Talking to RT and Library Journal about That Book

I was going to post this a few days ago, but didn't have time and then Bethany House came out with their gross statement and I decided to save this post for today, so we can end the week on a high note!

When I contacted Bethany House and RWA, I did not contact RT* or Library Journal, even though the book was very favorably reviewed in both places (it was a Top Pick for RT and it got a coveted star from LJ). Not because I didn't want to, but unlike Bethany House and RWA, I have bridges to burn at RT and LJ. (So, full disclosure, I review both for RT and for LJ's sister publication, School Library Journal.) I reached out to people I know and trust at both organizations to seek advice on how best to handle the situation (Should I email the editor-in-chief? The reviews editor? My editor and have her pass it on? etc.)

I got a lot of support and advice, and sat down to craft my emails.  Within an hour of contacting Library Journal I had a response that the person I contacted takes the matter seriously, but key people to the conversation are out of the office, so they need to wait. Totally valid and I look forward to seeing what happens.

While I was still crafting my email to RT, my former editor forwarded me an email that had been sent out to their reviewers who cover Inspirational Romance. It is not an official response from RT, but does show they take the issue seriously and is an example of what you SHOULD do in this situation. With permission, I'm posting it here:

Hi inspirational reviewers,

I wanted to reach out to you because of a 2014 inspirational romance that's been getting a lot of attention. You might've heard, but For Such a Time by Kate Breslin was nominated for two RITA awards and received rave reviews from Library Journal — and from us.

For Such a Time's critical acclaim has been a source of great pain for many in the romance community. For those of you who don't know, the central plot involves a blonde, blue-eyed Jewish woman who falls in love with a Nazi commandant who is in charge of a concentration camp. The heroine's appearance allows her to conceal her ancestry and grow close to the SS officer.

This is problematic on many levels. That the heroine's non-"Jewish" appearance saves her is deeply troubling: it essentially — and somewhat insidiously — valorizes not looking "Jewish" without examining the anti-Semitism inherent in that assessment.

But the most painful: For Such a Time casts a Nazi officer — who's presumably overseen the systematic murder of a number of Jews — as a romantic hero. Even viewing this in the most generous light, granting such a character redemption and a happily-ever-after is — at best — hugely insensitive. This book is set against the monstrous historical backdrop of so many lives being brutally extinguished. We're talking about a time when Jews were fleeing their homes in terror, families were separated, children were murdered and buried in mass graves. Let that sink in for a second.

One of the most moving and wrenching moments of my life was when I went to the Josefov, the historically Jewish district in Prague. In the Pinkasova synagogue, there's an exhibit dedicated to children's drawings from Terezin. Terezin was a camp in the Czech Republic where Jews were held before being sent to their deaths at Auschwitz and Treblinka. The children there, mostly orphans, were given art lessons — they drew their homes, they drew what they imagined Israel to be like, they drew what they saw in their dreams. As you might expect, none of those children ever made it home.

When an author chooses to set a story during World War II, right in the thick of one of the most soul-crushing examples of genocide in human history, she takes on a huge responsibility. As does the publisher who sells and distributes her book. As do the people who read and review it. The reason I'm addressing this with you all is that I believe there is a certain lacuna in the publishing industry, particularly in the inspirational/Christian market. I don't say this pejoratively, but merely as a statement of fact: the Christian fiction market is narrow and insular. Because it is written almost exclusively by and for Christians, it's born out of an inherently limited perspective — one that isn't as finely attuned to the struggles of non-Christians as it could or should be.

It raises the question: What can we, as staff of this magazine, do? What can we offer? Empathy. Sensitivity. A conscious effort to broaden our own perspectives.

We gave For Such a Time a Top Pick review, which can't be undone. I'm not here to censor or wrist-slap your ratings and reviews. But I am asking you to strive for a greater awareness when you read and review, especially where it concerns Christian handling of non-Christian religions, history and identity.

To that end, when you have time, here are two posts about For Such a Time and RWA's decision to honor it, from Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches and from our own reviewer, Jennifer Rothschild, both of whom are Jewish:

http://sarahwendell.tumblr.com/post/125859299894/letter-to-the-rwa-board-regarding-for-such-a-time
http://www.jenrothschild.com/2015/08/an-open-letter-to-bethany-house-and-rwa.html

It would mean a lot to me if you would read both.

Thanks for your time.

See everyone? That's how you do it! You look at the issue head on and confront it. You don't dismiss the people hurt, you listen to them, and you take steps to do better next time.

Easier said than done, but it makes such a difference.

Such a difference.

It's amazing how a little bit of real compassion and respect can do.

*For those following this story who aren't part of Romancelandia, RT is a big romance magazine (it used to be called Romantic Times) We're not talking about Russian State Media.


Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Bethany House and Kate Breslin Respond to That Book

Yes, I'm still talking about this. It still needs to be talked about. Yesterday, a Jewish community in San Antonio woke up to find their cars and homes had been covered with Anti-Semitic graffiti.

