DESCRIPTION
Hédi spends her days playing with her dog Bodri in the park, but her quiet world starts to crumble the day she hears Adolf Hitler on the radio. Germany’s leader hates her and her family, just because they are Jewish. And Hitler doesn’t even know them—it doesn’t make any sense. Soon Nazi Germany invades Hédi’s country, and her life changes forever.
Inspired by the author’s experiences, this book is a thoughtful introduction to the Holocaust for young readers. Strikingly honest prose and illustrations share an unforgettable story about a faithful dog, a family in danger, and the power of hope in unimaginable circumstances.
AWARDS and RECOGNITIONS
Mississippi Children's Museum Magnolia Book Awards 3rd - 5th Grade Nominee (2023)
Florida Literacy Association Children’s Book Award Grades 3-5 Finalist (2022-2023)
Bank Street College of Education The Best Children’s Books of the Year List & Outstanding Merit (2022)
WORLD Picture Books of the Year List (2022)
Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices List in Historical People, Places, and Events (2022)
Tablet The Best Jewish Children’s Books List (2021)
The United States Board on Books for Young People Outstanding International Books List (2022)
REVIEWS
Publishers Weekly
“Marked by memory and yearning, this is a powerful testimony to surviving, bearing witness, and leaning on unshakable love.”
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“[Fried] speaks to a young audience in carefully chosen language, skillfully translated from Swedish by Schenck, telling just enough of the horrors to help them to a modicum of understanding in the hope that they will always choose good over evil. Wirsén’s liquid watercolors perfectly invoke that time and place and its emotional upheaval. . . . True and powerful in its simplicity.”
Booklist
“This book walks the edge of what children can absorb about historical tragedies, while maintaining an outcome that is not too Pollyanna-ish, and it does this well.”