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From: Susan Daugherty <kdaugherty>
Date: Wed, 7 Apr 1999 13:32:28 -0500
I especially appreciated Gretchen Woelfle's comments (message before last) about Lobel's losing her faith because I thought that something was being left out of the discussion. Several people had referred to the truthfulness of Anita Lobel's book without being specific. I can understand why some readers would find comments about not wanting to be Jewish upsetting. I agree that this would not be my first choice for a child just finding out what the Holocaust was, but I doubt that any librarian would recommend it for that purpose. To me, it is a true young adult book (which I also recommended to my 82-year-old mother). Elementary children can start out with books like NUMBER THE STARS, or some of the other milder ones. I often tell children that a book is very sad, and then they will choose not to take it because they are not ready for that yet.
Having read a lot of Holocaust books also, I think Anita Lobel's book is notable for its honesty. I guess it isn't politically correct. Total honesty usually isn't. In some holocaust books for younger readers, you sense that the writer has pulled her punches a little bit. I was glad that Lobel didn't.
Like some others, I thought that the portrayal of the "demented angel" was devastating. She loved those children so much, but she hated their Jewishness. How contradictory. How true to life. I can imagine that as a little girl, I might have reacted against my Jewishness in the same way. As someone said, if the Holocaust hadn't happened, perhaps Anita Lobel would not have lost her faith. The way I remember it, she was so young when it started that perhaps she hadn't thought that much about religion by that point in her life. To come out of it at all sane is the miracle to me.
Back to the audience for this book. How can anyone ever feel totally safe recommending any book about a tricky topic like the holocaust? (Or about a lot of things for that matter.) You don't know what the person brings to the book. There is no answer to this, except to get kids reading reading reading. Once you've read a bunch of perceptions of an event, it changes simplistic thinking into more sophisticated thinking. Alas, some adults never take this step. Like the teacher who told me Virginia Hamilton should be banned from schools because she uses black English or dialect. After all, it's not a good example for children, is it? Sigh.
Susan Daugherty
At 11:21 AM 4/6/99 00, you wrote:
as
know
too
see
person
me
had
the
that
by
adults? Susan Daugherty Librarian Franklin Elementary School Madison, WI 53705
Received on Wed 07 Apr 1999 01:32:28 PM CDT
Date: Wed, 7 Apr 1999 13:32:28 -0500
I especially appreciated Gretchen Woelfle's comments (message before last) about Lobel's losing her faith because I thought that something was being left out of the discussion. Several people had referred to the truthfulness of Anita Lobel's book without being specific. I can understand why some readers would find comments about not wanting to be Jewish upsetting. I agree that this would not be my first choice for a child just finding out what the Holocaust was, but I doubt that any librarian would recommend it for that purpose. To me, it is a true young adult book (which I also recommended to my 82-year-old mother). Elementary children can start out with books like NUMBER THE STARS, or some of the other milder ones. I often tell children that a book is very sad, and then they will choose not to take it because they are not ready for that yet.
Having read a lot of Holocaust books also, I think Anita Lobel's book is notable for its honesty. I guess it isn't politically correct. Total honesty usually isn't. In some holocaust books for younger readers, you sense that the writer has pulled her punches a little bit. I was glad that Lobel didn't.
Like some others, I thought that the portrayal of the "demented angel" was devastating. She loved those children so much, but she hated their Jewishness. How contradictory. How true to life. I can imagine that as a little girl, I might have reacted against my Jewishness in the same way. As someone said, if the Holocaust hadn't happened, perhaps Anita Lobel would not have lost her faith. The way I remember it, she was so young when it started that perhaps she hadn't thought that much about religion by that point in her life. To come out of it at all sane is the miracle to me.
Back to the audience for this book. How can anyone ever feel totally safe recommending any book about a tricky topic like the holocaust? (Or about a lot of things for that matter.) You don't know what the person brings to the book. There is no answer to this, except to get kids reading reading reading. Once you've read a bunch of perceptions of an event, it changes simplistic thinking into more sophisticated thinking. Alas, some adults never take this step. Like the teacher who told me Virginia Hamilton should be banned from schools because she uses black English or dialect. After all, it's not a good example for children, is it? Sigh.
Susan Daugherty
At 11:21 AM 4/6/99 00, you wrote:
as
know
too
see
person
me
had
the
that
by
adults? Susan Daugherty Librarian Franklin Elementary School Madison, WI 53705
Received on Wed 07 Apr 1999 01:32:28 PM CDT
