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| | Jane Yolen: Briar Rose |
 | | While Briar Rose doesn't sugarcoat the Holocaust, the characters in the book are distant enough from it that they have made their peace with the horrific events which, at one time, defined their life, whetehr by subverting their memories, as Grandmother Gemma did, or simply moving beyond their fear and hatred, as Josef had to. |
 | | While the story of Briar Rose, Sleeping Beauty, is familiar to everyone, Jane Yolen sets her version of the classic fairy tale against the harsh backdrop of Nazi Germany and their campaign to extinguish the Jews, gays and Gypsies. |
 | | That said, it is interesting to note that a myopic Midwestern city did ban Briar Rose shortly after it was published because of the sympathetic way in which Yolen dealt with her homosexual characters. |
| www.sfsite.com /~silverag/briar.html (624 words) |
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