Evaluating and Suggesting Holocaust Books for Children

1. Evaluating and Suggesting Holocaust Books for Children Presented by Kathe Pinchuck, Chair Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee Association of Jewish Libraries www.SydneyTaylorBookAward.org NJLA Youth Services Forum October 15, 2009

2. Philosophy

3. Philosophy • To expand readers’ horizon • To educate and inform • To inspire further pursuit of the subject • To draw from history and see present day parallels • To put events in context • NOT • To scare, to preach or to isolate

4. For me, the most important lesson about the Holocaust is this: The issues that led and continue to lead to genocide—racism, bullying, stereotyping, intellectual superiority, and arrogance—are lessons that we can find in our own history, in our own past and present. As the saying goes, all history is contemporary history. And unless we learn the lessons, they will be in our future, too. We must continue to fight and confront these issues—and give young people the courage and resources to do so. The second lesson is this: the Third Reich lasted 12 years. It took only 12 years for our world to be changed in such a cataclysmic way. ----Susan Campbell Bartoletti

7. “It’s okay, Grandpa, “ I said. “It won’t be a secret anymore. I’ll always remember.”

9. Evaluation Strategies Criteria for non-fiction – “Books of information:” • Accurate • Engaging • Well-written - clear, dynamic prose • Visuals – clear pictures, diagrams, maps

10. Evaluation Strategies Criteria for non-fiction – “Books of information:” • Authority of author • Help of content specialist or expert advice • Organized in a logical sequence • Includes table of contents, index, glossary • Documentation – sources of information

12. Evaluation Strategies Criteria for fiction: • Plot Conflict Plot development • Characterization Types Character development Authentic Voice

13. Evaluation Strategies Criteria for fiction: • Point of View • Setting: integral to historical novels; often functions to clarify the conflict in the story. • Style/Literary Devices • Theme

15. Evaluation Strategies Holocaust books • Make young readers think about their own lives

17. Evaluation Strategies Holocaust books • Make young readers think about their own lives • Connect history with other accounts of what racism can do • Don’t exploit the violence or sensationalize • Don’t sentimentalize terrible situations • Tell the truth

18. Facts of atrocity and genocide are hardly appropriate for small kids. It is easier for authors to tell young children about those who escaped – the survivors and the rescuers.

21. “What’s the point of desensitizing them or frightening them with depictions of bodies being plowed into mass graves. They’re still children, for God’s sake!” - Esme Raji Codell

23. Azrieli FoundationHolocaust Survivors Memoirshttp://www.azrielifoundation.org/memoirs/

26. K- 4 CurriculumCaring Makes a Difference Grades K-1 : People are different and those differences make each of us special. Grades 2-3 : Each person is strengthened and enriched by the differences they find and accept in others. Grade 4 : It is important that people learn to work together and to respect each other so that we can avoid causing each other pain and suffering.

29. But inside their hearts are just like yours, whoever they are, wherever they are, all over the world.

30. The Only One Club by Jane Naliboff I’m really glad everyone’s the only one of something.

31. Pass on kindness to others

33. Caring words fill buckets right up.

34. Some strength was important, some intelligence as well.

36. Do what you do, talk how you talk. There’s nothing wrong with being different. Individuality is a gift, So be proud and walk with it.

38. “Everyone appreciates a kind act no matter how bad it smells.”

39. The Golden Rule by Ilene Cooper

40. The Golden Rule by Ilene Cooper • Christianity says: You should love your neighbor as you love yourself. • Judaism says: What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow humans. • Islam says: Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you. • Hinduism says: This is the sum of duty: to do nothing to others which would cause them pain. • Buddhism says: Do not do to others what would hurt you. • Shawnee Tribe says: Do not kill or injure your neighbor, for it is not he or she that you injure; you injure yourself.

41. Who today still speaks of the annihilation of the Armenians? - Adolph Hitler

42. Curriculum UnitsPrejudice and Discrimination The World Changes: Rise of Nazism Life in the Ghettos and Camps Hiding, Escape and RescueResistance Survival, Liberation and Legacy

50. Anne Frank