Hidden-A Child's Story of the Holocaust: By Loic Dauvillier

         Perhaps my favorite genre to read is historical fiction, but when I stumbled across Loic Dauvillier's Hidden, I was immediately skeptical, that is until I read it. Hidden is a graphic novel that was originally published in French in 2012 under the name L'Enfant Cahee. Alexis Siegel translated the novel and in 2014 it was published in English, under the current title. The book received a Batchelder Honor Award in 2014, given for outstanding children's book originally published in a language other than English in a country other than the United States, and subsequently translated into English for publication in the US. In the graphic novel, Dauvillier tells the powerful story of a grandmother recounting her childhood experiences hiding from the Nazis in France during World War II to her granddaughter, Elsa. In a world riddled with cruelty and harshness, Dounia Cohen finds her 6-year-old-self shunned by her peers and teacher the first time she wore her required yellow star identifying her as Jewish. Soon after her parents are taken away by the police during a raid, and she finds herself depending on neighbors to hide and protect her. When the time is right, Dounia is able to escape to the French countryside, where she is safe to wait out the rest of the war.
         This over-archingly hopeful story makes use of a long series of cartoon-style, detailed illustrations, typical of what you might see in a comic strip. The intense details of every image help to slow the readers movement through these story. Because there are so few words on a page, the reader is tempted to fly through the rest of the story to learn what happens, but the intricate details of Greg Salsedo and Marc Lizano's illustrations beg the reader to slow down, in order to discover hidden images. For example, in one sequence, if the reader looks closely, a "picture" of Dounia's missing parents is shown in the background and gradually grows and grows, until it takes up an entire frame of the story.
        The writing of Dauvillier conveys an account of the Holocaust that while very real, is ultimately child-friendly. The explicit details of what occurred during this time period are for the most part put vaguely and the story focuses on a young girl's experience hiding, missing her parents, and seeking refuge. As we like to see in books written for children, Hidden ends on a lighter note, with Dounia and her mother finding each other again as World War II ends, and Elsa, a young girl in present-day France, becomes closer to her grandmother, who after many, many years is now telling her story.
       With numerous positive reviews, Dauvillier's graphic novel, Hidden, really works with the historical fiction genre. The fact that the story is told in the form of a graphic novel, lends itself nicely to the child-friendly Holocaust story idea. The story relies heavily on dialogue between characters and images to drive the plot and give the reader information about emotions and settings. This book is written for readers that are a little bit older, I would say definitely no younger than 10-years-old. This book has a high level of visual appeal and recalls the details of a tragic historical time factually, without being too vivid. This book, with guidance and premising perhaps, would be a good introduction for a young reader to the Holocaust.

For another story of a child's perspective of the Holocaust, check out Louis Lowry's, Number of the Stars

Picture Source: http://us.macmillan.com/hiddenachildsstoryoftheholocaust/loicdauvillier

Wonder: By R.J. Palacio

        10-year-old August Pullman, aka Auggie, was born with several genetic abnormalities that have lead him through 27 surgeries. But despite his bravery, his facial disfiguration leaves Auggie dreaming of being nothing more than ordinary. Auggie, who has been home schooled his whole life, spends everyday dealing with people doing “that look-away thing”—afraid to look at him or see him as the average kid he wants so desperately to be.

      August and his family have not had it easy. His big sister Via is very protective and gets angry when people stare at her brother. Auggie’s parents want the world for their son, but cannot agree whether sending him to public school is the right way to give this to him. They finally decide on sending August to middle school at Beecher Prep, which is very scary for August, but they convince him to give the school a chance.

      Juvenile realistic fiction novel, Wonder, sheds light on a brutal reality that is often over looked: a child who wants to be nothing more than ordinary, but can’t simply because of the way he looks. But despite the heartbreaking circumstances that have befallen our main character, Palacio gives the reader a fall back to the situation: Auggie’s hilarious and caring family. It is the close bond with his parents and sister that serves as Auggie’s foundation for facing the challenges at his new school. We see Auggie rises above the challenge of fitting in presented by his deformity and that the sense of love from his family helps him to flourish in his new school, make the honor-roll, make friends, and be the average kid he has always wanted to be. Auggie's story leaves us refreshed and inspired, helping us to remember the good things in life and that being ordinary is sometimes the most extraordinary thing of all. 

