 | Welcome to our third Weekend Picks for April, brought to us again by Dr. Katie Sluiter. This week she discusses a graphic novel that centers on the Holocaust, the beautifully illustrated Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust by Neal Shusterman and illustrated by André Vera Martínez. Thank you, Katie, for bringing this book into our focus this week! Katie Sluiter has been teaching ELA for over 20 years in West Michigan where she lives with her family and her English bulldog. She has her PhD in English Education and currently teaches 8th grade ELA near Grand Rapids, MI. |
Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust
by Neal Shusterman & illustrated by Andrés Vera Martíne
 | This past year I finished up my doctoral work in English Education. My research focus is teaching the Holocaust (and human rights) in the ELA classroom, so I have read my fair share of books that center the Holocaust. One of the children’s lit/young adult lit professors I worked with during my grad studies is also a comic scholar. As you can imagine, this has enriched my own teaching of middle school students in positive ways. One of those ways is that I read many more comics and graphic novels than I did before which helps me connect with my students, many of whom prefer the mode of comics over the traditional prose novel. Students often feel having illustrations helps a text to be more accessible. Having visual representations can allow a storyteller to do things they can’t with words alone. |
| One of the best examples of this is the book Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust by Neal Shusterman and illustrated by André Vera Martínez. I was skeptical when I saw that Shusterman was writing a Holocaust graphic novel that used real historical events, but was also fantastical. Shusterman is known for weaving wild tales of science fiction, dystopia, and fantasy in books like Dry, Unwind, and Scythe. How could his style of writing possibly be appropriate for a subject like the Holocaust? First rather than being just one story, Shusterman tells five fantastical tales and in between each, gives the actual accounts of rescue and aid that inspired those stories. Additionally, the five tales incorporate folklore and traditions from Jewish culture. For example, one story features a golem in Auschwitz who helps prisoners, one casts Baba Yaga helping resistance fighters free captives on a train, and one has a teenager wielding the staff of Moses to help Danish Jews cross the Øresund straight. |  Author Neal Shusterman |
 Illustrator André Vera Martínez | Shusterman and Martínez highlight both the inhumanity and horror of the Holocaust as well as Jewish resistance and resilience. The final story imagines what the world would be like if those ancestors lost in the Holocaust had not been destroyed. The Jewish Book Council--my go-to when evaluating books about the Holocaust for my own classroom--sums it up this way: “Courage to Dream honors the resilience of the Jewish people, while still leaving space to explore the phantom pains of a severed family tree.” Graphic novels and comics can help middle grade students tackle difficult topics in an age-appropriate space. Talking with my students proves this. |
Romelo read Sunny Side Up by Jennifer Holm & Matthew Holm which he describes, “[It] is a fiction graphic novel. It is about a kid who lives in Pennsylvania, whose brother is using drugs and gets sent to a Florida retirement home with her grandpa, to get away from the drug use so that her parents can get her brother help.”
Romelo goes on to recommend the book because “it talks about drug use and how it changes you for the worse and those around you, [and] it shows that when times are tough family comes together.”
When I conference with my students who are reading comics and graphic novels, I am able to ask about the plot, but I can also ask how they feel about the artwork--the lines, color, and layouts--and how they think it adds to the story. How does it help tell the story?
Many authors and artists are tackling challenging topics with graphic novels, and my students and I recommend picking one up!
Romelo goes on to recommend the book because “it talks about drug use and how it changes you for the worse and those around you, [and] it shows that when times are tough family comes together.”
When I conference with my students who are reading comics and graphic novels, I am able to ask about the plot, but I can also ask how they feel about the artwork--the lines, color, and layouts--and how they think it adds to the story. How does it help tell the story?
Many authors and artists are tackling challenging topics with graphic novels, and my students and I recommend picking one up!
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