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Hana's Suitcase (Holocaust Rememberance)
by
Karen Levine (Goodreads Author)
In a small nondescript building in downtown Tokyo, flocks of children come to see a suitcase sitting in a glass case. They write about it and draw pictures. They are drawn to the story it tells, the tragedy it represents. The owner of the suitcase was Hana Brady. She was born in Nove Mesto, Czechoslovakia in 1931 and departed to Thereisenstadt in 1942 and died in Auschwitz...more
Compact Disc, 0 pages
Published
September 30th 2004
by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC Audio)
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This well-written, surprisingly enjoyable book starts in Czechoslovakia in the early 1900's where a little girl named Hana is born and grows up in a loving family with her older brother. Then it switches- for the next chapter- to modern-day Japan where a young lady is putting together a museum for children on the Holocaust. She writes to several places in Germany asking for things to go in her museum and receives a small suitcase with the name "Hanna" and the German word for orphan p...more
Wow! What an amazing story. I read this in about one hour. I loved the juxtaposition of the two stories told together. Hana was a young Jewish girl who did not survive the Holocaust. The book is a tale of Hana, her family and their many obstacles during a very difficult time in history. This book is also the tale of a Japanese woman named, Fumiko Ishioka, who is a museum director in Japan. Fumiko started teaching her students (who named themselves "Little Wings") about the Holoc...more
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I was given Hana’s Suitcase over a year ago but as I get upset when I read about the horrific events of the world wars I put it on the back burner. While I was choosing some of my books to read and review I was drawn to the book and decided to add it to the books to review. I am so glad that I did.
This story of a little girl named Hana Brady show you what life was like for a child in the concen...more
I was given Hana’s Suitcase over a year ago but as I get upset when I read about the horrific events of the world wars I put it on the back burner. While I was choosing some of my books to read and review I was drawn to the book and decided to add it to the books to review. I am so glad that I did.
This story of a little girl named Hana Brady show you what life was like for a child in the concen...more
Author Karen Levine was able to bring the incredible true story of a young girl’s life of fear and suffering through her written text in Hana’s Suitcase. The story follows Jewish Hana and her big brother George as they face a life of uncertainty in Nove Mesto, Czechoslavakia during the Second World War. Hana’s family became entangled in Germany’s nasty dream for world domination. One determined teacher living and teaching in present day Japan was able to touch the youth of our future through t...more
Hana's Suitcase is a biography written for Intermediate readers. Hana's Suitcase has won numerous awards, including but not limited to the following:
2002 Sydney Taylor Book Award (outstanding books that authentically portray the Jewish experience)
2003 Children's Book of the Year, Canadian Library Association
2004 Notable Children's Book American Library Association
I rated this book 5 stars, "it was amazing". The author shares a touching and wonderful ...more
2002 Sydney Taylor Book Award (outstanding books that authentically portray the Jewish experience)
2003 Children's Book of the Year, Canadian Library Association
2004 Notable Children's Book American Library Association
I rated this book 5 stars, "it was amazing". The author shares a touching and wonderful ...more
I bought this book for my daughter; something to read before she was old enough for Anne Frank. Her father's family is Jewish and while we don't know of any specific family members who experienced the Holocaust, we know it is likely. Both of our families are from Eastern European countries, so we have held a strong interest in the lessons of WWII.
Having read several versions of Anne Frank's Diary, as well as seeing multiple versions of the play, didn't think this book would effect ...more
Having read several versions of Anne Frank's Diary, as well as seeing multiple versions of the play, didn't think this book would effect ...more
Czechoslovakia, Japan and Canada. Three different country, three different continent. All connected to each other by one name. Hana Brady.
In March 2000, a suitcase arrived at Holocaust Education Center - Tokyo Japan. 'Hana Brady, May 16 1931, Waisenkind' were written on the outside of that suitcase. Waisenkind is Germany for Orphan.
Who's Hana Brady?
What is she look like?
What's happened to her?
Is she alive?
That kind of question (and still many more of...more
In March 2000, a suitcase arrived at Holocaust Education Center - Tokyo Japan. 'Hana Brady, May 16 1931, Waisenkind' were written on the outside of that suitcase. Waisenkind is Germany for Orphan.
Who's Hana Brady?
What is she look like?
What's happened to her?
Is she alive?
