Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Facebook Twitter Pinterest

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See this image

Irena Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto Paperback – June 1, 2012

by
Susan Goldman Rubin (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Susan Goldman Rubin Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
Susan Goldman Rubin (Author), Bill Farnsworth (Illustrator)
4.3 out of 5 stars 29 customer reviews
See all 3 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Hardcover
"Please retry"
$15.67
$9.94 $7.33
Paperback
"Please retry"
—
$136.91 $24.39
Top 20 lists in Books
Top 20 lists in Books
View the top 20 best sellers of all time, the most reviewed books of all time and some of our editors' favorite picks. Learn more

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Back
  1. The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler
    Anna Paquin
    4.7 out of 5 stars 193
    DVD
    $9.27 Prime
  2. Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project
    Jack Mayer
    4.8 out of 5 stars 453
    Paperback
    $17.95 Prime
  3. Irena Sendler: In the Name of Their Mothers
    4.8 out of 5 stars 47
    DVD
    $16.79 Prime
  4. Irena's Jars of Secrets
    Marcia Vaughan
    4.4 out of 5 stars 18
    Hardcover
  5. Irena Sendler: Bringing Life to Children of the Holocaust (Crabtree Groundbreaker Biographies)
    Susan Brophy Down
    4.2 out of 5 stars 9
    Paperback
    $10.87 Prime
  6. Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust
    Allan Zullo
    4.6 out of 5 stars 165
    Paperback
    $3.36 Prime
Next
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
Image
Looking for the Audiobook Edition?
Tell us that you'd like this title to be produced as an audiobook, and we'll alert our colleagues at Audible.com. If you are the author or rights holder, let Audible help you produce the audiobook: Learn more at ACX.com.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 40 pages
  • Publisher: Holiday House (June 1, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0823425959
  • ISBN-13: 978-0823425952
  • Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.1 x 0.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,102,330 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsAssociation of Jewish Libraries Reviews
By AJL Reviews on July 26, 2011
Format: Hardcover
She was a little woman, less than five feet tall, but if height were measured by courage, heart and spirit, she would be a giant. Sendler, a young Catholic social worker, did her best to tend to the wounded and bring bread to the hungry; but as soon as Poland surrendered to Germany, she joined Zegota, a resistance movement that helped rescue Jews. Infiltrating the ghetto disguised as a nurse, she saw starvation and sickness, and as the Nazis began to empty the ghetto, she began to smuggle out the children. Her story is told in an oversized illustrated book, a column of generous-sized black text against a white background placed adjacent to the dark, doom-laden paintings. The few hopeful images have a lighter background - for instance as Sendler gently teaches a little Jewish girl her new name and the Catholic prayers she must learn to save her life; and also when Sendler buries the jars containing the assumed Polish and Jewish names of the children under a tree in a friend's yard, looking forward to the future--when the names will be turned over to a Jewish Zionist organization. Only an artist as fine as Farnsworth could manage to represent the damage and doom of the ghetto, the horror of the Nazis seizing Sendler, and the Warsaw Uprising; and only an author as talented and knowledgeable as Rubin could tell a story like this in a way that will be understood by children from grades 4-6, without diminishing its impact. Irena's story remained untold for many years, because the Soviets who took over Poland regarded her as a traitor since Zagota was supported by the anti-communist Polish government in exile. Sendler says that she was taught by her father that when someone is drowning, you don't ask if they can swim, you just jump in and help.Read more ›
Comment 22 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsThe Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler
By Z Hayes HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWER on January 20, 2012
Format: Hardcover
Irena Sendler was a young Catholic social worker in Warsaw, Poland when the Nazis invaded her country in Sep, 1939. Irena had been taught by her father that "when someone is drowning, you don't ask if they can swim, you just jump in and help." This philosophy led to Irena risking her very life in order to save persecuted Jews in Warsaw, especially Jewish children who were completely helpless in the face of a great evil in the form of Nazi Germany and their plan of exterminating the Jewish race, what came to be known as the Final Solution.

