Middle School Students Toast Biographers at Book Party

Eighth graders in Ms. Serafin's  English class at the Scarsdale Middle School celebrated biographies last week at a book party where they toasted the authors and shared what they learned about their chosen subjects. The event was highlighted by a visit from one of the authors, Dorit Whiteman, who escaped Hitler's takeover of her native Vienna at age 11 and eventually wrote Lonek's Journey. Middle School student Adriana Nicolaievsky, also an emigree, read Whiteman's book about a Jewish boy who escaped Nazi-occupied Poland and a Siberian slave labor camp to find freedom and his family in Palestine.

Adriana toasted Dorit who then shared her story with the class, describing a comfortable life in Vienna before Hitler's ascent, the family's narrow escape to London and her experience as a boarder with a poor family in an unheated cottage in northern England. Whiteman's family eventually moved to the United States where she earned a PhD in Clinical Psychology from NYU.

Fellow student Christine Hu hosted her party at Delmonico's for the famed scientist Nikola Tesla and designed an invitation to her book party that actually lit up!

Sam Goldstein moved the party to a beach on the island of Oahu to toast the author of Soul Surfer, Bethany Hilton who lost her arm after an attack by a tiger shark while she was surfing when she was only 14 years old.

The book party, called "The Life of the Party," was the result of a collaboration with Middle School English teacher Trish Serafin and Librarian Liz Waltzman. To prepare, each student read a biography, designed an invitation, and hosted a "book party" at a suitable location.

For those of us in the audience, it was great fun to listen to the students discuss their books and raise our glasses of Sprite to toast their success.