Rachel Dean-Ruzicka holds a PhD in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University. She is Lecturer of Writing and Communication at Georgia Institute of Technology. Her articles have appeared in Children’s Literature and Education, ImageText, and Female Rebellion in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction.
Though she does not (and rightly so) come up with a simple formula to settle on what makes for an effective work of YA Holocaust literature, in the end Dean-Ruzicka argues for a comprehensive and multifaceted approach, one that takes into account historical accuracy and complexity of characters as well as considerations of individual works as part of a broader catalog. The book seems like an especially useful resource for those engaged, in a variety of ways, in Holocaust education as well as, more broadly, the field of genocide studies. It would easily complement essential works out there such as Marianne Hirsch and Irene Kacandes's edited collection, Teaching the Representation of the Holocaust (2004), or Anastasia Ulanowicz's Second-Generation Memory and Contemporary Children's Literature (2013). - Tahneer Oksman, Marymount Manhattan College, The Lion and the Unicorn