I am reflecting this afternoon on the January topic of Religious Freedomin the Social Justice Challenge hosted in 2010 by Hannah, Amy and Natasha. Each month for this particular challenge I am working to meet all three criteria presented: read a book, study additional material whether written, film, or other; and perform action related to the topic.
During January I read Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay which relates to the Holocaust period, a topic I regularly study because of what I consider a deficit in my formal education on this period. I noted in reading a short piece about the novel, Sarah’s Key, it was based on an event called Vel’ d’Hiv’ which took place in Paris on July 16, 1942. I was taken aback by the large number of children involved in this roundup which was a Nazi decreed raid, one of several throughout the country to reduce the Jewish population in Occupied France. More than 10,000 people were rounded up and taken to the Velodrome d’Hiver in Paris which was an outdoor stadium used for bicycle races, concerts, boxing matches and other outdoor events. Of this large number of people, it is estimated 4000 or more were children. The French Jews were held there for up to a week with little food and water and no toilet facilities in the summer heat, often standing room only available. These individuals were then shipped by rail to Auschwitz with very few surviving.
The author noted in materials included in the book she knew as she began to learn about Vel’ d’Hiv’ as an adult she must write about it, but she did not feel a historical novel would adequately portray what she wished to convey, she wanted a contemporary feel to the story as well. She then created the stories of Sarah, a child of the Vel’ d’Hiv’, and Julia who is an American living in modern Paris who experiences the horror of learning about Vel’ d’Hiv’; their stories are told in alternating chapters with a surprising lack of confusion in this constant travel of the reading mind between time periods.
I was viscerally shaken by the book and the research I did on the topic after completing the story; de Rosnay’s writing is quite powerful as I have read numerous books, both fiction and non-fiction, on the Holocaust. Today as I type these words, I feel some of those powerful emotions and ”close-to-sick” feelings again.
Only in 1958 was this infamous place in Paris completely demolished. And it took another thirty-five years before action was taken to officially remember the horror and to honor the lives taken at Vel’ d’Hiv. In 1993 President Francois Mitterrand commissioned a monument to be erected on the site; on July 17, 1994 Mitterand’s successor, Jacques Chirac, inaugurated the statue with a ceremony that included strong remarks about the guilt of the French police and gendarmerie in collaborating with the Germans. The statue sits on a curved base representing the cycle track and is the work of sculptor Walter Spitzer and architect Mario Azagury. Interestingly, Spitzer and family members of his were survivors of deportation to Auschwitz. While the persons represented on the statue represent all French deportees, it is particularly those of Vel’ d’Hiv who are honored with inclusion of children, a pregnant woman and a sick man. The inscription on the base reads:
The French Republic
in homage to the victims of racist and anti-Semitic
persecution and of crimes against humanity committed
under the de facto authority of the so-called “government of
the French state” 1940-1944
Never forget
Reading this book, studying about the subsequent demolition of the Velodrome d’Hiver and my re-reading of many of the student essays written as part of the Holland and Knight Holocaust Remembrance Project all helped to prepare me better for discussions I have led among youth groups this month on the topic of religious freedom.
The Exquisite Corpse Adventure, episode 10, “Wolf at the Door” is posted! Contributed by Megan McDonald (think Judy Moodyseries) and illustrated by James Ransome (The Creation for which his illustration was awarded the Coretta Scott King Award), this story begun last fall continues with episode 11 due February 12.
Reactions to The Exquisite Corpse Adventureto date?
Greg Toppo of USA Today recently shared a posting “Color Me A Dinosaur” from the blog WEATHER SEALED. In this posting Dinosaur and friend Velo do some research on Crayolas which originated in 1903 with the mere 8 colors known still in the “really small box”; together Dinosaur and Velo formulated CRAYOLA’S LAW which notes “The number of colors doubles every 28 years!” There is a wonderful color spectrum chart 1903 – 2010 which in turn leads to the conclusion Crayola’s “gonna need a bigger box, because by the year 2050, there’ll be 330 different crayons!”
Do you regularly check in at THE BOOK PATROL blog? Missing a treat if you don’t. With all the talk last week about the iPad, the most entertaining piece I saw was “Thomas Edison’s Kindle-iPad Combo.”
Recently Art Clokey passed away…Art Clokey? Oh, yes, he was the creator of Gumby. Turns out he created Gumby as a student project in the early 50’s and based the swooping head on the permanent and pronounced cowlick of his biological father who passed away when Art was in elementary school. My memories of Gumby are fond ones from his appearances on “The Howdy Doody Show” of which I was a great fan!
