The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: Historical Fiction Annotation

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
by Louise Murphy

Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Date: 2003
Number of Pages: 297
Geographical Setting: Eastern Poland
Time Period: World War II/Holocaust (1943)

Plot Summary: This novel reimagines the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel and sets it in Holocaust-era Poland.  A Jewish family--two children along with their father and stepmother--flee their home in hopes of escaping life controlled by the Nazis.  The children are forced to hide in the woods and fend for themselves, but not before their parents tell them to adopt new identities--they are now Hansel and Gretel.  They happen upon Magda the witch, who takes them in and passes them off as Christian orphans.  Meanwhile, the children's parents struggle to survive on their own, trying to ensure that the children are safe and protected.  Through struggles of identity, safety, and the hope of freedom, the story's characters do whatever they must to survive the war and to come back to the old life they held so dear.

Subject Headings: Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); World War, 1939-1945; Brothers and sisters; Jewish families; Children

Characteristics and Appeal:
Plot/Characterization -- This book is focused on the experience of the characters, regarding both internal and external struggles.  The action goes back and forth between two groups of characters: the children with Magda and the others in the village; and their father and stepmother with their group hiding in the woods.  The narrative is interwoven with the familiar details of Hansel and Gretel (such as Hansel leaving a trail of breadcrumbs in the woods and the witch "caging" Gretel).

Tone -- This story is a very bleak one.  The characters endure serious violence, emotional trauma, and a great deal of fear.  What the author puts them through is very true to what people must have experienced during the Holocaust, especially those who went into hiding from the Nazis.  Because of the realistic narrative, the book has a very dark tone that exposes the grittiest side of human nature and of the victims of oppression.

Pacing -- The book takes place over one winter, so the pace is somewhat quick.  The writing is compelling and, along with fairly short chapters, it moves the reader along, encouraging him/her to keep reading to find out what happens to the characters in the end.

Read-Alikes:
A True Novel by Minae Mizumura -- This story of World War II is a retelling of another classic story (Withering Heights) that explores the bleakness of the time.

Kindergarten by Peter Rushforth -- This is another retelling of Hansel and Gretel that involves a character who must confront her own experience in surviving the Holocaust.

Nostalgia by Dennis McFarland -- This is a compelling story of a young man who has a strong relationship with his sister, and who struggles with finding shelter and maintaining his identity as he fights during the Civil War.

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Beyond Print: Week 11 Prompt Response

At my library, there is a substantial collection of audiobooks.  Noblesville and Fishers (where our two branches are located) are full of commuters and people who travel frequently, and many of those who use the library love to stock up on audiobooks for their long drives each week.  These are voracious readers who don’t have the time to sit down with a physical book, so they improvise in this way.  The library has copies of many of the most popular and new audiobook titles, both fiction and nonfiction, and there is something for fans of nearly every genre.  What is great about this is that these busy people, who are constantly on the move, can still fit in reading time and they still get to read new and popular books.  They, like many audiobook connoisseurs, also “choose audiobook titles that [they] are unlikely to read in print form…titles that [they’ve] always wanted to read but have never gotten around to” (Mediatore, 2003, p. 318-19).  The offering of so many audiobooks to these patrons—or those with visual impairments or any other reason for wanting to consume books aurally—meets the library’s mission to reach diverse readers, which is a wonderful thing. 

However, this great intention is somewhat nullified when the quality of audiobooks is not the best.  Patrons tell us all the time about how they didn’t like this audiobook or couldn’t get through that audiobook because the narration was terrible.  With a sigh of disappointment that they could not read yet another title because of less-than-stellar narration, they too often return audiobooks unfinished.  Our collection of these books is meant to cater to their reading needs, but the poor quality of some of the books prevents them from actually getting to consume them.  This is because the problem of poor quality goes beyond patrons simply being annoyed by a narrator’s voice—the narration affects several other appeal factors that can make or break a story.  The characterization is affected through the voices the narrator may, or may not, use for each character, thereby infusing a bit of personality into the characters and sometimes affecting the reader’s relationship with them.  Pacing and tone are very much influenced by the narrator’s speed and tone of voice.  I listened to part of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in audiobook format, and what I thought would be a compelling thriller ended up feeling like a boring, drawn-out story with too many details.  This was thanks to the narrator’s slow pace in speaking and flat tone of voice.  A book that I had anticipated loving because of the reviews of other readers became, because of the narrator, a book I really did not enjoy at all.