Yesterday, Bethany House responded to the criticism in the most tone-deaf statement ever. I'm going to copy the whole thing here so you don't have to click over:

Bethany House Publishers is saddened by the offense some have taken at the novel For Such a Time by Kate Breslin. We respect and honor the Jewish faith, and this novel, inspired by the redemptive theme of the biblical book of Esther, was intended to draw on our common faith heritage.

Breslin reframes the Esther story in a Nazi transit camp during the Holocaust and portrays a courageous Jewish woman who by God's strength saved fellow Jews from death, and in so doing awakened the conscience of a man thought to be beyond redemption. She wrote this carefully researched story with respect for the Jewish people and their history. It was neither the author nor publisher's wish to offend, but rather to depict how one person can choose to put the lives of others ahead of her own and shine God's light into darkness.

For Such a Time has garnered favorable reviews from readers in many markets. The book was a finalist for several literary awards including two in the Romance Writers of America RITA® awards for "best first book" and "inspirational romance" categories.

Bethany House Publishers supports Kate Breslin and her writing. We have heard from many readers who are moved by this portrayal of courage, and we hope it continues to provide inspiration to others in the spirit of the author's intent.

Jim Parrish
Executive VP and Director
Bethany House Publishers
Division of Baker Publishing Group

They are saddened that people fighting for the right to safely worship recognized their book as part of the problem. They're not sorry about anything. They're just really sad. Our hurt and anger hurt their feelings. Our feelings don't matter, just theirs.

Because, they respect and honor the Jewish faith! (Just not actual Jewish people). Breslin did not write this book with respect for the Jewish people and their history. You do not respect a history by changing it. You do not respect a history by repeating the lie that blond hair and blue eyes would save you from the Holocaust. You do not respect the Jewish people when you have your character convert to Christianity. You do not respect the Jewish people when you use them and their history as props and plot points for your religious message. Because that's what Breslin respected with her book, her own religious world view. Not that of the Jewish faith.

I get that the author and publisher didn't mean to offend, BUT THEY DID. And they need to address that.

And hey, remember RWA's non-response? The problem with it being a Finalist that they just didn't address? Bethany House is using that as a shield. (RWA likes us, why don't the Jews?) Who could have seen that one coming? (Oh wait, everyone. Everyone saw that coming.)

For an article in Newsweek (don't read that article. It's bad.) Breslin provided a statement:

I have previously stated in posts and interviews on social media that my inspiration for For Such A Time was borne from a compassion for the Jewish people, as in reading from the Book of Esther I realized how they have suffered at the hands of one society or another throughout history. It was my intent to write a book that told a more modern-day story of a courageous Jewish woman who, through strength and faith in her God, used her situation to try to save some of her beloved people—much in the way Esther saved hers. And like that Biblical queen’s influence with King Xerxes, through her brave and sacrificial actions, she helped to bring one man to a sense of conscience, prompting him to join in the attempt to save her people. I am heartsick and so very sorry that my book has caused any offense to the Jewish people, for whom I have the greatest love and respect.

She doesn't get it. She really doesn't get it, but you know what? She says she's sorry her words caused offense. She has great love and respect for the Jewish people. And compassion. Which is why she thinks "Jewess" is a good word to use. It's why she thinks images of Auschwitz with a Mother Theresa quotation are a great way to market her book about Theresienstadt .

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." - Blessed Mother Theresa pic.twitter.com/3Gd7AfJYjB

— Kate Breslin (@Kate_Breslin) March 7, 2015

She also co-opts Purim for her marketing, because COMPASSION AND LOVE AND RESPECT

Purim until sundown. Remembering Queen Esther from the Bible, and her triumph over evil! #ForSuchATime pic.twitter.com/6USmyXZ3yk

— Kate Breslin (@Kate_Breslin) March 5, 2015

(if she ever takes those tweets down, screen grabs here)

But then again, she thought Holocaust Remembrance Day was a GREAT time to promote her book that redeems Nazis.

Feel the respect and love? I don't. I feel used and co-opted for her message. There is no respect here.

(But according to Anne Rice, I'm not allowed to voice my concerns about this, because that's the same as murdering someone for fun and spectacle.)

The take away from all this? When it comes to the Holocaust and Anti-Semitism, the Jews need to sit down and be quiet. The Christians are talking now.

So yes, I am still talking about this, and I will keep talking about this as long as I have to.

(But hey, I also have some positive response news to share. I didn't want to lump it in with these garbage responses, so I'm saving it for tomorrow. Stay tuned!)

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

RWA response to That Book

In my post on Wednesday I wrote I haven't had to explain to her (yet) why our Temple has a perimeter of ugly concrete planters, because if you put flowers in it, maybe we can glide over the fact that our house of worship needs protection against car bombs.

