Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I just finished Hana’s Suitcase, by Karen Levine, and it was definitely the sort of book meant to inspire mixed emotions.  It serves quite nicely as an introduction to the Holocaust for young readers–indeed, I will probably hand it over to my oldest in the next year or so–and that’s always a mixed experience.  On the one hand, books about individual experiences during the Holocaust  imply that someone survived to tell his or her story; on the other hand, any such book has to acknowledge that many, many others didn’t.  This one was no exception.  It interweaves the story of a Czech family that shrinks as the war progresses with the story of a woman in Japan determined to teach the children of her country about the Holocaust and its lessons for the world.  Fumiko Ishioka asked for whatever Holocaust artifacts that the European memorials could spare; it was from Auschwitz that she received a suitcase belonging to Hana Brady.  Finding that the children who saw it were fascinated by it, she set out to discover all she could about Hana’s life.  What she found makes for a historical mystery that requires a number of small miracles to solve.

My only problem with this book didn’t reflect on the book at all.  It was meant for a mid- to late elementary school audience, and that sort of non-fiction tends to be written very simply, especially when one has to tread the line between being informative and being age-appropriate.  I’ve read quite a few Holocaust memoirs, however, and so the simplicity of the writing made it a bit harder for me to focus.  I think, though, that it works well for its intended audience.  It’s one I’ll be giving my children to read when they’re old enough to deal with the story involved.