Hidden: A Little one’s Story of the Holocaust is an acceptable introduction for grades 2-4 to this horrible chapter in historical past.

Hidden: A Little one’s Story of the Holocaust by Loic Dauvillier, artwork by Marc Lizano. First Second, 2014, 80 pages.

Studying Degree: Graphic Novel, ages 8-10

Really helpful for: ages 7-10

Younger Dounia is so naïve that when her father tells her the yellow star she should put on is a sheriff’s badge, she’s proud and comfortable. Quickly sufficient she realizes it’s no badge of honor. The streets of Paris are turning ugly, with Jewish shopkeepers crushed, her father fired from his job, and shops closed. When her finest pal turns towards her she doesn’t perceive—till she and different Jewish youngsters are forbidden to go to highschool. Even that’s not so unhealthy: extra time together with her dad and mom.

Then comes the horrible evening when German troopers pound on the door. Her dad and mom cover Dounia in a secret compartment within the wardrobe with warnings to not make a sound. Then they disappear, and Dounia is alone within the darkness till a neighbor involves rescue her.

Dounia, now a grandmother, tells this story to her younger granddaughter Elsa, when the little lady hears her crying within the evening. It’s the primary time Grandma has instructed anybody, together with her personal son. We see the story by means of the angle of an 8-year-old who doesn’t totally perceive, so the impact is softened. Two scenes talk one thing of the horror, although: Dounia within the darkness of the wardrobe, and some years later when her mom is rescued from the focus camp. We see Mama as her little lady should have seen her: a stark, staring lady in striped jail garments, whose shaved head and facial features displays one thing of her expertise.

Dounia survives by means of the heroic efforts of the Resistance and the straightforward kindness of rural Frenchmen. The story is instructed by means of childlike figures whose large heads resemble Peanuts characters—nearly too exaggerated, but it surely works for this age group. The Holocaust is a narrative all of us have to know and keep in mind, and Hidden is an efficient introduction for younger youngsters.

Consideration:

• Early within the guide, Dounia is instructed of a Jewish boy she is aware of, whose instructor uncovered his circumcision to the entire class: “He had defined to the category that Jews had a bit of wee-wee lacking.” It will should be defined to small youngsters.

Total Score: 4 (out of 5)

• Worldview/ethical worth: 3.5
• Inventive/literary worth: 4.5

Learn extra about our scores right here.

Additionally at Redeemed Reader:

• Critiques: White Fowl is one other story of the German Occupation of France and the work of the Resistance in hiding Jews. Additionally see our overview of Village of Scoundrels, a fictionalized story of the particular village of Les Lauzes, which efficiently hid a whole bunch of Jews from the Nazis. And we haven’t reviewed it, however Masters of Silence is a middle-grade novel of two French youngsters escaping the Holocaust with the assistance of Marcel Marceau, a resistance fighter who later turned the world’s most well-known mime.
• Evaluation: The Boy within the Striped Pajamas is one other Holocaust story instructed from a baby’s perspective.

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