She asked this morning when I was dropping her off at school (her preschool meets at our Temple.) And yes, because we put flowers in them, I could glide over the fact they're there to protect against car bombs. I told her they were planters for flowers, for decoration, to make things pretty. I dodged the question. Maybe I shouldn't have, maybe I should have tried to put a positive spin on them and said they're REALLY COOL because we can put flowers in them AND they protect us. They're pretty AND strong! And put it in a way she could understand, but after this week and the conversations online about this book and all the greater issues it raises and brings up, I'm just tired and sad and hurt. So I told her they were planters for flowers, for decoration, to make things pretty.

And when I got home, I saw that RWA put out an official response. I'm going to quote the entire thing here:

The Board of Directors of the Romance Writers of America (RWA) has received a great deal of heartfelt and moving feedback about some of the finalists in this year's RITA contest. We want the membership to know we have heard your concerns and have spent days discussing them.

The question that we must answer is what RWA as a writers' organization should do when issues arise regarding the content of books entered in the RITA contest. Discussions about content restrictions inevitably lead to concerns about censorship. Censoring entry content is not something the Board supports. If a book is banned from the contest because of its content, there will be a move for more content to be banned. This is true, even especially true, when a book addresses subjects that are difficult, complex, or offensive.

There were 2,000 entries in the RITA contest this year. The RITA is a peer-reviewed award. There is no vetting of content before a book may be entered. Books are entered, not nominated, and those books are judged by fellow romance authors. The Board believes this is how the contest should be run. RWA does not endorse the content of any book entered in the contest. We do believe, however, that education and conversation are important in dealing with the concerns expressed. To that end, we will open an online forum on the RWA website for members to discuss their concerns. This is not a perfect solution, but we believe open dialogue, not the censorship of content, is the right way to handle the issues expressed.

They missed the point entirely.

Because here's the thing: there are already a lot of guidelines and content restrictions surrounding what is eligible to be entered. For instance, the book has to be a romance, and they define what that is. (And let's not forget, the set-up of this book is not a romance. The set-up of this book is a major imbalance in power dynamic [honestly, I can't think of a larger one right now] leading to Stockholm Syndrome disguised as a romance. If they had sexual contact, it would be straight-up rape.)

Guidelines aren't censorship. (And let's be really careful using the word censorship when we're talking about the Holocaust, ok?)

Mostly, this statement utterly fails to address the fundamental problem. RWA does not endorse the content of any book entered in the contest. The problem wasn't that the book was entered. I've been on several award committees--bad stuff gets nominated and entered all the time. That's why there's a process between entry and winner. The board believes in the process, but that process completely failed this time. Because the problem was never that the book was entered. The problem is that it was a FINALIST. Being a finalist is a big deal. "RITA FINALIST" becomes part of an author bio and book marketing. It's a big deal. RWA endorses its finalists. If it didn't, the RITA would become a meaningless award.

But we should all feel great, because RWA is going to have a new forum on its (member-only) website where the echo chamber that created this debacle can talk about it. I'm sure the people who were betrayed and now feel unsafe by this book being a finalist and this non-response will feel super-duper comfortable participating in this forum.

I've gotten a lot of support these past few days. So many people have shared my post and reached out to me. I haven't heard anything from Bethany House, but four members of the RWA board wrote back in a personal capacity, and at least one more shared my post on Twitter. I've dodged a lot of the hate that others have gotten. There was deafening silence from some quarters, but it's the same places that are usually quiet when Jewish issues come up, until they're called out on it. I had hoped they wouldn't ignore something this egregious, but wasn't surprised when they did. But I also found some really strong allies, and greatly expanded my "Jewish twitter" circle.

In response to Wednesday's post, many Jews nodded and said "yep" and many non-Jews went "wait, what? really?" at my experiences. It's one of the reasons I shared, because I think it's often hidden. As Katherine Locke said in her post,

It is not easy to be Jewish in America. Many think it is because of stereotypes, but when push comes to shove, especially online, we turn toward our own and huddle close. It’s a collective memory safety measure.

It's also one of the reasons why I've started Instagramming our Shabbat candles.

I'm Jewish by Choice, which means I converted 4 years ago, after going before the Bet Din, after years of studying and classes, after a decade of soul searching. I made a conscious decision to be Jewish and I love it.

This morning, after I dodged the planter question, before I saw the RWA response, I celebrated Shabbat with my daughter's preschool. We said our blessings and thanked G-d for all we have. We sang joyful songs. It was adorable (because, preschool) and wonderful.

Shabbat Shalom.

Bim bom, bim bim bim bom, bim bim bim bim bim bom.

