Book Lists

Holocaust Remembrance – Book List

By on April 22, 2013   /   Book Lists  

Hello Mixed-Up Filers!

Can it really be only five months since I last posted? Wow, time sure does fly! I admit, that it’s sometimes tough trying to keep up with this grueling every five-month schedule they have me on, but that’s why I get paid the big bucks, I guess.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, when I was debating what to write about for my Mixed-Up Files piece, I realized, that it also just so happened to be Holocaust Remembrance Day as well. I thought that would be a perfect thing to write about.

Why? And why write about it on a site dedicated to Middle-Grade books.

I know the usual reason given, is that we should familiarize ourselves with the events that happened in the past, so that they aren’t repeated again and that is very true. But, ethnic cleansing has happened again. In some places in the world it’s still happening. But, that’s too general an idea. The reason I decided to write about it today, is because I believe it is important to see what happens when hatred manifests itself. There is hatred around the world today, and it is too easy to make disparaging remarks about people. Or particular groups of people. When it becomes easy to make remarks of hatred or stereotypes against a group of people, then the next step after that becomes easier as well.

In Nazi Germany, this became the norm. Ugly stereotypes were pushed by the government. One of the first times an entire country’s government made discrimination legal, with stating publicly how one group of people was to be considered inferior to everyone else. Where the government committed itself to eradicating the existence of one group of people.

By making it a government-backed doctrine, it became easier for the citizens of the nation to accept. There is a thought-process of, ‘Hey, if our government is telling us that these people are evil and inferior, then they must be’.

That is the danger of discrimination and allowing these types of things to happen. Yes, Nazi Germany was an extreme form of this, but it is what happens when people stay silent and make no attempt to stop discrimination or prejudice.

Today, people make little remarks about people, thinking that they’re being funny or harmless or not thinking anything about it at all. But making any remarks are offensive and once again, makes it easier to stereotype a people. I, personally, get offended every single time I hear somebody make a remark about Jews and money. Whether it is things like saying that Jews know how to get good bargains, or hearing people make comments about being cheap. For example, I am involved on the board of my daughters’ softball league, and sat in on meetings, where on two different occasions, somebody mentioned that we have to “Jew” somebody down in order to get a better price. Well, I after recovering from being stunned, I stopped that really fast, but it’s not the point that it was stopped, but the point that it was said in the first place. People who I’ve told the story to, say that they can’t believe that was said in front of me. Well, once again, not the point. Point was, that this is what they felt inside. This was part of their belief system.

Again, these remarks are meant to be funny or just taken as matter of fact, but what they actually do is reinforce negative stereotypes and make it easier for the next step. For the next thing. A negative comment is just that. It’s like making the comment, “That’s so gay.” Well, substitute ‘gay’ for any other group and they wouldn’t like it at all. It has a negative connotation to it. And I don’t care if the person making the remarks belongs to that particular group. They say, “It’s okay, I’m________.” A negative remark is just that and it doesn’t matter who says it. And here’s what they don’t realize, if you in a particular group make negative comments about your own group, then other people think, ‘Well, if they’re saying it, then it must be true’.

Have respect for yourself. For your people. Your ethnicity. Your sexual orientation. Don’t make it acceptable for others to say.

I know, who cares what I have to say? I’m not anybody. I have maybe four people read my column here, one of whom may or may not be my mother, but as I say every time I write, it’s my column and I can write what I want to. So now, after getting all preachy, and getting back to why I started this post to begin with, I’d like to mention some books that deal with the subject of the Holocaust.

First off, there is absolutely no discussion about this topic without including Night by Elie Wiesel. I have read this book, I don’t know how many times. I read it on my own as a kid. Reread it again as a teen and now teach it in school. And I have to say that this book gets to me every single time. The book chronicles Elie’s experiences going through the death camp at Auschwitz with his father. From the time he is callously separated from his mother and sister for the last time without any “goodbye” to those last moments with his father, I am choking up all the time. The part with his father really, really works me over. See, my father has cancer. Thankfully, he is doing okay now, but reading the part where Elie loses his own father, destroys me. There have been times where I had been reading with my high-school class, and I struggle to hold back the tears. Really. (Can you imagine being a teacher and crying in front of a bunch of high-schoolers??) Anyway, this book shows the terror and cruelty endured by these families under Nazi barbarity. Any Holocaust reading has to include this book.

