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The Cats In Krasinkski Square
Newbery medalist Karen Hesse tells a harrowing, true story about life in the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII.When Karen Hesse came upon a short article about cats out-foxing the Gestapo at the train station in Warsaw during WWII, she couldn't get the story out of her mind. The result is this stirring account of a Jewish girl's involvement in the Resistance. At once terrifying an...more
Hardcover, 32 pages
Published
September 1st 2004
by Scholastic Inc.
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I'm not sure what to make of this. I didn't read this to my daughter. I'm an avid reader of non-fiction and fiction Holocaust related material but I can't imagine introducing this to a child that seems to be the age this is targeted to.
I happened to see this at the library and even though I knew I wouldn't read it to Julia I decided to read it myself to see if my assumption was right. It was.
How would a parent or guardian read this to a child without explaining more? And quite frankl...more
I happened to see this at the library and even though I knew I wouldn't read it to Julia I decided to read it myself to see if my assumption was right. It was.
How would a parent or guardian read this to a child without explaining more? And quite frankl...more
This story is about a young girl who lives in Warsaw during the German occupation. The Jewish people of the town are severely underfed in the ghettos that they have been rounded up into. This young girl is Jewish, yet has to pretend to be just Polish in order for her to continue to live in better housing. She has lost her parents and just lives with her sister. Her sister is committed to aiding those less fortunate. A train is coming into the square with food disguised as clothing and books...more
It can be very hard to write about the Holocaust for children. Either you water down the subject so much that you trivialize it, or you give them nightmares for a year and a day. This goes doubly or triply for picture books, where the young age of your readers has to be taken into account. And of course you want a story with a hero, not just victims, if at all possible. (The truth is that there isn't much to say about the Holocaust that you can say to kids. It boils down to "It was a terrib...more
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Summary-
This is a picture book for 2nd to 5th graders about the true events during World War II in Warsaw. It begins with some cats coming from the rubble in the Warsaw ghetto because they no longer have homes or owners to go to. The main character of the story is a girl who escaped from the Warsaw ghetto. She plays with the cats and she had to “wear her Polish look,” so she wasn’t discovered. Her sister told her about a plan to smuggle food into the Warsaw ghetto. The Gestapo finds ...more
This is a picture book for 2nd to 5th graders about the true events during World War II in Warsaw. It begins with some cats coming from the rubble in the Warsaw ghetto because they no longer have homes or owners to go to. The main character of the story is a girl who escaped from the Warsaw ghetto. She plays with the cats and she had to “wear her Polish look,” so she wasn’t discovered. Her sister told her about a plan to smuggle food into the Warsaw ghetto. The Gestapo finds ...more
“Desperate times call for desperate measures” could be the subtitle of this book, which takes place in WWII-era Warsaw, Poland. The cats in question are former pets, left homeless when their owners were shipped out or killed by the Nazis.
A young girl, whose family has been torn apart by the war, befriends the cats. She has only love to offer them, for there is no food to spare. Her relatives wait behind the ghetto wall, starving and desperate. However, how can those on the outside s...more
A young girl, whose family has been torn apart by the war, befriends the cats. She has only love to offer them, for there is no food to spare. Her relatives wait behind the ghetto wall, starving and desperate. However, how can those on the outside s...more
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I really enjoyed this story. It was about a young Jewish Girl during the Holocaust. She once had a large family that had been destroyed by the Nazis. She was now all alone with her sister. She enjoys making friends with cats that live in her local village. They remind her of herself. These cats are living in the local village only because they no longer have families to go to. Both the cats and the girl are scraping to get by. The girl creates a master plan to help smuggle food to those in need ...more
In this picture book by Karen Hesse, two Jewish sisters are living outside the Warsaw ghetto, passing as non-Jews. Their main purpose is to smuggle food into the ghetto. The younger sister befriends the many cats roaming free and abandoned in the city; they show her where the cracks are that allow the sisters to pass precious and desperately needed food to the inside.
One day, the gestapo gets word that a large shipment of food will arrive by train. They arrive at the station en force with ...more
One day, the gestapo gets word that a large shipment of food will arrive by train. They arrive at the station en force with ...more
The Cats in Krasinski Square is a historical picture book set in Poland at the beginning of World War II. A young girl along with her sister organize a plan of resistance, smuggling food to those Jews still confined behind the city’s limit. Using the stray cats living in Krasinski Square, they scare away the Gestapo’s dogs that are guarding the entrance into the ghetto. This remarkable story describes the courage of a young girl and her sister as they try to fight against the segregation and r...more
This story is told by a young Jewish girl who lives with her older sister(her only family member left) behind the Ghetto Wall in Warsaw. She befriends stray cats and in the end they end up helping her and the other Jews. Food is being smuggled to the Jewish people via train but when the German police catch on, they need a plan and the cats end up helping save the day!
