Leah Friedman wrote:
I'm searching for a holocaust novel or memoir appropriate for an
English class in a Bais Yaakov high school. It must be age appropriate
regarding reading level (9th to 11th grades), appropriate for a
religious girls' school, and well written for an English classroom.
I know, I know. Anne Frank is a classic and everybody and his cat has
done a book report on it. And yes I know you asked for a book not a
graphic novel but humour me here for a moment. I bought this graphic
novel in Spanish thinking it was going to be some re-fried something or
other. But, no, it was not. I read it through and I was very pleasantly
surprised to find that it's not Anne's diary. It does not focus on the
social dynamics of the enclosed group. Instead the graphic novel
captures the growth process of a total brat into a promising young adult
who through writing discover her own follies and strengths. The graphic
novel ends not in the more dramatic Nazi raid but in the sad, albeit
anti-climatic, Bergen-Belson followed by an epilogue about Mr Frank and
how the House of Anne Frank came into being.
The Nazis are there (kind of hard to ignore their existance) but
curiously, they are not the focus of Anne's psycological and spiritual
growth. They may have been the underlying cause/catalyst as to why Anne
was forced to concentrate her efforts of self-realization but it was she
who overcame the situation and turned it to her advantage. I think it
shows that, whatever the circumstances might be, they can not be used as
an excuse to leave off the work of spiritual growth, i.e., you can let
life be a total lemon or you move on to a higher consciousness and make
lemonade.
I think all adolescents need to read case studies of other adolescents
who found a way to overcome themselves as much as their situation. When
I was a kid, I stumbled upon Up From Slavery by Booker T. at the public
library, which inspired me enough to read it about 18 times.
As part of an English Classroom, one can analyse the format as well as
the content and ask
How does the format aid the text?
If Anne had survived Bergen Belson would her spiritual growth have
continued?
...would she have become a bona fide writer? or were the stories written
in the attic really a form of psyco-therapy?
...what sort of stories would she have written as she grew into adulthood?
...would she have become a true novelist or would she have turned her
hand to magazine short stories or perhaps become a journalist.
...would she have left off writing altogether?
...would she have made aliya to Israel?
http://www.annefrank.org/en/Shop/Books/Anne-Frank---Graphic-biography-English/
All the best from a very very very hot Valencia (Spain)
Alba
********************
Alba Toscano, presª
Sinagoga conservador La Javurá
calle Uruguay 59, pta 13
46007 Valencia (España)
email: lajav...@lajavura.org <mailto:lajav...@lajavura.org>
tlf 963 802 129
móvil 658 721 769
UStream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/la-javura-on-line
Webpage: http://www.lajavura.org
Skype: albatoscanovalencia
Blog de Bitacora de los Viajes con La Javurá
<http://bitacoralajavura.posterous.com/>
__
Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author
and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL)
==================================
Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to:
Hasafran@lists.service.ohio-state.edu
To join Ha-Safran, update or change your subscription, etc. - click here:
https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran
Questions, problems, complaints, compliments send to: galro...@osu.edu
Ha-Safran Archives:
Current:
http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.service.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html
Earlier Listserver:
http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html
AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
--
Hasafran mailing list
Hasafran@lists.service.ohio-state.edu
https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran
