Liesl's Ocean Rescue: Review and Guest Post

The most compelling stories are often based on true stories.  Liesl's Ocean Rescue is a book for children that's based on a true story, written by Barbara Krasner, and illustrated by Avi Katz.  Published in 2014, this picture book tells the story of 10-year-old Liesl Joseph and her family, through expressive prose and charming drawings that complement each other well.

In the book, Liesl's father, Josef Joseph, a lawyer, is arrested in his own home in Rheydt, Germany by Nazi soldiers, and Jewish homes and businesses all over Germany are attacked and destroyed during Kristallnacht, "Night of the Broken Glass".  In order to survive, the Joseph family, and many other Jews, decide to leave Germany.  In May of 1939, along with nearly 1,000 others, they board the MS St. Louis, a luxury ocean liner which was bound for Havana, and then America.

The MS St. Louis, from Wikipedia

The story is from Liesl's perspective, although it's told in the third person, and we see life through the eyes of the young protagonist.  Liesl adores her father.  She has faith that Father will make everything all right, even when she learns they have to leave Germany "forever", on the MS St. Louis.

Liesl enjoys being on the MS St. Louis.  She has more freedom on the ship than she had in Germany.  She can walk around freely, watch movies, and enjoy a variety of foods (in Germany, she only ate rationed bread and eggs).  She makes friends, plays checkers, bangs the gong to communicate with people on the ship, and helps in other ways, too.

The fun of being on the ship lasts for two weeks.  When they reach the harbor in Havana, the passengers are not allowed into Cuba.  They're ordered to go back to Germany, but they refuse because they know they'll be taken to the concentration camps and killed.  Father has been put in charge, and he sends out cablegrams for help.  Eventually, after some more time at sea, they receive good news from the head of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's Paris office, Mr. Morris Troper.  The passengers will be allowed to go to Belgium, Holland, France, and England.  When Liesl meets Mr. Troper on the ship, on her birthday, she has a thank you speech prepared.

Liesl's Ocean Rescue is a good way to introduce elementary school children to this dark part of our history which includes the story of the MS St. Louis and the Holocaust.  The gray and white drawings inside of the book contribute to the underlying tone of the story, which is somber.  Thankfully, the book features some joyful moments.  At the beginning of the book (November 1938), Father's birthday is mentioned, and at the end of the book (June 1939), it's Liesl's eleventh birthday.  Children will enjoy the mentions of the birthdays.  Throughout the pages, they will imagine what it must have been like for Liesl.  The story ends on an optimistic note which is a relief, given the difficult subject matter of the book.

As an adult, I found Liesl's story poignant.  Lovely details in the story made me smile, despite the seriousness of this story.  I was very pleased to read the author's notes at the end of the book and learn that Liesl and her family made it safely to America in 1940, and settled in Philadelphia, PA.  Liesl Joseph Loeb became a graphic designer and artist, and died in August of 2013.

Author Barbara Krasner has written an exclusive guest post for us, which follows this review.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Something Surprising About Me: A Guest Post by Barbara Krasner

About twenty-five years ago, when my son was born, I was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis, landing me in the hospital for more than two weeks.  It was a defining moment for me, as I began to realize my life’s priorities needed to change.  I ultimately became less enamored with my corporate life and wanted to connect to something higher and make more of an impact on the world.

I decided I wanted to leave a legacy to my son and once out of the hospital, I put plans in place to write for children and to research my family’s history.  The skills I learned as a genealogist help me as a historian and as a writer.

Barbara and her son

For example, one of the first steps one takes in researching the family tree is to speak with the eldest members of the family, collecting names, places, and dates, as well as family traditions and stories.  I didn’t know at the time that this would provide me with the foundation to become an oral historian.  I learned how to become a detective, how to put my B.A. in German and Russian to use in reading vital records from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and from Poland/Russia, and how to deal with conflicting information from multiple sources.

I had grown up with the story of the MS St. Louis, the ship the United States turned away, the ship with nearly 1,000 German-Jewish refugees seeking safety from the Nazis in 1939.  With the help of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. I located several survivors who had been children on board.  Using the oral history techniques I’d learned as a genealogist (and as a corporate market researcher), I collected testimonies about experiences on the St. Louis.  These, combined with material culled from the Holocaust Museum and from the archives of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in New York City, became the foundation for telling Liesl’s story aboard the St. Louis in Liesl’s Ocean Rescue.

