Emilia and Teo's lives changed in a fiery, terrifying instant when a bird strike brought down the plane their stunt pilot mothers were flying. Teo's mother died immediately, but Em's survived, determined to raise Teo according to his late mother's wishes-in a place where he won't be discriminated against because of the color of his skin. But in 1930s America, a white woman raising a black adoptive son alongside a white daughter is too often seen as a threat.
Seeking a home where her children won't be held back by ethnicity or gender, Rhoda brings Em and Teo to Ethiopia, and all three fall in love with the beautiful, peaceful country. But that peace is shattered by the threat of war with Italy, and teenage Em and Teo are drawn into the conflict. Will their devotion to their country, its culture and people, and each other be their downfall or their salvation?
In the tradition of her award-winning and bestselling Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein brings us another thrilling and deeply affecting novel that explores the bonds of friendship, the resilience of young pilots, and the strength of the human spirit.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Another stunner from Elizabeth Wein!
By Shae Has Left the Room
Originally reviewed at http://www.shaelit.com/2015/03/review-black-dove-white-raven-by-elizabeth-wein/Black Dove, White Raven (BDWR), first and foremost, is a book about family. Emilia Menotti and Teo Gedeyon are family, despite their different skin and lack of blood ties. Rhoda Menotti and Delia Dupré, Emilia’s and Teo’s mamas, were family through and through, both in the air flying their stunts and on the ground in Jim Crow America. When Delia dies, family means Emilia, Teo, and Rhoda moving to Ethiopia where Teo won’t be shunned because of the color of his skin, and where Rhoda can fly and heal in equal measure. Family means sticking together when the Italians crowd the Ethiopian border, emboldened by Mussolini and the apathetic response from the League of Nations. Family means speaking with only a Nod, and staring into the teeth of war together, hand in hand.I know when I pick up an Elizabeth Wein book, I am going to learn something. I don’t learn something because her books are teaching books, full of lessons and morals solemnly handed down through mouthpiece characters. I learn because these books are alive. When I read Code Name Verity, I am in France, trapped in a Gestapo prison or hiding in a trunk, or in England, flying over a mist-veiled countryside. When I read Rose Under Fire, I am in the Ravensbruck concentration camp, sharing a thin bunk with three other girls and watching the clouds float by during roll call. And when I read Black Dove, White Raven, I am in Mennonite Pennsylvania, attending air shows and riding trick ponies, and I am in pre-WWII Ethiopia, running barefoot across a coffee plantation and bidding friends selam and tafash. I learn because I am there. I learn because these are real people, living and breathing in real places, and I cannot help but be lost in their lives.BDWR is a book that breathes history. The story is told through journals, flight logs, school essays, and fictional adventures, bound together by Emilia and given to the Emperor of Ethiopia. The first forty pages or so of the book take place in the American Heartland in the 1930s. It’s all air shows, Mennonite farms, and life on the road with Black Dove and White Raven, two ladies with guts of steel, and their kids. It’s also segregation and discrimination, no place for a little black boy with a white sister, so Rhoda packs up the kids and moves them to Ethiopia, Teo’s ancestral home.Ms. Wein first visited Ethiopia in the Lion Hunters series, and returning felt beyond strange and wonderful. If you’ve read LH, you’ll find little moments to make you sigh with pleasure. If you haven’t, what a treat you’re in for. Progressive, unconquered Ethiopia, where the Ark of the Covenant is said to reside, where everyone walks in bare feet, where black men fly airplanes and emperors own lions. What better place for a story?Tazma Meda is so far removed from any place I’ve ever experienced, but I felt like I was there with Emilia and Teo. I could feel the pride of the Ethiopian people, the only African land to remain uncolonized by a European nation, and the faith, too, in this ancient and deeply religious place. So much of this story seems to be told out of sheer love for the country, much in the same way we see England depicted in Code Name Verity. We see it from the air—the lands turned green after the rain; the grassy, windswept tableau of Delia’s Dream; Aksum, nestled between the mountains and crowned with graves; and the high, wide spread of ambas, dotted with bearded vulture nests. We also see it from the ground, through the twisting, changing maze of Addis Ababa, the cool, painted walls of the chapel of St. Kristos Samra, and the honeycombed Beehive Hill. Love for Ethiopia—both the author’s and the characters’—pours from every line.But as with all Ms. Wein’s other works, no depiction is left unbalanced. Progressive, modern Ethiopia is also a land of its own discrimination. Slavery is being ushered out, but some citizens born before the changing of the law remain in bondage, doomed by their age and their bloodline. Teo is seen as a future warrior of Ethiopia, but Emilia is a girl, good for medicine and baby-rearing, not spear-throwing. In her own words:"Equality comes in different forms, and it is a lot harder being a girl in Ethiopia than it was in Pennsylvania."BDWR is also a book about war, though more indirectly than Ms. Wein’s other books. Emilia and Teo are not soldiers. They are not even adults. They are civilian children, and though that will mean little in years to come, it means enough in the beginning of the Italo-Ethiopian War. The menace in this story is subtle, the shadow of Italian invasion hovering over everyday things like school lessons and flight plans, the tension of the future spoiling evening meals and trips to the city. We know what’s to come in this war and the next, but Teo and Emilia don’t, and it’s hard to say who suffers worse. And when the first blow of war does come, it arrives in full force. For all Ms. Wein’s books engage in war, war itself is never glorified. Combat is full of breathless, daring moments, but also it is brutal, it is ugly, and it hits the innocents the hardest. War, at its root, is an injustice perpetrated by the strong upon the weak. If you’re expecting the trademark Wein twist to the gut, this book does not fail to deliver.But BDWR is also a book of hope. CNV and RUF had very clear, definitive statements that served as their themes. (“I have told the truth” and “I will tell the world,” respectively.) BDWR’s statement is less defined, less prominent, but