      Palacio approaches the story in a very straight-to-the-point manner that really helps heighten the reader's interest in Auggie's story, making it appealing to a wider audience, with varying reading interests. As a young reader Auggie is highly relatable because despite the challenges he has to overcome because of his looks, he is just an ordinary 10-year-old kid. Throughout the story Auggie experiences normal 10-year-old challenges and drama, which helps bring forth key issues of identity and how we treat others. As an adult reading this book there were places where I couldn’t help but be sad for Auggie’s situation; however, with diversity in schools becoming more and more the norm, your typical child reading this book will see Auggie as someone who is relatable to peers they encounter at school everyday, just ordinary kids. I highly recommend this courageous and engaging novel for young readers ages 9-12 as Auggie’s story has a lot to offer in terms of quality reading, relate-ability, and concepts of diversity.  

Picture Source: http://www.amazon.com/Wonder-R-J-Palacio/dp/0375869026

Anklet for a Princess: A Cinderella Story from India: By Lila Mehta, Adapted By Meredith Brucker

      "Anklet for a Princess: A Cinderella Story from India" by Lila Mehta takes the fairytale of Cinderella and adds traditional Indian cultural elements into the mix. Cinduri is a young girl living with her horrible stepmother and her terrible stepsister, who make her work very hard doing all of the chores both in the house and on the farm, while they do none of the work. Cinduri, our Cinderella character (bet you couldn't have guessed that one!!), walks to a nearby lake everyday to bring back water, and one day while standing by the lake she meets a magical snake who says he is her Godfather Snake and vows to help her with her troubles and make her life easier. In Cinduri's town there is an annual Navarati Festival and this year a handsome young prince will attended, but her step mother tells her she cannot go until she completes all of her chores, which will certainly be impossible. But with the help of Godfather Snake, Cinduri's chores are magically finished, and he dresses her in a beautiful gold-threaded sari and sparkling diamond anklets with bells. At the festival Cinduri dances for the prince and quickly wins his heart; however, just as you would expect from a Cinderella tale, she has to leave without a real introduction when her magic runs out midnight, but loses a sparkling anklet on the way out. Cinduri and the prince are reunited the next day when he comes looking for the mysterious owner of the diamond anklet. The couple are married and Cinduri moves to a beautiful castle where she and her prince---live happily ever after!
        Lila Mehta's story "Anklet for a Princess: A Cinderella Story from India" truly captures the beauty of traditional Indian culture and creates the Cinderella story you expect, with surprising cultural details. In the text we find elements such as a sari, the anklets, the magical jeweled snake, Cinduri's chore of carrying water on her head, and many other small elements that infuse the Indian culture throughout the story. But we really get a sense of the Indian culture through the watercolor images of Youshan Tang that depict numerous aspects of the traditional Indian culture using brightly colored full page bleeds that invite you to imagine Cinduri's life in India. Adding to the details of culture, each page containing text that is paired with a watercolor scene, also contains a small token from India that is relevant to the scene. This token is paired in the white backgrounded frame with the author's text and gives just a hint about what is being talked about, without taking attention away from the story written.
       Lila Mehta's story, coupled with Youshan Tang's artistic style help us as the reader to dive into the classic Cinderella fairytale and be met with a perfect dose of traditional Indian culture. I recommend this culturally diverse fairytale to children grades 1 through 3, as they will enjoy the story's Cinderella-like content and the vivid images. However, this book would also be great for teachers in upper-elementary and secondary schools who are teaching about how fairytales are shared among many different cultures on a global scale.