1

Another book that most kids read is The Diary of Anne Frank. It was kept by Anne Frank during her time in hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam, giving powerful insight into what it was like, living in cramped quarters with other people, always scared for your lives. This book was fascinating since it kept track of the day-to-day activities of a young girl, who was roughly the same age as the kids who are reading her diary now. That enables them to perhaps identify with her a little bit more. This book also gets to me, and to be honest, I guess all Holocaust books do, but this gets to me because you go in knowing that she is ultimately captured and dies. But, the power of a book is such, that you read anyway and even though you know, you find yourself hoping against hope that she will make it through alive.

2

Another, I highly recommend is Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegeman. This book is done in comic book format and represents Jews as mice and the Germans as cats. It can be very disturbing at times, but it is a very well done depiction of life then.

3

A couple that my children liked, were The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen and Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. Devil’s Arithmetic, is about a girl who travels back to the past and experiences what her family went through in a concentration camp. Number the Stars, is about a young non-Jewish girl named Annemarie, who helps her Jewish friend, Ellen, try to escape by having Ellen pose as her sister. My children really enjoyed both these books.

4 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last book I want to write about for now, is The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne. This also tells the story of the Holocaust through the eyes of a non-Jewish child, this time, a boy named Bruno. However, this time, the boy is the son of a Commandant of Auschwitz. Bruno visits the camp every day, but not inside. From outside, he befriends a Jewish boy named Shmuel. I know that the book is far-fetched and I don’t think it in any way could’ve happened. Most likely, Shmuel would’ve been killed right away since he was too young to work, but still, the book provides a very powerful ending, leaving readers haunted long after.

6

There are many more, of course, but these are just a few that I would start with. It is definitely a subject that is worth exploring and important to know.

And most of all, to remember.

Jonathan Rosen is a high school English teacher, living in South Florida. He writes middle-grade geared toward boys, because he finds they share the same sensibilities and sense of humor. Jonathan has lived all over the world and is hoping to eventually find a place that will let him stay.

Back to Top

A Tribute to E.L. Konigsburg

By on April 21, 2013   /   Book Lists  

All of us at the Mixed-Up Files were saddened to learn of the passing of the author who inspired the name of our group blog, E.L. Konigsburg. The esteemed author died on April 19 at age 83.

konigsburg 1

Konigsburg was a two-time winner of the Newbery Medal, for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler in 1968, and for The View from Saturday in 1997. She was the only writer to have received both the Newbery Medal and a Newbery Honor in the same year.

She was born Elaine Lobl in New York City, the middle of three daughters. She grew up in Western Pennsylvania, then bucked the trends for women at the time she entered college by pursuing a major in chemistry at what is now Carnegie Mellon University. She continued her studies in graduate school, taught science at a private girls’ school, married David Konigsburg, and had three children. As her children began school, Konigsburg rekindled a childhood passion for painting and writing. Her desire to write something that reflected her own children’s growing up experiences, rather than the privileged lives of many characters in the books she had read, is the spark for many of her works.

Why did she choose to use E.L.? She didn’t think it was important for readers to know if she was a man or woman. And, Konigsburg was a great admirer of E.B. White, so she thought it would bring her luck to submit her first manuscript as E.L.

The Mixed-Up Files is perhaps Konigsburg’s best known book. The brilliantly quirky mystery features a spunky brother and sister who run away and hide in New York’s Metropolitan Museum. But during her lifetime, she authored 20 titles for children. Her most recent book was The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World (Atheneum, 2007).

Many of her main characters are age 12. She once explained that this is the age when kids long to be like everyone else, but at the same time, want to establish their own identity. This makes for a compelling question: how does a character reconcile those opposing longings?

And that’s the heart of E.L.’s characters — and her novels — those inner questions every child grapples with as he or she grows up.

Thank you, E.L., for writing such timeless, engaging stories. We will miss you, but know that many generations of children will continue to enjoy your books.

 

 

Back to Top

Cuckoo for Canary in the Coal Mine!

By on April 18, 2013   /   Book Lists  

canarycover

Canary in the Coal Mine is Madelyn Rosenberg’s debut middle-grade novel, joining two picture books released in the fall of 2012. Bitty is a coal mine canary in Depression-era West Virginia, who becomes determined to forge a better life for himself and those around him. Fans of Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web will love this fully-imagined and adventuresome world, complete with a multi-lingual mouse and a fearsome hawk named Cipher. Madelyn was kind enough to join us on the Files; read on to find out how to win a copy of the book Kirkus called “charming and inventive.” (Note: This post first appeared on April 4th; due to website issues, we are re-posting and extending the contest to April 25th.)

