“A sound, a very quiet sound, woke Samira,” one summer night in 1918, Iran.
With this small event begins a monumental change in 9-year old Samira’s life. She and her family must leave their home in Ayna, Iran to flee the Turkish army. Samira will walk unthinkable distances to safety. But will she ever find home again?
*Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes with Home is Beyond the Mountains in the post title come from Home is Beyond the Mountains by Celia Barker Lottridge.
Celia Barker Lottridge
Before reading this book, I primarily knew Lottridge as the author of One Watermelon Seed a colourful counting book that I sometimes use in preschool library programs. My six-year old enjoys reading this book as well. Of that experience, Lottridge says, “About 1983, a publisher who had done an alphabet book asked me to write a counting book, and so I wrote One Watermelon Seed. They liked it but said it had to have coloured illustrations, something that house wasn’t then doing. Later I happened to be at Oxford University Press and showed it to Bill Toye who immediately said he’d publish it. That experience led me to the conclusion that it was time to start writing the books that I wanted to write” (as cited in Jenkinson, 1997).
I also knew that she was co-author of Telling Tales: Storytelling in the Family with our own professor Gail de Vos, and Merle Harris. Clearly family stories are very important to Lottridge; she draws on her own family’s history for Home is Beyond the Mountains. She has also authored an adaptation of a Russian fairytale, Music for the Tsar of the Sea. I was not aware that she had adapting the Hungarian folktale The Little Rooster and the Diamond Button, and have added it to my TBR.
In researching for this project I learned that Lottridge has been a librarian and is a professional storyteller. She is an American-born Canadian, and “helped to form the Storyteller’s School of Toronto to promote storytelling in the city’s schools” (The Gale Group, Inc., 2006). Lottridge began writing seriously in the 1980s “as a way to supplement her income as a single parent, and in the 1980s she began to take writing seriously” (The Gale Group, Inc., 2006).
Her other novels for children include:
I haven’t read any of her other novels. With the exception of Berta, they are all historical fiction. Wings to Fly takes place in 1918, the same year that Home is Beyond the Mountains begins. The female protagonist in Wings to Fly is older than Samira and from a different cultural background. It might be interesting to read this novels together and compare them in more detail.
The Setting
According to the blurb, Home is Beyond the Mountains is about “the chaotic time at the end of World War I, when hundreds of thousands of Assyrians and 
Armenians were forced to flee from the Turkish Army.” I know very very little about Iranian history, and even less about the Assyrian population in Iran. (To be brutally honest, I wasn’t entirely sure Turkey and Iran shared a border and had never heard of the region of Urmieh, Iran. I had no idea that the Assyrian genocide existed. My closest point of reference would have been Atom Egoyan’s film Ararat about the Armenian genocide.) For this reason, I found “The History Behind the Story” pages of the book very helpful. It would have been more useful to me, if this information had formed an introduction to the novel rather than an afterward.
How the Book Came to be Written
Lottridge includes two afterwards to the book, “Where the Story Came From” and “The History Behind the Story” (p. 222-3). In the first, she tells the story of her mother’s older sister, Susan, who was “the director of an orphanage for Assyrian refugee children in Hamadan” (p. 222). Her maternal aunt is Susan Shedd, the orphanage director in Home is Beyond the Mountains. Lottridge used family letters, stories her mother told her about her aunt, and newspaper articles as sources for her book. While researching the book Lottridge (2006) sent out a request for information via Gorgias Press. She wrote,
“I have found nothing about the experiences of the orphans who survived the war, only to be left in refugee camps for several years before they could find a home of any kind. I would especially like to find out more about the orphanages at Hamadan and Kermanshah run by the Near East Relief. Any personal accounts of children’s experiences in the orphanages, on the trek from Hamadan to Tabriz or after returning to Urmia would also be of tremendous help. If anybody could help me at all with my search I would be very grateful” (as cited in e-Gorgias, 2006).
