Book Bundles: Finding Hope

(3) K-3 Ordinary People Change the World series. Illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos. "With eight of us crammed together, our world was very small. But if you look for what's good, you'll find it." In a friendly first-person text (drawn from the diary as much as possible), a cartoon Anne Frank tells readers about her childhood in Nazi Germany, her Jewish family's escape to Amsterdam, and their time spent in hiding during the Holocaust. Eliopoulos's comic-style illustrations help deliver the grim facts of the time and place; Anne's inimitable spirit comes through in both the text and art. Archival photos, a timeline, bibliography, and reading list enhance the presentation.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard. Young Pari joins her mother on the library bus for the first time. The bus brings books to remote villages and refugee camps "beyond the mountains" of Kabul; Pari's mother also delivers school supplies and teaches English to the girls. Her mother explains that the camps and villages don't have schools--and that, until recently, Afghan girls weren't allowed to get an education. Rahman, who grew up in wartime Afghanistan, states that "all of the characters [in this fictional story] are inspired by the children that I met during my visits to refugee camps and orphanages in Kabul." The reassuring watercolor and digital illustrations help convey Rahman's assertion that "when you are born in war, you are truly unaware of the alternative, peace. War is your normal."

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Marie Lafrance. Life in Munich is difficult for Anneliese's family in the months after World War II. Food shortages, streets strewn with rubble, and no library access compound grief over Papa's death for refusing to "follow orders." But when Anneliese and her little brother happen upon a "great hall" filled with children's books and a lady who reads them aloud, both children find happiness in the midst of trauma. Five pages at the end introduce Jella Lepman and her international children's book exhibit that traveled Germany after the war. The digitally colored graphite illustrations are equally adept at conveying the deprivation of post-war Germany and the power of stories to unlock hope.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn