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The Wall... Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis

          I placed this book on hold at my local library along with some other children's picture books.  I got a call yesterday that a few of my book selections were available, so I headed over, found a seat, and got to reading.  This book was compactly educational in regard to the Cold War and Communist Soviet Union.  I grew up hearing about the Berlin wall and "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" I knew about the Cuban missile crisis. I knew we were at odds with Soviet Russia, but I didn't understand the conflict any further than we had differing governing ideologies.  I also liked that the introduction concisely explained the link between the events of WWII's aftermath to the onset of Russian-formed Soviet Union, because many times we study events of our history in isolated segments, and we forget to examine the cause-effect sequences in between large events. This book told the story of author Peter Sis's first-hand account of life in then Czechoslovakia and how the Prague Spring of 1968 helped him to awaken from his "brainwashed" youth.  Art and music played a huge role in his awakening.  I've read many fictional dystopian novels and never fully realized that these societies truly existed/exist today.  I highly recommend putting a copy of this on every school/classroom library shelf.  It's a great jumping off point for further research and examination.

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Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli

A homeless orphan boy thinks his name is Stopthief. He doesn't know who his parents are or where he comes from, but finds himself in Warsaw, Poland snatching bread loaves from women in fox furs. The year is 1939 and he is rolling in food, treats, and prizes lifted from people off the streets. The people don't chase him because there are bombs going off in the distance that distract them. Then one day a parade of Jackboots comes to town and peculiar things begin to happen - the boy sees a man using his beard to wash the sidewalk, Jews paint the outside of their shops to "deter" customers, Jackboots start inhabiting homes that didn't use to belong to them. And then the Jews are paraded into a walled in ghetto; their homes the size of closets. It doesn't take long before they begin to starve, contract typhus, and become further degraded and abused by lice, Jackboots, and Flops (Jews who policed other Jews inside the ghetto).

Milkweed does not portray the Holocaust in the melancholy way Anne Frank or Number the Stars do. It's the literary equivalent of ghastly photos, videos, and documentation of the horrors of this time in our history. I'm recommending to my principal that this book be included the 7th grade Holocaust study; it's that potent. Thank you to Donalyn Miller who mentioned it in The Book Whisperer or her blog; I can't remember. I had never heard of this book before and that's a shame!