The Night Journey by Kathryn Lasky

Rachel isn't supposed to ask her great-grandmother, Nana Sashie, about her past.  Her parents say it upsets her.  But Nana Sashie seems to want to tell Rachel her story.  Rachel begins sneaking up to Nana Sashie's room whenever she can, and listens in amazement to Nana Sashie's story of her family's escape from tsarist Russia.

There are so many books about the Holocaust, and those are very important books.  There are fewer books about tsarist Russia, and how Jews were treated during this time period.  There are fewer books about Jews who were subject to pogroms by Russian soldiers that could happen at any moment, and the fact that despite this treatment, Jewish men were forced to serve in the army.  Books like these are important so that history is not forgotten.

Rachel is a typical pre-teen.  Her parents annoy her at times.  She isn't thrilled with having to sit with her great-grandmother, who isn't always lucid.  But when Nana Sashie begins talking about how her family escaped from Russia, Rachel is pulled into the story.  She had no idea that this was part of her family history.

Nana Sashie tells Rachel what it was like to live in Russia during this time period.  Jews were constantly afraid.  They never knew when a pogrom might happen.  At any moment their village could be full of Russian soldiers who would kill everyone and burn down the village.  And there was no one to stop them, and there were no consequences for the killers.  Nana Sashie was just a little girl when her father decided they must leave Russia.  But the family, made up of Sashie, her mother and father, her two younger siblings, her grandfather and her aunt, couldn't just leave.  They couldn't just stroll over the border.  They would have to find a way to sneak themselves close enough to the border, and then bribe a guard to get them across.  It would be very dangerous.  They would need a plan.

Nana Sashie tells Rachel how she came up with much of the plan on her own, even though she was a little girl.  The escape had many frightening moments, when it seemed like they might be caught, which would certainly mean death.  But they made it.

Rachel begins to see how important it is to Nana Sashie that she tells someone this story.  It's important that someone knows and someone remembers what happened so long ago.  Rachel begins to write down her great-grandmother's story so it will never be forgotten.

Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman

Vidya is growing up in British occupied India during 1941.  She loves school and sports and her family.  When a tragedy hits her family that Vidya blames herself for, her family must move in with her extended family, who is very traditional.  The men live upstairs, and the women live downstairs and serve the men.  Vidya is afraid that soon she'll be married off and never finish school or fulfill her dream of going to college.

This looked at a side of history we rarely see: India during WWII.  India is still under British rule, and England is involved in the war.  There were all-Indian troops under British leadership that are rarely heard about.

While WWII is going on, India is involved in their own fight for freedom against British rule.  Lead by Gandhi, this fight was largely a non-violent one.  Vidya's father strongly believes in the non-violent approach, although Vidya's brother questions whether it is the right way.

Dancing in the Dark by Robyn Bavati

Ditty is a Haredi Jew, the most conservative branch of Orthodox Judaism (sometimes referred to as ultra-Orthodox).  When she and her friend Sarah sneak watching some TV, Ditty discovers the world of dance and is transfixed.  She wants to take ballet lesson more than anything, but dancing is something her family will not allow.  Against her father's and her community's wishes, Ditty secretly begins taking dance lessons.  Can Ditty dance and keep her family?  Or will she need to give one of them up?

This book made me feel uncomfortable.  Allow me to explain why.  Before the story begins, Robyn Bavati notes that she grew up in a Modern Orthodox family, not Haredi, as the community in the book is.  In fact, Ditty's cousin who is Modern Orthodox is portrayed as being liberal and wild.  Bavati also notes that "...the community portrayed in this story is not representative of the broader Jewish community..."  OK, so, I wonder about her choice to set her story in the Haredi community.  Because she felt it would a better, more dramatic story?  Why did she pick a community she didn't actually grow up in?  Why not tell her own story?

The view that Bavati shows of the Haredi community is a very harsh one.  People are portrayed as brainwashed zealots, who blindly follow their religious convictions.  Only Ditty fights against religion, finally breaking free.  I am not saying that there aren't conflicts like this in religious communities.  It is no doubt a common story.  My issue was the incredibly one-sided picture we got of that community.

I think of the incredible book Hush, by Eishes Chayil, which was about sexual abuse in the Chasidic community.  Despite the serious nature of the book, and the realness of the problem, Eishes Chayil was still able to show, in many different ways, the positive aspects of such a community.  The people were not represented as flat, one-dimensional characters.  They were full, complex people.

That was not the case with Dancing in the Dark.  Religion is brainwashing, and Ditty must break free of it in order to become a dancer.  She doesn't try to modify her religious beliefs to make her Judaism and dancing fit together.  Once her secret comes out and she leaves her community, she leaves her religion as well, because her mind has been opened and she sees how religion doesn't actually make any sense.

So it makes me uncomfortable, knowing what an incredibly narrow view of the Jewish community this is, and how it will seem to someone who knows very little of the Jewish community.

As a story, it was fine.  Girl following her dream against the wishes of her family.  Nothing new there.

Dancing in the Dark comes out February 8, 2012.

Hush by Eishes Chayil

Gittle has grown up in the Chassidic Jewish community of Borough Park.  She has graduated high school, and is ready to get married.  But something is haunting her.  When she was nine, something terrible happened to her best friend Devory.  Something that even now, ten years later, she hardly understands.  She was told the best way to handle it was to forget and pretend it never happened.  And Gittle did, but she can't any longer.  Gittle loves her community, but she knows Devory never had justice.  Gittle will find it for her.

This was a very powerful, very sad book.  It isn't possible to discuss without telling you what happened to Devory, so I'll do a jump before I say.