David A. Adler was one of the first authors to write picture book biographies, long before it became a trend, and he is still one of the best. Here he adroitly manages to introduce young readers to a complex person living in nearly incomprehensible times. As a young man in Warsaw, Henryk Goldszmit took the pen name Janusz Korczak to hide the fact that he was Jewish. After receiving his medical degree and working in a children’s hospital, Korczak became the Director of a Jewish orphans’ home. He became so committed to the children that he refused to leave them after the wall was built around the Warsaw Ghetto, or later as they were all herded onto the train that would take them to Treblinka and certain death. Adler’s straightforward declarative sentences are accompanied by dramatic oil paintings of Korczak with the children. (Ages 8-14)