The Colors of Freedom

For many years I spent the Fourth of July out on the sandbar of a northern Michigan lake, among hundreds of boats anchored in the growing darkness, navigation lights bobbing like lanterns.  When the fireworks began, spreading like giant flowers over our heads, I marveled at their beauty.  After the colorful display it was usually in silence or soft conversation our pontoon would make its way back down the river toward our cottage.  Then and now I feel so fortunate to be able to live in freedom.

On July 4th this year, as I was walking through the nooks and crannies of my favorite indie store in Petoskey, Michigan, McLean & Eakin,  a cover and title caught my eye.  Red Kite, Blue Kite (Disney Hyperion Books) written by Ji-li Jiang with illustrations by Greg Ruth.  Discovering upon reading the jacket flap the story was set in China during the Cultural Revolution, I knew I needed to read this book.  History tells us it was the Chinese who invented fireworks, the splendor enjoyed by many today in celebration of significant events.

I love to fly kites.

Young Tai Shan and his father, Baba, fly their kites from the roof of their home, the streets are much too crowded for the freedom needed by kites...and little boys. While the wind plays with their kites, Baba tells stories to Tai Shan making him feel as if he is floating with the blue and red darting diamonds.  The two are very close; all they have is each other.

Trouble comes in the form of people wearing red armbands, who take Baba away to work in a labor camp.  Tai Shan's world, as he knows it, is shattered.  He is removed from his home to live with an elderly woman named Granny Wang.

With a forest separating Tai Shan from his father at the camp, he adjusts to country life with Granny Wang, eagerly awaiting each weekend.  Baba is released on Sundays, walking for hours, for a visit with his son.  Their time together always ends with the flying of their red and blue kites on a nearby hill.

A day comes when even more sadness descends into Tai Shan's life.  Baba can no longer visit but he has a plan, a secret signal.  New larger kites, one red, one blue, flying high will tell their hearts what words no longer can.

Tai Shan is frantic when, for three days, his father's blue kite is not seen at the end of the day soaring in the distance.  Darker days loom for the father and his son but again the father's love gives the boy hope.  It's hope and red kites and blue kites which ultimately fill Tai Shan's heart and the sky above the village.


In an author's note on the book's final page, Ji-li Jiang explains the basis for this book; a family friend when young had an experience similar to Tai Shan's story.  Her pacing and word choice within the narrative closely parallel the act of kite flying as if moving along the currents of air, ups and downs duly noted.  Jiang uses several phrases, sentences, repeatedly to duplicate the joy father and son feel when sharing their kite flying, even though they are not always together.  Her realistic description of the frightening events, of the living conditions for both Tai Shan and Baba and of their deep love connects with readers.


From the opening jacket and cover readers are transported to another place in another time, waiting and watching with the young boy sitting on the rocky hillside.  Greg Ruth renders illustrations with graphite, sumi ink and watercolor across single and double page spreads, creating city and country vistas side by side close-ups of the characters' faces.  The shift in perspective elevates readers' commitment to the story; looking at the boy and his father flying kits from the roof in the distance moving in to see their faces together smiling, kite strings extended from their hands.

The color palette reflects the circumstances in which the two find themselves, a warm golden glow surrounding them during shared moments of contentment, shadowy shades of grays and greens when they are separated.  The use of line and color intensity make you feel as if the pictures could come to life, move on the page at any moment.  Readers are caught in the emotional bond between a father and his son during the happiness and sadness they share.  Some of my favorite illustrations are Baba holding Tai Shan, twirling him around in a circle, Baba squatting next to Tai Shan as each hold their kites, he explaining the secret signal to his son and the overwhelming joy on Tai Shan's face as he flies both kites.

Red Kite, Blue Kite written by Ji-li Jiang with artwork by Greg Ruth is an important book.  It brings a period in Chinese history to life through the portrayal of the close relationship between a son and his father and their love of kite flying.  This is the kind of book necessary to create understanding between people throughout the world.

Please follow the links embedded in the author's and illustrator's names to visit their official websites.

To Their Last Breath

Everyone fortunate to have a dog choose them knows about their keen sense of smell.  When they catch a whiff of something, it's not just a scent but an entire story.  If Xena sticks her nose in the air, looks around and does not seem to want to continue, we turn around.  The nose knows.

Another of their innate abilities is their sense of love, loyalty, to the leader of the pack--you.  If I become fearful, Xena is alert.  This was never more apparent than when we were attacked by a German Shepherd loose in a park; her change into wolf mode was uncanny. It is because of characteristics unique only to them, canines were used extensively during World War I along the Front; many as messenger dogs.  Debut author, Sam Angus, recreates a year during the war through the story of a fourteen-year-old boy in Soldier Dog (Feiwel and Friends).


