An FYI

[Diane Fingers]

I know that there was quite a debate over the book The Boy In the Striped Pajamas, and I didn't know if everyone was aware that it is soon to be released as a motion picture. I've attached the address for more information, or at least I've tried. Curiosity will get the best of me to see how in the world this was put on film. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0914798/

[Karen Shawn]

Thanks for this update! It is really a dreadful book, and I worry that this movie will give a new generation of learners the mistaken idea that the camps were like a big playground, and kids from outside could actually befriend those inside and spend a whole year chatting through the fence, a fence with a hole under it big enough to escape from the camp and/or enter into the camp, almost like Peter Rabbit and Farmer MacGregor...I think the best thing to do about such books and films is ignore them and let them die a quick and quiet death, as the book, mercifully, has done.
It should be noted that a well-known Israeli historian was asked by the film's producers to give it a good word, and when he told them how and why he was horrified by so much of it because of its gross inaccuracies, impossibilities, and plain nonsense, and he offered his help with a total rewrite, they told him no thanks because it was too late to change anything...so that does not bode well, I would say, for this movie's authenticity. Let's hope it goes away quickly.

[Pam]

I just last week convinced our library not to buy this book! Like Karen, I hope the movie moves swiftly out of theaters, if indeed it makes it there.

[Karen Shawn]

It makes me feel so good to see how many of us are on the same page with such issues as inappropriate fiction and simulations. Perhaps this site can serve as a teaching tool for those who have not been able to engage in face-to-face discussions about these important classroom issues.