From: Isaacs <isaacs>
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 18:58:43 -0500 (EST)

On Fri, 10 Jan 1997, Ginny Kruse wrote:

you recommend it for children? >

I confess that when I first read Number the Stars, as an adult with lots of reading experience with holocaust books, I, too, found it "simplistic". I was concerned that so serious a subject had been treated so slightly. But I have been repeatedly reminded over the years by now scores of young readers who have mentioned this book to me as one of their favorites, one that moved them most deeply, one they'd like other books to be like, that I and my background weren't the audience for this book, they were. You have to reach people where they are and the 5th, 6th, and 7th graders who have loved Number the Stars are ready and eager to think about some of the difficult issues Lois Lowry raises, when they are presented in the familiar context of a friendship story. Usually they then go on to read many more difficult personal narratives from that period.

Every year I assign a short piece of historical fiction to my eighth graders who have read several YA novels concerned with American history and who are studying US history. Every year some ask to use something from World War II instead and every year I get at least two stories clearly modelled on Number the Stars. What greater compliment can these young reader/writers give?

Kathy Isaacs isaacs at midget.towson.edu Edmund Burke School Washington, DC
Received on Fri 10 Jan 1997 05:58:43 PM CST