I think the entire book can be summed up in Emilia’s words from her very first letter:"I have nothing to lose. I am going to dare it. I will aim for the sun."Emilia and Teo aim for the sun. They strive to rise above the horrors of war and the injustice of discrimination. They fly both physically and metaphorically, bolstered by hope and faith. Airplanes play a huge role in this book, of course, but faith has a part to play as well, be it faith in God, faith in the lift of an airplane’s wings, or faith in each other. What’s more beautiful than that?Points Added For: The subtle nods to the other books, the gorgeous prose, the tender relationships, the horrors of war, the joys of flight, making me want to visit Ethiopia, making me hungry for Ethiopian food, non-crazy Christians, that shot to my heart (TWICE), the hand squeezes, the Nod, Uncle Mateos, Sinidu, Colonel Billy Cooper, the firefight and Em’s bravery.Points Subtracted For: At most, I wish the story’d had more bite to it, and a few sequences left me a bit confused. But otherwise, I’m good.Good For Fans Of: Elizabeth Wein’s other books, flight, early 20th century history, books set in non-American/European countries, books about family.Notes For Parents: Language, death, racism, sexism, warfare.Note: I received a review copy of this title from the publisher for review consideration.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
A wonderful setting, but doesn't live up to previous books
By TeacherReader
I loved Elizabeth Wein's previous books, Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire, but this one was lacking the emotional heft and believability of those novels.In this one, we focus on Em and Teo who are sort of brother and sister. They are the children of two female American stunt pilots. When they move to Ethiopia expecting a peaceful life, they find themselves in the midst of a war with Italy.I really enjoyed the setting of this book. I learned so much about a time and place that I had never really thought about before. The League of Nations politics were fascinating! And the Ethiopian landscape and people were lovingly and accurately depicted since Wein has traveled there several times.However, this book didn't hold my interest like Wein's previous works and I truly considered abandoning it. I probably would have if I hadn't read Code Name Verity. The problems come down to three areas:* Pacing - The first half (or maybe 3/4) was dreadfully slow. Almost no plot happened for huge sections of text.* Characters - I didn't connect well to the main characters. Em was awfully self-centered. She complained and bragged and generally annoyed me. On the other hand, Teo's quiet self-consciousness irritated me. And I kept wondering how he felt with a white family and how he managed to skip right past grieving for his mother and accept Rhoda as "Momma." speaking of which, why wasn't this book about Rhoda and Delia? They were fascinating!* Format - Like Wein's other books, this one is told through letters and journal entries. She also added in school essays and some character-written fiction. Unlike her previous novels, this format didn't work very well. My initial problem was that the character voices sounded too much alike. As I read on I became frustrated with how the writing was way too advanced to be believably written by young kids with little education.Overall, I'm glad I finished this book because the historical setting was fascinating and completely new to me, but it did not live up to my expectations based on Wein's previous works.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
This is a book I would definitely recommend, and I will add it to my list of books to gift to my own children as well!
By Matthew Jackson
Every now and then I like to have a break from the novels I normally prefer, and in these brief periods I often find myself reading those books marketed as “YA.” I like to discover new books for my kids, and see what is being written and sold to the youth of today. Usually I am somewhat disappointed, but not this time…The blurb for this book actually does a pretty decent job of setting up the action of the book – I often wonder why book descriptions are often so different than what you actually find between the cover…like someone is trying to drum up excitement and sell a book…how about just writing good books that sell themselves? Like this one! {Rant over.}All in all, this is just a fun book. The story is well told, well developed, and interesting. You get to know the characters, and you care not only about the two central protagonists, but also about the villagers and monasteries and people in Ethiopia at large. Black Dove, White Raven really combines a lot of things that make for a good reading experience – writing, story, characters, education (of the reader) – and in this combination, a good book is born.One of my favorite aspects of the book is the way it’s written. Yes, Wein is a talented author, but the construction of this book is also wonderful. One of the main characters, Em, writes a letter to the Emperor Haile Selassie (of Ethiopia, where they are living at the time) regarding Teo. With this letter, she includes various other pieces – flight journal reports, school reports, journal entries. Her goal, in this letter, is to paint the story of Teo’s life for Selassie, in the hopes that the Emperor will help this young man (who has become a pilot in his army). This is the document we read – Em’s letter, and accompanying documents, for the Emperor. A construct that could have been a mess, but was handled in a lovely way by Wein.Readers of Black Dove, White Raven will encounter some serious issues in the book – slavery, war, death, family, friendship, morality – but they are looked at in a way that I think the target audience can digest and engage. The book will give them something to think about, and that is always a good thing. [A note about the target audience – officially 7-12 grade, 12-18yo – I thought it would likely appeal more to the 10-15yo age group, and my kids in that age group would have no problem with either reading level or content.]As a personal note, I appreciated Wein’s exploration and engagement of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Many of us in the west aren’t very aware of this ancient faith – Wein does an excellent job introducing the reader (accurately) to a little history, a little practice, a little belief…and one very big (but well known) secret! I have been enamored of Ethiopia, and her church, for many years now, so this was another favorite piece of the book for me.This is a book I would definitely recommend, and I will add it to my list of books to gift to my own children as well!http://www.matthewejackson.com/book-review/book-review-black-dove-white-raven-by-elizabeth-wein/
