Dear Colleagues,
Several weeks ago, there was a posting on HaSafran about a book
entitled A LITTLE PIECE OF GROUND by Elizabeth Laird (London:Macmillan
Children's Books, 2003). In the posting and in posted responses, the book
was called "destructive" and "offensive" and there were suggestions that
AJL should attempt to block its release.
I have a copy of the book and have written a review of it for the
Sept/Oct issue of the AJL Newsletter. I found it both offensive and
destructive but not worth the risk of AJL's becoming a censor or part of
the multicultural thought police.
It raises a question to which I don't have an answer. How do we
fulfill our role as reviewers, critics, and selectors in the world beyond
Judaic libraries, where the AJL Newsletter isn't read and where the book
will be bought if its pernicious qualities are not pointed out?
Linda R. Silver
Co-editor with Ellen Cole of Children's Book Reviews
AJL Newsletter
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