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"The Blue Rose" (1974) - revised edition!
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Lenona
Mar 13, 2012, 6:48:14 PM3/13/12
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That is, it turns out it was revised in 2008. I'd like to find a copy.
The author, Gerda Klein, is an Austrian author and Holocaust
survivor.
"THE BLUE ROSE is the story of Jenny, a child with developmental
disabilities. The 2008 revised edition is in response to numerous
requests. The first edition became a Reader’s Digest feature, inspired
a film in India, musical score in Canada, and the creation of The Blue
Rose Foundation in the USA."
http://www.buffalonews.com/incoming/article115714.ece
Excerpts:
August 20, 2010, 4:14 PM
Forty years ago, Gerda Weissmann Klein wrote a touching children’s
book as a birthday gift for 6-year-old Jenny Innerfield, a
developmentally disabled neighbor in Kenmore (New York).
“This was something very special,” Klein, the acclaimed Holocaust
author and friend of Jenny’s family, recalled last week. “We were
extremely close.”
But at the time, nobody foresaw the impact of the book.
“The Blue Rose” — designed to help children understand and appreciate
people who are different — became the centerpiece of a charitable
drive that raised nearly $300,000 for local groups that benefit people
with developmental disabilities.
Now, decades later, organizers have revised and reprinted the book to
again raise both consciousness and funds.
Klein’s initial, spontaneous birthday gift grew to unimagined
significance due to commitment, creativity and good chemistry, said
Beverly Slichta-Cusick, president of the Blue Rose Foundation, which
is coordinating the effort.
“Sometimes the timing is just right,” she said. “The right people were
in the right place to make this happen.”
That effort got a huge boost when portions of the book were reprinted
by Reader’s Digest in more than 20 languages. Letters, encouragement
and book orders poured in from all over the world..............
.............Jenny Innerfield, now 46, lives at West Seneca
Developmental Center and is employed in a workshop there.............
.............The text of the new edition remains largely the same as
the original. It is illustrated with photos of Kelsie Skinner and her
classmates at Hoover Elementary School in Kenmore, where pupils with
developmental disabilities are fully integrated into all aspects of
school life.
But when “The Blue Rose” was first published, people with
developmental disabilities were kept far from the mainstream of
community life...........
(snip)
http://www.righttolivecairo.org/rose.htm
You can read the whole book here, minus the photos. I only wish Klein
hadn't imagined, out loud, Jenny's getting married - I have the
impression she never did.
http://www.kleinfoundation.org/programs/bala_cynwyd2003.asp
(a speech by Gerda Klein - scroll down 3/4 to find the part on Jenny
and how the book came to be)
Excerpts:
"Jenny is like a kitten without a tail. She is like a bird with
shorter wings. For a normal bird it’s easy to take off and go fly;
nobody thinks about it. But with somebody with shorter wings, you have
to work much harder. I got that idea when I saw Jenny trying to tie
her sneaker. It was a tremendous, tremendous effort. You tie your
sneakers so easily you don’t think about it. But if someone does not
have the dexterity, then all the other things is an enormous effort.
By the same token, when people say look at crazy Jenny who dances
without music, perhaps she hears music which our ears are not tuned to
hear. Maybe she sees shapes when she doesn’t listen to us and finds
colors we are not able to conceive. Other people think because she is
different, she’s crazy.
When I remember that little bit from my own life, I remember a couple
of days after I came to this country I overheard a boy say to his
mother, 'This lady is so stupid; she doesn’t even speak English.' I
didn’t speak English but I speak other languages. I understood what he
said. I thought, how strange and how bad that we cannot communicate,
and that I cannot tell him what I am thinking because we don’t speak
the same language. So perhaps, in a silent way, Jenny understands
things which are way beyond our understanding cause she hears things.
