Maus I and II

Although I am usually not a huge fan of graphic novels, the Maus books were a good read in order to understand the horrific details of what times were like during the Holocaust. Something that was nice about this book was that the writer and the speaker of the book did not experience concentration camps and the Holocaust for himself so the book was written in order for people to understand what people went through during this time.

I liked that the author went through his entire writing process in his book. Before I read it I thought that it would strictly be about his father's experience throughout the Holocaust; giving us captions into how his father and mother coped with what happened to them was really interesting and gave us a more long term picture of what kind of effect it had on people who survived the camps. Even Art was effected by his parents experience, even though he was not born until after the war. His mother could not cope with the feelings that she had from this so she took her life- without even leaving a note- which really negatively impacted Art and his father. His father could not part with anything and was never, EVER wasteful even in the most silly of circumstances. When confronted about this his father explained that he did not want to waste anything after Hitler. This really gives us a perspective on how little these people had to live off of when they were in the camp. Even going as far as taking paper from restaurants to save some money on napkins. 

Something else that was nice about this book was that since the characters were portrayed as animals, the content was received a little less intensely, which might be good for a younger reading audience. It might not give a message that kids can relate to but at least it gives them an introduction into understanding and knowing what went on during this period.

Another nice thing about this book is that it reaches a wider range of students. Many books given to kids in school are traditional novels; a graphic novel gets kids who maybe don't enjoy extensive reading as much something to enjoy while also getting a good reading content. 

I probably wouldn't teach this book but I would definitely give it as an option to students when doing a Holocaust segment. Even though the reading level isn't extremely high, I would still probably suggest giving this to 9-12th grade students due to the intense content.