A Book for Our Time: The Crystal Beads, Lalka’s Journey

A mother and child in 1939 Poland are talking. This is our way into a new book—The Crystal Beads, Lalka’s Journey written by Pat Black-Gould and illustrated by Katya Royz. It is a book written for children but is for any age and as I will show, particularly for today.

The time and place alert adults immediately to the context but for children they are gently led into the experience. A mother has found a way to gently guide her seven-year-old daughter on a safe path while terror stalks right outside their door. She asks her daughter to trade her Star of David for crystal beads – a rosary.

The author guides readers along with the illustrations driving the narrative and lending emotional texture. Tension builds with a terrifying encounter with Nazi interrogators. What might happen? We anticipate the worst. The terrifying men leave and we can breathe again. Lalka asks a question of the Mother Superior. It is not just any question: it is the question yet unresolved among us. Which of these is better: the Star of David or the Rosary?

Pat Black-Gould weaves a story of trust and love confronted with evil and brilliantly captured in Katya Royz’ art.

When I finished reading the story, my first thought was of Leo Tolstoy’s parable The Bear. Written for children, it has lasted through the centuries as a warning about the perils of oppression. Tolstoy showed how the bear became immured in a prison of its own thinking. It performs everyday for its master who has tethered it to a stump. Not until the bear is reminded he is endowed with the strength to break his bonds does he free himself from his oppressor.

I foresee The Crystal Beads will find its place among stories that illuminate dark times with truth. Everyone is endowed with his or her own right to be free and to pursue his or her own dreams. Each person is as valuable as the next. All faiths promote that and it is the soul of democratic governance.

The Nazis vilified the Jews leading to unspeakable crimes against humanity. This old dark root has risen over the last decade in many forms of hatred toward “the other.” Anger and hatred pit people against each other, playing out this old and tragic story about the human race. It must be illuminated for what it is: evil in many forms. We must be ever vigilent to guard against it for it can happen anywhere strong men’s manipulation of followers who, like the bear, are imprisoned by their own misperceptions and thinking.

I am so glad for the publication of The Crystal Beads. Pat Black-Gould is a practicing psychologist, playwright, and fiction writer. Perhaps this is why her book is so vital. The author has created a timeless story for all ages. The book has already garnered many awards.

Study guides for children and for adults are included.