eBooks are a similar animal.  They are very much like physical books in that the reader’s imagination provides his or her own voices for the characters, and there is no external narrator influencing the story at all for the reader.  The eBook format does come with its own changes to appeal, though.  Dunneback and Trott (2011) argue that, because readers can change font size, line spacing, and even colors on eReaders, they “will need to rely entirely on narrative drive to feel the pace of the story” because “the larger the text, the less there is to indicate how quickly the story is moving” (p. 328).  This can, in turn, influence tone: “When you see large blocks of texts on the page, this can indicate a description rich story... Short paragraphs with lots of dialogue can mean snappy or quick-witted characters.  If the visual cues are not there, will the reader tire of the story more quickly?” (Dunneback & Trott, 2011, p. 328).  These influences on appeal can make reader’s advisory difficult—what might read as a fast-paced story to one person could read as a slower, more leisurely read to another, all because of the adaptability of the screen to the reader’s preferences.  How, then, do we recommend titles to patrons?  Do we base our recommendations off of the print versions of titles, or do we inform patrons that reading a book on a Kindle might ultimately change the way the story comes across to them?  There are many factors to consider with both eBooks and audiobooks when doing reader’s advisory with them, but I think that having to take these changes to appeal into consideration will only make us more knowledgeable about the titles and genres we are recommending.

References

Dunneback, K., & Trott, B. (2011). E-books and readers' advisory. Reference & User Services

Quarterly, 50(4), 325-9.

Mediatore, K. (2003). Reading with your ears: Readers' advisory and audio books. Reference &

User Services Quarterly, 42(4), 318-23. 

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On the Same Page: Book Club Observation

I attended a meeting of the On the Same Page book discussion group from my library.  This is a fiction book club for all adults, and it is led by one of the Adult Services librarians.  On the Same Page is a brand new book club for the library that discusses a variety of fiction.  Its very first meeting was held last month, where attendees discussed The Snow Child, a work of magical realism.  Next month they will be discussing Finding Nouf, a mystery set in Saudi Arabia.  On the Same Page is held at a local coffee shop, and the library has a tab open for attendees to get a free drink during the book club’s meetings. 

The book that was discussed at the meeting I attended was Alice I Have Been.  This novel is a biographical/historical fiction (mixed with actual truths) about Alice Lidell, who served as the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.  There were ten women who attended, ranging in age from mid-20’s to 80’s; most attendees were between 40 and 60 years old.  The meeting was held in a large back room of the coffee shop, where two or three other groups of people were gathered and chatting during the book club meeting.  The book club attendees were sitting closely around some tables they had pushed together.  The librarian (a female in her early 30’s) asked guiding questions throughout the meeting and gave attendees the opportunity to share their thoughts before she shared her own.  Many of the questions she asked naturally flowed into discussions about related elements of the book.  Sometimes attendees asked their own questions about plot points, and the rest of the group readily answered with their thoughts.

The librarian began the meeting by asking attendees what they thought of the book in general, and if they had ever read Alice in Wonderland.  She wanted to know if attendees had a frame of reference going into Alice I Have Been, having read Carroll’s children’s book, and if they previously knew very much about Carroll or Alice.  Attendees gave their overall opinions of the book, comparing it to what they already knew, or did not know, about Alice in Wonderland and Lewis Carroll.  This led to a recurring discussion of the photographs in Alice I Have Been, prompting the librarian to ask what attendees thought of the fact that the real Alice was a brunette but that the book character Alice was blonde.  Attendees discussed Alice Lidell’s traits with the book character’s traits, as well as how Lidell’s life influenced or was influenced by Caroll’s book.  The librarian then went on to ask for attendees’ thoughts on the relationships between some of the characters.  These questions sparked lively banter between attendees about the characters’ thoughts and intentions.

The conversation moved on to explore the connection between Alice and Peter Pan and what these stories tell us about fame and childhood.  The librarian also asked how the characters in Alice I Have Been relate to attendees own lives or people they know.  This was followed by a short debate about whether or not attendees liked Alice herself.  In the final part of the discussion, attendees talked about their opinions of historical fiction and of fictionalizing a real person; they also launched into a discussion of why Alice in Wonderland is still popular today.  The discussion concluded with the librarian asking attendees to give their ratings of the book out of 5 and their final thoughts.  She gave her rating and thoughts last, so as not to influence others’ opinions.  Finally, she handed out copies of Finding Nouf (next month’s selection) and gave a short description of it.  As attendees were getting ready to leave, they talked about the possibility of either reserving the smaller back room on the other side of the coffee shop for their next meeting or meeting in the library.  At times it was difficult to hear what each other was saying because of the extraneous conversations happening around them in the big room, and they wondered about the possibility of finding a quieter place to meet.