An Open Letter to Bethany House and RWA

Yesterday, Sarah Wendell (from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books) posted the text of a letter she sent to RWA about For Such A Time, an inspirational romance that retells the story of Esther by setting it in a concentration camp between a Jewish prisoner and the Commander of Theresienstadt Concentration Camp. She felt compelled to talk to RWA about this because it was nominated for a RITA award (one of the biggest, if not THE biggest awards for romance books) in two categories. (Best First Book and Inspirational Romance)

Rose Lerner gathered some 5-star reviews of the book. While I was writing this post, Katherine Locke wrote a powerful response. And parts of twitter retweeted and raged together about this. But only parts. It was telling to see who didn't acknowledge the conversation. It was heart-breaking to see who didn't. It wasn't surprising to see who didn't. Very little about this whole thing has surprised me.

I have been saddened by this whole thing since I first became aware of the book, the day Smart Bitches posted their review at the end of June. (Unlike many other reviews, this is one that won't make you weep for humanity.)

But yesterday I became angry. I needed to do more than tweet about it. Which Jeanne then reminded me of.

You want real change in this industry. Make it happen. Don't tweet into the ether. Hold them responsible for their thoughtless actions!

— Jeanne (@fangirlJeanne) August 5, 2015

So, I wrote a letter to RWA and Bethany House and am sharing a version of it here (I tailored each letter to be a more organization specific)

The morning of the RITA awards, I took my daughter to celebrate Shabbat and she finally noticed that there is a police car and a police presence at our Temple during services. My daughter just turned four and I had to explain to her why, in a way that wouldn't freak her out, we needed police protection to go to services in 2015, just outside of Washington DC. I had to explain this in a way that wouldn't make her scared of going to a house of worship that she adores, in a way that didn't make her fearful because of her faith. I had to explain why our place of worship needs police protection every week. This is not a temporary thing. This is just our reality. One day she'll realize this is not the reality for her non-Jewish friends.

I haven't had to explain to her (yet) why our Temple has a perimeter of ugly concrete planters, because if you put flowers in it, maybe we can glide over the fact that our house of worship needs protection against car bombs. One day I'll tell her about other Temples and congregations I've worshiped with, about the times I've gotten my bags searched to be allowed into a building to worship, about the lectures we used to get from the bimah at the start of High Holiday services about suspicious packages and evacuation routes (because we may be there to celebrate a new year and to atone for our sins, but first we must deal with the mundane matters that our faith makes us targets of mass murder. Repeatedly. In the US. In 2015.) My daughter likes seeing the doggies at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. She doesn't know they're a bomb-sniffing K9 unit.

The day after the RITAs, Mike Huckabee claimed that Obama was leading the Israelis to the doors of the ovens, because in current rhetoric everything from a nuclear deal with Iran to universal health care (both sides of that debate are guilty here) is the same as the systematic rounding up and murder of ethnic groups (not just Jews) across a continent and beyond* in order to eradicate their cultures and faiths from the world.

My Christian coworkers feel comfortable wearing a cross necklace. I do not wear a Star of David and I hide my last name when dealing with the public at work. I have been ranted at too many times with ideas from the Protocols of Zion, been given too much literature, too many lectures to try to bring me to Jesus, when I'm just trying to do my job. A job where I have to use vacation days to get off major holidays, vacation days a former employer used to deny because the other Jewish person I worked with had seniority.

This is modern Anti-Semitism, the micro-and-macro aggressions of daily life that come with being Jewish in the US in 2015.

This is the culture where it's seen as perfectly acceptable to publish a book like For Such A Time, and to then nominate it for a prize like the RITAs (in multiple categories!). This is a culture where we can have a book about how a Jew and a Nazi Kommandant can find true love through Jesus because she doesn't look Jewish. This is a culture where such a story may disgust me, but it doesn't surprise me in the least. Of course Nazis** are redeemable and of course beautiful Jewish heroines don't look Jewish.

And of course, a happy ending is one with a conversion. I understand that for a Christian publisher, a happy ending involves finding Jesus. But, wanting Jewish people to find Jesus led to the Spanish Inquisition. It was an unsuccessful way for people to try to survive the Holocaust. But it's not just history. Even today, I deal with too many people that think the way for a Jew to find happiness is a renunciation of faith in order to turn to Jesus. They come to my door and interrupt me at home. They come into my work. They leave literature on my car.

And they scare me, because that version of Happily-Ever-After means a world where everyone has converted to Christianity. That version of Happily-Ever-After means a world with no more Jews. It's not physically violent, but it's still terrifying. It's not inspirational.

For Such A Time may be a product of such a culture, but it also legitimizes this hate and fear. And in publishing it and honoring it, Bethany House and RWA have legitimized it as well.

This past weekend, I had to start to explain the Holocaust to my daughter. It is the story of the murder of her family, it is the story of how they immigrated to this country, it is the story of the people whose name she now carries. It is not a story where a Jewish prisoner falls in love with a Nazi and finds Jesus.

It's heart-breaking that your organizations created and honored a book that contributes to such thinking. Not only did Bethany House and RWA not see a problem here, you thought it was something worth celebrating, something to recommend, something everyone should read.

