(no subject)

[skygiants]

As we know, Elizabeth Wein's superpower is to look critically at any character archetype and go "What if that, but a WWII pilot?" but as far as I know her latest, White Eagles, is in fact only drawing from an actual factual historical World War II pilot: our heroine Kristina is a fictionalized version of Polish pilot Anna Leska, who escaped Poland by plane when the Nazis took over her airfield and then rejoined the remnants of the army to continue the war in France, then England.

In the White Eagles, Wein gives Kristina a stowaway: Julian, a fierce Jewish eleven-year-old who's determined to convince Kristina to take him all the way to his family in England in her out-of-date plane with a big Polish Army flag on the side of it. Since the plane can only travel about five hours at a time, this journey requires several fuel stops, generally in unfriendly bits of Europe and involving significant obstacles that needs to be overcome by either Julian's cleverness and bravado, Kristina's guts and flying skills, or their developing partnership.

Julian is very much in the Telemakos model -- a brilliant kid with outsized determination and ruthlessness for his age, motivated in large part by personal trauma -- but the prose style of the book, as with Firebrand, her last book in this vein, is definitely aimed significantly younger than the Aksum saga. This is sort of fascinating to me because the actual level of trauma in the content is pretty much equivalent, the way it's written about is just much ... less descriptive and more matter-of-fact? But like. By page 30, the Nazis have taken over Poland and Kristina has seen someone she loves get shot in the head at point-blank range. Later, there's a rape threat that's only thwarted by an eleven-year-old with a gun. It's all in there, just with prose that is, also, suitable for eleven-year-olds or younger. I don't really have an opinion on this, I just think it's an interesting shift.

Both this and Firebird were kindly sent me by osprey_archer in the spirit of a traveling book club, so if anybody would like to be their next stop, let me know! I enjoyed both but would be happy to pass them along.

Comments

[osprey_archer]

My understanding is that the books are aimed at young people with reading challenges, so they may be aimed at teenagers despite the fact that your average eleven-year-old could easily pick it up and read about the point-blank shot in the head and the narrowly averted rape. Possibly an interesting shelving problem for librarians?

I recently discovered that there were two different female Disney animators in the 1930s and 40s who were also pilots, so I personally am gunning for "animator, but also pilot" for Elizabeth Wein's next project. I don't think either of the women historically flew in World War II, but what else is fiction FOR?

[skygiants]

Oh, I hadn't realized that was the target audience! That makes a lot of sense. (And certainly it's not at all that the books aren't compelling as written, it's just such a striking difference in prose style from her usual.)

I would absolutely read Elizabeth Wein's book about animator pilots. SIGN ME UP.

[aquamirage]

Yeah, the imprint she did them for/with is extremely cool: https://www.barringtonstoke.co.uk/ I haven't really seen anything like it in US kid's books let alone for Big Deal authors.

[oracne]

I need to catch up on Wein. I have not yet read CODE NAME VERITY. I know, I know.

[skygiants]

Oh boy, Code Name Verity is an EXPERIENCE. I think she has a semi-sequel coming out soon so ... always a good time!

[ceitfianna]

That sounds good and intense which seems to be how her writing works.

[skygiants]

Yeah, Wein doesn't pull her punches! Though this book definitely dives much more straight into the action rather than lingering at all in the angst.

[cyphomandra]

Re age-appropriate prose - have you encountered Morris Gleitzman’s Once series? They’re about Felix, a Polish Jew in WWII who is ten at the start of the series, and they’re all told in simple prose that’s very readable at that age - or younger - and yet they certainly don’t pull any punches (child death, rape, torture, medical experimentation). I’ve finished at least half the books in tears. Each chapter starts with that book’s one word title (Once, Then, Now etc) and they go through the war and the aftermath - I thought the one dealing with the immediate aftermath was particularly interesting, as it’s a time I haven’t seen much dealt with in fiction.