by Elisa Boxer (author) and Alianna Rozentsveig (illutrator) (j 940.531 Box)
This is an attractive little non-fiction historical book for youth readers, done in picture book format, written by Elisa Boxer with illustrations by Alianna Rozentsveig. It tells a story that begins during World War II in the Terezin concentration camp but which has repercussions through today.
Jewish teacher Irma Lauscher risked
breaking protocols in the camp by asking one of the other prisoner workers to
smuggle in a tree sapling, which she could use to give the children in the camp
a project to occupy their time. That fellow worker managed to conceal a small
maple tree sapling in his boot as he returned to the camp one evening. Irma and
her illicit class of students planted the sapling and each child shared part of
their meager daily allotment of water to help the small tree flourish.
The book details how the tree
survived, and its seeds have been shared around the world, to create other
trees that are offspring of the original — to show that even during the worst
possible hardships, it is possible to keep something alive through love and
concerted efforts.
This was a moving story, and one
I’d never heard about before reading the book. It provides a marvelous
introduction to children on a difficult subject. And the art is terrific.
Strongly recommended.
( official Elisa Boxer web
site ) | ( official Alianna Rozentsveig web site )
Recommended
by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service
Have you read or listened to
this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?
New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page
of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch
them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the
entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this
reviewer’s recommendations!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment