An experienced resistance worker, Chaya is dismayed when she's paired with Esther, a timid new recruit, on a mission that proves catastrophic.  As tension mounts in Poland and more resistance workers are captured, the two will have to learn to work together to warn the Jews in Warsaw of impending disaster.  Will they get there in time to stop the inevitable?  Perhaps not, but they have to try, even if it means sacrificing their lives for the cause, which it just might ...

I heard Jennifer A. Nielsen speak about the inspiration behind Resistance—her newest middle grade novel—this summer at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.  She told the true story of Poland's brave, young couriers, which was absolutely fascinating.  I wanted to know more, so I immediately (well, not too immediately—the buy lines at the festival were crazy) bought Resistance and delved right in.  Not surprisingly, the story is tense, action-filled, and exciting.  The historical details are fascinating, especially when you consider that real people actually performed the daring actions described in the book.  While the prose isn't quite as strong as I hoped and the characters suffer from lack of development, I found Resistance to be an engrossing, enlightening read.  It may be too grim for younger middle grade readers, but for older kids and adults, I recommend it.

  

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of other MG/YA books about World War II like Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz, Making Bombs for Hitler by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse, etc.)

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for violence, blood/gore, and scenes of peril

To the FTC, with love:  I bought a copy of Resistance from Amazon with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha.

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When the Nazis invade Krakow, the life of Jacob "Yanek" Gruener changes forever.  Jews are no longer safe in Poland.  Not even a harmless 10-year-old boy.  Crowded into a city ghetto with other Jews, Yanek and his family must eke out a life with little privacy, scant food, and no freedom.  Despite the hardships they endure, the Grueners are grateful to be together while all around them, friends and neighbors disappear daily.  

One day, the inevitable happens and Yanek is left all alone.  When the Nazis finally capture him, he's sent to a concentration camp.  His youth and relative strength mark him as "lucky"—as long as he can work, he can survive.  Moved from camp to camp, Yanek does everything he can to survive.  The more he suffers, the more he wonders if living is even worth it.  As hope dwindles and his "health"—the only thing keeping him alive—seeps out of him, Yanek longs to give up.  Will he continue his fight for survival, for freedom?  Will liberation come soon enough to save a young boy who's rapidly losing hope?  

Based on a true story, Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz tells an amazing tale of survival.  Like all concentration camp novels, it details the unbelievable horrors suffered by people who actually lived.  It's fiction, yes, but it's grounded in harsh, shocking reality.  It's an eye-opening novel, one that's both eye-opening and touching.  As haunting as it is, the novel is a perfect one to hand to kids who want to learn more about the Holocaust.  They'll definitely root for Yanek to persevere; in turn, they might just be inspired to push through their own challenges with courage and determination.

(Readalikes: Reminds me of other Holocaust books for children, including The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, and Making Bombs for Hitler by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch)

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Hannah Stern isn't looking forward to another boring Passover Seder with her extended family.  The 12-year-old would prefer to skip it all—the lipstick-laced kisses from Aunt Eva; the senile ravings of her grandfather; the endless droning about Egypt and plagues and the children of Israel.  The traditions force them all to remember the past and Hannah is so tired of hearing about things that happened so long ago they hardly matter in the present.

Opening the door of one's home to symbolically let the prophet Elijah inside is a silly tradition only babies believe in.  When Hannah reluctantly receives the honor of performing the task, she certainly doesn't expect anything unusual to happen.  But it does.  As she steps through the door, her family's modern New York apartment disappears.  Hannah finds herself in a village she doesn't recognize with people she doesn't know.  Everyone calls her "Chaya" and acts like there's nothing strange about her being trapped in a Polish village in 1942.  They laugh when she speaks of magical doors, but Hannah doesn't find her predicament funny at all.  She's studied the Holocaust in school, she's heard her family's terrible concentration camp stories, she knows what's going to happen to the Polish Jews.      As Hannah experiences all the confusion, all the injustice, all the fear her ancestors felt during World War II, she begins to understand why her parents insist on remembering their heartbreaking plight.

Can Hannah use her knowledge from the future to save her ancestors from their devastating fate?  Can she stop the horrors of the Holocaust from happening at all, at least to the people whose blood she will someday share?  And, most importantly, can she find her way home to Hannah Stern's nice, safe life in present-day New York?  Or will she die as Chaya, another victim of senseless Nazi brutality?

I've heard parents say that The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen is too violent, too vivid, for young readers.  And, yet, it's one of the most compelling children's books I've read about the Holocaust.  Why?  Because it comes to such brilliant life with all its rich, Technicolor details.  As you read, it's impossible not to feel as if you're walking in Chaya's clunky black shoes.  Just as it did for Hannah, the modern world falls away, giving you a little bit of an understanding for what a young Polish Jew might have seen, heard and felt as her gentle world crumbled into a ghastly, irrevocable nightmare.  This small book may, at times, be difficult to digest, but, trust me, the understanding that comes from it is worth every hard swallow.  Everyone, children included, should read this touching classic.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of other books about the Holocaust/concentration camps written for children/teens, including The Diary of Anne Frank, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry and Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys)

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On an ordinary day in 1963, 14-year-old Zahava Laskier discovered a shocking secret about her father's past. She knew he had survived imprisonment at Auschwitz; knew that his mother, 7 of his siblings and their families were murdered there; but she hadn't known about three others whose lives also ended at the infamous concentration camp - her father's first wife, Dvorah; their son, 6-year-old Joachim-Henius; and their daughter, Rutka, age 14. Twenty-eight years later, she learned something just as astonishing: Rutka recorded her experiences during the German occupation of her town of Bedzin, Poland, in a notebook. Now, 60 years later, Zahava - and the world - would finally get the opportunity to know her half-sister.

