Fern Schumer Chapman's Blog, page 22
May 25, 2019
Hugs and flowers from a 5th grader
Marking the end of a year of wonderful school visits, fifth graders at Oak Ridge Elementary School present roses to my mother and me.
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May 10, 2019
April 16, 2019
Love hearing from students!
Just received this beautiful thank-you note from Chatham High School students in Chatham, NY. After they read STUMBLING ON HISTORY, I SKYPED with them last month. They showed me their projects of atonement for our national crimes. Very moving!
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March 15, 2019
Living with her past
Students have changed my mother. At school speeches, they have listened to her story of fleeing Nazi Germany at 12 all by herself. They have asked her tough questions: What did you do? Why do you blame yourself? How could you think your parents didn’t love you? They have born witness and have helped her to live more comfortably with her past.
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February 19, 2019
Association of Jewish Libraries reviews THREE STARS IN THE NIGHT SKY
Chapman, Fern Schumer. Three Stars in the Night Sky: A Refugee Family’s Odyssey of Separation and Reunion. Illus. by Tom Greensfelder. Lake Bluff: Gussie Rose Press, 2018. 54 pp. $17.99. (9780996472548). Gr. 7-12.
The author shares the biography of Gerda Katz, who fled Nazi Germany at the age of 12 and came to America by herself. Like the author’s mother, who befriended Gerda on the boat to America with the One Thousand Children project, Gerda was placed with a sponsoring foster family, and lost contact with the author’s mother. Gerda’s life in Seattle was difficult – missing her family, learning a new language, assimilating into a foreign culture. The rest of Gerda’s family managed to escape to the Dominican Republic where their lives were also very hard. Gerda never stopped longing to be reunited with them.After over 20 years of separation, Gerda’s family was allowed to emigrate. The book ends describing the reunion of Gerda and the author’s mother, after 73 years of separation, arranged by students from an Illinois middle school who became engaged in the story. Three Stars in the Night Sky deftly illuminates the personal damage caused by racism in Nazi Germany, the Dominican Republic, and the United States during the 1930s and 1940s.
Well written information about events in history that impacted Gerda’s life is detailed: explanations of other waves of child immigration, the rise of Hitler, the Jewish school Gerda attended, the Evian Conference, the rule of Trujillo and the reason Jews immigrated to the Dominican Republic, Japanese internment. A superbly artistic layout of text, photographs, and historical artifacts documents the details of Gerda’s past. End matter includes credits for the sixty photos. Front and back inside covers display correspondence between Gerda and her family. It is a slim, picture book sized volume akin to Chapman’s Like Finding My Twin and Stumbling on History, produced in landscape, rather than portrait direction. Combine this and Chapman’s four other titles – Motherland for adults, Is It Night or Day?for middle school grades, Like Finding My Twin and Stumbling on History for a compelling congregational or community read.
Debbie Colodny, Cook Memorial Public Library District, Libertyville, IL. Former owner Sefer, So Good, and former member Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee.
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January 27, 2019
January 23, 2019
FSC presents at the Woodstock Opera House in Woodstock IL
Last Thursday, as part of the Woodstock Fine Arts Association
Creative Living Series, award-winning author Fern Schumer Chapman captivated the audience with an inspiring presentation. Fern shared the emotional story of her mother, Edith Westerfeld, who painfully fled Nazi Germany in 1938 and journeyed to America as an unaccompanied minor refugee. Fern then described Edith’s return to her small German hometown in 2014 to witness the installation of a memorial to remember her family. A conscience-driven activist-artist has embedded tens of thousands of hand-made bronze plaques to help today’s generation face their nation’s history and begin the process of atoning for the past. Fern’s program included a clip from an Oprah Winfrey program that featured Naperville 8th graders who reunited Edith with the best friend she met on the ship to America some 73 years ago. After her presentation, Fern invited her 93-year-old mother on stage to answer questions. The surprised and delighted audience responded with a standing ovation.
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January 19, 2019
December 12, 2018
Chicago Tribune reports on author’s school visit
December 7, 2018
Great to visit with Deerfield High School students who read IS IT NIGHT OR DAY?
Presentation at Deerfield High School. Students read IS IT NIGHT OR DAY? and we discussed how the book resonates with today’s issues — restrictive immigration, unaccompanied minors, and anti-Semitism. Thanks to English teacher Stephanie Martin for organizing the event.
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