I teach creative writing at William Paterson University, where I am also pursuing a master’s in public history, that is, making history accessible to the masses.  That is what I do as a writer.  But now I have even more opportunity to serve as an oral historian.  Currently, I’m helping the National Park Service collect oral histories of Paterson, New Jersey and I’ve collected several for my hometown of Kearny, New Jersey.

Being a genealogist and oral historian, I believe, brings a set of skills to writing and to writing for children that is unique.  It’s important to realize your strengths and to make them even stronger.  I hope that I continue to build on these skills for future books for kids and for adults.

Barbara, thank you for this interesting guest post!  Your work is purposeful and wonderful.  I think listening, intently, to the stories of others is incredibly important for writers, especially writers of history or historical fiction.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Many thanks to Laura from iRead Book Tours for sending me an advanced readers copy of this book. For more reviews, giveaways, and other features, please stop by iRead's book blog tour for Liesl's Ocean Rescue.  Because this is a children's book, I've added a link to this review to Kid Konnection, hosted by Booking Mama.

 
Thanks for reading!  Your comments are welcomed.

Beatrice and Virgil: Review and Giveaway

I haven't read Life of Pi but I've read so much praise for it that I jumped at the chance to read a newer novel by bestselling author Yann Martel. Published in 2010, Beatrice and Virgil sounded interesting to me in an offbeat way right off the bat. The main characters in the book are a writer named Henry, an elderly taxidermist, and two wild animals who speak, Beatrice, a donkey, and Virgil, a howler monkey. It may sound kind of light because of the animals, but the book features a very serious subject: the Holocaust.

Early in Beatrice and Virgil, Henry is excited about the book he's just finished writing. It's a book that's two books in a sense, a flip-book about the Holocaust; one part fiction and one part nonfiction. Henry believes that there's a lack of fiction about the Holocaust and that more stories about it will contribute to its preservation and meaning. Much to his dismay, though, his latest unpublished work is not well-received by his editors nor others, as he learns over a dinner of flavorless, over-refined foods in London.

Henry sets aside his book about the Holocaust and his writing career, and starts a new life in an unnamed city with his wife (who later becomes pregnant with their first child).

"During this time in the city, Henry's earlier existence as a writer was not entirely forgotten. Reminders gently knocked on the door of his consciousness in the form of letters. By the most roundabout routes, often months after their writers had posted them, he continued to receive letters from readers."
~Beatrice and Virgil, Yann Martel

Before too long, he receives a mysterious envelope that contains a short story by Gustave Flaubert, The Legend of Saint Julian Hospitator, along with a request for help. The request is from a taxidermist, also named Henry, who is writing a play called Beatrice and Virgil. Henry is soon drawn into a relationship with the taxidermist, and a new adventure begins.

Henry's visits to Okapi Taxidermy discomfited him, and at times this book perplexed me as well. I know Life of Pi also contains animals, but I don't understand why the author used animals in this story to tackle such a difficult subject. The Holocaust was a human event. Although Beatrice and Virgil kept my attention, I did not "get" the book at times; it was hard for me to comprehend the connection between the Holocaust or the "Horrors" and two talking animals, the characters in the taxidermist's play.

Maybe this ambitious author was trying to do too much in his latest novel: discuss literature and the writing world, create Holocaust fiction, talk about taxidermy, present a play in the process of being penned, and anthropomorphize personable animals who philosophize. If you ask me, that's a lot to tackle in a single novella! The Holocaust in and of itself is a major theme. I felt confused at times during my reading because there was so much going on, on multiple levels, and I was left with a sensation that I was missing something.

Despite my issues with the book, though, Beatrice and Virgil grabbed my attention from the first page, and I read it eagerly and quickly. The author has written a creative and highly original story that refers to works of literature, and features the writing of a play and a final chapter that could never be described as run-of-the-mill. Yann Martel believes, like Henry-the-writer in the book, that the Holocaust deserves more attention and that fiction is a way to give it a fresh and memorable voice, and this is exactly what the author attempts to do.

Random House is generously offering one copy of the book as a giveaway to a reader (U.S. only this time--sorry!).

• To enter this giveaway for Beatrice and Virgil, simply leave a comment.
• For an extra chance at winning, become a follower of this blog, or let me know that you're already a follower, or that you subscribe in Google Reader.
• For an additional chance, post about this contest on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter.
• For another chance, name a book about the Holocaust, either fiction or nonfiction, that has made an impact on you.

Enter by 5PM PDT on Monday, March 14. The winner will be chosen randomly and announced on Tuesday, March 15.


Special thanks to Lisa from TLC for sending me this book. For other reviews please visit TLC's Beatrice and Virgil book tour.

