New Releases by Kathy Kacer

Based on the true story of the ship St. Louis, which left Germany in May 1939 full of Jewish passengers seeking refuge in Cuba. Denied port in Cuba, the US, and finally Canada, the St. Louis was forced to return Europe, where many passengers later died in the Holocaust. Through the eyes of two children, Sol and Lisa, both of whom survived the war and shared their experiences, we see as their journey begins with excitement and hope, only to end in frustration and fear. The children's chapters alternate with those of Captain Schroeder, who reveals the full history of the journey.

See below for English description. En 1945, la petite Francine et sa mère sont envoyées dans le camp nazi de Bergen-Belsen. La vie y est triste et sans espoir pour les prisonniers. Soucieuse de préserver le moral de sa fille, la mère de Francine lui confie un secret: elle a deux morceaux de chocolat cachés dans son sac. Un trésor pour Francine, qui n'a pas vu de friandises depuis des années. Sa mère l'empêche pourtant d'y toucher. « Un jour, quand je verrai que tu en as vraiment besoin, je te les donnerai », lui promet-elle. Francine apprend un deuxième secret lorsqu'elle rencontre Hélène, une autre prisonnière du camp: Hélène attend un enfant. Il y a si peu de nourriture, ici, et encore moins d'espoir... Hélène et son bébé courent un grave danger. Francine songe aux deux morceaux de chocolat. Elle peut peut-être faire quelque chose pour aider la mère et l'enfant. Ce geste de bonté marquera leur vie durant des décennies. In 1945, young Francine and her maman are sent to the Bergen-Belsen Nazi prison camp, where life is gray and hopeless. Determined to lift Francine's spirits, Maman shares a secret: hidden inside her bag are two pieces of chocolate. They're the first sweets Francine has seen in years, but Maman tells her not to eat them. "One day, when I see that you really need them... that's when I'll give the chocolates to you." When Francine meets Hélène, a fellow prisoner, she learns another secret: Hélène is pregnant. But there is very little food in the camp, and even less hope. Hélène and her baby are in grave danger. Remembering the chocolates, Francine realizes she may be able to help. Francine's act of kindness will make ripples in their lives for decades to come. Original title: Two Pieces of Chocolate

The moving, award-winning Canada Reads book from Holocaust survivor Max Eisen, now adapted for young readers Tibor “Max” Eisen was born in Czechoslovakia into an Orthodox Jewish family. He lived in a compound with his parents, his two younger brothers, his baby sister, his paternal grandparents and his uncle and aunt. Life was far from perfect, but it was relatively peaceful. But in the spring of 1944—the morning after the family’s Passover Seder—officers forcibly removed Eisen and his family from their home. They, and thousands of other Jewish people, were brought to a brickyard and later loaded onto crowded cattle cars bound for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Fifteen-year-old Max lost his entire family, but he survived the selection process and went on to endure back-breaking slave labour and the infamous Death March in January 1945. Max eventually survived his painful ordeal. And he knew he had to keep the very last promise he made to his father: to tell the world what happened at Auschwitz. By Chance Alone is the result of this promise.

In 1945, young Francine and her maman are sent to the Bergen-Belsen Nazi prison camp, where life is gray and hopeless. Determined to lift Francine’s spirits, Maman shares a secret: hidden inside her bag are two pieces of chocolate. They’re the first sweets Francine has seen in years, but Maman tells her not to eat them. “One day, when I see that you really need them...that’s when I’ll give the chocolates to you.” When Francine meets Hélène, a fellow prisoner, she learns another secret: Hélène is pregnant. But there is very little food in the camp, and even less hope. Hélène and her baby are in grave danger. Remembering the chocolates, Francine realizes she may be able to help. Francine’s act of kindness will make ripples in their lives for decades to come. Inspired by a remarkable true story.

Irene grew up traveling around Germany with her family’s circus, surrounded by her loved ones and thrilling the crowds with her performance on the high wire...until one day, the audience boos. The Lorch family is Jewish, and the increasing power of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis has put them all in grave danger. When the circus is forced to shut down and Irene’s father is taken away, Irene and her mother must go into hiding with another circus. Every day is a frightening new kind of balancing act, caught between the desire to perform and the need to hide—even in plain sight.

