Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen, 2018

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Chaya Lindner is a teenager living in Nazi-occupied Poland. Simply being Jewish places her in danger of being killed or sent to the camps. After her little sister is taken away, her younger brother disappears, and her parents all but give up hope, Chaya is determined to make a difference. Using forged papers and her fair features, Chaya becomes a courier and travels between the Jewish ghettos of Poland, smuggling food, papers, and even people.

Soon Chaya joins a resistance cell that runs raids on the Nazis' supplies. But after a mission goes terribly wrong, Chaya's network shatters. She is alone and unsure of where to go, until Esther, a member of her cell, finds her and delivers a message that chills Chaya to her core, and sends her on a journey toward an even larger uprising in the works -- in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Though the Jewish resistance never had much of a chance against the Nazis, they were determined to save as many lives as possible, and to live -- or die -- with honor.

(400 pages)

Wow.

Just, wow. I mean, I've been a fan of Nielsen's for ages, and I adored her East Berlin book A Night Divided, so I knew going in that I was going to love Resistance. But I had no idea how blown away by it I was going to be.

World War II is pretty well-trodden ground by this point, but Nielsen still managed to find an aspect–the Jewish resistance movement–that I didn't know anything about. I never knew that the Jews worked so hard to organize themselves and fight against the Nazis, but they did. They were incredibly brave, risking their lives every day to undermine the war effort, warn the people imprisoned in ghettos about the death camps, and smuggle some out into safe houses.

Chava and her fellow fighters know from day one that they will most likely die for their cause, but they know that they will face death no matter what they do–they want to use their lives to do the most good before they are killed, either for fighting or for being Jewish. It's a horrible situation, the ultimate "rock and a hard place" dilemma, and they are beyond brave for choosing to do what they can to help.

I love how Nielsen doesn't just leave it at that, though. Over the course of Chaya and Esther's journey, they meet lots of different people from all walks of life and religion. They meet some Poles who ignore them, others who attack them for being Jewish, and still others who risk life and limb to help them. They meet some Jews who refuse to fight back out of fear, and some who don't fight out of disbelief, but also some who won't fight because their faith forbids murder–so they fight for the Jewish religion by not taking up arms. Nielsen's focus on these moral nuances, on portraying the various ways people responded to the Nazis without judging them, is a great strength throughout the book.

I realize I haven't really discussed the main characters much yet. It's hard to focus on them when there are so many incredible details about history to pull from Resistance's pages, but Chava is the perfect core to the book. She doesn't see herself as a hero, and she doesn't romanticize anything. She is a very pragmatic person, treating herself almost like an object and calculating how best to use herself for the good of the Jews and downfall of the Nazis. Her initial impatience with/distaste for Esther is completely reasonable, since the younger girl really is pretty useless, but I loved watching them come to understand and respect each other as the story went on. I rooted for both of them, as well as for their cause, though I knew the story couldn't possibly have a picture-perfect happy ending.

I wouldn't recommend Resistance for very young readers, just because the vast majority of the characters in this book either die or expect themselves to die at any moment (and the climax, which is masterfully done by the way, is set in the Warsaw Ghetto during a doomed revolt). There's no bad language or graphic descriptions of the gruesome scenes Chava encounters, though, so as far as books about Polish Jews during WWII goes, this is about as "clean" as it's going to get.

I'm sure it's no surprise when I say that I highly recommend Resistance. I try to always list pros and cons in my reviews, but I literally don't have any cons for this one. It's a wonderfully well-written book, and it gives proper due to the incredible men and women who fought for their people. I hope many children read Resistance and learn the story of these heroes.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

A Light on the Hill by Connilyn Cossette, 2018

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After being branded during the battle of Jericho, Moriyah has had no prospects for marriage--until now. She hopes to please the man, but things go horribly wrong and she is forced to flee for her life. Seeking safety at one of the Levitical cities of refuge, she is unprepared for the dangers she faces, and the enemies--and allies--she encounters on her way.

