The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
Pantheon Books, New York, Volume I: 1973, Volume II: 1986
ISBN: 0-679-40641-7

Plot Summary:
Maus is a graphic novel that tells the true story of Vladek Spiegelman's time as a prisoner of the Nazis during WWII. He and his family are Polish-Jews. Vladek enters the Polish army and is captured by the Germans. He is briefly released, and he and his wife Anja move from hiding place to hiding place, and worse and worse conditions. They send their only son Richieu to live with a family friend, only to have him poisoned when she is afraid they will be sent to the concentration camps.

Anja and Vladek are captured and sent to live in Auschwitz (separately). They suffer many atrocities, and it is only through luck and some ingenious wrangling by Vladek that they survive. After the war ends, Anja and Vladek finally reunite after months of not knowing if the other was alive or not. They move to Stockholm, and finally settle in America, where they have Art. Anja ends up killing herself in 1968 and Vladek lives on to remarry Mala, who he is convinced is only using him for his money. Once a wealthy business man, Vladek now hoards everything and even returns half-eaten boxes of cereal that he'd rather have the money for.

Critical Evaluation:
At first I was puzzled by the author's choice to depict the Jews as mice. This was all I knew of the story. As I read on and saw that the Nazis were cats, and the Americans were dogs, it all started to make sense. And when the mice were in pain, the expressions on their faces were every bit as heart wrenching as seeing a human in pain. I enjoyed how Art included the present-day in the novel. He is there, trying to get his father to remember the past and dealing with how the war has effected him. We've all read numerous accounts of the Holocaust, but here we get a very personal account of before, during, and after the war. Vladek is an exasperating character. Art himself is worried about portraying him as the stereotypical miserly Jew, but a more frugal man I have never heard of. His wife has to return a hair brush she purchased with the groceries because he refuses to pay for her personal items. It's almost funny, but very sad at the same time. I was thoroughly touched by this book.

Reader’s Annotation:
The Nazis have invaded Poland, but Vladek Spiegelman is not about to lay down and die. Read the ultimate story of survival against all odds.

Information about the Author:
Art Spiegelman is a contributing editor and artist for the New Yorker. He has won the Pulitzer Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship, and nominations for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Genre: graphic novel

Curriculum Ties: 12th grade American history (WWII)

Booktalking Ideas:
I would first show some of the powerful illustrations from the novel, and explain how the different nationalities are depicted. Then I would introduce the tenacious Vladek Speigelman and a few of the struggles he and his wife will go through to survive.

Reading Level/Interest Age:
This book would be appropriate for ages 14 and up.

Challenge Issues:
This book might be challenged for its depiction of Nazi atrocities, or by people who claim the Holocaust never happened. I would explain the library's selection policy and give the challenger a complaint form.

Why I chose this book:
I chose this book because it's a Pulitzer Prize winner. Also, my students were absolutely fascinated by the Holocaust, and so I wish I had read this long ago, I would have recommended this to them, but now I can recommend it to library patrons.