This is why I think it is so tremendously important for us to
sometimes reach into somebody else’s life who might look different;
who might play differently; or might be of a different color; who
cannot speak our language - to try to understand the beauty and the
greatness of their thoughts."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dzCChqrIJk
(preview of musical stage performance - less than 2 minutes)
http://www.kentonbee.com/news/2010-10-29/Local_News/A_play_is_born_KenTon_residents_to_perform_in_The__001.html
(about the 2010 performance)
http://www.bluerosefoundation.org/id78.html
(this includes the original cover - blurred)
A mother's reflection:
The words of Jenny's mother, Lillian Gerstman, in the preface of the
2008 edition, best describes what has happened between 1974 and today.
"My daughter Jenny was the original 'blue rose.'... Now Jenny is forty-
five, living with other developmentally challenged adults... As a
child, she was not included in the educational and social life of her
cohorts or her community. In this revised edition, we meet a new Jenny
who has been blessed with the benefits of legislation, both federal
and state. Included in the world of peers throughout her life, our new
young Jenny- unlike the blue roses of my Jenny's generation-has been
given opportunities and tools to more fully reach her potential as a
human being."
Lenona.
The author, Gerda Klein, is an Austrian author and Holocaust
survivor.
"THE BLUE ROSE is the story of Jenny, a child with developmental
disabilities. The 2008 revised edition is in response to numerous
requests. The first edition became a Reader’s Digest feature, inspired
a film in India, musical score in Canada, and the creation of The Blue
Rose Foundation in the USA."
http://www.buffalonews.com/incoming/article115714.ece
Excerpts:
August 20, 2010, 4:14 PM
Forty years ago, Gerda Weissmann Klein wrote a touching children’s
book as a birthday gift for 6-year-old Jenny Innerfield, a
developmentally disabled neighbor in Kenmore (New York).
“This was something very special,” Klein, the acclaimed Holocaust
author and friend of Jenny’s family, recalled last week. “We were
extremely close.”
But at the time, nobody foresaw the impact of the book.
“The Blue Rose” — designed to help children understand and appreciate
people who are different — became the centerpiece of a charitable
drive that raised nearly $300,000 for local groups that benefit people
with developmental disabilities.
Now, decades later, organizers have revised and reprinted the book to
again raise both consciousness and funds.
Klein’s initial, spontaneous birthday gift grew to unimagined
significance due to commitment, creativity and good chemistry, said
Beverly Slichta-Cusick, president of the Blue Rose Foundation, which
is coordinating the effort.
“Sometimes the timing is just right,” she said. “The right people were
in the right place to make this happen.”
That effort got a huge boost when portions of the book were reprinted
by Reader’s Digest in more than 20 languages. Letters, encouragement
and book orders poured in from all over the world..............
.............Jenny Innerfield, now 46, lives at West Seneca
Developmental Center and is employed in a workshop there.............
.............The text of the new edition remains largely the same as
the original. It is illustrated with photos of Kelsie Skinner and her
classmates at Hoover Elementary School in Kenmore, where pupils with
developmental disabilities are fully integrated into all aspects of
school life.
But when “The Blue Rose” was first published, people with
developmental disabilities were kept far from the mainstream of
community life...........
(snip)
http://www.righttolivecairo.org/rose.htm
You can read the whole book here, minus the photos. I only wish Klein
hadn't imagined, out loud, Jenny's getting married - I have the
impression she never did.
http://www.kleinfoundation.org/programs/bala_cynwyd2003.asp
(a speech by Gerda Klein - scroll down 3/4 to find the part on Jenny
and how the book came to be)
Excerpts:
"Jenny is like a kitten without a tail. She is like a bird with
shorter wings. For a normal bird it’s easy to take off and go fly;
nobody thinks about it. But with somebody with shorter wings, you have
to work much harder. I got that idea when I saw Jenny trying to tie
her sneaker. It was a tremendous, tremendous effort. You tie your
sneakers so easily you don’t think about it. But if someone does not
have the dexterity, then all the other things is an enormous effort.
By the same token, when people say look at crazy Jenny who dances
without music, perhaps she hears music which our ears are not tuned to
hear. Maybe she sees shapes when she doesn’t listen to us and finds
colors we are not able to conceive. Other people think because she is
different, she’s crazy.