(352 pages)

I chose to review A Light on the Hill because I really enjoyed her Wings of the Wind, which is apparently part of a different series but which is set in the same time period and community. Moriyah is even a fairly significant character in Wings of the Wind.

I have to say that while I was still entertained by A Light on the Hill, I don't think it's nearly as good as that other Cossette book. What I loved so much about Wings on the Wind was that it recreated an extremely important and vibrant time in Judeo-Christian history, one which almost never gets any real focus the way other periods of history do, and tied compelling and sympathetic characters to the grander arc of the Old Testament. God's acts were powerful, but they were also true to the Biblical accounts and thus the book was 100% plausible.

A Light on the Hill, however, falls into a trap that I always find strangely off-putting: it makes God into a character of sorts, who interacts with and directly guides the main character in more than one scene. I don't mean to be petty, but these sorts of storylines always get my goat because it feels like they turn God into a tool to advance the plot. Sure, they're meant to show His greatness and faithfulness etc., but I'm never a huge fan of this idea because the author has no idea whether that's actually how God would have acted in these situations. I also felt like the tethering to the Biblical narrative was a lot more tenuous in general, really.

Setting aside the religious aspect of the book, I also just didn't find the story as compelling. I still really love the idea of the cities of refuge, and I will very likely seek out future books in this new series (the "City of Refuge" series) just to see the implications of the idea played with in new ways. But rather than taking place in one of these cities, the book largely consists of Moriyah's attempts to reach one. It's fine as its own story, but I would have been more interested to read about life in the cities.

As for the romance, I never much cared for it. The insta-love was ridiculously fast here, and the whole dynamic between the two leads felt really hammy. I was more interested in Moryiah's relationship with the other important people in her life, including her surrogate mother figure and the orphaned boy she cared for before the accident. Those dynamics were sweet and interesting to read, and I enjoyed all the bits we had of them. I also enjoyed reading about Moryiah's journey to the recognition that she was more than just the scars on her face–it reminded me a little bit of Aza's journey to self-confidence in Gail Carson Levine's Fairest.

This review may seem very negative, but I did enjoy reading A Light on the Hill. I think I just keep returning to dwell on the could-have-beens with this book because I know from Wings on the Wind that it had the potential to be better. I do still recommend it if you're looking for a Christian historical fiction read. And tell us in the comments section down below, what is your favorite book about a protagonist who struggles with their physical appearance?

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Wings of the Wind by Connilyn Cossette, 2017

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Alanah, a Canaanite, is no stranger to fighting and survival. When her family is killed in battle with the Hebrews, she disguises herself and sneaks onto the battlefield to avenge her family. The one thing she never counted on was surviving.
Tobiah, a Hebrew warrior, is shocked to find an unconscious, wounded woman among the Canaanite casualties. Compelled to bring her to a Hebrew healer back at their camp, he is soon confronted with a truth he can’t ignore: the only way to protect this enemy is to marry her.
Unused to being weak and vulnerable, Alanah submits to the marriage—for now. As she comes to know and respect Tobiah and his people, however, she begins to second-guess her plans of escape. But when her past has painfully unanticipated consequences, the tentative peace she’s found with Tobiah, the Hebrews, and Yahweh is shaken to the core. Can Alanah’s fierce heart and strength withstand the ensuing threats to her life and all she’s come to love?

(352 pages)

I have read very, very few books set before the lifetime of Christ.

Actually, make that books set before the Renaissance. Or maybe even books set before the 1700s. Really, most of the novels I read seem to either be fantasy stories (i.e. not set in our timeline) or based in more modern times. That's why I was really intrigued by Wings of the Wind, which promised to tell a fascinating romance story set during the battles between the Canaanites and the Israelites near the end of the forty years in the desert after God's people had fled from Egypt.

And it delivered. I honestly really, really enjoyed reading Wings of the Wind. I have no idea how historically accurate it was, but it seemed well-researched and relatively plausible. The characters are all realistic, and though I saw some of the plot twists coming from a mile away I definitely didn't foresee how everything wound wind up tying back to the biblical narrative. The romance between Alanah and Tobiah is relatively gradual and realistic, and not as creepy as the whole forced marriage plotline could have gone. I liked them together and was rooting throughout everything for them to stay together throughout everything that was happening. I also really liked the depiction of Yahweh, because he was so active in the Israelites' lives during this period and I think Cossette depicted his powerful justice and simultaneous mercy very skillfully.