Image Sources (from top to bottom)
One Watermelon Seed [Book Cover]. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=9781554550340/MC.GIF&client=sirsi&type=xw12&oclc=
The little rooster and the diamond button [Book Cover]. (2001). Retrieved from http://www.syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=0888994435/MC.GIF&client=sirsi&type=xw12&oclc=
Storytelling Toronto. (2014). Storytelling Toronto [Logo]. Retrieved from http://www.storytellingtoronto.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/logo_cover.png
Wings to fly [Book Cover]. (2007). Retrieved from http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328770797l/1931599.jpg
Ararat [Movie Poster]. (2002). Retrieved from http://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=Lu16o83NsD0ovM&tbnid=vRgFeJnJHBY8vM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rogerebert.com%2Freviews%2Fararat-2002&ei=UfDfU4KVI-KrigLP_IGYDw&bvm=bv.72197243,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNHCwYnQQxBZBHrD79cM5GtRTQjdVw&ust=1407271372277705
William A. Shedd with his second wife Louise Wilbur Shedd and his four daughters, the youngest one is Louise (Celia’s mother) [Photograph]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.gorgiaspress.com/bookshop/images/gp/Shedd-and-his-family2.jpg
United States Government. (n.d.). Lest they perish campaign poster of the NEF [Poster]. Retrieved from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/Neareastrelief2.jpg/220px-Neareastrelief2.jpg
References
The Gale Group, Inc. (2006). Celia Barker Lottridge: Biography. In Answers.com. Retrieved August 5, 2014, from http://www.answers.com/topic/celia-barker-lottridge#ixzz39S0adpil
Gorgias Press. (2006, December). Enthusiast of the Month: Celia Baker Lottiridge [sic]. e-Gorgias, (13). Retrieved from http://www.gorgiaspress.com/bookshop/t-e-Gorgias13.aspx
Jenkinson, D. (1997, September 23). Celia Lottridge. Canadian Review of Materials. Retrieved from http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/profiles/lottridge.html
Lottridge, C. B. (2010). Home is beyond the mountains. Toronto, ON: Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press.
My copy of this title came from the library. We acquired it in 2010 and it looks as though it has never been read. This is surprising because we serve a largely Iranian community, and I’d assume that readers would be interested in historical fiction that directly speaks to their heritage.
This book is a small size trade paperback. The background of the cover is a Persian carpet with black and white photos lying on it. I don’t get a lot of contextual information from the photos other than the time period is obviously pre-WWII (a the most prominent photograph shows people who have been travelling by cart).
The cover declares this book is a novel based on a true story. The coloured box that the title is in complements the colour of the carpet. The author’s name is in a coloured font that matches the color of the carpet’s border. All elements in the cover tie together well.
On the back of the book it is mentioned twice more that this book is based on a true event. I think the publisher is really trying to drive this point home to ask readers to imagine themselves in the position of the children in the novel.
Home is Beyond the Mountains is dedicated to Louise Shedd Barker (Lottridge’s mother) and Marion Seary. Seary worked with Lottridge at The Children’s Bookstore in Toronto (International Board on Books for Young People, 1991). In one of the afterwards the book, “Where the Story Came From” Lottridge explains the crucial role her mother played in the novel’s inception. The second afterward, “The History Behind the Story” gives much-needed historical background to Samira’s story and would have made an ideal introduction. Instead, a map detailing the routes of Samira’s journeys functions as the novel’s sole introduction.
Image Sources (from top to bottom)
Home is beyond the mountains [Book Cover]. (2010). Retrieved from http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328770853l/6966371.jpg
Lottridge, C. B. (2010). Home is beyond the mountains. Toronto, ON: Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press.
References
International Board of Books for Young People (IBBY). (1991). 1991 – Judy Sarick. Retrieved from http://www.ibby-canada.org/awards/claude-aubry-award/1991-judy-sarick/
What Happened to me as I Read?
PART ONE: No Safe Place, July 1918
The book began, “A sound, a very quiet sound, woke Samira” (Lottridge, 2010, p. 10). I was instantly curious: what caused the noise that woke Samira up and what will happen next. The writing is quietly beautiful and, as much as I’m engaged with the story, I’m also reading to find the next line that will stop my breath with its truth and simplicity. I don’t have to wait long until I read this, “At every river she looked for Papa and Benyamin, but they were never there” (p. 34).
PART TWO: The Orphan Section, September 1918
In Part Two, we meet Anna (p.41) who is obviously going to help form Samira’s new family. As I read, I’m waiting for Anna to jump off the page and become real to me, but she never does. Anna asks Samira to help her look after younger children by saying, “You’re quiet. You don’t fuss. Shall we stick together?” (p. 42). There is a pragmatism to Anna, but I never really think of her as being a real person.
We also learn more about Samira’s family and culture; we learn that, though he’s all the family she has left, they didn’t have much of a relationship in Ayna. “At home with the whole family together in their little house there were days and days when she and Benyamin hardly talked to each other. They lived separate lives” (p. 43). While Samira and Benyamin are lucky to have each other, this statement makes me think what poor consolation they must be for each other, and how much they must be missing the family members who were integral parts of their lives.
PART THREE: Not Just Orphans, September 1922
Early in Part Three, Samira is again awoken in the night, mirroring the opening of the book (p. 87). This time Elias is sick. Miss Shedd (Lottridge’s aunt) arrives while Elias is recovering. Though she’s not Assyrian, she’s from Urmieh. I wonder about the etymology of her name; it’s unusual. Wondering makes me stop reading and breaks the spell the book has had me under. There’s something that sets Miss Shedd apart from the other characters and makes her seem less well-rounded as a character. I wonder if Lottridge idealizes her aunt and doesn’t want to explore her character too deeply. Maybe my impression will change as the novel progresses.
