| Booktak
#1
It started out as a game.
The children were waiting for the school bus one rainy day and they were
bored. Anna suggested they play The Game. They hadn't played
in a long time and they all eagerly agreed. The Game consisted of
making up a story. After all the children made suggestions as to
what the story would be about, Anna declared that it was her turn to chose
and her story to tell. The story had a simple premise. What
if Adolph Hitler had a daughter? What if she didn't fit into the
perfect Aryan image that Hitler tried to create. What if she had
some visible deformity? Thus begins the story. Day after day
as the children wait for the school bus, the story continues. Anna
adds more and more details and the children become so caught up in the
story that they begin to believe that the character is real.
Booktalk #2
What if Hitler had a daughter?
This book tells the tale of a group of Australian children who, while waiting
for their school bus, play a game of storytelling. Four friends,
Anna, Mark, Ben, and Tracy, usually entertain themselves by telling tales
about mermaids, fairies, or horses. One of the main characters, Anna, starts
to tell a pretend story about a mysterious character called Heidi. Anna
imagines that Heidi, a young girl who lived during World War II, was Hitler's
daughter. Hitler's daughter was hidden away from the outside world
because Hitler didn't want anyone to know he had a daughter, especially
a daughter who had a large birthmark on her face and a lame leg. Heidi
lives in isolation and is cared for by a governess called Fraulien Gelbar.
Heidi receives occasional visits from her father, whom she addresses as
Duffi. The Australian children are fascinated by the emerging details in
the story of Heidi, which Anna tells over a period of a few days. Mark,
who is really drawn into the story, begins to wonder how it would feel
to be the child of someone as evil as Hitler. Also, Mark begins to
question his own parents and the fact that his family lives on land that
was originally occupied by the Aborigines. Anna’s story is so believable
that Mark wonders if the story is true and if Heidi was truly, Hitler's
Daughter by Jackie French. (Becky Proctor, jonseyreeves@aol.com,
school librarian at Dorchester Academy, St. George, SC) |