That being said, I do want to warn potential readers that this book doesn't pull any punches. There are many references to what soldiers do to unarmed women they come across, and of Alanah's desperation not to let that happen to her, especially at the beginning of the book. Then there are some scenes that describe a couple in love and some *ahem* morning after scenes. Later in the book, Alanah encounters another city that is teeming with vice and prostitutes. Basically, there are a lot of references to both having sex and avoiding molestation throughout the book that I thought were a little bit much. In her author's note, however, Cossette explains her choice to include the atrocities committed by the Canaanites by describing her desire to provide a clear-eyed look at the people who were being wiped out. I still don't know that I can totally be okay with wiping out a whole people in order to steal their land, but I suppose God must have known what he was doing.

Anyway, this is one of the most well-written and fascinating Christian fiction/romance books I've ever read, and–with a warning about the mature material it includes–I do recommend it highly. If you're in the mood for this sort of book, then just know that Wings of the Wind is one of the good ones.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

On the Sickle's Edge by Neville D. Frankel, 2017

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What we cannot keep. What we cannot lose.
A sweeping masterwork of love and loss, secrets and survival, On the Sickle's Edge is told through the voices of three characters who lay bare their family's saga: the endearing, scrappy South-African born Lena, transported to Latvia and later trapped in the USSR; her granddaughter Darya, a true Communist whose growing disillusionment with Soviet ideology places her family at mortal risk; and Steven, a painter from Boston who inadvertently stumbles into the tangled web of his family's past. Against the roiling backdrop of twentieth-century Russia and Eastern Europe, the novel delivers equal parts historical drama, political thriller and poignant love story.
(432 pages)

Okay, first, full disclosure: there is no way on earth that I would have finished reading On the Sickle's Edge if it weren't for the fact that I hadn't promised to review it for a TLC book tour. As it is, I wound up skipping in the second half. It's not that the book is poorly written, because it actually grabs the attention very well for an over 400-page historical novel. I've always been fascinated by the horrors of life under the USSR regime (in part because they're given far too little attention in literature due to WWII), and the actual story of this increasingly-growing Jewish family hiding in plain sight in Moscow is gripping and very meaningful for me to read. My favorite point-of-view was Lena's, because she had the most dramatic and fascinating life of all three of the main characters. Also, most of the drama Darya and Steven faced was self-inflicted; Lena was the true innocent of the story, the girl whose life was ripped away from her by the cruelty of the USSR dictatorship.

So . . . what happened? Why did I almost put On the Sickle's Edge down, and why did I finish it with a sour taste in my mouth? I think a lot of my distaste for the book boils down to the fact that it's an adult novel, and I very much prefer middle-grade and young-adult books. I forgot, in my excitement about this book's topic, that so many fictional adult books have way more graphic content than I'm used to. And I'm not talking about violence–there was that too, of course, but that was to be expected. No, I'm talking about sex. For one thing, all three characters are way to easy about it; Steven is particularly promiscuous. I could still mostly forgive the book for its characters' loose morals, excusing them away as accurate depictions of the way people in their situations behaved, but what I can't be okay with are the graphic sex scenes (including ones between distant cousins–still kind of ew!) that are sprinkled into the text. I have no desire to read content like that, so I did my best to skip over them and plow through in honor of my pledge to review the book. When the author started throwing important dialogue pieces into the middle of those scenes, though, that's when I got really frustrated and started skipping pages to just get through the book already. There's some horrible stuff in there, including several times where Darya's husband clearly rapes her, and I just don't want to read that!

Call me a baby if you want, but that's how I feel. I don't have much more to say about the book, besides the fact that it's so complex and historically significant that more liberal readers than I will probably love it. Oh, and also that Darya's husband was so evil I actually found him very unrealistic. Were there men like him in the USSR? Maybe, but it seems strange that he never showed even the slightest sign of humanity or weakness–ever.

