I fell in love with historical fiction as a child, devouring books like Johnny Tremain and The Door in the Wall. While I always wanted to be a writer, and I always loved history, it took a special discovery to align my two interests. In college, I learned that “real history” had happened in my little hometown in northern New York in the 1920s. A small girl had gone missing, and local anti-Semites accused the Jewish community of murdering her for a ritual sacrifice. It got ugly. Decades later, this incident became the subject of my first novel, The Blood Lie.
A WWII/Holocaust book narrated by Death itself—now that’s getting real about totalitarianism and hate. This courageous novel is about even more than that too. It’s about the capacity of words to open up worlds and minds. It’s about the power of stories to forge relationships, build hope, and create change. In this way, The Book Thief manages to be life-affirming in the face of tragedy, something we could all use a dose of these days. It also offers a suspenseful, masterfully told plot that kept me turning the pages long after bedtime.
'Life affirming, triumphant and tragic . . . masterfully told. . . but also a wonderful page-turner' Guardian 'Brilliant and hugely ambitious' New York Times 'Extraordinary' Telegraph ___
HERE IS A SMALL FACT - YOU ARE GOING TO DIE
1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier. Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.
This deceptively simple story, set in a small nineteenth-century town, explores one of the deepest thought experiments I can imagine: the prospect of earthly immortality. A little bit fairy tale, a little bit love story, Tuck Everlasting examines what it might really mean, in all its quotidian elements, to live forever.
I didn’t discover this novel until my kids were assigned to read it in fifth grade. Their classwork culminated in a day at our county courthouse, where the students held a mock trial for Mae Tuck, a character in the book who accidentally kills a man. Let me tell you, the kids were into it, and their involvement with the book’s themes warmed my heart.
Winnie Foster is in the woods, thinking of running away from home, when she sees a boy drinking from a spring. Winnie wants a drink too, but before she can take a sip, she is kidnapped by the boy, Jesse Tuck, and his family. She learns that the Tuck family are blessed with - or doomed to - eternal life since drinking from the spring, and they wander from place to place trying to live as inconspicuously as they can. Now Winnie knows their secret. But what does immortality really mean? And can the Tucks help her understand before it's…
I love the mystery and the sci-fi twist in this story, which is set in 1970s New York City. More than that, I love seeing my younger self on the pages. I’m right there as the main character dips her toes into grown-up realities like friendship complications, identity, and family drama. And did I mention that she’s reading one of my all-time favorite books, A Wrinkle in Time? What I love most, though, is being reminded how kids during that era—kids like me— had so much more autonomy than today. It was simply safer to roam the neighborhood without adult supervision then. I’m nostalgic for those days and lament that my own kids didn’t get that experience firsthand.
Miranda's life is starting to unravel. Her best friend, Sal, gets punched by a kid on the street for what seems like no reason, and he shuts Miranda out of his life. The key that Miranda's mum keeps hidden for emergencies is stolen. And then a mysterious note arrives: 'I am coming to save your friend's life, and my own. I ask two favours. First, you must write me a letter.'
The notes keep coming, and Miranda slowly realises that whoever is leaving them knows things no one should know. Each message brings her closer to believing that only she…
In telling three stories set in different times and places, Gratz’s compelling, at times harrowing novel is both historical and contemporary, local and global. It’s a perfect way to illustrate the universal, timeless plight of the refugee. This subject is very close to my heart since three of my grandparents escaped to the U.S.—alone, as youngsters—due to anti-Semitic oppression in Russia. Heartbreakingly, one grandmother came here at age 12 when both of her parents were murdered in a pogrom.
This action-packed novel tackles topics both timely and timeless: courage, survival, and the quest for home.
JOSEF is a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world . . .
ISABEL is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety in America . . .
MAHMOUD is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he…
This engrossing book, inspired by the true history of a thriving deaf community on Martha's Vineyard in the early 1800s, triumphantly probes our perceptions of ability and disability. I’m always drawn to stories that explore what it means to be and/or feel different. Too many youngsters (and adults) equate being different with being less than, whether the different person is themselves or someone else. I don’t know if our species will ever fully break free of that false belief, but novels like this one go a long way toward achieving that goal.
Winner of the 2021 Schneider Family Book Award * NPR Best Books of 2020 * Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2020 * School Library Journal Best Books of 2020 * New York Public Library Best Books of 2020 * Chicago Public Library Best Books of 2020 * 2020 Jane Addams Children's Book Award Finalist * 2020 New England Independent Booksellers Award Finalist
Deaf author Ann Clare LeZotte weaves a riveting story inspired by the true history of a thriving deaf community on Martha's Vineyard…
Ripped Away is based on the experiences of Jewish immigrants in London during the Jack the Ripper spree when xenophobia ran high. In the story, a fortune teller reveals that classmates Abe and Mitzy may be able to save someone’s life…and then she sweeps them to the slums of Victorian London in the middle of the Jack the Ripper hysteria. To get back home, they’ll have to figure out how the fortune teller’s prophecy is connected to one of history’s most notorious criminal cases. They’ll also have to survive the outpouring of hate toward Jewish refugees that the Ripper murders triggered.
National Jewish Book Award-winning author Anne Blankman calls Ripped Away “an engrossing adventure” that will make “readers clamor to find out what happens next.”
Since losing his mom, thirteen-year-old Jack Wilson has spent most of his time seeing just how much trouble he can get away with so that he feels like a winner at something. But he takes his mischief too far and is faced with the possibility of unbearable consequences. He knows it’s time to make a big change.
After rediscovering the love of baking he once shared with his mother, Jack is sure that his new sense of purpose will help him stay on the right path, so he throws himself into learning the finer points of sprinkles and scones—and…
After losing his mom, a struggling thirteen-year-old boy in northern Wisconsin rediscovers the love of baking he once shared with her and decides to audition for the world-famous, big-hearted Marvelous Midwest Kids Baking Championship television show in Chicago. Jack is sure that his new sense of purpose will help him stay out of trouble, so he throws himself into learning the finer points of sprinkles and scones -- and hopefully even mending his broken relationship with his dad.
