchor for her free-floating identity, and she makes friends who want to know her as she really is.

So it’s chick lit for the high school set, and my girls devour it. I think Dessen’s books are so popular because they speak to issues and questions that teen girls, in particular, do grapple with and think about: Who am I really? Can I become a new person in a new setting, or am I doomed to make the same mistakes over and over? Is it better to have loved and lost? Is it worth the risk to commit oneself to a romantic relationship in this age of transience and uncertainty? Oh, and how do I deal with the newly realized fact that my parents, mom especially, are imperfect and maybe even seriously messed up?

I like the way Dessen’s books tackle these and other teen questions, with characters who don’t have it all together but who are trying. I don’t like the common assumptions that are perpetuated in the books: that all teens rebel and that all adult dating relationships and most teen ones eventually are consummated in a sexual relationship. There’s nothing explicit about teen sex in What Happened to Goodbye, but the assumption is there. It’s more overt in This Lullaby. In the latter book, promiscuity is rightly shown to be a poor defense mechanism for protecting oneself from true intimacy, but the assumption is still that if you love someone, you will eventually have sex as soon as you both get over all of your issues and hangups. Marriage, of course, is not even a blip on the horizon because, while these teens consider themselves old enough to have sex, they have college to attend, new places to explore, and lives to live before they even think of marriage.

I wish I could recommend some books similar to these but with a more Christian underlying worldview, and also with characters that were as engaging and real as Dessen’s. However, the “Christian” teen romances I’ve read are not nearly in the same league with these books as far as depth of characters and engagement with the real world. I don’t want the characters in Dessen’s books to all behave like sinless saints, a category of people I don’t believe exists this side of heaven, but I do wish there were someone in the novels who could exemplify or articulate a faith-based, or at least traditional, view of male/female and parent/child relationships, and even explore the vicissitudes of love and marriage and growing up from that perspective. Maybe I’m asking too much from a book that purports to be nothing more nor less than the latest in a series of highly acclaimed teen romance novels.

Content warnings: some mildly offensive language and discussion of premarital sexual situations, but no explicit sex or violence.

“Apollo 8 was different from the crewed spaceflights, American and Russian, that had gone before it. Not only was the flight to be launched by the largest, most powerful rocket ever built, but all previous missions had been either suborbital or Earth-orbiting. Now three astronauts—Frank BOrman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders—were to attempt to become the first humans to break the bonds of Earth. Apollo 8 was headed for the moon.”

After I enjoyed the ARC of this beautiful (even in black and white) book, I gave it to Engineer Husband to read. I knew he would enjoy it, too, since he’s actually a retired NASA engineer and interested in all things space program related. Engineer Husband wasn’t there for the Apollo program, but he definitely followed the news of the Apollo missions as a boy/teen. His verdict: well-written, absorbing, and it kept him reading while he was supposed to be going on a “taco run” for our lunch.

Adult Reading:

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes.

Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving.

Winter in Madrid by C. J. Sansom.

Message to Malaga by Helen MacInnes.

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway.

Iberia by James Michener.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

Abel Sanchez: The History of a Passion by Miguel de Unamuno.

Children’s and Young Adult Fiction:

Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska.

I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino.

Go Saddle the Sea by Joan Aiken. (Sequels are Bridle the Wind and The Teeth of the Gale)

Picture Books:

The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf. Illustrated by Robert Lawson.

Sebastian’s Roller Skates by Joan De Deu Prats. Illustrated by Francesc Rovira. Kane/Miller, 2005.

Lola’s Fandango by Anna Witte. Illustrated by Micha Archer. Barefoot Books, 2011.

Look What Came From Spain by Kevin Davis. Franklin Watts, 2003.

Anno’s Spain by Mitsumasa Anno. Philomel. 2004.

Don Quixote and the Windmills by Eric Kimmel. Illustrated by Leonard Fisher. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2004.

Other suggestions of books by Spanish authors or books set in Spain?

I found this orphan post in my drafts folder and thought I’d share it even if it is a bit outdated.

“We all have our ways to survive.” ~Willa of the Wood by Robert Beatty.

“To rush is not necessarily to arrive.” ~Endling: The Last by Katherine Applegate.

“Anything in the world is possible—by will and by luck, with a moist carrot, a wet nose, and a slice of mad courage.” ~The Royal Rabbits of London by Santa and Simon Montefiore.

“We save ourselves by saving others.” ~Sweep: The Story of a Girl and her Monster by Jonathan Auxier.

“The smaller something is, the more it needs protection.” ~The Boy, the Boat, and the Beast by Samantha M. Clark.

“Ruling does not mean dominating. It means making difficult decisions. It means working hard, all the time, late into the night. It means listening . . . It’s the opposite of dominating, really.” ~The Lost Books: The Scroll of Kings by Sarah Prineas.

“When you see others in need, you help them, even if it means a risk to yourself.” ~Evangeline of the Bayou by Jan Eldredge.

“Whatever happens will be for the worse, and therefore it is in our interest that as little should happen as possible.”

Lord Salisbury

This epigram summarizes at least one large part of my political philosophy. I believe in what is often called limited government because I have seen that much of what governments end up doing is “for the worse”, and it is in our interest that government be as limited as possible. Of course, I am not an anarchist. Government, the federal government in particular, has a role and a responsibility to be sure: “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” And in our large country the in itself becomes a rather large role and responsibility. But please, let’s have the federal government, as well as the state governments, stay out of medicine, out of education, out of regulating the internet, and out of as much as possible in a free but ordered society. I’m not exactly a libertarian, but I do lean in that direction.

As we say in Texas, where we only allow the legislature to meet every two years for 140 days:

“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”

~Gideon J. Tucker