Penny from Heaven

by Jennifer L. Holm

Two Thumbs Up.

This Newberry Honor book portrays the joys, fun, frustrations, and heartache of Penny, an adolescent of mixed Italian and plain old American descent, during the summer she turns twelve.  She is growing up in New Jersey, in the early 50s.  She is a Brooklyn Dodgers fan.  Penny's best friend is her cousin, Frankie, who has a propensity for trouble.

Penny lives with her mother and her maternal grandparents, and her poodle, Scarlett O'Hara.  Her father died when she was young, and it's one of Penny's constant frustrations that nobody will talk about him.

The author has created a cast of colorful, loveable characters; she has skillfully juxtaposed the flair and love of Penny's Italian relatives with the seemingly boring, but constant, plain old American side of her family.

I don't want to give too many details about the historical fiction angle of this book, because Ms Holm leaves the most important aspect of history to the end in a wonderfully fulfilling revelation to Penny.  But I will say that it's a book that highlights an important part of our cultural history, one that isn't often brought to light.

The author has also included as an unofficial afterword, the explanation of how the story coincides with that of her own family.  She includes family history, including pictures, and describes other aspects of the book that are particularly historical and how she learned of them.

I would say the primary audience is late elementary or junior high girls.  Boys or older girls would like it, too, once they started, but they may not want to admit it, since the story revolves around a twelve year old girl.  For read aloud, it would be suitable and enjoyable for a wide range of ages and both genders.   

Penny from Heaven would be a useful addition to any unit study highlighting the homefront angle of WWII America, a study of the cultural aspects the greater New York City/northern New Jersey area, or of immigrant history, particularly that of Italian Americans.

Saved by Her Enemy

by Don Teague and Rafraf Barrak

Thumbs up.

During one of Don Teague's visit to Iraq to report for NBC during the Iraq War, twenty-three year old Rafraf Barrak was a translator with whom he often worked.  Through this work as a translator, Ms Barrak was able to support her parents and nine siblings.  But because of this work for the enemy, her life was in danger.  The danger continued to grow as the insurgency gained strength.

Saved by Her Enemy tells the story of the friendship of Don Teague and Rafraf Barrak, a friendship which crossed age, gender, culture and religion. 

I found this a fascinating account.  Mr. Teague, although he does not engage in political discourse, served eleven years in the Army Reserve and the National Guard.  He is an evangelical Christian.  He is a correspondent for a main stream television news agency.  It is a mix that seems to suit him well and through which God obviously makes good use of him.

Ms Barrak is a brave young woman who engagingly shares the story of how she managed to come to peace with the choices she has had to make.

Do you Hear When They Cry

by Fauziya Kassindja

Thumbs up.

This was a hard book to read. One of those narratives that grabs one, and drags him or her through horrible real life experiences, and doesn't let go until he or she has reached the end.

Ms Kassindja is a Muslim woman from Toga, Africa. In October of 1994, she ran away from home at 17 in order to escape a polygamous marriage to an older man and and the prospect of female circumcision (known legally in America as Female Genital Mutilation or FMG). Unlike the book I reviewed a few weeks ago, Cruel and Usual Punishment, this author has clung to her Muslim faith and the book reflects this adherence throughout. It gives a much more positive picture of the Muslim faith and those who follow it.

The book, however, is about so much more than that. During the first several chapters, Ms Kassindja teaches the reader all about what her life was life in Toga. This is very skillfully done and I learned many things, all the while enjoying the happy narrative of the author's younger life.

When Ms Kassindja eventually had to leave her homeland, she stayed briefly in Germany. From there, at the urging of a friend, she chose to come to America and request political asylum. Ms Kassindja spoke English and wanted to finish her education. With few options available to her, this seemed like a reasonable plan.

This latter part of the book, by far the longest part of the narrative, is much less joyful then the first. The ordeal that the author lived through while awaiting her various hearings is a travesty. And if an accurate depiction of how America treats her refugees it is a true blot on our national conscience.

It would be impossible for me to list everything Ms. Kassinja writes about. But eventually she was put in touch with several advocates who used her case to set precedence in ruling impending FMG as warranting asylum. She was released on parole after spending 16 months in a series of facilities, some of that time in maximum security prisons sharing a cell with women incarcerated for violent crime. Shews eventually granted asylum in June of 1996.

Hopefully all the publicity her case caused also has lead to better, more humane conditions for those who find themselves running to us in fear.

I realize there are many issues, political and social, to consider with regard to US immigration policy. There are no easy answers. But after reading Ms Kassindja's account, I certainly am more aware of some basic human conditions that can in our INS detention facilities. The book puts a human face on an otherwise impersonal definition of a detainee and elicits empathy toward those with nowhere to run.