Tamar

Book: Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal
Author: Mal Peet
Audience: Teen and Adult
In a Nutshell: subtitle pretty much sums it up

If you liked The Book Thief, here's another really excellent WWII story that covers all sorts of time periods, several characters, and could really be either a teen or an adult book. And hey, it won the Carnegie Medal in England, so it must not suck. ;)

Tamar is reeling from the mysterious death of her grandfather, the man who named her. When she opens a box he left for her, she discovers even more mystery about his and her grandmother's life, both in the present and when they were part of the Dutch resistance during World War II. Unraveling the mystery takes her on a journey up the Tamar River to a surprising revelation at the end- or the beginning.

Interspersed with Tamar's story is the tale of two Dutch men, code-named Tamar and Dart, who were trained in England for covert operations against the Nazi occupation in the Netherlands. It was the winter of 1944, known as the "Hunger Winter," when the weather was harsh and the Nazis were starving the will to fight out of the resistant occupied people. Tamar was charged with the task of uniting the fractious Dutch resistance, and Dart was his WO, or wireless operator. Like many great stories of war and betrayal, it all comes down to a woman: the beautiful country girl Marijke, with whom Tamar had a semi-secret relationship on his last mission.

Both the 1995 and 1944 stories are compelling and interesting, and the language is evocative without drawing undue attention to itself. Since the Printz Award isn't limited to American authors (Peet is British), I put this on my Printz short list. Really excellent stuff.

Forging the Sword

Book: Forging the Sword (book three of the Farsala Trilogy)
Author: Hilari Bell
Audience: Teen to Adult
In a Nutshell: the fighting gets desperate, spiffy new swords and magical lightning enter the picture, and will the real Sorahb please step forward?

Soraya, Jiann and Kavi are back for the action-packed conclusion of this historical fantasy trilogy. I made up that sub-genre, do you like it? I think it fits. The lands of Farsala and Hrum are fictional, but Farsala seems a lot like ancient Persia or another proud old culture, and the Hrum seem a lot like Romans. I could call it high fantasy, but there's not a huge amount of magic. So I'm going with historical fantasy. Take it or leave it.

Anyway, the story so far is that the mighty Hrum empire has already conquered 28 other lands, and now it's Farsala's turn. To avoid costly, drawn-out wars, the Hrum give themselves a self-imposed time limit: if they can't conquer a land in one year, they stop fighting and make peace. There are now only 3 months left, and even though the Farsalan nobility (called deghans) were almost all wiped out, the scrappy peasant army led by Jiann is holding its own. With the help of the mysterious desert people, the Suud, they've finally figured out the secret to the Hrum's nearly unbreakable swords (hence the title). Soraya has also gotten a much better handle on her shilshadu, a kind of elemental, nature-based magic. And Kavi is still making amends and doing vital work for Farsala's war effort, but Jiann still intends to kill him when it's over for betraying lots of innocent nobles, including he and Soraya's father, so that's kind of a killjoy for Kavi. Then there's the question of whether there is a real Sorahb, or if he's just a mythical hero invented by peasants.

It all comes to a head with lots of battles, tricky guerilla fighting, spying, working with the enemy, noble sacrifice, and a bit of magical thunderstorm control. If you like a healthy dose of political intrigue with your action, magic, and battle scenes, the Farsala Trilogy is a good one to try. Actually, everything I've read by Hilari Bell is consistently good, so try it out.

Pride of Baghdad

Book: Pride of Baghdad
Author: Brian Vaughan
Artist: Niko Henrichon
Audience: High School and Adult
In a Nutshell: escaped lions roam war-torn Baghdad

When Baghdad is bombed by US forces, the zoo is heavily hit, and what animals survive escape into the war-torn streets. Four lions- Zill, Safa, Noor, and the cub Ali- have different reactions. For Safa, freedom is a dream come true; Noor, who lived in the wild, prefers the safety of the zoo. It's up to the male, Zill, to hold them together as a pride. They face the dangers of other escaped animals, encounter dangerous new creatures such as herds of tanks, and learn more about the perplexing world of the Keepers as their world collides with the human world.

This graphic novel takes a powerful look at war from an animal perspective. For example, the old tortoise they meet by the river has seen it all before; he doesn't know what the conflicts are about, just that the humans make black death (oil) flow in the river every time. As if no food and the really nasty "pet" bear they find in an abandoned palace aren't bad enough, they have yet to cross paths with American assault rifles.

Be aware that this is an adult graphic novel; there is some language, graphic violence (I hope I never actually see a giraffe get its head blown off by a shell *shudder*), and sexual content. The sex is between lions and not graphic, but still disturbing in places where assault is portrayed.

Maturity level aside, this is a remarkable war story- and based on a true event, by the way. A group of lions did escape from the Baghdad zoo amidst shelling in 2003.