A compelling account of the Kindertransport, the World War II program dedicated to moving Jewish children from occupied countries to relative safety in England, provides context for the wartime efforts by first outlining events from 1925-1938. As Jewish people's rights were methodically chipped away under the Nazi's anti-Semitic leadership, the hope that things would get better and a reluctance to separate families was eventually replaced by desperation as parents struggled to protect their children. By the time of the transports in 1938 and 1939, the futility of a family fleeing together was undeniable. This account focuses on three primary individuals whose stories are tracked in detail, and introduces many others in brief. The author's first-person interviews with two of the primary subjects, and close work with the daughter of the third, give readers access to personal history within the broader context of the time. A final section relates what happened to the Kindertransport children in their new environment; 90% of them never saw their parents again. "Look, Listen, Remember" boxes interspersed throughout the volume cite related online sources and a lengthy postscript includes additional information about people introduced in the book, a timeline, glossary, further resources, and extensive source notes. (Ages 10-14)

Sibert Honor author Deborah Hopkinson illuminates the true stories of Jewish children who fled Nazi Germany, risking everything to escape to safety on the Kindertransport. An NCTE Orbis Pictus recommended book and a Sydney Taylor Book Award Notable Title.

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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 forced arrests.

Days later, desperate volunteers sprang into action to organize the Kindertransport, a rescue effort to bring Jewish children to England. Young people like Ruth David had to say good-bye to their families, unsure if they'd ever be reunited. Miles from home, the Kindertransport refugees entered unrecognizable lives, where food, clothes -- and, for many of them, language and religion -- were startlingly new. Meanwhile, the onset of war and the Holocaust visited unimaginable horrors on loved ones left behind. Somehow, these rescued children had to learn to look forward, to hope.

Through the moving and often heart-wrenching personal accounts of Kindertransport survivors, critically acclaimed and award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson paints the timely and devastating story of how the rise of Hitler and the Nazis tore apart the lives of so many families and what they were forced to give up in order to save these children.