This is a great multi-cultural picture book that could be used as a read-aloud or for independent reading for a...more
This is a great multi-cultural picture book that could be used as a read-aloud or for independent reading for a...more
illustrator:Wendy Watson
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Date of Publication: 2004
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reading Level; age 9-12, grades 3-5
Theme: Perserverance, Gratefulness, Kindhearted, WIllingness, Obedient, Honor, Courage
Curricula use: teach children the history of the Jewish resistance
teach children the history of Warsaw 1942
teach children to have courage, honor,gratefulness
Soc...more
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Date of Publication: 2004
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reading Level; age 9-12, grades 3-5
Theme: Perserverance, Gratefulness, Kindhearted, WIllingness, Obedient, Honor, Courage
Curricula use: teach children the history of the Jewish resistance
teach children the history of Warsaw 1942
teach children to have courage, honor,gratefulness
Soc...more
Genre- Picture Book
Reading Level- K-4
Topic and Theme- historical context (WWII), story about young girl who escaped the Warsaw ghetto, and her efforts to help those who are still trapped on the other side of the wall.
Curricula Use- Read aloud
Literary elements: Setting integral to theme, plot and character development, illustrations serve to develop and extend plot and theme, prose format contributes to character development, setting and plot, confl...more
Reading Level- K-4
Topic and Theme- historical context (WWII), story about young girl who escaped the Warsaw ghetto, and her efforts to help those who are still trapped on the other side of the wall.
Curricula Use- Read aloud
Literary elements: Setting integral to theme, plot and character development, illustrations serve to develop and extend plot and theme, prose format contributes to character development, setting and plot, confl...more
Lisa Rathbun
added it
A touching story about the Warsaw Ghetto, an unusual topic for a child's picture book. While this story shows a small triumph over the Nazis, I can imagine a child asking what happened to the people inside the walls, and I'm not sure if at their age, they need to hear the answer. Also I thought the author's note did not clearly explain how close to the truth this story was. The pictures and words both are very well done though. I'd use this with older children (those who aren't usually attra...more
Since I love anything that has to do with WWII, I obviously loved this book. Having gone to Poland during a cold February a few years ago, I was able to see a few of the famous internment camps in Warsaw. The feelings in those cold and drafty barracks was surreal as I almost felt the pain of those who had been there. I also went to the Poland Resistance Museum and was able to see some relics of that time and memoirs of those who had fought against the Germans in that country. I did not see this ...more
This books tells of a young girl in a WWII ghetto. She is trying to smuggle food and medicine to those who desperately need it, but the S.S. find out and attempt to stop her. A good book to tell of a true story of what happened during the war.
Illustrator: Wendy Watson
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: 2004
Audience: young children 3 - 8 yrs.
specific use: guided practice / independent reading
social issues: atrocities of WWII and how peopl...more
Illustrator: Wendy Watson
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: 2004
Audience: young children 3 - 8 yrs.
specific use: guided practice / independent reading
social issues: atrocities of WWII and how peopl...more
This is a story of a Jewish girl who escaped from the Ghettos. She and her sister want to
send food to their friends who are still stuck there so they decide to smuggle it in. The leader of the country somehow finds out and decides to stop it by discovering the food and making sure it does not make it. The girls decide to bring cats with them so that the dogs will be distracted by them as the train pulls in. Through all the confusion, the food makes it to their friends who are in need....more
send food to their friends who are still stuck there so they decide to smuggle it in. The leader of the country somehow finds out and decides to stop it by discovering the food and making sure it does not make it. The girls decide to bring cats with them so that the dogs will be distracted by them as the train pulls in. Through all the confusion, the food makes it to their friends who are in need....more
Karen Hesse takes her moving sense of historical writing and transfers it to the picture-book set in this warmly engaging real-life story.
Transported back to the late 1930's in Germany by the imaginative drawings and gently inspiring text, the reader goes along on a dangerous journey as one girl who has escaped the clutches of the unscrupulous Nazi's dares to risk her life to help her good friends who have not been as fortunate as she. This book is designed for slightly older readers tha...more
Transported back to the late 1930's in Germany by the imaginative drawings and gently inspiring text, the reader goes along on a dangerous journey as one girl who has escaped the clutches of the unscrupulous Nazi's dares to risk her life to help her good friends who have not been as fortunate as she. This book is designed for slightly older readers tha...more
This is a wonderful tale of a Jewish girl during the time of the Holocaust. She lives with her sister and they are working to support imprisoned Jews by smuggling them food.
