The story loses focus on occasion, but no one who reads it will forget the history.
This book is a biography of Holocaust survivor Alter Wiener, but from time to time, he seems like a supporting character.
In adapting Wiener’s memoir for adults for children, Ludwig seems to want to be absolutely certain that they know the history of the Holocaust. She spends several pages summarizing Hitler’s campaign against the Jews, which causes the thread of Wiener’s narration to become occasionally lost. At times, the book reads more like a textbook than the life story of a boy who survived the Holocaust. Even the most traumatic passages sound oddly detached: “Many good and decent people lost their lives to this hatred—including my own friends and family.” The last several pages of the book, however, are deeply moving. A factory worker—someone who hardly knows him—risks her life to give him a bread-and-cheese sandwich every day. Even the smallest details of the story are haunting. A sign in the factory reads, “Do not look at the prisoners. Do not talk to the prisoners....If you do, you will be DOOMED.” These details are what make the story work. The facial expressions in a few of Orback’s full-bleed, atmospherically lit oil paintings are almost painful to look at.
The story loses focus on occasion, but no one who reads it will forget the history. (vocabulary list, study guide) (Picture book/biography. 7-12)Pub Date: May 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-935952-97-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: White Cloud Press
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2014
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
Fast-paced and plot-driven.
In his latest, prolific author Gratz takes on Hitler’s Olympic Games.
When 13-year-old American gymnast Evie Harris arrives in Berlin to compete in the 1936 Olympic Games, she has one goal: stardom. If she can bring home a gold medal like her friend, the famous equestrian-turned-Hollywood-star Mary Brooks, she might be able to lift her family out of their Dust Bowl poverty. But someone slips a strange note under Evie’s door, and soon she’s dodging Heinz Fischer, the Hitler Youth member assigned to host her, and meeting strangers who want to make use of her gymnastic skills—to rob a bank. As the games progress, Evie begins to see the moral issues behind their sparkling facade—the antisemitism and racism inherent in Nazi ideology and the way Hitler is using the competition to support and promote these beliefs. And she also agrees to rob the bank. Gratz goes big on the Mission Impossible–style heist, which takes center stage over the actual competitions, other than Jesse Owens’ famous long jump. A lengthy and detailed author’s note provides valuable historical context, including places where Gratz adapted the facts for storytelling purposes (although there’s no mention of the fact that before 1952, Olympic equestrian sports were limited to male military officers). With an emphasis on the plot, many of the characters feel defined primarily by how they’re suffering under the Nazis, such as the fictional diver Ursula Diop, who was involuntarily sterilized for being biracial.
Fast-paced and plot-driven. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781338736106
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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