Picture Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/896430.Anklet_For_A_Princess?from_search=true&search_version=service

Adelita: A Mexican Cinderella Story: By Tomie DePoala

           "Adelita: A Mexican Cinderella Story" by Tomie dePoala is not your typical glass slipper, pumpkin coach, fairy godmother kind of Cinderella. This story infuses the traditional children's fairytale with a Mexican twist that can be seen from the isolated Spanish phrases (translated within the text to English for the reader), to the warm colored tile work framing all the text and illustrations on every page. While it is very clear that the story tells the tale of a girl from Mexico, we see still get the Cinderella plot we are looking for. Following her father's death, Adelita is left to live with her hateful stepmother and unbearable stepsisters. We have Adelita's childhood house keeper, Esperanza, taking on the role of the fairy-godmother who makes sure she looks beautiful when she goes to the to the fiesta thrown by Señor Javier, our eligible bachelor. In typical Cinderella fashion, Adelita makes quite the impression at the party, draped in her late mother's flowing red shaw. The same shaw that she uses to prove her identity the very next day when Javier comes looking for the gorgeous girl from his party. The two realize their instantaneous love is fate and in the style of all great fairytales, live happily ever after.
        The illustrations in the book are invaluable when it comes to depicting traditional Mexican culture. The full page tile framing style that dePoala uses help bring attention to the scenes being illustrated and the the text in the white backgrounds, without sacrificing color or cultural relevance.  In each framed scene the reader can see the Mexican food being used in the kitchen, the traditional cultural dress, Mexican architecture, and many other elements unique to the country. While as the reader we can pick up the essence of Mexican culture from only the text, but it is the brightly colored images, framed by vivid and detailed tile work that help to truly engulf the story into one of cultural significance.
        dePoala's version of Cinderella serves as a great tribute to traditional Mexican culture and to the worldwide use of fairytales. He perfectly enhances the familiar concepts of a Cinderella tale with culturally relevant details, such as the foods they eat (beans and tortillas) and the way they speak, using many Spanish phrases. In terms of teaching value, this book would be extremely valuable to upper-elementary and middle school teachers doing lessons on diverse cultures and lessons involving the way fairytales and storytelling ideas have evolved across time and cultures.

Picture Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/581442.Adelita

Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella: By Paul Fleischman

        The earliest story of Cinderella dates back to the ninth-century, a very very long time ago, and there are thought to be over 1,000 versions of the tale! In Paul Fleischman's "Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella" the reader is invited in to hear the classic children's fairy tale of Cinderella, with a global twist, as we immediately can guess from seeing the Earth on the title page. The story begins with a young girl sitting on her mother's lap, reading a book with a glass slipper on the cover. As we continue to read the cultures portrayed in each scene begin to transform, as if the storyteller changes and the tale travels to a new and exciting place. "Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella" is a story of patchwork genius, as Fleischman is able to weave together 17 different cultures to create one beautiful narrative of Cinderella.
       While it is very obvious that Fleischman is telling the familiar Cinderella story everyone enjoyed from their childhood, he surprised the reader with the turn of each page. We see Cinderella dressed in a beautiful Japanese kimono on one page heading off to ball, then as we flip to the next page we see her in French glass slippers, that transform to Indian diamonds anklets, then to Iraqi golden sandals, all within the span of two pages. Despite the fact that the story travels the globe bringing forth specific elements of differing cultures so rapidly, we still recognize the traditional Cinderella themes that are expected--good always beats evil, and love overcoming hate.
       With a text that spans so many cultures stuck in the confines of a picture book, we expect that images in the story may be disjointed, but thanks to the watercolor work of Julie Paschkis, this is definitely not the case. Paschkis illustrates the elements of each unique culture so that the reader can clearly see the differences, but maintains a consistent style of a two-toned patterned background, where each global location is written. The text on each page within each culture is framed in a box with a coordinating color, then written on a white background. This makes it possible for the reader to see the text without it getting lost in the vivid background. This same framing technique is also used when Paschkis adds a scene depiction, so again the image being shown is easily seen by the reader and does not fade into the background
      "Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella" takes us on a global journey of where the classic children's tale Cinderella has traveled, while providing vivid cultural images and details. I highly recommend "Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella" to young readers, probably for independent reading in grades 2-4. I also believe that this story would be very useful for teachers in upper-elementary and secondary schools because of its value in teaching about different cultures and the history of folktales and storytelling.

Picture Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/690483.Glass_Slipper_Gold_Sandal