This is a story of the Warsaw Ghetto told through the eyes of Froim Baum, who was born in Warsaw on April 15, 1926. After his father died, he was placed in Janusz Korczak's orphanage, where he spent some of the happiest years of his childhood. When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Froim and other Jews were forced by Nazi soldiers to live in a walled-off part of the city. Froim sneaked outside the walls to the market, where he bought food and smuggled it in to his family and friends. A few years later, he was sent to the death camps. He managed to survive until he was liberated at dachau by American soldiers at the end of the war. Mr. Adler hopes that by reading Froim's story, people will be reminded of those millions who perished.
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Gr. 3^-6. As in Hilde and Eli: Children of the Holocaust (1994), Adler and Ritz use a picture-book biography to personalize what happened to millions of Jews under the Nazis. This is the story of Froim Baum, a Holocaust survivor now living in the U.S., who was born to a poor Jewish family in Warsaw in 1926. With the boy's personal biography, Adler weaves together the history of Hitler's rise to power, the Nazi invasion of Poland, the raging anti-Semitism, the herding of more than 400,000 Jews into the walled Warsaw ghetto, and, finally, the death camps. Froim found shelter in the orphanage of the beloved Janusz Korczak and moved between there and home. The story is told with restraint, never exploitative, never sweet. Overwhelmingly, what we see is that this child survived by a mixture of cunning, courage, and sheer accident. The realistic pictures are grim, increasingly brown and gray as the genocide crowds out the light. Several illustrations evoke the photos of the time: the beggars in the street; the skeletal people piled on bunks. There's a lot of history compressed here--some of it may be too much for kids to understand on their own--but this one child's story is a compelling way to focus group discussion on how the unimaginable happened and why. Hazel Rochman
About the Author
David A. Adler is the author of the acclaimed Picture Book Biography series as well as other Judaica titles, including Child of the Warsaw Ghetto and Hiding from the Nazis, which, according to booklist, "humanizes the Holocaust statistics by focusing on a child's personal traumatic experience." He lives in New York State with his family.
Illustrator Karen Ritz has a degree in Children’s Literature from the University of Minnesota and learned to draw along the way, attending Rhode Island School of Design for summer classes as a high school student. She has illustrated over forty books, including Kate Shelley and the Midnight Express, a Public Television Reading Rainbow feature, Ellis Island, a 1995 Minnesota Book Award Winner, and A Picture Book of Anne Frank. Her work is housed at the Children’s Literature Research Collection at the University of Minnesota, and several of her books have been chosen for the annual Society of Illustrator’s Show in New York. Karen uses her thirty years of experience in the field to teach about Visual Language at the college and graduate levels. Karen lives and paints on the 30th floor in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, overlooking the Mississippi River.
Illustrator Karen Ritz has a degree in Children’s Literature from the University of Minnesota and learned to draw along the way, attending Rhode Island School of Design for summer classes as a high school student. She has illustrated over forty books, including Kate Shelley and the Midnight Express, a Public Television Reading Rainbow feature, Ellis Island, a 1995 Minnesota Book Award Winner, and A Picture Book of Anne Frank. Her work is housed at the Children’s Literature Research Collection at the University of Minnesota, and several of her books have been chosen for the annual Society of Illustrator’s Show in New York. Karen uses her thirty years of experience in the field to teach about Visual Language at the college and graduate levels. Karen lives and paints on the 30th floor in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, overlooking the Mississippi River.
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More About the Author
I write both fiction and non-fiction. I begin my fiction with the main character. The story comes later. Of course, since I'll be spending a lot of time with each main character, why not have him or her be someone I like? Andy Russell is based, loosely, on a beloved member of my family. He's fun to write about and the boy who inspired the character is even more fun to know. Cam Jansen is based even more loosely on a classmate of mine in the first grade whom we all envied because we thought he had a photographic memory. Now, especially when my children remind me of some promise they said I made, I really envy Cam's amazing memory. I have really enjoyed writing about Cam Jansen and her many adventures. For my books of non-fiction I write about subjects I find fascinating. My first biography was Our Golda: The Life of Golda Meir. To research that book, I bought a 1905 set of encyclopedia. Those books told me what each of the places Golda Meir lived in were like when she lived there. I've written many other biographies, including books about Martin Luther King, Jr; George Washington; Abraham Lincoln; Helen Keller; Harriet Tubman; Anne Frank; and many others in my Picture Book Biography series. I've been a Yankee and a Lou Gehrig fan for decades so I wrote Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man. It's more the story of his great courage than his baseball playing. Children face all sorts of challenges and it's my hope that some will be inspired by the courage of Lou Gehrig. I am working now on another book about a courageous man, Janusz Korczak. My book One Yellow Daffodil is fiction, too, but it's based on scores of interviews I did with Holocaust survivors for my books We Remember the Holocaust, Child