Irena's position as a social worker enabled her to get in and out of the Warsaw Ghetto, the infamous area where thousands of Jews were confined. It was basically a prison where many Jews were cramped into close living quarters, and many suffered from starvation and disease. Under the guise of providing medical assistance, Irena made plans to smuggle out as many Jewish children as she could out of the ghetto and to the Aryan side of Warsaw.

Irena was aided by the Council for Aid to Jews, which was an underground organization. Together with like-minded people, Irena was able to save at least 2,500 Jewish children who would otherwise have most certainly met an untimely death at the hands of the Nazis. This was because of frequent selections by the Nazis where unlucky Jews were picked to be deported to camps, and many of these deportees met a grisly end at extermination camps like Auschwitz.

The story includes first-hand accounts by Jew who had been saved by Irena when they were children. The accounts of rescue make for riveting reading and one can only imagine how afraid these children must have been at the time. Babies were smuggled out in potato sacks, suitcases, and tool boxes!

This is an inspiring read of a courageous woman who stood up to the Nazis and saved many lives during the Holocaust. Recommended for upper elementary students and up.
Comment 7 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsCan't go wrong
By M. Heiss on December 17, 2012
Format: Hardcover
This picture book and another one: "Irena's Jar of Secrets" Irena's Jars of Secrets by Marcia Vaughan are both great. Can't go wrong with either book. Both are great for biographies for middle grades, featuring peril, heroic action, interrogation, and torture.

This book features great illustrations and vocabulary words like: endangered, resistance, defy, solidarity, ghetto, perished, sanitation, typhus...

The illustrations in this book are particularly good -- luminous and evocative.
Comment 4 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsA Quiet, Great Female Heroine
By MarniSoup on December 26, 2011
Format: Hardcover
This is the story of Irena Sendler, a heroine during WWII who risked her safety time and time again to save Jewish children in Poland. Her stories only surfaced after 1989, so Irena is fairly unknown. Thanks to Susan Rubin, her story can have a wider audience.

While this book shares many of the risks she took, it also gives a picture of the children's side. One child mentions he'd already had 32 mothers from being moved so much, and another child mentions that after being reunited with his own mother, he recognized her only after he made it on a train and she didn't, because of how tightly she clung to him and cried when they were together again. Little glimpses like that are heart wrenching, but are a great help in stepping into their shoes a bit.

I loved the book. We need to hear about great men and women like Irena Sendler more often. Looks like Susan Rubin has written about several others; I'm looking forward to reading them too.
Comment 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsWhen Someone Is Drowing, You Just Jump in and Help
By Daniel L. Berek on October 11, 2014
Format: Paperback
“I was taught by my father that when someone is drowning, you don’t ask if they can swim. You just jump in and help.” Irena Sendler was never anyone to brag—she always said that she simply did what she had to do. What she did, however, was nothing short of extraordinary. A young Catholic Polish social worker from Warsaw, she saved the lives of at least 2,000 Jewish children, smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto, an unbearably overcrowded, unsanitary, and dangerous section of the city the Nazis sealed off during their World War II occupation. Surely children ought to know of this heroic woman—that is what this book sets out to do.

Susan Rubin drew upon many sources to create an accurate chronicle of Irena Sendler, using dialogue to excellent effect. The bibliography, in fact, is worthy of a much longer book, even one for adult readers. In describing Irena, Rubin tells of the many acts of defiance her subject committed, giving the reader a very human portrayal. The excellent illustrations by Bill Farnsworth enhance the biography, making it come alive visually for young readers.

Of particular interest to young readers are Irena’s activities in secret, underground organizations, including Zegota. Code names, forged documents, smuggling, and underground escape routes highlight the dangers Irena and her colleagues faced and make for interesting reading for young readers. Most remarkable was the rescue of a six-month-old infant in a wooden carpenter’s box. That baby, Elzbieta Ficowska, would grow up to become one of Irena’s closest and most trusted friends.

Persuading Jewish mothers to give up their young children was the most heart-rending part of Irena’s job.Read more ›
Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.