Lisa and guest Heidi Rabinowitz discuss The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, a Holocaust fictional middle-grade book by John Boyne.
Heidi shares her thoughts on how the book is offensive to her. She runs The Book of Life Podcast, a podcast about Jewish kid literature. She has been the Director of the Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel of Boca Raton, Florida since 1998.
She participates in the Sydney Taylor Shmooze, mock award blog. She has served as a member and chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee and a member of the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award committee.
Links:
· This article in Sparknotes discusses how the book isn’t truly a fable.
· Teen Vogue writes an in-depth about numerous problems with the book.
· The Guardian writes about the backlash that Boyne has received and includes his response.
· The Holocaust Exhibition and Learning Centre shares its problems with the book.
· Check out a list of literature about the Holocaust recommended by the Association of Jewish Libraries.
· On The Book of Life Podcast, Heidi's blog post recommends a number of Jewish kid-lit books.
Books Discussed:
People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn
We Must Not Forget by Deborah Hopkinson
The Assignment by Liza Wiemer
Linked by Gordon Korman
Some Kind of Hate by Sarah Darer Littman. Available Nov. 1, 2022. Pre-orders open now.
* After the recording of this episode, Lisa and Heidi learned, there would be a sequel to this book. Here are articles about the sequel from The Literary Hub and The Times of Israel.
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*The book titles mentioned include affiliate links. You can support the podcast by purchasing a book with the links because the podcast receives a small commission.