of the Warsaw Ghetto, The Number on My Grandfather's Arm, and Hiding from the Nazis. The stories I heard were compelling. One Yellow Daffodil is both a look to the past and to the future, and expresses my belief in the great spirit and strength of our children. I love math and was a math teacher for many years, so it was fun for me to write several math books including Fraction Fun, Calculator Riddles, and Shape Up! Fun with Triangles and Other Polygons. In my office I have this sign, "Don't Think. Just Write!" and that's how I work. I try not to worry about each word, even each sentence or paragraph. For me stories evolve. Writing is a process. I rewrite each sentence, each manuscript, many times. And I work with my editors. I look forward to their suggestions, their help in the almost endless rewrite process. Well, it's time to get back to dreaming, and to writing, my dream of a job. David A. Adler is the author of more than 175 children's books, including the Young Cam Jansen series. He lives in Woodmere, New York.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Powerful Introduction to the Holocaust for Middle Grades,
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This review is from: Child of the Warsaw Ghetto (Hardcover)
In my opinion, all upper elementary students should be made aware of the Holocaust. It's not easy--in a single library session--to try to discuss the Holocaust and promote some of the titles we have in our school library. "Child of the Warsaw Ghetto" is probably the best, single title I can read in one sitting that covers so much territory.The picture book format is a bit deceiving, since I would not opt to read this solemn story to primary grades. The muted gray colored pencil drawings fit the grim topic of this biographical account of a poor Jewish boy in Warsaw, Poland, during the time of the Nazi occupation. In rapid succession we learn about the Depression, the rise of Hitler and anti-Jewish sentiment, desperate poverty, a home for orphans, Germany's invasion of Poland, fighting, forced labor, German theft of furniture and valuables, removal of Jews, the ordered wearing of the blue Star of David, the moving of 400,000 Jews into a walled ghetto, the stark living conditions, the closure of the ghetto, the order for "All Jews out!" and few who were able to escape, the brief--but bold--Jewish resistance, the burning of the ghetto, and the "resettlement" either to death camps or concentration camps. All this is seen through the eyes of Froim Baum, starting when he is still a youngster. The author's note at the end of the book spells out the additional cruelty of the Nazis to initiate many of their actions on Jewish holidays. He also tells what became of Froim Baum after the war. When I've finished reading this sobering account to older elementary students, I encourage them to read additional titles, such as: "Diary of a Young Girl," by Anne Frank; "Number the Stars," "The Devil's Arithmetic," "Alicia: My Story," "The Endless Steppe," "The Borrowed House," "The Hiding Place," and "Daniel's Story" (to name a few). This is a topic we should never forget. And since the period of history is not really covered in our curriculum, it needs to be introduced to students through well-written books on the subject, whether fiction or non-fiction. "Child of the Warsaw Ghetto" is a good place to start.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A searing account of a young boy's experiences during the Holocaust,
This review is from: Child of the Warsaw Ghetto (Hardcover)
Holocaust education is essential for everyone, and especially so in the present context as the number of Holocaust survivors dwindle with the passage of years. The importance of emphasizing tolerance for other cultures and faiths is also crucial given the increasingly diverse make-up of society today. Given the grim nature of the subject matter, the Holocaust can be incredibly difficult to teach the young, yet I feel books like "Child of the Warsaw Ghetto" makes the subject more accessible to children, though I would recommend this for children Grades 6 and up.
The story here focuses on a young Jewish boy, Froim Baum, who lived in Poland during the time of the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. There's some background information provided on Baum's circumstances - he was one of seven children born to a poor Jewish tailor and his wife. The family became even more impoverished when Baum's father died, leaving the family without a proper home. This forced Baum's mother to send some of her children to an orphanage run by Janusz Korczak. The Baums then find themselves and other Jews forced into a ghetto, practically sealed off from the Polish Gentile population, and things get worse for the Jews. Baum moves back and forth between his family's lodgings in the ghetto and Korczak's orphanage in the ghetto, and this actually saves him one day when the entire orphanage is sent to a death camp, including Korczak himself. The story details what happens to Baum and his own family - their escape from the ghetto, and eventual deportation to the camps. The illustrations are dark and grim, and credibly portray the oppression and cruelty suffered by the Jews in Warsaw. The Nazis' penchant for cruelty is also elaborated on at the back of the book as the author explains how many of the 'actions' against the Jews (deportations, the assault on the Warsaw ghetto, etc.) are all carried out on major Jewish holidays. Though this can be termed a picture book, I'd definitely say this is not for young children, and more appropriate for Grades 6 and up (the illustrations are too grim, the vocabulary is advanced). Other picture books (for varying ages) on the Holocaust: The Cats in Krasinski Square Erika's Story Luba: The Angel of Bergen-Belsen (Jane Addams Honor Book (Awards)) Star of Fear, Star of Hope The Butterfly Willy and Max: A Holocaust Story One Yellow Daffodil: A Hanukkah Story
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