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[editrix26]

So my flight tomorrow, accidentally scheduled for 6:30 p.m., was rescheduled for the 11:10 a.m. I wanted to be on. Apparently there's weather coming to NYC but I am hoping that it waits until late afternoon like it's promising to do. I packed, mostly, but there are a few things I can't throw in until tomorrow morning. I hope everything goes

Comments

[dougdougdoug]

Will you be calling this the ever obnoxious "babymoon?"

[starfishchick]

Have fun!

[chatnoire]

This isn't travel related, but if you get around to it, I'd love your opinion on this topic:

Good Kitty, Bad Kitty
Benno and the Night of Broken Glass, a new picture book about a cat witnessing Kristallnacht, raises the unavoidable question: Do cute kitties belong in stories about the Holocaust?

[editrix26]

Hmm. Interesting article, for sure. I want to think about it a little more, but I'm of two minds. One is, I'm not sure the Holocaust needs to be covered in picture book form. That said, children can handle controversial topics better than people think -- and if a cat living through Kristallnacht is an effective way to explain the horrors of the Holocaust to them, maybe it's a good way to do so. I think Maus/Maus II are probably the most effective material I've read about the Holocaust.

But if it were me ... well, I agree with the writer to an extant. I don't plan to shield my kid from the horrors of history, but I'd love it if he/she's first information source were something like Number the Stars. But that may very well work for someone else's kid and I wouldn't feel right about shielding that person's child from this book.

What do you think?

[chatnoire]

Well, my first thought is that everyone seems to keep approaching it as "all books must be the first book to deal with X issue." I worry that people think that by producing X book, they can avoid Y discussion, you know?

As far as this book - I like the idea that the cat is just an observer. To the cat, all people are just people - the fact that the cat doesn't differentiate between the germans and the jews makes the point - these are people. there is no difference. So perpetrating crimes against people is wrong.

I think I'd like to read it, and use it as an internet mini bookclub discussion. your input is good since you're a librarian! When you get back from vacay, let's talk more about it!