When Rutka's diary - which had been kept hidden by a friend - came to light, it proved to be a valuable historical document. Because of similarities to her Geman counterpart, Rutka became known as "The Polish Anne Frank." Unlike Anne's writings, however, Rutka's entries cover a very short period, only a few months in 1943. Much of it concerns the normal goings-on of a teenage girl; the fact that those ordinary squabbles, flirtations and outings took place against a backdrop of violent genocide is what makes it so remarkable.

Rutka's Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust is a slim volume (the notebook, itself, only contains about 60 handwritten pages), which includes entries from the diary; explanatory notes; photographs; and brief essays from Rutka's family, friends and modern scholars. The thick, glossy pages lend an authentic air to the book, making it at once haunting and effective. Rutka may not be as appealing as Anne Frank (she's saucy, often caustic and more than a little boy-crazy) and her diary not as affecting, but it's still fascinating. The juxtaposition of ordinary vs. extraordinary makes it unique. In one paragraph, Rutka writes a passage that could have been lifted out of any teenager's diary:

"I will have to settle things with Janek. I'll tell him that if he wants to be my friend, he has to be on time, or else adios! Obviously, not in these words exactly. I couldn't care less about him. But I'm curious to see the look on his face. I'm going to sleep." (January 25, 1943)

Less than a week later, she writes:

"The rope around us is getting tighter and tighter. Next month there should already be a ghetto, a real one, surrounded by walls. In the summer it will be unbearable. To sit in a gray locked cage, without being able to see fields and flowers ." (January 30, 1943)

Then, in early February:

"I am writing this as if nothing has happened. As if I were an army experienced in cruelty. But I'm young, I'm 14, and I haven't seen much in my life, and I'm already so indifferent. Now I am terrified when I see 'uniforms.' I'm turning into an animal waiting to die. One can lose one's mind thinking about this." (February 6, 1943)

Rutka's notebook ends on April 24, 1943. Four months later, she was gassed at Auschwitz along with her mother and younger brother. Today, her voice shouts from the grave, compelling us to listen, to witness, to prevent the kind of hate, the kind of fanaticism, that led to the brutal murders of millions of people. Rutka Laskier always spoke her mind - now, the world will finally hear what one extraordinary girl had to say.

(To watch BookTV's presentation on Rutka's Notebook, click here.)

Grade: B

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Although I've read numerous books about the Holocaust, I have never encountered the kind of information I found in Diane Ackerman's The Zookeeper's Wife. Most books on WWII focus exclusively on the human element; this book is different because it takes a close look at the toll the war took on animals, specifically the residents of the Warsaw Zoo. Through the diaries of Antonina Zabinsky, "the zookeeper's wife," we get the stories of all the zoo's characters, both human and non.

Antonina and her husband Jan ran the zoo before and during the war, caring for all who lived on the grounds. This included a host of animals, from house cats to elephants to rare Pryzywalski horses. During Warsaw's years of Nazi occupation, the zoo's population also consisted of "Guests" - Jewish friends, Underground workers and others in need of aid - who hid in the zoo's cages and outbuildings. The Zabinsky's also stuffed fugitives into every corner of the villa they called home. While Jan worked with the Resistance, Antonina cared for all of her tenants. She especially loved the animals, with whom she had an almost magical relationship. According to her husband:

It's as if she's porous. She's almost able to read their [the animals']
mind. It's a snap for her to find out what's bothering her animal
friends. Maybe because she treats them like people. But you've seen
her. At a moment's notice, she can lose her Homo sapiens nature
and transform herself into a panther, badger, or muskrat (235).

Because of her abilities, Antonina always had animals around her,
even living in the villa with the family. One of the most charming scenes
in the book occurs when Antonina observes her son taking his pet badger for a
walk. During the height of the war, the villa hosted a chaotic mess of animals and people, co-existing in relative harmony. Antonina empathized with every individual, continually drawing similarities between the humans and the animals.

For me, the most fascinating aspect of this book was Ackerman's description of the Nazis' exhaustive philosophies, which they applied not only to humans but also to plants and animals. Despite the established theory of "hybrid vigor" - the fact that inbreeding actually strengthens bloodlines - German zoologists chose not to allow Polish animals to mate with their pure bred counterparts. Partly because of this, the rarer animals in the Warsaw Zoo were transported to Germany, while the less "important" residents were simply shot.

Like all Holocaust stories, this one kept my interest. I did get bored with some of Ackerman's endless animal descriptions - I'm not a big animal lover - although those passages seemed more warm than those discussing the humans in the book. Ackerman talks about people in kind of a cold, remote way. The story also seemed random and spotty - I found myself getting too much information on subjects I didn't find interesting (the nesting habits of various species) and too little on the topics I wanted to know about (Antonina's writing). The last third of the story turned into a tense and compelling conclusion. Overall, though, I thought the book was just okay.

Grade: B-