how i learned geography by uri shulevitz

“I’m a writer and I’m on your side,” Gantos says, as if he’s putting an arm around a young writer’s shoulder and guiding them through a door to a new life. Fans of his many books will appreciate the references to One Monday Morning (1967) and How I Learned Geography (2008).Ī memorable journey of survival and artistry.Īdvice on writing from one of the best writers around. Despite the horrors, however, there is a strong sense of intimacy between the author and his readers. The many illustrations-scary, imaginative, and humorous-are a brilliant accompaniment to the text, bringing into sharp focus stark images of civilians caught up in war. The first-person narrative, which continues through his teen years in Paris, is inviting and filled with absorbing details of everyday life, from playing games to facing bullies and fearsome dogs. Drawing allows him to escape into his imagination and ward off loneliness. What sustains him are his mother’s storytelling, which instills in him an enduring passion for stories, and drawing to pass the endless hours. Shulevitz shares experiences of hunger, deprivation, and anti-Semitism while living in makeshift abodes and tiny apartments and enduring endless train rides.

First sent to the Archangel region, after the Germans invade Russia they travel to Turkestan in the Central Asian Kazakh Republic, where, as a 7-year-old, Uri wonders at a way of life that is completely unfamiliar. When the Germans invade Poland in 1939, 4-year-old Uri and his parents flee from Warsaw to Soviet-occupied Bialystok, where they are considered enemies of Soviet Russia and denied citizenship.

The award-winning author and illustrator recounts his harrowing childhood as a Polish Jew during World War II.

How i learned geography by uri shulevitz