Bibliographical information:

Drucker, Malka and Michael Halperin. Jacob's Rescue: A Holocaust Story. New York: Bantam Books, 1993.

Brief summary:

At her family's seder, Marissa is surprised to meet two elderly strangers, Alex and Mela Roslan. After asking the four questions traditionally included in the haggadah, she adds one of her own: "How do you know them?" The answer is that the Roslans hid her father and his brother in Nazi-occupied Poland. Jacob's Rescue tells the story of the Roslans' rescue of Jacob and his brother.

Comments:

Though Jacob's Rescue is based on a true story, it's catalogued as fiction. The story is compelling in itself, and Drucker and Halperin tell it skillfully, making the heroism of the Roslans clear while keeping them human.

Grade/Age level:

Age 11 and up.

Cautions:

There's scary stuff here--death, violence, and danger, along with accounts of the suffering in wartime Poland more generally.  Parents should be prepared to talk about the Holocaust as well as about putting one's own children at risk to save other children.

If you like this book, you might also like . . .

--Lisa Gordis

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