Review
Diane Ackerman typically takes as her subjects some of the more
beautiful, mesmerizing, and sigh-inducing things on this earth, training her
poet's pen on the magic of our five senses (
A Natural History of the Senses),
the mysteries of the brain (
An Alchemy of Mind,
2004), the majesty of her
garden (
Cultivating Delight, 2001), the ecstasy and transcendence of play, (
Deep
Play, 1999), the activates of animals (
The Moon By Whale Light, 1991), and
romantic love (
A Natural History of Love, 1990). She is known – and much
beloved – for her deeply sensuous prose, her elaborate metaphor, her contagious
delight in the world around her. So Ackerman's devoted readers may find it
strange that she would now choose to write about one of the ugliest, most base
and cruel events in the history of humanity. How could she...
Beyond the Book
Janusz Korczak
Tucked into
The Zookeeper's Wife is the equally myth-like
story of Janusz Korczak ( photo). A friend of the Zabinksis', Korczak was a Polish writer
and pediatrician who founded a progressive orphanage for boys and girls in
Warsaw in 1912. He had a popular radio show, enjoyed by both children and
adults, and his children's book,
King Matt the First, is known as well in
Poland as
Alice and Wonderland or
Peter Pan is in the States.
Korczak insisted on the importance of respecting and listening to children,
believing that parents, caregivers, and instructors could do best by learning
from them. He insisted that the role of the parent was not to impose a set of
behaviors or expectations on a child, but...
