My name is Ardis and I am an avid reader and budding writer. I want to share my love of books with others. I work with kids and am interested in finding and creating books that will ignite the reader in everyone. Contact me at: ardis.atkins@gmail.com
With Father's Day here, I thought it would be great to look at depictions of dads in literature. Fathers often get a bad rap in novels as absentee parents or worse. I am so very grateful to my husband for being a calm, loving father to our four children. I can always count on him to co-parent with me and give me a different perspective. Here are some great examples of good fathers in fiction:
1. Mr. Bennett from Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austin:
At first it would appear that the character of Mr. Bennett is too aloof and stays in his study to avoid his wife and daughters. But I found his character to be very outside the norm of men of that time. He actually respects his children! His concern is not to marry them off to whomever just to get them off his hands. He cares about whether or not his daughters actually want to be matched up with their suitors. This would have been a revelation for this era. I love that Mr. Bennett lets the young women lead their own lives, but intervenes when then get in over their heads, as Lydia does.
2. Dr. Covey from To All The Boys I've Loved Before, by Jenny Han:
This is the father of the main character, Lara Jean. I really liked how the dad (who was Caucasian) made sure his daughters knew about their Korean heritage. After his wife dies, Dr. Covey works hard to try and cook Korean dishes, and upholds New Year's Day traditions such as visiting his former In-Laws with the girls dressed in special Korean clothing. Keeping these cultural aspects in their lives helped his daughters remember their mother. I thought that was very sweet of him and it couldn't have been easy.
3. Mr. Weasley from the Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling:
Arthur Weasley is the dad to the many Weasley children (Ginny, Ron, Fred, George, Percy, Charlie, and Bill). He must work at the Wizards government Ministry of Magic, even when it is dangerous for him. Having to make enough money to raise seven kids, and put them all through private school, must have been an enormous challenge. So he didn't have the option to quit and find a less hazardous occupation. Both he and his wife created a loving home so that, even without a lot of luxuries, they had a very happy family life.
4. The dad in A Night Divided, by Jennifer A. Nielsen:
Although this character is absent for much of the book, the dad plays a very important role in the story. This novel follows a family separated when the Berlin Wall goes up. The dad had gone to the western part of the city with one of his sons to look for work just as The Wall goes up. His wife and two other children are trapped in East Berlin. Through his determination, the dad finds ways to communicate an escape plan to his children. He never gives up trying to reunite his family, even if it will take years to do so. What are your favorite fathers in fiction? Let me know in the comments.
With the rise of the
Berlin Wall, twelve-year-old Gerta finds her family divided overnight.
She, her mother, and her brother Fritz live on the eastern side,
controlled by the Soviets. Her father and middle brother, who had gone
west in search of work, cannot return home. Gerta knows it is dangerous
to watch the wall, to think forbidden thoughts of freedom, yet she can't
help herself. She sees the East German soldiers with their guns trained
on their own citizens; she, her family, her neighbors and friends are
prisoners in their own city.
But one day, while on her way to
school, Gerta spots her father on a viewing platform on the western
side, pantomiming a peculiar dance. Then, when she receives a mysterious
drawing, Gerta puts two and two together and concludes that her father
wants Gerta and Fritz to tunnel beneath the wall, out of East Berlin.
However, if they are caught, the consequences will be deadly. No one can
be trusted. Will Gerta and her family find their way to freedom?
Review:
I read A Night Divided, by Jennifer A. Nielsen, because several students in the fourth grade class I work in were reading it for book club. Everyone was talking about what a great book it was, so I decided to see for myself. I am fascinated with stories of this era. How would I react in this situation? Would I be indifferent or defiant when faced with oppression?
The story centers around Gerta and her brother Fritz. When the Berlin Wall goes up, her other brother and her father are in West Berlin. What starts out as a few nights away looking for work turns into years of separation for the family. Along with the erection of the Wall comes more and more oppression in East Berlin. Apartments are bugged so the government can listen in on conversations. Neighbors are paid (and blackmailed) to spy on each other. If the government thinks you (or members of your family) are disloyal, opportunities such as college and good jobs vanish.
Most people accept that this will be their lives from now on and don't fight it. But Gerta and Fritz can't fathom living out their lives on the whims of the Stasi (the secret police). One day, they see their father looking at them from across The Wall. He is pantomiming digging. What does this mean? Does their father want them to dig under The Wall to escape?
Many years ago, I was able to take a trip to Moscow during the Soviet era as part of a British tour group. I saw first-hand how empty the shops were. I witnessed secret dealings where people were buying and selling contraband goods. These people were desperate to have normal things like blue jeans and books from the West. As I read A Night Divided I remembered how strange it was in Moscow. I felt like we were being watched, even in our hotel rooms. If that was the feeling of a tourist, imagine what it would be like to live day-to-day in that kind of pressure cooker? This book has all those little details right. You can feel the weight of prying eyes on the characters.
This story is so intense, I could not put it down. Will they get caught? Who will sell them out, or help them? I loved the suspense of the story and all the minor characters such as the nosy neighbor and Gerta's classmate (or is it her enemy?). The reader doesn't know who is friend or foe until the very end of the story. Frankly, I was surprised that fourth graders were reading this as I was getting nightmares over reading it! But, given that the main character is 12 years old, I can see that it would be a great book for a mature fourth grader. Rating:
Release Date: August 25, 2015 Source: Public Library Format: Hardcover book Recommendation: An intense novel about East Germany. I think this would be a great book for middle grade readers or even mature fourth and fifth graders.
Monday Musts is a weekly feature hosted by Jessica of Lovin' Los Libros. Go to her blog and enter your Monday Musts post to be included in the Blog Hop.
Must Read:
A Night Divided, by Jennifer A. Nielsen was recommended to me by a fourth grade teacher friend of mine. Some of her students were reading this for book clubs. I didn't know much about it when I picked it up, but boy was I amazed! This book is about a family that is divided between East and West Germany when the Berlin Wall is erected one night. Can Gerta and her brother live in a society where the secret police keep files on children and neighbors are spying on each other? What might they do to escape? This was a riveting story that kept me on the edge of my seat until the final pages. It has such a huge amount of tension that I am a bit surprised that fourth graders would read it and not have nightmares (I sure did!). Such a great book!
Must Listen:
Audio Dharma is a podcast that offers Buddhist talks and meditations from the Insight Meditation Center of Redwood City, California. I am NOT a Buddhist, but I think these talks are very interesting and offer a perspective on life that I didn't know about previously. Each podcast is about 45 minutes each. The episodes that are meditations are really helpful for relieving stress (at least for me).
The Lives of Others is an excellent film about East Germany during the Cold War. This won the Best Foreign Film Academy Award in 2006. It is in German with subtitles, and it is SO GREAT!!! This is an R-rated movie filled with tension. But I loved this film because it puts a human face on the people on both sides of an impossible situation.
What are your Monday Musts for the week? What are you excited about? Let me know in the comments, and have a great week.
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