Broken Birds: The Story of My Momila

Whenever I read a book or watch a movie about the Holocaust, it's always a very sobering and heartbreaking experience for me. The Holocaust (1933 - 1945) was a horrific period in world history, a time of brutality and mass murder, a stark reminder of man's inhumanity to man on a large scale. Approximately six million Jewish people died in the concentration camps and gas chambers of the Holocaust, which ended in 1945 at the conclusion of World War II.

I suspected that this book would affect me on a deep, emotional level.

"This is the story of my parents, my four siblings, and me. Although this group has rarely gotten along for any length of time, these people made me who I am."
~Introduction to Broken Birds: The Story of My Momila, by Jeannette Katzir

Broken Birds: The Story of My Momila is a highly personal, honest account by Jeannette Katzir of her mother's life as well as her own, one that's been shaped and affected profoundly by the experiences of her parents, Holocaust survivors, especially her mother or Momila, Channa Perschowski. Published in 2009, the book is an attempt by Jeannette Katzir to show how the war and specifically the Holocaust affected future generations, in this case herself and her four siblings (and their families). Broken Birds is also, simply, an attempt by a loving daughter to understand her mother better.

The book starts with a tense meeting in a courtroom, then goes back in time to Channa's family and childhood in what was then Poland. Channa's idyllic childhood ended with the cruel persecution and extermination of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Like many others, Channa lost her family at a very young age, except for her older brother, Isaac, to the horrors of the Holocaust, and her mantra becomes, "If so many people have died, then I can bear losing my family, too". Still a child, Channa learns from her brother how to evade the Nazis, how to survive on mere scraps of food, how to live in the forest and sleep in the snow, and she even becomes a resistance fighter. This terrifying time shapes her future, and as an adult she finds it nearly impossible to trust strangers.

Fortunately, Channa and Isaac manage to escape to the U.S.. Young, spirited, and beautiful, Channa falls in love with and marries Nathan Poltzer (who's tall, dark, and handsome), and seems to adjust easily to her new life. She has five children, including the narrator of the story, Jaclyn (the author has changed her name and those of family members in the book), and we discover quickly how the events of the Holocaust have affected and scarred her. Channa is married but very insecure, and worries that her attractive husband may leave her for another woman. Operating on a lack of trust, she surreptitiously hides money throughout the house and in safety deposit boxes at various banks, and instructs her children not to trust anyone but family. Channa emphasizes the idea that family always comes first. Although Channa loves her children (they are her "five fingers"), she's also at times very critical of their choices, although she's generous at other times, and holds the family together. When Channa dies, the Poltzer family falls to pieces, and Channa's will causes the rest of the family great conflict and distress.

Broken Birds is emotionally gripping, and I found myself thinking about my own sibling relationships (which are also puzzling to me at times). In the book, Jaclyn does not want to betray her mother's wishes to put family first, but after years of trying she's frustrated and disheartened by the often cold, resentful behavior directed toward her. Although she wants to love and care for her family, to be close to each of her siblings (and their spouses), this becomes quite challenging as the years pass, and she has numerous difficulties with her sister, Shirley, in particular. Apart from the intense struggles between Jaclyn and Shirley (and other family members), another aspect of the story that broke my heart was the denial of the existence of the Holocaust during their visit to Germany. Many people acted as if it had never happened, and the concentration camps were cleaned up and altered, giving a false impression to visitors. Although the truth is painful to behold, we cannot and should not deny or minimize the existence of the Holocaust.

A powerful story about struggle and survival on many levels, what makes it even more potent is that it's true, and the author has spent years researching the impact of World War II on survivors and their families. Jeannette Katzir is a natural storyteller, and the story flows well. The book is painfully honest at times, and although some family issues remain puzzling and unresolved, I do think this book is an important, personal look at the lasting and damaging effects of the Holocaust on families.

Special thanks to Jeannette Katzir for sending me this book. For more reviews of Broken Birds please visit the bookworm and Diary of an Eccentric.

Number the Stars: Two Perspectives

It is he who heals the broken in spirit and binds up their wounds, he who numbers the stars one by one. 
Psalm 147:4


After reading and reviewing The Giver by Lois Lowry, many others recommended Number the Stars to me. In my tortoise-like fashion, I obtained and read a copy of this novel, which won the Newbery Award for being the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children in 1990.

Briefly, this work of historical fiction takes place in 1943 during World War II and the Holocaust in Copenhagen, Denmark. Nazi soldiers have invaded the town during the five-year German occupation. When the Jews of Denmark start being "relocated", 10-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her family risk their lives to help Annemarie's best friend, Ellen Rosen, a young Jewish girl, by having Ellen live with them where she poses as Annemarie's older sister. The title of the book is from a line in the psalm quoted above, and also refers to Ellen's Star of David necklace.

