Behind The Bedroom Wall
Published by: Milkweed Editions
Written by: Laura E. Williams
Illustrations by: A. Nancy Goldstein
This book sparked my interest in the Holocaust as both a historical time period and a personally significant event. I first read this book when I was in third grade and it has remained one of the most meaningful literary encounters of my life. I do not remember where I got the book from or why I selected it; I just remember feeling changed after I read it. Behind the Bedroom Wall is a young adult novel that delves head first into a time period and a state of mind that many modern-day adolescents cannot even begin to comprehend. I cannot describe the power of this book any better than a passage from its back cover:
Filled with adventure, Behind the Bedroom Wall helps us to
understand the madness that drove so many to turn on their neighbors
and the courage that allowed some to resist.
This book was the spark of my fascination with the Holocaust, Jewish religion, and my own family’s heritage. Although I was raised in a nuclear family that did not identify with any particular religion, my mother’s side of the family is of Jewish decent and my father’s side of the family is traditionally Catholic. I grew up with limited exposure to the major holidays and traditions of both cultures; however, I have always had a special interest in Jewish culture. My grandmother is a Holocaust survivor who secretly left Germany as an eleven-year-old Jewish girl on one of the last Kindertransport trains to Great Britain. Her older sister was already in England attending school when their father and grandfather were taken away by the Gestapo in the middle of the night; less than a week later, my great grandmother dressed my Nana in her favorite dress and said goodbye to her forever.As a young child, I could not even begin to wrap my head around the emotional trauma that my grandmother must have dealt with at such an early age, but reading this book helped me understand how disorienting this period really was. Some critics on Amazon.com feel that this novel oversimplifies history and makes for a flat read, but the overwhelming majority (40/44 posted reviews) praise Behind the Bedroom Wall’s stirring plot line. Korinna Rehme is a thirteen-year-old member of her local Jungmädel Nazi youth group who believes that “Hitler is the most wonderful man.” While this statement is unsettling to most readers, it helps to illustrate the extremist mentality that took Germany by storm in the late 1930s. While there are a number of young adult novels that describe the horror and despair of concentration camps and ghettos from a Jewish protagonist’s perspective, this novel makes readers think about the other side’s story and how sometimes, there is no clear line between right and wrong.
This book would be a wonderful addition to an upper-level elementary classroom full of curious readers learning about ethics and duty. Students have numerous opportunities to make predictions about what will happen later in the text, starting with Korinna’s complaints about the mice she hears behind her bedroom wall. If I were giving this novel to a class or a small group, I would be sure to remove the book jacket (if it’s a hard copy) because I feel that the synopsis on the back gives away too much. Milkweed Edition’s website even has a guided reading guide available at http://www.milkweed.org/downloads/cg_BBW.pdf that breaks the novel down into eight suggested lessons, an overview of the text, and helps set the historical context for the unit. There are interdisciplinary connections (creating skits, looking at artifacts), word lists, and writing exercises available FOR FREE. Milkweed Editions also has similar teacher’s guides available for a number of other texts (and did I mention you could download them and save them forever as PDF files?!) Laura E. Williams’ website (http://www.lauraewilliams.com) is not the best resource, but it does have some interesting bits of information. First of all, it lists her direct email, and second, is a link to http://www.btbwthemusical.com/, the site of the recently developed musical adapted from this novel. Though it hasn’t quite made it to Broadway, this just shows the type of scope and sequence this powerful novel can have.
When Megan was in fourth grade and we were living in Manhattan, we read this novel together. Somehow that year we read many young adult books on the Holocaust, sparked perhaps by our elderly neighbor who had survived in hiding in occupied France or by seeing "Diary of Anne Frank" on B'way with Natalie Portman. Whatever the reason, as a nine-year old, Megan read voraciously about the Holocaust. I remember Spinelli's "Milkweed" and "Number the Stars" but "Behind the Bedroom Wall" resonated the most with me. As an adult, I was appropriately conflicted and discomfited by the power of this book and was worried about how my child would process the horrors and stark emotions that were (and are) the reality in our world.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your Nana's story, Jen. With your family's personal connection with the Holocaust, how did you process the feelings and information of this book? You reference the meaning and significance this book holds for you. When you first read this book you were almost your Nana's age when she left her mother. Did you read it alone? This novel's great emotional weight might prove challenging for a young child to carry and yet that's one of its great recommendation. The point is to feel, to grieve, to be profoundly angry, and to resolve "never again."
Christine-I am happy to hear that you read this book with your children too. It seems that your daughter and I went through a similar phase in our 4th grade reading styles, and it also seems that mine hasn't quite fizzled out. I remember forcing my mom to read this book after I finished it because I could not voice all of the questions that I had. After this, I did a series of projects around my grandmother and her experience. I was lucky enough to record an interview with her a few years ago detailing her experience before the Kindertransport and then as a young orphan in England, New York, and, eventually, New Jersey. At 87, she continues to surprise me and the rest of our family with her constant courage and new adventures.
ReplyDeleteI have not read this book, but I am interested in how you feel it portrayed the "other side" (i.e. the Nazi side). Is it difficult to sympathize with the main character because you know her beliefs clash with your own? Do you think you would couple this book with another book that takes a different perspective on the time period?
ReplyDeleteHave you read "The Book Thief"? It is written from the perspective of a young German girl during the war and - in an intriguing and beautiful stroke - is narrated by Death. An engaging and tender account. Death states "I am haunted by humans" and this girl in particular. This fictional account, I could hardly put down. "The Lost", a memoir by Daniel Mendelsohn sits on my bedside and I read just a page or two a night, unable to absorb more in a sitting. I jump around and have read the conclusion hoping for some semblance of reprieve and hope. A must-read.
ReplyDeleteJen, how wonderful that you have interviewed your grandmother and been able to hear her memories and understand her history. This history is so recent, so fresh - so impossible to fully absorb.
From what you described, this seems like a great book. I have also read some young adult books about the Holocaust as a child but I never came across this one. I think that it would be interesting to see how the author deals with a character who's beliefs clash so much with that of the reader's.
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