Jacob Sager Weinstein

Rosa lives in Vienna with her parents and grandmother. Her parents run a store, and the family is happy, but "then the Nazis came, and things changed." Grandma answers Rosa's questions honestly ("The Nazis say Jews are bad. Some people believe them"), and the family survives closing their store by making the shelves into trunks to sell from their home, one at a time, while they wait for a visa to America. But when their visa comes, it's only for three of them: Grandma stays behind, and Rosa never sees her again.

Wheeler's delicate watercolor, ink, colored pencil, and block print illustrations convey plenty of feeling and detail without being overly frightening. Nazi soldiers are nearly expressionless; their swastika flags are vivid red. Broken windows, graffiti, and Jews being made to scrub the streets are shown in the illustrations, but not addressed in the text.

See also: Stars of the Night: the Courageous Children of the Czech Kindertransport; Elisabeth by Claire A. Nivola

"Books teach us to think for ourselves," the rabbi said. "But people who think for themselves won't do what the Nazis tell them, so the Nazis have huge bonfires where they burn books....But the stories of our people...these I will not let them burn."

"Even if I'm not there," Grandma said, "you will take my love with you."
...
And that's what Rosa brought.… (més)