Willy & Max: A Holocaust Story

Willy & Max: A Holocaust Story is indeed a story of the Holocaust, but more importantly, of friendship. Author Amy Littlesugar tells a true story of her grandfather (Willy) a son of a Christian art dealer and his friendship with Max, a Jewish boy. The boys became close friends in Belgium right before WWII. When the Nazis came to Max's house in the middle of the night, the family knew they needed to escape. Before they left, Max's family entrusted a valuable painting with Willy's father. Illustrator William Low's artwork is colorful, "large", and realistic. At the end of the book, the author gives a plug for the Commission for Art Recovery which is trying to unite works of art stolen during WWII with their rightful owners.-Barbara, Elementary School Reading Teacher.

The Ballad of Lucy Whipple

So often when we think of the Gold Rush of California, what comes to mind is a crusty old Yosemite Sam type of character. In The Ballad of Lucy Whipple, Newbery Award winning author Karen Cushman gives us a different perspective. In this realistic, poignant, but often funny historical fiction novel-a young California Morning Whipple is dragged by her widowed mother away from her beloved Massachusetts to help set up a boarding house in Lucky Diggins, California. She absolutely detests the rough and tumble town and changes her name from California Morning to a more refined Lucy. This story is told in the first person (and sometimes in letters) and has a lot of interesting details about what life might have been like for women and children during the Gold Rush times.
Barbara-Elementary School Reading Teacher.