Books about Experiencing and Overcoming Trauma for K–8...

Language Arts, Volume 94, Number 5, May 2017

Children’s Literature Reviews

Books about Experiencing and Overcoming Trauma for K–8 ReadersGrace Enriquez, Katie Egan Cunningham, Erika Thulin Dawes, and Mary Ann Cappiello

In this column, we feature books that emphasize the courage, resiliency, and human connection that are key to making that first step and overcoming trauma.

who defied—and continues to defy—society’s expectations of people with physical disabilities. Born in Ghana with one nonfunctioning leg, Emmanuel is abandoned by his father and assumed by many to be a burden. His mother, however, believed otherwise and told her son that “he could have anything, but he would have to get it for himself.” Emmanuel indeed pushed himself to do what others did, even though most people with physical disabilities were not able or allowed to do so. He went to school by hopping on one leg two miles each way. He secured a job at a food stand to support his family. And in his most astounding endeavor, he rode a bicycle nearly four hundred miles across Ghana in just ten days to raise awareness and pride in people with physical challenges. An author’s note describes more of Emmanuel’s incredible accomplishments, including his influence in the Ghanian Parliament’s passing of the Persons with Disability Act. Thompson describes Emmanuel’s struggles and achievements with lyrical and lucid prose, while Qualls’s simple yet bold mixed-media illustrations continually evoke hope and strength, “showing everyone that being disabled does not mean being unable.” (GE)

When something traumatic happens, reac-tions differ. So, too, do the paths peo-ple take to accept what has happened and begin moving forward. In this column, we share books about young people making their way through various kinds of physical, psychological, and emotional trauma. Some accounts are celebra-tory, for indeed overcoming trauma is an incredible and powerful accomplishment. Other books take a more delicate approach, exploring the complex layers and ensuing fallout surrounding traumatic episodes. Regardless, all the books we review in this column emphasize the courage, resiliency, and human connection that are key to overcoming trauma, to taking that first step. We hope readers will find these books to be as resonating and com-pelling as the human experiences they address.

Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu YeboahWritten by Laurie Ann ThompsonIllustrated by Sean QuallsSchwartz & Wade, 2015, unpaged, ISBN 978-0-449-81744-5

This 2016 Schneider Family Book Award winner recounts the uplifting story of someone

Books about Experiencing and Overcoming Trauma

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chartmanText BoxCopyright © 2017 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE REVIEWS | Books about Experiencing and Overcoming Trauma


Ida, AlwaysWritten by Caron LevisIllustrated by Charles SantosoAtheneum, 2016, unpaged, ISBN 978-1-4814-2640-4

Ida and Gus are the best of friends. “When Gus tossed the ball, Ida was there to catch it. And when Gus splashed water, Ida was there to splash him right back.” These close companions are polar bears who live in the Central Park Zoo in New York City. Their days are spent playing, eating, and resting together until one morning when Ida doesn’t emerge from her cave. Keeper Sonya gently explains to Gus that Ida is very sick: “Ida wouldn’t hurt, but she would get tired and too weak to swim and play. Then one day, when her body stopped working, Ida would die.” As Gus and Ida adjust to this idea, they experience a range of emotions, including anger, sadness, and moments of levity, despite the circumstances; they also find that they sometimes need solitude. The experience of terminal illness is presented to a young audience beautifully and sensitively, and while adult readers may weep, child readers will appreciate the book’s honesty. Santoso’s digitally rendered illustrations complement the carefully crafted text. The bears are cuddly and expressive, while changes in the

color palette intensify the emotional impact of the story. The final double-page spread depicts Gus peacefully gazing up at a pastel-hued sky, which holds a bear-shaped cloud. Readers know that Gus, although mourning, finds comfort in memories of his friend. (ETD)

The War That Saved My LifeWritten by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley Dial, 2015, 320 pp., ISBN 978-0-8037-4081-5