Finally, over the last week many a blog has shown the item I have posted here in closing; but it is so special I cannot resist showing it as well. If or when I get a MacBook or a MacBook Pro, the top of my “wish list” to accompany it is a BookBook by 12 South. In Vibrant Red, thank you very much!
Ready for Groundhog Day this Tuesday, February 2? You know, that day Punxsutawney Phil comes out of his burrow on Gobbler’s Knob – in front of thousands of followers from all over the world – to predict the weather for the rest of winter. The celebration of Groundhog Day began with Pennsylvania’s earliest settlers who brought with them the legend of Candlemas Day, which states, “For as the sun shines on Candlemas Day, so far will the snow swirl in May…”
The official website has everything from history to fun facts to a full section for teachers as well as the steps for you to start a chapter of Phil’s Club to add to the 52 chapters currently in operation across the nation! There are also official cookies with recipe listed, an outline of how to order them readymade … BUT, I have decided one must have the option to deviate from all the official items this year….look what I found at [bb-blog]!
So…black trash bags, white trash bags, duct tape and hot air??? Street Art: Joshua Allen Harris’ Inflatable Bag Monsters….have any of you seen the actual art when on the streets of New York? A new use for hot air from subways!
URGENT: VOTING ENDS AT 3 PM on SAT., JAN. 30! Have you discovered the fun, fun blog BOOKIE WOOGIE, Three Kids and Their Dad Talk About Books? You are missing a great conversation if you don’t visit periodically…I guess it reminds me of conversations my sisters and I had with our dad as we grew up. I found this blog through the recently completed COMMENT CHALLENGE sponsored by MotherReader and Lee Wind…thank you, Pam and Lee! One of the “Three Kids” from Bookie Woogie is a finalist in a Yoplait drawing contest at Five Minutes for Mom; go vote for Gracie! (It’s the drawing shown here, scroll down when you reach the site…Gracie and family thank you!) And thank YOU, Bookie Woogie, for a good time each visit I make.
One of my favorite “finds” recently on a slow weekend was the blog AWFUL LIBRARY BOOKS. As the “awful librarians”, Mary and Holly, who are librarians in the Midwest report on the “About This Site” page:
Welcome to Awfullibrarybooks.wordpress.com! Librarians, bibliophiles and lovers of nostalgia are all welcome here. This site is a collection of public library holdings that we find amusing and maybe questionable for public libraries trying to maintain a current and relevant collection. Contained in this site are actual library holdings. No libraries are specifically mentioned to protect our submitters who might disagree with a particular collection policy. Take a visit there, you’ll find more than just a chuckle or two!
From The Brown Bookshelf: The Brown Bookshelf is designed to push awareness of the myriad of African American voices writing for young readers. Our flagship initiative is 28 Days Later, a month-long showcase of the best in Picture Books, Middle Grade and Young Adult novels written and illustrated by African Americans.
The “breaking news” email from The New York Times read very simply:
“J.D. Salinger, Author of ‘The Catcher in the Rye,’ Is Dead at 91.”
I am away from the office having assisted my father this week who had cataract surgery; I have not read much Twitter nor a newspaper most of the week, have not watched television nor been in a car where a radio was turned on - I even forgot it was the State of the Union address last night being so tired due to a 4 AM wake up alarm.
But this breaking news cut through to me and a flood of memories rushed over me. I clicked the link and read further what The Times had to say in their initial news:
J. D. Salinger, who was thought at one time to be the most important American writer to emerge since World War II but who then turned his back on success and adulation, has died in Cornish, N.H., where he lived in seclusion for more than 50 years, his son told The Associated Press. He was 91.
Mr. Salinger’s literary reputation rests on a slender but enormously influential body of published work: the novel “The Catcher in the Rye,” the collection “Nine Stories” and two compilations, each with two long stories about the fictional Glass family: “Franny and Zooey” and “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction.”
Charles McGrath writes about the initial reaction to “Catcher,” and about its enduring power:
“ Though not everyone, teachers and librarians especially, was sure what to make of it, “Catcher” became an almost immediate best seller, and its narrator and main character, Holden Caulfield, a teenager newly expelled from prep school, became America’s best-known literary truant since Huckleberry Finn.
With its cynical, slangy vernacular voice (Holden’s two favorite expressions are “phony” and “goddam”), its sympathetic understanding of adolescence and its fierce if alienated sense of morality and distrust of the adult world, the novel struck a nerve in cold war America and quickly attained cult status, especially among the young. Reading “Catcher” used to be an essential rite of passage, almost as important as getting your learner’s permit.”
