The Dragon in the Ghetto Caper Read online

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  This is what E. L. Konigsburg has to say about writing The Dragon in the Ghetto Caper.

  “Venice, Italy was the site of the very first ghetto. In 1516, the governing body of Venice decided that all Jews were to be confined to a quarter of the city where there once was a foundry, which is called a geto in the Venetian dialect. Jews were allowed out during the day, if they wore a hat and a badge that identified them. There were guards at the gates to keep them in at night.

  “Now, in almost every city in the United States, there are gated communities that have been built around golf courses or lakes or country clubs. They have guards at their gates who may not forbid inhabitants from getting out at night, but who do keep non-inhabitants from getting in without some sort of badge—even if it is a car pass. Almost every city has the other kind of ghetto, too. The kind that does not have guards at its gates and probably doesn’t have gates at all. This is the community where the poor or disadvantaged live. This ghetto is often as hard to get out of as the gated community is hard to get into.

  “I wanted to explore these two ghettos—the gated and the ungated; the one that is planned and the one that is spontaneous; the one that has houses and the one that has neighbors; the one without dragons and the one with. And I wanted to let Andrew J. Chronister do it—with the help of his grown-up friend, Edie Yakots.”

  E. L. KONIGSBURG is the author of several books for young readers, including the Newbery Medal winners From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and The View from Saturday, and the Newbery Honor Book Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth. Mrs. Konigsburg has a degree from Carnegie-Mellon University and has done graduate work in organic chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh. Before becoming a writer, she taught science at a private girls’ school. She and her husband live on the beach in North Florida. Their three children are all married.