Mr. Benjamin's Suitcase of Secrets

by Pei-Yu Chang

Overview

What's in his suitcase?

Mr. Benjamin is a philosopher with extraordinary ideas. But when his country begins punishing people for being different, he must escape. Over hills and valleys he trudges with a heavy suitcase. What could he be carrying?

A compelling story, beautifully illustrated by Pei-Yu Chang, about the importance of personal freedom and the distances we go to protect them—based on a true story of Walter Benjamin.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780735842809
Publisher:	NorthSouth Books
Publication date:	05/02/2017
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	10.30(w) x 12.00(h) x 0.20(d)
Lexile:	710L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Pei-Yu Chang was born in 1979 in Taipeh, Taiwan, where she studied German language, culture, and literature. On completion of her Master’s Degree, she traveled to Germany to do a doctorate on “Chaos Theory in Literary Studies“ at Münster University. There she discovered her passion for book illustration. In 2012 she began courses in the Department of Communications Design and Illustration at the Fachhochschule, Münster. She is the author of Mr. Benjamin’s Suitcase of Secrets. She is currently living and working in Münster, Germany.

Editorial Reviews

Maybe you doubt that the tragic death of the German Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin…would make for a good picture book. Let me reassure you: Chang's playful telling is attuned to children's sense of justice, as well as their ear for the ridiculous…Her stunning mixed-media art is whimsical and serious, like childhood itself.

The New York Times Book Review - Maria Russo

Chang’s playful telling is attuned to children’s sense of justice, as well as their ear for the ridiculous. She focuses on the heroism of Lisa Fittko, who led refugees to Spain, and on the never-solved mystery of what was inside the suitcase Benjamin lugged with him. Her stunning mixed-media art is whimsical and serious, like childhood itself.

The New York Times - Maria Russo

06/01/2017
K-Gr 2—In this picture book based on a true story, Chang takes a World War II refugee story and makes it a fanciful tale of a philosopher's mysterious suitcase. A top-hatted and mustachioed Walter Benjamin flees his country under threat of arrest, carrying a heavy red suitcase with unknown contents. He is led to the border by a Mrs. Fittko and other refugees but is turned away. Neither he nor his suitcase is ever seen again, and people all over the world wonder what could possibly have been inside. The back matter includes information about Benjamin, Lisa Fittko, and the Taiwanese author/illustrator and her connection to the story. However, there's no explanation of what elements are based on fact and what is fiction. Chang never mentions that Benjamin is Jewish or why he fled, besides the statement that "the country in which he lived decided that extraordinary ideas were very dangerous." The title's attempt at a timeless, artistic look at refugee issues and the power of ideas is lost without real historical context in the back matter, but this may be a good overview for those introducing the concept of war and refugees to preschoolers. The quirky mixed-media illustrations, rendered in pastel, graphite, and paper collage, are highly textured and surreal, calling to mind the work of Maira Kalman or Oliver Jeffers. Some of the visuals are centered, leading to parts of the image being lost in the gutter. VERDICT A general purchase for libraries looking for age-appropriate materials about refugees.—Lisa Nowlain, Nevada County Community Library, CA

School Library Journal

2017-03-29
A German philosopher disappears during World War II in an attempt to flee his country.This unusual book from Switzerland is based on the real life of Walter Benjamin, a writer who tried to escape Nazi persecution by traveling across the Pyrenees with a group of refugees under the guidance of an Austrian woman named Mrs. Fittko. In the story, Mr. Benjamin insists on dragging a very heavy suitcase along, the contents of which "can change everything." He is turned back at the border and never seen again. Speculation about what was in the suitcase ranges from weapons of war to his favorite foods, occupying the final several pages of the story and leaving readers wondering as well. In her first children's book, Chang uses mixed-media illustrations to convey the bleakness of Mr. Benjamin's journey. Matte collage with cutouts of white-skinned people and a classic newspaper typeface hint at political cartoons of the era. Starkly rigid figures of officers with not-quite swastikas on their sleeves are the only clue to the story's setting, in keeping with the vaguely ominous feel of the simple text. It's likely that Walter Benjamin's story is more widely known in Europe than in the United States; the brief biographical notes about Mr. Benjamin and Mrs. Fittko provide some further information. The emphasis on the mysterious and unknowable contents of the suitcase seems misplaced in a story whose real message is about the ease with which governments, then and now, can disappear individuals, especially those with "extraordinary ideas." (Picture book. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews