First sentence: Footsteps on the secret back stairs. The worst sound Miep Gies has ever heard.
Premise/plot: This one is a picture book biography of Miep Gies, one of the young women who helped hide the Frank family (and the others in the secret annex) during the Second World War. She didn’t work alone, but she is responsible for rescuing the diary of Anne Frank after the families were discovered and captured. She kept the diary safe until it could be returned. Sadly, the father was the only one to survive. Miep returned the diary to him; it was published in the late 1940s.
My thoughts: I definitely feel that stories like this one need to be told and heard. All voices matter. Despite the picture book format, it is definitely for older readers—upper elementary students. The amount of text per page not to mention the subject matter makes this better suited for an older audience.
I am not sure which book I would recommend to introduce the subject of the Holocaust to children. This one or a picture book biography of Anne Frank might be a good choice. Then again, I love Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars.
Do you have a favorite book on the Holocaust? I think my introduction was The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom.
© 2020 Becky Laney of Young Readers
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