This book was your first full manuscript. What idea inspired you to create this story?

I wrote my first draft more than a decade ago after a concert in Charleston, W.Va. The lobby of the cultural center had a miner’s canary cage on display. It was much smaller than I had imagined, and the characters and the plot flashed before my eyes, the only time that’s ever happened to me. It took forever to get it right, though.

madclose1-300x229
Your book is full of rigorous details concerning West Virginia in the early 20th century. Can you talk a little bit about your research process? What are the details that you are most proud of uncovering?

Ugh. I think I did both too much and too little research for this book. I started by interviewing miners and mining professors — a man at Virginia Tech who’d worked with canaries in the UK was a huge help. Then, years later when the story became viable, I had to redo a lot of my research. I read oral histories about mining and the depression and spent some time in the patent office, looking at the different incarnations of gas detection devices. I listened to music, read old newspapers and took field trips to West Virginia (if you’re ever in Scarbro, visit the Whipple Company Store). My favorite piece of research material was probably a scientific paper that I got through a librarian for the Department of Labor. It was dated 1930 and entitled: The Response of Japanese Waltzing Mice and Canaries to Carbon Monoxide and to Atmospheres Deficient in Oxygen. The librarian also sent me mining accident reports. I researched bridges, fires and the flight patterns of certain birds. And then, you know, I made a bunch of stuff up.

Have you ever gone into an actual mine?

I haven’t been in a working coal mine, though I’ve stood outside of them. I went to the exhibition coal mine in Beckley, W.Va. a few times. My stepdad’s grandfather owned a mine not far from where I grew up, in Blacksburg, Va. I had my stepdad take me to where the mine used to be, but there’s nothing left except stories.

Canary in the Coal Mine has that very controversial children’s book character – the talking animal. Did you know about this when you first started writing the book? Do you think talking animals are making a comeback in middle-grade, a la Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web?

When I started writing this manuscript lo these many years ago, I didn’t know that talking animals were taboo. Even if I had known, though, I would have written this story. I grew up with talking animal books – favorites include the books you mentioned, plus Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, The Cricket in Times Square and The Mouse and the Motorcycle. I LOVED those books. I still do. You can point to strong talking animal books that come out every year – W.H. Beck’s Malcolm at Midnight, for instance, or Elise Broach’s Masterpiece (though that was actually a beetle). They’ll probably always be a hard sell, but The One and Only Ivan’s recent Newbery win goes a long way toward vindicating them. If any book can lead a comeback charge, it’s that one.

Ivan
One thing I love about Canary in the Coal Mine is that you wrote a childhood rhyme, which creates a rich background for the canaries and also tells a little about their life. Can you talk a little about that inspiration?

Ring-Around-the-Rosie has fascinated me ever since I learned in school that it was often connected to The Plague. I wanted to come up with a rhyme like that – something that was fun to say, but also haunting and rooted in fear.

In addition to being a children’s book author, you are a journalist. What journalism skills have helped you the most as an author?

I think I’ve developed a pretty good ear for listening to how people talk. I’m also fast, at least with the first draft, and I’m good with deadlines (and can’t write without them). Journalism has also taught me to pick and choose details, and it’s made me favor first-hand sources. Newspapers themselves are my go-to source for historical research. They have ads, prices, news, photos and flavor and they serve as a community time capsule.

Do you believe in rules for writing? What is your favorite rule to follow (or break)? What is your favorite piece of writing advice?

I’m sure I believe in some rules, but my favorite is probably: rules are made to be broken. My favorite piece of writing advice came from you: it doesn’t have to be probable; it just has to be possible.

What are your earliest memories of reading MG? What kind of reader were you?

I was an under-the-covers-with-a-flashlight reader. Sometimes I read in the dark; with the hall light on, I could just make out the words. I would read my books over and over. Even today, I can be perfectly happy pulling a favorite book off the shelf and starting in the middle.

What does MG mean to you?

In real life, when you’re in those middle grades, I feel like you’re in the middle of everything: feelings, growing, school, family, the city, the woods. In books, I feel like you’re in the middle of a new world – or perhaps an old one – that an author built just for you.

Thanks, Madelyn! Comment below with your favorite type of bird for a chance to win a copy of The Canary in the Coal Mine. There’s also a wonderful activity guide with links to the Common Core Standards.

Back to Top