As 14-year-old Ella begins her first day at work she steps into a world of silks, seams, scissors, pins, hems and trimmings. She is a dressmaker, but this is no ordinary sewing workshop. Hers are no ordinary clients. Ella has joined the seamstresses of Birkenau-Auschwitz, as readers may recognise it. Every dress she makes could mean the difference between life and death. And this place is all about survival. Ella seeks refuge from this reality, and from haunting memories, in her work and in the world of fashion and fabrics. She is faced with painful decisions about how far she is prepared to go to survive.
Germany
Materials from Germany
Saving Hanno: The Story of a Refugee Dog
Nine-year-old Rudi and his beloved dog Hanno escape from Nazi Germany, but Rudi soon learns he’ll have to protect Hanno from an entirely new threat in this thrilling reimagining of a little known World War II event.
Searching For Lottie
A long-lost cousin, a mysterious locket, a visit to Nana Rose in Florida, a diary written in German, and a very special violin all lead twelve-year-old Charlie to the truth about her great-aunt Lottie in this intriguing, intergenerational mystery.
The Fishing Lesson
A tourist spots a fisherman napping in his boat and tells him what he could achieve if he spent more time fishing, but it’s the tourist who ultimately learns something.
Smon Smon
The Smon Smon hangs its last ron ron next to its won won on a lon lon and floats away in a ton ton. But when the Smon Smon falls into a zon zon . . . what happens next is what makes any world worth being in.
Featured in WOW Review Volume XII, Issue 3
The Tiger’s Egg
Herman the tiger is grumpy because of all the noisy neighbors around him at the zoo, but when a defenseless little egg falls into his lap, suddenly the cranky cat’s mood changes.
Edison: The Mystery of the Missing Mouse Treasure
When two unlikely friends build a vessel capable of taking them to the bottom of the ocean find a missing treasure—the truth turns out to be far more amazing.
The Visitor
Elise was frightenedof spiders, people, even trees. So she never went out, night or day. One day a strange thing flies in through the window and lands at her feet. And then there comes a knock at the door. Elise has a visitor who will change everything. The Visitor is a story about friendship and shyness that plays out in a mini theatre, as a child unwittingly brings light and colorliterallyinto a lonely person’s life. The unique artwork has a doll’s house appeal. Damm creates a diorama from cardboard and photographs the scenes, giving the illustrations a special luminosity and depth.
Under the Same Sky
Endearing animal artwork and lyrical text combine in a peek-through picture book celebration of emotions that describes how everyone lives under the same sky and shares many of the same hopes and dreams.
The Girl Who Drew Butterflies
Newbery-Honor winning author Joyce Sidman explores the extraordinary life and scientific discoveries of Maria Merian, who discovered the truth about metamorphosis and documented the science behind the mystery in this visual biography that features many original paintings by Maria herself.
Robert F. Sibert Medal Winner