When a blizzard blows into town on Billy’s tenth birthday, he is convinced his day is ruined. But as the winds begin picking up and the snow falls heavier, things don’t turn out as he expected. Billy’s house is the nearest one to school, and it looks as though he will be having a few after-school guests for a slumber party bigger than any celebration he could have planned!
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Adler and Ritz follow up their A Picture Book of Anne Frank by briefly describing two other young victims of the Holocaust, 18-year-old Hilde Rosenzweig and nine-year-old Eli Lax. Neither has a particular claim on public memory-Hilde's brother escaped from Germany to England in 1940, while three of Eli's sisters survived various concentration camps; these siblings told Hilde's and Eli's stories to Adler. Unfortunately, Adler deals out sweet generalizations and few telling particulars ("Eli had no real toys, but he was a happy child who was always smiling"), thus failing to memorialize Hilde and Eli as anything but representative victims of the Nazis. Ritz's paintings seem modeled on photographs, but they, too, have a generic quality. It should be noted that a basic awareness of the Holocaust is presumed-this story is only for those with a previously developed interest in the subject. Ages 6-9.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 3-5-Hilde Rosenzweig and Eli Lax were both Jewish children who were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust; they had nothing else in common. Thus, pairing their stories for this book seems peculiar and contrived. Opening with Hilde, who was born in Germany in 1923, Adler portrays Hitler's rise to power and the Nazi political agenda from the German/Jewish perspective. He then introduces Eli, who was born in 1932 in Czechoslovakia, and sets the stage for the spread of Nazism and World War II. The integration of the facts into the stories of these two children's lives creates a confusing text that has too many complex political elements for the younger end of the intended audience and a picture-book format that's too juvenile for older readers. Ritz's paintings reflect the times with their muted, often somber colors. However, the faces are often distorted and the swastikas sometimes resemble the letter aleph in the Hebrew alphabet. A much better glimpse into the lives of children of the Holocaust for a younger audience is Chana Byers Abells's The Children We Remember (Greenwillow, 1986). Howard Greenfeld's The Hidden Children (Ticknor & Fields, 1993), Rian Verhoeven and Ruud Van Der Rol's Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary (Viking, 1993), and Nelly S. Toll's Behind the Secret Window (Dial, 1993) are all better offerings for older readers.
Sharon Grover, Arlington County Department of Libraries, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Sharon Grover, Arlington County Department of Libraries, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
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.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but there are better. . .,
By GradeSchoolTeacher (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hilde and Eli, Children of the Holocaust: Children of the Holocaust (Hardcover)
"Hilde and Eli" is a good book about the Holocaust and its effects on children; however, there are better books that recount this experience. The picture book format is misleading because the information (and the blunt way in which it is presented) is certainly not suitable for young children. Children in 4th-5th-and 6th grades would find it informative, though I doubt they would pick up a picture book readily. In the context of a classroom discussion, it may serve its purpose - to inform about a devastating event in the history of humanity.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
No sugar coating,
This review is from: Hilde and Eli, Children of the Holocaust: Children of the Holocaust (Hardcover)
David A. Adler may be the author of the best-selling Cam Jansen mystery series for children, but he struck a slightly sour note in this story book concerning two children murdered during the Holocaust. The facts presented are not the usual storybook material.
However, Adler cannot be blamed: the subject matter is difficult to handle for children. The fact is, most children's novels on this topic have heroes and heroines who somehow escape the terrible fate that in fact claimed the majority of Jewish children in Europe--1.5 million, according to official records. Adler, in telling the tale of two children who did NOT survive--with details given to him by their respective siblings, who did--takes off that sugar coating. I'd agree that this book is not suitable for little children, but second, third and fourth graders who still like picture books would find it informative. If you don't mind telling your children the ugly truth about the Holocaust and its young victims, this is as good a place as any to start. --Alyssa A. Lappen
5 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I liked this book it talks about Hitler & the Holocaust,
By A Customer
This review is from: Hilde and Eli, Children of the Holocaust: Children of the Holocaust (Hardcover)
Hi' I'am a 6th grader. And reading a book about the Holocaust. My book is Hilde and Eli childern of the Holocaust.This book is really fun to read when there's nothing too do. The characters are Hilde and Eli, they are the kids of the holocaust.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
