Program Description
Event Details
Please join us in welcoming Ellen Shapiro, author, graphic designer, and lecturer at the Designer as Author MFA program at New York’s School of Visual Arts for her reading and discussion of her new middle-grade historical fiction book, "The Secret Buttons".
In "The Secret Buttons", we see through the eyes of a resourceful tween heroine, Anni Blum. We first meet Anni, at age twelve, in March 1939 as she boards a train with her seven-year-old sister, Rosie, to escape Vienna, her home until Hitler’s armies invaded. Traveling alone, the two girls are headed for Dover, England, to help their distant cousins take care of the country house they will be staying in as the nation prepares for war. With their dark, curly hair pulled back tightly, the girls are dressed to blend in with the “Aryan” holiday travelers. Aside from their forged passports and real Domestic Worker Visas, Anni is traveling with her valuables: a German-English pocket dictionary, a copy of The Traveler’s Phrase-book for Visitors to England, and balls of yarn, a crochet hook, and other precious supplies for her designs. “Crafty girl,” says the conductor upon inspecting the contents of her knapsack. That offhand comment, given with a friendly wink, proves prescient.
On top of loneliness, homesickness, and worries about what is happening back home, Anni grapples with navigating a new language and being misunderstood. At first, the local boys in the fictional English village of Tuppinshire tease her for speaking German and accuse her of being a Nazi spy. Her aunt Vivian scornfully treats her and Rosie like maids. And she yearns to return to school. To aggravate matters, Anni suffers flashbacks to painful moments in Vienna—from being forbidden to play in the neighborhood park to discovering that her favorite needlework shop was smashed and looted on Kristallnacht to watching in horror as the Nazis take her Papa away. She also relives her anger over being renamed “Sarah”—like all Jewish girls and women—to identify her as a Jew, and the comfort of bonding with other girls in the same “club.” Yet gradually, over the years of blackouts and bombings, Anni and Rosie find their place among family, make new friends, forge boldly ahead, and use their talents and creativity to make an incredible difference for others.
All are welcome to join the discussion!