I wanted simultaneously to understand Hanna's crime and to condemn it. But it was too terrible for that. When I tried to understand it, I had the feeling I was failing to condemn it as it must be condemned. When I condemned it as it must be condemned, there was no room for understanding. But even as I wanted to understand Hanna, failing to understand her meant betraying her all over again. I could not resolve this. I wanted to pose myself both tasks—understanding and condemnation. But it was impossible to do both. [8] As of 2002 the novel had been translated into 25 languages. [12] Writing in The New York Times, Richard Bernstein called it "arresting, philosophically elegant, (and) morally complex." [15] While finding the ending too abrupt Suzanne Ruta said in the New York Times Book Review that "daring fusion of 19th-century post-romantic, post-fairy-tale models with the awful history of the 20th century makes for a moving, suggestive and ultimately hopeful work." [14] It went on to sell two million copies in the United States (many of them after it was featured in Oprah's Book Club in 1999) 200,000 copies in the UK, 100,000 in France, [12] and in South Africa it was awarded the 1999 Boeke Prize. As part of the class, the students attend the trial on a weekly basis. At the court, when the defendants’ names are called, Michael discovers that Hanna is one of the former Nazi guards on trial. However, despite the pain that Hanna’s departure once gave him, he “felt nothing” at learning this news. During her preliminary hearing, Hanna reveals that she rejected a promotion at her factory job shortly before signing up as a prison guard, making it appear to the jury that she had voluntarily, if not enthusiastically, joined the SS. Hanna’s lawyer does not do much to help her salvage this first bad impression, and Hanna is kept under detention for having ignored summonses. Unlike his classmates, who attend only weekly, Michael attends the trial every day, always watching Hanna. As Michael becomes exposed to more horrors for a prolonged period of time, he begins to feel numb and is emotionally distant, not unlike the survivors and even perpetrators of the Holocaust who are exposed to evil on a regular basis.

Hanna Schmitz, a former guard at Auschwitz. She is 36, illiterate and working as a tram conductor in Neustadt when she first meets 15-year-old Michael. She takes a dominant position in their relationship.

What children will learn

Germany had the highest literacy rate in Europe; Franklin suggests that Hanna's illiteracy represented the ignorance that allowed ordinary people to commit atrocities. [3] Nicholas Wroe, in The Guardian, likewise writes of the relationship between Hanna's illiteracy and the Third Reich's "moral illiteracy," [12] and Ron Rosenbaum of Slate says that Hanna is "a stand-in for the German people and their supposed inability to 'read' the signs that mass murder was being done in their name, by their fellow citizens." [13] After a few novels, the Reading Teachers = Reading Pupils group were given a picture book to share with the children in our class. It was a rare opportunity for Year 5 students to be read to in this way as unfortunately the curriculum often requires ‘meatier’ texts but little did they know just how enthralling and thought-provoking the book was going to be.

didn't fight at all. If she threatened, I instantly and unconditionally surrendered. I took all theSchlink's book was well received in his native country and elsewhere, winning several awards. Der Spiegel wrote that it was one of the greatest triumphs of German literature since Günter Grass's The Tin Drum. It sold 500,000 copies in Germany and was listed 14th of the 100 favorite books of German readers in a television poll in 2007. [2] It won the German Hans Fallada Prize in 1998, and became the first German book to top The New York Times bestselling books list. It has been translated into 45 different languages and has been included in the curricula of college-level courses in Holocaust literature and German language and German literature. It was adapted by David Hare into the 2008 film of the same name directed by Stephen Daldry; the film was nominated for five Academy Awards, with Kate Winslet winning for her portrayal of Hanna Schmitz. look after being lifted. But perhaps it had set because of her early sufferings; I tried and failed That said, the novel is about Michael, not Hanna; the original German title, Der Vorleser, specifically indicates one who reads aloud, as Michael does for Hanna. [16] Now draw attention to the use of dashes in this character description (slide 2). There are three examples where dashes are used in pairs as parentheses – what effect does it have when this extra information is added? I could have reviewed this as a children's book. With an age recommendation of middle primary; an art style of detailed drawn; theme of inquisitiveness and history; the setting of a child space. But to me, this is a book this a book that is as valuable for adults. This is true to the style of both Gary Crew and Shaun Tan. Both of them create works that can be read by all. Where more details are seen as the reader gets older. If a teacher wanted to use it in a lesson with older students there is potential for a thought exercise about whether they would do what Tristan did. And the cost of inquisitiveness. Crew and Tan have worked together since The Viewer, publishing Memorial in 1999.

a b Bernstein, Richard. "Once Loving, Once Cruel, What's Her Secret?", The New York Times, August 20, 1997. The first twelve titles were obviously all entered at the same time; at first I probably just read, a b Zeitlin, Froma (15 November 2003). "New Soundings in Holocaust Literature". In Postone, Moishe; Santner, Eric L. (eds.). Catastrophe and meaning: the Holocaust and the twentieth century. ISBN 9780226676104. The next day, Hanna kills herself. The warden shows Michael Hanna’s cell and reveals that Hanna had been reading up on survivor literature and books about the concentration camps. When Michael sees that Hanna had kept a newspaper photo of his high school graduation, he begins to cry, realizing how much Hanna must have cared for him. The warden informs him that Hanna had left a will. She wanted Michael to give the money in her bank account and some money in her tea tin to the daughter who had survived the church fire. Michael is stunned to see that Hanna is one of the defendants, sending him on a roller coaster of complex emotions. He feels guilty for having loved a remorseless criminal and at the same time is mystified at Hanna's willingness to accept full responsibility for supervising the other guards despite evidence proving otherwise. She is accused of writing the account of the fire.

Lessons:

Similar ideas can be found in a previous book Gary worked on with South Australian illustrator Steven Woolman, The Watertower; a kind of domestic horror with alien possibilities, an inconclusive ending, symbolic clues and innovative visual design. This book has to be rotated halfway through, and is more visually suggestive than illustrative. Notably, Gary has been a strong advocate of picture books created for ‘older readers’ – essentially arguing that there is no reason for them to be only young children’s literature, since our interest in reading visual images does not decline with age. As the book continued and the images of eyes became more obvious, talk moved on to how the discs changed and what they might represent.