about the book
Yanek “Jack” Gruener is a Polish Jew. The 1930s are almost over, and he is about to become witness to arguably the worst crime in all of history—the Nazi roundup of Jews throughout Europe and their internment and executions in concentration camps throughout Germany.
Before the Nazi’s took over the Krakow ghetto, Yanek had his bar mitzvah. Just as he becomes a teen, his parents and everyone else he loves are taken away from him, and he himself is carted off to ten different concentration camps over the next six years.
Yanek learns how to survive and face death every second, and every time he successfully stares down death, it seems like the next minute death comes around again to be faced. Yanek is moved around mercilessly from one camp to the next, tortured, starved, and worked nearly to death. He faces the horrors of the worst death camps—Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Buchenwald- and somehow, manages to survive until American forces liberate him from his final camp.
Based on a true story.
about the author
Alan Gratz was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. He dreamed of being a Jedi master but gave up after he couldn’t control the Force. He and his friend turned to building forts in the woods, eventually inventing a whole country, complete with a constitution, official edicts, flag, maps, and money.
In grade school, Alan started writing a newspaper for his street and in fifth grade, finished his first unpublished novel, “Real Kids Don’t Eat Spinach.” ]After earning a degree in creative writing and a master’s in English Education from the University of Tennessee, Alan taught eighth grade English and showed middle-schoolers how to build catapults!
Alan now writes full time in his small study overlooking the woods in Bakersville, North Carolina. Besides writing books for young readers, he has written plays, magazine articles, and over 6000 radio commercials! In his spare time, he enjoys watching baseball, especially the LA Dodgers, the Hiroshima Carps, and the Asheville Tourists. He also likes to build chicken coops and collect action figures.
Source:
Author website
Also by Alan Gratz:
The Dragon Lantern (League of Seven, Book 2). Starscape. 2014.
The League of Seven (Book 1). Starscape. 2014.
The Assassination Game (Star Trek : Starfleet Academy, Book 4).
Something Wicked (Horatio Wilkes Mystery, Book 2). Dial. 2008.
Something Rotten (Horatio Wilkes Mystery, Book 1). Dial. 2007.
Samurai Shortstop. Dial. 2006.
read more!
Once (Felix and Zelda, Book 1) by Morris Gleitzman
Felix, a Jewish boy, lives in an orphanage in Poland. Convinced his parents are still alive, he runs away. His journey home is so dangerous! Felix and fellow orphan Zelda find help from a kindly dentist, Barney, who is hiding other Jewish children. When the Nazis discover them, Barney makes the ultimate sacrifice.
Samurai Shortstop by Alan Gratz
Toya is trapped between his family’s samurai background and modern life in 1890 Tokyo. After entering an esteemed boarding school with a horrendous hazing ritual, all Toya enjoys is playing shortstop on the baseball team. He begins to wonder if baseball could be the path for connecting both worlds.
Surviving Hitler : A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps by Andrea Warren
Jack Mendelbaum lived in Poland with his family, happy and hardly aware of his Jewish roots. That didn’t matter once the Nazi’s invaded in 1939, when he and his family were rounded up and separated into the concentration camps. However, through sheer determination and the encouragement of a fellow Jew, Jack survived the camps to tell his story today.