Maybe I'm just not the right audience for this book, so maybe you will like it more than I did. If you've read the description, and what I've described doesn't turn you off, then try On the Sickle's Edge for yourself. Be sure to comment below with your thoughts once you've finished it!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this novel for the purpose of participating in a TLC Book Tour.

An Extra Seat by Shmuel Herzfeld, 2016

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This children's book, based on Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld's personal story growing up in 1970's New York, focuses on the plight of the Jewish Zionist prisoners brought to the world's attention by the highly publicized arrest of Anatoly Sharansky. Herzfeld's mentor, Rabbi Avi Weiss, plays a central role, encouraging his congregation to see the refuseniks (whose simple aim was making aliyah to Israel) as brothers and sisters whose rights should be fought for with unremitting public protest. The two child protagonists, Sarah and Joseph, experience the reward of these efforts as they witness Sharansky's remarkable release, nine years into his 14-year sentence. The book provides a message of hope especially to children who are encouraged to see the value of their ideals, values and actions.

This book is has as its central premise human and Torah-based Jewish values, such as:

While it may not be our job to complete a task, we are obligated to try.

We have the greatest responsibility to help our own family. All of the Jewish people are one family. Thus we are all responsible to help each other.

(32 pages)

I'm going to preface this review by saying that I'm not Jewish and I'm not a little kid. Right there I think I miss being in either of the two target demographics for this book. I entered to win it anyway, though, because many of the nicest people I know are Jewish and I've been wanting to learn more about their culture. I figured An Extra Seat would be a fun place to start.

So as the description says, this is just 32 pages long. Every two-page spread features a few sentences and background art that goes along with the theme of the text. Most of the artwork is done in pretty pastel, with what I think are watercolors (but could be something else since I know next to nothing about art). Two of the spreads, though, feature completely different artwork with black backgrounds and snapshots of what looks like figures made out of modeling clay representing the focus of their pages. I didn't really like the clay pictures because they felt a little harsh and slightly bizarre coming right in between the muted pastel pages. Also, I'm not even a fan of claymation movies so that tells you how enthusiastic I am about characters being cast in clay in general.

Anyway, that just about sums up every observation this art novice can make about the pictures in the book. Now on to the writing itself. I have to say that it's been a while since I read a picture book, so I was definitely very frustrated with the sparse text and limited explanations that the book provided. I wanted a little more historical and cultural context for Sharansky's arrest in the Soviet Union, and a little more explanation about the advocacy work done to get him out of jail. We read about two rallies the kids went to, and some bracelets they wore on their wrists out of solidarity with their Jewish brothers being kept in Soviet prisons, but the explanation of how Sharansky was actually released by the Soviet government goes something along the lines of "after a few years, the main characters got the news out of the blue that Sharansky had been freed. They were ecstatic, and they took to heart the realization that even children can make a difference if they put their minds to it!" That's a great lesson, of course, but I still don't see how the kids actually convinced the Soviet government to change its mind.

Okay, I decided to google it. According to Wikipedia (a trusty resource, I know), Sharansky wasn't imprisoned by the Soviets just for trying to move to Israel as the picture book claims; rather, he was accused of being an American spy and . . . um, something to do with messing with the process of Jews getting visas to leave the country. I'm still a little confused. Anyway, the reason he was eventually released early was because of a "larger exchange of detainees" between the USSR and America. Apparently, the advocacy on his behalf was important because it made him famous enough that American politicians actually cared enough about him to ask for his release as part of the exchange. So I suppose in a way the efforts of the kids really did save him, even if things weren't quite as straightforward as the book suggests.

But then, maybe I'm just trying to read too much into a children's book. I'd be interested to hear someone else's thoughts on An Extra Seat. Let me know in the comments below if you have any fresh light to shine on the story or whether you've ever used the picture book with your kids!

Disclaimer: I won a complimentary Early Reviewers copy of this book from Library Thing. I was encouraged, but not required, to write an honest review. All thoughts are my own.