atlanticgiantpumpkin's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Hate crime, War, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Genocide, and Violence
jennybeastie's review against another edition
3.0
Things I loved:
True story, and an inspiring one.
The fact that the book has been adapted for early chapterbook in addition to middle grade -- FANTASTIC, do more of that, please! I particularly like the low page count.
The hopeful message, despite the very tragic reality.
Things that could have been better:
Like many nonfiction bios for this reading demographic, the book includes short out-takes to explain context. While I agree that context is extremely useful to kids, in this case I found them choppy and disruptive -- they appear at random and throw you right out of the narrative in order to reveal the big picture. They also use language that is more complex than the text, so I'm not actually sure kids will be able to understand the message they are trying to bring across. I think it would be better to either work the explanations in through Lisa's own viewpoint, or skip them altogether. You might be able to get away with a glossary, but it would be better to write a story that kids want to research more on their own afterwards than shoehorn information in.
It was very complicated for me as a reader to keep track of all the kids in the book. Lots of names, not a lot of memorable moments.
It reads more like a reduction than an adaptation. I know there is so much more to this story, but this felt like a bare-bones version that was not as engaging as I hoped for.
Yeah, yeah, I want the low page count and the focus on transitional readers. I also want a well written, super compelling story that I can really engage with. Tall order! But if you look at Number the Stars, or even What Was the Holocaust?, there are examples of how to pull this off.
Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss.
True story, and an inspiring one.
The fact that the book has been adapted for early chapterbook in addition to middle grade -- FANTASTIC, do more of that, please! I particularly like the low page count.
The hopeful message, despite the very tragic reality.
Things that could have been better:
Like many nonfiction bios for this reading demographic, the book includes short out-takes to explain context. While I agree that context is extremely useful to kids, in this case I found them choppy and disruptive -- they appear at random and throw you right out of the narrative in order to reveal the big picture. They also use language that is more complex than the text, so I'm not actually sure kids will be able to understand the message they are trying to bring across. I think it would be better to either work the explanations in through Lisa's own viewpoint, or skip them altogether. You might be able to get away with a glossary, but it would be better to write a story that kids want to research more on their own afterwards than shoehorn information in.
It was very complicated for me as a reader to keep track of all the kids in the book. Lots of names, not a lot of memorable moments.
It reads more like a reduction than an adaptation. I know there is so much more to this story, but this felt like a bare-bones version that was not as engaging as I hoped for.
Yeah, yeah, I want the low page count and the focus on transitional readers. I also want a well written, super compelling story that I can really engage with. Tall order! But if you look at Number the Stars, or even What Was the Holocaust?, there are examples of how to pull this off.
Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss.
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