My "Hana's Suitcase" Story

Prologue:

Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine, is an award-winning story that is actually two stories in one.  The story begins by introducing us to the Brady Family and, in particular, the two Brady children; George and Hana.  As we meet them, they are blissfully unaware that they are about to be swept up into one of modern history’s darkest chapters: the Holocaust.  In the next chapter, we meet a Japanese teacher named Fumiko who has organized a peace club.  In order to help her students understand the true nature of the Holocaust, Fumiko understood correctly that children usually learn more deeply when they have actual materials and objects to hold rather than simply looking through photographs. So, she sent requests to Holocaust museums all over the world for any resources that they could spare to help her in her lessons. She received rejections from every museum except for one.  That museum sent a collection of artifacts that included a suitcase with the name Hana Brady on it. And so began a detective story than ended up spanning the globe as Fumiko and her students attempt to discover who this “Hana Brady” really was.  

Karen Levine constructed her book by alternating the story lines every other chapter.  So, as Hana and her family move through the well-known stages of the Holocaust process culminating in being sent to the concentration camps, Fumiko and her students move closer and closer to discovering what eventually ended up happening to Hana and her family members at the end of the book.  

As a father, I completely and wholeheartedly endorse the notion of surrounding young children with rich literature.  In my home we have books about every conceivable topic imaginable on bookshelves in our living room, in both of my daughter’s bedrooms and in our basement playroom, too.  My daughters are growing up surrounded by, literally, thousands of books.  Not surprisingly, they are both growing up to have a love of reading and to view reading as an enjoyable way to spend time during their day.  

As a teacher, I have attempted to create the same kind of literature-rich environment for my students.  There are, again, thousands of books in my classroom; available for students to read for pleasure, to use for research purposes, to listen to being read aloud and much more.  The books in our classroom span a wide range of reading levels and subject areas so, there is something for every student to successfully read and enjoy in our classroom. Having good books in a school classroom is important so that students can hear wonderful writing and fascinating stories; stories that may inspire anything from flights of fancy to calls for social justice and beyond.  Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.  It is well-suited to students who are in the 8-11 age range. But, I thoroughly enjoyed it as an adult, too.   However, my reason to singling this particular book out has nothing to do with remembering the Holocaust or giving a shout-out to Karen Levine.  My reason for writing about this book is that Hana’s Suitcase was the book that helped me experience my favourite and most profound reading experience with a student in my entire career.   Here is my Hana’s Suitcase story…..I hope that you enjoy it.  :)

************************************************************************************************************

My classroom is loaded with books.  I have them sorted into bins and baskets usually based upon topic or genre.  For example, I have a bin of “dog” stories, bins of “outer space” books, bins of “Halloween” books and so on.  My standard classroom practice has become to set these book bins/baskets out and make them available for students to access all throughout the year as interest or need arises for them.  However, whenever I start a new Unit of study in the classroom, I will pull those books out from wherever they are and place them in a location of prominence near where our class meeting place happens to be.  As I pull these books out, I will hold a book talk with the students and go over each book so that they become familiar with them.   My Hana’s Suitcase story starts as we approached the special Canadian day known as Remembrance Day.  In Canada, Remembrance Day is used to honour our soldiers who have fought in wars all over the world, as well as, those who are presently involved in peacekeeping duties in such hotspots as Afghanistan.  As you all can appreciate, war can be a very grisly topic when you explore it in detail so, as a general rule of thumb, when getting Remembrance Day Units of Study prepared for Primary students, keeping things on a very general, basic level is the preferred route to go.   So, in this context, I began my book talk with my class of Grade 2 students in Bowmanville, Ontario.  I pulled out books such as The Butter Battle by Dr. Seuss and proceeded with the book talk as planned.