From: sully_at_sully-writer.com
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:18:16 -0700

nt If a book is addressing complex iss ue s and offering readers simplistic solutions, I'd say it's a poorly written book that is not worthy of a place in a library or classroom except, perhap s, as an example of what not to when writing such books. Reviewers should b e making note of such weaknesses. If not, they're not doing their jobs. E dward T. Sullivan, Rogue Librarian Author, The Ultimate Weapon: The Race to Develop the Atomic Bomb (Holiday House, 2007) Visit my web sit e, http://www.sully-writer.com

Visit my blog, Rogue Librarian: All About Books and Reading "h http://sullywriter.wordpress.com Fa cebook Page: http://www.f ac ebook.com/sullywriter =" BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 8px; FONT-FAMILY: verdana; COLOR : black; MARGIN-LEFT: 8px; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" id=replyBlockquote webmail
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ubje ct: Re:
 How much do we tell? From: "Visser-Knoth, Maeve" visser-knoth_at_smcl.org Da te: Mon, November 21, 2011 1:12 pm To: CCBC Network lt ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu

For me, o ne aspect of this discussion about how much of the complicated world we sho uld share with children is also the question of responsibility. Some books raise tough issues and offer simplistic solutions. Others hand responsibili ty for tough issues to the child reader. Global warming books are particula r offenders here. I believe that children need to know that we have serious challenges ahead and that their actions make a difference, but that their actions alone will not solve the problem! I can compost and carpool and dry my clothes on the line, and vote according to my conscious, but I alone ca n not fix the problem. How do we, through literature, inspire children, and empower them, without dumping too much on them?

I remember a book from the 1980's titled "Peace Begins With You" by Katherine Scholes. Peace is a very complicated idea. I can be nice to everyone in the playground and in my home but it will have not have any effect whatsoever on the situatio n between Palestine and Israel. I don't want to let kids off the hook, but I do not want books to introduce terrifying topics and place the responsibi lity for "fixing" things on the child reader.

There must be a balanc e and certainly novels have more space to develop topics of, for example, w ar and peace, than picture books.

-Maeve

Maeve Visser Knoth Youth Services Librarian Atherton Library 2 Dinkelspiel Stations La ne Atherton, Ca 94027 650-328-2422

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_____________ From: CCBC Network digest

Sent: Saturday, November 19, 20 11 10:08 PM To: ccbc-net digest recipients Subject: ccbc-net digest: November 19, 2011

CCBC-NET Digest for Saturday, November 19, 2011. 1. Re: How much...? 2. RE: DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC 3. Re: How much.. .? 4. Re: DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC 5. Books about cancer 6. How Much Do We Tell the Children 7. Re: DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC 8. Re: How Much Do We Tell the Children? 9. Re: How much...? 10. "How much...." 11. YA b ook related to cancer 12. RE: How =?UTF-8?Q?much..=2 E?? = 13. How much...? 14. CANCER 15. RE: How =?UTF-8?Q?much .
..??= 16. RE: CANCER

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Subject: Re: How much...?

From: maggie_bo_at_comcast.net

Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2011 13:38:27 +0000 (UTC) X-Message-Number: 1 Grace Oliff writes, regarding Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic: "There is no suggestion that this was "all a dream"- in the tradition of time travel fantasy, she has actually made this journey, actually experi enced this- and she returns to the present having experienced the necessary epiphany. Of course people did not wake up from the Nazi experience- but t his book was about trying to explain that experience to a generation that t hankfully did not have to live through it, and was often confused by the fa ct that those who had were reluctant to speak."


I agree. I don't think Hannah/Chaya's experience comes off as a dream at all--it is a time travel experience, and the message of the book is the importance of remembe ring. There is no sense of unreality--in fact, the whole point of the novel is to show that the holocaust was real, did happen, and should not be forg otten, and I believe it does that as effectively as any holocaust novel for children. In addition, Yolen's book is a departure from the many holocaust novels written from the point of view of Christians saving Jews. For that reason too, it is a particularly noteworthy and important book, and one I h ighly recommend to my middle school students.


Maggie Bokelman Librarian Eagle View Middle School Mechanicsburg, PA

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- Original Message -----
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Subject: RE: DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC
F
rom: Lbhcove_at_aol.com 
Date: Sat, 1 9 Nov 2011 11:34:52 -0500 (EST)
X-Message-Number: 2
For the recor d, THE DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC was not a Newbery Honor Book.
Lee Bennett Hopkins
Visit my site at: ns www.leebennetthopkins.com 
In a message dated 11/18/201 1 8:14:13 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, oo grace_1335_at_yahoo.com writes:
I must respectfully say t hat this is not a fair reading of Jane Yolen's
Newbery Honor, "The Devil 's Arithmetic." In this very sensitively written
book, the young protago nist is resentful of her family's traditions, has no
awareness of what t hey have experienced. When she is transported back in
time, she comes to understand why they feel and act the way they do. There is
no suggestio n that this was "all a dream"- in the tradition of time travel
fantasy, she has actually made this journey, actually experienced this- and
she r eturns to the present having experienced the necessary epiphany. Of
cour se people did not wake up from the Nazi experience- but this book was
ab out trying to explain that experience to a generation that thankfully did not have to live through it, and was often confused by the fact that thos e
who had were reluctant to speak. I do believe this book would have got ten
Newbery gold - but that year, Lois Lowry's "Number the Stars"- anoth er
Holocaust novel- trumped it.
Grace Oliff, Librarian
Ann Bla nche Smith E.S
1000 Hillsdale Ave.
Hillsdale, N.J. 07642 grace_1335_at_yahoo.com , ilto goliff@hillsdaleschools.com 
Library We b Page- http://home.earth li nk.net/~david916 
Part time Lecturer, Children's and Young Adult Lite 
rature
Rutgers SCILS
William Paterson University
_____
_______________________________
From: Ruth I. Gordon
il Druthgo_at_sonic.net 
To: CCBC Net ccbc-net_at_ccbc.education.wisc .e du 
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 5:46 PM
Subject: 
 How much...?
Concerning Claudia Pearson's note about truth-telling and
the Holocaust; I remind readers of Jane Yolen's book of several years ago in which the girl wakes up from a Holocaust "dream"
experience . So...none of it happened-right? Unfair and
untruthful and a mean trick .
Ms Yolen should have known very well that people did
not wake u p from the Nazi experience. And her editor_, publisher and
reviewers sho uld also have realized it.
Ruth Gordon, MLS, Ph.D. Sonoma Valley, CA 
(Big Grandma)
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Received on Mon 21 Nov 2011 11:18:16 AM CST