Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
In the book The Grand Adventures of Petit Louis, Kayce Swigelson has created a tale of a charming but mischievous feline with tuxedo-like markings and a swirling mustache. The cat roams Paris trying to choose a birthday gift for his owner, Claire.
Armed with a paintbrush, Petit Louis swishes markings reminiscent of his own mustache on everything from le poisson (a fish) and les fleurs (the flowers) to la moto (a motorcycle), the Métro, and even a gargoyle at the top of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame.
Swigelson cleverly incorporates French vocabulary, highlighted in red, into the story. She also takes young readers on a tour of the City of Light, stopping off at all the major monuments, plus le marché (the market).
The book was written and illustrated by Swigelson, a St. Louisan who teaches French and art at Saint Louis Priory School.
*****
As German soldiers march into Poland, young Miriam Kornitsky’s parents send her away with her older cousin, telling the girls to hide in the forest around Vilna until it is safe to return home. “Let your heart guide you,” Miriam’s father says, “and don’t fear what it tells you.”
Miriam, 13, spends the next four years in the woods. After the war, she meets a young refugee named Harry Dubinsky in a bread line, and the next chapter of her life begins.
Miriam’s Way is the story of Miriam Kenisberg Poster, who eventually made her life with Harry Poster in St. Louis. Veteran teacher and writer Cissy Lacks met Miriam at the St. Louis Jewish Community Center swimming pool, and over time, Miriam shared her story. “I was both moved and stunned by what she told me,” Lacks says. “But as hard as her experiences were to hear, they were also engrossing and revealed details of World War II history new to me. From further research, I realized there was a story from the forests that needed to be shared.” She did tons of historical research and interviewed Miriam again and again, then wrote the book as a young-adult novel: a coming-of-age story about courage and impossible resilience.
*****
For a younger crowd than the previous two offerings, Chris Stuckenschneider’s Patriotic Pals, illustrated by Richard Bernal, relays the tales of a couple of the canines who served in the War Between the States. The book tracks the travels of a collie type named Charles Reed Catchaball, a.k.a. Chuck, and his poodle friend, Tilly, as they uncover the history of “dog heroes from the Civil War.”
Interspersed among the descriptions of the four-legged soldiers are historic details about the war. The first dog mentioned, Sergeant Dick, is actually immortalized in a portrait that hangs in the Missouri History Museum. The book also details the story of Shanks, a hound who charged into the fight at the Battle of Shiloh and later led his master’s brokenhearted wife to her husband’s grave.
Among other canine heroes are a terrier named Stonewall Jackson; Harvey, a bulldog with the 104th Ohio Volunteer Infantry; and Sallie, the brindle bull terrier with her own memorial at Gettysburg, Pa.
This marks Stuckenschneider’s second book; her first was Twist of Fate: The Miracle Colt and His Friends. Stuckenschneider resides in Washington, Mo., and writes for The Missourian.
By Jeannette Cooperman and Christy Marshall
