The Librarian of Auschwitz is my first review title from the good people at netgalley.com (a great place to snag free ARCs). I feel like I struck gold getting approved for this title, which won't be available to the public until October.
The Librarian of Auschwitz is YA historical fiction at its best. Real life heroes and villains of Auschwitz come to life in this unique telling of a little known aspect of the holocaust, the family camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When we read about concentration camps we typically learn little of the children because very few children survived. There are of course stories of parents who successfully hid their children from the SS guards, and heart wrenching tales of children gassed on arrival but little is said of the children who were allowed to live, allowed to go to school, given extra food rations, given as the author puts it "Special Treatment". Don't get your hopes up the family camp and the school that resided within it were not a flicker of kindness in an otherwise dark time. The family camp existed for one purpose. To hide the reality of the concentration camps from the rest of the world. The Nazi's knew that the Red Cross would be inspecting Auschwitz and the family camp was developed to make it appear that jewish families remained intact within the camps. Think Japanese American Internment Camps. That was the image meant to be portrayed by the family camp. Author Antonio Iturbe researched Auschwitz extensively while crafting this novel. Though the story centers around Dita Kraus, a young girl who served as an assistant in the family camp's school and was the keeper of the schools 8 contraband books, he incorporates other important figures in history including Rudi Vrba, Freddy Hirsch and the unimaginably cruel Dr. Mengele (famous for experimenting on prisoners). Nothing about this book shies away from the brutal reality of the jewish experience in World War II. However, the graphic details are minimized making it approachable for young teens. I predict this book will be a crossover favorite for adults and teens alike. My take: I feel real real bad that you all have to wait for October to get ahold of this title. That being said, mark your calendars because this book is going to make waves and you don't want to be 47 people down on your libraries hold list when it hits the shelves.
1 Comment
7/3/2017 10:39:33 am
Wow, this sounds amazing -- and even better that the author was able to pull this off so well. I will definitely have to look out for this.
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AuthorWith my Masters in Library Science I review for School Library Journal, Indie Authors and local publications. Archives
August 2017
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