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Spertus in the News
'Every Picture' tells stories, teaches tolerance
BY LISA FRYDMAN Kid Zone
Chicago Sun Times
March 18, 2005
© 2005 Chicago Sun Times
Books that tell a story are a dime a dozen. But books that teach a story are priceless.
An innovative new traveling exhibition, "Every Picture Tells a Story: Teaching Tolerance Through Children's Picture Books," runs Sunday through Sept. 11 at the Spertus Museum.
Using illustrations and environments from beloved children's books, both classics and contemporary, the exhibit delivers important messages to young people about diversity, tolerance, ethical behavior and self-esteem.
Most important, it encourages children's literacy and creativity and reminds young readers that everyone is special.
Curated and organized by the Bremen Museum in Atlanta and the Every Picture Tells a Story gallery in Santa Monica, Calif., the exhibit communicates important lessons but does not compromise on the fun, says Rhoda Rosen, director of Spertus.
On display are nearly 100 works from 40 renowned children's books, including Green Eggs & Ham by Dr. Seuss, Stellaluna by Janell Cannon and When Africa Was Home, written by Karen Lynn Williams with illustrations by Floyd Cooper.
Young visitors are transported to an imaginative world where they are encouraged to "climb" into the tree house of the book Enemy Pie, transform themselves into a "Starbelly Sneetch" from The Sneetches, play with the musical instruments of Rip Squeak and His Friends and "taste" foods from around the world in the cafeteria from David Goes to School.
"This is a remarkable exhibit," says Susan Yost-Filgate, author of Rip Squeak and His Friends, which is illustrated by her husband, Leonard Filgate. "Most children's books teach a moral of some sort, and especially here in California there's a big emphasis in schools on tolerance and diversity. I believe the best way for children to learn this is by example."
Spertus Museum is also presenting "Life in the Shadows," which runs Sunday through July 31. Through artifacts, photos and personal objects, the exhibit recounts the remarkable stories of Nazism's most vulnerable victims -- Jewish children. Stories of Chicagoans will be a component of the exhibit.
The exhibit, on loan from the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., reveals the plight of children who escaped the brutality of the Holocaust through an existence of hiding -- disguising their identities or concealing themselves in cellars, barns, attics and sewers.
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