Book Detail

Maus I: My Father Bleeds History

Publication Information
Author:  Spiegelman, Art Illustrator:  Spiegelman, Art
Title:  Maus I: My Father Bleeds History Date:  1986
Publisher:  Pantheon City:  New York
ISBN, paperback:   ISBN, hardback:  978-0-394-74723-1

Recommended audience:
ABE/ABLE:   Yes ESOL:  
Family:   Young Adult:   Yes
Picture:  

General Information:
Book Type(s):    biography and autobiography, graphic novel, memoirs/reminiscences, nonfiction

HSE Descriptor(s):    social studies

Summary:
This is the first of two volumes about the experiences of the author's parents in the Nazi concentration camps during WWII. The author depicts Jews as mice and Nazis as cats in his illustrations.

Teaching Ideas:
Before and after comparisons of life in the concentration camps and life in the present may help readers sort out the flashbacks. Readers would also benefit from exploration of the extended metaphor of cat and mouse for the interactions of Jews and Nazis. The book adds a visual dimension to a text set on the Holocaust. Students may want to discuss/write about he relationship between father and son and how it carries much of the emotional burden of the earlier experience of the concentration camps. Students may want to investigate some of the significant historical events mentioned in the book.

Teaching Strategies:
bullet Bleich's Heuristic for Responding to Reading
   http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/bleichs_heuristic.pdf
bullet Literature Circles
   http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/lit_circles.pdf
bullet Reader's Theater
   http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/readers_theater.pdf
bullet Word Sorts
   http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/word_sorts.pdf

Keywords: select any link below for a list of resources which also have that keyword
bullet Ethnic Groups > Jewish
bullet Emotions-Personal Issues > emotions > determination/perseverance
bullet Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > endurance
bullet Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > human strength
bullet Family > father > father-child relationships
bullet Hardships > survival
bullet History > time period > 20th Century
bullet History > topic > war > World War II > Holocaust
bullet History > topic > war > World War II > Nazis
bullet History > topic > war > World War II > concentration/internment camps


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