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Gr 8 Up—Based on the true story of Holocaust survivor Dita Kraus, this novel features a protagonist who exemplifies courage in the face of death. Fourteen-year-old Dita is imprisoned at Auschwitz along with her mother and father in the "family camp." Her work assignment is to assist the Jewish leader in charge of Block 31, a section created to entertain the children so that their family can work. This block has many secrets, but the most important is that eight boo...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

January 1944: "In this life-destroying factory that is Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the ovens burn corpses day and night, Block 31 is atypical, an anomaly." It's where the children in camp BIIb, or the "family camp," are kept busy so their parents can work more efficiently--or so the Nazis think; in reality, the prisoners are running a school. Even more extraordinary, the school has a librarian: fourteen-year-old Edita Adlerova (based on a real person), in charge of eight precious, forbidden books and more "living" ones--teachers who tell the children stories they know by heart. Iturbe's remarkable account uses an immediate present tense to ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More