Susan Bartoletti- Patrick Kelly

Biographical Information

Susan Bartoletti is an American writer of children's literature whose famous work includes Kids on Strike ! and Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow. She was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but eventually the family ended up in a small town in northeastern Pennsylvania. Growing up Susan was an avid reader. She even recalls a story of her middle school librarian telling her that she had nothing left for her to read. "You have read the library out." A good student in school, Bartoletti also had an independent mind, and as a sixteen-year-old junior she decided to skip her senior year and enter college. In her year at University of Scranton, she filled her schedule with literature class and discovered her creative ambitious taking creative writing class that allowed her to writ poetry for the first time. Initially she wanted to be a journalist for her local newspaper, by a graduation in 1982, she was offered a job teaching eighth-grade English.

As a teacher, her students wrote poems, stories, and essays. They learned to research, write, and illustrate their own nonfiction picture books. On special events they held poetry readings. Susan was quoted saying, "felt good to see my students grow as writers. They inspired me to practice what I preached." Later she joined a writer’s group and became serious about becoming a write. She credited her students with helping inspire her voice in writing and audience. Then she had passionate desire to write books for young readers.

By 1997, Susan Bartoletti had published short stories, picture books, and her first nonfiction book. This was a major step in her career and she had a novel and another nonfiction book in her experience. She would later become the Newberry Honor award-winning author of Hitler Youth, Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow in 2006, the Robert F. Sibert award-winning author of Black Potatoes, The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850, and the NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor award-winning author of Terrible Typhoid Mary: A True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America. She is also the author of the acclaimed They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group, Kids on Strike!, Dear America: Down the Rabbit Hole, the Carolyn W. Field Award-winning novel, The Boy Who Dared, and numerous picture books.

Currently Susan teaches writing classes at at various universities such as Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky, and Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. Also, she leads workshops offered through the Highlights Foundation. The Highlights Foundation helps children's authors and illustrators hone their craft through workshops led by children's publishing professionals. Susan resides with her family in Moscow, Pennsylvania.

Themes/Motifs

In reading Susan Bartoletti's non-fiction novels one of the main themes is that she focuses on is fear and how the the protagonist will over come their fear. Examples of this can be seen in novels such as They Called Themselves The K.K.K, Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow, or Black Potatoes:The Story of the Great Irish Famine. '' There are such grave fears described in Black Potatoes, describing the terrible conditions of the Irish during the famine. Families lived in fear of starvation, bankruptcy, and finding a new life.''

In other genres Bartoletti promotes a theme of patriotism. She wrote for a series called Dear America. This series is written in the form of a diary of a young woman's life during important events or time periods in American history. They showcase the determination and patriotism of everyday American during come of America's most challenging events. "A Coal Miner's Bride" tells this story of the main character Anetka becomes Americanized coming from Poland to be married at 13.

The last major theme is standing up for what you believe in.  A great example of this can be seen in the Boy Who Dared. The protagonist, Helmuth Hübener lives in Nazi Germany and sees his Jewish classmates and neighbors harassed and even killed. With the help of his friends, Helmuth  distributed anti-Nazi material. Helmuth uses pamphlets to tell the truth about Hitler and the Nazis but ends up getting caught, because of his mistake, and he is hanged in Berlin. Although these themes may be simple, they send a clear message to the audience.

Writing/artistic style

Bartoletti writes from the perspective of a teenager in her non-fiction and some fiction novels. They are many times written in first person perspective and provide great imagery to the reader. They tell a story that has great relevance to their audience. These historical style novels describe the teenage life through some of the world's worst notable events. Bartoletti's most useful tool in speaking to her young audience as the narrator, but also being a impartial historical voice.

Bartoletti writes stories that empower the young as well as novels, non-fiction, and picture books that inspire and nudge young readers to look into history and see themselves in its reflection. Often using her native Pennsylvania as the setting for her books, Bartoletti has made a specialty of labor history, more specifically of tales from the coal mines that warren the underworld of Pennsylvania. I find her local connection to be one of the most interesting aspects about her writing.

Throughout her book she writes in a very clear manner that provides detailed illustration or actual photo from the time period. For example, Kids on Strike, depicts the harsh conditions of working in the dangerous and dirty factories during the American Industrial Revolution. It is not until you see the photo of the young boys with their faces covered in soot, that the reader then begins to understand the damage industrialization did to child labors. These are children facing difficult adult circumstances.

Criticism

In Susan's novel there is a lack of diversity in main characters. They include mostly white teenage boys and girls. Some reviewers have written that she doesn't include the perspectives of an minority throughout her novels. This may limit her reliability to the readers of color. Bartoletti has never commented on this review. Her very first book Silver at Night, received reviews from Publisher's Weekly stating, "First-time author Bartoletti throngs the simple story with an lackluster amount of imagery." Supposedly this review struck a chord with Bartoletti, took several months of from writing and took two years to write her next book.

Bibliography

Non-fiction

 * Growing Up in Coal Country (1996)
 * Kids on Strike! (1999)
 * Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845 to 1850 (2001) - Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal winner, 2002
 * The Flag Maker (2004)
 * Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow (2005) - a Newbery Honor Book 2006
 * They Called Themselves The K.K.K : The Birth of an American Terrorist Group (2010)
 * The Boy Who Dared (2008)

Fiction

 * Silver at Night (1994)
 * Dancing with Dziadziu (1997)
 * No Man's Land: A Young Soldier's Story (1999)
 * A Coal Miner's Bride : The Diary of Anetka Kaminska (2000), Dear America Series
 * The Christmas Promise (2001), Blue Sky Press[4]
 * The Journal of Finn Reardon : A Newsie (2003), My Name is America Series
 * Nobody's Nosier Than a Cat (2003)
 * Nobody's Diggier than a Dog (2005)
 * Naamah and the Ark at Night (2011)

Other Information

When Susan was writing [|They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group], she spent some time with a KKK group in Tennessee interviewing members, learning about their history, and taking notes on their traditions. In her research she is quoted saying, that she found that the"The Klan used fear to cast out fear". This was the greatest experience that she could not be prepared for. It capture the essence of the Klan and their establishment in modern society. Watch the link above for more information.