When my 12-year-old daughter, Angela, finished the book she was reading, she clamored for another book. I suggested she read Number the Stars. At first, she was reluctant to read it, but once she started it, she was hooked and declared, "It's so good!". I decided to share this review with her, so you'll have the perspective of an adult and a child. I got the idea to do a joint review from Amanda from The Zen Leaf, who does them from time to time.

~~~~~~~~~~

I found this book to be extremely touching. I was immediately drawn into the story and the ways in which the children experience life during wartime. How long did it take you to "get into" the story? Did the first chapter, when the kids are racing home and bump into Nazi soldiers, capture you as it captured me?

Angela: Yeah, it really did. I was hooked after the fifth page, I think. I wasn't too thrilled when I first saw it, even though I had heard very good things about it from friends, and of course, family. But I gave it a chance, and I'm very glad that I did!

Life before the war was much more carefree. Now there are food shortages and soldiers on every street corner. How do you think Annemarie and Ellen feel now? How about Kirsti, who yearns for "a big yellow cupcake with yellow frosting"?

Angela: I think Annemarie and Ellen feel like part of their life has been taken away. I know that I would feel that way if soldiers just invaded our town, and left us with barely enough food to go around. Kirsti, I think, only remembers little things from life before the war, like big yellow cupcakes and "fireworks", so she is not as affected.

You're right, Angela. Kirsti doesn't understand as much as the older children do.
I found the presence of the Nazi soldiers rather menacing. Deftly, the author made me feel frightened with just the right words. How did you feel when the Nazis pounded on the door?

Angela: I felt as if I was right there in the story with all the characters! I felt their anxiety, tension, and relief when the soldiers left the apartment. Lois Lowry really did a great job putting her readers into the story!

Now I just have one question for YOU! I know you have read another book by Lois Lowry, The Giver. How did Number the Stars compare to it?

While I found the dystopian world of The Giver to be quite thought-provoking, I think Number the Stars is absolutely incredible. The author allows us to see the war through the eyes of Annemarie, the protagonist, and gives us just enough descriptive details; our imaginations fill in the rest. It's a perfect story in so many ways, on so many levels, a story about friendship, compassion, love, bravery, and hope, in spite of the war and hard times. As you know, Angela, I actually started to reread this book soon after you read it, because I wanted to experience its beauty again. I'm sure that I'll reread this gem many times. What more can I say about Number the Stars but that I highly recommend it for both children and adults.

For another review of Number the Stars, please visit The Reading Life.

The Book Thief: The Power of Books

So many people raved about this book by Markus Zusak that I had to get a copy of it for myself. However, once I did, I put The Book Thief on a shelf under some other books. I wasn't sure I was in the mood to read a book for young adults. However, when I started reading it, I wondered if it really was intended for children. The book's major themes are rather adult in nature: the power of books and reading, love and compassion, brutality, the Holocaust, war, and death. In fact, the narrator of the story is Death, although not a mean and conniving death, but a gentle and sometimes even humorous presence, a "reluctant collector of souls". I've since learned that The Book Thief, published in 2005, was originally published in Australia as a book for adults.

The Book Thief is the story of a young German girl, Liesel Meminger. While traveling to Molching, a small town outside of Munich in Nazi Germany, Liesel's baby brother suddenly dies. In a snowy graveyard Liesel steals her first book, The Gravedigger’s Handbook. At this point, Death, the narrator, becomes intrigued by the girl and starts to tell her story. She's given to foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, for reasons that she does not yet comprehend (her biological mother has been labeled a Kommunist and is taken away). Despite Rosa's obstreperous and frequent swearing, Liesel feels secure and loved by her foster parents. She develops a special bond with her foster father, a gentle soul with silver eyes who patiently helps her learn how to read. Throughout the story her love of reading grows and becomes more significant, and she "picks up" a few more books. Liesel becomes best friends with a boy named Rudy ("with hair the color of lemons"), goes to school, and life is pretty good, although she's still haunted by her brother's death. But soon everything changes for the worse. As Germany prepares for WWII, Jews are threatened and taken away, and the Hubermanns, who oppose this senseless brutality, hide a Jew named Max Vandenburg in their basement. Germany's brutality toward Jewish people, and to those helpful to Jews, is a dominant theme in this book.
Throughout the book, Liesel is drawn in by the power of words and books and reads at every opportunity, sometimes aloud to others. She learns the significance of words--words in her books that help her escape from a bleak life, as well as words which hold the country under the hideous control of Hitler and the Nazi party. Hitler's autobiography and book of political ideology, Mein Kampf, is important in several ways in The Book Thief.
