r. j. palacio. it is part of the wonder children's book series.formation. during his mainstream school, he notices bullying and kindness. i won't give too much away from that. white bird is the latest book that centers around one of obvious bullies, julian, and his grandmother. it picks up after julian's expelled and it is working on a class project at his new school interviewing someone he knows and sharing the story. julian's, grandmother, sara, was a young jewish girl in the free part of france. the part that was not occupied by the nazis themselves. it was not free it was administered by pro nazi french government in world war ii. she had a happy childhood with loving parents. she was able to maintain the illusion of normalcy, and quote, despite the increase of nazi propaganda and her own experience with antisemitism at school. there is a particularly heart-wrenching moment when sarah asks her father, why do they hate us? he responds that it is not all people who hate them, quote, i try not to think in terms of a good and bad, i think of light

r. j. palacio author of the powerful graphic novel white bird. velshi starts now. ♪ ♪ ♪ good morning.ali velshi. it is saturday may 14th, day 80 of the invasion of ukraine and the war that is not going as putin planned or as anyone expected. the consequences of the war of choice on the neighbor, both intended and unintended, are now out in the open and on display for the world to see. there is a global economic toll and ramifications for the world food supply, ukraine being one of the largest producers of green in the world. we will dive into this later on in the show. other consequences are more direct and visual with ukraine being altered. entire cities, towns, villages, big and small, ruined and erased from the landscape. tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war. the top un rights official reported yesterday that the bodies of more than 1000 civilians have been so far recovered north of the capital of kyiv. it is a figure that is expected to rise. 700 were executed and others were shocked by snipers. another top un official reports says that almost 100 ukrainian chil