The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale (No 1)

Maus was just a great story. I really was amazed by how much I liked Maus after reading it. It's almost unbelievable to think that it's based off of a true story. I really cared for the main characters in this book. I thought Maus would be good, but I didn't expect it to be great. Other than Schindler's List, I can't think of a Holocaust story that was as effective and had more impact than Maus. Overall, just a great book.

I can't say enough about how great Spiegelman is at creating this story. It's a graphic novel (historical autobiographical comic book) that depicts not only his parents' struggles before and after the Holocaust, but it's a phenomenal sketch of his own efforts to make sense of it all.

He struggles to find the right images and words to tell his father's story and...his own. The reader is drawn into Art's struggle to understand his own fears, anger and apprehension about being the son that didn't die in the Holocaust (he would've had an older brother). I don't wanna give clues away if you haven't read it but it's great. I read it myself in college and use it with my 10th grade humanities students that are weary of Anne Frank being the only story.

It goes great with other books (I've used Friedrich, Night and Number the Stars as precursors), documentaries (like, "the Genocide Factor" or the MTV special about youth diaries of the holocaust), films (I use Schindler's list) and of course, field trips to your area holocaust museum.

As a special treat for students, when students write him...he writes back!

Not just a comic. A very compelling and amazing story is illustrated in the book.

Here is why Maus is superior to Schindler's List as a means by which high school students can learn more about the Holocaust than the cursory examination it receives in many European history courses. In a film, the images speed by, as students sit there, open-mouthed. Students reading Maus, however, tend to linger as they absorb the astonishing amounts of information that Spiegelman can condense into a single frame. Look, for instance, at the way he depicts Vladek's family and in-laws gathered about the dinner table, unable to believe that anything terrible is about to befall them. They are drawn as if we (and their enemies) are watching them from the outside, and the more you look, the more the window mullions resemble bars. Or the way Anja, wearing her pig mask and desperate not to be detected as a Jew, cannot conceal her tail, which stretches behind her, while Vladek's (his disguise is more successful) does not. Even students who are not strong readers see and understand these things, and, in turn, talk about them. The intricacy of the drawings also guarantees that the teacher is not the sole possessor of information about the book, since often a student will spot details that others (including the teacher) did not see. Maus can help turn passive students, who may be overwhelmed or even made numb by the events depicted in films about the Holocaust, into active and engaged students. I,by the way, am an English teacher, and it is in English classes that my students read Maus.

The hateful reviews aren't new to me! Ignore them. Art (good name) and I have a lot in common. (see below)

My Parents Went Through the Holocaust and All I Got Was This Lousy Tshirt
This TRAUMEDY is my memoir, based on the humor that heped my parents survive the horror of the Holocaust. Provocative title, yes, but flip, no...

Despite glowing reviews, like with Maus, I've been ripped to shreds by people who haven't read my book.

Hanala Stadner