Young Readers

  • Types

  • Genres

Rescuing the Children: The Story of the Kindertransport

by Hodge, Deborah (2012); Published by Tundra Books

This book, for children aged 10 and older, includes a compilation of accounts of Kindertransport children and is illustrated with archival photographs, paintings by artist Hans Jackson, and quilt squares created by the Kinder commemorating their rescue.

Saving Hanno: The Story of a Refugee Dog

by Halahmy, Miriam (2019); Published by Holiday House

What if you had to leave your dog behind when you fled? Nine-year-old Rudi has a chance to leave the dangers of Nazi Germany on a Kindertransport to England. However, he cannot bring Hanno, his dachshund. Luckily, his family finds a way to smuggle Hanno to London. But with England on the brink of war, Hanno is still not safe.

Sisterland

by Newberry, Linda (2003); Published by Random House

There are two time frames in this novel for young adults that deals with issues of ethnicity, otherness and prejudice. In contemporary Northampton we find Hilly and her friends and family. Her grandmother, Heidigran, suffers from Alzheimer’s. The second time frame – before, during and immediately after the second world war, follows young Sarah Reubens, who is sent from Cologne on the Kindertransport to safety in Northampton. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

Teaching “The Children of Willesden Lane”

Online resource for secondary school teachers. Includes classroom videos; a documentary profile of the author, pianist Mona Golabek; and a special performance where Mona retells her mother’s story, weaving in the piano music from the book. The website complements the book’s curriculum guide, created by Facing History and Ourselves.

Ten Thousand Children: True Stories Told by Children Who Escaped the Holocaust on the Kindertransport

by Fox, Anne L. and Eva Abraham-Podietz (1998); Published by Springfield, New Jersey: Behrman House

May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

The Children of Willesden Lane. Beyond the Kindertransport: A Memoir of Music, Love, and Survival

by Golabek, Mona and Lee Cohen (2003); Published by New York: Warner Books

Aspiring pianist Lisa Jura was 14 when her family put her on a Kindertransport train in Vienna. Jura’s daughter, a pianist, traces the six years Jura spent in London, where she found a surrogate family in the 31 other young refugees at the Willesden Lane hostel.

The Children We Remember

by Abells, Chana Byers (1987); Published by London: Julia MacRae Books

For 4 – 8 year olds, about children during the Holocaust. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

The Girl Museum- Kindertransport

(2018) Published by Girl Museum

A lovely online resource, showcasing photographs, documents, and videotaped oral histories, with a robust study guide that meets common core educational goals.

We Had to Be Brave: Escaping the Nazis on the Kindertransport

by Hopkinson, Deborah (2020); Published by Scholastic Focus

Ruth David was growing up in a small village in Germany when Adolf Hitler rose to power in the 1930s. Under the Nazi Party, Jewish families like Ruth’s experienced rising anti-Semitic restrictions and attacks. Just going to school became dangerous. By November 1938, anti-Semitism erupted into Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, and unleashed a wave of violence and arrests.