It's heart-breaking, but it's not surprising. Anti-Semitism doesn't surprise me anymore. But it also sure as hell doesn't "inspire" me either.

I hope you seriously take the everyday suffering of Jewish people into account the next time you consider publishing a manuscript or honoring a book that uses us as props for your message.




*They pressured the Japanese to have plans to exterminate the Jewish refugees living in Shanghai.

**Yes, many Germans were forced to join the German army whether they believed or not, but that's not who the "hero" of this story is. The "hero" is in charge of a concentration camp. He would have to be a member of the SS--the most loyal and fanatic.

EDITED at 5pm, August 5th: Fixed some typos.

Also, I have had two RWA board members respond to me in a personal capacity, and at least one retweet the link to this post to share it. I do feel heard by the RWA board and hold out hope we'll get an official response at some point. There has been nothing from Bethany House.

EDITED at 1:30pm, August 8: reworded the footnote about Japan to make it clearer. I've also posted an update here. 

Poetry Friday: Tropical Secrets

Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba Margarita Engle

Islands belong to the sea,
not the earch.

All around me
the world is blue.

Above, more blue,
like a hot, melting star.

Music is the only part
of Cuba's heated air

that feels like something
I can breathe.

Regular readers know I am a huge fan of Margarita Engle's verse novels. Each one deals with some aspect of Cuban history and is told in multiple voices. In this one, the main voice is Daniel, a Jewish teenager from Berlin, whose parents could only afford to get one person out, him. They said they'd meet him in New York, but his ship wasn't allowed to land in New York and ended up in Havanna. Paloma is a Cuban girl who helps the Quakers with the refugees. Her mother ran off to Paris with another man, her father charges huge fees and bribes for entry visas and then sometimes rejects the ship anyway. Her father has a few poems, too. The last voice is David, an old Ukranian Jew who fled to Cuba decades before.

It's the story of David trying to come to grips with life on a tropical island, his hope that he'll see his parents again, his growing knowledge that he probably won't. It's the story of Paloma coming to terms with the sins of her father. It's the story of their friendship.

It's a slight book, both in page count and also because of the verse format, but instead of leaving holes in the story, it makes it uncluttered and it never feels like there's too much going on. We just get brief glimpses into the lives of these people as they try to make sense of a world gone crazy. Engle's poetry really shines when describing Cuba-- how it feels, how it sounds, what it looks like. It helps make Daniel's initial disorientation all the more real, but we also see how he falls in love with the island.

It's also different than many of the WWII/Holocaust books out there. This is the first time I've read about the Jewish refugees in Cuba and it's not a part of the diaspora that is well covered, even in Jewish circles.

It's more personal and less sweeping than some of her other books and I recommend it.

Today's Poetry Friday round up is over at Random Noodling. Be sure to check it out!

Book Provided by... my local library

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A Faraway Island

A Faraway Island Annika Thor, translated from the Swedish by Linda Schenck

After Kristellnacht, Stephie and her sister Nellie are one of 500 Jewish children that the Swedish government allows in to live with Swedish families. They're placed on a small island off the coast in a fishing village-- a far cry from their life in Vienna with their doctor father and former opera singer mother. Even worse, they're not put with different families. Nellie soon takes to life with Auntie Alma and her three young children, but Stephie has a harder time with Aunt Marta, who seems cold and distant. Nellie is instantly popular in school, but Stephie's only friend is from the Pentacostal church she's forced to attend with Aunt Marta and the Queen Bee has a special dislike of her. But it's only for 6 months. Then her parents will get visas and they'll all live together again, this time in America.

There are a million things to love about this novel. I liked that even though Stephie struggled, she wasn't a brat. After what she had lived through in Vienna, she knows she's lucky to be there and she's very open-minded about the cultural shift. Even when she's miserable and wants to go home, she doesn't let Aunt Marta know. I'd be interested to see how children view Marta versus adult readers. Stephie thinks she's mean and doesn't like her. As an adult reader, I think Marta's just reserved and doesn't have a clear idea of how to relate to a 12-year-old girl or understand what's important to them (I think this is most evidenced in the incident with the bathing suit and the Saint Lucia dress.) I like that a lot of the treatment that Stephie and Nellie receive, especially at the hand so of the Refugee Committee isn't great, but isn't demonized. It is what it is. This could easily have been a fictional misery memoir. It's not a rosy situation, but Thor does a good job of showing the good and the bad so it ends up somewhere between. A lot of this is due to Stephie's inner strength and drive.

I was also really intrigued by the religious issue. Stephie and Nellie are (obviously) Jewish. Marta and Alma are Pentacostal and some of the more religious people on the island. No secular music, rather strict keeping of the Sabbath. Stephie's not a huge fan, but doesn't protest. Her only real complaint is the picture of Jesus in her bedroom. But early on, when the girls go to church with their foster families, the sisters find the choir music so beautiful they start crying. Marta and Alma thinks they've found Jesus and in a giant misunderstanding of practice and language, the sisters find themselves Christian by the end of the night. I found it interesting because Marta and Alma's actions aren't painted as cruel or mean, just a bit clueless. Stephie and Nellie don't protest because it seems easier to go with it and it's not like there's a temple on the island.

