this is a difficult for me to rate, as i have found to be the case with many WWII/holocaust stories that are based on real life people but written as a work of fiction. Families can talk about the strong bonds between parents and children that are part of The Librarian of Auschwitz. Can you imagine you and your family going through what Dita and her parents experienced?

I'm not sure why this is considered a teen book--it is as intense as any I have read on this time period. Bearing that in mind, I'm not sure how a lot of kids would respond to reading it. Please do a thorough review with the Common Sense Media information, especially the violence section, before having your child read it. It's definitely not for the middle school crowd; mature high schoolers will probably be okay with it and be able to take away the overall message without being overwhelmed by human's cruelty to other humans. I don't want to go into the plot very much as i think this is a book you need to discover for yourself, the blurb was captivating and certainly gives a glimpse into this poignant read. Out of one of the darkest chapters of human history comes this extraordinary story of courage and hope. however, i found the story of dita to be very encouraging. as a fellow bookworm, its quite heartening to read about how books were the source of her courage, inspiration, and escape. i thought the epilogue, author postscript, and 'what happened to…' sections at the end were highly redeeming, so much so that i feel justified enough to round up my rating. these sections are the personalisation and connection i so desperately needed to these people and story, so it is a shame that it came so late in the book.

Las ilustraciones son magníficas: bien definidas, correctamente humanizadas, con tonalidades que van variando dependiendo de la sensación o sentimiento que pretende transmitir cada viñeta. Además, es innegable que saben mantener el equilibro entre ser sutiles y ser realistas en los instantes de más crudeza. Un trabajo de 10, no puedo calificar de otro modo a la parte artística. I do not believe in coincidence, and the author Antonio Iturbe, was destined to meet and converse with the main character Dita. They were brought together by chance, and although there was a language barrier, they managed to communicate and the story that unravelled was meant to be told! This book is based around Dita an Auschwitz survivor, and with some non-fiction added the author was able to create a compelling story of bravery, survival and how magnificent the strength of the human spirit can be. Dita is given the great responsibility of looking after the few books in the family camp that had been banned by the Nazi's. This is a great responsibility, and one that she risked her life for everyday. So Dita’s story will be an important one for teachers and school librarians. This graphic novel is based on an adult novel, which I already put on-hold in OverDrive. I’m excited to read the full novel version of Dita’s story.

Dita Polachova was raised in a loving home in Prague, the only child of book-loving parents, who filled their shelves with German, Czech and French books. Little did she know that by the age of 14 her life would be saved by a dozen tattered books which comprised possibly the smallest library in the world, in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Thank you to Tracy at Compulsive Readers Tours for this copy which I reviewed honestly and voluntarily. Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken, along with her mother and father, from the Terezín ghetto in Prague, Dita is adjusting to the constant terror that is life in the camp. When Jewish leader Freddy Hirsch asks Dita to take charge of the eight precious volumes the prisoners have managed to sneak past the guards, she agrees. And so Dita becomes the librarian of Auschwitz. Ao meu ver, este livro divide-se am duas partes: a primeira (pensamos nós) que é mais uma "fantasia" nos campos de Auswichtz/Birkenau e a parte mais final do livro retrata uma realidade mais crua do que foram os fins e o degredo dos campos. Based on the experience of real-life Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus, journalist Antonio Iturbe tells the incredible story of a girl who risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust.

It is always a revelation when you read a book about someone who at such a young age took on a role that was not only dangerous but also one in which death awaited her if she was caught. Dita and her family are in the concentration camp of Auschwitz. Where thousands of innocent lives are taken every day, horrific experiments are done on children, families are ripped apart, they are forced to live like cattle, fighting for beds with barely any food. It's horrific and really is quiet difficult to read. But it was a reality which makes it all the more raw and gut wrenching. As I read in the epilogue this graphic novel which is based off the novel is to get you to read the novel. And I'm very interested in reading the novel now. Although prisoners were only considered children until the age of 14, Fredy succeeded in getting those between the age of 14-16 designated as “assistants”, doing all types of work from sweeping the floor or helping with the distribution of the daily soup. As a graphic novel writer, he publishes mainly in the French-Belgian market and his work has been nominated to an Eisner Award.

Perfectamente documentado y narrado. Una historia cruda y desgarradora que atrapa de principio a fin. Inspections are another matter altogether. Lines must be formed, and searches are carried out. Sometimes the youngest children are interrogated, the guards hoping to take advantage of their innocence to pry information out of them. They are unsuccessful. Even the youngest children understand more than their snot-covered little faces might suggest. The true violence of Auschwitz is very low key in this story which makes me feel it would be suited to a younger audience as a first introduction to the atrocities of the time, 13 years +. That’s not to say there is no violence, a prisoner is hung and a girl beaten. I want to read the book to learn more about this decoy family camp that she lived in. I will say the comment that Mengele said was so horrifying and it's not the worst of what they did and there were images that would need to be explained cause gassing and mass genocide seem like content for fiction not real life. I saw documentaries and read books in school but it hurt to know that this was happening and that this is what we can do to each other cause we don't practice the same religion or look the same.As a summarized version of the novel, it did incredibly well at introducing some really complex characters and stories that have me immediately adding the full length to my TBR.