On page 111, new children arrive at the orphanage from Baqubah camp and the orphans are invited to come up with new rules for the orphanage. Samira’s rule promotes inclusivity and demonstrates her empathy (p. 114). Samira again demonstrates a strong sense of empathy when she sees Malik, the runner, and intuits that he feels trapped in the orphanage. From the moment he first appears, Malik is my favourite character. I too feel more comfortable on the edges of groups, yet still want to be a part of them.
When Shula and Avram fall out there is no punishment for them (p. 126). I know Miss Shedd is trying to promote feelings of leadership and responsibility in the orphans, but this seems like a case of imposing modern values on historical fiction to me. I think in 1918, the children would have been punished. Again the spell of the novel is briefly broken.
It is quickly recast when planning for the 30-day walk to Tabriz begins. Shedd introduces the concept of the caravan family: a family that travels and camps together on the journey. “Each family [has] at least twelve children of difference ages and, of course, girls and boys” (p. 132). With the introduction of these families, Samira remarks, Miss Shedd “reminds me of my Aunt” (p. 132). This made me smile because Miss Shedd is Lottridge’s aunt. It also made me wonder how much of her own personality Lottridge imbued Samira with.
Miss Shedd announces Samira’s family will include: Anna, Benyamin, Ashur, Maryam, Avram, Shula, Malik, Elias, Monna, Sheran, and David. The family gets to choose their own ‘family name’ and becomes the “Rooftop Family” because they all slept and played on the roofs back home. I was glad that Anna questioned the new families saying, “There are people in this family I barely know. What kind of family is that?” because I had a difficult time believing that children would unquestioningly accept a new family after what they had been through (p. 134). Anna’s specific question also reminded me that Samira and Benyamin didn’t have a close relationship before leaving Ayna and made me think that Miss Shedd might be successful with her family plan.
PART FOUR: A Long Way to Go, October 1923
I found this parts of this section of the book flat and sort of boring. It was predictable (to an adult reader) that bureaucracy would require someone to stay behind at the orphanage while others started the journey to Tabriz, and that they delay would not be permanent (p. 154).
The best scenes in this part were the ones with Malik. I particularly liked the scene where Samira overhears Malik comforting the mules. She tells Anna, “I think he said more to a mule in just a few minutes than I’ve heard him say to people in a year” (p. 160). I found this scene very moving because my eldest child is, like Malik, more comfortable around animals than people. Anna doesn’t pay attention to what Samira is telling her; she still hasn’t grown on me. There’s another scene a few pages later where Malik tells Samira about the sheep in his village; he is starting to open up to his new family.
There are two emotionally moving scenes in this part. One is when Shula sits down on the road and cries (I cried with her) because her mother is dead and the journey home is too arduous. The third person narration of this scene makes Shula’s situation more stark, “Samira didn’t know what to say. What Shula had said was true. Her mother had died and the journey was hard” (p. 170). Miss Shedd has a very no-nonsense approach to Shula’s outburst and she is soon on the road again. Soon after, Samira and Miss Shedd bond over their mutual losses: Samira lost her mother on this road, and Miss Shedd lost her father. Miss Shedd seems much more sympathetic when talking to Samira about her loss. I wonder if it’s because Samira is older, or if it’s because Samira’s grief wells up at a rest stop and not while she’s supposed to be walking. Either way, I haven’t warmed up to Miss Shedd either; though her return to Iran makes more sense now somehow.
The children also experience snow in this part, and we get more background on Anna’s story (p. 188, 194).
PART FIVE: Wait for the Morning Star, November 1923
This part wraps up the story: Benyamin decides not to return to Ayna. His decision is consistent with the distant emotional relationship he and Samira have had throughout the book. Malik finds out his grandmother is still alive; Anna finds out her village has been decimated. Samira discovers that Aunt Sahra and Ester have lived. She and Anna move in with them. Home is Beyond the Mountains ends with Samira on the roof: she spots Malik approaching. He has come to live with them in Ayna, and will help rebuild Samira’s home.
Image Sources (from top to bottom)
Assyrian exodus from Persian Urmia – summer of 1918 [Photograph]. (1918). Retrieved from http://www.shlama.be/shlama/images/stories/Iran/assyrian-refugees-from-urmia.jpg
Assyrian children at a school in Baghdad [Photograph]. (2008). Retrieved from https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSsGtm8GNfkDJ8TCkC3YyqIhsEoAaPj6DpkrPwyo1eDxSgOPvX9nw
The Internet Surname Database. (n.d.). Shedd surname scroll [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.surnamedb.com/Images/FramedScroll?name=Shedd
Armenians Baqubah, 1919 [Photograph]. (1919). Retrieved from https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com
Juancito [Photograph]. (2006). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule#mediaviewer/File:Juancito.jpg
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