Chapter Book 10

A.    Author: Anne-Laure Bondoux

B.     Title: A Time of Miracles

C.     Illustrator:

D.    Readability: 5.3

E.     Genre: Historical

F.      Subgenre: Fictiond

G.    Theme: European War

H.    Primary and secondary characters: Blaise (Kourmail), Gloria, Zemzem

I.       Award(s) date of publication: Mildred Batchelder Award 2011

J.       Publishing company: Delacorte Press

K.    ISBN number: 978-0-385-73922

L.     Brief summary:  “My name is Blaise Fortune and I am a citizen of the French Reblic.” (pg. 1) Imagine living your whole life thinking you were someone you are not. This story follows the life of Blaise Fortune and his finder, Gloria. Blaise was found by Gloria, his mother had perished in a train that flipped over, she was holding the baby, but she had a broken back, Gloria saved him. The story resumes at the memories of 1992. Gloria and Blaise lived in an apartment, they shared a bathroom with the others on their floor and Mrs. Hanska would teach the students to read and learn about history and the world. A bell protected the community, if a watchman rang the bell it meant RUN. One evening, the bell began to ring. The community grabbed their things and took off into the woods, the rebels were coming, no one, would be saved if left behind. Gloria and Blaise, ran to Souma-Soula, on the mountains, they made a new home and began work. A year after being there a toxin fell over Souma-Soula, and they were forced to leave. They traveled to Sukumi, where they would take refuge until they could make it to France. Gloria would leave at night and return by morning, She finally brought Blaise with her, they bathed and cleaned up, today they would receive pictures for their passports. When night fell two other refugees found safety where Blaise and Gloria did, for a few day all four felt safe. One night, shouts came from the city, the rebels had advanced to the city and again, Blaise and Gloria were forced to flee! They ran and found refuge with a set of people who claimed to lead people to freedom. They brought them to a barn, said to sleep there at night, and arrangements would be there in the morning. No one arrived, they were left alone, to fend for themselves. A man with a rifle found them and told them they were not the first to rob them of their money and  leave them. The man lead them to the Russian boarder, Blaise is now 11 years old. They travel to the Ukrainian boarder and their fake id’s are put to the test, Blaise saved them by speaking the little French he knew from his magazine. They are almost to France, just a few more weeks and they would be free! Blaise tells us his last memory is the most painful. He and Gloria were at a gas station, looking frantically for a ride. She finally made a “friend” with a truck driver, but he had no idea about Blaise, she told him to stay put while she took care of something. She returned and said to follow her but do not get caught, he was to hide in the back of a semi. They rode for hours, all Blaise could think about was freedom. He was awaken by men of the French border guards, and Gloria was nowhere in sight! Blaise repeated the story of his life, how Gloria saved him, but the facts did not add up. He sadly became a ward of the state,  going to school and learning the French culture. By now it is 2000 and the world of technology has taken over. The teacher introduces to them the search engine Google. Blaise searches his mother’s name, Gloria’s name, and finally Zemzem, Gloria’s hero boyfriend she always talked about. He soon found that Zemzem was a rebel and was not saving people but killing them. He ran out of the room, angered from his findings he met a girl named Prudence. She was girl from Liberia, surviving great tragedies and becoming a French ward of the state. For 6 years Prudence and Blaise studied and grew together. When Blaise turned 18 he became a French citizen, and Prudence was there to support him along the way. They traveled to the town where Blaise’s mother was said to live, but could not muster up the courage to look much harder for her, he knew she wasn’t there. They returned to the school, and a few months later Blaise took off to Caucasus, to search for Gloria and find answers to his life. He arrives and finds her at a hospital, dying a very painful death. She has been there for 8 years and had yet to speak a word. Blaise gets her to open up about what happened and how he isn’t who he thinks he is. His life has been turned upside and he has only a few months to cope and deal with who Gloria really is. This is a tragic tale, I cried the whole last few chapters of the book, Blaise, Gloria, Zemzem and Prudence are brought to life and their stories of horrific war and survival moves me.  

M.   Description of how you would use the book with students:I would use this book, to have students dig deep into their emotions. I would look for a reading response about what they thought of how the ending turned out, I would ask them to predict the book first, and then have them decide if this is how  they thought it would end. I would also ask them to explore the countries this took place in, was has been raging over there for years and the aftermath still exists today.