Information on the Pianist

I did research on the Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpillman. It was a very well known book and liked by many people. There was no research that said the author had wrote any other books besides The Pianist which was later made into a movie. I believe the reason he did not write any other books is because the only book he ever wrote was a biography. About his life during World War II and his job as Pianist. Nothing in my research showed that the book received any type of award, but I know the movie won many awards and Adrien Brody won an Oscar for his role in The Pianist. Also it was rated five out of six stars.

Becuase my author has traveled all around the world, her experience and knowledge played a big role in this novel. Also, because her father was involved with the military, I think she had an interest in this topic. Some elements from Lowry's life that are included in the novel are the main characters are kids like her's. Lowry liked to write about her kids because she loved them and enjoyed spending time with them. An aspect Lowry didn't include is the amount of moving and traveling her family did when she was a kid. I think she excluded this because it would not be very interesting to read a book where the characters are always moving. Finally, I consider this book to hbe very authentic because it portrays real events and real emotions that children and families were going through during the Nazi Era. If the author can relate and reel in the reader, I consider it to be a good, succesful book.

Lois Lowry was born in 1937 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Because her father was a career army officer, Lowry moved around as a child. She lived in several different countries including Japan. She attended Brown University, where she was a writing major, but left college before graduation to get married. Lowry's marriage did not last, but she had four children who became inspirational in her work. She finished her college degree at the University of Maine and worked as a housekeeper to earn a living. Lowry worked as a photographer and she also wrote textbooks. For her first novel, A Summer to Die, Lowry received the International Reading Association Children's Book Award in 1978. Number the Stars is one of more than twenty young adult novels Lowry has written. Number the Stars was abased on actuall avents, but Lowry added her on fictional take to it.

Source: Lowry, Lois. "Biography." Lois Lowry. Interact, 2011. Web. 27 May 2011.
     <http://www.loislowry.com/bio.html>.

Summary: the Pianist

Recipe for a Jew who Survived

Ingredients:
1 c. Courage
1 tsp. Musical Talent
3 c. Bravery
1/2 c. Instincts
1 Tb. Connections
2 c. Intelligence
3 c. Luck

Tools needed:
Szpilman's Family- Halina, Regina. Henrik, Mother, Father
Cze3slaw Lewicki
Zbigniew Jaworski
Wilm Hosenfield, German soldier
The Umschlagplatz

Directions:
Place Musical Talent into Pot of Life to start off survival. Slowly mix in 3 c. Bravery to continue survival. Mix in Courage to enhance the Bravery. Add half the Luck to be saved from certain death. Add connections to escape the ghetto. Quickly mix in Instincts to save from being burned or blown up. Add rest of luck to escape death from a Nazi yet again. Final product should be a thin, worn out man who has survived a perilous 5 years in constant threat of being murdered.

This image shows how many of the street corners looked at the time of the Nazi rule.

Quote: "It was only in the fairy tales that people were called upon to be so brave, to die for one another. Not in real-life Denmark."
Question: Do you think that if you were called upon to fight and possibly die for your country, would you do it?

Due to difficulty in commenting, I have created a new post to answer the questions.

1. Obviously, the author's life experiences have influenced his story. Without surviving through the Holocaust, he would not have had this story to share.

2. The elements in Szpilman's life included in the book are any related to the Holocaust, mainly his survival throughout the war, but also what he did after the war. He included these so that he could tell the story.

3. Aspects of Szpilman's life that were not included in the book are any times from pre-Holocaust and his life afterwords. This is because both of these times are not relevant to the book.

4. Yes, I consider it to be authentic. This is because it is a memoir, not a novel, so everything that occured in it is true.

Alex Coletta