History is made one brave act at a time. Henny has grown up with her father’s boat, the Gerda III, as a home away from home. She loves sailing the waters between Denmark and Sweden, carried along by the salt breeze. But when Nazi rule tightens in Copenhagen, Henny joins the resistance. And when Hitler orders the Gestapo to round up all Jewish citizens, Henny realizes that the Gerda III isn’t just a boat—it’s a means of escape for her Jewish neighbours. Safety and freedom are just across the channel in Sweden—as long as Henny doesn’t get caught. The fourth book in Kathy Kacer’s Heroes Quartet series, Call Across the Sea brings to life a little-known part of World War II and highlights the unsung acts of heroism that moved history forward.

"Its 1938 in Dusseldorf, Germany, and Paul is feeling pressured to join the Hitler Youth. The last thing he wants to do is march around with a bunch of bullies, supporting the Gestapo and abusing the city's Jews, but even Paul's parents think he should go along with his classmates in order to keep himself safe. Just when hes starting to despair, Paul meets the Edelweiss Pirates, a group of teenage boys and girls who are working to undermine the growing power of the Nazis. When he joins the rebel organization, he finds out just how hair-raising and dangerous it is to sabotage the Third Reich and rescue Jews wherever they can. But choices have consequences, and during the terrifying violence of Kristallnacht, Paul must step out of the shadows and make a life-changing decision. Inspired by the true story of the Edelweiss Pirates, a group that declared Eternal War on the Hitler Youth"--Provided by publisher.

Heroic actions speak volumes in a powerful middle grade novel based on real WWII events. Life is becoming ever more terrifying for the Jewish community as the Second World War envelops their lives. For twelve-year-old Dina and her sisters, things get even harder when their father dies. Their mother must go back to work and despite many objections, the family adjusts to the arrival of their new housekeeper, Nina, who is not Jewish. But Nina’s role changes dramatically when the Nazis invade their small Ukrainian town. Nina sacrifices her own safety to make sure the children she has come to love are kept from the clutches of the Nazis, and Dina comes to depend on her in a way she never imagined she would. The third novel in Kathy Kacer’s acclaimed Heroes Quartet series, Louder Than Words is based on the true story of one woman’s incredible heroism in the most dangerous of circumstances. It is a another affecting testament to the unsung heroes of World War II who, at great personal risk, saved the lives of strangers.

The dual language edition, in Nishnaabemwin (Ojibwe) Nbisiing dialect and English, of the award-winning I Am Not a Number. When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school she is confused, frightened, and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from, despite the efforts of the nuns who are in charge at the school and who tell her that she is not to use her own name but instead use the number they have assigned to her. When she goes home for summer holidays, Irene's parents decide never to send her and her brothers away again. But where will they hide? And what will happen when her parents disobey the law? Based on the life of co-author Jenny Kay Dupuis’ grandmother, I Am Not a Number is a hugely necessary book that brings a terrible part of Canada’s history to light in a way that children can learn from and relate to.

Silence can be powerful. Kathy Kacer’s second book in her middle grade series about heroic rescues during WWII tells the tale of siblings Helen and Henry, and history’s most famous mime. Desperate to save them from the Nazis, Henry and Helen’s mother makes the harrowing decision to take her children from their home in 1940s Germany and leave them in the care of strangers in France. The brother and sister must hide their Jewish identity to pass for orphans being fostered at a convent in the foreign land. Visits from a local mime become the children’s one source of joy, especially for Henry, whose traumatic experience has left him a selective mute. When an informer gives them up, the children are forced to flee yet again from the Nazis, but this time the local mime—a not yet famous Marcel Marceau—risks everything to try to save the children. Masters of Silence shows award-winning author Kathy Kacer at the top of her craft, bringing to light the little-known story of Marceau’s heroic work for the French Resistance. Marceau would go on to save hundreds of children from Nazi concentration camps and death during WWII. In characteristic Kacer style, Masters of Silence is dramatic and engaging, and highlights the courage of both those rescuing and the rescued themselves. Wenting Li’s chapter heading illustrations and evocative covers provide the perfect visuals for the series.

The true story of nineteen-year-old Jordana Lebowitz’s time at the trial of Oskar Groening, known as the "bookkeeper of Auschwitz", a man charged with being complicit in the deaths of more than 300,000 Jews. A granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Jordana was still not prepared for what she would see and hear. Listening to Groening’s testimony and to the Holocaust survivors who came to testify against him, Jordana felt the weight of being witness to history – a history that we need to remember now more than ever.