Imagine never leaving your apartment and sleeping under a cupboard. Imagine not knowing the name for everyday objects and places. This was 10-year-old Ada’s world—a world in which she remained trapped like a prisoner, not even allowed to use the toilet, constantly fearing her mother’s retribution. But as Hitler’s forces threaten London, Ada seizes the moment and sneaks out of the apartment with her brother on a journey to safety in the countryside. Enduring the pain and discomfort of her untreated clubfoot, Ada arrives at the home of Susan Smith, a woman cloistered in mourning. Through first-person narration, Ada slowly discovers and reveals herself, a transformation Bradley handles deftly and subtly. As her vocabulary grows, her thoughts deepen, although she does not always understand people’s intentions or her own emotions, due to the years of chronic trauma she withstood. Ada’s actions are both timeless and timely: she takes care of her younger brother, teaches herself to ride a horse, and begins

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that their own daily struggles to make trusting friends and to meet teachers’ expectations are validated through Dèja’s narrative, particularly through her essays that are featured throughout the novel. Her new best friends, Sabeen, a Muslim American, and Ben, a boy who moved recently from the ranchlands of Arizona as a result of his parents’ divorce, offer a model of diversity in a circle of friends characterized by a sense of true belonging. Andrea Vandergrift’s black-and-white interior illustrations are sporadically peppered throughout, providing visual pauses that support readers’ meaning making. Much more than a novel that captures the impact of September 11th, 2001, Dèja’s honesty, strength, and enduring hope make this a book that can serve as an anchor for a character-focused study rich in meaningful layers. A deeply memorable read, Towers Falling personalizes history through Dèja’s authentic voice and through her relationships with her friends and family. (KEC)

to make friends; she also captures a Nazi spy and takes care of wounded soldiers. Ultimately, the novel is a tribute to the tenacity of the human spirit and Ada’s newfound understanding that her disability does not define her. (MAC)

Towers FallingWritten by Jewell Parker RhodesIllustrated by Andrea VandergriftLittle, Brown, 2016, 240 pp., ISBN 978-0-316-26222-4

Through the heartrending voice of Dèja, a fifth-grade girl, we encounter a child’s struggles as she starts the school year in a new school while living in a shelter and striving to understand what the Twin Towers falling 15 years ago has to do with her today. As in her Coretta Scott King Honor Book, Ninth Ward, Jewell Parker Rhodes takes a traumatic, American event and sensitively explores the impact on families, children, and communities. Middle grade readers may find

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fury reaches a fever pitch, he risks shattering the one thing that has mattered to him in a long time. If only he can shift his view—like a centerfielder who loses sight of a ball in the sun—he might be able to move forward again. With impressively realistic insight into middle school indignation and sensitive understanding of tween angst, Graff has created characters who resonate with readers and penned another compelling novel about an outsider who desperately wants to find his way back in. (GE)

Another Kind of HurricaneWritten by Tamara Ellis SmithSchwartz & Wade, 2015, 336 pp., ISBN 978-0-553-51193-2

“Henry has the same sad blue thing you have . . . and the same scared gray thing. . . . If you can feel it in yourself, you can feel it in him” (p. 309). Both anguishing and hopeful, Tamara Ellis Smith alternates the voices of two grieving 10-year-old boys in her debut novel. Zavion evacuated his home by jumping from his attic window as Hurricane Katrina barreled into New Orleans.

