Survivors of the holocaust True stories of six extraordinary children

Each of these six true stories echoes with the survivor's childhood fear, uncertainty, and desperation. The nightmares are unique, whether it's being torn from your own home, seeing your parents swept away never to return, being hidden in remote locations for reasons you don't understand, or huddling through catastrophic bombings. But some elements recur: the turning away of refugees or even interning them as enemy aliens ; the rare, life-saving bravery of a neighbor or embassy worker; and always the brutish savagery of the Nazis. The most directly horrific of the stories is the one that occurs in a concentration camp, where people died next to you on the crowded bunks and the black body-burning flames lick high though the bodies themselves are not pictured. In fact, Whittingham's work is nothing short of miraculous, visualizing the chaos and anxiety in jagged figures and faces, insidiously incorporating swastikas into marching legs and plane formations, but never pushing past what a young reader can bear. Introducing such a forbidding matter into the lives of children can be uncomfortable, but it's more important still to hand down the dark knowledge, lest we forget, as the foreword says, what can happen when people are subjected to discrimination and persecution for being seen as different.' Includes a glossary, time line, websites for further research, and subsequent biographies of the survivors.--Jesse Karp Copyright 2010 Booklist

In this graphic novel repackaging of an animation series created in 2014 and produced for BBC Learning, six Holocaust survivors narrate their experiences in unsparing terms. Whittingham's angular images--a hybrid of German Expressionism and contemporary vector art--depict the fear and horror they endured as Jewish children and teenagers. The survivors' recollections of seeing their frantic parents powerless in the face of an inexorable force (Nazis are depicted as brutal, often larger-than-life automatons) is particularly searing: in many images, the characters run in fear or sit with devastating loneliness after being separated forever from a loved one. "Nobody ever said, I'll explain what happened to you," says Suzanne, a Parisian Jew with curly red hair who went from "a lovely life. It was a cultured life" to being hidden and abused after her parents were taken away and murdered. The narratives often end abruptly, gnawing at the heart; an afterword includes photos of the now-elderly survivors and brief descriptions of their achievements--including, most hearteningly, grandchildren. Ages 10--up. (Oct.)■

Gr 4--8--Each of these six accounts of Holocaust survivors are unique, yet all convey terror and despair. The contributors were children from different parts of Europe when the Nazis came to power in Germany, and all of their families were torn apart by rampant anti-Semitism. One child was saved by a neighbor when the Nazis came to take her family away, one child was sent to a concentration camp, one child was part of the Kindertransport, and yet another child's family managed to escape to England. The graphic novel format and first-person narration create an intimate, harrowing portrait. Each story uses a different color scheme, some with burnt oranges and browns, some with more subdued blues, each slightly distinct from the next. The blocky illustrations are child-friendly and accessible yet still explore dark themes and images, making this a good option for upper elementary school students and middle schoolers. Excellent back matter includes photos and descriptions of the children as adults, an extensive time line and glossary, and a lengthy list of websites for further research. VERDICT Using an engaging format to shed light on a devastating yet important topic, this is a strong choice for most libraries.--Jody Kopple, Shady Hill School, Cambridge, MA

Shackleton works very hard to protect readers from the stories she's presenting.Each chapter of this graphic novel recounts the true experiences of a Jewish child who survived the Holocaust, and the stories, told by the survivors and edited by Shackleton, can be painful to read. Arek was nearly sent to a gas chamber at Birkenau and had to watch a girl being pulled away from her mother by the guards. But each chapter ends with the child living in a safe place. This is not to say that every chapter has a happy ending. One boy sees rockets exploding during an air raid. A girl named Suzanne finds shelter on a farm far out in the country and, ironically, doesn't learn that the war has ended until two years after it's over. But every segment concludes on a positive note, as in: "Suzanne was eventually rescued by the Red Cross and taken to live with her grandmother inEngland." This makes some sections of the book feel truncated, but readers may be grateful for the relief. Suzanne even ends up surrounded by farm animals in a truly lovely illustration. Whittingham's character designs are inventive and, in their bleakest moments, resemble the animated sequences in Pink Floyd's The Wall, which seems appropriate, since the book was inspired by animated films from the BBC.Choppy storytelling doesn't lessen the power or truth of the stories. (glossary, timeline, index, recommended websites) (Graphic nonfiction. 10-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.