Maus I: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman

Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman

BookSnap

 

Rationale

Maus I is a graphic novel that records the oral history of Art Spiegelman’s father.  Art interviewed his father, Vladek, in 1978-79 and the book recounts his father’s life experiences from the mid-30s to his detention in Auschwitz.  Critics did not know how to classify the work and have since classified Maus as memoir, biography, history, fiction, autobiography, a mix of genres and, most commonly, graphic novel. Maus was not received well at first because the graphic novel had not yet been accepted in the mainstream when Maus was published in 1986. While the term ‘graphic novel’ had been coined in 1964, Maus was the first to gain commercial success.  In 1992, after the publication of Maus II, it became the first graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize.  Rosemary Chance, in Young Adult Literature in Action, recommends Maus as a ‘Classic’ graphic novel (pg 32).

The BookSnap shows a quote from Joseph Witek’s book Comic Books as History: The Narrative Art of Jack Jackson, Art Spiegelman, and Harvey Pekar.  I chose this quote to show the importance of this work to bringing graphic novels into the mainstream.  Before the commercial success of Maus, graphic novels were considered only for children but also were associated solely with super hero stories.  The quote from the book was chosen because, at the time, the belief about whether concentration camps existed and what they were doing there was controversial. And, there has been much discussion about whether people knew about their existence at the time.  As Vladek explains here, the stories about the concentration camps were so dreadful and so disturbing that they were difficult to believe.  Also, I believe this quote expresses the gravity of the story.  The picture is from the front cover.  I chose this illustration because it shows the seriousness of the story and the medium in which it is conveyed.

Related Read Title	Related Read Author	Category	How Related Read Relates to Initial Title	Why You Would Recommend the Related Read
Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began	Art Spiegelman	Graphic Novel	Continuation from Maus I	Continues the story of the Spiegelmans through to the end of World War II.
World War II in 500 Photographs	The Editors of Time-Life	Non-Fiction	Shows the holocaust in the context of the entire war.	Covers the war from the Nazis’ early rise to power through to Victory over Japan Day (VJ-Day).  This books covers: key events, battles, and turning points, year by year; profiles of the war's leaders, heroes, and enemies; memorable quotations and firsthand accounts; and color maps and photo timelines.
The Book Thief	Markus Zusak	Historical Fiction	A historical fiction account about a hidden Jewish man during WWII.	- #1 New York Times bestseller - Starred review in Kirkus Review, Publisher’s Weekly, The Horn Book Magazine, and School Library Journal.
Four Perfect Pebbles	Lila Perl and Marion Blumenthal Lazan	Memoir	The recounting of the Blumenthal family who were trapped in Nazi territory for six years.	- ALA Notable Book - ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers - IRA Young Adults’ Choice - Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies

From Kirkus Review: “This unusual Holocaust tale will forever alter the way serious readers think of graphic narratives. For his unforgettable combination of words and pictures, Spiegelman draws from high and low culture, and blends autobiography with the story of his father's survival of the concentration camps. In funny-book fashion, the all-too-real characters here have the heads of animals--the Jews are mice, the Nazis are rats, and the Poles are pigs--a stark Orwellian metaphor for dehumanized relations during WW II. Much of Spiegelman's narrative concerns his own struggle to coax his difficult father into remembering a past he'd rather forget. What emerges in father Vladek's tale is a study in survival; he makes it through by luck, randomness, and cleverness. Full of hard-earned humor and pathos, Maus takes your breath away with its stunning visual style, reminding us that while we can never forget the Holocaust, we may need new ways to remember.”

References

Chance, Rosemary. (2014) Young adult literature in action: A librarian’s guide. (Second Edition). Denver, CO: Libraries Unlimited.

Daspin, E., & Solomon, M. (2014). World War II in 500 photographs. New York, NY: Time Home Entertainment.

Kirkus Reviews (1991.). Maus I: A survivors tale by Art Spiegelman. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/art-spiegelman/maus-a-survivors-tale/

Perl, L., & Lazan, M. B. (2016). Four perfect pebbles: A true story of the Holocaust. New York: Greenwillow Books, An Imprint of HarperCollins.

Spiegelman, A. (1997). Maus I: A survivors tale / my father bleeds history. New York: Pantheon Books.

Spiegelman, A. (1997). Maus a survivors tale II: And here my troubles began. London: Penguin.

Witek, J. (1990). Comic books as history: The narrative art of Jack Jackson, Art Spiegelman, and Harvey Pekar. Jackson, MS: Univ. Press of Mississippi.

Zusak, M., & White, T. (2013). The book thief. New York, NY: Knopf.