Thank you so much for sharing this important and insightful perspective, Erika. Note that the book Locke criticizes, The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die, was reviewed by Barbara Krasner in the February/March issue of AJL Reviews. See below. Also, the new teen book that Locke recommends, You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone by Rachel Lynn Solomon, will be reviewed in the September/October issue.
Rachel Kamin, Editor Book Reviews for Children & Teens The Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter 847/926-7902 or [email protected]<blocked::mailto:[email protected]> Office Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday 9am-2pm and Wednesday 4-6 pm & Sunday 9am-12pm (when school is in session) Platt, Randall. The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die. New York: Sky Pony Press, 2017. 349 pp. $16.99. (9781510708099). Gr. 9 and up. In August 1939, sixteen-year-old Abra Goldstein, a.k.a. the androgynous street thief Arab, returns to Warsaw after her father banished her to a girls’ school in Vienna. Her father considers her dead, with a gravestone to prove it. When the Nazis invade Poland, Arab finds ways to keep herself alive by selling cigarettes at Three Crosses Square, banding together with her former comrade, Lizard, but staying away from Sniper, who betrayed her during a botched robbery. Equipped with street savvy, Arab stays alive, but when the ghetto walls go up, she pleads with her father to let her help him. He refuses. She then decides to save her club-footed younger sister, Ruthie. With the help of a couple of kind Nazis, she and Lizard move Jewish children out of the ghetto to safety. Arab is a self-hating Jew, hardly the basis for a book to demonstrate the Holocaust. But the real set of problems with this poorly planned, researched, and executed novel comes from the lack of authenticity and accuracy and from rampant anti-Semitism. Any Jewish sensibilities here, or Polish or German for that matter, are researched and peppered in. The author acknowledges help from experts and first- person accounts. Arab (and why that name?) calls one of the Nazis the Messiah but her understanding of the Messiah is Christian, not Jewish. The author strives to make Nazis sensitive to the Jewish situation and makes Jews appear stupid, fearful, and vengeful. Further, the logistics inside and outside the ghetto are confusing. This is not a book that demonstrates positive Jewish values. The book offends these values within the first few pages. Further reading does not improve the experience. Barbara Krasner, former member of Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee, Somerset, NJ From: Hasafran [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Erika Dreifus Sent: Monday, April 16, 2018 6:43 AM To: Hasafran <[email protected]> Subject: [ha-Safran] speech on Jewish kidlit by Sydney Taylor honoree Shalom, chaverim: Just wanted to bring this text, a version of a recent speech by Sydney Taylor honoree Katherine Locke, to the list's attention: https://medium.com/@Bibliogato/thinking-jewish-childrens-literature-in-a-time-of-antisemitism-c77e4b00392c All best, Erika -- Erika Dreifus | Writer. Poet. Publicist. Resource Maven. (w) http://www.erikadreifus.com (t) http://twitter.com/erikadreifus (f) http://facebook.com/erikadreifusauthor <http://facebook.com/erikadreifusauthor>
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