Call for published or aspiring authors searching for guidance and encouragement? Several writers are organizing a group to critique and nurture works-in-progress in a fun, supportive atmosphere. I will lead the group.
Writers with varying pubication experiences will meet at the Warren-Newport Public Library in Gurnee, Illinois on a monthly basis. If you might like to join us, please email me at fernschumer@aim.com.
Author school visits
I am beginning to schedule school visits for 2010-2011. Here are my offerings:
A Child’s Immigration Story (Grades 4-12) What if your parents told you they are sending you all by yourself to live in a foreign country? I take students on her mother’s frightening immigration journey from Nazi Germany to America. (powerpoint)
The Legacy of the Holocaust (Grades 4-12) I explain how trauma is transmitted in families, fulfilling state requirements to teach the Holocaust.
Writers Workshop: (Grades 3-12) I teach the craft of writing, inspiring students to develop their own sense of identity through story.
Please email me at fernschumer@aim.com to make arrangements for presentations.
Since the 1940s, one of the few ways American Jews protested the Nazi regime was to refuse to buy certain German products. High on the list was the Mercedes.
(Volkswagon and German wine were other targets.)
In 1998, things got complicated when Chrysler Corporation bought a majority share of Mercedes manufacturer Daimler-Benz. Then, some newspapers and magazines asked Jews if they now would begin to boycott Chrysler. Jewish writer Cynthia Ozick said that, as a “private memorial” to the Nazis’ victims she would boycott Chrysler.
Some survivors and refugees continue to boycott German products even today. But in the global economy, it is increasingly difficult to know who owns a product.
It’s debatable whether the boycott was effective. But it’s clear that the boycott didn’t make a dent in the financial portfolio of the man who brought the world the Mercedes.
Frederich Flick was one of Germany’s biggest tycoons of the 20th Century. In addition, the Allies listed him third of 42 industrialists most responsible for Nazi crimes.
The Fourth Muskateer blog: Reviews and more about historical fiction for children and teens
Blogger Margo Tanenbaum wrote a thorough review of Is It Night or Day? on her site called “The Fourth Musketeer.” She offered an excellent suggestion for the Afterword of the book. Originally, I had considered including a brief discussion about the 1930s immigration policies in the U.S. However, I decided that I wanted to underscore that there has been a history of child immigration to this country. But now I think it would be valuable to add some information about the U.S policies at the time of my mother’s immigration. I hope to make that change in the paperback edition, which will be released in 2011.
Thanks, Margo. Here is an excerpt of her review:
“Edith was one of 1,200 children sponsored by an American rescue organization composed of Lutherans, Quakers, and Jews that took place from 1934 to 1945. Approximately a dozen children from one to sixteen years were brought in monthly through this program, a pitiful figure compared with what the United States could have done during that period.
“Although young Edith was admitted through this program, the United States’ record on admitting Jewish refugees during this period is shameful. While 1,200 children may sound like a lot to some of the novel’s readers, this represents a tiny number compared to the number of refugees desperately seeking asylum in the United States and elsewhere. Although not mentioned in the author’s Afterword, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt lobbied diligently for the Child Refugee Bill, which would have allowed 10,000 Jewish children a year for two years to enter the United States above the usual German quota, but Congress refused to pass the bill, despite the fact that families had already been found to take in the children. I would have liked to see the author mention in her afterword how little was actually done by the U.S. regarding the refugees, including perhaps a brief discussion of the Evian Conference in 1938 (the year Edith leaves Germany). During that nine-day meeting, convened by the United States to discuss the Jewish refugee question, delegates offered sympathy for the Jews, but only one country, the Dominican Republic, offered to grant large numbers of Jews sanctuary. In fact, the conference was ultimately a victory for Nazi propaganda; ‘Nobody wants them,’ claimed the German newspaper Völkischer Beobachter after the Evian Conference.”
Click here to read the whole review:
http://fourthmusketeer.blogspot.com/2010/06/book-review-is-it-night-or-day-by-fern.html
1990 - Edith (wearing corsage) reunites with elementary school classmates,
52 years after she last saw them.
One of my mother's German classmates from elementary school
just finished reading Is It Night or Day?. He sent my mother
his reaction to the book in this email. My good friend Frank Nordt
translated the letter from German to English below.
Liebe Edith,
Fern`s Buch habe ich nun zweimal gelesen und es stets bedrückt,
traurig und betroffen aus der Hand gelegt.
Immer wieder ist mir Sigmund Freuds (??) Wort in den Sinn gekommen:
"Der Mensch ist des Menschen Wolf."
Goethe hat es behutsamer gesagt:
Alles geben die Götter, die unendlichen,
Ihren Lieblingen ganz:
Alle Freuden, die unendlichen,
Alle Schmerzen, die unendlichen, ganz.
Die Zeit, Schweres zu ertragen und zu vergessen, ist zuweilen
dereinzige Trost und Helfer.
Dear Edith,
I’ve now read Fern’s new book twice and I always put it down feeling sad, depressed, and dejected. Freud’s words ??? (actually, Thomas Hobbes’ words) always come to my thoughts: “Man is Man’s Wolf.” (The meaning of the phrase is “Man is a wolf to his fellow man.”) Goethe said it in a more gentle fashion:
The gods give everything, the infinite ones, To their beloved, completely, Every pleasure, the infinite ones, Every suffering, the infinite ones, completely.
The pain of that time is heavy to bear. To forget is sometimes the only relief.
Topics: Fifth Grade, Books for Children, Summer Reading and Learning, Summer Reading by Grade
Kids entering fifth grade definitely know what they like and dislike about everything … including books! Getting your child to read over the summer is all about finding just the right book. “Keep your fifth grader excited about reading this summer by helping them find fun and engaging books they’ll love,” says Mildred Vasan, an editor and literary expert for GiftLit, an online retailer of hand-selected books. “Series books are great for this age or stick with a genre that they like.”
Looking for fresh reading options for your fifth grader? Look no further. We’ve combed the shelves for new titles to spice up summer reading.
Raider’s Ransom by Emily Diamand.
The Shadows of Elsewhere by Jacqueline West.
The Lost Tales of Ga’ Hoole by Kathryn Lasky.
Simon Bloom: The Octopus Effect by Michael Reisman.
Is It Night or Day? by Fern Schumer Chapman. It’s 1937, and life is harrowing for Jews in Germany. Desperate to get their daughter out, Edith’s parents send her to live with a set of American relatives she’s never met. But Chicago couldn’t be more different than her small German village. Bullied at school and worked to the bone by her aunt, she waits anxiously for her parents to arrive. There is no fairytale ending here—far from it—but this spare, well-written historical novel teems with universal themes to which all tweens can relate. Sometimes heartbreaking, always eloquent, this is a fascinating look at one girl’s narrow escape from Nazi Germany as part of the real-life One Thousand Children Project. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $12.23) Where to buy
Charlie Bone and the Red Night by Jenny Nimmo.
The Fizzy Whiz Kid by Maiya Williams.