This is the Award Winner. The Dorothy Canfield Fisher award is a Vermont state award that the books are picked by adults (though I am not always sure why they were the pickers as one was a professor at my college who had no English or child background that I knew of) and then voted on by the kids. Of course, the year I did this award the “cool kids” pick won. But that is the perfect lead in to this book. It is 1943. […]
Just Your Average, Forgettable World War II novel …
I have been interested in the Holocaust and World War II since I was about 8 years old and have read quite a few novels, fictionalized accounts and nonfiction books on the topics as a result. I have certainly taken breaks at various points but always tend to come back to the topic. It also means there are certain types of books I am less likely to pick up based on previous experience. While I liked Sarah’s Key on initial read because of the view […]
Against Forgetting
Every once in a while I discover odd gaps in the books I have read, and Night was one of those. Since I learned to read German before I learned to read English, and spent K-7 in the German school system, I usually tend to assume I have read certain childhood classics or novels commonly read in middle school, but under a German name where the translated title doesn’t quite match up. This was especially the case with the book, Night, which blurs the line […]
Three Stories of Motherly Love in Unbearable Conditions
I ended up going to Krakow, Poland for Easter weekend, and while I was debating whether visiting Auschwitz would be crass or an important educational moment, I decided it might not be bad to read a book related to the Holocaust in preparation for the trip. I didn’t actually finish this until after my visit to Auschwitz but I appreciated having a personal story to attach to the victims since at some point the brain stops processing the scale of large numbers. The book follows […]