From: Dean Schneider <schneiderd>
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2002 22:41:10 -0500

I got this response from M.E. Kerr personally, but I think it was meant to be shared with the CCBC community. It's in regard to my question about Trenker in Gentlehands. (Dean Schneider):



Thanks for your question about Gentlehands...Yes, it seems kids are very forgiving of Trenker. I was in a school in Ohio where they actually put him on trial and the verdict was not guilty, too long ago, and they set him free. He is portrayed as a fine, gentle, intelligent man, done deliberately by me knowing how we all like to distance ourselves from evil, so he seems familiar and incapable of such horrendous wrongdoing. We like him. We don't believe he could have done such things. Or we believe he's changed, hasn't he? That is for the reader to ponder. Has he changed, or is he no different than he always was? Are truly evil people easy to spot, or should we ponder Pogo's saying, I've seen the enemy and he is us? Trenker was gratuitously cruel. He was not simply carrying out orders. He went out of his way to be cruel. He showed no mercy. Most war villians come from loving families and are loving husbands/wives and fathers/mothers just as our servicepeople at war are. And everyone changes over time. But can we forgive putting people in ovens, torching villages, all with the gung ho hatred of others we don't view as like us. I like the kids to answer the questions, to mull them over, to wonder what they would do with a Trenker...I, personally, would hold him responsible. Now after 911, our kids have some history that isn't just in books, and a war to wonder about. Thanks again for your question. Cheers! mekerr
Received on Wed 12 Jun 2002 10:41:10 PM CDT