Petra

Dear Mr. Aronson,

The first thing that really popped out at me in your book was on page 6, where you said, “there is no safe way to write about race.” I thought that writing this book was a really good idea, and it was a great idea to try teaching young adults about such a complicated and controversial idea. Despite what I thought was too graphic and inappropriate, I found that some chapters were very successful. For example, I really enjoyed reading chapters 16 and 17, Child of God and Freedom. I thought that they were very well written and interesting. One of the questions that came up during my reading was, how would you have written this differently if you weren’t Jewish? I noticed the very strongly worded and emphatic passage about Germans on pages 208-209. I know that that would be different, but I was wondering how else it could affect your writing.

Although this was a great book, there were a few problems I noticed with it. As I stated before, I think that some of the passages were unsuitable for 7th and 8th graders, such as the one on page 21. It is important to recognize the horrible things happening around the world, but I think that there should have been better and more age-appropriate examples. The other problem I had with this book was that I found some passages to be very offensive to certain populations. Again, the passage on pages 208-209 could negatively affect a German. I don’t think that should have been in a book written “through the eyes of a historian.” Also, as a Christian, I was offended by your choice of words on page 209, when you said, “ that is exactly what some Christians have felt about Jews, whom they blame for killing their savior.” I personally don’t feel that way toward Jewish people. However, that sentence made me feel as if you were prejudiced against Christians.

Otherwise I found your book to be an excellent guide on the history of race and prejudice. It also helped me answer the question, why are we prejudiced? I really enjoyed learning about race through this book.

Sincerely, Petra