Lost in the SunWritten by Lisa GraffPhilomel, 2015, 304 pp., ISBN 978-0-399-16406-4

In fifth grade, Trent Zimmerman accidentally and fatally struck a hockey puck into a classmate’s chest. One year later, a traumatized Trent is still wracked with guilt, brimming with rage, and certain that everyone hates him. This combination does not allow for the fresh start in middle school he desperately wants. Self-recriminating and self-destructive, Trent closes himself off to well-meaning teachers, family members, and former friends, while simultaneously lashing out at them. The downward spiral continues, even as Trent gravitates toward classmate Fallon Little, whose own trauma is prominently displayed across her face in a mysterious scar. While Trent remains consumed with past tragedies, Fallon doesn’t talk about what happened to her, and their budding friendship focuses instead on baseball, movies, and an appreciation for bad jokes. Yet when Trent’s

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Henry lost his best friend, Wayne, while they raced along the edges of Mount Mansfield in Vermont. When Henry decides to join his father to provide assistance to the hurricane victims, he meets Zavion, and both boys begin to heal from their traumatic losses. Zavion then joins Henry and his father on their return to Vermont. Staring out at a flash storm from under the mountainside ledge where Wayne died, both boys realize they could not save the things that mattered most to them. A marble that served as a good luck token between Henry and Wayne becomes a kind of magic for Henry and Zavion as the boys come to recognize the ways so many things in life are connected over and over again. The author’s note provides personalized context for Smith’s motivation to write a story about the impact of a storm and the human quest for knowledge and empathy. (KEC)

Maybe a FoxWritten by Kathi Appelt and Alison McGheeAtheneum, 2016, 272 pp., ISBN 978-1-4424-8242-5

To run faster—this is 12-year-old track star Sylvie’s wish. A wish she makes over and over again, tossing stones into the forbidden “Slip,” an underground river near her Vermont home. Jules, her 11-year-old sister, is more cautious and deliberate; her passion is rock collecting. The sisters are close and share the grief of their mother’s unexpected death years before by playing a question game. “What happens after you die?”, they wonder. “Maybe you turn into wind. Maybe you turn into stars” (p. 38). This question takes on new meaning when Sylvie disappears after running off with a wish rock. Following Sylvie’s route to figure out what happened, Jules finds a skid mark in the snow that leads into the Slip. As police and neighbors search for Sylvie, multiple narratives intertwine in this intricately plotted novel that teeters between magical realism and fantasy. At the moment of Sylvie’s disappearance, a mother fox gives birth to three kits. The girl kit, named Senna, is Kennen, which means “linked to the human” (p. 134). Meanwhile, as Jules and her father strive for equilibrium in the absence of Sylvie, several seemingly disparate but interrelated plotlines unfold: a farmer hunts for a thieving bear; Jules’s friend tracks an elusive catamount; a young veteran mourning the loss of a friend on the battlefield seeks redemption; and Senna, the young fox, searches for understanding. All storylines are brought together in a heart-rending, yet ultimately hopeful, climax. A collaboration by accomplished authors Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee, this poignant exploration of grief, loss, and the spirit world is a story that will linger with readers long beyond the final page. (ETD)

Free VerseWritten by Sarah DooleyG. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2016, 352 pp., ISBN 978-0-399-16503-0

Seventh-grader Sasha Harless has already experienced profound trauma. When she was five, her mother left; three years later, her father died in a coal-mining accident; and just recently, her older brother Michael succumbed in the line of duty as a firefighter. Her foster mother, Phyllis, is a kind

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MaydayWritten by Karen HarringtonLittle, Brown, 2016, 352 pp., ISBN 978-0-316-29801-8

Before his uncle died in a war overseas and before he survived a plane crash on the way to his uncle’s funeral, Wayne Kovok used facts as a safety net in social situations. Sharing unusual trivia even earned him the attention of the prettiest girl in middle school. After the crash, he loses his voice and struggles to stand up to the most dominant figures in his life, his grandfather and his father. Without the security of his identity as an encyclopedic wonder, Wayne decides to engage in a quest to find the ceremonial American flag from his uncle’s funeral that was lost in the crash. As he turns 13, Wayne’s voice returns, and he asks God for the courage to say things out loud. He also finds much-needed genuine friendship in Denny, a boy preparing for his bar mitzvah who struggles with a stutter. Wayne also comes to understand that his grandfather is more than a military man barking orders at him, and that instead, his grandfather may know him better than anyone. Middle grade