This was the first time I had ever attended a book club, but I have heard many stories of negative or uncomfortable experiences that others have had at book club meetings.  This meeting of On the Same Page was an excellent experience: all of the attendees actively participated; they were all respectful of each other’s opinions, even when they disagreed; and everyone was engaged and interested in the discussion, even though some of them did not even like the book very much.  There were two women who answered nearly every question, but they did not overpower the conversation or steal the spotlight.  Two attendees did not speak much, but they seemed content to listen to the rest of the group’s thoughts and to share their thoughts when they felt compelled.  The librarian did not have to prompt the group to talk, as they took control of the conversation and kept it going amongst them.  Even though she asked a couple of yes-or-no questions, the attendees did not just give yes-or-no answers—they always followed up their answers with an explanation without any prompting.  There was not a single moment of silence or awkwardness during the entire meeting.  Everyone, myself included, was genuinely interested in the discussion and in each other’s thoughts about the book.  The librarian had told me prior to the meeting that this was only her second time leading this group, but one would think, by sitting in on this discussion, that these women have been meeting together for a very long time.  It was a superb example to me of what a productive book club should be.

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Online Reader's Advisory Services & Tools: Special Topics Paper

Traditionally, readers’ advisory, or RA, has been a service offered face-to-face with a library patron.  The librarian conducts an RA interview to understand the patron’s tastes and reading background, and then uses that information to recommend next reads to the patron. The evolution of both technology and information retrieval methods has required libraries to adapt to include electronic dimensions of their services.  The realm of RA is no exception—librarians are continually finding new ways to provide online RA services to their patrons, whether they are exclusive to their particular library and its collection, or they are general tools available to the public.  Librarians use certain RA websites—NoveList, Early Word, professional review sites, and literary social networking sites like GoodReads—to come up with book recommendations for patrons, and they sometimes even advertise these sites to patrons so that they can use them on their own.  Aside from these well-known resources, there are many other inventive ways that libraries can offer RA services online.

Fig. 1.  Denver Public Library
book recommendation request form

One of the most common methods of online RA service is the “Ask-a-Librarian” or virtual reference-type of feature on a library’s website.  This can be in the form of a live chat, email, or texting transaction.  In a live chat format, a librarian can simply conduct an RA interview as they normally would do, only via typing instead speaking face-to-face.  What is unique to a virtual RA interview is that the librarian can send the patron links to items in the catalog, to online booklists, or to book award websites to supplement book recommendations.  With email or texting, many libraries provide a form on their websites “for readers to express their interests, checking off favorite genres and sharing particular titles they’ve enjoyed or disliked, and why.  Patrons then receive a list of hand-selected suggestions via email” (Wright & Bass, 2010b, p. 9).  Figure 1 is an excerpt from an email recommendation request form from the Denver Public Library (2015).  It asks for the patron’s format and genre preferences, and it includes other questions that might be asked in a traditional in-person RA interview, such as, “Who are your favorite authors?”  An even more comprehensive form is provided through the Williamsburg Regional Library (2015).  It asks patrons to not only rate genre preferences, but it also asks for “peeves/pleasures,” content, and tone/style/mood preferences, as seen in Figure 2.  This kind of virtual RA service can be just as personalized as a face-to-face RA interview, and it gives the librarian even more time, and sometimes more information, to be able to find sufficient recommendations for patrons using the service.

Fig. 2.  Williamsburg Regional Library, example of preferences

Fig. 3.  Provo City Library staff blog review example

Another common way libraries are providing online reader’s advisory services is through blogs.   Many librarians are writing their own book reviews and publishing them on blogs available through their libraries’ websites.  Provo City Library (2015) has its own staff reviews blog, where Kirkus-style reviews are posted a few times a week.  Posts are labeled and categorized by genre; special materials such as gentle reads, staff picks, and audio picks are also denoted with the appropriate labels.  This allows patrons either to look at all reviews as they are posted, or to look at specifically labeled reviews only.  Figure 3 shows an example of a review posted on Provo City Library’s blog.  Librarians use professional review sources, such as Kirkus or Booklist, to make book recommendations to patrons, but writing their own reviews adds a personal touch to RA service.  Patrons can see that librarians are clearly dedicated to being knowledgeable about their collections and that they are sufficiently qualified to help them find something “good” to read.  RA blogs can also “highlight books that patrons might otherwise miss by posting [other, professional] book reviews and best seller lists” (Anwyll & Chawner, 2013, 19).  Sharing this experiential knowledge could help patrons find their next read just as easily as they can by participating in an RA interview.

A third form of online reader’s advisory is what Wright and Bass (2010a) term “automated reader’s advisory,” which “refers to a computer program designed to automatically (without human intervention) offer the user suggested reads” (p. 1).  These are tools that librarians could advertise by word-of-mouth, on fliers in the library, or on the library’s website.  Librarians would not be offering personalized RA service with automated RA tools, but they are useful for patrons all the same.  One example of automated reader’s advisory is Gnooks.  Gnooks is unique because it not only offers book recommendations, but it also provides recommendations for music, movies, and art.  Material suggestions are given when the user inputs his or her favorite authors, artists, movies, or musicians, depending on which type of material he or she wants.  The site also includes a literature map and a movie map, where the user inputs an author or a movie and a map is formed with similar titles.  As the site explains, “the closer two writers [or movies] are, the more likely someone will like both of them” (Gnook, 2015).  The user can click on any name or title on the map to generate a new map.  Figure 4 shows a map of authors that readers of Liane Moriarty also enjoy.

