2 books

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

I remember siblings reading this in Elementary, however, since I wasn't big on reading back then I missed out. It's another Newberry Medal winner. It's about a teenage girl's arrival and new found life in Connecticut! See why I chose it. It tells a little about colonial life, puritanism, Quakers, witches, the beginnings of Revolutionary thinking, and some romance. So it was good for me :) And quite honestly on my intellectual reading level.

Next up...

Sarah's Key

This is a good book club book as there is much to discuss in it. A modern day American journalist living in France and married to a Frenchman is assigned to write a piece about the Vel d'Hiv roundups that took place in 1942. Having never heard of it she starts researching and unearths it's horrors and also discovers a link between it and her French husband's family. It tells of a 10 year-old Jewish girl (see where this is going?) born in France during the Vel d'Hiv roundups of 1942 that were carried out by their own French Police. They were sent to camps in France and then on trains to Auschwitz.

Much to think about...like there always is when the Holocaust is concerned. It always astounds me to hear about the hate, the traitorous neighbors, the atrocities, the ignorance, the evil. I also feel hope when I read about the people who put their lives at risk to help strangers, the love of mankind. And that's what I hope to instill in my children, the absolute love of mankind regardless of faith, color, race, or socioeconomic status. I guess that's what I hope for myself too.