Twelve hours had passed.  He'd last seen her at eight that morning.  Faint with exhaustion and hunger, Stanley sank down.  How on earth could he find a creature lighter and quieter than the wind?

Stanley did not find the purebred, prize female greyhound, Rocket.  She returns home the next morning. His father, Da, prone to violent rages since the death of his wife and the enlistment of his older son, Tom, in the Great War, vows to not allow half-breed pups on the premises.  Six weeks after their birth, when the one most attached to Stanley, Soldier, is not taken by the tinkers, Da states he will drown him.  Awakened by Rocket's howling the next morning, to Stanley's dismay and rage, Soldier is missing.

Unable to bear a life that has become intolerable, Stanley leaves to look for Tom in France.  From Lancashire to Liverpool, he travels to enlist.  Lying about his age, he survives basic training, moving through Signal School, a division of the Royal Engineers.  When a new section of the Signals Service is formed, Messenger Dog Service, Stanley signs up, becoming a Keeper, Keeper Ryder.

Unlike the other men who are given three dogs to train, Stanley receives only one, Bones, a Great Dane.  He's told only men with three dogs go to the front, only men with dogs who bond with their master working perfectly without question.  Week after week Stanley prepares Bones, gunfire, heavy guns, bombs, and homing runs, until Colonel Richardson has no choice but to send them to France.

When communication lines (wires) are broken by gunfire and shelling, when men, runners, and pigeons can no longer be used the messenger dogs are sent.  Warfare in the trenches along the Western Front is brutal but a dog trained to come back through the worst of it, out of loyalty, will do so.  Key people in his home life, Da, Tom, and his teacher, Lana Bird, who Tom loves, merge with the soldiers who are Stanley's new family. Letters from those he cares about most play as important a role as the messages sent from one company to another on the field by the dogs.

The month of April 1918 will change everything Stanley believes to be true; unbelievable horror, suffering, pain, loss and heroism will pass in and out of his world.  Key battles, lost or won, will depend on the messenger dog who loves Stanley and who Stanley loves.  Readers will be unable to turn the pages fast enough to discover the fate of all involved.


In a word, this story, written by Sam Angus, is intense.  Meticulous research, providing details, is woven into dialogue and descriptions of place and time in England and France.  A sensory writing style binds the reader intimately to the events and action within the narrative; it's as if we one and the same with Stanley.  Broken into three parts; before enlistment, during service and after the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux, chapter headings, sometimes only hours apart, contribute to the profound impact.  Here are several passages taken from an Advanced Reader's Edition (my only copy available).

The vast and bleak parade ground was surrounded by barracks, offices, and the entrance gates.  Fear kept drawing Stanley's eyes, like the needle of a compass, toward the gates.  Da might stomp through them at any minute, shouting for all to hear, "Fourteen! The daft twerp's only fourteen!"  Da would see the ill-fitting uniform, see the pants which billowed around his son's buttocks, see the puttee---the bandage-type stocking---that was in danger of unwinding at his right ankle, already unraveling at his knee.  Da would mock him and haul him home.

"The shelling's cut the lines, sir...There's no point, sir, they're blown to bits as soon as they're laid."
"Oh, God," breathed Hunter to the linesman, aghast and haggard.  "No signals and we can't lay new lines till nightfall.  We've only the runners and they haven't a chance---the Hun's taken the tunnel under the canal---they'd have to swim across."
Hunter raced back down to the Signal Station.  There were more shouts from below, unintelligible.  Fidget was shouting to Stanley that the front line had pulled back again, that it wasn't holding.  A man came up the stairs, white-faced, eyes full of fear, a fresh runner, with Hunter behind.  Hunter looked toward the canal and the sickle of flame that grew hourly closer.
Stanley looked at the face of the runner.  And he looked down at Bones, willing and ready.  Would he be wanted now? his round eyes seemed to ask.  Stanley saw, with a rush of love, the large square skull and wing-like ears, and he felt a lump rising in his throat.  Bones must go, a man should not be sent---the dog was faster, lower, had the better chance.
"No, sir.  Don't send a man. S-send my dog, sir."


Soldier Dog the debut work of author Sam Angus vividly brings to life the place of messenger dogs in service during World War I.  It is a story of incredible courage, both human and canine; heartbreaking and heartwarming, captivating and compelling, memorable to the final sentence.  For middle grade and up, this book has my highest recommendation. A historical note, author's note, photograph gallery and bibliography are found at the book's end.

Follow the link embedded in Sam Angus's name above to her official website.  The link embedded in the title contains more information about the book, the research, reviews and the first chapter.  Bobbie Pyron, author of The Ring, A Dog's Way Home and The Dogs of Winter, interviews Sam Angus here.