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Jan. 13, 2012
Teaching kids difficult subjects
Stories are often an effective way of communicating lessons about life and death.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
The dangers of commercialism, the destructiveness of racism and antisemitism, how to confront bullying and how to cope with illness – not easy topics for adults to understand and discuss, let alone children. Yet several writers have taken on the challenge of communicating these lessons, and some seem to have made it somewhat of a mission.
Israeli author Sara Aronovitch Karpanos was born in Tel Aviv but, in 1969, following her mother’s death, she spent a few years in Winnipeg, where she attended St. John and Talmud Torah high schools. Her first book, a collection of poems, was published in 2002 by Gevanim. Since then, she has published three children’s books with Gevanim, all of which are more than simple diversions. There is School for Ants (2004), which “consists of 12 personified outcast animal stories” and is being used in various educational and health institutions in Israel. Crimson Land (2007), published in 2007 and sponsored by Egged (where Aronovitch Karpanos has worked for more than 35 years), tells the story of an 11-year-old boy sick with leukemia; it has been donated to children’s hospitals and been translated into several languages. Finally, there is Fishy & Co. (2009), which, in relating how animals were named, shows kids how words are divided into syllables and how words form sentences.
Aronovitch Karpanos sent the Independent the English-language version of Crimson Land, which has also been translated into French, Polish and Russian. She initially wrote it for a short story competition named after well-known Israeli children’s book author Uriel Ofek. “Only later, when I let children read the story and showed it to a social worker who works with sick children, then I decided to make it into a book,” she told the Independent in an e-mail interview.
About how she approached the story, Aronovitch Karpanos said, “I also build crosswords and this means having the answer first then looking for the question/definition, that’s how I dealt with the story. First, I decided my hero (in the story) would be floating in the air, seeing himself and all that’s under him ... and then asked myself, what would he be doing up there? [I] took another step back, and decided he’ll be lying in bed. But why would he be floating in the air in his mind? He’s to be put to sleep by narcotics/anesthetics. Then he should be a sick child. Why the leukemia came to my mind, I have no answer to that, only that it popped out.
“Now, I had the beginning of the story. He was waiting for [a] blood/bone marrow transfusion and, when falling asleep before the transplant, he starts floating in the air.... When the story was done, I asked a physician if I was right about the red and white blood cells; that’s all I needed, as the rest is my imagination and logic.”
Aronovitch Karpanos, who is also an internationally exhibiting artist, did the illustrations for the book, the style of which, and the abundance of red (representing blood), might be disconcerting to some readers. However, Crimson Land is a very simply put together publication and an easy story to follow, and Aronovitch Karpanos said she has received confirmation from various hospital social workers “that the book is a positive and necessary tool for the sick child to handle and confront the illness.” Anyone interested in purchasing it should contact her directly, at [email protected].
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Stories for Peace: Resolving Conflicts, Handling Bullies (Light Publications, 2011) by Mark Binder attempts, with varying success, to relate stories that “will open new possibilities to handling difficult and uncomfortable problems.” While most of the brief tales are entertaining and educational, some are a little too abrupt (the one on cyberbullying, for example, takes an over-the-top tragic turn) or the message is unclear (forcing your child to eat pizza, for example, seems like an unhealthy parenting choice, almost no matter what the lesson being taught). The most engaging chapter is the one on how storytelling in person transforms a story, brings it to life and allows connections and meaning that just aren’t possible from reading alone. Also useful – for adults and children alike – is the introduction to such concepts as centring, and on how to deal with cyberbullying.
The free, downloadable study guide, written by Beth Hellman, is a necessary companion to get the most out of Stories for Peace. In it, there are “questions and conversation starters” for each chapter, as well as an introductory note from Binder, who writes, “I have spent many years studying, practising and teaching a ‘martial art for peace.’ A strange concept, you’ll have to agree. It’s not, ‘I’m going to beat you up for peace.’ Or even the old ‘mutually assured destruction’ model of peacekeeping. For me, the art of peace is something both subtle and powerful.
“The steps are simple. Start with yourself and your centre. Learn and discover what you intend to happen. Create a relationship with ‘the other.’ Align them with your goal. Go. You’ll either succeed or fail. Either way, let go and move on.
“This sounds kind of abstract and a little fuzzy written down.
“In practice, each one of those steps done by itself is incredibly powerful.
“For example, if someone is shouting or disruptive, taking a moment to ‘centre’ yourself produces a different result from reacting immediately. If a student tries to talk her way out of a bullying situation but fails, if she stays stuck in the failure, she is lost, but if she can move on, then she can learn a new strategy and become stronger.
“When we put these possibilities together as a series of actions, regardless of the order, then the old expected outcome vanishes and new options emerge.”
Stories for Peace and other books by Binder are available at amazon.com and other online stores. For teacher’s guides and other information, visit markbinder.com.
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To Hope and Back: The Journey of the St. Louis (Second Story Press, 2011) is the most recent addition to Second Story Press’ Holocaust Remembrance Series for Young Readers. Written by Kathy Kacer, who has contributed six books to the series, this publication isn’t as cohesive as previous ones, such as Hiding Edith and The Diary of Laura’s Twin. However, To Hope and Back provides a lot of information about the journey of the St. Louis, which left Germany in 1939 with 937 Jewish passengers on board, was denied entry to Cuba, the United States and Canada, and forced to return to Europe, where more than one-third of the passengers would eventually be killed in the Holocaust.
The book features many photos and other images, as it alternates between the stories of Lisa and Sol – both real people who shared their memories with Kacer – and that of the ship’s captain, Gustave Schroeder. While the narratives from the children’s perspectives are interesting, they are not as compelling as the captain’s sections, which provide the reader with the “decisions and negotiations that the passengers were unaware of and that only the captain and other officials had knowledge of.”
In particular because of Canada’s shameful role in the fate of the St. Louis, all Canadians should know this history. To Hope and Back is a non-intimidating and reasonably comprehensive source. For more information on it and any other Second Story Press publication, visit secondstorypress.ca.
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Kishka for Koppel (Orca Book Publishers, 2011) by Aubrey Davis, with illustrations by Sheldon Cohen, is a new twist on the genie in a bottle story. With the unlikely instrument of magic being a meat grinder, Koppel and Yetta learn the value of being happy with what they have when they attempt to use their allotted three wishes for material gain. Yetta dreams of a pearl necklace with earrings to match, while Koppel imagines what life would be like if he were a prince. Of course, their wishes go awry and, in the end, they are just happy to get things back to normal.
Setting aside the choices of a meat grinder and kishka as the vehicles for a lesson about commercialism (or anything else, for that matter), the story is full of comforting Jewish (Yiddish) humor and the illustrations are colorful and imaginative. Kishka for Koppel is intended for the four to eight set of readers, and it is available at orcabook.com and various other booksellers.
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