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From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 09:35:50 -0500
Jim, you're right. Religion was the CCBC-Net topic in November, 2004. (Check CCBC-Net's indexed archives, if you're interested to see what was expressed then www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ )
Thanks, Norma Jean, for commenting on the reception in England of "A Little Piece of Ground" by Elizabeth Laird. During one of the sectionals in the IBBY Congress in Cape Town last September, Liz Laird was queried by an Israeli teacher about her novel. He stated that he appreciates it and I think he also stated that he teaches it. However he wondered why there was no "good Israeli" in the novel. Liz replied that a Palestinian boy such as her protagonist Karim would never have had the opportunity even to see a "good Israeli" living as he does in the occupied areas. She said she wishes that were different but to manufacture any character for (my words coming up) a false exterior motive would be wrong for her as a novelist seeking to write truthfully from her character's perspective and experience.
Elizabeth Laird's own words prefacing the novel are: "This is a story abut Palestinian boys living under the Israeli military occupation. Theirs is a particular experience, in a particular time and place, but all such occupations are harsh, causing great suffering to the occupied people, and misery to the occupying army. The boys in this book stand for all who live their lives in such circumstances and manage, against the odds, to go on growing up." Anyone interested in discovering more about the reception of "A Little Piece of Ground" in England might want to look at the article "Children's Author Faces Jewish Wrath" (NOT my words, by the way) in "The Guardian [London] August 23, 2003, page 3.)
Hats off to the editors brave enough to risk publishing books which reflect one aspect of reality, just as you did years ago, Norma Jean, in publishing a book involving the personal politics of skin color. Of the thousands of books published for the young in the U.S. each year, it seems possible that there can be one or two or half a dozen novels for teenagers which honestly reflect realities typically not presented - even to most adults.
The books about which I wrote yesterday are not "about" religion, except as religion
- secular or otherwise - impedes upon or drives or motives actions, both personal and political. We need only to read today's headlines, or to see how the "religious" press and book industry in the U.S. is influenced by "religion," but not by all religions. Not by all practices of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism or other world religions. To exclude or divorce "religion" from some of the novels written for teenagers is as unethical as it would be to create a particular character - not to stand for all who live in the Israeli occupied territories to be sure - who might not have had the opportunity in his young life to have witnessed a "good Israeli." That type of life circumstance is a tragedy wherever it's played out or however we who are so sheltered get our "news," regardless of who anyone of us is, or what our personal politics or belief system might be.
Peace, Ginny
Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu
Received on Fri 24 Jun 2005 09:35:50 AM CDT
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 09:35:50 -0500
Jim, you're right. Religion was the CCBC-Net topic in November, 2004. (Check CCBC-Net's indexed archives, if you're interested to see what was expressed then www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ )
Thanks, Norma Jean, for commenting on the reception in England of "A Little Piece of Ground" by Elizabeth Laird. During one of the sectionals in the IBBY Congress in Cape Town last September, Liz Laird was queried by an Israeli teacher about her novel. He stated that he appreciates it and I think he also stated that he teaches it. However he wondered why there was no "good Israeli" in the novel. Liz replied that a Palestinian boy such as her protagonist Karim would never have had the opportunity even to see a "good Israeli" living as he does in the occupied areas. She said she wishes that were different but to manufacture any character for (my words coming up) a false exterior motive would be wrong for her as a novelist seeking to write truthfully from her character's perspective and experience.
Elizabeth Laird's own words prefacing the novel are: "This is a story abut Palestinian boys living under the Israeli military occupation. Theirs is a particular experience, in a particular time and place, but all such occupations are harsh, causing great suffering to the occupied people, and misery to the occupying army. The boys in this book stand for all who live their lives in such circumstances and manage, against the odds, to go on growing up." Anyone interested in discovering more about the reception of "A Little Piece of Ground" in England might want to look at the article "Children's Author Faces Jewish Wrath" (NOT my words, by the way) in "The Guardian [London] August 23, 2003, page 3.)
Hats off to the editors brave enough to risk publishing books which reflect one aspect of reality, just as you did years ago, Norma Jean, in publishing a book involving the personal politics of skin color. Of the thousands of books published for the young in the U.S. each year, it seems possible that there can be one or two or half a dozen novels for teenagers which honestly reflect realities typically not presented - even to most adults.
The books about which I wrote yesterday are not "about" religion, except as religion
- secular or otherwise - impedes upon or drives or motives actions, both personal and political. We need only to read today's headlines, or to see how the "religious" press and book industry in the U.S. is influenced by "religion," but not by all religions. Not by all practices of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism or other world religions. To exclude or divorce "religion" from some of the novels written for teenagers is as unethical as it would be to create a particular character - not to stand for all who live in the Israeli occupied territories to be sure - who might not have had the opportunity in his young life to have witnessed a "good Israeli." That type of life circumstance is a tragedy wherever it's played out or however we who are so sheltered get our "news," regardless of who anyone of us is, or what our personal politics or belief system might be.
Peace, Ginny
Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu
Received on Fri 24 Jun 2005 09:35:50 AM CDT