and caring woman, but she is constantly distressed by Sasha’s volatile aggression, intense anxiety, and frequent, desperate need to run away. Everywhere Sasha looks in her poverty-stricken town of Caboose, West Virginia, she is reminded of loss. When she discovers that her new neighbors are distant relatives, Sasha struggles with the possibility of loving and losing more family, as well as keeping the promise she made to Michael to one day leave Caboose. She also finds unexpected release and a cathartic chance to articulate her emotions through an afterschool poetry club. But when another coal-mining accident occurs, Sasha’s response has even more harrowing consequences. Combining prose and various verse forms—including a sizable section of Sasha’s own poetry—each page of this novel is evocatively and beautifully written, with characters who charm easily and resonate powerfully, and a plot that progresses both quietly and compellingly. As a testament to the power of poetry and the resilience of friendship, family, and love, Free Verse is an excellent addition to classroom curricula and libraries. (GE)

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of websites where readers can learn more. This photo essay, similar in trim size and length to a picturebook, is best suited for a middle and high school audience. The images and text serve as witness to the global consequences of war and are a clear call to action. (ETD)

You Can’t See the ElephantsWritten by Susan KrellerTranslated by Elizabeth GaffneyG. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2015, 192 pp., ISBN 978-0-399-17209-0

Thirteen-year-old Mascha keeps hearing from grownups around her that she is “old enough” and “too old” to do certain things, but spending another lonely, listless summer in her grandparents’ tedious hometown doesn’t offer many opportunities besides loitering at the local playground and listening to Leonard Cohen songs. When she meets Julia and Max, a pair of younger siblings who exhibit signs of physical abuse and psychological trauma, Mascha is also

readers can identify with Wayne’s desire to be useful, to belong, and to stand up to the things in life that bring you down. (KEC)

Children Growing Up with WarWritten and photographed by Jenny MatthewsCandlewick, 2014, 48 pp., ISBN 978-0-7636-6942-3

Photographer Jenny Matthews has devoted her career to documenting the lives of women and children in war-ravaged countries. Her powerful photo essay offers a visceral reminder of the unfathomable consequences of such conflict. Adopting the U.N. Conventions on the Rights of the Child as an organizing structure, Matthews addresses the impact of war on family, housing, health, schooling, and play. The images she has chosen to include are stark and shocking, yet in every example, humanity shines through. Quotes from the subjects expand the photographic narrative. In recurring sections titled “The Photographer’s Perspective,” Matthews is reflective, exploring her own privilege, responsibilities, and emotional responses. Included as back matter are a map of the conflict areas, brief descriptions of the conflicts, and a listing

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the Chinese zodiac, African American storytelling, and even romance as the characters confront new traumas that reveal the diverse dangers of the journey. In navigating these challenges, the girls hold their own, saving the men as often as the men save them. The absence of source material provides readers with an opportunity to dig into primary and secondary sources from this time period and bring the multicultural history of the west out of the shadows. (MAC)

All American BoysWritten by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely Atheneum, 2015, 320 pp., ISBN 978-1-4814-6333-1

“#RashadIsAbsentAgainToday” (p. 274). Rashad Butler was beaten by a police officer. His classmate, Quinn Collins, watched it from the shadows. Now, Rashad is in the hospital, trying to make sense of how a minor stumble in a convenience store led to a brutal beating. Quinn has to figure out how the officer, a family friend and father figure, could viciously attack someone

“old enough” to know that something must be done. The problem is that nobody will listen to her—not the police, who think she’s another prank-pulling kid; not the townspeople, who can scarcely believe their small town is anything but idyllic; not even her grandparents, who prefer to stay out of others’ business. With remarkable insight into the tumultuous mix of bravery, fear, naiveté, and inhibition of a preteen girl who wants to do the right thing but doesn’t quite know how, Kreller weaves a poignant and realistic tale. Gaffney’s translation ensures that Mascha’s voice is simultaneously impassioned and unsure, striking just the right chord to grip readers’ attention. At once harrowing, heart wrenching, and hopeful, You Can’t See the Elephants is a riveting reflection on the choices and limitations a witness to someone else’s trauma can face. (GE)

