Crossing Stones

by Helen Frost
Farrar, Straus & Giroux | 2009

This narrative brings together the voices of two families in rural Michigan in 1917 as their sons go off to war and their daughters struggle to define themselves. There is an easy symmetry in the families and an assumption that the boys and girls will match up and be partnered, but Muriel finds herself questioning this arranged destiny. "Mother: I have no intention of becoming the Mrs. Norman of your imaginary future. Who I am remains to be seen - and I alone intend to be the one to see it." Muriel tells us this on page 15! So early we learn this young woman in 1917 will not be molded easily. And luckily for her, she has a paternal aunt who is fighting for suffrage.

At 16, Muriel is already questioning the status quo at school and at home, and her parents, although supportive, are cautionary. They tell her she must learn to mind her tongue, to think before she speaks, to not be too forthright with her thoughts or questions. They are raising a daughter, after all, in 1917. When Muriel attempts to write to her friend (not boyfriend) Frank, away at war, her mother is quick - "I'm not aware I know this rule, until I'm embarrassed to be caught breaking it: The gentleman should always be the first to write, Mama informs me. A lady never writes before she has received a letter." Yet two pages later, Muriel's mother says to her daughter after a bout of questioning: "Maybe you won't rock the cradle, Muriel. Some women prefer to rock the boat.

Told deftly by Helen Frost in verse, the poems are shaped round like river stones and waving like river water. The shape depends on from whose point of view they are told. This book is for anyone really, but it might be especially good for middle and high school girls. It reminded me why it's important to believe in myself and I think it would do the same for younger readers.

No Crystal Stair

subtitle: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller
by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
Carolrhoda Lab/Lerner Publishing Group | 2012

This 2012 Boston Globe Horn Book fiction winner presents fantastic information about Lewis Michaux, the founder and proprietor of the National Memorial African Bookstore in Harlem from 1930 until it was shut because the building was taken via eminent domain in 1974. People like Nikki Giovanni, Malcolm X, and more visited the store and spent time with "The Professor" as Michaux was called. Life for many "ain't been no crystal stair" as Langston Hughes wrote and Michaux was one.

The bookstore

Nelson, the author, began researching her family history, including the store many years ago. She remembered visiting it as a child, but as more and more people mentioned the impact her great uncle had had on them, the more curious she got. Soon, what she thought was going to be a biography took on a life of its own, and she found herself wanting to include more and needing to use conjecture about some things. And so this "documentary novel" was created.

There are millions of pockets of history in the U.S. that so many have no idea about. I, for one, did not even know this bookstore existed, let alone the very important role it played in Harlem. I am thankful to authors like Vaunda Nelson who bring me these forgotten moments through books.

Get this one for your history class or social studies class. Invite your students to learn something they won't otherwise encounter. Do the same for your children. This book is a fantastic place to start.

Life: An Exploded Diagram

The U.S. cover

by Mal Peet
Candlewick | 2011

Clem is young and from the wrong side of the small British-town tracks in the 1960s. He falls for the rich girl who happens to be the daughter of his father's boss. Frankie and Clem keep it all a secret, sneaking around to hiding places in the woods and the environs of their town.

In the news is the Cuban Missile Crisis and what it might mean for England, still recovering in many ways from WWII. Interwoven with Clem and Frankie's story are chapters devoted to the history of President Kennedy's handling of Russia, Cuba, and the 13-day crisis.

The British cover

When Clem and Frankie decide to spend a day in a seaside town forty-five minutes away for a more serious rendezvous, something befalls them that changes the course of their lives forever. The rest of the novel unfolds, time and history with it, and the final pages find Clem in New York City on a universally fateful day in September.

This haunting tale is beautifully written and offers a commentary on history and life all rolled into one bittersweet YA novel. Peet's author's note is what really got me, though. After a caveat about his narrator's grasp on history and a short bibliography, he offers this final note:

"Finally: there are still approximately seven thousand nuclear warheads in existence. More than enough to blast the planet into a perpetual winter. I assume there are enough people who know where they all are. But we don't talk about them much anymore. We have other things on our minds."

Whoa. Yes.