Foreword suitability fail? When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

[lizziec]

I've recently been reading my brand new copy of When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (my old one, that I had had since I was 8 or so, fell apart from being read rather a lot). I got my new copy through the lj_uk Christmas Wishlist exchange - it's this edition (2008). According to Barnes and Noble (and various other sites) this book is recommended for 8-12 year olds. I'd agree with that, seems like a good age to read it for the first time.

My edition has a foreword called "Why You'll Love This Book" by Michael Morpurgo, Children's Laureate from 2003-2005. Bear in mind, when reading what comes next that this book is recommended for ages 8-12. His style in writing the foreword suggests that he is talking to these young readers.

The fifth paragraph starts:
"When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, published forty years ago, speaks to us of a time most of us know only through books of history and fiction, through archive film, as well as through movies. It is from The Diary of Anne Frank to I am David and Schindler's List and The Pianist that most of us have our haunting but distant insights into the lives of those who had experienced the terrors and horrors of Nazi persecution and extermination..."

I understand that 8-12 year olds may well have read the former two (The Diary of Anne Frank and I am David) - I know I had read at least one of those at that age (Anne Frank), having both a taste for the historical and something of a fascination with all things WWII (and Holocaust - I think I was a rather odd child). However, I highly doubt they have seen the latter (Schindler's List and The Pianist), not least because they're both rated 15. Don't get me wrong, they're both right up there as favourite films, I think they're amazing. But they're definitely not for children of the age the book is primarily aimed at.

I dunno. That part of the foreword just felt rather odd. Surely, given the writer's status as a former Children's Laureate, he would be aware of what a child of that age has been exposed to, and what they haven't?

Comments

[kimble.livejournal.com]

Perhaps he's more aware of what a child that age has been exposed to than the BBFC would like to pretend?

[trappermcintyre.livejournal.com]

While I can see where you're coming from, I doubt that kids of that age would choose to watch Schindler's List or The Pianist. It seems to me much more likely that kids of that age would choose to watch The Mummy, The Matrix or similar.

[kimble.livejournal.com]

Well yes. But once they've watched The Mummy and The Matrix a few times, it seems likely that they'll move onto the other DVDs on the shelf, and the rest is a function of how bored they happen to be at the time. Or of course take it in by osmosis while another family member is actively watching it.

That's certainly how telly (we didn't really have pre-recorded videos in any kind of quantity, just stuff we'd recorded from the telly, so the shelf-of-DVDs comparison isn't quite right) got watched in my family. I also had a brother who was obsessed with WW2, and would actively watch nearly anything set in that period - though I accept that's unusual.

[kelbelle-tiger.livejournal.com]

I bought a copy of Anne Frank last year when I went to Amsterdam and this was an "uncut" version, basically covering everything her father had refused to publish pre 2001. This version is a lot darker and more sexually explicit than the one I read as a child. I havent seen the film, but I assume they didnt cover this in there!

I have read the books of all of the above. I also tend to include "Empire of the Sun" in the collective, even though it is in Japan, it has the same evocative melancholy of the age. I saw that pre twelve too.

I think books are a better form for kids to digest the issues of the second world war, the films (especially Schindler's Ark) are somewhat sensationalist in my view, and lack the sentiments of the books. A book a child can digest at his own pace and deal with the issues in a more distinct way than in the brief 2-3 hour period of a film.