When I remember that little bit from my own life, I remember a couple
of days after I came to this country I overheard a boy say to his
mother, 'This lady is so stupid; she doesn’t even speak English.' I
didn’t speak English but I speak other languages. I understood what he
said. I thought, how strange and how bad that we cannot communicate,
and that I cannot tell him what I am thinking because we don’t speak
the same language. So perhaps, in a silent way, Jenny understands
things which are way beyond our understanding cause she hears things.
This is why I think it is so tremendously important for us to
sometimes reach into somebody else’s life who might look different;
who might play differently; or might be of a different color; who
cannot speak our language - to try to understand the beauty and the
greatness of their thoughts."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dzCChqrIJk
(preview of musical stage performance - less than 2 minutes)
http://www.kentonbee.com/news/2010-10-29/Local_News/A_play_is_born_KenTon_residents_to_perform_in_The__001.html
(about the 2010 performance)
http://www.bluerosefoundation.org/id78.html
(this includes the original cover - blurred)
A mother's reflection:
The words of Jenny's mother, Lillian Gerstman, in the preface of the
2008 edition, best describes what has happened between 1974 and today.
"My daughter Jenny was the original 'blue rose.'... Now Jenny is forty-
five, living with other developmentally challenged adults... As a
child, she was not included in the educational and social life of her
cohorts or her community. In this revised edition, we meet a new Jenny
who has been blessed with the benefits of legislation, both federal
and state. Included in the world of peers throughout her life, our new
young Jenny- unlike the blue roses of my Jenny's generation-has been
given opportunities and tools to more fully reach her potential as a
human being."
Lenona.
Lenona
Mar 13, 2012, 7:05:51 PM3/13/12
to
And, from 2011.......
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2011/02/15/2010-presidential-medal-freedom-ceremony
This is 40 minutes long - can't say just when she arrives to receive
her medal (maybe it's in the second half), but I'd be thrilled to find
out, eventually.
Lenona.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2011/02/15/2010-presidential-medal-freedom-ceremony
This is 40 minutes long - can't say just when she arrives to receive
her medal (maybe it's in the second half), but I'd be thrilled to find
out, eventually.
Lenona.
Colin
Mar 13, 2012, 8:28:09 PM3/13/12
to
On Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:48:14 -0700, Lenona wrote:
> That is, it turns out it was revised in 2008. I'd like to find a copy.
>
> The author, Gerda Klein, is an Austrian author and Holocaust survivor.
[...]
> That is, it turns out it was revised in 2008. I'd like to find a copy.
>
> The author, Gerda Klein, is an Austrian author and Holocaust survivor.
Amazon appear to have the 2008 re-issue in stock, at the moment:
http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Rose-Gerda-Weissmann-Klein/dp/0981795609
Lenona
Mar 14, 2012, 11:56:46 AM3/14/12
to
it!
I can't order it through my local independent bookstore OR chain
store, and I can't even get a copy through my library without going
through the national loan system (which I probably will). Either the
old book hasn't been as popular with parents and kids as one might
think, or someone did a very poor advertising job for the revision.
The old book has photos by Norma Holt. The revised edition has photos
by Errol Daniels and is designed by Benjamin Richey.
From the Buffalo News link:
"The text of the new edition remains largely the same as the original.
It is illustrated with photos of Kelsie Skinner and her classmates at
Hoover Elementary School in Kenmore, where pupils with developmental
disabilities are fully integrated into all aspects of school life."
BTW, I showed the old book to someone I know who worked with disabled
It is illustrated with photos of Kelsie Skinner and her classmates at
Hoover Elementary School in Kenmore, where pupils with developmental
disabilities are fully integrated into all aspects of school life."
kids and she said that her impression, at least, was that Jenny was
autistic - though of course she couldn't know for sure.
Lenona.
Lenona
Mar 14, 2012, 12:18:31 PM3/14/12
to
And, now that I've done a little more research, it's possible that
Klein is more likely to call herself Polish than Austrian - but who
knows.
She now lives in Arizona.
Lenona.
Klein is more likely to call herself Polish than Austrian - but who
knows.
She now lives in Arizona.
Lenona.
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