Moral choices aren't always easy to make. They're even tougher to teach. Now two age-appropriate books help young people explore issues of fairness, identity and social justice.

Author Visits via Skype

To arrange for Fern Schumer Chapman to visit your classroom on Skype, please fill out the contact form.

Is It Night or Day?

The Southern Poverty Law Center's magazine, Teaching Tolerance, has named Is It Night or Day? as a "Teaching Tool" in its Spring, 2011 issue. Here is the magazine's blurb about the book:

Is It Night or Day? ($17.99), by Fern Schumer Chapman, tells the story of Edith Westerfeld, a 12-year-old Jewish girl whose parents send her, alone, to the United States in 1938 to escape the Nazis. Told in Edith's voice, the novel captures both the specific fears of a child fleeing the Holocaust and the more general experiences of immigrants adjusting to life in a new country. It's easy to identify with Edith's loneliness and loss. Her story puts a human face on one way that Jewish children survived the Nazis.

Education.com has included Is It Night or Day? on its recommended reading list for 5th graders and up.

Download suggestions for classroom assignments and projects.

Motherland: Beyond the Holocaust -- A Daughter's Journey to Reclaim the Past

This compelling story 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.

What would your students do if a classmate were bullied or victimized? How would they decide whether to join in or speak up? What does it mean to be a bystander?

Motherland poses these questions and 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. The Georgia Department of Education has included Motherland on its recommended reading list.

Download a comprehensive Teacher's Guide for Motherland.

Classroom Projects

For suggested Night or Day classroom projects, please click here.

Teacher's Guide

To download the Motherland Teacher's Guide, please click here.

Author Presentations

Learn more about the different types of presentations Fern offers.

Schools successfully using one of Fern's two books include:

• DePaul University, Chicago, IL
  
• Waseca Middle School, Waseca, MN (All-School Reads Program)
• Norton Middle School, Norton, MN (All-School Reads Program)
• Cedar Grove High School in Cedar Grove, WI
• The Haverford School for Boys, Haverford, PN
• Newark Junior High School, Newark, CA
• Deerfield High School, Deerfield, IL
• The Woodlands Academy, Lake Forest, IL

Both books are available in Perma Bound. Orders can be placed at 800-637-6581.