Book Descriptions
for The Fighter by Jean Jacques Greif
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
From The United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY)
Moshe Wisniak was born weak, with legs powerless to flee Warsaw’s anti Semitic bullies. So he learned to fight and think and defend himself. A move to Paris transformed him to Maurice, and coaching honed his skills as a boxer. The Nazis sentenced him to Auschwitz, but boxing kept him alive. The SS guards recognized his athletic prowess almost immediately and pitted Maurice against a Muselman, a dying inmate, but Maurice refused to play their game. As a result, he was mercilessly pummeled but learned to survive. The Fighter’s first-person narrative voice brings immediacy to this factually based Holocaust novel. 2007 USBBY Outstanding International Books List, CCBC Choices, NYPL Books for the Teen Age, and School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, the French award for best YA novel in 2000—five French awards altogether. lmp
Originally published as Le Ring de la Mort in French by l’Êcole des Loisirs France, in 1998. Translated by the author.