David’s Comments (group member since Jun 20, 2019)

David’s comments from the Multicultural Library EDGTE 480 group.

Turtles All the Way Down by Jon Green

The setting of the novel takes place mostly inside the mind of Aza Holmes, a sixteen-year-old girl who suffers from acute mental disorders. Her friend, Daisy, and she gets wrapped up in the disappearance of a billionaire when they find evidence that gives them a reward of $100,000. The story touches on real-world problems involving healthy teen relationships and class differences, but the bulk of the story is relegated to Aza’s never-ending toxic conversation with herself. This conversation reveals huge problems that one confronts in the formative years of a teen when dealing with ‘the self’.

As someone who has had their fair share of mental illnesses, I believe that this story can speak truth to many people directly or indirectly suffering from a harmful mental state. It shows the dangers that the mind can bring and it helps those around that person separate the individual from the disease. This is incredibly relevant to today as the rise of social media has in many ways promoted mental illness. This also affects minority groups at a higher rate as he already dispossessed identity groups housed within the self are not fully realized.


Overall Review:
9/10 for teens
7/10 for anyone older

The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe

The story is a fictionalized telling of the real account told by Dita Kraus. The book follows Dita Polachova, a young Jewish girl, and her peculiar yet horrifying time at Auschwitz. It recounts the suffering and oppression imposed on her people and many other’s like her by Nazi Concentration camp officers. More importantly, though, it reveals the courage and strength Dita manifested as the protector and distributor of precious illegal books. Throughout the story, Dita forms important relationships with people that are also in the camp and through these relationships a meta narrative is revealed. This narrative showcases the importance of books, storytelling, culture, identity, and opposition to tyranny.

This book manages to create a sense of strong emotional release as well as provoke thought in the mind of the reader. It is impactful in the way it creates an almost panic over how fragile and easily corruptible a human can be. On the bookshelf of a classroom, it carves in the mind of the student reader a network of bridges between culture, books, society, and morality. It is also incredibly empowering as the reader sees the courage of the character’s spirit. I do not know how a student could read this and not be transformed into having a more clear vision of their purpose/identity.

Overall Review: 9/10