See below for English description. Irene, huit ans et ses deux frères sont forcés de quitter leur famille pour aller dans un pensionnat loin de chez eux. C'est la loi! Dans cet endroit austère, on les empêche de parler leur langue et on leur donne un numéro en guise de nom. À la fin de l'année scolaire, les enfants rentrent à la maison et informent leurs parents des conditions exécrables dans lesquelles ils doivent vivre au pensionnat. Trouveront-ils un moyen de cacher les enfants afin qu'ils n'y retournent jamais? Inspiré de la vie de la grand-mère de Jenny Kay Dupuis, Je ne suis pas un numéro met en lumière une sombre partie de l'histoire du Canada de manière à sensibiliser les enfants et à leur permettre d'en tirer une leçon humaine et historique. When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school she is confused, frightened, and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from despite the nuns' efforts to force her to do otherwise. When she goes home for summer holidays, her parents decide to never send her away again, but where will she hide and what will happen when her parents disobey the law? Based on the life of Jenny Kay Dupuis' own grandmother, Je ne suis pas un numéro is a must-read book that brings a terrible part of Canada's history to light in a way that children can learn from and relate to. Original title: I Am Not a Number

"Werner es un niño que está solo en el campo de concentración de Auschwitz. Separado de su familia, no tiene ningún amigo en el mundo. Comparte litera con un hombre callado, el señor Levin, alguien demasiado amable para estar en un lugar tan terrible como aquél. Una noche, a Werner le despiertan los gritos de los guardias, pero no es él a quien buscan, sino al señor Levin. “¡Haz magia!”, le ordenan. ¿Magia? ¿En Auschwitz?"--Cover.

June 1964, Sara has never been out of the tiny town of Hope, Ontario, where she has been in an orphanage all her life. After a fire destroys the Benevolent Home for Necessitous Girls, clues about her parentage—a medical certificate and a Star of David—lead her to Germany. Despite her fears—she doesn’t speak the language, she knows no one in Germany, and she’s never been on an airplane—Sara arrives in Germany determined to explore her newly discovered Jewish heritage and solve the mystery of her parentage. What she encounters is a country still dealing with the aftermath of the Holocaust. With the help of a handsome, English-speaking German boy, she discovers the sad facts of her mother’s brief existence and faces the horrible truth about her father. Ultimately, the knowledge she gains opens up her world and leads her to a deeper understanding of herself. Part of the Secrets Series—a series of seven linked novels that can be read in any order. The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

Shanghai, China is a strange place for a young Jewish girl from ViennaÉ But that is where Lily Toufar finds herself in 1938. She and her family have left their home to find safety far away from Europe, where Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party are making life unbearable for Jews. TheyÕve had to travel fast Ð Lily even had to leave behind most of her toys and books Ð but here she feels free from danger. Despite their hopes, it quickly turns out that all is not safe in Shanghai. Now that the area is controlled by Japan, whose leaders support Hitler, the local government orders Jewish refugees, including Lily and her family, to move into a ghetto in an area of the city called Hongkew. Once again Lily wonders what will happen next. Life changes for Lily and her family when they are forced to the over-crowded ghetto. There is little food to eat, and many people become sick. Lily remains hopeful, but when rumors begin to circulate that Jews may be in as much danger here as they were in Europe, she wonders if she will ever feel truly safe and at home again. Based on a true story.

"Escondendo Edith" apresenta o drama de uma garota judia que precisa enfrentar os horrores da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Edith Schwalb tem apenas seis anos quando Hitler invade a Áustria. De repente, a garotinha se vê obrigada a deixar uma vida confortável em Viena para entrar em uma rotina de fugas e incertezas. Primeiro, sua família se muda para a Bélgica, mas é perseguida e foge para a França. Escondendo Edith tem o objetivo de mostrar os horrores do Holocausto às crianças, para que episódios como esse nunca mais voltem a acontecer.

Che cosa succederebbe se all'improvviso la tua città si trasformasse in un luogo ostile, dove tutti cercano di farti del male? Chiedilo a Edith Schwalb. Chiedile di quando, nel 1939, dovette scappare con la sua famiglia dall'Austria da poco annessa al Terzo Reich. Aveva sette anni, ma si ricorda tutto quanto. E racconta, come se fosse un'avventura, di questa corsa verso la speranza, fatta di fughe, amicizie, separazioni e ricongiungimenti. Nelle ultime pagine del libro alcune foto in bianco e nero completano la ricostruzione della storia.