That kind of question (and still many more of...more
Tragically sad, yet optimistic, "Hana's Suitcase" weaves two stories a half-century apart into one, demonstrating that fortitude, tolerance, remembrance, and honor are important human qualities. This book provides an example of how common people and children can make a big impact in the world. I would use this book to help students develop projects that connect the students' read worlds to learning in the classroom. I might pair this book with another like "14 Cows for America"...more
hard to "rate" a life that was ended in Auschwitz at the age of 13.
Hana Brady's brief story (beginning in 1931) is framed by the modern-day detective work of Fumiko Isioka, the curator of a small Holocaust museum in Japan, who sets out to discover what happened the owner of one of the museum's artifacts--the suitcase of the title.
It's a slender book and an easy read, illustrated with heartbreakingly happy photographs from Czechoslovakian Hana's first 8 or 9 year...more
Hana Brady's brief story (beginning in 1931) is framed by the modern-day detective work of Fumiko Isioka, the curator of a small Holocaust museum in Japan, who sets out to discover what happened the owner of one of the museum's artifacts--the suitcase of the title.
It's a slender book and an easy read, illustrated with heartbreakingly happy photographs from Czechoslovakian Hana's first 8 or 9 year...more
Hana’s Suitecase
Hana’s Suitcase is an information text with the theme of social justice in mind. It is a compilation of true stories that takes place over 70 years within 3 places-Czechoslovakia, Tokyo, Japan and Toronto Canada. The 3 stories stem from the life and experiences of Hana Brady, a Jewish girl, whose life is described from the Holocaust of the 1930’s and 40’s. Hana truly loves her older brother George. They are separated and many things happen in their lives and...more
Hana’s Suitcase is an information text with the theme of social justice in mind. It is a compilation of true stories that takes place over 70 years within 3 places-Czechoslovakia, Tokyo, Japan and Toronto Canada. The 3 stories stem from the life and experiences of Hana Brady, a Jewish girl, whose life is described from the Holocaust of the 1930’s and 40’s. Hana truly loves her older brother George. They are separated and many things happen in their lives and...more
this is another amazing book because is also about the holocaust and is starts when a suitcase arrives at a japenese museum and many japenese kids were interested in the suitcase. this suitcase had a name printed on it. hana brady and she was a jew and all of those japenese kids wanted to know everuthing about her so fumiko the director of the museum promise them that she is going to do everyhting she can to find out about hana and her life. she starts sending letters to all the museums in the w...more
I listened to "Hana's Suitcase" on CD and fell in love with this story. This is based on a true story of a young Jewish girl named Hana and her family. The story is about their life before the Holocaust, during, and the aftermath. A director of a Holocaust museum in Japan receives a suitcase with the name Hana Brady and a birth date. The director is determined to find Hana's story and finds that Hana's older brother George was the only family member to survive. This is the story o...more
Levine's book introduces use to Hana and Fumiko. We learn about Hana's childhood and journey to Auschwitz, where she is only survived by her brother. Fumiko is a Japanese teacher that is focused on educating her students on the holocaust. She has a suitcase and name, which leads her to learn more about Hana. She contacts Hana's brother hoping for more information without upsetting him. George is overwhelmed but happy to know his sister's memory is alive and honored. The book ends with George tra...more
Translated to more than 20 languages, this 10-award winner caught my attention!
I don't think I have ever come across any children's book with such a reputation.
The book goes back and forth between two scenes. One starts in 1931, telling the story of a Jewish young girl, Hanna "as written on her suitcase”, and the other one belongs to the year 2000 and a Japanese lady called “Fumiko”.
What connects between both stories?
This story has begun spreading and being tol...more
I don't think I have ever come across any children's book with such a reputation.
The book goes back and forth between two scenes. One starts in 1931, telling the story of a Jewish young girl, Hanna "as written on her suitcase”, and the other one belongs to the year 2000 and a Japanese lady called “Fumiko”.
What connects between both stories?