Let me stop now--before I give away too much of this book. The Book Thief is quite original, touching, and beautifully written. It brought to mind two other books I've read about the horrors of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany, Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi, and The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. In 2007, The Book Thief won the Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award and the Boeke Prize, and in 2009 it became a bestseller on the NY Times' list of children's books. I cannot recommend it highly enough, especially to adults.
If you've read The Book Thief or have a related thought, please leave a comment. For another review of this book, please visit The Reading Life.

The Principles of Uncertainty

Do we ever outgrow our enjoyment of picture books? Like most children, when I was very young, I savored them. With full page, brightly-colored pictures and only a few words, I could take a book and "read" it, my understanding aided greatly by the illustrations. This is a large part of the appeal of The Principles of Uncertainty, a graphic book by Maira Kalman. Books of Mee piqued my interest in graphic novels, and I discovered this particular book on Time's 2007 list of the Top 10 Graphic Novels. It's more of a graphic memoir than a graphic novel, though, as it chronicles a year in the life of Maira Kalman, who's an author, artist, and photographer. Among other projects, she has designed many covers for The New Yorker. She even illustrated an edition of The Elements of Style, written by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White. (I wish I'd known this sooner--I own the regular, text-only version of The Elements of Style.)

Infused with joie de vivre, this quirky, humorous, dazzling book, published in 2007, illustrates a year in Maira Kalman's life. Over 300 pages of trade-mark whimsical, colorful illustrations, clever photographs, and hand-printed words tell the story of her Jewish family, who fled Russia after the revolution and went to Palestine before settling in America, and embrace issues such as life, death, history, and family, as well as the large, shared philosophical questions of existence. Affected by the atrocities of the Holocaust and the current state of the Middle East, Kalman seems to value life all the more, although she also sometimes expresses her concern about the point of it all. Certainly, though, The Principles of Uncertainty is a celebration of life. Among my favorite pages are those of life in Paris and New York, where she keenly captures the variety, character, and humanity of these cities, through people both young and old, and all the marvelous eccentricities, depicted by sensational hats, joyful desserts, and even bobby pins. It's prevailing sense of vibrant optimism--that there are things worth living for, even in bleak times--shines through in both pictures and words.

Bloggers take note! The Principles of Uncertainty was actually an illustrated blog for The New York Times for one year, ending in April 2007. It was then published in a book of the same title, and released in 2007 to critical acclaim. In January of 2009, Maira Kalman started a new illustrated blog for The New York Times; the first entry chronicled her visit to Washington, D.C. for President Barack Obama's inauguration. I won't be disappointed if the author publishes a second graphic book based on the new blog in the near future.

The Reader

Don't let the size of this book fool you. I've just finished the pithy book The Reader (Der Vorleser) by law professor and writer Bernhard Schlink, a haunting story of love and guilt in which the legacy of Nazi crimes unexpectedly and dramatically enters a young man's life. Published in Germany in 1995, and in the U. S. in 1997, it was the first German novel to top the New York Times bestseller list, has been translated into at least 37 languages, and is often read in college courses in Holocaust and German literature. The Reader was made into a movie starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, which I intend to see.

Set in post WWII West Germany in 1958, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg gets sick in the street on his way home from school, and a tram worker takes him to her apartment and helps him get cleaned up. Later, he visits the woman, Hanna Schmitz, to thank her, and is drawn into an intense and strange love affair. Besides the considerable age difference between them--she's old enough to be his mother--their clandestine meetings are unusual in other ways and include a ritual of reading aloud. At her request, Michael reads to Hanna, before they shower and make love. Hanna mysteriously disappears after a misunderstanding, and Michael is overcome with feelings of guilt and loss. Years later, when Michael is studying law at the university, he attends one of the many belated Nazi war crime trials, and is utterly shocked when he recognizes Hanna in the courtroom, on trial with a group of former Auschwitz concentration camp guards. During the proceedings, it becomes evident that Hanna is hiding something which is even more shameful to her than murder, something that might save her from imprisonment. I do not want to spoil this story for you, so I'll refrain from revealing the secret or what happens. (Why not read it for yourself? Or see the movie, which has been nominated for numerous Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actress.) The Reader is an important literary work which illustrates the guilt and shame that the Germans bear for the Holocaust, and the moral divide between the generations, and is unforgettable in its psychological and moral complexity.