The Light in Hidden Places

Stefania possesses a number of laudatory traits. She’s willful, brave, smart, funny, unselfish, and caring. Select one or two traits and make an argument that these traits were the key to her survival.

There are several books about hiding Jews. Choose a book—like The Upstairs Room, The Book Thief, or The Diary of Anne Frank—and compare it to The Light in Hidden Places. How do the characters show bravery? How do they deal with chance? How do they survive or why do they get caught?

As Cameron explains in her author’s note, there’s a lot of media about Stefania. Watch the TV movie or the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum interview or read any number of articles about her, and make connections between how Stefania appears in the media and how she comes across in the story.

Develop one of the other characters. Get into their mindset and explain their feelings. In other words, make them the central character. You could choose one of the Jews hiding in the attic, Emilika, Berdecki, or someone else. There are a lot of characters, so there are several options.

Focus on Stefania’s interactions with men and think about how they align and complicate ideas about feminism and empowerment. Stefania has an easy time sticking up to men, but how does her manipulation of them cause problems? Then again, perhaps her manipulation of men isn’t an issue.

Throughout history, governments oppress and brutalize groups of people. Read a book about another instance of heinous injustice and compare that story to The Light in Hidden Places. You could choose Elisa Carbone’s book, Stealing Freedom (1998), about a girl who escapes slavery in the United States, or Ibtisam Baraka’s Tasting the Sky (2007), which covers the deadly violence between Israel and Palestine.

Cameron uses several literary devices to make Stefania’s story come alive. There’s dialogue, imagery, irony, juxtaposition, and more. Choose a few of the literary devices, and explain why these are particularly important to the story.

Stefania has to sacrifice a lot to save the Jews. Put yourself in her position: explain the things that would be the hardest to give up and go without.