Dans une Europe nazie en proie à la barbarie, une petite fille juive vit avec sa famille dans la peur. Après un périple douloureux, Edith Schwalb est accueillie chez Shatta et Simon qui ont ouvert une école à Moissac, un petit village dans le centre de la France. Là, ils cachent de nombreux enfants juifs en danger. Le courage des habitants et l'amitié des autres enfants aident la jeune Edith à traverser la plus grande épreuve de sa vie. Voici son histoire.

Based on the true story of the ship St. Louis, which left Germany in May 1939 full of Jewish passengers seeking refuge in Cuba. Denied port in Cuba, the US, and finally Canada, the St. Louis was forced to return Europe, where many passengers later died in the Holocaust. Through the eyes of two children, Sol and Lisa, both of whom survived the war and shared their experiences, we see as their journey begins with excitement and hope, only to end in frustration and fear. The children's chapters alternate with those of Captain Schroeder, who reveals the full history of the journey.

Europe, on the eve of the Second World War, and a Jewish family feels the Nazi danger closing in. The story of the Reesers, a Jewish family who emigrated to Canada from Czechoslovakia on the eve of WWII. They fled the Nazis and left behind four valuable oil paintings. It would take more than fifty years for Mari Reeser, and then her son Karl, to retrieve them.

When faced with the prospect of deportation to a ghetto or concentration camp, many Jews tried to find ways to hide. Whether in the attic of a neighbour's house, in a cave on a hilltop, or within the stacks of hay in a barn, those in hiding often had to change their identity and conceal their Jewish roots. Hiding meant going hungry for weeks or months, being left in the cold, and living in constant fear of being discovered. But due to the kindness of strangers or the quick thinking of the children in these stories, they lived to tell their tales.

Een joods meisje uit Oostenrijk duikt tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog onder in een dorp in Frankrijk.

Interrogée par un soldat à la recherche de fuyards, Gabi, 14 ans, se remémore, en un long "flash-back", comment, avec son cousin de 11 ans et sa mère, elle a survécu aux nazis alors que les troupes d'Hitler frappent la Tchécoslovaquie. Ayant dû quitter la ville, lorsque leur père a été capturé, ils se sont réfugiés dans la campagne chez un couple âgé de cultivateurs chrétiens qui avaient déjà été à l'emploi de leur père. Afin d'éviter tout soupçon, ils ne sont autorisés à sortir de leur humble grange que la nuit. Ne pouvant plus rester confinés à l'intérieur, les adolescents, qui sympathisent avec la petite-fille du couple Kos, s'aventureront cependant dehors lors d'escapades nocturnes en forêt. C'est ainsi qu'ils joignent un groupe de partisans slovaques avec qui ils s'allient. Cependant, leurs activités comportent de sérieux risques et un matin, alors qu'ils fuient une embuscade nazie et rejoignent le grand-père Kos au champ, ils doivent feindre leur filiation afin de sauver leur vie. -- Un roman historique faisant plusieurs bonds dans le temps en s'inspirant de l'exode des ancêtres de l'auteure canadienne-anglaise. Un dossier documentaire conclut ce récit. [SDM].

Laura has just three weeks to go before her Jewish becoming of age ceremony, called a Bat Mitzvah, when she is assigned a special project. She is to read the diary of Sara Gittler, a young girl her own age who was imprisoned by the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust. Sara never had the chance to celebrate her coming of age, so Laura is to learn about Sara's life and then share her Bat Mitzvah with her "twin" by speaking of her at the ceremony. Reluctant to undertake the project at first, Laura quickly becomes caught up by Sara's struggle to survive. Sara's diary unfolds with the details of her daily life in the Ghetto, a world full of fear, confusion, tragedy and above all, courage. From Sara's brave story in the past, Laura learns how to find the courage to confront the possibility of a friend's current involvement in the desecration of a Jewish cemetery.

1947: Now that Margit and her family have settled into their new life in Toronto's Kensington Market, they have--at Margit's urging--agreed to take in a Polish orphan. Lilly speaks no English and jealously guards her only possession: a photo of her mother and father. Unable to communicate with Lilly, or to comfort her when she wakes in the night with bad dreams, Margit and her family are feeling the strain. Even Margit's cherished friendship with Alice is at the breaking point. Will Margit ever be able to break through to this troubled young girl? Will Alice ever speak to her again?