This would be a great book for a classroom for several reasons:
-Firstly, it covers a very important part of world history
-Second, it discusses Jewish resistance, which isn't often mentioned.
-Third, it discusses how even animals suffer during war time
There are lots of avenues for discu...more
This would be a great book for a classroom for several reasons:
-Firstly, it covers a very important part of world history
-Second, it discusses Jewish resistance, which isn't often mentioned.
-Third, it discusses how even animals suffer during war time
There are lots of avenues for discu...more
I saw a patron take this book out a couple of weeks ago and decided I wanted to read it. It looked like a cute picture book about cats. I like cats. Except that it's not just about cats. It's about Nazis and Polish Jews starving in the Warsaw ghetto and the resistance trying to help them (with the help of the cats). And it's based on a true event. So . . . I ended up having a few tears already this morning. Great book! Would go well with Lois Lowry's Number the Stars.
Great children's book that tells a story about the Ghetto in Warsaw, Poland. It shows what some Jewish people of the time were going through and how some people were trying to help them. Good book for discussing WWII and helping children easily understand how wrong it was while also showing the kindness some people were willing to extend even if it meant they could get in trouble.
I loved this book! It is a great book about World War II where children can see how life was like back then through the eyes of a child. The book was interesting because it shows how the cats helped the families in the Ghetto smuggle food back home so they could survive. I think the students would enjoy reading this book because it talks about World War II in a different aspect.
This is a moving story of the Jewish Resistance in the Warsaw ghetto, with lovely illustrations, but I wonder how many of the target audience (9-12) will really understand the underlying tragedy? They will understand that the cats saved the day, but I believe that quite a bit of explanation will be necessary. Perhaps that is a good thing.
Nice picture book that tells a story of resistance involving the Warsaw Ghetto and cats upsetting Nazis. I loved the illustrations, the simple storyline used for a very dark period of human history, and of course the little victory at the end, even though I know it was just one drop of goodness in a desert of cruelty.
Cat lovers will love it.
Cat lovers will love it.
fluent/read aloud or independent
grades 2-5
problem realism/historical
strong character/setting/tone/pictures
civil & human rights/poverty/religion/war
WWII oppression in Warsaw,Poland ghetto
Courage of brave young women and men who, at great risk, fought without weapons, but with hearts and souls to feed those in the ghetto
grades 2-5
problem realism/historical
strong character/setting/tone/pictures
civil & human rights/poverty/religion/war
WWII oppression in Warsaw,Poland ghetto
Courage of brave young women and men who, at great risk, fought without weapons, but with hearts and souls to feed those in the ghetto
This is a short and sweet account of a young girl and many stray cats who help the Jewish resistance get food to the "Ghetto" in Warsaw by thwarting the Gestapo. A great "living" book and starting place for kids learning about WWII. The characters are fictional although the story is based on a true account.
Susan introduced it to me and I am equally impressed.
It is historically based; the people really did use cats to distract Nazi search dogs; and I am constantly amazed at the ingenuity of such people in such a dire situation.
Thank you, Susan. I think I'll start a "Significant Cats" shelf.
It is historically based; the people really did use cats to distract Nazi search dogs; and I am constantly amazed at the ingenuity of such people in such a dire situation.
Thank you, Susan. I think I'll start a "Significant Cats" shelf.
This book is a great story to read during a study of the Holocaust. It sheds light on the topic of ghettos, which are oftentimes neglected in light of the study of concentration camps. It highlights the bravery of many resistance members (both Jewish and non-Jewish) during the Holocaust in Europe.
This is a serious subject, but I thought that Karen Hesse presented it in such a way as to be appropriate for children, with older children being able to discuss the seriousness of the subject. Sober, muted drawings, almost in a sepia tone, that convey a warmth and age.
This book is incredibly powerful for something so short. It tells the poignant story of a Jewish girl who's escaped the Warsaw ghetto and is determined to help other Jews still trapped inside. She's also befriended abandoned cats, and they play an amazing role her bold plan.
Genre: Realistic fiction (based on a true story)
Copyright: 2004
Thoughts: Based on a true story of cats used to outwit the German police during WWII. Author's note and historical note at the end of the book were especially helpful in putting the story into context.
Copyright: 2004
Thoughts: Based on a true story of cats used to outwit the German police during WWII. Author's note and historical note at the end of the book were especially helpful in putting the story into context.
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Karen Hesse is an American author of children's literature and literature for young adults, often with historical settings. Her novel Out of the Dust was the winner of the 1998 Newbery Medal and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. In 2002, Hesse was a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship.
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