About this title: In his most personal work to date, award-winning author Peter Ss offers a brilliant graphic memoir, taking readers on an extraordinary journey as he recalls his youth growing up in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, when his country was on the Communist side of the Iron Curtain.
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Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Date Published: 2007-08-21
ISBN-13:9780374347017ISBN:0374347018
Description: New. Dust cover has cut toack. New-Fast shipping from trusted wholesaler with many exclusive publisher contracts. May have slight edge wear from being on the shelf. May have remainder mark. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Date Published: 8/21/2007
ISBN-13:9780374347017ISBN:0374347018
Description: Good. 0374347018 Ex-library book with usual markings. Clean text. SATISF GNTD + SHIPS W/IN 24 HRS. Sorry, no APO deliveries. Ships in a padded envelope with free tracking. 27, 586. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Date Published: 8/21/2007
ISBN-13:9780374347017ISBN:0374347018
Description: Good. 0374347018 Ex-library book with usual markings. Clean text. SATISF GNTD + SHIPS W/IN 24 HRS. Sorry, no APO deliveries. Ships in a padded envelope with free tracking. 4184r. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780374347017ISBN:0374347018
Description: New. Sewn binding. Paper over boards. Picture book. With dust jacket. 56 p. Contains: Illustrations. Intended for a juvenile audience. read more
Description: New. Sewn binding. Paper over boards. Picture book. With dust jacket. 56 p. Contains: Illustrations. Intended for a juvenile audience. read more
Description: New. In his most personal work to date, award-winning author Peter Ss offers a brilliant graphic memoir, taking readers on an extraordinary journey as he recalls his youth growing up in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, when his country was on the Communist si... read more
"My stomach turned agonizing with the injustice he suffered. I knew how it would end. How Poland would be free eventually. But while I was reading about his life in the 60's, 1989 seemed like lifetimes away. This is his heart. This is him. His story. I was so emotionally drawn into at the end I teared up. As any talented artist creates, Sis masks complex layers of the struggle of his country and family in this seemly simple children's book. His symbolism is genius. Sketching the Communists with pig faces. Using color and lack of color to communicate what words can't. Peter really drew me into this book by including excerpts from his journals in different stages of his life. Backgrounding those excerpts were coordinating photographs and sketches of his artwork. I would use this with 5th graders while they study WWII, but then I would bust it back out when they are 8th graders as their minds would be more developed to understand more of his mature messages."
"Last summer, I was talking with a close friend of mine who had been a child living in West Germany when The Berlin Wall came down. Having only the Western media's presentation of what life was like before, during, and immediately after that time, it was natural of me to reflect a curiousity with regards to this element in her life.
"It is easy for you all to say how great it was after The Wall came down," she said in her thick German accent. "But you were not living there. You did not know what it was like when 'those people' came through. I think it was better to have The Wall still there."
This was, to me, a most unorthodox interpretation of events. It had been my experience that all people had wanted The Berlin Wall to crumble. That physical remnant of the ideological separation between the so-called Progressive world and the Communist-Socialist realm... why should it exist, if only for political reasons and not the will of the People?
Peter Sis, too, grew up under the influence of The Wall. Having been born in Czechoslovakia, his family (and he, himself) were on the other side - the Eastern side. His experience was geographically similar to that of my friend, but entirely unlike hers. Sis' uncle was killed by guards in prison after having been arrested for alleged "subversive" activity. Mandated military service, displays of loyalty, and assertions of devotion to the government permeated all elements of his life.
That was, until 1968, when a mini-revolution hit the East side. A progressive government had allowed certain artifacts from the "outside" to seep in - such elements as The Beatles, Allan Ginsberg, and the Harlem Globetrotters. Western shortwave radio broadcasts were no longer being jammed to the degree with which they had been. However, this infiltration of Western values did not last for long before the new government was displaced (for "re-education" in Moscow), and the old blockades were restructured.
The Wall is not exactly a history lesson,nor is it purely biography. Peter Sis' story, illustrated heavily as an amalgam of graphic novel and children's book, merely tells the tale of a boy who happened to be much like himself, in a simplified version of international events. To those with some rudimentary concept of Cold War events, there is not a lot of new material. However, there is the realistic element of hearing the story from one who had been there, who had lived through it all, and who is artistically capable of demonstrating some sampling of his dreams of freedom. His dangerous dreams, for which he could have been arrested... or even killed outright.
This is an important book, whether they are old enough to recall The Berlin Wall or not. In a sense, it plays an equally vital role in delivering a sign of how the West provides hope for those who do not have such given luxuries as a life of free expression, religious engagement, or familial assurance. Terms like "Fascist" and "Communist" come altogether too quickly upon the lips of those who have no experience with such oppression.
Peter Sis presents his version to all of us - including my friend - who have never known such sanctioned civil domination."
"This was an interesting book for me because I'm not quite sure how to categorize it. Is it a history book? A graphic novel? A picture book? All of the above? None of the above? Whatever it is, I know that I'm intrigued.
The book chronicles the author's life growing up in what used to be Czechoslovakia at the beginning of The Cold War. He uses a combination of text, photographs, maps, and drawings. Especially interesting to me are the drawings, which, instead of being black-and-white, are black-and-white-and-red.
My only issue with the book is that I wonder how old a student would have to be before he or she "got" the book. As an elementary teacher, I wonder if even any of my older kids would be ready for this book. This seems like it wouldn't be the best introduction to the topic, like it would maybe fit better as a part of a larger unit on The Cold War. In that context, I think it would make a lot more sense to the students because they would then have the necessary "scaffolding" to understand it."
"This book was of particular interest to me because of my Czech ancestors. They came to the US before communism spread across Europe, but growing up during the Cold War left me interested in the perspective from the other side of "The Wall." Author/illustrator Peter Sis details his life growing up under the tyranny of communism and behind the "iron curtain" that separated communist Europe from the rest of the continent. For older readers, middle school and up, this book combines autobiography and history in an appealing form. Richly detailed full page illustrations with embedded text are interspersed with selections from the author's journals. The journal selections give a window into the thoughts of a youngster trying to imagine a life without a totalitarian government while the illustrations give the reader the sense of the oppression experinced by the Czech population. Personally, I can still remember feeling dumbstruck by the TV images of the Germans in Berlin, from both sides of the wall, hammering away, and climbing and dancing on the wall when the communist regimes began to crumble."
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