“Thirty Minutes Over Oregon” draws out art

My college friend/fifth grade teacher Sara Peters told me that Thirty Minutes Over Oregon: A Japanese Pilot’s World War II Story is one of several books in a unit on empathy that she teaches. 

A classroom focus on empathy is alone enough to make my heart soar, but there’s more.

The kids were asked to create an artistic response to one of the books. Some of her students at Miller School in Holliston, MA, were moved in some way by the story of Nobuo Fujita, who bombed the U.S. mainland in 1942, then returned twenty years later…to apologize.  

Here is their lovely work:

It may be that neither girls nor non-white students are among the Thirty Minutes Over Oregon artists. But I’m thrilled at the range of the other books the class could choose from:

• Big Jabe written by Jerdine Nolen, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
• The Crane Girl written by Curtis Manley, illustrated by Lin Wang
• Dona Flor written by Pat Mora, illustrated by Raul Colón
• Mrs. Katz and Tush written by Patricia Polacco
• My Man Blue written by Nikki Grimes, illustrated by Jerome Lagarrigue 
• Shooting at the Stars written and illustrated by John Hendrix
• Smoky Night written by Eve Bunting, illustrated by David Diaz
• Swamp Angel written by Anne Isaacs, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky 
• The Village That Vanished written by Ann Grifalconi, illustrated by Kadir Nelson

Stiff competition. I am humbled to be among them.

Thanks again for sharing, Sara. Empathy is not a given. It must be modeled!