Besides, it's only for 6 months.

I also adored the author's note at the end. Not only did it give background to the Holocaust, growing up Jewish in Sweden, and the history of the 500 children that Sweden took in, but Thor explains some stylistic choices as well. One is that the book is in present tense (usually present tense takes a while for me to get into, but I frankly didn't notice until I read the note) because Thor "didn't want to tell Stephie's story as historical, but as a story in the here and now. Today, too, children and young people have to escape from their countries, leaving their families behind. And even today, the care we give to refugee children who arrive alone, in Sweden and other wealth nations is not what it ought to be." Her other stylistic choice was third person narration that focuses on Stephie, because she feels that first person narration is best left to actual survivors.

This is the first in a quartet of books about Stephie and Nellie. The first two are currently available in English in the US. A Faraway Island won the Batchelder award for translation in 2010. The Lily Pond was an honor this year. I'm confident we'll see the next two books come out in the next few years. I can't wait.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Nonfiction Monday: Terezin: Voices from the Holocaust

Terezin: Voices from the Holocaust Ruth Thomson

The Terezin ghetto was a holding center for Jews on their way east to Auschwitz. Terezin remains a bit of a “special case” in the historical record of concentration camps. There was a propaganda workshop here and many of the slave artists stole supplies and created an alternate visual record of their reality. These works were hidden and survived the war. Terezin was also used for a propaganda film to show the world that it was a model village where the Jews lived normal lives.

Thomson lets the residents of Terezin tell their own tale. Each page spread has a different subject, in roughly chronological order. There is a paragraph or two of introduction, then quotations from the people who were there, as well as large illustrations-- either photographs or the surviving work of the artists.

The design is crisp and clean.

The problem in the this approach is that it ends up a bit detached. The lack of overall narrative and the brief introductions don’t provide enough context and, as with many remembrances of extremely traumatic events, the quotations tend to be factual and unemotional. As such, the book doesn’t give a true sense of the scope and the horror of what happened, or what was different about Terezin.

It needed more to put these voices into context.

Today's Nonfiction Monday round up is over at Ana's NonFiction Blog. Be sure to check it out!

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Do You Believe in Love?

It's a weird day. Taking a Monday off, especially when not everyone else at work does leaves me slightly off-balance for the rest of the week. But, Yom Kippur was good and a ton of kugel before Kol Niedre services meant I didn't almost pass out during day services, which is what usually happens. Also, I'm blessed to have an awesome group of friends here in DC to celebrate Jewish holidays with.

Meanwhile, I'm rocking out to the music we used to dance to in college, thanks to my friend (and physics partner extrodinaire) Kat.

Also, this weekend, I did a bunch of work on The Reading Challenge Clearinghouse. Most of it is stuff behind the scenes that will make things run much more smoothly for me, but in addition to the blog, you can follow the blog on Twitter @ReadChallenge and be our fan on Facebook. All the more ways to find out about reading challenges!

My favorite thing about the Reading Challenge project is a surprise benefit. I find out about reading challenges three ways---things I come across in my surfing, things people tell me about, but mainly through a few Google alerts I have set up. These Google Alerts have turned me on to so many new book blogs out there. I've discovered so many new blogs! It's great! And, it's something that never occurred to me when I was designing the project.

Also, I'm still looking for questions/topics that you would like a panel of bloggers to discuss at the KitLitCon next month!

And now, a book review of an extraordinary book that everyone should read:

Emil and Karl Yankev Glatshteyn

Vienna in the late 1930s. Karl's father is long dead and the story starts with the men coming to take away his mother. He runs to his friend's house. Emil is his best friend, but Jewish, so Karl hasn't been able to see him lately. Emil's father was taken away by the men, too. He was killed and the ashes returned. They've just had the funeral. In the morning, his mother has lost her mind, the rabbi takes her away.

Emil and Karl are orphans in a city gone mad, where no one knows who they can trust or what's going to happen next.

Most books about the Holocaust are about the tension, the waiting, the hardships. This is a horrific madhouse hallucination of a city turned on its head. It takes the same confusion and horror, but tells it in a way I've never read before in a holocaust story.

What's amazing about this book is that it's one of the first holocaust stories ever written, especially for kids. It was published in Yiddish in 1940, to let Jewish-American kids know what was happening to their European counterparts. In 2006, it became available in English for the first time. It is one of the most terrifying holocaust stories I've read, and not even the author knows what's going to happen next and how much worse things are about to get. It just boggles my mind.

The story of the book itself makes Emil and Karl important, but the unique take on a tragic event that has been extensively covered in children's literature makes it even more important.

