“Make friends with your archivist,” advised Lita Judge to a roomful of children’s historical fiction writers at the 2008 SCBWI New England Conference. I have been friends with some anarchists, but I have yet to embrace the chroniclers of paper, ephemera and all things past. I am putting it on my to do list.
Lita told the story of finding a box of “tracings” in her grandmother’s attic. The foot shaped scraps of newspaper and butcher paper were slid into envelopes addressed from Germany in the 1940’s. They were the first clues in the discovery of Lita’s grandmother’s relief effort after WWII. Lita’s family and their colleagues sent 100’s of packages of shoes, clothes and food to refugee and devastated families all over Europe.
From the letters, photographs and tracings, Lita tracked down families here in the U.S. and in Europe who survived through this relief effort. From their stories came the exquisite, award-winning picture book, One Thousand Tracings. There is much to explore about the book’s back matter on Lita’s website and blog.
Curious City is honored to be doing a wee bit of work to help Lita & Dave Judge and this stellar offering of generosity, ingenuity and post-war forgiveness.
Illustration by Lita Judge.