This story has begun spreading and being tol...more
Hana’s Suitcase has won many awards. It is recommended for students in grades 4-8. I listened to it in the form of an audio book. It is a true story when in March 2000, a suitcase arrived at a children's Holocaust education center in Tokyo, Japan. It read, Hana Brady, May 16, 1931, and Waisenkind, the German word for orphan. Everyone who saw the suitcase on display was full of questions and wanted the Holocaust education center director to find answers. In this audio book, the center director s...more
My heart was stirring with emotions as I read this story of Hana. I couldn't help, but cry numerous times throughout the story. The book begins with a director of a Children's Center devotion to teach those in Japan about the Holocaust. She wants to teach children about the inequality and injustice occurred during this time and how they could learn from this historical time. As her mission begins she works countless hours trying to get actual artifacts into her museum. Finally she received s...more
This is a wonderful book to use to introduce the Holocaust to pre-teens. It is simply written, easy to follow and not too heavy or disturbing in the relation of the unbelievable events in Hana's young life. I found it very touching and as a mother really felt what it would have been like to live through this horrendous tragedy.Yes, I cried...
The story/chapters go back and forth between the life and death of a young Jewish girl and a Japanese woman starting a Holocaust Educational Cen...more
The story/chapters go back and forth between the life and death of a young Jewish girl and a Japanese woman starting a Holocaust Educational Cen...more
Hana’s suitcase is a book I have wanted to read for a while, but never got around to. Last year I actually had the good fortune to listen to the amazing words of Fumiko Ishioka the Tokyo Holocaust education center curator (she came to my school). Hearing her first hand account was so special. I was blown away by her courage, endurance, dedication, and love that she has given to Hana Brady.
Now that I have read this book, her story really comes to life for me. Obviously, I loved th...more
Now that I have read this book, her story really comes to life for me. Obviously, I loved th...more
This amazing story provides a different perspective on the Holocaust. The story unfolds around the work of a Japanese teacher (Fumiko Ishioka)to educate children in Japan about the Holocaust. As she builds a collection of materials for the Tokyo Holocaust Center, an intriguing artifact comes her way: a suitcase, with a girl's name and date of birth, but empty. Gradually, children's questions launch a quest to solve the mystery: who was Hana Brady, and what was her story? The book alternates...more
From Booklist
Gr. 5-8. Not another heartbreaker about a child in the Holocaust. Yes, but this one has a new contemporary connection. Alternating chapters tell not only of the Jewish Hana Brady's deportation with her older brother, George, from their happy home in Czechoslovakia, first to Terezin, and then to Auschwitz (where Hana died); but also of Fumiko Ishioka, now a director of a newly established Holocaust education center in Tokyo, who acquires Hana's suitcase, pursues Hana's story, a...more
Gr. 5-8. Not another heartbreaker about a child in the Holocaust. Yes, but this one has a new contemporary connection. Alternating chapters tell not only of the Jewish Hana Brady's deportation with her older brother, George, from their happy home in Czechoslovakia, first to Terezin, and then to Auschwitz (where Hana died); but also of Fumiko Ishioka, now a director of a newly established Holocaust education center in Tokyo, who acquires Hana's suitcase, pursues Hana's story, a...more
This book was about a little girl named Hana who was sent to a concentration camp with her brother George.
It really brought me to tears because the book was written as if you were actually there going through what they went through. It really had me on the edge of my seat wanting to see what was going to happen next. The way the author described how the Jewish were treated and the setting that they were in was so vivid. I kept saying to myself what is going to happen with this suitcase. ...more
It really brought me to tears because the book was written as if you were actually there going through what they went through. It really had me on the edge of my seat wanting to see what was going to happen next. The way the author described how the Jewish were treated and the setting that they were in was so vivid. I kept saying to myself what is going to happen with this suitcase. ...more
This was a very nice read. Easy, yet deep.