Under a Painted Sky Written by Stacey LeeG.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2015, 384 pp., ISBN 978-0-399-16803-1

When teaching about the 19th-century westward expansion of the United States, schools often focus on the challenges confronted by European Americans on their westward journeys, and the European American–Native American binary. Lee’s novel offers a different glimpse of that era, as she details the journey of Samantha, a Chinese American born in New York City, and Annamae, an enslaved African American, as they flee St. Joseph, Missouri, and head out on the Oregon Trail. Within the first few pages of the book, Samantha is orphaned, losing her father and everything they owned in a fire. That night, she narrowly escapes rape; in protecting herself, she kills her attacker and is discovered by Annamae. Annamae, whose owner was Samantha’s attacker, has a Moses wagon waiting to free her that very night. Instead, she tends to Samantha’s needs and the two escape together, disguised as boys—Sammy and Andy. The pair soon wins a bet with a trio of cowboys, two European American cousins and a Mexican. The multicultural quintet heads west together. Lee weaves in literary references, musical metaphors,

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already cuffed. In this fictionalized snapshot of a very real story continuously replayed across the United States, Rashad is Black, and the police officer is White. In first-person narration, Reynolds writes as Rashad, Kiely as Quinn. Together, they carry their readers on a journey through the complexities of systemic racism in 21st-century America. While both characters try to understand what happened and what happens next, they are surrounded by family, friends, classmates, and teachers consumed by a range of responses, from anger to denial. Through conventional prose and dialogue, text messages, letters, and television transcripts, the reader is immersed in the aftermath of this horrific event. Readers confront the reality of police brutality in the lives of Black men, women, and children, but are left with the hope that through collective action on the part of everyone, “a new tomorrow” could be just “an arm’s length away” (p. 313). (MAC)

A Time to DanceWritten by Padma VenkatramanNancy Paulsen, 2014, 320 pp., ISBN 978-0-399-25710-0

For Veda, winning a Bharatanatyam dance competition feels like validation for the years she spent mastering her body and training in the classical Indian dance form. When her right leg is amputated after a car accident, her aspirations for a dance career are suddenly halted. Veda is determined to prove she can conquer her physical setback and compete again. But the fallout and road to recovery are tough: her dance teacher doesn’t believe she can succeed, her classmates taunt her, strangers constantly stare or pry about her injury, and her prosthesis takes longer to adjust to than she wants. She is angry with everyone, including God: “It feels like Shiva destroyed my universes of possibility, / like He’s dancing /on the ashes / of my snatched-away dreams” (p. 44). Despite her strong desire for acclaim and

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physical perfection, Veda heeds her grandmother’s advice and joins a new dance school—one that emphasizes the spiritual center of dance—and begins her real journey toward feeling whole and finding acceptance. In lush free verse that describes each physical and emotional experience with

rich language and sensory details, Venkatraman chronicles Veda’s recuperation. A book written with lines as beautiful and rhythmic as the dance it portrays, A Time to Dance will move readers to see how “Shiva dances everywhere. / In everyone. In everything” (p. 214). (GE)

Grace Enriquez (NCTE member since 2005) is an associate professor of Language and Literacy at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Katie Egan Cunningham (NCTE member since 2006)

is an associate professor of Literacy at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York. Erika Thulin Dawes (NCTE member since 1999) is a professor of Language and Literacy at Lesley University in

Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mary Ann Cappiello (NCTE member since 1995) is an associate professor of Language and Literacy at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts

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Books about Experiencing and Overcoming Trauma for K–8...

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