Reads Like a Book

The description of the Holocaust continues to be pretty graphic. Her whole family was more or less executed by the Nazis. Right now, the book is reading like a combination of and Diary of a Young Girl and Night. Finally, the time has come to leave the remnants of Trachimbrod. As they exit, they stop at a stone that represented Trachimbrod's existence. Israel placed a marker there to celebrate the lives of all those lost and left living in Trachimbrod. Augustine made an interesting point as to the destruction of the town. The guys were asking her how great it must have felt to have survived. She responded with a NO because it is so hard to see everyone but one or two people around you die. It is better to be amongst the dead than the living. That is such an interesting point she makes. What is life worth living if absolutely everyone of any importance, and even your entire town, is taken?

When the scene changes, it goes back to the story of Trachimbrod as told by Foer. The Book of Antecedents is the entire chapter. There, you learn the history of the town and how the town defined certain trends, dates, events, ideas and values. It is quite interesting because it was almost like reading one of those trivia books or Bill Bryson's A Short History of Everything. One of the descriptions was about the enduring spirit of the Jews; I would have to agree. They went through slavery in the time of Moses to mass decimation in WWII. I don't think other people have as much of a right to complain about their past and people as the Jews. At least there are no survivors of the Civil War right now or we would be paying retribution out the butt. Interesting how the Jews have recently experienced all of this pain (as well as the Japanese with the American Concentration Camps in Utah), but do not ask for a dime's retribution.

I will be done with Everything Is Illuminated by Sunday. It will then be time to get back on track with ONE book a week...well one adult and a Newbery or notable children/teen book.

I blessed a 6th grader out tonight at Barnes. It scared her so much. I am pretty sure I was the first person to ever discipline her. This is the scene.
About 11 teens came running into the store tonight. They hauled butt down the escalators and I was there, as usual to receive them. Well, one girl took it upon herself to jump on the back of one of the boys and then pull his hoodie. He fell back and almost knocked several others into our Bestseller's octagon. I lost it. I said Alright, you need to stop right now. If you cannot act like human, you don't belong in this store. So, either act like a human being or move right on out RIGHT NOW (I am so glad I have been a teacher because I can sell the pissy attitude really well...I directed this right at the girl that jumped on the boy and did not take my eyes off of hers for a second...that is my intimidation factor)! She decided she was going to walk away from me. Don't you dare walk away from me while I am talking to me. If you want to walk away from me, you can walk yourself right out of the doors. Well, she turned and payed attention to me. If I see or hear one more little bit out of you tonight, so help me God you are out of this store for good. She ran off and hid from me. Her other friends who did nothing wrong, all sixth graders, ran up to me to apologize. I had them wrapped around my fingertips. So nice. They then wanted to run their mouths and socialize with me. They told me I was quite accomplished to be so young (I told them about being in school and my teaching experience) and that I looked way too young to have taught high school. HAHA.

Well, other than this...this is it for today! Have a lovely night.