The story of a young Jewish girl from the time of the Holocaust, Hana’s Suitcase is told in alternating chapters between the past and the present. The past chapters tell of Hana’s life growing up in Czechoslovakia and in concentration camps during the Holocaust, while the present chapters talk about Fumiko Ishioka, a teacher in Japan who is searching for the “Hana” who once owned the suitcase she has in her collection of Holocaust items at t...more
The story of a young Jewish girl from the time of the Holocaust, Hana’s Suitcase is told in alternating chapters between the past and the present. The past chapters tell of Hana’s life growing up in Czechoslovakia and in concentration camps during the Holocaust, while the present chapters talk about Fumiko Ishioka, a teacher in Japan who is searching for the “Hana” who once owned the suitcase she has in her collection of Holocaust items at t...more
Hana's Suitcase is actually two stories in one. Both are true, and this is an excellent piece of informational text. In 2000, Fumiko Ishioka, the director of the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Center receives a small battered suitcase labeled with Han(n)a Brady's name. After much research, Ishioka discovers the story of Hana Brady who perished at Auschwitz at the age of 13. The book alternates between the story of Ishioka's research and her work with Japanese schoolchildren, and Hana's b...more
I finally had the chance to read this book after seeing it on library shelves so many times. It really is a quick read but a powerful one. The book switches back and forth between the life of Hana Brady, a young girl growing up as a Jew in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s, and the life of Fumiko Ishioka, a Japanese woman who works for the Holocaust Education Resource Center in 2000. Fumiko begins a desperate search for more information about Hana. Armed with only a suitcase and a name, she travel...more
From Booklist:
Gr. 5-8. Not another heartbreaker about a child in the Holocaust. Yes, but this one has a new contemporary connection. Alternating chapters tell not only of the Jewish Hana Brady's deportation with her older brother, George, from their happy home in Czechoslovakia, first to Terezin, and then to Auschwitz (where Hana died); but also of Fumiko Ishioka, now a director of a newly established Holocaust education center in Tokyo, who acquires Hana's suitcase, pursues Hana's story, ...more
Gr. 5-8. Not another heartbreaker about a child in the Holocaust. Yes, but this one has a new contemporary connection. Alternating chapters tell not only of the Jewish Hana Brady's deportation with her older brother, George, from their happy home in Czechoslovakia, first to Terezin, and then to Auschwitz (where Hana died); but also of Fumiko Ishioka, now a director of a newly established Holocaust education center in Tokyo, who acquires Hana's suitcase, pursues Hana's story, ...more
Hana's suitcase is a little hard to classify (it's both historical and contemporary). It tells the story of Hana, her brother George and her mother and father as life falls apart for this Jewish family in Czechoslovakia during World War II, but it also tells the story of a Japanese woman who makes it her mission to educate young people today on the horrors of the Holocaust. She has the insightful idea to "teach" the Holocaust using real artifacts from Jewish children whose lives ended ...more
Christine Jensen
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Shelves:
multicultural-other,
j-informational-bios
Approximate Interest Level/Reading Level: Upper Elementary/Junior High
Format: Audio Book
Awards: ALA Notable Books for Children (2004), Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award for Children (2003), Flora Stieglitz Straus Award (2004), Notable Social Studies Trade Books (2004), Sydney Taylor Award (2002)
The story of Hana Brady, a young Jewish girl the lived and died during the holocaust, is told from the perspective of two different time periods: the ...more
Format: Audio Book
Awards: ALA Notable Books for Children (2004), Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award for Children (2003), Flora Stieglitz Straus Award (2004), Notable Social Studies Trade Books (2004), Sydney Taylor Award (2002)
The story of Hana Brady, a young Jewish girl the lived and died during the holocaust, is told from the perspective of two different time periods: the ...more
This book has won many awards including; Children's book of the year and Teacher's Choices for 2004, IRA. Hana's suitcase is a story about a young Jewish girl from Czechoslovakia during the Holocaust and presently a woman from Japan trying to find more about Hana's past. The chapters switch off between the present Japan and the past of Hana's life. This is a easy and fast read. There are pictures of Hana and her family as well as where they lived. This book is full of happiness and sadness, love...more
This is a really wonderful book for children, and a great way to introduce them to the Holocaust. It simultaneously switches between Hana’s life in 1940s and Fumiko’s discovery of Hana’s suitcase in 2000. It is an interesting insight into how Japan is recalling the Holocaust, and the language is easy to digest and is well geared towards children. Hana’s tale is heartbreaking, but the outcome is relatively upbeat, enough so that children will not (in my opinion) be traumatised or horrified by H...more
The story of a young Jewish girl from the time of the Holocaust, Hana’s Suitcase is told in alternating chapters between the past and the present. The past chapters tell of Hana’s life growing up in Czechoslovakia and in concentration camps during the Holocaust, while the present chapters talk about Fumiko Ishioka, a teacher in Japan who is searching for the “Hana” who once owned the suitcase she has in her collection of Holocaust items at the children’s Holocaust education center in Tokyo.
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Karen Levine is a prizewinning producer with CBC Radio. She worked for many years on CBC programs including As It Happens, The Sunday Edition and This Morning as producer of the “First Person Singular” series. Karen has won awards for her radio work, including two Peabody Awards(the Oscars of radio). Levine originally produced Hana’s Suitcase as a radio documentary and later made it into a book. T...more
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