Book Description
for Irena's Children by Tilar J. Mazzeo and Mary Cronk Farrell
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Irena Sendler and others in the underground movement in Warsaw doing World War II helped saved 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazis. This compelling adaption of a book for adults documents their work in a chronological account that is full of tension, but grounded by the commitment of Irena and her compatriots, some of them Jews themselves, to do what they knew to be the right and decent thing, the only thing possible, regardless of the risks. While Irena is the primary focus, small sections throughout the narrative follow the efforts of several others with whom she worked saving Jewish children, many of them from the Warsaw Ghetto, through clever, courageous, bold endeavors. Most of the children were placed with willing Polish Christian families. A work of nonfiction shot through with poignancy concludes with a final chapter that follows the fate of Irena (who died in 2008 at age 98, a hero in Poland and beyond) and some of her key co-conspirators, an adapter’s note, and endnotes. (Age 12 and older)
CCBC Choices 2017. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2017. Used with permission.