AndrewL

Uni High 1212 W. Springfield Ave. Urbana, IL 61801 9/30/08

Marc Aronson Author Atheneum Books for Young Readers 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

Dear Mr. Aronson,

Before I go on into detail, I would like to say I enjoyed your book as a whole. It was full of interesting points and creative language. You had a fantastic introduction, drawing me in as a reader by using a story and then somehow summarizing the book without telling me much so that I was left wondering. My only option was to read on, which I did (and not just because it was assigned as homework). As I was reading, I found that I had some problems with your book. Some parts (such as the final chapter) did not really fit with the rest of the book. You said the book was going to explore and trace the roots of racism, yet it diverts from that path. In the passage where you say you hate Germans, I can see it is a connection to the context, but was it necessary to word it like you did or to put it in that spot? After I finished the book, I had a feeling that I was more racist and more prejudiced than I had been before. It could have just been me realizing my prejudices, not me becoming more prejudiced. It was, truly, an informative and interesting book. A good book will ask as many questions as it answers. Sincerely,

Andrew Lumetta