Kristallnacht

November 1, 2011

Gr 6-10-Drawing on diaries, letters, and books, these titles illuminate events by quoting at length from personal narratives, which are set apart from the main texts as sidebars. Readers will gravitate to this approachable focus, and teachers may appreciate the way that quotes from primary sources are integrated into simple texts. Citations to quoted works are extensive, and Web sources referenced make it easy for students to access resources for follow-up research.

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2011
Grades 8-12 Personal testimony is a powerful way to tell history, especially if there is no rambling repetition, and these accounts in the Holocaust through Primary Sources series are tightly edited, drawing on the memories of victims, perpetrators, and witnesses who were at the Night of Broken Glass in 1938. The viewpoints are from children, adults, Jews, and Nazis who saw homes, businesses, and synagogues destroyed, and people beaten, murdered, and deported to concentration camps. Each chapter blends an individual's testimony with historical background and commentary as well as photos of the witness and of the brutal events. One chapter is on Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's minister of propaganda, with quotes from his diary about how he directed the pogrom. But most accounts are about ordinary people: a teen in Hitler Youth; an assimilated Jewish boy in Berlin, who watched his world burn down and survived the transports and the camps; a girl thrown out of school, who saw her home destroyed and escaped on a Kindertransport to England. A time line, chapter notes, a bibliography, and suggested websites for further research close.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)