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Adult Program
October 6, 2013, 10:30 am - 5:00 pm
(Class 4)
Adult Program: “Spaceships, Survivors, and Superheroes: Subverting Narratives in Contemporary Jewish Children’s and Young Adult Literature”
A presentation by Jill Ratzan, Peretz school librarian.
Everyone knows the stories: Jews in WW II Europe were as helpless and alone as mice caught in a mousetrap. All Jewish people look the same. Orthodox women are more interested in building a home life than fighting to defend it, and Jews and Muslims are natural enemies. Right?
In a follow-up to a popular talk she gave last year, Jill Ratzan will examine how the above narratives and many others are upended in recent and upcoming (published 2011-2013) Jewish-themed literature for children and young adults.
In this program, we’ll look at picture books, fiction, nonfiction, biographies, poetry, and graphic novels for preschoolers through teenagers that promote new understandings of history, display emerging definitions of family, and forge diverse paths toward Jewish identity. To do so, we’ll travel from medieval Afghanistan to 1930s Baltimore to the far reaches of outer space, stopping in the present day along the way.
10:30am at Rutgers Prep.