Poetry Friday

Remembering Prague

How long has it already been
since last the sun was seen by me
behind the Petrinhill, dropping out of sight?
I kissed Prague with a teary glance when she
wrapped herself in the shadows of the night.

How long since in Vltava I could hear
the pleasant murmur of the weir?
Long ago the buzz of Wenceslas Square
was forgotten. When did is disappear?

How are those hidden corners of my city
in the shadow of the slaughterhouse? I fear
they are not sad, they don't miss me
as I miss them. It's been a year.

For a year I've been stuck in an ugly hole;
instead of your beauties, I've a few streets alone.
Like a wild animal trapped in a cage
I remember you, my Prague, a fairy tale of stone.

Petr Ginz 1928-1944

Taken from:

The Diary of Petr Ginz edited by Chava Pressburger, introduction by Jonathan Safran Foer, translated by Elena Lappin

Petr Ginz was born in Prague, in 1928, the oldest child of an Aryan mother and Jewish father. Being of the product of a mixed marriage, he was allowed to stay at home and not be called up for a transport to one of the concentration camps until he turned 14, which happened in 1942. Two years later, his sister Chava Pressburger (who edited this work) joined him Thesesienstadt, right before Petr's transport to Auschwitz, where he was gassed.

In 2003, Israli astronaut Ilan Ramon took one of Petr's paintings, Moon Landscape, with him into space. On February 1, 2003 (Petr's 75th birthday) the shuttle Columbia exploded.

After hearing the story, a homeowner in Prague realized that the hand-bound diaries he had found upon moving into the house must be those of Petr Ginz. His sister recognized them right away.

This book is those two diaries, spanning the years of 1941 and 1942, ending just a few months before Petr's transport. But it is more than that. It contains mainly of his drawings, paintings and linocuts, as well as poetry and some of his writings from Thesesienstadt. Pressburger has a long introduction giving much background to their family's life before, during, and after the war. Jonathan Safran Foer's introduction on the power and meaning of lanugage and words is moving and powerful.

Petr's diary is not the introspective writings of a captive Anne Frank. He is a boy full of life, documenting his day to day activities as life becomes ever more restricted. Many entries are similair to this complete one from November 25, 1941:

Morning at home, afternoon at school.

There are lists of birthday presents, and an ever-growing catalog of friends, neighbors and relatives being called up for transport. He writes news from the war, such as the March 8th entry from 1942 noting that The Japanese have seriously threatened Java. Or, a week later, on March 11th

In the morning at school; they counted 750 casualties in Paris and 1,400 injured.--In the afternoon outside.

It is the work of a boy going on being a boy in the midst of confusion and carnage. Most moving is his artwork, which shows great talent and promise.

As for age range, I usually just go with whatever my library has something catalogued as. They have this in the adult section, and think it's a great book for adults, but I would also recomend it to someone as young as 9 or 10. I think I would give them this one first before Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

Poetry Friday roundup is at Book Mine Set.

Re-reads of Childhood Favorites

Now Reading: An Abundance of Katherines

This summer, I reread some of the books I remember most fondly from my elementary school days. Luckily, most of them lived up to memories of their greatness.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle The classic adventure of what happens when three witches appear and tell Meg that they can help her find her missing father. Her younger brother Charles Wallace, and new friend Calvin come along as they travel through time on wrinkles in the space-time continuum. Still weird. Still brilliant. And still giving me hope that even unpopular, dorky girls like Meg can end up with someone like Calvin. When a literary crush lasts this long, you know it's forever.

Half Magic by Edward Eager In which we have four children during a boring summer who discover a magic coin that grants them wishes. Kinda. The coin's a little faulty, so it only grants half of your wish. The siblings each get to make a wish a day and go off on many adventures. It's a little dated in a way I didn't notice when I was young-- it seems very quaint. I now also know that it's heavily based on E. Nesbit's Five Children and It (to be fair, Eager gives Nesbit full credit and even makes her the favorite author of the children). That ruined it for me a little, but I still highly recommend to anyone who hasn't read it, especially if they're under 12.

The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen I have yet to see the Kirsten Dunst film version of this because I love this book so much that I would hate to see it differently than it is in my mind's eye. Hannah can't understand why her older relatives are so upset about a war that happened long ago. She's not keen on spending Passover with them. But, when she opens to the door to look for Elijah during Seder, she's transported back in time to a Polish shetl that's about to be deported to Hitler's death camps. Even though she knows what's coming, she can't make it stop and she can't make anyone listen to her. Even when I knew the ending and the surprise twist, even when I have since read and learned a lot more about the Holocaust, I found this book to be just as gripping and heart-breaking as it was in seventh grade.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweilerby E. L. Konigsburg I love art-based mystery thriller novels such as The Da Vinci Code The Girl With Boticelli Eyes. (Seriously-- this is a bit of a super-niched genre, but if you have any other titles, let me know.) I fully blame this book for starting it in me. Anyway, in this lovely little book, Claudia decides that she's not really loved and her family would not miss her if she ran away. She takes her little brother with her (because he's good at saving his allowance, and she needs someone to bankroll this operation) and they head off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (because Claudia wants to live somewhere nice. While at the Met, they get caught up in a mystery taking the art world by storm when the Met acquires a new statue that may or may not have been a Michelangelo.

