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[CCBC-Net] Holocaust Literature for Children and Teens
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From: Genco, Barbara <b.genco>
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 17:55:10 -0400
I read a great deal of Holocaust narratives after I was first introduced to Anne Frank's DIARY in the mid 1960's (and of course saw the Hollywood film).
However the book on the Holocaust that most impressed me as a teen and one I still remember to this day was Kitty Hart's I AM ALIVE, published by Abelard-Schuman (1961). Stunning and life changing.
Hart also wrote a book published by Athenaeum in the US (1982) called RETURN TO AUSCHWITZ: THE REMARKABLE STORY OF A GIRL WHO SURVIVED THE HOLOCAUST. I think it may still be in print in the UK. There was also a moving documentary film on PBS called I think "Kitty Returns to Auschwitz" ca. 1978. I wish they were all still in print and available.
The most recent kids' novel I have read with a Holocaust theme is THE BOY IN STRIPED PAJAMAS by John Boyne (to be published this September), David Fickling Books/Random House.
I found this a rare and unusual novelistic treatment of a subject that has to be among the most difficult for any non-survivor to imagine and portray.
It reminded me of Elie Wiesel's NIGHT. (Also read by many, many teens here in Brooklyn-and that's pre-OPRAH.)
Boyne's book reminded me of Weisel not because it is in any way 'about' the experience of a child who lived 'through' the Holocaust--as is survivor Weisel's book. But THE BOY moved and mesmerized me through the restrained, inevitable, low key power of the narrative. I literally could not stop reading it.
Barbara A. Genco
Director of Collection Development
Brooklyn Public Library
Grand Army Plaza
Brooklyn, NY 11238
PH [718] 230-2138 * FAX [718] 230-2097
Mobile [347] 684-1368
b.genco at brooklynpubliclibrary.org
************************************
Received on Wed 19 Apr 2006 04:55:10 PM CDT
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 17:55:10 -0400
I read a great deal of Holocaust narratives after I was first introduced to Anne Frank's DIARY in the mid 1960's (and of course saw the Hollywood film).
However the book on the Holocaust that most impressed me as a teen and one I still remember to this day was Kitty Hart's I AM ALIVE, published by Abelard-Schuman (1961). Stunning and life changing.
Hart also wrote a book published by Athenaeum in the US (1982) called RETURN TO AUSCHWITZ: THE REMARKABLE STORY OF A GIRL WHO SURVIVED THE HOLOCAUST. I think it may still be in print in the UK. There was also a moving documentary film on PBS called I think "Kitty Returns to Auschwitz" ca. 1978. I wish they were all still in print and available.
The most recent kids' novel I have read with a Holocaust theme is THE BOY IN STRIPED PAJAMAS by John Boyne (to be published this September), David Fickling Books/Random House.
I found this a rare and unusual novelistic treatment of a subject that has to be among the most difficult for any non-survivor to imagine and portray.
It reminded me of Elie Wiesel's NIGHT. (Also read by many, many teens here in Brooklyn-and that's pre-OPRAH.)
Boyne's book reminded me of Weisel not because it is in any way 'about' the experience of a child who lived 'through' the Holocaust--as is survivor Weisel's book. But THE BOY moved and mesmerized me through the restrained, inevitable, low key power of the narrative. I literally could not stop reading it.
Barbara A. Genco
Director of Collection Development
Brooklyn Public Library
Grand Army Plaza
Brooklyn, NY 11238
PH [718] 230-2138 * FAX [718] 230-2097
Mobile [347] 684-1368
b.genco at brooklynpubliclibrary.org
************************************
Received on Wed 19 Apr 2006 04:55:10 PM CDT
