Mount Notre Dame recently welcomed Andrea Cheng, the award-winning author of the novel Marika and the inspiration for the book, Mary Kartal, her mother. Freshmen religion students were assigned to read the book, which was written about Kartal’s life as a Hungarian Jew living during the Holocaust.
Cheng started out writing picture books, but once she realized the vitality of her mother’s story, she found confidence to write the story of a young girl—Marika—growing up in a Jewish household in Budapest during World War II. The stories Cheng heard from her mother are spelled out in the novel over a ten year period in a fictionalized tale, detailing the mother’s young life and discussing topics of values, personality identity, family conflict, and intolerance.
While reading the book, students discussed anti-Semitism (experienced by Marika’s family in the novel) and were exposed to literary symbolism, the Star of David, and van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” Most importantly, the girls related to Marika’s struggle to fit in and grow up. Cheng and Kartel spoke to the students and provided further detail to their story and answered questions from the students.
Current freshmen Taylor Ford and Kendal Wilder were awarded the opportunity of introducing Cheng to the students and meeting her one-on-one.
“It was an honor to meet the author and to personally discuss a topic so close to my academic curriculum,” said Ford, “I really enjoyed the experience and it was very informational.”
Wilder added, “This was a really cool experience! I felt like I was behind the scenes of a movie. Mrs. Cheng was so nice and friendly and she really inspired me to get involved. She gave me great advice on becoming a writer and told me not to give up on my passion for writing…I can’t wait to read the sequel to Marika!”
Cheng graduated from Walnut Hills High School and Cornell University. She is currently teaches English as a second language at Cincinnati State. She lives with her husband and three children in Avondale. Her second novel, The Key Collection is geared towards middle graders and written about a boy’s relationship with his grandmother, who is about to move away to California from Cincinnati. Additionally, she has two picture books: Anna the Bookbinder and Goldfish and Chrysanthemums.
This was Cheng and Kartal’s seventh trip to Mount Notre Dame. Donna Groene and Jen Dodds, freshman religion teachers, are proud to have her novel as a part of their curriculum and hope she will continue to speak to classes in the future.