And that flood of memories I mentioned earlier? Indeed “Catcher” was in some ways my learner’s permit into college. I grew up in a small, southern town of fewer than 3000 persons. My English teachers were on the whole excellent, but we read the traditional literature for high school; it did not include the more contemporary literature of the early 60’s.
In the summer of 1965 I received a packet for freshman orientation at the small liberal arts college I would attend in the fall. Each incoming freshman was to read The Catcher in the Rye. Holden entered my life and the discussions about him with students from outside my lifelong circle of friends, with professors who encouraged genuine and informed debate, year-long returns to the topic – that was my introduction to this American tradition of college. It was a life changing experience and one that I am reliving in these hours after reading that “breaking news” received today. I was already known in the family and among friends as a voracious reader when I went to college; but to have discussions like these about the Holden’s within literature was a new layer added, a layer I treasured then and one I continue to treasure.
Each minute on Tuesday afternoon can sometimes really seem much longer than 60 seconds as you face the knowledge you haven’t even reached noon Wednesday yet, the middle of the work week for many, Hump Day as known to legions. Here’s something for your amusement, to cheer you: at least perhaps you aren’t working in one of these award-winning cubicles?
Luther, Patricia, Shane and John: Some of the RIF staff honored today.
Each month at the All-Staff meeting, RIF honors our employees for gold star customer service as well as awards for the embodiment of our founders’ passion for improving the language and literacy skills of young children. Today awards were presented for the months of December and January as well as the quarter 1 McNamara Award.
The December President’s Award for Customer Service was presented to a great team from Development and Finance: Shane Yost, Alan Gordon, April Wainwright and John Richmond. December is the busiest time of the year for Development with donations coming in to make that “end of year” period. In order for the majority of us to enjoy a holiday break over the last week of December, RIF must also follow best practices and process donor donations and must have in place a team to come into the office and open mail, deposit and record checks, enter all the information in the donor database by year end for tax purposes and send acknowledgement thank you letters.
Shane, Alan and April from Development and John from Finance each came in at least one full day during their holiday break to steward these donor gifts. Shane had the Development phone line forward to his phone so he could answer donor donations in a timely manner. Thank you, team, for allowing most of the staff the option of a relaxing holiday break while also ensuring we would enjoy the benefits of end of year giving for giving books to children!
The January President’s Customer Service Award was given to Luther Bailey. His nominator wrote: Although team is spelled T-E-A-M, there should be a way to include an “L” for Luther. Luther has been an exceptionally dedicated team player that goes above and beyond. Luther most recently has assisted several committees with projects completed to perfection, spending countless late hours at home during the work week and weekends. Luther has repeatedly exemplified a willingness to either accept whatever role he has been thrown into or create his own niche to accentuate the mission and vision of RIF. Whether the call for help is from a coordinator in the field or a fellow co-worker, Luther exercises great patience and admiration for everyone with whom he comes into contact. Luther embodies everything RIF is and what it will be through his hard work, dedication and commitment to excellence.
The Quarter 1 Margaret McNamara Award was presented to Patricia Oholeguy, RIF Director of Early Childhood Services. Last year RIF was able to identify three potential partners within the American Indian community – the National Indian Education Association, Tribal Education Departments National Assembly, and the National Congress of American Indians. Patricia has been an active participant in each partnership; she did an great job representing RIF at NIEA’s national conference as a workshop presenter, has instrumental in developing materials regarding RIF’s work within the American Indian community and in developing a survey used to evaluate literacy trends within American Indian homes. . She has provided content for NIEA’s quarterly magazine, answered requests from American Indian community colleges, and kept NCAI leadership updated on RIF’s programs. Her dedication has been vital in supporting RIF’s multicultural campaign and specifically outreach to this population.
Applause to all these employees for exceptional service!
All last year after these “redwood” books were released I was partial to the covers; I really must get these books into my hands soon! The covers of both REDWOODS by Jason Chin and OPERATION REDWOOD by S. Terrell French remind me of a great family experience…my daughter, my son and their cousins were floored that Hamp’s wheelchair would actually fit inside the trunk of one redwood visited in Muir Woods (California) on a trip years ago!
Hamp with his sister Mary-Margaret and cousins Becca and Drew.
Cover Story is a feature every Monday on Rasco From RIF where I share with you the “face” of a book that has caught my eye or that readers have submitted. Cover Story does not discuss the full content of the book; I usually have not yet read the book. I hope you will share your favorite “cover story” with me now and then!
