Moral choices aren't always easy to make. They're even tougher to teach.
Now there's an age-appropriate memoir that helps young people explore issues of fairness, identity and social justice. Motherland: Beyond the Holocaust -- A Daughter's Journey to Reclaim the Past is a compelling story that opens a window through which to view the legacy of war, genocide and reconciliation. And it comes from a source not often heard in Holocaust literature: that of the next generation.
This moving, beautifully written memoir follows a young mother's pilgrimage into her family's history, the terra incognito we must all explore to become whole. As it opens, author Fern Schumer Chapman uneasily accompanies her mother, Edith, a Holocaust escapee, on a baffling visit to the German village her mother had left "just 12 years old, alone and terrified" nearly half a century earlier to escape the Nazis. Mother and daughter found a town little changed, where not one classmate of Edith's had moved away; yet they gradually realized, during their trip and in the years after, that no one had escaped the shame, guilt and lingering scars of the war.
What would your students do if a classmate were bullied or victimized? How would they decide whether to join in or speak up? What if they, too, were attacked? Motherland, a fast and fascinating read, helps pose these questions afresh. With a newly available teacher's guide written by award-winning middle-school teacher Bruce Wasser, Motherland helps teachers clarify for today's students the moral dilemmas we all face in the study of history, in our everyday lives.
For this work, Fern Schumer Chapman was named the 2004 Illinois Author of the Year by the Illinois Association of Teachers of English.
Schools successfully using "Motherland" include DePaul University, Chicago, Ill.; Cedar Grove High School in Cedar Grove, Wisc.; the Haverford School for Boys, Haverford, Penn.; Newark Junior High School, Newark, Calif.; Deerfield High School, Deerfield, Ill., and the Woodlands Academy, Lake Forest, Ill. The Georgia Department of Education has included the book on its recommended reading list.
The book is available in Perma Bound (#203434) and orders can be placed at 800-637-6581. Paperback copies can be ordered by calling Penguin Books at 800-526-0275.
