Module 13: Maus

Spiegelman, A. (1986). Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History. New York: Pantheon Books.

Summary
This is a tale about surviving the Holocaust as well as the story of a difficult father-son relationship between Art and his dad Vladek, a Holocaust survivor. Part 1 of this tale takes readers through Vladek's experiences in Poland leading up to his imprisonment with his wife in a concentration camp. Part 2 relates Vladek's time in the concentration camp and his eventual release.

My Impressions
This is a powerful and moving book with eloquent cartoons that depict Jews as mice and Nazis as cats. In fact each different nationality and type of person is depicted as animal characters in this tale. This is definitely a comic book for older, younger adult readers and even adults. The complexity of the father-son relationship that is told in present time with flashbacks to Vladek's experiences under the Nazi regime, make this a rich and complex book with no definitive heroes. Detailed illustrations make the comic panels come alive. I ended up reading both part 1 and part 2 because I wanted to know Vladek's full story. I would recommend that readers check out the complete volume as part 1 leaves us right at the beginning of Vladek's time in the concentration camp.

Professional Reviews
YA Told with chilling realism in an unusual comic-book format, this is more than a tale of surviving the Holocaust. Spiegelman relates the effect of those events on the survivors' later years and upon the lives of the following generation. Each scene opens at the elder Spiegelman's home in Rego Park, N.Y. Art, who was born after the war, is visiting his father, Vladek, to record his experiences in Nazi-occupied Poland. The Nazis, portrayed as cats, gradually introduce increasingly repressive measures, until the Jews, drawn as mice, are systematically hunted and herded toward the Final Solution. Vladek saves himself and his wife by a combination of luck and wits, all the time enduring the torment of hunted outcast. The other theme of this book is Art's troubled adjustment to life as he, too, bears the burden of his parents' experiences. This is a complex book. It relates events which young adults, as the future architects of society, must confront, and their interest is sure to be caught by the skillful graphics and suspenseful unfolding of the story. --School Library Journal, Rita G. Keeler, St. John's School , Houston, 1987. (Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Maus-Survivors-Father-Bleeds-History/dp/0394747232/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291738164&sr=8-1)

Suggested Use in Library
This would be a great book to recommend to students that come to the library looking for books on the Holocaust and concentration camps. It gives teens a more visually engaging and modern take on a historical time period that can oftentimes be overwhelming to read about in non-fiction form. This would also be a good book to use for a teen book talk. Definitely if this book is recommended, the librarian will have to highlight that the subject matter is quite serious and that the use of animals to depict different races is used to highlight the prejudices of the time period.

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SLIS 5420/Module 13
Graphic Novels and Series Books
November 15-20, 2010