Awards

• Commended for Sydney Taylor Book Award (Older Readers) 2012
• Winner of Land of Enchantment Book Award (Picture Book) 2014

Overview

The illustrated biography of Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker who saved nearly 2500 Jewish children from the ghetto. She began by smuggling food, clothing and medicine into the ghetto, then turned to smuggling children out of the ghetto. Using false papers and creative means of escape, Irena risked her own life to rescue Jewish children and hide them safely in orphanages, convents and foster homes. Hoping to reunite families after the war, Irena kept secret lists of the children's identities, which were buried in jars under an apple tree.

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9781600604393

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Irena Sendler (1910 2008) was a Polish Catholic social worker who, as a member of the Polish underground organization Zegota, smuggled some 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto and arranged for them to live out the war with new identities in orphanages, convents, and foster homes. Hoping to reunite the families after the war, she kept lists of the children's original identities, which she buried in jars under an apple tree. As more children were rescued, Irena dug up the jars, added their names to the lists, and buried the jars again, writes Vaughan (Up the Learning Tree). Sendler was ingenious, ushering her young charges to safety by hiding them in baskets, boxes, tool chests, sacks, and suitcases and even under the floorboards of an ambulance. And she was fearless, refusing even under torture and the threat of death to reveal the children s whereabouts. Vaughan and Mazellan (You Can Be a Friend) have created a fine piece of historical storytelling, with brisk, reportorial prose and shadowy, impressionistic oil paintings that offer gripping testimony to the full horror and high stakes of the times.--Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly

Irena Sendler (1910-2008) was a Polish Catholic social worker who, as a member of the Polish underground organization Zegota, smuggled some 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto and arranged for them to live out the war with new identities in orphanages, convents, and foster homes. Hoping to reunite the families after the war, she kept lists of the children's original identities, which she buried in jars under an apple tree. -As more children were rescued, Irena dug up the jars, added their names to the lists, and buried the jars again,- writes Vaughan (Up the Learning Tree). Sendler was ingenious, ushering her young charges to safety by hiding them in -baskets, boxes, tool chests, sacks, and suitcases- and even under the floorboards of an ambulance. And she was fearless, refusing even under torture and the threat of death to reveal the children's whereabouts. Vaughan and Mazellan (You Can Be a Friend) have created a fine piece of historical storytelling, with brisk, reportorial prose and shadowy, impressionistic oil paintings that offer gripping testimony to the full horror and high stakes of the times.--Publishers Weekly -Publishers Weekly -

Irena Sendler is enshrined at Yad Vashem as righteous among nations for her courage in rescuing Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto. . . . Finding a way to impart even a small understanding of the Holocaust to children is a task fraught with difficulties: How can anyone comprehend such insanity? Vaughan tells the true story without embellishment, employing stark, unadorned syntax that never wavers into pathos, sentiment or myth. It is a definition of quiet heroism. Mazellan's very dark, deeply shadowed oil paintings capture the unabated terror and sorrow. Children should read this work with an adult who is armed with some knowledge of the material. Powerful.--Kirkus Reviews Kirkus Reviews Irena Sendler (1910 2008) was a Polish Catholic social worker who, as a member of the Polish underground organization Zegota, smuggled some 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto and arranged for them to live out the war with new identities in orphanages, convents, and foster homes. Hoping to reunite the families after the war, she kept lists of the children's original identities, which she buried in jars under an apple tree. As more children were rescued, Irena dug up the jars, added their names to the lists, and buried the jars again, writes Vaughan (Up the Learning Tree). Sendler was ingenious, ushering her young charges to safety by hiding them in baskets, boxes, tool chests, sacks, and suitcases and even under the floorboards of an ambulance. And she was fearless, refusing even under torture and the threat of death to reveal the children s whereabouts. Vaughan and Mazellan (You Can Be a Friend) have created a fine piece of historical storytelling, with brisk, reportorial prose and shadowy, impressionistic oil paintings that offer gripping testimony to the full horror and high stakes of the times.--Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly Irena Sendler is enshrined at Yad Vashem as righteous among nations for her courage in rescuing Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto. . . . Finding a way to impart even a small understanding of the Holocaust to children is a task fraught with difficulties: How can anyone comprehend such insanity? Vaughan tells the true story without embellishment, employing stark, unadorned syntax that never wavers into pathos, sentiment or myth. It is a definition of quiet heroism. Mazellan's very dark, deeply shadowed oil paintings capture the unabated terror and sorrow. Children should read this work with an adult who is armed with some knowledge of the material. Powerful. --Kirkus Reviews Kirkus Reviews Irena Sendler (1910 2008) was a Polish Catholic social worker who, as a member of the Polish underground organization Zegota, smuggled some 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto and arranged for them to live out the war with new identities in orphanages, convents, and foster homes. Hoping to reunite the families after the war, she kept lists of the children's original identities, which she buried in jars under an apple tree. As more children were rescued, Irena dug up the jars, added their names to the lists, and buried the jars again, writes Vaughan (Up the Learning Tree). Sendler was ingenious, ushering her young charges to safety by hiding them in baskets, boxes, tool chests, sacks, and suitcases and even under the floorboards of an ambulance. And she was fearless, refusing even under torture and the threat of death to reveal the children s whereabouts. Vaughan and Mazellan (You Can Be a Friend) have created a fine piece of historical storytelling, with brisk, reportorial prose and shadowy, impressionistic oil paintings that offer gripping testimony to the full horror and high stakes of the times. --Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly Irena Sendler is enshrined at Yad Vashem as -righteous among nations- for her courage in rescuing Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto. . . . Finding a way to impart even a small understanding of the Holocaust to children is a task fraught with difficulties: How can anyone comprehend such insanity? Vaughan tells the true story without embellishment, employing stark, unadorned syntax that never wavers into pathos, sentiment or myth. It is a definition of quiet heroism. Mazellan's very dark, deeply shadowed oil paintings capture the unabated terror and sorrow. Children should read this work with an adult who is armed with some knowledge of the material. Powerful. --Kirkus Reviews -Kirkus Reviews - Irena Sendler (1910-2008) was a Polish Catholic social worker who, as a member of the Polish underground organization Zegota, smuggled some 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto and arranged for them to live out the war with new identities in orphanages, convents, and foster homes. Hoping to reunite the families after the war, she kept lists of the children's original identities, which she buried in jars under an apple tree. As more children were rescued, Irena dug up the jars, added their names to the lists, and buried the jars again, writes Vaughan (Up the Learning Tree). Sendler was ingenious, ushering her young charges to safety by hiding them in baskets, boxes, tool chests, sacks, and suitcases and even under the floorboards of an ambulance. And she was fearless, refusing even under torture and the threat of death to reveal the children's whereabouts. Vaughan and Mazellan (You Can Be a Friend) have created a fine piece of historical storytelling, with brisk, reportorial prose and shadowy, impressionistic oil paintings that offer gripping testimony to the full horror and high stakes of the times. --Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly

Author Information

Marcia Vaughan Crews has written numerous books for young readers, including picture books, beginning readers, and both fiction and nonfiction series. She was inspired to tell Irena Sendler's story after reading her obituary in 2008 and discovering more about her through the work of Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project, an organization dedicated to bringing Irena Sendler's story to the world. Crews lives in Tacoma, Washington. Ron Mazellan is the illustrator of several award-winning picture books. He is also a professor of art at Indiana Wesleyan University. Mazellan was drawn to this story by Irena Sendler's character and her multiple selfless acts of kindness and courage toward those who had little hope of survival. Mazellan lives in Marion, Indiana.

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