Issues: Bullying, Racism, Anti-Semitism, Immigration
The Book:
1. Who is the main character and what is that character’s personality like? Type a complete sentence or two that include three different adjectives that describe your character.
The main character in my book is a quiescent-minded girl named Edith Westerfeld, who did what she was told and knew her home to be Germany, up until around her 12th birthday, when she started to see the discrimination against her family. Because of this, Edith is forced to flee to America by boat and live with relatives that she’s never met before. This experience forces this small girl to become more independent and self-reliable.
2. Most good stories have a beginning, middle, and end. Type a complete sentence for each of these three parts that summarizes what happens.
Beginning: Edith Westerfeld introduces herself as a girl who has grown up in Germany and is now forced to leave on a ship to America because of the overtaking Nazi party’s discrimination against her Jewish heritage.
Middle: Edith spends days on a big ship, where she meets other of kids like her who are leaving Germany without their parents for a “better life,” whom she befriends and finds comfort in their shared experience.
End: Edith arrives in America and finds that the family she must stay with is anti-German, which makes it difficult for her to adjust, though she finds, through all of the mistreatment she had been given, she must live to tell her story.
3. Think about the experiences that the main character has and the changes that she or he experiences by the end of the story. In a complete sentence or two, describe what you think the author is trying to say about life.
Since this story is based on something that happened to the author’s mother, I think Fern Schumer Chapman is trying to help others to remember the horrors of this time. I also think that she is trying to show us the side of the children who made it out, but whose parents didn’t, and what they had to go through, so we never forget what the Nazis did. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -George Santayana
The Issues:
1. Explain how one of these issues affects the character(s) in the story. Write three complete sentences – either three different ways that one character is affected, or one way each that three different characters are affected.
Anti-Semitism flipped Edith’s life around completely, starting with her family’s fear of being harassed in their own home town because of their Jewish Heritage, like her father who was beaten by some drunken men on his way home from work. A while later, her sister had to be moved to America on a ship, and for that whole year, there was no contact between the two sisters, which worried Edith and made her feel alone. The final, largest way that Anti-Semitism affected Edith was forcing her to flee Germany like her sister, which makes her feel even more alone and frightened now, without any close family members there to help her.
2. In complete sentences, describe two specific events that make the book’s social issue(s) seem real and important. How does the author make a big issue immediate and personal?
I think one of the biggest events besides Edith’s overall experience is the death of her parents in a concentration camp. She isn’t even in her home when she gets the news of their deaths, and there isn’t anyone there to comfort her. The whole reason she isn’t home is because of the major Anti-Semitism in Germany, and it’s also the reason her parents died. The death of any family member is always heartbreaking, especially if it is a parent or guardian. This makes the issue extremely personal.
Another issue that becomes very personal with Edith is immigration. This issue is very personal because she has to learn how to speak a whole new language, learn a new currency, and get used to a big city in a place she’s never been before. The pressure to fit in and to be liked as a teenager was magnified about 30 times, because she had to learn all of the new rules of this new society. Through this experience, Edith learns how hard it is to be taken from all you know and get thrown into an alien society.
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