Fig. 4.  Literature map for Liane Moriarty on Gnooks

Many libraries use social media to advertise things like library-sponsored programs, author visits, and new library services.  An additional, inventive use for social media is to offer RA services through it.  Anwyll and Chawner (2013) describe an experiment by the Multnomah County Library in which readers were asked on the library’s Facebook page to tell the last five books they had read in return for the RA staff’s suggestions for a next book to read (p. 20).  This experiment resulted in good participation and “very positive” feedback.  Anwyll and Chawner (2013) also cite the use of Twitter to “microblog” RA suggestions with attached links to the items in the library’s catalog (p. 19).  Using Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites can help the library to meet readers where they are—“it allows RA librarians to interact directly with interested readers” (Anwyll & Chawner, 2013, p. 21) on a site where they go for entertainment—and to connect with them in a fun, relaxed way.  Social media can improve a library’s presence in its community, and it can also improve awareness about the library’s materials: “Several people have noted that recommending a book on a social media site raises its profile with potential readers…a librarian at Ann Arbor District library who tracked reader involvement through following the holds activity of the books she had written blog posts about, [noted] that one item went from one to fifteen requests” (Anwyll & Chawner, 2013, p. 20).  Social media as an RA tool is all about promoting the library and its collection, and it can prove very valuable for raising patrons’ awareness of books they might enjoy.

One last method of offering online reader’s advisory service is through QR codes.  These information-storing barcodes can be used for myriad purposes throughout the library, from directing patrons to program sign-up pages, author websites, the library’s catalog, and more.  Another use for QR codes, of course, is for reader’s advisory.  QR codes can be placed on anything, from shelves to posters to book jackets.  When scanned, they can take patrons to book reviews, lists of read-alikes, the library’s blog, or other resources.  Hampton, Peach, and Rawlins (2012) cite a library that uses QR codes to “suggest read-alikes for more than 10 genres/age groups, covering more than forty specific titles/authors, all of which can be downloaded for free from the library’s Web site and used as a starting point for the implementation of QR code-based reader’s advisory services” (p. 410).  Just as with social media, QR codes are a fun way to engage patrons in RA services, and they do so in a passive way that allows patrons to discover their next reads through their own investigation.  Using QR codes also allows the library to offer a large amount of information in a very small space—the codes themselves take up a tiny amount of space, and all of the information toward which they lead is stored online.  This could be a great option for libraries that don’t have much space for book lists or read-alike information within the library, or for those that want to cut back on the production and dissemination of paper products containing this information.

Online reader’s advisory services and tools obviously come with their own set of drawbacks.  The community has to have access to computers or other technological equipment; sometimes websites fail or crash; and some patrons are too uneasy with technology to take advantage of online RA services.  However, these tools greatly expand the reach of the library to more of its surrounding community, and they keep the library relevant and up-to-speed with the developments in technology.  People are always inventing and looking for new ways to seek information, so the concept of reader’s advisory should, and can, follow in this trend of evolving information retrieval methods.  Despite the possible limitations of online RA services, these options are entertaining, useful, contemporary approaches to reader’s advisory that can influence readers just as much as, if not more than, traditional face-to-face RA interviews.

References

Anwyll, R., & Chawner, B. (2013). Social media and readers’ advisory: a

Win-win combination?. (L. Tarulli, Ed.) Reference & User Services Quarterly, 53(1), 18-22.

Denver Public Library. (2015). Request a personalized reading list. Retrieved

from http://denverlibrary.org/request-reading-list

Gnooks. (2015). Literature map: Liane Moriarty. Retrieved from

http://www.literature-map.com/liane+moriarty.html 

Hampton, D., Peach, A., and Rawlins, B. (2012). Extending library service

with QR codes. Reference Librarian, 53(4), 403-414.

Provo City Library. (2015). Provo City Library staff reviews. Retrieved from

http://provolibrarystaffreviews.blogspot.com

Williamsburg Regional Library. (2015). Looking for a good book. Retrieved

from http://www.wrl.org/books-and-reading/adults/looking-good-book

Wright, D., & Bass, A. (2010). Getting connected: Tech tools for reader’s

advisory [Conference handout]. Retrieved from http://nwcentral.org/files/Getting%20Connected%20Preconference%20Handout.doc

Wright, D., & Bass, A. (2010). No reader is an island: New strategies for

readers’ advisory. Alki, 26(3), 9-10.

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