Skating with the Statue of Liberty
Page 23
For those readers who may be wondering, Rabbi Blum has been reading William James’s “The Will to Believe” (1896).
In some small ways, I adjusted minor historical events for the purposes of the novel. The Chiquita Banana jingle, designed to teach Americans how to ripen this exotic fruit, actually hit the airwaves two years after the events in the novel. And I pushed back the major construction on the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel by a few months to allow the schools to gather in Battery Park for the Victory Rally in the spring of 1942.
That spring, New York was in a partial dim-out, and the only lights burning at the Statue of Liberty were two 200-watt lamps in the torch, illuminated at night to guide US aircraft.
Like Gustave, my father enjoyed eating at Nedick’s as a boy and at the Automat, where he especially loved the cheesecake!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My father, Jean-Pierre Meyer, and my aunt Eliane Norman shared with me memories of their childhood in France and their early years in New York. This book would not have come into being without those stories, and I am deeply grateful to them. I am also thankful to others who shared stories and memories: Margery Sabin, Jim Sabin, Rita Howard, Anthony Pazzanita, Charlotte Winkler, and Eric Velasquez. Susan Elia MacNeal related to me an anecdote about Edna MacNeal that found its way into this novel. Abigail Samoun shared intriguing anecdotes about her own childhood immigration, many years after Gustave’s, from France to the United States. Phyllis Brooks Schafer, who has an extraordinarily precise memory, helped me with details about daily life in early 1940s America.
I am grateful to Misha Mitsel, senior archivist at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and to Deb Weiner, family history coordinator at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, for locating helpful and inspirational documents from my family history.
My Wellesley colleague, economist Ann Velenchik, helped me make sense of the arcane regulations violated by the real-life jeweler on whom my character Monsieur Benoit is based, leading to his arrest on the train from Baltimore to New York. Thank you to my Wellesley College French Department colleagues Venita Datta, Michèle Respaut, Jim Petterson, Marie-Paule Tranvouez, Sylvaine Egron-Sparrow, and Hélène Bilis, as well as to Michel Bilis and Alice Kaplan, and particularly to Catherine Masson, Barry Lydgate, and Claude Beauclair for helping me with arcane questions about French usage and French expressions from the 1940s.
Laura Reiner, research and instruction librarian at Wellesley College, has been an extraordinary help to me, enthusiastically and energetically assisting me in finding just about anything I could think of: subway maps of New York in this period; a demographic survey of the city indicating, block by block, the ethnicity and the income range of the people who lived there; even detailed information about the international postal situation during World War II.
Jacqueline Davies read an early draft of the first chapters and gave thought-provoking advice. The members of my writing group, Susan Lubner, Patty Bovie, and Anna Staniszewski, read draft after draft of this manuscript, giving astute commentary as well as encouragement and support. My thanks to Erin Murphy, my agent, for believing in this book before it existed and for moral support as it came into being.
Alison Meyer gave me the moon at a time when I really needed it. Thank you.
Rebecca Weston, my wonderful editor, waited with patience and understanding for this novel and responded to early drafts with both rigor and enthusiasm, helping me see what the book could and should become. Without her intensity, her confidence in me, and her insight, this novel would not be what it is.
And thank you, as always, to Ken Winkler and to Hannah Meyer-Winkler for their daily love, encouragement, and belief.
READ ABOUT GUSTAVE’S ADVENTURES IN FRANCE!
Gustave doesn’t want to move from the exciting city to the boring countryside, far from his cousin Jean-Paul and his best friend, the mischievous Marcel. But he has no choice. It is March of 1940, and Paris is not a safe place for Jews.
When Paris is captured by the Nazis, Gustave knows that Marcel, Jean-Paul, and their families must make it out of the occupied zone. And when he learns that his new friend Nicole works for the French Resistance, he comes up with a plan that just might work.
But going into Occupied France is a risky thing to do when you are Jewish. And coming back alive? That is nearly impossible.
PRAISE FOR
BLACK RADISHES
A Sydney Taylor Honor Award Winner
A Bank Street College of Education
Best Children’s Book of the Year
An Instructor Magazine Best Kids’ Book: Historical Fiction
A Massachusetts Book Award Must-Read Book
A Boston Authors Club Highly Recommended Book
An Illinois Rebecca Caudill
Young Readers Book Award Finalist
A Pennsylvania School Librarians Association Top 40 Book
“More than an account of Jewish survival in Nazi-occupied France, Black Radishes is an empowering, suspenseful story of a unique young boy with cunning, patience, and courage.”
—Francisco X. Stork, winner of the Schneider Family Book Award for Marcelo in the Real World
“A fascinating, deftly gripping tale that reminds readers, young or old, of events we must never forget.”
—Zilpha Keatley Snyder, three-time Newbery Honor winner and author of The Egypt Game
“Black Radishes is a vivid and moving story about a Jewish family’s efforts to escape the Nazis, seen through the eyes of a clear-sighted and sensitive young boy. Susan Lynn Meyer manages to capture the reader’s interest from the start and keeps up the suspense until the last pages.”
—Annika Thor, winner of the Mildred L. Batchelder Award for A Faraway Island
“Black Radishes transforms the past into a gripping story. Gustave’s growing maturity and loss of innocence perfectly mirror the mounting horrors he and his family experience.”
—Kit Pearson, winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Awake and Dreaming
“This debut novel, loosely based on the author’s father’s experiences…raises important questions about nationalism, equality and identity and fills a void in Holocaust literature for this age group.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“[Depicts] vivid details of daily life and the…changes slowly taking place within Gustave. This fine first novel could be read in conjunction with The Good Liar.”
—Booklist
“Meyer builds the tension by using real-life events (detailed in an author’s note), creating in Gustave a very believable boy struggling to learn to cover up his emotions, who behaves bravely when he must.”
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“A dramatic tale of courage and determination.”
—School Library Journal
“Meyer delivers a rich, well-written tale of lost innocence and newfound courage.”
—Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews
“This story will not disappoint children looking for a safe entry into the subject of the Holocaust….Children will enjoy this well-told story about the day-to-day struggles of a French family.”
—Jewish Book World
“Full of tension, this coming-of-age story presents a picture of life during the early days of World War II.”
—Children’s Literature: Independent Information and Reviews
“Meyer offers up a colourful, intelligent story that is true to the child’s perspective and told in a deft, natural prose that makes it eminently involving on school scenes, breath-stopping encounters with Nazi guards and family conversations.”
—Toronto Star
“Meyer provides a fresh take on the experiences of World War II with Gustave’s story of survival in Occupied France….A successful blend of history and adventure that is sure to appeal to middle-grade readers.”
—The Edmond Sun
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SUSAN LYNN MEYER’S Skating with the Statue of Liberty
is the companion to her debut novel, Black Radishes, which won a Sydney Taylor Honor Award and was named a Massachusetts Book Award finalist and a Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year. Both books were inspired by stories she grew up hearing about her father’s childhood escape from Nazi-occupied France and his early years in New York City. She lives with her family in Massachusetts and teaches literature and creative writing at Wellesley College. Visit her online at susanlynnmeyer.com.