Read the quote from author Alan Gratz about where he got the idea for Refugee.I was in the middle of figuring out who my main character would be and what the story would be when my family and I went on a vacation to the Florida Keys. One morning we got up to walk on the beach, and we found a raft refugees had taken to come to the United States. No one was on board, and I still don’t know where it came from, but my best guess is that it came from Cuba.Read the excerpt from Refugee by Alan Gratz.A day out from Cuba, the St. Louis threw a party. . . . There was a feeling of wild relief, as though they were dancing away all the stress of leaving Germany. The stewards smiled with the passengers as though they understood, but none of them could really understand, Josef thought. Not until their shop windows had been smashed and their businesses had been shut down. . . .Still, Josef enjoyed the party. He danced with his mother while Ruthie, Renata, and Evelyne ran in and out between people’s legs all evening long.From REFUGEE by Alan Gratz. Copyright © 2017 by Alan Gratz. Reprinted by permission of ScholasticInc.
Read the information about author Ernest Hemingway.Ernest Hemingway was born in the US in 1899. He served as an ambulance driver in World War I, then moved to Paris. Finally, Hemingway moved to Key West, Florida, where he lived for many years.One of Hemingway’s most famous novels is A Farewell to Arms. A major idea in the novel is that war is cruel.
Read the information about Harriet Jacobs, the author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.In 1813, Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery in North Carolina. She learned to read as a child. In 1842, she escaped to freedom and began working to end slavery. In 1861, she published Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl to tell her life story. In the book, she changes people’s names, including her own.Read the excerpt from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs.I met my grandmother, who said, "Come with me, Linda;” and from her tone I knew that something sad had happened. She led me apart from the people, and then said, "My child, your father is dead.” Dead! How could I believe it? He had died so suddenly I had not even heard that he was sick. I went home with my grandmother. My heart rebelled against God, who had taken from me mother, father, mistress, and friend. The good grandmother tried to comfort me. "Who knows the ways of God?” said she. "Perhaps they have been kindly taken from the evil days to come.”
Read the excerpt from The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen.Hannah could scarcely remember when Grandpa Will didn’t have these strange fits, showing off the tattoo on his left arm and screaming in both English and Yiddish. When she’d been younger, the five-digit number on his arm had fascinated her. It was a dark blue, very much like a stain. The skin around it had gotten old, but the number had not.Read the excerpt from Refugee by Alan Gratz.Ruthie had been born the year Adolf Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany. She’d never known any other life except this one. But Josef remembered how it used to be. Back when people saw them. Back when they were Germans.
Read the background information. In 1961, President Kennedy asked Congress to commit to landing an astronaut on the moon. On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 launched from Kennedy Space Center, traveling to the moon. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the surface of the moon.Read the excerpt from a fictional journal entry.July 21, 1969I can remember back to my boyhood, growing up in the 1930s and looking up at the moon in the night sky. Traveling there was the stuff of science fiction novels: a dream. But tonight, I watched my daughter looking up at that same moon from her bedroom window. "I’m going to go there one day, Dad,” she said. If I had spoken the same words to my father when I was 12, he would have smiled and agreed, but with that "look” that parents get when they know they’re agreeing to the impossible. But today, I was able to say to my daughter, "You absolutely can,” without any look but one of sincerity.
Read the excerpt from The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen.The Seder wasn’t even in the right order, not like they taught in Sunday school. When Hannah tried to protest, she was shushed down by Uncle Sam."It's Will’s way. Don’t make trouble,” he said.Read the excerpt from Alan Gratz’s Refugee.The Cuban doctor was getting closer. Josef had to do something. But what? His father was inconsolable. The things he said he saw—Josef couldn’t even imagine. His father had only survived by staying quiet. By not drawing attention to himself. But now he was going to get them sent away.Suddenly, Josef saw what he had to do. He slapped his father across the face. Hard.Papa staggered in surprise, and Josef felt just as shocked as his father looked. Josef couldn’t believe what he’d just done. Six months ago, he would never have even dreamed of striking any adult, let alone his father.
Read these lines that author Jane Yolen wrote when dedicating The Devil’s Arithmetic to her grandparents.To my Yolen grandparents, who brought their family over in the early 1900’s, second class, not steerage, and to my Berlin grandparents, who came over close to that same time and settled in Virginia. We were the lucky ones. This book is a memorial for those who were not.Read this excerpt from The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen."All Jewish holidays are about remembering, Mama. I’m tired of remembering.”"Tired or not, you’re going with us, young lady. Grandma Will and Grandma Belle are expecting the entire family, and that means you, too. You have to remember how much family means to them. Grandma lost both her parents to the Nazis before she and her brother managed to escape. And Grandpa . . .”"I remember. I remember . . .,” Hannah whispered.
Read the excerpt from The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen."Grandpa Dan wasn’t in the camps, thank God. He was born in America, just like you. That’s because my family came over to this country in the early 1900s, second class. Not steerage.” She got that faraway look that signaled she was about to recite another part of the family saga.Read the excerpt from Refugee by Alan Gratz."Do you want the Nazis to catch you? Do you want them to send you back to that place?” Josef hissed at Papa. . . .Aaron Landau dropped his wife’s hand, dragged his oversized coat sleeve across his face, and stood rigidly at attention, eyes forward.Like a prisoner.The doctor came down their row, looking at each person in turn. When he got to Papa, Josef held his breath. The doctor looked Josef’s father up and down, then moved on. Josef sagged with relief. They’d made it. His father had passed the doctor’s inspection!
Read the excerpt from The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen.Aunt Eva was shaking her head as Uncle Sam snapped off the TV set. Then she murmured, "Please forgive him, please. It was the war.” Her voice was as soft as a prayer.Hannah sighed. "He’s starting again,” she whispered to Aaron.Read the excerpt from Refugee by Alan Gratz."It’s not going to be like that, dear heart,” Mama said. She reached out to him, tentatively, gently, and he didn’t flinch under her hand. "You were strong once before, in that place. We just need you to be strong again. And then we’ll be in Cuba. We’ll be safe forever. All of us.”
Read the excerpt from The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen.Across the screen marched old photos of Nazi concentration camp victims, corpses stacked like cordwood, and dead-eyed survivors. As the horrible pictures flashed by, a dark voice announced the roll of camps: "Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Chelmno, Dachau . . .”
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