Night By Elie Wiesel

Night by Elie Wiesel is such a sad, wonderful book. I have always been fascinated (is that even the right word?) and disgusted by what went on in the Nazi camps. Every book I have read recalling what went on in the camps is a heartbreaking read. This book was short yet so incredibly powerful. I would teach this without a doubt in my classroom. I do not recall reading any books like this for my English classes. The only time we learned about concentration camps was in the history classes, and we never had to read actual books in those classes. I think that was such a mistake. Cross teaching about a topic like this would be very beneficial, in my opinion.

In my placement, just last week a student came up to my mentor teacher and asked about this exact book. He said that he read it two years ago and remembered it being one of the first books he actually enjoyed. He asked if she had a copy so he could read it again. I thought it was such a coincidence that he asked her that while I was there and had just finished reading the book myself. Even high schoolers enjoy this heartbreaking book. There are so many teaching moments in the book, and there are endless possibilities that this book can be paired with to create a history unit in the English classroom. I think this book can be read by any student 9^th-12^th grade. Any younger than 9^th and I don’t quite think the students would have a good enough grasp on the events that go on in the book. I don’t think that there would be any students, parents, or administration that would be against using this book in the classroom. This book is filled with events that, while gruesome and heartbreaking, teach students what really went on in those concentration camps. It shows them a personal account that is sometimes missed when teaching about this topic in the history classroom.