My only complaints are that the story no longer seems plausible (shut up-- when I was in 5th grade, I totally believed this could happen). But in such an age of high tech security, can one really spend the night in an antique bed without setting off some laser alarm? *sigh* I wish. Also, Chasing Vermeer, which owes A LOT to Mrs. Basil, is more gripping and a smarter read all around for today. Still, a classic, but one I probably will not pick up again until I can read it to my own children (who, at this point, are totally hypothetical-- don't get your hopes up Mom).

Reading! (Reading!) Reading! (Reading!) Reading down the river! (Reading down the river!)

Review-a-thon!

I have book discussions for Notable Children's Books AND Notable YA Books coming up soon, so all my reading is based around that! Plus, last weekend I read a lot of banned YA titles. (It's a hard life I lead, I know...)

So...

Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's ShadowSusan Campbell Bartoletti

This is a beautiful book, a big lap book, almost a coffee table book with heavy pages. Much in the vien of Russell Freedman's work it uses photographs well to help tell the story. The book talks about the lives of children growing up in Germany and Europe during Hitler's rise to power and reign. Children who were exuberant and reluctant members of the Hitler Youth, children who joined the resistance movements, Jewish children, soldier children. The amazing thing about this book is that it tells the story plainly and truly, with no sugar coating and no melodrama. I highly recommend. I keep talking about it, actually.

Detour for Emmy Marilyn Reynolds

This was on the ALA's top 10 banned books for 2005. (Because God Forbid that a book that is all about the consequences of having sex should actually... contain some sex!) But oh my god. I would really be against this book being assigned in class because it just... sucks. It's so poorly written. I'm all about having it in the library but this isn't what we should be teaching. It's really preachy and sacharine and just didn't ring true at all. AND THE WRITING IS JUST AWFUL. Blech. I like how the girl who gets knocked up is the one with the not-there alcoholic mother and jailbird brother. Because only kids from messed up homes make mistakes like this. But I had friends who were pregnant in high school and this story just didn't ring true and didn't speak to their experiences. There has to be a better book on this subject out there. I have a hard time believing this is the only one that can be taught.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chbosky

I will always love this book if for no other reason than turning me onto "Asleep" by The Smiths. I love this song possibly even more than Charlie does, if that's possible. AND I now have the mix tape he made as a play list on my Napster account. It's OK, but seriously, I love this song. LOVE. (And put it on my new mix CD) I also like the book. Charlie is a freshman in high school, writing letters to someone, telling of his first year and life, as he navigates high school and family and the recent suicide of his best friend. Also, I just love Charlie. He resonates with me as someone who hung out with the arty kids. I totally would have lusted after him quietly and angst-riddenly all through high school. That said, I really didn't like the ending. Click here to read about why, but you know, I'll give it away, which is why it's hidden!

Also, I would just like to point out that the Arizon superindendant of schools has pulled this book out of all school libraries in the entire STATE of Arizona. Probably because of a very non-graphic scence of rape early on in the book. It makes me want to cry.

Geography ClubBrent Hartinger

Also frequently banned. I love that the reason I most recently saw for the banning was that it doesn't deal with the negative consequences of meeting some that you met on the internet. Ha ha ha. We all know it was banned because it's about a bunch of HOMOSEXUAL TEENAGERS! (No! Gasp! The horror! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!)

Seriously. This is a great little story about love and relationships and being the only gay kids in town and how to date and love and be a normal kid and NOT get outed. Not too deep, not to shallow, not hitting you over the head with the lessons you're supposed to learn to much and a quick read. I liked it.

The Penderwicks : A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting BoyJeanne Birdsall

This is just an old fashioned summer adventure story. Birdsall knows that's what she was writing and doesn't try to make it anything more than it is, and she does so splendidly. I also loved the interaction between the four sisters-- it was so true to life and the little things like the OAP (Oldest Available Penderwick) and MOPS (Meeting Of Penderwick Sisters) really made the story special. Also, one more comment on the very very end here.

Son of the MobGordon Korman

On Friday night, I was going to read the first chapter or two of this before I went to bed. It was finished before I turned the light off. This is light and funny and wonderful and unlike a lot of YA novels, doesn't contain seriously messed up kids and GIANT LIFE LESSONS. Just a sweet simple story about a guy trying to get through high school despite the fact his father is the head of the largest crime family in New York and his girlfriend is the daughter of the FBI agent who's been bugging his house for the last five years. Love. I've already checked out the sequel.

There's more to review. But I'm tired.